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March 18th 2016; 0546 Hours
"Who is she?"
Bucky twitches. His eyes remain trained on the sarcophagi as it trundles past, headed for the cargo hold of the Bus, "The Morrigan."
A soft intake of breath behind them; Natasha. "Project Koschei."
"She's all that survived of it."
Sam shuffles beside him, "For those who couldn't memorise everything on those Hydra files?"
"The super-soldier serum." Natasha offers. Her voice is tight, "They tried it on almost everything, back in the day." Bucky's eyes slide over to the redhead. Her face is expressionless; eyes flat, "Koschei was on Magicals."
Sam snorts, then thinks better of it, "See, once I'd have asked you to pull the other one. I know better now. But please, enlighten me- when you say 'magicals', are you talking witches and wizards kind of magical here? Gandalf waving his staff around kind of shit?" He sounds like he doesn't believe what he's saying; Bucky doesn't blame him.
"Exactly like witches and wizards." Natasha says darkly, "Among other things. Werewolves; vampires. Whatever and whoever they could get their hands on, they tried it. Only magic and the serum don't mix. Fatality rate for the project was almost one-hundred percent. Until the Morrigan, none of the subjects survived past the twelve month mark."
Sam sighs heavily, "Was really hoping you were going to no to that."
"The Morrigan. She-" Bucky breaks off. It's still hard to put into words his life before the fall of SHIELD and Hydra, "I worked with her. Once… twice maybe." The memories are a blur still- most of his are- and he can't be sure if what he's remembering are two separate missions, or one long one, "She was… like me. Ruthless, skilled… empty. I think she was there to replace me if I went rogue, honestly."
Sam clasps him on the shoulder in sympathy. As if sensing their tension, Steve looks up from his discussion with Skye- she'd been responsible for decoding Stark's virus and retrieving all the data they could from the outpost. Bucky sends him a strained smile.
Director Coulson sidles up to them at that point, "We've got her secured. We can take her to a secure facility. Rehabilitate her."
Bucky feels the stirrings of suspicion in his gut. It's not that he doesn't trust Coulson- the guy seems alright- but his experience with paramilitary organisations has hardly been a shining one.
"We're coming with you."
Sam starts, "We are?" Bucky shoots him a glare, "Right. Yeah. The Morrigan. We'll come with."
"Smooth." Natasha murmurs, shifting and linking her arm with Bucky's. It still catches him off guard sometimes, the way his teammates show their affections with casual touches. In his experience, touching had never been a casual endeavour- always aimed to influence or hurt those it was granted to.
Coulson shrugs, but the small twitch at the corner of his mouth looks pleased, "If that's what you want. Is it possible she'd recognise you?"
Bucky shrugs, "I don't know. Depends on whether they wiped her between missions. And it's been a while… I think."
Natasha shakes her head, "According to her reports, after the initial wiping, there were no signs of regression. So no need to wipe her."
Sam's eyes stray over to the Bus. He looks immeasurably sad- it's not a good look on the man, Bucky decides.
"Do you have any clue who she is?" his friend asks.
Coulson shrugs, "We're running facial recognition, but it's hard to tell with magicals- some of them have never been near a mundane camera in their lives. Too segregated to get a proper match. But we'll see what we can do."
Bucky nods slowly, "We'll tag along behind you."
Coulson's lip twitches, "By all means." He replies dryly, "We should be ready to go in another hour or so."
Bucky's eyes slide back over to where the Morrigan hides in her sarcophagi of ice. He wonders what has changed since he last saw her, or if she's remained as frozen as her body.
"Good." He says finally. Natalia and Sam have already moved off to speak with Steve, "We'll see you there."