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-G.
The next few moments dove into chaos with nothing more than the catching of each other's eyes.
With the inhuman speed she'd already witnessed, the man reached within his coat drawing a blade, its serrated edge giving off a whisper as it came free of its hidden place.
His emotions switched just as quickly to stamp down the guilt and sorrow to be replaced with fresh rage, the kind of rage that spoke of losing everything, of being helpless, of losing yourself.
As he lunged at her Tala, who hadn't been spending the last two hundred years sitting idly by, flung her hands out focusing on the sorrow and amplified it and because she was being rushed she put no limit on the effect, giving him the brunt of her powers.
If having never seen a small child building a castle of sand, a magnificent beautiful creation, until the noon tide rushes forward and obliterates it, it would be nearly impossible to describe the effect that Tala's powers had on the human psyche.
When she'd been young, she'd hurt many people with not only her purposeful influence, but the effect it left after. The mind was the most fragile instrument in the world, and creating any kind of influence on it left a mark no matter how small.
The man in mid lunge had frozen, his knife just an inch from Tala's sternum, his hand quivering as he began to crumble underneath the weight of Tala's influence. Tears began to stream from deep azul eyes, flooding a face that although stubborn and handsome now turned up into a mask of pain which now resembled the mask of Greek tragedy.
Dropping the knife he fell to his knees reaching up with both hands taking his head into his palms, his mouth opening to let a wail that resembled those from the industrial revolution labelled 'the workhouse howl'. His body shook violently as he continued to howl, hot tears now reaching his collar as his cries brought foam and spittle flying from his mouth.
Tala, without missing a beat, kept her influence on the man while pulling a thread of her power from within her self, sending it out to snake through the entire museum planting the need for home in each person until she felt each mind fold. After a few minutes, Tala and the man remained the only two within nearly a half mile.
Scuttling back a few yards, Tala lowered her hands pulling her influence back, and as her synthetic emotions left the man he gave a gasp as if able to breathe for the first time.
The man collapsed, but tried to regain his posture instantly, his mind laboring to regain semblance of reality and being unable to he collapsed again to his knees.
In his episode the ball cap he'd worn had fallen off, his shaggy hair surrounding high cheek bones and obscured wild eyes as he lifted his head on a weak neck trying to focus on her.
Guilty for causing such damage to an already flailing human, Tala lifted a hand to lay a calm upon him, but with her movements, like a wounded beast the man lunged sideways again reaching for the blade he'd dropped in an attempt to arm himself against an invisible attack.
"Will you please, just STOP for one second!" Tala screamed through gritted teeth as she again threw her arms up sending the calm out in a sense of rope to grip around his neck and head, tightening her influence until his arms dropped and he sagged completely to land on his backside hard, his face blank and empty.
Angry at herself for letting this happen, for not having enough sense at a few hundred years to not run up on someone who had such raw emotions, Tala again reigned her powers back in, before holding her hands up in a mere show of truce.
"I do not want to hurt you, I'm sorry I ran up on you. Give me a moment to explain and clear this up." She spoke crisply, her slight accent curling a few words, but enunciated each word as to be understood.
Tala stayed far back as he again began to collect the pieces of his mind, his eyes slowly losing the haze of her influence and regaining the ability to focus as his head still swung on weakened shoulders. His mouth opened and closed resembling a fish for a moment before rasping with a medium toned voice, heavy with confusion.
"Who are you?"
A fair question, and one that she instantly felt was harder to answer than face value. Glancing to what was now to her right, where the images of the man cowed before her stood tall, Tala felt torn.
She doubted lying to this man would get her very far, but as they say old habits die hard, and this habit was one only her own people had the privilege to know.
As she thought to herself, her would be assailant came into his own rather quickly, sitting up straight holding his hands in front of himself opening and closing his hands, blinking rapidly.
She heard the metal clicks of machinery moving into place which brought her focus back just as the man in question was using his hands to help him regain footing.
Without thinking Tala took a step back and held a hand up in warning which had the man lifting one of his own hands.
"Don't." There was no please uttered with the command but it was implied as his eyes and his radiating emotions edged with a bit of desperation.
She had seen that look many times, even from her own father, and with it she slowly nodded but kept her hand up, because although she understood this man had tried to attack her unannounced.
He took the few moments of silent understanding between them to roll his shoulders, delivery a few more clicks, and she realized the hand he held up was covered in some type of metal. He took a deep breath, standing at his full height of nearly six four, nearly six inches taller than her own height.
Swallowing softly, Tala attempted a small smile trying to put the larger man at ease.
"My name is Tala."
The man's face remained stoic, his jaw locked and his emotions shifted letting her know his extreme suspicion and a tinge of disbelief that he'd been bested by the likes of her. His eyes darted throughout the empty room before pinning her with a glare.
"Your powers. How do they work?"
"I'm a bit old fashioned, geez looking at that-" Tala motioned towards his image on the wall. "I'd thought you'd be as well, so excuse me if I ask for your name before I spill all my deep dark secrets."
Amusement, like a javelin thrown through the thick air of tension and angst ruptured from the dark man.
"You followed me. I get to ask questions."
Tala stared at him hard before visibly huffing, shaking her head and made a show of turning towards the exhibit finding the plaque below the well-kept and shaven version.
"Okay, James Buchanan Bucky Barnes. This isn't really the place to be snippy now." If looks could kill, she'd be six feet under as the newly named James shifted from one foot to the other before leaning down to gather his hat shoving it onto his head be damned that his hair still remained in his face.
"This place is cleared."
Tala simply nodded, raising her hands together now and waved her fingers sarcastically.
"Self-preservation isn't something you're familiar with."
Continuing her trend, Tala simply shrugged her shoulders and stripped her hands of the gloves she wore stuffing them in a pocket of her hoodie.
Desire.
James didn't have to glance any which way for Tala to know exactly what he was thinking. With the change in his emotions, the tension in the air fled, at least for Tala. A man with a sexual hunger, was still just a man. If he felt nothing but the emotions that had nearly taken her down for the count to begin with, he'd be completely dangerous.
No, he was human. Hurting, exhausted, but still human. He needed to be reminded was all, and as a healer Tala couldn't bring herself to be the type of person that she'd hated for centuries: a condemner of innocents.
Tala took a few slow steps towards James, extending her hand in a gesture of welcome and introduction.
"Again, my name is Tala Sagoyewatha, and I am an empath." James entire being was rigid with the uncomfortable sensation of awkwardness. He'd not met anyone formally in so long, his manners felt dusted, and his mind still clouded with not only the workings of Hydra, but also from this woman's control that if he'd been a lesser man would have left him terrified.
She'd levelled him with nothing but a raised hand and a thought.
James Buchanan Barnes hadn't been bested… ever. He'd battled and retreated out of necessity, but never overcome in combat.
Even now on the precipice of complete mental exhaustion, from his findings here of a past life where he'd been… a hero and from not having stopped moving in the past few weeks, he felt her power bleed into her every movement.
He'd felt her power come in the room like an ice dunk, and even now he stood on uneven ground.
He couldn't bring himself to take her hand if his life depended on it, and with the amount of power she held, it might very well.
Tala knew he wasn't going to take her hand the moment he'd made his decision and lowered it, offering a smile instead.
"If I had hand puppets I'm betting it'd be more exciting, a little more gasp worthy and awe inspiring but you know, I left those at home this once.." Shrugging Tala shifted her weight before stepping back motioning with her chin towards his memorial.
"You are looking mighty fine for an old geezer, what's your secret? No, wait let me guess… Neutrogena?"
She's insane, Bucky thought as the woman began to speak plainly any hint of her true emotions hidden as she spoke to him as if everything was normal between them. As if she hadn't sent him into a depression for a few moments, and he hadn't drawn a blade on her because she'd seen the fact that his portrait was in an exhibit for World War II.
Bucky leaned down to gather his weapon, holding his other hand up as a sign of truce in case she viewed his actions preemptive of an attack and sent him reeling once more.
Tala was almost positive it was foolish to let him to get his knife back but she'd already felt the calm he felt at having several more within his reach, so didn't feel any more fear than was already there.
She had no idea what to do in this situation, she followed out of pure instinct as an empath, letting his emotions hijack her mind and she'd followed like a calf for milk.
Now, now she'd found James, showing characteristics of an immortal and with the mental agony she'd seen in… well none as severe ever as this man.
Her very soul reached to soothe the pain it felt, and her mind wanted answers, and a small sliver of hope found the idea of having a familiar in eons comforting.
Standing to rights, Bucky held the knife as if contemplating using its edge before opening his coat to stash it back into its previous home. Closing the lapel back into place, Bucky sighed and took the few steps towards the woman, his guilt creep up slowly making him feel unworthy of speaking to this woman who seemed for all her powers, innocent.
She spoke to him as an equal, as a person who hadn't done unspeakable acts.
As a human being.
Offering his right hand, keeping his other arm back wishing to meet the woman as Bucky, and not the Winter Soldier. He'd never been so quick to place a small lapse in his guard, but seeing as this woman had done what no one else could in mere seconds he felt it unnecessary to worry if she'd attack. If she wished it, there was nothing he could do. He'd been a trained soldier, and he could access a threat and situation better than anyone.
"Bucky."
The smile that burst forth from the brunette lit her entire face to her very eyes, making them shine like beacons of clear Caribbean water. She instantly took his hand into her own, her palm calloused and warm, as she began to shake his arm vigourously.
"A man of many words!"
His guilt was sending tendrils into the calm he represented, but the little bursts of amusement kept Tala focused, kept from being drawn into the misery waiting at his center. She was already prying enough, if she meant to help this soul, she'd need to earn trust and forcing him to explain emotions that were buried didn't do anything towards that goal.
Opening her mouth to treat him with a joke she'd heard nearly twenty years earlier about a quiet man and a dog, she was cut off by a small canister spewing a white fog rolling into their vicinity from the door she'd entered from.
Bucky cursed and with his enhanced reflexes immediately turned sprinting towards emergency exit fully anticipating the armed men waiting on the other side.
Tala felt her eyes immediately begin to water and her throat constrict as the room became a complete white out within moments. She dropped to the floor in an attempt to reach fresh air, her mind convincing her of rising gases, and found no safety from the blinding gas. Closing her eyes, finding no use in them now, she probed with her range finding over four score of men surrounding the once empty building.
Generally she'd had felt the angst and fear they'd all exuded, but had let herself become wrapped in James Buchanan Bucky Barnes.
Coughing, as her mind from its lack of oxygen began to panic, she felt all the men in positions to cut off all escape routes, all but a few as the beacon her mind had set on fought through a section of them.
Attempting to stand or crawl towards the area being cleared by Bucky, she felt her limbs tremble and with no effort what so ever, her muscles simply wouldn't carry her.
Tala hadn't been in the middle of chaos like this since her last battle for the liberation of her people, and just as that last time, she felt her powers bubble beneath her skin ready to distribute her panic to save her from the fear it brought.
With what felt like the last small wheezing breath for an eternity, Tala spread her hands palm down just as a battalion of men reeking of fear rushed the room.
Bucky felt the moment the woman he'd left behind unfurled her talons, a nearly tangible net falling all around him as all the men he'd been fighting dropped with screams of doomed men. Each man jerking and foaming at the mouth as if mass seizures had over taken them all.
All of them except him.
It was the quickest mass attack he'd ever seen as each and every one of the tactical team lost consciousness within the span of thirty seconds leaving the areas surrounding him ghostly quiet.
The screams echoed in the stillness as Tala lost consciousness for the second time in her entire long life.
Fishing within the passed out bodies Bucky pilfered two hand guns, a few canisters, and a wallet off of one of the men before scooping his cap back up. Checking the area if the cost was clear, Bucky's feet suddenly wouldn't move.
The woman hadn't come out of the building.
Leave her, take this chance and run.
Glancing to the open door behind him where he'd burst through, where Tala the only person to treat him like a human since he'd become this thing, newly named Bucky felt his emotions surge and indecision reign.