*HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY*
Bruce Banner watched the replay for perhaps the tenth time, still managing to look as taken aback as he had the first time he'd reviewed it.
"The force of that there," he pointed to the screen after pausing it on the part where an enormous ball of fire slammed at the glass, sending a room full of technicians into panic mode. "See that?"
"Yeah, I saw it." Bucky had seen it firsthand. The first fireball she'd hurled at him hadn't seemed so threatening. He'd seen far worse than that both in the war and in his time as the Winter Soldier.
The second fireball? He hadn't expected that.
Steve was still glaring at him from the other side of Stark.
"The amplification of the second volley is incredible given that it only took about three seconds to produce," Bruce explained. "The implication is clear."
"Yeah, that we need to manage Marley with a lot more care," Steve directed at him, still using his Captain voice.
"No, it means that if she got really upset, in under a minute she could fire a shot equal to a small nuclear missile," Tony added. "That's what we're dealing with."
That got everyone's attention.
"I found everything I could on this girl," Tony went on. "An experiment in 1988 that HYDRA conducted on a group of young women of childbearing age in Berlin. Out of eighteen intended children, one still birth and seventeen live births. Ten male children were born quite ordinary and seven girls born with varying capabilities. They still possess five of these women who have powers ranging from garden variety telepathy to moderate mind reading. One died mysteriously as a child."
"And the last one?" Bruce asked.
"The last girl vanished in 1994. One Marishka Chaykovsky had received the gift of pyrokinesis and the level of her potential had them drooling. They projected that by the time she reached adulthood, she'd possess the capability to produce enough power to rival a nuke. Now, we find ourselves in the possession of one Marley Cooper who has the same abilities and the same angel face as the girl from their files. Do the math."
Shit. It was worse than Bucky thought.
Looking at the floating cascade of images, he saw images of a small blonde girl, then woman.
There was no question that it was Marley.
"HYDRA knows who she is and they want their weapon. Jamie Lannister here was right," Tony motioned to Bucky. "We can, under no circumstances, let her fall into HYDRA's hands."
Steve was still glaring daggers at Bucky and Tony saw it.
"I know you're pissed that he provoked our girl but I'm actually glad he did. Now we know exactly who we have and what we're dealing with. I'm just worried about what PMS will be like."
"Tony," Steve warned. "She's a lady."
"Who could blow you up with a glance," Tony warned.
"Still a lady."
Tony stopped, seeming to consider those words. "It's curious, isn't it? Why only the females? Why were they the only ones who received abilities? That almost makes me think that it was part of the experiment parameters."
"And that the females may have been meant for some other purpose," Bruce added. "Breeding?"
Tony pointed to him. "I forget that you're also a genius. You may be right. But what was their intention?"
"The question is, what do we do now?" Steve asked, looked more concerned by the second with the direction the conversation was going in.
All of it seemed unreal to Bucky. He'd have been lying if he said he wasn't happy at no longer being the only threat foisted on them by HYDRA. He was relieved, yes. Unfortunately, Marley brought potentially greater problems for them to deal with. If HYDRA was able to take her from them, they could wield her in ways that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be powerless to stop.
"Marley's a good person," Steve threw in. "She doesn't want to hurt anyone. She wants to learn to use her abilities."
"Then she needs to prove it," Bruce said. "She needs to learn how to control them, so we can channel it into something… beneficial."
Steve nodded, accepting the challenge. His stern glance at Bucky laid out the expectation that he would help him.
Of course, he'd help. Bucky would do anything to thwart HYDRA. Look what they'd done to him. Yet Steve had to understand the risk involved in working with the woman. Her "gift" posed a threat to them all, including herself. She was smart enough to know that. When she'd begged him to kill her, he'd understood why she felt that way. It was hard to be what they were, instruments of destruction, and think that they were worthy of any semblance of a life, worth something.
It also didn't help, in Bucky's mind, that Marley was beautiful. She didn't reach his shoulder in height, all long, slender limbs and slight, womanly curves. Her hair was a fall of honey-gold locks, her lips were plump, and she had huge, sky blue eyes. Those eyes, tear filled and pleading up at him, would likely haunt his dreams after what he'd had to do today.
Bucky knew he couldn't let her beauty distract him from what she truly was. She was just as much HYDRA's weapon as he was only more dangerous because, at the moment, they could only guess at the true destruction she could cause. And right now, she couldn't control it. They could only hope to control her capabilities enough for her to live some kind of life as a prisoner of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"You two," Tony motioned to Steve and Bucky, "work with her, train her. Bruce and I will see what we can devise to be of help. We'll keep an eye out for HYDRA and go from there. I'll update Fury."
The brief meeting dismissed, Bucky followed Steve out of the lab, waiting to face the music.
"I know what you're going to say," Bucky decided on a preemptive strike.
Steve didn't stop as he headed to medical, didn't even turn back to look at him.
"That was reckless," Steve said with deceptive calm.
"No, it was necessary."
"Necessary to scare her out of her wits to prove a point?"
"Necessary to see what she was capable of, Steve."
Steve did turn and face him on that note. "You could have been hurt or caused her to hurt herself. If that second volley had been any bigger, she could have roasted an entire room of technicians. We can't take risks like that."
Bucky glared at him.
"It's our mission to help her, to train her," Steve glared back at him meaningfully. "A good leader knows how to do that without terror tactics."
Steve would know. He was a good leader. And Bucky was happy to follow his lead, most of the time. Now, he wasn't sure was one of those times.
"You disagree?" Steve asked.
Bucky did. "Why train her to use something she may not be able to control?"
"What are you suggesting then?"
"Maybe we should just help her contain it."
The fear was there in Steve's face. He'd never admit it, but it was there.
Steve's expression was resigned. "I don't think we have that luxury, Buck. You know better than anyone that if they have any idea what she can do, they'll comb the earth for her. We just might need to teach her how to use that… power… to save herself from them."
It was a sobering thought. Steve had a point.
They continued walking and reached medical, finding Marley sitting in a chair talking quietly with Dr. Helen Cho.
Both women looked up at their entrance. Marley glanced from Steve to him, her eyes darkening with fear as she quickly looked away.
There it was. Fear.
Bucky was accustomed to people regarding him with fear and they had every right to. For decades, he'd been the fist of HYDRA, a ruthless killer no one had been able to neutralize until Steve found him. For those who recognized him, if they weren't terrified of his intimidating form, his new bionic arm, and reputation, they regarded him with distrust because of the damage that had been done to his mind after years of having it artificially wiped. Most either regarded him as a threat or a broken shell of a man, and either way, kept their distance. That left the Avengers, most of whom were really making an effort to accept him to varying degrees, including Stark, because of their loyalty to Steve. And Steve, in truth, was really all he had.
He'd earned Marley's fear. He was used to fear.
So, why did it bother him so much that he'd made her afraid?
"How are you feeling?" Steve's tone was light, concerned.
Marley nodded. "I'm okay."
"Her vitals are good," Dr. Cho told Steve. "Preliminary tests so far have shown no signs of damage."
"If the doctor has cleared you, we'll walk you back to your apartment."
Dr. Cho nodded, smiled.
Meekly, Marley nodded with her head bowed. Slowly she rose from the chair and followed Steve out of medical. Bucky followed them. None of them spoke until they reached their floor. Steve told her to let them know if she needed anything before she crept into her apartment.
Steve went on into his apartment, leaving Bucky out in the hall.
He stared at her door for a long time before heading for his own.
Nightmares hit Bucky hard that night. He woke up in a sweaty tangle of sheets on the floor by his bed. Since Steve hadn't rushed in there yet, he'd guessed that he hadn't been too loud or disruptive this time.
Shaking, he pulled himself up onto his bed, his head in his hands as he tried not to think about the dark scene from his dream, shadows from his past.
The knock was so quiet the only reason he heard it was because of his enhanced senses.
Wrapping the sheet around himself, he never wore anything to bed, he slowly made it to his door. Bucky was surprised to find Marley standing there holding a steaming mug in her small hands. Clearly, she was terrified to be there, but there she was all the same.
"Are you… okay?" Marley asked quietly.
Bucky stepped back, motioned her in. She hesitated but then slowly crept forward and he closed the door behind her.
"I'm sorry I woke you." Bucky meant it. "I'll be fine."
Nodding, she lifted the mug she held.
"I brought you this. Sometimes it helps me back to sleep. Maybe…"
Bucky took it from her, more surprised that he could say at the unexpected gesture. Scared as she was of him, here she was trying to comfort him. Without the mug, her hands had the slightest tremble as she began to fidget.
He took a sip. The warm chocolate was… well, it was delicious. Rich and thick but not overly sweet.
"You got up and made hot chocolate for me?" he had to ask, trying to get her to meet his gaze and waiting until he succeeded.
Marley shrugged. "I was already up making some for myself. I thought…"
"You having nightmares too?"
Marley nodded, looked ashamed. It was a feeling he understood well.
"I'm sorry if I caused that," he said sincerely. When she didn't deny it, he went on. "I'm sorry about today."
Her eyes searched his. "I think I know why you did it."
Bucky hoped she understood why.
"I'll get back now," Marley told him, edging away from him and moving closer to his door. "Good night."
"Good night," he said, watching her walk out and closing the door.
Bucky drank the rest of the chocolate. There was something so simple and familiar about it. Mostly, he liked how it warmed him up inside.
Like most people, Marley regarded him with fear. That's normally where it ended.
That she'd overcome it to try and comfort him even so, show a modicum of kindness and understanding? Bucky didn't know what to do with that. He only knew that he liked it.