Chapter 8: Clint's Farmhouse

Nine days passed with tensions eased around the farmhouse. Inessa continued to work with Tony on various experiments (they never did get the remote for Bucky's arm working), Natasha trained with Sam in the mornings and, eventually, Tony even unlocked the weapons system on his wings. Bucky had trouble sleeping at night- mostly because he was afraid of what he'd dream about. Steve continued to keep an eye on him, though from a greater distance. Banner and Thor were content to simply enjoy the easier life on the farm, and their break from Avengers Tower.

The tenth day, however, brought a letter for Natasha from Nick Fury that changed everything.

When she and Inessa stepped out the back door for their morning run, it was sitting under a rock on the porch steps. A large, thick envelope with her symbol- the red hourglass- hastily drawn. Natasha held her hand out to stop Inessa, "Stay back," she warned.

Inside were two security photographs and a simple note: Trickshot is loose. Natasha stared at the letter for only a moment- there would be time to panic later, out of sight. "Let's go," she immediately began to run and Inessa followed. When they reached the cornfield, Natasha didn't turn back. She didn't stop until they came out the far side. Inessa's breathing was ragged, but she hadn't fallen back. Natasha paced for a long while, then sat down on the ground and pulled the pictures back out to examine them.

Inessa sat next to her and peaked at the image. Two men, one looking over his shoulder leading the other. His face was barely visible, but she recognized it from somewhere- a flash of a vision from her time as the shadow. She pointed to it and Natasha turned, "You know this guy?"

D-E-N-N-I-S-S-O-N friend.

"He was Dennisson's friend?" she nodded "That's probably very bad."

Who is he? Inessa tapped Berny's face.

Natasha sighed, "Clint's little brother. He thinks Berny is dead. He doesn't know I took him in. It was my first mission for SHIELD. He was diving headfirst into these experiments, trying to give himself abilities like his brother. Berny didn't understand that Clint wasn't trying to kill him- it was an accident. He spent decades hiding out, training. I stopped him before he could do anything to Clint. He's a very dangerous man. And now he's with Dennisson's creature."

Find him again? Inessa couldn't quite understand what Natasha was saying, but she could tell this man was bad.

"I have to try. It kills Clint every day to think about what he did to Berny, but if he knew- it would be worse if he knew his brother was alive. Do you understand? Clint can never know. The things Berny has done would devastate him. He can't know. Don't tell anyone about this, OK Inessa? I'll call some friends, I'll find him again."

Find him again.

"Yes, I'm going to find him again," Natasha was a bit confused, she'd just said that.

I find him again?

"No Nessie, me. I'm going to look for Berny."

You find him?

"Yes- are you alright?" Inessa seemed dazed, lost. She looked around her suddenly as if she was seeing the corn for the first time. Natasha put a hand to her head quickly. It was hard to tell, they were both still warmed up from the run, but Inessa seemed too warm.

Find him again? Find- find... him.

Something was wrong- very wrong. Natasha looked around quickly- the ground was hard here, dry, it would be too obvious if she buried the envelope and she couldn't hide it on her. If there was anyone she could trust to keep their mouth shut- "Bucky!" Natasha connected to his comm alone, "I need you to come to the south cornfield, far end, as quickly as possible- don't let the others follow. Something's wrong with Inessa."

"I'm on my way," he didn't question why Natasha was calling him and not, literally, anyone else. When his comm clicked on he'd fallen back on his run with Steve and Sam, now he caught up with them, "I'm gonna circle back early, my shoe liner is bunching up."

"Super glue is in the left drawer on the east side of the kitchen," Steve called out as Bucky turned and ran back in the direction of the farmhouse. As soon as Steve and Sam were out of easy eyesight, he bolted. Around the far side of the house he found Natasha and Inessa's fresh tracks easily and followed.

"What's wrong with her?" Inessa looked up at him as he skid out of the cornfield, but there was no recognition in her eyes- only confusion. She looked lost. "I don't know. It came on suddenly. She's burning up. I need you to get her to the barn as quickly as possible, Tony might be able to get answers." Bucky's eyes darted to the envelope. Natasha held it up, "You didn't see this."

"Didn't see what?" he winked, scooped up Inessa and ran without a backwards glance. This early in the morning the middle of the cornfield could be a dark place. As Bucky ran he kept phasing in and out of the Valley. He didn't let it distract him, he just kept running in a straight line and passed out of it- only to re-enter seconds later. Over the course of a mile he counted six passes. Inessa was losing control. "Hold on," he needed her to get control. If they got to the barn but were trapped in the Valley, he couldn't help her.

"TONY, DOWNSTAIRS NOW!" Bucky hollered as soon as they reached the edge of the field, "GET TO THE BARN, SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH INESSA!"

"Wait, what?" Steve's voice came over comms.

Natasha dove around him suddenly and ran for the porch at full speed. She jumped up onto it, lifted a loose board, and hid the folder. As soon as it was secured she spun around and ran for Bucky- just as Clint and Tony came running out of the house, "We were doing a cool-down lap," she lied,"Inessa started freezing up."

"What are the symptoms?" Tony wasn't as fast a runner as Bucky or Natasha, but he tried to catch up.

"She's disoriented, confused, there's a fever. She didn't even look twice at Bucky, didn't register when he picked her up."

"Not good, hold up!" he called to Bucky as he reached the door to the lab. Bucky turned, barely in the shadow of the building, and vanished.

"No, no, no, no, no," Bucky looked around- there were no exits to run back out of. He looked down at her and saw her fighting to keep her eyes open, "Inessa, look at me! You have to open the door again. Can you do that for me?" she didn't respond. Bucky crouched down and braced her against his knee. With his free hand, he quickly patted her cheek to get her attention, "Inessa! Open the door!" Nothing. He increased the force, tried to shock her into opening it, but she was growing even more unresponsive.

Desperate, Bucky looked around. There was no sign of life- not even Nadya. He tried shaking her, pinching her, anything. Finally, and for reasons he couldn't fathom later, he wrapped his metal hand around her throat and lifted her off the ground, "YOU WILL OBEY!" he shouted in his best Winter Soldier voice- dead, angry. Precisely what she was used to hearing from him.

For a second fear flickered in her eyes, and that was all it took. The world around them spun, they fell through a door in the Valley, and were back outside. Natasha jumped as Bucky reappeared. He quickly let go and caught her, transferring her back into a carrying position. "It was the only way to get out of there," he said quickly to an incredulous Clint as Tony threw open the doors to the barn.

"It's fine!" Clint ran in and started turning on lights.

"Tony," Bucky had an idea, "Is it loaded?"

"What?" he spun around, confused.

Bucky set Inessa down on the worktable, "Your machine, is it loaded with the anti-venom?"

"Yes-" Tony ran for the container he'd hidden it in.

"I thought we agreed that was bad?" Natasha snapped.

"Well we don't have much of a choice!" Tony came back with the metal machine and Bucky tipped Inessa towards him, exposing the back of her neck. Tony lined the machine up, then pushed until the needles vanished into her skin. There was a moment where nothing happened, then the device lurched- more needles connected to Inessa. Tony ran back around to one of the computers and pulled up a readout from it, "The venom levels are critical. Good call Barnes."

Bucky tipped her onto her back and stood by with his hand on hers- if she accidentally slipped into the Valley again, he wasn't going to let her go alone. Clint came up next to him and pulled the bandaid off of Inessa's forearm- there were no marks beneath it.

Within an hour Inessa was back, and every Avenger was crammed into the room. She didn't meet their eyes, but she didn't shrink away either. Not even from Bucky. "Why weren't you taking your medicine? Why did you lie?" Clint demanded. Banner put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back a step. Inessa flinched.

Needle. Bad. She couldn't quite put sentences together yet, or remember the signs for a lot of words.

Bucky turned to him to elaborate, "Dennisson had her pumped full of chemicals, she learned to be afraid of needles."

"But you took the medicine for weeks. You know it's not bad for you."

Scary. She looked up at Bucky, then away quickly.

"Lady Inessa," Thor rested his elbows on the edge of the table, "has it been ten days since you stopped?" Inessa nodded. Thor sighed, "James' return. It frightened her."

Bucky tried to step back from the table, but as soon as his hand left Inessa's, she grabbed onto three of his fingers and held him in place. He looked up at her and she locked eyes with him, briefly. Friend.

"That's right Inessa," Natasha caught her gaze now, "He's a friend. We all are. You need your medicine. You know we wouldn't trick you."

There was a long silence, then Inessa nodded. "I have a compromise-" Tony chose his words carefully, "we know it works now," he gestured to the device on her neck, "and the needles scare her. Why not just let her have this? It only has to be refilled once a week, she'll get a constant dose, and this won't have to happen again. I won't turn on the bonus features, if that helps."

Everyone looked to Bucky. The metal thing made his skin crawl- but it didn't necessarily mean that was what made Inessa dangerous in his vision- right? It was years off. Something else probably happened. He was talking himself into it, he knew that, but he couldn't be the one who forced Inessa to take more of those injections, not if she was so scared of them. "We keep an extra close eye on her until we know how well it works."

The others agreed, "Constant diagnostics. Direct oversight by JARVIS," Tony activated some controls on the computer.

Inessa forced her face to remain neutral. She'd gambled with that stunt, could have lost everything. Now, though, she had Tony's machine, and a sizable stockpile of the chemical. Enough to at least begin phase one of her plan. It was lucky she'd always had an excellent poker face.

For story notes visit ProjectEchoFanFic dot tumblr dot com