Her head felt as if someone had covered a bunch of scratchy wool in chili pepper and shoved it into her sinuses and ears, but apart from that, Jak felt remarkably comfortable. She was half laying down, propped up on something firm, but soft. Too tired to do much else, and not really sure where she was or what was happening, she snuggled closer to whatever she was propped up on and sighed contentedly.
There were voices… well, she was fairly certain they were voices, but it sounded like they were underwater. She knew that if she opened her eyes, she would have a better idea of what was going on, but she didn't feel like she was in danger and she didn't want the lovely dream she'd just been having to end. She wanted to go back to the ballroom in the clouds that she'd just been spinning through, and enjoy the lavish feast she'd been about to sample.
Alas, the stinging in her head only grew more powerful the harder she tried to go back to her dream and eventually she became aware that she needed to use the bathroom. So, slowly, she opened her eyes and saw a shirt.
A man's shirt.
With a man's torso inside of it.
And what she'd thought was another firm pillow, was actually a muscular arm wrapped around her middle, holding her close to the man. When she looked up, she saw a familiar face connected to the torso and arm, looking away from her for the moment.
It was then that she realized she'd been sleeping snuggled up next to Loki. And suddenly her memories of their date and the kidnapping attempt came zooming back to her.
She sat up straight, frantically looking around to see where they were. Loki's arm tightened around her, keeping her from falling off of the couch they were on. The rumbling of his chest told her he was saying something, but she couldn't hear what, which only served to make her panic more when she realized she couldn't hear anything but muted voices.
"What's going on?" She yelled, squirming against Loki's hold and spotting Tony, Rhodey, Steve, and Sam in the room. They were in a lounge not far from the kitchen. She'd cleaned it enough times to recognize it, but she wasn't sure why they were there. Why wasn't she in her own bed? Or in the infirmary? Why had she been on top of Loki? Why was he still holding onto her? And damn it all, why couldn't she hear anything?
She caught a glimpse of her reflection in a dark window and realized that she still looked like Marilyn Monroe. With a wave of her hand, she changed back, but using her magic may not have been the best idea because suddenly her skin was glowing pink and her hair was floating again. Loki let go of her and she jumped to her feet. Of course, since her head felt like a bowling ball, she immediately regretted the decision and nearly blacked out before Steve caught her.
His mouth moved, but she couldn't hear him.
"What?" She asked breathlessly.
Tony offered her a piece of gum, which confused her more. When he insisted, going so far as to unwrap the gum and press it into her hand, she finally put it in her mouth and started chewing.
Her ears popped, as if she was suddenly at a different altitude and then she could hear again. Tony grinned.
"I created that gum myself. It undoes the effects of the Mark 46's sonic blast."
"Did you sonic blast me?" She asked incredulously, patting Steve's hand so that he would let her stand on her own. She took a deep breath and the magic glowing in her skin dissipated.
"For a man who makes his living on being a so-called genius, sometimes he's really not that smart," Loki sneered, still sitting on the couch.
"It worked on the bad guys, didn't it?"
"Not the bad guy we actually wanted it to work on," Loki countered.
"At least now we know for sure who it is trying to get Jaklyn," Steve said, looking more downtrodden than she'd ever seen him. "Hydra must still have working operatives somewhere."
"I thought Barnes stopped working with them after your little reunion," Tony crossed his arms and tilted his head, "Are we sure Hydra has anything to do with this? Ultron seemed pretty certain he'd taken care of the last of them."
"Hydra is like a disease. You can reduce the number of people affected, but you can never stop it for good," Steve argued. "Somehow they must have gotten ahold of him again."
"Are we sure we should rule out the idea that Sergeant Barnes hasn't just gone coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?"
"Sergeant Barnes?" Jak asked, her tired, foggy brain finally catching up with the back and forth. Now it felt like her lungs were deprived of air. "As in Sergeant James Barnes?"
"Do you know him?" Steve asked, spinning to look at her.
"He was your friend, wasn't he?" She swallowed nervously, knowing a bit more than that, but not sure exactly how to break the news to Steve. And she didn't particularly want to get into the details with any of them. What did Barnes have to do with this conversation anyway? Her brain hurt too much to make connections.
"I hope he still is," the soldier said, "He's alive. Hydra had him. Made him into a brainwashed weapon."
"Why is there always brainwashing involved?" Loki groaned.
"Weren't you the one who used a magic stick to mind control Barton?" Sam asked with a raised brow.
"Yes, exactly. And Ultron used Wanda to mess with your heads and Jaklyn's mother messed with hers. The Mad Titan did a number on my own mind, though I'd rather not delve into that right now. What is it with all of this brainwashing?"
"Well, Bucky - that is, Sergeant Barnes - broke out of his. Or it seemed like he had when I last saw him. But the way he was acting tonight, I'm not sure."
"Wait, wait," Jak shook her head, finally connecting dots, "The assassin trying to kidnap me is Bucky Barnes?!"
"We weren't sure at first, but after seeing him in the coffee shop… yes. It's him," Steve nodded.
She knew then that she was going to have to give a bit more explanation to what exactly she knew about James Buchanan Barnes. With a glance at Loki, she decided that she wouldn't tell all of it. Only the necessary parts.
She had hoped to keep her own involvement with Hydra as quiet as possible. Logically, she knew that it wasn't really her involvement. Her parents had thrown their lot in with Nazis and made Jak join them. As Loki had just said, her mother had brainwashed her.
But knowing these things did not ease her guilt. After all, she hadn't done anything to fight off her mother's manipulations. She went along with everything willingly because she thought her parents had her best interests at heart. She thought they were the good guys. She had idolized her father and it still stung to know that he was a vile, greedy warmonger with nothing but evil intentions.
"Jak?" Loki interrupted her spiraling thoughts with a gentle tap on her shoulder.
"Sorry," she muttered and tried to focus on the problem at hand. "I suppose I should have known it was him. Something about him seemed familiar."
"You knew this Barnes?" Loki asked. "You've met him before?"
"Sort of," she turned to Steve, "He fell from a train, didn't he? Everyone thought he was dead? Lost to the mountains."
"Yes," Steve's voice cracked slightly. The grief was still fairly fresh for him, Jak remembered. Though it had been about eighty years since Bucky Barnes fell from that train, Steve had only been out of the ice for about five years and it had not been long before he'd gone in the ice that he'd lost Bucky.
"And now you know what Hydra did to him," she sighed, "I need to sit down."
She took a seat on the couch and Steve pulled a chair over so he could sit and face her. Loki's face flashed with annoyance and he sat down next to Jak on the couch, closer than was necessarily proper. Sam, Rhodey, and Tony didn't say anything, but all eyes watched the woman intently.
"My father was not technically a member of Hydra," she explained, "I don't say that to defend him, just so that you know he was not in on all of their secrets."
"He knew enough though," Steve argued, "Just because he didn't have a membership card doesn't make him any less Hydra in my opinion."
"A fair point," she nodded, "However, Johann Schmidt did not trust Father and would not have allowed him to be a true member even if Father had wanted to be."
"What does this have to do with Barnes?" Rhodey asked.
"She's getting to that," Loki snapped, "Let her speak."
Jak briefly wondered if he was only listening so he could learn more of her secrets, but she pushed that thought away. It was not relevant at that moment. And if she started thinking about irrelevant things they would be here all night.
"Schmidt didn't trust my father, but he was fascinated by him. He was obsessed with magic. And the occult. With dark forces," she closed her eyes and remembered her father, oozing dark magic, "Father was certainly a dark force."
"I remember," Steve nodded.
"You killed Father before Sergeant Barnes fell, but my mother still had ties in Hydra. Like my father, she was not truly a member, nor was she trusted, but Schmidt had uses for her. He had her working with his scientists in a small capacity. After the war… everything was a bit of a mess. But my mother wound up working with the Winter Soldier program for a short time."
"You did know him," Steve leaned closer, his eyes alight.
"Y-yes," she replied hesitantly, trying to stay on track with only the pertinent details. It was difficult when there were so many details racing to her mind that were not relevant. "A little. I was at the base where they, err, made him into the Winter Soldier. I should have recognized him sooner. That metal arm is hard to forget."
"Would he remember you?" Loki asked, dangerous calculations in his tone, "Why would he have cause to come after you?"
"He wouldn't," she shook her head vigorously, hoping that was true, "Unless he's out for revenge because of what my mother helped Hydra do to him. But from the way he speaks… Steve, I don't think he's broken free of the brainwashing."
"He saved me back in DC -"
"Maybe a momentary break, but it sounds like he's working for someone. Bucky Barnes wouldn't work for whoever is trying to get me, but the Winter Soldier would."
"We need to find him. Find out what's going on in his head. Find out who is trying to kidnap you," Steve stood up, "I'm going to find him."
"Yes, please do," Loki stretched his arms over the back of the couch and crossed one leg over the other, "And bring him back here so I can split his skull."
"Hey, hey," Sam stepped closer, "Let's not jump to that just yet. We'll find him. Contain him. And we'll see if we can help him first."
"I'd rather just kill him," Loki seethed.
"I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way about you," Sam pointed out, "This guy is Steve's oldest friend. Basically family. How would you feel if it were Thor we were tracking down instead? Wouldn't you want us to try and help him?"
"Poor example," Loki scoffed, though Jak saw his jaw tense, "I've tried to kill my brother many times."
"How do you think Thor would feel if it were you we were tracking down?" Sam crossed his arms.
Jak watched Loki's expression carefully, but he was hiding his feelings well behind a sarcastic smile.
"You will not change my mind, Sam Wilson. I would prefer Barnes in a coffin rather than a cell. For the sake of finding answers and maintaining my rehabilitated status, I will let him live."
"You won't get a chance to touch him," Steve snapped. Sam moved between the two and nodded.
"Thank you."
"Of course, if he actually succeeds in his mission to take away Jaklyn," Loki's arm slithered around her shoulders and she felt a spark race through her core, "All bets are off."
Jak inwardly scolded herself for finding those words immensely attractive. Now was not the time to be thinking about the butterflies of romance fluttering in her stomach. Or how nice it felt to be tucked into Loki's side again. Not when she was thinking of Bucky Barnes trying to kidnap her.
"Well that was all very exciting, but I don't think we're going to be catching any assassins if we don't catch some Zs first," Tony clapped his hands, "Let's go to bed everyone. Jaklyn, you want the safe room?"
"Yes," Loki answered for her, though her answer would have been the same, "And I will take the first shift as guard."
"You don't need to," she protested, "The safe room will be enough."
"No offense to Stark, but I do not trust the mechanical contraptions to keep you safe."
"Alright, Loki's going to play bodyguard," Tony nodded, "But no canoodling, you two. I've got the cameras on and no one wants to see that."
"Noted," Jak blushed.
They began to go their separate ways, everyone needed to get some sleep before the hunt for Bucky truly began, but Rhodey stopped Jak and Loki as they headed in the direction of the safe room.
"Hey, how's it going with the magic? You good?"
"I don't know, honestly," she sighed, hand going to the dampening cuff.
"It almost looked like you lost control for a minute back there."
"Do not even consider taking her magic away," Loki hissed, putting a protective hand on Jak's shoulder, "She'll need it to defend herself."
"I know," Rhodey said, "I'm just doing my job and checking in. She's under a lot of stress and I want to make sure no one is in danger because of that."
"Be careful, Colonel, or someone will be getting hurt."
"I'll be fine," Jak assured, cutting Loki off, "I'm just getting used to having it back."
Rhodey nodded and let them go.