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Her

Chapter Three; HIRAETH

-  Welsh Noun ~ ‘The feeling of longing for a home that no longer exists or never was’.

Warning: language, blood, comatose state, death, mentions of human experiments, needles, mentions of sexual assault, other crimes , HYDRA, Misogyny, violence, bruises. 

W/C: 7K+

Summary: AU series where Bucky is safe and sound after AOU, (Y/N) (L/N) is a troubled woman with a haunting past, and it's coming back to enslave her. But she doesn’t care, her interest in a certain Captain America leads to a night that sets off a series of unfortunate twists and turns. Can she come out on the other side, with her past a secret and a family to come home to. Or will she burn and take everyone down with her.

inner thoughts for the reader are in bold italic

telepathic communication between people are in italic

[Masterlist]  Chapters: I Forest - II Crimson 

His breath was laboured, even though he ran to the compound from downtown New York three hours ago, his breath was stuttering like he still had asthma. The tightness of his chest was foreign and painful, making his whole body ache with each inhale and exhale he took. But his focus was on the woman lying in bed, skin so delicate he feared a simple kiss could break her into pieces. One would think that his reaction to a woman who never really talked to him was rather extreme, but those outside never really saw the tension, the unspoken feelings that surrounded them.

The broken humans out of time.

He watched as her skin softly glowed a crimson hue, he knew what her body was doing, fighting to keep her alive after that man attacked her. His eyes zoned onto the veins pulsating around her left cheekbone, where it was beginning to swell, he remembered what her body does. But sat there watching as it tried to repair itself, watching as it was washed over in thin and delicate crimson ribbons dancing around her like an intricate ballet, he still found it hard to believe that this woman that hardly talked to him was the closest thing he had to true love. His connection with her was beyond his unreciprocated feelings, his connection to her was always a mystery until she turned to him, vulnerability practically washing off of her, and told him what he’s always wanted to know.

“I’m a creation of the space stone, the Tesseract, I was the first to be experimented on by HYDRA. They did many things to me before they even found the Tesseract Steve, I am a child of HYDRA that’s why I never go near you.” He remembered her (E/C) eyes were wide as she watched him absorb the new information. He remembered how the air carried the unspoken words as he slowly started to process the information that he had just heard. “I know what they did to you, I know the hatred you have towards anything associated with that name. But I can’t keep lying to you because it is not okay, I need you to trust me. So, when we go back you can know anything you want, I’ve already told Fury to have the file ready.”

“FRIDAY?” His eyes remained glued to the sleeping beauty in front of him, eyes scanning the fragile figure laying on the bed in front of him in its comatose state.

“Yes Captain,” his grip on his knee tightened.

“Message Fury and Stark, tell them to meet me in the conference room, I want the file ready.” And without waiting for an answer from the AI he got up and left. The room became too claustrophobic with all the beeping and his thoughts, the thoughts that immediately ceased the moment he stepped foot into that room. His whole body ceased when he watched the sun graciously envelope (Y/N) in its embrace; if the current circumstances weren't current, he would have found it so breathtakingly beautiful. But like always the universe decided to screw both of them over.

As he ran out of her apartment, heart seizing and stomach churning, his mind constantly played scenarios over and over again in his head, he didn’t care that he just up and left her with no warning – she didn’t even realise what had happened, she got scared by the glass smashing and the door slamming shut a minute later. What he did care about was that (Y/N) was alive and going off of the tone Bucky had when he was one the phone, his hopes were looking down.

Before he knew it, he was standing at the doorway into the conference room, both the men he requested were present. Shoulders tense and faces contorted into something that made Steve’s stomach churn.

“I want to know everything.” His bulky frame took up the doorway, the vein on his forehead protruding violently as he forced himself to resist all urges to brake. He watched the two men look at each other, eyes and bodies making an unknown conversation.

“Sit down Captain.”

Fury’s simple statement left no room for questioning, so the Captain did what he was told. He sat, and not a second later a file was gently pushed in front of him.

The brown dossier that was placed in front of him caused his eyebrows to rise in disbelief. After the constant bemoaning from Stark about how he had to digitalise all of Shields and the Avengers file, he expected to have a tablet in front of him. But the almost decaying papers that lay right before his eyes told him otherwise.

“This is the only file, and I mean it. I had Romanoff, Barton and Stark up-turn every corner of this planet to make sure of that.” The one-eyed man had a softness to his voice as he sat opposite the Captain, his arm lay in front of him on the glass table, fist repeatedly clenching.

Stark cleared his throat as he sat next to Steve, his hand came out and shakingly ran through his locks. His voice broke, a threat that his emotions weren’t as held down as he thought.

“Steve, nothing we discuss can be spoken outside of this room. Confidential doesn’t even begin to describe our situation,” he looked Steve in the eyes and a pained smile graced itself onto his face, “Cap, please. Trust me when I say that this was kept from you for good reasons.” For the first time since Steve met Tony, Steve could confidently say there was a seriousness that came from the billionaire playboy.

And it didn’t make the situation any better.

“So, we will answer any questions you have now, and only now. Because the moment we walk out of this room, we never even had the conversation.” Without another word, Stark reached forward and hesitantly opened the file that held the most precious thing Steve would ever get to see; (Y/N)’s life. And the first few words that met his eyes made his heart and soul plummet to the ground.

Name: (Y/N) Schmidt/ Stark

DoB; 31st October 1913

Birthplace; Berlin, Germany

Parents: Unknown.

Alias(es)- Ghost, Crimson, Sparky, Diavoliță.

Abilities: Enhanced strength, speed/reflexes, and healing. Tests found that she has traces of the Super Soldier Serum, different to Erskine’s formula. Tests have yet to figure out what the compound is.

His eyes zeroed in on a specific sentence, his forehead creasing told the two men that the Captain’s fantasy of (Y/N) was slowly fading into the harsh reality that everyone was trying to run from. The blonde’s fingers traced the picture of (Y/N) that was clipped to the side, he didn’t even realise he was doing it until a sharp sting made him flinch.

“Fuck,” he quickly brought his thumb to his mouth and sucked the blood oozing out of the small papercut, he looked over as Tony and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. But it went unanswered.

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, in big bold letters sat the truth that he forced himself to know. He felt stupid as he let the words sink in, ‘should’ve just kept your mouth shut punk’ and yet here he was.

Cutting every thread, he had tethered onto his fantasy that (Y/N) was just playing some sick joke, and everyone but him knew. Because he’d rather be embarrassed than this.

Anything.

Soldier of HYDRA for 75 years.

“She was one of them, like Buck?” His voice was quiet, but it filled the silent room.

“She actually met him in ’51, met Nat at some point in the 90’s and me about 3 years later.” Stark's voice did not match the tone of the room, he was too happy as he reminisced the old conversation he had with (Y/N), he remembered how she saved him from getting hit by a car, seeing that he was drunk and decided to walk him to the nearest diner. That was twenty miles away.

“Stark, I’m glad you find this amusing right now. But at least try to let Captain Rogers come to terms with this.” The one-eyed mad finally spoke, his face remained stoic as he mediated the situation. With a quick glance to both men, he cleared his throat and sat up.

He wasn’t comfortable with this, but (Y/N) requested that it had to be done.

“Stark, the screen.” A sound of exclamation came from the man in question as he moved over to a table behind him, a projector sat atop the table, light flashing signalling it’s ready to be used. From where Steve was sitting, he couldn’t really see what Tony was doing but all of a sudden, the room darkens and the wall to his left lights up with a series of pictures.

“Can’t risk having FRIDAY in the room so it's old school I’m afraid.” The brunette manoeuvred himself, so he stood to the side of the projector, closer to Steve. He clutched the remote in his right hand as he gazed at the pictures of (Y/N) plastered on the screen in front of him.

His heart stuttered as he noticed how different she looked, the pictures were in black and white, but he could still tell how damaged she looked, the lines on her face looked deeper and more pronounced, her skin didn’t look as smooth as it normally does. And her (E/C) eyes.

He gulped back the lump in his throat and quickly looked away. He had seen these pictures so many times before, but it still had the same effect on him. His gut wrenched and he had to look away to stop the bile from rising up.

All the needles, straps, cages, tables, and other contraptions always made sure to leave an impression in your mind. No matter how many times you’ve seen them. He had to speak before he lost his voice because it wouldn’t be the first time.

“Um, I will start from the beginning. “He pressed the button and the image of Johan Schmidt greeted them. “I am guessing you know who that is?”

His question was met with a nod from Steve, whose eye never strayed from the screen.

“Johan Schmidt, father of HYDRA. Known as the Red Skull, why are you asking me this Tony?” his blue eyes strayed from the screen to meet Stark's sombre gaze.

“Because fuck. When (Y/N) was five years old his soldiers slaughtered everything and everyone she had. And for some fucked up reason he – Schmidt, decided that he would keep her,” the look he received from Steve was enough to have him shuffling in his spot.

He didn’t dwell on it and quickly moved onto the next few slides, but his eyes glazed over as he relayed his next facts.

The lump in his throat grew bigger.

“She was trained privately and in 1934 he had her assassinate Kaufmann. Not long after, he created the group we all know as HYDRA, with her as his prize weapon. But he kept her off record, I don’t know why yet. I think it’s because, if shit went sideways, he could escape with her, but others think it was because he secretly loved he which I personally think is bullshit an- “

“Stark!” Fury’s stare made no room for error, so Tony stopped his nervous rambling and stretched his neck signing in relief as his joints popped. The tension eased, but only by a fraction.

But that is all he needed.

“Sorry, um. So, Schmidt had Zola and other scientists experimenting on her for some time, at some point we think they had Erskine use her as a test subject for the serum because we found trace compounds of it in her system. But it’s not the same as the one you have coursing through your veins Cap.” The picture changed to show what looked like a class picture of fifteen girls.

They all stood, faces stoic, wearing identical plain uniformed dresses. Steve thought it was just an ordinary school picture, until Tony opened his mouth.

“1931, this is (Y/N), in the red room.”

Oh, how Steve wished he remained naïve. His head snapped towards Tony and then to Fury, who hasn’t said more than one word since this presentation started. A million thoughts ran through his head, he was barely able to understand one before it was replaced with another. Constant questions and make believe solutions spun around, giving his brain whiplash.

“I thought that was the USSR’s, especially during those time?” his question was quickly answered by Stark bringing up another series of pictures. But this time, it was new articles headlines ranging from the disappearance of a Politician to a dog being found.

“It was, but they say the potential (Y/N) had is one of the reasons they allowed her in. The experiments she went under, including the serum, gave her incredible strength and agility. They used her to assassinate political leaders, rebellion leaders, celebrities, royal families, presidents, and prime ministers. She was a weapon. Add to the fact that they somehow managed to slow down her biological clock, they had everything they needed in just one person.”

More news articles appeared each showing someone dead or missing, some of them weren’t even anyone of importance. A history teacher, to the leader of some upcoming political party. The strings connecting these people weren’t visible to the naked eye, but Steve knew HYDRA, and he knew that somehow that small town history teacher was connected to the bigger picture. But what confused him the most was how secretive HYDRA was about (Y/N), all these slides full of HYDRA’s plans and information and yet not a single one of them showed or mentioned anything in depth about (Y/N). When it came to Bucky, Sam was able to find breadcrumbs – it was hard, but he was able to find something.

But this.

This was a whole other underground network within HYDRA.

Steve hates to admit it but he was impressed.

“Stark I think it is best if you show Captain Rogers how Ms Stark got her abilities. You explain it better than I do.” His voice surprised Steve, Fury’s leather jacket filled up the silence as he moved. His hand came up and motioned to Tony to move onwards. And somewhere deep in his gut Steve knew things were going to get worse.

“Right, sorry Sir.” With a quick mock salute Tony pressed through five more slides before he reached the one he was looking for.  A pixelated image took up the screen, seconds later it started to move. The sound of static overtook the sound of laboured breathing in the room, and then the image came to life.

The sound of static quickly turned into sounds of humming and voices. And then a figure entered the screen. Arnim Zola stared back at them, his smirk taking up his tiny face.

“The date is the 12th of August, the year is 1942.” His accent seemed thicker as it boomed through the speakers, his body remained frozen before it jumped suddenly as it quickly went off screen before the whole camera moved. Steve noticed two things; the first was that the big blue glowing machine was what he feared it was, the Tesseract. And the second thing he noticed was that it was placed into a big contraption – a massive cylinder, where the Tesseract was put, and four big tubes protruding out the bottom of the cylinder leading off screen.

“I have finalised the machine and am confident that today's test will make our weapon stronger than ever. The machine I have created will extract the essence – the power of the Tesseract and form it into a compound long enough to be able to be put into the Assets blood. I have worked out every variable and this, this right here. This is what will bring HYDRA out from Hitler’s shadow.” His body was walking all over the lab, he would disappear off the screen and come back with things, fixing things, and preparing everything.

 Steve’s gut feeling got worse the longer his eyes remained on the video of Zola running around. His ears picked up the sound of a door opening, but his eyes couldn’t find the source of that noise. He watched as Zola’s face brightened up signalling to the Captain that someone special had just entered the room. His body tensed when Schmidt came into view followed by a familiar figure.

Steve’s head snapped to the side, throwing a questioning glance towards Tony who only shook his head in defeat. Reluctantly, Steve turned his eyes back to the screen, noting how both Tony and Fury were looking anywhere but the screen at this current moment.

“Is everything ready Zola?”

“Jawohl [yes sir], everything is set and ready to go,” Steve’s blues eyes intently watched as Schmidt turned to the woman behind him, the same woman who was a floor below them in the medical bay fighting for her life. Steve's heart could barely watch the interaction that was happening on the screen in front of him, but some sick part of him made sure his eyes remained focused and alert.

“(Y/N), you know what to do.”

“Jawohl.”

Steve’s jaw was tense as he watched (Y/N) climb onto a metal table, the image was distributed as a collection of men came forward. His eyes hurt from the low quality and too many things happening at the same time. His heart rose up into his throat, drowning out all sounds as he numbly watched as needles stabbed themselves into her body.

Next thing he knew Zola had flipped some switches and the room was momentarily blinded with a bright blue light, it dulled before it could be seen travelling down the tube and into another cylinder mechanism before finagling being injected into (Y/N)’s body. The look on her face caused goosebumps to litter the back of his neck, the bile in his stomach made itself known again.

But the nauseating scream that left her mouth was what triggered the tears to come rushing out of his eyes, it was a sound that he never wanted to hear. But now that he had, he would never be able to unhear it.

“I can’t do this.” Quickly after the video stopped playing, drowning the room into a silent abyss.

No one moved, no one spoke.

Everyone’s eyes were on the frozen image of (Y/N), mouth wide and face contorted into a look of unspeakable pain, her body tense showing off the taunt muscles and scars that adorned her abdomen.

It took Steve a moment to look over at Stark, eyes and face washed over in sympathy for the man. He really wished he knew what to say, but he knows that if he opened his mouth a single word wouldn’t come out. He swallowed heavily, trying not to dwell too much on the matter. His thoughts weren’t in the right place.

They wouldn’t be for a while.

“She developed a power I know as Cosmokinesis – the ability to create , shape and manipulate cosmic energies to whatever she wants. Umm, she can do portals, force fields, she is telekinetic – you know like mind reading and shit.” Stark’s eyes looked distant as he stared at his shaking hands, his mind didn’t register what he was saying; it all just came naturally.

If he stopped now, even he didn’t know. He hasn’t gotten much sleep.

“You know, including the everyday molecular restructuring and transmutation of matter, the Tesseract made her aware of everything. She’s connected to it, the battle of New York with Loki and shit made it really hard to keep her stable. She was frozen repeatedly and moved constantly when you became a threat to them, she told me that her powers were a lovely purple. But the constant training from HYDRA and mind shit caused something in her to shift.” He didn’t care if the other two were listening, he needed to talk, he needed to feel like he was doing something.

He looked up at Steve, eyes burning with unshed tears.

“She was on a mission in Russia, her target was some uprising political figure trying to pass a bill that would undermine everything HYDRA had worked for. She was so overworked and tired that she got so angry when they kept on fighting back. She had her first Surge, her powers…she.” He roughly rubbed his face with his hands, a sob escaped his lips as he remembered the video he found when he was scouring the HYDRA archives in a facility in Moscow.

The thoughts pounded him until he could barely hang on. His thread was close to snapping.

“She killed twenty four soldiers, 16 women and 9 children. Without a thought, in the wrong state of mind her powers are chaos and destruction. And HYDRA used that to their advantage, she would be conditioned into that mindset before missions. Her and Barnes were HYDRAs dream team.” He couldn’t help himself and let out a chuckle as he imagined the duo’s theme tune. But his thoughts were cut short when the one-eyed man made himself known.

“Twenty-two.” Steve raised an eyebrow in question.

“Twenty-two what?” he watched as Fury and Tony exchanged a look between them before Tony tiredly gestured to Fury to continue.

“She went on twenty-two missions like that, in their reports they called it a ‘blood thirst’. Those purple colours turned into the crimson ones you know today. Her last mission was in 1993 with Barnes recovering Vibranium from a Johan Carsten .” His eye patch didn’t stop the look that haunted his features. His forehead creased, making it look like he was trying to bring forth the memory. But in reality, he was trying to forget it, the precise details his brain stored troubled his slumber frequently.

“Stark met her six months after she escaped and over time helped remove any traces of HYDRA. Changed her surname, helped her with her abilities. Worked on a suppressant so she wouldn’t surge again.” He released a sigh as he stood and walked towards the projector, turning it off he waited until Tony turned the lights back on before he started talking. But his voice sounded empty, like the meaning behind it had long been lost.

“When I first came to Stark, I had no clue of the power she possessed. Until Stark called when the threat of the Mandarin became too much, we struck up a deal that only myself, Stark, Barton, and Romanoff know about. When you met her in 2012, under the information that she was an intel assist – that was true. To some extent of course.” His forehead was shining under the harsh light. It took every ounce of him to remain firm, when the news broke out of (Y/N)’s attack himself and Maria were unsure at first but the sight of her lying in that bed made him refuse to believe it.

But when he entered the compound the haunting silence confirmed all he needed to know.

Steve listened as Fury unloaded all the details the man could remember and asked all the questions he deemed vital to know.

“What happened in New York?” Steve vaguely remembered hearing (Y/N) shouting at Tony as he walked past on his way to the training facility, he wasn’t that interested because minutes later he heard the wonderful sound of her laughter echoing after him.

“I didn’t want to chance her being around the tesseract, so I sedated her when it came to fighting Loki and his alien boyband. She saw me falling out of the portal and had a surge that caused most of the destruction to the tower.” Tony’s body moved faster than his brain could understand. His legs brought him up from his chair and over to one of the windows that overlooked the vast gardens of the compound.

Something Tony knew the team was extremely happy to see when they visited the grounds when the compound was under construction. The garden not only offered a valuable training space for the recruits and the team, it also became a safe space for those who needed a breath of fresh air that the tower didn’t provide. The forest that shadowed the compound was a frequent place everyone often visited, the smell of nature was a comfort to them – along with the sound of the birds and small critters. The sound of thunder brought his eyes up to the darkening sky.

‘Thor must be back’ 

The God of Thunder left to see if he could find some healing medicine on Asgard, anything to help (Y/N) and speed up her recovery. Anything. 

When his hopeful gaze focused back onto the sky he found his breath halting, the once blue sky had now turned dark and gloomy, the sun had been covered by dark clouds loudly screaming their anger and frustration out into the world, he could almost hear Thor’s voice crying out amongst the thunder, and the sound of the rain becoming heavier caused his brown eyes to look right in front of him, the sight of the raindrops cascading down the windows ceased all thoughts and feelings of hope. He knew then and there that not knowing was much better than knowing the simplest of things. 

That all the prayers and promises he made to a faceless omnipotent being was for nothing, because that powerful thing was supposed to care for its creation and here it is letting the most precious one live out the most gruelling life and still has the audacity to let her die a painful death. “Why do you have to make her suffer? why ?” his pitiful whisper was answered with a clash of thunder. Even the God of Thunder understood a mere-mortals disappear. 

Tony let his tears go, he made no effort to mask his sorrow, his vulnerability, his anxiety. He let the rain accompany his salty tears as they both fell to the ground together and puddled beneath him. The constant cycle he has been living in for the past two days have been agonising but he deserved it, he needed to feel something. He couldn’t sleep because whenever he closed his eyes he saw her lying on the floor, the sounds she was making followed him around - haunting him every hour of the day. But he deserved the pain, because he can’t do anything. 

“Fucking useless!” his palm shot forward and hit the window once, twice and before he could hit it for the third time a hand caught his and held it firmly, Tony turned quickly and through his bleary vision he was able to make out Steve’s haunted face. His eyes lost their sparkle, he looked worse than the battle of Sokovia. “I can’t do anything to help her, Rogers, and I promised her that I’d keep her safe.” his free hand came up and roughly wiped at his tears, but more took their place. “I promised,” his body was forced forward and the warm embrace shocked him at first but he was too tired to fight it. He let his body go slack and cried, everything he had been held in came undone, the weight on his shoulders became too much to bear, the whispers that followed him became too loud. But here, now in the arms of his friend he felt safe enough to let it all go.

So he let it go, he let the world around him know the weight he had been trapped under. He let the world know that he too was suffering. And his cries were a testimony to the pain he is in. 

__

March 19th 2015,

Ground floor, New Avengers Compound, Upstate New York.

“He’s an associate of HYDRA, he’s known for dealing in weapons, ammunition and biochemical weapons,” her red hair was immaculately straight, she made a show of brushing it before she came into the interrogation room with Barton. She didn’t want the man to gain any pleasure from seeing her stressed. She did want that man to scream though. 

“I’d say more of a prize jewel.” his teeth were red from the dried blood but that was the most pleasing feature about his face at the moment. He looked as if he was trying to smirk but the swelling of his face prevented him, but it didn’t stop the crazy bastard. 

“Tell me how, why.” the man in question looked over to the man perched in the corner, the shadows covered the majority of his figure but the fierceness of his eyes pierced through. His voice was hoarse, run down by the hours he spent awake and screaming orders at anything that blocked his path. 

“And why should I do that? I’m assuming your good cop and Ms Romanoff here is a bad cop,” his hand slapped the table, laughing at his own joke. The smile on his face showed the two Avengers that he wasn’t scared, but they knew he was lying. Natasha grabbed the chair and turned it around, she swung her leg over and sat down - never once breaking eye contact with the man in front of her, with her arms resting on the back of the chair in front of her she felt the corner of her mouth slither up. “I’m the good cop.” Before she could finish her sentence Barton leaped across the room and grabbed the man by the back of his neck and slammed his face into the table. The smirk on his face had been replaced with a blabbering mouth, apologies and excuses spewing out. 

“He’s the bad cop.” 

The weasel of a man let out a little whimper as he frantically nodded his head, his pleads started small then became louder when Barton’s grip tightened around his neck. His body shook under the unspoken threat. Natasha scoffed as she watched this excuse of a HYDRA soldier fumble his words. 

‘Pathetic, we didn’t even get to the good stuff.’

“Start talking,” Clint snarled at the man as he quickly released his clutch on his neck. He stood and waited but when incorrhent noise continued to come out of his mouth he pounced forward and grabbed him, “Start. Talking.” the venom in his voice shocked Natasha. 

She understood the thoughts running through his head, she had the same ones pulsating throughout hers. The wretched feeling of not knowing what was going to happen had the both of them at a loss, so when Tony ordered that no stone was to be left unturned when it came to this man; they brought destruction upon any known source. She vividly remembers the years she had spent with (Y/N) in the red room, she also remembers the pain (Y/N) went through. The rare laugh they shared, the comfort (Y/N) brought to her younger self. 

“Alright, what do you want to know?” His voice was meek as he looked down upon his shaking hands, he could feel the weight of Clint's gaze. 

“Why, how. I want to know everything and don’t spare a fucking detail.” She tilted her head to the side as she spoke, the intent was something that had the whole team grasping at straws - the information they found looked to be the key to everything but this proved how looks can be deceiving. She reached to her left and picked up the tablet, the screen was filled with data and whatever else they could collect. Her green eyes flickered to the words displayed ‘Re-Gen’ she slid the tablet over to him and pointed at the word. 

“What is this? It’s all over your files.” her eyebrows arched in question. 

“Re-Gen was the future for HYDRA, when we failed to recreate the serum after the winter soldier was created, we realised that we had the two most powerful weapons under our own hand. So we decided to do In Vitro Fertilisation; we extracted the sperm and the eggs, but that method failed as the machines we had back then were inadequate. So, the decision was made to try it the ‘good old fashioned way’” 

Clint exhaled harshly, he could feel his face paling as the thoughts processed within his head. 

“We took DNA samples, but that is as far as we got. She escaped before we could further the project.”  The nervous chuckle floated into the tense atmosphere as he looked at the two agents staring into his soul, “I say ‘we’ but I wasn’t exactly there. I’m a freelancer and offer me more cash than my current employees and I will be loyal to you until someone else comes along,” his rambling was cut short when Natasha cleared her throat, he muttered to himself and quickly scratched his head praying that the information they were seeking flowed quickly to his brain. 

“They came over, told me they had some covert agent collect a current sample and they had me run it with the one they had from the project. I noticed the different compounds right away and with further testing found it to be a suppressant. I asked what for, you know, but they didn’t tell me.” he wiped at his brow, that was becoming caked in sweat. He could feel his stomach tighten with the thought of what's to come. He wasn’t made for this lifestyle. 

‘I should’ve stayed in the fucking I.T department.’ 

“I made the drug, it’s design is to break down the compounds of the suppressant. They asked me to be the one to carry out the OP because I'm not on any of your radars. And let me tell you when I saw what she looked like, oh baby,” his eyes glazed over at the mention of (Y/N), the pictures he had been given for reference had captivated him from the start. The beauty was indescribable, he spent hours looking at her face, it wasn’t really needed because he would be able to pick her apart the moment his eye laid upon her figure. The smile that graced her face made him feel so, so happy to be alive. 

His clouded gaze was suddenly clear as his face was forced to the side. He flexed his jaw when the pain crept its way along his nerves, tentatively touching his jaw he let his shaking fingers graze the already swollen bone. Quietly he looked to the culprit, his eye twitched when he saw Barton observing him fiercely, his own eye held a storm of emotions. 

“I’m sorry, I got carried away there.” Barton clenched his fists, his knuckles tingled - a reminder of his impulsivity. But nowhere in his soul did he regret punching him, again. 

“It’s okay.” Damien's voice was small, a clear contrast to the man that was sitting in the chair 40 seconds ago, he was facing away from Barton with his shoulders hunched to make himself look smaller in Barton's presence. It was something Natasha noticed right away, when she was looking through the files they had on this ‘Damien’ she noticed the staggering amount of priors against him - from stalking, assault, to fraud and cyber crimes. Out of everything she found two things odd: one being that they only went as far as the courts, with the prosecution always backing out either from lack of evidence or some NDA was signed; the second thing was that a staggering amount of his crimes were against the opposite sex, the violent and assault crimes were mainly female populated. But the weaker crimes like fraud and Cyber crime where he could appear faceless involved more men. 

‘Misogynistic piece of shit.’ She remembered the look on his face when Bucky had him held up against the wall, the look of fear was immense in his glassed eyes, the speckles of blue in his emerald eyes were more prominent when he was afraid. She remembered thinking how a man so cowardly could do this to someone else. But when Bucky left her alone with him to check on (Y/N), she saw the gleam return to his eyes. The way he sized her up and then licked his split lip told her all she needed to know. 

She leant forward making sure to exaggerate her cleavage, she held back her smirk when she noticed his eyes flash to it, she tilted her head to the side and pouted, “did he hurt you?” Her voice was delicate and innocent as she asked him. Without waiting for an answer, she swiftly walked over to him and purposely crouched down beside him. Her eyes scanned his face slowly, charting out every feature she could make out. 

“Can you tell me what you were planning to do with her? Please, I won't let him hurt you?” she didn’t even recognise her own voice the moment it left her mouth, it sounded too sweet, but she knew what she was doing as she made every few minutes to shyly look away from him. 

The glimmer of malicious intent told her everything she needed to know. 

“When I was finished with my little taster, I was going to send her to Yerik Kuznetsov, he was the one who wanted her.” 

“Why?” her chest began to constrict, the heaviness returned before she could ask anything else. A feeling she hadn’t felt in some time crept tauntingly up her spine, the air felt heavy. 

“He was the one to create the subdivision after the fall of HYDRA, he found the files containing Project Re-Gen. But that is all I know.” His voice cracked under the threat of Barton’s presence, his body started to shake the moment Natasha lifted herself up and walked back to the other side of the table. Damien realised his safety blanket was slowly becoming thinner and thinner the longer the two agents stayed quiet. Trembling fingers hastily wrapped around his chain and snapped it off his neck, his serenity. It was everything he had, and that was the reason why he stalled contemplating his decision. 

“Everything you need is on this USB,” he cupped his hands out towards Natasha, not even sparing Barton a glance. He presented it as if it were a precious jewel - to him it was more, and as Natasha took it from his hands he let a sigh of relief tumble past his chapped lips when a small smile graced her face. 

‘I’m safe.’

“You’ll let me go now right, give me a deal. I gave you everything you asked for.” The hope in his voice was almost pathetic, his face looked obscured - a swollen right eye was concealed behind the swollen tissue, his skin was littered in purples, blues and yellows, his nose and cheekbones appeared crooked - but the two Avengers could clearly see the false hope they had installed in the man. But not one of them felt guilty as they looked at each other. Not one of them paid him any mind as they started packing away. 

“You promised you’d keep me safe.” Not one of them listened to the whining of the man sitting in front of them, wrist bound to the table, as his voice grew louder and louder out of frustration or fear. The anger in his voice started to become more and more evident as he realised he wasn’t being listened to, he became enraged. 

“You fucking bitch, when I get out of here. I swear I am going to make you bleed!” Spit flew out of his mouth as he growled at Natasha, the noises started to become animalistic as he tried to break free of his chains, the commotion almost blocked out the sound of his façade breaking. 

Almost. 

Natasha spared one look at the man, she left nothing for him, she had no energy left. She hardly blinked when their eyes met, the venom in his hardly surprised her. It was expected eventually, the thought brought a smile to her face at the predictability. The noise of his struggle ripped her from her thoughts, and without much of a care she shouted at him to stop and watched as his nostril flared. 

With a sweet smile she spoke to him as if he were a baby.

“I said I won't let him hurt you,” She moved out of the way and let Wanda enter through the door, “I never said I’d let her hurt you though.” She lightly patted Wanda on the shoulder as she walked out the door, raising an eyebrow as the room flashed a bright red before the doors closed. 

She walked away to the sounds of Damien’s wailing cascading against the walls. And as she walked away a thought occurred to her, one that lifted the weight on her chest, the fatigue no longer persistent as she sauntered down to the medical bay. With her back to the chaos that ravished hell personified, she quietly mused to herself. 

‘The sound of him pleading is quite beautiful.’

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I’m alive, I hope you enjoy the third instalment of this series. I am going to be honest writers block seriously hit me hard. I have finished my studies and I thought I’d be writing like mad, but that is not the case. But it will come eventually. I plan on finishing some request that have been sat in my inbox for sometimes, and get started on the second chapter of Siren’s Lullaby. Enjoy my loves 619x

Taglist : @vicmc624