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In business, as in life, one had to be prepared for losses. Not every idea was a success. Not every acquisition led to profit, and so long as the gains, on the whole, outweighed the losses, temporary setbacks could be endured. But what could not be endured, what could not be tolerated -- was theft, corruption... vandalism.
“Sir, our intelligence is as solid as it possibly can be. SHIELD is attempting to deprogram the asset within the next twenty-four hours.”
“Hm.” Lukin was careful not to show the seething mass of rage that threatened to overwhelm his self-control. Instead, he very delicately set his coffee mug on the table. “As I understand, you were supposed to regain possession of the asset long before this time, weren’t you? After he’d acquired valuable data.”
Dr. Schmidt removed his glasses and wiped them on the clean edge of his white lab coat. “Yes, that had been the plan, as you know. Unfortunately, our attempt to distract Captain America was... unproductive. Still, I believe the plan itself was good, just poorly executed.”
Lukin raised an eyebrow. “You are the expert. I am trusting the recovery of the asset to you, Schmidt. Failure is not.... advisable.”
**
Steve didn’t sleep on a regular day, when all the stars were lined up in the right order and he’d been running for hours, trying to push himself to exhaustion. He knew it frustrated Darcy, since she had a difficult time sleeping when she knew he was up and milling around in the apartment, but there was nothing he could do about it. And there was certainly nothing he could do about the way his mind seemed to be racing without a way to turn it off. After several long hours of staring at the infared light coming from the alarm clock, he rolled out of bed.
“Giving up?” Darcy asked, her voice tinged with exhaustion.
“I thought you were asleep.”
“Nah. Your inner monologue was much too loud,” Darcy said, pushing herself up into a sitting position. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Steve rolled his shoulders. “Just nervous. I’m not sure we’re doing the right thing. I don’t know, Darcy. I just never imagined … any of this.”
Darcy wrapped herself around Steve’s back and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "I know it's going to be hard, seeing this. But Tony and Bruce seem sure that it's going to help Bucky remember who he really is."
"Yeah. And I trust Bruce and Tony, I really do. I just don't know how Buck'ls going to handle the full realization of... everything. I read the Winter Soldier file SHIELD has. I am having a hard time dealing with some of the things he was asked to do. And I wasn't the one who was asked to do them."
Darcy thought for a long moment. "Eventually he'll have to forgive himself... or not. The only thing you can do is be there for him. Or give him space, if that's what he needs. You know, use your superpowers of friendship."
Steve raised his eyebrows. "You're making fun of me."
"Maybe just a little bit," Darcy admitted. "But someone has to remind you that you can't fix everything, however much you might want to, and sometimes... things are just out of your control."
"I know that. I do." Steve squared his shoulders. "I just want this to go well. I, uh... I'm being a bit selfish, I guess. But it would be nice to have one person around from... before. Someone who remembers the war as more than just something they make movies out of. Someone who remembers living on rations... going to pictures I went to..."
"I know," Darcy said. "And I don't think you're being selfish, Steve. I think you're just being... you know. Human."
"Yeah. I guess."
"And you shouldn't feel bad about that." Darcy pushed her hair out of her face and studied him with clear eyes. "You know that, right? You're allowed to want stuff for yourself."
"I love you."
Darcy narrowed her eyes. "And right at this moment, you are using that fact to distract me because you're done talking about this, aren't you?"
"And one of the things I love about you is you know me so well."
**
Natasha hadn't slept. She didn't need much, but she did need some, and Clint could tell that she was running on empty even before he saw her face. There was something in the way she carried herself that spoke of exhaustion. She just wasn't as quick on her feet as she should be.
"Stop thinking so loudly," she said as Clint approached her. She was staring at a video monitor of Bucky Barnes reading a magazine. "I can hear you coming from a mile away when you think that loud."
"Observation: love stinks."
"What?"
"You're clearly in the throes of a vicious outbreak of the stuff. You've dropped some weight. You're more surly than usual -- although I'm one of the few that seems to have noticed a difference there, so you can take that with a grain of salt."
"What are you implying?"
"In a word... Romanov, you look like crap. And there are reports that you're jumpy. On edge."
"Reports? Bullshit. Coulson's been feeding you information."
"That might be the case."
"Little weasel."
Clint grinned. "You don't mean that. I've got to say, Tash, I've never seen you quite like this."
"I don't understand why you're gaining so much enjoyment from my behavior." Natasha crossed her arms. "I do not find this... comfortable, at all."
"Not an emotion you can enter in your spreadsheet, huh?"
"Before you, there was no spreadsheet," Natasha said, her eyes unmoving from the video display. "There was only blood, and pain. And brief moments when there was neither... but there was James. I'm not sure you call this love, Clint. I'm not sure what you call this."
"General suckitude?" Clint shrugged. "What's really got you all turned around, then?"
:I thought he was dead. He thought I had betrayed him -- let him get wiped. They turned us both all around. I think... there's no way this turns out well."
"Probably not immediately, no." Clint studied the man that was the focus of so much effort. "But then -- we didn't think that your recovery was going to go well, either, in the beginning."
"Hm."
"You just don't know, Nat, how these things are going to go, so."
"I would ready myself for the worst," Natasha said, "except that I have no idea what the worst would be: remembering... or not."
**
“Are you ready to go, Mr. Barnes?”
The man standing at the doorway to his cell was calm, blank-faced, implacable. The perfect stereotypical man-in-black, with his off-the-rack suit he’d probably had tailored when he was a good ten pounds heavier -- weight the man probably expected to gain back, since he carried himself with the bone-deep weariness of someone who had returned to work too soon after a major injury or sickness. It was a look Bucky was familiar with.
“Always up for having my eggs scrambled, Agent...”
“Coulson. Phil Coulson.” The agent crossed his arms over his chest. “SHIELD appreciates your... flexibility.”
“Take a ride on this merry-go-round, you’d be willing to risk about anything to shut it down too, Agent Coulson.”
“Noted. I’m afraid that until we’re more certain of your, uh... mental state, you’ll have to be restrained while we transport you to the experimental facility.”
Cute. Bucky restrained a smile. “It it will make you feel more secure, sure.”
“I’m well aware of what you’re capable of, Mr. Barnes,” Agent Coulson said, as calmly as though he were describing what he had for breakfast, “I’ve seen your work in action, after all. I was in the Congo, fifteen years ago.”
“I assume that means something to you. It means nothing to me.” Bucky got to his feet.
Agent Coulson’s mouth flickered upward in what might have been a smile, had he had an expressive face... at all.
"It means that I'd be much more comfortable transporting you in something Hulk-proof."
“You flatter me,” Bucky said, holding out his hands, “and show a great deal of sense. All at the same time.”
Coulson shrugged. “It’s a talent.”
Coulson secured Bucky's hands behind his back and gently nudged him down the hallway and into a doorway that shut with a metallic hiss.
**
;
Bruce began the day the way he began many days: cross-legged on a mat, trying to find his center. Life before the Avengers was routine, meditation was, if not easy, then at least predictable. Challenging, at times. But rarely impossible.
Then he moved in with Tony Stark and his band of merry men, and suddenly Bruce found himself suddenly propelled into a whole new level of meditation-difficulty.
It wasn’t that the others in Stark, now Avengers Tower, meant to make his life more difficult. They had a more healthy respect than most people for his condition and the complications that often... arose, when he couldn’t control the being inside him. They were just... always there. Tony, of course, had never had a sense of boundaries instilled in him. Natasha and Clint were perhaps the most unobtrusive of the group, but they were rarely in the tower. Steve tried his best to avoid him in the early morning, because he had a sense of decency that seemed to sink down to his very bones, but sometimes they still... bumped into each other.
He had taken to choosing a place at random in the tower -- roofs, unused offices, little hidey-holes and cubbies where he could escape notice and recenter himself. This usually worked. Ninety-four... eighty-five... seventy-three... at least as much as sixty-five percent of the time. Probably.
On a day like today, when he was helping attempt something on this... scale, it was more important than ever to have a hold on his feelings, to control his emotions. And of course, on a day like today, it was difficult to do just that, which was why meditation was more important than usual.
Which, of course, meant that doing so would be a near-impossibility.
“Banner!” Tony stuck his head in the doorway of the office Bruce had found. “There you are, my favorite interloper!”
“Can I be your favorite meditator? Because that’s what I’m in the middle of.”
“Meditation’s boring. You should be drinking Red Bull with me! Getting hyped! Excitation in the face of discoverment!”
“...Discovery, Tony.”
“Discoverment is better.” Tony shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. “Or restoration, I suppose. However you want to label our little adventure today.”
Bruce started to pick up on something -- a thread of something in Tony’s voice that he rarely intuited there, something he only picked up on because he’d spent time with the man and knowing the subtleties of human emotion had been something of a survival skill growing up. “You’re a little freaked out right now, aren’t you?”
“If this goes south -- which, you know, highly likely it won’t because of the sheer level of genius associated with this experiment in the form of me -- what’s the worst that could happen?”
Bruce raised his eyebrows and gave up on meditating for the moment. “Barnes could die.”
“Yes. And Steve will give me that look. I don’t know if you know this look that he has, but... I haven’t felt guilt like that since my mother died.”
Bruce lifted a corner of his mouth, his effort at a smile. “The procedure is as safe as we can make it.”
“I’m aware. But the brain is a mysterious and divine organ, Banner. One which we know far too little about, which makes this whole thing a little like a crap-shoot."
"A highly-controlled crap-shoot," Bruce said. "You're not going to let Steve down, Tony. The fact that you and I are trying at all... that's good enough for him."
"It's not good enough for me."
"So we'll just make sure it works."
"Sir?" No matter how long Bruce lived with Tony's tech and Tony's toys, the omnipresence of JARVIS always startled him. "Perimeter breach."
"What?" Tony gestured for Bruce to follow him. "What's going on JARVIS?"
"It appears a covert infiltration is underway, sir. They have a hacker with them who is attempting to breach my protocols."
Tony growled, and Bruce could feel Hulk rising up in sympathy with his friend. Or in sympathy with one of his favorite chew-toys. It was hard to tell with the Other Guy.
"Lock-down mode, JARVIS. No one in or out, no matter what their level of clearance. Sole exception, Ms. Potts' personal override and mine."
"Noted, sir."
"Alert Romanov and Barton, if they're both still on the premises."
"Sir, should I make Captain Rogers aware as well?"
Tony nodded briskly. "Sure."
"Ms. Lewis is with him. They were both heading towards the medical bay to observe the procedure on Mr. Barnes.";
"Good. Tell Cap to keep heading that direction. Bruce and I will meet him there. Give Barton and Romanov access to schematics, whatever they need to trace the source of the breach. Tell Lewis to go to my office. Lockdown procedures. Non-optional. This is not a drill."
"I shall strive to make her aware, sir."
"With Lewis, that's sometimes the best thing you can do."
"Tony, are you sure you want me around in what could become a combat zone? This is a nice building you've got here."
"I need Dr. Banner to stick around and monitor the patient," Tony said. "I'm a lot more worried about a loony-tunes former Soviet operative in a war zone than I am about you. If you Hulk out, we fix the damage. No big deal."
"Tony..."
"That's my name, let's try not to wear it out. Discussion over, Banner. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I'm an over-privileged white male with Daddy issues. I always get my way."
Bruce decided to leave that piece of self-aware narcissism alone and follow him down the hallway.
**
They were almost at the medical bay doors when JARVIS stopped them. "Captain Rogers, Miss Lewis, I have been asked to make you aware of a perimeter breach on the Tower. Mr. Stark has ordered full lock-down."
It was fascinating to Darcy, to see Steve transform internally from Steve, boyfriend and worried friend, to Captain Rogers, self-assured and competent soldier and leader. His shoulders seemed to set, his jaw locked, his eyes hardened. It was absurdly sexy. Darcy reminded herself that it was a bad time to get turned-on.
"Mr. Stark has asked Miss Lewis to follow normal lock-down procedures for her clearance, as though she were here as an employee."
"What? Lock myself in his office?"
"Yes, Miss Lewis. You will be quite safe there. In the event that the perimeter of the office is breached, I have instructions to give you on how to open the weapons vault."
"That makes me feel really secure."
"Darcy..."
"Excuse me, but no. What's safer? Hiding in an office all by myself while all of this goes down, or hanging out with my superhero boyfriend and his superhero pals?"
"Darcy, if I'm focused on protecting you..."
"Look, any way this goes down, you're screwed there, right -- I might be out of sight but I damn well hope I wouldn't be out of mind. This way you get to keep track of me, I get to keep track of you... besides, Natasha's been training me. I can handle myself."
"Mr. Stark was quite insistent, Miss Lewis," JARVIS said.
“Well, I’m not on the clock. I’ll make my own decisions, thank you very much.”
Steve obviously heard something Darcy didn’t, because he pushed her behind him. “Get down, Darcy!”
He didn’t have his shield, but he did have arms like iron, and he held one over his head and Darcy’s as the ceiling fell in.
Darcy almost felt sorry for the operative who landed on the ground next to Steve. Well-trained he might have been, but the shock of falling to the floor stunned him temporarily, and that meant that he had no chance against someone like Steve, who wasted no time in disarming him and stunning him.
“Intruder alert!” JARVIS informed them.
“Whoa, slight delay there, buddy,” Darcy said.
“I’m sorry. I’m under attack as well. Mr. Stark is on his way, Captain Rogers, Miss Lewis.”
“All right, at this point, you’re sticking with me,” Steve said, his face set.
“Great!” Darcy said,with a bounce in her step, and a tazer in her hand.
**
They were securing Bucky in the chair, attaching electrodes to more parts of his body than he cared to contemplate, the stone-faced agent watching as two lab technicians completed their work with the hurried professionalism of people who had been briefed on what he was capable of, and were being paid handsomely for their trouble and the risk to their personal safety... As far as these things went, it was more than Bucky expected.
After all, his memories of the last time he’d been in a place like this were hazy at best, but he couldn’t say anything nearly as nice as the people sticking him with needles were professional about it.
The placid-faced Agent in charge tensed subtly as a British voice above them informed of a security breach.
“Well, now’s the perfect time to be strapped down,” Bucky said, unable to stop the sarcasm from leaving his mouth.
A smooth click-pop announced that Agent Coulson had his weapon loaded. “JARVIS, sit-report.”
“Target appears to be the medical bay, based on information the intruders are attempting to access on my mainframe."
Something tingled in the back of Bucky's brain and he couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of his throat. "Spoiled brat," he hissed around the hysterical sound. "Never could let go of a toy once he had his grubby little hands around it."
"A fair assessment of Aleksander Lukin if I ever heard one," implacable Agent Coulson deadpanned.
As suddenly as the panic, if it could be called that -- the strange other-part of his brain that seemed to exist only in emotions, in pure reactions -- had taken over, it was quashed with hyper-rationality. "You knew it was likely he would come for me."
"There were indications. An attempt on Miss Lewis's life, although rather poorly planned and executed, attempts to breach SHIELD's firewall... It added up."
Bucky flexed his mechanical arm in his restraints. "So what? We're just going to sit here and let them come to us?"
"For the time being, it suits the purposes of SHIELD to make Aleksander Lukin feel a touch more.... confident... than he would otherwise. He almost gets past JARVIS, his agents almost make it to the prize..."
"Or maybe he snags me this time, and then you've got the Winter Soldier running around, killing Americans again. Killing allies again. And not, I gotta tell you, Agent No-Expression, losing any sleep over it."
"Not until Bucky Barnes sneaks up behind him a dark alleyway and takes him down again." Coulson lifted a finger. "We can, of course, continue this conversation at any time. However..." His gun panned around. "JARVIS?";
"Captain Rogers has disabled one of the intruders. It appears they are using the ventilation system, sir."
"Dropping out of the ceiling... like spiders," Barnes said thoughtfully.
"Of one kind or another," Natasha said, entering the room. "Hello, James."
Bucky felt that strange thing he always felt when she appeared. It was somewhere between hate and love, with all the shades of intensity those emotions garnered with no way of knowing which inclination to believe. "It's a party now."
Natasha's lips moved upward. "Of one kind or another."
He'd never been one to sit out of the action, and so he strained against the restraints holding him in place. "Let me out of these things. I can help."
"Inadvisable at this time," Coulson said. "The threat is not immediate."
That was when the ceiling caved in.
**
All in all, Darcy figured that she wasn't doing too badly. Mostly, her objective was to stay out of Steve's way while he handled most of the threats -- impressively and efficiently, and boy howdy was there going to be a reward for SOME of those moves later on this evening -- and to handle the ones who came directly at her, if they got past Steve which, honestly, was rare. She found it a little difficult to keep up with Steve's pace as he moved down the corridor towards the medical bay, but found herself grateful for all of those walks Steve liked to take... she was used to the half-jogging pace she would have to use when he wasn't paying attention, and now Steve had no time to slow down in order to be considerate.
The hallways were soon flooded with joint Stark Security/SHIELD personnel, who moved out of the way in deference to Steve with his Cap face on.
"JARVIS, sit-rep," Steve demanded.
"Medical bay is under siege. Agents Coulson and Romanov appear to be holding their own. The rest of the facility is now secure. It appears the emergency protocols were followed by most everyone. "
“Of course they did,” Darcy puffed under her breath. “Are we slowing down now? I mean, this whole situation appears to be under control, as far as invasions go.”
“Cap! Good to see you!” Tony burst out of some doorway. “Lewis! I can’t say I’m surprised to see you, but just once I’d like to see you follow direct orders.”
“What can I say? I’m dangerously unpredictable,” Darcy said.
“JARVIS says all of the intruders he’s been able to identify have been disabled,” Tony said, winking at Darcy to show her he wasn’t upset. Or that’s how she chose to interpret it.
“Good,” Steve said, not quite able to let go of the Captain America tone in his voice. “I’m questioning now how they even managed to get this far.”
“We’ll be looking into that, Captain, but now we’ve got another situation to worry about.”
A door slid open in front of them, leading them into the medical bay, where the Black Widow was disabling the last of the operatives and shoving them off into the arms of waiting security personnel where Darcy was assured they’d be “processed”. She chose not to think too hard about what that meant.
“Well, we arrived late,” Tony said. “Missed all the good stuff.”
“You’re not the only one,” Bucky said.
“Ah, Mr. Barnes. You’re remarkably lucid this morning,” Tony said. “Ready to make an omelet out of your brain?”
Bucky grinned. “Well, Mr. Stark, I can say that I’ve never had it put to me quite like that. But I am as ready as I will ever be.”
Bruce cleared his throat. “Yes, well. Given the nature of today’s... excitement. Perhaps it would be to proceed. Quickly.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Natasha turned from giving the junior agents instructions and folded her arms over her chest. “I am not going anywhere.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to.” Tony waved a hand. “In fact, I think all of the key players are here, and miraculously, you’ve managed to remained secured to the equipment...”
“It’s a talent,” Bucky said.
“So we begin.” Tony walked over to a display and began to type in some numbers.
“Darcy?” Bucky asked. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Well -- Steve’s here, and it’s my day off, so...”
“Listen, can you do me a favor?”
Darcy shrugged. “Sure, what do you need?”
“Come here.”
“Ah, Buck. You don’t have to do this...” Steve said, crossing his arms.
“No, listen. I might not come out of this alive, and I want to have a chat with my best friend’s girl. You are my best friend, aren’t you?”
Steve’s eyebrows furrowed. “Yes, of course I am.”
“Then let me talk to Darcy in private, okay?”
“I guess.”
Darcy got close and leaned down. “What did you want to say?”
Then she felt it... a sharp pain like she’d never felt before, a twist, somewhere deep in her gut. The edges of her vision went grey and she fell to her knees.
“Mission accomplished.”