Chapter 18
"When you say red, how red are we talking? Like she was just flushed after running around?" he asked, shoving a bite of pancake in his mouth and washing it down with a slurp of coffee, sloshing some on the table in the process. Sam grimaced at where Clint had spilled on a corner of his own breakfast, coffee soaked omelette not being the most appetizing thing. They’d all headed back to the hotel straight from the Smithsonian, not wanting to hang around for the police or whatever alphabet agency that was bound to show up. The Avengers didn’t need to give the government any more ammo to use against them.
Natasha rolled her eyes which Clint thought was a little much. It wasn’t his fault that he’d missed Darcy shape shift or whatever, he and Sam had had their hands full with the HYDRA agents in the exhibit. Fighting dudes and not breaking the priceless Captain America memorabilia was harder than you would think.
Tony was ignoring the rest of them, sipping from some disgusting green sludge drink and tapping away on his tablet. The four of them could hear Jane yelling at Darcy through the closed door of one of the bedrooms in the suite but were doing their best to ignore it. Thor was in there, probably just aiming his disappointed face at Darcy from behind Jane, but Clint wasn’t sure why Cap and his long lost BFF were in there, too. Well, the Winter Soldier had refused to leave Darcy’s side while Steve acted like he was scared Bucky would disappear if he looked away for a second, but Clint still wouldn’t be in the same room as an angry Jane for anything.
"In terms that your bird brain will understand," Natasha began while wiping the corner of his mouth with her napkin like he was a baby, "Poison Ivy in the New 52? With the tattoo
swirls all over her green skin? Like that, but red and the lines are blurry and constantly
moving."
Clint let that sink in, forever amused at Nat’s varied interests, before nodding. "That's hot."
Natasha rolled her eyes again.
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On the one hand, Jane’s rampage had held the Avengers off from locking her away for being a demon spawn. Although, it occurred to Darcy that they probably didn’t know that she was straight up part demon, so maybe they wouldn’t lock her up, but …
Questions better left for another time.
“Because it was so smart to just run off with the guy that tried to kill you numerous times before, yeah, genius move, Darcy Anne Lewis, totally not a bone head, fucking terrible idea! And…”
On the other hand, Jane was really mad. Thor wasn’t helping, he was just standing there with his stupid bulging arms crossed and frowning at her, looking like a hurt puppy. Combined with her best friend’s obvious worry, it all made her chest clench. She looked down at her hands where they rested on the duvet and heaved a shuddering sigh.
A cold metal hand engulfed her own, gently cradling it. Darcy looked at Bucky seated next to her on the bed from the corner of her eye.
“...fiscally irresponsible to draw out that much cash at once! I don’t care if you’re mega rich, what if someone had robbed you or you had dropped the cash in a puddle or…”
Bucky had been right next to her almost since she’d brought Rollins back from MSS, silently leaning into her bubble, never straying. She didn’t know if it was because he didn’t trust all the people around him, or if it had something to do with the man standing off to the side of Jane and Thor.
Darcy turned her gaze on Captain America, only to find him staring intently at her and Bucky’s clasped hands. His face was blank, but there was a small tick in his jaw. Bucky hadn’t said anything to him that she had noticed, even though she thought she saw them talking while she had been hugging Jane. Recalling how adamant Bucky’d been about not contacting Steve, Darcy wasn’t surprised that Bucky was not engaging.
“...I had to deal with Tony Stark to get you back. Do you know how annoying that man is? Like if we hadn’t found you soon, I would have murdered a billionaire and then we’d have to run away to Asgard and we’d never be able to come back to Earth and we would have lived the rest of our lives without pizza or burgers or coffee! Is that what you want, Darcy…”
Leaving the Steve mystery for another time, she tuned back into Jane’s ranting but gave a squeeze to Bucky’s fingers. She felt him shuffle closer.
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Bucky was conflicted about Darcy’s friend, Jane. Or really, he was conflicted about her tirade. It was clearly upsetting Darcy; she was wearing the guilt on her face for everybody to see. It was strange to him, the idea of showing your every emotion on the surface, but he also couldn’t imagine Darcy with the cold, blank faces that he was used to. Just the idea was enough to make him feel sick.
Darcy was vibrant and loud. She was alive.
Her friend’s yelling was making her sad, and that was squarely Bucky’s fault. He wasn’t unfamiliar with guilt, but the last few days had been filled with a distant version of it. Yes, he’d done horrible things, but he didn’t remember them, not yet, and that created a distance that shielded him from fully feeling it.
This, with Darcy? He remembered it, was completely himself while causing it, and the knowledge burned in his throat.
He moved even closer to her at the thought, bringing their hands into his lap when there was no longer any space between their thighs. His movements went unnoticed by the yelling woman, but not the two other men in the room. Thor cocked his head, looking like we was going to speak but quickly closed his mouth at a glare from Darcy. He resumed his frowning.
Steve, on the other hand, hunched his shoulders up to his ears. Bucky could see him in his peripherals but refused to look directly.
After all, Steve was the reason he was conflicted about Jane’s yelling. The woman was so forceful in her mission that Steve hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise.
Part of Bucky knew it was wrong, that Steve just wanted to help, but Bucky couldn’t…
It wasn’t fair. Steve looked at him and knew exactly who he had been. Bucky looked at Steve, and only could grasp fragments, fragments that left his mind feeling more broken than before.
Bucky couldn’t do it, couldn’t let Steve in.
Not yet.
Not when he still didn’t know who he was.
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“Barton,” Tony drawled, lazily scrolling his finger down the screen on his tablet, “Wanna share with the class how you missed that Darcy was super?”
Clint groaned from his seat on the couch next to Sam while Nat went to read the file over Tony’s shoulder. She was surprised by what she found.
“They sent you to evaluate her for the Index?” she asked Clint, confused that he hadn’t mentioned this earlier. “How did you miss her?”
Hawkeye had a nearly perfect record for dealing with gifted or superpowered people. Nat could not understand how he could have missed this. Watching him squirm and mutter something about “big eyes” made her realize that he hadn’t.
“You lied to Coulson,” she said, shocked. She would have continued, perplexed beyond measure as to why he would choose to keep Darcy hidden, but Sam interrupted before she could.
“Index? What is that?” he asked, leaning forward.
“A list,” Natasha said mechanically, Tony still perusing the files next to her, “A list of potential threats.”
“Potential threats,” Sam echoed while Clint fidgeted next to him, unable to meet Natasha’s eyes.
“Yes,” she answered, looking at Sam, “It’s so SHIELD could monitor people with special skills or powers and intervene when necessary.”
“Huh,” Sam said thoughtfully, tone low, “These people? They’re criminals? People who have tried to do bad things?”
Natasha observed him. “Sometimes,” she said after a beat.
“So you group people up, all people, even ones who haven’t done anything, and tell them what they can and can’t do for the rest of their lives?”
“Yes,” she answered, wary. Natasha had spent all of yesterday defending herself and others in the Senate. She didn’t want to have to do it here, amongst teammates, all over again.
She was tired.
Sam, though, had a disbelieving anger energizing him.
“Gee, wonder why that sounds familiar. Oh, right, isn’t that what Nazis did back in the day?”
“That’s different,” Nat said, restraining herself from clenching her fists.
“Is it? Because I feel like we just got through fighting a bunch of Nazis that were hidden inside SHIELD,” Sam responded sarcastically.
Natasha wondered why the hell Clint wasn’t helping her explain this. He’d been a part of SHIELD, he knew the score, and she really didn’t want to have this argument right now.
Help, however, came from an unlikely source.
Tony chimed in, “So maybe it shouldn’t be SHIELD, but the Index is that watch list you mentioned back with all the Loki shit, on the hellicarier before it all went to hell, right? You said that we were all on it.”
“We are. We’re dangerous,” Nat confirmed.
“And you’re okay with that?” Sam asked, letting himself rest back into the couch, seemingly over his incredulity and just as tired as Natasha.
“Yes,” she said, conviction not wavering. Tony shrugged, agreeable for him.
Clint looked down at his feet, not answering.
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Steve tried to cut in while Dr. Foster paused to breathe, “Maybe Bucky and I could go…”
The doctor shoved a finger in his face so quickly that her nail nicked the tip of his nose, drawing a small welt on his skin.
“Shut it, Spangles!”
She turned back to Darcy.
“And another thing! Who just sends a text when they go off with a brainwashed assassin? WHO TEXTS THAT AND DOESN’T FUCKING CALL?”
Darcy put her head between her knees and breathed deep.
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Tony kept reading on his tablet while everyone else stewed, silence occasionally broken by Jane’s loud voice.
“That’s not good,” Tony muttered to himself.
Desperate for a change of subject, Natasha pounced on the opportunity.
“What’s not good?” she asked, noting that Sam and Clint seemed just as happy to be on another topic.
“HYDRA had a capture order on Darcy. They sent the Winter Soldier to get her months ago,” Tony answered, squinting at the screen, “But it isn’t complete.”
“So? Maybe they got lazy on their filing,” Sam suggested, yawning into his fist.
“No,” Clint corrected, “Files have to be filled out and finished, all in a specific way. Failure to do so flags the file itself as a security issue. Pain in the ass, but a good system to keep things safe.”
“So an unfinished file is weird?” Sam asked.
“Try unheard of,” Natasha said, again reading over Tony’s shoulder, “Especially since this was an order from Alexander Pierce.”
“It doesn’t say who,” Tony said, question unasked.
“It’s from the head of the chain of command within HYDRA, that was Pierce,” she clarified.
“Official report said Jane and Darcy weren’t onsight in that attack, but it was right after that that they quit unexpectedly,” Clint added speculatively.
“Winter Soldier took out a squadron of planes, me, and Captain America and hardly broke a sweat. You’re telling me they survived the man that did that?” Sam said.
“Makes sense,” Clint shrugged.
“I beg to differ,” Nat argued.
“No,” Sam agreed with Clint, “It could make sense. Depends on what Darcy can do…”
They all turned to look at the door that hid the girl in question from them, all of them undoubtedly remembering Rollins weeping and shivering at Darcy’s feet.
“Spooky,” Tony said, shaking his head, before turning back to the tablet, “But I don’t like unanswered questions.” He pulled up footage from the night Pierce ordered the attack.
He watched, eyes going big, and then shoved the tablet around for everyone to watch Pierce suddenly appear out of thin air, asleep with his head on his desk.
“Spookier,” he declared, watching everyone else’s shocked reactions.
“The footage could be tampered with?” Clint asked hopefully.
“It’s not,” Tony answered, “Plus, we saw Darcy do the same thing not an hour ago, materialize from nowhere.”
“There has to be something else,” Natasha said, yanking the tablet out of Tony’s hands and ignoring his indignant yelp, fingers flying furiously across the screen, “Sensor picked up an abnormal heat signature.”
“Someone hiding from the cameras?” Tony asked.
Natasha, registering the actual degrees, doubted it. There wasn’t a thing alive that could withstand such high temperatures, but so much heat should have shown fire or something in the room. Yet there was nothing.
Disregarding the everyone else, she started a search for similar heat signatures and found only one: yesterday, in the Council room just after she and Fury had rushed out to their helicopter.
She put the tablet on the table so everyone could watch a dying Pierce, inhaling and opening his mouth for his last words only to choke on the inhalation and scream, eyes tracking and focusing on something close above his head, all before suddenly disappearing from the room.
“You were right, Tony,” Clint sighed, “That’s not good.”
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By the time Jane had reached the end of her lecture, she was laying face down on the bed with Darcy and Bucky, mumbling into the bedding. Sensing that the worst was over, Darcy released Bucky’s hand and crawled up to lay next to her friend.
“I’m sorry that I worried you,” Darcy said, curling on her side so that her face was next to Jane’s head, “I honestly thought that the safe word would be enough to make you not worry.”
Jane’s shoulders tensed, and she rolled over with her eyes blazing, but Darcy continued before Jane could start off again.
“I know now that was wrong! I should have known that it wouldn’t have been enough then, especially after the week we’ve had! I am so sorry, Janie-pants, so very sorry. I only did it because Bucky needed my help.”
“No!” Jane cried, throwing an accusing finger to where Bucky was still seated at the foot of the bed, “He’s an assassin! A dangerous assassin! He can fend for himself!”
“Um,” Darcy heard Bucky mumble from behind her, but Steve’s voice cut in.
“Hey! He’s a war hero! A prisoner of war for over seventy years!” Cap yelled.
Jane raised to her knees, but Darcy just rolled onto her back, debating dragging Jane out over her shoulder. She had a feeling this was going to get ugly.
Thor tried to placate Steve, “Yes, I’m sure Jane meant no offense. It’s been a long day.”
“Oh, I meant it!” Jane waddled forward on her knees, but after having to crane her head up to meet Steve’s eyes, got to her feet on the bed so she could tower over Captain America. She wobbled slightly, but Bucky caught her before she fell off.
Jane looked surprised, and begrudgingly thanked him before squaring off again with Steve.
“I get that he’s all tortured soul! I understand that this isn’t his fault, that he didn’t act of his own volition, but that doesn’t change the fact that he put my friend in danger! Doesn’t change the fact that he is dangerous!”
Steve bowed up, ready to retort, but Bucky chose that moment to pipe up.
“She’s not wrong.”
It was the first thing he’d said since the Smithsonian, and it obviously affected Steve. Darcy figured this was her cue.
“She’s not right, either. Not completely,” she said, sitting up, “Yeah, you’re dangerous, but honestly? So am I. And saying that you put me in danger is stripping me of my agency,” Jane spluttered at her, but Darcy continued undeterred, “Hush, I’ll break out my feminist theory if I have to, my friend. I made the choice to help Bucky as a grown and independent person. That’s on me, and I totally handled it. We’re both fine. I recognize the worry I made you feel, and I acknowledge that I could have handled it better, but I’d make the same decision every time. It was the right thing to do.”
Tony clapping from the door startled everyone, no one having noticed it opening in all the commotion. “Great speech, really, Independent Woman pt.3, roar, but we have a situation out here.”
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“This is so creepy, you have no idea,” Tony said as he held the tablet for everyone to see, but Bucky could hardly bring himself to watch. Pierce’s face brought up too many memories.
He was hanging back, standing behind Darcy where she sat on the loveseat with Jane, Thor next to them. The looks Darcy was getting weren’t slipping his notice. The red head wasn’t letting Darcy get between her and an exit, while the two men, the flying one and a new face, kept sending her nervous glances. Tony had given her a wide berth as they all crowded into the living room. Steve seemed determined to hover over Bucky, so he was in close proximity to Darcy by default.
These might be Steve’s friends, but Bucky didn’t trust them.
Not with her.
While they all watched the footage, Bucky counted the weapons hidden on various people in the room, figuring out how to grab Darcy and get them out, just in case.
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As soon as Mephisto appeared on the screen, Darcy gasped. It was a blow straight to the stomach, bile rising within her.
“Darcy?” Jane asked, and she felt Bucky cup her shoulder from behind, but Darcy couldn’t tear her gaze from the screen.
“Mephisto,” she whimpered.
“Aye,” Thor agreed, a solid presence to her left on the arm wrest.
“What? What’s a Mephisto?” Clint asked, furrowing his brow.
“Him,” Darcy explained, tears in her voice, “The one talking to Pierce. That’s Mephisto.”
“Uh,” Tony said, turning the tablet around to check, “There is no one there. It’s just Pierce.”
“To mortals, to Midgardians, there is no one there. Mephisto can hide himself from the sight of mortals should he wish it, but that is him,” Thor explained. Jane put her arm around Darcy, dislodging Bucky’s hand in the process. Darcy couldn’t bring herself to do anything but collapse into Jane’s side, cheeks damp.
“Question,” the Black Widow interjected, “You said mortals can’t see, but Darcy could. Does that mean that Darcy is not human?”
“That’s none of your business,” Jane said, clutching Darcy protectively.
“No, Jane, it’s ok,” Darcy said, wiping under her eyes and lifting up.
“You need not reveal more than you wish, Shield-sister,” Thor said, glaring at his team mates like he was daring them to disagree.
“I know, big guy, but if I can’t trust Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, then who can I trust?” Darcy laughed sharply, “Although I don’t know you,” she pointed to the handsome man next to Clint, “I’m just assuming you’re a good guy because of the company you keep.”
“Sam Wilson,” said the new guy, amiable all things considered.
“Darcy Lewis,” she returned, then gave into her baser nature for theatrics, “Daughter of the devil, aka Mephisto. At your service.”