A Team Devided
You’re meditating when he storms in. Without even opening your eyes you can tell who has entered the room and it gives you a preserve sense of pleasure to taste the hints of fear that seem to permeate the air as he comes towards you. Fear doesn’t always give you such happiness, but this time it does. All the heroics and selflessness have formed a seemingly perfect individual. Steve Rogers is anything but perfect. The doubts slip through his mind as wisps of shadows are joined by the urge to unleash his tempered anger. He’s like Bruce Banner in that sense. He holds anger on a tight leash afraid of what will happen if he lets it rule him, yet unlike Banner who has come to terms with his… Rogers tries to cage it like an animal. If he doesn’t learn to do more than fear his anger soon it’ll boil over and destroy him. You’ve seen it before.
Heroes.
Villains.
So similar.
“What did you do to him?” he demands as he bashes a hand against the wall.
You can feel the wall absorb the impact, but it holds steady. Peeling your eyes open, you regard him with mild amusement. “Who?”
Another slam as the wisps of darkness slither around him. He’s not coated like Barnes is or containing it like Banner. Captain America has darkness in him, everyone does, and his is currently curling around his neck like a loving noose.
“You know who!” Steve bellows and another layer of his darkness emerges.
Lips quirking, you can’t help but make a joke. “Come on, Captain. We’re all adults here. You can say his name – Voldemort.”
This has him pulling back and frowning. He doesn’t get the reference… why would he? You’d seen some of the movies with Cooper and Lila; enough to crack a Voldemort joke.
“Did you not get that reference?” you mock, not bothering to try to conceal your amusement. “Why don’t you go watch a Harry Potter movie instead of bothering me with your trivial anger.”
Now he’s frowning again. Pulling back his hand and assessing his anger. You can see the guilt start pouring in and it makes you want to gag. Precious little golden boy can’t even handle his emotions. Pathetic.
He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. Bucky’s been acting weird since he talked to you. You did something to him.” His tone is carefully blank but the accusations is still there.
“I reminded him that he’s got darkness in him.” You lean back on your elbows, lounging like you’re entirely at your leisure and not trapped in a cage. “Not evil, though we’ve all got some of that too, but darkness. No one is made purely of light and he doesn’t realize that. It’s silly to let yourself try to be something you can’t.”
“Are you saying him trying to be a hero is bad? Wrong?” Steve crosses his arms and glares. The full weight of his judgment hits you and all you do is shrug.
“Heroes? Villain?” you ponder as your rise to your feet and glide closer to Steve. Standing right in front of him, you smile. “Are they really that different?”
He opens his mouth to respond, but you shush him.
“Don’t answer, Captain.” You raise a hand and place a finger against your lips. “Think about what makes a villain and what makes a hero. At their core they’re the same. None of it is about the typical excuses they give. At the very center it is all a cry for attention - to be seen as the best. The best at something. And the best people? They change the world for better or worse.”
Wrapping your arms around yourself you turn away from him. “It has been nice chatting, Captain.”
He opens his mouth to speak again, but closes it. Maybe you’re right, he thinks. Turning away he holds his head high even as his brow furrows in thought. You weren’t what he expected after all. Now he’s no longer certain about what to say to Bucky. How do you comfort someone when you’re not sure what to say? He wants to assure Bucky that he’s a true hero, but is that a good thing? Are heroes good?
“Do you consider yourself a hero, Captain?”
Hand on the door, Steve freezes. Your words have cut to the very core of him and for a moment he doesn’t know what to say.
“Sometimes,” he breathes out. “Sometimes I do.”
~
He isn’t sure if it is from fear or from intrigue, but he dreams of you now. Usually, it starts as a nightmare, and then you’re there, chasing them away with feathers falling from your wings and shadows dancing about your legs. These are the dreams he's comes to love hate. They make him afraid that he isn’t strong enough to chase his demons on his own. That he needs you, someone he doesn’t know and doesn’t trust, to do it for him.
But, he finds slowly, that he starts to simply watch the memories that play in his mind at night with you. Still you come with your darkness and feathers, but instead of interfering you watch with him. The acts that occur are still horrific to see, yet you stand there silently observing. Only after weeks of this do the good memories start to surface. The ones with sticky jam hands, a skinny punk with a big grin, and constant laughter start to intersperse with the ones of colder days.
Then it happens.
Bucky awakens in the dream to someone he doesn’t recognize. In a place he is sure he has never been.
“You’re not what I expected,” the woman says with an amused tint to her voice.
He can’t make out her features except for a flash of white teeth and a slim hand slipping from beneath swathes of fabric to help him sit up.
“Do I know you?” he asks, unsure what emotion he should be feeling.
She sighs, “I’ve gone by many names… But, the name you can call me is Aru. A nickname from my favorite brother that has stuck with me.”
“Aru?” Bucky affirms with a grin. “Does it mean something?”
With a laugh, she shakes her head. “Silly man. Yes, translated it loosely means ‘the universe’s brightest star,’ which is apparently how my darling brother views me. But, I’m not here to talk about me and the silliness of my family. I seem to have gotten lost looking for someone.”
“Who?”
“Me.” Comes a reply behind Bucky and he turns to see you standing there like he always sees you in his dreams. You arrive draped in feathers and with them tangled in your hair; part human and part crow. A foot in both words as you ruffle your arms that seem to be wings.
“Sissy!” Aru exclaims as she reaches towards you. “There’s too much darkness surrounding you. I’m afraid I’ve pulled us into Sergeant Barnes’ dream not entered yours. Tragedies like this didn’t happen to me in my youth!”
“Come on, brat.” You grab your sister’s arm and meet her gaze at eye level. The two of you look almost like twins if it weren’t for the age difference and that Aru’s hair hasn’t been cut in several centuries.
She pats your cheek with her hand. “I’m afraid my time here is almost up… But, you need to be careful. Earth isn’t hidden from the rest of the galaxy. You aren’t the first person to come here seeking to fulfill your duty. Keep your eyes open, Sissy.”
With a flourish of her hand she vanishes, leaving you alone with a stunned Bucky Barnes.
“That was your sister?” his mind starts racing with questions about your family as you hesitate.
You heave a sigh, “Yes.” Then, you too, vanish.
~
Clint wasn’t usually an argumentative guy. “Mellow” and a “team player” were much more his style. He was a good agent and a loyal soldier willing to do what he was ordered with little questions because he trusted those who gave the orders. Yet, when it came to those he cared about that changed. Natasha knew this, and had always admired this trait in him. Loyalty was a prized quality in a best friend and she felt lucky to have Clint as hers. Thus, she was not surprised when he recruited her to demand Fury release you from your prison. Was she happy about sticking it to the man and being rebellious? Abso-fucking-lutely. She knew that whatever your past held, right now, you were not a threat to them. So, she cheerily joined Clint as they metaphorically stormed the castle to confront the king. Unfortunately, his knights were with him for this battle.
“I trust her and will take full responsibility for watching her.” Announces Clint, after he demanded your release. “Nat will back me up and between the two of us we can watch her constantly, plus JARVIS can monitor her too.”
Fury stares at Clint. “You’ve certainly changed your view of her. What happened?”
“She’s not a threat,” argues Clint, refusing to admit he talked to you. “If she wanted to escape don’t you think she could? She broke the cuffs we used on Loki like they were cheap plastic. So far she’s cooperated and been utterly passive about whatever we’ve done to her.”
“Not that we’ve done much,” mutters Tony from his place at the table.
They’re in the conference room and all of them are present, even Bruce. It was actually a briefing on you that they were having, but Clint had been left out because of his compromised position on this subject, which Nat neglected to tell him. Fury had assumed that Clint would be overly for treating you harshly due to how you had threatened his family (not that you had actually threatened them but your mere presence counted to him). But, now Clint was here defending you and Nat was backing him up.
“What do you suggest we do, Tony?” Steve asks, looking strained and tired.
Tony shrugs and eats another handful of blueberries. “I mean it would be good idea to let me and Banner take a few samples. If she was studied before that data is gone or unreachable… So, why not let us do a little research?”
“She’s not a guinea pig, Stark.” Growls Clint as he slams his hand on the table. “She’s a person!”
“A dangerous person,” Tony retorts with a narrowing of his eyes at the archer.
“I agree with, Clint.” Nat chimes in, making her alliances clear to all.
Steve lets out a humorless laugh. “Of course, you do. I think Tony is right.”
“See!” Tony tosses a couple blueberries up and catches them in his mouth. “Cap, agrees with me and I know Bruce does. So, you’re outnumbered.”
Bruce says nothing and continues to stare at his tablet.
“How can you agree with him?” shouts Clint. “Tony will take her apart bit by bit like a piece of scrap metal!”
“Because she’s dangerous and we need answers!” Steve snaps, clenching his fists on the table.
Things get more heated and insults start to become personal. Fury sits quietly through it all watching them argue, his eye is trained on the only person who seems to be holding back – Bucky. The agitation he can see building in the assassin is curious because he can’t tell which side he’s going to side with. He suspects it will be the side Steve is on because they’re friends. But, he saw how Bucky reacted to you. It was not the reaction of a man unaffected. You can offer Bucky something none of the others can, a true understanding of the darkness in a person’s soul. Sure, this is a team filled with the broken and damned, but what do they truly know about the hell Bucky survived? Nothing. Even Fury can admit to himself when they’re out of their depths. It is obvious to the director that you understand. The words you speak and the way you poked and prodded him. It was all a test.
Did it work?
“Enough.”
The room falls silent when Bucky speaks, and even Bruce looks up. They all stare at him with bated breath, waiting for whatever he’s about to say.
“Clint’s right.” Bucky looks at his hands resting flat on the table and flexes his fingers. “She should have some freedom. We’re waiting for Thor to show up, right? We’re working on the assumption that she’s from another planet and he’ll have some information. Why treat her like an anomaly until then? Maybe we could ask her if Tony could run some tests in exchange for her freedom? Compromise?”
Before anyone else can answer, Fury stands up.