[oom] see right through my walls

[nerves_of_ice]

As T'Challa stares at the hologram in the palm of his hand, he can already feel the headache forming. "She what? No. Never mind. Bring her to me in the throne room, when she arrives. I will deal with her myself."

He clears the image, then taps the Kimoyo Bead again. "Nakia. I need you."

* * * * * * * * *

"You cannot be serious."

"I don't see why this is a problem. You brought Everett Ross here--"

"Ross was dying! And he was never allowed to know that the man he was seeking was here! Nakia, I have made a promise to protect him."

"She is not a threat. Not to him."

"I will be the judge of that."

Nakia throws up her hands. "Fine. You will see. I hope it does not bother you that I stay and watch?"

T'Challa smiles. "Of course not."

Comments

[from_the_outside]

She huffs a laugh, shaking her head and walks back over to sit down, then looks up at him, pert.

All innocence. "We could have shared, you know."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I don't think so," he says, a little dryly.

"Anyway. I figured we were less likely to be interrupted here than out there in the dirt."

[from_the_outside]

Undeterred, she looks cheekily up at him.

"Well, I'm going to get a crick in my neck if you're looming up there and I'm sitting down here. Next time we'll just have to bring the throws."

Confidingly: "Don't worry. We can keep them six inches apart. You know, like that time we slept together. There was plenty of room then."

Her smile is so cheerful.

[nerves_of_ice]

It's obvious she's trying to bait him, and he refuses to fall for it, so he says nothing in response to her teasing jab.

He does, however, unbend enough to take a seat on the ground and lean back against the tree trunk from there instead.

"They'd snag on the branches," he says, finally. "I'll bring a grass mat instead."

[from_the_outside]

Good enough. She tips her head back against the tree trunk and looks down at him, eyes warm.

"See? Told you. There's no changing me."

Not for lack of effort by plenty of exasperated parties, but –

She likes who she is. And he does, too.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Good," he says, simply, and looks across the clearing at the water for a while before glancing at Sharon.

"The kids call this the 'Wolf's den,'" he tells her. "They know not to come in. They're not missing out on anything because the path wasn't here until I made it."

A beat of silence.

"So if you want me to bring you up to speed... this is a good place to do it."

[from_the_outside]

Her smile fades, and she looks back out over the water with a small sigh.

"May as well get it over with."

Rip the band-aid off fast, right?

Still, she's silent for a long moment, watching tiny ripples ring out over the water beneath the skinny legs of some water-walking insect she can't name.

"Okay." She's calm, she's composed, nobody is going to interrupt them, there's natural beauty all around. There isn't a better time or place. "What happened after I left you three in Leipzig?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"We went to the airport. Met the others there, when it was time - Wilson and Steve had called them. Lay low for a bit before the rendezvous. Took a little while for them to get there, but..."

He shrugs.

"Barton brought them in - a guy named Scott Lang, and Wanda Maximoff. Steve figured we'd need all the help we could get to stop Zemo, given what he was after."

A beat of silence falls, and his mouth twists.

"What we thought he was after."

[from_the_outside]

She shakes her head, watching him now instead of the water.

"What was he after? Why did he – he did so much to get a few minutes with you. What did he need it for?"

[nerves_of_ice]

His gaze has drifted back out toward the water, but it's settled somewhere in the space between.

"He told Steve he wanted to see an empire fall."

Bucky's voice is utterly weary, and his eyes are empty.

"When the power went out, at the JTTF. He told me he wanted to talk about my real home. And asked for a mission report. One report in particular. December 16, 1991."

[from_the_outside]

Her lips move as she silently repeats the date, brow furrowing.

Why does it sound familiar?

December, 1991. She's seen that date in files, recent ones. Tony Stark's files. And she vaguely remembers Aunt Peggy, her eyes sad but dry, and a slew of news reports. But Howard and his wife had died in a car cra –

She can feel her face draining of color again, but it's a fair bet she's going to feel that way through most of this story. "The Starks," she says, in barely a whisper, hoping to God that she's wrong.

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods.

"I killed them." Soft but clear. "Howard remembered me, he recognized me, but I didn't know him. I didn't--"

He closes his eyes for a long moment.

"I beat him to death while he called me by name, and then I killed Maria. And then I stole the real target of the mission from the trunk of the car, and took it back to Siberia."

Bucky opens his eyes and looks at her.

"He was carrying an experimental variant of the super soldier serum. Multiple packs. My handlers - they decided that if they couldn't make it, they could steal it."

[from_the_outside]

She's pale but steady as she looks back at him.

"Did they use it?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yes." Bitterness leaches into his voice. "They were an elite death squad. Volunteers. Everyone wanted to be like the Winter Soldier. They took the serum to make more of me. And it worked, at first."

He can't hold her gaze, and looks back out across the clearing.

"At first. Orders were to fight me, one at a time, to test operational parameters. One of them smashed me into a wall, and the adrenaline rush --"

He shakes his head.

"The serum poisoned them. They lost their minds and started trying to kill everyone; scientists, soldiers, you name it. Command ordered me to escort him safely out. I did, and locked them in. They froze them in cryostasis while the scientists tried to figure out how to get control of them. If Zemo could have controlled them like he did me..."

His voice fades into silence.

[from_the_outside]

She looks away from him, too, out toward the calm water, and takes a second to center herself back here.

They're in Wakanda. They're safe. Zemo's plan didn't work. "I can see why you wanted back-up."

Clint Barton, sure. A good man in a pinch. And Wanda Maximoff, the telekinetic. And –

Her brow creases a little as she thinks back, and she gives him a faintly bewildered look. "Who the heck is Scott Lang?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"A guy Wilson knew. Called him 'Tic-Tac.' Found out later he goes by Ant-Man." He shakes his head a little. "He can shrink himself down to almost nothing... and grow himself up to a giant."

[from_the_outside]

"Ant-Man?"

What...the fuck?

"Because he can – no, you know what? I'll get the details later." She shakes her head clear and refocuses. "So you all met up in the airport? To go to Siberia?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"That was the plan, but..."

Something suddenly strikes him, and he looks back at her with a small smile that's no less wry for all that it's rather drawn.

"I guess you didn't know Natasha cloned your phone."

There's no doubt at all in his voice.

[from_the_outside]

She turns her head sharply and stares at him.











"...Fuck." It's not angry so much as exasperated. "Of course she did. She probably cottoned on to me back when I was in the observation room with Steve and Sam."

Goddammit, Rome. "So they had the coordinates."

She sighs, annoyed at herself. "Sorry. I thought my phone was safe."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I know. You wouldn't have risked it otherwise." He sounds a little fond for some reason, just for a moment. "She's very good at what she does."

He shakes his head, and that hint fades.

"She got a little more, too. Enough that they knew we were headed for the airport, and met us there to stop us. Every other Avenger, a kid that Stark picked up in New York... and T'Challa."

[from_the_outside]

"I think I can guess at least some of what happened next. Big fight, right?"

Every other Avenger. So that means Tony, Nat, Rhodey, Vision...

"Did everyone make it out okay?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Big fight," he confirms. His eyes are haunted.

("What's gonna happen to your friends?"
"Whatever it is, I'll deal with it."
"I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve.")

"We knew they were coming. Picked up chatter evacuating the airport, and since we were still in the window, we figured who it had to be. Stark and his team confronted us on the tarmac. Steve tried to talk him down."

("You're after the wrong guy."
"Your judgement is askew.")

"He wouldn't hear it. Wasn't willing to listen. Steve tried to explain what Zemo was - what we thought he was doing, that we had to stop him. Stark ordered him to turn me over and come with him. Steve refused. We fought."

He shakes his head, grim.

"Pretty close to a stalemate. We knew the clock was running out. Wilson came up with the play. He and the others volunteered to stay behind to fight a holding action so Steve and I could get away. We stole their Quinjet and took off for Siberia. Natasha kept T'Challa off of us at the last minute." Something flickers in his eyes, quick and rueful. "Guess she didn't want to see me dead."

"Rhodes and Stark tried to catch up in the air, but Wilson was on them. He's a hell of a flyer, agile, mobile... Vision tried to hit him with a blast and took out Rhodes instead. Natasha told us later he hit the ground hard. Broke his back. Not likely he'll be walking again. We got away."

His jaw clenches, hard.

"Stark's team brought the rest of them in. And they threw them in the Raft."

[from_the_outside]

She sighs out a quiet breath, leaning onto her knees with her chin on her hand, looking out at the lake.

Something like this was always going to happen, when the Accords split the Avengers in two. Maybe it would have happened anyway: Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, neither of them any good at backing down, both convinced they're in the right.

His whole focus is the Avengers, so anything that happens to them is personal...he's dangerous, especially if he thinks he has something to lose.

Poor Rhodes. She doesn't really know him, but he seems like a good man; he'd served the country honorably and well. "I'm sorry. That must have been awful."

Made all the worse for the fact that it was friends fighting friends. She knows how much Barton and Rome care about each other. "I suppose it's something that nobody died." Pretty amazing when considering the power level of the various combatants.

She shakes her head at the mention of the Raft, holding onto the knowledge that Steve got Sam and Natasha out, at least. "But you made it to Siberia."

She knows that already. What she doesn't know is what happened when they got there.

[nerves_of_ice]

"We did." The acid of self-loathing washes through his words.

She hasn't asked, at least not yet, and so he doesn't tell her - about the long flight, the way the silence had lain heavy between them at first. How Steve had been the first to break it. To reach out -- and how Bucky had, finally, reached back.

How they'd started talking in fits and starts. D.C. What happened after. Where Bucky had gone and what he'd done in the intervening time. What Steve had been up to, all the things that hadn't made the news. How the Avengers had gone over the years from a bunch of misfit individuals to a close-knit team. What was likely to happen to that team now.

How they'd seen the vehicle outside the facility when they set down in Siberia and realized Zemo had gotten there first. How they'd gone in together anyway, side by side, knowing the odds if Zemo'd managed to wake the five sleepers from their stasis... and never hesitating.

"It was a trap. And we walked right into it."

[from_the_outside]

She can hear that bitterness in his voice, but can't comment on it. Not yet, anyway.

What she can do is lean back against the tree and deliberately, carefully, reach to place her hand at the curve of his neck and gently squeeze the tense muscles there. It's about the only support she can offer.

"He'd woken them up?"