the dark sapphire -Bucky Barnes-

81

Although the conversation had not been as bad as Ally had imagined, she was glad when she left the room. Clark, he had allowed her to call him that, was a kind and understanding man. He had invited Ally to tell him everything she remembered, if she wanted to, of course. Ally had only nodded, feeling she owed it to him after all he had gone through because of her. While she had been telling, he had listened intently, asking questions now and then. No sooner had Ally finished her narrative than Sharon had come into the room and asked them both to accompany her to the IT department.

"You okay?" On the way to the elevator, Bucky had joined Ally and looked at her with concern. Clark and Sharon walked ahead of them to the elevator. Ally nodded. "Everything's fine" she smiled at him, because it was true. Yes, the conversation had been exhausting, but knowing that Clark had forgiven her, even wanted to help her, felt good. After the last few exhausting weeks, it was one of the best developments Ally had experienced.

Sam was already waiting for them nervously in the IT department. "we may have a lead" he sounded excited as he turned the screen towards them. "Thanks to Clark's tip, we may have found the hideout of Karpov and his gang" he pointed to a red dot flashing on the screen on a map. "What's that?" Ally asked, confused. "Officially a vacant, abandoned building in danger of collapsing outside of New York" Sam explained. "But look at the electricity and water usage" he opened a document. "No vacant building uses that much energy" Bucky noted as he skimmed the document. "Right, that's why we think that's where Karpov's hideout is".

"How did you find out about the building?" Ally asked curiously. "Clark remembered that on the way from the interrogation room to his cell in Russia, he had always seen boxes with the name of a company. Timberman Instructions. We looked for it, seems to be a dummy company registered to a person not in any database. Guess what project the company currently has as the only one in the New York area" "the vacant building" Ally sighed as Sam nodded. "Ok so now what? Do we storm the building and get Karpov?" she turned to Sharon questioningly.

" Hold your horses there. I like your motivation, cousin, but we first have to make sure that the building is really Karpov's hideout and make sure it's not a trap" Sharon explained, causing Ally to pout. They had waited so long for a lead, now they finally had one and they weren't supposed to do anything. "Does he know Russian?" Ally turned around in confusion as Bucky began speaking in Russian. Ally knew Bucky meant Clark, but he was just looking at him now in confusion. "I don't think so" Ally replied in English. Bucky nodded before looking at Ally seriously. "Do you really think we can trust him?Maybe he is in cahoots with Karpov and is trying to lure us into a trap" he started talking in Russian.

Ally looked at him sighing. "we can trust him. I don't think he would work with him after what Karpov did to him" she answered him in Russian. "he also works with you" Bucky replied. Ally sighed again. "That's different" "and if Karpov controls him?" Ally was about to answer when Sharon interrupted her. "Now can we please all speak in English again so the rest of us can understand? I've heard the name Karpov at least three times, you're talking about something relevant. Won't you share it with us?" she gave them both a punishing look, but Ally and Bucky shook their heads. "We'll talk later" Ally determined in Russian. "English, Alison, English" Sharon groaned, to which Ally muttered a quiet sorry.

Sharon gave her one last punishing look before turning back to Sam. "Did you find out about the other thing?" she asked him "what other thing?" Ally and Bucky asked at the same time. "Clark told us what Karpov wanted him to do" Sharon explained. "And what was it? Don't let us drag it all out of you, Sharon" Bucky rolled his eyes. "sorry, I'd love to explain it to you in Russian, but I'm afraid I don't speak it" Sharon crossed her arms in front of her chest "we've already said we're sorry, so say it now" Ally pleaded. Sharon sighed.

"Clark was supposed to make a formula against the serum for them" "what?" Ally put her hand over her mouth in shock. "What were they going to do with it?" "Destroy the Avengers. They wanted to take away Steve's powers and probably all the other known Super Soldiers too, including Bucky" "But Bucky wasn't even an Avenger then, was he?" Ally asked still shocked, goosebumps had spread all over her body.

"No, not yet. But he was a threat to Hydra. Their escaped experiment" "so they wanted to weaken him too" "not only that, they even demanded that Clark manage to destroy the powers that came from the stones with the formula" "so they could also weaken Wanda, their other escaped experiment" Ally stated. Bucky, who had noticed how much the info was bothering Ally, had by now put his arm around her and was stroking her shoulder.

"One thing I don't understand, though. Why Karpov? Why me? Didn't Hydra have enough other people who could have dealt with this? I mean, Karpov already had me as a project, didn't he?" Ally asked, swallowing down the lump in her throat. "Two reasons. One, you were a good tool to get Clark to work. After all, you saw for yourself in your nightmares what happened when he refused" Ally nodded and looked ruefully at Clark, who returned her gaze with a forgiving look. "And second, where do you think they got the blood to test if Clark had succeeded?" Ally stared at Sharon, startled. "They took my blood to test? So not only was I the leverage, but I was also the lab rat?" Sharon nodded.

"we can be glad that Clark hadn't managed to create such a formula, although as he told it, you almost beat him to death twice" "I know, I can remember once" Ally muttered. "But we don't know if Josh Bowes, the doctor who was also involved in Ally's experiments, has found out more in the meantime. He too has been working on this drug" "don't you think that if they had succeeded, they would have injected Ally with it last time to make her lose her powers?" Bucky asked. "I don't think they would destroy their greatest success. You told me yourself, Ally, that it was Karpov's plan to bring you back, erase your mind, and use you again for their purposes" Sharon looked at Ally, who nodded slightly.

"So we have to act fast, who knows what Hydra will do if they really have the formula! We need to stop Karpov, after all we know where he is" Ally pointed to the map still on the screen. "Slow down, Ally. Sharon is right, we shouldn't rush things. I haven't been able to find anything anywhere on the internet about a formula like this, and I'm sure somehow it would have gotten on the DarkNet" Sam joined in on the conversation. "But we can only guess" Ally replied. "Ally, we're not just going to storm these buildings. i'll send some scouts to scope out the building and the area, oK? Once we have a plan of what we're going against, we can come up with a strategy and intervene, ok? I'll send them out first thing tomorrow" Sharon promised. Ally sighed, but nodded. "Agreed, but as soon as we know enough, we'll get that bastard" she said with a disgusted undertone.

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