the dark sapphire -Bucky Barnes-

83

The next morning, Ally got up before Bucky. She had a conversation with Doctor Hinton and his assistant Doctor Shelby, but did not want to wake Bucky unnecessarily. She had breakfast and then made her way to the elevator.

"Good morning" she greeted with surprise Clark, who was already standing in the elevator and smiled at her when the doors opened. "good morning, up already?" he asked politely as Ally pressed the button to the office floor where she would meet with Sharon and the doctors. The doors closed. "Yes, I have an appointment. What about you? What are you doing here so early?" Ally looked at the second glowing button. "Heading to the science department?" Clark nodded. "I'm meeting with one of the scientists and will share my experiences and research regarding the serum and its destruction" the elevator beeped, they had arrived on Ally's floor. "well, have a nice day. i guess i'll see you later" Ally said goodbye.

Sharon was sitting at her large desk with a steaming cup of coffee in front of her when Ally entered her office. Smiling, she looked up from the screen she had just been staring at very intently. "Good morning, cousin. Sleep well?" Ally flopped down on couch before nodding. "Excellent" she grinned. " Nice and even here today without an escort...did your sweetheart really let you go alone?" Sharon grinned at her in amusement as Ally gave her an annoyed look. "I let Bucky sleep" she explained. "Oh, I wonder if he'll like that so much" Sharon grinned even more. "Coffee too?"

Ten minutes later Doctor Hinton joined them, followed by Doctor Shelby. After they all wished each other a good morning and Sharon also got the two doctors a coffee, they started their meeting.

"So, Ally..." Doctor Hinton smiled kindly at her. "The results are really interesting and Doctor Shelby and I would have an idea for a solution, if you agree of course. First, though, let's explain what happens in your brain when you are controlled" Ally nodded and took a sip of her coffee.

"So the first noticeable activity in her brain, was in the amygdala when the first word of her trigger words was said. Doctor Shelby and I agree that since you already knew from experience what was going to happen, those words triggered a fear in you" Doctor Hinton began to explain. "Next, we noticed striking activity in the parietal lobe at the same time that your body began to tense up. The parietal lobe is responsible for pain. So all the discoveries so far have not been that surprising to us" Doctor Shelby took over.

"What we didn't expect, however, were the discoveries of activity when you were in control. Your cerebellum, which is responsible for movements as well as sensory perceptions, showed as much activity as has ever been seen in a human being. That means your senses as well as your movements are superhumanly good during control" Doctor Hinton seemed totally fascinated. "Trained killing machine" Ally mumbled in shock. "the second surprise, however, was that from your hypothalamus, the part largely responsible for emotions as well as things like hunger, thirst and sleep,came no activity, nothing at all. It was like someone had pulled the plug on your emotions."

Ally stared at him, startled. She herself had felt the coldness that flooded her body when she was controlled. She knew the emptiness, but knowing that there really was no activity sent goose bumps all over her body. "That means she was not only trained and controlled to kill, but to last as long as she could without getting hungry, thirsty or tired?" Sharon seemed equally overwhelmed. Doctor Hinton nodded. "It could have cost her life to be in that control for too long, since she wouldn't feel hungry or thirsty, but of course would still need it to survive" he explained.

"this is....unbelievable" Sharon seemed speechless. "We definitely need to get you out of this, Ally" she turned to her cousin who could only nod. "Like I said, we might have a solution. We just don't know if it will work since, well, there are no comparable cases where something like this has had to be done before" Doctor Hinton sighed. Ally played nervously with her bracelet. "You guys are allowed to do whatever you want to me. I just want to finally be rid of it"

"They want to do what?!" After the doctors explained their plan to Ally and Sharon, the women had summoned Bucky and Sam to Sharon's office, since Ally wanted to discuss the proposal with them first. The doctors had backed off, but were ready to meet as soon as there would be a decision. Ally had been aware that Bucky would be anything but agreeable, as his indignant exclamation just now clearly showed.

"Electrotherapy.You want to electrocute me to get me out of the habit of coming into control" Ally summarized her explanation of just a moment ago again briefly. "And you think that's a good idea?" unlike Bucky, Sam sounded calm, thoughtful. Ally shrugged her shoulders. "It's the only way" "no..." Bucky shook his head vigorously. "...No, there is another way. In Wakanda, they used to do it to me without electrocution" "Bucky..." Ally sighed in exasperation.

"It's a faster way. You said yourself it took more months for you. Doctor Hinton is sure that if it goes well it can be solved even in a week" Sharon interfered. "If it works at all" Bucky interjected. "It's the best chance we have, Bucky. We should take it" Sam tried to change his mind."I'm just not sure that putting Ally under that kind of stress again is a good thing"

"Shouldn't that be up to Ally to decide if she feels ready for it?" Sharon asked him. Bucky sighed before looking at Ally. "Are you really sure you want to do this?" he asked her in Russian. Ally nodded. "I want to finally be out of this control" she replied in Russian. He nodded with a sigh. "Ok, we'll try it" he said in English. Ally smiled at him gratefully.

"I'm glad you guys decided to do this" Doctor Hinton smiled contentedly as Doctor Shelby and he came back into the office and joined the other four on the couch. "Could you explain how exactly you guys are thinking of doing this electrotherapy?" Sharon asked with interest. "We're going to need Bucky's help. He will read Ally's trigger words and every time Ally gets into control, meaning the spasms and pain start, she will be electrocuted. If we are correct in our guess, her brain will realize what it needs to do to escape the shocks and so we will condition her not to come into control anymore" Doctor Hinton explained.

Ally gave Bucky a worried look. "Do you think you can manage to read the words?" she asked him in Russian. Bucky looked at her in surprise. "They're talking about you getting electrocuted and you're worried about me being able to read some words?" he asked back. Ally nodded. "You don't have to do it if you think it's going to be too much for you, Bucky" "that's ok. If anyone is going to do it, it's going to be me and that way at least I can stay by your side" he smiled encouragingly at her.

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