Secretive - Bucky Barnes

42 || The Fate Of Constantine Vermentro || 🔪

extra warning on this one: imagination could be affecting; not for people having a weak stomach - to those: please read after the mark (dotted line) to be caught up on the current events

[Steven]
It takes a while for us to uncover the space, but in the end, the door of stone is set free. Sam shoots Nova a wondering glance. »Did the office's owner think he was Jesus?«

She does not laugh. »He at least thought of himself as equally high ranked.«

I examine the door a little more. It rather is on the middle of the corridor, I guess, but that is hard to tell with me not being able to see how far it stretches in the black to out left. And there is no handle to it from the outside. Instead, there is a broken, metal-filled and dirty hole, seemingly melted in. An unwell feeling creeps up my stomach; what did Nova mean, declaring whatever is behind that door as the fate of people she hated? Is she proud of it, or rather disgusted by it? Only work, or has it been something personal? Her emotionlessness leaves so many questions.

»Let's get this over with.« she mumbles, rather to herself than to us, and so, gets no answer. »Does any of you have a knife or something? A screwdriver, slot perforation, would be even better.«

Shaking my head, I see Sam slipping his hand into his pocket and handing over a pocket knife. She takes it, crouches down and starts the work with her slim, long fingers. From my point of view, it looks like she tries to open formed and hardened metal, and the noises she evokes during the process are the same. »Where did you learn to do this?«

»Who would I be not being able to solve my own riddles?« she asks back without looking, and still, without any sentiment. And she is right. It is important to know yourself better than your enemies. It is yourself that you can rely on, the only one but the other soldiers, but yourself the one you are aware of the qualities. Other soldiers could lie, but not yourself. You are the only one you know the real borders of.

Her dark ponytail, almost looking black in the dim light, almost reaches the vertical line between her shoulders. I fight back the urge to start twisting strands around my fingers, well imagining Bucky to do it while reading; it always has been a habit of his, and I took it over and felt warmth in it, too.

A minute later, Nova gets upright again. The pocket knife is held by the hole, as if always having been there and it being the perfect spot for it. She turned it into the missing door handle in less than two minutes.

»I'm gonna get that back, do I?« Sam asks frowning, and Nova turns around. Her eyes leave no hope to discover anything that is going on in her mind.

I press my lips together, knowing Bucky would be able to soften her and actually be there for her, melt the ice. I feel so helpless right now, seeing her drown in the need of self-protection and not being able to be the rope pulling her out of the ocean of darkness.

»Yes, ask Steve to pull it out when we're ready.«

»I'll do it if you ask nicely.« I respond with an ironic grin in his direction, trying to lighten up the grave mood a little. It is unnerving.

He rolls his eyes in played annoyance, but does not respond, knowing I will do it anyways. The power that was given to me was not for me alone but for the people, and if that means to now and then pull a doorhandle-knife out of its hole, I will not complain.

I thank the serum for letting me hear Nova's deep inhale, the only thing portraying her own nervousness. So, she is still in there; Lilith did not consume her fully yet.

The videos I saw from her have been distressing at first. She really is able to go wild, seemingly doing what she wants wherever she wants just because she can. Knowing she did it for the good side had been a little comforter, but nonetheless, the way she did it, the way she looked, was simply cruel and terrible. She would seem to me like a nightmare, too, if it was my head she would want to see rolling. Fortunately, that is not the case.