Winter Is Coming (A Bucky Barnes Fanfic)

Chapter 2: Ice Castles

    "Her?" Bucky asks. "I didn't expect them to be a girl."

    "No one did," Fury agrees. "She doesn't seem to remember much of her life, only Inferno."

    "Is Nat okay?" Steve asks, referring to the bullet wound. Fury nods. "Where's Inferno now?" Steve asks, looking around the room for her.

    "With Banner," Fury replies. "We're testing a new memory medicine on her to see if it will help." Out of all the Avengers, Bucky definitely likes Banner the most so far. He's quiet and likes to get things done without distractions, much like Bucky.

    "When can we meet her?" asks Bucky.

    "Maybe after her appointment with Banner," Fury says. "Until then, just relax and don't cause trouble."

    Bucky turns to Steve once Fury walks away. "Coffee?"

    "You got it." Bucky follows him to the kitchen to get his morning lifesaver.

*

    Doctor Banner is late again. He told Stark fifteen minutes, but it was half an hour before he arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D.

    "Sorry I'm late," he apologizes to Agent Romanoff. "Last minute touches." She accepts his apology and introduces him to Inferno, who is standing stiffly by a lab table with her arms firmly crossed against her chest.

    "Nice to meet you." Banner extends his arm to shake hers and she complies. Banner notes her not so firm grip.

    "Are you going to hurt me?"

    Her question puts Banner off guard. He's surprised that she would ask that so directly. "Not at all." Opening his bag of tools, he takes out the vial of orange serum and a syringe.

    "I would feel more comfortable if Agent Natasha would leave," Inferno says as Banner gets ready. "It's nothing personal, she just makes me nervous." Agent Romanoff leaves without a complaint or a bad word against Inferno's comment, only a simple nod of understanding.

    "So, what do you remember?" Banner asks before continuing with the procedure.

    "My name," Inferno says, "and the fact that I don't work for any organizations."

    "Well hopefully this will help you remember everything else." He sticks the syringe into the vial and extracts the serum. "I promise it will be like a flu shot; it won't hurt."

    Inferno starts to lift up the sleeve of her dress, but Banner stops her. "It actually goes in your neck." Her eyes widen, but she pulls her sleeve back down and moves her hair and the neckline of her dress nonetheless.

    "If I put this in your arm then it would do nothing. It needs to be closer to your brain," Banner explains. "Hold still."

    Inferno tilts her head as Banner sticks the needle into her vein; she winces. It wasn't as bad as she imagined.

    "There," Banner says as he extracts the needle.

    "How long until this works?"

    "About an hour," he says. "There shouldn't be any symptoms, but if you feel anything let me know."

    Inferno nods. "Thank you." She heads for the door but stops, realizing why Banner looks so familiar. "By the way, I admire the way you get angry and turn into a green monster, but the fact that you can keep it under control is even more impressive."

    Banner just smiles. No one usually includes the second part.

*

    An hour later Inferno is ushered back into the meeting room to see if her memory returns.

    "Usually, the patient doesn't know that any part of their memory came back until they recognize it," Banner explains. "So, for example, she won't remember her name until you ask her about it. That's just for right now though. The rest should return naturally throughout the day."

    Fury nods and sits across from Inferno, pen and paper in hand. "Inferno, can you tell me who you work for?" Fury is more concerned with that than anything.

    "Nobody," she responds slowly. "I was captured by Hydra in 1942 when I fell off a train. They experimented on me and made me super human. They froze me for safe keeping, but I managed to escape once I was unfrozen."

     "Sounds like Barnes," Natasha comments.

    "What did they do to you?" Fury asks next.

    "Well, at first it was just like military training or something," she says. "I was already pretty fit, but I guess not enough for them. Afterwards, they injected some poison type liquid into me. I remember intense burning everywhere. It hurt like hell."

    "So what is it that you can do?" Natasha asks next.

    "Is it not obvious?" Inferno flicks her wrist and a ball of fire appears, licking her fingers. She closes her hand and the fire extinguishes. "Inferno makes sense now, doesn't it?"

    "Are you fireproof?" Stark asks, completely engaged in the conversation.

    Inferno nods. "I've also discovered that I can't be physically over heated."

    Fury has an unreadable expression. "You forgot about your power until now?"

    "Yes."

    "How?"

    "Hydra brainwashed me as soon as I was unfrozen like they do to all their experiments. I don't think they intended for me to forget this much, but the voltage must've been higher than they thought," she insinuates. Banner and Stark nod, knowing that this is more than likely what happened.

    "Is Hydra looking for you?" This is Fury's next important question. "Or should I say were they? We took them down a few weeks ago."

    "Not that I'm aware of," Inferno responds. "You'd think they would've found me by now if they were."

    Fury nods and jots something down on the paper.

    "How old are you?" Stark asks.

    "I believe I'm twenty-five, but given that I've been frozen for seventy years or so, I guess that makes me around ninety-five," she guesses.

    "Same age as Barnes and Rogers." Natasha nods.

    "Who?" Inferno asks.

    "Steve Rogers and James Barnes," Natasha expands.

    Inferno remains blank for a few seconds. "I knew them."

    "I'm sure you did," Fury stands up and clears his throat. "They seem to have the same back story as you do."

    Inferno ignores Fury. "They're alive? Here?"

    "Yeah." Natasha looks confused. "They got frozen, too. Didn't you know that?"

    As if on cue, Steve and Bucky enter the room. "Where's the new girl?" Bucky asks.

    Inferno spins her chair around to look at them. They both stop dead in their tracks.

    "Is that..." Steve starts.

    Dropping his coffee cup before he speaks, Bucky finishes for him. "Harley?"

    Inferno smiles. "Hey guys. It's been awhile."