➸ 2016
author's note:
this is the second to last chapter of this part!!
📍WAKANDA
╰─────────╯
"SO YOU recognize me, my child?"
That skin-crawling voice hasn't left her mind since yesterday afternoon.
She could still feel the terror in her limbs, the familiarity in her mind.
Something wasn't right.
"Lina, you've been uncharacteristically quiet." observed Petra whom was setting up her mini nail art station in the corner of the room.
Galina simply rolled her eyes a bit and sipped on the smoothie that Bucky made her this morning ( with her help because he nearly threw the blender out the window in frustration .)
"I'm just tired, Petra." she replied shortly.
Shuri, whom was sitting on her bed behind her braiding her hair leaned to the side to address the sister. "She's a liar."
"Braid my hair and be quiet."
"Just because you are lightskin doesn't mean you can tell me what to do, you golden Oreo." she sassed before continuing with the task at hand.
Wanda comes strutting out of the shared walk-in closet holding up her red bodice dress in one hand while holding up black heels in the other.
"Do you think these shoes go with this dress?"
"I still think you should have a gold heel moment with gold jewelry to match." Galina suggested. "Could be cute."
"I don't know, Vis thinks I should go with the black." she absentmindedly says as she pressed her dress against her and stared in the mirror.
"And why are you taking fashion advice from a one year old toaster?"
Wanda scrunched her nose up in disgust. "Call him a toaster but don't call him a one year old." she remarks before strutting back into the closet.
"Do you guys think i'll be able to pull some Wakandan soldiers tonight?" Petra rhetorically questioned as she swiped nail polish across her toenail.
"What happened to Peter?" Shuri asks through an amused chuckle. "Got tired of him?"
"No, I just need to have backups." she says in nonchalance. "Why have one when you can have five?"
Galina breathed out a long breath and shook her head. "My little sister is a whore."
"Says you!" she fired back in exclamation. "Every single guy who meets you usually ends up obsessed with you."
She flinched her head back at her words causing for Shuri to curse at her with a confused face. "What? No they don't — guys think i'm weird...except for Bucky." she muttered the last part with a shy grin.
"Girl let's be serious, the minute that you arrived here the village boys were thirsting over you despite the fact you indirectly killed our people." Shuri stated matter of factly. "You just have an aura that pulls every other male, there's nothing wrong with that."
"If I pull every other male, half of the men on the Avengers have a thing for me."
"They do!" the three woman shouted — Wanda poking her head out of the closet to do just that.
Galina's face grimaced as revulsion crossed her features. "Ew, guys! Seriously?"
"Literally all of them have a thing for you except for Tony and Bruce — probably Sam too."
"Oh please, so you're saying that Steve has a thing for me?" she scoffed.
"It wouldn't be too shocking." the princess murmured behind her.
"Ew, stop!" she said through a dry-heave. "That's disgusting — he's known me since I was barely seventeen."
"Bucky has known you since you were like thirteen, let's be serious." Petra said with a deadpan.
"But that's literally different — Bucky wasn't Bucky he was the soldier and I wasn't myself."
"True."
"Whatever, it doesn't matter who has a thing for me — I have a thing for my boyfriend." she then let out a small giggle. "Oh, saying that will never get old."
"You're gonna make me kill myself." Shuri emphasized in dramatics.
"Shut up, you're just mad because you don't have a man."
"You're absolutely right."
Wanda huffed loudly in frustration as she stomped from out of the closet with the ruby red dress on and each foot wearing a different heel.
"Guys, on to more pressing matters — do I do the gold or the black heels?!"
"Fucking, hell, how about you go find Natasha and ask her?" she exasperatedly suggested. "She's better with this stuff."
"You know what, I will!" she sassily replied with a wry smile before marching out of the room.
Petra then rose onto her wet toenailed feet, waddling. "I'm gonna go tag along because i'm nosey."
...
"We gotta tell her, Steve!" Natasha shouted in a hushed whisper, flailing her arms around frustratedly as she followed him through the corridor. "She's strong enough to take the information now — she has Bucky to lean on!"
"Yeah, and Bucky is going into cryo next week!" Steve strongly argued. "If we tell her about her parents and then he's going into cryo, she's gonna have a mental breakdown!"
"Goddammit, Steve!" she then grabbed his arm and yanked him to a halt, staring up at him through irate eyes. "She isn't some fragile little girl anymore — she's a woman with coping mechanisms. If we never tell her now, there's no chance of her eventually forgiving us."
"I'm just trying to protect her!" he defended. "She's already figured out the Veh thing, when the time is right, the truth about her parents will come too."
"What are you trying to protect her from? The truth that she needs to know?!" she then took a bitter pause. "Don't make the same mistake that you made with Tony." she cooly started. "Because I promise you that the outcome with Lina is gonna be far worse than it was with him."
Natasha gave him a threatening once over before turning on her heel and striding away — she was so angry that Steve could practically see the smoke coming from out of her ears.
But unbeknownst to them, there were listening ears near.
...
2:00 pm
Its now that afternoon and it's time to start getting dressed and ready for the day parade that'll soon bleed into a rambunctious party later on.
Galina decided to just get ready with Bucky in his room — Wanda and Petra actually suggested it and she made no qualms.
She was putting in some gold hoops when Bucky snuck up behind her, encircling his arms around her exposed waist.
"Can I help you?" she sarcastically questioned with a grin.
"You're beautiful." he complimented sincerely, swooping the strands of braids from over her shoulder to plant a kiss on her collarbone. "I'm so lucky to have you."
Galina bit the inside of her blossoming cheeks as she grinned wildly, shaking her head. "You know you make me nervous when you compliment me."
"That's the best part about it — you're so cute when you get all red."
"Am I not cute when i'm not red?" she says with a joking scowl on her face.
Bucky grabbed her waist and softly spun her around to face him, causing for her to encircle her arms around his neck. "You're always so cute and so beautiful."
She looked up at him vulnerably through her lashes as the butterflies in her stomach did somersaults. "You really mean that?"
"I do, and I always will mean it." he replied through an unsteady whisper.
And as she kept staring in his eyes, she could immediately clock the conflict that was glazed underneath all of the tenderness.
"What's wrong?" she asked quietly as a wave of anxiety flooded the bugs in her stomach.
Of course she could see right through him, what was he expecting?
Bucky breathed out a long nervous breath, fanning against her face and causing for her to inhale the minty undertones of the air.
He rolled his jaw in his mouth as he glanced away from her, shaking his head and beginning to pull away. "Nothin'."
"Hey, stop, don't do that." she walked around him so that his back wasn't turned — she reached up and cupped his cheeks at an attempt to get him to look at her. "Don't shut me out, we don't do that — not anymore."
Bucky's eyes diverted up to the ceiling for a moment before meeting her worried eyes. "I'm sorry." his voice was beginning to crack as his hands came up to rest on her smaller. wrists.
Galina quickly shook her head from side to side, giving him a reassuring smile. "Don't apologize, just talk to me. What's bothering you, моя любовь?" [ "...my love?" ]
He nibbled on his bottom lips as he stood there contemplating on how to say what needed to be said.
The prospect of trying to lie to her makes him feel ill, and there's no point of even trying to because she could easily figure it out within seconds.
He needs to tell her.
"Shuri....wants me to go back into cryo."
Her brows pulled together in confusion as the breath in her throat got stuck there. "What do you mean?"
His jaw clenched tightly against her hands as he sighed, shaking his hung head. "I want to go back into cryo."
There was several beats of silence in which Bucky was far too scared to look up and see what her expression was.
The minute that he felt her hands slipping from his face, he already knew what was coming.
He looked up to find Galina leaning her hands against the windowsill that overlooked the fields.
It was clear that she was trying to process this information without freaking out due to the way her back stuttered stiffly with each breath.
Bucky swallowed down the lump in his throat and decided to speak again. "Shuri is having trouble trying to figure out how to remove the words and it's taking longer than predicted...no one is safe with me roaming around here so freely knowing that I can snap at any given moment."
"This isn't about anyone else!" she exclaims, whirring around with tears in her eyes. "This is about you being scared, so you're running away!"
"I'm not running away just because i'm scared, i'm running away because I need to protect you!"
"I don't need your protection, Bucky! I just need YOU!" she shouted as her voice broke with a tear rolling down her cheekbone. "I don't—I don't even understand where this is coming from, I thought you were okay!"
"And I am okay!" he said. "I just...the threat of hurting you....I just can't..." he cut himself off with a harsh sigh before turning his back towards her and holding his head in his hands.
It was in that moment that Galina's eyes widened with the realization that dawned upon her.
"Your nightmares are back, aren't they?"
His lack of response was all the response that she needed.
Galina glanced down at the floor defeatedly before her bare feet padded across the wooden tiles to stand directly behind him.
Her arms carefully circled around his torso as she planted a comforting peck on the nape of his neck before leaning her forehead against his upper back.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she murmured out, hurt evident in her tone.
"I thought...I could just pretend that they weren't back — if I just...acted like it wasn't happening, I thought they'd go away."
"How long has it been since they came back?
Bucky hesitated for a moment before replying. "About a month." he said in shame, pausing for a moment. "You're in them...and....at first it started off as flashbacks but it turned into nightmares where I...." his voice crackled and deepened at the impending tears. "Where I...kill you."
Galina inhaled sharply at the confession but was not spooked off. "That doesn't mean you have to go into cryo—"
"But it does!" he yelled, pulling from out of her touch to face her.
The sight before her broke her heart into two — she could now fully see the effect this was having on him, the pure fear in his teary eyes.
How did she miss this?
"What if one of these days I wake up as the soldier and fucking snap your neck in your sleep! No one would ever forgive me! I'd never forgive me!"
"Bucky, I can protect myself."
"But you shouldn't have to, Galina!" he was shaking his head profusely. "It's already been done and set — i'm going back into cryo next week until Shuri can figure out how to take out the words..."
"NEXT WEEK?!" she screeched at the top of her lungs. "WHEN THE FUCK WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME THIS?!"
Bucky didn't respond, all he did was stand there opening and closing his mouth like a fish before shrugging a bit.
Galina turned on her heel and went back to the windowsill, planting her palms against the surface and shutting her eyes to try and get her breathing steady.
Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out.
"Please." she heard him beg from behind her followed by a featherlight touch on her back. "I'm sorry, I really really am, I should've told you about everything sooner and dumping all of this on you now is not cool....but can you please see where i'm coming from?"
To be fair, even though Galina has the right to be upset, she can't even sit here and be all mad about it solely over the fact that she's been experiencing her own fucked up shit.
Yes, she didn't tell him or anybody about the mirror incident even though she probably should....and that makes her a huge hypocrite.
Galina let out a long breath of air before she turned around to look up into his pleading eyes.
"I see where you're coming from.." she softly says, causing for him to sigh in relief when she wrapped herself in his arms. "I just wish you would've told me sooner." she mumbled into his strong chest.
"I know, i'm sorry." he shut his eyes closed as he squeezed her tightly against him. "Are we okay?"
"Yeah, we're okay."
—
4:30 pm
The parade was in full swing by the time the Avengers got there.
Loud drums, artistic floats full of people playing their instruments, children running around having a ball.
Everyone was having tons of fun...well, except for Pietro.
His gaze was solely on the couple that stood a little bit further down from him — his sister, Steve, Natasha, and Petra were in between him and them.
Thank god Shuri wasn't around, having to sit with her royal family for the parade, because otherwise he would've been called out for his stare a while ago.
He watched as Galina was trying to force-feed Bucky some sort of appetizer as he tugged his head away from the miniature fork chuckling, hands gripping her hips to keep her from tripping.
Galina's always been so clumsy.
"Why do you look like you're gonna rip Bucky's metal arm off and beat him with it."
Pietro flinched at the appearance of Sam right beside him as the Falcon looked at him with a crinkled brow. "I'm not looking at him in any way." he scoffs before glancing back over at the couple again. "You think they're gonna last?"
"Man, how do you deny looking in their direction yet proceed to look in their direction and ask a snide question all in one breath?" he quipped with a shake of his head. "I think they're gonna last — they're obsessed with one another."
"Nah," he shook his head disagreeably as his eyes remained on them. "I think they have a trauma bond."
"Kid, we all have trauma bonds to each other — we've been through some fucked up shit together."
"Yeah, but we're not macking on each other — Tony should've made a rule, no Avenger on Avenger macking because this is just—"
"Piet, i'm gonna stop you right there." he cut him off with a risen hand. "As a counselor, i've noticed that you've been exhibiting behaviors of jealousy as of late."
"What the fuck are you? Vision?" he sarcased.
"No, i'm just a worried teammate whose about to be honest with you." he pauses, clamping a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, kid, it's obvious that you have feelings for Gal—"
"Do not."
"—but you gotta let her go." he continued in midst of Pietro's fallen expression. "What her and Bucky have is special and even though you might not find it special, they do."
Pietro took a shaky inhale at his words as he diverted his eyes back to the floats in front of him, choosing silence as he squared his back.
Sam sadly smiled at the boy and gave his shoulder a comforting pat.
"I have something to give you."
Galina whose back was leant against his chest looked up over her shoulder at him with a stubborn frown. "What could you possibly have to give me now?"
"Just a little something..." he trailed off as he dug around in his jacket pocket.
He then pulled out a small box from the abyss and wrapped his arms back around her shoulders, presenting it in front of her vision.
Galina glanced up at him again with narrowed suspicioned eyes. "I will hurt you if it's something expensive."
"I'd really like to see you try." he sassed back before nudging the box back towards her face. "Open it."
She rolled her eyes softly before she grabbed it from between his fingers.
Her thumb flicked it open and the sight in front of her made her let out an amazed gasp.
It was a pink real crystal pendant necklace, the necklace part was real gold too and it was evident through the way it shined brightly in the sunlight.
Though it was basic, the sophistication and daintiness of the jewelry wrapped it all together.
"I actually had this for a while." Bucky confessed. "Something about it reminded me of you."
"It's..." she trailed off as her finger ran along the cold gems. "It's beautiful." she breathed out.
"Just like you."
Galina gazed up at him with a bright smile that matched his own as she grabbed his jaw and connected her lips to his. "I love it, thank you."
I love you.
"You're welcome — i'm happy that you like it."
I love you too.
"Help me put it on?" she asked, raising the necklace from out of the box.
"Anything for my best girl."
Out of the corner of her eye, she examined the Avengers beside her and Petra— taking in a giggling Bucky and Galina as he put a necklace around her neck while Natasha and Steve stood a couple of feet away in an intense conversation.
"We need to tell her."
"We can't tell her yet."
the two said in sync.
Wanda's eyes blew wide at the younger girl. "Are you crazy?! We can't tell her yet, it's New Year's eve!"
"First of all, it's actually Birth Moon eve, and secondly, we should tell her before the ball drops! New year, new her!"
"There is no ball to drop, Petra! We aren't in America!" she frustratedly argued back before letting an equally as frustrated noise escape from the back of her throat. "Just wait until at least tomorrow, then we'll sit her down and tell her what we heard — for now, we're leaving it be."
"Ugh, fine, whatever."
...
10:15 pm
The drinks were flowing, food passed around, and lights flashing in the reception hall of the palace.
The music was louder than ever and mixed with some strictly cultural Wakandan music and even popular songs from America ( definitely per Shuri's request )
"What do you say, you think this beats Stark's parties?" Natasha commented, smirking over the rim of her glass.
"Nah, the strippers are missing." Galina replied from where she laid sprawled out upon a couch, head in Bucky's lap — her lips then down turned into a frown at the lack of her sister's presence. "Where's Petra?"
Speaking of the devil...
"Guys, the craziest thing just happened." an out of breath and slightly wobbling Petra comes sprinting over to their lounge area. "This kid got his hands on Shuri's sonic blaster thingys and he blasted away!"
"Dammit, why can't people leave my stuff alone?!" the princess exasperatedly shouted as she threw herself up onto her feet and began to sprint in the direction that Petra came from.
The sister then stumbles over to the empty spot beside Galina and grabs her sisters legs before she slumps down in the spot, resting her legs on top of her lap.
"Are you...drunk?" Bucky questioned with a crinkle in his nose, being able to smell the alcohol on her easily.
"Noooooo, i'm just mildly...juiced."
"Petra." she said in a scolding manner as she sat up from Bucky's lap. "How much have you had to drink?"
Petra looked down at her fingers goofily and counted on her fingers. "One, three, six....four!" she's established. "Only four!"
"Petra, I only said that you could have two!"
"You're not my mom, Galina!" she fired back. "A couple of drinks aren't gonna kill me."
"Um, yeah, it kinda can — ever heard of fucking alcohol poisoning?!"
"Well, good thing we're in a technologically advanced country then. Shuri can just save me — anywho..." she then nonchalantly shrugged Galina's legs from off of her and rose to her wobbling feet. "I need to get some boyfriends!"
Just as she was beginning to walk off, Galina quickly stood and grabbed her wrist firmly.
"Stop, we're going home." she ordered, gently tugging her towards the nearby exit placed behind the lounge area.
"You stop, god can you just let me live!" she screeches, sloppily tugging her arm away from her.
The sudden movement caused for her to tumble slightly and elicted a couple of curses from the group of Avengers.
Galina swiftly triggered energy underneath the girl to lighten the blow of the fall — unphased, she tugged on her arm again and brought her to her feet.
"We're leaving." she announced to the group — though her expression remained stoic, her eyes were filled with worry and even some anxiety.
"Can you stop treating me like a baby!" she pushed back again.
"When you stop acting like one, I will — let's go."
"God, just because your teen years were filled with you killing people doesn't mean you have to ruin mine the way yours was!"
Silence.
The only sound that could be heard was the thumping of music and the thumping of her heart in her ears.
At the hurt the flashed across Galina's face, Petra's brain sobered itself up for a moment. "Lina..."
The hurt was swiftly wiped off and replaced with that same stoic expression as she forced her to sit down on the couch with a shove.
"Sit." she ordered and then she turned to the coffee table behind her to grab her water bottle." "Drink." she tossed the bottle at her before beginning to saunter away. "I'm getting air."
Petra watched as she walked off, her heart heavy in her chest. "I didn't mean it!" she tried to call out, but she was already out the door.
...
The cool breeze hitting against the wet lines across her jawline caused for her a shiver to roll down her spine.
She knows that her sister is drunk, and she knows there's no real substance to her words, but it didn't help but to make her feel like she wasn't doing enough for her.
Galina curses her sensitivity over these emotions that she's feeling.
It wasn't until an hour into her "air break" a presence came up beside her.
"Beautiful night, huh?"
She slowly turned her head to find Pietro standing beside her upon the balcony, leaning his forearms against the railing.
"Yeah." she said, sniffling as her eyes went back to overlooking the vibrant city. "Even at night the city seems to always be alive."
"Mm." he hums at her sentiment before looking at her in seriousness. "She didn't mean it, you know."
"I know." she replied as she quickly wiped off the fresh tear that rolled down her cheekbone. "She might be right though."
"Galina, all you did was try to get her out of there — she's plastered." he emphasized. "You're a good sister."
Galina said nothing and instead exhaled a short shaky breath as she stared down at her wringing hands that rested upon the railing.
"Hey, look at me." he softly urged, placing a hand on top of her fidgeting hands as he ducked his head to try and capture her eyes. "I'm serious, you're a really good sister. She's young and dumb and she's gonna make mistakes that you cannot control, but that does not mean that you're not a good sister."
Her brows pulled together in emotion as she gave him a weary remnant smile. "Thanks, Piet."
"Of course." he nodded with a clear of his throat as he removed his clammy hand and stared back out into the sky.
He couldn't help but to sneak glances at Galina, observing how the moonlight reflected against her skin — how he swore that her tears were sparkling as they rolled down her cheeks.
The dip of her nose, the sharpness of her jaw, the freckles just pure perfection.
No.
No, no, no.
Pietro quickly looked away and scrubbed a stress hand over his face, snap out of it.
His subconscious brain was forcing his conscious brain to come to a grimly realization all at once.
Shut up, stop.
"Do you ever wish that you were...a star in the sky or something?" her random blurt caused for his thoughts to halt. "Just a ball of gas floating from up above with the sole purpose to watch down on everything else below?"
Pietro cleared his lumpy throat as he stood up a little straighter. "I mean, it hasn't crossed my mind 'til now." he added sincerely. "Sounds peaceful."
"This job that we have — the powers that we possess, are scary and unfathomable almost." she continued on her random poetic spiel. "But being a star in the sky...that's neither of those things. You just sit there and watch time pass rather than being watched throughout time."
"Maybe one day we can...run away from all of this and be stars in the sky."
Idiot, Pietro, why would you say that?
Galina looks at him with a bright smile and nodded. "Maybe." she then gazed back up before pointing towards a star in the center of the sky. "I wanna be that one."
Pietro grinned down at her, gazing at her with rounded eyes before he pointed out to a star just above hers.
"I wanna be that one."
She then turned her head over her shoulder to glance up at him, finding him in close proximity but not even shying away.
Their hands slowly descended from their spots up above to rest on the railing, his hand landing barely even an inch away from hers causing for their fingers to brush.
"You look stunning tonight, by the way." he quietly compliment as he started to get far too lost in her eyes.
"Thanks, Piet." she easily replied with nothing short of a grin.
At the sound of footsteps approaching them, familiar ones at that, Galina's head snapped in the direction of the doorway back inside while Pietro damn near jumped out of his skin trying to put distance between them.
There stood Bucky with nearly passed out Petra on his back.
"She threw up twice, one time on the couch and then on Sam — we're all leaving." he informed with a crinkled up disgusted nose.
Galina immediately walked over to him with a weary expression. "Im so sorry."
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Sam. He's going on and on about chunks getting into the crevices of his Tom Fords." he rolled his eyes at the man's shenanigans.
"I bet that was a nightmare." she playfully replied before looking over her shoulder at the speedster. "You coming?"
"Nah, i'm gonna stay here a bit longer." he told them, his eyes filled with something unrecognizable. "I'll see you guys later."
Galina's brows crinkled together at his offhanded nature before nodded. "Okay, see you."
"I feel like i'm gonna be sick again, Bucky." the lackadaisical girl on his back mumbled.
"Alright, time to go."
...
11:30 pm
The sounds of retching caused for Galina to look up with her eyes scrunched closed while one hand blindly rubbed her back and the other held her long curls back.
"You doing okay there, buddy?" she said in a strained tone.
Petra panted a bit as she flushed the toilet, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Never better." she weakly sarcased.
As Petra slumped her back against the bathtub beside them, Galina swiftly grabbed the absolutely crushed water bottle from her side and handed it over to her sister.
"Drink." she ordered as she slumped down beside her.
Petra sighed before take a small sip of the water before leaning her head against glass of the tub's door.
"I'm really sorry." she sincerely apologized. "I've been a brat all night, and i'm sorry."
Galina smiled at her little sister and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, the younger girl immediately cuddling into her side.
"I love you, and I care about you, and I all want to do is to keep you safe, okay?"
Petra nodded in understanding. "I know, i'm sorry, and I love you too."
"I forgive you." she leant down to press a kiss against the crown of her head. "I get it, our childhoods weren't the most ideal and you wanna have fun as a teenager, but you just can't be stupid about it, okay? If you wanna get plastered, do it here — not at a public space, it puts you in a vulnerable position."
"Yeah, I know." she mumbled, nursing her water bottle. "Thank you for taking care of me, you're the best sister I could ever ask for." she then began to chuckle before she jokes. "You deserve everything nice in this world for your service....including better friends."
"Better friends?" her brows pulled together at the whispered end of the sentence. "What do you mean?"
Petra, being still half-drunk and letting her inner thoughts free."Friends who don't lie and hide things from you." she said it as if it were obvious.
A shiver ran down Galina's spine, causing for her to sit up and gesture for her to sit up too.
"Who's hiding something from me?" she questioned.
The girl's eyes widened almost comically as she stared across at her all pale faced. "I've said too much."
"Petra."
She grimaced and slammed her head down into her hands in regret. "Oh god, Wanda is gonna kill me."
"Petra!" she exclaimed sternly. "Who is hiding what from me?"
...
11:58 pm
Everyone was conversing on the couch, trying to wear off the alcohol and excitement from the party.
"Can we just watch Toy Story?" Wanda suggested. "That's a calm movie."
"Toy Story is everything but a calm movie — its stress inducing." Sam argued before flinching back at Pietro trying to snatch the remote from him. "Hey—"
"You fucking knew you assholes!"
Galina came angrily stomping downstairs with a wobbling Petra hot on her tails — fists clenched at her sides and soon enough the energy from her anger caused for the TV to start glitching and lights to start flickering.
"You told her?!" Wanda yelled in the direction of the younger Kuznetsov as she quickly rose to her feet.
"I didn't mean to."
"Just when I thought we were friends, a family!" she screeched angrily, gunning straight for Natasha and Steve.
Just when she was seconds away from launching at them, Bucky and Wanda both intervened and held her in place.
While Natasha and Steve quickly rose from the couch with solemn expressions, Sam and Pietro stayed on the couch watching the whole scene unfold with wide eyes.
"This whole entire time you knew everything!" she screamed tearfully. "When were you gonna tell me about how you knew about Alcestis long before Shuri?! Or how about the truth about my fucking parents?!"
"Galina, just take a breath—" Wanda tried to coo, but inevitably failed.
Galina pushed her away harshly. "Don't fucking touch me you fucking liar! You were planning on hiding this from me too!" she sneered.
"Only until tomorrow!"
Her head then snapped up to look at Bucky with wild eyes. "Did you know?" she irrationally asked.
"No, no, I had no idea." he honestly said, shaking his head from side to side.
Galina let out a long aggressive sigh as she walked a little bit away from them, fingers pulling at the root of her hair as her chest heaved.
She couldn't describe the anger that she felt, the betrayal that she felt — the energy within her was only growing.
She then halted her incessant pacing and whirred around to look at Natasha and Steve who were standing behind the couch where Sam and Pietro were sat, stunned.
"Why?" she said the one word with so much pain and hurt. "Why?"
"We were just trying to protect yo—" Natasha started but was cut off by her yell.
"DON'T GIVE ME THAT BULLSHIT!" she screeched with an angry stomp of her foot. "YOU WERE PROTECTING YOURSELF!"
"It was Stark's idea to not say anything." Steve blurted out.
"Don't throw him under the fucking bus just to try and save your own ass. You're acting as if you didn't do the same exact shit to him." she seethed. "How long?"
"How long?" he repeated in question.
"Don't fucking patronize me Steve, I swear to god, how fucking long?!"
The Captain glanced down at Natasha for a moment, the two sharing a weary expression before he looked back at Galina guiltily.
"We found out during Ultron, when you were away."
"That's where it gets weird." Maria said through a deep sigh. "From what I found through the bucketloads of files that I read, Petra is the product of some sort of...breeding project that HYDRA was working on that dates back to the seventies." she explained, placing down another paper. "In simple terms, Henry, who is also Galina's father, had some sort of sperm leftover from god knows what and they...inseminated Jenya. Jenya didn't even know that Petra was her actual daughter same with how Kuznetsov and Petra didn't know they were actual siblings."
"This is so messy." Clint comments as he leant back in his chair to rub at his face, just as confused as everyone else. "So, what i'm getting from this is that HYDRA had some weird...breeding fetish and bred two associates together, one being a Widow and the other one obviously being a dead-man because Petra is like five years younger than Lina and it says that Henry died the same year Galina was born..."
"Right..."
"So then where the hell is Galina's actual mother?"
"I feel like I keep giving you guys things to read." Maria exhaled a long breath before sliding another file over. "Anastasia Kuznetsov, Galina's mother, also grew up the same way she did...except she had been dropped off in a basket right on HYDRA's doorstep."
"Like how people drop off their babies at fire stations?" scoffed out Tony. "What the hell?"
"It's sick..." the agent sighed. "Henry was also there...I can't find anything on how he got there but what I do know is that they were experimenting with different serums."
"And then let me guess, they forced the two to breed like goddamn cattle?"
"From what the files say, they were only teenagers." Maria grimly nodded at her boss' words, earning several disgusted curses from the room. "They supposedly fell in love and then managed to escape, via Ana's powers — neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, and ended up in some city in Ukraine. HYDRA found them and took the baby and killed them both."
Bruce suddenly had an epiphany, head snapping up with wide eyes. "You said that Anastasia had telekinesis, right?"
"Same as Galina." she nodded slowly.
"This directly gives us more information about the Veh thing." he muttered, mostly to himself and to the team.
The Avengers found themselves coming to the same realization themselves, sitting up straighter while Maria stood there in confusion.
"If Anastasia was dropped off at HYDRA as a babe, it could potentially mean that she's also a Veh..." Elora thought outloud with a stiffness in her voice.
Aspen then adds. "...and that someone from Alcestis ended up here."
The lump in her throat thickened as her eyes faded back into its usual hue after searching his brain.
"You not only knew about my parents, but you knew about my sister was still in that shit-hole before I even knew." she slowly articulates as the lights and TV stopped freaking out.
Natasha, the ever cold-hearted spy that could pull off a facade with ease, had a tear rolling down her cheek. "I'm sorry, Galina." she croaked.
All Galina did was let a bitter laugh slip and hung her head, shaking it in disbelief.
"You know, i've been the main one talking about how the Avengers were a family....but maybe Clint was right — this family doesn't exist anymore."
She gave everyone in the room one last quick glance before turning on her heel and marching away.
And right as she was walking away, fireworks began to echo in the distance of the cabin.
Happy New Year.