Third Person POV
It was an early Saturday morning and the Avengers tower was currently quiet compared to the usual sounds of machinery, bickering, laughing, and training that would commence in a few hours. All of the Avengers were currently living in what used to be called Stark Tower, but newly renamed the Avengers Tower. They were trying to track down where Loki's scepter ended up after the battle in New York. Though right now, they weren't having much luck, the Avengers were now just waiting on a lead.
Liberty stood in her room looking at herself in the full length mirror feeling a sense of deja vue. She looked at how the athletic wear she had purchased recently hung off of her small frame. She had tried to buy clothing in the adult sizes and got it in the smallest size possible, but it still was took big for the girl frozen as a nine year old. With a deep sigh she went over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of black child sized leggings and put those one in place of the ones she was previously 'drowning' in. Looking back at herself in the mirror she took the big shirt she was wearing and tied it in the front. Once again examining how she looked she gave a small nod now feeling content. She then tightened her ponytail and made sure there were no fly-aways before catching her own white eyed gaze. 'I should probably put my colored contacts in if I'm going out in public' Liberty thought to herself. After the slight struggle of sticking the lenses on her eyes she gave herself one last check in the mirror before feeling satisfied and leaving her room.
Making her way into the Avengers deserted shared living area, Liberty went up to the kitchen counter and reached up on her tippy toes to grab the bundle of bananas and rip one off for herself. After placing her banana on the counter, she rummaged through the counter drawers to find a pen and a sticky note and proceeded to write: "Gone out for a run, with be back eventually ~Lib" She stuck the sticky note on the fridge before grabbing her banana and making her way towards the elevator.
"What floor Ms. Beckett?" The voice if Jarvis rang out through the elevator.
"Ground level please Jarvis." The elevator doors closed and began its descent to the ground level.
"Would you like me to inform Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers of your whereabouts this morning when they wake?" Jarvis asked. Liberty opened her mouth to reply where she was heading to before stopping herself short and closing her mouth to think. This was the first time in a while she was going somewhere by herself.
Ever since the whole DC situation, the older avengers had started monitoring her closely, Tony and Steve have even gotten to the point where they could be considered helicopter parents. Don't even get her started on Pepper, if she had her way Liberty would be wrapped in bubble wrap 24/7.
For the first few weeks this didn't bother Liberty all that much. Knowing that she had people who genuinely cared for her made her feel like she was on cloud nine. But it started getting to a point where they began to forget that she wasn't the normal nine year old. She technically was older than some of them, but that fact seemed to slip from all of their minds.
"No need to tell them, I'll be back soon. See ya' later Jarv'." Liberty said as she exited the tower, not waiting for a response, and made her way down the streets of New York City. Recently she had been caught up in so many thoughts and emotions that it was starting to become overbearing for her. She needed to clear her head, so why not do something normal for once and take a jog around Central Park. She needed as much normalcy as possible to feel at ease.
Throwing out her banana peel before crossing the street she saw people giving her odd looks. She opened her mind reading ability to try and figure out why so many people were staring at her.
"Is she lost?"
"Where are her parents?"
"What kind of parent lets their child roam the streets alone?"
"Maybe she needs help finding her parents?"
Hearing this, Liberty picked up her pace slightly, not wanting any encounters with those people who wanted to help her find her dead parents. Or well, Tony and Steve were basically her parents at the moment. All she wanted was some time to herself. She sighed in relief as she finally made it to Central Park and lessened her pace. It was a beautiful sunny day and Liberty was loving the warmth from the Sun on her pale skin.
As Liberty wandered aimlessly around the park she saw a mom with her toddler walking along the path in the opposite direction. A small smile graced Liberty's lips as she thought about her own mother who used to walk her to her school classes years ago. The thought of her parents was still a touchy topic for her, but if they were happy memories Liberty welcomed them. Liberty especially loved the memory of her father trying to style her hair after telling his wife that it was easy and anyone could do it. Sadly he didn't realize that his daughter and thick wavy hair that was very difficult to keep in place. Liberty let out a small giggle as she brushed her fingers through her pony tailed hair.
She made her way to Bow bridge and stopped. She put her palms on the railing and then rested her chin on top of them. She sighed looking at the Sun's reflection in the water that was starting to reach above the tall towers of New York City.
The sound of laughter made her direct her attention towards a couple who sat close together on a bench not far away. The man had his arms around the girl's waist with a huge grin on his lips. The girl sat next to him, her arms draped over his shoulders with her legs swung over his thighs. Liberty couldn't see the girl's face but she assumed it was glowing with affection just like the man's face. Their lips met and Liberty looked away, jealousy stirring in her stomach.
She wanted that. She wanted someone to love her like that. To hold her her hand, to cup her face, to kiss her... to love her. Yes, she knew she was loved by her new found family the Avengers, but this was a different kind of love that she was longing for. The kind of love that a normal 9 year old wouldn't be thinking about. (And before those dirty thoughts enter you head, it's not THAT type of love she's thinking about.)
She knew that she could never have any relationship like that. Who would ever think to love a girl stuck in the body of a 9 year old. That kind of thing would be considered a crime. That thought made a familiar face pop into her mind making her eyes well up. She had strong feelings for James Buchanan Barnes, but he probably only saw her as a child. If only there was some way that she could age just a few years, maybe he would see her in a different light and maybe-
No, she shook her head trying to get rid of her hopeless wishful thinking. She wiped the tears she didn't know had fallen, James wasn't the same anymore, he didn't know who he himself was let along who she was. He couldn't even remember Steve, his childhood friend. There was absolutely no way he'd remember the girl who was experimented on that resided in the cell next to his in the Hydra facility. Sam and Steve had been trying to locate the said man but there had been no luck so far.
She pushed herself away from the bridge railing and made her way to the other end of the bridge and continued her aimless walk pushing those thoughts away from her mind.
She started to briskly jog wiping the lingering tears with her wrist before focusing all of her thoughts on her breathing to try and get rid of all the dark thoughts that had begun to cloud her mind.
'You're just a mistake'
'You shouldn't be alive'
'You should had died a long time ago'
'No one will love you the way you want them to'
'He won't even feel the same about you as you feel about him'
That jog picked up in speed as she tried even harder to get rid of any thought in her mind besides her own breath. She didn't even know how long she had been jogging before she slowed down and made her way to a bench and sat bringing her knees to her chest. Now that she wasn't focused on running those thoughts started to come back and sparked a memory.
Liberty sat on the cold concrete floor in her cell leaned up against the glass wall that separated her cell and Bucky's cell. She was currently alone, her testing and training was done for the day but Bucky had yet to return to his cell. As she tried to untangle her long messy hair, she began to worry, what if they had relocated Bucky? She didn't wan to think about what it would be like to be stuck in this place without him.
Suddenly the doors to his cell opened and Bucky was shoved in before the door shuct once again with a loud bang making both Liberty and Bucky flinch. Liberty brought herself to sit facing the glass wall.
"Hey Bucky, welcome back!" I said weakly trying to lighten the mood. Bucky struggled to bring himself to a seated position grunting.
"W-whose Bucky?" Bucky grunted rubbing his eyes before looking around his cell before make eye contact with Liberty's white eyes, "Where am I? Who are you?"
Liberty was taken aback. He didn't remember himself or where they were? What did they do to him now? Did they mess with his memories?
"I'm Liberty, don't you remember? You're name is James but you like to go by Bucky. We are at some lab facility where we are being experimented on. I think they did something to mess with your memories." Bucky stared at me scrunching his eyebrows in thought.
"I mean it sounds familiar but I don't know." He his palm to his forehead as he winced in pain.
So I began telling him every story he had ever told me about himself. I told him about the time he and his best friend met as kids, the time he saved his best friend from getting beaten up in an alleyway, and I told him about how he was a part of the US military. He was quiet the whole time, intent on listening before he finally spoke up.
"This all seems familiar, but I still can't remember anything." Bucky said letting out a frustrated sigh, "You might as well give up, I'm a lost cause." This made me stand up, frustrated about how easily he was giving up.
"No I will not give up. It was you that told me that I was the girl who never gives up. You are James Buchanan Barnes, you are my only friend and I will never give up on you!"
There was a pause as Bucky looked at the ground after my outburst.
What was his name? My best friend?"
"I," I paused for a second to think, "I actually don't know, you never told me, and I never asked. You always described him as this scrawny little guy who suddenly became a man overnight and that he was basically your brother." Bucky then let out a gasp and looked back up at Liberty through the glass wall.
"Liberty." He breathed out with realization laced in his voice making Liberty smile.
"Do you remember what they did to you?" She asked wanting to figure out why he couldn't remember anything just moments before.
"I-I think they were trying to get rid of my memories and my identity so that they can control me..." He trailed off looking at his cell door.
"Well that's not gonna happen on my watch, your gonna tell me your most important memories so that if they do this again I can bring you back." Liberty responded determined. Bucky let out a soft chuckle.
"you truly never give up L, that's what I love about you."
Liberty continued to sit on that bench, consumed in her own inner turmoil as she failed to realized that the Sun had begun to set. With her legs still pulled to her chest and her chin rested on her knees she stared at the concrete walking trail zoned out, not even noticing the super soldier that sat next to her.
"Ya' know, it would have been nice to put what time you thought you'd be coming back on that sticky note. We all got worried when we hadn't heard from you as the day went on." Steve said leaning back on the bench, "Tony wanted to send out the Iron Legion to look for you, but the rest of us thought that probably was a bit dramatic." Liberty let out a small smile.
"Are you good? Do you wanna talk about it?" Steve asked obviously noticing the dry tears on her cheeks.
"Not yet." she shook her head
"Do you want to be alone?"
"No."
"Do you wan to go back to the tower?" Liberty thought for a bit looking at the sky that was slowly getting darker.
"I guess it's getting late." She replied making Steve chuckle.
"It sure is Lib. Come on, lets get back." He said standing up from the bench and helping her stand before they began to make their way out of the park.
"Tony probably is gonna put his two cents in when we get back, just warning you." Steve sighed, "He was very worried and so was I."
"Yeah I bet, I'm sorry. Lets just get back before Tony sends the Iron Legion to find us both."
--
How many times have I come back from the dead?
definitely more times than Liberty hahaha
I hit some really bad writers block on the transition between this book and the next one and I also lost interest in writing this series because I had gotten some hate on the first book which I ended up posting an Author's Note addressing that issue
I ended up getting some really nice and uplifting comments from a few of my readers and you guys inspired me to continue
So this chapter is dedicated to you, thank you
I've been trying to better my writing style so I hope you liked it!
and I made it extra long (;
2391 words to be exact
sorry if there are any grammatical errors, I'm not the best at editing my works lol
please vote and comment!
~mags