[closed]

[anotheroldsoldier]

who: Bucky & Ava, Ivar, Natasha
what: Memory share.
when: During the event
where: Dreamscapes mostly, maybe some in-person threads around the city.
warnings: Violence, brainwashing, Winter Soldier things.

[ooc: Prompts below. Nothing open but hit me up at nekky if you want something with Bucky during the event or just generally in October.]

Comments

[anotheroldsoldier]

[When he finally speaks again, his voice is rough, betraying the struggle going on in his head.] You know I can't. [It would be easier if he could, but who can really forget witnessing a discussion about their own death? Their death by the hands of their best friend, nonetheless.]

What really happened? What's going on with Steve? At least tell me that.

[latrodectus]

He's been working for HYDRA this whole time. From the beginning. That's what the intel says.

[ It was difficult to believe, even though she had been living it. And she had been living it. Natasha can't meet his eyes. ]

That's what he says, too.

[anotheroldsoldier]

That- [From the beginning? No, that couldn't possibly be right. Bucky would have known. He would have seen it. They were practically in each other's pockets during the war, Steve couldn't have hidden something so massive from his partner.]

Natasha, that sounds insane. I know Steve. He's not HYDRA.

[latrodectus]

Yes. That's what everyone's been saying.

[ She hadn't wanted to believe it either. Years and years, and for Natasha to suspect nothing?

But that had all changed when James died. ]

It hasn't helped.

[anotheroldsoldier]

Something else has to be going on with him. Magic, or mind control, or something. [He just can't believe that his best friend is HYDRA, but at the same time... This is a memory of Natasha's. Something that actually happened. He's not sure how to reconcile that with the things he heard and saw because it can't be true, and yet.]

Even if he- He wouldn't work with Zemo. He wouldn't... kill me.

[latrodectus]

It isn't mind control. We tried… [They'd tried a lot of things, because of course, no one had wanted to believe it. ] Telepaths, magic spells. Every protocol any one of us could think of.

[ Just remembering all the meetings they'd had, puts something raw into her voice. They kept trying to find some thread of hope to follow, like a line of fire through the dark. And it had only worn them all thinner, made them vulnerable. Easier to exploit. ]

[anotheroldsoldier]

Someone's always tryin' to build a better brainwashing device. [But it sounds weak, even to his own ears. A grasping at straws from a man who doesn't want to believe the worst of his best friend, his brother.

But at the same time, he knows Natasha is thorough, and the internal warring is evident in his expression. Even now he's not exactly trying to hide his thoughts from her (it would be futile anyway, she knows him too well).] I don't know what to say. I- It's Steve.

[latrodectus]

Yes.

[ Her voice, then, is not kind, exactly, feeling. For an instant, she lets herself feel the contradictions of the moment, the sadness of losing a friend, losing James, the sharp needle of betrayal, every raw and bleeding thing she's denied herself for months so that she can keep going with the resistance.

But then she pulls her stoicism back. ]

There is— Tony and Clint, they had a new theory. About the cosmic cube.

[ She knows he hates the cosmic cube. ]

[anotheroldsoldier]

[He looks at her searchingly, almost, wishing he could tell what she's thinking right now. It has to be hard, to lose Steve to that, to- well, he doesn't really want to think about the effect his own death might have on her. He's not stupid enough to think it was easy to take just because they aren't together.

And then she mentions the Cube, and his blood runs cold.] What's the theory?

[latrodectus]

That someone rewrote the timeline. Possible, of course… [ It wouldn't be the first "Nazis win" alternate universe that the Cube created. ] But impossible to test. [ And at this point, Natasha has been burned too many times to make believe there's a way to make everything normal. People are dying. People have died. That is her reality. ]