Powerless | b. barnes

05 - nightmares

A/N: underlined words = in Russian ;)

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I T was around one in the morning when Ivy heard the first faint scream. She was awake, of course, watching The Office when it happened.

At first she thought it was only in her mind so she didn't pay much attention. She went back to watching Michael Scott acting as 'Prison Mike'—which she was laughing hysterically at. 

But then she heard the scream again, this time louder. She quickly paused Netflix and listened to the silent world around her. A few seconds later, she heard the unmistakable sound of an extremely painful, blood-curdling scream—the kind she hadn't heard since her Hydra days—coming from the room across from hers.

Barnes, she thought.

The walls in the Avengers compound were sound proof but they only tested them out on Steve with his super-soldier hearing. They failed to test it on Miss Power Stone herself, aka Ivy, so she could still hear everything—but Tony didn't have to know that.

Nothing gets past Ivy at the compound, although she can't read minds (only control them), she had Wanda to tell her all the gossip. Her sister usually had to rant to someone about all the secrets she's holding in. Plus, Ivy can hear through the walls and use her invisibility. Let's just say if someone were to get into Ivy's brain, they'd get a lot of dirt on the worlds mightiest heroes.

Ivy jumped out of her bed and ran to her door, within a few seconds she was at Bucky's door about to turn the handle when she realized... she has no idea how to wake up an ex-assassin who's currently having a nightmare about the people who tortured him mercilessly for decades.

She shrugged to herself, either way he clearly needed help. 

He's asleep, it can't be too hard, she thought. Boy, was she wrong.

Ivy walked into the room to see Bucky on his bed thrashing like a beached great-white shark and screaming words that she could understand, but they weren't English. He was speaking Russian, "No! Please don't! I'm not ready! Stop, it hurts!"

At first, Ivy yelled from the doorway, scared to get any closer. "Bucky! Bucky Barnes!" She screamed, obviously this did nothing so she reluctantly moved closer until she was standing right beside his bed. "James Buchanan Barnes!" Ivy grabbed his wrist as it came up, nearly punching her. "This isn't you! You're safe, Steve saved you!" Ivy practically screamed at him to try to get him to listen.

This immediately turned out to be a mistake. Bucky's eyes flew open and Ivy almost sighed a breath of relief, but then she looked into his eyes. His annoyingly, achingly, beautiful eyes told her every emotion he was feeling and right now, that emotion was everything that was evil.

"Ready to comply." Bucky growled, only it wasn't Bucky anymore.

He looked from Ivy's face to her hand gripping his wrist and his brain switched into fight mode.

He twisted Ivy's arm around her back and she let out a small whimper of pain before controlling her energy to shoot a blast of violet power in his direction. He stepped back, allowing Ivy to get away. She used her energy to manipulate the light and disappear, the Soldier instantly looked confused.

Ivy took this opportunity to throw a few punches in his direction. Nat trained Wanda and Ivy how to fight properly without powers when they joined the Avengers.

She tried to get into his mind to control it—a power she didn't often enjoy using unless it was absolutely necessary—but the Soldier's brain was entirely closed off. It was as though his head was completely empty and filled with a darkness that he (quite literally) could never seem to escape from.