The Mimic

114

"Here she is, Barnes. Here's your 'Doll'." Tony snided in a casual tone. He had led Bucky - and whoever else had decided to follow - down a serious of hallways and padlocked doors. The silence was deafening and uncomfortable, but neither seemed to plan on breaking it anytime soon. They had eventually reached a door that supposedly led to y/n, and Tony had unlocked it with the ID card hanging from his neck. He waited patiently for Bucky to enter the room first, the same forced smile still on his face. Tony knew exactly what he was getting into, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to sugarcoat anything, especially when it came to y/n being a criminal.

"Shut up." Bucky snapped, glaring at Tony with a look of pure anger. He was relieved that someone was finally showing him where y/n was, but he didn't agree with the obvious disrespect that Tony was showing him. Yes, she was his 'Doll', but only he could call y/n that. Nobody else. 

Bucky shoved past Tony at the first moment that he got, making a beeline toward the heavy door. On the outside, he kept his angry persona, but on the inside he couldn't help but let the relief wash over him. He couldn't wait to see y/n. All he wanted to do was hold her close and make sure that she was okay. He bit back a smile as he pushed the door open, expecting to see y/n on the other side of the door. 

But she wasn't there. At first glance, it was just another room. 

The room was full of monitoring equipment. There was a whiteboard on the wall covered in writing too small for Bucky to understand from where he was stood. Desks stretched across the far wall, covered in various pieces of paper, screens, and computers. But the thing that stood out the most was a large window above the desks. It almost covered the whole wall, and a bright light seemed to be emitting from it. Almost as if it was looking outside. But, with a few more seconds of looking, Bucky realised what it was.

A two-way mirror straight into y/n's cell. 

The cell was large with an attached bathroom to the side, but it was almost completely empty. The only piece of furniture (except for a shower, toilet, and a sink) was a bed. The bed was in the centre of the room, bolted to the floor and surrounded in a form of foam to prevent y/n from hurting herself on it. Everything - from the floor to the ceiling - was a clinical shade of white, void of any sort of colour or entertainment. Even the door to the cell was white, causing it to blend straight into the wall when it was shut. The mirror on the wall was shatterproof, completely indestructible to anything that y/n may try. But, the real terrifying thing was the fact that everything was immune to her powers, from the clothes on her body to the walls around her. There was no escape.

Y/n was sat on the bed in the middle of the cell, looking completely numb to the whole situation. Bruce was sat beside her on the bed, tending to the various wounds all across her body. He was head-to-toe in protective gear. This wasn't the Bruce that y/n knew, Bruce used to be one of the people that trusted her. There was no talking between the pair, just a thick silence. It was almost as if y/n was a ragdoll, staring blankly at the mirror in front of her. Her pupils were heavily dilated, topped up on enough drugs to keep her sedated and unaware of her surroundings, but not unconscious. It was like someone had turned off her brain. No thoughts, no movement, no talking. Pure emptiness.

Bucky's whole demeanour dropped, and so did his heart. 

He rushed toward the window, his chest tightening at the sight of her. This wasn't what he'd expected. He'd expected for y/n to be sat in a medical room, not this. "What have you-" Bucky started, cutting himself off as he took a shaky breath. He didn't even know how to process any of it, but he couldn't take his eyes off of her. They were making eye contact, yet there seemed to be no reaction from y/n. "What have you done to her..?" He asked in a broken tone. Bucky didn't mean to sound so broken, but he couldn't help it. This had caught him completely off guard. He was expecting to hold y/n, but instead she was trapped in a cell. 

Tony stepped into the room with a casual sigh, strolling over to stand beside Bucky. "She can't see you, it's a two-way mirror." He hummed. But, after he spoke, it seemed as he was about to laugh. "Hell, she wouldn't be able to see you, anyway. There's so many drugs in her system, I don't think she could even tell which way is up and which way is down." Tony chuckled, beginning to fiddle with the various pieces of paper on the desk. He felt no remorse. In his mind, this was for the greater good.

Bucky frowned as Tony begun to laugh, removing his glance from y/n so he could look over at him. Tony found it funny. How could he find this funny? Bucky wanted to scream. The anger was slowly beginning to bubble up again after seeing how smug Tony was. He was laughing at y/n as if it was nothing. "How do I get in there? I want to see her." He asked, stepping away from the desk. Bucky was trying his hardest to keep his composure, taking slow breaths as he glanced around the room in search for a door. But there didn't seem to be any sign of a door to the cell. This room was just an observation room, as if y/n was a zoo animal.

Tony's smug smile just seemed to grow as he turned to sit on the edge of the desk. He couldn't believe that Bucky still thought that he could make any sort of contact with y/n. "That's not an option, Barnes." He shrugged, not breaking eye contact when Bucky glared over at him. "Y/n is under complete and utter isolation except for Bruce, and she'll stay that way for the foreseeable future." He shrugged. Tony understood the gravity of the situation, and if it were Pepper, he'd freak out. But Pepper wasn't a criminal. "She's unstable. This is the safest thing for her, and everyone else. I'm sorry but I'm not risking any other lives." 

Isolation. 

Y/n was in isolation.

That was the final straw for Bucky. All of the anger came rushing out at once. There was no point in keeping his composure anymore. The one person he wanted was y/n, and they were denying access. 

"Tony, have you learnt anything about y/n? Anything at all? The worst thing for you to do is to leave her alone!" Bucky yelled, running his hands through his hair as he begun to pace back and forth. "The reason why we disappeared for two days was because her nightmares were getting worse. She'd rather be sleep deprived than suffer through the nightmares. And now you're locking her up on her own?! Are you dumb?" He ranted. He didn't care if his voice was getting louder and louder, this wasn't right. "I don't care if she's unstable! I don't care if she's 'out of control'! I want to see her!" Bucky yelled, his voice cracking slightly at the last sentence. He was trying his hardest to hold the tears back, not wanting to give Tony any leverage, but he couldn't help it. Bucky was desperate to see y/n. To hold her and tell her it'd all be okay. And he couldn't. "Let me see y/n, and then I'll be gone. I'll be gone for good. I don't want to live under your money if this is what you're doing to innocent people."

"Innocent?" Tony laughed, matching the volume of Bucky's voice. He stood up from the desk, pointing at y/n from the window. "She's a mass murderer! She just killed hundreds - maybe thousands - of people, and that's just the new additions to her list of victims! Your girlfriend has been murdering people for years, and now I'm supposed to believe she's 'changed' just because she dances around the compound-"

Tony was suddenly cut off as Bucky slammed him up against the wall, his metal hand wrapped firmly against his neck. The aggravation in his eyes was blatant, and almost completely cancelled out the fact that his eyes were glossed over with tears. "Careful who you're fucking talking to." Bucky snapped, squeezing enough to make Tony short of breath, but not enough to choke him out. He couldn't believe that Tony still thought that of y/n, and probably thought that of him too. They were supposed to be a tight knit family, and yet Tony was almost acting like they were strangers. 

Tony gasped for breath, his hands gripping onto Bucky's metal arm as if to try and get him to let go. He frowned deeply, spitting a disgusting glob of spit onto Bucky's cheek. "You're all the same."