Necessary Good, Unnecessary Evil | No rest For Wounded Souls [Bucky Barnes]

A Family Matter

"Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man."
-Friedrich Nietzsche

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Nova's POV

My ears catch a muffled repetitive sound, and it slowly takes me out of my sleep.
This is the second time I've woken in a place I don't recognize.
I'm starting to hate it, but at least this time its just a room.
The bed I'm lying on is against the wall, next to a nightstand.
I realize the noise I can hear is coming from an alarm, and it reads 7pm.
To my surprise, there's a door, and it's left ajar.
My neck feels weird, and when I touch it there is a collar under my fingertips.
"What the hell?" I mutter, trying to take it off. I hiss in pain when it shocks me for trying to tear it apart.
Stark, this must be one of his toys.
I slowly get up, feeling my head spinning.
I had to use a lot of energy to break that glass, and I'm still trying to get it back.
"That's weird," I whisper to myself, peeking my head out and looking down both lengths of the hallway.
I hear voices coming from my left and decide to follow them.
There's a staircase, and I walk down it, arriving in a spacious common room.

I gulp, watching all the people sitting there stop what they were doing to look at me.
"Who is she?" A guy with a deep voice asks, looking pretty hostile.
He has long blonde hair, and he's wearing a weird vest.
"Who are you? I thought the Viking festival was during the summer." I retort, and he looks confused by my question.
"Nova, this is the rest of the team," Steve says, standing up.
I look over at the couch, scanning every face in the room.
The space is big enough to fight in, but I'm not strong enough to handle all of them.
The only way out I see are the windows, but I doubt I could take a fall from this height in my current conditions.
"Why am I here?" I inquire, suspicious. They had the perfect chance to take me to prison, but they didn't.
"What, you don't enjoy some company?" I hear Tony's voice behind me, and I immediately turn to face him.

My feet move quickly, and I stretch my hand forward to grab him, but another shock shoots through my body.
I bend over, reaching for the collar and trying to rip it off again, just to get electrocuted again.
"Son of a bitch!" I shout, baring my teeth.
I get up again and look over my shoulder to see a familiar face looking back at me.
"You can keep trying to kill me and keep getting fried again," Tony sighs, "or you can sit down and let me help you find who killed your mother." He offers, and I can't help but burst out laughing.
"You want to help me?" I jeer, pointing my index finger at him.
"No, not you. But Amanda deserves justice. I'll find who did this, and I promise you they will spend the rest of their lives in prison." Tony states and I look at him to laugh at his face again.
"You're acting as though I believe you're innocencent," I growl, stepping closer to him.

"I know you've believed this for years, waiting for your revenge. But you have to accept you were wrong." Steve croons, and my stomach turns.
"There, look," Tony utter, nodding at a monitor.
"The day you disappeared was the day she died. Is that right?" He asks, and I nod.
A security tape starts to play and shows Tony in a casino. The date is the same, and it goes for hours.
"How do I know this is real?" I mutter, keeping my eyes on the monitor.
"You have to trust him." A soft voice speaks, and I look in its direction.
"Glad to see you're still alive," I say in Russian, smirking.
"Yeah, about that," she chuckles, "thank you." She replies in Russian.
"English, please?" Tony huffs, looking at us confused.
"Try to betray me, and I'll wear your skin as a cape." I threaten him, and I see Steve raise a brow.
"Deal." Tony shrugs, stretching out his hand.
I look down at it and again up at him.
"Never mind." He sighs, walking away.

"I think you should take this off." I hint, pointing at the collar. He turns around and looks at me, perplexed.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" He scoffs, and I have to keep myself from charging at him.
"If I trust you, you should do the same, don't you think?" I ask, and this time he's the one to chuckle.
"Do you?" he taunts, and I clench my jaw.
"I have to," I say, looking at the woman sitting on the end of the couch.
"If you don't try to kill me in my sleep, I'll take your request into consideration." Tony grins, heading to the bar.
I look away, frustrated.
If he can give me the people who killed my mother, I'll put up with this jerk.
I walk toward the big window that looks down on the city.