Finding Jade - A Bucky Barnes Story

Chapter 10. Find the Others (Sexual Content)

The part of the Queen is played by a video of Devil's Finger fungus, apparently a real and scary thing.

She was out in the Badlands again, alone, exposed, and she knew the Others were looking for her. Feeling an ache in her side her hand went to the scar left behind by the wound they gave her. How long ago was that? One month, two months? Seemed so long since it happened but so much had transpired since then. She had fallen in love... Bucky...she smiled at the thought of him. Tall, dark, muscular, handsome, brave but a doubt crept in.

"He will leave," said a voice she had heard before. "I have seen it."

She ignored the voice and continued to listen for the queen. Touching her comms she told the listener that it wasn't working. A man's voice sounded in her ear; very educated, clipped, bordering on arrogant.

"Give it time, Jade," said Dr. Stephen Strange, "you've only been out there for ten minutes. I can get you out of there in seconds so you're in no real danger."

"How can you believe the bullshit he is telling you?" said the familiar voice. "He doesn't care, just suddenly showing up without notice, ordering you all around. Don't tell him where I am."

There, that's why the voice was familiar. She put her hand to her comms. "She's contacted me and it's in English," she said. "The queen has learned our language."

Jade reached out with her mind to determine the location of the queen and it came from all around her. Well above her Red Wing was monitoring in all visual frequencies. The display was showing in Sam's eye goggles but also to a computer screen set up in the Bunker. Dr. Strange was standing in front of it with Bruce, Steve and Bucky beside him. The others were scattered behind, trying to see the display.

"The motion detectors are going off all around there," said Strange. "The queen is huge, diffused. It's why she has so many nests. She needs their activity and exploration to feed her. We are recording in all sound frequencies, right?"

An army technician in front of a portable console affirmed that they were picking up all frequencies.

"Jade, can you engage the queen again?" asked Strange. "Insult her, make fun of her. I want to see if the frequencies change."

With a roll of her eyes Jade began to talk to the queen.

"We scare you, don't we?" she asked. "We've figured out your secrets and it's only a matter of time before we come for you and take you out."

"Right," said the queen, making a sound that Jade assumed was laughter. "Says the female who won't be able to stop her mate from leaving."

"We're not mates," said Jade. "He's just someone I have sex with."

"Oh, you're mates," said the queen. "I've felt your pleasure when he looks at you. Very inefficient, one male for one female. No wonder humans were so easy to defeat. I have thousands of mates, all wanting to fertilize my eggs."

"Then they leave, don't they?" asked Jade. "They scuttle off to some deep dark hole to die after you inject your poison in them after fertilization. Now that is inefficient, killing them like that."

"How do you know this?" demanded the queen, upset.

Her emotions rippled through the nests causing them to spasm in pain. The queen took the equivalent of a deep breath.

"They don't know, do they?" said Jade. "Your drones don't know that you kill your mates. All that work, and effort to look after your males, who are also your children really, and raise them to maturity and you just poison them after they service you. You are a heartless murdering bitch."