Blood Debt - The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Bucky x Zemo)

Chapter 9

The photostatic veil, or at least the black market version of it, was impressive, strange, and disconcerting all at once. Bucky looked at his reflection in the mirror, and the man who looked back was him, but not him. Zemo had programmed the veil so that he clearly didn't look like the White Wolf, but he was still of a similar 'type.'

When he had first put the veil on, it slipped like silk across his skin.Then, as Zemo had instructed, Bucky pressed three fingers to his pulse point and tapped it five times to activate it. Once active, the veil felt only like a tingle of energy across his skin.

He looked in many ways, like his own brother or cousin. A similar face shape, but with a slightly heavier brow, fuller lips, and dark hair with a slight curl to it. His left arm looked completely human, and even replicated lines of veins in his forearm as well as hairs. He could still feel the strength of the vibranium appendage beneath it, but it was very strange to look down at his hands and see two normal ones.

It was eerie. Bucky almost wished that Zemo had made him look completely different, rather than this mirror universe variant of the man he could have been.

He took a steadying breath, touched hair that felt surprisingly real, and pushed out of the washroom. He was wearing slacks and a white button-up, and a suit jacket was waiting for him on a stand in the main room.

Bucky didn't know what he was expecting from Zemo's disguise, but nothing really prepared him for it. Unlike his own disguise, the Sokovian looked like a total stranger. Which made sense as he was impersonating someone specific rather than the bodyguard role he was taking on.

Zemo was doing up the cuffs on his shirt, then swept to settle his own gray suit across his shoulders. When he had said that his cover was built differently, that seems to mean more muscular and broad of shoulder. Though Bucky knew firsthand that the other man was more toned than anyone might guess, this was more on the bulky end of the spectrum, to the point where it strained against the cut of the suit.

This man he knew logically was Helmut Zemo had a thick head of dark, dense, curly hair, dark brows, and a beard a little longer than the one he currently sported beneath the veil. His eyes were dark, his lips bowed, and both his hair and beard was sprinkled through with bits of silver.

Zemo turned and smiled at Bucky, looking him over once and tilting his head in that way of his. "Very convincing. And me?" His voice was deeper, but it still had the Sokovian accent.

"Who are you supposed to be, anyhow?" asked Bucky. His own voice had the same subtle touch that was applied to his face. That is, just different enough to be convincing as another person, but not a radical departure.

"Nikolai Azarov. A Russian businessman. He was assassinated a few days ago, but the fact that he is dead has not been made public. A very fortuitous situation for us, as Azarov is exactly the type of man who would be at this auction." Zemo quirked a grin that was a bit charming and playful on his own face, but now had a bit of danger to it.

Bucky stepped up to Zemo and examined him closely, searching for some flaw. He had been trained to see through disguises by HYDRA, but the early photostatic technology was so crude when he was active as to be nearly useless. He had been trained to spot prosthetics or signs of cosmetic surgery. The technology that was draped over both of them had no such flaw. Like his own disguised arm, he could see individual hairs on Zemo's face and even the fine lines around the corners of his eyes.

"Searching for a flaw?" Zemo asked, smiling broadly. "Come on. We should go and make an appearance." He swept up Bucky's suit jacket and motioned for him to turn around. He then slipped the jacket up over his shoulders and smoothed a hand along his back.