The fire still hummed beneath her skin.
Every step Rhiley took beside Dylan felt like walking barefoot across a razor's edge suspended above a volcano. Her body moved as commanded—obedient, quiet, still. But inside?
Inside, Rhiley Stark was awake.
She could feel his gaze, clinging to her like oil, thick and smug with ownership. He didn't speak at first, but his silence roared. The hallway stretched on, dimly lit by overhead fluorescents that flickered like they were afraid of what walked between them. The air smelled of old smoke and metal and burnt ozone, like ghosts of past destruction still clinging to the walls.
Dylan walked with the calm of a man who thought he'd won. Thought he'd broken her. Thought she was his again, just like in Chernobyl. Just like in the war.
But not this time.
Not since Harley.
Rhiley kept her breathing even, her muscles loose. She let her shoulders sag with practiced submission. It was a language she'd learned all too well—a survival dialect written in downcast eyes and silence. Just enough ember flickered in her irises to keep him satisfied, just enough performance to keep him blind.
"You're quiet," Dylan said finally, tone light, probing.
"I'm listening," she replied, voice low. Flat. Controlled.
He gave a soft chuckle, like a father pleased by his most obedient child. "That's good. You were always better when you didn't talk so much."
The words slid off her like ash. Her face stayed empty. Her pace stayed steady.
Inside, the fire waited.
"You've been better since the serum cocktail," he went on, watching her like a scientist watching a test subject. "Burned out the weakness. Made you useful again." His smile curved, triumphant. "That rage in you. It's mine now."
And just like that, she'd heard enough.
Rhiley tilted her head slightly, lips twitching into the faintest shadow of a smile.
"Oh, Dylan," she whispered. "You really think you're clever."
His brow creased.
The flicker in her eyes reignited—this time, not a spark, but a wildfire.
"You ever wonder why I'm not writhing on the floor anymore? Why doesn't your voice make my head split open like it used to?" Her voice rose, steady and sharp, each word a blade.
He stepped back.
"That thing you pumped into me?" she said, raising her hand as tendrils of heat curled off her fingers. "It burned out the moment the force inside me woke up again."
"You're lying," he snarled.
"I don't have to lie to you anymore." Her smile now was full and cruel, and beautiful all at once. "Because you're not in control. You haven't been for a while."
He lunged for the failsafe in his coat pocket.
She moved first.
Her hand flared, not to attack, but to make the air shimmer with heat so thick it stopped him mid-step. He flinched as sweat beaded on his forehead.
"By the way," she added, tugging at the nearly invisible earbud in her ear, "Harley says hi."
She held it up.
"Custom-designed. Dampens your frequency. Turns your voice into static." Her smile sharpened. "You've been talking to yourself this whole time."
Dylan's expression crumpled. Fury. Disbelief. Fear.
YOU ARE READING
Radioactive | Bucky Barnes
Fanfiction"I want to go back to the time you first told me your name." Rhiley, the twin sister of Howard Stark, finds herself wrapped up with the one and only James Barnes. The next time she sees him is on her new assignment with the 107th Infantry Regiment...
