Animalia // Barnes

Chapter Twenty-Five: Revelations

~ANIMALIA~

"We were plan B, in case The Avengers didn't work out. Mirror, Ember and me, against the world, fighting HYDRA and helping the good guys, restoring the world to its pure state. When they died, I was beside myself. I drank, left SHIELD and rented out my place here, in New York. Now I've got a job at a bar and access to intel. It's better than before, but not ideal."

I look into Lee's broken, green eyes, fully seeing the lonely woman she really is.

"That's horrible." I mumble, not knowing what else to say.

"I've learned to cope." Lee says, looking at the couch sadly. "But enough about me, what else do you remember?"

I take a deep breath. "Not a single thing."

"Not even your name?"

"I can't remember my name, or anything before the-"

Bucky and I simultaneously scramble to the door, reaching for a plate of food. He reaches his first, eating the roll, trying to tame his obviously ravenous appetite. After a couple of seconds, the I turn to him, not quite meeting his stormy eyes. "You should probably save that roll. It keeps the best. The potatoes are okay as well." I say quietly. He looks at me with curiosity, swallowing and then eyeballing the remaining roll.

"Thanks." He says, the awkwardness obvious between us. "They only feed us once a day?" I nod. We sit there in silence, eating our food. "Do you call yourself anything?" He asks me. "I'm assuming you can't remember your real name, but have you given yourself one?" I sigh, setting down my plate and wrapping my arms around my knees. "I'm just me I guess."

"Well I'm not going to call you Me, so how about I call you Lauren?" I raise an eyebrow, grinning and looking him in the eyes before scoffing and turning away. "Okay then, how about Rachael?" My smile widens at his ridiculousness. "Mel?" He questions. "Mel," I say, testing it out. It feels right in my mouth, familiar. "that's a nice name." I rest my head against the cold, concrete wall, half a baked potato and a roll still on my plate, drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

"My name's Bucky."

"What's wrong?" Lee asks, worry evident in her tone.

"M-my name. It's Mel." I breathe, a smile threatening to pull at my lips. "My name is Mel."

Lee smiles, the feature quickly turning into a smirk. "So you can remember?"

"I can't remember anything past the assassinations, other than my name."

"Plural?"

"Melony Vandenberg assigned me to kill The Winter Soldier. I wasn't successful."

Lee nods.

"We don't have time for this. We need to go." I say, standing. "If what you say is true, SHIELD knows where you are and how to find you. They'd have footage of you taking me away from street cameras, making you a target. They want me." Lee's eyes widen, her expression quickly turning angry. "Fuck!" She yells, hitting the armrest. "Fuck! How could I be so stupid?"

Lee squints her eyes shut, furrowing her brows in thought. She stays silent for a long time, making me on edge. "I want to go to HYDRA. I want to know about my past and how to get my memories back. I can't live like this anymore."

After a few moments of silence, Lee speaks.

"I know somewhere we can go."

***

I stand outside an apartment in New York, while Lee pulls two oddly-shaped pins from her hair, putting them inside a lock on the door. Within a few seconds she unlocks the door, a smirk on her face. "She never learns." She mumbles, laughing to herself. Lee opens the door, revealing a rather empty but immaculate apartment.

Lee rushes down a hallway, the sounds of a door being opened following. I follow her, the smell of dust filling my nose. "Can you tell me why we're breaking into someone else's apartment?" I ask, walking into a small room with a computer. Lee types with lightning speed, her eyes scanning the screen. "This is my friend's place."

"Why you don't have a key?"

"That's because she doesn't know who I am."

Lee continues hacking into the computer, occasionally cursing under her breath. "Is there something I can do?" I ask. "You could get some food from the kitchen. There's always plenty." Lee says. "Oh and don't forget the Nutella!" I furrow my brows, walking back down the hall and into the kitchen. The stone benchtop is a charcoal colour, while all the cupboards are white. I walk to the fridge, my boots clicking against the tiled floor.

I open it, revealing a mountain of food, each with little messages scribbled on it. Picking up a carton of milk, I read the words 'don't touch' scribbled across the front. "Do you come here regularly?" I shout, looking at the other items. The warnings vary, from 'stay out of my fridge' to 'this isn't your food'.

A jar of the so-called Nutella is placed on top of the fridge where only the tips of my fingers can reach, the words 'FUCK OFF' scribbled across the top. "Yeah. Sharon tries to catch me by putting cameras up but they're always connected to her computer, which I can hack into pretty easily. For a SHIELD agent, she sucks at protecting her files."

My eyes widen. "You break into a SHIELD agent's house regularly? To steal food?" I say, walking back into the room with the computer, Nutella in hand. "Not just food. Information as well. Having a top SHIELD agent's computer at your disposal comes in handy. I bet Fury is really regretting my training now, huh?" She says, continuing to type on the computer. Glancing back to my hand, she smiles broader. "Thank you." She says. Lee taps the same key a few times, smiling and turning the computer.

"Bingo." She says, pointing to a red blip on her screen. "That's the last known location of Melony Vandenberg." She turns the screen to face her once more, hitting more keys. A frown forms on her face, along with a scoff. "Woah. Challenge accepted." She says. Hitting the keys faster than before and biting her lip. Lee gasps. "No fucking way." She yells, a furious expression adorning her small features. She smashes her fist into the table.

"What's wrong? Why do you keep talking to yourself?" I ask, my body tense.

Lee runs a hand down her face, mumbling something under her breath.

"Nick Fury- he's alive."

My breath freezes in my lungs, every atom in my body still. Time seems to slow down, moving at a snail pace. Lee speaks, but I can't hear what she's saying. Her mouth moves, with no sound coming out. Nick Fury is alive. I didn't kill him.

He's alive.