Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Whispers. Flowing around and through her like water in a stream. Allow. Passively observe the landscape of the almost-Earth she caught glimpses of whenever she let go and became one with the voices. Remain hidden when a loud voice grew near, although some part of her recognized the proximity was not physical, but part of the spongy mass she could feel replicating in her brain.

Pressure. In her ears. Growing uncomfortable. Then popping as the plane hit the ground. Remain quiet. Remain limp. Don't let them know you can hear them even as your body is too numb to move.

A car. No. A van. How many miles? God it was hot! Pavement. How many turns? The whisper of the voices grew louder, supplemented by real-life voices that spoke in short clipped sentences as they passed through some sort of checkpoint? Fruit? Why would someone ask if they were carrying fruit?

More pavement. The feel of the van turning down a gravel road, growing bumpier by the moment. The whispers grew as overwhelming as the stifling heat. So many! So many voices whispering with a single purpose. The occasional discordant note. One bumping against her, a different voice than the one which had spoken to her before. Curious. Fear! It warned her to hide her thoughts or she would be destroyed.

A rock, rounded by thousands of years of passing water until it slipped right past, barely a ripple in the stream. Yes. That was the image to project. Observe. Don't let the water catch on that you can still think.

How far? The car climbing and descending through hilly terrain. Being picked up and carried. Something was coming! An overwhelming presence drew closer. The whispers grew silent and hurried away. Something pricked her skin. Warmth raced through her veins, shaking the coldness out of her brain which had kept her body numb.

"Miss Rosenthal," a light brogue spoke, as melodious and pleasant as a French horn. "Welcome."

Bernice groaned and opened her eyes. She was strapped to a table, her head bound so she could only look straight up. The brutally handsome man who she knew was a shape shifter bent into her field of vision. He looked so much like her husband that, if she ignored the coldness in his voice and subtle differences in their appearance, she might almost mistake him for the man she loved. A trick? To fool her?

"Who are you?"

"Your friend Mike knows me as Mr. Hart," the man said. "Your husband knew my … what do you call it … partner? Herr Kleiser. I believe you met him when he assumed the form of Agent Romanov. Our little grey minions know me as the Other. You may call me 'your majesty.'"

"What do you want with me?"

"Why, Deviant child, I want nothing from you," Mr. Hart spat. "Nothing at all. You are vermin. Like all of your people we tried to eradicate until your husband interfered."

A chill ran down her spine. Her grandmother had always been tight-lipped about the horrors they had seen when they freed the victims of the holocaust. Steve studiously avoided talking about the subject, the haunted look in his eyes those few times she had asked stopping her in her tracks.

"Why do you impersonate my husband?" Bernice strained at the straps that held her like a frog about to be vivisected in biology class. "I know what you really are!"

"Your husband? Ahh!" Mr. Hart's voice dripped sincerity. "Serendipity. Who would have thought the doppelganger I seized the last time I was here would be the father of the one who assassinated Red Skull? My prize experiment in Celestial retro-engineering? And to think seventy years later he came back to murder my business partner?"

So she was right. He was mimicking the man she'd seen in the photograph. But for what purpose?

'Don't bait him. You must lead him to believe the nanovirus has made you compliant.'