You are the Marksman. A high level trained assassin and tech mastermind working for Hydra and before that? Lily Haywood, close friend and fellow army buddy of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. After escaping the clutches of Hydra, you've been working a...
"Okay so, tonight while I'm talking with everyone at dinner, you complain of a headache and slip away to explore the labs downstairs. Make sure you test the loopholes I mentioned in Fridays system so you'll be able to pull this off without getting caught." Lilian instructed her accomplice as they continued to pack her things.
'Drew' nodded in agreement, "After tonight's test run, I'll send word back to Irene. Once we get the greenlight from her, we'll continue with Operation Payback."
***
"Hey Steve, did you notice anything different about Lily today?" Bucky asked his friend as he set the table for dinner.
"You mean besides for that giant parasite of a man that was hanging onto her the whole time?" Steve began muttering as he stirred the pasta boiling on the stove.
Kita sat at the bar hungerly watching Nat makeing garlic bread, listening quietly to the other's conversation.
"Her eyes they looked..." Bucky squinted his eyes, trying to find the right word.
Kita pipped up, "Tired?"
"...no... they looked dead" Before Bucky could explain further, Steve interrupted, "- I just can't believe this it's not like her to be this impulsive. She's never been the relationship type..never"
Kita choked on the celery stalk she was munching, causing both super soldiers to look at her with concern. "Are you serious? You can't be serious. She's had like, seven relationships just since I've known her. Granted, all the relationships only lasted a month or so and they were mostly just because she needed inside access for a mission but.. yeah no she's totally doing this just to get some kind of advantage."
Bucky shot Steve a quizzical look, both shocked by this new revelation, but not wanting to get off track.
"I guess the real question is, is the advantage for or against us?" Wanda wondered aloud, adding a dash of paprika to Steve's marinara, absolutely horrifying the blonde super soldier wearing a "kiss the cook" apron.
"What? Its an old family recipe" she defended, "James, what did you mean by her eyes looking dead? I noticed that too it looked so familiar"
Having finished setting the table, Barnes pulled out a chair and sat next to Kita at the kitchen island, also eyeing Nat's garlic bread with starving eyes. "I'm not sure, she just looked far away and.. hollow"
"Wanda, did you try to read her mind at all today?" Steve strained the pasta, letting off a huge cloud of steam into the kitchen.
"Jah I did, all I could hear was music though. As if someone had blocked me out."
Natasha went pale, "это сладкие колыбельные" -the sweet lullabies.
Bucky and Wanda's eyes widened at Natasha's words, as if something had clicked in their minds. Steve and Kita exchanged a confused look.
"Its a mind control technique," Bucky's voice went husky as he explained, "I've only heard whispers of it. They never fully got it perfected but basically if you play calming music with underlying subliminal messages enough times, the subject will subconsciously adopt those thoughts and that mindset. If it's used for a long enough time, memories won't just be lost, they'll be replaced." He gritted his teeth, remembering the experiments and trial runs they had put him through trying to perfect their music.
"They used it on Pietroff and me when we were younger. It's definitely been perfected since your time." Wanda's voice trembled slightly at the thought of Lily's sweet mind being taken captive by Hydra.
Steve sighed, "Let's talk to Bruce and Tony, maybe they'll be able to help us get her back, but for now, let's just try to jog her memories as much as we can."
Dinner that evening was unusually loud. After Steve had filled the others in on Lily's situation, they all had agreed to try and jog her memories as much as they possibly could. This of course meant bombarding the poor girl on all sides with stories, inside jokes and memories they had collected while knowing her for the short time she had stayed at the tower. The girl laughed along with everyone and was friendly enough, but she didn't seem to get that usual spark in her eyes that usually came with teasing her friends.
While everyone was having dinner, Grant poked around downstairs in the labs, taking photos of the different prototypes and sending them to Irene and Lily.
Lily felt a bit strange being back home with her old friends and the rest of the avengers. Something felt off even though she knew that what she was doing was for everyone's best. For Hydra's best. As Bucky draped an arm around her and recounted yet another war story about Steve and the commandos, the girl couldn't help but feel like something was terribly wrong. She needed to ear her head, she needed to get away and listen to Irene's music again.
The girl's phone buzzed, and she turned away from the table to respond to her boyfriend.
Andrew: hey you were right! Everythingwent just according to plan :)
Lily: did you talk to Irene yet?
Andrew: yep! We have a greenlight on operation payback. We'll begin to move everything out tonight once everyone's asleep
Lily: so soon?? I thought we had several more days..
Andrew: Boss' orders kiddo. Sorry. We leave tomorrow morning.
Lily quickly stood up and excused herself from the table, not noticing at first as Bucky followed her out of the room.
"Hey doll, heading to bed so soon?"
Lily spun around to face him, "yeah it's been a long day and I wanna finish packing some." Buckys expression clouded at the mention of her moving out so soon.
"Look.. I know the real you is in there somewhere.. please.. stay here and think this through more? You know how much I love you, how much everyone here does, Lily. Please, dont do this. Domt let them get in your head." He reached for her hand but she pulled out of his reach, tears misting her eyes. He could see the gears turning in her mind as she tried to fight her own thoughts.
"Bucky, I.. you could never understand. I'm doing this for your own good, for everyone's. There can be no peace without the threat of chaos."
She quickly walked down the hallway and shut her bedroom door behind her, playing Irene's song until she had calmed back down.
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Watching Ironman 1 tonight.
How the heck did tony have that amount of motivation I'llnever know
