Gamora's eyes slide close for a moment at that sound, her small sigh of relief tucked away beneath it. Reprieve, at least for now. It almost burns, the thought of standing down from the fight she's been entrenched in for weeks now. The thought that maybe this could be truth instead of just another attempt at a trap. That she could slip the noose. Because her thoughts run similar to his. For all that Gamora easily tosses out assurances that she would kill him if he tried her, she has seen enough of him on that battlefield against Thanos and his forces not to actually think of a fight between them as anything short of brutal and potentially lethal even for her. And even if she did survive - the damage someone like him could inflict on her knows few measures.
When her eyes open again, she watches him raise a hand from his cover, then lift his head. Trains the sights on him and watches him through him for a moment. Lets the moment drag. He doesn't duck back down - either very foolish or very good at bluffing.
Or perhaps just... good. Perhaps just honest.
Gamora isn't sure she can believe that.
It's only after that long, drawn out pause that Bucky will hear her safety snap back on as well, almost loud to their kinds of ears in the silence of the warehouse. And then she moves, too. Leaves cover and lets him see her. With the rifle on her back, she's far from unarmed though, and lets him see that her hand is on something on her hip - Godslayer, should he get too close to comfort and make any moves she doesn't like seeing. From his perspective that might as well be a blaster. For now though, she makes eye contact with him.
Gamora is exhausted, and visibly so. Doesn't look like she's slept in far too long. Her sharp features are almost gaunt, and the green skin much less vibrant with the pallor of exhaustion. There's blood spattered on her - and clearly not all of it her own.
"Would you like me to strike you, so you can claim I bested you and slipped out of your grasp? Would that make them let you survive failure?"
It might not sound it at first glance, but she's trying to do him a favour here, is trying to show him honor and help ensure he doesn't suffer punishment for letting her go. It's a messed up way of saying thank you - but the thought counts, right?
This is a wild leap of optimism. He’s usually a cynic, but sometimes that old faith in something better shines through, some vestigial instinct which sounds an awful lot like Steve’s voice in the back of his head, the invisible Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder: you should try trusting people once in a while, Buck.
And he looks up and up across the warehouse, to meet Gamora’s eye. Catches the glint of metal at her hip. He wonders what it’d be like to fight someone with a sword; of all the things he’s done in his over-long life, that hadn’t been ticked off the bucket list. Yet.
He considers the offer she’s made, and continues doing that math.
“You can’t just walk out the front door, even if I turn back with a black eye,” Bucky says. The wheels are turning, waiting to catch on an idea. Because Gamora’s back is to the wall and there really isn’t an easy way out of this location — the authorities have the building surrounded.
Except.
Except that when he got the brief, he also got detailed blueprints of the building, which she wouldn’t have had access to. It mapped air ducts, basement passages, maintenance hallways.
A potential way out.
The pause goes on a bit too long, and then: “You’re not gonna be able to get out of here alone,” he says. “But I know a route.”
She wants to fight him on that, to protest. Of course she can walk out the front door just like that. Slaughter her way through their forces and...
Well. And die. Gamora knows the odds are not in her favour, no matter how it raises her hackles to have anything to that tune suggested to her.
"You know a route."
The words hang between them for a moment. To those outside it looks like they must be squaring off. Like perhaps Bucky is talking her down, into coming willingly so he doesn't need to kill her. The situation is tense and might yet come to blows. Of course, that is not the case.
Gamora presses her lips together, briefly.
"You would do this for me?"
A simple question about the things he is putting on the table, the sacrifice he's willing to make. It astonishes her - the implication of a kindness of that scope. He might yet betray her. Lead her to presumed safety only to avoid an outright fight.
But sometimes... sometimes hope is too sweet to ignore in favor of the distrust that was nurtured in her. She's seen him after all, fighting alongside so many who had rallied to save the lives of millions at their own peril, for no reward and little glory.
It’s a big jump; almost impossibly large, to imagine that he’d do this for someone who doesn’t even know him. Set aside everything he currently knows, burn up his current life and set it ablaze, sacrifice it in order to give Gamora a safe way out. It might seem saintly. Why would he do this for her?
But that’s the whole point.
The corner of Bucky’s mouth flickers; a little sad, a little rueful, a little set in his ways. “Someone else did the same thing for me, once,” he says. “I’m just paying it forward.”
Steve had offered him a way out. Steve had reached out a hand. The circumstances weren’t exactly the same, but he’s got this debt hanging around his throat and if there’s at all a chance he can save another assassin, another cornered animal who doesn’t have to die—
Bucky’s made up his mind. He reaches to the SWORD earpiece that he can activate at a touch, but instead he just takes it out, drops it to the floor. Stands ready with his heavy boot to smash it, as soon as she says yes. If she says yes.
“I was getting tired of the leash anyway,” he adds.
That... is something he will have to get used to with her. The way she will absolutely not understand the turns of phrases that are so common on Earth. And the way she will correct him almost gently - though something with a good dose of annoyance - on these things.
For now...
She moves fast. He drops the earpiece, waits for her response. Gamora gives it by way of stepping on the earpiece herself, crushing it underfoot.
"Do not make me regret this."
A warning, calm but fierce. She means that, very clearly. Is still poised to strike at the wrong move, but for now... nods, after a deep breath, to signal that she's in agreement with his plan. That she will follow him. And hope for her own sake that this man is worth his word.
“Likewise,” Bucky says, with a flash of teeth. They both know the risks and the score. They’re metaphorically holding hands and both walking off the edge of a cliff, with nothing else but the blind hope that there’ll be solid ground to catch you below.
The earpiece shatters underfoot, and he sets off through the warehouse. He doesn’t like having Gamora walking behind him — that sword could so easily slip between his shoulder-blades — but he does need to take the front and lead the way through what he’s memorised of the blueprints.
And this trust is a two-way street. He could be taking her out back to where a secondary team is waiting; he could be leading her into a trap.
But he doesn’t, is the thing.
It takes a few minutes before SWORD realises that they can’t raise Barnes on the comms. Even longer before they send in one anxious agent to check for him, expecting to find the Winter Soldier dead, only to see that he’s —
gone, just gone, the pair of assassins vanished into the maintenance tunnels as if they were never here.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
When her eyes open again, she watches him raise a hand from his cover, then lift his head. Trains the sights on him and watches him through him for a moment. Lets the moment drag. He doesn't duck back down - either very foolish or very good at bluffing.
Or perhaps just... good. Perhaps just honest.
Gamora isn't sure she can believe that.
It's only after that long, drawn out pause that Bucky will hear her safety snap back on as well, almost loud to their kinds of ears in the silence of the warehouse. And then she moves, too. Leaves cover and lets him see her. With the rifle on her back, she's far from unarmed though, and lets him see that her hand is on something on her hip - Godslayer, should he get too close to comfort and make any moves she doesn't like seeing. From his perspective that might as well be a blaster. For now though, she makes eye contact with him.
Gamora is exhausted, and visibly so. Doesn't look like she's slept in far too long. Her sharp features are almost gaunt, and the green skin much less vibrant with the pallor of exhaustion. There's blood spattered on her - and clearly not all of it her own.
"Would you like me to strike you, so you can claim I bested you and slipped out of your grasp? Would that make them let you survive failure?"
It might not sound it at first glance, but she's trying to do him a favour here, is trying to show him honor and help ensure he doesn't suffer punishment for letting her go. It's a messed up way of saying thank you - but the thought counts, right?
no subject
And he looks up and up across the warehouse, to meet Gamora’s eye. Catches the glint of metal at her hip. He wonders what it’d be like to fight someone with a sword; of all the things he’s done in his over-long life, that hadn’t been ticked off the bucket list. Yet.
He considers the offer she’s made, and continues doing that math.
“You can’t just walk out the front door, even if I turn back with a black eye,” Bucky says. The wheels are turning, waiting to catch on an idea. Because Gamora’s back is to the wall and there really isn’t an easy way out of this location — the authorities have the building surrounded.
Except.
Except that when he got the brief, he also got detailed blueprints of the building, which she wouldn’t have had access to. It mapped air ducts, basement passages, maintenance hallways.
A potential way out.
The pause goes on a bit too long, and then: “You’re not gonna be able to get out of here alone,” he says. “But I know a route.”
no subject
Well. And die. Gamora knows the odds are not in her favour, no matter how it raises her hackles to have anything to that tune suggested to her.
"You know a route."
The words hang between them for a moment. To those outside it looks like they must be squaring off. Like perhaps Bucky is talking her down, into coming willingly so he doesn't need to kill her. The situation is tense and might yet come to blows. Of course, that is not the case.
Gamora presses her lips together, briefly.
"You would do this for me?"
A simple question about the things he is putting on the table, the sacrifice he's willing to make. It astonishes her - the implication of a kindness of that scope. He might yet betray her. Lead her to presumed safety only to avoid an outright fight.
But sometimes... sometimes hope is too sweet to ignore in favor of the distrust that was nurtured in her. She's seen him after all, fighting alongside so many who had rallied to save the lives of millions at their own peril, for no reward and little glory.
"You would save me?"
no subject
But that’s the whole point.
The corner of Bucky’s mouth flickers; a little sad, a little rueful, a little set in his ways. “Someone else did the same thing for me, once,” he says. “I’m just paying it forward.”
Steve had offered him a way out. Steve had reached out a hand. The circumstances weren’t exactly the same, but he’s got this debt hanging around his throat and if there’s at all a chance he can save another assassin, another cornered animal who doesn’t have to die—
Bucky’s made up his mind. He reaches to the SWORD earpiece that he can activate at a touch, but instead he just takes it out, drops it to the floor. Stands ready with his heavy boot to smash it, as soon as she says yes. If she says yes.
“I was getting tired of the leash anyway,” he adds.
no subject
That... is something he will have to get used to with her. The way she will absolutely not understand the turns of phrases that are so common on Earth. And the way she will correct him almost gently - though something with a good dose of annoyance - on these things.
For now...
She moves fast. He drops the earpiece, waits for her response. Gamora gives it by way of stepping on the earpiece herself, crushing it underfoot.
"Do not make me regret this."
A warning, calm but fierce. She means that, very clearly. Is still poised to strike at the wrong move, but for now... nods, after a deep breath, to signal that she's in agreement with his plan. That she will follow him. And hope for her own sake that this man is worth his word.
wrap!
The earpiece shatters underfoot, and he sets off through the warehouse. He doesn’t like having Gamora walking behind him — that sword could so easily slip between his shoulder-blades — but he does need to take the front and lead the way through what he’s memorised of the blueprints.
And this trust is a two-way street. He could be taking her out back to where a secondary team is waiting; he could be leading her into a trap.
But he doesn’t, is the thing.
It takes a few minutes before SWORD realises that they can’t raise Barnes on the comms. Even longer before they send in one anxious agent to check for him, expecting to find the Winter Soldier dead, only to see that he’s —
gone, just gone, the pair of assassins vanished into the maintenance tunnels as if they were never here.