.

.

.

"Val, next to you."

"Huh? Oh shit."

A hand closed over mine that was trying desperately to open the door. But my fingers would not cooperate. Couldn't grip the handle. Another hand used my knee as support. A body against mine.

Wrap fingers around throat. Crush windpipe. Target incapacitated.

Grab revolver. Shoot – Collapse skull with handle. Target incapacitated.

The butt of the revolver slammed into the cushioned seat. The body under my hand went limp. Gray eyes staring up at me. Red veins crawling across them.

"I...." I quickly backed away. Revolver dropping onto the floor mat with a thump. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean – I'm sorry. I'm sor –"

I knew what a held up finger meant, and instantly, my jaw snapped shut. Not another word out of me. In a voice that wasn't mine.

Valeriy coughed a couple of times, still holding up a finger to me. Her body twisting away. "Sparks, get your ass back in the car and fucking drive. This looks weird as shit. We don't need the eyes."

The older woman was standing outside. Arms and legs poised for a brawl. The stance of a seasoned fighter.

"Ignore her," Valeriy stated. Be it to me to ignore the brunette or to the brunette to ignore me... since I was still disguised.

The brunette had to shake out her nerves, tentatively lowering herself back into the driver seat. Eyeing me the whole time as she pulled off the shoulder of the highway.

Valeriy pushed off of the armrest compartment between the front seats with a pained wince, settling on the seat on my right. Gently adjusting me so I'd face her. "Keep your eyes on me, 'kay?"

Left hand tangling in my hair to keep me from watching the other woman.

"Sparks is okay. We can trust her. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. We shouldn't have shouted like that. I'm sorry. If you're comfortable with Sparks, we can remove...."

Her right hand gestured all around me. The left scratching along my scalp. Keeping me grounded.

"I've met her before." Still wasn't my voice.

"What?"

"I've met her before," I repeated, barely able to push the words out. Head nodding towards the driver seat.

"I would have remembered meeting someone like you," the older woman stated. Stress high in her voice.

The way she held herself. The way she tensed up. The way she fell into a fighting stance. I've seen it all before. On a nervous ginger with brown eyes. With all they did to disguise me, it wouldn't be hard for the brunette to change her appearance into another race. Habits were another story.

The A.I. ghost... she planned this all out. Since before 85 days ago. When I met the librarian. In the library. Teaching me how to use the computers.

The A.I. ghost led me to that park with the Hydra woman... and to Valeriy.

Maybe even the homeless young man by the fire had been part of all this. The one who told me of the soup kitchen, the shelter... and the library. 87 days ago.

"I'm sorry," Valeriy whispered, pulling in closer to me. "I'm sorry for everything. Eve... she should have never.... I'm sorry."

"You trust her?" I questioned, watching Valeriy turn her attention onto the librarian.

The carefree lightness to her gone. She wasn't even pretending anymore. Exhausted. The blonde wig still hanging off her hair.

It was like she was far away. Somewhere I couldn't reach. Even if she was right in front of me. Even if her hand was still tangled in my hair. There was a distance between us. Since last night....

"I'm not going to turn you in unless that's what you want and ask that of me, Val," the librarian cut in. "...But I can't speak for the others."

"...Yeah," Valeriy nodded. "I trust her not to fuck us over. But she'll high tail it if you lash out her way."

"She has better self-preservation instincts than you do," I chided.

She should have run. So many times, she should have run.

Valeriy's shoulders gave a shrug. "Different priorities. And struggling seemed like a bad idea?"

With a drifting thought, I pawed the white sheet off my face. I didn't manage with the sticker on my throat until Valeriy removed it for me.

"You!?" the librarian gasped. Panic clear in her voice. "Val, he's –!"

"Shhhh," Valeriy hushed, fingers quickly combing through my hair again. "Sparks, there's no need to scream. Dial it down a few, would you?"

Twisting her grip around the wheel, the librarian grumbled under her breath in another language. One I couldn't understand.

I couldn't help the anxiousness when the A.I. ghost replied with similar syllables. If not for the fingers kneading the base of my skull, I'd have thought I was trying to wake from ice. In a new place. Surrounded by people speaking a foreign language.

Valeriy pulled a smile on her lips, gathering the dress on the suit in her hands and pulling it over my head. She leaned over my shoulder, her finger hooking into the suit at the back of my neck and tugging down along my spine.

The tight pressure around my torso released. Cool air flowing against my skin where the suit parted from me.

Desperately I took a deep breath, letting my chest expand as far as it could.

It felt amazing.

My body light. For the first time I could remember. Almost as if I could fly.

By the time my surroundings came back to mind, a blanket was hung up by two hooks separating me from the front of the car and judging by the rustling lump on the floor, Valeriy had set up a makeshift compartment for me to get out of the suit. Without eyes on me. Without eyes on the arm and the mess it's attached to.

"Sparks...?" Valeriy called out softly. The lump on the floor hidden by the blanket was her.

"What?" the librarian snapped in the middle of the A.I. ghost talking in her ear.

"I'm sorry... for the whole threatening to shoot you thing...."

A frown found its way onto my face as I stared at the large dress carelessly dropped next to me. It was the only other thing I could wear besides the suit or the blanket. The suit I needed to get out of. The dress covered nothing. The blanket... I would prefer clothing.

"You trust Eve to protect you, right?" the librarian questioned.

"To an extent. Only 'cause we adjusted her into being able to do that so long as it's without my parents' knowledge to counteract any of their weird ass orders that fucks with my safety...? Even then, she's rather limited in her movements, and that is if she feels like it."

A tattooed covered hand lifted the bottom of the blanket, and a pile of crumpled clothing was pushed onto the seat. Clothing she had pilfered from the closet of the room I occupied for 28 days.

"Eve says that you're lucky you're not wearing an earbud," the librarian translating the raving madness spewing from her ear. "Saying a lot of things that the guy next to you probably shouldn't hear."

Took me a total of nine seconds to realize that I couldn't get out of the suit. Not on my own. With hands that couldn't grip the suit well enough to pull it off. Only managed to pop one shoulder out from the suit.

"Good thing I'm not near any fucking doors that can hit me...." Valeriy laughed and dropped a leather glove for a left hand on the pile of clothing. "Oh shit! Eve! Oi! Don't crush me with a bloody seat! Ow! Fuck, my ribs."

Rushing to grab Valeriy, winded me. The large gut of the suit punched the air out of my lungs. Barely had enough time to help her up before the seat sunk into the cushion I sat on. Ended up with her fighting the blanket to find a way out.

Blonde hair gone and her braids a mess. Still somewhat in pinned coils. A nervous laugh escaped from her, as she flicked at the loose strands of hair around her face. "Thanks, Bucky."

The smile didn't quite reach her eyes. Felt so long ago.... Four hours.

"...I... I can't get out of the suit," I admitted.

Part of me wanted to pull up the suit. Anything to completely hide that arm. The scars. Even if she'd seen all of it. Hated how the cool air set off the sensors. Meant it could be seen.

"Yeah, okay. That takes two people. Sorry. Slipped my mind," Valeriy mumbled.

She clamored off my lap, putting up the blanket to between us again. Leaving a pair of hands blindly grabbing at the air in front of me.

I leaned into the hands. The moment they touched something, they felt their way up to my collar and grabbed the suit, tugging on it. Peeling it inside out. I quickly yanked my arm out and helped push it off the metal one. That was covered in a layer of clear gunk.

"I forgot I dumped a bottle of lube in there.... Hey Sparks? Do you have a towel in here?"

"Use the dress."

"'Kay? Wipe your arm off and lift your bum so I can pull the legs off."

"...Eve's still ranting," the librarian woman said. "I've only seen her so wound up due to you or your brother.... Or both."

"I honestly trust her to throw me under the bus to save you guys when shit hits the fan... which is why I can't let any of you bring me in. I can't risk an ambush. I don't think my body can handle much mor – Oof...."

As Valeriy took a tumble when my legs got free, the car turned. Surrounding us with trees. Lots of trees. From the change in sound and the bumps, the car had gone off road.

'Where the hell is she taking us?' I wondered.

I slipped into the shirt as soon as I could. Barely bothered to get most of the lubricant off the arm and then immediately shoving it back into the glove. Out of sight again.

Once my pants were on, I tugged down the hanging blanket. Folding everything into a neat pile. Trying not to look at the flesh suit that had been tossed into the leg space of the front passenger seat.

Made sure there was nothing on my right hand before I offered it to Valeriy. Pulling her up while watching her toss the pile of folded fabrics over the seat and into the trunk. The neat pile... was no longer neat. Or a pile.

She didn't pull her hand away and I didn't let go. Even as the minutes passed.

Silence heavy in the air. With no one relaxed.

Though my body still felt light from having the suit removed. Light and free.

I wanted to run. Run as fast as I could. Until my legs screamed. To keep going. Never stopping. And maybe... just maybe... I could finally escape everything.

All I've done.

All I've become.

But I didn't want to let go of the warm hand in mine.

"Were you... were you the one who kept Hydra away in April and May?" I asked the librarian.

Valeriy's hand clamped down on mine. Whether in apology, I wasn't sure. I couldn't see her face. The black cloth blocked the window's reflection. A window she insistently stared at.

"You can answer him," the A.I. ghost said in the librarian's ear. "Val's rather insistent about getting answers he's looking for. He already knows more than he should."

"No," the librarian breathed out. "Eve only asked me to teach you the basics with computers.... Are you referring to that infernal jammer on you? I hated that thing. Felt blind without Eve in my ear."

"If you had a choice, why would you do something you hate?" I questioned.

It didn't make sense.

"Because everyone has a price," Valeriy huffed.

"For teaching you, I got pampered at Blackberry Farm for a week," the librarian expanded, sounding much happier. "I can't think of another job that's better. This one takes me to places more beautiful than the mind can imagine. I have everything I could possibly want and things I couldn't even imagine when I was a kid on the streets."

"...On the streets?" I repeated. Nothing about her movements spoke of that.

"Mmm, I don't remember much of when I was young. My oldest memory was running through the streets of Muktsar, trying to get away from a shopkeeper I stole a samosa from....

"I joined Eve's big family when I pickpocketed one of her Puppets, Sparks. He caught me and offered me a home... and food. They educated me in everything I wanted to learn. I know how to yodel and have absolutely no use for it."

"And all you have to do is do as she tells you?" I asked, trying to wrap my mind around her life.

"Not quite. We all follow our dreams. Eve helps us achieve them. Not all of us stay with her or the Ayers. Though sometimes she'll ask them to do something and pays them in trade if they agree to it. She doesn't stop supporting them if they choose to leave."

"They get paid however they want. I think one's paid in fucking mac and cheese?" Valeriy added.

"More specifically mac and cheese I make. Maxwell won't eat anything else. I can't believe he's not rolling from place to place.... It's a waste to squander Eve's resources like that. Given enough time, she can make a lot happen."

"Each to their own."

"This can't be real," I stated. Completely baffled.

Valeriy squeezed my hand, still refusing to move her gaze from the window. "Eve makes her own money, and as long as the corporation doesn't know of it or what she does in her own time, they can't care for it. This whole Puppets thing she has going helps use. So they let her collect a bunch of kids to helicopter over."

"I am not a helicopter parent."

"Sure.... Anywho, it's a lot easier learning through Eve's methods since she figures out how best you learn or finds great teachers.... Learned a lot of random stuff through her. Like basket weaving. No clue why I bothered to learn that, but it was fun."

"Then the people who delivered the food to the house were raised by her?" I asked.

"I doubt it? Probably just random people Eve was trading with. They have no fucking idea what the hell they're doing or what they're carrying. Should be a network of people buying, then a series of passes before the box got to us?"

'She's everywhere.'

The A.I. ghost was everywhere.

'She can turn anyone....'

They didn't know why but they still....

I didn't know but I still....

Everything according to her plan.

.

.

.

Author's Note:

If you enjoyed this part, please consider leaving a vote. They're very much appreciated. ^^