Gold to Airy Thinness Beat

Chapter Forty-Two

She straightened; her face expressionless. "Ready to comply."

The dark-haired man - Bucky, a voice in her head informed her; his name is Bucky - paled. "What?"

Loud swearing broke out, coming from a woman - Peggy, the same voice said patiently. Her name is Peggy and she's your friend - standing nearby. "Those words," the woman, Peggy? said, "They must have been some sort of trigger for giving her new orders. It put her--"

"Back under his control," the man -- Bucky, was that his name? said with a snarl, "and she couldn't tell us."

"Of course not," the woman/Peggy said, "it wouldn't make for a very good trigger if she could stop it."

"You will report to the Valkyrie at once," the voice ordered. "Kill anyone who gets in the way."

The voice in her head was still there, telling her these people were her friends and she needed to stay with them, but the need to obey overwhelmed it. She had her mission. Everything, and everyone, else was irrelevant.

She turned her back on the two and the voice quieted, leaving an odd sensation of emptiness behind. She spotted her primary gun on the floor and retrieved it, sliding it into the holster at her hip. She retrieved her switchblade next, replacing it in her thigh holster. She saw no sign of her backup weapon but didn't waste time looking for it.

It was only as she headed off the platform that it occurred to her she'd given her back to two enemies.

Why had she done that and, what's more, why hadn't they taken advantage?

Because they aren't your enemies, the voice returned, insistent.

She ignored it.

The door into the hall was in front of her. Just before she reached it, a man with a strange hat and a mustache got in her way as if to block her. Dugan. A friend - NO, a new voice, still her own but harder, emotionless. He is in your way. Fulfill your mission. The man/Dugan/her enemy opened his mouth to speak but she never gave him a chance. She snapped an elbow into his face and followed it by pivoting on one foot to send a boot into his chest. He flew backward and hit the wall with a hard thump before slumping to the ground. The voice in her head that insisted he was a friend wailed while the other felt satisfaction at fulfilling mission parameters.

The dark-haired man/Bucky, rushed past her to kneel beside him, along with the woman, Peggy/the enemy.

The dark-haired man was partly in her way. He and the woman had pulled the man with the mustache up to sit against the wall and were talking to him. Bucky? was kneeling with one leg and his back blocking a portion of the doorway.

He's in your way, the dispassionate voice stated. Kill him.

No, the other voice broke in. Leave him alone.

She grimaced and put a hand to her head, swaying fractionally as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Her head was killing her, like someone was stabbing her in the temple with an ice pick. The voices were demanding, pulling her in opposite directions.

She felt as if she were fracturing in two.

She stepped over the dark-haired man's outstretched leg. Her hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder, as if she were trying to use him to physically stop her body from taking her out. She felt his hand grab hers for an instant, and then she was pulling free and striding past him out into the corridor.