VITALITY ↝ B. BARNES [1]

[5]

"Are we sure this is the best plan?" Elysia asked Tony with a concerned brow raise, both of them watching through the glass as Steve tried to talk to Barnes, who had woken up from his trance as soon as Wanda lifted her spell the moment they considered him safely restrained. "Keeping him weighed down under metal? Really?"

Bucky Barnes was sitting in an upright position in a metal chair in the center of their interrogation room, his metallic arm caught in a metal crusher Tony had installed to keep him stationary, weighing him down just enough to stay in place without causing the man any harm. He was half asleep and bleary eyed, watching the unfamiliar world in front of him through messy strands of long brown hair, which had a tendency to fall in his eyes. She could see Steve desperately trying to talk to the man he once knew as his best friend in another life, though at first Barnes didn't seem to understand a word he was saying. After a bit, however, he seemed to calm down and grow used to his new surroundings, listening to the words coming from Steve's mouth and nodding intently in response. Elysia and Tony stood together on the other side of the room's bulletproof glass wall, watching the exchange take place amidst the others scattered about the room, also observing the exchange between Steve and Bucky.

"What?" Tony asked, shrugging. "It works, doesn't it? That's over two thousand pounds of metal, I don't think Barnes can get out even if he tried. He's restrained, so if anything goes south he can't get out and try to kill all of us. The Winter Soldier took down Nick Fury a few months ago and almost got Steve in the process, so we can't take any chances. It doesn't seem to be hurting him, so I don't see a problem with it."

"You don't see a problem with a lot of things, do you, Tony?" Elysia asked, tilting her head to the side and shooting the man a small glare as his brows furrowed together in confusion.

"Meaning?" her former mentor asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Tony, you know this isn't what I signed up for." Elysia said in frustration, trying to keep her voice level and her hands steady as the electricity still buzzed around in her body from killing the generator, tiny crackles beginning to spark across her palms at the first sign of her anger. She clenched her fists tight, willing them to go away as she took a deep breath. "I was there to kill the power, not run headfirst into a building full of soldiers and fight off someone with a gun pointed to my head."

"And you did cut the power." he reminded her, reaching up to pat the top of her head before seeing the look on the young woman's face and her clenched fists still buzzing with electricity, the tips of her pink hair beginning to stand up from the force of the static, and he instead thought twice, putting his hands down. "Look, I should've warned you up front that you'd probably be fighting, and that's on me. I'm sorry. But that's why we trained you up before the mission, and hey, you made it back in one piece, didn't you?"

"You're right," Elysia retorted, giving Tony a sickeningly sweet smile that made the man look back at her with a confused expression. "I did make it back in one piece. And now I can make it back in one piece all the way to Arizona!" she cheered. "On that note, I better go pack my bags. Get the Quinjet ready."

Elysia started for the door, but Tony jumped in front of her, grabbing her shoulders to keep her in place and preventing her from walking out the door of the interrogation room. "No you're not." he said incredulously, moving away from her to block the door.

"Yes, I am." she reminded him, trying to keep her voice calm, even as every fiber of her veins screamed at her to keep moving. "I fulfilled your wishes. I cut the power, and you got Barnes. You got what you wanted, Tony, and now I'm done here, so I'm getting what I want: the hell back to Arizona."

"Not yet," Tony insisted with a humorless chuckle. "I told you, kid, you're staying for the summer."

"Why?" she asked exasperatedly, crossing her arms back over her chest. "Why do I have to stay? Our agreement was I'd come back and you needed me, which I did. You know what it's costing me to be here, Tony. You don't need me anymore, so it's time for me to go, and try to get my hands to stop sparking again before my friends back home notice."