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sjsmith56 · 7 months

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Hold Me - Chapter 11, Finding Jade

Summary: Jade has a nightmare about the Others Queen but doesn’t wake up from it. Bucky takes her to the medical bay where Bruce determines she has contracted a virus. Her only chance of survival is a transfusion from a super soldier. After she recovers Jade is sent away while they get a sample of the Queen, hoping a fungi expert can identify her weaknesses. While in Albuquerque Jade is approached by the remnants of her father’s cult who won’t leave her alone. Realizing that she needs to break their fixation on her leads her to make a decision about her abilities.

Length: 4.4K

Characters: Bucky, Jade, Bruce, Ma, Steve, Dr. Strange, fungi expert.

Warnings: infection, fear of losing each other (Bucky and Jade), harassment from cult members, first real fight between Bucky and Jade.

Author notes: The part of the fungi expert is played by real life Washington state mycologist Paul Stamets. If you've heard the name before it's because his name is also used for a character on Star Trek Discovery, supposedly a descendant of the real man.

<<Chapter 10

🩺⚕️

She's out in the Badlands again. Running, looking behind her constantly. They found her and are tracking her. Everywhere she goes they push up the ground, sometimes behind her, sometimes in front. She has the sudden realization they are herding her towards something or someone. It's a maze and she's the rat but it isn't a prize at the end. It's something terrible, something worse. If she could she would stop but there is no where else to go except where they are herding her. In frustration she starts to cry but she doesn't stop. A sharp spasm of pain cuts through her side, where the wound was. Pressing her hand on it she tries to temper the pain but it doesn't work.

"Jade," said Bucky, touching her head, which was burning. "Jade, wake up."

She didn't respond. Bucky ran to the intercom. "Bruce, you awake? It's Jade. She won't wake up."

"Bring her to the lab, now!" said Bruce, from his room.

He threw on a T-shirt and sweat pants and ran to the lab. Bucky came in moments later carrying an unconscious Jade in his arms. Bruce looked at her, unsure of what was happening. He had taken blood and a tissue sample only a few hours earlier. There were no results yet but this wasn't good. Gingerly pulling her night shirt up he was shocked to see the inflammation had spread across her entire abdomen. Grabbing a thermometer he put it into her armpit and asked Bucky to keep her arm pressed to her side. While he did that he prepared to insert an IV into her good arm. The thermometer beeped 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Fever. Putting a tourniquet on he tapped her vein and inserted the cannula taping it in place, then hooked it up to a bag of saline and placed it onto the pole.

"Go get Ma," he said. "I need her to look into Jade's mind and to contact Strange for the lab results."

Bucky ran to Ma's room, banging on her door. She came straight to it and just looked at him then ran past him to the medical lab. Rushing in she looked at Bruce and both saw and felt the worry he felt.

Touching Jade she attempted to enter her daughter's mind.

"Jade!" she called.

She was in the Badlands but she couldn't see her daughter. Looking down at the ground she saw footprints and started following them running as fast as she could. After a few minutes she saw her daughter and she called again. Jade turned around and saw her mother, her face terrified.

"No!" she yelled. "Go back, it's the queen. She's found me somehow. Ma, leave!"

Suddenly the ground around Jade erupted and a huge mass appeared out of the ground. It undulated in front of Jade and looked like it was ready to devour her. The ground shook behind Ma and she turned. It was Bucky, but it wasn't Bucky and with a flash of understanding she realized it was the Winter Soldier. He looked at her and in a voice devoid of emotion or feeling said he would kill the creature as it was now his mission. He strode towards the mass, pulling a massive gun out of a back holster. Aiming at it he started firing and didn't stop until he had emptied the magazine. He had wounded it but it still threatened Jade. Dropping the gun he reached into sheaths on his thighs, pulling out two long knives and with a roar charged the mass jumping up near the top and slashing at it. In a fury he kept slashing and stabbing. Even though he did damage it was obvious he couldn't kill it and it fought back, finally throwing him to the ground at Ma's feet.

"I am unable to comply," he said to Ma, "and cannot complete my mission. Tell Sergeant Barnes to give her the part of him that can fight infection. He will understand."

Looking straight ahead he blinked once and moved no more. Ma felt his throat for a pulse but there was none. Then she looked at Jade who was cowering at the base of the still wounded mass. Knowing what she had to do she envisioned herself back in her body.

She stepped away from Jade and was a little unsteady. "It's the queen," she said. "Somehow it found her and it's in her subconscious. The Winter Soldier was there and he fought it but it killed him. Before he died he said for Bucky to give her the part of him that can fight infection."

"A blood transfusion?" asked Bucky. "Bruce, if it's her only chance."

"We don't know what it will do to her," said Bruce. "Ma, his blood is full of super soldier serum and it could give all sorts of side effects to Jade."

"I'm guessing it's loaded with antibodies and anti-oxidants as well, isn't it?" she asked anxiously. "Bruce, that thing is ready to kill her, render her brain dead. If this is her only chance...."

Bucky sat and started tying on the tourniquet himself. "Do it," he said. "We'll deal with the side effects later but I'm not letting her die."

"Do it Bruce," said Steve, who had been watching from the door. "If you don't want to give her Bucky's blood, give her mine, but if it's as bad as Ma says then do it.

"Alright, we'll do a direct transfusion from Steve," he said. "He's the same blood type as Jade. Ma, can you bring over the other gurney for Steve to lie on and set up the transfusion? He needs to be elevated so gravity will push it into her system."

Ma set it up and inserted the needle into Steve's arm. She allowed the blood to flow then connected it to Jade's IV. Standing near Jade she touched her daughter's head. Bucky sat on the other side. Looking at Steve he nodded at him then rested his forehead on Jade's hand.

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

Bucky's head was on Jade's hand when her fingers moved. Instantly he was awake. She was looking at him and smiled. Without hesitating he stood up, leaned over her and kissed her gently on the lips.

"You scared me," he said. "You wouldn't wake up. Ma went into your head and said the queen was there and the Winter Soldier."

She nodded. "He tried to fight her but she killed him," she said. "Then suddenly she didn't look too well and she sort of folded in on herself. Ma was there, said Steve gave me some of his blood. Does that mean I'm a super soldier now?"

Bucky laughed. "I don't know," he said. "But you tell me if you ever want to pick a fight with a bully, okay? I wanted to give you blood but we don't match."

"Hey, how's my favourite patient?" asked Bruce. "Here, I need to take your temperature. Your mom sent a thought message to Strange and he came while you were out. Your blood work was indicative of an infection. The tissue sample was just inflamed, nothing indicative in it. We think the queen was giving you an infection telepathically. Whatever it was Steve's blood seems to have taken care of it."

He pulled the thermometer out and smiled, nodding his head.

"Where's Ma?" asked Jade.

"After she came back out of your head she said you would be okay and went back to bed. So did Steve," said Bucky. "Strange won't let you near the queen anymore. You're done. It's too dangerous for you."

"Will you let me go back to our room?" she asked then looked at Bucky. "I just want to lie in your arms."

"Sure," replied Bruce, "straight to sleep, now okay?"

He disconnected the IV line and pulled the cannula out of her hand, putting a bandaid on the spot. Bucky picked her up and carried her to their door. Jade entered the code and he carried her into the bedroom, laying her on the bed. He laid beside her and pulled her into his arms, kissing her on the forehead.

In the morning Jade woke before Bucky and watched him as he slept. She brushed the hair from his face with her fingers and smiled remembering how alert he had been that first time she entered his bedroom and he pulled a gun on her. Now, he didn't move as she touched his hair. The trust that had developed between them was incredible and she didn't know if she could ever live without it or him, again.

"Marry me," she whispered. "Don't ever leave me."

He still slept but she had voiced her desire and now it was up to destiny to make it known to him. The intercom buzzed and she got up to answer it. Steve was calling a breakfast meeting of everyone in 30 minutes. Bucky's eyes were open and he smiled when he saw she was up and looking much better. Getting out of the bed he held her and kissed her tenderly.

"I wish we had more time," he said regretfully.

They quickly showered, dressed and joined the others in the common room where Dr. Strange had arrived and was talking to Steve in hushed tones. When Bucky walked in Steve called him over and Jade sat next to her mother and Ben.

"We have a mission," said Steve. "Well, Bucky and I do. We are going to be testing a device developed using the information gathered by the cult and by Jade's encounter yesterday. There is one complication. Strange."

"When Jade had her encounter with the queen yesterday the queen used her telepathic powers to plant a virus in Jade," he said. "Matters came to a head overnight when Jade was brought to the medical centre for treatment in an unconscious state. It was only cured by a blood transfusion from Steve here. Our plan had been to use Jade to force another encounter with the queen but it's too dangerous for her to be close by so we've developed a kind of projection unit that will mimic Jade's brain waves, fooling the queen into thinking it's Jade out there. By using Steve and Bucky their super soldier blood should protect them from any viruses. Jade, you will be in Albuquerque, far enough away from here so that you shouldn't be affected by the queen's telepathy."

Jade started to protest but Strange held firm. "I have looked into the future possibilities on this," he said. "In all of the scenarios where you stayed, you were reinfected. In all of the scenarios where you were elsewhere you weren't. It's as simple as that."

Bruce put up a hand. "What came of your consultation with the mushroom guy?" he asked.

"Without a sample he can't be sure," said Strange. "One of the mission objectives is to secure a sample. If it is mycelium based we may be able to use a fungicide on her but we will have to test that. Right now we want to see if we can hurt the drones enough that she disconnects from them and they die leaving her with fewer resources and hopefully starve herself."

Scott and Ben would be going with Jade to Albuquerque and accommodation had been arranged. Dr. Strange opened a portal for them and they were met by the sheriff on the other side. He took them to his house where he had a spare bedroom and a spare couch. Scott took the couch while Jade and Ben took the twin beds in the spare bedroom. Since it was still late morning the sheriff's wife asked if they wanted to go to the market. At first they declined but Ben had never been to a market and begged to just walk around and get a feel of it. For him it was exciting. The sounds, the people, and the bartering were all new and exciting to him. Even Scott found it interesting having missed much of it when he first arrived. For Jade it brought a mixture of good and not so good memories. Good watching Bucky and Peter in action as traders, seeing Bucky do what he did best when he dealt with the not so good traffickers. She stopped to watch some haggling on a transaction and didn't notice a number of people who had approached her.

"Excuse me," said a man, "you're the white haired mother of greatness aren't you?"

"No, I'm not," said Jade, walking away from the man.

"You are!" he exclaimed. "Elder Abraham foretold your coming. You are here, we are saved."

Scott took Jade's arm. "Let's just move along and get away from this believer," he said to her.

It didn't matter. As word spread amongst the cult members who had stayed, having no where else to go, they started following her, singing her praises and calling for her to show her powers to the unbelievers. Even turning on them and telling them to leave her alone had no effect and eventually the sheriff's wife took them home. That should have been the end of it until people started showing up outside the sheriff's home, praying, singing, and making a nuisance of themselves. Jade tried asking them to leave but they saw it as her testing their faith. Sheriff Peters ended up assigning two deputies to keep guard at his house, in order to prevent the followers from trying to enter his home.

"I'm so sorry," said Jade. "I've told them I'm an ordinary person but they continue to insist I'm not. I don't know what else to do."

"It's alright," said the sheriff, "John Langford did a real number on them. Faith is a hard thing to break."

Jade went straight to her room and sat on the bed. The encounters with the remaining cult members had shaken her. She went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. The memory of the Winter Soldier appearing came into her head, followed by the attack of the queen on her mind. The words of the sheriff about faith being hard to break stuck with her. Until she broke their faith they would never leave her alone.

The encounter with the queen went as hoped. The queen accepted the projected transmission as Jade and tried to break out of the ground several times. Between them Steve and Bucky were able to get two samples of the queen before having to jump through a portal for safety. Strange took the samples and opened a portal to his fungus expert in Washington state. Bruce was looking at the data from the transmission that mimicked Jade.

"You know," he said out loud to no one in particular. "This might be the weapon we could use against the queen. If we lure her out of the ground and keep her attention focussed on the transmission it might make her nests easier to destroy.”

"What do you mean, Bruce?" asked Steve.

"We could suspend a speaker from a helicopter or a drone for that matter and ramp up the frequencies enough to bring the queen out of the ground," said Bruce. "Look at the data on the nests. When the queen was trying to get out of the ground the nests were suffering. The queen was hell bent on getting to those transmissions and willing to sacrifice her drones to do it. They could be stressed enough to make them vulnerable to attack, especially the ones further away from her."

"I still have those IEDs," said Sam, drawn into the conversation. "I could drop them on the outer nest locations with a remote command. When you lure her out I set them off. She said she was immune to bombs. Never said anything about the nests or the drones being immune."

"I think we should test it out," said Bucky. "What do we have to lose?"

"Let's get it set up and ready to go," said Steve, "but we don't implement it until we hear from Dr. Strange."

When a portal was sent for Jade, Ben and Scott the following morning to return to the bunker they readily took it. Jade went straight to her room without seeing anyone. In the hours before Dr. Strange reappeared Bucky sought out Jade, concerned she hadn't checked in with him. He found her lying on her side in their bed. Kicking his boots off he climbed on with her.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked softly. "You came straight here after returning."

"Just thinking," she said. "The cult members still in Albuquerque recognized me. Wouldn't leave me alone. Sheriff Peters had to assign two deputies to keep them from trying to enter his home. I can't live in a bubble, Bucky. Those people will never leave me alone."

He sighed. "There's talk of the Avengers going back to New York to fight the Others there," he said. "Come back with me. There's no cult members there."

"I'm a country girl," she said simply. "I'll visit but living in a concrete building with neighbours just feet away doesn't appeal to me. I'm sorry but I can't. And the cult members have a link to me. They would find me eventually."

"You won't even try it out?" he asked. "You don't know if you would like the city or not."

"Don't," she said, pulling away. "I'm dealing with some shit right now and you're not helping."

"Fine," he said, sitting up and pulling his boots on. "When you're ready to talk come and find me. We might have a way to finally defeat the Others and you're in here moping about some deluded people who think you're their messiah. Forgive me for not giving it the importance you think is necessary."

He stood up to walk away then looked back to see her silently crying. "Fuck, I'm sorry," he said getting back on the bed. "I'm so, so sorry. I can say some nasty shit when I get angry but that was unjustified. Baby, please, forgive me."

Pulling her close into his arms he stroked her hair while she cried. He kissed her and it became more passionate between them until the intercom buzzed.

"Bucky, Strange is back," said Steve. "Come to the common room, both of you."

"His timing is perfect," said Bucky, pulling her T-shirt back down to her waist.

They walked hand in hand to the common room. Strange had a man with him.

"Who's the guy?" asked Bucky of Scott.

"Paul Stamets, his fungus expert," said Scott.

"Oh good, everyone is here," said Dr. Strange. "If you didn't hear the introductions this is Paul Stamets, one of the world's top experts in fungi. He's had a good look at the samples we took and while they are fungi, they're like no fungus he has ever seen."

"Thanks Stephen," said Stamets. "You all think of fungus as mushrooms, or mold on damp areas but there are thousands of different types. Some reproduce sexually, some asexually, there are several other different ways which I won't get into. This one, the Others, is of extremely high intelligence and purpose. It's purpose is to kill humans because we are resistant to its attempt to enter a symbiotic relationship with us."

"What's a symbiotic relationship?" asked Clint.

"It's a mutually beneficial relationship between two species that keeps them both alive," said Stamets. "The Others are two species, the queen, and the drones. Even though the queens in wetter environments resemble the drones I think that's by design not by nature. This queen, out here in the desert, this is the true appearance of that species. The queens needed the drones to get to our planet – they have the technology although we haven't seen their space craft yet. She has no technology – only the ability to connect with the drones. Until the young woman here connected mentally they were only able to kill humans. They couldn't form a new symbiotic relationship with a human."

"Was she trying to form a symbiotic relationship with me?" asked Jade. "Is that why she was trying to break out of the ground?"

"That's my theory," he said. "I believe she wanted to use you as a bridge to forming symbiotic relationships with other humans. This is a nice planet for them. Three quarters water, lots of biological matter for her to thrive. It's like she wants us to join her family, which we don't, right?"

"So, Jade, we have to send you away again while we test a new attack strategy on her," said Strange. "I won't send you to Albuquerque. I'm sending you to Santa Fe, just for a few hours. Maria will go with you this time. Ben, do you want to go with your mom?"

"No, I would like to watch, please," he said. "This is pretty cool stuff."

A ghost of a smile crossed Strange's face. Bucky hugged and kissed Jade then she and Maria stepped through the waiting portal. Sam got into his gear and with his satchel of IEDs went out to lay them in place over the outermost nests, setting each to explode when it received his signal. While he did that the transmission device was attached to the bottom of the quinjet. Both Bucky and Clint would be piloting it. They would also have the back open with Steve, Peter, and Scott with safety harnesses on to visually monitor nest activity below them. As soon as the quinjet was in position they turned the transmission on to its highest level. Sam had all of his weaponized drones on alert to watch for any Others counterattack.

Red Wing was recording everything for study later and providing a live link to Strange, Bruce, Stamets and the others. As soon as the transmission started the ground immediately below undulated as the queen pushed her way up through the strata. It seemed as if she was straining to get to the source of the transmissions and her colour changed to something sickly the further she extended herself.

"I can hear the drones," said Ma, "and they're not happy."

"Wanda, can you sense anything from the queen?" asked Strange.

"Anger, that Jade is just out of her reach," said Wanda who could now sense emotions from the queen. "She's also angry at the drones. They're not doing enough to maintain her."

"Sam, set the IEDs off," said Strange. "Do the first set individually then wait for my order to set off the rest."

Sam sent the signal to the outermost nests and one by one six nests were blown up. Strange looked at the readouts and smiled as the data showed those nests had been neutralized. He and Stamets looked at the live view of the queen and saw her colour had become even worse.

"Sam, set the whole damn lot up," ordered Strange. "Get clear of any blast waves."

Moving up even higher Sam sent the signal to blow all of the IEDs he had set and watched as a massive explosion obscured everything from his vision.

"Damn, that was one big blast," he said. "I can't see anything. What does the data show?"

Everyone in the common room was looking at the data coming in from the nests and the queen. Not a single nest was still alive. The ones which had no IEDs had just stopped functioning.

"Quinjet," said Strange. "Can you see anything? Red Wing's view is still obscured."

Peter unhooked his harness and slung a web downwards, lowering himself closer to the surface.

"There's nothing," he reported. "Chunks of flesh, debris. It looks like she exploded."

Sam flew closer in so he was level with Peter. "That's confirmed," he said. "There's nothing left of the queen, almost as if she overextended herself and it was too much for her body to take."

"Okay, stop the transmission," Strange said. "Everybody in except Sam and Red Wing. Sam, continue monitoring for visual life signs. I'm not going out there until I'm sure nothing is alive."

Inside the Bunker everyone continued watching the data, or lack of data that was coming in. Strange looked at Stamets and they both looked at the others.

"Let's go have a look," Strange said. "Oh, before I forget. Ma send a message to Jade. I'm sending them a portal."

He created a portal and the two women walked in. Bucky hugged Jade and whispered in her ear that it looked like it worked. They killed the queen and the drones. She held him hard and kissed him, smiling at the apparent success. Outside they all loaded into the quinjet and it took off for the site of the queen. Sam was still there and confirmed there were no signs of life in his goggle readouts. Finding a clear spot they landed and streamed out to a landscape littered with the remains of the queen. Stamets had brought sampling equipment with him and was busy picking up pieces of the queen and sealing them in plastic bags or containers. Due to the heat and the overhead position of the sun her body parts were already starting to dry out and curl up. As the others spread out to find out what happened to the nearby nests Jade approached Dr. Strange.

"Can I have a moment of your time?" she asked. "I need to talk to you and Wanda in private. There's something I need to do and only you two can help me."

He looked at her strangely, but nodded and said to meet at 9 pm in the garage. He watched as she went to Wanda and saw the same look on her face as he felt on his. The witch looked at him and he nodded. There had been a 50% chance of this request and Strange knew exactly what he, Wanda, and Jade would be doing on the following morning.

Chapter 12>>

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