psl } { i'll meet you any time you want

[hackedhistory]

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MASTERLIST/TIMELINE

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Zari has a question about pizza and bagels.

Zari poses a question to Bucky.

at our italian restaurant

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Zari doesn't mention it on the first dinner they have together. She saves it for the third dinner at a New York staple that she's enticed him into, a pasta place that honestly tastes like heaven. She's not sure if it's clear yet that she has some kind of ulterior motive.

(To be fair, she didn't at first. She really just wanted to understand the pizza thing and Bucky was her resident New York friend. But after a few conversations and a few trips in the jump ship, she thinks it might be worth it to broach the issue.)

"You should come back with me." She says as the waiter drops off a pair of delicious looking desserts to go with their evening of carbs. "To the Waverider."

Smooth, Zari. Very smooth.

[leftcold]

Bucky's starting to enjoy these visits. He'd say it's because it's convenient, being able to get basically the best of everything. So far they've mostly used it to avoid lines and off hours, but the idea has appeal. How else could you go to a dinner that closed sixty five years ago?

He may have been thinking about suggesting that if Zari wants to do this again, playing with the idea as he pulls a plate of tiramisu closer.

That particular invitation takes him off guard, though. "What? I know you don't drink, so you can't be asking me back for a beer."

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"Well, Gideon does have beer, so if you wanted one you could."

She doesn't drink, but she's not going to judge you if you want one. However, she's starting to realize her shot at recruitment was not going well, and there's a reason why Sara or Ava usually make these offers. But that's not the point. The offer's already been made, so she might as well follow through.

"But no. What I was saying was that I think you might do well with the Legends."

[leftcold]

That stops him, for half way back to his plate, and he gives her a skeptical look. "When you say do well with the Legends, you mean... what, exactly?"

Bucky Barnes isn't exactly known for doing well with anyone.

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No, he's not. But most of the things he's known for haven't really been him. He's not the first brainwashed assassin to set foot on the Waverider, and as long as Sara's in charge he won't be the last. But at least he'll have space where he's not going to get judged for his past.

"I mean ... we help people. And we screw up a lot of the time, but we also get the chance to fix our mistakes. And there are people there who have been where you are. They'll give you the space to figure it out."

She's mostly thinking of Sara and Nora, but she has a feeling he might get along well with Mick too.

"And we get to time travel."

Yep. That's her "Join the Legends" pitch. Maybe there's a reason why this is usually left to Sara and Ava.

[leftcold]

"You're serious?" He smiles incredulously. For a second or two after that, he's not really sure what to say.

He should probably say no. It's probably a bad idea.

The thing is, that hasn't stopped Bucky all that often.

"You are serious. That's... The time travel is pretty neat. I won't lie about that."

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People would have said that a lot of the Legends teaming up together was a bad idea. Snart and Rory, Sara, Nora - hell, even Zari herself had her issues. Nate was a hemophiliac when he boarded the ship. The Legends are a ship of people who probably shouldn't work on paper, but somehow they do.

"It is really cool. And the people are good people. They're really good at taking you as you are and meeting you in the middle. And we've got a spot on the team open. If you wanted to give it a shot, I'll introduce you to Sara."

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"If you think she'd want to meet me," Bucky says, somehow thinking his therapist wouldn't approve of anyone giving him access to change the past. "I wouldn't mind."

He takes a bite of his dessert, wondering what Sam would think.

"So what exactly do you do?"

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"Well. Something disrupts the time stream. Sometimes it's people falling through holes in time, sometimes it's monsters, sometimes it's history's greatest monsters coming back for an encore. Our AI who runs the ship tracks the anomaly, and we go take care of it."

Eventually there will be aliens too but she hasn't lived that yet.

"Usually we make a bigger mess before things get better but nobody's perfect."

[leftcold]

"I can't say some of that doesn't sound like me," Bucky admits with a shrug. There are definitely some historical bad guys he wouldn't mind punching in the face. "I'm not killing anyone anymore, though. Not if I can avoid it."

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Zari nods in agreement because that is a fair and acceptable condition. "We wouldn't ask you to. Unless it's absolutely necessary, we try to find other ways."

There are times when it's absolutely necessary. The Encores didn't go down unless you used a Hell weapon and they needed to go back down. But at least they were already dead.

"We've never really been a fan of the simplest solution."

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That's all he can ask. Bucky would rather not kill, but he knows the real world is more complicated than that—and he'd killed even before he was the Winter Soldier. He'd still been a soldier.

But he doesn't want to be a person who kills others too easily.

So he nods and leans closer, crossing his arms on the table top.

"All right," he says, nodding. "Tell me a little more about the team. Sara's the leader?"

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It's a very rare occurrence where they find themselves in the future, rather than the past. Zari doesn't know why the odds of all the anachronisms and magical monsters end in them winding up in the past but whatever. It's fine. She gets to punch lots of gross men and save Helen of Troy. But there are some things that she doesn't get to share with her friends one day.

Not all of her future is doom, gloom and martial law. There are some bright spots. So when an anchronism happens to end up in Seattle, 2033, she's intially excited. She thinks of the long list of places they could go - and more importantly eat - once things are said and done. Then they get the mission, and ... well, things take a much more serious tone. Once they find out the anachronism is Howard Stark, fresh from his post-war leg up from the government, she calls dibs on Bucky and they head out into the streets.

It's not quite as bad as it will get, in the time when she first met the Legends. ARGUS is still playing at giving people choices in their lives while brainwashing their children. People are still allowed to walk the streets freely, so long as they don't visually identify themselves as an unwanted group. She tucks her air totem under clothes, before glancing over to him.

"Are you going to be okay, doing this?"

She's not blind to who this person is to Bucky, given his personal history, and she wants to make sure that he'll be okay.

"If you'd be more comfortable running QB, we could go back to the ship."

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"No, this is fine," Bucky says. He might be more convincing if he would relax slightly, or if he could stop fidgeting every time his hands were out of his pockets, playing with his gloves.

"Makes more sense for me to be out here. He knows me."

And in theory, he might trust him.

Hard to say really.

Bucky glances over his shoulder.

"If he believes it's actually me."

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There's likely a sliding scale for that. Not that she doesn't think that Howard might have a certain level of incredulity when it comes to his old (dead) friend paying him a visit when he's been transported to the future, there is one variable that might throw a wrench into things.

"How likely do you think he is to Google himself?"

Because if he does, they could be heading into all kinds of scenarios.

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"Let's hope he hasn't found out about Google yet." Because Howard would Google himself immediately. Not that he's an egomaniac... but the man might be an egomaniac.

"He's not ready for that. For a lot of reasons."

Not just finding out how he died, but what happened to Steve, what happened to the world?

"No one's ready for that."

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"No, no one is."

But from her understanding, no Stark has ever withheld from something they weren't ready for. They're very much the jump in head first and pay the consequences later types. But this is Bucky's friend, and given that she also knows how that friendship ended, she doesn't want to go too far down that rabbit hole.

"Maybe he got detained for being too much at someone and he hasn't figured out what the internet is yet."

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"We can hope, but when's anything we've done ever been that easy?"

He doesn't even mean the Winter Soldier this time, but the Legends. He doesn't think anyone on the team has ever seemed to have better luck than he has.

"We can find him first and go from there. If it seems like letting him see me too soon is a bad idea, we'll adjust the plan."

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Zari nods, because it makes sense. As they round a corner, Gideon chirps in their ears, distributing the latest information.

"Ms. Tomaz, it seems as though your algorithm has picked up a recent arrest for a man claiming to be Howard Stark. He's not far from your location, but ARGUS has already been alerted."

" ... Great. We're going to have to move fast."

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Bucky is already moving, though he's not really sure where they're going. Bot exactly.

He just knows they're going to have to get there fast.

"Howard is going to try to talk his way out of it."

And it's going to cause more trouble. That goes without saying, right?

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"Of course he is."

That's what Starks do, in her very limited experience. But there are bigger things than that to worry about, and she reaches for his arm gently to slow him down.

"We need to be careful. ARGUS is going to know who you are, and if they recognize you they'll try to take you too."

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"Hey? You don't think I can be discreet?"

He says in a voice he knows himself isn't exactly going to encourage confidence.

"I'll hold back if you think it's for the best, but one way or the other we're gonna want to move quick. Stark won't be long before he makes a small mess into a bigger mess."

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"I'm not saying hold back."

If anything, they're going to eventually need to go hard. But they have to get in deep enough to be able to have access to Howard first, and that's going to take some maneuvering.

"We just want to make sure your arm is covered and maybe avoid letting the drones run facial recognition."

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"I can manage that. Gloves. Jacket. The facial recognition is a little trickier, but I've had practice." He means it as a reassurance, but it's hard to say how effective it'll be.

Maybe reminding her he's been a fugitive before isn't actually the best tactic.

"Worst comes to worst, I'm pretty good at getting out of tight spots."