Chapter 42

HYDRA Facility, Siberia

When they landed outside the facility, F.R.I.D.A.Y. gave Maggie control over her limbs again. Maggie fumbled the mask of her suit back, and the frozen wind took her breath away.

The wastelands of Siberia felt like a half-forgotten dream coming to life around her. The ground was nothing but black rock and white snow. The wind blew ice crystals off the ground and into Maggie's face, howling around her skin and hair. The glimpses she caught of metal hatches and doors in the ground resonated with dark memories.

The last time she'd stood in this rocky wasteland she was fifteen, her mind blank and her hands stained with blood.

Verre, transmission, affam é-

Maggie shivered and pushed away the memories. The Project Leader was gone, his blood dried up in the rock below. This wasn't about him.

Narrowing her eyes, Maggie assessed the situation – the bunker doors were cracked open, and the wind howled in the empty space beyond. There was a snowmobile parked a few feet away – Zemo, Maggie thought with a flash of anger – and the Quinjet rested just beside it.

Tony was trying to scan the base, but if the irritated tilt of his head was anything to go by, he wasn't having much luck. "Well this place is a cliché evil lair," he grumbled, and Maggie smiled despite herself.

"Give me a second," she called, and jogged toward the Quinjet. Her body ached at the movements, but she pushed through the pain – her body needed time to heal, but she'd have to schedule that for later. For now, the serum would keep her upright.

Maggie hustled up the jet's ramp and looked around, until her eyes focused on a panel in the wall marked Romanoff. She opened it and smiled at the rack of weapons that slid out.

A few seconds later, Tony appeared at the bottom of the Quinjet ramp. "C'mon, what're you doing? Looking for an inflight meal?" Maggie reappeared at the top of the ramp, and his eyes widened inside his helmet at the sight of her clutching a very large gun.

"Something like that," Maggie replied, striding down the ramp and joining him in the snow. She felt a bit better now – the weapon didn't exactly make her feel comfortable, but now she had a way of fighting back. Her body still bloomed with pain whenever she moved, and she felt impossibly small without her wings, but with the weapon she was better able to hide the weakness she felt. She was more used to smaller weapons, weapons she could strap across her body while flying, but she'd been trained in just about everything.

She and Tony approached the metal doors of the facility together, his metal boots crunching in the snow and her padded polymer ones silently padding along beside him.

Every step toward the darkness waiting behind the doors made Maggie's throat constrict. Tony went in first, and Maggie held her breath as she followed. Concrete walls and heavy metal doors met them, and Maggie's fingers tightened on her gun. She supposed she should put the synthetic suit's helmet back up, but the thought of covering her face and trapping herself inside the suit made her skin prickle. The last time she'd come here she'd been faceless.

Tony wasn't oblivious to the haunted look on her face, or the way her fingers shifted nervously on her weapon. "You've been here before," he noted.

Maggie swallowed. "Twice."

He wisely didn't ask what for.

They paced further into the base, and Maggie felt the icy calm of the Wyvern slip over her mind. Normally she'd fight it, but anything was better than the snowstorm of fear and memories clouding her mind. She lifted her gun and watched Tony's back, glancing down side-corridors as her feet paced silently over the concrete floor.

They came up against the cage elevator, and Tony cocked his head at it. Maggie had a flash-memory of standing in that very same elevator, surrounded by men taller and angrier than her.

"I'm not going in the murder elevator," Tony decided, his helmeted voice loud, and he turned left. Maggie tried to keep her breath of relief quiet, but she didn't think she managed it.

"Bet you wish you were back in the slammer about now," Tony said conversationally, as he lifted one glowing gauntlet to light the way down a set of stairs.

A frown quirked Maggie's brow, but not at the comment – all of her tactical training was telling her to maintain silence at this moment, but it didn't seem that Tony cared much about tactical training or the element of surprise. Then again, they were here looking for a fight, so she supposed it didn't matter.

"Not really," she muttered, stepping smoothly around him to make sure the upcoming corridor was clear. "Underground bunkers aren't great, but they're a step up from underwater prisons."

"That's fair." His tone was light, but Maggie could hear a hard undercurrent beneath it. She wasn't sure how to read it – did Tony regret sending his team members to that place?

She shook off the thoughts and focused on the mission. She and Tony worked well together, him lighting the way and her watching their backs, gun aloft. Tony was loud and bright, an obvious target; Maggie didn't like that but she used it to her advantage, sticking to the shadows and keeping her footsteps light. If anyone attacked Tony they wouldn't see her coming.

They came up against a short drop, leading to a set of closed metal doors. Tony paused, muttered "parkour!" and then hopped off the ledge, landing with a clang.

Maggie rolled her eyes, but jumped down after him. She instantly regretted it when her cracked ribs shrieked, sending a bolt of pain up her spine and into the base of her neck. She winced, but didn't cry out.

Tony wedged his gloves into the gap between the doors and pulled, the metal groaning under the strength of his armor. Maggie, covering the route they'd come down, raised an eyebrow. That suit was cool.

The doors slammed open, and Tony paused. Maggie glanced over her shoulder to see what the hold up was, and – oh.

She noticed the colourful shield first, and then her eyes tracked to the figures behind it. Steve's face, eyes wide and wary, and Bucky a dark, glinting shadow over his shoulder, with his gun trained on Iron Man. They were crouched on the far stairs.

Maggie let her eyes close for a brief second. They made it, they're safe. She opened her eyes again when Tony started walking forward, his helmet retracting. Steve stepped out of the shadows of the stairs, shield still raised, and Bucky kept his gun trained on Tony.

Maggie moved into the light and saw the exact moment Steve and Bucky noticed her behind Iron Man. Steve's eyes widened even further, darting between she and Tony. Bucky's gun dipped and she felt his confusion and concern radiate across the space between them like a physical force.

Maggie lowered her gun and tried to communicate it's okay, we're here to help with her eyes, but Tony was still walking forward, and Bucky wasn't going to leave Steve unprotected.

"You seem a little defensive," Tony said, cocking his head.

Steve nodded. "It's been a long day."

Tony's attention flicked up to Bucky, still rigid on the stairs, and he called "at ease, soldier, I'm not currently after you."

Maggie's face twisted. Currently.

"Then why are you here?" Steve shot back.

Tony shrugged. "Could be your story's not so crazy. Maybe. Ross has no idea we're here," he said, his head tilting back at Maggie. "I'd like to keep it that way." He sighed and leaned against a nearby concrete pillar. "Otherwise I've gotta arrest myself."

Maggie couldn't help another smile despite the situation – just being near Tony, hearing his voice, was a joy she never thought she could have. But she kept back, and kept silent. This was for Tony and Steve to hash out, since they were the ones with the problem.

Maggie could see that remarkable look of trust filtering into Steve's expression. "Well that sounds like a lot of paperwork."

Tony huffed a laugh, and some of the tension across Maggie's shoulders eased at the semi-truce. Sure enough, Steve lowered his shield.

"It's good to see you, Tony."

"You too, Cap." Tony's head swivelled back to Bucky, and he made a disgusted sound. "Manchurian Candidate, you're killin' me. There's a truce here, you can drop-"

Steve raised a hand to Bucky, and Bucky finally lowered his gun. As he did his eyes flickered to Maggie, questioning. Relieved that people weren't about to start punching each other again, Maggie stepped out of the doorway and approached the three men, eyes fixed on Bucky. She could see he was relieved she was okay, and concerned about her appearance in this facility. She smiled at him, taking in his exhausted-looking features and his rigid posture. At her smile Bucky relaxed and leaned against the wall, his blue-grey eyes warming.

"Did you guys just communicate telepathically?" came Tony's voice, and Maggie glanced at her brother. He was looking back and forth between she and Bucky, eyebrows raised. "I feel like you guys just communicated telepathically."

She replied with an enigmatic smirk.

Tony rolled his eyes. "So you two are together, then."

The blood drained from Maggie's face, but then Tony clarified: "Have been together." He waved his hand between them, his expression cagey. "Ever since… y'know."

Oh. "Yes," she said, taking a breath of relief as Tony's face twisted. "We've been with each other since HYDRA." It wasn't that she and Bucky were going out of their way to hide their relationship, it was just… very complicated right now. Maggie met Bucky's eyes and saw similar relief and uncertainty in his eyes.

Tony, after taking a moment to adjust to the knowledge that his sister had been on the run with the Winter Soldier since the events of D.C., awkwardly gestured to Maggie as he looked back at Steve. "We're your backup."

Steve nodded once, before his eyes flickered to Maggie. "You're okay?" His voice was steady, but Maggie knew he was thinking about her screams over the commlink.

She shrugged and ignored the corresponding twinge in her spine. "I feel great."

No one present believed her, but her assurance was enough for Steve. "Let's keep moving," he said, back in Captain mode, and took point up the stairs. Tony followed, helmet flipping back over his face.

Maggie and Bucky took the rear, their bodies shifting back into combat mode. They kept shooting looks at each other out of the corners of their eyes as they moved.

Maggie nodded at Bucky's gun. "You steal that from the Widow too?" she asked.

Bucky smirked, and shot an approving glance at her gun. Maggie wished she could reach out and touch him, just a fleeting brush against his skin to make sure he was really there, but this wasn't the right audience for that. Physical comfort would have to wait.

Bucky shot her a warm look, and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

"What are you wearing?" he muttered, quirking a brow at the pale grey suit as he swung past her to clear a room full of boxes.

Maggie bit back a teasing, flirty remark and focused on eyeing the path behind them. "A synthetic protective suit. Under that, prison clothes."

She hadn't intended it, but the comment made tension crackle between the three men ahead of her. They fell silent again. Oops.

It felt odd, walking through the dusty facility with Bucky, Steve and Tony. Like a strange dream filled with characters from her waking life, set in one of her old nightmares. She didn't let the eerie feeling distract her, though, and she focused on watching her small team's flank. They paced through the abandoned facility, leaving footprints in the dust and catching glimpses of their reflections in shattered windows.

With her brother's gleaming armor, Steve's shield, and Bucky's warm, solid presence beside her, Maggie felt a small bud of hope that they could take on whatever was waiting for them.

She was the last to enter the final, silo-like chamber, pacing backwards as she kept her gun trained on the corridors behind them. She thought she saw a flash of black and silver, and her brow furrowed, but-

"I've got heat signatures," Tony said, and Maggie's heart pounded.

"How many?" asked Steve. Maggie followed him into the room, dismissing whatever she'd seen as a broken reflection, or some long-gone flash memory.

"Uh… one."

Maggie turned around, and her jaw clenched at the huge, dark space beyond. As she peered into the darkness there was a whir of electricity and the lights powered on. Four glass cryo-chambers glowed yellow, illuminating the room and the memory suppression chair in the centre.

Maggie's fingers tightened on her gun, and the breath left her chest in a rush. She thought she'd been ready – she remembered this space, remembered being ordered to sit in that exact chair after beating the Soldier to a pulp in the snow. But knowing the chair was going to be there didn't stop her entire body locking up with fear at the sight of the metal contraption. She knew what it felt like to have those overhead lights glaring into her eyes, she knew the exact sound those metal plates made when they descended on her face, sparking and crackling. She knew the hard bite of the chair and the way the restraints dug into her skin.

She knew what it felt like to know a face, to be just on the edge of feeling, only to have it wiped away. Her eyes flicked to Tony, and her heartbeat roared in her ears.

Bucky had also seen the chair, if the rigid line of his shoulders was anything to go by. He leaned into Maggie's space for a moment, and the warm solidness of him eased her instinctive fear a little.

Strangely, it was the reactions of the other two members of their small team that made her feel safer. Steve's eyes darted toward Bucky and Maggie as soon as he noticed the chair, taking in their anxious reactions. His jaw tightened and his eyes softened, just for a moment, and Maggie remembered that he would do anything to protect Bucky, and she was pretty sure he'd protect her as well.

Tony was inscrutable in his armored mask, but she could feel his gaze on her as she breathed through her panic, just for a moment. When his glowing eye slits turned back to the larger room, Maggie heard the faint whir of his gauntlet closing into a fist.

Steve paced forward, followed by the rest of them, but he pulled up short as a voice echoed:

"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep."

Maggie flinched, and her eyes darted to the computers linked to the cryo-chambers. Flat lines tracked across each screen.

Steve started walking again, he and Tony circling around to the right of the memory suppression chair. Their footsteps were loud in the silent space. Bucky went left, his body rigid. Who knew how many times he'd been wiped here.

As Maggie stepped closer she saw the bullet holes in the cryo-chambers, and the cold, lifeless faces within, and her skin prickled. He came all this way to kill them?

As if reading her thoughts, the man spoke over the intercom again: "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

Maggie bristled, turning on the spot as if she could find the disembodied voice if she looked hard enough. Zemo, that was what Tony had said his name was.

Bucky got agitated, fidgeting with his gun and glancing around. "What the hell?" he whispered.

Maggie examined the dead faces of the Winter Soldiers. She'd never met them, had only ever had the idea of them hanging over her. But the bullet holes in their foreheads disturbed her more than many other grisly scenes she'd witnessed. Why?

"I'm grateful to them, though," Zemo continued. "They brought you here."

At the far end of the room, a screen lifted to reveal the man who must have been Zemo – an unassuming face, dark hair and dark clothes. Everyone in the room reacted. Bucky and Maggie's guns swung up and Tony aimed a missile, but Steve got there first. His shield ricocheted off some kind of protective shell and bounced back into his outstretched hand.

"Please, Captain," Zemo tutted, as more lights burst into life around the room, revealing that he was in some kind of missile bunker. Maggie flinched and took a few steps back, keeping her gun trained on him. "The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

The condescending tone in his voice made Maggie bristle. This was the man who'd hurt Bucky, used Bucky, and then brought them here, to the seat of some of her worst nightmares. To what, taunt them? She didn't understand his plan, but she wanted him to pay.

At the same time, she was terrified. If Zemo knew Bucky's trigger words he might know hers as well. She took a deep breath in through her nose and out her mouth.

"I'm betting I could beat that," Tony called, as they all circled around the memory suppression chair toward Zemo's bunker.

"Oh I'm sure you could, Mr Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

Maggie stayed a few steps behind Bucky, eyeing each cryo-chamber to double check that the Winter Soldier inside was dead. She might be confused about why they'd died, but she wasn't about to grieve for them.

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve stepped right up to the glass, his face set in hard lines.

When Zemo spoke again, it was a whisper: "I've thought about nothing else for over a year." Maggie took a moment to stare at his face – his eyes were focused, bright with the glint of obsession. And… triumph? He didn't break eye contact with Steve for a second. "I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realised… there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes." He gave a soft laugh. "How nice to find a flaw."

Maggie exchanged a quick glance with Bucky, and saw the same unease in his eyes that was buzzing up and down her spine.

"You're Sokovian," Steve noted. "Is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell," Zemo said, eyes still trained on Steve's face. "No. I am here because I made a promise." There was a flicker of grief, then, and Maggie felt a sickening swooping feeling in her stomach.

"You lost someone," Steve realised.

There was an angry silence, until: "I lost everyone," Zemo whispered, his voice hoarse. "And so will you."

Maggie's heart pounded – this was personal, and no one was closer to Steve than Bucky and her brother, the two people she loved most in the world. Her whole body tingled, ready to leap to save them at a moment's notice. Would it be a bomb? A targeting system? Chemical weapons?

Zemo reached down to a control panel and pressed a button. By Steve's side a computer screen flickered into life, reading '16 Декабрь [December] 1991'. Maggie frowned at it. What–

"An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again," the Sokovian rasped. "But one which crumbles from within?" Steve, now hovering by the computer screen, glanced back at Zemo. "That's dead. Forever."

Tony's helmet flicked down and he moved to stand by Steve's side in front of the screen. Bucky was behind the computer, his gun trained on Zemo. Maggie hung back a little, wary, but she could see the screen clearly. The date switched to black and white footage of a road, there was no location marker but–

It was as if ice shot through Maggie's veins, sapping the life from her limbs and leaving her frozen, helpless. That road, that date… Her throat constricted, nearly cutting off her air supply, and she lifted her hand to her mouth as if to hold back a secret. Her eyes flicked to Bucky.

As if in slow motion, she saw Tony realise what he was seeing. He glanced down at the screen and frowned, before looking up at Steve for a second.

"I know that road," he murmured, voice heavy with dread. He looked back up at Zemo and shouted "what is this?"

Zemo didn't respond, but his eyes did flash toward Maggie. She could see a numbness in him that she recognised in herself, but without any of the love remaining. This moment was all he had left, she realised. He didn't care about anything else. He certainly didn't care about her.

A faint crunch came from the screen as a car collided with a tree, bonnet crumpling on impact. Maggie hiccupped a breath, recalling the way the world had lurched around her, followed by the ringing in her head and the fire flickering beyond her closed eyes.

Tony, his face already haggard with grief and recognition, turned to Maggie. She met his dark eyes, but she could only show him her fear. Her right hand was still pressed against her trembling mouth and her gun dangled, forgotten, in her other hand.

Tony looked back at the screen.

She knew it was coming, but the sight of the black motorcycle with its metal-armed driver made her shudder.

Steve glanced at Tony.

Bucky had heard the faint sounds of glass shattering and engines rumbling, and by now he knew what they were watching. His eyes slowly lifted – first to Tony, then Steve, and then across to Maggie. Maggie met his eyes for a brief second, terrified and frozen, before she forced her eyes back to the screen. If Tony had to watch this, then she had to as well.

Maggie watched her father fall out of the crumpled car and crawl across the gravel. His movements were sluggish, and Maggie's heart squeezed, constricting her chest.

The Winter Soldier appeared like a black and silver omen. He was returning from his motorbike – he'd just taken the serum from the trunk, Maggie realised.

"Help my daughter. My wife," dad mumbled. "Please… help."

The Soldier seized his white hair, metal fist raised, and the first tears spilled down Maggie's cheeks.

"Sergeant Barnes?" dad breathed, and she could see the whites of his eyes. She didn't remember this part, she'd still been stunned from the crash.

Then: "Howard!" came a woman's voice. Maggie's heart clenched. Mom. She must have been so scared.

Slowly, steadily, Tony's head swiveled to look across at Bucky. Lowering his gun, Bucky met Tony's eyes, and after a brief second Tony glanced once more at Maggie. She couldn't look away from the video, from her father's last moments. Tony took in the tears tracking down her cheeks, the hand still pressed to her mouth, and followed her eyes back to the screen.

The Soldier's metal fist struck dad's face – once, twice – and Maggie felt the blows as if they were raining down on her instead. She saw Tony's eyes squeeze shut, and he shuddered.

"Howard!" Mom cried again, as the Soldier let dad slump to the ground. "Maggie, say something!"

The words echoed in Maggie's lightning-torn memories. She'd woken up at that point, small and hurting and so, so, scared. She felt sick. She thought she'd left the worst day of her life behind her but here it was, playing out again before her eyes. And Tony-

She could hear Tony's harsh breathing as the Soldier heaved dad back into the driver's seat, placing his head on the wheel. They couldn't see much from the camera angle, but Maggie remembered: red where his face should be, eyes open and staring.

As if he had all the time in the world, the Winter Soldier paced around the car to the passenger side door. His footsteps, crunching in the gravel, were audible through the computer speakers.

Mom made a shuddering, gasping noise when the Soldier placed his flesh hand around her throat, and Maggie's gun fell from her numb fingers. No one turned around at the clatter. The camera caught the Soldier's face over the top of the car: impassive. Blank.

Tony's face wasn't blank.

Then, a child's voice: "Dad? Mom?"

Maggie was startled at how young she sounded. Tony glanced back at her, just for a second. But he wasn't really seeing her, she realised. He was seeing that little girl, dark haired and inquisitive, without a clue of what was happening to her.

"Stop it!" came young Maggie's high voice, trembling with alarm.

Too late, Maggie thought. Far too late.

The Winter Soldier pulled his hand away from mom's lifeless throat and stepped toward Maggie's door. Maggie knew what was about to happen, but even she sucked in a breath when the left-hand passenger door swung open and the five-year old Maggie fell out with a cry. She was so small, streaked with blood and tears, with an obvious limp in her step as she scrabbled to her feet and ran for the road.

The Soldier caught her easily.

"No!" came her young, high scream, as the Soldier seized her upper arm and dragged her back to the car. The young Maggie looked up at his face. "Let me go!"

Her feet were slipping all over the place, but the young girl in the black-and-white footage started punching the Soldier with her free fist, landing blows against his middle that he would have barely felt. Maggie felt Steve's pained gaze flick to her face, just for a moment, before he looked back at the screen.

The Soldier ignored Maggie as he got the dead girl from his bike and put her in Maggie's place. When he stepped away from the car they could see that Maggie had stilled, her face blank with shock. She slumped in the Soldier's grip, and her sobs carried crystal-clear over the speakers.

The Soldier sloshed firestarter fluid over the car, and the child in his grip got more distressed. "Stop! Please, stop!"

Maggie felt her heart shattering. She wondered if she deserved a heart.

Then there was a whoosh of flames and a wail, and the Soldier dragged Maggie toward the camera. She kept fighting his grip, trying to get back to her parents. Her face was turned away from the camera.

The Soldier's face was clear. He lifted the gun in his metal hand, fired, and the footage went dark.

The silence that followed the video was deafening. Maggie's cheeks were soaked in tears, and the hand pressed against her mouth was white with pressure. She felt as if someone had reached into her brain and pulled out her worst nightmare. Her skin was numb and her heart thundered in her ears, racing at the horrific memories and the knowledge of the things that were breaking around her.

Tony stared down at the blank screen. Steve watched Tony, his eyes bright and his chest heaving. Maggie looked at Bucky, and he met her gaze with turmoil-filled blue grey eyes. The memory of that night echoed between them.

Bucky was afraid. Not just of the video, or of Tony, but of what the video might have done to Maggie. She could see it in his eyes, though he tried to hide it: he was afraid he was going to lose her.

You're my mission, the Soldier had said, after the camera was gone.

Maggie remembered her powerless fury. You're my mission now.

They'd turned those words into remembrance, then support, then forgiveness. They'd turned those words into love.

Maggie let her hand fall away from her mouth, and she showed Bucky with her eyes that she had already forgiven him for this. The guilt and self-loathing that wrenched his face made her heart break even more.

The only warning they had was a short, sharp intake of breath from Tony before he whipped around to Bucky, his whole face alight with rage.

Bucky jerked backwards, blinking away tears, and Steve caught Tony by his metal elbow. "Tony!" he called, low and pleading.

Maggie didn't take in any of it – the instant Tony went for Bucky with that snarl on his face she moved before she knew what she was doing, appearing between them with her arms spread protectively.