Chapter Text
"Sir, the results are in and are ready for your perusal."
Tony pried his eyes open and sighed as the ceiling of the workshop slowly swam into focus. Pushing himself up, he tiredly rubbed at his eyes and squinted around the room. JARVIS had dimmed the lights, but it was still bright enough for Tony to see that Dummy, Butterfingers and You were all in their docks. There was a now cold mug of coffee right beside Tony's ankle that definitely hadn't been there when he passed out however many hours ago. Tony smiled slightly. No doubt the coffee was a gift from Dummy. Too bad Tony didn't dare drink it.
"J, what time is it?" he asked, grimacing and rubbing at the nape of his neck. Pepper threatened to trash the couch in his workshop every time she came down here; so far Tony had managed to fob her off by claiming that the couch was incredibly comfortable, but maybe it was time to be honest. Either Tony was just plain old, or the days when the couch was capable of giving someone a good night's sleep had long-since passed. Or both. It was probably both.
"It's just after midnight. Captain Rogers requested that I pass along a message when you woke," JARVIS said.
"Oh did he," Tony said, amused. "And what did our good captain say?"
"That if you didn't show up to breakfast tomorrow morning, he was going to send Clint and Natasha down here to ferret you out," JARVIS replied, and Tony let out chuckle. Yup, that sounded like Steve.
"Guess that means I better get to it, huh?" Tony said, getting up. It was a bit of a relief when his legs didn't collapse out from under him, to be honest. He walked unsteadily to his desk and sat gladly in his chair, rolling his shoulders as JARVIS pulled up the holograms.
The smile slowly faded from Tony's face as he took in the data that JARVIS had compiled. If it was right - and he was sure that it was - then this was bad. Really bad. Tony exhaled slowly and pulled the first page closer to him. He lost himself to several hours of examining the data and reading up on what JARVIS had found. When he was finished, he just sat there for a long time and stared at the top of his desk in thought. JARVIS knew enough to remain silent and instead began compiling the data, including a brief overview.
"You're being summoned for breakfast," JARVIS said a while later.
"Right. Breakfast," Tony muttered, closing his eyes. He rubbed his temples and sighed heavily. If he didn't go upstairs, then someone was going to come downstairs to get him. Whoever it was would probably immediately recognize that something was wrong. And this wasn't a conversation Tony wanted to have on an empty stomach.
He stood up and made his way out of the workshop, heading for the elevator. JARVIS obligingly took him up to the common floor. The doors opened to chaos; Tony narrowly avoided being hit in the head with a toy purple arrow. Clint called an apology over his shoulder as he sprinted by. Natasha was hot on his heels, murder written across her face. Bruce was sitting on the couch shaking his head, while Thor laughed and shouted encouragement to Natasha. In the kitchen, Tony could just make out the sight of Bucky and Steve standing at the counter finishing off breakfast.
His heart warmed. After Ultron, Tony hadn't really been sure if the team would pull themselves together or not. They'd come through by a very narrow margin. It had helped that Steve and Tony had finally sat down and had a very serious conversation. The information about Bucky had hurt more than Tony ever wanted to admit, and it had taken him a few weeks to accept the truth about his parents and the Winter Solider. But after some long talks with Rhodey and a few drinking sessions, he'd poured all of considerable resources into helping Steve find and bring Bucky Barnes home where he belonged.
Now, Tony was more grateful than ever that things had turned out the way they had. The Avengers were a pretty strong team, certain members like the Scarlet Witch notwithstanding, and he was almost positive that they were going to come through this latest bomb okay. Or at least, Tony hoped that was the case. At any rate, it wasn't like he could hide what he'd found. Sooner or later this was going to come out in the open and it was in everyone's best interest if the Avengers were able to get ahead of this particular shitshow.
Still, that made it no less easy to walk into the kitchen and accept Bucky's and Steve's greetings. Sam was sitting at the table, heckling Steve, and Tony joined him. He watched Bucky and Steve without speaking. They didn't seem to notice his attention, especially since the rest of the team more than made up for Tony's silence as they piled into the room. Bucky and Steve served a heaping pile of food for breakfast and they all dug in, Tony included. He ate hungrily, but as soon as the edge had been taken off, he set aside his fork. Naturally, Natasha noticed immediately.
"What's up, Antoshka?" she asked, not once pausing in the mock battle she was having with Thor. Their forks clashed together as they fought for the last dumpling.
"I found something," Tony said, very softly.
"Found what?" Natasha said, her smile fading. Thor turned to look too, and then one by one so did everyone else until Tony was the center of scrutiny. Normally that was a position he loved, just not today.
"Show them the picture, J," Tony said, pushing his plate away. He watched tiredly as they all looked at the holographic picture JARVIS was projecting onto the nearest wall. It showed a young woman somewhere in her late teens or early twenties - Tony was an excellent judge of age, so he was pegging her at about nineteen or twenty. She had dark brown hair and eyes and full, unsmiling lips. A small, thin nose, low cheekbones, arched eyebrows and a broad forehead combined to make her... not attractive, exactly, but someone who would be able to easily blend into a crowd as unremarkable.
He figured that was the whole point.
"I don't understand," Thor said. "Who are we looking at?"
Tony sighed. "As far as I can tell, her name is Katrianne," he said.
"Okay..." Clint said slowly. "Is that supposed to mean something?"
"It will. She's another Winter Solider," Tony said, keeping his eyes on Bucky. He could pinpoint the moment when his words landed. Bucky's smile just dropped. A whole range of emotion flashed across his face before settling onto an icy blankness that made Tony want to cringe.
“There are more Soldiers?” Sam said, setting his fork down to give the hologram his full attention.
“Apparently. I still have to do some digging to see if there are any more. This – she – is the only other one I’ve found so far,” Tony said.
“Where is she?” Bruce said, asking the obvious question.
“In France, so far as I can tell,” Tony answered.
Thor nodded. “That would make sense. Strategically, they would not keep all of their Soldiers in one place.”
“But who is she?” Natasha said, narrowing her eyes at the picture.
Tony licked his lips. Here came the difficult part. “She wasn’t kidnapped, I don’t think, if that’s what you’re asking. Based on everything I’ve looked into, it seems that Hydra started experimenting with test tube babies. I guess it makes sense, considering they’re into every other heinous thing out there –”
“Tony,” Steve interrupted, and for the first time Tony looked over at him. Steve was very pale. His knuckles were white where he was gripping his fork. Tony was positive that later, when Steve let go, that poor fork was going to be twisted beyond recognition.
“I think… I think she’s Bucky’s daughter,” Tony said reluctantly.
There was a split second of complete silence, and then Bucky stood up. Without a word, he walked away from the table. Natasha and Sam both got up and went after them, leaving Tony at the table with Bruce, Steve, Clint and Thor. No one said anything. Tony, staring at his half-full plate, took a moment to be grateful at least Wanda was out of town with Vision. Her presence would’ve made everything worse.
“How?” Bruce said finally. “I - how?!”
“I don’t know. Maybe Hydra ordered the Winter Soldier to fuck some girl, who knows,” Tony said tiredly, running a hand through his hair. “Maybe they extracted semen from him somehow. The point is, we can get a paternity test done after we rescue her.”
“Rescue her?” said Clint. “Uh, just throwing this out there, but how do we know that she even wants to be rescued? Maybe she’s a good little Hydra agent.”
“I’ve found references to the chair in her files,” Tony said, but he couldn’t deny that Clint had a valid point. They didn’t know anything about her beyond what Tony had managed to find in the files, and it wasn’t like they had ever encountered another Soldier before. Bucky could’ve been a special case.
“It might be smart to do more research first,” Bruce said. “What did you –”
“No. We have to help her,” Steve said.
Thor, Bruce, Tony and Clint all exchanged a look. Tony suddenly had his regrets about bringing this up when Steve was around. He should’ve known better. When it came to Bucky, or anything relating to Bucky, it was like Steve lost all of his good sense and gained tunnel vision. He’d been getting better about it, but Tony had to wonder if this was going to bring about a relapse.
“Steve, you don’t know if she’s safe for anyone to be around,” Clint pointed out.
“Aye. It would be wiser for Tony to do more research,” Thor said.
Steve shook his head. “No. We – we’re going.” He got up and walked out without another word. Clint gave Tony an expectant look. Tony sighed and followed.
“No one is saying that we shouldn’t help her,” Tony said, trailing behind. “We’re just saying that we have to make sure it’s safe. You remember what Bucky was like. You were the only person who could get through to him and even that was almost impossible. This Soldier has no previous connection with any of us, Steve. She’s been with Hydra her whole life.”
“Then we have to find out,” Steve said, turning to face Tony. “You couldn’t have known that Bucky could be rescued just by what Hydra’s records said, right? They believe that all traces of Bucky Barnes were gone. I know it’s not the same situation, but… she could be Bucky’s kid.”
Tony sighed and crossed his arms, tapping his foot on the floor. It was so annoying when Steve was right. “Okay, fine. You have a point, and I have a location.”
“You do?” Steve said, surprised.
“It looks like she’s being kept at a secondary Hydra base. We could raid it… see what we find…” Tony shrugged. “If Bucky is okay with that.”
“Bucky…” Steve muttered, eyebrows furrowing.
“He looked pretty freaked out,” Tony said.
“We should go check on him,” Steve said, holding out a hand. Tony took it and they headed into the elevator.
Bucky had retreated to Steve’s floor, unsurprisingly. Natasha and Sam were talking to him, but they both got up and left when Tony and Steve came in. Tony took the meaningful look that Natasha sent him to heart, knowing that this was going to be a delicate subject. Bucky had made amazing progress since being officially pardoned for his crimes as the Winter Soldier, but he still had bad days and probably always would.
“Hey Buck,” Steve said cautiously. “You okay?”
“I’ve been better,” Bucky said with a bitter smile. “It’s really true, Tony?”
“There really is another Soldier. That’s all I can tell you for sure right now,” Tony replied quietly. It seemed likely that the Soldier was Bucky’s daughter, but they didn’t have concrete proof yet. He had no idea what they were going to do if that was the case. It would change everything.
“Then I guess we have to find out,” Bucky said determinedly, and Steve reached out his free hand to clap it on Bucky’s shoulder. Tony swallowed, nerves fluttering in his stomach, but nodded.
“I guess we’ll get the jet ready,” he said.