Chapter Text
Ava did end up having to stash away in the cargo hold, curled up in an uncomfortably small space and using her phone flash light to flip through a russian dictionary. She had originally tried to hide away in a bathroom, which wasn’t better in terms of smell but was in space. But it only took one impatient man unwilling to wait for the other bathroom to open before a flight attendant came with a master key, and Ava phased down into the cargo hold before she got caught trespassing.
On a brighter note, the notes from Bucky’s file definitely confirmed that he remembered.
найти упомянутое - паук, призрак, старожил, новый парень, засранец .
Find mentioned - spider, ghost, old-timer, new guy, asshole.
Yelena, Ava herself, Alexei, Bob, and Walker. Bucky had returned to 2012 and apparently immediately asked after them- luckily, seemingly, with enough wherewithal to use nicknames instead of dropping their full legal names in the middle of a HYDRA base.
And he had gotten cryo-freezed for it.
A cryo-freeze she was now standing in front of.
The HYDRA base had been unsettlingly empty. And honestly, she had gotten completely lucky in finding it. She had touched down in Berlin before it had even occurred too her that she didn’t exactly know where she was going beyond the city. It took about four minutes of regretting smashing that tablet before an unknown number pinged her phone. It was unsigned, uncaptioned- just a coordinates link for the middle of nowhere.
So she went.
Okay, sure, maybe not her smartest move. Going to random addresses based on absolutely nothing is a quick way to get killed- especially for a black ops specialist, and especially for one who just put a giant HYDRA target on her back.
Except…
“I do not really do ‘texting’.”
“You don’t do… texting?” Ava raised an eyebrow at Yelena, who was holding a brand new phone the same way one might handle a potentially radioactive material.
“The Red Room was not exactly a proponent of friendly communication.”
“You can’t bring up the Red Room as an excuse for everything.”
“Why not?”
“We all have childhood trauma,” Walker yelled from the kitchen. “Get over it!”
“You cannot be the one to tell me that, Walker!” Yelena yelled back. “You do not have childhood trauma! You were on the football team!”
Both snickered at the disgruntled noises coming from the kitchen, and Ava moved closer to snag the phone from Yelena’s hand. “You don’t need to become internet-savvy overnight, Yelena. I just need you to stop breaking and entering into my room every time you want to ask me something. Just text me, like a normal person.”
“‘No breaking and entering’, says the one who walks through locked doors. Many hypocrites today,” Yelena hummed. “Okay, show me the basics.”
Yelena’s texts had always been short and to-the-point since. Things like ‘help’ or ‘kitchen’ or ‘Alexei on his way’- messages that would have given her a heart attack from someone normal, but from Yelena they typically just meant she wanted a sparring partner or couldn’t reach something in the kitchen or, of course, to abandon the room she was in because Alexei was on his way with more tales of his Red Guardian days.
There was no proof that this text was from Yelena, but she didn’t have any other leads and she knew she was skilled enough to make it out of whatever trap she may get herself into.
Not that she needed that skill, apparently, since the HYDRA base was empty.
Which left Ava standing in front of a cryo tube, the silhouette of the Winter Soldier barely visible against the mildewed, foggy glass.
She tapped through the control panel stationed to its side. This one, luckily, was in German rather than Russian- a language that she could speak bits and piece of thanks to her training. Enough to find the ‘abbrechen’ button and pray that ‘cancel’ meant ‘cancel the freezing program’ and not ‘cancel this guy’s life’.
The seam at the bottom of the cryo tube hissed as the lock disengaged, and the glass raised slowly. Ava huffed out an annoyed breath, stepping away from the control panel. It was as if the glass was rising slowly on purpose to raise the tension. As if she wasn’t tense enough from the time travel and HYDRA and her phasing and everything-
The glass halted at a 90 degree angle, the overhead light in the tube flickered off, and the body inside dropped like a ragdoll. He hit the ground hard, his limbs splaying out in awkward, painful-looking positions.
“Shit,” Ava darted forward, reaching out to help him up- only to stop abruptly when the body shuddered and an arm jolted up to brace against the floor.
“Um… Bucky?” Ava asked hesitantly. There was no response, but he braced up his other arm and slowly pushed, raising himself into a slightly more dignified crouch.
His breathing was labored. Ava found her own breath catching in her throat. She had never known about the Winter Soldier beyond the standard stories most of the public got- and the aftermath and nightmares from Bucky. She knew, logically, that it had to be bad - but bad didn’t even come close to covering it.
The underarmor he had been frozen in was still more tactical gear than anything else, with a dozen empty holsters at his hips, thighs, back… practically everywhere. They were all empty- assumedly, Ava assumed with a grimace, for the handlers’ protection rather than Bucky’s. Wouldn’t want a confused assassin lashing out, armed, before being reprogrammed . He was still shivering from the cryogenic freezing, and hadn’t actually lifted himself any further than a one-kneed crouch. She could see one eye peering out from behind stringy, unwashed locks of hair. He wasn’t looking anywhere in particular, his gaze glassy and unseeing. He was pale and guant, and HYDRA’s specialty half-mask half-muzzle was affixed to his face.
She took an unsure step back, and his eyes swiveled to lock on her immediately. At least he seemed to be somewhat cognizant.
He still didn’t say anything, and not even a flicker of recognition sparked behind those eyes.
“...Bucky?”