Abandoned Warehouse, 2016
Bucky blinked slowly to awareness, his head throbbing and eyes trying to focus on the dark figure in front of him. He tried to straighten, only to realize his left arm was trapped up to the bicep in a large magnetic press. There was no real pressure, but the magnetic force was enough to keep him well and immobile.
"Don't pull too hard or you'll hurt yourself." A soft feminine voice called, drawing closer.
"Vira?" He asked in confusion, mind still violently dropping between shattered emotions and his objective. Her lithe form was still hopelessly hazy, limbs blurred and face unreadable as she stopped in front of him.
"You know who I am?" She asked emotionlessly, but some part of his mind nagged at him that that was wrong, that she wasn't so cold.
"Vira—Soldat." He corrected quickly as her hand lifted to his face. He wasn't malfunctioning. He was a good soldier. Obedient. He wouldn't be wiped again. Have to remember… He had no idea what it was he was supposed to remember, but he knew he couldn't forget whatever it was that was trying to fight its way to the front of his mind.
She knelt in front of him, her mask off and black hair braided out of her face. "James," she said softly, gingerly cupping his face in a hand covered in a half-fingered glove. "Relax. I won't hurt you. Just remember."
She was making it a point to speak in English, hoping that it would help him remember. "Do you know who I am, James? Do you know who you are?" Her voice was softer this time than the first time she asked him that question.
He hesitated for a long moment, blue eyes still slightly unfocused and clearly trying to get his mind back into any sort of personal order. "You're the girl I trained in the Red Room." He spoke slowly, unsurely, still trying to piece the confusing images and orders together. "You're Vira." He said after another long pause, the muscles in his neck tensed like he was fighting not to lean into her hand.
"And who are you?" She asked gently, slipping from a crouch to sit on her knees in front of him, dark eyes trailing on him softly. Her hand slid away from his face for a moment, almost to his neck before her fingers were no longer touching any part of his skin.
"I'm…I'm Bucky." He answered, still speaking like every response was a question. "James." He amended when he looked back at the assassin's dark eyes that seemed to be pleading with him for any kind of response that didn't have to do with Hydra or Winter Soldiers.
She nodded. "You are. Anything else you'd like to say?"
He started to shake his head, darkened eyes looking away from her for a moment. "I didn't think you'd make it back this time." He whispered just above a breath.
"I'll always come back." She promised, lifting a hand to his face again. He leaned quickly into her touch that time, eyes slowly falling closed.
"I thought it was over." He whispered. "And all he had to do was say the—"
"I know." Vira assured, softly tracing his jaw. "How much do you remember?"
"About me or what I did?" James asked almost bitterly.
"Both," she said gently, "but I can assume that you remember at least part of what you have done, or you wouldn't be using that tone with me." She raised an eyebrow of accusation.
James sighed, looking at her apologetically. "I'm sorry." He whispered, lifting his remaining flesh arm to gently trace just the tips of his middle and index fingers against the brand on her temple.
Vira took a slow breath, leaning into his touch and smiling faintly as he cupped her cheek.
"I remember you." He assured quietly, managing a small smile at her and brushing his thumb lightly under her dark eyes. "And I remember—" He cut off abruptly, Vira rising to her feet in one smooth motion at the sounds of approaching footsteps outside.
Three sets of footsteps, Vira told herself as she stepped back to hide in the shadows. Two of the heavier than the other—two men and a woman.
Her training never let her relax. She slipped her mask back on and disappeared, even from James.
He had a quick moment of panic, but he knew she hadn't left him. Not alone like this. And he couldn't blame her for running either, he had heard the steps almost as clearly as she had and—if he had any choice—he wouldn't want to hang around either.
So he fell as limp as he could against the machine holding him, better to let whoever it was think he had been here alone for hours, awaiting whatever fate this would be. Not that Vira was pressed into the shadows less than fifteen feet from him.
"He's here," Steve's partner, Aurora said softly, mismatched eyes flicking around the room.
Bucky had another moment of panic. She knew Vira was there.
Aurora sent him a reassuring glance, and Bucky suddenly felt strangely violated and protected at the same time. Then a voice that wasn't his echoed in his head.
It's okay, Aurora's soft voice said without her speaking. I won't tell Steve or Sam unless she wants me to.
Bucky nodded slightly before he looked at Steve.
"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asked in a quiet but firm tone.
"Your name's Steve," Bucky said slowly as more memories slowly returned. "Your mom's name was Sarah, and you used to put newspapers in your shoes." He laughed a little at the end of his statement.
Steve smiled slightly, and glanced at Aurora.
She nodded slightly at Steve, smiling a little herself.
He looked at her like he was making sure she would be okay before he stepped back with Sam to whisper about what to do with Bucky now that he—and all of them—were wanted criminals.
Aurora watched Bucky carefully, monitoring the second Winter Soldier's thoughts before she knelt in front of Bucky herself. "What did Zemo want from you?" She asked softly.
He shook his head. "He wanted to know where I was kept. In Siberia, exactly where."
"Why?" Aurora asked softly, looking confused.
"There are more Soldiers than just me and Vira." He whispered.
Without meaning to, Aurora was sucked into the incomplete memories Bucky had of the early 1990's, of five new Soldiers being injected with a replica of the Super Soldier serum used on Steve.
Aurora seemed to stop breathing, and Bucky counted how long it was before she recovered. One… two… Three… four…
He got to twelve before she looked back at him with her mismatched eyes. "You and Vira aren't serum-enhanced, but Hydra wanted to make the others stronger?" She whispered in question. "I don't get it. It only made them volatile, and even more dangerous than you and Vira already were."
Bucky nodded slowly. "And Vira and I trained them. They took me down pretty quickly after learning the basics. Vira was always too fast for them to catch. She never learned how to pull her punches."
Aurora smiled slightly. "Sounds like my kind of woman."
Bucky snorted. "You might scare Steve half to death if the two of you were to meet." He said with a small chuckle, trying not to glance back at where he could almost sense Vira moving in the shadows as Steve stepped forward again.
He looked at Aurora and she suddenly nodded, looking up at him reassuringly and the Captain quickly started to free Bucky from the magnetic press still keeping him trapped.
Bucky rolled his metal shoulder, stepping away to swing his arm, regaining motion. "Vira," he called quietly, "they're on our side."
Vira stepped out, face still covered with a mask. Her branded temple was covered by her mask. She said nothing, just looked warily at the others in the warehouse. She glanced at Bucky.
"Can I take this off?" She asked in her native Russian, starting for her mask.
Bucky nodded, and Vira pulled her mask off.
Aurora looked as Vira pulled her mask off, and suddenly felt self-conscious. Vira was the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen, and she spent every day with Natasha Romanoff.
She was tall, with at least two inches over Aurora herself, who usually wasn't considered short at her five foot seven inches, and possibly even leaner with muscle. Her long black hair was braided, shorter layers of her hair hanging in her face from where they'd fallen from her braid. Obsidian glass eyes that shimmered with every reflection of light they caught. Her olive toned skin and sharply angled facial features were obviously Eastern European, but there was one flaw—one flaw that made her so obviously human: a star-shaped brand on her left temple, the same side as Bucky's metal arm. It didn't harm her beauty at all, in fact, it might've made her even more beautiful. It made her more real.
"Captain," Vira said with a slight nod, and a soft, barely accented voice.
"Soldier," Steve replied, and Aurora realized he didn't know her name. He hadn't been listening to Aurora's quiet conversation with Bucky, so he didn't hear. He'd been talking to Sam.
The female Winter Soldier turned her gaze downward for a moment. "I would prefer it if you call me Vira, Captain Rogers."
Steve nodded slightly. "Yes, ma'am. Then call me Steve."
Vira let a slight smile upturn her lips. "Captain seems to be a better fit for the situation we've all gotten ourselves into."
Steve snorted. "Can't say I don't agree to that."
Vira looked at Sam, and they introduced themselves before Aurora turned back to Bucky. "You should tell them."
Bucky hesitated.
"Tell us what?" Steve asked, suddenly concerned.
"What the fake psychiatrist wanted," Bucky said shortly, looking at Aurora. "What did you call him? Zemo?"
Aurora nodded. "That's what I picked up."
It was Vira's turn to look concerned. "He wanted something? More than just the Soldier? You didn't mention anything." She said, frowning toward Bucky.
"In my defense, I was a little concerned with, you know, not killing you."
She was still frowning. "I can handle myself, James. What did he want?"
"The other soldiers," Bucky finally admitted in Russian to try and give them some form of privacy, looking down.
Vira paled.
"What did he say?" Sam asked, looking between the two women that obviously understood him.
"Zemo wanted to know about the others." Aurora explained, closing her heterochromic green and brown eyes.
"Others?" Steve asked, tone and expression concerned.
Vira raised a thin, dark eyebrow. "You didn't honestly think James and I were the only Winter Soldiers, did you?"
"Honestly I was surprised to hear about even you." Steve sighed.
"There are seriously more of you?" Sam asked with a shocked expression.
"Five." Bucky sighed. "And the only one who could even try and challenge them was Vira." He said with a glance over at the other soldier standing stoically near him.
She shook her head slightly. "I couldn't take all five at once. I barely survived against two. One of them… it was like he was already enhanced before the serum, and it only made him more dangerous. These bedamned monsters could bring down countries overnight."
Bucky nodded in agreement. "They could speak thirty languages, hide in plain sight. Honestly, if he wakes them up… Well, we're gonna need all the help we can get."
Aurora looked at Bucky. "Can I show them?"
"How?" He asked warily.
She held out her hand.
Bucky looked at Steve nervously.
The Captain nodded reassuringly.
Bucky slowly held out his flesh hand, letting Aurora set her own against his palm. He gasped and Vira lurched forward nervously, but she kept her distance, stoic once again as she watched James's face scrunch as memories were undoubtedly drawn to the surface.
Aurora opened her eyes and glanced at Steve, holding out her other hand to no one in particular. The memories flooded all of them at once, and Vira cringed at the memories.
All of them watched the memories in their heads in shock.
Vira stood in front of the Winter Soldier handler as Bucky trained one of the serum-enhanced soldiers.
He grabbed Bucky's metal arm in a moment of distraction as the first soldier glanced at Vira's stoic expression. The enhanced twisted, and there was a popping sound, pain spiking through the shining metal arm.
"Well done," the handler said in fluent Russian. The new soldier looked around for a moment, and then unexpectedly hurled another violent punch, not toward Bucky, but toward the guards.
Vira lunged, blocking the soldier's assault from anyone else.
"Get me out of here!" The handler snapped as chaos erupted, and the five other soldiers exploded into violent action.
Bucky stepped in front of their handler and fended off any attacking soldiers with his metal arm.
Vira held off two of them alone; the largest and the only other female. Even Bucky couldn't fight more than one on an even playing field. She was faster than they could ever consider being, but their combined strength was too much, and after their handler was evacuated, Vira had to flee as well, far from unscathed. But neither were the other two soldiers.
She'd broken the female's arm and sternum, and had her bleeding from her nose. The male's mouth was stained red, with a sharply dislocated hip and adjacent shoulder.
Vira was cradling a blackened wrist, blood streaming down her lip as she finally fled.
Aurora gasped when she finally let the memory go, and Bucky instinctively caught the collapsing agent. He steadied her and handed her back to Steve.
"See?" Bucky said after a moment.
Aurora noticed the scar on Vira's lip, and leaned heavily on Steve.
The Captain looped his fingers through hers, silent as he pressed his lips to the top of Aurora's head and pondered what they had all just witnessed.
"Wow," Sam said softly, shaking his head like he was trying to clear the memories from his own mind. "And that was just training?"
Bucky nodded stiffly, still looking a little frazzled over the memories and detail Aurora was able to pull up from him. "And now this… Zemo is going to wake them up." He said gruffly, trying to be subtle about rolling his shoulder and glancing worriedly at Vira.
The named assassin touched her lip absentmindedly, like she vaguely remembered how she'd gotten the scar, but couldn't place it exactly until then.
Aurora had unintentionally given some of their lives, some of their identities, back to them.
"How do we find Zemo?" Sam spoke up after long moments of silence.
"He's probably already on his way to Siberia." Bucky said slowly, looking at the three members of team America standing in front of him. He eased a step closer to Vira, light eyes cutting quickly over to look at her while the others spoke quietly once more.
"Then that's where we're going." Steve said quickly, breaking the subtle little moment between the assassins as they both turned back to him.
"I'll go make those calls." Sam promised, stepping off to the side as Steve softly made sure Aurora could still stand on her own before he kissed her quickly, taking a step back himself as Aurora nodded up at him.
"I'll see what I can do about getting our stuff back," Aurora said, starting for the warehouse exit. "I'll meet you somewhere with them."
"Where?" Steve asked after a nod.
"You'll get the picture."
Steve smiled. "Yes ma'am."
"And, Steve," she said just before she left. "Try not to draw too much attention."
He snorted, smiling, and Aurora disappeared.