Pepper endured the CT scan and then the MRI, and then eyed the doctor skeptically as he brought a tray full of syringes and set it beside her.
"More blood, I'm afraid," the doctor told her. "And cerebrospinal fluid, as well."
"Is your analysis not going as well as you'd expected?" Pepper asked pleasantly.
"You are the only one to survive the Extremis," the doctor said, as though they both didn't already know that. "So far, the only thing that distinguishes you from the others who were given it is your blood type. That, however, will not help the Mandarin, so we continue to look for something that will."
The doctor gestured with one hand toward a room across the hall, and Pepper saw a bank of computers that rivaled anything at Stark Industries.
"We are devoting all of Ten Rings' resources to this, of course," the doctor said. "It is only a matter of time before we succeed."
#
"That's a helluva killing field," Natasha observed. Bucky had to agree.
His sense of Pepper had brought them here, to mansion outside Ruse. Nineteenth century, Natasha had guessed, but Bucky didn't care. He cared that his soulmate was inside, and much as the primal part of him, the asset, wanted to be the one to rescue her, the Winter Soldier bowed to practicality.
"I've got enough cover here," he said, referring to the patch of woods perhaps a hundred meters south of the building proper. "I'll cover you and Cardona while you get inside and find her."
"Good idea, in broad outline," Cardona said. "Let me tweak the details."
The asset snarled. "What details?"
"I'll cover the two of you," Cardona said.
Bucky flicked him a disbelieving glance, and Cardona grinned. "You aren't the only sniper in the world, you know. I can't match your kill total, but I got my share in Iraq. Besides, your sense of her won't help you find her from out here."
"He has a point," Natasha said. Then she gave Cardona a small smile. "But if you shoot us in the back, there won't be any place on Earth you can hide from the rest of the Avengers."
"I won't." Cardona's simple words had the ring of a vow, and the asset relaxed, if only marginally, as he handed over his rifle and ammo to Cardona, then helped the other man build a makeshift nest.
"They'll know where you're firing from," Natasha said.
"And I've got more than a hundred yards to get them before they get me," Cardona said, resting his cheek against the butt of the rifle. "Get ready."
Bucky glanced at Natasha. She nodded in response, and almost as one, they stepped to the very edge of the trees.
"I'll start with the two on the roof." Cardona's voice sounded low and steady in Bucky's earpiece. "In three. Two. One."
The last word had barely left his mouth before Bucky and Natasha were sprinting for the mansion. Two muffled shots sounded in quick succession, and Bucky watched the two guards collapse onto the roof.
Thanks to the super-soldier serum, Bucky outpaced Natasha in the dash to the door. Still, he flattened himself against the wall, knife ready in one hand in case that door should open and a hostile emerge.
Then she was at the other side of the door, nodding at him as she caught her breath.
Not for long, though. For now, they still had surprise on their side, and he was going to use it. Another glance to confirm that Natasha was ready, and Bucky stepped in front of the door. It was surely too heavy to kick in, but it wasn't made of steel, and therefore, he could put his metal fist through it.
He suited action to thought, and with a splintering crunch, his fist went through the wood. He felt around inside the door, twisted the handle, and it swung open.
Natasha ghosted inside while Bucky worked his hand free, and then he was inside with her. They'd come into a servants' or tradesmen's entrance, he thought, based on the cramped quarters and lack of other people around.
Those other people would already be on their way, Bucky knew. If Cardona's shots hadn't alerted them, then surely his forceful entry had.
As one, he and Natasha moved forward. Bucky returned the knife to its sheath and drew a pair of handguns from holsters under his arms.
"Too quiet," he whispered. "They should be responding by now."
"Some of these old houses have stone walls," Natasha replied. "Sound baffling if not sound deadening."
"No movement out here," Cardona said.
Bucky nodded at Natasha. "Let's go."
#
They were at the open door of the stairs to Pepper's cell when two sharp noises, like cracks of distant thunder, sounded.
"What was that?" the doctor demanded.
The guards with them exchanged a wordless look.
Pepper's pulse raced. Could it be that someone had found her, somehow?
"Find out what it is," the doctor ordered. "No, wait."
The guards turned back.
"Secure our guest. I'll go check." The doctor strode away.
Whether someone had found her or not, this distraction might offer the best chance to escape that she'd get.
With that thought, she swung a fist as hard as she could into the nearest guard's stomach. With a grunt, he doubled over, and she brought her elbow down on the back of his neck.
She whirled on the other guard, only to come face-to-muzzle with his gun. She froze.
"Unh-uh," the guard said. "Back up, down the stairs. Slowly. I will kill you if I have to."
Pepper had no choice but to obey.
#
Bucky and Natasha emerged from the back kitchen into - a hospital wing? Sure looked like one - and an array of guns pointed at them.
He cursed under his breath. Of course nobody had come running to investigate the noise. That hallway was a bottleneck, one they were at the mouth of.
Natasha was shooting almost before he finished the thought, falling to her knees so he'd have a clear shot over her head.
His own guns spat in counterpoint to hers, the noise from all the weapons deadened by suppressors fitted to the barrels.
"So who is it?" he asked.
"Who's what?" Natasha countered.
"Your soulmate."
She missed a target, instead destroying a vase of flowers on a hallway table. "You're asking me this now?"
"Gotta talk about something while we clear this mess."
"I remember you saying something about invading my privacy."
"And I dropped the subject. Then you hadda get all touchy with my words, so it's back on the table." Movement at the edge of his vision made him aim high right, and someone coming down the stairs fell forward.
"So - someone on the team?"
Natasha swore in Russian.
"You do know that's biologically impossible, right?"
"No, it's not someone on the team. I'm empty."
Bucky grunted an acknowledgment, flicked the lever on the gun in his left hand that took it from single shot to semi-auto, fired off three short bursts while Natasha reloaded. By the time she'd finished, the group in front of them were all down.
"I'll clear the floor," she told him. "You find Pepper."
Both Bucky and the asset were glad to follow instructions.
#
The first two cracks might have been thunder, Pepper thought, but the thunderstorm of noise that followed was certainly a gunfight.
The gunfight was not, unfortunately, distracting her guard anymore. No, he was focused on getting her back into her cell and she wondered whether it was worth a renewed effort to escape.
The guard she'd gut-punched still writhed on the floor, and the other was urging her backward, toward the open door.
Pepper took one step, a second, and her heel touched empty air. She'd reached the edge of the staircase. If she went any further, she'd be a prisoner. Again.
Like hell she would.
She bent a knee, as though to take a step back, then lunged forward, the Extremis lending speed and strength to her movement.
Even so, she knew she was lucky the guard didn't reflexively pull the trigger as he jerked backward. At this range, he couldn't miss, and she'd likely have had her heart shredded by the hail of bullets.
But he didn't, and then she was barreling into him, momentum carrying them both to the floor. She tried to punch, to hit, to kick, but he tossed the gun away and it became a wrestling match.
She might have strength, but this guard outmassed her by twenty kilos, easy - it wouldn't be long before he'd have her pinned, and not even Extremis would save her from having her breath choked out of her.
Then his weight was off her, and she fought for air even as she watched the guard fly into the wall and collapse.
A shadow filled her vision, and a cool metal hand reached out to her.
"Are you all right? Did he hurt you?" The questions were an eerie echo, in meaning if not exact phrasing, of the first words Bucky had ever spoken to her. She hoped similar questions wouldn't become a habit.
"I'm okay," she said, taking the hand he offered and letting him pull her to her feet and into his arms.
It was a quick, hard hug, punctuated by a quicker, harder kiss. But Bucky was quite definitely on the clock now, judging by the array of weapons on his flak vest and the gun in his human hand, so Pepper pulled back after allowing herself a very brief moment of relief that he was actually here, and not just some conjuration of a too-bored prisoner's mind.
"Let's get you out of here, doll."
"Yes, please," Pepper said. "Before these two wake up."
Bucky's response was to raise his gun and fire two shots.
Pepper jumped, a scream catching in her throat, and forced herself to look at the two guards. Each one of them had a wound at an ankle.
"They won't come after us now." There was a different tone in Bucky's voice, and when Pepper looked back at him, his eyes were flatter than they had been, and she swallowed, hard. This wasn't Bucky Barnes, or not just Bucky Barnes. This was the Winter Soldier.
She supposed she should be glad he hadn't killed them.
"Come on," Bucky said, and turned away, apparently assuming she would follow.
Which she did.