Chapter Twenty:
Barton's POV:
Sophie and I made up after her party. Things were more peaceful between us by the time the three of us left on Sunday night. I was nervous. By the time we got back to the base, it was one in the morning. In just eight hours, she would be leaving with Natasha and Bucky on a mission, her first official mission, and I didn't know when she'd be back.
We got back to our quarters and went to bed. At six, I got her up and took her out to breakfast, the last thing I'd be able to do with her for the foreseeable future. It was a nice, uneventful experience, a last good memory to share with her before I had to let her be the adult she was.
"Take these," I said handing her three pictures. "And remember why you fight to bring more good into this world, why you fight to get home at the end of the missions."
One of the pictures was me, Laura, and the kids. The second was Bucky, Steve, and her. The last was her and Anya. She looked at them, then at me.
"I'll never forget. I'll always do my best to come back to you, Dad. I promise."
We left the restaurant and returned to base. I took her to our uniform/equipment room to gather her things. Then we went back to our quarters so I could help her pack. I showed her how to pack all the essentials in a minimum amount of luggage. At eight forty five, we made our way to the hangar.
Natasha was already there. Bucky was there with Steve. Natasha nodded at me when she saw me. I stood next to Steve. Bucky put his arm around Sophie. I knew what they were capable of, I prayed it was enough to get her through what she was walking into.
At five to nine, Fury came into the hangar, gave them final details and left. Sophie gave me a hug, then did the same to Steve. Bucky shook mine and Steve's hands. The two of them got onto the Quinjet. Natasha came over to us.
"I'll look after these two, don't worry."
"Natasha, be careful with them, they're troublemakers together when they get bored," Steve warned with a sad smile.
"And please, just bring them home alive," I said to her.
"I took this assignment for you, Clint. I'm not going to let them get killed on my watch. They'd have to take me out first, and let's face it, we all know I'm not that easy to take out," Nat said smiling a coy smile at me. "I'll check in with you two when I can."
I nodded at her and she got on the Quinjet, leaving with my daughter.
Sophie's POV:
The information we gathered in Glasgow sent us to various points in Europe. Every so often, I would hack the network of one of the scientists Bucky and I killed to see if any information was stolen. Some of it was, all of it having to do with Mom.
We had been gone for over two weeks when Natasha got a call from Steve. When Bucky and I heard him on the video call, we knew something had to be seriously wrong. We went into her room.
"Steve, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Sophie! Good, you're still with Natasha and safe. We had a problem here at base. There was a security breach. It concerns you directly, Sophie."
"What are you talking about?"
"The collar and cuffs we used to restrain your powers when we first found you, Sophie. They've been stolen."
"Stolen? How?" asked Bucky.
"We don't know. The security system went down for a few minutes and when J.A.R.V.I.S. got it back up, they were gone."
"We'll be careful, Steve. I promise. Tell Dad you talked to me and I'm okay. We'll be in touch as soon as we can," I said as I walked out of the room.
In the living room of the apartment we were in I sat down, feeling my stomach fluttering. I had a really bad feeling. A few minutes later, Natasha and Bucky came outside and joined me.
"What's wrong, Sophie?" Bucky asked.
"I have an idea, and I don't like it."
"What is it?" Nat asked.
"Let's take this apart a little. Who knew that all three of us were at the Avengers' facility?"
When they didn't answer, I did.
"The people who captured Bucky in Belarus at the old Red Room facility. I don't know how they know who I am, but they're the only ones who knew I was there outside of the people there and in my family."
"Shit. She's right, Natasha."
"But how would they have found information about her?" Nat asked.
"Face recognition? When I made the kill in Glasgow, you guys put my face all over the news stating I was dangerous. It also mentioned I was wanted for multiple homicides."
"I'll call in some favors, see what intel I can get. But get ready, we're heading to Latvia to be close to be on the safe side."
We packed and got out of the apartment. When we got to Latvia, we settled in a hotel suite, with Natasha and Bucky posing as my parents. I set up my computers and started trying to track the computers that had controlled Bucky's implants. I found activity in the vicinity of where he was being held hostage a few months before. This told us that if nothing else, the people who had him were still there. Obviously, someone else was in on all of this. The following day, Nat woke me up with news.
"Sophie, my contacts got back to me with some intel. They said that there is some new activity going on in there. They have an enhanced working with them. Possibly the enhanced we're looking for."
"So we're heading in?"
"Not directly. Come outside, we'll talk over breakfast."
We sat down to breakfast.
"So what's the plan?" I asked.
"Natasha's job is passive on this mission," Bucky said. "We'll be doing the physical work. She'll be looking out for us."
"Right. I know a place, a little over a mile from the compound itself, where I can hide. If you can open a fire portal out there and leave me out there, I can keep track of you on comms and I won't be far in case of an emergency."
"I can do that, Nat. What's the rest of the plan?" I asked as I drank some juice.
"You'll open another fire portal, bringing us closer, but not inside of the building, and we work our way in. We find the intel, try to find and capture the enhanced, and get out. We make our way back to Natasha and fire portal back here to Latvia," Bucky explained. "Can you open up to four fire portals in one day?"
Could I? By myself, without a question. With passengers, I'd never opened that many in a short time.
"As long as I'm rested going in, I should be fine."
"Great. Rest today, we'll go late tonight," Nat said. "Until this is over, we're off the grid."
Off the grid. I couldn't check in Dad right before one of the most dangerous parts of our mission. I nodded at Nat and went into one of the two bedrooms and shut down all electronics before lying down.
A few hours later, Bucky came into the room and got into the bed with me. I just naturally curled up on him. It was comforting to me.
"Are you okay, Soph?" he asked me in Russian.
"I wish I could have talked to my dad one last time before we went off the grid for this, but I get why Natasha wanted to go off the grid as soon as we worked things out. I'm just worried that he's going to freak out," I replied in Russian.
"We'll be okay. You know that. You're tough, you already were, but I taught you so much. And we have one of the toughest handlers in the world. We'll be just fine. There's nothing for your dad to worry about. Let's just get some rest so we're both ready for tonight, alright?"
I nodded and we fell asleep like that. Natasha woke us up that night with dinner already in the room.
"Are the two of you ready for this?" she asked us.
"Yeah. I'm good," I said.
"I'm fine. We're ready for this," Bucky said.
"Good. Eat, get your energy up, then we'll make final preparations before we go."
We ate in silence, each of us in our own minds as we prepared for the mission. Bucky was right, he had to be. He taught me to be tougher than a normal teenager. Natasha prepared me for these kinds of missions at the base. I had already been on a rescue mission. I was semi-familiar with the terrain we were going to. We were more prepared than I thought.
Nat set the Quinjet in stealth mode and flew it to the Latvia border of Belarus. Making sure nobody could find it, I opened the first portal, to the place she wanted to watch out from. I took a few minutes to gather my strength, making sure not to rush too many portals too quickly. Bucky looked over at me.
"Whenever you're ready, Soph," he said in Russian.
I waited another few minutes then grabbed hold of him. I opened the second portal, leaving us a hundred yards from the building he had been held hostage in. Quietly, sticking to the cover of the trees, we started making our way to the building.
"Making our way to the target," I told Nat in Russian.
"Keep me updated if there is trouble," she replied.
We made it maybe twenty yards when Bucky and I heard it. There were others out there with us. We were handling them fine. Suddenly, I felt a new energy, a more dangerous one. It was moving too quickly. We dispatched the last of the enemies that had surrounded us before the new person got to us. It was a boy about my age.
"Sophie, at last," he said to me. "And you brought the soldier back! They'll be so happy!"
I realized we were duped. He opened his hand and had a fireball in it. I jumped in front of Bucky, protecting him. I absorbed the fireball myself.
"Sophie!" Bucky shouted.
"I'm fine," I said.
"You may not be for much longer, Sergeant," the enhanced said to Bucky.
I knew I shouldn't, that Bucky and everyone would be furious with me. I didn't even know how I knew I could do it, but I focused quickly and deeply on my abilities to use the portals. Just as the enhanced went to attack, I threw up a wall of fire around Bucky.
"Open the portal yourself, Bucky! Get to the rendezvous! I'm not sure how long you'll have them!"
"I won't go!"
"Go, James!"
I nodded at him and turned to take on the enhanced. Before I could do much, he clamped the bands on my wrists, partially muting my enhancements. I still fought.
"Go Bucky!"
I knew Bucky knew how to use the portal. When we met I had taught him everything I could about them because he wanted to know. The enhanced got the collar around my neck and as I saw Bucky disappear into my portal, the enhanced opened his own portal and pulled me through.
Barton's POV:
I walked into the control room, having heard there was a problem on Sophie and Bucky's mission. Nat was on a video call with Steve. He looked upset.
"… it was a trap. We were lured out there."
"Where's Sophie, Nat?" I asked her.
"The enhanced's abilities are similar, but we discovered Sophie has a new ability while we were out there," Nat continued.
"What ability?" Steve asked.
"Power bestowal. She gave her portal to Barnes to get to safety."
"You left my daughter!"
"Clint, we're already working on a way to get her back," Nat said to me.
"How is Bucky?"
"Honestly? He's pissed off. She distracted the enhanced so they didn't get them both. You know how he feels about her. He's not a picnic to deal with now that she's put herself in danger for him."
"I'm coming. Where are you?"
"You'll do no such thing, Barton," Fury said from behind me.
"Excuse me?" I said.
"I said, you're not to go after them. Romanoff and Barnes are capable of handling this now that they have the variables. You are not to get involved on this mission."
"She's my daughter!"
"All the more reason that you shouldn't be getting involved."
Sophie's POV:
I woke up in a cell. The familiar feel of the power restraints were tugging at my energy, but this time I was ready for it. I pulled the bobby pins out of my hair while I was curled up under the blanket in the bed. They were specialized bobby pins I had made in case of an emergency.
Taking a deep breath, knowing what I was about to do would hurt, I took the first bobby pin and stuck it in the locking mechanism on one of the bands around my wrist. When it connected with the tech in the band, it emitted a single, high-voltage shock, and the lock was disabled. I did it with the second wrist and then my neck. While they thought I was sleeping with my power restrained, I was regaining my strength and healing from shocking myself.
It was a few hours before anyone came into the room. The scientist who shot me was the one who came for me.
"Ms. Holden, nice of you to join us," he said to me in Russian.
I waited for him to get closer to me, knowing he'd be armed. When he was close enough, I grabbed his gun, my pillow and put a bullet in his brain through the pillow. It muffled the gunshot. I grabbed his keys and keycards after putting him in the bed I had been in.
I checked the clip of the gun I just took from him. Only the one round was missing. I could make that work until I could find another weapon.
I made my way carefully through the facility, looking for a way out, taking out anyone who got in my way, taking what weapons I could conceal without hindering my movement on my way. I found a computer room. Knowing it probably wasn't a good idea, I killed the tech and used the computers to hack into Stark's lab. It took me fifteen minutes with me looking over my shoulder constantly, but finally, I was looking at Stark.
"Stark!"
"Sophie! Where are you, Kid?"
"The Red Room facility. I've gotten myself free and I'm working on getting out of here. I need someone to get word to my dad that I'm okay and to Nat that I'll meet her at the origin point of the mission to rescue Bucky as soon as I can."
"Are you hurt, Sophie?"
"Not really, some electrical burns from my bobby pins shorting the locking mechanisms on the power restraints. But I healed those pretty quickly. Just get those messages out for me, Stark."
"Got it, Kid."
"One more thing, Stark."
"What?"
"Send your nastiest computer virus to this system, make it irreparable. I don't want them to have access to you because I hacked you from here and it will destroy any data on my mom they have."
"Once I do, I'll lose you within 90 seconds, Sophie."
"Send it. I only have about that until I need to keep moving to find a way out of here."
"Stay safe, Kid."
Stark sent the virus and quickly the computer system went down, taking the entire facility's systems down with it. Alarms started going off and I knew I needed to get out quick. I continued on my search for a way out.
Barton's POV:
"Agent Barton, please report to Mr. Stark's laboratory," J.A.R.V.I.S. paged me over the p.a. system.
I was in my quarters, packing, ready to go against orders, but something told me to answer Tony's page. A few minutes later I walked into his lab. He was ending a video call with Natasha.
"What is it, Stark?"
"Don't be stupid, going against orders, Barton. I know what's going on with Sophie."
"How? You weren't there when we found out."
"I talked to her."
I was shocked.
"What? When? How?"
"Not too long ago. She hacked my computer from the Red Room facility to tell ask me to let you know she's freed herself and is working on a way out of there and to contact Romanoff to set up a meeting place. Then she had me send a virus to destroy their computers and any data they may have on her mother and by default her."
"Did she look okay, Stark?"
"Sophie looked fine, Barton. She's tough. She managed to get out of the power restraints without her powers. I'm pretty sure she's at full power, so I'd put my money on her."
I felt a little better. I knew Sophie was tough, but knowing she wasn't restraint and she had her powers back made me more confident. I'd seen what she'd done on her own when at her full power.
Sophie's POV:
I had finally found the exit and gotten outside. When I did, the enhanced was there.
"You got through all those people on your own, Sophie, but you won't be able to get through me so easily."
"Who are you? What do you want with me?"
"You don't recognize your own twin, Sophie? I mean I know it's been eighteen years since you've seen me, but I would think…"
"I don't have a twin."
"Yeah, you do. Jason Clinton Holden. I was the twin they threw away, technically."
"What are you talking about?"
"When we were born, they decided you were the better specimen for the experiments. So they told our mother I was stillborn and sold me to another lab."
"If that's true, how do you know that you're my brother?"
"They gave me pictures of my mother and sister as I was growing up, to break me, to show me that I wasn't good enough. It wasn't until they lost you that they wanted to use me for the experiment, but my genetics and enhancements weren't what they needed. They never let me near our mother, but I was in the building. I felt when you came and went to see her."
"If that's true, then stop this, come with me. Let me take you to people who will help you."
"The Avengers? No. I'd rather see them destroyed."
"You don't mean that. Our father…" I stopped, not wanting to tell him about Dad.
"Is the legendary Hawkeye? With young children in Iowa where he owns a farmhouse with his wife? I know that already."
Panic went through me. If he knew about the farmhouse… I couldn't focus on what could happen. I attacked him, and felt the hit I landed on him. I ignored the pain and he started attacking back.
It was clear that it was physically hurting him to attack me as much as it was hurting me to attack him. The difference was I had trained with Bucky for almost two years and could handle high levels of pain. We beat each other to a bloody pulp and I finally pulled a gun on him.
"You won't kill me," he said, breathing heavily and deeply. "You feel every hit you've landed on me. What do you think it will feel like if you put a bullet in me?"
I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, putting the bullet between his eyes. I fell to my knees because the pain was so unbearable.
"Better than you killing Dad and the rest of my family, you douche," I said when I finally got up.
I wasn't healing the way I should have been. It had to do with him, he must have been telling some truth in what he said. I went back into the facility, looking for the rest of my things.
It took me twenty minutes to find where they hid my comms piece and my weapons. It took me another fifteen to get the comms working. I was still in bad shape.
"Nat? Bucky? Are either of you there?" I said into my comms in Russian.
"Sophie Francis Holden! Where are you?" Bucky responded in Russian.
"Inside the Red Room facility. Everyone's dead. I need a change of plans from my plan with Stark. I need you to come here. I'm not sure if Bucky still has the portal or not, but I couldn't open it if I wanted to," I replied.
"We'll be there in twenty minutes with the Quinjet," Natasha replied.
"I'll make my way outside on the north side."
"Got it."
Barton's POV:
I was called by Steve to come to the control room. It was just the two of us.
"What is it, Steve?" I asked him.
"I just got a message from Bucky. He said that Sophie got in touch, asking for an extraction from the Red Room facility, but that all threats were neutralized."
An extraction? She told Stark she'd meet them in Poland.
"Why an extraction?"
"Bucky said she's not sure if he still has her portal power or not and that he thinks she's hurt. He said she mentioned that even if she did have the power she didn't think she'd be able to use it."
"But she heals quicker than you or Bucky."
"I know. But that's all he knows right now. They were on their way to extract her. He said after they got her, gave her basic medical attention and searched the facility, he'd be in touch again. But he wanted me to make sure that you knew she was alive, Clint. That's the most important thing. Sophie is alive."
He was right. Even if she was hurt, that was nothing compared to the other possibilities.
"And the mission? After all of this, was her mission a success?"
"I believe so, but we'll get confirmation after Natasha and Bucky get to her. If it was, great. If not, we'll figure that out later. Our priority is that she's alive."
"Thanks, Steve. I know that when it comes from you, you mean it."
Sophie's POV:
I was leaning against the outer wall of the north side of the building when the Quinjet landed. Bucky came straight for me. He picked me up and brought me into the Quinjet, where he and Natasha started working on my injuries.
"What happened to you, Sophie? Why aren't you healing?" Bucky asked me.
"I think it's because these injuries are from the fight with the enhanced. He said he was my twin, guys. I didn't know anything about it. But when I was fighting him, I felt not only ever hit he hit me with but every hit I hit him with. When I killed him with a bullet to the head, it was so overwhelmingly painful I thought I might go with him."
"You killed the enhanced?" Nat asked me.
"I had to, Nat. He knew about Dad, Laura, Cooper, Lila, Nathaniel, and the farmhouse. I was scared if I let him get away now he'd get to them before we could get them somewhere safe. I couldn't risk it."
"And there was nobody alive in the facility?" Nat asked.
"No."
"Bucky, tend to her injuries. I'll see what I find and then we'll get out of here. We're going home."
Nat left and Bucky continued to take care of my injuries.
"Bucky, stop. I need a favor from you."
He gave me a look like I had five heads.
"Please?"
"What is it, Sophie?"
"A hundred and fifty yards southeast from this point is where I left the body of the enhanced. I want to bring it back with us. I need to know if I really did just kill my twin brother."
"Sophie," he said, his tone softening, "I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"If we bring back just some of his blood and he was telling the truth, then I'm leaving my brother to the elements in Belarus. Is that right? How would Dad feel, finding out I have a twin, I killed him, and he won't even get to bury him?"
He dropped his head.
"Fine. But finish cleaning up these injuries while I do this."
I nodded. I cleaned my wounds then went to the computer bay. I connected to the control room at base.
"Steve?"
"Sophie! Oh my God! Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine. The enhanced is neutralized," I said trying to hold back the tears.
"Do you have any idea why he was after your mother's files?"
"I believe he was doing it to lure me out. He wanted to get to me."
"Do you know why?"
"I think so, but I'll need to confirm in the lab when I get back. Until then, I'd rather not say."
"Alright, Sophie. Where are Natasha and Bucky?"
"Natasha is doing a sweep of the facility to make sure I didn't miss anything. Bucky is retrieving the body of the enhanced."
At that moment, Bucky appeared out of a fire portal behind me with Jason.
"Correction, Bucky is using my ability to try to sneak up on me," I said with a slight laugh.
"Alright, Sophie. Let him finish tending to you. We'll see you when you get back here."
"Alright, Steve. But can I ask you a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Can I crash with you and Bucky for a few days? Depending on the results in the lab, I don't know how well I'm going to be able to be in close quarters with Dad."
"No problem, Sophie. See you when you get back here."