A/N* Bonus chapter in celebration of FATWS coming out Friday! Exciting things ahead!
Aubrey had unloaded the contents of her backpack, even though every instinct told her to run as fast and far as possible. Shoving the feeling down, Aubrey took note of her supplies; combat suit, a jacket, shirt, and sweatpants. A first aid kit along with two hundred and fifty Romanian Leu, roughly sixty U.S dollars, both her and Bucky's journals, her quiver of arrows, and the holo-phone. On the side of the bag, near the bottom where her bow was supposed to be, was something she hadn't been expecting; a black pouch with the initials TS printed in silver. Fingering the velvet, Aubrey started to unzip it but was snapped back to attention by the warm liquid on her right leg. A thin cut spanned from her knee to her ankle. It wasn't deep but needed bandaging and would be sore. Tearing a piece of cloth off of her tattered pants, she soaked it with antiseptic, hissing when it dripped onto both her face and leg wounds. Once they were clean, she wrapped it in gauze with an antibacterial ointment before slipping into her combat suit, pulling the normal clothes over it. Pulling down her ragged bun and running her hands through the knotted hair, Aubrey positioned it back into a ponytail before bringing the hood of her jacket up and onto her head. Feeling slightly comforted by the fact that she was somewhat disguised, Aubrey focused back on the velvet bag. Unzipping it, she found a note along with five thin grey bands and what looked like the strap of a Fitbit.
Aubrey,
I have a feeling you're going to get into trouble, I briefly showed this to you not long before you left but had Happy slip it into your bags when he was loading them. The rings go on the hand that holds the bow, along with the bracelet. I've programmed it to connect to the Nanos in your blood. All you have to do is command the ones in the rings/bracelet and they will form a bow. Your old bow is here with me getting an upgrade. Stop by to pick it up after this signing blows over.
-Tony
Vaguely, she remembered Tony demonstrating but he had been unable to form a complete bow, only a piece of it. Aubrey slipped a ring on each finger on her right hand, along with the bracelet. They were a perfect fit and felt cool against her hot skin. Excitement welled up in her as the command formed in her mind, hand laying with the palm up. The accessories grew warm and Aubrey watched as the Nanos formed a curved line. From there they built up, creating the arrow rest in the middle with the gripping spot for her hand. The limbs of the bow thickened as a thin string of Nano's attached themselves to the top limb and bottom limb. The bow was sleek and built sturdily to do its job, it shimmered brilliantly in the shafts of sunlight that shown through the slats in the wood. Gripping it, Aubrey's left hand notched an arrow and she aimed for the center of the door, noticing how the bow made the smallest adjustments to suit her form. The arrow hit its mark, leaving her to nod appreciatively at the new weapon before letting it retract back into the rings and bracelet. Packing everything back up, she focused on her first goal, tracking Bucky.
Because of her exhaustion, Aubrey climbed down the building using the stairs instead of her wings. The Bucharest streets were crowded as she pilfered a map and eavesdropped on several Romanian conversations. Most were normal but one caught her ear.
"L-au prins pe atentatorul de care ai întrebat azi dimineață." [They caught the bomber you were asking about this morning] A man said to one of his friends as they sat at the outdoor seating of a restaurant.
"chiar? Unde l-au dus?" [Really? Where have they taken him?] the friend looked genuinely surprised and the man chuckled
"Din România, n-ai de ce să-ți faci griji. Cred că au spus ceva despre Berlin... o facilitate militară, poate." [Out of România, nothing to worry about my friend. I think they said something about Berlin...a military facility perhaps.]
Aubrey stiffened when the man's gaze swept across the square and to where she was standing, not too far from them. Pulling out the holo-phone, she pretended to be talking to someone and started walking in the direction of a nearby food stand.
Forking over four Leu got her a bowl of Mămăligă [Polenta]. It reminded Aubrey of oatmeal but tasted more like corn. Eating as she walked, she tried not to limp and slid into an alleyway, slumping against a building as she finished off the food. Even though her bones were heavy with exhaustion, Aubrey knew she had to move quickly if she were to locate Bucky before anything else happened. The Mămăligă had helped clear her mind as Aubrey tried to summon her wings but nothing happened and she shook her head, summoning everything in her to make the wings form. The Nanos flowed out almost reluctantly, Aubrey taking off as soon as they had completed forming. A light breeze flew westward as she headed north, catching a draft made her work easier but not by much. Aubrey flew for four hours before she landed in Timisoara, Romania. It had buildings similar to Bucharest that towered up into the sky, making it easy for her to find a deep ledge and curl up, sleep coming quickly.
The pitter-patter of water woke Aubrey and she groaned, the rainwater dripped onto her hooded head, leaking into her clothing. Everything was stiff from sleeping on the uncomfortable ledge. Growling under her breath, she stood, stretching before calling on the wings and taking off. The trip took three days and four nights. Aubrey went from Timisoara to Budapest, Budapest to Prague, Prague to Czechia. Czechia to her final destination, Berlin.
The sun was setting just as Aubrey saw the outline of the capital city on the horizon. Relief gripped her chest as she immediately spotted the large sprawling compound that had tall fencing and large amounts of security roaming the grounds. Her legs crumbled beneath her when she landed on a building and the wings dispersed back into her blood. Her body trembled with exhaustion as Aubrey let herself adjust to being on the ground. After a minute she got to her feet, coming to the cement lip of the building and pulling out her cowl. It strapped on easily, tapping the sides the goggles activated and traveled up over her eyes. Silently, Aubrey took in the compound and its insane amount of man-power, even in the fading light. The night vision flickered on, letting her locate three separate ramps that lowered down into the ground and five above-ground entrances, all with guard booths and scanners.
"I'm never getting in there" Aubrey muttered under her breath, but a buzzing in her backpack became a distraction. Zipping it open, she found the holo-phone buzzing, the minute she picked it up, the phone dinged and Tony's voice sounded.
"Aubrey, where are you?"
She stayed silent, unsure what to do. Tony had signed the Accords, would he capture her if he knew her involvement?
"I know you're listening so listen good, stay out of this. If Barnes plays this right then he can get off easy, maybe go to an asylum or something. Just stay out." his voice had gone hard with warning and Aubrey stiffened stubbornly, refusing to say a word.
"Alright, I'm hanging up now but I'm serious, Ross is out for blood and I don't want it to be your expensive blood. Got it?... You better…" the phone clicked, telling her he had hung up. A breath puffed out of her lips as Aubrey glared at the holo-phone, suddenly regretting the choice to take it. But it was too late to ditch it, so instead, she shoved it to the bottom of her bag, pulling out a granola bar, munching on it as she continued to observe the compound. Taking note of the guard changes happening under the cover of darkness. Aubrey knew in her mind that there was nothing she could do at the moment and moved to the corner of the cement blocks, using the bag as a pillow and wrapping her arms around her legs. Exhaustion took over but any dreams were not good ones, they circled around Bucky and his possible fates.
She woke to the sound of heavy-duty vehicle engines and shot up, throwing on her goggles and zooming in on the large brigade that flashed red and blue as it moved down the ramp closest to her. The glass bridge that connected the two parts of the compound swarmed with people and Aubrey knew who was in the military trucks. Bucky. Her frantic flying had beat the trucks, giving her a slight advantage. Aubrey lay in wait, knowing that her time would come, confident in the knowledge that she and Cap would strive for the same thing for the same person.
Captain America stood in the glass office, observing his best friend's defeated face on the monitor, the way Bucky's head tipped back and he sighed heavily. Cap shook his head slightly, his mind replaying Bucky's and Aubrey's words to each other
"Go Brie, before they get you...please. . ." Bucky had begged her throughout the whole fight but she had refused until the last second, even then she had murmured to them both but her eyes had found Caps.
"I'll follow him, wherever he goes. I'll be there" In those words she had said so many things, she was making sure that he knew she would help. But it made him wonder whether she was here now if she knew where Bucky'd been taken.
"Hey wanna see something cool?" Tony Stark came in, looking slightly tentative as if he wasn't sure whether he was welcome or not. "I pulled something from Dad's archives"
Cap turned to Stark, sighing heavily. Whether the man was welcome or not would be confirmed in the next couple of minutes, he was sure of it.
He couldn't keep the nightmares from his head. The infernal cell had brought them back. Every. Single. One. The only thing that kept him grounded was Brie. She had gotten away, fled from the whole mess. But she'd been injured. The thought made him tip his head back, defeat weighing in. But I don't do that anymore. He'd said, but what was the worth of the words from an ex-assassin. In those last moments of freedom, before the police had come, Bucky had heard Brie stutter something to Steve….what had it been? His jumbled mind frantically tried to remember but only bits and pieces returned.
"I'll follow….wherever….Be there" Internally, Bucky hoped, begged silently, that Aubrey wouldn't. The click of the doors snapped him from his thoughts and Bucky eyed the mental evaluator, noting the confident glint in the man's eyes.
The next chapters will be thick ones! Drop a review if you're enjoying!