Hours turned into days and days turned into weeks. Seconds ticked by as if the universe had slowed down to coincide with his heartbeat. The steady rhythm lulled his senses into a void.
Time seemed to blur together. He couldn't remember the last time he had more than a few hours of sleep at one time. Or when the last time he ate was. He couldn't remember how long he had been sitting in this one spot, or when the last time he had moved his fingers was. A twitch of his finger on his living hand produced an unnoticeable sigh. Well at least he could do something. His mind began drifting again. It drifted far from his body, trying to dredge up that one fragment of memory that would be the key to finding her.
A sharp knock on his bedroom door snapped his attention back to the present. But Bucky had no energy to get up from his seated position on the floor, across from the door. He had no energy to respond to the knock or even level his head to watch as Steve approached through the now open door. He had no energy to do much more than blink and even that seemed to take eons.
"Buck?" Steve's voice was laced with worry and slight anger. "You can't keep on like this…You've been in the same spot for 18 hours!" When he received no response the Captain grunted and crouched to be even with the man sitting on the floor. Staring into dirty locks of black hair, Steve sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. This worrying was giving him a migraine. He extended his hand slowly, to hopefully not startle to dangerous half crazed man on the floor, and went to grip the former assassins head by his chin to bring their eyes level. He didn't let his surprise show when the soldier let him. That allowance proved just how exhausted the man in front of him must be.
When their heads were level with each other and Bucky slowly rotated his eyes up to meet Steve's, they locked into a firm gaze. "Listen to me," Steve said slowly, his hand still supporting the entire weight of Bucky's head, "We're worried about you Buck. I'm worried about you. You need sleep. You need to eat…" Steve paused, hoping for an answer from the blank eyes that looked right through him.
His eyes scanning Bucky's face rapidly, his anxiety growing with each second, Steve resisted the urge to slap his childhood best friend. He was slowly killing himself and Steve couldn't help but find it extremely selfish. Bucky was the one who had started them on this wild goose chase and now he wasn't going to stick around to see if they accomplish it or not.
Just when Steve was about to give in to the urge to physically assault the other man, a voice spoke from the doorway.
"Serafina is somewhere in Russia. I haven't found exactly where yet but judging by how you look, even if we do find her, you'll probably never know." The woman's voice sent shivers down Steve's spine and he turned only his head to look back at Natasha, who was leaning on the door frame with her arms crossed and a signature smirk firmly in place. Turning back to Bucky, whose chin was still in his hand but not for long, a flood of relief rushed through his body as the once lifeless eyes had regained their alertness and the once limp body had moved slightly to ease it's chin out of Steve's calloused hand.
For all that Bucky's mind had returned to his body, he still looked ready to drop at any moment. The dark circles lining his eyes almost reminded Steve of the former Winter Soldier make up. Bucky's eyes roamed over Steve before coming to rest on the Black Widow. A question was held in that gaze.
"No. The encryption on any files I find relating to her are extremely advanced. It's taken quite a bit of time to even find her personal file, much less her exact location but I've narrowed it down to western Russia. I'm working on it." Natasha grimaced slightly, not used to being thwarted this many times. The ex-spy turned Avenger pushed herself off the wall and smirked at Barnes before walking back down the hallway to where Sam was making pancakes and some strange smelling meat.
A barely audible sign escaped the former assassin as he let his eyes close and head lean back on the wall for barely a second before forcing his protesting muscles to stand his body up. If he had allowed his head to lean back any longer he might have fallen asleep and only God knows when he would have woken up again.
Steve jumped to help him, gripping one of Bucky's well-muscled arms and dragging the assassin to his feet, where he stood albeit wobbly. Taking the time to shake out any lasting aches in his muscles and joints, and waiting for the pinpricks to disappear, Bucky ran his metal hand through his hair and allowed the cold metal to relieve a small amount of pain from his pounding headache. He took a quick scan of his body. All joints and major muscles were functional, sore but functional. From experience he knew the soreness wouldn't last long anyhow. Raising his arms above his head, Bucky twisted in a sharp motion and several cracks were heard where his spin had popped to relieve pressure. Standing fully erect now, Bucky's head came to just shy of Steve's but his shoulders reached farther and were deeper than the living legend's.
"Come on Buck. Sam's making breakfast," Steve's voice was soft, barely above a whisper and with a jerk of his head indicating the hallway he moved away. Steve missed the small annoyed frown that flashed across Bucky's face at the mention on Sam. What if the wannabe bird tried to poison his food? Deep down Bucky knew that Sam would never do such a thing. The ex-para rescue man didn't have a malicious bone in his body but then again giving someone chronic diarrhea isn't considered deadly.
Seated around the Avengers table in the Stark turned Avengers Tower and watching the argument going on around him Bucky inwardly sighed. It seemed to him that all they did was bicker back and forth. If it were up to him, he'd make an operation order, plan, and execute his mission. He had been doing that for almost seventy years. However that's apparently not how they did things in civilized society according to Tony. So instead of making a viable plan, they had been stuck at this table quarreling over small details for the last two hours like chickens fighting for the last bit of feed. And when he said they, Bucky meant Tony and Steve with Natasha and Sam chiming in every few minutes. That left Bucky and as the two silent figures in the back, no surprise there.
"You want us to just storm up to the front door and say what? Hey guys, we're here to steal one of your most precious tools. She's about yeh big, known by Codename Eris, has a sunny disposition. Have you seen her?" Tony's sarcastic tone caused the hair on the back of Bucky's neck to rise even as a hidden smirk leapt to his face. Tony had gotten one thing right about her.
When Agent Romanov had finally uncovered one of the only HYDRA bases still in operation in Western Russia, they knew it had to be where they kept her. To him her name was Serafina, to HYDRA she was Project Inferno: Codename Eris. He had been Project Inferno: Codename Winter Soldier. The thought of calling her Eris gave him a nasty taste in his mouth. When they had first been forced into the program together and knew nothing besides the names HYDRA had given them, he had called her Eris. Eris for the Roman Goddess of Chaos. And she had called him Winter. But as the training increased and it came down to the two of them the name Eris just didn't seem to fit. She was so much more than her ability to cause carnage.
So they had agreed to give each other new names, ones they would only use in private away from the suspicious ears of the scientists who tested them.
An easy laugh broke through her smile as she playfully nudged his shoulder with her own. The Winter Solider had just completed another round of physical testing against opponents with high powered taser rods and he was covered in electric burns that lit his nerve endings on fire. While he was exhausted and injured, the sight of his friend and her infectious personality never failed to lift his mood. As always, at the end of a long day, they met in the hallway on the way to their cells escorted by armed guns for hire. HYDRA couldn't take the risk of their precious experiments escaping.
"Eris." He tried hard to mask his humor but as always failed.
"Come on Winter! You know it's funny. Every day you come out covered in wounds and me…not a scratch."
Looking down at her shorter frame, Winter shook his head. It was true. He was never fast enough to avoid being injured in some form when HYDRA grunts attacked him from all sides. His body was littered with burn scars, bruises, cuts, and stab wounds. He even had a bullet hole scar through his abdomen that had taken longer than normal, even with advanced healing, to completely scar over.
But she was untouched. Her slightly tanned skin glowed in the florescent lights and her lightly curled blonde hair bounced in its ponytail as she walked. Shaking his head slightly he snorted. Everything about her was a contradiction.
She hadn't stepped outside for as long as he had and while he didn't know exactly how long it was he knew it wasn't a short period of time and yet her skin looked as if the sun had kissed it just yesterday. Her honey white hair was long and looked clean even though he knew she didn't get a shower more than once a week, a short and cold shower at that. Her ponytail bounced behind her because of the spring in her step but he knew that she could glide as smooth as a calm sea through a group of people and no one would notice her unless she wanted them too. Her eyes sparkled with hidden mirth and a smile almost never left her face but she was being trained to be one of the most deadly assassins known to man, to kill without hesitation.
He hopped beyond hope that the next phase of their training didn't strip her of that personality he loved and that kept him going. He didn't know what lay in store for them but he knew it wasn't good. He had heard the scientist talking. But she was happy and he didn't want to take that from her, not yet. His thoughts sprang back to her when she spoke again,
"I think we should give each other names. Names that only we can use. Winter just doesn't fit you and it's not like either of us remember our old ones," Eris' voice was for once serious and she gazed up at him with a determined set of her jaw.
Grinning almost unnoticeably, Winter kept silent for a few moments. They had continued walking and were getting close to their side by side cells. "What did you have in mind?" His voice was starting to become scratchy and he had to admit he somewhat liked it. He usually just let Eris talk. Looking down through the corner of his eye he saw Eris' smile stretch wider. They stopped in front of the two cells, side by side, that had thick metal doors and no windows inside. Their only saving grace was the ability to speak through the walls at night.
"Lemme get back to ya big guy, I've got options!" with that Eris' bounced into her room, the door being held open by a guard with another positioned behind her, his stun gun on high. It was always this way. One extra move and the would be assassins get dropped to the floor with 10 million volts of electricity surging through their twitching bodies.
Shaking his head again, Winter allowed the guards to lead him into his own cell to see his concrete cot with a thin layered blanket on top and his toilet and sink in the far corner. These cells were small but he had grown accustomed to the ten by ten foot room. It was almost a sanctuary to him now. Moving quickly to the wall that lay as a barrier between his cell and Eris' he spoke, "How long are you going to keep me waiting doll?"
He choked back an unmanly giggle at the thought of her face when he called her doll. She hated it. The first time he had ever called her doll had been the first time he had ever gotten his ass kicked by a girl. A five foot four girl at that. She wasn't even average height for a female for god's sakes. That had also been the first time he had realized that she was a lot better than him. At pretty much everything.
"I'm going to let that slide because I don't want to ruin this moment by having to tear through this wall to kill you for it," Her voice floated through the wall and this time he did indulge in a chuckle. "I have two names," she continued, "You have to pick."
He nodded then realized she couldn't see him. "Okay."
"Okay, the first is Wesley and I'll shorten it to Wes. And the second is James. I don't think I'll shorten that one." He contemplated for a minute. Wesley or Wes didn't fit him. Did James? Shrugging the Winter Soldier pressed his hand against the wall separating them and answered, "I like James."
He could hear the smile in her voice when she replied, "I was hoping you would pick that one! It fits you. Okay okay, now me!" Her enthusiasm was contagious.
He smiled and dragged out the minutes, letting her anticipation grow. "JAMES!" He heard her shout just before a knock was heard through the wall. She had slammed her fist against it. His grin turned Cheshire and he laughed. "You're doing this on purpose, I swear next time we spar I going to make you pay for it!" Even though she was trying to hide it, James knew she was smiling. He was liking the name James more and more as he came to associate it with himself.
"I choose Serafina." He finally replied and silence was heard on the other end.
Blinking away the memory he had just relived, Bucky noticed that all eyes around the table were focused on him. He raised an eyebrow in question.
Natasha took pity on him as it seemed that Tony, the one who had asked the question, was about to blow up on him if the scowl that heavily marred his features was anything to go by. Tony had an understandable reason to hate the Winter Soldier and Bucky couldn't deny him his rightful hate.
"We were discussing possible ways into this base. Do you have any knowledge of it?" She asked, her voice flat.
Shaking his shaggy head Bucky responded, "I don't remember specific bases, I was never awake long enough to map one out," he frowned, "but all HYDRA bases have a fail-safe. An underground network that usually leads to a building top side somewhere a few miles away. It's only know by a handful of important agents."
Tony's face became contemplating. "I can have JARVIS hack into an infrared satellite, we can get the tunnel that way. But I'm assuming HYDRA will have a way to prevent or reroute something like that so I'll have to blast through any firewalls they have." This mumbling to himself continued for a few minutes before he nodded to himself and stood up. "I'll be in the lab, when I'm ready I'll let you know." He sauntered out of the meeting deep in thought.
When Tony left Bruce turned to Bucky and asked, "Are you ready for the pre-op health screening?" Bucky slowly nodded his head. He was used to pre-op tests but it didn't stop him from dreading them. Needles had always ranked as one of his fears, even when he was just James Buchanan Barnes. Now they were a deep ingrained phobia. HYDRA ran similar tests every time they woke him, usually a bunch of blood work, hence the needle phobia, and scans. Since this was the longest time he had been awake in seven decades he had asked the doctor to look him over. Sighing slightly Bucky stood and made his way to lab accompanied by the doctor and Steve, who trailed behind.
If getting this test done was another step in the process to find and rescue Serafina, he would allow the doctor to stick him with as many needles as he had to. He was going on this mission, and no one would stop him.
