A/N* I'm so sorry it's so short! I tried to get more written down but I've honestly just run out of time. I leave tomorrow for my trip and I can't bring a computer. But please do enjoy what little I've gotten down.
Have a blessed week!
"How long will they be out for?"
"Not too much longer… and I'm afraid that they will still be in Soldier mindset."
"Your research said that if you knocked them out for a long period of time then the programming would wear off. Now tell me the truth, will it work, or do we need to contain her?"
The voices bounced around Aubrey's ears and she blinked with her eyes closed, mind foggy from the hard blow to the head. The voices continued to argue and things came rushing back...well bits and pieces. But Aubrey shoved them to the back of her mind, focusing on their current situation. Her hand minutely brushed the cold flooring, tile, slippery, especially with shoes on. She strained to locate the location of her captors and decided the two that were talking stood to the right of her, but others seemed to be dotted around the room. In one swift move, Aubrey bolted to her feet, her nails growing into shining talons, shifting from tan to silver and then black. She slowly turned in a circle, hissing a warning. Aubrey's eyes landed on the only person who hadn't backed away in terror. His left eye had a black patch and his lone eye was trained on her. Instead of backing away, he held a hand out and spoke.
"We aren't going to hurt you Aubrey"
Aubrey's eyes zipped around the room, taking in the well-lit warehouse and the smattering of desks and computers.
"How….did you...find me" she rasped, her voice cracking from disuse. Many of the syllables were broken up and Aubrey coughed, clearing her throat.
"I'd been tracking the group of Hydra agents that had captured you. I decided out of the niceness of my heart to rescue you before blowing the place." his voice had started out sincere but dripped with sarcasm by the end of the sentence. Straightening, Aubrey retracted her talons, watching as the nails turned tan before glancing at the man.
"You know my name, yet I don't know yours" she observed.
"Fury-" was his short answer as he turned and backed away. "- and your friend is in containment. He seems more unstable."
"Thank you-" Aubrey felt her posture relax and she rolled her shoulders, cracking her back and smoothing her frazzled hair out of her face.. "-how long were we there?" Her voice cracked, feeling the fog and everything that had happened hovering on the edge of her consciousness.
Fury opened his mouth to reply but an unseen door opened and a breathless agent leaned in. Gasping, "He's awake Sir, the glass won't be able to hold for much longer." Fury stiffened and his gaze flickered to Aubrey briefly before motioning with his head for her to follow. She took long, limping strides to keep up, but leaned over one of the desks, grabbing her wings and bow, along with her various knives and throwing stars. Aubrey shrugged everything on but sped up at the sound of pounding. They came to one-way glass, on the other side was Bucky, pounding on it with his metal arm. Fury nodded to the door "Your up". She nodded and swiftly entered the room, leaving her bow outside the door. Bucky's face was taut and he stopped at the sight of her entering the room.
"Soldat zurücktreten.-" [Stand down Soldier.] she rasped, switching to English. "-At ease Soldat…..Bucky. The people here rescued us and it's safe to come back to reality." His posture slouched ever so slightly and Aubrey held in a sigh of relief, he was coming back. He blinked and his eyes started to clear. Bucky propped himself up against the glass and heaved a gasp, eyes darting around the room before landing on Aubrey.
"I'm here….I'm back" he whisper-gasped. Aubrey felt her posture droop in relief, her back aching, and her various spots of healing skin stretching. His eyes ran over her hunched form and he frowned.
"What happened" He sounded afraid to hear the answer.
She smiled weakly. "Much more than I care to tell right now" Aubrey reached for the door, swinging it open. Fury stood on the other side, his arms crossed but his face softened at the sight of both of the Soldiers conscious and aware of their surroundings.
"Good to know your back-" he commented to them both before his face hardened and he started walking further down the hallway "are you coming or not?" he asked incredulously. Aubrey grabbed her bow and Bucky soundlessly followed her, trusting her judgment. Fury led them to another door, it opened to reveal a room with twin beds on either side, it had one window between the beds and the sun shown in.
"You can stay here until you decide your next moves. I'll hide your location from the Avengers as long as possible but they're bound to figure something out before too long. Kitchens back down the way we came, bathrooms are across the hall. Questions?"
"Where are we?" Aubrey questioned, venturing into the room and peering out the window, the warehouse seemed to be on the edge of a large city, the terrain was dry and grassy with mountains looming up in the distance and a smattering of snow covering much of the ground. Bucky had positioned himself at the foot of the bed to the left but at the mention of their location, he leaned forward slightly to get a look out of the window.
"The Hydra base was on an undiscovered island between Hawaii and Japan on the edge of the Northern Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Currently, we are somewhere in the Yukon." Aubrey got the sense that Fury would rather not disclose their actual location so she left the subject alone. When no other questions arose, Fury left, the door clicking softly behind him. She dropped her bow on the bed, along with her wings before leaning against the wall, tiredly massaging her forehead. A sigh escaped out of her mouth as a battle raged in her mind. Eagle and Aubrey where two personalities battling in one mind. Bucky leaned against the bedpost, his mind somewhere far away. But he was the first person to break the silence.
"What happened." His voice cracked.
Aubrey looked at him from between her fingers, a sigh shuddering out of her. But he waited silently as she collected her thoughts. And then, she started talking softly, recounting of everything that had happened, beginning with the ambush that had resulted in her capture, ending with their breakout. Several minutes of silence passed before Bucky started to talk.
"I cut through Wyoming and Montana...Wanted to get to Canada but never made it that far…-" he trailed off for a minute, before gulping and continuing. "Had just entered Montana and found what I thought was an abandoned warehouse...similar to this one actually...but smaller. Was going to set up there for the night but the moment I stepped through the door it all went to heck. Three heavily armed men dropped from the ceiling and pinned me to the ground, somehow disabling my arm-" he fingered his metal wrist "-Before I knew what was happening more appeared and the words were being said. Got quite a few good hits in before they were was nothing I could do." He gazed up at Aubrey, anguish in his eyes as he murmured "I'm the weaker link when I'm not under their control. Good strategy, get the one more likely to obey and use me to subdue you."
Aubrey shook her head "You're not th-" but Bucky cut her off, raising an eyebrow.
"Brie, we both know there was no way I could've broken through the programming. It's fine."
Aubrey shrugged and pushed off the wall, peering out the window again, leaning her elbow against the sill.
"How is it?" he questioned. She glanced at him over her shoulder and sighed
"Bad enough, but it'll heal" she murmured.
They sat in silence for several minutes before Aubrey said she needed to move around. The door squeaked as it swung open and Aubrey ventured back into the main room to find various people typing furiously at computers. Fury was standing at a control panel but glanced up for a moment before turning to a woman standing beside him.
"Hill? Screen up." The woman, Hill, nodded and fiddled with a machine behind her, one of the blank walls lit up to a map of the world. Aubrey sidled to the back of the room, sliding into the shadows, purposely disappearing.
Fury strode forward and stood beside the projection. "Mark the compounds."
Six gray squares appeared on several of the continents.
"These are six more Hydra compounds that we know about, yesterday it was seven. One of our agents confirmed that this one-" he paused and pointed to one of the squares "Is abandoned but still has files in its database. What should our next move be?" He paused, waiting for someone to answer, Aubrey was tempted to answer but stayed silent. Fury sighed and turned to Agent Hill. "Hill?" he questioned.
"We're going to send in a team to thoroughly search the compound and download all the files before planting several bombs and blowing it.-" she went on to bring up a map of the facility, explaining the different entrances and exits before starting to name the agents who would be going. Aubrey strode forward "I'll do it"
Fury frowned at her but Aubrey kept talking. "I'll be faster and it's safer for just me to go, right? You can have your team work on something else."
He held up a hand "I'm not so sure that's a good idea, did you forget that we just rescued you from Hydra?"
"I haven't forgotten-" she said softly before clearing her throat "But if it's empty then I'll be fine...please I can't rattle around here for days on end."
Fury muttered colorfully under his breath before sighing and glaring at Aubrey.
"Fine, but we're going to send in a team behind you...consider this a trial run. If it goes well then..maybe we can collaborate more in the future. But if we even get a whiff of Hydra then you are to get out of there, understood?"
"Understood"