Chapter 27
Steve paced quietly back and forth in Sarah's room, something had felt off when Zaria had been here, like her mind was somewhere else and her abrupt departure left a bad taste in his mouth. Then the alarms went off. Though the alarms had been disabled in the room where Sarah slept, he could still hear the high pitched ringing and worried that something bad had happened. The door ripped open to Peggy's concerned face, but when she saw that it was only Steve she relaxed.
"What's going on?" Steve asked as Peggy quickly shut the door.
"I don't know, I thought Zariah had done something to Sarah so I came here." Peggy answered.
Steve's face darkened for a moment. "We're going to need to deal with your trust issue of her, but right now you stay here with Sarah, I'm going to find out what's going on." Without waiting for her response he quickly left the room in search of what was happening.
"Rogers!" A voice called out to Steve.
Turning around he saw Bruce running up to him.
"What's going on?"
"Have you seen Zaria?" Bruce asked quickly.
"Not since she left Sarah's room, why? Has something happened to her?" Fear gripped at Steve's gut at the thought that something terrible might have happened; was there really something wrong with the serum they had given her?
"We don't know for sure. It's just that, the armory is empty and there's an unconscious pilot on the roof and the plane is missing."
Steve pursed his lips before he turned around and ran down the hall towards Zaria's room. At the room he didn't knock, just ripped open the door and stepped inside, followed closely by Bruce; no one was there.
"Where could she be?" Steve muttered mostly to himself.
"Wherever that map leads." Bruce answered as he pushed past and made his way over to the computer whose monitor still displayed the map Zaria had been looking at.
"Where is this…?" Steve leaned over to look at the screen but couldn't figure out where this led. "J.A.R.V.I.S., where does this map lead?"
"I'm sorry Mr. Rogers; I'm not authorized to say." J.A.R.V.I.S.'s cool voice answered.
"What do you mean you can't say? This is important, where does this map lead? Where did Zaria go?!" Steve nearly shouted.
"I'm sorry, but I was told I am not allowed to divulge the information unless upon Ms. Barnes death."
"Damn it J.A.R.V.I.S. this is important!" Steve slammed his fist into the desk hard enough to crack it.
"It's fine J.A.R.V.I.S.." Bruce stated. "Thank you anyway, come on Steve." Bruce pushed Steve to the door.
"Why are we just giving up?" Steve nearly snapped as he let himself be pushed out the door.
"Because that was a topical map and, from what I could tell, a current one. I was able to memorize some of the landmarks. With the landmarks we should be able to recreate the map and compare it to satellite images until we find it."
"That may take too long; she may already be in trouble." Steve snapped.
"It's the best we can do right now, and some of those items in that picture are only in certain areas, that will narrow it done some. It's the best we can do until Tony can convince J.A.R.V.I.S. to give up the information, which might take even longer."
They entered the pseudo command room in the Stark Tower to begin searching for the location that Zaria had headed off to.
Hours passed with no luck of finding the location when they got something, the plane had returned. Steve left the command room as soon as he heard the news, racing up to the roof to see if there was anything they could learn; maybe Zaria had returned. Clint Barton was already inside the plane when Steve arrived. Realizing that Zaria was not in the plane concerned him, but Clint checking the dashboard piqued his interest.
"What are you looking at?"
"Coordinates." Clint responded. "They were in the autopilot log, I can't be certain but I think they're for somewhere in Russia or maybe Siberia."
"What would be out there that she needed to go deal with?" Steve asked mostly to himself.
"Wasn't that where the Winter Soldier was originally from?"
Steve paled as he realized the implications that had. "She must have found the base… We need to go after her before she does something stupid."
"We're not cleared to go after her."
"I don't care if we're cleared to go after her or not, we're going."
"I agree with him Mr. Barton, it would be best if we went in after her." Bruce agreed as he stepped onto the plane.
Clint stared at them before sighing. "Fine, but it's your asses on the line if Fury gets pissed about this."
"Well if you want to go find her, I suggest you leave now." Tony's voice crackled over the plane's radio. "I already have."
Blood splattered the floor and smeared against the wall as Zaria leaned on it to move down the hall. Though her body would heal fairly quickly being shot, stabbed or beaten still hurt and she still bled until they could finally close up. Her stamina was also waning with the constant attacks from the guards and she hoped that she had dealt with all of them. Wiping blood from her eyes she realized that she was nearing the end of the base, there weren't many places left that people could be hiding in. Turning a corner she came across a pair of large metal doors with a large squad of men standing in front of it.
"Fuck…" Zaria muttered as she immediately ducked back behind the wall just as they commenced firing.
"Why can't air ducts be as spacious and support a human body like they do in a movie?" She complained as she looked into her bag to see what little she had left. One round, flat object slid into sight and she picked it up. Staring at it she realized it was some high tech device from S.H.I.E.L.D. that she had wanted to avoid using as she couldn't figure out what it was, but at this point she may have to consider it. Pieces of cement chipped off from where the bullets hit the wall near her cheek as she fiddled with the item in questions. A light came on and, in a lull of gun firing; she slid the object towards the men and waited.
Screams ensued as the sound of electricity and the smell of burning flesh reached Zaria as she hid behind the wall; silence descended shortly afterwards. She waited several minutes before carefully leaning around the corner and checking the aftermath.
"So it's like a big version of Natasha's Widow's Bite." She muttered as she made her way over to the unconscious men. Searching their bodies she found another pistol and two spare clips for it along with an ID badge that, hopefully, opened the door she was in front of. Taking the card to the door she attempted to swipe it through but nothing happened.
"Of course, fan-fucking-tastic…" She groaned as she turned and rifled through the bodies again and coming up with a few more cards to try. Swipe after swipe received a negative result until finally one worked. "Finally!"
Excited to get through the door she waited for it to open until she realized it was now asking for a thumb print. "God damn it!" Turning the card over she began picking through the people until she could find the one that matched the card, ripping off his glove she roughly shoved his thumb onto the scanner before yanking off his helmet and hoisting him up to the eye scanner.
Finally the door opened.
Inside was a complete high tech laboratory complete with occupied cryo chamber against one wall. Walking in cautiously Zaria made her way over to the cry chamber and peered inside; it was her grandfather. Anger swelled within her and she put the pistol's muzzle to the glass, her finger on the trigger.
"Go ahead, shoot him." A heavily accented voice called out. She whirled around only to see that no one was there.
"It's not so hard to kill a sleeping man, don't you think?" The voice asked.
"Who's there?" Zaria demanded.
An image of a man's face with spectacles appeared on the screen. "It's so good to meet you Zaria Barnes."
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm of no importance, just a scientist looking to better the world." He continued his accent became clearer to her as she listened: German. "I've seen the things about you and I do believe you should come work for me, being your grandfather's child and all, I think your better suited for the line of work that I offer."
"I'm not a monster like him." Zaria gritted out.
"That's quite fixable as I've seen from your work that you are quite ruthless just like he is."
"Shut up!" Zaria cried as she pointed the gun at the computer screens and counsel and fired until the gun was empty. Sparks shot from the now broken machine and little fires sprung up inside it causing her to realize what she had done. With shaking hands she released the empty clip and reloaded a fresh one before she walked over to the cryo chamber. Carefully she raised the gun again to the glass and held it there. Her arm shook, as she tried to rationalize with herself.
She had to kill him, she couldn't let him live. He would go after her daughter, he would try to do to her what he had tried to do to Zaria, only she was younger, easier to mold. If she didn't kill him nothing would ever end, Sarah would never be safe. This was the right thing to do. This would keep her safe.
She let a breath out slowly as she calmed herself and tightened her hand on the grip of the gun. She had to do this, she would do this even if it meant she was just as much of a monster as her grandfather was, she would keep her daughter safe no matter what the cost. But no matter how much she told herself she had to do this, she had to protect her child, she had to be the monster, she couldn't pull the trigger. Instead she smashed the glass several times before pulling it open and yanking out the unconscious body of her grandfather.
As she half dragged, half carried the Winter Soldier down the corridors to the exit a voice called her name in the distance.
"Zaria!" Steve rounded the corner and caught sight of Zaria with Bucky. "Oh thank god you're alive."
"Yeah… No thanks to a talking computer…" She grumbled as she stumbled up to Steve.
"What?" Steve questioned, perplexed. He shook his head. "That doesn't matter right now, what matters right now is getting you out of here."
Bruce, Clint and Tony weren't far behind Steve and came upon the small group quickly.
"We should get out of here quickly." Clint said as he looked around. "Most of them are incapacitated, but I wouldn't be surprised if reinforcements were to arrive soon."
"Right," Steve answered as he looked from Zaria to Bucky, unsure of which to carry as it appeared that neither were really able to walk out on their own.
"Take him." Zaria muttered as she passed off her grandfather to Steve. "I can walk on my own."
Together, Zaria and the men of S.H.I.E.L.D. left the base that had once housed the infamous Winter Soldier and stepped out into an unknown and hopefully brighter future.