Chapter Three:
Steve's POV:
"I know that all of you are tired, you're stressed from having your lives turned upside down," I said to the members of my team. "But know that I am doing what I think is best and knowing that you have my back means the world to me. I will try to be the leader that all of you need and expect me to be."
"We got your back, Cap," said Barton. "Stark is out of his mind. Intel is saying he's working with S.H.I.E.L.D. to do anything to bring in anyone with superpowers."
"I fear that he may have a way to contain the superhumans eventually, if Reid Richards and he build on our conversations past," Hank piped up.
"What do you mean, Dr. Pym?" I asked.
"Over the years, Tony, Reid and I have had conversations about the fact that the prisons we've sent supervillains to have never held them. We'd discussed a prison that would be impenetrable."
"Where would it be, Dad?" Hope asked her father.
"Out of this realm, with limited portals as access points. I'm not sure they're there yet, but Reid and Tony are both intelligent men. Even without me, I'm sure they can work this out."
"Then we need to go for Sophie as soon as possible, and try to keep him from capturing as many of us while we're there as we can," I said.
A month later:
Bucky's POV:
I walked into Steve's room. He was standing by the window, staring out. I noticed his sketch book was open to a drawing he was making of her.
"What's going on, Buck?" he asked, sounding defeated.
Steve never sounded defeated, except around me and Barton. We were the only ones that saw the broken part of him, the part that was missing part of him. I think it because all of us were missing the same piece of our lives. Her. Sophie. Steve's fiancée, my best friend, and Barton's daughter.
"Scott and Hope have some intel on Sophie."
Steve took a deep breath and pulled himself together. When he got by me, he looked at his sketch book and closed it. Squeezing my shoulder, his walls were back up.
"Let's go," Steve said.
We got downstairs and we met the rest of the resistance team. Hank set up a monitor so Scott and Hope could show us what they found. Barton handed Steve a cup of coffee as he got to the bottom of the stairs. Sophie's arrest seemed to have bonded the two of them.
"We know where they're holding her," Scott began unceremoniously.
"But it's not going to be easy to get her out," Hope cut him off.
Hope pushed a few buttons and pulled up the schematics of a prison.
"This is the prison Sophie is being held, pending her trial for charges of murder, terrorism, and a whole list of other things. Essentially, they dug up Sophie's history and tacked it onto the charges for the incident in the Sudan," Hope said. "It is heavily guarded by the registered members of the team. Stark had a hand in setting up the security."
"But we think we know how we can get her out," Scott said.
"How?" Steve asked.
"My suit," Hope said. "We'll need distractions, enough to pull the team out of the prison. Then Scott can shrink, bring her my suit, and guide her out."
"It won't work," I said.
"Why?" asked Clint.
"If Stark has her, he's got the power restraints on her. I'm sure he's done something so they're not so easy to short out."
"That's what my allies do best," Scott said, smiling. "That's what the crazy ants are for."
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"The crazy ant can generate a small amount of electricity alone. In a group, the impact of the jolt they produce can shut down some of the most sophisticated systems out there," Hope explained.
"You'll hurt her!" I shouted.
"Bucky," Hank started, "We don't want to hurt her, but Scott and the ants are the easiest way to get her out. Her body will hopefully start to heal any injuries she sustains before she even gets the suit on. But you're right. If she has the power restraints on, I'm not sure the Pym Particles that power Hope's suit will work on her, which will mean this, everyone risking their freedom to cause the distractions, will be for nothing."
"Clint?" I asked, hoping he'd object to them hurting her.
"Are you sure that nothing will permanently injure her in this?" Clint asked.
"She'll be fine," Hope assured him.
"Then what do we do?" Steve asked.
Steve's POV:
Everyone had their mission objective. Bucky led them into our basement, into the lab that Sophie made. She had stored weapons she designed in there.
"Are you alright, Steve?" Clint asked me.
"I just want her back, Clint. I need to get her back. Not just for me. For Bucky. He's been beating himself senseless since we were able to calm him down from that episode. Once he realized what he'd done and that she was caught for it… it's been hard for him. Especially after she was willing to sacrifice her freedom for his so he didn't pay for her mistakes," I replied.
"I understand."
"I miss her so much, Clint."
"I know. So do I."
"I wish I had done the selfish thing for once and asked her to stay home with me. We had just gotten engaged."
"If Bucky had gone alone, we don't know that things wouldn't have turned out worse."
"I guess you're right."
"And you know that the two of them will die for each other."
"I know," I said, conceding that I couldn't change what happened.
Bucky came back upstairs with the team. Hope would be staying and running comms and surveillance from the lab in the basement with Hank. Bucky handed me my new gun, which worked like Stark's Iron Man suit's repulsor rays, and my utility belt, which held Sophie's perfected healing factor, which she found a way to make work even on an enhanced with enhanced healing abilities. Looking at the equipment, most of it made by Sophie, it made me realize it wasn't just me, Bucky, and Clint who needed her. The Secret Avengers needed her to fight for what was right. The registration act took away our freedom and we were fighting to get it back; we needed her to do it.
"Alright everyone, listen up," I started, "Anyone who is going into this is going on a voluntary basis. We don't know what will happen when we get to that prison. We don't know what Stark and the military will have waiting for us, because we do know that they will expect us to come for Sophie. He knows what she means to Bucky, Barton, and I.
"This is a serious firefight. If we pull this off flawlessly, we won't have any fatalities. But I won't lie to you, there is always the chance that this will end badly for both ends. So we need to be very careful about how we do this, not only to try to preserve the lives of everyone going, but because we don't want to have to kill any of our former allies or military personnel unnecessarily.
"Sophie needs us. She is the reason we have been able to fight the way we have since day one. Her weapons are a match for Stark technology and her healing serum has made all of us harder to take down. So is there anyone here who wants to bow out before we go?"
I looked around. Nobody budged.
"So this is the plan…"
Sophie's POV:
There was something crawling on me. I could feel it. Looking down, I recognized the ants. Scott, I thought to myself. He had to be controlling them. They were acting in decisive manners. A group was heading for each of my ankles and wrists, and a larger group for my neck. Suddenly, high voltages of electricity were being passed through my body at the five points the ants had gathered. I bit the inside of my cheeks so I didn't cry out in pain.
I felt the restraints unlock. I waited for the ants to clear the cell and let my body temperature rise, melting the shackles. When I was done, I stayed in the bed, waiting to see what would come next. Natasha made her pass to make sure that I was still in my cell. I glared at her for betraying me. After she left, Scott appeared in my cell in the Ant-Man suit.
"Put this on, quick. We have three minutes to get you out of here," he said to me handing me what I recognized as Hope's Wasp suit.
When I stood up to pull it on over my clothes, Scott gasped when he took in the shape I was in. The power restraints hadn't muted my healing abilities, but with the rate of "interrogations" I had gone through over whatever length of time I had been in the prison, my healing ability had slowed. I was showing signs of the abuse I suffered at the hands of my captors. I was weak, unsteady on my feet, and had wounds healing all over my body. Scott showed me which button to push to shrink and we both shrank.
"Can you hear me, Sophie?" he asked. "Are you okay?"
I nodded at him. The helmets had comms units.
"Then we have to go. Now. I need to get you out of the building before the first distraction shot is taken. You're going to be okay now. You're going home."
Home, I thought as he started running and I followed him. The more we ran, the more I could feel my power and focus returning to me, my injuries starting to heal a little faster. We had just cleared the building when the first distraction went off. I looked up and saw Falcon shooting at the prison. Bucky was using a grenade launcher to the south, staying in the cover of the trees.
Scott and I ran faster. He led me through the woods. I saw an arrow fly by and the front door of the building exploded. I knew Dad was there. When we got to a clearing, we stopped.
"Push the other button," he told me.
I pushed it. I grew to my normal size.
"Guys, I got her. We're at the meet-up," Scott said.
I took Hope's helmet off. From the woods to my east, Steve and Dad came out of the tree line.
"Everyone, pull back. Let's get out of here now. We have her," Steve said into his comms unit.
I ran into Dad and Steve's arms. Scott shrank and ran off. The distractions had stopped. I knew whoever came with them pulled back like Steve told them to. I turned, hearing noise behind us.
"Sophie?" Bucky said, coming from his position.
I ran into his arms, leaving Dad and Steve.
"Bucky, you're okay! I wasn't sure what happened to you after I sent you through that portal."
"Guys, we need to get out of here, we can have this reunion at home," Steve said.
Bucky and I grabbed Dad and Steve between us and opened a fire portal out of the woods.
Barton's POV:
Bucky went and brought Anya, Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel to his, Steve, and Sophie's house. They all knew Sophie had been captured, and while I had been going home most nights, if we had serious missions, like what we'd just done, I stayed overnight at the house with boys. When Sophie got out of the shower, the family was reunited.
We spent a few hours together before I put Cooper and Lila to bed in Sophie's room. Not long after, Anya took Nathaniel and went to bed in the guest room. Sophie and I went down to the lab for some privacy.
"I'm glad you're safe, Sophie," I said, pulling her into my arms.
It had been nearly two months since the incident in the Sudan that led to her arrest.
"I didn't realize the bombs were there, Dad. I wouldn't have risked the portal, but Bucky started freaking out and I knew I needed to get him out of that square before there were more civilian casualties."
"I know. You were trying to neutralize the situation. Without all the information there was nothing else you could have done."
"I can't believe Natasha helped Stark arrest and hold me. I thought she was supposed to be someone both of us could trust, Dad. What's going on with her?"
"I don't know, Sophie, but I do know she's been trying to find this place. It's a good thing you disabled all GPS trackers before you brought her back to the base the night of your engagement party."
"That feels like another life," Sophie said, looking at the floor. "Was Steve okay?"
"He put on a strong front, but he missed you. Today was important for him as much as me and Bucky. Bucky blames himself for your capture."
"Do you?"
"Not anymore, Sophie. I did at first because he was safe, again, and you were in the fire. But he stayed at my place for a few nights after Steve and Sam first found him, they didn't want to give him access to your lab, and the nightmares he would have, I knew that something serious happened. It happens. It happened in South Africa with all of us. Wanda put some kind of spell on Thor, Steve, Natasha, and Bruce. Bruce destroyed a city fighting Stark. Me and Stark were the only ones she couldn't get to because I've been through it and saw it coming and Stark was off fighting one of the Ultrons."
"What happened?"
"We had to take sanctuary with Laura at the farmhouse. Natasha, Thor, and Bruce were all shaken badly when they came out of their visions. Steve… well, he can put everything aside for the greater good when he has to. But my point is that every last one of them was vulnerable like never before. That's why, when I saw how Bucky was reacting in the days after your arrest, I knew Steve wasn't covering for him, and I knew you did the right thing going in there and risking everything to get him out before he got more out of control."
"Thanks for having faith in me, Dad."
"How can I not after all the things you've pulled off against the odds, Sophie?"
I hugged her to me. She pulled my hearing aids out. I was about to argue with her but she pulled something out of one of her locked drawers and put them right behind my ears. I was able to hear again.
"What is that?" I asked pointing at the device she put behind my ears.
"A project I finished right before my mission that I never got to give you, Dad. I know that you're always worried about some of your arrows shorting your hearing aids or that they will get knocked out of your ear during a fight, leaving you vulnerable. These," she said pointing to the devices behind my ears, "can withstand even the sound of your supersonic arrows without causing further damage to you or shorting out and they won't fall off during a fight."
"How do you know?"
"I tested them myself. I used the arrows wearing them and then had one of my training sessions with Bucky. If they could hold through that, there's basically nothing that will knock those off of you."
"My genius daughter," I said kissing her cheek, "always looking out for her old man."
"Thank you, Dad. For being there today. I saw the arrow you shot before I saw you."
"Nothing could keep me from rescuing you, Sophie," I said looking at her. "Maybe you should get some rest? You look like you need time to recover from what happened in that prison…" he said, trying to prompt me to tell him what I went through.
"It's just because the bands started slowing my healing after a while. There were five this time. Ankles too. It made it harder for me to heal. No big deal."
"He didn't want to take any chances, did he?" I asked. "And it is a big deal, Sophie. The types of things they must have done to you to cause you to end up in this shape… I have some idea of what they did to you. I've been the interrogator before. And both Stark and Natasha better keep their distance because I am just as dangerous."
"Dad, they were following Hill's orders. I overheard her tell them to do whatever it took to get Bucky's location out of me. Natasha tried to convince her to turn me double-agent instead, Hill told her Bucky was the priority," she said looking at the floor sadly.
"Well then Hill better watch her ass too," I said before looking at her. "What's wrong?"
"Tony had been my mentor. Natasha too. Now they're against us. And I'm worried that I'm going to have to do something that I don't want to."
"What's that, Sophie?"
"I think I might have to hack Stark and give J.A.R.V.I.S. a virus. It will make Stark and The Vision vulnerable, take them out of the fight."
Bucky's POV:
Sophie came upstairs and Barton went right to bed. Sophie came and hugged me. I wanted to tell her I didn't deserve her forgiveness.
"Don't even think about pushing me away, James Barnes," she said to me in Russian. "You needed help. I'm okay. I'm just glad that you are. I've been worried about you."
"You need to worry about yourself a little more, Sophie. These injuries say that you're not okay right now. You need time to recover."
"Maybe I do, but you're important to me. I love you. You're my brother, no matter what. So stop beating yourself up. You can't control what was done to you in the past. Sometimes people react to things. We may be enhanced, but we are still human."
"You're too good to me, Sophie."
"No, I'm not. We're just good enough for each other, Bucky," she said, kissing my cheek. "I'll spend more time with you tomorrow? I'm tired. I want to go to bed."
"Tell Steve I'm glad we were able to get you home safe, Soph."
"The battle isn't over yet, Bucky."
"I know. As long as the accords are the law, none of us are safe."
She nodded at me before going upstairs.
Steve's POV:
I celebrated with the team for about an hour, but then I needed some time alone. I was sitting by my window, my sketchpad in my lap, pencil in my hand, able to draw for the first time since I found out she was arrested. The door opened, but I knew it wasn't Bucky. I got up, putting my sketch pad on the chair.
"Sophie. I knew you'd come find me when you were ready."
"You're not mad I took so long?"
"I'm not the only one that's been worried and looking for you. Given the sleeping arrangements, I have no problem that I waited for you."
She kissed me and I finally felt like the house was home again.
"I love you, Steve. I may not be sure of a lot of things right now, but I am sure that I love you and I am glad that one day, we will get married. I don't care when. Because being in that cell for all that time, I kept worrying about my family. You are part of my family, in a different way than I ever expected. You are the first man I have ever loved and the thought that I was causing you pain because of what happened… I couldn't stand the thought…"
I kissed Sophie and got down on one knee, like I had in the restaurant. I slid her engagement ring back on her.
"Scott got it back for you. Hank already made sure that Stark didn't tamper with it."
She kissed me again as she threw her arms around me.
"I thought I had lost it for good. I hated Stark and Natasha for taking it from me. Your love was one of the things that gave me hope. I knew that as long as you were alive you would find a way to get me back. You, Dad, and Bucky. You wouldn't let me stay there, and it gave me hope. The fact that all of you loved me."
I led her to the bed and we just stretched out with me holding her.
"Our nightmare is over, Sophie. At least this one. We'll take things one step at a time from here," I told her.
I could feel where some of her injuries were. Part of me wanted to go find Stark and make him pay. But a bigger part of me just wanted to hold her and take care of her. She wasn't acting helpless, but Sophie wasn't objecting to anyone helping to take care of her at the moment either. It was a big step for her. I knew I wouldn't leave her no matter how much I wanted to make Stark regret the day he arrested my fiancée. Instead, I would stay by her side and help her as much as she would let me while her injuries healed from whatever happened to her in the prison, which she wouldn't talk about. But both Bucky and I had talked about that earlier when she was with Barton. Sophie wouldn't say a word about what she went through; at least not until she was ready, and only with the people she wanted to talk about it with. We would just have to be there for her in any way we could until she was okay.
Bucky's POV:
It's been two weeks since we've gotten Sophie back. Things are almost back to normal between her, Steve, and me. We're fighting by each other's side, an even more unstoppable force than Sophie and I were on our own. Still, when we go out on missions, I can't help but feel more protective of her, like I can't let her down again.
"Bucky!" I hear Sophie call me from her lab.
I head down to her basement lab. She's standing at what seems to be an empty doorframe. There is a lot of tech on it.
"What is it, Soph?"
"Are you feeling adventurous today?" she asked me with a grin.
She finished a new project. That's what that grin tells me. When we haven't been sneaking around on missions, she's been in the lab busting her ass to give us new tech to fight Stark's tech.
"I think I just finished the teleportation device. I can't test it. I need to be here to monitor the output and I need someone who can go and teleport back. That leaves you."
I look at the doorframe. If this works, we have an easy escape route for anyone we bring to our property without either of us having to do all the heavy lifting.
"Where is it gonna send me?"
"Dad's house in Pennsylvania."
"Does he know?"
"If you agree, I'll text him to tell him I'm gonna have you portal in and out. Are you in?"
I see her excitement. I know what this could mean for us. It's a first step. Next step with this tech would to be able to make it portable.
"Set it up."
Sophie texted her father and got the device going. After her father replied, she told me to step through.
It isn't like stepping through the fire portal that I've had for nearly six months because of Sophie. Still, it's efficient and when I get over the shock of the teleportation itself, I realized that it worked. I'm standing outside Clint's barn, where he's standing with a cup of coffee. He handed me the cup of coffee and sent a message on his phone.
"Let's talk, Bucky," he said to me, as he took off his sunglasses.
Barton's POV:
Bucky looked like he'd been betrayed. He was afraid of me. Part of me found this funny. He should be. A healthy dose of fear for your best friend's father when you've done the things he has with her is never a bad thing.
"You and Sophie planned this, didn't you?" he asked.
"You have to ask?"
"What did I do wrong?"
"It's not just Sophie. It's Steve."
He looked wounded that both of his best friends have asked me to talk to him.
"They're worried about you. You've become so focused on completing the mission, you're losing yourself to them," I said, trying to get through to him. "I know that mistakes were made in the past. Not just by you. Sophie's made her share of mistakes and so has Steve. But you're focusing on them too much. Do you get what I'm saying, Bucky?"
"Not really," he admitted.
I tried to think of how to break it down for him a different way.
"Alright, I know that you feel responsible for what happened to Sophie…"
"I was…"
"No, you weren't. And if I can say that, it should mean something to you," I cut him off. "Every one of us has nightmares in our past that we'd like to stay there. Your nightmares came back for you and you reacted in a way that any of us could have reacted in the same situation. But it's changing you, and yes, you're more focused on missions, but the playful side of you that used to get in trouble with Sophie when the two of you got bored after she gave you your memories back, its fading."
He looked at me slightly hurt.
"You mean to tell me that they had you give me an intervention to become less serious?" he asked.
"No, Bucky, they asked me to talk to you because they want you to stop blaming yourself and trying to be more than the person they already care so much about. Neither of them blames you for what happened to Sophie," I told him. "Honestly, I'll tell you what I told Sophie the night we got her back. Realizing the circumstances, the situation played out the only way it could without getting any worse."
"How could it have gotten any worse, Barton?"
"You could have had a complete PTSD meltdown that led you to revert back into the Winter Soldier mentality permanently, Bucky. If you turned back into the Winter Soldier that day, who knows what kind of damage could have been done."
"But all those civilians that Sophie and I killed. The kids…"
"It could have been a lot worse. I know that you're not used to having a conscience while doing this, but all of us who do this have had wound up doing things, intentionally or not, that have led to lives lost that we wished we could have saved. If you let it become the focus of your life, it will change you, permanently, destroy you from the inside out. Do you want to let that be you?"