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The translation for the German dialogue is at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 41
Without his enhanced hearing he wouldn't even have noticed that Bucky broke into their hotel suite after the attack on the White House. Natasha was asleep and snuggled against him when he heard how the door opened. He recognized the footsteps as Bucky and got out of bed without waking Nat up.
He closed the bedroom door behind him and Bucky was already staring at him. He said that he had no memeory of the last hours. He only remembered getting a call from Murdock's assistant who said that they needed to talk to him about something urgent. He left the Tower and then he didn't know what happened. But he had still been in New York when his black out ended. He had heard about the attack and his apparent involvement and left to get to DC.
"I'm ready to turn myself in." Bucky said. "They'll realize that I didn't do it because I wasn't even in town."
"They'll kill you on sight. HYDRA is most definitely behind this. Who knows how deep their influence goes. I'm pretty sure the person who called you wasn't Murdock's assistant. They must have had the attacker put on a photostatic veil to pose as you." They couldn't trust anyone. What had Natasha said before they went to bed? There had to be a bigger picture? He somehow knew that this was only the beginning. Didn't Rumlow say he wouldn't see what hit him? He definitely didn't see this coming. "We have to leave to go after HYDRA, Bucky. It's the only way to get to the truth."
Bucky seemed to weigh his options. "Okay." He finally said. "I wait here until you and Natasha are ready."
He vehemently shook his head. No, he wouldn't drag her into this. If they would fail they could never go back. She didn't deserve to live her life on the run just because she loved him and felt obligated to come with him. "No, it's just you and me." He tried to give him a smile but probably failed. "Like old times."
"Steve..." Bucky began but he stopped him.
"Don't. It's the only way. I refuse to put her in any danger." He decided and gave him a stern look to signal that any objection was pointless. He needed her to be safe and she wouldn't be safe if she would come with them. She was a capable fighter and spy but she was still just human and no supersoldier. HYDRA would use her to get to him. She should stay here and lead the Avengers.
He loved her so much and he knew that she would hate him for leaving her but hopefully one day she would see that he did it for her. This wasn't her fight. It was his and Bucky's fight. He couldn't save Bucky back then but he would be damned if he didn't try his hardest to do it now. He owed it to him, he owed him everything. Without Bucky he probably wouldn't even have made to 20. He would help him no matter the consequences, no matter what he would lose in the process. And who. He wouldn't be Captain America anymore and he would lose the woman he loved but he had to make these sacrifices for Bucky. And to bring HYDRA down.
He left his phone on the table so they couldn't track it and wrote a short note for Nat. There were so many things he wanted to write.
I love you. I wanted to spend my life with you. I always thought we would get married one day. Please don't hate me. I'm also doing this for you. For your safety.
But in the end he didn't write any of those things. He got his suitcase and followed Bucky out of the hotel.
"You are making a terrible mistake right now, Steve." Bucky said when they got to Nat's old apartment. "You can still go back. I'm sure she's still asleep. Just let me go, Stevie. Live your life with her."
He hated to admit how much he wanted to bail on Bucky in that moment to run back to Natasha but there was no going back now. HYDRA would go after them again and again no matter how many innocent people would die. "We are putting an end to this, Bucky. Once and for all. I won't stop until your name is cleared and you can live your life the way you want to. And every member of HYDRA is either dead or captured!"
He looked at him with sadness in his eyes. "What about your life? You are throwing it away right now. You have your Avengers. And you have a girl who loves you and wants to be with you and you jeopardize that for me? I'm not worth it, Steve. Please go back to her!"
He shook his head softly and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm with you till the end of the line, pal."
Of course Ward had already left Texas when she got there. Natasha checked out the bar he had frequently visted during his stay and after some asking around she found a young woman who had a fling with him and thankfully the woman was pissed and pretty chatty. She didn't seem to know who Ward really was because he told her that he was a business man from L.A and on a trip here. He fucked her a few times and promised her a lot and then just left. Well, if that didn't sound familiar to her. Maybe she was being unfair here, Steve did love her just not enough. Anyway, the woman told her that Ward mentioned a business transaction in Amsterdam. Something told Natasha that that wasn't just a lie Ward told but that he was actually heading there. The best spies mixed lies with the truth. She thanked the woman and agreed when she said that all men are pigs.
She was on her way to Amsterdam when she contacted Coulson who hoped that she would get information out of Ward and if she didn't need him anymore she was more than welcomed to kill him. SHIELD was going after a money trail and would tell her if they would find any names.
She had an old contact in town that she visited right after she landed. Stanislav, a former KGB agent, told her that he heard about some Nazis having a party outside of Amsterdam. He couldn't tell her if they were HYDRA or members of an right-winged group. Since it was her only clue she decided to check the old fortress out. What was it with Nazis and castles?! She drowned a few shots with Stanislav who told her not to get killed and rented a car under one of her many aliases and drove to the small town where the party would be. She wondered what Steve was doing and if he missed her as much as she missed him. She wanted to hate him because it would have made everything easier for her but she just couldn't. She loved him too damn much for that.
He and Bucky flew to Argentina to talk to the doctor they both went to before Bucky came home but they were too late. An old woman who lived in the same apartment complex told them that the man died very sudden two weeks ago. He shared a look with Bucky and knew they were thinking the same thing- HYDRA got to the doctor. Fuck, the man was the only lead they had where they knew that he had connections to HYDRA.
They came back in the dark and searched his apartment and practice but found nothing. They walked by a kiosk on their way back to the quinjet and Bucky's face was on the cover of every newspaper. They were really lucky that the old lady didn't recognize them when they talked to her earlier. It didn't look like the world already knew that Captain America was on the run with the Winter Soldier. Nat seemed to protect him even though she had no reason to but he knew that it was only a matter of time until it would leak that he went rogue.
"Do you remember anything else? Names or at least faces?" He asked Bucky when they were back at the quinjet.
"No, sorry." Bucky looked to the ground. "I wish I was more useful. You can still go back, Steve."
He sighed, they had been over this before. "Do you remember a location maybe?"
Bucky closed his eyes in concentration. "There were a lot of HYDRA activities in Romania. I stayed there a couple of months to track them down. There still have to be active HYDRA cells in Bucharest."
He had been in Romina in his search for Bucky. East Europe was far away from the States and a political chaos. A good hiding place, maybe there were more HYDRA bases than the one he took down with Sam and Nat months ago. "Okay, Bucharest it is."
The party at the fortress did indeed turn out to be a HYDRA one. She snuck in as one of the servants and looked through the crowd for Ward but couldn't find him. Either he was alreay here and left or he wouldn't come at all. He had a three day headstart since Texas and he could be already somewhere else. She observed the crowd and one man stood particularly out. People were nervous to talk to him and kept their distance, he was definitely on top of the food chain. She looked briefly at her reflection on a silver platter to check if her blonde wig and brown contacts were still in place and followed him when he left the room.
She shoved him with her elbow on his throat against a wall when she was sure that they were alone in the hallway. The music was so loud that no one would hear him scream if he did. He seemed to realize that too because he didn't make a sound.
"Who ordered the attack on the White House?" She put more pressure on his throat.
He choked a bit. "Wie sind Sie hier reingekommen?"
He decided to speak German? What a cliché! "Ach, das war nicht sonderlich schwer!" She smirked. She loosened her hold on his throat to only put pressure on it again when he tried to fill his lungs with air. "Wer steckt hinter dem Anschlag?"
"Die amerikanische Abteilung von HYDRA." He choked out. "Wir kennen die Namen der Anderen nicht, um sie nicht preis zugeben."
Fuck, that was smart. What did Fury always say? No one spills the secrets because nobody knows them all.
She grabbed her gun that was hidden under her skirt and pressed it into his side. "An Ihrer Stelle würde ich anfangen zu reden."
He gulped and sweat was forming on his forehead. She knew that she had him. He would tell her what he knew. It maybe wasn't much but it would maybe get her a step closer to solving this whole mess. "Im Nationalmuseum von Bukarest ist eine Liste mit allen aktiven HYDRA Zellen versteckt. Ich weiß nicht wo im Museum, aber die Liste ist da. Die amerikanischen Zellen stehen auch darauf."
She could see in his eyes that he didn't have more information for her. She let go of him and took a few steps back. He looked relieved and clearly didn't know how she was or he would have known what would happen next. She aimed the gun at him and pulled the trigger. He sank to the floor with a bullet in his head.
"Fuck HYDRA!" She fled the castle and tipped the Dutch authorities of so they could arrest the rest of HYDRA. She didn't have the time to wipe out the entire party. She jumped into her rental car and raced back to the quinjet. She started the plane and FRIDAY told her that she would be in three hours in Bucharest.
Translation:
-How did you get in here?
-That wasn't that hard. Who's behind the attack?
-The American devision of HYDRA. We don't know the names of the others to not reveal them.
- If I were you I would start talking
-There is a list in the national museum in Bucharest with the locations of every active HYDRA cell. I don't know where in the museum but it's there. The American cells are on there too."