Eminent Silence

by Tristan Carey

  'Just shoot him, Bucky. Save us all the trouble,' Vielka said calmly, sneering at the man. He pushed the sword harder against her neck, making her hiss with pain and the swimsuit tear, exposing her scar and blood beginning to drip down her neck.

  'Now, now, Corporal. It's about time the team got back together,' he said, sneering as three more men now appeared, looking rather beaten up, from outside. The man glanced at them shaking his head. 'I didn't think three would be enough, but orders are orders.'

  Vielka's eyebrows raised at his remark and she glanced at Bucky, her face now filled with concern as she gulped. Then he saw a look in her eyes that had his own mouth go dry. Pleading. Her eyes were pleading for help.

  'If you don't mind, we've got places to be, and I believe the authorities will be here for you shortly.' The man grinned, while one of his three offsiders took the rifle from Vielka, aiming it at him, the others led Vielka down the corridor.

  As they disappeared, Bucky heard the sirens in the distance. He was right, the cops were on their way. He quickly ran out to the front of the mansion and around the corner to where he had left the car. He would need to ditch it eventually, but for now he could use it.

  'Bucky, we are on our way to get you. You need to get somewhere safe,' Steve's voice came through his ear piece.

  'We've got to get Vielka, she looked terrified.'

  'We will, but we've got to get you out of there first,' Steve argued, he sounded distracted.

  'Out of here? You'll need me to get her out of here,' Bucky argued angrily, as he cycled through the gears of the Audi, speeding through the streets of Como. It was dark in the city now, so he found a poorly lit street, leaving the car and running on foot. He had an idea of somewhere safe to go.

  'It's too risky, we don't know who these people are, they could be using her to lure you in,' Steve replied. Bucky grit his teeth as he ran along the shadows of a wall. Remembering her eyes as they led her away, there was no way this was about him.

  'Bucky, where are you going?' Natasha asked, after a moment of quiet murmuring on their end.

  'Gaia, Vielka's friend.'

  'Okay, wait for us there,' Natasha said, seemingly satisfied although he heard arguing in the background.

  He raced through the streets until he found the one he was looking for. Keeping to the shadows, he edged his way down the alley, looking for the familiar door.

  He tapped against it lightly, looking down both ends of the alley cautiously, as the tapping sound of rain beginning to fall could be heard. A light was turned on inside and the door cautiously opened. Gaia looked up at him with wide eyes, looking behind him with interest. 'Where is Vielka?'

  He stared at her for moment, she had used her real name, before he looked regretfully at the older, Italian woman, and she pursed her lips together but let him in, stepping back and opening the door wider for him. 'What happened?' she asked urgently, closing and locking the door behind him and shutting the blind as she did so.

  Bucky began to explain, sitting at the dining table in the small kitchen, as Gaia began moving quickly around the kitchen, pulling boxes and packages from several different cupboards.

  'I see,' she finally said once he had finished. To his surprise, she did not seem too surprised to hear any of it. 'She knew they would still be looking for her. Interesting, they chose now to take her, I wonder why?'

  He stared at the Italian woman. She obviously knew who these people were. 'What do you know?' he demanded.

  'I know that you need to get her out of their quick smart or you won't be getting her back at all.' She began pulling items out of the boxes and packages. Guns, ammo, grenades of different kinds, Comms and some other gadgets. She put them all over the table. 'Are your friends coming?'

  He hesitated for a moment, wondering who the hell this woman was, before he slowly nodded. 'They seem more interested in getting me out of here rather than getting her though,' he muttered, feeling agitated again by his argument with Steve.

  Gaia pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. 'They should be worried about getting her out. If they run the program, it will be very hard to get her back.'

  'Program?' he asked in confusion. Gaia raised her eyebrows and was about to reply when they heard sirens close by.

  She froze and listened for a moment. 'Hmm, time is running out. Take what you need,' she handed him a back pack, before walking over to a device she had left on her kitchen counter. She typed away while he hastily packed. She soon jumped to her feet, taking the device to him.

  'Here, I think you might find her in this area,' she said, motioning to the screen.

  'What's this?' he asked looking at what appeared to be a map grid, it had lots of strange squiggly lines on it though, that ran beside and through streets.

  'It's a power grid. This area here is using a lot of energy, so it would be the most likely place they would keep the project.'

  'What project?' he asked in confusion. There was the sound of tyres screeching at the end of the alley.

  'No time, upstairs! Go, follow the roofs! Get her!' Gaia ushered him to the stairs, before beginning to pack things away hastily. 'Go!' she hissed when he hesitated, seeing her drape an old shawl over her shoulders and place thick glasses on her nose. She smirked before turning to face the door.

  He raced up the stairs, two at a time until he reached the window. He looked out, checking to see if there was anyone waiting, before he climbed out and then up to the roof. Once on the roof, he was able to run along them as the old design of the city had it so all the terraces tended to run adjacent to each other, although was careful with his step as the tiled roofs were now wet and slippery as the rain steadily fell.

  He followed the map on the tablet, while being careful to keep out of sight. The Italian police were on high alert for him, helicopters constantly patrolled the skies and he often had to duck into the balconies of the terraces, but there was no way he was going to give up on finding Vielka.Finally it appeared he had reached the destination that Gaia had found for him. He looked down into the gated factory location. It looked unkempt, like perhaps it wasn't fully operational. The armed guards at the front had him thinking that Gaia was onto something.

  He took the rifle that he had taken from Gaia's cache into his hands, before tapping his ear piece. 'Natasha? Steve?'

  'I'm here,' Natasha replied. 'We're nearly there, Bucky, we'll get you out of there.'

  'No, I'm going after Vielka. We need to get her out of here now. Lock on to my current co-ordinates.'

  'Bucky, wait!'

  He didn't wait. He jumped down from the roof to the ground below and slunk his way into the compound. It took him a good part of an hour to fight his way in. He was doing his best to infiltrate the factory without raising the alarm, but even then, he felt like this was way too easy.

  He crept towards the end of a corridor, finding it led to a large empty room that looked like it may have once held large machinery of some sort, but most had been removed or pulled apart.

  He edged closer for a better look, noticing something hanging from the ceiling and dangling just a few feet from the floor. He raised his rifle, keeping his aim trained onto the silhouette. When he got closer, he realised it was Vielka. He hurried forward reaching her within seconds.

  'Vielka, hey,' he hissed, trying to rouse her. He reached up and felt for her vitals, they were strong, and he felt her stir under his hand.

  'Bucky?' she murmured, struggling to open her eyes, trying to lift her head slightly. Her hands were tied together above her head, and he could see the muscles in her shoulders straining under her own weight.

  She was bruised and battered, her body covered in sweat. Her clothes had been changed and she now only wore a cropped sports top with black fatigue pants, the same as the pants the men who had taken her were wearing. Bucky could clearly see the scar around her neck now and saw it extended down her chest slightly too. He didn't have time to worry about that now though, beg
inning to check for a way to get her down.

  'Yeah, it's me,' he muttered, looking around quickly, before he set to work on trying to free her from her bonds.

  'Bucky, no, don't,' she breathed, lowering her head again. 'Get out of here.'

  'I'm not leaving you, the others are on their way,' he replied, pulling a flick knife he always carried on him from his pocket. He then noticed swords had been slung to her back, he furrowed his brow and stared at them for a moment. Why would they give a captive, weapons?

  'James 'Bucky' Buchanan!'

  Bucky froze at the familiar voice. It was the same voice he had heard on his first mission with Steve's team.

  He spun around, raising his rifle, as the lights within the room were lit, blinding him for a moment. Once his eyes had adjusted to the sudden light, he saw standing at the other side of the factory floor, was Crossbones, Viscount Fiori stood a little way behind him, carrying a small metal box, as did the red haired man who had taken Vielka. Bucky also noticed several other men and women appear from the shadows around the large room, they were also dressed in the same fatigues as Vielka and her captors. He counted at least thirty.

  Bucky raised his rifle and trained his aim at Crossbones, but his aim drifted to the red haired man, and then his associates who crept closer around he and Vielka. They were surrounded.

  'The Winter Soldier,' Crossbones sneered as he walked forward.

  'Let her go, Crossbones!' Bucky warned. 'You don't want to hurt her!'

  Crossbones raised his eyebrows before he started laughing. 'You're absolutely right! I don't want to hurt her! And you're in no position to be throwing out demands, Winter Soldier.'

  The Viscount motioned to the men and women, who closed in on Bucky. Seeing he was outnumbered, and concerned for Vielka, he allowed them to disarm him.

  They forced him to his knees, several rifles pointed at him, as Crossbones strolled forward, a smug grin on his face. He stopped at Bucky, crouching slightly to look at Bucky's face. 'You have no idea.'

  He stood up and kept walking towards Vielka, who hadn't moved, Bucky couldn't understand why she didn't even struggle to at least kick out at him.

  Crossbones reached her and nodded to the Viscount, who pressed a button on a small remote in his hand, causing Vielka to be lowered to the ground. She fell forward to her knees, then to her stomach but Crossbones stepped forward, grabbing her hair and forcing her head up. 'That's the girl, wakey wakey, we want you awake for this bit,' he said, slapping her cheeks a few times. She grimaced but her eyes focused, her nostrils flaring as she was forced up onto her knees.

  She looked past Crossbones to Bucky, apologetic. 'I told you to get out of here.'

  Crossbones laughed menacingly. 'That she did, but I'm glad you didn't, Bucky,' Crossbones said, patronisingly. He nodded to the red headed man, who drew a sword and held it by his side, moving next to Vielka.

  Bucky's eyes went wide, fearing the worst. 'Don't you hurt her!' he shouted, starting to struggle. One of the women guarding him hammered him with the butt of her rifle to his right shoulder. He was forced forward, stopping himself with his titanium arm.

  'I keep telling you, Bucky,' Crossbones mocked. 'I'm not going to hurt her. She's-' he motioned to Vielka. 'Going to hurt you.' He grinned and nodded to the Viscount.

  The Viscount moved to stand behind Vielka, the red headed man forced her head forward, although she tried to strain against him now.

  'Please... don't...' she stammered.

  The Viscount opened the small metal box, and from that he extracted what appeared to be a small memory card or chip. He touched something at the top of her neck and she began to fight back even harder. The red headed man held his blade to the side of her neck, and she hissed as Bucky saw blood start to appear where his blade was resting.

  'Vielka!' Bucky started trying to get to his feet but two of the bigger men surrounding him moved forward and restrained him. Vielka's eyes were filled with terror and sorrow as she pleaded.

  'Bucky...' Vielka gasped as the Viscount seemed to push the chip to her neck. Bucky stared at Vielka. 'Run...'

  Her eyes went cold. All colour left them for a moment, and her facial features lost all life. Bucky feared the worst for a moment. Two more men moved forward and dragged her to her feet where she dangled lifelessly for a moment, but eventually her feet took her weight again and she stood straight up.

  Then, she looked up again, she looked straight at him, but there was no emotion in her face, there was no emotion in her eyes. Her body just stood straight and lifeless.

  'Vielka...?'

  'Oh yes, now, you'll get to see the real Vielka,' Crossbones said menacingly. 'You see, after I met her in China, I researched her alias and I found out some very interesting information about Banzai.'

  He began to circle Vielka, who didn't move, her eyes staring straight into the distance. 'Also known as Corporal Vielka 'Banzai' Patterson, former special forces officer in the Australian Army, close quarters combat specialist, earned her nickname from being renowned for charging into a fight without hesitation. Listed as MIA in Afghanistan in 2004 after an IED explosion and ambush.'

  Bucky looked from Crossbones to Vielka incredulously. 'You see, rumour has it there was a doctor who was a bit crazed, intent on world domination and he wanted to create his own army, but the locals weren't much good at soldiering. So, he 'collected' his own, starting with Red here, who he actually saved after being left for dead after a battle.'

  if it looks like i'm busy it's because i'm fixing all the shit you broke or making them better so you won't break them anymore. also, i can't promise that nothing's gonna spontaneously erupt or otherwise explode, so enter at own risk.

  Tony remembered Steve's smile when he'd first seen the note that had been slapped haphazardly to the door. One of those real ones, the kind he did when he thought that nobody was looking.

  'Can I ' Peter began hesitantly, then broke off with a sheepish duck of his head.

  'Sure.'

  Peter brightened instantly and poked his head into the lab. The room whirred into life and the electronically dimmed windows on the outer wall faded from an induced black tint to crystal clarity, allowing warm afternoon sunlight to illuminate the room.

  Machines blinked and hummed softly. Holographic screens flickered into existence and floated in midair, proudly displaying the Stark Industries and Avengers logos.

  It had been only a few days since Tony had last been in here. Since his house arrest had ended about a month ago, he split his time between his labs and offices at the tower, his labs and offices here, and the Barton's farmhouse. And of course, the unending meetings with the UN at their headquarters around the world.

  Before, Tony would only make it to the compound occasionally, and never for extended periods of time. He didn't even have a room here. He'd retired from the Avengers after Ultron, and he'd meant it.

  Now, he frequented the facility a few times a week. Sometimes to check in with the others, or help Rhodey with his PT, or spend hours on end in his lab.

  He still didn't have a room.

  He wasn't sure if he wanted one.

  Peter drifted away from him and Natasha, focused on one thing. He stopped with his nose an inch away from a protective glass case, silently looking up at the face plate of the Mark I armor. The metal was rough, jaggedly cut, scorched in places, and each dent or wound told a bitterly triumphant story, won through sweat and pain.

  Tony's bots weren't the only things he'd scavenged from the floor of the Pacific.

  He hadn't put the armor back together for years after he'd dredged it from the ocean, the broken suits, with metal dulled like battered memories, stirring him like a forgotten song.

  During the recent days that Tony had spent in this lab the past month, he'd finally worked up the courage to fit the pieces of the original armor back together, and he planned to repair the rest.

  Tony was rebuilding everything, his entire w
orld, from ashes, and he figured that restoring the earlier models of his suits was a good a place to start as any.

  'You built this?'

  'Yeah.'

  'How?'

  'My superhuman ability to be stubborn.'

  Peter looked away from the armor and asked the question again, more fervently this time, 'But how?'

  Tony thought. 'I didn't want to die in a cave.'

  The answer seemed to satisfy Peter, in a way only dismal honesty could, and he glanced quietly at the armor a final time.

  'Do you think I'll ever be as good as that? As you?'

  'No.' Tony said. 'You'll be better.'

  Peter's head snapped toward him, his mouth slightly parted as if he was frozen somewhere between trying to speak and an inability to form words.