Snarky ColdWinter #2

[fist_of_hydra]

The team had been arguing for a while now, and getting nowhere. They'd narrowed Savage's location down to Italy in September of 1944, but couldn't get any farther than that. James thought he had a pretty good guess what Savage wanted - this was where HYDRA had most of their facilities, and the Red Skull would be the perfect ally to Savage.

The only people who would have any further intelligence about Savage's possible movements were the Allied or Axis forces. Neither were going to hand the information over to a bunch of strangers. Ray wanted to play dress up and march in, pretend to be an officer and demand the information. Sara wanted to go in at night and steal it. There were half a dozen other ideas floating around, and all of them were bad. Quite a few of them were likely to get them shot at.

Ray might be onto something, though. At least, if you turned your head and looked at the idea sideways. Trying to march in and claim to be an officer nobody in the camp had ever seen was asking for a swift visit from the MPs.

Marching in and claiming to be an officer everyone in the camp had seen was another matter.

James had been lurking by the doorway, as was his habit, rather than sitting around the table with the others. He hadn't been contributing, so he was able to slip out without inciting comment. Once in the hall, he strode toward the fabrication room. "Gideon. Do you have any footage or photos of me in uniform in this time period?"

"Of course, Mr. Barnes."

"Good. I need a copy made, and make sure it looks worn and used. Can you do that?"

"Certainly."

"Then do it." James strode into the fabrication area, where a uniform was already synthesizing. He paused, looking at it, and rubbed a hand over the scruff on his chin.

Five minutes later he strode back toward the main room. It felt odd to be back in this uniform. Gideon had even managed to make it smell right - which was to say, like blood and gunpowder and harsh lye soap. Even stranger was not feeling his hair brushing against his cheeks and neck. He hadn't had short hair since HYDRA took him, and he found he already missed it long.

This wasn't him, anymore. It felt like the ghost of Bucky Barnes was riding his shoulders, and the weight was pressing him down.

"...are we supposed to do, walk in and ask them nicely?" Sara was saying, her tone full of exasperation as she threw her hands up at Ray.

"That's exactly what we're gonna do." James rose his voice enough to cut through the babble. Everyone turned to look at him, and most of them did a wide-eyed double-take. He raised an eyebrow at them. "It's just a matter of the right person doing the asking."

Comments

[coldlenny]

Len had heard it, and had in fact been listening to it for a while. He growled when Bucky suddenly sat up. "Shush," he hissed, grabbing the younger man around the shoulders and putting a hand over his mouth.

"If you can hear them, they can hear you," he whispered, his lips brushing against Bucky's ear.

[fist_of_hydra]

Right. Good point. Bucky froze and went silent, ears straining to catch the German questions being called back and forth. His knowledge of the language was pretty spotty, but he knew a few words. They had to be pretty confident they were the superior force in this area if they were giving away their position like that, which meant it was a big group.

Far more than he and Snart could hope to take, with hardly any weapons between them. Bucky had a tactical knife, that was about it, since he'd dropped his gun on the way down. He hadn't seen any sign of Snart's fancy ray gun, either. If they were found, they were so screwed.

Unfortunately, it sounded like the patrol was heading right for them. Maybe they were just coming to the river for water?

Yeah. Because his luck was ever that good.

[coldlenny]

Len's arm tightened around Bucky's shoulder as he waited tensely, listening as the Germans got closer. Though they were somewhat screened, there was no way even a casual search wouldn't find them.

"We're trapped like rats," he hissed, drawing a gun from his boot and gripping it tightly.

[fist_of_hydra]

Bucky drew his knife, futile as it was. He tried to pretend his hand wasn't shaking subtly. Being taken captive by HYDRA a second time was pretty much his worst nightmare - literally. The first time had been bad enough, when he was just a random Army grunt.

Now that he was a Commando, and specifically on HYDRA's shit list? It would be so, so much worse.

"Nothing for it," he replied, just as quiet. "If they find us, I'll go left, you go right. At least we'll go down fighting." He swallowed. "Try not to get captured. Try really hard."

[coldlenny]

Len looked at Bucky penetratingly. "No," he growled. "No, we are not going down today."

He grabbed Bucky by the front of his uniform and got in his face. "Listen to me. I know what HYDRA can do, but I also know that if we get captured, my team will go to hell and back to rescue us. We will get rescued. So you have to promise me - promise me, James - that you will not die."

[fist_of_hydra]

Bucky stared at him, wide-eyed and incredibly confused. What the hell? Where had this intensity come from? Snart was talking like it mattered to him, personally, if Bucky died.

And, James? Yeah, that was his name, people called him that in the Army sometimes, but Bucky hadn't introduced himself that way. Wasn't that the weird guy in the mask's name?

"Steve will come for us, too," he agreed, subdued but with his hands steadying. "We just have to hang on long enough, if they do get us." He just had to keep reminding himself of that. Steve had come for him once, when it should have been absolutely impossible. He'd do it again, now.

[coldlenny]

"Then you promise?" he asked. He knew he was being weird, but he didn't care. What mattered was saving James' life, and not letting his past self sacrifice himself needlessly.

And the Germans were getting closer. He held Bucky's gaze, though his attention shifted and the grip on his knife tightened.

[fist_of_hydra]

"Yeah, okay, I promise." Bucky had no idea why it was so important, but it wasn't like he wanted to die. He was grateful for the reminder that it wasn't a hopeless situation. It wasn't like him to give up - but this was the one thing that terrified him.

Flipping the knife in his hand, he pushed up into a crouch. "So are we fighting, or surrendering, then?"

[coldlenny]

Len hesitated, looking out between the branches. His eyes flicked upwards once more, searching the skies, but there was no sign of wings or thrusters.

"We surrender," he said. "But we leave a message." He pulled the ring off of his finger and carefully threaded it onto a protruding branch. If his friends searched this shore, they would find the shelter, and know they were here. He took a branch and drew the word 'hydra' on the sandy ground.

Then he looked at Bucky. "You ready to go?"

[fist_of_hydra]

Bucky had his head down, eyes closed, offering up a silent prayer that it wouldn't take Steve and the others long to find them. He didn't do the religious thing much these days, not since his parents had stopped making him go to church, but it was still ingrained. The last time he'd prayed had been when he was strapped to Zola's table... and that prayer had been answered, in the most impossible way.

Maybe this one would be, too.

Crossing himself hastily, he glanced up at Snart and nodded, his eyes determined. "Yeah, okay. Let's do this."

He could hear the German soldiers getting close, and one of them had clearly noticed their little hidey-hole, was shouting for his fellows.

"Wir geben auf," Bucky called, hoping he had the phrase right. He'd heard Germans surrendering to them before, but never had to do it himself. "Don't shoot... uh, nicht schießen!"

Hands up, he rose slowly from the hole, and found three men aiming rifles at him. HYDRA uniforms, of course. Because his luck just went that way.

[coldlenny]

Len didn't speak German, so he stayed quiet. He just crawled slowly out of the hole behind Bucky, his hands raised as well. He wasn't looking forward to this, and his eyes were cold and forbidding as he looked at the black-clad German soldiers.

Glaring at them, he dropped the knife in his hand onto the ground.

The HYDRA soldiers moved forward cautiously and searched them, then cuffed their hands behind their backs. "Move," one of them said in accented English, and began to push them on, heading downstream.

[fist_of_hydra]

---

James found the place where Len and Bucky had dragged themselves ashore, but the trail ended at the stony beach. There wasn't enough underbrush along the river's edge for them to have disturbed it significantly, and woods tracking wasn't a skill HYDRA had ever seen fit to give him.

"Over here," he called to Mick, keeping his voice down. There might be patrols in the area, and they didn't want to draw attention, or he'd have been shouting for Len.

[coldlenny]

Mick stomped through the forest and underbrush in a downstream direction, searching here and there for any sign of the two, and paused at the shore as Snart's boytoy climbed out of the water.

He glared around. "You saw blood, right? Can't you sniff for any or something? You're a freak like the Flash and all."

[fist_of_hydra]

"I'm not a fucking bloodhound," James snarled back. "Pretty sure the Flash isn't, either. Why don't you get off your ass and look around, see if you can find any footprints or something."

Not knowing if Len was okay made him snappish and surly. That blood had him badly worried - whether it was Len's or Bucky's, it wasn't a good sign.

He searched as well, and even with his focus and attention, he nearly tripped over their clue. Someone had done a good job of strewing the branches around to try to hide the hole, but there were footprints all around it. HYDRA footprints - he'd know those sole prints anywhere, even after all these years. "Rory! Over here."

He slid down into the hole, careful not to disturb anything. He didn't know what he was hoping to find - but he got a lot more than he'd expected. There was an arrow and the word HYDRA, and a ring hanging from a branch. A ring he knew all too well. Snatching it, he jumped back up, nearly running into Mick. He held out the ring, silent proof. "HYDRA got them."

[coldlenny]

Mick was just as worried. He bared his teeth at James and snarled, but began to search anyway. He stomped around, growling under his breath, and then his head came up when he heard his name.

He hurried over and his eyes widened at the sight of the ring. For a moment, he visibly panicked, and looked down at the hole, thinking he would see Len's body - or maybe a finger - but then James mentioned HYDRA and he growled and drew his heat gun.

"Then what're we waiting for?" he demanded. "Which way?"

[fist_of_hydra]

Going after HYDRA directly was the one thing James had never done. He'd been too afraid of recapture - the idea that he might encounter someone who knew his trigger words was terrifying.

For a moment he struggled with himself. Getting Len back was more important than his fear, it was. But he still had to struggle with himself.

Then he snorted, realizing he was being stupid. In 1944, nobody in HYDRA had ever heard of the Winter Soldier. There were no trigger words, yet, so nobody knew them.

"We're not waiting for anything," he growled, pulling himself back out of the hole and falling in beside Rory. His hand rested on the hilt of the cold gun. There would be a certain satisfaction in rescuing Len with his own weapon. "If HYDRA has them, and they realize who Barnes is, it's going to be ugly. They'll assume Len is a Commando, too."

[coldlenny]

Mick was looking for someone to follow, though he wouldn't admit it. He didn't know where to go, and James had to - he lived in this time, right? So all he cared about was where Len was, and how quickly they could get there. He didn't give a shit about James' fear.

"Then we've gotta find them fast," Mick growled. "Which way?"

[fist_of_hydra]

James might not be much of a tracker, but even he could find the path taken by an entire troop of soldier through the underbrush. He moved forward, not bothering much with trying to conceal their movements. The element of surprise was important, but finding Len and Barnes before HYDRA got them to a base was far more important.

They'd been travelling for about twenty minutes when searing pain ripped through James' left arm. Hissing, he staggered against the nearest tree, clutching at his shoulder and trying not to fall over. Or scream. Screaming would be bad, would definitely attract attention they couldn't afford.

[coldlenny]

Mick started when James suddenly nearly fell over. "What's wrong?" he demanded, barely managing to keep it beneath a bellow, as he ran over to James and reached to support him.

[fist_of_hydra]

It felt like his arm was being torn off again - in reverse. Every bit as much agony, but thankfully without as much blood.

When it finally passed, he was left panting for air, leaning on Rory - and staring in sick fascination at the perfectly normal human hand attached to the equally normal human arm. "Son of a bitch."

[coldlenny]

Mick stared in mixed horror and fascination as James' hand flickered and faded out, and slowly a flesh hand faded back in. "....Woah. What the fuck."

[fist_of_hydra]

"History just changed," James replied through gritted teeth. He felt sick to his stomach, horror creeping through him. "He's not going on that mission, which means I don't lose the arm. Which means..."

He stopped, and frowned. Other than the arm, he didn't feel any different than he had a moment before. He glanced down at his right hand, then turned and punched the nearest tree, hard. Bark cracked and wood split; the tree didn't fall, but it was certainly damaged.

"I'm still Enhanced," he realized, closing and opening both fists. "I don't lose the arm, but I'm still... that makes no sense."

[coldlenny]

Mick stared at him in shock, then looked around. "How'd you lose the arm in the first place? On the mission where you got taken by HYDRA, right? So if you didn't go on the mission, and didn't lose your arm, maybe that means we didn't rescue you from HYDRA now. They're gonna give you the enhancement, but your arm didn't get fucked yet."

[fist_of_hydra]

Of course. Growling, James punched the tree again, just because he could and he needed to hit something. "It got ripped off in the fall from the train that 'killed' me," he confirmed. "You've got to be right, this means HYDRA does still use me in the experiments, but they're starting now."

He scowled, and started forward along the trail again. His balance was off; he was used to compensating for the much heavier metal arm, and he kept listing to the right. "Problem is, if I go missing instead of 'dying', Steve will never stop looking for me. Which means he might not be there to stop the Skull. So we didn't just fuck my history, we might be fucking over the entire world."

[coldlenny]

"Then we'd better fucking find you! Or else I'll just tell this Steve guy that you died," Mick growled, stomping off in the direction they'd been walking. "Mostly because if we don't get Snart back, it'll be true."