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

[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."

[fist_of_hydra]

The thing was, Mick wasn't wrong... because James would save Len, or die trying. End of story.

---

By the time they reached the HYDRA base, Bucky was seeing three of everything. The HYRDA goons had no sympathy for his injury, pushing and shoving him to keep him moving at their pace, even threatening to drag him when he fell.

It was no more than he'd expected. The last time he'd been in HYDRA's tender care, getting ill had meant being taken for experimentation, since he was no longer useful in the labour lines.

[coldlenny]

Len did his best to keep his head down, but every time they pushed Bucky around, it really burned him. He did what he could to get in between the worst of them and his lover's past self, but that was pretty difficult considering he was handcuffed and held pretty tightly.

After the first time Bucky fell, he lost his cool. He snarled at the goon who'd pushed Bucky. "Hey, do all HYDRA goons have small penises, or is it just you?"

Next moment, he was face down in the mud, the back of his head throbbing. Then he was hauled up, and dragged.

[fist_of_hydra]

Despite the pain and the desperate situation, the comment made Bucky choke on a laugh. Say what he might about Snart, the guy couldn't be beaten down. Kinda reminded him of Steve, in a very different way.

"No point in both of us getting concussions," he muttered, as Snart stumbled along beside him. "Save your strength, we're gonna need it."

He half expected to be dragged up to the laboratory and experimented on then and there, but instead they were dumped into a dank concrete box, barely large enough for them to sit up in side by side. When the door slammed shut behind them, there were only three narrow slits providing light from the corridor outside.

"Well. This is cozy." Bucky shivered, still half frozen even though he was now damp rather than drenched. "Better than my accommodations the first time I stayed with HYDRA, actually."

[coldlenny]

Len grunted with frustration at Bucky's warning. "Had worse," he muttered under his breath.

They were shoved into a freezing concrete box, and at least no one was punching Bucky in the head anymore. He snorted softly at the joke and shifted closer to the younger man, sighing.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself."

[fist_of_hydra]

Even if there had been anywhere to go, Bucky still would have let Snart crowd him. It was the only hope they had of staying warm enough, just like in the dugout. He huddled in as well, pulling his knees to his chest and trying to conserve as much heat as he could.

"Guess Zola's not home," Bucky said. "He'll be here soon enough, when they tell him who they've caught. On the bright side for you, he has no clue who you are, so he might just leave you be while he concentrates on me."

[coldlenny]

Len scowled. "Wait, who's Zola?"

This was the first time he had a name to attach to the hatred he bore for what HYDRA as a whole had done to his lover. Maybe this Zola was someone he could torture, at least for a bit, even if he had to leave him alive to do horrible things to the man he would later bang on a regular basis.

[fist_of_hydra]

"Arnim Zola is Schmidt's right hand man, their equivalent of Howard Stark." Bucky leaned his head back against the wall. "He's got his fingers in pretty much every pie. Including the human experimentation one."

Sighing he closed his eyes. Not that it made much difference, given how faint the light was. "He was running the labour camp the 107th was held at, along with other Allied troops. Before Steve rescued us all, and we became his team. I got some up close and personal time with the good doctor."

He managed to keep his voice steady, but the tension in his body put the lie to his calm.

[coldlenny]

Len watched Bucky's face, both horrified and confused. "You mean, you were experimented on by HYDRA already?"

[fist_of_hydra]

"Already?" Bucky opened his eyes and blinked at Snart, wondering if the concussion was making things more confusing than they ought to be. Then he realized Snart must be referring to the experimentation Bucky had already warned him they were likely in for.

"How do you think I know what they're gonna do with us?" He chuckled, a low and bitter sound. "They had my strapped to a table when Steve found us. I thought at first they wanted information, but they never asked me any questions. Wasn't until later I found out they were trying to recreate Erskine's serum. I got lucky - they failed on me. Or didn't get far enough, I guess. All the other guys who went up to the lab came back down in body bags."

[coldlenny]

Len frowned faintly and settled against Bucky's shoulder. "If they didn't ask you any questions, did they do anything at all?" It seemed weird if they got him all the way to the table that he got rescued before actually being experimented on.

[fist_of_hydra]

"Oh, yeah." Bucky's voice was dark, and he shivered against Snart. Hopefully, the guy would take it as an effect of the cold. "They did plenty. That's why it took me so long to realize they weren't after information - I thought they were trying to break me."

He smiled grimly. "Never did, though. And they never will." And he hoped to God they weren't about to prove him wrong.

[coldlenny]

Len knew better than to think it was only the cold. It was strange. He had never realized that Bucky had been captured multiple times.

"We'll get out of here before they have a chance to," he said firmly, though his stomach felt tight, like a chunk of ice was sitting in there. He knew very well that Bucky would be broken by HYDRA - just not yet.

[fist_of_hydra]

"What about you?" Bucky was grasping at straws, trying to keep himself awake and his morale up. "You don't strike me as the type to break easy. Think you can hold out until our shining knights arrive? They will come for us."

[coldlenny]

Len was silent for a moment. "I won't break easy," he said softly. They both had their hands cuffed in front of them, and he curled his fingers around Bucky's. Hitching up his shirt a little, he ran Bucky's fingers over a particularly bad scar, a jagged one caused by a bottle. "This isn't my first rodeo."

[fist_of_hydra]

"Jesus." Bucky was startled by the extent of the scar, and the smoothness of it. No way that was recent, acquired in the war. When the surprise passed, it was replaced by respect. "I figured you were a tough son of a bitch. Guess I was right."

Scars didn't bother him. He'd been on the front lines for nearly two years now; he'd seen every injury a human could have, and far too many they shouldn't have. Scars on a body that otherwise had all its pieces was the best any of them could hope for.