"YOU KNOW, FOR an evil group of terrorists, they sure chose the continent with the best accent," was the first thing I heard when I stepped off the jet into the open, warm air.

I wasn't the only one who stared at Cara with furrowed eyebrows and my mouth dropping open. "Cara, what the fuck?"

The young woman beside me shrugged and held up her hands. "What? It's way more fun to kick some Australian guy's ass, he'll just say, 'oi! Me leg!' when you jack up his kneecap!" The smile and the overbearing confidence in her tone was too much to crush, so I just nodded and let her believe what she said.

"Remind me why we ever let her hold a gun?" Sam mumbled to Steve, who chuckled softly, though it never reached his eyes. He just stared at Cara, his eyes holding the same hurt and regret that I'd seen in hers just a few hours before.

Cara scoffed, reaching into her jacket pocket to pull out her trusty handgun. "'Cause I'm good at shooting things. Simple as that," she said in a tone that said, duh.

The six of us around her took a step back, a chorus of discomfort and warnings ringing out into the open space of the field that we'd landed in.

"Put the gun away," Nat hissed. "What are you trying to do, get us shot right after we get here?" She ducked her head as if a sniper was somewhere in the distance, waiting to pick us off like sitting ducks.

I took a deep breath and looked around me. The wide-open plain we'd landed in happened to be a dry desert, the winds stirring up some small and harmless cyclones of dust. Either way, I narrowed my eyes and wished for something that I could see in order to get my bearings. There was nothing, and I mean nothing, near us that would give us any insight into where we'd arrived.

"Deserts?" I asked my brother. "In Australia?" But I mean, who was I to have doubts about the Australian geography? I hardly knew anything about it.

Cade nodded, pulling out a phone from his pocket. "We're in Queensland, the northeastern part of the country." He turned around to look back at the Wakandan jet, staring at it expectantly. "You sure this works?" He asked Nat. "It would kind of suck if they found a fully-powered jet from a supposedly third world country in the middle of their biggest desert."

Behind him, the blonde woman rolled her eyes. "Don't doubt Wakanda. What's more, don't even think of doubting their princess. Shuri will get it done for us."

"Get what done?" Wretton asked. I'd almost forgotten he was there with us, as he'd stayed pretty silent throughout the ride over here, just listening to everything we said.

If I knew anything about how the CIA operated, he was probably eavesdropping on all of our conversations and then reporting back to Ross each night so they could add more dirt to our files that they'd no doubt started for when they arrested us at the end of all of this.

His voice was quiet and soft, almost uncertain. This entire time, he'd always said things with the utmost confidence that all CIA operatives held in their voices, believing that everything they said was as important as the law. But now, for me to look at Wretton and see him so unsure of himself...well, I wasn't sure what to think.

Nat and Cade said nothing, just staring at the giant jet in front of us. Within just a few seconds, the sides of it began to disappear. I widened my eyes. "What the f—?"

"It's invisible," Sam said, shocked. "They can do that?"

"Like I said," Nat shrugged with a smirk, "Shuri can run circles around Tony."

My brother's head jerked up all of a sudden, locking eyes with Steve. "Care to talk?" He asked, probably the first time he'd said more than a greeting to him.

Steve nodded. "Uh, sure." There wasn't much of a thing called privacy, so Cade just gave us a direction to walk in, and he fell back to talk to Steve as privately as the space allowed. 

It wasn't that I wanted to eavesdrop, I was just...not in the mood to talk to anyone. Cara and Nat were chatting(though it seemed more like a one-sided conversation with the former), while Sam and Wretton appeared to be civil, though walking an unusual space apart from one another. So I was left alone towards the back, just a few paces in front of my brother and Steve. 

I could hear Cade sigh, and I supposed he was probably tugging at the hem of his shirt again, that same habit following him through thick and thin. 

"I know you know Tony," he said, his voice nearly a whisper. It was a good thing that I'd had so much practice at listening to my parents talk through doors, or I wouldn't have heard a thing. 

Steve didn't reply for a minute; the silence of the desert surrounded us, the only sound being the scuff of our shoes on the dry ground. "Yeah," he eventually said gruffly, "I think just about everyone knows Tony."

"But not like everyone else," my brother insisted. "You know him best."

I'm sure Steve wanted to argue the point, as he'd been rather unenthusiastic to pitch in when our conversations made their way to the subject of Iron Man. But instead, he just cleared his throat. "Is there a point to this? We're not on speaking terms."

"I-I know," Cade said, "but I was just thinking that you were the best person to tell." There was a lull, during which Steve probably waited for my brother to continue. "There's a woman," he continued, "I don't know her name. But she's just like Bucky."

My ears perked up at that.

"What's this got to do with Tony?" Steve asked, audibly confused. It was hard to keep myself facing forward instead of turning around and launching into the conversation with them. 

"She's the first Winter Soldier. Or at least, that's what I've heard." My brother pauses for a second. Then, "Elda, I know when you're eavesdropping."

I turned around and narrowed my eyes. "I'm good at it," I said simply, though I knew I wouldn't be able to argue with him. "Go on," I continued, "I've heard everything so far."

Cade looked like he wanted to say something to reprimand me, but he shook his head and kept going. "Anyway. She's been in cryo for more than two hundred years, if you add it all up. Her story goes down in Hydra history."

"Yes?" I asked. "So what?" My heart was pounding. How could this mystery woman be connected to Bucky?

"One night, I was making my rounds in the Cerberus compound, like they trusted me to do." He swallowed roughly and his steps faltered for a second as he relived the experience. "She was sleeping in her cot, choosing not to go under and spend the night in cryo. I remember being curious about the legendary woman, and so I opened the door. Just a crack." He sighed. "I don't know what I was expecting to see, I think I just wanted to be in the presence of a living myth. Even if she was used to do horrible things."

Steve began to look increasingly uncomfortable. "What happened?"

"She was..." he tried to find the right words. "Chanting, almost. Not just talking, but she was repeating the same words over and over again. She kept saying, 'they're coming, Tony, be careful, they're coming,' all for almost five minutes. That was all that I heard, or at least, all that I could understand. Some of it was in a different language."

Steve seemed to understand it now. "So you think—" 

Cade held up a hand. "I just think," he interrupted, "that you should call him. Send him a message. I don't know where she's being kept, but she's more than likely being kept at the same compound as Bucky."

"Okay, great," I said, "so we just get Tony Stark to come over here and he rescues his friend thing or whatever, and we save Bucky."

Steve shook his head and rubbed his beard with his hand. "It's not that simple," he said softly. "I know you guys tease me for it. I hear all of it, I do. But it doesn't make any sense. Why would she know Tony? When would she have had the time to meet him at all?"

"I know, it doesn't make much sense. But I couldn't help but think once I met you, if she knows Tony, who's to say Tony doesn't care about her? He'd probably want to get her out of there, right?" Cade's rare moments of optimism were always like this. So sweet and well-intentioned that they nearly hurt my heart. 

But Steve looked down. "You don't get it. He's not going to pick up when I call. He doesn't understand that Bucky did all of those things while he wasn't...himself. He wouldn't understand it, even if it happened to someone he cared about. That's just not the way that he thinks."

I frowned. "Come on," I tried, "even Iron Man has to care about someone, right? I mean, enough to do anything for?"

Steve nodded. "He used to. Her name's Pepper. Last I heard, they were taking a break due to some mistakes that Tony couldn't rectify." He scoffed. "He's not really in the mindset to save someone other than himself right now."

I could tell that Cade wanted to try again to convince him, but it was obvious that he was getting nowhere, and Steve wasn't in the mood to talk about it. He just wanted to get Bucky and go home.

Much like I did.

As we got closer to the edge of the desert and civilization began to appear, Wretton called for my brother. "I'm gonna put a call in. Good idea, or should I wait?"

Cade shrugged. "Honestly, I'd rather wait until we found the compound before we called in the raging US military. But I think it'd be best if we have the cavalry right away. We never know how soon we'll have to invade."

"Wait, wait, wait." I furrowed my eyebrows. "Didn't you just say that you'd been in the Cerberus compound before?"

"They're always changing locations," Cade explained. "They're never in one spot for very long. The compounds I talk about, they're not as highly built up as you'd imagine. So we have to go searching around the country for the new one."

"How do we know they're still in Australia?" Sam asked. 

Cade cleared his throat. "Technically, we don't. They could have moved after the murder spree. Or it could have been someone else." There was a moment of silence, everyone realizing that we weren't necessarily that much closer to Bucky than we'd originally thought. "But it's a good idea to call Ross," he told Wretton. "Do it now. I'll start looking for leads."

I held my breath. I could feel it. We were close to Bucky. I just knew it. But to hear those discouraging words, it made me want to turn my face up to the skies and scream. 

Bucky, give us another sign. Please, Buck. Just let us know you're here. We're so close. 

We're so close.

||

hey hey! here's chapter 18! i hope the ending made sense. wretton is gonna call ross and fill him in on everything that's happened, and he's also gonna get the us military involved because they know they can't go up against cerberus with just the seven of them. it'd be badass, but not realistic. 

please let me know if anything confused you! i'm currently writing this instead of writing my college essays for my college applications, sooooo pray for me lmao.

thanks for reading, see you next monday!

september 12, 2019