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March, 2014

HYDRA Facility, Québec

"Mission is a go, initiate drop-in."

"My favourite way to show up to a party," Tony announced over the commlink. "Uninvited, and three drinks in."

"That better be a joke, Stark."

Tony grinned in his helmet as he broke through the cloud cover and dove toward the island HYDRA base. "Lighten up, Rogers. Kick back, have a few drinks."

Steve's long-suffering sigh was music to his ears.

"He's probably joking," piped up Rhodey.

"Sir, it appears the base is manned, and they have picked you up on their scanners." As soon as J.A.R.V.I.S. finished speaking, ground-to-air cannons on the island surface locked on to Tony's incoming heat signature.

"Ah, looks like this party's got bouncers," Tony announced to the rest of the group in the Quinjet. The cannons fired, sending him into careering slaloms through the air. He kept closing in on the base, though, trying to get close enough to get schematics for the rest of the team. "Wilson, how good are you at dodging?"

He heard the whine of Wilson's re-built wingpack powering up. "Not bad, I was Quarterback in high school."

"That's a lie," came Natasha's smooth voice.

"Alright, so I was a running back. Damn, woman, why do you even know that?"

"That's enough chatter," said Steve. "Tony, do you have the schematics?"

J.A.R.V.I.S. displayed what he had on Tony's HUD. "The base is pretty far underground, but I've got entrances and exits, transmitting to the Quinjet now. I'm taking out the cannons now, some help would be nice." Tony flew into the pine forest on the island's surface and fired his repulsors at the nearest cannon, veering to avoid the resulting explosion.

"Okay," said Steve, after taking a few moments to consult the schematics. "Wilson and Rhodes, go help Stark take out the cannons, then infiltrate the base through that entrance in the ravine. Stark, get that launchpad hatch open. Romanoff and I will land the Quinjet and follow you in."

"Aye aye, Captain," replied Tony, then went after the cannons with a vengeance, dodging through the pine forest and firing repulsor beams and missiles. So far there was no sign of a ground crew, but J.A.R.V.I.S. was picking up life-forms beneath the rock.

The S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA data dump hadn't yielded anything on the Winter Soldier, and there wasn't much at all about the Wyvern aside from fleeting mentions. Tony was still trying to work out how to decipher HYDRA's coded double-speak, but he'd worked out enough to know that his sister had been involved in a hell of a lot of espionage, infiltration and assassinations over the past twenty years.

He'd all but given up on the data dump when J.A.R.V.I.S. had pieced together some encrypted transmissions and reported back that there was a seventy five percent chance that the Wyvern had been based for a time at this facility in middle-of-nowhere Québec.

Fury – who, it turned out, was not as dead as was generally believed – had given Tony, Steve, Sam, and Rhodey the go ahead to take out the facility. Bruce was still avoiding hulk-outs whenever possible, Barton was suspiciously absent, and Thor was off-world. Natasha had shown up the day before their planned strike, and had obviously been keeping tabs on them because no one had to tell her the Wyvern's identity or what they'd been up to.

Before they got on the Quinjet, Natasha had cornered Tony. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She'd been simultaneously scary and supportive, a combination that he had only seen Natasha ever truly pull off.

"Sure," he'd responded. "Take down some bad guys, find out if the Wyvern lived in Canada, what's not to like? Also, uh… sorry, I guess, about all the times my sister tried to kill you."

She'd rolled her eyes. "Of all the things to apologise for, Tony." But then she'd gotten serious again, and put her hand on his shoulder. "She's not your responsibility, Tony. If you want to walk away, you can."

"I think you know I can't do that."

"Alright then." With another squeeze of his shoulder, Natasha had boarded the Quinjet and they'd left for the mission. He still wasn't sure if the spy liked him, despised him or just tried to manage him, but he'd take what he could get. As long as she didn't try to kill him with her ninja moves.

A cannon blast knocked Tony to the ground and he stood, targeting the cannon for a missile launch. But before he could fire, Rhodey rocketed overhead in his silver and grey armour and blew the cannon to kingdom come.

Tony waved. "Whoo, Iron Patriot saving the day!"

"C'mon, Tony, it's War Machine again, you know this."

Tony rocketed back into the sky and veered right to help Wilson take out a set of concealed gun turrets on a nearby cliff. "It's just so hard to keep up these days, next thing you know it'll be Flag-Bot. Patriot Machine?" He blew up the gun turrets, accidentally sending half the cliff tumbling into the ocean. "Oops."

He knew he normally wouldn't be talking quite this much, but the thought of what might be waiting in the base below was producing a veritable flood of inane word-vomit.

"Sir," interrupted J.A.R.V.I.S.. "I have accessed the facility's electronic systems. It appears there is a subroutine failsafe designed to detonate and destroy the base in the event of an incursion, which the inhabitants have just activated."

"Nah, this is your party now, J.A.R.V.I.S.."

"Of course, sir. I have reversed the subroutine and locked them out of their systems."

"This is why you're my favourite child. How are we looking on groundcrew?"

"I have access to their cameras, and it appears all HYDRA personnel intend to remain inside the base."

Tony landed at the launchpad on the south end of the island just as Rhodey took out the last cannon. Rhodey and Wilson spiralled away to the other base entrance. With the guns destroyed, the island was eerily quiet. There wasn't much to it, just a lump of granite and forest in the middle of the grey ocean.

"Clear for Quinjet landing," Tony reported. "And it looks like the good citizens of Canada have decided to play hide-and-seek."

"Copy," said Steve. "Wilson and Rhodes?"

"We're at the ravine, but I don't see…" there was a few seconds of silence. "Thanks, J.A.R.V.I.S.. Okay, J.A.R.V.I.S. is opening the hidden door now. And-" the sound of small-arms fire erupted over the comms. "We've got contact!"

"A hidden door," Tony complained, yanking open the metal hatch on the launchpad. "Why don't I ever get the hidden door?"

The Quinjet settled on the launchpad just as Tony took out the first wave of angry HYDRA agents. Cap and Widow ran down the gangway in their suits and met him by the hatch.

"Pensioners first," Tony said, stepping back and waving at the hatch with his glowing gauntlet. "I feel like it's illegal to break into a HYDRA base and not have that shield be the first thing they see."

Steve nodded at Tony and dropped in through the hatch, closely followed by Nat. They were immediately met with gunfire. Tony switched into body-heat targeting mode and dropped into the base with a clang.

The base was theirs within minutes. Their intel hadn't given them much, but it appeared the base wasn't at full functionality any more, staffed only by a skeleton crew of agents and technicians. They were well-organised, but they didn't have the forces or the resources to stand up to half the Avengers. Those that didn't die in the firefight crunched cyanide pills, save for one technician who turned out to be a petrified rookie who didn't know anything about anything. Wilson marched him back up to the Quinjet in cuffs, and informed Fury that they had a prisoner for him to pass along to the CIA.

It was a dark warren of a base, with twisting tunnels and rocky ceilings. J.A.R.V.I.S. had control of the electronic systems, so he was able to direct the team throughout the facility to flush out the remaining agents.

Tony soon found himself in what looked like the main lab, a rocky cavern with various machines hidden under sheets. Most of the agents had been defending this room.

The others filed in after him (minus Wilson, who stayed with the rookie on the Quinjet), peering at the devices.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.? What do we have?"

"It appears that much of the digital and hard-copy data in this facility was purged in early 2001," J.A.R.V.I.S. announced over the comms. "However, I have recovered an electronic file on the Wyvern Project, and on various missions managed from this facility."

"She was here?" Tony walked up to a computer bank and booted it up, though there was no point with J.A.R.V.I.S. already in the system.

"Yes, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, in a softer tone.

Tony looked around, and imagined Maggie walking these floors, existing in this subterranean space. He remembered how she used to thunder around the house in New York, surprisingly loud for her small size. He squeezed his eyes shut.

J.A.R.V.I.S. continued: "Captain Rogers, I have found no sign of the Winter Soldier."

Steve walked up to the device in the middle of the room and yanked the sheet off it. In the resulting cloud of dust, Tony made out what looked like a chair with metal arms and powered-down computers wired up to it.

"What is this?" Steve asked.

J.A.R.V.I.S. answered: "According to a HYDRA file released in the S.H.I.E.L.D. data dump, that is a Memory Suppression Machine, used on assets to ensure compliance."

Tony let out a shuddering breath. "J.A.R.V.I.S., c'mon. Give me the run down." He ignored the glances from the others – Rhodey had lifted his face plate and was giving him a concerned look. Steve was glaring at the Memory Suppression Machine. Natasha looked coolly disinterested, but that could mean anything.

"Very well, sir," began J.A.R.V.I.S. "The Wyvern Program began in the late eighties, the pet project of HYDRA operative Michael Peters, formerly Mikhail Petrov, who defected from the KGB in 1987. He saw the signs about the fall of the Soviet Union and pledged his loyalty to HYDRA. Director Pierce was impressed by his global outlook, and the Wyvern Program became one of the many heads of HYDRA.

"They monitored promising children from the world over, with a focus on high IQ, problem solving, and physical fitness, and kidnapped them with impunity. The project leaders experimented on the children, in an attempt to make them as loyal to HYDRA as the Winter Soldier-" Tony saw Steve flinch out of the corner of his eye "- while also fortifying their skeletons with Adamantium. It appears that all experiments ended in death or cognitive destruction, until Miss Stark.

"There is no data about how the Wyvern Project acquired Miss Stark, but with the fortification of a super-soldier serum synthesis the experiments were successful, leading to the creation of the cybernetic wings."

Tony didn't move. He couldn't. The others were staring at him.

"How long was she here, J.A.R.V.I.S."

"Tony-" started Natasha, but he flipped up his face-plate and shot her a glare. She shut her mouth.

"The Wyvern was housed in this facility for just over a decade, sir. Files date from 1991 to 2001."

Tony's chest was tight, but he breathed through it. He ignored the glances the others were shooting at him and each other. "What did they do to her?"

Rhodey spoke up this time: "Tony, you don't have to do this-"

He clenched his fist and turned on his friend. "No, Rhodey, she was five when she came here. I'm damn well going to find out what they did to her." He unclenched his fist. "You can leave if you want."

The War Machine suit whirred as Rhodey shifted his feet. His face was grim, and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead. He'd reviewed some of the data about the Wyvern's missions, and stared for a long time at the image of her in flight at the Triskelion. Tony wondered if he was having trouble imagining the Maggie he knew as that masked assassin. Tony wondered if he was thinking about that morning in the mansion's kitchenette, when Maggie had sat across from them in her stripey pyjamas with a glass of orange juice.

"Okay," Rhodey eventually sighed. "I'll stay." He shifted to stand beside Tony at the computer bank. J.A.R.V.I.S. uploaded files and video clips to the screens.

Tony looked up at Steve and Natasha. "Staying?"

They didn't look much happier than Rhodey, but they stayed.

J.A.R.V.I.S. showed them what he'd found, and it was somehow even worse than what Tony had been imagining. There were clinical notes about the Wyvern's enhancements, capabilities and training. Cognitive recalibration. Identity destruction. Combat and weapons training. J.A.R.V.I.S. highlighted a Progress Report that was sent to Pierce, which said that the Wyvern had been killing innocent people when she was six years old.

J.A.R.V.I.S.'s audience was pale and horrified – at first there was a low chorus of Jesus Christ and my god, but after the details kept getting worse and worse, there was nothing they could say.

There was a brief line that stated: Wyvern transferred to Red Room in 1994 for espionage and infiltration training. Unbenownst to Tony, Steve and Natasha shared a glance. Natasha's face flickered for an instant, showing Steve her discomfort, but then she pieced her calm façade back together.

Tony was frozen, not taking his eyes off the screen as he processed the words. He felt like he was coming apart from the inside out, with every mention of a test or experiment performed on the Wyvern, his sister. It sounded like they took her memories away regularly, but that didn't make him feel any better. They took Maggie apart over and over, and put their own monster in her place.

He kept forgetting to breathe.

J.A.R.V.I.S. might normally have stopped providing data, might have suggested that he take a break, but the A.I. knew his creator all too well. Tony wouldn't look away until he'd heard it all, his own heart be damned.

There were videos. Not many, as they'd been specifically targeted in the 2001 purge, but some. The first cut straight to an exposed, bloody bone, encased in scarlet flesh. Rhodey made a sickened sound and turned around, but Natasha and Steve watched with Tony. They watched a hand in a latex glove paint a molten grey metal onto the bone.

The camera was focused on the procedure, but in the corner of the frame a thin arm in a metal restraint was visible. More metal was layered onto the bone, and the shaking hand clenched into a fist.

Tony's breath caught in his chest. "J.A.R.V.I.S., is there audio?"

"No," interjected Natasha before J.A.R.V.I.S. could reply. "You don't need that sound in your head, too."

Tony clenched his jaw and considered defying her, but he supposed she was right. He knew what he'd hear. Besides, from the glint in Natasha's eye, he suspected she would do something drastic like shoot the computers or him to stop him from listening.

The video dissolved into colourful pixels, and J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them that the rest of the file was corrupted. He followed it up with a full-body scan of the Wyvern dated from late 1996. The body was clearly a child, but that was where any normality ended. The scan showed metal on the bones of her spine, shoulders, the back of her ribcage, her hips, and down the backs of her legs. Two large metal wings arched out from hubs on the Wyvern's back, with a sturdy bat-like skeleton and lighter webbing. J.A.R.V.I.S. gave them a moment to process the scan in silence.

"Jesus," Rhodey said, once he'd turned back around. "She was ten."

Tony stared at the dark shadow of Maggie's silhouette, trying to make it out past the brighter lines of metal. The measurements on the scan showed that she was tall for her age, then, but she looked impossibly small to him. He looked at the shadowy lines of her skull, and wondered what she'd been thinking when they scanned her. Did she even remember a time when she hadn't had metal on her bones?

Another video showed a large room with a thin mat on the floor – "That room's in this facility," Steve said, his voice troubled. "I just cleared it."

On screen, the winged Wyvern fought ten armed men. She wore a black and grey combat suit, a cowl that covered her head and face, and glowing red goggles. She looked tall enough to be an adult on this footage, but the date stamp showed that she would only have been thirteen. It looked like a training session, as no one was killed, but the force and precision the Wyvern displayed was frightening. She plowed through the men, knocking them aside with her wings and landing devastating punches to their torsos. Tony saw the glint of a blade a few times before he realised there were retractable spurs emerging from her heels. When the last man was thrown bodily against the wall the Wyvern instantly stilled, hands loose by her sides and wings poised. The video cut out.

"There is no data on Michael Peters after 2001," J.A.R.V.I.S. continued. "It is likely he defected or was killed. That signified the end of the Wyvern Project, and it appears they stopped taking such detailed notes on the Wyvern. The Wyvern was posted to 'take on a more comprehensive role in achieving HYDRA's goals'."

Tony's eyes flicked over the various files displayed on the computer screens. The others stayed silent, waiting on him. "J.A.R.V.I.S., are there any-" his traitorous voice broke slightly, and he clenched his jaw. Once he'd gotten control of himself, he continued. "Are there any images of her face?"

There were none that he could see. He'd seen Maggie's spine and the scans of her bones, and he'd seen her break a man's ribs, but he hadn't seen her face.

"I have found an early note in a file that instructs Wyvern Project handlers to not record or save any images of the Wyvern's face," J.A.R.V.I.S. said in a soft tone. "However, I have recovered this still from a corrupted video that failed to be erased."

The other files on the screens were wiped away, replaced by an image of the Wyvern sitting in the Memory Suppression Machine. She wore the same combat suit as before but the cowl, goggles and wings had been removed. The metal arms of the machine were clamped to her face, and even though the still was pixelated, Tony could see that she was screaming.

Finally, he looked away. He could feel the muscles in his face vibrating, they were so tightly clenched. His vision was blurring. She'd been screaming, and she was older in the image, probably about twelve, but it was Maggie. Her eyes, her face, her hair. Her Stark brow and chin, and her mom's nose.

Tony lifted his arm and fired a rocket at the Memory Suppression Machine. The resulting explosion was loud and bright, but the others didn't protest. Steve looked relieved.

Tony looked back at the image of his screaming sister on the screen and took a long, slow breath through his nose. "J.A.R.V.I.S., reboot that failsafe."

"Sir, that will detonate the entire island-"

"I know. Do it." His hands were shaking, but the suit kept him steady. He expected the others to protest, but it seemed they were all on the same page.

"And the files, sir?"

Tony couldn't look away from Maggie's pixelated, screaming face. There was a rubber bit in her mouth. Natasha was right – he was going to have these images in his head for the rest of his life. He could already feel the fixation starting, the drive that would see him through to wherever his sister was, no matter the consequences. And if he came across any of the HYDRA bastards who'd hurt her along the way? Well, he didn't think his teammates would stop him.

"Lock-box procedure," he eventually said. It was a procedure he'd developed for his most sensitive inventions and data, a digital safe buried so damn deep that no one would ever find it. "Code it so it opens only for Maggie's biometric signature."

"Understood, sir. You have five minutes to evacuate the facility."

That kicked Steve into action. "Alright, let's move it out. Sam, you copy?"

"I copy." Wilson's voice was low and disturbed. He'd caught J.A.R.V.I.S.'s audio show-and-tell, then.

As the four of them strode out of the lab and up to the surface, Natasha fell into step with the Iron Man suit.

"You think she'll want to see those?" she murmured.

"I don't know," Tony said, flipping his face-plate down. "But what happens to those files shouldn't be up to me."

"Did you get what you came for, Tony?" They'd climbed back up out of the hatch, into the frigid ocean air.

"Not yet," He replied, and fired up his repulsors. "Remember, four minutes and twenty seconds to detonation. Get clear."

He and the Quinjet were miles away when the island went up in a fiery roar. Tony flipped onto his back to watch the flickering glow of an island-wide explosion, and thought about the dark, winding tunnels and cold metal labs that would now lie forever at the bottom of the ocean. Wherever Maggie was now, he hoped she was somewhere warmer, brighter. He hoped there was even a fragment of herself left to salvage. Either way, he'd find her.

March, 2014

Iquitos, Peru

Maggie leaned further into the shadow of the bus stop to shield her gaze from the sun. It was a bright, warm day, the air sticky with humidity. She'd gotten a lift into Iquitos on a cargo boat, dressed as a man. No one had looked twice at her bound chest, the cap on her head, or the duffle bag with her wings. She'd been lying low in the city since then, staying out of public areas as much as possible.

She and Bucky had split up a week ago, concerned that a tail had caught on to their scent. It had turned out to be nothing, but they followed through with the agreed upon contingency plan: no contact for a week and then rendezvousing in a location they'd agreed on earlier.

They had chosen Iquitos because it was inaccessible by road, but it wasn't unusual to see white faces there.

The week of no contact was up, so Maggie watched the bustling plaza from her seat at the bus stop, eyes peeled for Bucky or for anything suspicious. She wore shorts and a t-shirt, for the weather, and sunglasses and a hat to conceal her face.

It had been an odd week without Bucky. She was perfectly capable of surviving and evading notice on her own, but she'd realised how much she relied on him to get out of her own head, to have any kind of social contact. Normally they didn't engage with strangers, so she'd felt very quiet and very alone.

And then, of course, one of her various digital alert systems had pinged the destruction of an island in Canada. The program had deemed it suspicious because of the sheer scale of destruction, and because Iron Man had been sighted not far from the location. Her program hadn't been the only one to notice, and news media began to speculate wildly. The Avengers responded by releasing a statement explaining that there had been a HYDRA base on the island.

That was when Maggie put together her memories of dark forests, granite cliffs and soaring over the surface of a grey ocean. She didn't know if she'd ever been told exactly where she was being kept, but the news footage of the smoking ruin in the ocean looked too familiar for it to be a coincidence.

Maggie noticed the approaching man when he was ten feet away, and relaxed. If it was anyone other than Bucky, she'd have noticed him much sooner. Sure enough, when he sat next to her at the bus stop she could hear the faint whirring of his metal arm. She ducked her head and smiled.

"Fancy seeing you here," he muttered, kicking one leg up over his knee. His clothes were light, but still long enough to conceal his arm. He wore bike gloves and sunglasses.

"Small world," Maggie agreed. "Any trouble?"

"None, that tail turned out to be nothing. Getting here was goddamn difficult, though."

"Oh? I had a lovely boat ride."

"Boats," Bucky scoffed, adjusting his sunglasses as he looked out at the plaza. "I hiked through the rainforest." Before she could ask him why he'd thought travelling through the Amazon jungle on his own was a good idea, he dropped his voice further. "Saw the news about the Québec facility. I guess they really are going after HYDRA."

Maggie's smile faded. "Not here. There's a safehouse two clicks west: red door, blue curtains."

"Yes, ma'am." He brushed against her knee as he stood up, then disappeared. Moments later Maggie flagged down a bus – one couldn't just sit at a bus stop for thirty minutes and not get on a bus – and rode away.

Bucky was already in the safehouse when she got there, inspecting the one-bedroom flat and the view from the only window. It had a good view of the street without being exposed, and she'd noticed that you could just see the Amazon river to the east.

"I think I was based in that Québec facility," Maggie said by way of second greeting, once the door was shut behind her. She touched her toe against the duffle bag with her wings on the way past, for reassurance.

Bucky stepped away from the window and put his hands on his hips. "You remember?"

"I remember an island, and the news footage confirmed it. My memories are…" she shook her head. "I must have been there for years. This is the first we've heard about the Avengers taking down a HYDRA base, and it just happens to be that one?" Now that she was vocalising it, she realised how anxious she was about this. She took deep, calming breaths. "I was made in that base. I don't know if there'd still be information about me there, but if there is…"

Bucky was nodding, his eyes serious. "Your words?"

"I don't know."

There were a few moments of silence.

Eventually, Maggie said: "Iron Man was there."

"So he might know you're alive." Bucky's voice was calm. "Is that okay?"

"If he knows…" she swallowed. "If he knows what they did to me, what I've done, what I am…" She shook her head. "It would have been easier if I stayed dead."

Bucky opened his mouth, but she held up a hand, already knowing what he was going to say. In the past month they'd both read up extensively on psychological treatments, particularly Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: building coping methods and healthier thought patterns. "I know, I know. I don't… I don't think it would be better if I was dead, I think it would be better for him. To keep him safe."

Bucky sighed and sat on the bed, pulling off his gloves. "What do you think he'd do if he found out you were alive?"

Maggie ran a hand through her hair and leaned against the wall. She wanted to say that Tony would try to find her. She also wanted to say that he wouldn't try. But the truth was…

"I don't know," she replied. "The Tony from twenty years ago would have wanted to see me, though he wouldn't have been able to handle it. I have no idea about the man he is now."

"Do you want to see him?"

Maggie gave Bucky a sharp glance. "You know why I can't do that."

He shrugged. "Doesn't stop you wanting things."

She shook her head, and took him in: she could still see the Soldier in him, in the rigid way he held himself and his ever-alert gaze, but she was starting to see more of Bucky as well.

Maggie sighed. "Yeah," she admitted. "I do want that."

She was endlessly curious about her brother, about the things he'd done with his life. She remembered reading news headlines about him, as the Wyvern. She remembered thinking that she was malfunctioning.

Re-reading the headlines now provoked similar feelings of dread and hope. From what she'd seen, her brother had been through hell and back: losing his family, then the kidnapping in Afghanistan, followed by enemies and aliens and hardship. She had to admit he bore it with style, at least in the public eye. She'd read up on Pepper Potts as well – she seemed wonderful.

Bucky seemed content to let her process her thoughts; he leaned against the wall on the other side of the bed and closed his eyes.

Eventually, she pulled herself out of her thoughts and moved into the kitchen. Whether the Avengers had found information about her or not, it would change nothing. She and Bucky were hiding and would continue to do so.

"Here," she said to Bucky, and handed him a glass of juice when he opened his eyes. Juice was one of the first non-water beverages she had tried after the battle of the Helicarriers (not that she'd tried a lot). She liked the sweet taste. "I imagine it got pretty hot in the jungle," she added, with a smirk.

"Thank you," he replied. She took a seat on the tatty couch on the other side of the room.

Bucky was working his jaw, a tell she knew meant he was struggling to say something. She waited.

Finally: "I missed you."

She glanced up from her juice, eyes wide. She hadn't expected that.

"I'm trying your thing," he explained, shrugging.

Her 'thing' was honesty – early on in their research into therapies, Maggie had told Bucky she wanted to be as honest as she possibly could, while on the run. Her whole life so far had been built on lies and repression and she was afraid that if she tried to pretend, to others or to herself, that she'd never work out who she truly was. She'd learned, through extensive reading, that simply discarding her feelings wouldn't work – it hadn't worked while she was the Wyvern.

She didn't actually get many occasions to lie, except when she had to maintain a cover. But she was determined not to hide from the truth, when it came to herself – that was often a frightening and overwhelming exercise, but it was worth it.

Bucky had missed her. She smiled, and considered her own feelings. She remembered missing people, before – she missed her father when he was away, and she remembered missing Tony, Jarvis and Dum-E on the car ride away from the mansion. She missed them all now, in an aching, distant way, in the way people missed someone they would never see again.

She had certainly felt Bucky's absence – she'd felt out of sorts, alone and a little bit less like a person. She'd wanted to speak to him, to see him. She'd wanted his familiar presence by her side. She'd wanted to hear him tell a story from before HYDRA, or bump his shoulder into hers.

Maggie met Bucky's gaze. She wasn't sure how long she'd been silent, thinking, but Bucky never seemed to mind when she needed a minute or two to process. "I missed you too," she replied, with a smile.

He smiled back.

After a few minutes of recounting their respective journeys to Iquitos and postulating the likelihood of anyone knowing they were in South America, Bucky cleared his throat.

"That Québec base reminded me of something – I don't think my handlers usually told me where I was, but I remembered the location of this one base in Belarus."

Maggie sat up and put down her glass of juice. "You did?"

"Yeah," he clenched his jaw. "I remember exactly where."

"Do you think it's still operational?"

"I don't remember when I was there, so I don't know. But it's… if there's any chance that HYDRA agents are seeking shelter there…"

Maggie felt her own gaze harden. "You want to do something about it." She got up and pulled her latest laptop out of the duffle bag. "How do you want to do this? I could try to get a direct line of communication to Captain Rogers, if that's what you want…?"

Bucky shook his head. "No, this can't be traced back to us. I was thinking maybe… if there was a way of leaking the location?"

She took her hands off the laptop for a moment, considering. Finally, a wicked smile crossed her face. "I'll do you one better."

In the end, no one did trace the discovery of the Belarus base back to Maggie and Bucky. In the dead of night, every single communication device in the base flared into life, transmitting the same message to intelligence and law enforcement agencies throughout Europe: Hail HYDRA.

The base, which turned out to be sheltering a prominent HYDRA death squad, was overrun by the agencies within hours. When the Avengers showed up, there was nothing left to do but to help analyse data. They did think it was a little odd that the base had announced its location like that, but they supposed the inhabitants had gotten tired of the constant hiding. There was no one left to ask, anyway – they'd all bitten into their cyanide pills. Well, sighed the lead investigator on the scene, when he walked the Avengers back to their Quinjet. They're crazy neo-nazis, what do you expect?

Over seven thousand miles away, Bucky bought Maggie her first ever beer. They clinked their bottles together in the small safehouse, grinning at each other as live media coverage of the base takedown played in the background.

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