10

Chapter 10Summary:

Riley's in shock and Sam is done with this shit, he just wants answers.

Yelena is on the move... slowly.

Notes:

ястреб = the hawk

сестра = sister

And the BIGGEST THANKYOU EVER to Perky for sending me a copy. I will do everything I can to ensure I don't stuff up like that, again.

Chapter Text

"ястреб." She whispered. "He will find her. One day, he will bring her to his nest." She nodded. That was the plan.

She was going to America. Now, she just had to work out how and how to find the man, once she got there.

~~~

December 1st 1998

Yelena pushed her now-black hair from her face and huddled among the group of school children as they boarded a bus from La Plata to Buenos Aires. She wore a uniform like theirs and carried a backpack like they did but hers contained money, false documents and a gun, while she had two knives hidden under the uniform.

She revelled in the few hours that she would be with them, being a child was a distant memory but a very pleasant one. It reopened memories of Ohio and playing with a much younger Natasha. As the group entered the Museo Histórico Nacional, she ducked away from the gawking students and into the shadows of the museum's walled garden. Here, she used the few clothes and cosmetics she'd managed to get her hands on, to change her appearance into that of a street urchin.

It took her the remains of the day to travel, on foot, the nearly ten miles north to the nearest Red Room safe house and another hour to scout the apartment building and be certain that it wasn't occupied or alarmed. She cheerfully made herself a meal and went through the safe house's contents. Money, documents and weapons went into individual piles, their contents dispersal to be planned for, later. She needed a shower first.

As she stood under the running water, she hummed a John Denver song about sunshine, something that Natasha and Melina used to sing to her when they lived in Ohio.

"Caracas." It was the only word she'd said since leaving the museum.

~~~

"Hi." The sandy haired young airman smiled brightly at Tony. "I'm Riley and this is… what's your name again?" He teasingly bumped shoulders with the black man beside him.

"You know damn well what my name is." The black man sighed. "Use it or I'll use yours."

"You want to be Absalom?" Riley asked, his brows rising.

"Absalom Riley Mitchell…" The black man narrowed his eyes and glared at the other man.

"Right." Riley nodded. "Got it." He turned back to Tony. "He's Sam Wilson."

"I know." Tony smirked. "I have your DoD files."

"Ah." Riley grunted.

"Yeah." Tony's smirk grew teeth. "Try that here and you're in for a shock."

"Yeah?" Riley grinned.

"Yeah." Tony nodded. "See those two?" He nodded off to the side, where Bucky Barnes and Clint Barton were leaning against a car.

"Yeah…?" Riley's grin fell and his face went cautious.

"One has every marksmanship award available to Army grunts, the other was named by six generals, two admirals and two White House aids, as being in their top five for a dream-team sniper class. You figure out which is which." Tony grinned. "Both are Master assassins. Engage them in pranks at your peril."

Riley blinked and looked at the two men, his eye flicking from one to the other. "Who are they?" He asked.

"One is my bodyguard and the other heads IT's security." Tony said. "Come on, let's get you pair situated, before we throw you in the deep end, huh?"

"That would be much appreciated, sir." Sam Wilson replied.

"Oh, hey, no. No calling me 'sir'. And no 'Mr Stark', either. That's my dad." Tony chattered as the entered the old country-manor-type house. "I'm Tony but if you can't force yourself to say it, then I suppose I can put up with Dr Stark. Not really my preference, though."

"You want us to call you Tony?" Riley asked.

"Everyone else does, I don't see why you shouldn't." Tony replied. "I'm not military and I've no other titles. So, Tony or Dr Stark. They're your choices."

Riley and Sam looked at each other and shrugged. "Tony's fine." Riley said.

"Excellent. This way." Tony lead them up a tall staircase and down a long corridor. "So, this floor is the only one we're using at present. It's split up into suites, Pepper and I are at the far end on the right. Clint, Laura and Nat are opposite us. Forward from me is Barnes' suite. The suite forward of Clint's is Rhodey's. For now, we're putting you pair in together. If that's not going to work, let me know."

"That's fine." Riley said. "We grew up together, I lived two houses away from the Wilsons' place for most of my life. Came as a bit of a surprise to come out of basic and be offered this. More of a surprise to find that Sammy, here, joined the Air Force and got the same offer."

"Well, my requirements were pretty specific." Tony shrugged. "I think it came down to… maybe a dozen people. General Westbourne gave me the files on all the possibles and I got to narrow it down to two. You two."

"Huh." Sam grunted. "You read our files before you chose us?"

"Yep." Tony nodded. "Here, this is you." He pushed open a door and walked into the room. "Two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, you just have to share a sitting room."

"Just…." Sam replied sarcastically.

"Hey, be grateful there's any bedrooms." Tony chided. "I was eyeing off another property but Pep said we had to have one with a house."

"Fair enough." Riley nodded.

The following morning, Bucky Barnes and Tony sat at the massive dining table, going over Laura's latest set of plans, when Sam stumbled into the room.

"M'rnin', Buck." Sam mumbled as he plucked the mug of coffee out of Bucky's startled hands and slumped into the seat beside the World War II vet. "Hmm…" He gave a pleased hum as he filled his mouth with rich black coffee.

"Hmph." Tony snorted.

"Hey, Tony?" Bucky grinned.

"Yeah, what?" Tony knew to be wary of that grin.

Bucky didn't answer but he did reach across the table and slide Tony's coffee mug away from the genius, bringing to a stop in front of Sam.

"Hey!" Tony squawked.

"Nah, man." Bucky laughed. "Sam needs all the coffee he can get, mornings aren't his thing without it. And I wanna see his face when he realises what he just said."

Tony tilted his head and frowned for a few moments before his eyes widened and his jaw went a little slack. "Really…?" He whined.

Sam had finished Bucky's coffee and only had a mouthful or two left of Tony's when an ungodly screech filled the house, quickly followed by a freaked-out voice.

"Samuel Abraham Wilson!" The voice demanded and Sam's head snapped up, his eyes widening comically. The first person Sam saw was Bucky, closely followed by Tony but before he could do more than blink at them, the voice continued. "What the…? Where the hell are you? SAMMY?!"

"Riley?" Sam whispered. He leapt to his feet and bolted for the stairs.

"Let me guess…" Tony sighed. "They both remember."

"I would say so." Bucky blinked.

"How?" Tony asked.

"I have no idea." Bucky answered.

"Wow…" Clint was wide-eyed as he entered the dining room. "What was all that about?"

"Sam remembers." Bucky replied. "Not sure about Riley but there's a good possibility."

"Ah." Clint grunted and nodded before filling a mug with coffee. "More coffee on the way?"

"Yeah. Kitchen's sending up another half-dozen pots." Tony nodded.

"Excellent." Clint slumped into his seat and sighed as the aroma from his mug filled his nose. "Coffee…"

A thumping noise was heard before Sam and Riley burst into the room, brandishing the only weapons they had available to them, baseball bats.

"Oh, hell no! We are not playing baseball." Bucky shook his head and looked at Riley. "You know better than that. Sam's useless at baseball, do you have any idea how long it took me to teach the fucker to catch that bloody shield? It's a wonder that Sarah's house is still standing."

Sam's eyes flicked from Bucky to Tony and back again. "Buck? You wanna explain what's goin' on?"

"Breakfast." Bucky answered.

"Buck." The word came out hard and sharp. "That looks like Tony Stark and we all know what happened to him."

"We do?" Riley asked.

"And that's another thing." Sam threw a cold glare at a clearly confused Riley.

"Oh, right." Bucky nodded. "You weren't involved in that, were you?" He grimaced. "It's December 1998."

Sam blinked.

Riley blinked.

"How?" Sam asked.

"No idea..." Clint muttered.

"Barton?" Sam asked.

"Hey." Clint saluted the newcomers with his coffee mug.

"Would someone please tell me, what the hell is going on?" Riley asked, his voice shaky.

"Okay, come sit down." Tony said. "You died in… where…? Somewhere in the middle east, I don't think Sam ever told us where. But you died. Sam left the Air Force and joined the VA as a counsellor. He met the Cap." Tony turned to Sam. "I understand he kept running laps around you."

"Asshole..." Sam muttered with narrowed eyes.

"Cap got into trouble, went to Sam, Sam was stupid and joined the Cap's revenge tour." Tony spoke calmly and poured coffee into mugs. "Shit happened. People got hurt, people got killed, people got saved. Then Big Bad Purple came. Half of everything died. We learned to live with half our hearts missing. Then big-little man rocked on up and suddenly, Cap, who I haven't seen for five years, is standing on my doorstep asking me to build a time machine."

"A time machine?" Riley gave the genius a confused look.

"I said no." Tony assured him. "But it kept annoying me, the idea that we could get our people back. I spent weeks on it but I did it, I created a working space-time GPS. The team got back together and we bounced our way through time, stealing a bunch of stones. We got the stones, brought our people back and had to fight the Purple Prick again. I used the stones and… well…" Tony came to a halt.

"He died." Bucky took up the tale. "We had a memorial for those that died. The stones were returned to where and when they came from and…"

"Cap stayed." Sam whispered. "He lived his life and came back as an old man, to give me the shield. I gave it to the Smithsonian. Bad move. They gave it back to the Army, who pulled up some idiot to replace Cap. I went home, Buck turned up, we helped Sarah fix up the boat, called in favours from all over, but we did it. The idiot with the shield fucked up and it was left to Buck and I to fix it. After we did that, we had a big party on the dock and… I don't remember anything after that."

"When was that?" Riley asked.

"2025." Sam whispered.

"2025?!" Riley squawked. "You all time travelled from 2025?"

"No, not all of us." Tony said. "I was from October 2023. My wife was from December '24. Clint and his wife were from New Year's Eve '24. Nat was the same day as me. Buck was from 2025, you were from 2009 and I've no idea when Sam came from, but I'm assuming it was after Buck as he remembers the same shit that Buck does."

"Oh, shit…" Riley whispered.

"Oh and Rhodey was 2026, November 2026."

"Rhodes is here?" Sam perked up.

"Of course." Tony snorted, ignoring Sam's mancrush. "You don't really think he'd let me do this without him, do you?"

"So, how did you all meet?" Riley asked before pausing. "Or did you all meet?"

Sam laughed and propped his bat against the wall, he took a seat and picked up one of the coffee mugs. "Riley, man… Look at them. What do ya think?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know, Sammy?" Riley screwed up his face.

"Just look at them, you know when you see it." Sam repeated the request.

"Fine…" Riley sighed. He looked at Tony. "Tony Stark, head of Stark Industries and one of the DoD's largest arms manufacturer. Kidnapped in 2008 in Afghanistan, rescued yourself. Good going, man. Built the EXO-wings, fucking fantastic job there, love 'em." He then looked at Pepper as she sat demurely beside Tony. "Pepper Potts, the goddess of Stark Industries. Your reputation for controlling Stark is well earned, if even half the shit we heard about, ever happened." He looked at Clint. "Know nothing about you. At all. Why?" He moved to Laura. "Or you." He looked at Natashalie as she sat beside Bucky. "Or you, but you're a kid, so that's to be expected." He looked at Bucky and initially, he frowned, but then his face went slack and his jaw fell. "Oh… my… fucking… God…" He whispered. "Bucky... fucking... Barnes..."

"And there you go." Sam smirked.

"What the hell…?" Riley whispered, still in shock from being in the same room as Bucky Barnes. "Hang on… You said... You said, Barnes was 2025… How the hell did he get to 2025, he died in 1945?" He looked from Sam to Bucky. "You died in 1945." He repeated.

"No, I didn't." Bucky answered. "There were times I kinda wish I had, but I didn't. I fell from the train…" He gave Riley a five-minute summary of his life and how he came to be in 2025.

"But…" Riley tilted his head. "Who's this Cap, you all mentioned?"

"How many Caps are there, attached to Bucky Barnes?" Sam asked.

"What the fuck?" Riley muttered. "You're not talking about Captain America, are you?"

"Of course, they are." Pepper said.

"But Rogers died." Riley argued.

"You said that about Bucky, too. Did you see a body? 'Cause I didn't and neither has anyone else." Sam commented.

"Ughhh…" Riley made a drawn-out groaning sound.

"Steve's alive." Tony said. "He's just frozen. We're going to go get him next year. Might not thaw him out immediately, we still have a lot to do before then."

"Pardon?" Sam leant forward. "Why not now?"

"Sam?" Bucky laid a hand on Sam's shoulder. "We've got plans, a crap-load of plans. We're trying to work things out so that we have the best team we can against Thanos, but we have to make dual plans for each person we bring in. One for if they remember and one for if they don't. Ultimately, we want to destroy a stone or two before Thanos can get a hold of them. But we have to plan for the worst and that's Thanos turning up again. Right?"

"Right…" Sam answered slowly.

"That means, like I said, that we need the best team we can get." Bucky went on. "We need Steve, we all agree on that but we need Steve at his peak, health and fitness wise. So, while we could have gone and got him when Tony and I first remembered, come Thanos arriving in 2018 and Steve would be fifty-plus. That… that won't help us. And we both know that Steve would still be out there, trying anyway. If we leave him frozen until 2000, he'll be in his mid to late forties and the serum means that's not all that old."

"Dammit…" Sam muttered.

"And what about you?" Riley asked. "Won't you be too old to…?"

"I got a different serum to Steve." Bucky answered. "I age slower. Tony's in-house Docs think that I'm physically in my mid-twenties, but when we sat down and worked out how much time I've had out of cryofreeze and add that to what I was before I fell? I should be in my late forties. I don't look it."

"Serum?" Riley asked.

"Why don't we finish breakfast and we'll head down to the lab and bring Sam and Riley up to speed on the entire situation?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah, let's do that." Sam nodded, eagerly. "Sam and Riley really need to know what the hell they've got into this time."

~~~

Yelena sighed as she emerged from the water. Swimming at night in a South American river might not have been the best idea but it got her across the border into Paraguay. The houses around her were plain simple suburban houses, a little poorer than the neighbourhood she remembered in Ohio, but not as bad as the slums of Buenos Aires, that was home to the Red Room's stage one buildings.

She felt a little bad about taking some kid's bike but she had nearly thirty miles to the nearest unmanned safe house, where she could eat, rest and prepare for the next leg of her journey. She wouldn't keep the bike for long, she needed better transport, but damn her size would make it obvious that she was a kid.

Four changes of bicycles and the sun was well up, when she spotted a homemade minibike that had what looked like a lawnmower engine instead of a bike engine.

"That's perfect..." She sighed. "Now, if only no-one's watching it." She crept across two yards and climbed a tree, before letting her eyes sweep over the area. For nearly twenty minutes she watched and waited but no-one made their presence known, in either the yard or the house. She eased her way to the ground and straighten her shoulders. 'Move like you belong there and you're less likely to draw attention.' She remembered one of the Room's handlers telling her class.

She jumped over the fence, deliberately landing a little clumsily and walked over to the bike. She pushed it off it's stand and grunted as it jerked in her hands. From there she rolled the bike further into the yard and around the house. Through the side fence and out onto another street. She continued to push the bike until she was a few streets away.

The bike started with a very lawnmower like rattle and she let it rattle until it settled into a tinny roar before mounting it. A couple more streets and she turned north, stopping at a gas station for fuel for the bike and she was quietly cheering to herself.

Oh, sure, she knew she couldn't keep the bike for long, but even if she only used it to get to the safehouse? It was worth it.

"Next stop, Rio De Janeiro." She whispered to herself. "I'm coming, сестра, I'll find you."