Hallowed (B. Barnes)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Steve stands with his arms over his chest, his eyes on Zemo as he is cuffed, but he still has a bad feeling about all of this. Something telling him to be cautious. He lets out a breath and shakes his head. They were played. Easily. All of them. Even in this place, this bunker that is filled to the brim with special forces and intelligence agents, were fooled by this one man.

"We'll transport him to a more secure facility" Sharon states as she and Steve watch policemen escort Zemo away. "Find out what he was after" Steve nods and then heads back into the room where Bucky is still restrained in his pod.

"All he thought he had to do was say the goddamn words" Bucky offers as he watches Steve.

"How did you resit it?" Sam asks, leaning against the wall, Bucky shrugs a little and looks away. Steve realises though.

"The girl" Steve offers. "Syd?" Bucky looks at him.

"She okay?" Bucky asks him, Steve nods as Sam picks up the papers from the floor, papers that Zemo brought with him, notepads and the red book.

"She got up and walked out of the morgue, so I would say she's okay, yeah" Steve answers, Bucky nods a little. "Who is he?" Steve asks.

"I don't know," Bucky admits.

"The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know.'" Sam looks up from the notebook in his hand, the same one that Zemo had been scribbling in.

"He wanted to know about Siberia." Sam offers, Bucky looks at him. Sam sets the notebook against the glass of the pod so Bucky can read it.

"That's where I was kept," Bucky admits and looks at Steve. "He wants to know exactly where" Bucky realises.

"Why would he need to know that?" Steve counters.

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier," Bucky admits sadly.

"What do we do here?" Sam asks Steve who is watching Bucky. Steve takes a breath and nods before he steps closer to Bucky's pod.

"Steve?" Bucky asks.

"If we learnt this yesterday, or a week ago..." Steve starts and looks back at Sam. "What would we do?"

"We'd go to Siberia...check out the facility" Sam answers, Steve nods. "But this isn't last week. There are new rules"

"And I'm not asking you to break them, Sam" Steve assures him as he unlocks Bucky's pod with Sharon's identification card. "We can do this without you, but....." Bucky looks at Steve as the cuffs around his wrists. "We can't leave this alone as an unknown, if there are more Winter Soldier's out there....we have to make sure that they cannot hurt anyone else" Bucky nods in agreement. Sam sighs and then nods.

"Well, come on, you know I'm in...." Sam assures them both. "But this isn't going to make us any friends and we need to go before they figure out what we're doing" Steve nods in agreement and looks at Bucky.

.............

Sydney sits on the plane heading for Paris, her headphones in her ears to drown out all the ambient noises around her. People talking. The inflight movies. The flight attendants making the rounds. She just needs silent. She holds the goat figurine in her lap, she couldn't leave it behind, she just couldn't bring herself to leave it. It might just be the last and only thing that she has to remind herself of their whole relationship. She'll land in Paris, probably stick around a couple of weeks, then leave again. She needs to find a new home. Somewhere away from everyone that might know her. She needs to start fresh, she just needs a few weeks to work through all of this.

............

A month later:

Steve walks with Bucky as they head towards the Avenger Facility. It's been a weird month. Bucky's had to adjust to things, his life was Sydney, that flat, his handy work and waking up every morning with her not there at his side, sucks. His mood has been getting worse too. But an olive branch has been handed out. He has been allowed to return to the States, to New York. To the Avengers' facility. And he agreed. He needs their help to find Sydney, because he and Steve struck out.

"Are you sure about this?" Steve asks Bucky who nods.

"I can't keep running" Bucky offers. "And these people are the only ones that have the equipment I need to find Syd" Steve nods a little. Sharon and her team had absolutely no luck in tracking Sydney across Bucharest, Bucky honestly didn't think they would. "And you are sure that....he is okay with me being here?"

"He's calmed down a lot" Steve answers. "But there are a few ground rules" Bucky gives him a look, wanting him to elaborate. "Basically....stay clear of Tony"

"Well, I wasn't going to ask him to play softball with me" Bucky counters, Steve snorts a little. He has seen a side to Bucky he wasn't sure he was going to get back after their clash in Washington two years ago, he thought that this side of him had been destroyed by Hydra, and Steve knows that the only reason this Bucky is back, is because of Sydney. Bucky's spoken a lot about her the last month. Steve knows just how important this woman is to him, that she is the only reason things worked out better than expected in Bucharest. And Steve wants to help find her, to give Bucky that sliver of happiness he found. He, honestly, feels terrible that they split up, because of some grief-stricken Sokovian that just...lost everything. It's hard to blame Zemo when they dug a little deeper. "Look, I'll do whatever I have to, so I can use their computers and stuff, I need to find her, Steve..." Steve touches his friend's shoulder and squeezes.

................

Sydney sniffles and picks up her phone as it rings, unknown number flashing over the screen. She contemplates ignoring it. She really does. She's not in the mood for any human contact. She glances out the window, a view of the Eiffel Tower beyond. She has yet to leave Paris. But she has to and this might be work, this might give her her direction. She looks down at the phone.

"Hello?" She asks as she answers the phone, her voice croaking with disuse, she has barely said a word in the month she has been here.

"Sydney?" A voice asks her, she hums and sits up a little.

"Yeah" She answers and runs her fingers through her hair.

"Syd...it's Sam," He tells her, her eyes widen. "Your...brother" He adds.

"No, I know...I know who you are" She assures him. "What....why are you calling me?"

"Because I...." Sam starts and then sighs. "I need you" He admits.

"Sammy" She whispers, he laughs sadly and she closes her eyes.

"You're my sister, and I love you, but this has gone on for far too long....you need to come home, right now" He scolds her. "I don't care why you left. I don't care that you've been gone, I just need my big sister to come home...please" His voice breaks with emotion and Sydney's eyes well up hearing his plea.

"Tell me what's wrong" She starts. "And I will think about it"

"It's Dean" He answers and clears his throat. "You need to come home" He repeats, she bites her lip and takes a deep breath, can sense the urgency in his tone.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Sam...I'm sorry, I really am..."

"Get your butt back home right now, Syd, or so help me...I will find you and I will drag you all the way back myself" He warns her, she raises an eyebrow because she can tell how deeply serious he is.

"Okay," She tells him. "Okay, I'll...find a flight" She assures him. "I'll call you when I know what's happening"

"Good" He whispers. "Thank you, Syd...." She hums and then hangs up. What a freakin' weird month this is turning out to be.