[oom] the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go

[nerves_of_ice]

He chooses both the day and the time with care, drifting up by the practice yards of the Dora to speak first with Ayo and then with Okoye in the same morning. In the afternoon he visits Shuri at the lab, later than usual, and delays after fitting and testing the latest prototype to discuss the upcoming surgery. It's no hardship to consider - compared to everything that's come before, it's nothing. Bucky's pretty sure that Shuri knows he feels that way, but it doesn't stop her from wanting to be sure in her planning and his preparations, and he's unwilling to protest the care that she wants to take.

The carefully calculated timing means that he's just finishing up when T'Challa arrives. The other man looks exhausted around the eyes, he notices. Bucky dips his head in a respectful nod and starts to withdraw, only for T'Challa to wave him to a standstill as he asks Shuri about upgraded surveillance devices for the borderlands. He'd expected him to do exactly that, but it's good to have been right, and being able to listen to their conversation gives him the opening he needs. Shuri goes down the hall to fetch something, leaving the two of them alone together, and Bucky meets the other man's eyes.

"Things aren't getting any better, are they." It's not a question. Not really. T'Challa shakes his head. "No. They are not," he agrees. "And there are not enough of us to guard all approaches. I am hoping these--" He goes to Shuri's workbench and stares down at the range of equipment there. "--will make the difference. Or at least buy time."

Bucky nods. "You told me before that you wouldn't ask for my aid unless Wakanda or the world was in dire danger," he reminds him. "That doesn't mean I can't offer."

T'Challa goes very, very still before turning to look at him. "White Wolf."

"This isn't like before," he says, quietly. He has to convince him. He has to. "It's not the same. This is about protection. Send me. Let me help."

He holds himself steady while T'Challa searches his face, and sees in the other man's eyes the moment when Wakanda's king makes his decision.

* * * * * * *

Half an hour later, Bucky leaves the train and heads into the Citadel instead of back to the hut by the lake.

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

Okoye nods. "You will have the distance communications earbuds, but..."

She slants a pointed look at Bucky, who returns a mild one. "... I am told it is best not to even use subvocalization unless absolutely essential."

[from_the_outside]

Sharon's mouth goes slightly amused before she presses the smile away. "Copy that."

[nerves_of_ice]

His expression is perfectly bland for a moment as he looks back at them all, then fades into a neutral sort of intensity.

"Ayo, your team should take the herd location. Sharon, the rarer creatures. I'll take point on the big cats."

He's sure that the felines will be a target. Whether they're the only target remains to be seen, but as such, he's going to place himself into the line of fire first.

[from_the_outside]

Her eyes narrow as she crosses her arms and studies him.

If it were her, she'd send her best team to take out the cats. And it hardly matters that 'the best team' of a bunch of poachers isn't any match for Bucky on his worst day – anyone can manage a lucky shot. And if she's not there to back him up...

But it's his call. He and Okoye are running this show, and he needs to know she trusts him, implicitly and absolutely. She nods and relaxes her shoulders, settling her weight into her hips. "Got it," she says, and smiles, very slightly.

"Won't they be in for a surprise?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Ayo doesn't smile, but her eyes gleam with anticipation. Bucky nods.

"We'll make it one to remember. Takeoff in thirty."

[from_the_outside]

She nods at them and makes for the door with Ayo, her mind on what she needs to bring.

Prisoners, not dead poachers. She idly wonders if Nat might help her and Shuri design something like the Widow bites for this suit for the next time they need to take someone alive.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky lingers behind just long enough for a quick, low-voiced chat with Okoye, then follows after them. Everything's loaded on the flyers, she'd confirmed. He's wearing the latest fully-tested prototype arm, with the few minor problems they'd found already disabled.

Everything's ready. All that's left is to do the job.

He catches up with Ayo and Sharon swiftly and falls into step beside them.

[from_the_outside]

Ayo isn't exactly a chatterbox, but Sharon's not too talkative just now, either. She casts a crooked half-smile at Bucky as he joins them, but all three of them are deep in thought already, thinking of the best way to approach and attack.

She wonders how long it will take, if they'll end up camping out tonight, sleeping rough under the stars. But it's a half-formed thought behind more pressing considerations, like wondering who she'll get on her team and the best way to work with them.

[nerves_of_ice]

The Dora Milaje have already divided themselves into teams as instructed when they reach the landing pad, where six flyers hold ready. Some are already boarding as Ayo walks with Sharon and Bucky to join a group of five. "You three will go with Ms. Carter," she says. "And the two of you with the White Wolf."

Myela, standing with her partner Cedi, flashes Bucky a wide grin. "I see we are to work together again. Will it be like last time?"

"Mostly. Although these we'll be bringing in after we track them."

[from_the_outside]

Sharon turns to the other three Dora and is relieved to find one familiar face: Zara, who is often a part of Nakia's security team. "Ms. Carter," Zara greets her, and gestures to the others. "This is Toro and Ikodo."

"Call me Sharon," she tells them, and returns their polite nods. "Looking forward to capturing some bad guys with you ladies."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Good hunting," Ayo tells them, and walks away to join her own team.

"Everyone clear on the brief?" Bucky asks Cedi. "Clear, White Wolf," she replies, her characteristic mischief evident. "It will be almost like a game. For us, at least."

He nods to them and looks to Sharon. "Good luck." He keeps everything else he wants to say locked inside, and hopes that his glance says it all for him.

Be careful. I trust you. I love you. See you soon.

[from_the_outside]

She holds his gaze for a moment, her own calm and steady and warm and full of everything she'd say if they were alone.

"See you on the flip side," she says, and winks at him, then tips her head to her team.

"All right. Let's hit the skies."

[nerves_of_ice]

The discipline of the Dora shows in the way the six flyers lift off one after the other and split in precise formation, activating their cloaking technology before moving toward their targets.

The three teams of the second-line defense hold position a distance back from the border, split into ground and air groups, while the others move toward the three high-value target areas.

After some discussion, Myela and Cedi have agreed to move in sight of each other in one direction to form two points of a triangle covering the cats' hunting ground, while Bucky works the opposite side like a ghost.

[from_the_outside]

Toro acts as pilot, her attention on the flyer as Sharon discusses with the others, eventually settling on a plan of pairing off: Sharon with Zara and Toro and Ikodo. They'll keep up a moving circle around the territory they've been assigned and will have the ability to split up further to cover more ground if necessary.

Her worries about working with the Dora prove unfounded: Zara, who is used to Nakia, is comfortable both speaking English and working with the outlander, and the other two Dora are perfectly professional.

They arrange a series of signals that can be sent as quickly as possible if necessary and determine three possible rendezvous points.

"Good luck," Sharon tells the other team once they've landed. "Good hunting. And remember: we need them alive."

The Dora smile grimly and nod, then disappear into the grassland.

[nerves_of_ice]

It doesn't take long for the initial signs of incursion to show. Ayo's team is the first to pick up on them - the crackle of a radio here, a nervous flutter at the far edges of the herds there. The poachers have grown bold in their success so far.

It will not last.

[from_the_outside]

It's a few hours before she starts to get really suspicious.

They've made several circuits of the territory; laid down traps, hunkered down and waited, but neither she and Zara nor the other pair have seen hide nor hair of any poachers coming for the animals they're guarding.

She doesn't like it. There should be something, but all they find are peacefully grazing animals and no sign at all of any hunters beside themselves.

[nerves_of_ice]

Big cats are ambush predators. Wryly, Bucky thinks that it's something they have in common. In this case, it means that their method of approach is better served by setting up the surveillance tech and lying in wait from the points that give them the best coverage rather than doing sweeps.

He doesn't mind. He's more used to it than most. And humans, it turns out, are a lot less sensitive to indicators that they're being hunted than most animals are.

He doesn't speak when he notices the first signs of incursion. He taps his earpiece in the near-silent pattern that alerts the other two to what he's spotted - how many, the direction, the targets.

Myela taps the "acknowledged" signal back, since she's the furthest from the border given what he's sent. She'll drop back to alert the second line and the remote teams. Bucky flattens himself into cover and watches.

Three pods of five poachers each. Could be worse.

[from_the_outside]

Zara glances up at her as the signals come in, and Sharon frowns, her mouth twisting hard.

Fifteen approaching Bucky's location. She sends back the 'all clear here' signals but forces herself to wait and watch in case the poachers have decided to stagger their approach or are waiting to flush out any defenders.

It grates. Lying here in cover with nothing to attack while Bucky's team is about to engage –

Her Kimoyo beads vibrate again: Ayo's team also has visual contact. Sharon grits her teeth and signals her own team to wait – even as she knows she won't be able to wait long.

[nerves_of_ice]

Six poachers are approaching the herds and Ayo's people, broken into three teams of two, Bucky picks up from the signal report. That shouldn't be much trouble at all to mop up, he thinks, and gives his full attention to the poachers approaching his position. They're moving in tandem, tracking broken grass and looking for game trails, very well armed.

He makes himself into a shadow in the rock formation he's chosen and waits for the first group to come into range. Cedi will be circling around from the other side, but the timing of the strike'll have to be up to him. He's got to get it right - while he's got every confidence in the Dora, the odds aren't quite as good as he'd prefer against this amount of weaponry.

[from_the_outside]

She sees engagement by the herds before she hears it: a rising cloud of smoke and the thunder of hooves against hard-packed grassland. Zara swears sharply.

"They are panicking the herds!" she says. "Why? They'll get fewer animals that way."

"Because they don't care about the herd animals," Sharon realizes. "It's a distraction, they're going after the cats – "

She's on her Kimoyo beads in the next breath, rapping out orders to the other pair of Dora to stay and continue to guard their territory, although she thinks that if the poachers were planning to come for these animals, too, they'd have already been here, waiting for the teams to spook the herds and distract any defenders. "Come on," she tells Zara, and taps out a signal to the other teams: they're running to join the fight by the big cats.

[nerves_of_ice]

Smoke goes up in the far distance, and below him the three pods of poachers exchange their own glances and start to split into a divided hunting pattern, and they're all out of time.

Bucky fires the vibranium net-and-bolo combination at the farthest group and the second one at the middle, hoping to give Myela and Cedi each time to move in, and throws himself from the rocks into the middle of the five-person pod below his position, leaping to the attack like the wolf of his new name.

[from_the_outside]

She's grateful now for all the time she's spent running around with the kids and training in Shuri's lab, because she's as fit as she's ever been and she can cover the distance at a run, Zara fleet beside her.

It's still not fast enough. She can't run like Bucky can, like T'Challa can, and she hears the unmistakable sounds of combat well before she and Zara are in anything like range.

We're coming, she thinks, her breath straining in her chest. We're coming.

[nerves_of_ice]

Shouts go up from the distant pod, tangled in the net. Three of those in the middle escaped its grasp, and while one tries to untangle his companions the other two go running to help the far group.

Bucky's too busy with the first five to do anything about it. It's harder when you're trying not to kill your opponents. He takes a hard blow to the gut that knocks him back to the ground, then rolls to his feet and whirls around in a spinning kick that sends two of them sprawling, and strikes with his left hand at a third.

[from_the_outside]

"Zara – " Sharon snaps, and the Dora breaks off to deal with the poacher trying to free his compatriots while Sharon reaches for a small baton strapped to her thigh. A snap and the baton expands into a blunted version of the javelins she'd used in the Jabari lands; she takes a hop-skip and flings it at one of the running figures, hitting him square in the back and sending him toppling to the ground.

She sees a chaotic cluster nearby that's Bucky taking on a group of the poachers, but she can't stop to help, needs to take care of the last runner before he gets to the other group.

The problem with it is that she's at range and lacks her best ranged weapons, but the poacher has no such compunctions. She throws herself into a flat roll as he tries to line up a shot, then flings a small vibranium ball his way and shuts her eyes as it explodes in a shower of blinding, glittering light. At the man's agonized yells, she digs in and runs for him as he tries to blink his eyes clear, pushing off at the last second to land her foot directly into his gut and knock him to the ground.

[nerves_of_ice]

Myela comes in at the run and uses her spear to whirl the net tighter around the furthest pod, then slams the blade of her spear with the net into the ground and activates the built-in spikes. As the net seals itself to the earth, poachers inside, she reclaims her spear and goes through the process of disarming them as Cedi races in to join Zara.

Two of the five Bucky's fighting are down, now, and a third leaps onto his back, trying to choke him out from behind. It's a very poor move on his part, as Bucky rips the man free and flings him forward over his shoulder into the remaining two.