[Leipzig AU] a means to a necessary end

[nerves_of_ice]

It's a long flight from Berlin to Novosibirsk and the secret location far beyond it, even in a Quinjet. They spend the time planning and coordinating. Bucky describes the structure and security of the facility itself as best he remembers. Tony calls up plans and blueprints from god knows where and throws them into the middle of the plane for all to see. They're not the same as what Bucky remembers, they figure out fairly quickly, but they're better than nothing.

Tony also takes over the back of the plane and snaps at anyone who comes close, doing something that involves shifting screens and models of buildings and wave patterns and a human skull, and the eventually the low humming grind of a machine. Soon after, he stalks back up to the front of the plane and shoves a set of custom-fabricated earplugs at Bucky, who stares at them and then at Tony.

"Noise-cancelling all the way to total sound blackout. Tap the end of the earpiece to deafen yourself," Tony informs him. "Last thing we need's for you to be his puppet." Bucky starts to stammer a thanks, but Tony growls something under his breath and stalks back to the back of the plane again to work on something else. Steve catches Bucky's eye and shakes his head, and Bucky decides to leave well enough alone.

Sam advises everyone to rest in shifts; Bucky knows he's not wrong, but neither he nor Steve can do it, and after a while Sam stops trying to convince them. Natasha sits with him for a while, her eyes dark with concern. They don't say much, but there's no need to.

A Snowcat is parked outside the door of the facility when they land. Bucky's jaw sets in hard lines at the sight of it, and he trades a look with Steve.

They're already here.

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

He looks to Steve, automatically, and then realizes. Bucky's glance flicks to Tony, then back and forth between them, across the invisible chasm of the Sokovia Accords.

[from_the_outside]

"Or we could blow it up and just say a gas line got hit during the fight," Tony suggests, and Sharon shrugs.

"Or you could do that."

[nerves_of_ice]

The corner of his mouth twitches in what might almost be a smile, just for a moment.

"Okay." Bucky turns to Steve. "All right?"

[from_the_outside]

"Sounds like a plan to me," Steve says, his mouth quirking. "Let's get it done."

Sharon looks from one man to the next, as Tony waves away the model and starts building a new one, labeling each spot to be detonated. "How can I help?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky gives her a critical once-over, then pulls down a jump seat from the wall.

"Have a seat."

[from_the_outside]

Steve looks amused by something, she notices, as she takes the proffered seat and looks back up at Bucky.

"And?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Rest."

Sam hadn't come back in with the promised blanket, but Bucky notices a couple of them stacked up neatly outside the curtained alcove, as if he'd brought them and hadn't wanted to interrupt. He strides over to grab one of them and brings it back to Sharon, already unfolding it to drape over her.

[from_the_outside]

Tony snorts, but it's mild. She presses her mouth into a line and stands again, but lifts her hands in surrender.

"Fine," she says, and takes the blanket. "I'm going to go lie back down. And rest," she adds, before Bucky can say anything.

"Let me know if you need me."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Count on it," Steve assures her, as Bucky opens his mouth. He shuts it without saying anything, figuring that's probably the wiser course of action. After Sharon retreats to the alcove, Steve notes, "She took that pretty well."

Bucky makes a disgruntled noise. "That's how you know she's feeling pretty awful."

[marvel_npc]

"You know what will make us all feel better? Blowing this place to smithereens. So let's go do that."

Tony closes the model and starts for the jet's storage. "And then ice cream. Don't think I've forgotten about the ice cream, because I haven't."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve and Bucky trade a look and follow after Tony to the storage area. It was already half-transformed into a workshop from Tony's design efforts earlier, and soon takes on the appearance of a machine assembly line.

"How much do you remember of what Dernier taught you?" Bucky asks Steve, as Tony starts cracking shells of some of the incendiaries with reckless disregard. Bucky claims some of the explosive and starts building a package.

"Enough," Steve says, dryly, and settles in beside them.

About an hour later, they're headed down the elevator again. Tony'd opted to fly in, wanting to do another confirmatory scan. Bucky glances at Steve.

"Before it all goes up, I w--" He breaks off there, choking on the words, and tries again. "It'd be a good idea to look through the files."

[marvel_npc]

Steve slants a look over at him, and nods. "Tony and I can set these," he says, nodding to the duffle bag of explosives riding down with them.

"Take all the time you need. Let us know if there's anything we should see or know about."

Better that he and Tony not go looking around. It'll help to have some plausible deniability.

[nerves_of_ice]

He starts to protest, then stops. Steve's right, it'll be faster that way.

"Just don't blow yourself up, Rogers."

[marvel_npc]

Steve chuckles and shakes his head.

"Not a chance, pal."

[nerves_of_ice]

They reach the bottom and retrace their steps to the main chamber, where Tony's waiting for them. "Start at the base?"

"I need to check the files first," Bucky says. "Find Zemo's cache. Make sure nothing else is missing and out there somewhere."

[marvel_npc]

"We'll get started with these," Steve tells him, and nods to Tony. "Just give a shout if you need us.

Tony's not listening – or, if he is, he's not paying attention. His eyes are on the monitor near the silo window and the tape player with it.

Abruptly, he lifts his hand. The repulser blast that flares from it smashes monitor, player, and table to smithereens.

He turns from the smoking wreckage, jaw tight, and nods to the others. "Okay. Let's get to it."

[nerves_of_ice]

He takes the path into the corridor that leads to the file room and searches it as quickly as he can. He's not entirely sure he knows everything that's supposed to be there, but he figures he can spot gaps or missing pieces in a pattern easily enough.

There are a few, most of which make sense to him as being the kind of information that would have needed to have been transferred with him to his new handlers. Those will be ashes in the wreckage of a D.C. subterranean bank vault, so he doesn't worry about them.

He finds the program manual in the silo control room, discarded to the side on a table like so much trash. Bucky stares at it for a long, long while, considering, before he stashes it under his body armor, at the small of his back, and walks back out to the main chamber to wait for the others.

As he does, his glance, perhaps inevitably, is drawn to the chair with its heavy, violent crown. He crosses the chamber one slow step at a time to stand in front of it, studying it in silence.

[marvel_npc]

Tony had taken point on setting the explosions at the foundation, leaving Steve to set his around the machinery in the main room. He gazes for a long few moments at the murdered Soldiers, wondering who they might have been, if they'd been born into a different life, a different time.

He's on the far side of the chamber, carefully sticking plastic explosive to a load-bearing wall, when slow movement catches his attention. Turning, he sees Bucky staring at the chair in the middle of the room, the one he hasn't been able to look at or think about too closely.

Quietly he finishes his task and comes over until he's standing beside Bucky.

"This is where they put you?"

It's hardly more than a murmur, but in the silent, echoing chamber it's clear as a bell.

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods, still looking at the chair. "First I'd come out of cryo. The chamber he put Sharon in was mine," he thinks to explain. "Then to here."

It looks innocuous enough, except for the restraints, he supposes. "They'd clamp me in, then attach the crown - the headpiece. The current ran through that."

[marvel_npc]

Steve's chest and shoulders rise and fall with shallow, rapid breaths, much as Tony's had earlier.

The things they'd done in this place... it's unspeakable. Worse even than Schmidt had managed. He'll never get Bucky's scream when Zemo began saying the words out of his head, and he's all too horribly aware that it couldn't have been the first – or even the tenth, the twentieth time – Bucky's screams had echoed through this place.

He suppresses a shudder and looks away from the chair, to his best friend. "No more," he promises. "Let's take it apart."

[nerves_of_ice]

"No more," Bucky murmurs. He glances back at Steve, then steps forward and grips the crown with his left hand. With a shriek of metal, he rips it from the chair and shatters it on the floor.

[marvel_npc]

As Bucky rips the crown from the chair, Steve circles behind it, then lifts the shield high overhead before driving it down with a yell. The vibranium edge slices through steel and rubber and leather, shearing the chair into two sparking halves.

[nerves_of_ice]

He leaves the debris on the floor where it fell and comes around the chair to put his hand on Steve's shoulder, drawn by the anguish and fury in his cry. "It's over," he says, softly. "Hey. It's okay."

[marvel_npc]

"No," Steve says, staring at the ruined remains of the chair. "Not yet."

He's breathing hard, anguish twisting in his chest, before he looks back over at Bucky. "But it will be."

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods, keeping his hand in place. "It will be."