The Other Stark

Chapter 6

The pair walked side by side in the corridors, heading to Buck's room. Both in silence, as they thought on all the possibilities this could go wrong.

As they stand by the Soldier's door, Tory nocks and wait.

"Who is it?" They heard a muffled voice coming from the other side of the door.

"Can we talk, pal?" Rogers asked quietly. Seconds later the door opens and there stood a shirtless Bucky. The woman's eyes travel through his body, double checking the metal arm. She wanted so much to know how it worked. It was amusing. But the Soldier, thinking she was disgusted by it, got serious.

"What?" he answered, straight and clear.

"Did you know you have trackers in you?" Victoria asked, trying not to sound hurt with the way he acted about her staring at him.

"No?" Buck replied confused, stretching the back of his neck with his flesh hand, the exact place the ship was.

"Hum... I know you don't really trust anyone in here, but it was better if we took them out from you."

Steve just watched the scene, as his friend melted into Tory's words. He listened to her. The blond was kind of amazed. Did his best friend act like that with woman in the 40s? Did he remember anything? Or just the bad things?

"You know where the chips are located?" Buck questioned in a low voice, giving in. He wanted to free himself from everything HYDRA did to him. This could be the beginning.

"You'll let us remove it?" Tory asked perplexed. The man in front of her looked serious, wanting an answer to his question.

"Arm and neck."

...

The next morning, they told the rest of the team about the chips. Tony didn't like to know about them, but as always, his sister assured him it would work and he couldn't deny anything to her.

Bucky only accepted it if Tory were inside the room looking at everything, helping Bruce. Though he didn't want any drug to doze off.

"All right, we're going to start," Bruce spoke, to alert the man.

With caution, both of them worked in sync with the A.I's help. In 20 minutes, Bucky was already up. He sat at the table, Tory looking through his metal arm.

Steve, Tony, and Natasha watched everything from the glass windows. Ready to burst into the lab if anything went wrong.

As both scientists worked, Bucky started to feel panic rising in his chest. Everything was closed, and though he could break the glass easily, it was claustrophobic, the stuff in the lab making him recall about things he wanted to forget. Tory looked up to see why he was shifting so much and didn't like what she saw in his eyes. It was dread, fear, and that glimpse of sadness he always had in them.

"Bruce can you live us alone?" the woman asked softly. Dr. Banner was about to protest, but when he looked to the table where both brunettes were, he just nodded and exited the room, getting together with the other three Avengers.

"Just breath. I'm almost done," she said working quicker to locate the tracker and get it out. She did the job fast, when it ended, Bucky was already on his feet.

Tony, Nat, Steve, and Bruce came into the room, but as they did, the Soldier just got out. Steve was about to follow, but Tory just shrugged.

"Steve, just let him be."

...

The next day, Natasha and Tory were at one of the many meeting rooms, looking over all the things they had on the STRIKE team. It had been a couple of weeks since the last mission, and Tory couldn't wait any longer for the next one. She wanted to get back in the field.

"So someone inside the last HYDRA base you destroyed said Rollins was hiding somewhere in France? That doesn't make any sense," Tory said trying to understand what they had till now.

"I think we bombed all the bases in France, how could he be there? If they were planning something he wouldn't be running away," Nat guessed.

"Unless he's not. Rumlow wouldn't let him. He's his right arm, Rollins should know everything about them. The hiding places, who are working with them. If we find Rollings, we find Rumlow and what his been planing," the brunette added.

"So, based on France..."

Both women stayed there until someone found them. When Steve approached the door, he saw a lot of papers spread across the round table, two computers on and two women muttering things to each other.

"What you're doing?" he asked confused. Neither of them answered, as he went further into the room and started reading some of the notes.

"Steve, do you remember any other base in France we haven't bombed yet?" Nat asked, not looking up from the keyboard.

"No!? But there are some near France, on the border with other countries. Why?"

Tory and Nat shared a look before both of them started looking at the information they had around the room. As Steve stared at both women in confusion, Tony spotted the movement inside the place and stopped by to take a look.

"What's happening here?" he questioned with one eyebrow raised, looking at his sister.

"No idea," Steve said with his Brooklyn accent.

"Are you two going to explain this?"

"There are three bases near the border of France and Germany that we never got intel from. No one never seemed to notice them. They are all small and basically useless," the redhead informed the other woman. Both men stood by the door still glaring at what was happening.

"But small is an easy way to camouflage. And it's easier to build something without anyone noticing," Tory added.

"So we know where's the rabbit hole," Nat concluded and finally looked over to Steve and Tony.

"We might know where Rollings' been hiding."

...

They all sat in the same meeting room both women were just hours ago. Nat and Tory explaining what they had found out. Steve had a shit eating grin on his face. He had been looking for this man for over two years now, and all he could manage to find was insignificant leads.

"So we are going to Germany?" Sam asked when Tory finished talking.

"I don't know. Cap? What do you say?" Tory spoke again, glaring at the blond man.

"Well... these are the first real leads we have in two years, I think we should follow," he answered.

"So we'll start planning."

As all the Avengers sat there for the rest of the day, talking over the mission to come, Bucky only observed in silence from the back of the room, nodding when Steve asked him something. But Tory could tell something was going on inside the man's mind. When they knew what each one needed to do and Cap dismissed everyone to get some rest, Tory followed Bucky to the training room.

"I know you're following me," he said, walking straight to the punching bag, rapping his fingers.

"Do you wanna go to this thing?" Tory asked, worry in her voice. He said nothing.

"I know you had a hard time, but I think you should talk to someone about it. Doesn't matter who. Steve's been trying to help you, and it's hard to open up, but you should. The more you bury all this, the worst you'll get."

He started punching the bag harder each time. Victoria looked at him. His breath, heavy. His angry stance. He was going to burst in anger at any moment, and she didn't know if it would be a good or bad thing.

"Just go away," he murmured. She nodded, even though he couldn't see and walked out of the gym, heading to her room to try and get some rest for the mission to come.