Leave Me Broken [Winter Soldier] II

Welcome Home [Chapter 23]

"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding."

Albert Einstein

        The crunch of the snow seemed to shake the entire mountain underneath their boots, but with only the three of them, they could only feel so powerful. The Death Squad were built for bigger fights than this, but they didn't have what Steve, Bucky and O had. They had each other, they would watch out for one another, protect each other. There was a symbiotic arrangement that was simply understood between them, where as a group like the Death Squad may fight for themselves, instead of as a team. It was a shabby team, too small for comfort, but it was all the world had.

        Ahead there were two familiar doors, doors that Ophelia had once walked out of many times, her mind locked onto her target. She rarely saw action, and in most cases she was sent out with a guard to watch over her as well as deal with the target. This time, while walking towards the doors that were frosted over, looking ancient, they were opened, as if they were welcoming her home. Far from a friendly welcome it was, and Ophelia felt a shudder run down every single vertebrae of her spine. Her legs felt like gelatinous goo and yet she continued to power through. Even as her feet began to get wet as the snow soaked through, still she endured.

         "The doctor couldn't have been here for more than a few hours," Steve noted as he studied the doors; the first step inside of the building had foot prints, and light snow dusted over the entrance.

         "Long enough to wake them up," Bucky replied sourly, but he made it sound more informational than bitter.

          Ophelia wondered if Bucky's bitterness stemmed from a built up need for reprisal against these men and women. They had done awful things to him once he had taken Ophelia's place in the cage; and then another thought crossed Ophelia's wandering mind. She was terrified, and her mind was blissfully keeping her distracted enough not to show it through shaking hands or wobbly legs. As she glanced towards the man she loved, a man who she knew would alter her entire existence the moment she laid eyes on his handsome face, she wondered if his current bitterness was not because of what happened to him inside of that cage, but because of what happened to her.

         A soft smile crossed her lips, she hadn't intended for it to appear, but the thought of Bucky seeking vengeance for her sake sat right with her. On one hand, it felt good to know someone cared like that, and on the other hand, she worried that he was putting himself in danger going in with that mentality. However, they had to face them either way and there was no escaping that fact; better to have even more of a reason behind fighting to the death than simply being required to. They walked down the long, dreary and bland hallways, weapons (and shield) ahead of them, but there was an eerie silence in the base.

           Finding a narrow stairwell, Bucky went up first, his gun at the ready. Ophelia went second, and the minute Steve placed his foot upon the first step, there was a wretched sound beyond the door behind them. It was being pried open from the other side, and Ophelia turned, crouched down so that Bucky could look over her head. Steve stood at the bottom, his shield protecting most of his body, and in turn it protected the two standing behind him. Ophelia leaned against the railing to stop her hammering heart from making her faint. Steve asked quietly if they were ready for this, and Ophelia felt her mouth was too dry to answer, and so she kept silent as to not give away her dread.

           The bright light that could only come from Tony Stark's power source for his Iron Man suit shone through the doors that were being pushed apart. His hands snaked into the crack between the doors and he used his suits strength to open them. Steve lowered his shield ever so slightly and stood a little taller; unsure if Tony was here to try and stop them or not. Something brought him here, somehow he had figured out where they were, and it wasn't from the Quinjet locators, given that Stark-tech created the stealth mode. Not even Stark could crack that. He stepped into the room once the doors were opened, and he popped open his helmet so that he could show his face, and perhaps sincerity.