VITALITY ↝ B. BARNES [1]

[16]

"Big day today," Wanda said to Bucky, who nodded around a mouthful of bacon. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," he assured her, his gaze sliding over to Elysia. "Are you ready?"

Elysia nodded, though the nerves settling in the pit of her stomach wanted to say otherwise. The moment had come, and now it was time to put her skills to good use, and get the code out of his head once and for all. Then they'd deal with HYDRA, and finally put an end to their reign of the Winter Soldier.

"I was born ready," she assured him with a sly wink before turning her attention back to Wanda and Vision. "Vision, this is delicious."

"You really think so?" the android asked, and Elysia nodded, hiding the grimace as the mush of scrambled eggs slid down her throat.

"Oh yeah," she assured him. "If the whole superhero android thing doesn't work out, you definitely have a future in this sort of thing."

Bucky nudged her foot with his own under the table, hiding the smirk that threatened to creep up on his face, and as the android happily returned back to the frying pan in front of him, the two of them forced the rest of their breakfasts down before returning their plates to the dishwasher.

"We should get going," Elysia announced. "We're supposed to meet Tony and the Valentes in the lab in a few minutes to get started. But thank you for breakfast, Vision."

"Yes, thank you," Bucky echoed. "It was wonderful."

Wanda eyed the two with a knowing smirk as they left the kitchen, taking the familiar path towards the elevator to lead them up to the lab. After they rounded the corner, Bucky reached for her hand, pulling her alongside him as he laced their fingers together.

"You filthy liar," Bucky smirked as Elysia shrugged, stepping onto the elevator after him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said nonchalantly. "That breakfast was delicious. The extra crunch from the shells? A gourmet masterpiece."

Bucky's laugh echoed through the elevator before it came to a stop at the lab, and the two walked in to see Carlos, Fernanda, and Tony already inside, the latter glancing at their laced hands as they walked in. Fernanda waved Bucky over to the hospital bed next to their set up, and he let go of Elysia's hand as he climbed onto it. Instantly, she began hooking him back up to the wires, as well as hooking him up to an IV to administer his sedative.

"Sparky, Tin Man, nice of you two to join us." Tony said sarcastically by way of greeting, and Elysia moved over to the computer screen, waiting for the familiar waves of Bucky's brain activity to connect to the device.

"Big day today," Carlos announced, clapping his hands together. "Alright, first thing's first. Once we put Barnes under, then Sparks, it's up to you. Get in, get the words out, then get out. Once you get past that firewall, then you'll just have to dismantle whatever HYDRA left behind."

Elysia nodded in agreement. "I've got it," she said confidently, her smile never once wavering even if her hands threatened to start shaking.

"If you're ready, then I think we're ready to begin." Carlos agreed. "Mr. Barnes, are you ready to begin?"

"I'm ready," he said, looking over at where Fernanda held a syringe full of a clear liquid Elysia couldn't quite discern and nodding at her encouragingly.

"Alright, James, you should start feeling the effects momentarily." Fernanda said as she injected the needle into the tube connected to his arm. "This should put you out long enough for Elysia to hack her way in and render the code words useless, and it'll be over before you know it."

Bucky nodded in understanding, and Elysia reached down to take his hand, squeezing it once before he looked over at her with a sleepy smile, the effects of the medicine already beginning to take hold in his veins. "Go get those words out of my head."

Elysia nodded. "Goodnight, soldier." she said as his eyelids grew heavier, fluttering for a moment before they fell shut and his breathing began to even out.

"That's our cue." Carlos said, and Elysia set down Bucky's hand, careful not to wake him regardless of the sedative in his system. "Miss Sparks, you may begin."

Elysia rose from her chair next to Bucky's bed, moving over to the computer. Her fingers began to move over the keys as if second nature, letting them take control as she followed the familiar path of code leading to the block she'd been studying the last couple of weeks. As she worked, Carlos and Fernanda stepped into the adjoining lab, leaving her alone in the room with Tony and the unconscious Bucky.

"So," Tony mused, his gaze moving between the woman at the computer and the super soldier lying asleep on the bed. "Isn't he a little old for you?"

"Very funny, Tony," Elysia retorted without looking up from the computer, though she couldn't help the smirk that tilted up the corner of her mouth.

"I just mean he's what..." Tony trailed off, attempting to do the math in his head. "Late nineties? I just didn't know you were into the geriatric type." he said with a nonchalant shrug.

"He's different," she said, looking up from the computer for only a moment to the man sleeping on the other side of the computer's wires. "He understands me, you know? And I'm pretty sure he's only like thirty, tops, if that makes a difference."

"I'm happy for you, kid." Tony assured her, and Elysia smiled warmly, grateful for the approval from her mentor and the figure she'd always trusted most. "Now, get that code out of his head so you two can ride off into the sunset, or whatever it is you kids do these days."

Elysia rolled her eyes, turning back to the screen, which now displayed the firewall she'd found herself up against the day before. Like a musician playing the ivories of a grand piano, Elysia began to type once again, the symphony of keys clacking against the board the only sound in the room as she began to dismantle the program. Although she didn't realize it at the time, her years of training in computers had all been leading up to this moment, and she knew she had to do everything in her power to make it count and free Bucky once and for all.

Elysia watched as the wall came down, the code now in front of her as various Russian symbols filled the screen. She moved through the code with ease, only pausing every now and then to glance at the translation guide in front of her as she searched for the words that haunted her brain from the moment they'd first pulled Bucky out of the HYDRA facility. As the words she'd been searching for finally crossed the screen, she felt a wave of nausea forming in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed it down as she read them over.

Longing

Rusted

Furnace

Daybreak

Seventeen

Benign

Nine

Homecoming

One

Freight Car

Even translated into their native Russian code, Elysia couldn't help the chill that ran through her body as she continued to work. She held her breath as she worked to dismantle the code, and as soon as the words vanished, she felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from her chest, and that she could finally breathe again.

"It's gone," she spoke in a soft voice, which cracked on the second word as Tony looked over at her, an intense expression in his eyes.

"It's gone?" he repeated, narrowing his eyes at her.

Elysia watched in awe as the code began to crumble, the lack of its core code words taking effect and rendering the rest useless. Suddenly, she was reminded of the man she'd seen in the videos on the bridge, facing off against Captain America, a ghost the world feared more than anything else, even if they hadn't been aware of his existence. The monster that sixteen-year-old James Rogers had been raised to fight, which had led to teenage years being robbed as the young boy still slept in a cryogenic chamber, waiting for his next chance to search for him. The brainwashing, the horror Bucky lived with each passing day that they'd find him and throw him back into the blender, all gone in the blink of an eye.

"I cracked it," she said. "He's free."