CRUEL INTENTIONS, bucky barnes

twelve **

** trigger warning: sexual assault, mild body horror, gore

December 23, 2015

Secondary New HYDRA Base

Munich, Germany 

The snow fell silently on the wet pavement as Alina crossed the street. She lifted her eyes to the building looming before her. It was only a Marriott hotel, nothing special.

Perhaps the reason it made her so uneasy was that she knew what was waiting for her beyond the giant pane glass windows. Rather, she knew who was waiting there. She still wasn't sure what to expect.

As she stepped inside, her unrest only grew. It really was just an ordinary hotel. There were normal-looking people milling around the lobby, waiting at the elevator, checking out at the front desk. There wasn't HYDRA paraphernalia adorning every inch of the entrance; not that she had expected that, but somehow, the mundane nature of it all made the place even more unsettling.

From her understanding, Savannah and her crew had been working on securing hotels across Europe as bases of operation for the past several months. The first had been in Berlin, and there were two or three more in Poland and France.

They started from the top-down, so when Alina stepped out of the elevator on the seventh floor and found armed men pacing the halls, she wasn't entirely surprised. Maybe ordinary citizens wouldn't have realized they were carrying weapons, but Alina had come to recognize the way firearms and throwing knives changed the way a person walked and set their shoulders.

One man that she recognized from her early days nodded at her as she passed. He wasn't pacing like the others; it seemed like he was acting as a bodyguard for room 701. Alina wondered if that was Rumlow's room and almost shuddered.

There was some sort of meeting planned between the three of them for later in the evening. She wasn't looking forward to it. She'd rather sleep, even if it was just for an hour or two. When she located room 720 and let herself in, it became abundantly clear that a nap wasn't in the agenda.

Savannah was sitting in the middle of the bed, feet stretched out in front of her. When Alina crossed the threshold and let the door close behind her, Savannah shut off the television. Alina doubted she'd been very interested in it anyway.

"Glad to see you made it in one piece," she said. There wasn't anything in her voice to indicate if she was being sarcastic or genuine.

"Yeah." Alina let out a short breath as she lowered her duffel bag to the floor. She winced, and Savannah's expression changed marginally. "Still healing."

"I wasn't sure your story would check out," Savannah said. "Thought maybe it was a cover so you could get over here under the radar."

"Nope." Alina made her way to the bed but didn't sit. She pulled up the left side of her shirt to reveal the ugly stitches holding an inch and a half of her abdomen together. "Real bullet hole, fake story. I'm technically on medical leave, but I'm sure S.H.I.E.L.D. won't mind a quick tour around Europe. I deserve it."

Savannah didn't show any sign of being entertained. She briefly examined the wound on Alina's side, but her eyes eventually drifted back to the blank television screen. She was preoccupied, probably with her hatred for Rumlow. Alina didn't know much, but she'd heard enough to know that they weren't exactly on speaking terms.

"You said it was a HYDRA raid?" Savannah asked. Her voice sounded absent, but something else lurked beneath the surface. Suspicion. Distrust. Alina nodded. A sick feeling twisted in her gut. "Ironic."