It was 4am when Lena's phone rang, pulling her from fitful sleep.
"Hello?" she said groggily.
"Hey it's Joaquín, sorry if I woke you-"
"No it's fine," Lena mumbled, pushing herself up and rubbing her eyes.
"Sorry I know it's pretty late- or rather early there."
"No Joaquín, it's totally fine. What do you need?"
"Remember the thing with the Flag Smashers?"
"How could I forget? I still have bruises."
"Ah yeah. Okay well, it's sort of turned into a whole thing now and there's pretty much confirmation that they're supersoldiers and we're in the business of finding out who made the serum. And doing so it requiring a trip to Madripoor-"
"You're going to Madripoor?" Lena said in shock.
"No not me personally but-"
"You want me to contact my old contacts-"
"Yeah. And Sam, who you met on the phone the other day, would love it if you would come with them. As an extra set of eyes."
Lena was quiet, thinking. Returning to Madripoor was not on her list of things she wanted to be doing, let alone doing so on an active mission.
"You don't have to, but given the... let's just say "volatile" people Sam has scrounged up, he wanted another person on hand."
"I see."
"I'm not going to convince you toward coming or not," Joaquín said, "if you want to stay disengaged from whatever this is, I totally respect that."
"No, I just have had a rough couple of days. So yes, I'll come. It will get my mind off things."
"Okay you're sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Sam will be very grateful. Pack for real combat. I'll send you the details but Sam will have to fill you in on everything else when you get there."
"Okay. I'll see you sometime soon?"
"When you get back from Madripoor probably. I'll send you everything I still have access to on your files from S.H.I.E.L.D for you to pull info from."
"See ya," Lena said as she hung up her phone. A few minutes later the details of a location to meet Sam arrived on her phone, a nondescript warehouse that looked like it probably housed property owned by a foregin mafia. Or something. Getting there on time was going to be a stretch, but after a few favors called in, she had a flight booked out of the country in the next hour.
As Lena hurriedly collected her things she wished she had a better combat suit to wear. It had been so long since she had considered intentionally being in active combat that she had next to nothing that would offer her real protection against anyone, or anything. As she readied herself, she mentally ran through her list of Madripoor contacts.
The early morning atmosphere of the airport made for a prime space to read through the other information she had been sent on the existing state of Madripoor and what they were looking for. From even this vague understanding it was clear that the surveillance and work she had done in the early 2000's had all but dissolved, leaving her with a list of names she hoped still held enough power to grant her good standing on the island. She decided to wait until she arrived at Sam's location and had more information before making any calls, but still felt oddly well prepared to jump back into a field mission.
---
Upon arrival at the warehouse, Lena found that her instincts had been correct, there were cars, weapons and other suspicious objects shadowing the building's dark interior. She had announced her arrival by calling Sam ahead of time and he had simply told her to come in, which had not helped to settle her nerves as she wandered the dimly lit warehouse.
Finally she heard the sound of two people speaking in an illuminated sector of the space. She stepped into the light to greet Sam, shaking his hand firmly.
"Nice to meet you in person," he said, an easy grin crossing his features.
Lena immediately sensed he would be quite likable and a good friend.
Before she had the chance to introduce herself to the other man, whose face she could not quite place but was familiar, he interrupted her.
"Sam," he said, speaking slowly, "where did you find her?"
"Uhm, New York right?"
Lena nodded.
"If you thought the idea of the Winter Soldier was ever a ghost story, you haven't met this one then."
Lena rolled her eyes.
"This is Lilith," Zemo said.
Lena rolled her shoulders at hearing the code name again, "Please never ever call me that again."
He nodded, but continued without expression, "Similar to the Winter Soldier-
"Okay, Mr-?" Lena interrupted, flinching at the Winter Soldier's name, unsure of why it was relevant.
"Zemo, Helmut Zemo,"
"Mr. Zemo, I think that's enough, I like to keep my sob story to myself thanks."
"I see. But Lilith is still here to help, yes?"
"I'm not her anymore."
Zemo looked skeptical and Sam looked concerned as to what sort of story he had just uncovered.
"But you still have your powers?" Zemo continued unblinkingly.
"Of course."
"Hmm," he said. Before he could continue, another figure approached the circle of light in the warehouse.
"Hey you done with your cool down walk there bud," Sam said teasingly to the figure that emerged into the lowly lit room.
The man grunted in annoyance, but did not take notice of Lena.
"Well at least be nice and introduce yourself Bucky, this is Magdalena-"
Bucky's head shot up at the sound of her name, mirroring her own sudden attention on him.
The room was quiet for a moment, Sam's eyes darting between the two. They stared at each other, both tensing at the other's presence. Lena felt her chest constrict at seeing him so unexpectedly.
"I suppose it would make sense for them to know each other, given Lilith cleaned up plenty of Winter Soldier messes in her time-" Zemo started.
"Don't call me that," Lena hissed at him again, her whole body taut with tension.
"It is your name."
"A name that was given to me, riddled with a dark history of which I am no longer a part of."
"You know, the two of you sound quite alike in your insistence that your "soldier" is gone. You'd probably get along great," Zemo said, apparently now finding the conversation uninteresting and walking away.
Bucky chuckled without humor but did not say anything else, but continued to stare at Lena from across the room.
"Okay.... " Sam said slowly, eyeing Lena and Bucky suspiciously "What is your grand plan for Madripoor Zemo?"
"Well," he said turning back to them, "it just got a whole lot more complicated with her presence."
Lena snorted with unamused laughter and remained in her position.
"I had planned for us all to take on the role of a character, but with you in our mix, we might just make it all the more believable. You were in Madripoor for some time, yes?"
He did not wait for an answer before continuing.
"I think it would be best that you get in character and take on whatever role you left there and then allow us with our 'characters,' especially that of James here, to overpower you. Use you both as leverage."
"And what do you mean by 'in character?'" Lena said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm not sure about you. Nobody ever knew that much about you. We'll work on that. But James, the Winter Soldier, needs to join the party," Zemo said.
Bucky frowned but did not argue, "What does that exactly entail?" Lena asked.
Bucky frowned at her with resentment, "You know."
"Oh."
"What does she know? How does she know?" Sam said, still missing the link, he turned to Lena, "Who are you?"
Lena did not like sharing this information with anyone, let alone under these circumstances. She had wanted to privately discuss this with Bucky.
"I uh-" she stuttered and glanced at Bucky, he rolled his eyes and made a motion with his hands that was clearly "get on with the story already." Sam just looked more confused. Zemo rolled his eyes as well and leaned against a wall impatiently.
Lena cleared her throat, "I am, I was, like Zemo started to say earlier, what you might consider also part of HYDRA's Winter Soldier Initiative."
Sam's jaw audibly dropped, causing Bucky to snort with unamused laughter, "So you're also a Super Soldier-" Sam started.
"No. I am what might be best described as fae. Or that is what HYDRA thought. Part of their involvement with the Nazis in the 40's was exposing the people to a specific set of chemicals, not unlike the super soldier serum, which triggered a hereditary response in some and killed everyone else."
Sam remained in stunned silence. Even Bucky's facial expression had shifted and Lena guessed that he did not know as much about her as he thought he did.
"Obviously I was one of the individuals who survived. Only a few ever did. The Winter Soldier program was in its early stages then but they had the technology to do what they needed to do. We were trained, brainwashed and equipped to kill. Except unlike Bucky and the rest, we were no longer fully human. Putting us in cryo was unnecessary and didn't work well. For whatever reason we were easier to control, probably because most of us were women who had already spent too many years under an oppressive regime and we were too tired to fight anything anymore."
Lena looked up from her hands and met Bucky's eyes. They were not frustrated or angry anymore, but filled with sorrow. Lena retained the eye contact this time, while Sam stared at his shoes and Zemo looked bored.
"For the next forty years I was a HYDRA agent. Doing all the HYDRA agent things, but more inconspicuously because they could not just put me to sleep when I was not useful. I cleaned up the Winter Soldier's messes-"
Sam's head snapped up, "You knew each other?"
" No," Lena and Bucky said simultaneously.
"I knew about him, but he didn't know about me until he almost killed me in the 90's-"
Bucky interrupted, "But not before she almost killed me. I had to throw her off a bridge to get away."
"I almost died!"
"That was the intention!"
Lena rolled her eyes, "Anyways then after Princess D-"
"Yeah nope-" Bucky said interrupting.
"Ha!" Sam exclaimed and punched Bucky's shoulder, "I knew it. You were involved with Princess Diana's death!"
Bucky sighed again and looked annoyed, "I don't remember exactly-"
"Of course you don't," Sam said.
"But I was there to make sure little miss sparkly fingers over there didn't interfere with her dying."
"Sparkly fingers?" Sam said, bypassing the conspiracy theory of the century.
Lena held out her hand and the air in her palm began to sparkle. She let it evolve into bright starlight before bursting into momentary flame and disappearing.
"She's making it look tame." Bucky deadpanned.
Lena cocked her head at him and blinked slowly, "Would you like me to demonstrate?"
He tried to say no and step out of her reach, but unfortunately for him, she was faster. A flash of light and Bucky flew across the room, hitting the far wall.
Sam raised his eyebrows, more in surprise that Lena had been so violent rather than the power displayed itself.
Bucky groaned as he picked himself up off the ground, "Did you really have to do that?"
"You said the galaxy depiction was boring," she said, careful to hide the smile that she so badly wanted to give him. It felt good to expand some energy, just enough to let him know she was still in condition to fight him if need be. And because his grumpy ass deserved it.
"And so you're a fairy?" Sam asked.
"I prefer the term fae. It sounds less childish."
"You certainly behave childishly," Bucky said, again coming just too near her reach. She lashed her arm out and lightly tapped him on his metal arm, sending a jolt of energy through him.
"Would you not?" he said, this time sounding a bit childish himself.
"Okay children , now that we've heard the story, can we get this show on the road please?" Zemo said.
"Fine," they both said in unison. The tension in the room had somewhat diffused but was still littered with the emotional attachment they had formed to each other over the previous several months.
After conducting the rest of their conversation in a very business-like manner and Lena making some calls to her old contacts, it was concluded that Lena would leave for Madripoor immediately and establish herself for a couple days before the other three joined her, all of them taking on aliases.
"But first we must go and reestablish you as Lilith. She seems like a very stylish badass and you are... somewhat lacking in that department sweetheart," Zemo concluded of their plan.
Lena glared at him, "Remember I do have the power to send you through a wall."
"Oh I know. And I wouldn't doubt that you'd do so. But you need to play your part better. And that includes combat gear."
"I won't argue with that. I don't have combat gear anymore. I had sworn I was never coming back to this after the Blip."
Bucky grunted, "You don't ever get to stop being a soldier, darlin."
Lena glared at him, "Well I've been trying. It was going well there for a while. I was even enjoying civilian life, being a coffee shop girl who met an interesting stranger. But then the guy turned out to be not the person he said he was-" she said condescendingly.
Bucky cut her off, "Well I'm sorry that you have terrible taste in men-"
"Well-" Lena started.
"Okay," Sam said stepping between them, "I am not sure what is going on here but considering we're going to be on a plane together very shortly, I would like to not have an argument brewing between the two, century old supersoldiers."
Lena crossed her arms and glared at Bucky. He glared back. How easily the intimate interactions they had shared in the previous months had turned hostile in a different setting. Lena sensed it was her way of dealing with the confusion and fear that the person whom she had started to trust had, in a previous life, attempted to murder her.