"What exactly are we walking into here?" Bucky asked, staring out at rolling green hills.
Natasha shrugged, "That's kind of why we're here. To find out." The woman tied her red hair back, and opened the door of the Quinjet. She pressed the panel for her rack of guns and picked one up, checking that it was loaded. She held it out to him, "Want one?"
Bucky held up his hand, "Only one hand."
"Whatever. So, who's going in there?" She propped the gun on her shoulder.
Bucky looked at Steve for direction.
"Me, you, and Bucky. Wanda and Sam can stay out here and guard the Jet, unless you guys want to go?" The blonde looked at the two for affirmation.
"Nope, I'm gonna take a nap." Sam chuckled when the rest of them stared, "Look, I haven't had enough sleep in almost five days." He dropped into the copilots seat and leaned back, propping his feet up.
Wanda smirked and picked at her black nail polish, "Guess I'll stay and guard Sam."
"I'm honored," Sam answered dutifully.
Bucky smiled. They all had such a nice dynamic. Steve, Natasha, Wanda, and Sam. He wondered how Sunny fit into it.
*****
"Hey, I found something!" Natasha yelled.
The heat was beating down on Bucky's black clothes. Everything was green. Blindingly green. And warm. He inhaled the smell of summer, and hurried over to Natasha's voice. The dirt squelched under his boots. Steve joined him behind a huge rock face.
"Nat?" Steve called out.
"Over here!" She answered and Bucky followed Steve down a muddy slope. Natasha was standing at the mouth of a huge, gaping hole in the rock. She disappeared into the dark interior, and Steve followed. Bucky looked back at the cheery sun glittering off of the teal lake in the distance. This would be a nice place to retire to eventually. He marched into the inky blackness.
"Wasn't the one at Camp Leigh the only one?" He heard Steve ask Natasha ahead of him.
"Obviously not. We're standing in front of another one," Natasha replied snappily.
He kept walking forward as his eyes adjusted to the shadows, a huge, boxy-looking thing sat in front of him. Steve and Natasha were in front of the tan monstrosity. "What is it?" He inquired, surveying it.
"The other half of Dr. Zola's brain, apparently," Steve said.
Bucky's face must've shown his apprehension, because Steve explained how him and Natasha found Zola's brain on databanks when they were trying to shut down Project Insight. Bucky noticed Natasha walking around, looking under and around the machines. Bucky studied it. Three prominent monitors stood on a little table, with a camera mounted on the middle one. Databanks lined up in a square in the recesses of the cave, forming a courtyard.
"Should we really turn it on? I mean, if it resulted in you guys getting blown up last time...?" Bucky asked.
Steve's jaw clenched, and something Bucky didn't recognize glimmered in his eyes, "This is the only chance we have at finding Sunny. If that means reawakening Zola, I'm okay with it. Are you?"
What exactly was going on between him and Sunny? Bucky threw the question to the back of his mind and thought about Sunny's gentle fingers, stitching up his wounds after Siberia. "Yes."
"If you two are done with your guy chat, I think I found the 'on' button," Natasha said, peeking over a databank. A tiny plink sounded, and the middle monitor whirred. Green flashed, and a pixelated face came onto the screen. Zola.
Bucky stepped backward into the darkness as Zola's face spoke with a cheery, feminine voice.
"James Buchanan Barnes, Steven Grant Rogers, Natalia Alianovna Romanova. Initiating MELANOV program."
"Who's Melanov?" Natasha, who now stood beside Steve, asked, glancing at him.
The pixels on the screen reformulated into a clearer face. It was a woman's face, with high cheekbones and a well-defined mouth. She spoke in the same irritatingly happy voice, "The House of Melanov is a Russian-Jewish family dating back to A.D. 1369 with Mikhail Melanov. It has three living heirs, Titania Vladimirovna Ivanova, James Buchanan Barnes, and Olivia Winifred Barnes-Livingstone."
Bucky registered the information, ignoring Steve's and Natasha's stares.
"You're Russian?" Natasha gawked.
"You're Jewish?" Steve asked at the same time.
Bucky frowned at them, offering only, "My mom was." That was one of the more recent things he'd remembered about his family. That simple fact had resulted in a day-long migraine.
Steve turned back to the monitor, "Who are you supposed to be?"
"I am an artificial intelligence engine called 'Mary'. I was built in 1970 by Arnim Zola."
"You're not Zola," Steve crossed his arms.
"I was built by Arnim Zola to be a companion to his original system in New Jersey. He used plans originally created by Titania Ivanova in 1948," Mary said.
"We were told that you know what LAZARUS is," Nat said to the monitor.
If a computer could convey emotion, this one did. The face on the screen frowned, "Natalia Romanova does not have clearance to open this program."
"Who does?" Natasha asked.
The face smiled again, "Timofei Ivanov, Margaret Carter, James Barnes, Howard Stark, Titania Ivanova, and Arnim Zola all have clearance for this program."
Bucky frowned. Why did Zola give him clearance on some random computer? Or Peggy and Howard, for that matter?
Steve looked back at him, "You wanna give us some help, Buck?"
"Does anyone else think that this is not normal?" Natasha asked.
Bucky walked forward and saw the camera swivel to follow him. He cleared his throat, "Uhm, open LAZARUS program. Please?"
"Certainly, Sargeant Barnes," the face grinned, then was replaced by a cascade of photos. "Accessing LAZARUS." An image flashed. Three insignias, one HYDRA's, one green with an infinity sign instead of tentacles, and a white one with a crowned rotting skull, vines, and a set of scales.
"In 1744, VONEXA was formed on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it's own freedom. At it's height, VONEXA had a wider reach than the Templar Knights. In 1852, VONEXA split into two factions, LAZARUS and HYDRA." Pictures blinked, of a group of men in wigs, a world map colored blue, and of a fire.
"HYDRA continued with the same beliefs as VONEXA, while LAZARUS believed that it was the principles that governed freedom which were the problem. LAZARUS held to the idea that if mankind's ideas about freedom could be controlled, so could they, in order to create a chaos-free world. This notion was soon discarded, and LAZARUS set off to do anything that would elevate its own power. In 1854, both organizations were given a serum and tasked with creating a soldier to battle extraterrestrials. LAZARUS used the Lazarus Pit Program in their superior soldiers, whereas HYDRA used their Blank Slate Program in theirs." More pictures, these ones of old drawings of aliens, syringes, and a pool of glowing water.
"All attempts died of side effects until 1942, when Item 9856 survived the Super-Soldier Serum and the Lazarus Pit and made a full recovery. Shortly afterward, the Winter Soldier, when his unit was captured by HYDRA, survived both the Super-Soldier Serum and the Blank Slate Program. In 1943, due to advancing HYDRA troops and bruacratic issues, Item 9856 was abandoned by LAZARUS and requisitioned by HYDRA. LAZARUS faded into the woodwork and has not been labeled as active since 1957," Mary finished and resumed smiling on the screen.
Steve leaned forward, "Who is 'Item 9856'?"
Mary opened her mouth, then the screen went black.
"Steve?" Bucky whispered as the ambient light from the running databanks shut off, leaving them in darkness. Silence. The monitor came on again, and Bucky could see Steve and Natasha. He let out a long breath and turned his attention to the screen.
Zola's voice echoed through the cave, "And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
Bucky's arm cramped and he tried to relax it. He's not here, he's not here, he's not here, he repeated to himself.
Zola's voice continued, obviously a recording of some kind, "In 1943, I became aware of the world's first Superior Soldier, an eleven-year-old Russian girl. Item 9856. When HYDRA gained access to her, I was amazed at her intelligence. It took half a year for me to realize her full potential. But we used her. She was sent on her first kill mission two months after we received her.
"She was the perfect assassin, and had a 97% success rate. She eliminated over five hundred targets while evading capture in the span of five years. She was put in charge of the Winter Soldier Project in 1945, after designing the prosthetic, handling his missions, and training him herself. But her intelligence almost overpowered the best. She attempted helping the Winter Soldier escape sixteen times between 1945 and 1949. On December 31st, 1949, the Summer Soldier was successfully terminated by the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier was cryogenically frozen two weeks after that until 1951 due to unruliness."