Three solid knocks against the thick wooden door. No answer. That was the third time Bucky had knocked on her door with no response. Was she ignoring him? Did she just want to be alone after the trial and everything that had happened? He sighed, shaking his head. No, that wasn't like her. She always opened her door to him, even when she was upset. "Ava?" He called, his palm pressed against the door. He closed his eyes, bringing his ear to the door to listen for movement inside. Nothing. A frown tugged at the corners of his mouth, his brows pulling together and causing a wrinkle to form between them.
"Pale Mother is not at home."
Bucky turned, seeing one of the village boys that he and Ava often played with. He was covered in sweat and dirt from wrestling with his friends out in the sun. "She's supposed to be home by now. Where did she go?"
The boy shrugged, his dark skin glistening. "Pale Mother never came home after General Okoye took her away this morning."
"That doesn't make any sense." Bucky muttered to himself, looking down at the ground as he tried to imagine where she might have run off to. "All right." He said to the boy, looking up at him. "Thanks, kid." He gave a nod. The boy tilted his head at Bucky for another moment, studying him, before taking off into the tall grass.
Bucky's steel eyes followed him until he had disappeared from sight, a small sigh escaping his nose. Maybe she was at the pond. His finger tapped the side of his leg as he looked in the direction of the pond, his feet carrying him in that direction. His eyes narrowed as he approached, dirt sticking to his bare ankles as it kicked up with each of his steps. He made it all the way to the water's edge, and there was no sign of Ava. He turned his head, looking to the spiraling tree her father was buried under. No Ava.
He couldn't put his finger on it. But there was a feeling. A feeling in the chilling breeze that swept through. A feeling in the frantic flock of birds that kicked up in the wind. A feeling deep inside of himself. Each of these things, Bucky embraced in silence. He inhaled the air, watched the birds with narrowed eyes, and frowned in thought. Something wasn't right. Years of training and practice turned Bucky into a professional on things like this. Danger situations, missing persons, and more. Skills he needed to assassinate people.
Before he jumped to conclusions, he decided to call a few people. He tapped the kimoyo beads around his wrist, which Shuri had given him now that he was practically a civilian of Wakanda. A hologram of Shuri popped up as she answered the call, her brow raising. "You do know that just because I gave you those it doesn't mean you have to call me to just chat all the time, right?" She scoffed, hiding her smile.
"It's not that." Bucky shook his head. "Have you seen Ava anywhere since the trial?"
"No. She's not at home?"
He shook his head again. "I can't find her anywhere. I checked the pond and the tree, too. She's missing."
Shuri rolled her eyes. "I'm sure she's not missing. She's probably just walking around the village. If you need to see her that badly, just track her kimoyo bead signal with yours."
"You can do that?" He asked, frowning as he wasn't all that surprised. This place had insane technology.
"You white men really are stupid, aren't you? First it was Ross and now it is you." She muttered, ending the call.
Bucky frowned again, scoffing at her words as he tapped the beads, setting them to track the location of Ava's beads. A hologram map of the city opened up from the beads on his wrist, a light blinking on Ava's location. It was the path leading toward home from the city, but it wasn't moving. He frowned, turning off the beads and going in that direction.
His feet, clad in sandals, kicked up dust that stuck to his ankles, as he traveled to the location of her kimoyo beads. Standing where the signal was coming from, he looked around with narrowed as and lips pressed into a tight line. She wasn't there. "Ava?" He called out, glancing around. A heavy feeling weighed down his stomach, as if he had swallowed a rock, as he happened to glance down and catch sight of a set of kimoyo beads laying in the dirt on the path below him. Ava's kimoyo beads. And nobody in Wakanda went anywhere without them- they were like cellphones to Americans; absolutely important and needed for day to day life.
Slowly, he leant down and picked them up from the dirt, rolling them in his fingers. "Where did you go?" He whispered, looking down at the ground again. If it weren't for decades of training and working as an assassin, he probably wouldn't have noticed it. But, fortunately, he had the skill set in order to track people. There, in the dirt, was a faint outline of a footstep, much larger than Ava's, that was smudged and scuffed. It pointed in the direction off of the trail and into the tall grass, where Bucky could already see where it had been parted by someone large walking through. Not by someone as small as Ava. It didn't necessarily mean that whoever it was had to do with Ava's disappearance, but it was the only lead he had.
Shoving the kimoyo beads into his pocket, he rose back up to his feet and followed the signs and indications of disturbed vegetation, deep into the grass. The path he took was winding and confusing, almost too confusing, as if it were intentional. But Bucky kept going, walking through the dry leaves and grass for over an hour. All the way into an open meadow before a wall of trees. He hadn't seen this part of Wakanda before.
Bucky blinked a few times, seeing movement in the trees. Giraffes. Of course, there were a few giraffes there, feeding amongst the trees. Tall, spindly, tan and brown giraffes with knobs on their heads and long, purple tongues that wrapped around multiple leaves at one, pulling the greenery into their narrow mouths. There were four of them, and little birds fluttered around their heads in the tree tops, a few birds hitching a ride on their backs. He smiled a little at the sight, amazed at the massive beasts he'd only seen in zoos in New York- decades ago.
He reminded himself of his mission again, looking back across the meadow and walking through. As he rose over a hill top, he could see a hut within the trees, well concealed in the shade. His brows drew together, creasing his forehead between them as he made his way up to it. He stopped outside the door, hesitating to knock. Maybe whoever lived here knew where she was. Maybe they had her. Maybe they have no idea at all what he was talking about.
Biting the inside of his cheek, he knocked, rapping his knuckles a little harder than he intended to, against the door. He heard movement inside, the sound of muffled voices and footsteps shuffling around. After a few minutes, the door cracked open enough for the person on the other side to poke his head out.
Bucky felt the blood in his face rush out, paling him further and his eyes widened. "Bomani." He said, looking at the dark and irritated-seeming man in the doorway, blocking Bucky's view inside.
"What do you want, colonizer?" Bomani huffed out, eyeing Bucky like a lion would eye an antelope.
He cocked his head, feeling a knot form in his stomach. "I think you know already."
"I don't." Bomani shook his head.
Bucky's steel eyes narrowed, almost turning a shade darker. Ava had to be here. He just had a feeling. A loud crash could be heard deep within the hut, followed by a muffled cry. His blood ran cold, immediately knowing that it was her. Bomani's eyes widened slightly, and he braced himself for a fight he knew was about to happen. Without second thought, Bucky attempted to run past the other man and get inside, but Bomani was quick to react and block his way.
The super soldier raised his other arm to throw an upper-cut at Bomani's nose, but his fist was blocked by his opponents arms. On quick reaction, he brought his heel down onto Bomani's toes, which made the man double over in pain and allow Bucky to send a knee up to Bomani's nose instead of his fist like originally planned.
Bomani yelled in pain as he fell to his knees, blood seeping out of his nose as Bucky ran into the hut. "Ava!" He called, looking around the room and moving farther into the house. As he passed through the sitting room, he was tackled into the wooden sitting-room table, which splintered into pieces beneath him. Pain shot through his shoulder and Bucky growled, his vision turning red as his Winter Soldier training took over, and he fought without much thought. As Bomani got an arm around his torso, Bucky grabbed his ring finger and yanked it back as hard as he could, hearing a loud crack as Bomani screamed out in pain and let go, his finger bent in an unnatural angle. Bucky sprung back up to his feet as his opponent leaped at him again, but Bucky was quick to bring an elbow down on his bald head and render him unconscious. Even with one arm, Bucky was one of the best fighters on the planet.
Bucky turned and ran down the hall, busting open doors on each side until he found the one that Ava was behind. She was tied up in a wooden chair that was tipped over, dried blood trailing down the side of her face from a wound on her head. Tears were in her eyes as she looked up at Bucky for help, tape over her mouth. He sighed in relief and knelt down in front of her. "I found you, doll. I've got you." He said, starting to untie one of her hands. She let out a cry through the tape, her eyes wide as she looked behind Bucky in an attempt to warn him.
He wasn't fast enough to escape Bomani, who had swung his arm around Bucky's neck and put him into a choke hold. Bucky winced as Bomani pulled him back, and he fought to get free. As the two men wrestled and battled, Ava used her one free hand to quickly work on untying herself. By the time she was free, Bomani had Bucky pinned to the ground with his arm behind his back, pressing Bucky's elbow in a way it wasn't meant to go. Bucky bit his tongue as he let out a pained cry, feeling like the bone would snap at any moment. Just before it could, relief. Bomani was no longer over him. Instead, we was on the ground unconscious with wooden splinters around him. Ava was panting, the now-broken wooden chair in her hands as she looked down at Bucky.
The man she loved quickly got to his feet again and she dropped the chair, throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank you." She whispered in a feathery breath. He curled his free arm around her waist, sighing into her hair.
"Are you hurt?"
"Not much." She said, pulling back to look at him. She smiled a little before crashing her lips roughly against his briefly. "Are you hurt?"
"No, but we should get out of here before he wakes up.