Siberian HYDRA Facility - Classified Chamber
The chamber held secrets that seemed to press against Bucky's consciousness like a physical weight, making every breath feel labored and every heartbeat unnaturally loud in his enhanced hearing. Something about this place felt fundamentally wrong, as if the very air itself carried an energy that human beings weren't meant to encounter.
Bucky forced himself to focus on practical matters, moving toward a computer console that had been built into the chamber's wall. The terminal looked decades more advanced than anything HYDRA typically used, suggesting that whatever they had discovered here had required their most sophisticated technology just to study safely.
The system took several minutes to boot up, its processors apparently running through extensive security protocols before allowing access to the classified files. When the interface finally appeared, Bucky found himself staring at documentation that challenged everything he thought he understood about HYDRA's operations.
According to the classified reports, the mysterious cryogenic chamber had been discovered at a crash site in Roswell, New Mexico, in the early 1950s. The initial investigation had been conducted by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s predecessor organization, which had responded to reports of an unusual aircraft accident in the desert.
What they had found defied conventional explanation.
The spacecraft—and the files made it clear that this had been a genuine extraterrestrial vehicle—had suffered catastrophic damage during atmospheric entry. The heat of reentry had incinerated everything aboard the craft, leaving only twisted metal and carbonized remains. For the scientists who had dreamed of studying alien technology, the destruction had been a devastating loss.
But somehow, impossibly, one item had survived the crash completely intact.
The crystalline cryogenic chamber had been found in the heart of the wreckage, its exotic materials apparently immune to the forces that had destroyed everything else. Initial attempts to understand the device had failed completely—it operated on principles that human science couldn't even begin to comprehend.
Eventually, the chamber had been classified as too dangerous for normal study and transferred to a secure facility for long-term containment. But somewhere along the way, Alexander Pierce had arranged for the device to be "acquired" by HYDRA's research division.
For decades, HYDRA's best scientists had attempted to unlock the chamber's secrets. They had subjected it to every form of analysis imaginable, used scanning technologies that wouldn't be available to the civilian world for another fifty years, and consulted with experts in fields ranging from quantum physics to xenobiology.
Nothing had worked.
Eventually, for reasons that the files didn't fully explain, the chamber had been moved to this remote Siberian facility and placed under the highest possible security classification. Even Pierce himself had apparently lost track of its final location, suggesting that someone had decided the device was too dangerous for anyone to access.
The one consistent detail in every report was that the chamber continuously emitted some form of unknown energy—radiation that registered on instruments but followed no known patterns of electromagnetic or particle physics.
Bucky stepped away from the computer terminal, his enhanced senses picking up subtle vibrations in the air that seemed to emanate from the chamber itself. Now that he was paying attention, he could feel something that was almost like a heartbeat, a rhythmic pulsing that seemed to resonate with his own enhanced metabolism.
As he looked more closely at the area around the chamber, he noticed details that he had missed during his initial survey. Behind the main device, partially hidden by monitoring equipment, were what appeared to be research notes that had been hastily crossed out.
Two words were barely visible beneath the red ink that had been used to redact them: MUURAMULET
But it was the red substance itself that made Bucky's enhanced senses recoil with recognition. The crimson stains weren't ink at all—they were dried blood. Someone had been so desperate to hide these words that they had used their own blood to obscure them.
The realization sent a chill down Bucky's spine that had nothing to do with the Siberian cold. This entire chamber felt wrong on a fundamental level, as if the space itself was somehow hostile to human presence. The pressure he had been feeling since entering wasn't psychological—it was the "unknown energy" that the files had mentioned, and it was affecting him in ways that his enhanced physiology was struggling to process.
His analysis was interrupted by a sound that made his enhanced hearing spike with alarm—the soft hiss of escaping gas, followed by mechanical vibrations that suggested something was activating.
Steam began pouring from vents around the crystalline chamber as its systems engaged with a deep thrumming that seemed to vibrate through the floor and walls. The chamber's lid, which had appeared to be seamlessly integrated with the main structure, began to separate with smooth mechanical precision.
Bucky's training kicked in immediately. His sidearm appeared in his hands with practiced speed, the weapon trained on the opening chamber while his cybernetic arm reached for the combat knife secured to his tactical vest. Whatever was inside that chamber had been important enough for HYDRA to guard with their highest security classifications—which meant it was almost certainly dangerous.
Mist poured from the opening chamber like fog rolling off a lake, creating an otherworldly atmosphere as the facility's lights flickered in response to the power drain. When the illumination stabilized, Bucky found himself staring at an opening that revealed nothing but swirling vapor and shadows.
For several long moments, nothing happened. The chamber stood open, its contents hidden by the mist, while Bucky maintained his defensive position and waited for whatever was inside to reveal itself.
The voice, when it came, was so unexpected that it nearly caused him to pull the trigger purely from shock.
"Zane!"
The single word was spoken in a female voice filled with panic and confusion, cutting through the chamber's oppressive atmosphere like a blade. Within seconds, a figure sat up from within the mist, her movements suggesting someone who was disoriented but very much alive.
Bucky kept his weapons trained on the figure as she looked around the chamber with obvious confusion and growing fear. When her gaze finally settled on him, he could see emotions warring across her features—confusion, panic, and a wariness that suggested she was accustomed to finding herself in dangerous situations.
She appeared to be roughly his own age, though with someone who had spent decades in cryogenic suspension, physical appearance could be misleading. Her clothing was unlike anything he had seen before, with materials and styling that seemed both futuristic and somehow ancient at the same time.
The standoff stretched between them, neither moving nor speaking as they assessed each other for threats and intentions. Bucky's enhanced senses detected elevated heart rate and adrenaline production from the woman, but no signs of the kind of biochemical changes that would indicate superhuman enhancement.
Finally, recognizing that the situation required someone to make the first move toward de-escalation, Bucky slowly raised his hands in a gesture of peace.
"I'm not here to hurt you," he said carefully, his voice carrying the kind of calm authority that came from years of military training. "But I need to know that you're not planning to hurt me either."
The woman's gaze darted between his face and the weapons he still held, clearly calculating her options in a situation that was obviously far from what she had expected upon awakening.
Bucky made a calculated decision and slowly holstered his sidearm, then secured his knife back in its sheath. "Look, there's nothing to be afraid of here. I don't want to hurt you, and I'm not planning to hurt you."
The gesture seemed to have the intended effect. The woman's posture relaxed slightly, though she remained alert and ready to move quickly if the situation changed. When she tried to speak, however, her voice came out as little more than a harsh whisper.
She coughed violently, her body clearly struggling with the effects of whatever process had kept her in suspended animation for so long. Her breathing was labored, and she pressed one hand against her chest as if trying to control respiratory distress.
Bucky recognized the symptoms immediately—he had experienced similar effects during his own periods in cryogenic suspension. Dehydration, respiratory irritation, and disorientation were common side effects of the revival process.
He cleared his throat gently to get her attention, then reached into his tactical pack to retrieve a bottle of water. "Here," he said, extending the bottle toward her. "Drink this. You've been in that thing for a long time, and your body needs to rehydrate."
The woman looked at him with obvious suspicion, then examined the water bottle as if it might be some kind of trap. After a moment's hesitation, she accepted it and drank deeply, her relief evident as the liquid soothed her parched throat.
"Thank you," she whispered, her voice still hoarse but much more audible.
"Don't mention it," Bucky replied softly. "I've got more if you need it."
She gave him a grateful look that quickly shifted to something approaching panic. "Wait, you have to tell me—is the Mandalorian War finally over? What happened to the Jedi Order and the Republic? Do the Sith still threaten the galaxy? What about the Covenant? The Rakata Empire?"
Bucky blinked in confusion as he processed the string of questions. Every individual word was clearly spoken, but the concepts she was referring to were completely unknown to him. Jedi? Sith? Mandalorian War? These sounded like terms from mythology or science fiction rather than actual historical events.
When he didn't respond immediately, the woman's expression grew more distressed. She pressed both hands against her chest as if feeling for something that should have been there, and her face went pale with horror.
"No! No!" she cried out, collapsing to her knees on the chamber floor. "He still has it... the Muur Amulet! It's still out there!"
"Hey, are you okay?" Bucky asked, immediately moving closer while keeping his hands visible and non-threatening.
When she didn't respond, lost in whatever realization had caused her distress, Bucky tried a different approach. "My name is James Buchanan Barnes. I found this place by accident, and you were inside that chamber. Can you tell me who you are?"
The woman looked up at him with eyes that reflected both gratitude and deep exhaustion. "You... you saved me?"
Bucky scratched his head, unsure how to answer that question. "I don't know if 'saved' is the right word. I found you, that's certain. But I don't really know what your situation was or how long you've been here."
"How long?" she asked, her voice carrying the kind of dread that suggested she was afraid of the answer.
"According to the files I found, this chamber has been here for about sixty-five years," Bucky said carefully. "But nobody knows how long you were in suspended animation before that. The technology is unlike anything human science can explain."
"Sixty-five years," she repeated quietly, as if testing how the words sounded. "That's... not as long as I feared, but still..." She trailed off, clearly processing implications that Bucky couldn't understand.
"Listen," Bucky said gently, "I came here looking for answers about my own past. Finding you was completely unexpected. But if someone locked you in this room with the highest security classifications HYDRA possessed, you must be important somehow. So I have to ask—who are you?"
The woman seemed to realize that she had been asking questions without providing any information about herself in return. She cleared her throat, managed a weak smile, and extended her hand in greeting.
"I'm Celeste Morne," she said, her voice carrying traces of an accent that Bucky couldn't identify. "And I'm very grateful to meet you, James."
As they shook hands, Bucky felt a strange sensation—not quite an electric shock, but something that seemed to resonate with his enhanced nervous system. For just a moment, he thought he saw something flicker in Celeste's eyes, a brief flash of energy that suggested there was much more to her than appeared on the surface.
"Nice to meet you too, Celeste," he said. "Though I have to warn you—the situation out there is pretty complicated. The organization that was holding you has been exposed and destroyed, but that doesn't mean we're safe. And based on those questions you asked, I think you and I need to have a very long conversation about where you come from and what you know about things that most people would consider impossible."
Celeste nodded solemnly, her expression suggesting that she had expected their conversation to be anything but simple. "Yes, I think we do. But first, James—you need to understand that my awakening here and now is not a coincidence. There are forces at work in this galaxy that most people can't comprehend, and if I'm here, it means that something terrible is about to happen."