Chapter 6
GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND
SWORD HEADQUARTERS - HOWLIE’S DEN
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH 1945
1509 (3:09PM)
The room was silent, the tension palpable as everyone stared at Colonel Phillips after he had given them the news of what Zola had said while being questioned. They finally got the location of Hydra’s main base but it had come at too high of a cost in Athena’s opinion. Of course the life of any of her Howlie brothers was too high of a cost but this last loss devastated both herself and Steve the most. Bucky had been Steve’s best friend, his brother in all but blood since they had been kids.
For Athena though Bucky had been the one person she felt she could go to when the nightmares became too much of what she endured. Bucky hadn’t been there the whole time but the time they laid side by side on a table being cut open and experimented on by Zola was enough to cement a bond with the man she looked to as an older brother. Their bond had been born from mutual suffering under Zola’s hands and it was Zola that broke their bond, he was responsible for Bucky’s death even if he didn’t pull the trigger.
Athena would kill the little gremlin with her bare hands if she could but Phillips and her father made sure the man had enough guards outside of his room to make sure she didn’t. Neither man dared to order her not to kill Zola, just like they didn’t dare order any of the Howlies as well; they just made sure there were plenty of guards to stop her or any Howlies from taking revenge before he could be moved to a more secure location. A location, Athena was sure her father and the Colonel would make damn sure none of the Howlies knew where it was.
Athena pushed away from the wall she had been leaning on and left the room once Steve stupidly answered that knocking on the front door was exactly what they were going to do. Bucky should have been next to her groaning and calling Steve a damn nightmare because the plan of course was going to have Steve front and center like it always did and Bucky would be forced to look after the stupid little guy from Brooklyn who never backed down from a fight. Where Bucky went Athena went and vice versa they had become a team watching after Steve and occasionally Peggy and even rarely Howard when they were in the field.
Those three weren’t soulmates, all three of them were blanks but there was a pull and a connection that mimicked a soulbond with the theory being that Peggy’s inner Fire Elemental chose the two opposite men to be Peggy’s mates. Though Athena’s mother or her mother’s family had ever heard of such a thing but of course Peggy fought a side of her for so long that it might have had to do something just because Peggy was being stubborn.
Dropping down onto a couch Athena placed her arms elbows to knees and her hand in her head. Fingers sliding into her own hair and lightly pulled, trying to use the pain to distract her circling thoughts and emotions from losing another of her brothers. Crazy as it was and however much she sometimes wanted to beat up some of them the Howlies had become her brothers, her pack and the part of her mind she now called Shadow wanted to howl into the night sky at the loss of another.
When they had jumped into Normandy on D-Day they had been twenty strong. A small fast mobile unit with multiple specialties built to take on Hydra directly and they did just that all over Europe. Over and over again till now, this last mission of capturing Zola had brought them back home, back to the SWORD base at Glastonbury and the section repurposed just for their use that had been nicknamed the Howlie’s Den by Junior one night when they were all plastered and hanging out celebrating the engagement of Junior who had finally popped the question to the nurse he had been seeing since day one of arriving at Glastonbury to join them.
Athena felt the couch dip on both sides of her and felt Steve’s hand rest gently on one shoulder while Peggy’s hand rested on the other. The sound of drinks being placed on the coffee table in front of them before a dip of the couch further down next to Steve and Athena knew that was Howard. Moments later she could feel the rest of her brothers filter into the room taking either the other couches or chairs as they all sat down in silence facing one wall.
They all sat there in silence with the only occasional sound of someone drinking their choice of poison or the shifting of getting more comfortable where they sat. Athena finally pulled her head out of her hands and looked to her right and saw the tears Steve silently let fall from his eyes and down his cheeks, to her left Peggy was just the same.
Looking finally to the wall Athena finally felt a part inside of her break as the tears she had been fighting with all her anger at another loss finally began to fall. The wall was a memorial to those brothers that were no longer here with them, those that had died, gone missing or wounded and sent home. They had jumped into Normandy on D-Day, a unit twenty strong if you counted Howard who only joined if absolutely necessary. Bucky had jokingly called Howard the Howlies Den Mother one night but the title fitted Howard with how he took care of them all by making sure they had the best weapons and gear to keep them alive and coming home.
Athena knew Howard took every loss of the Howlies personally and would lock himself up for hours on end designing and redesigning everything the Howlies needed for a mission and if he didn’t have something for a job he would disappear for an hour or two and invent something that would work. The wall they all now stared at had started after the Normandy mission on D-Day. Howard had pulled out pictures of those they lost that night and kept them near where he would sit and tinker, waiting for them to all get back from whatever mission they had been sent on.
After a few more losses Bucky and Steve had commandeered one of those rolling cork boards for Howard’s pictures that slowly became the Howlie’s pictures because after every loss they all gathered around that board and sat and drank to the memories of those lost to them. Even after missions where they hadn’t lost anyone they began to sit around the board and though it was only pictures it was like their brothers were there with them in spirit.
Now that they were back home at the Howlie’s Den they had come home to a new wall that had been kept up by Athena’s parents by Howard’s request. So that even if they were home for the first time in almost a year, even though they weren’t the twenty strong that started out on that June night in 1944 they still had their brothers with them. It wasn’t just the wall that helped with their mourning over their losses, it was another brother from New Zealand who had taught them a Haka for grief and loss taught to him by his mother following the traditions of the Mauri.
For Bucky they will do the Haka at his funeral tomorrow, where they will add another empty casket to the small plot of land her father had given to the Howlies. Originally it is where he had built a large house for them all to stay at just a mile away from the main manor house. Now it was where those that had died before Bucky were already buried alongside with their other brothers. Their ceremonies were seen to by her parents who had taken all the Howlies into the family as they realized the familial bond that had grown between all of them. No matter where the Howlies went after the war was over, they would always have a home here at Glastonbury.
Every picture up on the wall had their names, call sign, date of death, injury or missing in action and location. Athena knew it helped them grieve and be able to keep moving in a war where they had done and seen some very terrible things in the name of everything they loved because against Hydra they couldn’t hold back or they’d lose. Above all the pictures was the last line of the oath Athena had sworn on her thirteenth birthday and it was the motto of Howlies now. No surrender, only sacrifice in the face of death.
They had gone into Normandy twenty strong; they returned now with nine members including Howard to the Howlie’s Den. Eleven brothers were up on the wall now and only two of those were from injuries that sent them home permanently from the war.
Jerry “Joker” Larkin was killed in action, during the Hydra raid on D-Day. He had been a comedian in Hollywood before the war.
Dino “Hollywood” Manelli was injured, losing a leg, during the Hydra raid on D-Day. He had been a big name actor in Hollywood before the war but joined up using his birth name and not his screen name.
Percival “Pinky” Pinkerton was killed in action, on D-Day taking out an artillery position. He got the name Pinky because Larkin and Juniper had covered him in pink glitter for his birthday as a play on his name and it stuck.
Sam “Happy” Sawyer was killed in action, three days after D-Day when they were asked to knock out an SS garrison. He hardly ever smiled but he always smiled when Athena’s mom would sing saying it reminded him of home.
Jonathan “Junior” Juniper was killed in action three days after D-Day when they were asked to knock out an SS garrison. He was the youngest of all the Howlies and left behind a young wife who was pregnant when he was killed. Athena’s father was making sure Junior’s wife knew if she needed anything to contact them it didn’t matter if she had gone back to America. The Howlies took care of their own.
Nicholas “Zeus” Fury was missing in action, during Operation Market Garden. James “Wolverine “Howlett was missing in action, during Operation Market Garden. Eric “Tiny” Koenig was missing in action, during Operation Market Garden. Fury, Howlett and Koenig had been sent to go meet up with some of the Dutch Resistance hours before the initial jump; their plane was shot down but their bodies were not found in the wreckage.
Isadore “Izzy” Cohen was killed in action, during a raid on a Hydra base in Belgium. He had a love of knives and usually had multiple on his person and could hit the bullseye nine times out of ten with his knives in quick succession of throwing.
Wadsworth “Islander” Wilson was injured in action losing an arm, during a raid on a Hydra base in Belgium. Had been from New Zealand and had taught them the Haka they now did for their fallen, missing and injured brothers. His Haka had been the last one they performed before losing Bucky and being sent home.
James “Bucky” Barnes was killed in action, during the operation to capture Zola in Belgium. With his death it was now up to Athena to keep Steve, Peggy and Howard alive as well as making sure Bucky’s younger sister Rebecca wanted for nothing. A notification letter had been waiting for Bucky’s return from the mission, his parents had been killed in a car accident but Rebecca had survived.
Athena’s father and Colonel Phillips were making the arrangements for young Rebecca who was only ten years old to come to stay in Glastonbury for now. Bucky’s parents Will left her guardianship to Bucky if she was still a minor and Bucky’s Will had left Steve and Athena with letters asking them to make sure his family was taken care of.
“To Bucky” Athena finally whispered after grabbing her drink. “And to all our brothers.”
“To Bucky and to all our brothers” the other eight remaining Howlies said and she knew there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.