Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Fourteen

When I regain consciousness, I'm back in the other room, the room we call our cell. The soldiers must've wheeled my gurney back here while I was unconscious. Bucky is pacing the floor, his brows pinched together, and his eyes snap to me as he senses my movement.

"Y/n," he breathes, rushing to my side. "Are you alright? What did they do to you?"

"I'm okay... I think," I reply as I sit up, my head still swimming and my body sore from the experiment. "The doctor... Zola? He... he injected me with something."

Bucky takes a shallow breath. "Y/n, I'm so sorry. They were supposed to take me."

I place my hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but to also comfort myself. His warmth gives me a sense of safety. My head is pounding, and I feel weak, and Bucky steps forward to help me off the gurney. He leads us over to the corner, as far from the gurney as we can get, and sits us down on the floor, throwing an arm around my shoulders in protection. He explains to me that since he was brough to the isolation ward, Zola also injected him multiple times with a blue liquid.

"I don't know what they're trying to do," Bucky says as we huddle together for warmth. "But whatever it is, it can't be good."

A day or so later, the soldiers return, but as they reach for me from my place on the floor, Bucky steps between us and punches the soldier in the jaw.

"Don't fucking touch her," Bucky growls.

In retaliation, the soldier takes out his baton and whips Bucky across the face, knocking him down once again. The soldier hits him a few more times, keeping him pinned down while the other soldier punches me in the jaw and kicks me in the stomach. Realizing that they will continue to beat me if he struggles, Bucky ceases his fight. My gaze shifts to him as the soldier lifts me off the ground, and his expression is heartbreaking, I know he blames himself for this.

The soldiers take me back to the other room and strap me to the gurney, and Zola steps forward to inject me with another blue liquid. This one is more painful than the last, but I don't pass out, and the searing liquid rips through my body as I let out a piercing scream, feeling the tears pooling out the corners of my eyes. After what feels like forever, the pain stops and I'm wheeled back to my room, where Bucky holds me close to his chest, afraid of what might happen if he does anything else.

We don't receive any food that night.

It becomes difficult to keep track of the days as time goes on. We're left on our own in the small room, occasionally taken out one at a time to be administered another injection. Some days, only one of us goes, and some days, we both do. Each time, the vial of blue liquid enters our veins, causing pain and suffering as it passes through our bodies. I pray Bucky isn't the first to break, I don't know how long I would survive without him.

After the beating I received when Bucky fought back, neither of us have tried again, too afraid of the consequences if we struggle or put up a fight. As a reward for our cooperation, we are brought food twice a day. The portions are tiny, giving us just enough nutrients to survive, and we rapidly lose weight as our bodies adjust to the limited food. Bucky always tries to share his meal with me, but I never accept, he needs it more than I do.

"Stand against the wall!" a soldier shouts from outside the door.

Used to the routine, we do as we're told, and four soldiers enter, two to take Bucky away, and two to hold me back. The extra soldiers aren't needed, neither of us have the strength to fight anymore. I pace the floor as I anxiously wait for Bucky to return, but about an hour later, two soldiers arrive to escort me to the medical room.

When we enter, Zola is preparing for his next experiment and Bucky is strapped to a gurney off to the side. His body is still, too still, and his eyes are closed. I run to his side.

"Bucky," I state, my voice trembling as I shake him. "Bucky, wake up!"

He doesn't move. I place my fingers on his neck, searching for a pulse like I've done so many times before. I don't find one.

"No," I breathe, shaking him harder. "Please, God, no. Bucky, wake up!"

Before I can do anything else, the soldiers seize me and drag me over to the other gurney.

"Bucky!" I shout, struggling against them as they strap me down. "Please! Wake up!"

The soldiers raise my gurney vertically as Zola uses a claw-like device to lift a glowing blue cube from the worktable and place it into the machine beside him.

"The Tesseract is such an interesting artifact," Zola explains to me. "If transference is done correctly, it can produce a power source that can be used to create weapons strong enough to wipe out our enemies. But... I wonder what it can do to the human body. Your friend was unfortunately too weak for this experiment, so the honour now falls to you."

The fear and grief I feel quickly turns to fury as I learn the truth, and I thrash from my gurney, trying to free myself from the restraints.

"You killed him!" I scream at Zola. "You used him like a lap rat, and you fucking killed him!"

Knowing that I can't do anything but squirm, Zola chuckles to himself as he begins calibrating the machine. With the flick of a switch, waves of blue light dance around the room and a beam of energy shoots from the cube, colliding with my chest. I expect to feel pain, more pain than I have ever experienced during my capture, but instead, anger and adrenaline run through my veins, protecting my weak and exhausted body like a cocoon. The blue light from the Tesseract is warm and it tingles as it enters my blood and binds with my muscles and tissues.

After a few minutes, Zola turns the machine off, and the beam disappears. I slump forward and a trickle of blood falls from my nose. The soldiers lower my gurney and wheel me next to Bucky. They leave me there, still strapped down, as they exit the room.

Once I know I'm alone, I let my emotions run free. Tears fall from my eyes as I mourn for my lost friend.

"Bucky..." I sob.

"...Y/n?" he mumbles, still groggy from whatever they gave him.

I gasp for air and let out a laugh of relief. "Oh, God. Thank you... Thank you."

"Y/n?" Bucky asks again.

"I'm here, Buck. I'm right here."

I manage to free a hand from my restraints and reach across to him, taking his hand in my own as I let sleep consume me.