2 | ROGUE • BUCKY BARNES [COMPLETED]

X.

His thoughts were fuzzy. His entire body ached from the fight, but he felt no pain.

They put him back in the room that he knew all too well. Hallucinations constantly blurred in front of his vision.

First, he saw her. Her blue eye wide and clear, mouth parted slightly agape as they met upon that highway overpass. Her head was cocked to the side, exposing the slim slope and curvature of her neck. His heartrate skyrocketed when he heard her say, "Stop Buck. This isn't you; I know you."

Then he was back standing in front of the man he met on the street. He stood nearly as tall as him and well built. He remembered his face as if he had known him for decades, yet he couldn't place where nor how. The man's features were twisted in confusion, and he uttered, "Bucky?"

Why did they keep calling me that?

He then saw them both sitting across from him. A table booth enclosed them in a warm room. The man was much smaller than before. Her cheeks were red, and she seemed shy. He was mesmerized by the way she twirled a coffee cup in her hands. In fact, he felt warm himself. It was a forgotten sensation.

Technicians came in to fix his metal arm, and the buzzing of their tools broke him out of his hallucination. The previous fight had bent the metal and shorted out the circuits within it. Each prick and pod at the technician's hands sent an indescribable and uncomfortable sting to his brain which sent him spinning back into the forgotten memories.

His arm was now on fire; his entire body felt broken. Cold air whipped around his face.

Looking down, his left arm was missing, only a bleeding chunk of shoulder remained. The face of a different man dwindled in and out of his vision. He was balding and wore glasses, his voice made his skin crawl.

"Sergeant Barnes," he began. "The procedure has already started."

The sound of tools turned into the whirling noise of a saw, and it bit into his arm. The pain was searing. His vision came in and out. The next thing he knew, a metal arm replaced the missing one.

"You are to be the new fist of HYDRA."

An insurmountable strength then rose from his arm as he attempted to move it. His hand squeezed around the neck of one of the doctors, throwing him to the side. The vision then broke as the sound of a man hit the barred walls. He didn't realize it was he who threw the man until shouts broke out and firearms were pointed at him.

HYDRA agents surrounded him. The barred gates behind them parted as the man Bucky obeyed stepped in. Tension in the air was high.

"Mission report," Alexander Pierce demanded.

Bucky couldn't form the right words as the woman he saw before appeared right in front of him. No one else seemed to see her. She crouched by his knees. He could even smell her perfume. He felt the ghostly touch of her hand on his.

"Bucky, I know you don't remember me. Maybe not right now. But I need you too. I need you to remember me, Gideon. I need you to remember Steve too. He's your best friend-"

Her voice was cut off as Pierce's hand lashed across his face. "Mission report, NOW!"

The mission was a blurry jumble of images. Every picture flashed though his vision in a nonlinear fashion. All he could see clearly was Gideon and Steve.

"That man and woman on the bridge, I knew them," Bucky found himself uttering, his face completely blank. "Who were they?"

Alexander Pierce gritted his teeth, his expression turning grim. "You met him earlier this week on another assignment."

He couldn't accept that. "I knew them."

Pierce then crouched in front of him, inches away from where Gideon once was, "Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shape the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves."

"But I knew them," he couldn't let it go. He still saw her sitting next to him, her hand in his, and he heard the man's voice. The way he uttered the name Bucky repeated over and over in his ears.

Pierce then stood, his expression firm. Turning to the men, he said to one of the scientists, "Prep him."

"He's been out of cryofreeze too long," the man returned.

"Then wipe him and start over," Pierce demanded once more, and that was the final word.

Men followed suit, and they continued to strap him back in the chair. He opened his mouth for the mouth guard, and the woman became restless. She knew what was coming; they both did.

"Bucky, please remember me. Remember Steve. I need you to remember."

She pleaded, her voice cracking with each breathe.

The volts then rushed through him. An insurmountable amount of pain coursed through him, and his screams filled the chamber. He saw her, then he could no longer see anything.

"Remember that I love you."

This was my favorite chapter to write for this book and it broke my heart, I Love Bucky SO MUCH
[12/22/17]