Art of War

IX

As the four were being escorted in a van, Steve said, "It was him. He looked right at me and Mick like he didn't even know us."

"How's that even possible?" Sam wondered. "It was like 70 years ago."

"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha told him.

"Even when we had nothing, we had Bucky," Michaela murmured before her head fell onto Steve's lap. Steve glanced down at his friend and quickly checked her breaths, letting out a small sigh when he found she was still breathing.

Sam noticed Natasha was bleeding from her shoulder and that Michaela was bleeding from her wound and looked at the guards and said, "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on those wounds they're gonna bleed out here in the truck." Suddenly, one of the guards pulled out an electric rod and neutralized the other guard and knocked him out. The guard was revealed to be Hill as she took off her helmet.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," Hill said. Sam looked at her in confusion; to Steve. "Who's this guy?" Rumlow's crew stopped their vehicles and got out.

"Four holes. Start digging," Rumlow ordered. They went over to the van holding Steve, Sam, Michaela and Natasha and as they opened the door, they found it empty with one of the guards left unconscious and massive burnt hole on the car floor.

---

Hill had taken the four to a secret facility. A man ran towards them.

Hill, referring to Natasha and Michaela's wounds, said, "Two GSWs. They've both lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam added.

"Let me take them," the doctor said.

"They'll want to see him first," Hill replied, taking them to Fury who was alive and lying in bed. The four looked at him in shock.

"About damn time," Fury said.

Later, as Natasha and Michaela's wounds were being treated, Fury continued. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor added.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha said.

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asked. "Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Hill replied.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury reasoned. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

---

Inside a bank vault, the HYDRA agents fixed Bucky's metal arm and as they did so, he had a brief flashback to his old life as he was recovered by Zola and the HYDRA agents.

"Sergeant Barnes..." Dr. Zola called and Bucky had a flashback to falling off the train at the edge of the mountain with Steve trying to save him.

"Bucky, no!" Steve cried. Bucky had a brief glimpse of a smiling Michaela, then flashed to after he was picked up by HYDRA agents.

"The procedure has already started," Dr. Zola said as he and the HYDRA agent amputated his left arm and replaced it with the metal arm. "You are to be the new face of HYDRA." He said to his men, "Put him on ice." Bucky was being frozen after which he came back to the present and knocked over the HYDRA agent fixing his arm. Rollins pointed his gun at him to stop him from attacking any further. Pierce entered the bank vault Bucky was being held in.