ᴘᴏᴋᴇʀ ғᴀᴄᴇ || ʙ. ʙᴀʀɴᴇs

𝐈

Finishing off the last man, the assassin speaks in a tired, gruff voice, "Hail HYDRA."

Off in the distance, there is a faint rattling of a man trying to unlock a door quickly, the assassin turns his head to see a witness to his crimes, as the assassin looks, the man mumbles, "Shit."

His breath trembles at the sight of the metal-armed man and whispers, "Please. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything," the man repeats over and over, holding his hands in a praying motion, begging for mercy.

The soldier doesn't care, he got his orders and he knows that he can't mess them up by leaving a single eye witness. He holds up a gun right to the middle of the man's head and pulls the trigger, and the noise of the gun sounds through the room, Bucky Barnes wakes up from the unpeaceful sleep he was having.

He looks at the time and knows what he has to do. He gets ready and walks to his therapist's office.

"So, Mr. Barnes, are you still having nightmares?" Dr. Raynor asks him, but he just stares at her, "James, I asked you a question. Are you still having nightmares?"

He pauses for a minute and continues to stare, "No."

"We've been doing this long enough that I can tell when you're lying. Well, you seem a little off today. Did something happen recently?"

"No."

"You're a civilian now. With your history, the government needs to know that you're not gonna...It's a condition of your pardon. So, tell me about your most recent nightmare."

"I didn't have a nightmare."

Dr. Raynor breathes deeply and pulls out her therapy journal.

Bucky rolls his eyes and scoffs, "Oh, come on. Really? You're gonna do the notebook thing? Why? It's passive-aggressive."

"You don't talk. I write."

He sighs, "Okay. Okay. I crossed a name off the list of my amends yesterday. Don't worry. I used all your three rules. Senator Atwood. She was a HYDRA pawn for years. Helped her get into office when I was the Winter Soldier. And after HYDRA disbanded, she continued to abuse the power I gave her."

Bucky thinks back to his previous actions of his amend-making, "Make this go away. If Congressman Lockhart wants to speak up, silence him for good," Senator Atwood speaks into her phone in an empty parking lot.

"So, rule number one, you can't do anything illegal," Dr. Raynor confirms.

"All I did was give some intel to the aide to convict her. And I wasn't involved in anything else."

"Rule number two?"

"What was rule number two?"

"Nobody gets hurt. It's a big one."

"Then why isn't it rule number one?" Dr. Raynor clicks her pen and scribbles something down in her notebook, Bucky throws his arms up and sighs, "I didn't hurt anybody. Come on!"

"And what about rule number three? The whole point of making amends is to fulfill rule number three."

"You know, you're a cynic, Doc. Of course, I completed rule number three."

Thinking of the memory again, Bucky's mind travels to the car he hacked to malfunction, and his amend-making statement. "I am no longer the Winter Soldier. I am James Bucky Barnes...And you're part of my efforts to make amends," he said as politely as possible, presenting a wide semi-uncomfortable smile.

"So, you did it all right, but it didn't help with the nightmares."

"Well, as I said, I didn't have any."