the dark sapphire -Bucky Barnes-

94

"Soldier, come to me" Karpov laughed dirty as Ally lowered her weapon and stood beside him. Bucky looked over at Sharon and Sam, who wore the same frightened and perplexed look on their faces as he did. What were they going to do now? He saw Sam take a deep breath and raise his gun at Karpov. "Put the fucking gun down. You could hit Ally" Bucky yelled at him. Karpov turned to face them, Ally did the same. Her eyes grazed Bucky's, who felt a clear chill run down his spine as he stared into Ally's eyes, which looked lifeless, uncaring.

"Listen to your friend, Cap. You'll only hurt her" Karpov grabbed Ally by the arm and pulled her in front of him like a shield. "Cowardly bastard" Bucky growled, which only made Karpov grin. "Soldier, take their weapons from them. If they resist, you know what to do" Ally nodded as she walked up to Sharon with her gun knitted and took all her weapons. Next she went to Sam, even taking the shield from him. Neither of them resisted. They knew it was useless. Last she came to Bucky. She didn't look him in the eye as she took away his guns and knives. "Doll, please, this is not you! You're in control, come back!" he whispered desperately and put his hand on Ally's, who was trying to pull his last knife out of the holster. Slowly she raised her head, looked him straight in the eye without showing emotion, and lashed out with her free hand.

Bucky, who was so surprised by the blow to his face that his head swung to the side with it, loosened his grip around Ally's hand, which immediately pulled out the knife. Bucky groaned painfully as she sliced his palm with the blade in the process. Ally didn't flinch as she held the knife to his neck and leaned in toward him. "It's not too late to join the right side, soldier. Hail Hydra" she murmured his ear before taking the knife and making her way back with her haul of weapons to Karpov, who was still standing in front of the chair in the middle of the room with his dirty grin.

"Well done, soldier" Bucky had to restrain himself from going off on Karpov as he took Ally's face in his hands and tenderly stroked her cheek. He felt sick to watch, he wanted to throw up while he felt like the air around him was running out and he was going to lose consciousness any minute. He clenched his hands into fists and felt the warm blood running down his hand and dripping onto the floor, but he had bigger problems right now than taking care of his bleeding wound.

Karpov visibly enjoyed the superiority he now had over the three of them and took a few steps toward Bucky. "I swore to you. I'm going to make Ally a part of my side again and I'm going to put her in the machine until she forgets about your ridiculous face and the things you've been through. Believe me, I will make her suffer until she believes you are the bad guy" Bucky growled aggressively, but he knew he would be signing his own death warrant as well as Sharon's and Sam's if he went after Karpov now. Even though they were outnumbered, without a weapon they stood no chance against Ally, who stood behind Karpov, gun drawn, waiting for her next command.

Karpov, who seemed even more pleased that Bucky wasn't doing anything, continued on his way, grinning as he walked along in front of Sharon and Sam before going back to Ally. "Soldier, get us out of here" he ordered Ally, who nodded. "What about your people? Are you just going to leave them here?" Bucky was glad Sharon broke the silence while Ally opened a portal behind Karpov. "I have Ally, I don't need them anymore" Karpov laughed. Sharon rolled her eyes. "Have fun on the run. Take my word for it, we will do everything we can to get your people to talk, tell us where you, coward, are hiding and then we will come for you. We will destroy you until Ally is back with us. You hear, Karpov, we will not give up" Sharon yelled at him while Karpov laughed and stood by Ally who was standing next to the opened blue portal, aiming at Sharon again. "As soon as you're through, close the portal. Don't give them a chance to follow us, you got that, soldier?" Ally nodded silently. Karpov seemed satisfied and stepped through the portal.

Ally took a step toward the portal and Bucky was about to scream her name, to try one last time to hold her off, to get her out of her control, when he closed his mouth, speechless, and watched Ally not climb through the portal but close it behind Karpov. He heard Sharon exhale in relief beside him as Ally fell to her knees, her gun crashing to the floor beside her, and she buried her face in her hands. Suddenly, Bucky heard her sobbing loudly and saw her whole body shaking under the sobs. Although he didn't understand what had just happened here, he didn't hesitate for a second and ran to Ally, dropping down next to her and pulling her tightly into his arms.

He rocked her back and forth as she clutched at him tighter and tighter, sobbing harder and harder. Bucky didn't know what to say to calm her down. He still didn't understand what had just happened. It wasn't until two paramedics, apparently called by Sharon, which Bucky hadn't realized, knelt down next to the two of them that they let go. Bucky's wound was immediately dressed while Ally was given a complete check-up. As Bucky's bandage was put on, he saw her nodding her head bravely in the red eyes where tears still shimmered, while the paramedic checked things off on a list in front of her.

When he was finally released by the paramedic, Ally had already been taken out of the room, Sharon was standing there with the team captains giving them instructions, he couldn't see Sam. But all his thoughts were just about Ally and what the hell had just happened. With quick steps he rushed out of the building and just saw the paramedic helping Ally into the back seat of one of the cars. Without thinking too much, he sprinted over and opened the door. Ally looked at him, startled, but sighed with relief when she caught sight of him. "It's just you" she put her head against the window of the car while Bucky sat down next to her and closed the door. Startled, he realized she looked more broken than he had ever seen her. The color, the blush had gone from her face, she was almost white skinned, even her lips were pale. Her red, puffy eyes looked even worse because of it and he noticed that she was shaking all over.

Quickly, he took her hands in his. "Do you want to talk about what just happened inside?" he asked softly, squeezing her hands, which were ice cold despite the pleasant weather. Tears immediately came back to her eyes. "When I agreed to the plan, I didn't think it would be this hard" she sobbed. "The plan? What plan?" a sobbing sigh overcame Ally. "Sharon had taken me aside after a meeting. She had this idea, if it came to this situation, that...." she took a deep breath and Bucky released his bandaged hand to brush the tears from her cheek. "...That Karpov would try to control me. We knew it wasn't safe, the danger that he could really control me was there, but we were sure we would take the risk" she sobbed again. "Sharon's idea was that we let Karpov believe that he would really control me, I would do everything he said" "then it was all an act?" Bucky asked, surprised. Ally nodded. "But...I mean, how? I saw the coolness, the emotionlessness in your eyes, it was real"

"the experience I've had make it quite easy to pretend that nothing would bother me" Ally almost whispered "the hardest part of the plan was to execute everything Karpov would order me to do without hesitation" Ally stroked Bucky's bandage hand with sobs as she stared wordlessly at the blood covering parts of her suit. "I didn't mean to hit you, I didn't mean to hurt you" she pulled away from Bucky's hands and buried her face in hers as she sobbed out loud. "I'm so sorry" she mumbled into her hands. "Hey, Doll, look at me" Bucky grabbed Ally's hands with one hand while pushing her face up by the chin with the other so she was looking at him. "I'm fine. It's just a cut, nothing bad, ok? You don't have to apologize" Ally swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. Sighing, Bucky pulled her into his arms. "It's over, Ally. You got through it, you made it" he whispered to her as she started sobbing again.

Love youuuu ♥️