Marvel One Shots

Memories

Chink. Chink.

The Winter Soldier cringed as the harsh sound of metal instruments digging into his mechanical arm reached his ears.

The technician didn't look up from his job, too concentrated to notice the Winter Soldier's slight growl. The wrench inserted into a slot in his arm made it look like he'd been impaled.

"Almost done, JB," the man said, pulling the instrument out with a loud clink. He then began reinserting the pins holding his arm together into their assigned slots.

To distract himself, the Winter Soldier tried to think about anything except the grinding sound of metal against metal. For the thousandth time, he wondered about his nickname, "JB."

For as long as he could remember, since the day he woke up in the lab, they had always called him JB.

Does it stand for something? he thought.

Soon his thoughts wandered to the strange man with polished blond hair, and a strange shield. His skin tight outfit seemed awfully uncomfortable, too.

Yet there was something about the man, something familiar.

Something that weakened him.

Impossible, he corrected. I'm never weak. I'm not allowed to be.

Still....

What had he called himself? Captain America? He supposed that would make sense, with the whole red, white, and blue getup.

Steve... his name is Steve.... What?

A flash of blue, wind tearing at his clothes, a three hundred foot drop below him.

He couldn't get that out of his head.

A mess, he thought. My mind is a mess.

He must have said something, because the technician looked up, surprised. "What was that?"

"Huh? Nothing...." He needed to concentrate on something else, anything else.

Just hold on.

The words echoed in his head like the beat of a drum, reverberating through his skull.

The voice. It was his voice, Steve's.

Again, that name....

Bucky, just hold on.

Bucky?

The man, Captain America. He'd called him Bucky.

"James Barnes."

The Winter Soldier whispered it so softly, his technician barely heard it. Instantly, all color drained from the man's face.

"I'm sorry?"

Bucky stared at him for a second before answering. "My name. Is James Barnes. Isn't it?"

Swallowing, the technician set down his wrench. Slowly reaching for the radio hooked to his belt, he pressed the talk button.

"All agents, Code 13. Repeat-"

He never finished before Bucky ripped the radio from his hand, hurling it forcefully at the opposite wall. Unclasping his metal arm from the restraints with his free one, he pushed the technician backwards, sprawling into the chair. His head smacked the metal headrest, rendering the man unconscious.

A red emergency light above the door started flashing as the alarms went off, ringing in Bucky's ears.

He had to find a way out. A way to to get to his best friend.