Ghost || The Winter Soldier [1]

Reminiscing

"The man and the woman on the bridge.....Who were they ?" The asset asks. He knew the woman looked familiar but he couldn't recall where he had seen her before other than earlier this week. Maybe in a previous mission, but either way how could he remember her if his memory was wiped after every mission ?

For a moment Pierce is caught off guard with the question but immediately shakes it off. "You met them on another assignment earlier this week." Pierce sighs hoping that being around Raven any longer won't trigger any memories for the asset or else HYDRA will be running on some big problems if they lose him to her.

Pierce drags a stool and takes a seat in front of the asset. "Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped this 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." After fighting with The Raven, seeing how she didn't feel restricted when fighting him, deep down The Winter Soldier realized Pierce's words were just plain bullshit.

"But I knew them." The asset mutters, not making eye contact with anyone.

"I knew her." He whispers as he looks down.

At first he was confused as to why he couldn't bring himself to kill her. He knew he kept the fight going so that he could make a decision on whether to kill her or to bring her in alive like he was given the option to do.

If he brought her alive then HYDRA will most likely experiment on her and most likely torture her worse than they did to him and the other assets. And if he brought her in dead, he'd be doing her a favour.

All this confusion cleared for a moment when he heard her call him "Bucky". As soon as he heard the name he felt like he had found something he had lost long ago but couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was. And the look on her face was mixed with emotions : shock, happines, sadness, and most of all, she looked heartbroken when he said he didn't know who they were talking about.

She was talking about him.

Pierce sees the hesitation in the assest's eyes. "Prep him."

One of the scientists speaks up. "He's been out of cryo-freeze too long." Pierce sighs in frustration. "Then wipe him and start over."

The scientists strap him in his chair and then place a teeth shield in his mouth as they prepare the process of wiping his brain.

He starts shaking and breathing heavily in anticipation of the pain. But mostly with the fear of being unable to hold on to that brief small memory of the woman calling him Bucky.

She still remembers him.

And he couldn't remember her.

********

Once we get in the van the break-proof cuffs are placed on our hands and feet.

Steve is the first one to break the tense silence. "It was him." He mutters.
"He looked right at us and he didn't even know us" I sigh and my voice waivers.

Sam looks at us confused. "How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago."

I lift my head up and look at Steve."Zola."

Sam looks at us for further explanation. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43."
I continue for Steve. "Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did, it helped Bucky survive the fall."

For a while I hoped that he'd had an instant death, but as it turns out, he survived which means he must've suffered all of the pain from it.

"They must have found him." Steve says and I can hear the slight pain in his voice.

"None of that's your fault, guys." Nat tries to console us.

"I could've saved him." Both Steve and I say at the same time.

I still had nightmares of that night. I remember arriving to their train car just as Bucky fell and I only had time to catch Steve before he also fell to his death.

I let out a shaky breath. "Even when we had nothing, we had Bucky." For a moment Steve moves to hug me but then remembers he has the cuffs on.

Sam notices Natasha is bleeding from her shoulder and looks at the guards next to us. "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." Suddenly one of the guards pulls out an electric rod and neutralizes the other guard and knocks him out, the guard takes off their helmet revealing Agent Hill.

She grunts as she fixes her hair. "That thing was squeezing my brain." Sam looks at her in confusion. Hill turns to me. "Who's this guy?"

"It's about damn time you showed up." I sigh at the relief she actually made it in time and I hold up my cuffed hands so she can release me.

Nat looks at us shocked when Hill starts to release all of us. "Okay,What?"

"Uh..I called her back when we were waiting for Sitwell." I tell her and she looks at me shocked. "Why didn't you tell us ?"

"I didn't need to boost your cockiness since you already know you're most likely to win a fight." She rolls her eyes at me.

Hill pulls out a lazer and tosses it to me. "Get to work girl." She says as she goes to unlock Sam and I start carving a whole with the lazer.

I'm done in less than a minute. I wipe my hands to get rid of the metal residue. "Okay. Who's going first ?" I ask and they all stare at me. Seriously, I'm emotionally unstable right now and they still expect me to jump first.

I stare at the down at the fast passing road underneath us. "Unbelievable. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves." They all just raise their eyebrows at me.

I crouch down ready to jump and I smirk at them before jumping off.

"See you on the other side."