Take Me back to the Start | B. Barnes

50. Lost Soldier

"Who the hell is Bucky?"

It's his voice, his eyes, his face, but not him. Why doesn't he remember? Who is the person in front of me? His question echoes through my mind on repeat as I keep staring at him with widened eyes, not believing what's happening and still processing his appearance. It's like I'm stuck in trance and I don't notice the rest of the world anymore.

Bucky suddenly pulls out a gun, aiming it at me but Steve protectively pulls me down as Sam appears in his Falcon suit out of nowhere to kick Bucky away. I cry in pain when Steve and I land on the ground, my aching arm snaps me out of my daze, so does the explosion of the missile that Bucky has shot. The black smoke vanishes quickly and the lost soldier is gone.

"Bucky?" I find my voice again, calling him and a desperate urge spreads through my chest while I look around, searching for him. He's gone, like a ghost. Sirens from the distance come closer and become louder, in the next moment we are surrounded by Hydra agents and their black vans. My mind is completely scattered and I'm too taken aback to react to Rumlow's yells behind me.

"Get on your knees and don't you even dare to use your powers. Get down. Now!" His voice raises impatiently when I'm still standing. "Get the hell down, Voltricity!"

I feel a rough kick against my back, making me fall motionless to the ground. Heavy handcuffs tie me up and a needle is bored into each of my wrists, injecting me with a liquid that has a numbing effect. Rumlow grabs my shoulder to pull me up and shoves me roughly into a van with Sam and Steve who wear handcuffs as well.

"Are you guys alright?" Sam asks us concerned and helps me up while two other agents with uniforms and helmets enter the van. Then the car starts driving off, probably to a highly guarded prison. I just stare quietly at the metallic ground and Bucky's death replays in my head, then the fight against the Winter Soldier. He has a metal arm now and belongs to Hydra. What have they done to him?

"Always." I answer and swallow, pressing my lips together. The injection has numbed my hands, disabling my electricity but I still feel the pain in my partially fractured arm. I glance at Steve who looks like the lost boy from Brooklyn again, his face is pale and it's like he's frozen.

"It was him." He confirms with a surprisingly sober voice. "But he didn't even recognize us while looking right at us."

"How's that even possible?" Sam questions curiously and confused. "It was like seventy years ago."

I think about it and the realization grows on me when I remember the flash drive in my boots. "Zola. Bucky's unit was captured in 1943, Zola experimented on them. Whatever he did, it probably helped Bucky to survive the fall. Hydra must have found him, brainwashed him and... and turned him into the Winter Soldier."

"Eve, none of this is your fault, okay?" Steve attempts to convince me, hearing the guilt lacing my voice, but all I think of now is how they changed Bucky and about the child I had lost. Bucky doesn't know about it. I refuse to believe what my best friend says, it would be wrong to believe him because it is my fault. I just rest my head tiredly on his shoulder, feeling dizzy and broken.

"We need to get a doctor here." Sam immediately demands, shooting the two guards an urgent glance after eyeing my wounds properly. "If we don't, her state is gonna deteriorate."

"Oh, we will." A familiar voice answers beneath the helmet and the guard takes it off. To my surprise, it's Clint with a sympathetic smile and messed up hair from the helmet. I'm not gonna question how he ended up here. His cocky voice becomes soft and kind as he looks at me. "You alright, kiddo? Do you think you can bear the pain till we arrive?"