Frostbite

Fourteen

Only a few moments had passed as my brain wrestled with everything that came to the surface. Bucky had somehow been the one to free me. But why didn't I remember that before now if it happened the same night? I may have received some of my memories back, but there were still questions to be answered.

There was an explosion that pulled me back to the present and I quickly scanned the scene before me. Bucky was gone and Steve was still staring where he had just been. Sam was now there in his wing suit, and Natasha wasn't far from us. She was leaning against a car, holding the grenade launcher that had been dropped earlier.

Sirens approached us in all directions and suddenly we were surrounded by Hydra agents. Lovely. Rumlow was leading them and ordered large groups to advance on us individually. Sam and Nat were already being cuffed.

"Drop the shield, Cap! On your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!" Rumlow yelled, zoning in on Steve as he put his hands in the air, "Get on your knees! Down!" He kicked Steve's leg, making him kneel on the ground.

My anger reared its ugly head, and I blasted the agents around me, sending them flying back. Only two of them recovered and came at me again. I waved my hand at a nearby fire hydrant and doused one of them, hurtling him into a building and unconscious. The other pointed his weapon at me.

"Stark, stand down!" Rumlow snapped, stepping away from Steve. I ignored him and concentrated on the hydrant again. All I could focus on was that I wanted to hurt all of them. Creating an orb of water, I flung it towards the agent, encasing him in it.

He dropped the weapon and tried prying at the water, which was useless. Every time he moved the orb moved with him. He was screaming, but the screams were silent, engulfed in the watery prison. I increased the pressure, and he dropped to his knees. He would drown soon if I didn't stop.

"Stark. Stop right now or I'm going to shoot him in the head," Rumlow threatened, pulling his pistol on Steve. I looked around at my friends and some of the anger diminished. I was gambling with their lives. My eyes locked with Steve's, and it was like a flood released. I let my power fade away, freeing the agent from my wrath. The water splashed everywhere, and he fell to the ground gasping for air.

Natasha and Sam were escorted away wordlessly. Two agents shoved me to my knees while Rumlow put the high-tech cuffs on my wrists. Steve was being cuffed as well; he was still out of it, only one thing on his mind. Who could blame him?

"Why these? Scared?" I hissed at him as he yanked me to my feet. He snorted and pushed me forward.

"Get moving Melly or else," he sighed, keeping a hand on my arm as we walked. I wanted to reach up and break his fingers.

We were all put into the back of a van with two Hydra agents. It immediately peeled off and began weaving into the city. No one had said where they were taking us, but I assumed we weren't meant to leave alive. Everyone was silent for what seemed like ages, but finally I opened my mouth. I had to tell them.

"So- uh... My memories came back," I announced, hoping the agents wouldn't whack me for talking. All three of them looked at me in shock.

"You're serious?" Steve asked, leaning closer to me. I nodded solemnly.

"You hit your head that hard?" Sam teased across from me. I rolled my eyes.

"I knew him. Bucky, I mean. He trained me... I went on missions with him," I gulped, remembering the man I killed, "I was in Cryostasis a majority of the time, but when I wasn't..." I didn't want to think about what they had done to us.

"You knew him, and you worked together?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Yes. He was the one who helped me escape. I don't know how, so obviously I didn't get all of them back," I explained, but they all looked at me like I was nuts, "Steve. He remembered you. He remembered you, but they wiped him again. He's still in there."

"But he looked right at me like he didn't even know me... He was alive all this time," Steve said in melancholy. I touched his arm, trying to comfort him.

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha told him softly. The wound in her shoulder was still bleeding profusely and she seemed faint.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

"We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck," Sam told the guards after glancing at Natasha again. Suddenly one of the guards pulled out an electric rod and took out the other. They removed the helmet; it was Maria Hill.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," she complained and glanced at Sam, both of them confused, "Who's this guy?"

"Better question, who are you?" Sam retorted with a scoff. Hill grinned at him and began releasing us all.

"I'm the one who's gonna save your ass."