CRUEL INTENTIONS, bucky barnes

twenty-one

May 13, 2016

Abandoned Warehouse

Berlin, Germany

Bucky shifted slowly, only to find that his entire body resisted the action. His head hurt the most, a dull throbbing in his forehead.

Something happened.

The fatigue that he felt all the way down to his bones was all too familiar. It slowly came back to him. Steve had been waiting for him at his apartment in Bucharest. The chase through the city, the man in the panther suit, the police. The containment chamber they'd strapped him into for the drive to Germany.

Jesus.

The last thing he remembered was the psychiatrist, that god damn notebook, the power going out. Everything else was in pieces. He knew there was a fight with Steve. Tony was there. Water. He was still damp. It was then that Bucky started to come around. He opened his eyes and tried to move again, only to find that his left arm was trapped in a tightly closed vise.

God, what did I do?

"Hey, Cap!"

Bucky groaned and looked up. His vision was blurry, but it slowly came back to him. Steve appeared beside Sam, a deep furrow in his brow.

This is bad. Worse than I thought.

"Steve..."

"Which Bucky am I talking to?"

Bucky stared blankly ahead for a moment, still trying to pull himself back together. Steve didn't trust him. He had every reason not to, given whatever had happened.

"Your mom's name was Sarah." He couldn't help but chuckle as a whole slew of fragmented memories came back to him. Good ones. Warm ones. "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

Steve's face softened. "Can't read that in a museum."

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam scoffed and folded his arms. Bucky didn't blame either of them for being skeptical.

"What did I do?"

"Enough," Steve said.

"Oh, God, I knew this would happen," Bucky said shakily. "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know."

"People are dead. The bombing, the setup, the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you," Steve said as he started to pace. "I need you to do better than 'I don't know.'"

Steve was clearly losing his grip, but he remained patient and calm. Bucky was grateful for that, at least. He took a moment to try to remember. There was the notebook, the trigger words, but what had come before that? What had the conversation been? It hit him all at once.

"He wanted to know about Siberia," Bucky said, meeting Steve's eyes. "Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he need to know that?"

Bucky shook his head. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. He knew this would happen. It was the only natural course of events if HYDRA and its splinter groups couldn't be taken down before it was too late. It was only a matter of time before the wrong person got the right information, and Bucky knew that now was that time. As much as he hated to even consider it, he was sure he knew who the person was behind all this was, too.

"Buck," Steve said. "Why?"

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier."

Bucky told them as much as he remembered about the facility where it all went down. There had to be at least six more Soldiers, from what he knew. His memories of that time were vivid but broken. He remembered trying to fight off each and every one of the newly Enhanced individuals, that it had all went South far too quickly to be managed.