CHAPTER EIGHT:
FLOODED BY MEMORIES
IT WAS GETTING dark outside, the sky a dark blue as rain was slowly falling down from the dark sky. The honks from the horns of vehicles could be heard as cars drove by a certain building on the corner of the street, some vehicles being parked on the side of the road as civilians were walking into a store to by something before they'd head back home for the long day they most likely had.
Puddles had been created on the concrete ground from the rain that had once been falling, now only slowly spitting down from the dark sky. Inside the building on the corner of the street in the very basement of the building where no windows were, doctors could be seen sitting by a chair where the certain HYDRA assassin sat in.
James Buchanan Barnes, or having once gone by Bucky Barnes, held a blank and emotionless expression as he stared straight ahead at the wall in the room he was in full of HYDRA agents and doctors who were currently fixing his metal arm after Captain America had used his vibranium shield to break it a bit.
His mind was all over the place after the encounter on the bridge, memories playing through his brain, something that he never recalls happening before as he remembers the face of Arnim Zola once staring down at him after he had fallen from the train around seventy years ago.
The panicked faces of Steve Rogers, his childhood best friend, and Y/n Barnes, his little sister, trying to get him back on the train before his grip has loosened and he had supposedly fallen to his death before he had been dragged through the snow, blood staining the white snow on the ground when his arm had been released from his body.
The assassin found himself twitching in his seat, something that the doctors took notice of as they stopped their work slightly. He remembers the surgery he had gone through when his metal arm had been attached to his body, the time he had woken up and had attacked the doctor who had checked on him. And then lastly, having been put on ice for a long, long time after he had just woken up.
Next thing all the doctors knew in the room, one of them was being sent back across the room after Bucky had used his metal arm to punch him away, causing the agents to aim their guns at him as he stood there with a clenched jaw, more memories echoing throughout his brain, especially ones of his little sister.
It was grey outside in Brooklyn, New York in 1942 early in the morning as civilians all walked around with slight blank expressions. Adults were holding umbrellas in their hands as they tried to hide from the rain pouring down from the grey sky while children were running around in the rain, smiles on their faces as they jumped in puddles, not giving a care if adults were yelling at them about being careful of getting them wet, only running off and continuing to play with their friends for the day.
The occasional honks of the very old vehicles around the streets could be heard, men trying to get to their jobs for the day or taking their wives somewhere on a rainy day. Meanwhile, in the Barnes household, Bucky and Y/n Barnes found themselves standing by the front door of their shared home, a home that Bucky had once been living in by himself until his sister moved in when she graduated school. Y/n stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her older brother.
"I'll miss you." Y/n whispers against his chest.
Bucky frowns, placing a kiss on top of his sister's head. "I'm gonna miss you, too. But don't worry, I'll be back before you know it. I promise."
For another minute or so, the Barnes siblings continued holding one another before they were hesitantly releasing their arms from one another. Bucky leaned down, grabbing ahold of his bag before he wrapped his free arm around his little sister once more. Y/n turned the knob on the door when they pulled away again, the brother of the two stepping outside into the rain to go and get shipped out to England.
Y/n leaned against the doorway, watching as her brother caught the bus he'd need to go on but not before taking a glance back at his little sister, the sibling that he was always close with, with a sad smile before he entered the bus. Sniffling, Y/n reached up and wiped the tears that fell as she stepped back into her house, closing the door behind her.
The men all stood around nervously in the room where the Winter Soldier was as they waited for their boss to come in and see the man. Two men stood outside the gate, nervous expressions on their faces, one of them warning their boss about how the assassin was unstable.
However, Alexander Pierce didn't bother listening to him as he entered the room when one of the HYDRA agents opened up the gate, letting their boss and Rumlow, who had been trailing behind the man, into the room where Bucky continued sitting in the chair, the agents guns still aimed at him. When Pierce rose his arms up, they all lowered their guns as the man stopped a bit in front of the assassin.
"Mission report." Pierce demands.
However, the Winter Soldier didn't respond, only continuing to stare straight ahead as more memories coursed through his once blank brain, things that he had never thought of before until this day.
He didn't bother noticing Pierce crouching down in front of him as he demanded about the mission report again, only one particular memory coursing through his mind of the day he had found out his little sister had been one of the men in his unit when they had been saved by their childhood best friend.
Steve Rogers wore a pair of brown pants with a matching brown leather jacket over top of his Captain America suit as he searched for his childhood best friend after finding out that half of his unit had been captured by Johann Schmidt, including his best friend. Much to his luck, he had been able to find his best friend, who was strapped to a table, just like someone else across from him but his mind wasn't on that person.
He would save his best friend, then that person. He was determined to get everyone out of this place before they were all killed. Bucky looked relieved to see his best friend standing above him, a smile etching onto his face before he had noticed how much bigger he had gotten than the last time he had seen him.
After helping the brunette up, the blonde looked to the person across from him, reassuring the man that he was saved as the super soldier started unstrapping the soldier from the table. As he did that, Bucky stared down at a soldier that had been in his unit but he hadn't spoken to much, finding 'his' features similar, even with the short hair.
"Y/n?" Bucky mumbles in question.
At the sound of his voice murmuring her name, Steve looks at him with furrowed brows before he looked down at the soldier. Y/n Barnes' tired e/c gaze moved up towards them, sweat laying all over her face as she noticed her older brother and the man who had always been like a brother to her standing above her.
Mumbling their names, the men's eyes widened as they realized that it was, in fact, her. Once getting her unstrapped from the table, Steve helped her up to her feet before Bucky placed his hands on her arms, his tired eyes wide as he stared at his little sister, seeing she was dressed and looked like a man, her once long h/c hair now short in a pixie cut like his.
"What are you doing here?" Bucky pants out in a hurry. "Why are you here? What did you do to your hair?"
Y/n gulps, blinking a few times. "I... joined the army."
The sound of a slap echoing throughout the quiet and dark room had the doctors and some of the HYDRA agents wincing as the Winter Soldier's head had been slammed to the side from the slap that had came from Pierce.
This seemed to snap Bucky out of his many memories that had been playing through his mind as he blinked a few times before looking up at the older man in front of him, his brows furrowed in deep thought.
"The man and woman on the bridge." Bucky recalls, their faces playing through his mind. "Who were they?"
"You met him earlier this week on another assignment. And the woman, years ago, she was your partner before we took her somewhere else." Pierce informs, grabbing himself a seat to sit down.
"I knew them." Bucky murmurs.
Pierce sighs. "Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century. And I need you to do it one more time. Society's at a tipping point between order and chaos. And 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."
"But I knew them." Bucky repeats, lip quivering.
"Prep him." Pierce demands after a moment, rising to his feet.
"He's been out of cryo freeze too long." A man protests.
"Then wipe him and start over." Pierce orders.
A few looks of surprise could be seen on some of the agents faces at the look of sadness on the assassin's face, something they've never seen before on him. Bucky didn't bother fighting as they pushed him back into the chair until his back was resting against it and they were putting a mouth piece in his mouth.
The chair turned on and the Winter Soldier was being strapped onto the chair as the machine going around his head. His screams were soon echoing throughout the room as Pierce walked off with some agents following behind him.
***
The building was quiet as a group of adults could be seen inside. Time and time had passed since the group had been revealed that Nick Fury was actually alive and not dead and the man, who had faked his own death with the help of the doctor who had done the surgery on him and everything, had gotten out of his bed and was now sitting at a table with a sling around his arm with Maria sitting beside him.
The other four stood around or sat across from him at the table as Fury grabbed ahold of a picture of a man who he had known for a long time, a man who turned out to be part of HYDRA, Alexander Pierce, someone who Nick Fury had trusted, despite the slight arguments they'd get into at times. Natasha had been able to get her shoulder checked on and tended to by the same doctor who had been healing Fury while he was hiding out in the building they were currently in.
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." Fury recalls, placing the picture down. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
"We have to stop the launch." Natasha declares.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury jokes as he opens up a briefcase.
"What's that?" Sam questions.
"Once the helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized." Maria informs, turning her computer screen to show them.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury adds.
"One or two won't cut it." Maria continues. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."
"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA." Fury states. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left--"
"We're not salvaging anything." Steve interrupts with frustration in his tone. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."
Fury shakes his head. "S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this."
"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised. You said so yourself." Steve reminds. "HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed." Fury argues.
Steve raises a brow. "How many paid the price before you did?"
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury admits, glancing between him and Y/n.
"Even if you had, would you have told me? Would you have told her?" Steve asks, pointing at his sister-figure. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, it all goes."
"He's right." Maria agrees.
At her agreement with the blonde, Fury looks to her with his usual blank expression but there was question in his eyes as he looked to Y/n, who only crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat.
When he looked to Natasha, the redhead didn't say a thing, doing the same as Y/n and leaning back in her seat. Sam only found himself shrugging when the man looked up at him as he had been standing behind the chair Y/n was in.
"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower." Sam tells him with a shrug.
"Well..." Fury begins with a sigh, leaning back in his seat. "...looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."