'I'll call Vielka.' Bucky didn't recognise the name, but it was obvious whoever it was made Steve nervous. He shook his head.
'Nah, it's fine,' he looked down at Bucky. 'You aren't going to try anything, right? We're trying to help you.' He looked imploringly at him.
Bucky sighed, even if he barely remembered everything he and Steve had been through, he remembered that look. He gave the slightest of nods.
Steve undid the restraints and they released him, sliding back into a neat little box instantly. The doctor set back to work instantly, pushing some buttons on the machine before ushering everyone else behind a small barrier in the room.
Bucky lay still as the machine hummed around him. It made him nervous and vaguely reminded him of his time with Hydra. It made him shudder. 'Lay still, please,' the doctor called from behind the barrier.
After a few minutes, they all filed back out from behind the barrier, Steve leading, as the table he lay on rolled itself back out. Steve offered him a hand and helped him to sit up.
'I'll analyse the results as soon as possible,' the doctor said, motioning to the door. Romanoff opened it, holding it as Steve motioned to Bucky to follow him.
'Where are we?' Bucky asked as they walked down the hallway.
'Can't tell you that right now, sorry,' Steve said, apologetically. Bucky looked behind him to wear Romanoff was following, she met his gaze and narrowed her eyes slightly. He turned back around to look ahead as Steve led him to what appeared to be a large open plan facility. He spotted some familiar faces there.
The first to greet him was Sam, offering his hand. Bucky took it, remembering well when they had fought side by side in Germany. He was soon followed by Wanda.
'This is all of you?' he asked, remembering there had been others that he had fought beside.
They looked sideways at each other. 'The others have families, so they're hiding elsewhere to be closer to them. There's not many of us, but we do what we can.'
'To do what?' Bucky asked, looking at Romanoff as she walked past him towards the kitchen that was towards the back of the room.
'Fight, help, whatever is needed of us.'
He nodded. He had seen the news. The Avengers were done, thanks to the egomaniac Tony. He recalled Tony trying to kill him at the bunker, he had been lucky to escape, and it was thanks to the woman that had just captured him, before the missile silo collapsed after Tony tried to shoot him as he made his escape.
Bucky looked around, noting how high tech the facility was. 'Someone is obviously supporting you.'
'That would be me,' came a heavily accented voice. He turned around to see T'Challa standing in the doorway, one hand in his pocket. He walked inside, standing barely a foot away from Bucky. He recalled their last meeting, it was not a pleasant one.
To his surprise, T'Challa offered Bucky a hand. Bucky raised his eyebrows, but accepted it. 'Upon our last meeting, i was mislead to believe you were the cause for my grief,' he began, his face showing no emotion. 'Upon following Tony, I discovered you were not, and I must apologise.'
Bucky looked at T'Challa in mild disbelief, while he knew he was not responsible for the bombing at the Sokovian Accords conference, he never thought anyone but Steve and Sam would believe him. He gave a nod, to the Wakandan King, who released his hand before turning to Steve.
'Might I talk with you a moment?'
Steve nodded and left, looking back at Bucky once before he did so.
'Make yourself at home, man,' Sam said, returning to the lounge.
Bucky stood there for a moment, unsure what exactly that would entail, but he carefully moved to the lounge and sat down as well, looking with interest to the tv. Sam was watching about five different tvs, each with a different news channel on. 'What are you looking for?' he asked with interest after about five minutes.
'Anything that we should be aware of, you know, serious things.'
'He means super human things,' Wanda piped up from the kitchen, she was moving around the kitchen quickly, red mist following her as she did so, carrying several items. 'Are you hungry?' she asked.
'Uh, yeah, I guess.'
'Good, dinner won't be long.'
'I hope you like foreign food,' Sam muttered under his breath. 'She doesn't cook anything else.'
'I heard that, Sam.' Sam chuckled as she hurled an empty plastic bottle at him, missing him by a good few centimetres. Bucky raised his eyebrows between the two of them, before looking back to the tv.
Vielka hmphed one more time as the doctor stitched up her arm.
'Seriously, you can make any other noise if you're in pain, you know?' he said, in amusement.
'Nah, it's all good.' she pulled her hoodie sleeve back down and stood up. 'Thanks doc.'
She turned to leave. 'Get back here, you need a tetanus shot.'
'Pfft, no, i don't,' she murmured, before dashing out the door, slamming into Steve.
He grabbed her about the shoulders as she righted herself. 'Go get your tetanus shot.'
'How the...'
'Doc told me,' he replied, with a knowing grin. She narrowed her eyes and hmphed again before turning around and walking back in. The doc gave her a quick jab and sent her on her way. She glared daggers at Steve before exiting the clinic room quickly. She was starving as she made her way to the kitchen.
She could smell the strong sent of European cooking as she approached the common area, knowing straight away Wanda had been cooking again. She wasn't complaining tonight though, any food was good for her, after traipsing through the forest for most of the day and night. Especially after dragging Sgt Barnes dead weight through the forest.
She was just contemplating their first meeting in the forest as she rounded the corner to enter the common area, when she crashed into a hard chest, almost falling backwards in surprise, except for the strong arms that caught hers and righted her. 'Sorry...' a familiar voice murmured as she looked up in surprise.
'What the hell are you doing out of restraints?' she asked, stepping back in surprise, automatically moving into a ready stance.
'He's no prisoner here, Vielka,' came Wanda's voice from the kitchen. Vielka looked from Wanda to Sgt Barnes. 'Well, no more than us, really.'
She scratched the side of her head, it was something she tended to do when she was nervous or frustrated. Sgt Barnes was looking at her with his eyebrows raised and hands slightly raised in front of him, hands facing out, the universal sign of surrender. She growled slightly to herself, but brushed past him and into the kitchen. She sat at the buffet bench, taking the bowl that Wanda handed her, but not taking her eyes off Sgt Barnes for too long.
'Relax,' Wanda whispered, leaning on the bench across from her. 'I have fought side by side with him, he is a good man.'
'You been inside his head, yet?' Vielka asked, still not taking her eyes off of him as he moved to sit on the lounge beside Sam.
'Well, no...' she answered honestly, nervously looking at Sgt Barnes herself. 'And to be honest, from what i've heard, I do not want to.'
Vielka wrinkled her nose a little in thought as she brought the hot food to her lips. She had heard the same thing. She turned away finally, trying to ignore the fact that she could feel his eyes on her.
Steve soon returned and saw Vielka at the buffet bench, playing with a mobile device. Bucky was on the lounge, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and watching the tv with Sam, although he noticed him throwing furtive glances in Vielka's direction every now and then.
'Hey, how's that arm?' he asked, pulling up a seat next to her.
'It was only a bear,' she murmured in an offhand manner, not looking up.
He glanced at the screen of her mobile device. It was fuzzy video of his first encounter with the Winter Soldier. 'What are you doing?' he hissed, moving to grab the device from her hands.
She blocked his hand and looked at him pointedly. 'Researching, to make sure I'm ready in case shit goes down,' she retorted
, looking at him warningly. 'You never told me he was going to be allowed unrestrained access around here, or I would never have agreed to bring him in.'
He glanced sideways, he could see Bucky was still glancing at them now and then. He looked back at Vielka who was looking back at her device. 'He was under their mind control then, he's free now.'
'Does T'Challa approve of this? And what's to say they couldn't just reactivate him? Do we even know how they do it?' She looked up from the device and demanded, before her eyes went wide and she leaned back slightly. Steve looked to his right to see Bucky standing there.
'They have a set of words,' he began, not taking his eyes off of Vielka. 'They need to be spoken in Russian, in the right order, usually they would scramble my memories first, wiping anything that had happened recently.'
Steve glanced sideways at Vielka, who didn't remove her eyes from Bucky, he noted her eyes seemed slightly apologetic.
She took a deep breath, before releasing it. 'Sorry, old habits die hard,' she replied, turning away before standing and walking away. The room was silent as Sam and Wanda had turned to watch the conversation.
Steve turned and watched her leave, aware of a twinge of sadness in her eyes as she had turned away from them. He looked back apologetically to Bucky, standing and placing a hand on his shoulder. 'Let's get you to your room, you're probably tired.'
He led Bucky from the room, down the hall. When he realised which room Natasha had chosen for Bucky he wasn't sure if it was such a good idea. He knew she probably chose it for a reason of her own, but he wasn't sure right now it was a good idea.
Just as he thought to change the room, Natasha exited the room, looking up at them both and giving a small smile. 'Just in time, it's all ready. Hope it's comfortable,' she said motioning towards the now open door.
Steve stepped back to let Bucky past, he stopped in the doorway and had a quick look around the room then nodded. 'Thanks.'
Steve heard a door open next door and grit his teeth as they all turned to look. Vielka exited her room, wearing her training gear, swords in hand. She noticed them looking at her and nodded, before turning and striding down the hallway.
'What was all that about?' Natasha asked, clearly noticing the tension in the air as Steve released a breath he hadn't noticed he had been holding.
Neither of them answered her.
Vielka worked her body to the brink of exhaustion, she probably should have just gone to bed after leaving Steve and Sgt Barnes in the common area, but she couldn't sleep.
She utilised the virtual sparring program T'Challa had created just for her, flipping, parrying and blocking the robot in front of her. But her mind wasn't exactly clear as she lunged towards it, angrily bringing her sword down to strike it.
It moved sideways and kicked out at her, knocking her backwards a good few metres. She sprawled on the ground heavily, feeling the wind knocked from her lungs, but struggled back onto her feet as the robot sprinted towards her with its sword arms raised to attack. She threw her sword, it struck its target and the robot slid to a stop in front of her, crumbling to the ground.
'I really wish you would take care when using the virtual training grounds,' came T'Challa's voice over the intercom. She glanced behind her and saw the door to the room open, T'Challa walking in wearing his Black Panther suit, helmet in his hand.
She stood and retrieved her sword from the mess of robot. 'I'm pretty certain you enjoy putting these things together about as much as I enjoy destroying them,' she replied, giving a small smile.
He grinned at her knowing retort. 'Perhaps.' He looked at her more seriously then. 'What is on your mind, Corporal Patterson?' He asked. He refused to use her nickname or code name about the facility, instead opting for her former rank and last name. It annoyed her, but he was royalty, their host and she had been chosen to be his protector.
'Nothing much,' she replied, putting her twin swords back into their sheaths. She glanced back at him, as he stood before her, seeming to analyse her as he always did. She sighed. 'The Sgt puts me on edge.'
'I see, why would that be?'
'His mind can easily be controlled, whether he wants to or not, he could easily turn against us, and this has been proven.'
T'Challa raised an eyebrow, as she turned away. 'You speak as if you know from experience,' he said as she began to leave. She froze, wondering if T'Challa was testing her like he always did or if he was privy to information about her that she had fought for years to forget. She opted for the first option.
She turned her head back slightly, before continuing to exit the room.
As she returned to her room, she thought she heard shouting and struggling from Sgt Barnes' room. She silently moved to the door, putting her ear closer to hear. Silence. She shrugged her shoulders and returned to her room, showering and changing quickly.
She was just about to climb into bed when she heard an unmistakable shout from Sgt Barnes' room.Familiar faces flashed by, his victims, his captors, his torturers. He remembered the pain, he remembered the scenery around him. He saw Steve's face as he fell from the train, arm outstretched to try and help him, to no avail, as he plunged into the darkness.
He felt himself shaking, when he woke while they operated on his arm, looking down in horror. He tried to fight back as he felt arms grab him, recalling the cold that he felt from the uncaring hands.
It was strange though, the hands that grabbed at him now were warm, unlike the memory he recalled so many times before.
He opened his eyes and gasped, looking around as he pulled his titanium arm back when he realised what he was doing.
Apparently, Paddy, as she had been called, wasn't quite ready for it and fell forward, landing on top of him, her head connecting with a thunk to his titanium shoulder.
'Jesus Christ, mate!' she cried putting her hands on either side of him to try and push herself up, wincing a few times as she did so. He quickly helped her, pushing her up easily by her shoulders. He could already see blood beginning to drizzle down from a small cut on her forehead.
'Are you alright?' he asked, moving her into a sitting position beside him, before trying to look at her face. It wasn't serious but was going to need attention.
'That's what I get for checking to see what all the hullabaloo is,' she retorted huffily, moving to stand up. He had absolutely no idea what she had just said, but from the look on her face, she was annoyed.
He put a hand on her shoulder to stop her and got up himself, walking to his bathroom and picking up an unused hand towel quickly before turning back to her. He pushed it onto her forehead gently. 'Sorry.'
She sighed and waved the apology away. 'Don't worry about it, could have happened to anyone'
He raised an eyebrow at her comment as she put her hand to the towel, taking over from him, he highly doubted that could have just happened to anyone. 'Is your neck alright?' He bent his head down to look at her neck where he had grabbed hold of her unknowingly.
He could see the slightest red marks in the shape of his titanium fingers around her delicate neck, but something else caught his eye.
Above the neck of the hoodie she wore, he could just make out a large scar, it was long and seemed to extend all the way around her neck. Even at a quick glance. he could tell it was a clean scar, no jagged edges.
His eyebrows knotted together in concern when he saw it, but she quickly stood and began walking to the door. 'If you're okay now, I'll be going to bed. I spent my whole day traipsing through the forest looking for you.' He looked at her apologetically after her for a moment before she glanced back at him for a moment, looking slightly thoughtful. 'Thanks, by the way,' he raised his eyebrows in confusion. 'For, you know, the bear, I guess. Really didn't want to kill it.'
He gave a small nod. She frowned before disappearing back out his door, closing it behind her.
Vielka did not sleep well that night, and was grumpy when she got up early the next morning. Deciding
to forego breakfast she went instead to the gym. Perhaps a weight session would improve her mood.
After about an hour of working with the weights she decided to call it a day, heading back to her room to shower and change. She slowed when she approached her door, as Sgt Barnes' door opened. She grimaced slightly but turned to unlock her door, trying to ignore him.
'Hey,' he said softly, stopping beside her as she fiddled with her keys. She glanced up to meet his stormy blue eyes, she could see the intrigue in them already, and she scolded herself for not being more careful. 'Thanks for checking in on me last night, sorry about...' he motioned with his titanium arm and she flinched slightly, remembering the cold metal against her neck the night before. His eyes widened before looking apologetic again.
Eminent Silence Page 2
