Out of the freezer

[disassembling]

What: AU where The Winter Soldier is found by SHIELD before CA: TWS and settled in with an agent.
Warnings: Just tl;dr. It is my specialty.


Trains weren't generally a source of overland transport anymore, not with planes so conveniently available, but there were points where subtly was required more than quickness. There were less questions about trains, fewer looks with the amount of goods moved into a country so more was able to get through. It was easier to pay people off in shipping yards to look the other way while important items were shifted in and out.

If it had been known early in the process that his superiors had known that an agent had defected and tipped off that there were weapons being moved in from Russia, he would have been removed from the train. Too little, too late though, and the train was hit with SHIELD looking for both intelligence and weapons from the Soviets. It wasn't until a STRIKE team had made it towards the back of the train that some members suddenly realized that their mission had just gotten a lot more complicated.

Cryostasis was a process developed out of the 1940s, though perfected over the years by the Soviets first and then the Americans. Of course, it only worked on him, others never coming up from the surface again because their bodies were advanced enough to cope with the strain on the body and the healing powers required to make it back out of deep freeze. He was special because he was a weapon, made that way to survive the worst conditions. So he bubbled up as he was thawed from the inside out in a process that took hours generally but could be sped up.

Speeding up the process left him disoriented and intractable, irritated and violent. It was fine when enemies of the organization were kicking in the door and shooting the scientists in charge of thawing him. The damage was done though, the anti-freeze drug fast acting in his body as his muscles became suffused with warm blood and his lungs filling with a deep gasping breath as he arched, his blue eyes unfocused as men yelled orders, called in findings. It was all a blur to him.

Someone touched his cold flesh shoulder, but they were gone in the next minute as his metal arm swung around and slammed into the man's gut, blasting him away. He rolled from the chair, acting only on instinct as he grabbed the nearest object - metal table and threw it into a group of men raising their guns. He fought them; worse, he killed them until another team moved in and manhandled him to the ground. Someone did something; a familiar voice called a set of words that made him relax and stand down, so he did.

He was blind-folded, cuffed from wrist to elbow so his shoulders were forced to bow in awkwardly, but his legs were left free so that they could walk him into the SHIELD medical facility where many interested parties had gathered in the time it took to transport him. News had circulated and damage control had not been fast enough where the fact a man was found half-frozen on a train. If he had had his memories of his other life, he might have found it ironically he was found on a train.

The only words spoken above whispered tones was that there had been another similarly unfrozen a few years before. "Call them in. Maybe give us a clue on stabilizing this guy." He was pulled off, seated and chained to a bed in a padded room. With the blindfold off, he knew he could break down the door if he was ordered to. He was deemed too 'unstable' to be in a more populated area, so he was caged and observed.

Damage control indeed. Where were his orders and mission debriefings?

Comments

[eleutheria]

There was a small part of her that still resented being woken up in this new century, it wasn’t only the cultural shock of all the things that had changed, everything was moving so fast now and there were so many things going on, so much noise that it had dizzied her a bit when she had been first exposed to it, but it was also the fact that all the things and people she had knew were gone now. What they didn’t understand was that the things that for everyone else had happened more than seventy years ago had only happened a couple of days for her and it was still a bit of a struggle to try to accept that.

Finding out that most of the people she knew, the people that had fought alongside here and that had been her friends were all gone was a hit she hadn’t been ready for, the only one that remained was Peggy and she wasn’t the same as she remembered, she had all the information to go and see her, but she hadn’t dared to do so. The only thing she had been able to do was go and visit the graves of the howling commandos and Bucky, trying to ignore the fact that she had one at his side and one that she was told was going to be removed since she wasn’t dead, before returning to New York and try to see if the place she had known growing up were still there and most were gone.

Also in a way doing all of this things was keeping SHIELD away from her at the moment, she still got calls from Fury or from a Maria Hill that wanted to contact her in Fury’s behalf and she wasn’t naïve or stupid to not know what they wanted from her, they wanted her to accept working for them and right now, well, right now she wasn’t ready nor willing to do so, and they respected that keeping their distance.

Which was probably the reason she was a bit surprised when Fury had decided to show himself and ask her to return to SHIELD with him, she had refused at first since the last time she had been there it hadn’t been that good, but then Fury had a strange way to put things and that whatever they needed her help with was something that she was going to be interested in and wasn’t that the newest understatement of this century.

The last thing she expected was to immediately be told right off the bat that SHIELD had in custody another person that had been in more or less similar circumstances as her, from what Fury told him the man had been found on a train, being brought from cryo and apparently had taken down several agents before they managed to subdue him. Her purpose here was to apparently help in stabilizing him and she wondered just how the heck they expected her to do that, just because she had woken up on this century didn’t meant she know how to exactly deal with this, more so with a person that had apparently been a weapon or something.

From the surveillance they had of the room, the man in question didn’t looked to be much active, he had apparently not moved since they had chained him to the bed and really seeing that man there made her feel strangely bad, and she just knew that was the reason Fury had showed her this, to compel her to heart and kindness for this man that had probably been used in the worst ways and she finally just sighed before agreeing to go inside, after being assured she was going to be safe and could be extracted quickly, and see if she could bring forth a response from him.

Steph didn’t expected to be the one getting a reaction the moment she stepped into the room and the door closed behind her, taking in sight a face, a person she never thought she was going to see ever again. “…Bucky.”

[disassembling]

He shifted his shoulders only a little bit, the cuffs that still held his forearms together not the most comfortable of devices. He suspected that the people holding him had little idea what was capable of, what his metal arm could do, and they just weren't taking any chances after he had killed grown men so easily in a half dazed state. He also suspected his handlers would be coming soon to extract him and return to him the original reason that he had been thawed out in the first place. Still, it was hard to maintain his body heat when he couldn't move, but there was no room for complaint.

When only door opened, he lifted his head from where it had hung and peered at the blonde woman who walked in. She wasn't dressed like a doctor, but there was something in her body language in the first steps that told him that she had skills and was possibly dangerous to him. He stared at her unblinking, letting her make the first move to decide how he would handle himself in this situation.

She didn't give him a reaction that he was expecting, the look of shocked horror overcoming her features causing his eyes to narrow slightly. She said something, some word that tickled his mind in a way that a core command would make him react. He shifted slightly on the bed he was sitting on, bound to really and took her in again, trying to get her measure.

[eleutheria]

For a few seconds she entertained the idea of turning back and ask to be allowed back out, she wasn’t ready for something like this, she had barely even gone through her mourning period about him and the rest, and here she was in front of her again and it was a bit too much, but then there was the other part, the one that refused to run away like a coward and leave her best friend alone because she was more than sure that the person sitting in front of her was Bucky, she had been with him through most of her life to not be able to identify him from sight and know it was him.

However it was something that didn’t extended from him to her, from his body language to the narrow of his eyes; she knew he probably didn’t know who she was or worse remembered what they have been in the past, Fury had explained the circumstances after all and the possible things he might have gone through, there was a small part of her that refused to believe he wouldn’t remember her, but she quickly quieted that one down, she needed to focus at the moment.

Her eyes flickered over his form and then stood a bit straighter before daring to move closer; still keeping what she considered was a relative safe distance –mostly for his sake than hers. “How are you feeling, Bucky?”

[disassembling]

He continued to watch her as she swam through whatever reactions that she was experiencing. The flitted through her eyes, the doorway to a person's mind, and he studied them as much as he did her body language. She wasn't comfortable being here; he suspected she hadn't expected to be in this situation with him. Interesting that she apparently knew him and he only felt twinges of something stirring under his vast conditioning and the implants.

He shifted again, a slight rock of his body on the bed before he slowly flexed his fingers. He had been trained to escape such things, knew that he probably could if given the opportunity to be alone, but... that was for another day. She was here, and he narrowed his eyes more at her casual question.

"Who is 'Bucky'?" Was she referring to him? He shivered across his strained shoulders, casting his eyes suddenly away. Why... did that sound like something he should know? Bucky? Bucky? Who was... was he Bucky?

[eleutheria]

Hearing him say that was really the final nail on that coffin about whether or not he remembered or not, it also helped to keep her vain hope in check, it gave her the kind of stability that she needed to deal with this in a logical way and figure a way to help Bucky the best at the moment, sure she wouldn’t deny the twinges of hurt that wrecked her heart, the fact that right now she meant nothing, not even his name meant anything to him, whatever had been done to him it had been thorough and at the moment she was going to ignore the possibility this could be permanent.

“That’s your name, well or at least the name most people knew you with.” She was also quite aware of the surveillances cameras on them and the fact that Fury was probably intently watching this interaction and probably coming trying to figure out what to do with this new twist as well. “Your real name was James Buchanan Barnes, but we all just called you Bucky and you were more comfortable with it.”

Alright she could do this; she could face this situation and not break down for all the things that were now probably gone and that she will now also need to mourn for. Her body language relaxed further and she was sure she was not coming as none threatening to him or at least as much as she could be given the circumstances. “Now can you answer me and tell me how are you feeling?”

[disassembling]

His blue eyes flicked around the room more quickly when he realized that this might not be a situation that he had been prepared for, which was rare and hard to come by. He was trained to handle anything, but he was a blank weapon, his past torn away and crushed under heel before he was set loose to perform his duties as ordered. This was not something that he had faced before, and he suspected that it wasn't about to come on the same grain as being wiped with pain and chemicals.

"My... name?" He looked at her, his eyes widening with alarm before narrowing suspiciously. Fear flicked across his features at the full impact of her words, at the full title that had once been his before he had become... whatever this was. Colour drained from his face, and he swayed dangerously on the bed, only his restraints keeping from standing up and breaking everything in the room. "I... have a name. I have... a name." He had a name and it struck such a chord with him that he knew that she wasn't lying. He knew lies well, but she was too open and honest to tell it to him.

He hung his head over his bound arms, trying to process the sheer amount of things that came on the heels of uncertainty. Who was he? Why hadn't he heard his name before this? "I don't... feel. I'm not allowed to feel," he whispered harshly, his voice struggling with the very thing he denied. "A weapon doesn't feel; it simply is."

[eleutheria]

She kind of wished for a chair right now, since she had a feeling this could last a long time, but she knew why one hadn’t been provided, it could be used as a weapon and God, she knew about it and from what she had heard, he will be able to easily turn it into one as well, besides part of the reason she was here was for questioning and she wasn’t supposed to look very comfortable and exposed in his presence, not to mention if she was sitting down, it will make them waste valuable seconds if they wanted to retrieve her from the room in case he attacked.

For a few seconds she wanted to move forward and reassure him when she had seen the fear in his eyes, it was kind of the same look he had when she had saved him from that Hydra base during the war and she hated seeing that look on his face, she had even seen it from times to times afterwards, when he was remembering his time there and now, he had probably gone through worst things. “Yes, you have a name.” A small frown appeared on her face, the kind of frown that she tended to adopt when she was faced with something she wasn’t totally happy about (the kind of frown that had sometimes altered Bucky she was about to start a fight). “Well things are different here; right now you are allowed to at least to tell me how you are feeling?”

She could tell him that he was free to feel whatever he wanted, but that might probably confuse him and it might be too much for him to handle, she needed to take it slow, slow and not confuse him. “I know all of this is confusing and out of norm for you.” And God didn’t she knew in at least some manner. “So you can ask me anything and I will try my best to answer you, alright?”

[disassembling]

He was still stuck on the fact that he had a name, that someone could refer to him as something that might have emotion to it rather than barking his designation. He wasn't even referred to by the code name that the Soviet's had given him, that was for the outside world. His bestowed a sense of identity on him, scraping together nothing to pile into equally nothing. His memories were gone, stripped away as easily as they had built up his skills and reputation.

He hung his head over his own bound arms, straining against the metal. He rocked a bit, his metal prosthetic grinding against the reinforced steel of his restraints. He had a name; he was James Buchanan Barnes also known as 'Bucky' by those close to him. He was a man, a man trapped inside of a weapon. "I feel... cold," he finally uttered. It wasn't just the temperature either he realized; something was cold inside of him, eating him up, threatening to swallow him down. It was cold in his head.

Slowly, he lifted his head, the screen of dark hair falling back against his cheeks as he stared at her. His chest heaved with an effort to breathe passed the lump in his throat and chest. He could ask any question he wanted? Only one question came to mind, the only question he was allowed to ask. "What's my mission object?"

[eleutheria]

When it became obvious for her that he was trying to process what she had told him so far, she decided to let him do just that and grasp the fact that he had a name and the possibility of a life asides from the one that had been forced upon him, she needed to be careful after all and try to ease this slowly into him, maybe just the knowledge of his name was all the information he might be able to process here, and it was in that moment that she realized she hadn’t even told him her name and that he hadn’t even asked for it, which she wasn’t sure if it was good of a bad thing at the current moment.

She crossed her arms over her chest, digging her fingers against her forearms to keep herself where she was and not approach him to try to comfort him, as it was her first instinct, when he looked so dejected and (dare she even think it) defeated, it was such an opposing image to the person she remembered, but then it wasn’t totally fair to compare him to the person he had been back then, not after all he had gone through. At the mention of feeling cold, she looked in the direction one of the cameras was and tried to convey the message to try to fix that, actually feeling cold was something that she had kind of felt when she had woken up. “Alright, we will work on that.”

To her credit she didn’t tensed when he asked that, but at the same time she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to answer to him, Fury hadn’t exactly told her if there was anything set in mind for him or maybe they haven’t even thought about the possibility of him asking that question at all, she decided to go for the most logical path at the moment. “You don’t have one, at the moment; we are focusing on your well being.”

[disassembling]

Things were not going as they were supposed to; this was not the wake up that he thought that he would be getting. There were no cues, no debriefing, no handler to point him in the direction that he needed to go and let him off leash to do his mission. No, he was in a cage, bound and muzzled and she was here giving him information that no one had ever bothered to give him. No, she was giving him information that people specifically avoided letting him know about, and he would have been suspicious about her motivation to do so except she seemed to be struggling as much with him as he was with her.

"Let me out of these restraints, and I'll do it myself," he said softly, flexing his arms for real this time rather then his little tests against the locking mechanism. It was strong, very strong, but the locking mechanism also had a flaw to it that he could easily exploit. "There's no need to turn up the warmth in here; it will only make it worse."

He waited, expecting some kind of mission, some kind of debriefing to take the edge off of the situation. Something familiar, anything familiar. Yet, he went very still at the idea there was nothing coming down the line for him. Why was he thawed then? "I don't get thawed without a mission objective. What is it?"

[eleutheria]

In the back of her mind she wondered if SHIELD had information about him, something, anything there had to be something considering what she had been told about him, if there was she was going to need to watch that and try to be better prepared for next time since she was sure there was going to be a next time, Fury wouldn’t have brought her here without hoping for a next time and now that they knew it was someone she knew, they were probably going to involve her as much as they could on whatever they planned to do with him and she was going to allow it just to make sure he was fine, SHIELD had stumbled upon what will effectively tie her to them.

Her fingers tightened against her forearms again, it was starting to hurt a bit now. “I am sorry but I can’t do that, Bucky.” Not that she didn’t wanted to do so, but she wasn’t sure if she could trust him free just yet and she didn’t had the means to release him anyway, besides she was sure SHIELD wouldn’t be too happy if she did. “What do you need to do then?”

“This is a different situation, Bucky.” There was not a lot that she could say now, she couldn’t give him an objective here –mostly because she didn’t wanted to do so, she didn’t saw him as the weapon he was created and still thought himself to be. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

[disassembling]

He admitted that he wasn't surprised by her denial to let him up, to release him from the metal around his forearms and the chains that forced him to stay in place. He actually would have been more surprised if she had let him go, risked being with him unbound and free. So far she had done nothing to warrant his violence, but there were not many situations where he was treated this way either. Thankfully he didn't remember most of them, preferring to be blank so he could do the mission and shake off familiarity. "These restraints won't hold me long if I decide I don't want them on. I just need to move around, work my muscles."

He would have liked to point out that it wasn't a different situation at all, just that the room was slightly altered. He didn't because, in his own way, he was still expected to have someone come in and give him the mission objective, the target and the intelligence for where it would happen. Her question though caused him to glance at the camera up near the roof. "Waking up in a train," he said simply. "I killed people there."

[eleutheria]

She just raised an eyebrow at the admission about the restraints and she wasn’t sure if she should be surprised or not, sure it raised a lot of questions about it, most of all about what kind of method he might use to get them off or if he was going to use shrill strength to accomplish so. “Yet you have been in then what could be considered long enough and you haven’t tried to get them off just yet.” Something that if what he said was truth, could have been done a long time ago –which she somehow had no doubt was the truth and she suspected Fury at the least might suspect it. “I will talk with them about taking those off without having to resort to that and hurt the pride of whoever created those restraints thinking no one could work themselves out of them”

To her credit she didn’t looked shocked or horrified of hearing him say something like that so easily, it’s not as if they haven’t done it before, they had killed people in the war, she had killed people and that was a knowledge nor actions that couldn’t be changed, even though he sometimes hadn’t particularly liked that fact, but that wasn’t for here or now. “Sounds about right,” She pondered on the situation a bit more and just sighed. “Like I told you, there’s not a mission objective for you, at the moment as we are currently overseeing other issues, so you will just need to be patient with this new alteration of the usual procedures.”

[disassembling]

She was a logical person, but something about him bothered her and he didn't know what it was. He thought of asking questions in return, but the policy of his handlers was that he was to listen and listen well and if there was permission, he could ask things. Otherwise, listen and answer any questions that were presented to him. Though, he had been in the cuffs for a long time, but it certainly wasn't because he thought they could hold him. He was in them because the last command he had been given on the train was to behave and be calm. He nodded his head a little at the idea she would vouch for him enough to try to convince someone to let him up.

So, there was no mission objective, he was tied down to a bed, he was speaking with someone who at least pretended familiarity with him and told him his name. This was exactly opposite to how missions were supposed to start, and it made him uncomfortable. "I have patience," he said simply, shifting to settle his bound arms to his thighs and seemingly to rest there. He would wait because she told him he had to, because they hadn't abused or tortured or interrogated him. Right now, patience was about all he had.

[eleutheria]

At the very least he was cooperative, that or he was too used to just following whatever that could kind of pass as an order to try to put much of a fight for it and she couldn’t help the small pang at that, while she had given him orders during their time in the commandos and missions, they had been completely and totally different when they were out of that zone and…NO, she couldn’t think about that right now. “If I do manage to convince them, I want you to let whoever will come to get you out of those cuffs do it without any issue and don’t try to harm or kill them once you’re free, understood?”

She doubted she was going to be the one sent to release him from that, the more than likely outcome will be that once she was out of the room, Fury will sweep down and get a hold of her to try to demand an explanation while she did the same regarding him. Still she smiled at him, maybe not like she used to smile at him before when they were in private only the two of them without the rest of the world watching, it was the smile she had used for when they were in public but she doubted he will know the difference right now. “I know you do, Bucky, and I appreciate it.”

[disassembling]

He stared at her for a long moment when she thought it prudent to tell him that he had to keep his hands to himself for anyone who let him out of restraints. He simply thought that anyone letting him out would be the type of person who had full command over him to begin with and would give him the mission objective that he was supposed to have gotten back on the train. Unfortunately, dead men didn't tell and those who had been waking him where long in the ground by now. "If they offer the right cues, why would I kill them?" Such a stupid thing to expect of him.

He stilled where he sat at the smile that she offered him, eyes blinking slowly as he studied her expression for a long moment. No one had ever really smiled at him before, no one that he remembered anyway. People kept their distance or a very stern manner with him; he was a weapon after all. He found it strange that he knew her sincerity as well. "Who are you?" A look of surprise flashed across his face at going outside of his parameters to ask a question in the first place. He ducked his head quite suddenly, expecting in his own way one thing: pain.

[eleutheria]

She managed to keep her sigh in check and not let it escape her lips. “Better to be safe, than sorry I guess.” And well considering what she had heard had happened in the train, with him attacking and killing SHIELD agents, it was probably the best thing she could offer at the moment, as it was she wasn’t even sure if he was going to be allowed out of his restraints or not, but considering he had mentioned he could easily pry himself free from them, they will only be stalling the inevitable, and also there was the fact that while she might not like SHIELD, it didn’t meant she wanted to see more people dying at the hands of her lo---former best friend.

The look of surprise and the way he ducked his head were signs that she easily recognized, the signs of someone expecting to be hurt for talking out of line, she had seen it many times before and after the war, enough to be able to recognize the signs and to make the probable connection for his reaction. “No one is going to hurt you for asking questions, Bucky, this is after all a new situation for you and you’re either confused or don’t exactly know how to proceed now, so do not be worried about asking.” And she was going to make sure no one dared to hurt him if he did asked questions, she was going to try to make sure things went as smoothly as they could be for him. “As for your question my name is Stephanie Rogers.”

And she left it at that, she didn’t thought she could tell him right now that they had meet each other through most of their lives, all the things that they had gone through or the exact nature of the relationship that they both had in the past, that will be a lot of information and he seemed to be having enough trouble with just knowing his name, she will also need to accept the possibility that depending on things there will probably be things she will never be able to tell him.

[disassembling]

The idea of safety was foreign to him because it never mattered. Damage to him was something that was repaired or healed quickly and damage to others was either in the plan or an acceptable loss. He suspected that she knew in better detail what he had done on that train, how he had ruined bodies with an ease that left most people shooting at him to preserve their own lives. Killing was something that he did very well; killing was the reason he was thawed and he knew it.

He glanced at her from between strands of long dark hair, looking for deception in her words. Lessons were taught in pain, protocols followed to make him understand through the same way that he was a weapon. Yes, he had the same responses as a man, that pain would effect him, but it was a tool for behaviour modification. Yet, her assurances made him shift where he sat, wondering how long before she realized the danger that they were all in. "They will be coming for me," he said softly. "You had best be prepared for that."

He couldn't help but stare at her again at the offering of a name, and his curiosity peeked as the name seemed to fuel something inside of himself. His eyebrows drew together sharply, and he took his time to study her face more closely. "I know you," he said softly. He didn't know why he knew her, but he did. There was a stirring deeper inside of his mind, but he found it difficult to reason out what it might be. "I... know you," he repeated softly, confusion twisting his tone.

lol maybe fancy time skip trick or something.

[eleutheria]

Once again to her credit she didn’t react at his words and she kept calm in the face of his words, she had already been told the same anyway by Fury before she was allowed to come inside and talk with him. “We are quite aware of that and every measure is being taken to be prepared for it, as well as to ensure you’re not taken.” Though she was sure SHIELD had its own reasons to want to keep Bucky and she didn’t had to dwell much on it to know what those were, her motivations were going to be different of course, but that will mean having to finally bow down and associate herself with SHIELD.

There was also the fact that she wanted to know who had done this to him, who had taken the man she had known and loved, tore him down and reconstructed him into this being in front of her? She was sure whoever came to try to retrieve him was going to have those answers and she was going to get them. When he said that he knew her, despite the obviously confused tone and expression, she allowed herself to have a bit of hope that maybe he wasn’t as lost as she thought he was and that his memories might still be there, locked away but still there. “Yes, we know each other; we have for quite a long time.” A barely there smile appeared on her face. “It was always you and me, even when we had nothing we had each other.”

She would have wanted to tell him more or find out if he remembered something else, anything that could let her know his memories could be saved, but before she could say anything else the door to the room was opened and the message was clear ‘your time is up’ and she sighed before she looked at him. “I will see what I can do about the cuffs, alright? Just remember what I told you about being patience and don’t do anything reckless.”

With another last look she turned around to walk out of the room, not saying anything about coming again since she couldn’t be sure if she will be allowed, and didn’t flinched when the door closed behind her with finality and she was soon face to face with Fury, that was looking at her with a look that she was more than aware what it meant. “I suppose we have a long talk in front of us, so we might as well start, so shall we?” There was a curt nod before she moved to follow him, sparing one last look at the room Bucky was held in and hoping to be allowed the chance to help him.

Time skip it is

[disassembling]

They came unbidden, scorching his mind with little shards of pain and confusion, digging deep inside of his vulnerable mind. With nothing to occupy him, they came, twisting his head to the side, confusing and even frightening him with the little details that they twisted in his brain. Memories, little pieces of things long thought forgotten, filling up his empty mind. He remembered pain from his arm, remembered that scientists joyous smile at his discovery, remembered the cry of a female voice using his name, remembered a fall, a choking, drugs, a mission.

Those memories agitated him, confused him and set his teeth on edge. They had never happened before, yet he lived them in the bits and pieces they came in. Soon enough, he snapped the restraints when his calls for Stephanie went unanswered. The twisted metal was used to smash the camera that observed him before he ruined his apartment when there was still no response, tearing the bed, the table and a chair from their bolted down state, all the while snarling that he would see her. He stayed in the room because she told him to.

Eventually, he had keyed in on the observation window, his eyes unable to see but he could sense people there. He also knew he could break it. One week. He gave them one week to bring Stephanie to see him, or he was going to ruin this place and find her himself. That was an adequate time in his opinion, one the stuck to as he paced his 'cage', ignoring attempts to calm or sedate him or reinforce the door.

A week passed, and he simply slipped away, disappearing from his room as he had promised. Outside of it, he moved like a predator, removing people from his way but holding back from killing them. Eventually, to resist the temptation to smash more, he headed for the deepest shadows and lurked to search for Stephanie in the facility. Once he combed it, he would leave to search for her beyond. Certainly she must have know about these twisted memories; she said they knew each other.

[eleutheria]

Was Stephanie surprised that Bucky had been used as leverage to keep her in SHIELD? No, she hadn’t been, she had realized that was going to be the case the moment she had seen him, Fury was a clever man and he knew how to play his cards, so when he had asked her to do some small jobs here and there for SHIELD, as well as to agree to participate in a new and secrete initiative (one she hadn’t even been told all the details) in exchange of being made aware of whatever they might know of him and being involved, informed and consulted on what happened to him, she hadn’t hesitated to agree.

So when she had been sent on what was supposed to be a quick and simple mission with a small team, just to test her and her willingness to work with them, the only thing that had displeased her the most was that she hadn’t been able to talk with Bucky before leaving and the only thing she could do was be done with that as quickly as possible, which she had concluded wasn’t going to be that hard since it’s not as if was useless in a fight without her shield (despite what they had thought) and she ignored the stupid tight dark, dark blue uniform she was given, it was a shame someone else in the team had messed it up and the assignment had taken longer than expected.

In all of that mess, the rather desperate messages to reach them and get her to come back earlier had been missed or hadn’t even reached them, they had arrived a day late and she wasn’t exactly pleased. She was tired, she was wounded –not that such a thing was noteworthy since it was going to heal, but it wouldn’t hurt to go and have it checked it out, and she was pissed because if they were going to be her permanent team, she was going to need to change the way they worked and ASAP.

And it soon became clear that rest wasn’t going to be something she was going to have, she hadn’t even properly settled down from the trip and wasn’t even that far in the facility when she noticed or more like felt something was off, the flurry of movement and agents had clearly intensified, she frowned and forgot her plans to go to medical and moved in the direction where Bucky was held before two agents seemed to notice her and quickly approached her.

The look she gave the agents when she was informed that Bucky was gone or more like escaped had the agents probably close to a heart attack, while her expression wasn’t that outwardly dangerous she was glaring the fear of God into their hearts and it was probably something they were not going to forget soon. “…What?” Even her voice sounded so, so cold at the moment.

[disassembling]

[He had begun a systematic run down of the place where he was kept, breaking what got in his way, moving around in the shadows, ruining cameras to find him and slipping up into air ducts as often as he moved plainly in hallways. Patrols caught glimpses of him, even fired at him at one point when he watched him plainly and refused to stand down and go back to his cell. He doubted they had repaired it much anyway, and it couldn't hold him. He had no reason to go back; as soon as he ascertained that Stephanie wasn't here, he was leaving and making his own way to finding her.

Yet, in his travels he had gotten a hold of a radio and heard that they had contact from the team sent out and Stephanie was returning to the base. He knew that he no longer had to search, so he made his way to the entrance where teams were said to be brought in, lurking in the air duct despite how uncomfortably small it was and how hot it forced him to be. He watched, scampering men moving around preparing and calling orders and setting about locking down the place again when she arrived in. The relief in the people looking for him was palpable. They really thought that she could hunt him down, didn't they? That was humorous, since she would never have a need to hunt.

And then two agents came to stand just under his grate, explaining that he had just disappeared yet was probably still in the facility. The coldness in her voice almost made him weary, but he had needed to see her so much that he didn't care as he set a foot to the grate and punched it out, falling on the heads of the agents. His body followed gracefully, landing and crushing the two to the ground as he stood and stared at her. "You're injured," he hissed softly. "They said they would get you back, but they lied."

[eleutheria]

The agents were really, really lucky they were technically on her side now and she wasn’t in the need to smack them or anything, no, she was going to look at this in a very logical and level headed way, besides the fact they were reeking of fear was enough for now. They were probably locking down the building right now, not that she thought that might keep him inside if he had managed to escape from his room so easily, in the case he had left the building, she wasn’t sure how she was about to go in the process of finding him? He could have gone back to whoever had given him orders before, which she still didn’t know who it was since SHIELD was keeping that under wraps from her still.

She tensed just a bit at the sudden sound and the falling grate, barely managing to get out of the way while the rest of agents that were still around or close enough to hear, responded by stopping and pulling their guns when Bucky followed rather gracefully and she nearly winced when he further crushed the agents, but she was still a bit angry at them and just looked around for a bit at all the agents gathered around. “Oh look at that, it seems that I found him.” Her expression and voice was still rather cold and deadpan, enough to make everyone else wary. “Put down your weapons, they won’t be needed.”

Once again she had to glare for them to follow her orders before she dared to take a hold of Bucky, gripping the metal wrist and tugging him a bit to get him off the agents, it wouldn’t do if they got even more hurt and moved a bit away from everyone before letting go of his wrist. “You sure gave everyone quite a scare off and I don’t think that was necessary.” She looked at him, with a more open expression, clearly not angry at him. “And they told me, but communication where I was became difficult and we weren’t aware they were trying to contact me, so it was not their fault.”

[disassembling]

He heard the slide of guns from belts and holsters, but he ignored them. If anyone - anyone - took a shot at him, he would ruin them so quickly that there wouldn't be enough to send home in a match box. His focus was mostly on Stephanie and keeping his balance on two fallen men under a grate, and he shifted his shoulders at her deadpan expression and words. Had they really thought that he would do more than what he said that he would? He wanted Stephanie, and he was only set on finding her right now, which was pleasing that she was here.

He didn't resist her touch for the moment, stepping down from his perch without much care but just as casually slipping his metal arm from her grip. "It was necessary," he replied coldly. "I asked for you again and again, but they wouldn't even tell me where you were and when you would be back." His eyes flicked and assessed her wounds quickly, aware that she wouldn't die from them or be in too much discomfort.

Yet, her words were confusing. They had told her but she hadn't been aware of communications? "I needed you," he said softly. "I needed you here with me this last week."

[eleutheria]

In all of this mess, she wondered just where Fury was right now, she was sure someone was in charge but she had no idea who and since Fury hadn’t made a dramatic entrance just yet nor had been the one waiting for her to be the one to debrief better about the current situation with Bucky, she came to the conclusion the man was probably out doing…whatever else he did…and will more than likely make an appearance later and demand an explanation and try to upgrade the place Bucky was being contained at.

She made sure that for the moment the agents kept their distance from them, while she was sure they were being recorded, it was better than having everyone listening to whatever talk they were going to have. “Yes, I apologize for that, I was going to tell you I was going to be gone for a bit but I was sent right away.” And she had assumed someone had informed him, but she hadn’t expected him to react like this. “It’s going to happen on occasion, but I will make sure to let you know next time.” It was the only thing she could do since she couldn’t stop with the missions.

A small sigh escaped her lips when she noticed a quick glimpse of confusion and decided to explain better. “They did try to contact me in your stead, but those attempts failed while I was out there, I became aware of such attempts when I arrived here at the base.” Her expression changed at the rather soft tone he was using now and she became quite aware of the sudden painful pang in her hear. “I’m here now, Bucky. What happened this past week?”