Chapter Text
This wasn’t his first time being tortured, but it had been a few years since the last time. Shocks. He hated shocks, even if it wasn’t hooked up to his brain and just his whole body, it still reminded him too much of the chair that had stolen his life and his memories.
These people hadn’t even given him a mouthguard, so his teeth kept banging into each other. He hated the dentist, but if he got out, he was going to have to see one. He wasn’t sure what they wanted because they hadn’t said yet. They hadn’t spoken at all. Their last mission had been a trap, and they had all ended up knocked out, and he had woken up here strapped to a sturdy table with cuffs built into the ground.
It was okay. He just had to wait. Valentina would send someone for them, and if she didn’t, Sam would eventually come for him, even if he hated his guts. All he had to do was wait.
He groaned in pain.
Electrocution.
Why did it have to be electrocution? Why couldn’t they just stab him again like civilized people? The scientist looked up from his seat a few feet away at his groan, excitedly writing notes, his brown hair getting into his glasses-covered eyes. This was his scientist. He had been here ever since he had woken up excitedly, making notes whenever he made a sound or whenever he tried to break the cuffs. He pushed back his hair, leaning in closer, his eyes were excited like he was a lab rat in an experiment that showed promise. It wasn’t the first time a scientist looked at him like that. Far from it.
Zola.
Sam, now would be a really good time to come! He shouted in his head Get off your ass and save me! He shouted in his head like Sam could hear and it would light a fire under his ass.
Sam would come, wouldn’t he? Sam had hated him from the beginning, but he had always been there before. Because of Steve, not because of him. Steve was gone. Would Sam still come?
A scream came through the wall, and Bucky turned towards the sound. It was Ava; he couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from, but it was Ava. Ava was here too, maybe they had kept them together…to torture all of them. They were kind of an unusual group of specimens, he thought dryly.
Bucky clenched his fists as another shock worked its way through his body. Being shocked every other minute wasn’t fun.
Come on, Sam. Come and find me! If Sam saved them, maybe he could convince the others to change the name, and they would stop fighting for 2 minutes.
As soon as the last shock ended, he turned towards the direction he thought it had come from.
Ava was in pain. They were all probably in pain. They were hurting his team. Were they shocking them too? Did they have their own little scientists excitedly taking notes as they were tortured? What was this place? A breeding ground for sociopaths?
He gritted his teeth as the sensation flooded him again, his body filled with electricity, his muscles jerking uncontrollably against the table. He was pretty sure his arm had broken earlier in the day or earlier yesterday; memories got strange, and he tended to forget things when he was being shocked. But it had healed already, so it didn’t really matter.
He wasn’t really sure how long the shocks lasted, but he guessed about 30 seconds. He couldn't count them when it was happening, but it did take them 90 seconds for them to start again. They were a lower version of what Hydra had used and not centered on his head; they were probably not meant to intentionally fry his brain and make it so he couldn’t remember anything, even if it was definitely affecting his brain. He couldn’t remember things he used to.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been here. He knew that he had been keeping track at first, back when they were cutting him and seeing how long it took to heal. Time had become more of an elusive concept since then. Had he been there a week? A few days? A month? There wasn’t any proof of how long he had been in the room because they hosed him down every once in a while. Not new either. Nothing was new.
Except for the screaming. The screaming was new, wasn’t it? Not his. Ava’s. Maybe not, maybe he just couldn’t remember the last time now. His memory was affected; he couldn’t remember the things he used to.
Ava. He had to save Ava. No. Sam had to come, had to save Ava. He was useless, stuck in cuffs and his arm useless, some sort of field was always running through it, and he couldn’t move it all. Like that thing that Natasha had thrown at him, only it never turned off. It was wrapped around his metal arm. They didn’t want him using it to escape. Between the constant shocks and the thing immobilizing his arm, he was pretty useless. Plus, he kept forgetting.
It was exhausting. The pain. The strain on his body. The healing. Healing was always exhausting. Were they being fed? He was tired too; the shocks kept him awake. When had he slept last? When had they started the shocks? Why had they started them? What were they trying to do?
Had they explained? When would they stop?
Probably when they came up with a new method. A distant part of his brain responded. A new method. They had already moved past the ABCs of torture and were currently on E-
Bucky hissed in pain. The white hot electricity burned through everywhere except his chest, a single metal plate drawing electricity away. Apparently, they didn’t want him to have a heart attack and die. His thin shirt or whatever he was wearing was stretched over it, and the burns that were building. How long had the burns been building?
More screams. Ava? Was Ava screaming? Was he screaming? His arms hurt, his chest hurt, his head hurt. Burning. White hot pain.
Save Ava. Sam needed to save Ava. Where was Sam? Ava had already been a lab rat. She didn’t need this. If she was there, the others probably were too. None of them needed this, not even Walker. They had already been through so much. Way too much. His fist tightened, his human one, the only one he could move as he was filled with this impotent need to protect them. Do something to stop them from being hurt.
Ava’s scream continued, though he wasn’t sure he was really hearing it or if it was just a remnant stuck in a loop. Electricity did strange things to the brain. It was so loud. So loud, and yet there was nothing he could do but tighten his human fist and listen to it.
Ava. He wanted to save Ava. he wanted to save them all, but he was trapped, weak, useless.
There was something he could do. The thought slowly slithered into his head, and he swallowed even though his throat was slightly raw from the screaming.
No, Sam would come or Valentina would send someone, and everything would be fine.
How long? In time? What if they broke his team? He had grown protective of them in the last 6 months; he didn’t like it when they did stupid stuff and got themselves hurt, even though it happened a lot. Their team was full of broken people after all.
I can save them. I can at least try. The shocks were familiar, so familiar. The white hot pain moved through his body. He heard another scream, though he couldn't tell who it was from other than it was male. Alexei, Waker. Him?
Not that way.
It was the only way
The soldier is dead. Then why didn’t he feel dead now? He felt like he was just under the surface, every shock letting him climb out just a bit more.
The Soldier was dead. Wakanda had buried it and the triggers. He was gone. The soldier was gone. He could feel something inside of him rising up, scrabbling like they were crawling up through the grave. No, it was supposed to stay down there. Stay in the box, stay in the hole deep down inside of him. It was supposed to stay gone. Every shock, though, seemed to let the thing inside him take another inch.
He was supposed to be gone. He had spent so long trying to make him leave. In Wakanada. With Sam and Steve. He was supposed to be gone.
Sooner or later, they would break. He knew that better than anyone. He had broken. It just took time. How long had they been there? How long could they last? He had experience; he knew he could last, but could they? They were strong. How long could they go before they broke?
Everyone broke eventually.
Not his team. They wouldn’t break his team; he wouldn’t let them.
He wouldn’t let them. He let it happen. He stopped fighting and let the thing inside of him continue his ascent unbothered. The shock made the thing rise, and it was easy to just let it bring the long-buried Asset to the surface.
It’s not that it was any less painful than it was a few seconds ago, just that The Asset had learned to deal with pain. The mission didn’t stop if a part was malfunctioning. The mission came first before anything. The mission. Escape. Extract team. Evacuate with the team. Casualties: non-civilians acceptable. His eyes darted up. The scientist was a non-civilian casualty acceptable and preferred, once he could figure out how.
The cuffs were strong; they weren’t breakable, not with his super strength, and he couldn’t use his vibranium arm. They had to do a lot of research to stop a vibranium arm, but there was always a weak link in the chain; there was always something he could exploit.
His eyes flashed around the room. The mostly bare room. There was the table he was on. The large black machine by his head that caused the electricity. The low whirring sound it made when it was on. He could not reach the machine. He couldn’t move his arms more than a few inches, and his arms kept him in place. He had no tools. He could not access his arm; he could slide it out if he broke his thumb, but the scientist had a button around his neck, probably some sort of panic button. There had to be a weak link, something he could use. His eyes slid around the room. After a few moments, they settled back on the scientist.
The scientist. The scientist was way too fascinated with him, with his pupils' reaction, and his body signs. He kept sitting close to him to check out the effect of the torture on his system. Too confident that the restraints would keep him back. He was the weak link. He was the way out.
The scientist was young, mid-twenties. It was a shame that no one had taught it that lab rats sometimes fought back; it wasn’t a lesson it would be able to learn.
The Asset forced himself to groan, knowing that it would cause the scientist to move closer to him, and then he curled himself away from him, slightly hoping to draw the scientist even closer. He waited until the second the shocks stopped and then, quick as a snake, turned around and used his teeth to bite into his neck.
The asset’s mouth hurt. It was not something he had used that often, though it wasn't the only time; it was a weapon of last resort. Knives were much more elegant, and guns much easier. As soon as he knew he had bitten into a good collection of nerves and veins, he pulled back, and blood went everywhere. He spat out what he could. He was more used to his own blood than others.
The scientist's body immediately slumped forward. The Asset had about 30 seconds to get out before the next set of shocks hit the body.
He broke his thumb and slid it out of the cuff and brought it to his other arm, where he made the arm disconnect. Perhaps they didn’t know that he could remove it. He hadn’t known either until Ayo had shown him. Shuri had shown him how during his last check-up, as she had tried to explain it wasn’t made because she didn’t trust him. He felt nothing about that now. Emotions were distractions.
He quickly removed his own arm, pulling the leads that connected him to the electrical shock system just as it was starting again. His arm was still electrified. It danced with electricity for a moment without him while he found the dampener of whatever it was trapped to the bottom side of his vibranium arm and tore it off. The shock lasted for about 30 seconds before stopping, and allowing him to reattach it to the base.
He stood up and tried again to spit out the remnants, but his teeth still felt dirty. Unfortunately, there was no water. It was a problem for later. His system would protect him from any contaminants and would stop the teeth damage from being too severe. It was unimportant. It was a much faster death than he deserved, but he had a limited amount of time before they noticed the scientist was missing.
He looked down at himself briefly; he was wearing thin pajama-like pants and a thin tee shirt, both white, showing blood spatter all over his chest. He had less blood on him than the scientist who had finally fallen onto the floor. He was barefoot.
His thumb was at an odd angle now, and he straightened his broken thumb so it wouldn’t heal wrong and put his arm back in the socket. His broken thumb throbbed distantly, but didn’t matter. Electricity or something like it still sparked through his body at times. It was a problem to take care of later; right now, all that mattered was the mission. Extract the team by any means necessary. Nothing else mattered. Extract targets. Kill anything that gets in the way.
He turned the body to face upwards. There was blood still rolling down his neck. The eyes were blank, though he was gone. There was so much blood on the previously white lab coat. The top left side was all red now. His practiced hands searched the blood-soaked pockets of the scientist for any tools or weapons, but all he had was a pen and a keycard, which he took. It would help.
He glanced around the room one last time for anything useful. Both he and the room smelled badly. It didn’t matter now.
His footsteps were silent as he walked barefoot into and down the sterile-smelling metal hall, headed for the closest room. Nothing mattered but the mission to The Asset. Anything that got in the way would be terminated. The next door had a scanner on it. He tried the keycard, seeing if they coded them all differently or not. It didn’t matter one way or another; he was getting into that room.
The light turned green, and the door unlocked. Bucky kicked it open, coming face to face with two scientists watching over Alexei, who was also on a table being electrocuted. His pen went right into the first scientist's trachea. He quickly moved to the other one and kicked him hard into the nearest wall.
He turned back around to the first and snapped her neck. It was much more elegant than ripping her throat out and less dirty for the teeth. Before the second could recover from lying against the wall, the asset stepped with his full weight onto his chest and then jumped. He could hear a sort of breaking sound, but he was still blinking, so he jumped again, using more force. This time, the blinking stopped. Only once they were both taken care of did he look at the first target. The Asset’s eyes focused on Alexei, who was blinking up at him. He turned off the machine. A simple flip of a switch, and it stopped.
They had shaved his beard. But not his hair. Had they shaved him?
It didn’t matter. Alexei was dressed the same as him, thin white pajama-like clothes, though with much less blood, just a faint yellowing around the collar from sweat. He looked a little pale, sweaty, and through his shirt, he could see a similar block of metal like he had. As soon as they had a minute, they needed to get rid of them.
“Bucky?” He sounded unsure, and his breathing was a little uneven due to the electricity. His eyes weren’t completely open. Bucky was not available, only The Asset; talking was ineffective, and they had to be fast before the facility realized the escape and sent more forces. Alexei was imprisoned similarly to him. Strong bolted in cuffs. The most efficient way out of him was the same way he got out. Only he would have to break both thumbs.
“The only way out is to break your thumbs.” He told Alexei flatly, whose eyes widened with some emotion that didn’t really matter to him, and The Asset reached down and snapped the first one. Alexei let out a loud cry of pain, his hand curling into a ball.
“You could have warned me, I wasn’t ready.” He cried.
He did warn him; he said he was going to break both his thumbs, that was his warning. But there was no time to argue.
“No time,” he said, reaching down for the other one.
“No wait-” The Asset couldn’t hesitate; the longer they took, the more likely they would face resistance on the way out. He carefully bent the thumb until it snapped. Alexei's scream of pain filled the room, and the pallor of his skin went even paler. Before Alexei could recoil on himself, he pulled the damaged hand out.
The recoiling resumed on the other side as Alexei sank in on himself like he was trying to make himself smaller, his large body curling in on itself. His hands pushed against his chest as he breathed deeply through the pain. The Asset allowed a few moments to let him, even as his eyes looked at the door.
After a few moments, Alexei slowly unfurled, though his breathing was still a little uneven, and then he raised himself on the table using his legs and core and avoiding using his hands until he was sitting. His thumbs were still loosely pressed against his chest. It took a few more seconds before he lifted his eyes to look at him.
He looked apprehensive, like the Asset was a faulty firing pin. The Russian's eyes focused on the blood on his shirt and then up to his mouth. There was still blood in his teeth. The Asset looked around for water. No water was here either. He did this time use the back of his arm to at least wipe what was around his lips away, but he already had blood on his hands, and it wouldn’t help the teeth much.
“You’re not all there, are you?” He was here, but before he could reply, Alexei carried on.
“You are the Winter Soldier?” The apprehensiveness only increased, and his eyes kept focusing on his teeth like he expected him to turn around and bite him. Biting was messy. Didn’t matter; only the mission mattered. Alexei’s hands suddenly spasmed again, either because he hit something with one of his broken thumbs or because of the residual shocks.
Alexei walked forward slowly, like he was afraid to startle him or move towards him too fast. The Asset wasn’t sure why Alexei was a target, but he would protect him.
“Soldat?” The Asset nodded; he would give Alexei about another minute, but there were things he needed to do, like retrieve the few weapons they had. He bent down and pulled the now warm pen from the scientist's neck, wiping it slightly against the scientist's coat, and then wiped his own hands for good measure; his hands were getting tacky.
“Are you okay?” Alexei asked cautiously as he searched the pockets of the new scientists. No weapons, just more pens, at least now he had 4. Unfortunately, his temporary clothing had no useful pockets to stash them in.
“The body is within acceptable parameters,” he said calmly as he stood back up again.
“Come on, it’s time to go.” He had given him as long to adjust as he could, and he simply headed for the door. He heard Alexei curse in Russian behind him very creatively, but he followed him, and that’s what was important.
The next room was Ava, who had suppressors or something embedded into her neck. She had a simpler chain keeping her chained to the ceiling. It was easier to break her out; they didn’t account for super strength, and he pulled the chain out quickly.
Somehow, she crashed to the floor. He reached out a hand to help her up, not sure why she had fallen down in the first place. Was she more injured than she appeared? She looked okay, she was also pale, and her face was screwed up like she was in pain, but her own pajamas seemed mostly dry except for sweat. Her left hand slowly reached up to grab something on her neck, wincing when it made contact. There was a large box on something in or on it. Some sort of electrical thing because there was a blinking green light.
“It’s suppressing my ability.” Looked like it was painful, if the wincing and the furrowed brows, and the sweating were any indication. It had to come out. His fingers touched the item lightly, feeling around her throat, trying to feel how deep it went. It looked like only a few inches, and it wasn’t wrapped around anything important from what he could tell.
“Good.” He muttered aloud before he firmly gripped the body of the device, hearing a sharp inhale of pain from Ava. He pulled the body out as fast as he could.
“Ow!” Ava said, then winced, feeling her throat. It was bleeding, but at least she was not being suppressed anymore. He looked for anything to stem the bleeding. The only thing clean was part of the lab coat of a woman who had two pens stuck in her. So he took her coat and took his pens back as well as the two in the other.
One of these scientists also had a pocket knife, so he was able to cut a piece off and hand it to her to press down on her wound. There was nothing he could do for Alexei’s thumbs except let them heal.
“Come on.” He said to both of them, who were both looking at him strangely. “Come on.” He said again, they didn’t have time for this.
“Is he?” Ava asked Alexei, who nodded.
“Winter Soldier,” he said with a combination of awe and fear in his tone.