Chapter 10
He came to face down on a hard floor, an ache in his head and his skin crawling. Everything seemed...blurry, and the edges of his brain itched. It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling. He moved to push himself up off the ground, and found that his arm was stuck. He tried the other one, but that wouldn’t move either.
His breathing quickened as he realised his legs were also restrained. He pulled against his restraints weakly and tried to stay calm. His brain was hazy and he couldn’t think to try remember how he got here. He could hear low voices in another room, and his heart started to pound, pulse throbbing in his head. He couldn’t get enough air in his lungs, the weight of his own body crushing down on him. Tied up like an animal on a hard floor. His body remembered what this meant even as his brain tried to fight for understanding.
Bucky (yes, that’s right, he was Bucky, he wouldn’t forget again) started shaking involuntarily as the voices in the next room stopped and he heard the steps coming toward him. “No,”, he groaned out, desperate “No, not again, please, no”. The voices were speaking again but he couldn’t understand them, couldn’t comprehend anything beyond the taste of electricity on the air and the fact that no, he doesn’t want this, not again, he can’t do it, he can’t -
And then he felt a sting on his neck, and a familiar feeling floated through him as he slipped away into the darkness, and he was grateful. It would be easier this way.
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Before Clint had a chance to explain who the hell the guy on the bed was, a noise from the other room alerted them to Barnes’ coming round again. “Damn that guy just does not stay down.” Clint murmured. “Right, well this complicates things a bit but just...do not untie this guy. I’ll explain once we’ve dealt with Barnes.”
Kate was getting increasingly frustrated with not having a damn clue what was going on. But her throat hurt too much right now to yell at Clint, so she just nodded and followed him into the living room.
Barnes was clearly awake, but also it seemed very much out of it. Kate guessed multiple doses of home-made tranquilliser might do that to a person. He looked pale and clammy, and was struggling weakly against the cables tying his hands and feet. As soon as they stepped into the room he started speaking, in what sounded to be slurred Russian. Kate hadn’t a clue what he was saying. She pressed a hand to her bruised throat.
“Will not stay down,” Clint shook his head, and pressed something into her hand, “Here, take this just in case and stay back”. Kate stared for a second, then turned on the taser. Growing up rich in NYC, she didn’t need instructions on how to use it.
Clint approached Barnes slowly, then seeing he was genuinely still immobilised by the cables, knelt down beside him. Barnes kept muttering in Russian. “Hey, calm down. I can’t understand you.” Barnes didn’t seem to be really listening to Clint, as his only reaction was to struggle harder against the cables tying him up. Clint sighed and jabbed yet another tranq. arrow into his neck. “Better safe than sorry”.
Clint looked back up at Kate, and her face must have been doing something, because he frowned, eyes full of concern. “You okay?”
Was she okay? She almost laughed. No, not really. “Clint,” she said, her voice sounding strangely calm to her even as her fingers went white around the taser, “Can you please tell me what the flip is going on?”