Chapter 12
“Winter Soldier...Wakanda...how well that de-brainwashing worked…”
“...back on our side…asset”
“..track...Russians…”
“...Rollins guy, you used to work with…”
“...an asshole, but a competent asshole. Didn’t think he’d still be alive…”
This time, Bucky’s brain woke up with his body. Things were still foggy but...he wasn’t in pain, and that taste of electricity was gone from the air. He wouldn’t panic this time around. Eyes closed and breathing evenly, he took in his situation.
Still tied up, not great, but also, not worse. He tried to clear his mind, tried to think. His chest tightened as he cast his mind back, the floor, the fear, the electricity. Hydra. He stopped himself. Focus. Breathe.
He refocused on his surroundings, willing his body to stay calm. He could hear voices, male and female. Barton? What was...and then he started to remember. Barton and the girl, right. So not Hydra? They had turned up on his doorstep looking for help and then...out of nowhere the girl had attacked him?
No, not out of nowhere. She’d come prepared. Customised arrows with some kind of a drug to take him down. Capture, not kill. But why-
The bedroom. Rollins. Hydra.
Fuck.
His head was getting clearer as the drugs wore off - so they must have gotten him with those arrows after all - and suddenly the past 12 hours started making sense. How had he been so dumb? What were the odds of Barton turning up at the door with a stranger in tow less than a day after the...incident, with Rollins?
Barton had been S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had been Hydra.
There were bound to be a few rats that didn’t go down with the ship after Insight. And Barton was good, Bucky knew that much. If anyone was to get out under the radar, keep their cover and bide their time, he could probably do it. Of course Hydra would have wanted an agent inside the Avengers, it was so obvious. Hydra was excellent at compartmentalisation, it was completely plausible, no likely, any information on Barton would have been kept off the main grid.
Just like the Winter Soldier was.
Bucky hadn’t even had time to figure out what he was going to do with Rollins before there they were, on his doorstep. He should have known, immediately. No such thing as a coincidence, not in his life.
But he’d let himself get soft. Let goddamn Raynor get in his head with all her talk of trusting, living like a civilian. He had been distracted last night, he knew that. Unfocused. Fresh from a nightmare of...he stopped his train of thought before it went too far. But yeah, distracted.
And Steve had trusted Barton, so of course Bucky had been stupid enough to just accept that at face value. So fucking dumb. Again. Every time so fucking dumb and trusting people who only wanted to use him and...stop. Focus. His head was throbbing and he could feel his skin crawling, whether it was an effect of the sedatives or...fucking Sergei, that asshole, screwing him over.
He’d almost forgotten that. His thoughts drifted to the little black bag, if he could just get his head clear so he could think…
Jesus, he was pathetic. Focus. He couldn’t afford to be weak now. Brock would be laughing his ass off at him, thinking like that. Shut up. Who cares what the fuck Brock Rumlow would be doing. Focus. Order through pain. Test the restraints, but don’t let them know you’re awake. It is not happening again. Never again.
He tensed the restraints behind his back. Whatever cable Barton had used was strong, and expertly tied. By the feel of it, Barton had also removed his two knives. He wasn’t going anywhere quickly. But if there was one thing he knew, it was Hydra. And those assholes always got cocky. When they gave him his chance, he was taking it.