It’s been three months since he last saw Bucky. Despite all the leads they’ve had, all the HYDRA bases they’ve destroyed, there hasn’t been a single sign of him.
Clint dreads to think what they’ll find when they finally get Bucky back. That makes him search that much harder, scanning intel sent on by Maria Hill, running missions up and down the country, and leading every attack on HYDRA.
Finally, late one night, he gets a call from Tony. “Hey Clint.” The fact Tony’s using his proper name and not a nickname sets off alarm bells in Clint’s head. “You might want to come down to the workshop. We’ve got news of Bucky.”
Clint doesn’t bother answering. He drops the phone, and runs to the lift, quickly coming down to Tony’s workshop.
The moment he steps out, Tony moves in front of the screen he was looking at, and Nat comes over to him.
“I’m not sure you should look at this, Clint,” she says. “But you need to know. HYDRA’s had him the whole time. And to cut it short, they have a list of demands. Including the Avengers standing down, and turning ourselves in to them.”
“Or?” He has a feeling he knows what she’s going to say.
“Or they’ll torture Bucky into becoming the Winter Soldier again. And maybe kill him.”
“Let me see the video.” If Bucky’s still alive and fighting them, he needs proof for himself.
Nat looks like she’s about to argue, but Tony steps aside, so Clint could come forward and see the video.
He regretted it immediately, but he found himself unable to look away.
Bucky was in a chair, limbs almost invisible under the thick restraints pinning him down. He was blindfolded and gagged, and Clint noticed he was only wearing a pair of threadbare pants.
The same pants he’d been wearing when he was taken, although they were now ripped to almost rags and stained with blood, dirt and who knew what else.
It left the injuries on his torso in full view of the camera – all the burns and bruises, the cuts and the obvious breaks.
There was a whirring noise, and the metal ring attached to the chair that Clint previously hadn’t noticed rotated down, resting a metal headpiece over Bucky’s face. Clint realised that Bucky was in the chair that HYDRA used to wipe his memories.
If they managed to get him back, would he even remember them?
Someone pulled the lever directly in front of the camera, and Bucky began screaming, as they saw the chair shock him. Clint watched on in horror as it lasted for several minutes – and Bucky was conscious the whole time.
“For every day that you do not turn up,” a voice in the video said, “We will repeat this process. And if he dies, he dies.”
Bucky growled as best he could through the gag. His head shook minutely from side to side.
“And stop trying to communicate,” the voice continued. Bucky didn’t get any warning as the person drew a knife and stabbed him, right in the stop where characters always dramatically reveal stab wounds through their bloodstained shirts.
Bucky immediately tensed, and let out a low groan.
“One day,” the man says, and then the screen goes black.
“Did you manage to trace it?” Clint asks, turning to Tony.
Tony shakes his head. “Not yet. JARVIS is working on it. It’ll take a few hours; there’s a lot of encryption, but we can do it.”
Clint blew out a breath. “Okay. You do that and Nat and I’ll draw up some kind of attack plan. Prep the jet. Something like that.”
“I know you know this, but I feel like I have to say it,” Nat says, “It’s a blatant trap.”
“And we don’t have a choice,” Clint pointed out.
“I don’t like it,” Nat says, but she follows him down to the armoury without further argument.
Clint begins to pick out bows and guns and knives while Nat cleans them, and then stores them carefully on the quinjet.