Battle Scars (A Bucky Barnes Fanfic)

Six

"It was him. He looked right at me like he didn't even know me." Steve says as we are being taken who knows where in the van.

"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago." Sam says.

"Zola." Steve replies "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha tells Steve.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky." Sam notices Natasha is bleeding from her shoulder and looks at the guards.

"We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." Sam says and suddenly one of the guards pulls out an electric rod and neutralizes the other guard and knocks him out. The guard is revealed to be Hill as she takes off her helmet.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain." Hill says.

Sam looks at her in confusion.

"Who's this guy?" Hill asks Steve.

She looks at me "Who are you?"

"Vega Stark, a friend," I reply.

......................................................

After managing to escape, Hill has taken us to a secret facility, Steve helps Nat out of the car and we all follow Hill inside. A man runs towards us; referring to Natasha's wound, Hill says:

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam adds.

"Let me take her." the doctor says.

"She'll want to see him first," Hill responds.

Hill takes us to a room where Fury who's alive and lying in bed, we all look at him in shock.

"About damn time," Fury says.

"What the fuck?" I ask, earning a glare from Steve.

......................................................

As Natasha's wound is being treated, Fury talks to us.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache." He lists all of his injuries.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung." the doctor says.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha says.

"Tetrodotoxin B." Fury responds "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asks.

"Why not just tell us?" I add.

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Hill replies.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury says, "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

I see Nat look down and feel bad for her at that.

......................................................

Later we sit at a table looking at a photo of Pierce as Fury speaks "This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, "Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch," Natasha says.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore," Fury says and opens a case containing three chips.

"What's that?" Sam asks.

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized," Hill says.

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury tells us.

"One or two won't cut it." Hill adds, "We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA." Fury continues, "We need to get passed them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left..."

"We're not salvaging anything." Steve joins in from his seat by me "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."

"SHIELD had nothing to do with it," Fury says.

"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends." Steve tells him "SHIELD's been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Fury asks, "I noticed."

"And how many paid the price before you did?" Steve snaps.

I give him a warning look.

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

Now it is my turn to snap "I seriously doubt that" causing them to look at me stunned.

"How do you know him?" Hill asks, but I ignore her, not wanting to talk about it.

"Even if you had, would you have told me? Or Vega, who apparently also knows him somehow," Steve says, "Or would you have compartmentalized that too? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."

"He's right," Hill says to my surprise.

Fury looks at Natasha, then Sam.

"Don't look at me." Sam tells Fury "I do what he does, just slower."

I smirk at him, and he rolls his eyes. That's kind of how our relationship has been going so far.

"Well..." Fury says, "Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."