𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓷𝓲𝓪𝓬 ❖ 𝓫. 𝓫𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓼

C H A P T E R (39) - B U C K Y

Cassie looked at the man stood in front of her, his emotionless eyes boring holes in her figure.

"Easy way or hard way?" She questioned with her arms over her chest.

He didn't respond, yet spun the knife in his hand and threw it to where she stood, leaving her little time to duck. When she stood back upright again, she turned and saw the knife lodged in the car behind her. She looked back at the winter soldier and sighed.

"That could've hit me."

She laughed at her own joke, knowing that this man was too emotionless to stifle one. He began his murderous stalk towards her, grabbing her by her shoulders and throwing her against the nearby car. He pulled on the knife he had thrown and dislodged it, throwing and catching it so he had a better grip. He went to slash it across her face, but she grabbed both his wrists before he could and ducked, making him hit his head on the vehicle.

She watched as he regained his balance and cracked his neck, turning to face her. He then pulled out another gun and took aim, giving her only a few seconds to close the distance between them. Before he could shoot his shot, she pushed him against the vehicle as harshly as she could and jumped, wrapping her thighs around his neck.

He helplessly tried to swat her off with his hands, and it was only as his left arm grazed her thigh that she really noticed it - he had a metal arm.

She admired it for a few seconds, running a finger over the metal and the red star that marked his shoulder. She was distracted for too long as he proceeded to rip her from him and throw her to the ground, watching as she rolled across the cement.

It was only as Cassie looked at her hands that she realised she had taken his mask with her, and was so intrigued to see who he was as she stumbled and tried to stand up. She wiped a small amount of blood off of her temple and focused her eyes on the winter soldier who was now unmasked.

She saw his face. She saw his features. She saw him - yet she refused to believe it.

Pushing down her fear, guilt and sadness, she gulped and found the confidence to speak.

"...Bucky?"

Her voice was quiet, minuscule. So quiet that only the man who stood a few feet away from her could hear.

"Who the hell is Bucky?"

Steve had stood up now and had his shield, and his mouth joined Cassie's in falling open when he saw the familiar face. But Cassie was too overcome with emotions to even protrude another word, so she succumbed to the disassociation and entered a dazed state.

She didn't know how long she stood there for, despite it only being a few seconds. But those few seconds dragged on for what felt like an entire lifetime.

She watched him fall. She watched him die because of her, and now she was seeing him in person. In the flesh. It was him.

She ignored the chaos around her, and was hardly even able to make out Sam tackling the winter soldier, or Bucky, to the ground. He got up as quickly as he had fallen and disappeared into the cloud of smoke that surrounded him, leaving Cassie stood in confusion.

Not even the screeching of tires was enough to get her out the dazed state she was so deep in as the STRIKE team exited the vehicles and surrounded them with guns.

"Get on your knees." Rumlow demanded from behind Cassie.

She didn't even listen to him, every word blurring together to make a sentence that didn't make sense. Her eyes were too blurry to focus, her hands were too shaky to move and her legs were too weak to stand as Rumlow kicked the back of her knees, watching as she fell to the floor.

He handcuffed her as her knees scraped against the concrete as he pulled her to her feet and dragged her inside one of the vehicles. She was shoved next to Natasha and knew Sam and Steve were in there too, but her eyes were still fixated on the dog tag around her neck.

"He died in front of me and because of me." She started, her voice slightly croaky, "He's dead, he's not...he's not..."

Natasha bumped knees with her, calming her down as she placed a reassuring hand on her thigh. The gestures calmed her down enough for her to make sense of the situation, swallowing the guilt she felt building in her heart.

"Oh my God..." she mumbled quietly, catching Steve's attention. "They experimented on him."

Steve nodded and took in a breath, connecting the dots himself. "It was Zola, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped him survive the fall. The must have found him and..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.

Cassie stared at the floor, it was another thing to add onto the list of things that were her fault. Bucky falling was her fault. Him getting captured by HYDRA was her fault. And now he could look at her and not even know who she was.

"He didn't even recognise me." She muttered, fiddling with her fingers, deciding to try and least make the smallest joke she could, "Bucky is the snowman..."

Her dry, humourless chuckle echoed in the awkward atmosphere. Everyone glanced at each other as they stared at Cassie in disbelief, yet she just glared at the ground.

"It's not your fault, Cassie..." Natasha assured quietly.

"Actually, it is." She began, her voice slightly raised, "I was the one who couldn't help him. I was the one who let him fall, and I was the one who didn't go looking for him. I could've found him before they did...I could've prevented this."

After she was finished, everyone was silent. As much as they all believed it wasn't her fault, they knew there was nothing they could say in that moment to believe them. So they let her sit there and process her emotions before having to deal with any more.