Blue Phoenix - MCU Civil War Replacement

Chapter Six

By the time we'd gone back to the others at the entrance to the passageway they'd all taken the easy was out like the others. It'd been a long time since I'd heard of anyone using cyanide; that was Cold War or Nazi Germany type stuff, not something you'd expect in 2016 America. It made me wonder what they were so intent on hiding.

I was finishing up my report in my office when someone knocks on the door. Looking up I see Sam leaning against the doorframe, his report in hand.

"Hey Sam, did you need something?" I ask closing my report.

"I was working on my report and I wasn't sure if I should include..."

"I'm not hiding Sam. I'd never ask you to withhold information."

"Why didn't you tell us before? You told Stark."

"Not really something that comes up in ordinary conversation. Tony was trying to recruit me so I had to disclose what happened to me. I know Hydra are the bad guys.

"I guess not but if Hydra held you... experimented on you, that's kind of a big deal. Steve's had me searching for Bucky since he pulled him out of the water after the crash."

"You won't find him unless he wants to be found. I may have failed their mind control tests but I still went through their grooming. Blending in and flying under the radar is the first lesson a Winter Soldier learns."

"You really fought him?

Sam comes in, closing the door behind him and sits in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

"I think it's closer to say I got my ass kicked by him repeatedly. I read in Steve's reports that he seemed... confused when Steve said his name."

"Yea, from what he told us it was like Bucky was two different people."

"He is. Hydra... trained his mind to respond to a series of random words. Once he heard them he would do anything and everything they told him to do. Once the mission was complete he was as much a prisoner as I was. We were housed in the same cell and he'd be heartbroken that he'd done what he did. He may have done horrible things for Hydra but it's not his fault."

"Does Steve know?"

"No."

"You should tell him. He's worried about Bucky, and if you could help us find him..."

"I don't think I'd be much help but I'll do my best. As for Steve I plan on telling him but it's not really something you can just bring up and I don't think he likes me very much as it is. Telling him Hydra had me probably won't help that."

"Fine but I think you're wrong. Steve doesn't dislike anyone, he's just complicated. So what happened after you failed the experiments?"

"The best I can figure is whatever caused my accelerated healing in the first place made their mind games and torture techniques useless. The scepter somehow enhanced it like it did Wanda and Pietro instead of giving them control of my mind like it had for Loki. The final step was the serum and it killed me."

"Do you remember dying?"

"Sort of, I remember the pain and the last thing I saw was the Soldier looking at me with no emotion of any kind. Next thing I remember is exploding from the ground covered in blue flames and then being naked once the flames went out."

"What did your friends say when you made it back?"

"I didn't have any, no family either. No one knew I'd been missing; no one cared enough to notice. I went to tell S.H.I.E.L.D. but when I saw Sitwell there I knew it wasn't safe. Hydra assumed I was dead and I didn't want them to find out otherwise."