A Soldier's Journey

Part 13: Thank You Tinhead

My head continues to pound and send agonizing waves of pain throughout my body. The previous vision was my far the worst I've ever had. Hopefully, that means that Bucky is actually in Moscow. We've tried almost everything to find him. The only leads that we have are my visions and occassional spottings from other people. My visions have been getting worse and more frequent. They're taking a toll on my body, but I'm trying to not let it show. I just want to find Bucky and know that he's safe. After everything that he's been through, he at least deserves to know that we care. I know that he probably doesn't remember either of us, but he needs to know that people care for him and are willing to help protect him. I know what it's like to be on the run from Hydra and I know that it can be very scary and can cause a lot of anxiety and panic attacks. I can't imagine what he's going through between being captured by Arnim Zola, falling off of a train, being experimented on by Hydra for 70 years, finding out that he can't remember his whole past, and now being on the run from Hydra.

"Lauren?" Sam asks, getting my attention away from my thoughts. "We're here." He says. I notice Steve looking at me with a worried expression on his face, but he decides to not question it and focus again. The jet descends and we land in a large field. "Alright, Sam, you fly ahead, Lauren and I will take the bike and we'll meet at the apartment. I want you to get an eye inside the apartment and see if you can see Bucky in there." Steve directs. We both nod and Sam gets on his suit while Steve prepares the bike. The rear ramp to the jet lowers and Sam flies off. Steve takes the bike out of the jet and I close the rear ramp before hopping on the back of the bike with Steve. "You sure you're feeling okay?" He asks sceptically, turning to make eye contact with me as he straddles the bike. I avoid looking in his eyes. "Yeah, let's go before Sam scares Bucky away." I say, wrapping my arms around Steve's stomach. He sighs and the bike takes off down the road. I don't want to lie to Steve, but I also don't want him to worry. We need to focus on getting Bucky back and besides, it's just the aftershock of the vision.

Soon, we drive down the road from the apartment. I see Sam flying around the apartment. "Cap, it looks like the apartment's empty." Sam says through our comms. "Good." Steve simply replies. Steve stops the bike down the road from the apartment and helps me off the bike, then we quickly advance towards the building. We make our way up the stairs and I touch the doornob. Ice forms inside the lock, making it shatter and the lock to fall off. We walk into the apartment cautiously. Steve, Sam and I spread out. It's a pretty small apartment with a seperate room and kitchen, then the main room which is mostly empty. I walk to the kitchen and see a bunch of news papers and files lying around the table. I walk towards them and glance at the newspaper from years ago. If this is Bucky's place, then he's trying to catch up on everything now a days. I glance at one of the files that says Captain America on it. I open the file and see a picture of Steve in it and a lot of information. Next to Steve's file, I see a file on me. I reach out to open the file, when my head pounds again, causing my knees to give out and me to fall to the ground. I land crouched down on my knees, clutching my head and letting out a painful scream. In seconds, Steve is at my side, crouching down next to me and holding me tight. Images flash through my head again, dozens at a time, only adding to the amount of pain. After a few seconds, I look up and meet Steve's worried expression. "Hydra's here. We have to find Bucky." I say, quickly getting up and stumbling around the apartment. "We have to get out of here." Sam says. "We're not leaving without Bucky!" I yell, still looking throughout the apartment for anything that might tell us what he's up to. All of the sudden, people fly through the windows, catching the three of us off guard. I feel a sudden sting in my neck and flip around to see an agent with a large syringe in their hands. Before I get the chance to react, darkness consumes me. I hear Steve yell out my name and feel my body hit the floor.

Steve's POV:

A bunch of agents blast through the windows in the apartment. Blocking my view of both Lauren and Sam. They lift their weapons and I see Lauren fall to the ground from beneath their legs. "Lauren!" I yell, trying to see if she's still conscious. I advance towards her, but the Hydra agents start to use force. All of them come towards me and thrust their weapons forward. I quickly dodge them, grabbing a few and twisting them, making the agents drop the weapons. I throw the weapons out the window and walk towards the agents. I throw my shield at them, making a couple fall and a few stumble back. We continue to fight quickly. After a few minutes, I glance back at where I saw Lauren fall and see that she's gone. I look over at Sam and see him also fighting a group of agents. I push past the agents and go to the window. I look out it and don't see a sight of anymore agents, or Lauren. "Sam, they took Lauren!" I yell, getting back to the fight. Anger flashes through me, making me take out the surrounding agents two times faster. Soon, all of the visible agents are lying on the floor, unconscious or dead. Sam walks up behind me and places a hand on my shoulder. "We'll find her." He says encouragingly. I want to believe him. We will find her, but what's going to happen to her?