Agent Stark || BUCKY BARNES [1]

002 ― Captured

1943 ― Austria

When Holland Stark woke up, confusion hit her first.

Her head throbbed. Her limbs ached. The cold crept into her skin before her mind even caught up. She blinked several times as her vision slowly adjusted to the dim light, shadows thick against the rough walls. It took her a moment to realize she was on the floor... of a cell.

It was cold. It was dark. And she didn't know how she got there. Fragments of memory flashed behind her eyes—the injection, the chamber, Steve's voice. The explosion. And then the blow to her head.

"No..." Holland whispered, the panic starting to rise. Her breathing began to quicken as she sat up and looked around the small enclosure. Stone walls. Heavy bars. A lock that glinted in the faint overhead light. She scrambled to her feet, her hands wrapping around the bars tightly. "No, no, no..."

The space suddenly felt tighter. Smaller. Her chest constricted. It was happening again.

Her childhood flashed back with sharp clarity—Howard's mother locking her in the closet whenever she was disobedient. Howard's mother hated that Holland was the product of an affair, and even worse, hated that she was black. Whenever their father wasn't around and she didn't feel like dealing with Holland, she'd put her in the closet. Holland never forgot the darkness. The silence. The hours she was trapped with no one able to hear her cries. It was those moments, all those years ago, that had planted the seed of her claustrophobia. And now, in this prison, it was threatening to bloom into full panic.

She closed her eyes, trying to slow her breath. Then, from somewhere nearby, she heard a voice. "Holland...?" The sound stopped her cold. Her eyes snapped open, searching for the source. Across from her, through the thick metal bars, a figure stepped closer to the front of his cell. Hands gripping the bars. Eyes wide in disbelief.

It was him.

The man from the Stark Expo. The soldier with the crooked smile. James.... but he told her she could call him Bucky. "Bucky...?" she said, her voice softer now, still breathless. "What are you—Where are we?"

"I'm so relieved to see your face—" he said quickly, though his tone shifted just as fast. Confusion swept over his expression. Of all the ways he imagined seeing her again, this wasn't it. He'd hoped for another moment like before—light flirting, laughter, not... this. Not locked in cells under Hydra's command.

"How did you end up here?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Steve, he—" Holland started, speaking quickly, her thoughts scattered as her mind raced to piece everything together. She hadn't even realized she was thinking aloud.

"Steve?" Bucky interrupted, his attention sharpening immediately. "What happened to him? Is he okay?"

Holland nodded quickly, heart still pounding, as she steadied herself against the bars. "He's fine... he's okay. Um— I was recruited by the SSR. Howard was working with other scientists on a super-soldier serum. Steve got injected—he's okay. There was an explosion... One minute, I was chasing after the guy who did it. The next minute... I wake up here."

Bucky's brow furrowed. That pit in his stomach deepened. Holland hadn't just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She wasn't a bystander. She was valuable. And that meant Hydra had no intention of letting her go. He gripped the bars tighter as he looked at her—this woman who'd walked into his life like a spark, and now stood across from him, trapped in the same nightmare. They were going to use her. He could feel it.

And the thought made his blood run cold.

"Holland—" Bucky began, but she cut him off before he could get another word out.