stevebucky - hiraeth

5. Broken

Tony rapped his fingers on the armrest impatiently as the quinjet got closer to its destination.

"Hey." Rhodes gave him a look. "You okay?"

Tony tucked his hands away. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine, are you fine?"

"I'm a little nervous." Rhodes admitted. "So are you."

"So maybe it's been a bit. And the last time I saw him, we almost murdered each other. But I'm not nervous."

"It's fine to be nervous, Tones."

Tony ignored him and looked out the window, watching the Raft rise from the ocean. "We're here. Let's see how Cap is doing."

                                                                          -

Sharon, as usual, was waiting.

"Nice to see you again." Sharon said curtly.

"I'd say the same... but I'd be lying." Tony flashed a smirk and she rolled her eyes, leading them to the main room.

"I'll let you have some alone time," Sharon beamed, opening the door for them.

Tony and Rhodes stepped into the wide room, and Clint immediately started clapping.

"Wasn't sure if you would make it!" He yelled, his voice hard. "Wanted to see the mess you made?"

"We're not doing this again, Clint," Tony said firmly. "Where's Rogers?"

"He's here," Wanda spoke up, amber eyes narrowed in fury. "Have fun trying to get through to him."

"Seriously. We can't," Scott said, shrugging.

Tony frowned, tilting his head a little. "What are you talking about?"

"See for yourself," Sam said, pointing.

There was a small cell in between Clint and Scott, about half the size of everyone else's. A man was curled up on a cot on the left side.

"Is that-" Tony was confused.

"Cap," Rhodes muttered.

"What's wrong with him?"

"We don't know, Tony." Clint said sharply. "We were hoping you did, since thanks to you, he's in here."

"How'd you know that-"

"Lucky guess."

Tony stepped in front of the glass. "Capsicle? You in there?"

Steve didn't move. His chest was visibly moving up and down, and his limbs occasionally twitched.

"You sure he isn't just asleep?"

Clint just glared.

Tony rapped on the barrier. "Hey, Cap."

Nothing. Tony knocked harder, and Steve bolted up, now sitting. Tony jumped back in surprise. His eyes were wide open, staring right at Tony, but they weren't really there.

After a brief pause, Steve began to scream.

The sound was gut-wrenching, primal. It was a sound of pure fear, and it wasn't the Steve Tony knew. And he wasn't stopping, now clawing at his face, his neck, his arms, his chest- desperately trying to escape from something that wasn't even happening. And his eyes were open the whole time, scanning everything without really looking at it.

"Oh my god," Tony muttered.

"Is this new? How often does this happen?" Rhodes asked, genuinely afraid. Steve continued yelling.

"It happens all the time, ever since he thought it would be a good idea to try to escape," Sam said.

Steve started saying words, but not sentences, just desperate things- "NO! PLEASE! NO! DON'T PLEASE NO PLEASE DON'T-" an endless stream of begging for something to stop. This cut off and he just held his head in his hands, sobbing, snot running down his face, defeated.

"This happens a couple times a day." Wanda said over his crying.

"What is he seeing?" Tony asked.

"We don't really know." Sam admitted. "We have a few guesses, though."

"What are they?"

"Why should you care?"

"I mean, come on. This is Cap, and this shouldn't be happening to anyone."

"Nice of you to get all invested in us all of a sudden."

Steve suddenly stood, working his way off the cot. He blinked a few times, his face red and streaked with tears. He reached out his hand, shaking.

"Bucky?" Steve whispered.

"Of course," Tony murmured. He looked at Sam. "This is one of your guesses, I'm assuming?"

"I mean, this is Steve. So whatever is doing this is using Barnes, somehow." 

"NO!" Steve choked out, fresh tears rolling down his face. "NO! NO!"

"I've never seen him this.. vulnerable." Rhodes said. "Or emotional."

Steve fell to his knees, shouting Barnes's name over and over again. He curled up in fetal position, noises coming from his mouth that were nothing but pain.

Tony was shivering. He needed to get out of there and figure out what to do.

He looked up at one of the many security cameras. "We're all wrapped up in here!"

"Can't handle it, huh?" Clint snapped.

Tony didn't even look at him as he and Rhodes walked out, Steve's cries fading away.

The two friends didn't say a word to each other as they went back into the quinjet, and Tony set a course back to the Avengers Compound.

Rhodes was the first to speak up. "He's-"

"Broken." Tony finished for him. "We have to stop this."

                                                                          -

James Buchanan Barnes was on the move. 

He sat in the middle of the bus, baseball cap pulled over his eyes, desperately hoping the thin disguise would work. It always did for Steve, though he had no idea how. He was missing his arm again, even though it had always reminded him of all the people he had killed with it. 

And he missed Steve, but he didn't really know what to think of that. What mattered now was where he was going-

To the Avengers Compound.