Armor (Winter Soldier)

[19]

Wind swept by in the balcony in which Sam spent her afternoon reading a U.S History book. She was enthralled with the tales and happenings of the past, she almost believed that she was born in the wrong decade.

But that wasn't entirely true, or she would have never met Bucky.

Later, she was hustling in the closet, trying to find her special necklace that her mother had given her.

But to no avail, she couldn't find it and hoped it was at a safe place in her apartment.

She had called in earlier to advise the museum of her current state and the reason she couldn't come to work.

Pepper was out of town, traveling with Tony to pay their respects to the fallen air force soldiers that had died in Iraq. Thomas, well he had gone back to his mother.

You could guess where Bucky was.

So there was no one to talk to except Jarvis and Sam felt useless.

The late night came and she gave up to find more things to do. But right when she was about to lay in a peaceful sleep, the door swung open and a man with a long gray cape and sunglasses, appeared. A nasty scar ran across his left cheek, all the way to the end of his neck. That made him look even more hideous.

Pointing a gun at her, Sam almost dropped dead from the fear right there. "Let's have a talk." He smirked a devil-like smile, making his scar twist.

"Wh-Who are y-you?" Sam demanded, trying to stand her ground and not be afraid of this man.

"Well, you see honey that's sort of classified information." He said frowning dramatically while swinging his handgun towards a SHIELD fugitive that had stepped in front of Sam, eventually shooting the life out of him.

Sam covered her ears and screamed, scared because of the gunshot. Getting hurt or winding up dead wasn't an option she had.

"Please, just let me–"

"Let you what? Call the cops? That star-spangled crap of a human?" The man asked, raising his voice and eyebrows. She shook her head, staying silent.

The man kneeled down and lifted her chin. "In your dreams, honey." Sam pulled away, disgusted.

"I would like to call Sargent Barnes!" She said, hoping that didn't ring a bell.

The man shook his head and pulled out a phone of his own. "This?" He swung and slid it through his fingers. "you want this?" Sam felt pathetic, but it was worth the try.

More SHIELD fugitives came rushing in her room and the man turned around to shoot them down.

Perfect timing to grab her phone.

And so she did and qquickly dialed Bucky while the insane man fought the armed fugitives.

It was difficult to talk with gunshots blaring in the air, but she said what she needed to say and hung up, facing the man now. He was furious.

•Back to our previous event in the last chapter...•

Bucky raised his hands slowly, obviously preparing to attack the man behind him.

"Not so fast, Winter Soldier." The raspy voice of the man warned in a playful manner. Even though this was no joke. "Just give us the files back and everything will be alright. No harm."

The man whispered, Bucky not believing one bit of it. Those were lies and he only wanted revenge.

To hell the Winter Soldier. I'm James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky thought and tried an escape technique, by stepping on the mystery man's foot. Only he missed, his heel hitting the solid floor.

The man had warned him, and he hit Bucky's temple with the butt of the gun.

"Stop!" Sam screamed, begging and trying really hard to stand.

"You never learn, do you?" the man said, both him and Bucky gasping.

All of a sudden, more EALF commanders came inside, holding huge railguns, their faces etched with black masks.

He had Bucky in a headlock and he shook his own head, gesturing for the men to take Sam away.

"Don't touch her!" Bucky yelled, having his metal arm struggle to get freed from the headlock, his head feeling dizzy from the hit. He didn't care, he wanted no one touching her.

"You don't want her to see you die, do you?" the man almost laughed.

Bucky growled and kicked the man from behind, causing a groan to erupt from him.

He threw himself at the commanders and retrieved his knife from his leather latch.

Stabbing two, he leaned down to the floor and slid his foot out to trip a standing commander. He eventually ended up getting the railgun, but soon felt a sharp pain on his shoulder.

Sam screamed, tears streaming down her face while watching her loved one get shot.

Bucky shook and he reached to touch the fresh wound. He turned to see the shooter and charged at him, but he was extremely weak–causing the man to take advantage–locking his arms behind him.

The man took ahold of Bucky's head and made him drop to his knees.

"Look." He said furiously, pulling Bucky's head to look at Sam, while commanders surrounded her. "Look at what you've done."

He felt steaming tears, run down his face as he watched them kick Sam in her stomach. Hurting her.

"Stop, please..." he begged hanging his head down in surrender.

The sound of bullets erupted in the air and all the commanders dropped dead on the floor.

Bucky felt the man's grip on his head get loose and then not at all. He slowly turned around to see a red headed woman, who seemed vaguely familiar with a small handgun. The man was wounded, but not dead.

Quickly, the redhead took a glance at Sam and when she turned her attention back to the man.

He was gone.

"That son of a bitch." The redhead muttered.

Bucky didn't waste time and he limped over to Sam, who was currently laying on the floor, blood oozing out of her mouth.

"James..." she called him by his name, feeling like she couldn't cry any longer.

Sam shook her head and Bucky cupped her face with one hand.

"We lost." she said and one tear streamed down her face.

"No," his voice cracked. "No, Sam–"

Sam brought his forehead and pressed it to hers, both closing their eyes.

"It's alright." she whispered, even though it was a lie. A lie to her. A lie to Bucky. A lie to both.

Steve came rushing in the room, looking at dead bodies everywhere and Natasha looking serious, but sympathetic towards the couple.

He knew it was too late.

-

"Who was he?" Steve asked angrily.

"He wasn't supposed to show up. Definitely not, Jeremy Streak." Fury stated.

"Then why was he here? Was the mission in Kutzville worthless?" he asked, seriousness swarming through his blue eyes, they almost seemed gray.

"He could be another setup. This event that just occurred could be a distraction for a bigger plan that EALF has." Bucky spoke, his tone staying flat.

"I'm sorry about Ms. Voyles, Sargent Barnes, but the mission has to continue." Fury said. "They found her seven hours ago."

The whole conference room went silent and only the trace of hollowness followed afterwards.

Everyone, knew it was Insanity.

"They will use her." Fury repeated, what he had warned a few weeks back.

"We need to relocate Ms. Voyles in a safer area and the tower will be off limits as in dwelling." he informed, both soldiers listening.