brainwashed & controlled| bucky barnes [mcu fanfiction]

8| once they go missing, they never turn up.

"Have you seen her?"

"I'm sorry, but no."

Bucky sighed and tried again. He approached a man wearing casual attire.

"Have you seen-"

"No, and stop trying. Once they go missing, they never turn up," the man scowled. He had been watching Bucky for the past few days as he searched for Briar. Bucky hadn't slept for a week and bags were starting to form under his eyes. The man didn't want to admit it but he had once been looking for someone too. He had given up hope and carried on with his life miserably.

"She will. I know she will," Bucky muttered under his breath and tried again.

He kept trying. He never gave up. Steve helped on the days he was free. They weren't accepting defeat. They just couldn't. Briar had saved their asses tons of times and they knew she wouldn't just pick up and leave them like that. The 3 of them had a special bond no other people could have with them. They were a family.

A family.

***

Maria Hill led Bucky, Sharon, and Sam into a secret bunker she and Fury had established.

"Listen," she stopped them before opening the door. "No one else knows about this place and no one ever will," she warned them with a dangerous look in her eyes that showed she meant business.

"Got it," Sam answered.

She led them inside and everyone looked around. It was just like a regular bunker except that this one was far more protected. There were security cameras located in every nook and cranny of the place. Traps were placed everywhere as well but Hill had just turned them off with the press of a button.

A phone went off, causing Sharon to flinch. Her arm brushed against Bucky's metal one. Hill answered it and nodded and murmured some words back before hanging up.

"Just got more intel," she said with an eager but faint smile. "Our assassin was just here in New York City."

***

"Bloodstains," Bucky murmured as he looked at the carpet a few inches away from him. He knew it was from the 2 men who were murdered. They didn't make it in time to see the bodies- not that Bucky wanted to examine dead bodies. Sam cringed at the sight and looked back at Hill, who talked to the strip club owners.

"We don't know who it was. By then, all of our strippers were inside," he shrugged.

"Can we see a list of the names?" Hill asked. Fury was still in the hospital and made Hill in charge of their investigation. Sharon was on the phone with her boss outside, trying to get him distracted so he wouldn't find out what they were up to. Fury wanted their "mission" to be as low-key as possible. SHIELD was out to kill HYDRA's human experiment but he had other ideas. Less dangerous ideas.

"Here," one of the owners passed her a slip of paper. It had checkmarks next to the names indicating who arrived and who didn't. All the names listed had a checkmark.

"Did you have any new arrivals?" Sharon asked as she joined them.

"Half of these names are new to us," the other owner scratched his head as he answered.

"Oh, she's good," Sam whispered.

"If you could just give us some privacy," Hill told the owners who shrugged and left them alone.

"HYDRA is the one that's good. If our assassin is just a girl they picked up and experimented on, we know she didn't choose to do this," Bucky replied once they were out of earshot.