TALES FROM FALLEN WARRIORS ─ marvel

V. All Of Me

Chapter Five
Bucky

My entire body feels heavy when I wake up, like every muscle and bone in my body has been imbued with metal. It takes effort to even lift my head, but I force myself to despite the pain. I have to find Lena, I have to see if she's alright. My search for her takes only a moment. She's a couple feet from me, chained to a rock wall...a mountain? I look around us and find that we are indeed at the bottom of a mountain, bound by chains made for cranes and other construction machines.

Lena is starting to wake up, and after taking in our surroundings as well, she croaks out: "What happened? Where are we?"

"Roan Mountain, about two hours from your cute little cabin." A deep voice answers. Lena and I look to our left to find a person dressed in a camo suit, leaning up against a tree. There's something familiar about this person, but I don't know what.

Lena seems to be thinking the same thing. "Do we know you?"

"I'm Noah Maddox, I work for Secretary Ross as apart of his personal protection detail."

I don't hold back my groan of annoyance, and exhaustion. "Did Ross put you up to this?"

"As much as I'm sure he would love to be responsible for your demise, no. I'm here to ensure HYDRA survives long enough to reform."

Goddammit, not another one. "You're apart of HYDRA?"

"No, not officially anyways. There are many out there like me who agree with the philosophy of HYDRA and want to protect what little of it still exists. You both have been assigned to hunt down the remaining HYDRA agents and scientists when you return from your honeymoon, and if you're out of the picture, those people will be safe."

"How? Ross will just assign others to hunt them down."

"Yes, but those people won't be successful. Whatever lackies Ross will send won't have the knowledge and efficiency to hunt down what's left of HYDRA. But you do. It's quite genius of Ross to send you actually, for who could complete the task better than former HYDRA agents? Of course he still thinks you both are secretly in league with them, so I don't think he would share my opinion. He's told me himself he thinks he's making a mistake sending you."

"Maybe Ross should spend less time pointing fingers at us and instead pay better attention to his staff." Lena says through gritted teeth, her face contorted in concentration. I know that look, she's trying to shift, but whatever was in those darts is preventing her from doing so.

"What the hell did you shoot us with?" She inquires, confirming my earlier thoughts.

"Tranquilizer darts. But the dosage is enough to knock out five grizzly bears. So there's no hope of you two escaping."

"Why didn't you take us yesterday? You shot once and left."

"My gun jammed and I'm not stupid enough to deal with a shapeshifter in wolf form without some drugs in her system."

"Why not just kill us? Why drug us and capture us?" Lena inquires.

"Because Ross is an idiot thinking you two are still in league with HYDRA. You're traitors, you believe in everything HYDRA stood against, and for that, I want to make you both suffer."