Chapter 17. Steve's POV

6 0 0
                                    

IN A HUGE ABANDONED WAREHOUSE BUCKY COMES TO WITH HIS METALLIC LEFT ARM CLAMPED IN A HUGE INDUSTRIAL VICE. I peer through a gap at a chopper flying overhead. Sam's over by Bucky. "Hey, Cap!" Sam says as I go over to join Sam by Bucky who sits with his arm in the vice. They stare at him. "Steve." Bucky says finally. "Which Bucky am I talking to?" I ask. "Your mom's name was Sarah...You used to wear newspapers in your shoes." Bucky states. "Can't read that in a museum." I joke lightly. Teasingly. I'm happy to have him back. "Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam raises his eyebrows. "What did I do?" Bucky asks. "Enough." I say. "Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words." Bucky curses. I fight a urge to say language. "Who was he?" I ask. "I don't know." Bucky says. I sigh. "People are dead. The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you. I need you to do better than "I don't know." I say. "He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. At hydra.. he wanted to know exactly where." Bucky states. "Why would he need to know that?" I ask. "Because I'm not the only winter soldier." He says.
1991, at night Bucky rides alongside the car and somehow causes the car to crash. He circles back, pulls up and climbs off the motorbike. he's filmed on CCTV as he approaches the car's trunk. He janks it open, breaking the lock. Inside he opens a metal case which contains five clear drip bags filled with bright blue fluid. Four young men and a young woman sit up in hospital beds. The blue fluid is fed intravenously into their arms. The drip bags hang on stands beside them. They're all fit and muscular. One man, Josef, flexes a huge biceps. Josef is screaming, dragged into a cell and left on a bed.
"It hurts!" Josef says as he struggles in leather bindings. A viewing slot is closed. Karpov is sitting at a desk in a corridor, making notes and listening. Karpov opens the door to a lab and switches on the light. Josef is sitting on a bed. He looks up at Karpov. Bucky and Josef fight each other in a barred chamber. The four others who were given the blue liquid are there. Josef kicks with enormous power, sending Bucky flying. Watching Karpov folds his arms. "Очень хорошо, Иосиф." It meant good work. A medic takes Josef's pulse and Josef slams him onto the floor. A soldier clubs Josef onto the back with no effect. Karpov gets behind Bucky and aims a gun. "Солдат, вытащи меня отсюда!" Karpov shouts. Meant get me out of here. Josef and the other four Winter Soldiers effortlessly dispatch a squad of Soldiers. Bucky escorts covering Karpov from the barred chamber, batting guards aside.
"Who were they?" I ask. "Their most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history. And that was before the serum." Bucky states. "They all turn out like you?" Sam asks. "Worse." Bucky says. "The doctor, could he control them?" I ask. "Enough." He says. "Said he wanted to see a empire fall." I say. "With these guys he could do it. They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize, They can take a whole country down in one night. You'd never see them coming." Bucky nods. "This would have been a lot easier a week ago." Sam steps up to me. "If we call Tony . . ." I trail off. "No, he won't believe us." Sam says. He was probably right. "Even if he did . . ." I trail off again. "Who knows if the Accords would let him help." Sam finishes for me. "We're on our own." I say. I see Bucky crack a smile. "No. I know a girl. Who escaped." Bucky says. "And I know a guy." Sam nods.

Captain America Civil War rewritten!Where stories live. Discover now