Heavy is the Crown

10

As the four were being escorted in a van, Steve said, "It was him. He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How's that even possible?" Sam wondered. "It was like 70 years ago."

"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha and Gianna told him.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Sam noticed Natasha and Gianna were bleeding from their shoulders and looked at the guards and said, "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on those wounds they're gonna bleed out here in the truck." Suddenly, one of the guards pulled out an electric rod and neutralized the other guard and knocked him out. The guard was revealed to be Hill as she took off her helmet.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," Hill said. Sam looked at her in confusion and Hill asked Steve, "Who's this guy?"

Hill glanced at her cousin worriedly, hoping she and Natasha would make it.

Rumlow's crew stopped their vehicles and got out.

"Four holes. Start digging," Rumlow ordered. They went over to the van holding Steve, Sam, Gianna and Natasha and as they opened the door, they found it empty with one of the guards left unconscious and massive burnt hole on the car floor.

---

Hill had taken the four to a secret facility. A man ran towards them.

Hill, referring to Natasha and Gianna's wounds, said, "GSW. They've lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam added.

"Let me take them," the doctor said.

"They'll want to see him first," Hill replied, taking them to Fury who was alive and lying in bed. The four looked at him in shock.

"About damn time," Fury said.

Later, as Natasha and Gianna's wounds were being treated, Fury continued. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor added.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha said.

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asked. "Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Hill replied.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury reasoned. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

Sam walked up to Gianna and said, "I'm glad you're okay. I'd hate to lose my best friend."

Gianna gave him a half-smile. "You're not losing me, Wilson."

"Good, because that would be about the worst thing I could imagine."

Gianna nodded slowly as her gaze trailed him, taking in every aspect she could of her friend. Admittedly, she she was starting to hope for something more, and that terrified her.

---

Inside a bank vault, the HYDRA agents fixed Bucky's metal arm and as they did so, he had a brief flashback to his old life as he was recovered by Zola and the HYDRA agents.