Brave Words, Braver Deeds

10

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

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

"Zola," Liesl mumbled. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. Steve, I'm sorry I didn't tell you he was alive."

"You knew?"

"Mhmm." She closed her eyes and let let out a small breath.

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha told him as she tended to Liesl's wound as best she could.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky and Liesl when she came to Brooklyn," Steve said.

Sam and Dakota noticed Liesl was bleeding from her shoulder and looked at the guards and the former said, "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's 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?"

Rumlow's crew stopped their vehicles and got out.

"Five holes. Start digging," Rumlow ordered. They went over to the van holding Steve, Sam, Liesl, Dakota 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 five to a secret facility. A man ran towards them.

Hill, referring to Liesl's wound, said, "GSW. She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam and Dakota added.

"Let me take her," the doctor said.

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

"About damn time," Fury said.

Later, as Liesl's wound was 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."

Natasha turned to Liesl. "Why'd you take that bullet for me?"

"Because I didn't want him hurting a friend," Liesl replied simply.

---

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.

"Sergeant Barnes..." Dr. Zola called and Bucky had a flashback to falling off the train at the edge of the mountain with Steve trying to save him.

"Bucky, no!" Steve cried. Bucky flashed to after he was picked up by HYDRA agents.

"The procedure has already started," Dr. Zola said as he and the HYDRA agent amputated his left arm and replaced it with the metal arm. "You are to be the new face of HYDRA." He said to his men, "Put him on ice." Bucky was being frozen.

He saw himself with the Widow and her touch comforted him in a way nothing else had.

He came back to the present and knocked over the HYDRA agent fixing his arm.

The boy and girl, Owen and Danielle, watched silently and shared a confused look.

Rollins pointed his gun at Bucky to stop them him attacking any further. Pierce entered the bank vault Bucky, Danielle and Owen were being held in.

"Sir, he's... he's unstable," the first scientist said. "Erratic." Pierce was followed by Rumlow and some other HYDRA agents and went over to Bucky.

"Mission report," Pierce ordered, but Bucky looked at him blankly and didn't respond. "Mission report, now." Pierce moved closer to Bucky and struck him hard in the face.

"The man on the bridge..." Bucky began as he had a flashback to Steve calling him by name. "Who was he? Who was the dark-haired woman?"

"You met them earlier this week on another assignment."

"I knew them," Bucky said as Pierce sat in front of him.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves."

"But I knew them. I loved her."

Pierce turned to the scientists. "Prep him."

"He's been out of cryo-freeze for too long," the first scientist informed.

"Then wipe him and start over."

The scientists strapped Bucky in his chair, and placed a teeth shield in his mouth as they began the process of wiping his brain with Bucky screaming in pain.

Danielle and Owen winced at their father's pain and shared a nod. They knew enough to know this was wrong, and intended to make their escape as soon as they could.