Winter's Fire. ~Book Three~

Chapter Five: Torture.

Levinia sat next to Steve as Clint and Nat flew their aircraft that came to learn was called a Quinjet toward Brooklyn. Her leg bounced as she thought about everything that could be happening to her mother. Was she calling for Levi? Steve? How badly were they hurting her? Was she bleeding out, or was she already dead?
She was brought out of her dread as Steve set a hand on her thigh to stop her bouncing, he gave her a small smile before he looked up at Tony, he was on the phone with someone. When she focused back on the conversation happening around her, she figured out that he had called Nick Fury, who was the Director of SHIELD. 
"To what do I owe the call, Stark?" He said upon answering the phone. 
Tony glanced over his shoulder and Steve and Levi before he sighed. "Fury, we have a problem." 
Fury raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?" 
Steve got to his feet and joined Tony's side, hesitating for a moment before he spoke. "Sir... we have reason to believe that Red has been taken by HYDRA." 
Levi watched as the blood drained from Fury's face, and she guessed that that must not happen often. That was purely based on the fact that both Tony and Steve looked even more worried now. 
"And... what makes you believe this?" 
Tony rubbed the side of his face, this had been happening every two minutes or so since they found out that Red had  been taken. She never thought that she would see the day that Tony would look so defeated. "JARVIS, can you play the recording you picked up tonight?" 
"Yes, Sir." JARVIS said. 
As the recording played, she felt her hear shrink. There was nothing any of them could do about it, but she hated how helpless she felt as she leaned her head against the wall and kept her eyes on the screen, she wanted to see what Fury was thinking. 
His eyebrows drew together, both in concern and confusion. It was almost as if he was trying to figure something out, something that the rest of them had missed. "Can you play that voice again? With enhanced audio?" 
"Yes, Sir." JARVIS said. The Quinjet was silent for a few seconds as the AI cut away what wasn't needed and he repeated the soundbite, turning it up every time Fury asked for it to be repeated. 
Finally, when they were about to land, Fury said. "That voice sounds familiar." 
"Any way you can put a name to it?" Levi asked as she sat up in her seat. 
"Not currently." 
"Whoever is was... they knew her." Tony said as he crossed his arms over his chest. 
"They knew her well enough to use her real name." Steve added as he glanced back at Levi, his eyes softening as they locked eyes, before looking back to Fury. "We are currently heading to her old house, the one she gave to SHIELD as a safe house."
"Oh yeah," Tony muttered. "Real safe." 
She wanted to say something about that, but every smart ass comment she could come up with was completely inappropriate. He was right, that house should have been one of the safest places in Brooklyn, and yet, here they were. 
"Noted," Fury said as he leaned back in his seat. "I'll send STRIKE, they'll be meeting you there." His voice sounded so cold, it made her think that he really didn't care about Red's disappearance. It was taking everything in her to not snap at him right then and there. 
"Thank you, Sir." Steve said before the Director disconnected. He sighed heavily as he sat back down next to her. He looked so drained, not just emotionally, but physically too. Levi slowly reached out to grasp his hand and gave him a small, reassuring smile.
"We'll get her back." Tony said as he looked between them. "She'll be okay." He sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself more than the two of them. 
"When Bucky was taken by them, he was anything but okay." Steve said as he gave Levi's fingers a gentle squeeze. "But she's strong, she'll most likely be okay." 
"We're closing in," Nat called to them from the cockpit. "We'll be landing in five." 
Levi cleared her throat as she raised her head to look at the group. "What's STRIKE?" 
"They take items and things from places of danger," Bruce said as he turned to face her. "They also help find people for SHEILD, be it missing agents or otherwise." 
She decided that that was all she needed to know. With a small nod and a shrug, she looked back down at her hands as they sparked with electricity. "Good... the sooner we find her, the better." 
"And that's why we're going this." Nat said as she and Clint turned the jet to the right. 
Clint looked over his shoulder at her. "We'll get her home, Levinia. I promise." 
Levi glanced away from her hands to look at him. "Can you promise me that she'll be okay?" 
She could see the hesitation on what little she could see if his face before he turned back to the controls. "I can't promise you that, kid. I'm sorry." 
"It's okay." She muttered as she looked back down to her hands. She wished that at least one person would lie to her and tell her what she wanted to hear.
As Levi studied her hands, Steve knelt down in front of her with a soft smile. He set a hand in hers as he looked up at her. "I know you're scared. "He whispered to her, "but she's going to be okay. She's too stubborn not to be." 
She almost smiled at that. She couldn't tell if he was lying or not, but she felt the pressure in her chest ease up a bit as she looked down at him and met his eyes. "Yeah, I guess so." 
As the Quinjet began to land, it looked like he wanted to say more, but they both looked up as the ramp opened and he helped her to her feet. The group stayed silent as they shuffled out of the jet and looked up at the house. This was the exact type of house that someone who always had wealth, but never wanted it, would buy. It was made of wintergreen brick and wood, with a little white fence and a rosebush. It was all simple. 
"She really does like it simple." Tony said after they had enough time to take it in. 
Steve sighed with a roll of his eyes. "I wasn't lying when I told you." 
"Yeah, but I didn't believe you until now." 
"I would have believed him." Clint said as he looked at Tony and, in a very dad looking motion and position, set his hands on his hips. "This place is definitely Red's style." Nat, Bruce and Levi shared a look of mixed fear and annoyance before they all turned back to Steve, Tony and Clint to watch them continue their banter. 
"Am I the only one that just noticed this?" Tony asked as he started to walk toward the fence. "I mean, I can't have been the only one, Kilowatt over here just reunited with her after seventy years of being separated." 
Levi folded her arms over her chest as she raised an eyebrow. "Yes. You are the only one who just noticed it." 
"All right..." He said as he opened the gate. "Well, we should go find her." 
She gave him a sarcastic smile as she passed him. "Don't worry, no one's mad at you're a moron." This earned a snicker from Nat as the others followed behind her and Tony. 
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tony asked as he closed and locked the gate behind them. "I swear I'm not as stupid as I-" 
"Yes you are. Don't even try to save your pride, Tony. You are a very stupid genius." Levi snapped as she led the way into the backyard. 
She couldn't bring herself to be sarcastic anymore. The weight of what she was feeling in the backyard was... suffocating to say the least. The gravity of situation at hand was finally hitting her as she looked down to the torn up grass in the otherwise perfect green lawn. 
Something very bad, very wrong happened here. And she hoped that her mother was going to be okay after they found her. 
+++
They all stood in a circle, looking down at the mess that was the grass. As Tony looked to the side, he saw one of the motorbikes he got Red sitting on the curb. He walked out of the backyard and back onto the street, then hesitated for a moment as he reached out to touch it. 
It was ridiculous, he told himself, being scared to touch the bike he gave his girl. But he was scared, scared that when he touched it, it'd be ice cold, and there would be no way to tell when she'd been taken. Ignoring the pit growing in his stomach, he touched it. 
And it was still warm. He raised his head to look at the rest of the group as his shoulders fell and he relaxed slightly. "It's still warm, she hasn't been gone long." 
"Then maybe they couldn't have gotten far." Steve said as he started to walk around the perimeter of the house and its property with Levinia following behind him. 
"Fury said he was sending someone, right?" Levi said as her eyes scanned the ground. "Can they track her down?" 
Tony rubbed at the side of his face as he tried to calm down enough to be able to collect his thoughts. This was the second time that one of the most important women in his life was taken by the bad guy, but HYDRA was a completely different beast, and even he-who always over thought about every single possibility of how things could go wrong-would have never been able to see this coming. 
"STRIKE Force is the team coming to help us," Tony said as he joined the others in the yard. "We've worked with them before, especially when we were getting the staff and the Tesseract out of the tower after we fought the Chitauri." 
Levi gave him a smile as she raised her head to look at him. "Then I guess we have hope." A moment after she got the last word out, another Quinjet landed next to theirs and the previously mentioned team came striding out, led by Rumlowe.
"Fury caught us up," Rumlowe said as he approached. "Do you guys have an idea where they might have taken her? Or why?" 
Steve shook his head. "No, we don't have a clue." 
Tony glanced at Levinia as she moved to stand slightly behind Steve, she was staring at STRIKE with growing worry and suspicion. "We don't have much," she said. "But it's more than most people have when someone goes missing." 
Rumlowe turned to look at her. "And we have Loki's daughter helping us for what reason?" 
Tony moved to stand in front of her with Steve, they both noticed how she was growing more uncomfortable as their interaction went on. "There are special circumstances in Levinia's case. As far as we're concerned, she's one of us." 
Rumlowe kept his eyes on what little of Levi he could see, not even speaking for a long moment before he finally looked away and said. "All right, lets set up base in the house and get started on the search for Agent North." His team quickly filed into the house and the rest of them followed. 
"If HYDRA does have Red," Bruce muttered to Steve as they walked. "What could we be expecting?" 
"Brain washing, torture, experimentation... so much more than I even want to think about." Steve muttered back as Levi reached over to grasp his hand. 
"Then we have no time to waste." She said with a grim smile before she took her hand back from Steve's and reached up to put her hair up. 
As they got to work, Tony and Steve made a silent agreement to keep an eye on Levi while she was around Rumlowe, since she seemed to be very sketched out around him. 
+++
Red woke up with a gasp, feeling her body bound to a table. She felt every muscle in her body ache as she raised her head and was suddenly hit by the memories of the previous night as she tried to blink away the blurriness in her eyes. 
She was taken by John Garrett, who was supposed to be on her side. She was the one that made it so he has level seven clearance, that he had his own tactical team in SHIELD, he had even saved her life time and time again, she trusted him. 
And now, there she was, laying on a table in a dark room. She wiggled her fingers and noticed that they left her ring on her finger, and she could feel Bucky's tags and the ring pressing against her chest. She wasn't without him, that was something she was thankful for. Her fingers were the only thing she could move, aside from her head. 
"This can't be happening." She muttered with a grunt as she tried to move the table, maybe if she was lucky, she could topple it over. "This isn't funny!" She knew that it wasn't supposed to be funny, she knew the gravity of the situation she was in... but maybe if she could pretend. 
As Red started to struggle again, harder this time, a low whimper rose up from her throat and the door opened. There stood John, and even though she knew he took her, seeing his face still made her blood run cold. 
She swallowed back the bile that was rising in her throat as she looked at him, trying to put on whatever poker face she had as her gaze followed him. "I wonder what Colson is gonna say when he finds out you betrayed SHIELD." 
"And you're gonna tell him?" He said as he slowly walked toward her.
"As soon as I get out of here I will." She said in a monotone voice. 
He gave a chuckle that made sent a shiver down her spine. "It's cute that you think you're gonna get out and remember everything that happened to you." 
"I'll get out." 
John gave a wide grin as he stepped closer to her and got into Red's face. "It's gonna be fun watching that will of yours break." 
Red glared as she collected all of the blood and saliva in her mouth and spot it all into his face. It landed just below his left eye with uncomfortable speed as she leaned back in her bounds with a smirk. He slowly reached up to wipe it away before he raised his fist and punched her across her face. 
She clenched her teeth to hold back the cry of pain that begged to leave her body. 
He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "That's not the worst that's going to happen if you keep thinking that you're brave, Red." 
Red swallowed and clenched her jaw under his grasp, her words were muffled from the pressure on her face. "If you touch me, that spit isn't the worst they'll happen to you, John." 
John shrugged as he let go of her face and the room suddenly lit up around her. It blinded her, and when she was able to blink it away, she saw that she was in a run down warehouse room surrounded by equipment that Johann Schmidt could have only hoped to have at his disposal. She heard another voice then, one that made her heart stop. 
"You see," Alexander Pierce said as he now approached her. "This was supposed to happen a long time ago, Red." He put his hands into the pockets of his slacks with a smile. "Seventy years ago, HYDRA wanted the matching set and sadly it took us this long to get it." 
"Matching set?" Red asked, her voice was shaking harder than she wanted it too. She hated that she was showing fear in front of him, in front of any of them, but she couldn't stop it now. She was terrified, and now she wished that they had actually killed her. 
Instead of answering her verbally, a window beside her lit up and on the other side of it sat Bucky. He was being held on a table similar to hers, surrounded by the same equipment she was. 
"James..." She whispered. It all made sense to her now, why the bond never died, why she always felt as if he was with her, the guilt about being with Tony when she still felt him. It was because he never left in the first place, not really. 
His hair was chin length now, and he looked like he hadn't slept in years, but it was still him. Still her James. He was shirtless, and she could see that he had a metallic arm replacing his left one. It was reflective silver with a red star on his shoulder. 
And still, even as the gravity of the situation was hitting her like a freight train, her heart sang out as it had so many years ago. James is alive. James is here. 
"Comply, and you'll have him again, Red." Pierce said as the equipment lowered around her and fitting itself to her forehead, cheek and jaw. "All you have to do is comply." 
Her entire world was sitting in the next room over, everything she ever wanted was just at her fingertips, and yet...
And yet she couldn't take it. She couldn't take her world back if that meant betraying everything she spent building and believing in. 
Red tore her eyes from Bucky and glared at Pierce as she shook her head. "Never." 
He looked disappointed as he looked at someone behind her and they shoved a rubber mouth guard into her mouth. "Light her up. 
There was no time to prepare herself for what came next as electricity pumped into her body. She screamed until her throat went raw, she screamed for Bucky and Steve, she screamed for it to stop as a tear rolled down her cheek. But no one was going to save her, no one was even able to hear her, and that feeling of dread never left her stomach. 
She could hear Bucky in the next room, yelling for her as he finally recognized her voice, could even hear him yelling for her before she started to black out. 
As she faded into the darkness, she heard someone speaking to her in Russian. 
Longing... Rusted... Seventeen... Daybreak.. Furnace... Nine.. Benign... Homecoming... Freightcar...
+++
Bucky could hear someone, a woman, screaming for him. Truth be told, it took him longer than he cared to admit to realize why that woman's voice sounded so familiar to him. As she screamed in pain from being tortured by a machine he was all too used to, he was brought to a life that didn't even feel like his.
He saw glimpses of this girl. How red hair shown like fire in the sunlight, how her laugh sounded and how infectious it was, alone with her smile, how her skin felt when he touched her. She was his world, and the reason he always felt tethered to something in the world but never knew what.
It was because of her.
Because of Red.
His Red.
"Red!" He yelled as she stopped screaming for him, and just started to scream in general. It broke his heart to hear her screaming in pain like that. Screaming like everything in her was about to break. Sergeant.. James...32557.. Barnes. He told himself as he struggled to get to her, and he yelled for her as he was taken away. He couldn't fight too hard to get to her, that risked getting her hurt, or worse, killed and it was bad enough that she was already getting tortured like he had been, in the process of getting brainwashed, like he had been. He could only hope that she was strong enough to resist their tactics.
When they shoved him back into his room, he paced around it for what felt like hours, listening to her scream. He wasn't sure what time it was when her screaming finally stopped and they decided that they were done with her for the day, but when that time came, the door opened and his boss, Alexander Pierce, walks into the room with his suit still prime and proper, like he hadn't just overseen his wife being tortured.
"You want to see her?" Pierce asked as he closed the door behind him. He studied Bucky for a moment, before he shrugged at him. "She's currently recovering from her first round, we won't cut her limbs off, they're more useful to us than yours were."
"Why are you telling me this?" Bucky asked as he watched Pierce carefully.
"Because your compliance, like hers, is due to be rewarded." Pierce said as he stepped away from the door. "She's in the room across from this one, you can be the one to oversee her recovery between sessions."
Bucky raised an eyebrow at that, he sensed that there was a catch. There had to be, there always was one. So imagine his surprise when he was able to leave his room and enter hers without issue. He was actually being rewarded for slipping out of his own trance like state.
Red had never looked so weak or small to him in his entire life. She was curled up in the corner of her bed, with a blanket covering her body as she shook. Her hair stuck to her forehead and cheeks with sweat and on either side of her pale face, were the same charred marks that marked his.
He went to the sink on the other side of the room and got a rag wet with cold water so he could clean her up. Or, at least, get her as cleaned up as possible. "Red." He said softly as he sat down on the edge of the bed beside her. "I need to get you cleaned up."
It was only then that he realized that she was whispering to herself the same way he had when they first took him. "Agent.. North.. 94-1935286.. Barnes.. 94..193.."
"Red," he repeated as he gently touched her shoulder and kept his hand there even has she flinched at his touch. "You're safe for now... you're safe with me." For now.
Red was quiet for a few second before she let out a breath and groaned in pain as she turned around to face him. "You're alive." She whispered as she opened her eyes and looked up at him.
"Unfortunately." Bucky said with a grim smile as he reached out with his normal hand to brush her hair out of her face. "Would've been easier on both of us if I died."
"I'd feel mean if I agreed." Red said, reclosing her eyes as she leaned into his touch. "For what its worth though... I'm glad you're alive. I'm not alone anymore."
That made his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. He knew what she meant, she likely had people who cared for her, and maybe someone who cared for her the way he did, but the bond they shared left one another lonely.
Bucky slowly and carefully wiped up her face and neck, but left the rest of her body alone. He wasn't sure how far she'd want him to go, after all of their time apart. When he was satisfied with what he could do, he set his hand on her side and gently pulls her into his lap as he sat properly on the bed.
"I wish you didn't got caught up in all of this." He said as she curled up against his chest. He reached up and held the back of her head as she nuzzled her face into his neck. "You shouldn't have to deal with this." In this small moment of time, his greatest sin was the fact that he was glad, at least in part, that she was here with him. Even if it meant he wasn't alone either, he shouldn't want her to be with him.
"What are we going to do?" Red asked as she reached up and clung to him as if she were afraid that he was going to suddenly disappear she didn't.
"I don't know yet." He replied as he gently ran his fingers through her hair. "I don't know, but I'll figure something out."
He didn't know what he was going to do to get her out of this, but at the very least, he knew that he was going to make sure that she got out. It was more important that she got out than it was for him, he was in too deep at this point.
As soon as she fell asleep, the doors opened and Rumlow was there to take him back to his own room. He kissed the side of her head as he laid her down and tucked the blankets over her small body before he was brough back to his room and locked inside.
Today was a reward.
Tomorrow would only be harder.
+++
Time didn't really exist in this facility. Red wasn't sure if she'd been there for days, or mere hours, when she woke up. And she woke up alone. It was a strange feeling, this new sense of being alone. For decades, she always felt alone while being surrounded by people who cared for her.
But this new feeling... the only thing she had to compare it to was when Bucky had first died. Not died, she corrected herself. Went missing. To have him again, even for a short time, and then wake up alone, made her chest ache. But it was a weakness she couldn't show. It was bad enough that Pierce saw them all cuddled up with each other earlier, it was another weapon added to his arsenal. They really showed just how they can't live without one another. Until then, it was just assumed that they'd die for each other if they had to.
At least, that's what Red told herself as she finally hauled herself, groaning, out of the bed.
Her room, if you wanted to call it that, was small. A sink, toilet and bed all fit into a six by eight foot room that was really cell with walls instead of bars. She hovered to the sink, her body hurt too much to walk, and started to wash herself in it.
After she'd washed herself the best she could, the door behind her opened and when she turned around to face whoever it was. Red didn't have the energy to be shocked when she saw that it was Rumlow, but she did have some energy to make a fireball appear in her hand and prepare to throw it.
Only to stop herself when he raised his hand and a second later, Bucky screamed. She flinched and let the fire dissipate.
"You two are so... mushy and predictable." Rumlow smirked at her. "You'd do anything for each other, and it would be adorable in any other situation."
"Except for this one, it's a weapon."
"Nice to see you're catching on." He took hold of her arm, just above her elbow and dragged her out of her cell. He chuckled as she stumbled on her feet. "We haven't worked you that hard, North, already feeling it?"
"Must be tripping over your dazzling personality." Red muttered as he brought her down another winding hallway. The hallways were seemingly endless and winding, that Red couldn't tell how far her cell was from the torture chamber. But she'd learn. That was the key to her survival now. Especially since she didn't know how closer her team was to finding her, and they had Rumlow's help in finding her. Odin only knew how many loose ends he's set them on.
Red didn't fight as he placed her back into the chair they had her in when she woke up the first time since she was taken.
And all the while, she could hear Bucky's muffled cried of pain in the next room over, only this time they didn't let her see him. She closed her eyes and got herself settled into the chair, willing herself not to cry when everything in her wanted nothing more than to fight her way into that room and save him.
"All right, Red," Rumlow said as he took his time to get her strapped into the chair. "I need you to calm your mind, you know what's best. What's best is you comply. Your compliance will be rewarded."
Red opened her eyes only to glare at him. She remembered back in the days of World War II, when she'd had to save SSR agents and soldiers, saying those same words to her in ramblings, all thanks to a head of HYDRA, Daniel Whitehall. But she stayed quiet, it was better to save the energy for something more important. Something that could contribute to her and Bucky getting out of here.
She opened her mouth for the mouth guard as Rumlow placed down the equipment. She tried not to scream this time, but that plan only lasted a few seconds. Red didn't scream for anyone in particular. She simply screamed because she was in pain.
+++
It was a special sort of Hell, going into Red's cell after every single one of her sessions to comfort her, knowing that it was only because Pierce was rewarding her for her compliance. Once she was broken down enough, they'd build her back up again and then they'd start erasing both of them again.
Last week, Red had stopped screaming, seemingly having lost the energy to.
Four days ago, she stopped repeating her name, rank and identification number.
Today, Bucky decided that it was time for her to be found.
Bucky knew that she was strong, but by every time he saw her, she looks less and less lucid and her eyes were starting to gloss over. His Red was slowly disappearing and would soon be replaced with a killing machine, like him. That was the last thing he wanted, or needed, especially for her.
She was curled up in her blanket, wearing the shirt and sweats they gave her when they took her. At least they weren't making her wear the same shirt and leather pants from two weeks ago.
He sat down beside her and carefully runs his fingers through her hair, and was disappointed when she didn't lean into his touch the way she had the other times. She was just so tired. Still, Bucky held her, snuggling her close to his chest as he kissed her shoulder, and that was when he got a reaction. She turned around in his arms and snuggled in against his chest.
He held her as she slept, even as she shook in his grasp, and left her after a couple hours when Rumlow came to get him. It could take him a couple days to get a signal out to the Avengers, Red's team. She told him about them, and her daughter, the second day she was there.
When he was locked into his cell, he paced around the small room as he came up with his plan to get Red out and to safety.