Whumptober 2023 ~ Marvel Edition

'You In There?' - Bucky

Day 4:

"I see the danger, it's written there in your eyes."
Cattle Prod | Shock | "You in there?"

~~~

"Victor Agapov," Steve said to his team. "We don't know much about the man, but from what intel we've been able to gather, we've been able to deduce that not only is he a part of the Russian Mafia, he's very high up in it."

"If he's so high up, then why have we never heard of him before?" Clint asked.

"That's because this is the first time he's ever done something to put him on our radar. In the past he's been very good about covering his tracks, but thankfully, we have people that are better than his people."

Natasha and Clint smirked at each other with pride.

"Now, if you'll all turn your attention to the projection-" Steve started.

"I'll take it from here, thank you," Tony interrupted as he stood up from his seat and stepped in front of the Captain.

Steve rolled his eyes but he obviously didn't seem to mind too much since he graciously stepped out of the way. He then swiped his hand across the holographic screen and began playing a few different clips.

Bucky listened to what Tony had to say, but his, along with everyone else's, eyes were glued to the screens in front of them. The center of the screen played video after video, and below it were about four files evenly distributed across the hologram.

"Agapov has been trying to get intel on La Cosa Nostra. Besides the obvious know thy enemy crap, Agapov seems to be after something specific - some artifact they dug up in Egypt that La Cosa Nostra seemed to get a hold of first. We don't know what it is yet, but whatever it is has to be valuable either monetarily or sentimentally for him to be acting as openly aggressive as he is."

The video switched from its previous state of playing back footage from Egypt, to something that made Bucky's heart stop. It was an image of some poor soul, bloody and beaten, being tased on his side with a cattle prod - no doubt of fairly high voltage from what Bucky could see of the electricity in the still image.

"Agapov has been openly interrogating and torturing his 'guests' from the Italian Mafia to obtain more information on where the artifact is, or who would know where it is. We were able to retrieve this image from..."

Everything that came out of Tony's mouth after that fell on deaf ears as Bucky retreated into his own mind, his gaze glued onto the image in front of him.

~~~

Bucky's throat was so hoarse at this point that he wasn't too sure any sound would come out if he were to continue screaming.

His body was so weak, so tired and sore, that he was surprised he hadn't passed out already. He wished he would, but he knew that his captors wouldn't allow that to happen. They were too good at what they did to allow him the mercy of being able to sleep through his torture. He'd seen spots more than a few times, but that was as close as he'd come to getting the sweet relief he'd been praying for.

At least it was better than the time he spent strapped down in a chair with a metal machine attached to his head. That was a fate he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. This, though still excruciatingly painful, was a welcome break. At least until it wasn't.

Bucky was nearing the point of his treatment where he wished that they would somehow slip up and put him out of his misery. They had been at this for hours, and there didn't seem to be any signs that they'd be stopping anytime soon.

"You are doing well today," Heinrich, the man who'd been put in charge of Bucky's "conditioning", remarked. "You have lasted much longer on a much higher voltage than in previous weeks. Perhaps soon you will be ready for the next phase."

Bucky closed his eyes and let his head fall back against his chair in defeat. If he felt like his voice would come out even a little clear, he might give Heinrich a piece of his mind, but he knew that probably wasn't a good idea. Instead, he was going to let the man talk until he was blue in the face. Maybe then he would finally get a few minutes break before his conditioning started back up again.

"It's a pity your session is almost over; I would keep you longer, but unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day," Henrich continued. "Tell me, I know that this is fun for me, but surely this cannot be so for you. Why do you resist us so? You must know that one day soon you will be under our control. Obviously we need to condition you either way, but things would be so much easier if you just complied."

Bucky furrowed his brows and braced himself for the pain in his throat as he spoke. "Will never be...like you."

Henrich smirked. "You keep on telling yourself that." He grabbed Bucky's chin and brought his face uncomfortably close to his own, as if examining his eyes up close was the only way to truly see him. "I see the danger, it is written there in your eyes. I just need to figure out how to decipher its key."

With as much strength as Bucky could muster, he pulled his head out of Henrich's grasp and turned his head as far off to the side as the bones in his neck would allow, grimacing at the ache the sudden movement caused.

"Well, if we're done talking, should we get back to it then?"

Bracing himself, as well as trying to keep himself composed, Bucky closed his eyes and waited for the pain he knew was near. Taking this as his cue, Henrich readied the prod once more and let a wide grin slip onto his face as he listened to the hum of its electricity.

After waiting a sufficient amount of time to let Bucky sit with his impending doom, Henrich brought the prod down and forcefully slammed it into his side. His body and mind betraying him, Bucky let out another blood-curdling scream, causing his throat to burn once more, but that pain was barely even registered underneath the pain of the electricity being inserted into his abdomen.

At this point, pain was pain; it didn't matter where it came from. It all felt that same.

~~~

"-cky? Yo, Earth to Bucky. Are you in there?" Tony's voice pulled him out of the depths of his mind.

Bucky shook his head slightly and blinked a couple of times to get Tony to come back into focus. "Sorry, what?"

"I was asking if you got all of that, but apparently not," Tony said.

"Sorry," Bucky said. "Yeah, no; I heard you. Just not that last part."

Tony sighed. "Whatever. Can someone else fill him in later? I don't feel like going over it again."

Turning his attention back to the holographic screen, Tony continued on talking about the upcoming mission. Steve, while still listening, took a few casual steps closer to Bucky and leaned over a bit so that only he could hear.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Bucky nodded slightly.

"What was that?" Steve asked.

"Nothing," Bucky replied. "...Just zoned out a bit is all."