Battlefield ★ Bucky Barnes

XXXVIII. Just Give Me One More Day

It had been four days since Ward and Garrett had taken Bucky from Romania. Since they'd arrived at the old Hydra facility, they'd been working as hard as possible to resurface the Winter Soldier inside him, but they couldn't seem to get to that point, no matter what they did to him. Bucky was fighting as hard as he possibly could to prevent Winter from resurfacing, and although he knew what needed to be done specifically in order to change him, if the two were to strike a certain nerve inside him, Winter would reappear, and there would be nothing Bucky could do to stop it.

Bucky was determined to prevent Winter from breaking free, however. This meant not snapping whenever they beat him and not giving in whenever he was spoken to. He fought as hard as he could to remain himself. He had come too far to let go of himself again; he had come too far to let go of her again.

In actuality, Connie—and Steve—was the reason he was so focused on fighting and winning the fight. The two of them, as well as the memory of the two of them, had brought him back from the painful confines of his dark mind, and it was because of that he was so determined to hold on. The only reason he had willingly put himself in such a situation in the first place was to keep Connie safe from harm. He also knew that she would stop at nothing until she got him back, and Bucky was conflicted about it; he didn't know whether or not to be grateful that she would go to such lengths for him, or absolutely terrified that she would.

The door to Bucky's room opened and he looked up, his blue eyes immediately falling on Agent Ward. Ward was annoyed, that much Bucky could tell, but that had everything to do with the fact that Bucky hadn't broken yet. He thought triggering a formally brainwashed Hydra soldier would be simple, but it was far from it, and that aggravated the agent.

Ward strolled over to Bucky, looking at him for a brief second before swinging his fist across the soldier's face. The blow didn't particularly effect Bucky all that much. If anything, it angered him and sent a small stream of blood flowing from his mouth. He still had a control over his anger, however, and he spit the blood from his mouth to the floor before looking back up at Ward.

"Tell me. . .why is it so hard to break you?" Ward asked the soldier curiously as he began pacing around in front of him.

Bucky only chuckled and clenched his fists in an attempt to break free of the restraints he was bound by. One thing they had done right in the time he'd been here, was find the proper cuffs to restrain him with. He even wondered if they had been the same ones used on him all those years ago.

"What's so funny?" Ward grumbled.

Bucky only shrugged, further agitating Ward. Ward stopped pacing and swung his fists at Bucky's face again, delivering a total of six punches before he thought he finally had enough. Bucky sniffed and once again spit his blood onto the floor, trying as hard as he could to contain his anger. He was sure his face was covered in lacerations and contusions, and he was sure a good number of contusions riddled the rest of his body as well, but it was the least of his worries.

"Tell me how to trigger you and maybe then the pain will stop," Ward said to him.

Bucky looked up at him, his blue eyes filled with anger. "If you think triggering me will make the pain go away, you're horribly mistaken."

The door then opened again to reveal Garrett. He walked into the room with his hands clasped behind his back and a particularly perturbed expression on his face. He, too, was annoyed that they hadn't been able to trigger Bucky yet, but he was a lot less concerned about the fact of it. He knew having him on their side would serve them wonderfully, but they didn't necessarily need him. The amount of time and effort spent on trying to trigger him was time that they would never get back, and that was truly what annoyed Garrett the most. In his eyes, Bucky Barnes was becoming nothing more than a liability.