Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

Chapter VIII: Bang Bang

Joana

"You didn't shoot him." Joana was the first to speak after Aleksi left. Danika sighed and put the gun on her nightstand. She sat on the bed beside Joana.
"Are you okay?" She asked. Joana nodded.
"I wouldn't have let him hurt me." They were silent again. "You didn't shoot him."
Danika scoffed, her lips twitching into a sad smile. She stared down at the carpet at her feet.
"I didn't. They want you to be like them. I don't."
"You called me your friend. Why?"
"Because it's true. You're the only friend I've had. The closest to one, at least."
Another silence followed.
"I want to see Bucky."
A small smile appeared on Danika's face and she lowered her head, playing with the heel of her shoe.
"Of course you do." She slid off the bed and offered Joana her hand. "I know I said you should rest, but I believe, now that I have regained my good standing with the Commander, we can get you in to see him soon."
Joana moved out of the bed slowly, groaning. Her muscles were sore from lack of use. Danika sighed.
"We'll have to take it slowly. Maybe start with your Russian-"
"я в порядке," Joana snapped at her. Danika scowled.
"Нет, ты не."
Joana glared at her friend.
"I can do this, Danika. If fighting is what it takes to see Bucky again, I will fight until I can do it no longer. I don't need to learn any more Russian, I understand it perfectly. I can speak it fluently. I could pass for Russian. I need to learn to fight. I need to be able to kill every single on of these Ублюдки if I'm ever going to get Bucky out of here."
Danika didn't know how to respond to that. She only managed a smile.
"Then lets start training."

"Joana! Joana!" Danika burst into Joana's private quarters, a wide smile on her face. Joana let herself fall from the railing on which she was previously doing pull ups on and took a sip of water.
"Yes, Danika?"
It was five years after Joana had been severely damaged by the electro-shock she had recieved for biting a chunk of a scientist's nose off. Danika could see the difference in everything Joana did, everything she said, even in the way she looked. She resisted less against the Commander's orders, she studied harder and fought harder. The Commander grew to trust her. He let her eat with the soldiers. He let her watch them train. He talked to her personally. Danika, who was the only one who knew what Joana's real agenda was, knew she was trying to use his trust to her advantage later on.
Even the way she spoke was differently. She spoke almost completely in Russian now, and when she didn't, Danika could hear an accent in her voice.
"Joana, I have just come from the Commander."
"What does he need me to do?" She pulled her shirt on over her head as she spoke.
"He's giving you a chance to see Bucky! Tomorrow, you get to fight one of his soldiers. Bucky will be there. If you win, he gives you and Bucky time alone."
Joana's eyes shone with glee. Excitment flooded her system. She barely felt like she could move.
"This is real? Not like last time?"
"No, not like last time. You actually get to see him."
"I need to practice."
"I'll come with you."

"Aleksi?"
Joana's mouth went dry. Of course her opponent would be Aleksi. He's the best soldier there is. She had sparred with ther soldiers and won almost every single time. But Aleksi, she didn't know if she could defeat him.
"You can do this, Joana. You must," Danika whispered from behind.
"Where's Bucky?"
"He'll be here."
Just after she said this, the door opened. Three soldiers stepped in, behind them, was Bucky and behind him was three more soldiers.
"Jo." His voice broke as he spoke. For the first time in forever, Joana Kegley smiled. She stepped forward to go to him, but Danika grabbed her arm. Joana looked back, and Danika saw the look of a child in her eyes, a child who was so close to what she wanted, but couldn't touch it. And that's what she was. Joana swallowed her smile and stepped back. She and Bucky locked gazes as the soldiers roughly pushed him to a chair off to the side of the room. Joana flinched as they chained his arms and legs to that chair.
"Remember, you have to stay focused. If you're not focused, you will lose. You want to see Bucky?"
Joana nodded.
"You must stay focused."
Joana nodded again. A few seconds later, the Commander stalked into the room with a smile on his face.
Aleksi and Joana both walked onto the fighting mat. They circled each other. Joana bared her teeth.
"Down, Doggie," Aleksi taunted in Russian.
"Begin."
Joana attacked first with an uppercut to his jaw. Aleksi deflected it and sent a jab to her stomach. She blocked with her knee and punched his face. He hardly flinched as she sent another punch. The continued similarly, hardly hitting each other until Aleksi got lucky. He hit her three times in the stomach and twice in the face. She was sent backwards, stumbling on her feet. She was put off balance and that gave Aleksi the chance to plant a kick onto her chest. She fell backwards on to the ground. He walked towards her, thinking that she was down for the count, but Joana would never give up, not when she was this close.
She crawled forward, right between his legs. Crawling through someone's legs wasn't often something you saw in normal combat, but then again, Danika wasn't one to teach normal combat.
Joana rolled on to her back and kicked Aleksi in the butt. He stumbled forward, giving her time to stand up. She wrapped her arm around Aleksi's neck and pulled backwards. She heard his back pop once before her jabbed her in the side with her elbow. She held on to his neck, but he hit her again and again until she was forced to let go. He turned around only to be met with a punch to his face, one to his stomach, and a third to his chest. He kicked at her side, but she grabbed his leg and twisted. He groaned, but untwisted his leg and jumped off the ground with his other, kicking her in the face.
With an 'oof' she dropped his leg and stumbled to the side. She spat out a spittle of blood and glared at Aleksi as he picked himself off the floor.
"Don't go easy on her Aleksi," the Commander said. Aleksi grinned. For a split second, fear entered her system. It was just long enough to give Aleksi the advantage. He started sending kicks and punches that Joana barely had time to block. She could hardly defend herself, let alone go on the offense. It wasn't long before they were off the fighting mat and Aleksi had her in a corner. She hit the wall so suddenly that she had to drop her hands. This gave time to Aleksi. He hit her repeatedly. Strike after strike hit her face and her stomach. She groaned and she yelped. She tried to help herself, but he was too quick.
"Jo." She could barely hear Bucky's voice through the blood rushing in her ears, but she heard it, and it was enough. She started to analyze his patterns and once she had figured it out, she managed to duck out of the way of the few to her head, and blocked the one to her stomach. She lifted her knee into his groin and when he doubled over, grabbed his head and slammed his face into her knee. She pushed him backwards so he fell on the floor, smacking the back of his head against the hard concrete. He groaned and reached for his head. Joana went to stradle him so she could beat the living daylights out of him, but he kicked her stomach and stood up. He was teetering, and she could hardly see. Joana whipped some of the blood from her face and spat some at his feet.
She looked over at Danika, who nodded. With a yell, she ran at him. He stepped towards her, but she jumped up and pushed herself off of the leg of one of the on-lookers. She scrambled Aleksi's back and straddled his shoulders. He tried to grab her legs and fling her off, but she was too busy grabbing his face. She twisted his neck, hearing a pop, but nothing broke, thankfully. He cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. She rolled off his shoulders, landing on the ground on all fours. She bared her teeth again. She leapt at Aleksi and pushed him on to the ground. She grabbed his leg and twisted. There was a sickening snap and a horrid crack and he screamed. She turned around and wrapped her arms around Aleksi's neck. Aleksi gagged and tried to pull her arm from around his neck.
"Finish him!" The Commander seethed.
The bloodlust slowly drained from Joana's system. She stopped breathing so heavily and her scowl faded. She looked up, but not at Danika, nor the Commander. She looked at Bucky. He sat there in the chair, his eyes wide. There was fear in his eyes, but not for himself. She knew it was fear for her. He hadn't seen her in three years, and there she was, about to kill a man. Se never would have done that before.
This was another one of their tricks. This was them trying to hurt her again, to hurt Bucky again. If he saw how far she fallen in these last years, he would have no hope yet. He would not be able to see her the same. He would see a murderer, not the girl he used to love.
Joana unhooked her arm from Aleksi's neck and he sucked in a breath of air. She crawled off of him.
"Joana, no," Danika whispered.
"You will kill him, Joana," the Commander snarled, sitting on the edge of his seat. "If you don't, you will never see Bucky again."
Joana stepped away, her heart pounding in her chest. Tears filled her eyes and her throat felt clamped.
"I'm not a killer." Her voice broke. A few of the soldiers helped Aleksi to his feet. "I'm not a killer."
She turned to look at Bucky. The fear was gone from his eyes, only sadness remained.
"I'm sorry." A tear fell from her eye. "I'm so sorry."
She stepped towards him, but the six soldiers surrounding him blocked her path. Before she could even make another move, the anger flooded back into her and everything in her body screamed with rage. She punched the closest to her in the throat. He gagged and fell to the floor. A fight broke loose. There were ten people on her at once. She fought them all. She punched and kicked and screamed and she would not go down. The Commander yelled at the soldiers to take her down, but she was to angry to loose.
"Joana, stop! Please!" Danika begged from the side. More soldiers poured into the room, trying to keep her away from Bucky, but she had to reach him, she had to touch him, just once more. She broke through the line of soldiers finally and rushed towards Bucky. The soldiers had been so consumed with fighting her that they forgot to take Bucky away. She reached out to him.
"Joana," he breathed. She grabbed his face in her hands and smiled. The tears continued to roll from her eyes. She soaked in his face; his blue eyes, his scruffy cheeks, his long hair. She pressed her lips against his. Just as she started to pull at his restraints, Danika wrapped her arms around Joana and pulled her away.
"Bucky!" Joana stretched out her arms, trying to touch Bucky just one last time.
"Joana, it's okay," Danika whispered in her ear. "You have to calm down."
"No! No, please. Please, I can't- please!" Her voice strained as she begged. Bucky looked after her, his blue eyes swimming with tears. "Bucky."

Joana felt like she was sitting outside the Principle's office. Though, she'd never had a Principle, she imagined it would feel something like this.
"She is out of control!"
"Who made her that way? Who was the one who tortured her into insanity? Your soldier pushed that button that fried her brain! She's scared and she's desperate. She just wants to be with him. Maybe she'd be more compliant if you rewarded her."
"I do reward her! She gets her own room and free food whenever she wants!"
"Those aren't rewards, Tobias, those are basic necessities a human being needs to survive. I mean, if you let her see him more often, maybe she wouldn't be so inclined to beat up half of your soldiers just to touch him!"
Joana couldn't believe Danika was helping him. She knew that Danika was just trying to give her more oppurtunites to see Bucky, but she was also right. If they let her see Bucky more regularly, let her touch him and feel him and be with him without the idea of torutre or pain, she would do whatever they wanted, just until she could break them out. It almost hurt her that Danika knew her well enough, that Danika meant enough to her that this felt like a betrayal. She wondered what else Danika told them about her.
Their argument turned to a hushed conversation. They knew she was listening.
"

Fine. Regular visists. But if I don't see progress in both of them, I'm cutting it."
"Thank you, Tobias."
"I expect you to hold up your end of the bargin, Stark."
Danika went quiet.
"Yes, of course I will."
What had Danika traded away for this deal? What was her end of the bargin?
"I want to talk to her."
Danika exited the room and looked down at Joana, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed.
"He wants to see you."
Joana opened her bruised, puffy eyes. She nodded at Danika.
"I'm sorry," she murmured as she stood. Danika simply dipped her head.
Joana turned towards the Commander's room and stepped inside. She breathed deeply, mentally preparing herself for whatever was to come.

________

Here we are again, at the end of a chapter. Thanks for joining me again.
I seriously love you all and can't thank you enough for being here with me today (it feels like I'm giving a TEDtalk)

Anyway, you are all so very important to me and to my writing, you don't even know. I can't thank you enough for your support.

I would greatly love it if you could possibly help with my grammar and my puncuation and spelling and stuff. That would be great.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter? It seems kind of crappy to me, but whatever. Thanks for being here.

Y'all are my favourite.

With the deepest regards,

authorsbane