Recovery || Bucky Barnes

08 | Homecoming

Bозвращение Hа Pодину 

"sometimes you have to surrender before you win." – Gregory David Roberts

★★★

Tess didn't know what she was going to do. She had driven for hours; her eyes were on the verge of closing as she arrived in the area of the last signal. The co-ordinates told her it was a dam, so SHIELD must've had some sort of dam facility. The car she had stolen had run out of gas halfway through which meant the next two hours consisted of walking and thinking of ways she would explain herself to them – if she didn't pass out first.

They wouldn't trust her. Why would they? She was a murderer and she couldn't blame them. She wasn't sure if she could even trust herself. How could she when she let herself get played by a terrorist organisation? And with each minute that she neared her destination she wondered if she should've let HYDRA take her along with her Soldier.

When she had finally reached the facility, she had spent an hour trying to find a weak spot for her to get inside. She found a thick, heavy metal door at the end of the dam crest which was going to be the place she burned a hole into. It would set off enough alarms inside for them to realise that someone was trying to break in. She only hoped that they wouldn't shoot her as soon as they saw her.

Taking a deep breath, she provoked the embers flames ignited in her hands. She touched the metal framing, letting the heat melt away the layers of reinforced metal. Dark brown eyes turned into amber as she continued to dig her hands deeper. The door was now at elbow length and she wondered how long it would take for her to get through the door frame. Her sensitive ears caught the sound of an alarm over the metal melting and burning. It wouldn't take long now, she thought. Her breath was becoming deeper and she felt her head become incredibly light. Her fired up hands were flickering before distinguishing completely on their own. She let out a few curses, her speech weak and slurred.

"Show me your hands!"

The voice sounded distorted and deep. She couldn't tell who it was as her vision started to spot black. She tried to listen to them and she wondered if her hands were no longer in the door as she tried to turn to face them.

"I need a-"

Her vision completely blacked, her body hitting the floor with a slam. She could hear muffled voices, the feeling of blood trickling out of her ears as she felt her body being turned to her side. There was a loud ringing that was blocking out the voices and she felt herself embrace the blinding light that had appeared.

It was snow.

Her hands covered her eyes, trying to block the sudden intensity of the outside from the darkness below. The sky was pale blue with no clouds in sight, the entire landscape blanketed in snow. She waisted those precious seconds on breathing it in, the relief of escaping.

She ran, her mind and body were trained her entire life to meet their physical demands. And now, she would turn their weapon into her ticket to freedom. Her mind focussed on her breathing and conserving her energy as her bare feet dug into the snow. She needed to find shelter, if they sent the Winter Soldier...

Soldier.

She had left him behind. They were going to torture him for this, allowing her to escape from them, and if they found out they were together... Her body kept moving, faster and faster but her mind was tormenting her as she heard the screams ringing in her ear.

The clang of metal reached her ears. They were out, and they were fully armed. She could hear the clear recalibration of that cybernetic arm, the Galil scraping against the metal as he took aim. She slid through the snow, taking cover from his shot.