Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

XXIV: Poison Blood

Joana

She fired her gun, aiming directing between the eyes of the agents. She only took out nine of the over 30 agents there were. She reloaded her IMBEL Pistola (which HYDRA had stolen mass amounts from the Brazilians) and fired off nine more rounds before she had no more bullets let. 
"I'm out," she said to her companions as the agents continued to close in around them. 
"Well, we're three of the best HYDRA has to offer," Natalia said and glanced over at Joana with a smirk. "Let's give them a taste of their own Super Soldiers." 
I would love to be able to tell you that between Bucky's metal arm, Natalia's strength, and Joana's inability to give up, that they could defeat the room full of agents, but that wouldn't be telling the truth. Yes, they fought with everything they had, but everything they had wasn't enough. They did well for the first few minutes. A small pile of unconscious and and/or dead agents began to form around their feet. One agent who realized that Joana's leg was weak from Pierce's crowbar attack and took advantage of that. He aimed for her leg when striking her, which was enough to get her on her knees. From there, it was easy to hit her head enough times that her vision started going blurry. 
Joana, on her hands and knees, gasped for breath. Her muscles screamed for a release. Her knee pulsing with a sharp pain. She wiped blood from her mouth as agents shouted orders, her two friends fighting with the soul hope of surviving. She tried to stand back on her feet, but the pain in her knee was too much. The agents who had previously been attacking her now walked passed her, as if she wasn't there, because, in all honesty, she wasn't the main target. Once she had finally managed to get back on her feet, fighting off the pain that shoot through her leg and into the rest of her body, she realized how far apart the agents had managed to get Natalia and Bucky. Limping over the fallen agents, she made her way towards them, hoping to be able to close the gap. Before she could hit anyone with anything, five agents had their arms around Bucky and another four were pulling Natalia away. 
"No," Joana breathed. 
"James!" Natalia shrieked, her movements become erratic, hysterical, as she tried to get away from the mass amounts agents swarming her. 
"Natalia!" Bucky sounded desperate. The look in his eyes was familiar to Joana. She had seen it almost every day, a long, long time ago. The pain in her leg suddenly vanished, adrenaline coursing through her bones. She ran across the room towards the crowbar that was stuck in the wall. She pulled on it, begging silently for it to come loose. 
"James!" Natalia had tears running down her face. She knew what would happen to them if they were separated. She would never see him again. 
"Let me go!" Bucky yelled, throwing an agent into the wall with just the toss of his arm. "Natalia!"
Joana pulled harder against the crowbar. 
"Please. Please!" Finally, it came free. Joana let out a cry of relief. "Barnes!" She yelled. Bucky turned to look at her. She threw the crowbar as hard as she could towards him, hoping that if he had some kind of weapon, he could take out the rest of the agents in the room. 
"James!" The agents almost had Natalia out of the room. 
"Joana," Bucky said, having freed himself from the agents restraining him. They had him cornered, at least 20 agents surrounding him. "Please, save Natalia." 
She couldn't leave him here. She wouldn't. It wasn't right. This entire ordeal wasn't right. She shook her head once, taking a step towards him. 
"Joana!" He yelled, slamming the crowbar against the head of an agent. "Please." 
Joana clenched her jaw and curled her hands into fists. She nodded stiffly and turned to the door, where Natalia had her fingers curled around the frame. She would have saved Natalia from whatever fate was to befall her, but there was no time. Before she even made it to the door, one of the agents surrounding Bucky turned towards her, a gun in his hand. He fired it, the sound echoing through the room.
Joana froze. Everyone froze. Natalia stumbled back into the doorway. She stared at Joana in horror. Her mouth was slacked, her eyes moving from Joana's eyes to her stomach. That was the first time that Joana realized that there was pain in her stomach. She glanced down at her black outfit. There was a dark ring near her left side. When Joana lifted her hand to touch it, her shirt was sticky and wet. That's when she realized that she had been shot.
She fell backwards. As she hit the ground, everything sounded like it was coming through water. She saw Natalia's mouth open, her face trembling. She lurched forward, but the agents grabbed her again, pulling her by the waist. She heard Natalia screaming, but what she was saying, Joana could never be sure. The agents picked her off the ground and pulled her away. 
The last thing Joana ever saw of Natalia Romanova was tears running down her green eyes as she was dragged, kicking and screaming, from the training room. 
Behind her, Joana heard some kind of ruckus that sounded something like fighting. She gasped for breath, her hand limply pressed against her side. Her legs twitched against the pain. 
"Joana!" Bucky's voice sounded just like Natalia's- distant, water-like. She saw him slide into her view, on his knees. His eyes were scanning her body, as if he was trying to figure out the best way to save her. "Joana." 
He reached out to press against her wound, but the remaining agents - how many there were, Joana didn't know- hounded around Bucky, grabbing his arms and chest and waists and legs. He tried to fight against them, to get back to Joana, but there were too many of them, even for the Winter Soldier. Joana tried to reach out to him, his name just barely passing her lips. A high pitched shriek filled her ears as the agents dragged Bucky away from Joana. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shut out the shrieking. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the agents pushing Bucky against the ground, holding him down, as a larger agent beat his face in. 
"Stop," Joana croaked, trying to move towards him. "Please, stop." 
She tried to roll onto her stomach, but she could hardly shift her weight without pain shooting through her stomach. She swallowed, her mouth and throat dry. Gasping for breath, she tried moving again, only to have her vision go extremely blurry. Her eyes fluttered closed for what felt like a half second, but when she opened them again, the agents were scurrying away, carrying an unconscious Winter Soldier. 
A few heart pounding moments later, men and women in white lab coats came running in. Just as they reached her, Joana passed into the world of slumber.