BATTLE BORN ; Bucky Barnes

fourteen ;

The train arrived in Romania, pulling up to the platform slowly, the 27 hour ride was finally over. Scout had spent most of it sleeping, it wasn't often that she got to sleep without being paranoid or waking up every hour. Bucky managed to sleep a solid 7 hours, then a few hours in between. He spent the other 18 or so hours racking his brain for memories, trying to collect them all so he could explain it all to Scout, like she'd been honest with him. The train doors opened, and the two of them ran out, leaving before anyone else on the train could see them. They moved with their heads down, so as to not get caught by the security cameras in the station.

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They thought they'd be safe in Romania. Scout reversed every tactic she had be taught about following and stalking people, she constantly checked their surroundings. Meanwhile she stayed seemingly oblivious to the secret trips to the library that Bucky made. She still pretended that she didn't know who he really was, even though he occasionally caught her stroking a scar on her stomach, one that he had given her, though he couldn't remember.
They spent a week in Romania with nothing happening, and began to foolishly let down the guards. Without building a relationship with anyone, they settled into a routine. That was their first mistake. The second mistake was near fatal, the second mistake was going to the market that night. Smiling, not checking their backs, letting loose and chatting, like a normal couple, like friends. They bought a few pieces of fruit, and shared a crepe. They didn't notice they'd been followed, stalked though the market. As the clock struck midnight, they decided to wrap it up, go home, get some sleep. The cut through a back alley, and that was when it happened. Scout heard a footstep out of sync with hers, then she turned, then a scream tore though the air as the bullet shredded her skin and found itself lodged between her ribs. Hot, boiling blood bubbled to the surface and poured down the outside of her body.
"Scout!"
"B-Buck." She hissed, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted. Bucky raced forward, slamming the gun out of the hands of the dead man walking, and grabbed the sides of his head with his hands, and in one sharp movement, broke his neck. Scout was steadily loosing more and more blood, Bucky pressed his hand to her stomach and she didn't respond. He stemmed the blood flow with his soft jumper, and carried her though back alleys, occasionally one-armed in order to avoid trouble. There was no chance they could go to the hospital, Bucky was on the most wanted list, and apparently so was Scout. He would have to make do with the first aid supplies and his primitive knowledge. She couldn't die. James needed her, she was his rock, the one thing that kept him in the present.

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Scout made it though the night, and by then, she was through the worst of it, her fever had broke at around five in the morning, so he risked it, and ran to the pharmacy, buying as many first aid supplies as their limited money could afford and jogged back. She was still alive. He thanked every god he knew, she couldn't die. She couldn't die.

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The pain came in waves now. Scout shivered against the cold, trying not to move because it would hurt again. Bucky was out and she was all alone. The hallucinations had started at one o'clock last night, she had been seeing ghosts from her past. A younger version of Emmaline and herself had appeared, their heads shorn and their tattoos showing, they looked half dead. They taunted her, then disappeared. Next came a team of scientists, they poked and prodded her and she screamed in pain. After that, Aunt Peggy, she stroked Scout's hair as the girl shook and cried.

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Bucky walked across the market place, a black cap pulled low across his eyes. He handed over some money for plums, and took them with him. Across the street he spotted a twenty-something year old vender at a news-stand watching him. Bucky glanced away, then looked back at the vender who was still watching him. The vender ran from his kiosk. Bucky's heart rate increased. He walked across the market, picking up a newspaper, on the front page there was a surveillance-photo of a man and the head line: 'Winter Soldier cautat pentru Bombardmentul din Viena'. He glanced around nervously. This was not good. He had to get Scout and he had to get away.

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Scout muffed her cries as she heard footsteps. The door opened, slowly, and someone she once knew stood there in a dark blue armoured suit. The round shield gave it away. Steve. He looked around, his eyes flickering over Scout before she groaned to try and get his attention.
"Scout!" He dropped to his knees beside her. "What happened to you?" Since he'd seen her last, she had cut and dyed and grown out and dyed her hair more times than fingers on a hand, she's been shot with an arrow and a gun and stabbed and slashed at, she had several new scars.
"Shot. Bullet. Stopped by my-" she screamed as he placed his hands on her stomach, "ribs." She finished, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Heads up, Cap. German Special Forces, approaching from the south." Cap heard Sam say though his coms line.
"Understood." He said, pausing before saying. "Tempest is down."
"I didn't know we had a storm coming."
"Yeah, the storm is going to be a problem." Cap said, and turned his head. Bucky was stood behind him.
"Do you know me?" Cap asked.
"You're Steve. I read about you in a museum. Scout spoke about you."
"They've set the perimeter." Sam said.
"I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying." Steve said, as Scout attempted to stand up, unsuccessfully.
"I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore." He said. "Scout will tell you, we were in Ukraine, then here."
"They're entering the building."
"Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive." Steve said.
"That's smart. Good strategy." Bucky said.
"Steve, Steve, get him out- get-" Scout attempted, before her body gave out. Bucky rushed to her side, stroking her hair out of her face.
"S- Steve you have to get her out, she doesn't know about my past, she's innocent."
"They're on the roof. I'm compromised." There were footsteps storming up the stairs.
"This doesn't have end in a fight, Buck."
"It always ends in a fight."
"5 seconds."
"You pulled me from the river. Why?" Steve asked.
"I don't know."
"3 seconds!" Bucky gathered Scout his his arms, he was going to do what he always does. Run.
"Breach! Breach! Breach!" A grenade crashed through the window. Bucky kicked it to Steve, and he smothered it with his shield. The cop slammed the battering ram against the door. Bucky shielded Scout with the mattress. He blocked the door with a table as the cops swung in on cables. Steve pulled the rug from under a policeman, sending him flying. Bucky slammed another policeman into the wall, holding Scout in his metal arm.
"Buck, stop! You're gonna kill someone." Steve called. Bucky slammed Steve down and punched a hole in the floor, grabbing the same go-back that Scout packed from Manchester.
"I'm not gonna kill anyone." He said.

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Bucky with Scout in his arms, and hid behind Steve's shield to avoid gunfire, the three of them could badly fit behind the small shield. Bucky shoved Steve and he knocked a cop over. Quickly Bucky shifted Scout into his flesh arm and held up his metal hand to repeal bullets, then slammed a cop into the shelves. Bucky picked up a large cement brick and threw it into a cop. Bucky punched through the wall beside the door. He needed to escape, he needed to keep Scout safe. This was exactly why he was hesitant to let her in, to keep her close, even after she told him everything. A cop descended through a sky-light on a zip wire. Bucky grabbed the cop's gun and slammed him into the wall. He bashed a couple of cops with the battering ram. More of the police team hurry up the stairwell. Bucky jumped on the zip-line-guy, checking Scout's pulse as he swung down a level.