Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

Chapter XXIX: Smoking Guns

Joana 

The original Winter Soldier lay on his elbows, blood dripping from his mouth. One of the newer Soldiers, a man, stood above him, fist covered in blood, but not his own.

"Stop it!" Joana screamed, just mere inches away from the scene, but unable to do anything. "God, just stop! Please!"

The Soldier didn't flinch at the sound of her voice. None of the agents in the room made any move to stop him as he continued to beat against Bucky's face. 

"Stop it!" Joana begged, tears threatening her eyes. 

"Another word out of you and you'll be next," Karpov seethed. The threat kept Joana silent for only a few moments. Joana pulled with all her might against the restraints tied around her wrists and ankles. The Soldier lifted Bucky's head and shoulders off of the ground and started to slam his skull into the floor. 

"Let him go!" 

Karpov snapped his head around towards her. 

"That's it, girl! Soldat!" Both Bucky, face barely recognizable through the blood, and the other Winter Soldier, turned their heads towards Karpov. "Stand down." 

Bucky struggled to stand, staggering as he did so. Karpov whistled to the agents by the door and pointed towards Bucky. They held him up and carried him out from the room, probably to go find Lud and get him patched up. Karpov walked over to her chair and stood in front of her, arms crossed over his chest, eyes scowling. 

"Are you just gonna stand there or-" 

Her words were cut off with a sharp backhand to the face. 

"You're nothing more than a whore, you know that?" He seethed in her face. Shifting her jaw, Joana turned her face back to him. 

"Say what you want about me, Karpov. All your words are empty to me."

With a devilish grin, Karpov started to undo the chains on her wrists. They fell to the ground with a thundering sound and Joana let out a sigh of relief. Her wrists could finally breathe, as strange as it sounds. She carefully moved her arms from the chair. Her wrists were raw, bruised and bleeding. She knew what he wanted her to do, so she stood, her legs wobbling. Her head spun as she finally did so. Her knees felt weak, tight. She stretched her arms and her legs and her neck. 

"What about these words?" Karpov asked, interrupting Joana's stretching. "Ubey yeye."

Joana's face went pale. The Winter Soldier cracked a smile. She smiled back, slowly walking behind her chair. 

"Good doggy," she whispered. "Nice doggy. Good doggy." 

The Winter Soldier did not seem to appreciate being called a 'doggy'. 

He snarled at her and ran towards the chair. He pushed off the seat of the chair and did a flip in the air, reaching out with his hand to grab her hair as he went, but Joana was already running in the opposite direction, having predicted his movements. Joana knew that she couldn't beat him in a fight, it was impossible. And she couldn't outrun him, that was futile. All she had to do was somehow get Karpov's gun and then she could kill the Soldier, but she had to figure out how to do that before the Soldier killed her. 

She ran around the room, knocking things over in hopes to slow the Soldier down as he chased her. He gained on her rapidly. 

"I thought you were a strong warrior, Joana," Karpov said as she zipped around the room. 

"I am," she seethed as she ran past him, dodging something that the Soldier threw at her. 

"Then why are you running?"