the soul thief ↬ b. barnes

fix herself

"What are we going to do with her?" Steve asked. "We can't keep her locked in the cell forever, but we definitely can't let her go."

"Letting her go is not an option," Bucky said. "Hydra will be out to get her when they realise she was captured and I'm still alive. She might not show it, but she's scared. I was."

Steve looked at his best friend solemnly. The past few weeks, he had been opening up more and more about his past and his time at Hydra. Bucky didn't want pity, Steve knew that, but he couldn't help feeling bad for the innocent man who was turned into a killer.

Tony looked at Bucky as well. Everyone did. They had learnt more about Bucky in the last few weeks than they had in the year that he had been staying with them. None of them could say that they weren't intrigued by his traumatic past, but knew better then to ask about it.

Natasha felt for him, and Tessa. She had experienced the same things that they had, only she knew what she was doing. When Tessa's brain becomes her own again, Nat had no doubt that the realisation of what she had done would break her.

The real question was whether Tess would be able to fix herself or not.

———

"Tessa," Bucky said. "You're never going to get out of the cell of you keep trying to attack Stark."

She said nothing, only glared at Tony with the heat of a thousand fires. Tony sighed.

"I told you, bud," he said to Bucky, resting a hand on his shoulder. "It's not going to work."

"It has to," Bucky insisted. "I forgave Steve. She can forgive you, especially when you didn't even do anything."

"She doesn't know that, Barnes," Tony said. "She thinks I was responsible for killing her parents. I'd hate me too."

With that, Tony left the room, leaving Bucky alone with Tessa. Bucky sighed.

"Did he kill my parents?" Tessa asked quietly. Bucky looked up, startled by the question.

"No," he said. "Stark is an asshole, sure, but he would never do that."

"Then who did?"

Bucky hesitated. Steve had said not to reveal anything to Tessa about her past life. That was Bruce's job, and it would only confuse her. "The same people who killed your brother," Bucky said at last. "Hydra."

"They wouldn't..." Tessa said, although the look in her eyes gave away that she didn't quite believe what she was saying.

"I know it's hard to believe," Bucky said. "But Hydra aren't the good guys. We are."

"Really?" Tessa almost scoffed. "Because right now, you're not much different."

Bucky looked over at the keypad. One push of a button, and Tessa would be free from her cell. What she would do, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that she couldn't be kept in the cell any longer.

So without a second thought, Bucky pushed the button.