The Seventh Avenger: Memories Never Die// Bucky Barnes

EIGHT: LONGSHOT

Meet your new training partner, the Winter Soldier.

Welcome to HYDRA.

Something tells me you're going to last.

Do you think that we would kill you after we went through all that effort to bring you here?

He threatened my family!

I will not hesitate to shoot you or anyone else if you try to disobey me again.

No one leaves this place. No matter how hard they try.

You're going to need all the friends you can get if you want to survive.

My head pounds where it rests in my hands as these thoughts swirl around in the space behind my eyes. But try as I might, I can't get them to go away. They were so loud that I'm surprised that the other people moving in and out of the cafeteria can't hear them. Then again, every other noise outside of my head was just as loud. Other people are talking with one another so loudly that I feel as if I can hear every conversation happening in this room. The sound of furniture screeching along the floor causes me to feel as if my head will split. Even the sounds of cutlery hitting the bottom of food trays cause my brain to throb painfully.

My head was just the beginning of my pain. Every single muscle in my body feels as if they're on fire, and the smallest movements cause me to flinch and groan with pain. Bruises dot my pale skin, and there is dried blood staining my hands and clothes. Once Jasper and the other soldiers had been cleared from the room, I hadn't moved from the ground. Nor did I pull myself to my feet and slowly make my way towards the infirmary where Dr S'yan's would take care of me. All I could do was drag myself towards the table where the girls and I usually sat for lunch and cry out in pain as I pulled myself into my chair.

Since then, I've been sitting here in the cafe with my eyes squeezed shut. I don't know how long it has been since I first sat down, but I do know that it had been long enough for someone to come in and clean up the mess that myself and the other guards had made. Though my eyes had closed, the sounds of someone cleaning up the broken glass and rearranging the chairs bounced off the cafeteria walls. I just hadn't felt the need to open my eyes and watch them do so.

"What the hell happened to you?"

I gently tilt my head up at the sound of Riley's voice. Blinking my teary eyes open, I see both her and Sara standing on the opposite side of the table, both of them holding trays in their hands. When she sees the state of my face, Riley physically recoils back. Not even Sara can hide the surprise in her dark eyes and her lips tug into a troubled frown.

"Did Jasper do this?" Riley asks in a voice barely above a whisper.

Knowing that shaking my head was only going to cause both my head and neck to burst with pain, I decided to answer her question with words. "Not exactly," I mumble.

"Care to elaborate, Newbie?" Sara asks.

A spark of annoyance ignites within me at the use of the familiar nickname. It is the same thing that Jasper calls me on more than one occasion, and I can't stand it. "Don't call me that," I snap, surprising myself with how firm I sound. Sara in turn only raises one of her brows but says nothing as I continue, "His guards did this. Jasper locked me in here with some guards and told them to kill me."

Riley's look of horror only grows at my words and an impressed whistle escapes past Sara's lips. "Shit," she says. "How many guards?"

I don't immediately answer her question. Instead, I try to recall how many guards that had been in the room with me during the confrontation. My memories revolving around the fight are blurred, and I blame that on how many times I had been either hit or kicked in the face. But after a few moments of thinking silently to myself, I finally reply, "There were ten guards."