The Same, Just Deadlier (Book 3)

1.7

June 17, 2014

Sam drive as fast as he could to Triskelion. Sitwell and I sat in the back seats, with Steve next to Sam. I wasn't entirely fond of sitting next to the HYDRA agent but he was more scared of me than anyone else. Sitwell's leg bounced up and down with anxiety as he gazed out the window. "HYDRA doesn't like leaks." He mumbled, making me glare at him.

"Put a cork in it." I growled. Then I looked back down at my phone. "Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here." I told the boys in the front seats.

"I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly." Steve tells me, making Sitwell squirm in his seat.

"What?! Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea." Before Sitwell has time to say anything else something lands on the roof of the car. A metal arm shoots through the car window, grabs Sitwell and throws him out into oncoming traffic. He's dead. And by the looks of the metal arm, the man on top of the car is the Winter Soldier.

I move myself to the front of the car, grabbing onto the car seats between me. The backseats were no longer safe. He starts to shoot at us until Steve pulls the break handle, making the Winter Soldier drop down onto the street, in front of us. We were stopped in the road for a moment, cars passing us until another car smashes into our car and pushes us along. The Winter Soldier jumps back onto our car, smashes through the windscreen and pulls out the steering wheel. I heard Sam curse as I pull out my gun, shooting at the assassin but he just jumps onto the vehicle behind us, as our car is being pulled off the road. Steve holds onto the car door, grabbing both me and Sam. "Hang on!" Steve orders as he breaks open the door, holding onto me and Sam. We slide on the car door through the streets, trying to get as far away from the car as possible. Suddenly, the Winter Soldier is joined by a dozen HYDRA agents, all of them shooting at us.

Steve holds his shield as the assassin is given a new gun, pushing me away from him as the missile is launched at Steve. It hits his shield but Steve is thrown off the highway to the ground below us, into a bus. I run from the agents, trying my best not to get shot as I avoid both the bullets and the cars on the opposite end of the freeway. I hide behind a car and before I get a chance to shoot anyone, a missile hits the car in front of me, throwing us both off the highway. I flip over, but still manage to land on my feet in the road.

I start to run under the bridge but stop, seeing the Winter Soldier's shadow. I hide myself in one of his blind spots until I see him look away. Then I stepped out slightly, shooting at him, but the only thing I hit is his eye mask. He ducks down, removing himself from my sight. I take the time to run, moving myself behind a truck as the assassin stands back up, shooting at me. He continues to shoot at me, only giving me a few seconds to shoot him back. When my gun runs out of bullets, I run, trying to hide myself behind as many cars as possible as the assassin continues to shoot at me. I hear his gun stop as I look back, seeing him jump from the highway onto a car. He is no longer wearing his eye mask but his muzzle remains. I hear the sirens of a police car but only for a second as I duck behind a car.

I hear people screaming and running all around me but I try to stay out of sight. Grabbing my somehow I damaged phone I record a message, turning the volume up as loud as possible. It gives me the chance to run, hiding behind a different vehicle. I see the Winter Soldier stop, pulling something out of his back pocket and rolling it across the floor. Seconds later, it all blows up and the assassin stands, surprised I wasn't behind the car. I jump out from where I was, onto the assassin's back. I wrap my legs around his neck, trying to kill him but he just grabs me and throws me onto another car. I look over my shoulder, seeing him coming towards me. I roll off the car and started to run but he follows me. "Run! Get out of the way!" I yelled at the civilians, trying to save as many as possible. Suddenly, I got shot in the shoulder and I fall to my knees. I try to stay quiet as I crouch behind another car, not hearing to seeing the Winter Soldier anywhere. I heard the sound of the gun as I turned my head, seeing the assassin standing behind me, gun pointed at me. When I turned around, I saw Steve running towards me. On the one hand, I was glad Steve was here. But on the other hand, he needed to get out of here before he got himself killed.

I watched as Steve jumped up, attacking him. They continue to fight, both of them throwing hard punches at each other. Steve throws his shield but the assassin grabs it and throws it back. Steve dodges the shield, both of us watching as it implanted into a truck. Steve runs up to the assassin, who is now fighting with a dagger. A fist to dagger fight. If it was anyone else, I would predict the dagger winning. They continued to fight each other until Steve was backed up into the truck, where he grabbed his shield. Steve was able to use it to his advantage, grabbing the assassin and throwing him over his soldier. The assassin rolled over, his mask lying on the floor in front of him. I stood up when the assassin stood up, his long hair blowing away from his face. Both Steve and I stood next to each other watching as the assassin stood in front of us. But he wasn't an assassin. I felt my stomach drop as I remembered where I knew his eyes. "Bucky?" Steve and I managed to say at the same time.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" I started to move towards Bucky, forgetting the situation we were in. He stood completely still as my hand touched his face. I looked up into his eyes, staring at them for a second. It was when I moved my hand to touch his metal arm that he threw me into a car. I groaned as I slumped down, watching as Bucky raised his gun as Steve. He didn't have a chance to shoot because Sam flew in and kicked Bucky to the side. But Bucky picked up his gun and aimed for Steve again. I managed to grab a small grenade bomb and rolled it across the floor, watching it stop at his feet. Before it explodes, Bucky is able to vanish in the smoke, the explosion triggered milliseconds later. Steve ran over to me, helping me up as we heard sirens, not bothering to run when dozens more HYDRA agents surrounded us.

Steve and I looked at each other, wondering the same thing. What the hell happened to Bucky? As I stood there, my hand holding my shoulder, where the bullet still was implanted, I remembered the day I was told Bucky was dead. I remembered standing there, not feeling anything for maybe an hour. It didn't feel anything until I saw Steve later that day. I remember slapping Steve and yelling at him for not keeping Bucky safe before I rested my head on his chest, letting all the tears flow down my cheeks.

As I stood here now with Steve, I didn't let myself cry. I didn't think I had any tears to cry out. At that moment, I was surprised and furious. For, god knows how many years, HYDRA had Bucky. They somehow managed to torture him and erase his memories. They created a super soldier to comply to their every word.

Bucky. My Bucky.