The Same, Just Deadlier (Book 3)

1.9

3rd POV

June 17, 2014

The Winter Soldier sat in a chair as scientists all around him poked and prodded his metal arm. They were trying to fix it from the battle before. As they hovered around him, the assassin started to have flashbacks. All of them had something to do with the two he saw earlier. The girl and the man. His two targets. They used to be... his friends?

Flashback

It was Halloween, people dressed up in all sorts of costumes. Slutty nurses, murders, zombies. The typical costumes. As for Clara, she was an angel. A short white dress, and a gold headband on her head that was supposed to be a halo. Maria was dressed up as a nurse but a cute one, not one that would sleep with you before you have a surgery performed on you. Clara had barely seen Jack all day, but from what she had seen, he was a vampire.

The bell had just rung and an unusual crowd had gathered in the halls. Clara was trying to push through, see what was happening or if she and Maria could even get out. Maria slightly ahead of her, gasped. Clara unsure of what had caused her friend such a reaction pushed passed her. Clara met her gasp, with one of her own. Steve was picking a fight again, but this one was bad. Steve stumbled down, landing at Clara's feet. She knelt down to help him up. He looked at her, one eye almost nearly closed shut. Clara felt a fury in her that she hadn't felt in a while. "Are you fucking me?" Clara yells at the bully. Everyone seemed taken aback by that. No one had ever heard Clara Williams curse before. The bully was only taken aback for a second before a smirk formed on his face. "No, but I'd like to." He said, winning at her. Clara refrained from throwing up. She shook her head at him. "What right do you have to hurt the best person you will ever meet?" She yelled, moving closer to the bully, pushing him. She kept pushing him, until he hit a wall. "How does it feel to be pushed around?" She asked him. She wasn't going to wait for an answer, walking away. Before she had a chance to get out of the "ring", the bully slipped his hand up her dress, groping her ass. Clara squealed, slapping his hands away. A single tear ran down her cheek, the bully looking proud of himself.

Clara was prepared to slap him, punch him maybe. She wasn't really sure what to do. Maria pulled her back, hugging her protectively. Steve, on the other hand, went after the bully, more rage than ever. He got a few good punches in, but Clara couldn't handle the fighting, especially since she blamed herself. Clara ran forward and tried to stop it, rather getting hit herself. Her hand flew to her face, holding her eye that was hit. Her head was throbbing as she fell to the floor. Steve stopped fighting, trying to see if his friend was ok, but instead got kicked onto his side by the bully. Both felt they were laying helpless on the floor. "Excuse me." She heard someone cough. Bucky. Though she didn't see it, she imagined it was brutal. She could hear the sound of the fight going on, as she looked at Steve, hoping he was ok. Suddenly, Clara heard the sound of a whistle, knowing that the campus supervisors were breaking up the fight. Clara got up and helped Steve up, supporting him and trying to ignore the pain she felt on half her face.

Ultimately all 3 boys were suspended. The bully for a month. Bucky for 3 weeks, and Steve for 1, because it was self defense. Clara was asked to wait in the nurse's office but she saw all three boys leave the principal's office. The bully was badly hurt. His fist was a little bloody and his face was completely needed up. Bruises everywhere, perhaps a broken nose. Clara couldn't quite tell all his injurers from where she was sitting, but she knew that they all came from Bucky. Clara, despite her half bruised face, was more worried about her boys than anything else. Like every other fight Steve and Bucky had got in, Clara took the boys back to Bucky's house so she patch them up. "Get me the first aid kit, Bucky." Clara ordered as soon as she walked into the house. Bucky handed her the kit and both boys sat on the couch. "You know the drill. Shirts off boys." Clara went to the kitchen to get a rag and wet it. When she walked back to the family room, both boys had their shirts off. Clara couldn't help but notice that Bucky had gotten stronger over the years. Sitting in front of Steve, she washed of all the blood and then used the alcohol to clean them, which resulted in some cursing from Steve. When she was finished with Steve, she kissed his cheek. "Thank you for protecting me today." She smiled at him, Steve smiling back. "You're like my baby sister. No punk is going to touch you like that and get away with it." He kissed her forehead and left the room for some water, leaving Bucky and Clara alone. "Thank you." She said, looking into Bucky's eyes before cleansing his wounds. Her hands grazed his muscled shoulders, claiming the very little amount of cuts and bruises that were on him. "Clara..." Bucky starts, but she refuses to look him in the eyes. He lifts her chin towards his and sees the tears brimming her eyes. "I know what he did. Principal Dillard let it spill." Clara could no longer hold in the tears. "Oh Clara..." Bucky sighed, pulling her into the couch and holding her in his arms as she cried. Bucky lifted her head, wiping the tears away. She liked into his eyes, both of them just staring at the other. They wouldn't admit it but there was something between them, pulling them closer, about to kiss... "Oh." Both hear Steve's voice and pull away from each other. They had almost kissed. Almost.

His head was filled with flashbacks, one after the other. All of them had his targets in it except one.

He was lying down on a chair much like the one he was on right now. Scientists and HYDRA agents surrounded him, amputating his left arm and replacing with the metal arm. "You are to be the new fist of HYDRA." A scientist said to him. He then turned around to HYDRA agents. "Put him on ice." The assassin watched himself get put in ice, freezing over.

This is when the assassin comes out of his flashback series, yelling as he knocks over the HYDRA agent fixing his arm. The assassin was angry and confused as a guard pointed his gun at him. The Winter Soldier was confused as to what was real and what was in his head. Did he really know his two targets? What had happened to him? Who is his real enemy? That's when Pierce entered the vault, staring at the angry assassin. "Mission report." He ordered, but the assassin just sat there, looking at the ground blankly. "Mission report, now." Pierce moves closer to the assassin and suddenly strikes him hard in the face. The assassin looks up from the ground at Pierce.

"The man and woman on the bridge..." He starts to flashback to the two calling out his name in confusion. "Who were they?" He asked Pierce, who stood up straight.

"You met them earlier this week on another assignment." Pierce replied, carefully choosing his words.

"I knew them." Pierce sits in front of the assassin.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves." Pierce tells the assassin, trying to avoid the subject of his past and Steve and Clara.

"But I knew him." The assassin's eyes soften as he remembers the girl touching his face. It all felt so familiar to him. Pierce turned to the scientists.

"Prep him." Pierce ordered, as he began to walk out of the vault.

"He's been out of cryo-freeze too long." One of the scientists argues. But Pierce just turns around, looking at his dead in the eyes.

"Then wipe him and start over." The scientists strap the wavering assassin in his chair and place a teeth shield in his mouth as they begin the process of wiping his brain. As Pierce walks out, he hears Bucky screaming in pain, trying to fight off the memory wipe.