𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕦𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝔾𝕖𝕥𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕃𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣- completed but editing

Chapter 26

Hydra ruled on their turf of intelligence and an iron fist. Nothing else mattered except power and connections. They were a parasite in SHIELD and the rest of the world. And I had to stop them.

My eyes blinked open and the only noise seemed to be the Winter Soldier tossing his knife in the air. We were alone. The room was lit with overhead lights, probably some sort of closet, but it wasn't a Hydra room. I briefly remember waking up in a windowless transport truck.

The back of my right arm felt cold and when my hand brushed it, I felt the patch. Probably filled with "The Volume Button", it was sticking to my arm, ironically displaying what Hydra did to the world. I fought when I woke up in the truck and they muted me. I tugged on it. It didn't budge.

"Well, that didn't work," I mumbled.

The Winter Soldier looked up. He glared at me, keeping eye contact as he tossed his knife in the air and caught it.

I glared back. I couldn't get Bucky to help me unless I had my cloud to free his mind.

In a moment of strategized stupidity, I stood up and kicked the door. The Winter Soldier was up in a second, his arms momentarily paralyzing me. He had me in a headlock before I could kick the door again.

That was just where I wanted to be. He didn't notice me reach into his jacket pocket and grab the knife from its sheath. I forced my exhausted legs up to kick him in the head, knocking the Winter Soldier backward.

When he was thrown backward, I slashed the knife across my arm, cutting off the patch and at least two layers of skin. By then, I was used to the warm feeling of blood dripping on my skin.

Another warm feeling washed over me as my cloud came out of my finger tips. I was free.

The Winter Soldier got up and came toward me, his second knife poised. With one flick, I had him pinned up against a wall. I filtered through his memories, pulling out Hydra's control. He blinked three times and stared straight at me.

"Who are you?" He asked, confused.

I slowly let him down. "Bucky?" Cloud still in my hand, I took a step back.

He looked me straight in the eye. "You know him! The man I remembered. They hurt you!"

I looked up at him through my long eyelashes. Even in his Winter Soldier clothes, I could tell a difference between Bucky and the man they made him into. "I'm fine."

Bucky looked at my arm that was still profusely bleeding. "Did I do that?"

I shook my head and my cloud covered my wound, healing it.

He looked at me, his head cocked. "How are you doing that?" When I didn't answer, he changed the subject. "They told me you were a traitor. "

"Are you going to believe them?"

"You were with Hydra?"

"They took me from the orphanage in the dead of night. I was never really with them." I sat down and Bucky joined me, sitting a safe, six feet away.

"You're an experiment? Like me?"

"Yeah."

We sat in a slightly awkward silence for a moment before he sat up quickly. "You need to get out of here."

I sat up too. "Why?"

"It's not safe for you here! I could hurt you." He began to panic, pacing around the room.

I stood up. "You aren't going to hurt me. Hydra can't touch your brain right now."

"But what about when you have to fight your way out of here? I don't want to hurt you."

Slowly, cautiously, I made my way over to him. "Hey, you won't hurt me. I can protect myself."

He looked down at my left forearm. I hadn't looked at it yet. When I did, the tears wouldn't stop.

Carved into my arm, in jagged letters, were the letters I wouldn't tell my captors.

LJX-7.

Bucky ripped off the sleeve of his undershirt and motioned for me to hold out my arm. I obeyed and he wrapped the sleeve around my arm, tucking the loose end under the wrap.

"Thank you," I examined the wrap job. Bucky had obviously done this before.

He tilted my face upward with his right hand. "We have to get you out of here. Hydra will do to you what they did to me."

"We both have to get out of here."

Bucky shook his head. "I'm stuck here. I can't start over."

"Yes, you can. I did."

He smiled at me, his hair falling in front of his face as he looked down. "Well, you are obviously special. You escaped once already."

I bit my lip. "I had help. And so do you."

Bucky went over to the door. "Any brilliant ideas?"

I raised my eyebrows and grinned. With a flick of my fingers and a flash of purple, the door swung open. "Wait."

My cloud surrounded me, replacing the thin Hydra dress with ripped jeans, a purple so dark it appeared black, and baggy lavender t-shirt tucked in. My hair was in a half up, half down, messy, curled top knot.

Bucky stared in astonishment so I led the way out the door and into a hallway. We were in SHIELD headquarters.

I turned to face him. "No matter what I say, you have to do it, ok? I have a plan."

Bucky nodded. "Ok. Lead on."