Part 7 of "The Search for Bucky Barnes."
Set after the earlier pieces in this series: "Visiting Hours," "Breaking the Leash," "Chasing Ghosts Part I," "Inseparable," "168 hours," and "Realists."
Most of this was planned out months before Age of Ultron came out, and contained several references to the (then) upcoming film. Since I was halfway into writing it when I saw AoU, I have decided to keep it as it was, rather than try and rewrite it from scratch. I have made a few nods to the film in later chapters.
Special thanks to geminigrl11 as usual for her editing skill. I own nothing.
Chasing Ghosts, Part II
Chapter 1
Present Day
10 Months After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Southwestern Crimea, 50 km South of Balaklava
James growled softly to himself. There was little of interest in the study, so far as he could find, but it made no sense that so many guards would be protecting an empty room. Something had to be there. A computer, a file cabinet, a safe, a folder for Christ's sake. He couldn't believe the effort had been for nothing. A month of traveling and repeatedly combing through the notes Hiram Riddley had found...something had drawn him here. James felt something about this place, something important.
Something he couldn't remember.
He barely resisted the urge to slam his metal fist down on the bookshelf. It would almost certainly splinter the wood, and though he'd been thorough in clearing that floor of the house, he couldn't be certain that no one else was within earshot.
It was not easy to keep his rage bottled up. He'd spent almost a year doling out his own brand of justice on HYDRA, cutting a fiery swath through their North American operations. Usually, once he'd found useful intelligence or resources, he'd torched whatever place he was raiding and moved on. But he couldn't do that yet here. HYDRA wouldn't be utilizing the house as a base—as they clearly were given the amount of traffic coming in and out on a daily basis—and have nothing there to show for it.
A slow clicking sound from the hallway caught his attention. James drew one of the Glocks from his coat and melted into the shadows by the bookshelves. The clicking grew louder, until a figure appeared the doorway. After a moment's pause, a man entered the room.
He was white-haired, stooped, walking with a cane and a prominent limp. Still, James recognized his former master.
Lukin. James gasped, unable to suppress his stunned surprise.
The old Russian turned from his place by the desk, spotting James quickly. He smiled. "Ah. You kept me waiting, my boy. You never used to do that."
Of all the reasons HYDRA could have had for keeping this particular villa, harboring a ghost was not one James had anticipated.
Lukin motioned back toward the hall. "You need not have killed them. I left orders for you to be admitted. But, I am pleased to see that you have lost none of your special skills."
James ignored the remark. "I saw you die."
Chuckling, Lukin settled against the desk. "Yes. Comrade Pierce was very thorough in his purge of Kronas Oil. But, he neglected to remember that I had control of a very sophisticated medical facility." He motioned at James' cybernetic arm. "I need not remind you of that."
The smugly casual look on the old man's face grated on James' nerves. Especially since it was all too familiar.
CAP WS CAP WS CAP WS
HYDRA Special Training Facility
Code Name: The Red Room
2002
He slipped into the room silently, checking to be sure he wasn't noticed before closing the door.
Moving gracefully across the darkened room, the Soldier made his way to Natalia's bed.
She should have already known he was there. He had trained her well; she would have detected his entrance—
Natalia jackknifed off the pillow, the blade in her right hand swinging up to slash his neck. She was fast. Almost too fast. But the Soldier was still faster, catching her wrist with his metal hand and twisting until the knife fell from her grasp. She grunted in pain, bringing her left fist up, but he stepped inside her swing and pulled her against his chest.
"Very good," he whispered in Russian, punctuating the words with a kiss. "Next time, try striking as soon as I come through the door."
"Maybe I wanted you to get close," Natalia retorted, folding herself against him. His high metabolism meant that his body was warm to the touch. Whatever intimate value her movement had, he knew it was mainly so that she could absorb some of his heat in the chilly room. So pragmatic, he thought, smiling as he kissed her again.
They sank down onto the cot, but she stopped him before matters got too far along—as they usually did during his late night "training" visits. Placing a hand on his chest to halt him, she glanced worriedly at the door. "They will catch us."
"They haven't yet." The Soldier countered. He didn't care if they did. His scattered memories told him little. There was no clear vision of his past or even his identity. It wasn't something he fixated on, since there was nothing he could do about it. But, while he wasn't sure of so many things, he was certain that it had been a long time since he'd truly wanted anything. He wanted this.
"Yet." Natalia repeated back to him.
"Let them catch us," The Soldier said, smiling against her neck. "Tomorrow. That still leaves us tonight."
"You are incorrigible."
"I don't know what that word means," he replied, nibbling her collar bone.
Natalia groaned into his shoulder, which only aroused him more. "You must have been very poorly educated."
You're incorrigible, Sergeant.
I don't even know what that means, ma'am.
It means you were very loosely educated.
So...are you saying that a dance is completely out of the question, Miss Carter?
The Soldier froze.
He could see and hear it, as plainly as if the brown-headed woman in uniform were in the same room with him. He could also hear a man laughing in the background. He couldn't see the face in his mind, but it...felt familiar.
"Are you all right?" Natalia asked softly, watching him with obvious concern.
The Soldier looked down at her, coming back to his surroundings. His student, her room, her cot, the chilled air because students shouldn't be allowed to get comfortable...
The door opened, bouncing against the doorjamb with a bang. Men charged into the room, guns and clubs at the ready. Natalia, to her credit, didn't shout or cry out. Nothing surprised her. The Soldier took pride in that, though he was suddenly unsure why.
The men filled the small room, shouting at them to stand up and get against the wall. The Soldier growled, rising to his feet as he catalogued the opposition. Nine men, all armed, some armored. He was already deciding which should be neutralized first, even as the majority of his brain was screaming escape, take Natalia, leave....
He made it exactly three steps before the voice rang out.
"Vostok."
The Soldier's body stopped in place, and straightened until he was standing at attention. All thought of fighting fled his mind. He simply stood and waited for instruction, like a switch had been flipped.
Staring straight ahead, he saw the man who'd spoken enter the room behind the soldiers. Lukin heaved a rather theatrical sigh, and stepped over toward where Natalia was being restrained by two of the armed men. He couldn't hear what she said to Lukin, but he saw and heard the response.
"Ridiculous! Love is for children!" Lukin spat, striking her with the back of his hand.
He turned his cruel smile toward the Soldier. "You think you mean anything to him? We will show you exactly how deep his concern for you lies..."
CAP WS CAP WS CAP WS
Present Day
James shook his head, pushing the memory away. He remembered what came next: the chair, the pain, the horrified look in Natalia's eyes. Pressing his hand against his temple at the sudden headache, he focused on Lukin again.
The old man was resting casually on his cane, smiling. There was no kindness in it. "Your time with Comrade Pierce left you soft. They kept you out too long, allowed your mind to stray from its mission."
James pushed himself away from the bookcase with a snarl and raised his gun once more. Lukin simply shrugged and moved to sit behind the desk.
"I am not afraid. My time on this Earth is almost over. I will be dead in a matter of weeks, whether you use that or not. Actually," the old Russian sighed. "You might be paying me a kindness, my boy."
He reached slowly into the pocket of his coat. James tightened his grip on the gun, but Lukin merely pulled out an electronic tablet and set it on the desk.
"What you seek is here." Lukin said, tapping the screen lightly. "Every facility where we worked on you. Every laboratory."
James glanced at the tablet dubiously. He seriously doubted Lukin would surrender such information so easily.
Lukin smiled at him again. "Go ahead. Find them. Burn them. Do you not see? It changes nothing. You will never undo what we have made you. It does not matter how many years you chase after 'redemption,'" he said it like it was a dirty word. "The dead will still be dead, and you will still be their killer."
James rushed to the desk, pointing the gun at Lukin's face. "You made me a killer! You and Karpov. You forced me to do those things."
Lukin actually laughed. "'Forced you?' Oh, my boy...we never forced you to do anything. We never needed to. You are a killer. You were a killer when those men found you in the river. You were a monster long before Karpov retrained you."
"You're lying," James seethed.
"I have never lied to you, Soldier." Lukin said sternly. "I never needed to do that, either. All I ever needed to do was give you a purpose, a role to play in HYDRA's grand plans and you performed it well. You obeyed without question. We only needed to punish you when your mind strayed."
He considered James with what looked like pity. "I care little for how history remembers me, but I know with certainty how it will remember you. HYDRA's greatest asset. A ghost story. A cold-blooded killer."
Rage welled up inside James, rushing through his veins. His heart pounded in his ears. The man before him had tortured him. Imprisoned and enslaved him. Tortured Natalia and countless other "students" of the Red Room and made them into murderers. But, for all the anger that burned inside him, James couldn't find a single lie in anything Lukin had said. His memories weren't of a lifetime of resisting and being forced to kill. He had killed on command, like a loyal soldier.
Lukin was right.
He slammed the gun down on the desk and moved around it, shoving the chair and its occupant against the wall.
Lukin smiled up at him. "Do what you must. You know how this part of the game works, my boy. Cut off one head—"
James snatched one of the combat knives from his belt, unable to hold back the tide anymore. "I just might."
TBC
A/N: You'll noticed I said "Hydra Training Room." From what we've seen so far, it seems pretty clear that Bucky was always in Hydra's clutches, and despite Natasha thinking she went from the "KGB to Hydra" as she said in CA:WS, the truth is she was probably working for Hydra all along. If the MCU carries over the idea that Bucky has a past with her, then she pretty much had to be.