Days 68 continued-69…
Bucky and Ward stormed the Hydra bunker in search for the doctor Ward had spoken about. Bucky carried Alpha behind Ward who held all of the weaponry except for Bucky's one handgun. Ward was right in that there weren't many Hydra soldiers to deal with but he didn't say anything about the underground base being such a maze. They took many turns and Bucky worried Alpha would wake again. They had to already tranquilizer her three more times before they even got to the base. Bucky began to worry what would happen to Alpha if they used the medicine in the tranquilizers too much.
It got to the point Bucky was about to lose his patience with Ward when Ward stopped and studied the dead end he had just led them into. His eyes scanned the blank wall. Bucky was about to say something when Ward pressed his hand against a normal looking spot on the wall and a portion of the wall sunk back then slid to the side. A room with bright lights was opened to them. Ward and Bucky rushed in. A woman stood to the side with her hands raised at the height of her head. Two guards stood next to her but Ward quickly shot them down.
"Please! Please don't hurt me!" The woman shrieked. Ward lowered his gun. The woman's eyes made their way to Alpha's unconscious body. Her eyes narrowed.
"We need your help." Ward said.
"Ward tells me you implanted this machine onto the back of Allie's neck. I need you to remove it and bring Allie back to us." Bucky added, menacingly. The woman swallowed.
"You want me to remove the machine Hydra is using to control Alpha?" She repeated shakily to Bucky. "I thought they got their Asset back. Why would you want to set her free?"
"I faked being Hydra's Asset to stay close to Allie. Now, can you fix her or not?" Bucky's voice grew into a growl. The woman held a hand over her stomach and leaned back against her desk.
"I just want you to know, Hydra took a lot of people from SHIELD during that time, even her." The woman nodded towards Alpha. "I was one of the doctors they kidnapped. I will happily take that machine off of her but you need to promise you won't harm her anymore." The woman was strangely bold against Hydra's Asset and one of Hydra's most elite agents. Bucky locked his eyes with the doctor.
"I will protect her with my life." He said in a low tone. The woman nodded then turned to her desk. She began gathering some medical supplies.
"Get her on the table across the room. I'll get the supplies I need." The woman ordered. Bucky took Alpha across the room to a metal surgical table. He turned on a large light that hung overhead. The woman returned with a rolling table being pushed by one hand, a box of supplies wrapped by the other arm and Ward tailing behind her carrying even more stuff. The doctor worked swiftly.
"Sit her up so I can get her jacket off of her. I need access to part of her spine in order to fully disconnect the machine from her head and neck." The doctor said. Bucky sat Alpha up and kept her steady as the woman tore off Alpha's jacket. Ward turned to a computer on a desk across the room when it began blaring alarms into the previously quiet room.
"We have more company." Ward called across the room. "Is there a way to lock down this place?"
"At the central computer. But that's in a separate room. The soldiers keeping me here took away my access to the central computer. Even if I was to get you guys down there none of us would be able to lock it down. It's voice commanded plus retinal scan that senses a pulse and requires one for it all to work." The doctor replied. Ward pursed his lips while slightly rolling them inward, much like Alpha did Bucky noted.
"There has to be a manual way to lock down this place." Ward said. The doctor stopped her actions once Alpha was lying on her stomach and attached to the table.
"There is. But it is outside. This place was built to keep people in more than out. Once it is locked that way the coordinates will be erased from all files and wiped from the face of the earth. Any scans of this place will reveal nothing; saying we are all either dead or somehow escaped. I'm frankly the only valuable thing in this bunker. Hydra won't pursue any of us anymore because they'll think we're dead."
"Wait, so we'll be stuck here for the rest of our lives?" Bucky asked.
"I know of a secret way out. I made it during a time Hydra had left me here completely alone, to teach me a lesson of some sort. That is our way out." The doctor explained. Ward made his way quickly towards the door.
"Bucky, you stay with Allie. Doc, you and I are going to lock this place down then use your secret exit to get back in." Ward said.
"Wait!" The doctor called, stopping Ward in his tracks. "It doesn't work like that. My secret exit is just that, an exit. Nothing more. If you go out there and lock this place down you won't be able to get back in. My secret way out blows a hole in the side of the compound. Once that is opened anyone can get in or out so it won't be safe here anymore." Ward's face fell. An intense silence grew in that room. No one dared even breathe too loudly, it was so intense.
"So, one of us is going to have to make the hard decision." Bucky broke the silence. He turned to Ward with a hard expression. "I don't want to leave Allie but I don't want to separate you two either." Ward held up his hand to silence Bucky.
"I... I want you to stay with her." Ward said with much difficulty. Bucky's eyes widened and jaw dropped.
"You deserve to try again for a relationship with her. Everyone does at some point." Ward shook his head.
"When she looked at me… I knew she couldn't recognize me anymore."
"That was her Hydra AI talking. They wiped her memory banks just like they did me when I was the Asset. Once she's back to normal she'll remember you." Bucky stated with a sense of urgency. He knew they were in grave danger but didn't want to separate Ward and Alpha. Ward shook his head.
"She only met me once and wasn't in good condition when she did. I would love to create a relationship with her but I don't think it's time for that yet. I should give her time. Tell her about me; that I was here and helped. So, if she's up to it later she can look for me and we'll meet. God knows I won't lose track of her again." Ward took in a deep breath.
"What will you do if they catch you out there?" Bucky asked. Ward pulled his shoulders back.
"I'm going to protect my daughter. I'll lock this place down then lead everyone out there away. I'll do whatever I have to." Bucky nodded. Then Ward turned to the doctor.
"How do I lock down the compound?"
"Walk with me." The doctor said. She and Ward left at a brisk pace, leaving Bucky to guard Alpha. Bucky watched Alpha sleep with eagle eyes to be sure she wasn't waking. After what felt like seconds but was actually quite a few minutes the doctor returned. She stopped at her desk across the room and pulled out two gas masks with goggles attached. She handed one to Bucky.
"When this place locks down it will send out a strong sedative through the vents. It's so strong it would keep you and Captain America asleep for so long you'd die of starvation and dehydration. Again, meant to keep people in more than keeping others out. Put it on quickly." The doctor explained right before covering her face with the mask. While Bucky was putting his on the doctor put a special oxygen mask over Alpha's face, which was poking through a head rest and facing the floor.
"How long until it goes away?" Bucky asked through his mask.
"Once it is finished dispersing through the compound I will turn on the vents and they will suck the sedative up and out. It won't harm the environment because the harmful compounds in the sedative break down when they have contact with dirt and the oxygen produced by plant life. People will be able to see traces of the sedative when they do a scan of the area so will leave us alone." She answered. Right after the doctor finished speaking, misty white colored air hissed from the vents and rapidly filled the room. Bucky's heart hammered in his chest as the mist fell upon him, the doctor, and Alpha.
•••
Alpha sat staring at the blank wall, her mind wondering almost beyond hope of returning. She had trouble reconciling the fact Hydra had taken control of her body and mind for so long. The last thing she could remember was the Hydra agent torturing her. The next thing she knew she was waking up in a hospital bed, a breathing tube down her throat, monitors wailing obnoxiously, and electrodes attached to her head. Bucky was there, thank goodness. Alpha honestly believed she was back in a Hydra facility and they were prepping her to go back to doing their terrible deeds but quickly threw that theory out the window because of Bucky's presence.
Needless to say, Alpha had a lot on her mind. She had changed out of the remnants of her Hydra clothes into sweatpants and a tank top which where some of the few clothes the doctor could find for her. Her head had to be shaved completely for the surgeries that had been done in her brain while she slept. Alpha was used to having short hair by that point but it had never been that short before and made the ordeal even stranger than it already was. With her hair gone everyone could see exactly where her inventions emerged from under her skin and how it all connected. That kind of exposure made Alpha uncomfortable even though it was only Bucky and the doctor who were there to see it.
Bucky knocked before opening the door. Alpha didn't turn. She was still lost in her thoughts. Bucky entered. He walked over to Alpha's bed, where she sat, and lightly tapped her shoulder. Alpha jumped and scooted away about a foot before realizing it was Bucky who had touched her.
"Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought." Alpha said, still absentmindedly. Her head quickly swiveled down from Bucky's face to her knees, avoiding eye contact. Bucky watched her with sadness in his eyes.
"I didn't mean to startle you. I thought you heard me knock." Alpha's eyes snapped back up for a fraction of a second before returning somewhere that wasn't Bucky's face.
"You knocked? Oh, my bad… I didn't… notice." Alpha's gaze eventually returned to the blank spot on the wall that she had been staring at before Bucky entered. Bucky sat down next to Alpha slowly, as to not startle her again.
"You've been sitting in here alone for hours. Why not take a walk with me through the base? It's underground so you don't have to worry about any windows. It's been locked down so there's no worry of people breaking in. It's really safe." Bucky's voice was soft, a sound it wasn't often and made it sound almost foreign to Alpha's ears. She tilted her head slightly so her ears could hear him better but her eyes remained fixated on that blank spot.
"Thanks, but… I'd rather just sit for a little bit." Alpha glanced at Bucky. Bucky sighed inwardly but gathered the courage and patience to keep calm and kind.
"Allie, you said that at six pm. It's almost two in the morning." Bucky said but trailed off when he realized Alpha wasn't listening at all. She had begun lightly rocking herself forward and backward with her legs tucked tightly against her chest. Bucky placed a hand on Alpha's shoulder and pulled her to face him.
"Alpha," Her mismatched eyes pierced into Bucky's, wide with fear and confusion. "When was the last time you slept?" Alpha's head began to shake slightly side to side as though having a small disagreement in her mind.
"I…" Alpha opened and closed her mouth a few times, making incoherent sounds. "I'm scared to go to sleep." She eventually choked out. Buck's hand fell from her shoulder, lightly stroking her arm on the way down.
"Why?" Alpha began shaking her head more forcefully. Her face changed into an expression of pain. Whether it was physical or emotional pain, Bucky couldn't tell.
"I'm afraid that if I fall asleep I'm going to wake up back in a Hydra facility. All that we've gone through for the past two months, gone. A figment of a comatose imagination. Merely a dream either cooked up by my mostly dead brain that is stuck in a coma or a dream made by Hydra to occupy me until they are ready to use me for real." Alpha's misty eyes finally settled on Bucky's and stayed there.
"What if all this was just a dream and the nightmares are my reality?" Alpha's voice choked. Bucky opened his arms and Alpha fell against his chest. To Bucky's surprise Alpha didn't cry out with back shaking sobs. She sat, numb, with silent tears trailing down her cheeks and soaking into Bucky's shirt. Bucky rested his cheek onto Alpha's head and held her tightly.
"You just need some rest. You've been through a lot in just the last twelve hours." Bucky paused. "Is there anything I can say to convince you that you're safe and this is real?" He added. Alpha sniffed and thought deeply before answering.
"Can you stay close by? So if I wake up during the night I'll see you there and know I'm safe." Alpha asked. Bucky nodded and gave Alpha a tight squeeze before letting go. Alpha crawled to her pillows with Bucky walking alongside her bed. She ungracefully plopped into a sitting position. Bucky tucked Alpha in then pulled up a chair so he sat right beside her. Alpha laid down so she faced him.
"I'll be here on your left all night, ok?" Bucky said. Alpha nodded as she curled up into a tight ball. "Do you want me to turn off the lights?" He added. Alpha shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess you can. The darkness might help." Alpha replied. Bucky turned off the lights then quickly returned to the chair. He remained in that spot for about an hour before Alpha suddenly stirred. She scrunched up her body even more, curling more onto her stomach. Her shoulders went up tightly by her ears but then she sent out a hand towards Bucky. Her thin fingers were stretched out, searching with a sense of urgency. He took it with his human hand and gave it a pulse. Alpha didn't relax or return the pulse. Bucky took his metal hand and wrapped it around Alpha's bony and delicate one. Her shoulders slowly relaxed and she began to breathe evenly again. Alpha lulled slowly back into a deep sleep with Bucky's metal thumb lightly rubbing the top of her hand. After making sure Alpha was fully asleep again Bucky could relax against the back of his chair. They both ended up asleep after a while. Their hands separated as they slept.
A few hours later Alpha awoke, startled. She had rolled in her sleep and so wasn't facing Bucky anymore. The horrifying visions from her nightmare remained on the back of her eyelids and appeared whenever she blinked. Alpha sat up with wide eyes to look for him when pain engulfed her back. Alpha grimaced in the darkness and had to bite onto her hand to keep from crying out. The only explanation Alpha could come up with was that the machine Hydra had used to control her AI also messed with her pain receptors and parts of her brain that dealt with healing. Bucky had mentioned what felt like an eternity ago that Alpha had sustained a lot of damage during her time with Hydra. Once the Hydra mind-control machine was gone her brain most likely got scrambled and had difficulty keeping up with normal tasks like healing her wounds.
Alpha removed her hand from her mouth once her breathing had gotten under control again. As she breathed Alpha noticed her whole back was sticky, damp and cold. Alpha traveled her hands along her back as she curled over her lifted knees. The sticky liquid transferred over to Alpha's fingers. She lifted one of her hands to her nose. Blood. Tears welled up in Alpha's eyes. Everything was falling apart with her mind.
Bucky was alerted by one of Alpha's choked sobs. He sat back up in his chair and scanned the room quickly. His eyes settled on the dark mass that was Alpha sitting up in her bed. He could barely see her outline shaking and her back rising and falling the way one did when crying. Bucky reached out to Alpha.
"You ok?" He asked, his voice barely audible. Alpha didn't answer. Bucky placed his human hand on her back but quickly recoiled. "You're whole back is covered in blood. Lift your shirt." Bucky said, shocked. Alpha slowly began lifting her shirt from the bottom hem but paused partway through. Her arms couldn't bend in the direction she needed and her tank top seemed fused to her back. Bucky helped detach her tank top from her skin, which hurt a great deal but only made Alpha flinch compared to the rest of the pain. In the end Alpha's tank top was on the floor and she remained curled up to her knees. Bucky used the false moon and starlight from the window to clean Alpha's back and watch as her reopened injuries closed themselves off permanently. Bucky grabbed Alpha a new shirt. He was about to help her put it on but she waved him off. Alpha slipped on the shirt by herself.
Alpha got up and helped Bucky strip her bedding to be cleaned. After only that small amount of movement though, Alpha was exhausted. Bucky tucked her back in to bed with a thin blanket beneath her and the rest on top. There wasn't much blood soaked into the mattress itself so the thin blanket made a good substitute for a bed sheet. Bucky waited for Alpha to go back to sleep. As he did so he realized Alpha was going to sleep without plugging into an outlet. He wasn't sure if that was a sign she was overcoming her cyborg tech and becoming more human or of something wrong. He wished it was the former. The more of SHIELD and Hydra Alpha could leave behind the better of a life she could have with Clint and his family. Bucky crossed his arms over his stomach and slouched in the chair.
It pained Bucky to think about what kind of life Alpha could live away from him. But, it also brought an excitement for her in his heart. To think of all the things she could do without always looking over her shoulder for SHIELD or Hydra made Bucky smile in the dimness of her room. There really was hope. Bucky's thought process brought him away from all the things Alpha could do to all the things he could do. It was in that moment Bucky decided that when Alpha was ready to move again they were going to Washington D.C. He was ready.