A/N: Hi everyone, I'm SOOOOO sorry for the long time it took me to update this! Life has been so busy and hectic! I've also had a severe case of writer's block, so the story wasn't really coming to me any time I did have a moment to sit down and write.
Anyway, thanks for the reviews and I hope you guys still will read and review even with my slow update! Oh, and I'm also sorry that this is a filler chapter sorta, so it's rather short!
-Musical Inspiration:
The Walker by The Fits and the Tantrums
Bonfire by Knife Party
Swing-Set Murders by Two Steps from Hell
Chapter 11
Psycho
Bucky's eyes fluttered open, finding himself staring at a dank ceiling. He winced and attempted to sit up, but his movement halted from the restraints around his upper arms and torso.
He twisted his neck to view in horror the all-too-familiar chair to which his body was bound.
"Shit..." he gasped, glancing at his surroundings in fright.
He hadn't a clue where he was, but he knew he wasn't safe.
Bucky tried to yank his strong metal left arm out of the cuff, but the clasp resisted his cybernetic limb. He grit his teeth and laid back in the chair, glaring at the ceiling.
Would it always come to this? Time and time again being chased down and captured by HYDRA...was it worth all this?
Bucky suddenly felt extremely old and exhausted. He tired of constant fear that always lingered around him.
A strange sensation washed over him for the first time since he regained his memory. The weight of everything poured down on him at once. The emotions of Lacey's lack of recollections of him, Steve's unconditional love and faith, SHIELD's acceptance, and his struggling ex-HYDRA counterparts...it all built up inside him. He felt tears trickle down his cheeks as he tried to swallow the thick lump in his throat.
"Oh, my dear. I didn't realize you were so sensitive," a vile voice came from the doorway.
Bucky lifted his head and craned to see an older woman with Parker on one side and Lacey at her other.
"Who the hell are you?" Bucky growled at the older woman.
"My name is Patricia, I'm in charge of this organization," she responded, approaching him slowly.
"You're Pierce's replacement?" snorted Bucky.
"As you well know, a HYDRA has multiple heads.
"Cut off one, two more grow back in its place," answered Patricia, sidling up to him.
"So I've heard..." hissed Bucky through clenched teeth, "Why am I here?"
"I had hopes of torturing you for information, but now that I've seen you, I've made other plans," Patricia snarled, walking over to a monitor across the room.
"Mother, I thought-" Parker started but Patricia held up a hand to silence him.
"His mother?" thought Bucky in shock.
"Angel, check the restraints," ordered Patricia.
Lacey nodded and walked forward to Bucky's side and double-checked the cuffs. Her persona remained stone-cold, her eyes glassy and odd.
"Lacey, please, you must remember-"
"Her name isn't Lacey!" snapped Patricia, grabbing Bucky's face roughly to make him look at her.
Bucky's eyes went wide in horror as she uttered, "Be still."
Bucky suddenly felt his body go limp, but his consciousness was still intact. The only thing he had control of were his thoughts, and those danced around frantically in his mind.
"My dear, this arm of yours could be a problem...you could get loose. Lacey, would you mind removing it?" Patricia inquired in a sickening, sweet tone.
Lacey marched forward like a programmed robot and dug her metal fingers at the line where the skin and Vibranium met at his shoulder.
"Angel..." breathed Parker in shock from across the room.
Bucky tensed. Surely they wouldn't-
Before he could think of anything else, Lacey jerked and ripped the arm off cleanly from his mutilated shoulder.
Bucky blinked, then white pain tore through his body. He couldn't scream or move to rid himself of the excruciating agony that gripped him. All his body did in response was quake violently.
"Thank you," Patricia cackled to Lacey as the mind wiping crown settled against Bucky's brow.
"We'll see you when you awake, boy," laughed Patricia as the light zapped into his brain, eating away at his memories.
Angel stood quietly to the side, still holding the muscular metal arm in her hand. She watched as the man's body shook with pain as the racked him.
"He called me Lacey..." Angel said to Patricia.
"He doesn't know what he's talking about. He probably confused you with someone else," the HYDRA director answered.
"But he sounded as if he truly knew me-"
"Shut your mouth or you'll be next in line to the chair!" barked Patricia.
Angel's eyes landed back on the man in the chair a the spell that Patricia put him under wore off and he began to convulse under the influence of the wipe. Pitiful whining escaped his lips as his slack faced clenched up in searing pain. The whimpering turned to strangled screams and Angel found herself turning away from the sight.
"LACEY!" he suddenly cried out, making Angel jump slightly.
Her eyes snapped to him, his voice sounding so familiar. She studied his form for a moment, then a memory hit her like a cold splash of water.
His face, the metal arm, the lean, muscular body. His stormy eyes, his sculpted lips, the dark hair...
"Bucky Barnes..." she suddenly thought as flashes of memories danced in front of her eyes.
Jack Jefferson. The chair. Seattle. Long drives down forgotten roads. A two-story ranch house in the middle of the woods.
She remembered!
Suddenly the machine powered down and Patricia glanced at the unconscious man with a yawn.
"I'm going to the study. Fetch me when he awakens, all right?" she told Parker before she walked out of the room.
Parker nodded and as soon as she left, Angel...Lacey moved forward.
Her name was Lacey. Lacey Turner.
With a clank, Lacey let the metal arm drop out of her hand. A smile played on her lips as she moved towards Bucky. Even in his broken state, her happiness to see him with her own eyes was overwhelming. She leaned in and gently kissed him on the cheek.
"What are you doing!?" Parker exclaimed.
Lacey turned to him a grinned, "I'm going home."
Parker looked absolutely befuddled as Lacey undid the metal straps around Bucky's stomach and remaining arm.
Parker moved forward, "What the hell, Angel?"
"My name isn't Angel. You know I'm not that assassin. Bucky and I are victims of HYDRA, both turned into killing machines by this contraption," Lacey responded, flourishing a hand towards the chair, "I'm taking both of us away from here. He needs medical attention."
"If you think I'm just going to stand by and let you leave-"
"You're my friend, Parker. We've been together for years. You'll help me if you want what's best for my life," Lacey replied slowly, putting a hand on Parker's arm.
Parker looked up and Lacey gazed into the man's hazel eyes.
"Please..." pleaded Lacey, not breaking eye contact.
Parker could only hold the intense stare for a moment before huffing, "Fine. But we must make this look good. Punch me out."
"What?!" Lacey exclaimed.
"Punch me hard as you can in the face so it looks like you two fought your way out," Parker instructed.
Lacey paused, then nodded, lifting her Vibranium fist.
She stopped again and looked at Parker with questioning eyes.
"Do it," Parker responded, shutting his eyes.
Lacey took a deep breath and right-hooked the fire-wielder in the face. He fell backwards, completely unconscious. Lacey stared at him for a moment, then knelt to kiss him on the temple. She then leaned into his ear and whispered, "You're a saint, Parker Perry. I'll never forget this."
Lacey then pushed herself up and with her strong arm, she lifted Bucky's remaining arm to sling over her shoulder. She dragged him towards the back window and broke the lock that rested on the latch, pushing it open and pulling her old friend through.
Johnny laid in his bed, arm propped behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. His mind churned over what was going on a few rooms over. The ex-assassin who was so like Angel was needlessly being tortured. HYDRA and SHIELD were both basically wiped out after Project Insight went awry, so there were hardly any secrets kept with either organization. Torturing him for information was a pointless feat.
But attempting to tell his mother that was basically like jumping off a cliff, pointless and stupid.
But, then again, if anyone was to Patricia, everything that Johnny said or did was pointless and stupid.
Johnny smirked grimly, thinking of his mother's strange disdain for his existence. It wasn't his fault, being born. Patricia shouldn't have been such a slut as a young woman.
He would never understand how some people reasoned.
Johnny scowled when he saw his mother march by his room door and down the hall to her office. Was she finished torturing the Winter Soldier already? He snorted and closed his eyes, only to hear his mother's steps rushing by ten minutes later.
His eyes snapped open and he sat up when he heard Patricia's horrid screeching coming from the room with the chair. Johnny hopped up and padded into the next room to investigate. He came upon the room and saw his mother's plump arms flailing around as she screamed at Parker, who was rubbing his face in pain.
"I can't BELIEVE you let her get away with the Soldier! You are just as much of an idiot as Johnny! Is it really that hard to make sure that no one escapes!?"
"She caught me off-guard, mom! I couldn't help it! She was talking to me like normal, then she punched me mid sentence!" Parker retorted angrily.
"How is it that I have two sons and I can't trust either one?" she squawked, then placed a hand against Parker's chest firmly, "If I can't raise you to obey, I'll program you to obey!"
Johnny inhaled sharply when the woman threw Parker back into the chair, then waved her hands over the restraints and tied her son down.
"Patricia! Stop!" roared Johnny, barreling into the room as the HYDRA director flipped the machine on.
"Let me go!" Parker cried out, tugging against the restraints.
Patricia whirled around and held a hand, palm out at Johnny. The muscular freight-train of a man suspended in mid-step.
"Be still," Patricia hissed as the crown settled around Parker's brow.
Parker's screams echoed through the house as his memories extrapolated and tossed into oblivion.
Johnny watched with wide eyes as his brother twitched and convulsed at the electrical impulses running through his head.
Johnny's mouth hung open, not believing even his own despicable mother could come to insanity such as this.
A/N: Like I said...it was short. But I need tunes to get those creative juices a-flowing! Send me music that reminds you of any of the characters, or just this story in general!
Thanks for reading!
