Ch 12

MUMFORD & SONS LYRICS

"Broken Crown"

Touch my mouth and hold my tongue

I'll never be your chosen one

I'll be home safe and tucked away

Well You can't tempt me if I don't see the day

The pull on my flesh was just too strong

Stifled the choice and the air in my lungs

Better not to breathe than to breathe a lie

'Cause when I opened my body I breathe in a lie

I will not speak of your sin

There was a way out for Him

The mirror shows not

Your values are all shot

But oh my heart, was flawed I knew my weakness

So hold my hand consign me not to darkness

So crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down

I'll never wear your broken crown

I took the road and I fucked it all away

Now in this twilight, how dare you speak of grace

So crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down

I'll never wear your broken crown

I took the road and I fucked it all away

Now in this twilight, how dare you speak of grace

So crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down

I'll never wear your broken crown

I can take the road and I can fuck it all away

But in this twilight, our choices seal our fate

Steve was dripping sweat, his body shaking with adrenaline as he punched the gigantic bag in the gym connected to the training area of the Avenger's tower. With every punch, every strike he pictured the horrific images from the videos playing in his minds eyes. HIT, Bucky in his cell, HIT, Bucky holding the dead girl in his arms, HIT, Bucky fighting to get out of that chair, HIT, Bucky screaming in pain, HIT, Bucky loosing his name, HIT, Bucky slitting the man's throat, HIT, Bucky slitting his own wrist, HIT, Bucky getting beaten, HIT, Bucky getting whipped, HIT, Zola, HIT, The bald trainer, HIT, Pierce, HIT, HIT, HIT. He was lost in his anger, his pain and his despair, each hit accented by a cry of rage. He was so absorbed he didn't notice when Natasha and Clint came in, standing by the door way motionless, watching him brutally decimate a special bag that Stark had bought for Steve specifically, aware that the Super Soldier went through heavy bags like the Hulk went through a Semi truck.

Sam returned from his run and stopped on his way toward his guest room when he heard the anguished cries echoing down the hall. He walked toward the gym and slowed as he saw Natasha and Clint in the door way. He joined them with a sigh and nod as hey watched Steve take on the 700 lb bag with a force that could crush a man's skull through a military grade helmet in one punch. Sam's eyes grew and his body stiffened with out thought. He turned toward the two jaded assassin's and to their credit, they appeared perfectly calm, just mildly concerned and empathetic.

"Have you,... every seen him like this?" Sam asked out loud. Both seemed to answer at the same time shaking their heads. "Dontcha think maybe..." Sam trailed off as Natasha nodded her head. She walked toward Rogers slowly, with caution. When she got a few feet away she stopped and called out his name. First Cap,... then Captain Rogers, then Steve, then she yelled as loudly as she could the name she knew would get his attention..."BUCKY!" He stopped and turned to her with a dazed expression blinking, panting as he wiped the sweat from his brow, surprised to see her.

"Bucky needs to wake up soon,... needs to start living again!... We need to get through this intel...it's time Cap!" Natasha spoke slowly and clearly, her voice concrete but not demanding. Her eyes searched his, lips pursed as she analyzed his awareness, if he was in the present or still lost in the images of his friend's past. Steve closed his eyes and leaned on the bag, his right arm raised above his head. He was breathing harshly through his noise, trying to calm down. After a moment he opened his eyes again and fixed her with a clear, poignant look. He nodded then stood up strait.

"Thanks." He sighed with a nod in recognition that in all likely hood he would not have stopped anytime soon. He walked with deliberate steps toward the exit, unrolling the bloody tape from around his knuckles, unflinching. He stopped when he came upon Sam and Clint, blinking as if realizing how out of it he must have been to not notice them.

"You guys ready?" He asked still breathing heavy but calmly. They both nodded and so did he. "Give me 5 to rinse off and i'll be up there." Steve stated, his pace increasing as he made it a point to stop by the lab to check on Bucky. As he jumped in the elevator and rode up to the floor he sighed again and steadied himself. What every else he watched that day, no matter his feelings, his hatred and his desperate anger, he had to remind himself that Bucky needed him,... needed him to be tough but kind, patient and comforting. He had seen the pain and rage burning in his friends confused eyes and knew that he had to let his intense and violent feelings go to help Bucky overcome his own.

Steve stepped out of the elevator and round the corner into Bruce's lab stopping short as he saw Stark in his Ironman suite, face mask off, standing next to Banner who held up some charts. Both wore serious faces and Steve's heart dropped, his breath catching. They turned to see him and their expressions shifted at his pale and wide eyed expression.

"What... what happened?...What's wrong!" Steve demanded closing distance.

"Woha, easy Cap... everything is fine!" Stark stuck out an arm to slow him down. He did but only because he could see Bucky, and he appeared to look the same as before, calm and resting. "Jesus man look at your knuckles!" Stark exclaimed at the bloody hands.

"I'm fine ,they'll heal...What happened!?" Steve insisted.

"Steve,... It's okay,... we were just talking about the side effects from his detox once he wakes up." Bruce reassured.

"I thought you where giving him something for that?" Steve stammered as he took a step back.

"I am,... I did,... it's just... jugging by his brain activity and the secretion of certain psyco active toxins from his body due to detox,... I am concerned that he will be a little worse for ware then I had initially thought..."Banner tried to explain with out creating alarm.

"What,...What dose that mean?" Steve demanded feeling slightly frustrated.

"Hallucinations,... dreaming while awake,... that area of his brain was suppressed for a good bit of time and now that it's almost all healed up, the build up of chemicals that are normally released during REM sleep are gonna start pouring out, already have..." Stark pointed to an influx in yellow on the brain imaging machine..." He will be having vivid dreams while asleep and wicked hallucinations while awake,... kinda like an Acid trip or maybe more like DM,T which are both normally kinda fun but... for a guy who just broke free from a super abusive, mass murdering cult,... maybe not such a great time!" Stark offered up with a pat on his back. "I am going to go get out of My Ironman and get into my comfy cloths, last chapter to go pal!" Stark sighed as he walked out of the room.

"So,... He's gonna be nauseous, soar,... get migraines when he remembers and to top it off, he's gonna be hallucinating?" Steve summed up with a bitter twist of his mouth. Banner sighed and nodded.

"If I could up the dosage I would Steve but,... If we are gonna get him off this stuff,... he's gotta detox... But before his body was too sick and broken to have lived through it,... now at least he will be physically able to survive it." Bruce stated with hope.

"What ... what about mentally?" Steve sighed, eyes tired. Banner opened his mouth then shut it and shook his head as he shrugged. Steve nodded and leaned down over Bucky as he gripped his hand careful not to get blood on him. "We'll get through this Bucky!... I am with you,... Till the end of the line!" He said softly. Steve kissed his friends hand and set in back down before turning as he walked out of the lab headed for the shower,... Natasha was right, Bucky had to wake up.

...

The Soldier was on a mission, walking with his riffle ready toward a burning, over turned car. His steps where sturdy, sure footed and deliberate. His only thought was on terminating the target. He crouched down and looked into the car at the burning corpses, the smell of frying flesh sickening as he struggled to breath through his mouth instead of his noise. He counted the bodies inside, Two adults, one Male, the target, one Female and one child...Female, collateral damage. He stared at the dead child who was hanging upside down from her child safety seat, blond pigtails sizzling. In her hands she clutched a small plastic baby doll that was melting onto her pink dress. The Soldier stood up and turned away. Walking toward the rendezvous point, a feeling of sickness and discomfort in the pit of his stomach but he wasn't sure why.

He stopped abruptly as he looked up and realized he was surround by snow. He looked around in bewilderment, unsure where he was. He heard a crying sound, wet and rasping and chocked even as the blizzard wind whipped past his face, freezing him with a bone chilling cold more then Cryo. He walked forward, lowering his riffle as the snow crunched below his heavy foot steps. He came to a sudden stop as he saw the blood in the snow. He took a step, then another and another until he saw him, a man dressed in blue with a bloody stub of an arm. He continued forward with causation until he was standing over him. The man opened his eyes, blue eyes like his. They looked at one another and the bloody man in the snow reached up toward him with his right arm, blue lips trembling as he spoke one word. "Remember." The Asset felt a panic in his chest, a swelling fear of something known but long forgotten. He felt threatened. He grabbed his riffle pointed it at the man, the man who he recognized was Sargent James Barns, and shot him in his head point blank and everything turned red.

...

Steve was the last one to enter the conference room, hair still wet from the rinse off. He nodded at his fellow Avengers and took a seat, egger to get the last video's over with.

"We filled in Frick and Frack and Wings over here about the Super Sick, Super Tripping, Super Soldier that we are about to wake up after this last little stroll down memory lane and every one is Super Stoked!" Stark smiled brightly although it never reached his eyes that had been dark and glossed over since he first laid eyes on the Electro Chair during the mission. Natasha rolled her eyes at him and Clint hide a smirk and shake of his head.

"You ready?" Sam asked. Steve sighed then nodded again.

"Let's get it over with!" He muttered as the screen once more came to life.

The Soldier was hanging by his bound arms from the celling of a cell, his body broken and bloody, shaking as he breathed hissing and wet, the sound of a punctured lung. His hair was long and hung over his lowered head, masking his face. There where several men around him in black guard outfits, some holding their guns and other's with batons, electric prods and whips. They looked at the weapon with almost sympathy, as if they weren't comfortable continuing their torturous assault on his body. A door opened and in walked Pierce, looking much more like his modern day self but with a few less wrinkles. His face was stern, jaw locked as he looked at the other men in the room.

"Did I order you to stop?" Pierce spoke with a low, threatening tone that sent tension through the air.

"No sir,... It's just,... Protocol dictates his Handler must explain why he is being punished before the beating,... He,... He just keeps saying he does not Comprehend." One man answered with an almost sympathetic tone.

Steve sat up strait, eyes wide as did Natasha and Clint, recognizing Rumlow's voice. He was off to one side with a baton in his hand, his face a few years younger and eyes softer then they were now.

Pierce walked over toward him and snatched the baton from his hand. He turned back around and began striking the Soldier across his already broken torso down to his legs.

"I...Don't... Give...A...Fuck...About...Zola's...Stupid...Protocol!" He accented each word with a brutal strike. The Soldier was past the point of controlling his reactions and openly cried out in pain, blood dripping down from his muzzle as he chocked, unable to breath.

"Sir,... he,...he cant breath,,,,,He's gonna exphisate!" Rumlow stepped past Pierce risking being hit him self as he removed the blood soaked muzzle from the Weapon's face. He looked at Pierce who's eyes were a quiet rage. He showed him the muzzle and shook his head. "Whats the point of beating him if he doesn't understand what he's done wrong?" Rumlow stated with a matter of fact tone. Pierce looked at him appraisingly before finally nodding.

"You have guts talking to a senior agent like that,... let alone the Director,... maybe one day you will make the Covert Opps Team,... be a double agent infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D." Pierce nodded and Rumlow smiled with a nod and stepped back. Pierce turned back toward The Soldier and used the baton to raise his chin. His hair fell back and his face was exposed.

"Mission Report!" Pierce spoke with a deceivingly calm voice and The Soldier trembled, as if the tone was one he knew meant he had failed, even if the beating was indication enough.

"Target...Eliminated... Mission... Completed." The Soldier sputtered between gasping breaths in Russian, one eye swollen shut, the other looking at Pierce with fear and uncertainty, his voice shaking. His Handler grabbed his face roughly clenching his jaw.

"In English you idiot!... Am I speaking to you in Russian!?" Pierce spat angrily. The Soldier shook his head and stated his answer again in English. " Was the target alone?" Pierce asked switching back to the same chillingly calm voice as he released the Soldier's face.

"N...No." The Soldier's voice sounded broken and unsure.

"Who was with him?" Pierce asked holding the club just under the Soldiers chin.

"A... A Female,... Red Hair... Natasha Romenoff,... Code name... The Black Widow... Ex-KGB." The Soldier stammered with difficulty, his breathing choked as more blood spilt over his trembling lips, a pained expression on his face.

"And did you Terminate her?" Pierce asked, his tone regaining it's angry edge.

"Black Widow... blocked Target,...She was ...shot to terminate target,... She was disarmed and ...injured,... no longer ... a threat to mission completion." the Soldier rasped his words out in a pleading tone.

"Is she still alive?" Pierce asked with a snide tone.

"Unconfirmed." The Soldier responded and was greeted by another strike hard as he let out a cry at the sound of breaking bone. A man with a white lab coat stepped in, meekly interrupting.

"I...I am sorry Sir,... but the lead medical technician requested that you stop breaking his bones as it will take longer to heal and we have a dead line for cryo-freeze before we transport back to D.C." The man adjusted his glasses and bowed his head meekly.

"Fine!" Pierce sighed and threw the baton on the ground and picked up the electric cattle prod. He held it to the Soldier's skin and the man's body jerked violently with a painful cry. Perice stepped forward again.

"Agent Romenoff is a threat to Hydra,... She is our enemy!... Why did you spare her?"

Pierce demanded.

"Wasn't the assigned target...not the mission!" The Soldier whimpered, the pain breaking through his normally calm complacency.

"SHE IS A THREAT TO HYDRA!" Pierce screamed and held the Cattle prod between The Soldier's legs that where covered in torn combat paints. The Soldier shrieked in pain and the men gathered around actually looked away, some grabbing their own private area's with looks of horror. He pulled the prod away and the Soldier was sucking in air loudly as he breathed out with painful groans.

"You're purpose is to neutralize threats to Hydra,... you are our great protector!" Pierce's voice changed again, his tone almost soft and gentle. "We depend on you to help us give the world the freedom it deserves... You failed Hydra today... You failed me... You let a deadly and very capable threat to our vision live,... now she will cause us more damage... more work will have to be done... all because YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO RECOGNIZE HER AS A TARGET!" His voice changed again and he jabbed the electric prod at the Soldier's torso repeatedly, anger in his eyes and words. The Soldier's body shook and convulsed, circular electric burns decorating his entire body. Pierce stopped after a few moments, breathing heavy himself before handing the prod back to one of the guards. He stepped back and gestured to the restraints. "Take him down,... put him on his knees." Rumlow and another guard unfastened the restraints and the the Soldier fell hard, crumpling on the ground with a shattered cry of pain. They hoisted him up onto his knees and he leaned awkwardly, obviously having difficulty putting pressure on one side that looked possibly broken.

"Look at me Soldier,...Look at me when I speak to you!" Pierce demanded and the weapon looked up, one eye blinking with out wetness, unable to cry tears despite his intense pain.

"Next time you meet Natasha Romenoff,...or Any potential threat to Hydra,... what will you do?" Pierce asked like a disappointed father, chastising a naughty child.

"Eliminate,... all... threats to Hydra!" The Weapon answered back with a tone that begged forgiveness. Pierce nodded and patted his head like a dog.

"Good boy!... Lets get him strapped to that recovery table, audio on. I need him healed and back in Cryo by next week...Skip the wipe this time,... I want him to remember this!" Pierce called out as he excited the cell. Rumlow nodded calling yes sir and with the help of several other's they picked up the Soldier who was barely conscious.

"Easy Big Guy,... You'll be oaky!" Rumlow comforted as they moved him from the cell, The Soldier whimpering in pain.

Once again Steve looked pale and his hand covered his mouth, eyes wet. The others shifted and sighed.

"I guess he has a reason to want to kill me!" Natasha huffed with a bitter laugh, her face solum as she looked down.

"He doesn't anymore,...Gotta leave it in the past Nat!" Clint sighed and squeezed her hand.

"I wish I could Kill Pierce..."Steve spoke absentminded, the name sour in his mouth.

"Join the club old man!" Stark sighed with sincerity as the last selected video clip played. Instantly, the Avenger's recognized the location of the video to be at the base they had infiltrated the night before.

The Soldier was sitting in the electro chair, his metal arm outstretched as a man in a white lab coat used small metal tools that hissed electricity as he repaired the arm. There were the men in black, the guards, guns out and other white coats milling about. The expression on the Soldier's face was vacant and distant, eyes unfocused. Suddenly a look of pain crossed his face and his arm lashed out sending the medical technician flying. The Guards all raised their guns and pointed them at The Soldier who remained still, a lost and confused expression growing on his face. There was a man's voice who stated "He' s erratic," and then Pierce walked in, looking like he did only a few weeks earlier. He walked up to the Soldier and stuck his hands in his pockets casually.

"Mission Report." He stated with a sigh, a look of annoyance on his face. There was no response. Pierce gritted his teeth and then back handed the Soldier hard, his head whipping to the side. "Mission Report!" He said again with a slightly more stern tone as he crouched down eye level with the unresponsive weapon.

The Soldier's head slowly rolled back, his hair across his face. His eyes drifted up to meet Pierce.

"There was a man...on the bridge...Who was he?" His soft voice questioned his Handler, his tone knowing he was being defiant but his need to know out weighed his programming.

"He was with your Mission,... you met him earlier this week." Pierce sighed, studying his weapon with a degree of distain and impatience. The Soldier's eyes considered this for a moment before stating his thought out loud.

"I knew him." He stated with a confused expression that tried to place the familiar face.

Pierce sighed again and began his speech, words to reassure his weapon of their just and worthy cause. It seemed that he had softened in the years since he was last upset with the Soldier's performance in the field.

"Your work has been a gift to man kind. You've shaped the Century. Now I need you to do it one more time. The World is at a tipping point...But I can't do my job if you don't do yours! Help us give The World the freedom it deserves!" Pierce's voice was once more reassuring and full of conviction but still the Soldier looked away and bit his lip.

"But I knew him!" He looked off to the side with a pensive look. Pierce stood up and sighed with disappointment.

"Prep him." He waved carelessly toward the bewildered Soldier.

"Sir, he has been out of cryo for too long!" The Doctor stated with a flustered expression.

"Fine,... Then wipe him and start over." Pierce excited, too busy to be bothered. The Soldier was pushed back roughly into the chair, a look of clear resentment on his face as he begrudgingly opened his mouth and excepted the mouth guard. As the restraints lower on his arms, The Soldier began to breath heavy, his body anticipating the pain. The head clams lowered and as the Doctor flipped the switch he cried out in shear agony, his memory of Steve and the recognition stripped away.

The screen turned dark and the lights came back on as the Avengers all sighed and sat in contemplation. Steve looking down in deep thought, eye brow crumpled.

"You were right Steve,... he did recognize you,... both times... What ever it is between you two, it's stronger then programming and conditioning,...stronger then Hydra!" Sam confirmed, again feeling slightly guilty for his doubt only a few weeks earlier.

Steve nodded and looked at Bruce. "He's been asleep long enough,... I am ready!" His voice was certain and he understood that his life was going to be centered around helping his best friend recover for as long as it took...Till The End of The Line.