I didn't expect the revitalisation of the Bucky fandom with the falcon and the winter soldier. I've been getting a lot of new follows and reviews asking to continue so here I am posting a new chapter. Hope you guys like it and tell me if you actually want more.
(edit: So sorry for the glitch before, I've forgotten how to upload, its been so long.)
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Since becoming a super soldier, Steve had not felt the ache deep in his bones that he distinctly remembers from those sickly winters as a frail Brooklyn kid. But as he walk down the hall watching Sam limp to the med bay and Tony tug of parts of a sparking Ironman suit, Steve felt that ache settle deep in his bones.
They had failed. Steve knew, as he replayed her relieved smirk as she stepped through that portal. The other-worldly blue consuming her, taking her far away from him. Like a corpse, he dragged himself down the hall, towards the chaos his enhanced hearing warned of. Raw screams tore through the echos of crumbling stone and twisting metal. Steve's hand brushed the gym door, sliding it open enough for him to step through.
Bucky moved through the room like a hurricane, breaking everything he saw. Maybe so he would feel less out of place. A metal arm swung directionlessly at the granite wall as Bucky's screams broke into a cry. With his fist still buried in the wall Bucky slumped forward as his body racked with his shaky cries.
As Steve moved, pieces of stone crushed beneath his feet. The debris littered floor growing blurry as his eyes started to sting. He gently lifted his hand onto Bucky's wall bound arm. His oldest friend, forehead pressed against the cool wall, scratched with a worn voice, "She's gone again Steve. They got to her." His face scrunched deeply in torment, "She looked at me and she was scared. She's never looked at me like that before."
Steve didn't know what to say, it as all true. And he felt that deeper than ever before as Bucky's swollen eyes finally turned to bore into him.
Steve broke. He was so tired of fighting, of searching, of worrying, of missing her. His lungs quaked as sobs finally ripped out of him. He felt a flesh arm and then a metal one wrap around him
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Her eyes squeezed shut so tightly she was sure if she could pull and eyelid muscles she would have. The cold air stung her nostrils as she breathed in deeply. And then released as steadying exhale. He had planned for weeks, formulated perfect incapacitation strategies and gathered supplies. All in the name of buying her enough time to end this.
To end him.
Her eyes flashed open toward the exterior of the tower she knew they lived in. Her eyes darted to the floor garage entrance as a car exited the building driven by the red-haired woman. Perfect. Her hand slipped into one of her pockets to grasp a small capsule of purple gas. She knew the agenda. The giant green man was first.
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Elvira crossed her arms before a large box of cables and lights. Surely this had to be important enough for a EMP device placed on it to wipe out the entire building's technology. She needed to be quick and act before someone found the unconscious green man or the retrained archer or they woke up. The green man had been in his human form intensely focused on a microscope when she had appeared and stuck the powerful sedative right under his nose. Small tendrils of green spread up his neck before rescinding as he slumped on the table. The archer had been napping in a bedroom when she found him. Although he nearly managed to reach and shoot his box before he strapped highly magnetic cuffs to his hands that stuck to the metal bed frame. Then she delivered a sharp jab to his face.
Now she needed to distract the robot suit man while also disabling his suits. She pleaded in her head for this to work as the chunky rectangular device clamped down on the electric box and started to whirr to life. A quick clap of electricity and the electric box started spark then go dead, along with the lights and a holographic screen in the room.
It worked. Only 2 left.
A hand slipped into a portal and reached for the safely kept and still functioning sonic emitter. Pulling out her weapon she started slipping through rooms again. As she dropped through the fourth portal a familiar head of blonde hair came into view. This room, a bedroom was occupied by the man from the street attack. The one who had taken charge. He was someone she could not afford to waste time taking down. As her feet touched the ground, she swung the sonic emitter. The man stiffened, alerted to her presence but the device already hurled towards him. His reflexes were just as fast as they were last time, he spun around while collecting his brightly painted shield and defensively positioning toward the projectile. Just like she hoped.
The emitter magnetised to the shield that she knew was not made of normal steel. The man's eyes darted from her to the device and then back to her face. He didn't seem to care about it.
"Annie," he breathed with a hint of relief? "I know you think we're trying to hurt you but I promise that we just want you to remember. Remember me please." His thick eyebrows tugged as he pleaded. The expression stirred a deep and terrifying want to believe him. That it was true that someone actually cared about her. Knew her.
He could see she was wavering as his expression grew hopeful. Elvira clenched her eyes shut, away from his caring face. No, he is with the man in black that had tried to kill her twice…and a half now. This was a trick.
"Annie!" he exclaimed frantically seeing her draw away, "Annie please. Take me as leverage if you need to feel safe but just let us explain everything."
She was tempted to question him about the man in black before he took a slow step towards her and Elvira stiffened, pulling out her gun.
The man held up a hand in surrender, stepping to his original position. "I can't trust you not to trying anything," Annie reasoned, trying to remain calm and in control.
"Then restrain me, knock me out, hell even break my leg! Just please let me help you. I miss my sister."
Annie snapped out of her weakness and glared at him with deadly eyes. "You're messing with my head just like them," she almost growled.
Her free hand pushed down on the sonic emitter remote and the palm sized device instantly started vibrating against the metal of the shield. The waves easily absorbed into the shield, the weapon shaking with the device. The man tore his eyes away from the growingly uncontrollable shake of his shield back to her. They were confused and sad. As his muscular frame was overcome by the now wild vibrations he tried to pulled his arm free. But she had already leapt into a portal. An empty kitchen. A room with a lot of cushioned seats that was also empty. An empty bedroom. An empty hallway. A training room that was occupied.
Her breath caught as that metal arm that terrified and confused her, devasted a suspended boxing bag. A moment after the heavy hit than man in black, or currently navy, turned his head to view her.
The rest of his body quickly following as he murmured, "I was right, you're here to kill me." How did he know? And why did he seem slightly anticipant?
"There's no other way to stop you hunting me," Elvira replied lowly. Trying to maintain control of her voice.
"You're right. You'd have to kill me before I'd stop looking for you. Because its my fault you were captured my HYDRA," pain etched across his face.
The revelation threw her.
Her empty memory of nothing but pain was his fault? Her anger bubbled as she screamed, "Was that before or after your two attempts to murder me!"
Elvira's anger fizzled a little as she glared at his raw blue eyes. He somehow looked more upset with the situation than she did.
"Can you remember anything before or after those memories?" his voice was soft, close to pleading.
Elvira stretched her gun out before her as she seethed, "I remember you sitting here watching my life bleed out."
He didn't seem bothered by the gun directed at his head as his eyes continued to bore into hers, "I couldn't watch you die Annie," His lips pressed firmly together to match the permanent crease between his eyebrows, "And I hate seeing you like this now. I'm sorry if I hurt you but I need to do this."
He ran at Elvira, her bullets reflecting of his quick metallic arm.
His real hand grabbed her wrist and twisted the gun barrel away from him. His other hand drew behind him to retrieve metal cuffs she had only just realised were tucked into his waistband the whole time. He was anticipating her.
Elvira sunk under his hand wrapped around her gun and twisted his hand forcing the natural appendage to release her weapon. But his metal hand's restrained strength batted the gun out of her grip and across the room. She couldn't follow the trajectory of its fall while blocking his incoming second attempt at clamping those restraints on her wrists.
Elvira spun to the side trying to land a back hand hit on his jaw but the man's arm darted in the way. With a frustrated huff she slipped into a portal and appearing on his other side, kicking in one of his knees. He retaliated by swiping her feet out from beneath her. Elvira in the last moment opened a portal before she landed. It opened up above the man in black. Twisting to face below, Elvira drove her knee towards his head.
The brunette man dashed to the side, pushing on her angled knee and reaching for her arm. Elvira managed a blundered kick to his abdomen to push away from him. She did a tuck roll across the floor before flipping into her upright attack stance. She fumed at his clear superiority in hand to hand combat but his refusal to use anything other than defensive moves. The man clearly could have maintained his grip on her arm even with the kick she got in but that push away could have dislocated her shoulder. Elvira supposed he wanted to keep her in prime condition for HYDRA.
Time for the failsafe. Sliding into a portal, she emerged a few meters away with another palm sized device in hand. She swung it at the man in black. He twisted to dodge the item but he was still too close. As the device continued its arch the man's metal arm was suddenly yanked along with it. A loud clang sounded as her super magnet latched onto the steel wall, soon followed by the thud of the man's body. His artificial arm flat against the magnet. He groaned as he tugged against the magnetic force, trying to wrench his arm free.
With him essentially immobile Elvira risked flicking her eyes around the room and spotted the firearm. Elvira in a moment exited her blue tear and was clutching the weapon again. Light clicks as she cocked it had the man with slightly scruffy hair shot his pale eyes at her.
"You're not going to kill me Annie," he stated in a low voice as she pointed the barrel at him.
She frowned, "I've been very upfront about that being my intention." Just shoot him, Elvira's head screamed as the tiniest of shakes ran through her arm.
"Annie," he called with a startling softness. She couldn't help but focus her eyes on him at the sound of his clear, impossibly familiar voice.
A tiny crooked smile was on his face as he now hung helplessly against the wall, "You're stuck with me remember."
The blue of his eyes drilled into her sight. Pain blossoming forward into her whole brain. Her vision blurred as his words echoed around her. Her head felt like it was trying to pump around hot fudge. She screwed her eyes shut, steadying her broken mind before snapping back to the man in black's hopeful face.
That expression died as she sneered, "Not if you're dead." Elvira raised her gun to his heart. Her hand tightening around the smooth weapon. She refused to look back at his eyes. A sudden pain radiated from her head and stunned her eyes as they swam with a growing inky blackness. The foggy image of the man in black flew smaller and out of reach.
BBB
Elvira first noticed of her surroundings, that the bed was one of the comfiest she could remember. The second thing were the steel framed glass walls that surrounded her. And the third was the cuffs strapped around her wrists.
She sat up and her head swam with a throbbing ache. She must have been hit in the head by something. She ignored the pain and slowly stood up. Her eyes locked with the only other occupant of the room, man in black. He leaned against the far corner but then turned and exited through the door beside him. The room she was in was white and empty aside from the cell she now occupied. Unlike her experience with HYDRA, the cell and room were clean and pleasant for a prison. Elvira noticed the outlets that rose out of the floor at each corner just outside her cell. They had a steady light stream out reminding her of the one they used in Queens.
Numerous steps sounded from the doorway. Elvira looked to see all of the group members entering the room with an array of expressions from mad to fearfully hopeful. Speaking of fearfully hopeful, the blonde man instantly approached her cell.
He spoke with a mix of authority and warmth, "Annie, I'm sorry about this and I know you're going to let me have it after all this but it's for your own good. I promise."
His light eyes watched her anxiously for a reaction. The whole room, despite nearly filled to capacity, was heavy with silence.
Elvira would let them sit in it. She took a slow step closer to him and the edge of her cell. The next came even slower. She stood as tall and strong as she could before the blonde man.
"Did you know the best way to tell how much people fear you is to look at the cage they put you in? Force field cuffs, bulletproof glass and a force field around the cell placed in a locked room. I have to say I've been a consistently impressive threat." The tall man's face fell with each word she spat.
His eyebrows drew tight over his pretty eyes, "I am afraid," he locked his face to hers with an openness that terrified her, "I'm afraid of losing you again, I'm afraid of failing to protect you again. The cage is necessary so I don't lose my sister before I even get her back."
Elvira boiled with anger. She was furious as his continued lies, his overt cheesiness and his attempted robbing of one of the few good memories she had. Her brother.
"You are not my brother! My brother is not a 6-foot mercenary that made money by selling people to HYDRA. He was brave and kind." Her voice betrayed her with a traitorous weaver.
The man lit up, "You remember something?"
"Oh, I remember a lot of things. I remember laying on the ground as he watched me start to die," her eyes flicked to. The man in black in the corner. "I remember how it felt when HYDRA forcibly ripped my memories from my head. I remember being drowned over and over until I performed like they wanted. I remember a scared man in chains standing in front of me as they put a gun in my hand. You can have those memories but not my brother."
The blonde man's face had visibly paled as horror filled his eyes. His head hang, "I'm so sorry I didn't find you," he forced a breath in but shook as he breathed out, "I was my responsibility to look after you. This is my fault. I promise I'm going to fix it."
He looked so sincere, so pained. His blue eyes downing her. A raw part of her part of her desperately wanted to believe him. Wanted to be loved and protected my someone who knew her. But as Wanda and Pietro's faces flashed in her mind she knew the risk. She knew that HYDRA would go to desperate lengths for control over her. She could not lose herself again. She couldn't be their killing slave.
The red-headed woman approached and laid a hand on the man's broad shoulders. "She's manipulating you, Steve. Let me take care of it." They stared at each other for a few moments before he gave a soft nod and went to stand with the man in black who refused to look at her.
The red-headed woman stood strong as she levelled Elvira with her gaze. "What do you remember before HYDRA?"
Elvira watched her silently, this woman would not fall for emotional tugs.
The woman sighed and moved on, "What do you remember of your brother?"
Silence pooled again before the woman spoke again, "Where did you go after HYDRA, I know you remember."
"How many times did HYDRA use the memory wiping device on you?" Elvira knew the woman noticed the finch she tried to suppress. Her sharp eyes studying every mirco-expression.
"Natasha, stop." A smaller man with dark curly brown hair spoke up. "She isn't going to tell you anything like that. From what I've observed with James it would be better to encourage reconnecting with severed memories by exposing her to familiar things."
"She spent the 5 months before HYDRA with the Winter Soldier but still thinks he's a HYDRA assassin." The woman called Natasha exclaimed frustratedly.
"I think we should focus on Steve, memories of him seem to be easier and less hostile for her."
Steve, she assumed, moved from the wall and the man in black, "Alright new strategy. We collect familiar items and photographs from here and the museum and continue this tomorrow." He then moves towards the door and pats a hand on the man in black's shoulder, "Come on Bucky, we've got work to do."
Natasha had not moved her eyes from Elvira the whole exchange and continued her strong gaze as she declared, "I'll take first watch."
BBB
As Steve exited the room he took a breath for the first time since entering. Annie being there but not really being Annie had been suffocating. He knew Bucky was in just as much pain from hearing about her time in HYDRA. Steve tried not to think about it to quell the tears wallowing just on the barrier of his eye.
"This is all my fault Bucky. I thought she was dead but I never should have just accepted it. Maybe if I was out looki-"
"Steve, this isn't your fault. Its mine. I was the one who shot her. After I saved her, I kept telling her to leave me and be safe, but I didn't push it because I wanted to be around her. And now all this happened because she was with me when HYDRA found us. I told her to go and hide but she wouldn't. Then HYDRA had a gun pointed at her head and I couldn't do anything. S-she told them to take her instead of me." His breathing was weak and frantic by the end. He almost didn't feel Steve wrap his arms around him.
"No, Annie knew what she was doing the whole time. I know she loved you too much to leave you while you were scared and confused. If you think you ever could have convinced her to leave you, then you didn't know her well enough."
Bucky nodded, wrapping his arms around Steve. He pulled away to push, "Go get those photos, I'll grab the stuff from our rooms."
Steve let out a sigh of almost relief, "I'm glad you're here Bucky."
Steve nodded at Clint communicating her was ready to take the Quinjet to his museum. It wasn't long before they were in the museum gathering every photo, relic and memory they had of Annie stating it was an urgent Avenger mission to the staff. His legs jumped during the ride home. It was getting dark and he just wanted it to be tomorrow already so they could start helping Annie.
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The red-haired woman stood as a statue, continuing to watch her with intense eyes. Her intelligence was obvious, but the longer Elvira watched the more she could see a speckle of something. Worry? Sadness maybe?
"The blonde man is a much better actor" Elvira tested.
"If you remembered him, you'd know that wasn't true," She smirked softly. The woman's voice grew steady and sure, "No one here is manipulating you, Annie."
"I have no reason to trust you or anyone here. In my experience whenever people but me in a cell, they want to hurt me."
"That instinct is smart, but things are complicated." The red-head tapped on a watch and Elvira's force-field-re-enforced cuff fell off her wrists. "A show of faith."
"I'm still in a cell," Elvira taunted.
"Not that much faith while you're still amnesiac."
Elvira huffed as she watched the woman's stony expression, as unmoving as her stature. She was getting nothing more out of this woman.
She lowed onto the bed without breaking eye contact and waited. Wondering who would visit her next and how she could use them to get out.
BBB
Time passed slowly as the woman watched her. Everything about her remained unreadable no matter how long she stood there. Even though Elvira had the strong desire to talk or do anything, she knew any extra information would be analysed and used against her by the calculating red-head.
Eventually after time had started to warp and swirl under her boredom and anxiousness, the door slide open. The man in black's looming stature entered the doorway. His eyes flashed to hers for only a moment but she felt like she had been zapped zapped his open eyes. After so long of looking at the red-head's carefully concealed gaze, the man's brief look split a cavern open in her chest that was ready to swallow her whole.
He turned away to ignore her again and firmly stated to the red-head, "I can take up the second watch."
"I'm fine", she sneered back.
"Steve said he and Clint are heading back. Tony needs to brief you," He ground out, clearly hated every extra word he had to share with the woman.
The red-haired woman finally removed her heavy stare away from Elvira and glared at the man in black. "Fine, I'll talk to Tony, but she better be here, SAFE, when I get back."
The man gave a poor excuse of a nod and the woman strode with purpose out the door.
As the door clicked shut he let out a soft sigh, his bionic arm flexed uncomfortably. He then settled his eyes on her. And the same feeling she couldn't place shook right through her.
He made no move forward, showed no intention to speak. He just entranced her with his icy sad eyes. Why did his eyes always look so infinitely sad?
"Annie," his sudden, gentle voice vibrated through her nerves. "I know your memories of me aren't things you want to remember but please try to remember Steve."
Her eyebrows shot up before she could hide the reaction. He shuffled in discomfort, continuing, "He has always been good to you, to both of us. He deserves to have you back and you deserve to remember having someone who cares about you."
This man, Bucky she had heard the blonde man referred to him as, he seemed to care about her. She needed to break eye contact but she just couldn't. He seemed to open up the raw vulnerable side of her, she tried to lock away. The part of her that got her hurt. Her nerves felt exposed to the open air as sad eyes drowned her.
She wrenched her eyes closed and the man in black she remembers instantly flashes in her mind. Standing over her, no expression. Just watching her die. She needed to get away from him. To be somewhere where things made sense again. Desperation rushed through her as her eyes snapped back open. No more being manipulated. She was going to be the manipulator.
She was going to play their game and be gone before they knew they had lost.
"Bucky" she mouthed the work. Getting used to it on her tongue. His eyes immediately spread wide and Elvira knew she was on the right track.
"Bucky? I-I-", She stumbled. She couldn't make it look too easy.
"Annie?" The man in black breathed in disbelief as he rushed toward the cell.
"Bucky. You're Bucky. I remember", She flashed the most hopeful eyes she could as she rushed to the glass as well.
His hands pressed against the energy field, "You remember me? Please God remember me."
"I do, I remember you Bucky." She pressed her hands against the glass mimicking him. "Bucky I'm locked in, please let me out" She tried to prompt.
He look of longing throw her off for a moment. He bolted out the door and a spike of fear that he was warning the others dug in her spine. But then the energy field fizzled and then dissipated around her. Without a breath she was welcomed back into the swirling space of her portal. And then she was staring at her cell from outside it. The lights dimmed as red flashes of light invaded the space. An alarm rumbled through the air as Bucky rushed back in with as much haste as he left.
"Annie I-"
She slammed his head against the cell's wall and drove her fist into his face. He dropped to the ground. Her heart sank a little at crumpled form and unconscious face. Everything about him made her insides scream with indecision. Her whole head ached by this point.
BBB
Steve was almost sprinting out of the quinjet. his hands wrapped in a large knapsack of potential memory boosters, as the lights flashed red and the alarm blared.
No.
'No, it can't be her' Steve's head whispered as a dread sunk into his bones. The knacksack dropped and Steve pushed off his toes into a sprint. He slammed into walls, even through some as he counted each whine of the alarm. Each second that she could potentially be gone forever.
The door to the room Annie was in was already open with the sickly blue glow seeping through. He threw himself through, skidding to a stop at a sight of Bucky on the floor and his sister one step away from the portal that would take her away forever.
"Annie please!" He called.
She twisted in surprise, her alien blue eyes widening. Otherworldly blue light dancing across her face. She jolted slightly towards the portal and Steve threw up his hands.
"Wait! Please please Annie I'm begging you. Don't leave."
Her eyes were locked on his as her mouth opened but nothing came out.
He subconsciously took a step forward but threw himself back when she saw her inch toward the portal in reaction.
"I know everything is confusing right now and your scared but Annie all that matter is that your my sister and I love you. You know me okay," His eyes stung as he gently moved closer. She didn't flinch back this time. Her glowing gaze trained on his.
"I'm Steve" a youthful quirk tugged his lips like when he was a cheeky adolescent. "Your big brother. I used to get sick when I was younger and you would sit beside me and cheer me up and play cards. Sometimes you'd even let me win. Sometimes you would even take days off school but it didn't matter because you were always so damn smart."
He was five feet away with tears falling steady down his cheeks as never dared break eye contact. He could now see that her eyes weren't foreign, they were his same sister's eyes. He could see the same bright spark that had always been there, now the spark was mixed in with a rumbling glow of something strong and powerful but deeply Annie nonetheless.
"I put newspaper in my shoes but you never said anything because you didn't want to embarrass me. And-And I was always getting to fights and you clean up my bruises and cuts and say "Was it worth it? I'd hate for you to die over something that wasn't worth it". When mum died, I held you as tight as I could and then when I was injected with the super soldier serum, I accidentally hugged you so tight you couldn't breathe." Steve let out a weak chuckle.
Tears also started to drip down her checks as the portal started to buzz unstably. It flashed weakly and faded and Steve's gaze never left Annie's face. Her face contorted with pain as she gripped her head. He risked a step closer and slowly raised his hands to her cheeks rubbing at the tears on her jaw, trying to sooth her.
"And when I was on that plane with those bombs and nowhere to go you wouldn't leave me. Please don't leave me Annie. You might not need me, but I need you. I miss my sister."
"Please Annie remember me," Steve breathed as her face slowly eased from its pained expression. Her eyes flashed up at him with something new in them.
"Steve?" She breathed back, arms weakly coming up to clutch his shirt. Her eyes darted around as if she was trying to look through her brain.
"Steve! Steve! Holy shit Steve!" She gasped as she threw her arms around his torso so tight, he would have cracked a rib if her weren't enhanced. "I'm getting things. I-uh used to call you Stevie to embarrass you in front of girls. And you would try to sing really low when you same me happy bir-"
She was cut off as Steve wrapped his huge arms around her, just like when she has first seen him after the serum. He spun her around as she heard his cries get louder.
"Steve!" She yelled, "I finally remember my name!" she couldn't say more has her lungs rocked with sobs to match her brother's. She had a brother and she had real name. Annie."
Annie.
Steve held her with her feet dangling above the floor but who gave a shit about that or her still foggy brain because she had Steve back.