Her joints ached from the uncomfortable position she had been sitting in for way too long and her eyes stung with the brightness of the lights shining into her from the walls they had driven through. With the car coming to a stop she hauled herself up into a more upright position and glanced around the unfamiliar setting.
As much as she had wanted to slip into a deep unconscious slumber, sleep had evaded her. Every single time she had closed her eyes she found herself being plagued with terrifying images of what could be happening to Bucky. No amount of training or planning they could have done would have prepared herself for this, the adrenaline of the situation had drained from her body and left her exhausted.
The two men up front hadn't acknowledged her once during the journey. No matter what she asked or how she acted they remained stony, keeping their gaze forward and their attention far away from her.
She had thought about escaping. She was pretty sure there was a memory tucked into the back of her mind about getting out of handcuffs. She could slip out of them and bail from the car, she could track where they were going and follow them to whatever their destination was.
She'd rescue Bucky from their clutches and they could go on the run again. With Steve Rogers on their side they'd be even more protected than they were before…
But as soon as she caught sight of the guns resting in the footwell of the front seat her mind changed.
There would be no helping Bucky if she was dead and she wouldn't put it past these guys to shoot before thinking.
She jumped as the door swung open, shrinking back against the other side as one of the guards reached in and grabbed hold of her by the arm.
"Hey! Hey!"
Her heart jumped in her chest at the sound of a familiar tone, raising her head and shifting her hair from her face, she was grateful to see Steve Rogers jogging over to where the soldiers were roughly pulling her along.
"Be careful with her okay?" he said, shoving one of the guards away and helping Harper to stand properly before bending slightly to check her over "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she breathed, glancing up to him in disbelief. The grip around her arm was still there but a lot looser as the soldier to her left stepped down slightly at Steve's request "Thank you," she said with a nod of her head as she straightened her back properly and took in a deep breath to try and calm herself down.
She wanted to show them she wasn't afraid, that she had no reason to be afraid, because neither her nor Bucky had done anything wrong.
"Where is he?" she asked, her eyes searching every part of the room they were standing in, but her question went unanswered as Steve turned to face the blonde woman and grey haired, suited man awaiting their arrival. Sam and the man who had been unmasked at the scene were climbing out of the car Steve had hurried out of to help Harper to their right, neither of them looked impressed as they glanced around the brightly lit, vast space.
She could feel the panic rising up from where it had been swirling in her stomach to gripping at her chest as the soldiers guiding her way seemed to be taking her on a different route to where Steve was headed.
"What's going to happen to them?" Steve asked, there was a frown on his face as he turned to see Harper was being taken away.
"Same thing that ought to happen to you. Psychological evaluation and extradition," she heard the suited man say just before she was forced around the corner.
The grips on her arms got tighter as soon as they were out of Steve's sight and she struggled against it, pain shooting up from her wrists as the soldiers forced her on.
"In here," one of them uttered in Romanian, opening up a side door and revealing a darkened room. Harper shook her head, digging her heels in and trying to stop the inevitable "In here," he insisted, the two of them taking control of her struggling and forcing her inside.
The temperature dropped as soon as she stepped inside the dimly lit room, it was small and compact as though they had decided to shove her into the nearest storage space, with a large window set on the wall. She was forced down onto an uncomfortable looking, and feeling, wooden chair and, thankfully, her handcuffs were removed.
"Stay," one of the soldiers ordered as though she were a dog, the two of them turning their backs on her and retreating out of the room before she could say anything else in reply.
The room became even darker as the door was slammed shut despite the light bulb, which flickered on and off every now and then, hanging from the ceiling above her. Leaning back against the hard chair she stretched her wrists in all directions, inspecting the sores her too tight shackles had left behind.
Getting to her feet she stretched out her back before pacing from one side of the room to the other, unable to sit still and mull over whatever could be happening to Bucky. Her heart was heavy and her stomach still swirling as she raked her fingers through her hair; was he in a room similar to the one she was in worried about what was happening to her? Or was he still bolted down in the glass cage they had forced him into when they'd caught them?
A shiver ran through her and she hugged her hoodie closer to her body, glancing around the room until she spotted a blanket folded up on one of the shelving units along the back wall. She was no use to anyone freezing cold so she grabbed hold of it, slinging it around her shoulders but staying standing despite the ache in her legs.
Her nose wrinkled as the musty smell of the fabric hit it and she found herself wondering just how long it had been sat there, hidden away from the world.
Would she be forgotten in the same way?
Crossing the room she reached out and pulled back the black out curtains covering the window, frowning when all she was met with was more darkness. Nothing about the place she was in made sense and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing or what she could expect to happen.
Without that there was no way of making a plan and without a plan there was no way of her getting to Bucky and getting them out of there.
They had taken her backpack as soon as she had been arrested and she hadn't seen it since so she definitely wouldn't be using any of the things in there to pick the lock on the door. The knife she had slipped into her makeshift ankle strap pressed against her skin but remained useless, there was no way such a small blade would be able to break her out of such a large door.
A yawn stretched at her lips and her eyes stung with the tiredness spreading throughout her body. She had to stay awake just in case something happened but she found the urge to sit, even on the uncomfortable wooden chair, overwhelmed her.
Barely a few moments had passed before the sound of footsteps caught Harper's attention and she raised her head from where it had fallen to rest against the top rung of the back of the chair. Slipping the blanket down from around her shoulders she lifted her leg to rest her foot on the seat she was sitting on, her fingers playing with the blade hidden away, her eyes narrowing over to the door as it swung open and a redheaded woman stepped inside the room.
Natasha Romanoff came to a stop in front of her, her head tilting and her arms folding over her chest "Keep your weapon where it is," she warned and Harper allowed her foot to fall back down to the floor "How are you feeling?" she asked in a tone which didn't convince Harper that she really cared about the answer.
"You helped me," she said in a small voice, her hooded tired eyes flickering up to where Natasha was looking right back at her sternly "You gave me all that information. Why?"
"Well first off you're welcome," Natasha answered with a shrug of her shoulders before she raised her eyes to the ceiling "Steve was off looking for Barnes with Sam and I had to stay behind, go into hiding, deal with the downfall of Shield. I gave him the information but I also wanted someone in the state to have it too and I thought I could trust you."
Sensing the edge to her tone Harper shuffled in her seat slightly "And you knew? About my family?"
Natasha's eyebrow arched and Harper was sure in another setting she would have scoffed at the question "I knew you could handle yourself if Barnes came looking. I didn't expect you to go on the run with him."
"So, what? You're scolding me? If I'd stayed behind I would have been killed, I never would have known who I really was," Harper countered, tugging the blanket fully off herself and shaking her head "You were the one who gave me the information, you basically told me what I had to do!"
"This is the opposite of what I told you to do!" Natasha argued, placing her hands on her hips and drawing Harper's attention to the vast amount of weaponry she had on show. Her small knife would have been no competition "I thought you were sensible. Just hand the information over and leave him to it."
"Well you obviously don't know me very well do you," Harper answered as she settled back against her seat and reached for her blanket once more. She was tired, her head ached and this conversation was the last thing she needed after everything that had happened.
Rolling her eyes Natasha moved forward to place the bottle of water she had brought with her down on the floor beside Harper's foot "You know, we could use a person like you," she said once she had straightened up "Is there anything more you need?"
Surprised by the words and the offer Harper shook her head before blurting out "Wait!" just before Natasha turned her back and disappeared out of the room. There was a desperate look in her eye as the assassin turned around to face her once more "I just want to see him."
Pausing for a second Natasha allowed herself to look over the dishevelled looking girl properly before she nodded her head once "I'll see what I can do."
Harper, getting settled in to spend the night in her uncomfortable position, was shocked to see her back in barely a few moments. Immediately on the defensive she shrank back and wrapped her blanket even tighter around her.
"Come with me," was all she said as she opened the door up wider and nodded her head for Harper to follow "Now," she continued when she didn't receive a reply.
Unsure of whether she was making a mistake or not Harper pushed herself up onto her feet, her stomach twisting and turning as she crossed the room and stood in the doorway "Where are we going?"
Natasha stopped midway down the corridor, turning and frowning when she realised she wasn't being followed "You wanted to see him didn't you? Barnes?"
Her heart jumped into her throat as Harper hurried to catch Natasha up "Yes, yes I do," she said breathlessly, still clutching the blanket around her shoulders.
"I can't take you in the room with him," Natasha warned and Harper's heart crashed right back down into her stomach in disappointment "But I can do the next best thing," she continued gesturing for Harper to turn left and walk through the next door way.
"Is this the best idea?"
Harper shrank back at the sound of a voice she had only ever heard on television, stepping closer to Natasha as Tony Stark made his way over to where they had entered the room.
"They had her locked in a storage cupboard Tony," Natasha snapped back, her eyebrows furrowed "He's just having a psychological evaluation, she just needs to know he's alright," she continued, Tony making a face which made Harper feel as though he would have her in the same type of glass box Bucky had been shoved into if it were up to him "Come on," Natasha said putting a warm smile on her lips and encouraging Harper to follow her over to where people were standing around and watching multiple television screens.
Her breath caught in her throat at the same time she caught sight of Bucky, pieces of metal holding him down and the glass box still encasing him. People moved out of her way as she approached the screens, still gripping the moth eaten blanket around her.
"Miss Romanoff…"
Natasha cut the suited man from earlier off with a look as she followed closely behind where Harper had wandered "I've got my eye on her," she said beneath her breath as though Harper were some kind of escaped lion who couldn't hear every word being said.
With a roll of her eyes she blocked everyone around her out as she focused her attention on Bucky. There was a man walking into the room he was being held in, clutching files in his hands and sitting down at a desk just in front of Bucky's glass prison.
"Hello, Mr. Barnes. I've been sent by the United Nations to evaluate you. Do you mind if I sit?" he asked, sitting down before Bucky could even acknowledge him. His voice was accented and echoed off the walls but Harper still stepped closer to hear better "Your first name is James?" he asked but Bucky kept his head down "I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions."
"Does this have to happen?" Harper asked, glancing around to where Natasha was hovering over her left shoulder "He's much better I promise," she said but her words went unheard as the evaluator began to speak once more.
"Do you know where you are, James?" he asked and Harper glanced around once more, willing someone to meet her eye so she could tell them this didn't need to happen.
Her eyebrows arched in surprise when she caught sight of Steve Rogers standing in the office in the middle of the room also watching on. She knew if she could catch his eye he would believe her but he seemed far too engrossed in what was happening on the screen to pay attention to what was going on around him.
"I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James," the evaluator pushed.
Without even lifting his head up Bucky answered "My name is Bucky." his tone gruff and exhausted.
Not caring about the eyes on her, Harper stepped even closer again, hoping that the closer she got to the screen the more he would be able to sense she was there watching. Her hand reached out before she could stop it and tears filled her eyes.
"Tell me, Bucky. You've seen a great deal, haven't you?"
He remained deadpan. "I don't want to talk about it."
In between scribbling things down on the piece of paper in front of him the evaluator continued "You fear that... if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop. Don't worry. We only have to talk about one."
"This isn't right," Harper said beneath her breath, her eyes narrowing and brows furrowing as she watched the evaluator click a few things on the tablet in front of him. The way he spoke, the words he was saying...none of it seemed right, something was off.
As she turned to Natasha, to tell her of her worries, the lights flickered off "What's going on?" she asked, her hair flying wildly around her face as the people all around her spoke into phones and other communication devices "Natasha this isn't right," she said seeking out the other woman and gripping onto her wrist "Something isn't right."
"You think I don't see that?" Natasha answered, gesturing around them with her free hand.
Over her shoulder Harper spotted Steve and Sam running from the room, ditching her blanket she dodged around Natasha and raced after them. Her heart pounded uncomfortably in her chest as she followed their footsteps around corner after corner, the walls passing her in a blur.
"Желание."
She felt as though ice cold water had been doused over her and she came skidding to a stop, Steve and Sam both turning at the sound.
"Ржавый."
"No!" she exclaimed as Steve and Sam turned back for her, the both of them bending to check if she was alright "Are we close?" she asked, looking around only to see that she still was able to hear what was going on from the tablet clutched in Steve's hand.
"What is it? What's happening?" Steve asked her as an agitated Bucky growled a 'Stop'.
"Семнадцать."
Harper gripped onto her head as Bucky insisted the evaluator stop once more. The words, obviously, weren't bothering her in the same way as they were Bucky but the language and the routine. It felt all too real, like she had been through something similar herself.
"We need to get to him before he finishes speaking," she said, pulling herself together and running her fingers through her hair a couple of times. "They're his trigger words."
Though Steve obviously didn't understand what that meant he took heed from the desperate look on her face "This way," he said jabbing his thumb over his shoulder.
"Рассвет. Печь. Девять."
As the regular thump of Bucky pounding his fist against the door to the glass prison bounced around her brain, Harper screwed her eyes shut for a second to try and get herself to focus "BUCKY!" she yelled as she ran, hoping they were getting closer and he would be able to hear her shouting his name "BUCKY!"
"Добросердечный."
"BUCKY!"
"Возвращение на Родину. Один. Грузовой вагон."
Up ahead, as she called Bucky's name one more time, Sam was turning to Steve "Is this really helping?" he asked as they ran.
"I don't know," Steve answered, "But it's worth a try."
A sound of smashing glass came from the tablet gripped in Steve's hand at his side and Harper almost stumbled over her own feet as they skidded around the corner.
"Солдат?"
"We need to get in there," Harper said breathlessly as they came to a door, Steve handing her the tablet so he could use his full strength to help Sam get it open.
"Я готов отвечать."
"No," Harper whispered at the sound of Bucky not only speaking Russian but saying he was ready to comply. As all hope left her she felt her knees go weak and Steve catch her before she fell "I can't do this," she said in a small tone, looking up to him through shining eyes. She had been by Bucky's side, watching him grow and learn to be the man he once was, for the past two years and she couldn't stand by and watch him get reverted straight back to the mind controlled Winter Soldier.
"Yes you can," Steve said, pulling her back up onto her feet "We need you here Harper," he continued as he bent to look her in the eyes "You know him. You've spent time with him, I can see that you care for him," he said, his hands on her shoulders "We need you, he needs you."
Taking in a deep breath Harper tried to control her emotions as she nodded her head "Yes, yes of course," she said, her hands still gripping onto the tablet and her eyes focusing on Bucky's face, the face she had been looking at for the past two years.
"You're with us?" Steve asked, his eyebrows arching.
"Yes," she answered in a whisper, raising her chin as the evaluator spoke once again and a stab of familiarity almost doubled her over once again.
"Mission report. December 16, 1991."
She knew that date. She didn't know why or what had happened but she felt like she knew it deep down into the back shelf of her memories.
Throwing the tablet to one side, not wanting to hear any more, she pushed herself on as Steve and Sam broke through the door and they were able to race into the chamber. Red emergency lights were flashing around them and guards lay out cold across the floor.
It was eerily quiet as Harper exchanged a confused glance with Steve and Sam, crouching down as she reached one of the guards lying in a heap. Her fingers shook as she reached out to him, gently touching his back and moving him to one side to check he was still breathing.
"Just unconscious," she said as she straightened up.
Their attention was caught by a groan "Help me. Help."
Walking further into the chamber Steve bent down to where the evaluator was laying in a heap "Get up," he said, grabbing him by his shirt and dragging him up onto his feet before shoving him up against the wall "Who are you? What do you want?"
The man smirked, "To see an empire fall."
Sam ducked just in time as he walked through the doorway, Bucky springing up and throwing a punch in his direction. His retaliation was blocked, Harper straightening up from where she had been checking on the guards just in time to see Bucky grab Sam by the jaw and fling him across the room toward the glass prison he had been kept in.
"Stop?!" she exclaimed as she hurried forward, ignoring Steve's shouts of warning "James!" she continued, grasping his attention away from Sam's unconscious form.
The look in his eyes was one she had never seen before as he turned to face her, no recognition sparkled back to her as his lips curled into a snarl and he began approaching her.
After their hours and hours of training she felt as though she knew his form inside out, even when he was being the Winter Soldier, so she was able to duck and dive beneath his determined fists as though they were back on their roof in Romania. The only difference was there was no letting up and she couldn't bring herself to actually hurt him despite the knife in her ankle strap digging into her skin almost teasingly.
"I'm not fighting you," she said between her exhausted breaths as she continued to avoid his wrath "Bucky please, it's me!"
But Bucky clearly wasn't present any longer as the man she'd got a glimpse of when they first met glared down at her, becoming impatient and, as though she were an annoying fly, swiped his hand and shoved her away toward the wall.
A groan of pain left her as she slammed up against the solid surface, dropping down to the floor in defeat. Forcing herself to stay awake she tried to push herself back up onto her feet just as Steve threw a punch in Bucky's direction which landed but didn't do much.
Beneath her her arms gave way and her head hit the floor once more, the two figures fighting becoming blurry before the darkness took over and her eyes slowly closed.
"Hey."
The voice stirred her, dragging her back before she fully blacked out and she glanced over to see Sam pushing himself up from where he had landed.
Glancing around she noticed it wasn't her he was calling to but the evaluator who was standing staring down the elevator shaft.
"Hey!" Sam called again as the man turned on his heel and began to run down one of the corridors "You alright?" he asked, lending a hand to Harper.
"I'm fine," she grumbled back, ignoring the dull ache in her head and allowing him to help her to her feet. She wasn't sure about him, he seemed to be on Steve Rogers' side but there was something about him which she didn't quite trust yet and a look on his face when he regarded her which told her he didn't quite trust her either.
"You know you can go back if you want-"
She cut him off with a roll of her eyes, not bothering to reply to him as the two of them began to run after the man who had triggered the Winter Soldier.
"You go that way," Harper called, gesturing to the stairwell to her left. "I'll see if I can head him off by going this way."
There was a look on Sam's face which told her he wasn't too happy about her giving him orders but he complied anyway, glancing up through the stairs for a second before he began his ascent.
Her legs ached beneath her and her lungs burned with the exertion as she raced down the corridor, the only hint that she could possibly have taken the serum like Bucky had explained was her speed and the fact her headache was gone already.
But she was still beginning to think he was mistaken about that part of her past.
The space she found herself in was open and bright, her heart skipping as she spotted Bucky immediately. He was fighting with a few of the guards, the man she and Sam had been chasing nowhere in sight.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she spotted Tony Stark hiding behind a corner just ahead of her, moving from pillar to pillar before crouching down and fiddling with something on his wrist.
"No!" Harper exclaimed, hurrying forward as a stun-burst launched itself from Tony's palm toward Bucky "Stop! Wait!" she called, a few paces behind as Tony rushed toward him and fired once more.
This wasn't him and she knew if they could just give her a few moments with him she could help.
"You need to stay out of the way," a familiar tone spoke into her ear as her wrist was grasped onto tightly. Ahead of her Bucky and Tony were exchanging blows but Natasha had her full attention as she looked to her pleadingly.
"This doesn't have to happen," Harper said, glancing back to where Bucky was smacking Tony backwards and a blonde woman Harper had never seen before was rushing in "He's going to hurt them all and there's nothing you can do about it."
Natasha's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She had clearly assumed Harper was there to stop them from hurting Bucky, she hadn't expected those words to come out of her mouth "We need to stop him."
"You need to let me talk to him and you guys need to stay out of the way."
Both of their attentions were grabbed by the sound of Bucky flipping the blonde he had been fighting onto a table and they turned.
"Go and check on her!" Natasha called, ignoring all of Harper's warnings and taking her turn to join the fight.
Letting out a sigh of irritation Harper emerged from where Natasha had been hiding them. She remembered what it had been like to stare into the eyes of the Winter Soldier, the night he had his metal hand wrapped around her neck with his kill mode clearly activated, and she knew fighting back wasn't the best plan of action.
Glancing around she spotted a staircase leading up to a landing, if she could cause a scene and be high enough so he could see her she could maybe distract him for a second...and that second could save someone's life.
Her heart was in her mouth as she looked down to see Bucky pinning Natasha down onto one of the tables by her throat, his gaze locked and no sign of him giving up until she was dead.
"Hey!" she called out, not knowing what else to say, and he glanced up. She was hopeful to see him falter for a second as their eyes met, a smile coming to her face as she turned to head back down to the floor.
Until T'Challa arrived and Bucky was back on the defensive, any attention his old self had been fighting to channel toward her was long gone as he defended punch after punch, kick after kick from his next attacker.
With her hair flying around her face Harper made it over to Natasha, helping her to sit up and checking her over "I tried," she said with a shrug and a disappointed look.
"I'm pretty sure you saved my life," Natasha answered as she gasped for air, Harper helping her to sit up taller and get some more oxygen into her lungs "He...hesitated."
"And now I feel like he's fully lost," Harper said, her tone defeated "The more you fight back, the more you lose him and I didn't want any of you getting hurt."
There was an odd expression on Natasha's face as she got up onto her feet, almost as though she was about to ask about the time Harper had spent with Bucky over the past two years.
But that was quickly forgotten about as Harper glanced over her shoulder to see an empty space around them. Apart from Tony and Sharon lying injured there was no one else to be seen.
"Shit," Harper said as she turned away from Natasha "Keep taking deep breaths," she called over her shoulder as she ran toward the stairs she had just been up, following the direction she had just seen T'Challa disappearing into.
"Harper!"
Glancing toward the shout of her name she spotted Steve waving her over "He's gone to the roof," he explained and Harper took his lead, following him toward a door at the other end of the corridor.
The air whipped around her as Steve forced the door open and her heart sank into her stomach when she noticed Bucky in the pilot seat of the helicopter in front of them "We can't let him leave!" she called but Steve was already running over, leaping into the air and grasping hold of the landing gear.
She watched on, helpless, as Steve battled with the large machine. She felt as though she was frozen to the spot as he was dragged toward the edge of the helipad, gripping the helicopter with one hand and the railing surrounding the roof with the other. Her hands slapped across her mouth as she watched a glowering Bucky jerk the joystick to the left, the helicopter's nose slamming into the edge of the helipad.
She couldn't even spring to action as the rotor blades smashed into the concrete, causing Steve to duck and dive. Her throat burned as she screamed "Bucky!" to no avail as she watched him punch through the glass of the helicopter and grab his best friend by the throat.
Everything seemed to be happening in fast motion after that, the rocking helicopter's tail breaking off and splashing into the river below...and the helicopter itself following close behind.
As though releasing her from some kind of grasp Harper was able to run forward, glancing over the side of the building just in time to see the helicopter, Steve and Bucky disappear into the murky waters.