-Lost-
Sam had gotten word that Sharon was about to leave for Siberia to apprehend Bucky and Zemo mere hours before she was set to leave. He hadn't ever been happier to be in the Capitol than now. If he had been home with Sarah, he would have never made it to the airfield in time to jump into the mission.
Sharon at first hadn't been too happy to see him. she never really stated it, but the look on her face when he swooped into the hangar had not been overly friendly or approachable. However, he couldn't have cared less what she thought. He needed to be there when they found his friend, he was also hoping they wouldn't actually catch them. And if he could help prevent the sergeants and Baron's capture… well he wasn't not going to try.
Had his friend really been that stupid to leave his cover so quickly after disappearing. He hoped not. But seeing that it was Sharon going, he had a hunch this wasn't just a whim and they had knowledge they would be there.
When they had descended into the pit of the old hydra base, he held his breath but hearing those voices so clearly down bellow he had internally cursed them both for being so idiotic. He knew Buck could probably be this stupid. But the Baron had always been 10-20 steps ahead of everyone else. How in the heck could he have let this happen!
When he rounded the corner, he knew he had no way of helping the two of them stood before him.
"Ah Sharon, so glad you could join us" Zemo had spoken to her in such a calm tone
"Zemo don't" Bucky's voice had sounded so needy and desperate to him. Nothing like he had ever heard him voice before. Something had unquestionably changed between their dynamic since he had seen them last.
"Bucky, come on man" he had barked out harsher than he had meant to, but he had been mad as hell then.
Bucky had then tried to stand in front of Zemo trying to protect him from Sharon as she had drawn her gun and was pointing it directly at his head. Shit had been tensed but Sam was a smart enough to step between all of them and put his hands up to both.
He had looked at his friend with pleading eyes then trying to convey as much sympathy as he could have in that moment.
"Bucky, come in quietly man, make this easy on yourselves"
"I will co-operate as long as you can promise me" he had looked back with wide eyes to Zemo "promise me man, promise me he stays safe, and he gets a fair trial. He helped all of us"
"I'll do what I can Bucky" he had looked back to Sharon then and she had slowly lowered her gun and motioned for the agents around them to move in as Buck and the Baron had both put their hands up.
The cuffs had been put on both of them. He wanted to laugh because what where normal hand cuffs going to really do against Bucky, but this mission hand been so quickly thrown together they mustn't have had time to get anything else. If Bucky had been alone and really wanted to get away, he most certainly could have easily. He was a super soldier…
The extraction had gone so smoothly to the point where he had almost wondered if this was the Baron's plan after all. but remembering the shock they had both displayed when found meant it couldn't have been.
The landing in Dc had been a mess. Bucky and Zemo had been restrained on either side of the aircraft. Zemo hadn't slept at all, always fully alert, scanning his surroundings, always keeping a watchful eye on his companion and Sharon as well. Bucky on the other hand had fallen asleep and he had known the moment a corporal had gone to wake him upon their arrival that shit had been bound to go sideways. He had heard his nightmares before from other rooms. He had seen him react before when he was taken off guard. Zemo's watchful gaze saw it all happen. It had looked like he wanted to warn him that shit was about to go down, but a sly smile told him he also wanted to watch the corporal get his knickers knocked.
Bucky had gone wild with terror, the scream of pure terror that came from him shook all the souls in the ship. Like a dying mans last scream of pure pain being ripped from his throat kind of scream. The restraints where nothing and as he had charged forward with the corporal's throat in his metal hands grasp. The metal thud of the corporal's head hitting the side of the cargo hold was a sickening sound.
It had all happened so fast he hadn't even been able to intercept the movements himself. It had been so mechanical. The worst part was the chaos that had followed. Bucky then fully awake had snapped out of it and Zemo had been trying to talk to him calmly to try and help settle him, but the screaming of all the other agents and military personnel overtook. The cargo hold had opened then, and he had moved forward to try and help his friend.
Sharon had gotten in the way then and had bigger cuffs, large ones that also had power emanating from them. As she tried had tried to place them on him, he had tried to resist. But the moment one side clipped around his flesh wrist a shock pules brought him to his knees.
Watching his friend clench his teeth and scream in pain falling onto his side and spasm from the electricity was painful to watch. Zemo's screams then join into the chorus of loudness.
The once docile man had then begun to thrash and struggle against his own restraints watching Bucky on the floor of the cargo hold. Sam had then gotten between the two. Facing the Baron and trying to calm him. he had told him to calm himself. "Zemo, calm down or they are gonna do the same to you man!" he remembered himself telling the man over and over again. Finally grabbing the Baron by both shoulders and giving him quick shake. Locking eyes and giving him a nod in understanding.
Seeing his friend passed out cold and being dragged into the back of a transport was a sight he wasn't going to soon forget. It had reminded him to much of Romania back when they had first taken him into custody for the supposed bombing of the UN. Once again, Zemo having been part of the reason Barnes was being detained, again for something Barnes hadn't been doing.
He had taken Zemo into the next transport and they had made their way to their next destination somewhere in town. He hadn't been overly sure what had been waiting for them but when his and Zemo's' transports had arrived, and Sharon's and Bucky's hadn't… Sam had given the Baron the look of a lifetime.
And here they where at present. Him desperately trying to replay the past 24 hours from the moment they had taken Zemo and Bucky, to now. Looking like fish out of water trying to track down a missing high grade military transport
Zemo was taken away to be locked up somewhere as he flew out over the city to try and track where the truck had been lost on radar. But nothing was showing up. He flew back and forth multiple times. And still not a single sign of the truck. Nothing reported anywhere either.
It was nighttime by the time he flew back to the base and sought out someone in charge.
"take me to Zemo" he demanded
"Sir I can't do that"
"Take ME to FUCKING HELMUT ZEMO NOW!" he hadn't been this angry in a long time.
Sam Wilson wasn't one to usually need help. But having someone to bounce ideas off was something he really needed. Lately it had been Sharon, before that it had been his best pal Bucky until shit had gone south, that's when he started talking to Sharon more.
But even back when the flag smashers had been an ongoing thing. Zemo had most certainly been a great help with information despite his initial reservations of the man in question.
If Zemo had any kind of idea of what could even possibly be happening, he wanted to know. Anything and everything. Bucky was most certainly in a lot of danger right now.
After a little bit of him pacing around the room he had been taken to, a man in a fancy suit stepped in and motioned for him to follow. He was led though the facility and into an interrogation room and already in it was the Baron, cuffed and seated. His eyes where puffy and red, had he been crying?
The man ushers him inside and the heavy metal door behind him shuts hard. He stands there off to the side of the room, neither of them looking at each other. Making eye contact would be hard. They had both just Lost someone important to them.
"Look man for what its worth I am sorry" he tries to start but the room is a deafening silence other than the soft sniffle of the cuffed man before him. "Look Zemo, if you have any idea, anything man. You gotta share it with me man. Help me find Bucky"
The soft sound of chains moving make him look at the man, and when the eye contact is made, he just knows and feels the pain behind his eyes.
"We should have been more careful. Shuri warned us of course. But I was desperate to try and help James. I ignored my own protocols and rushed into a plan because of him" he never broke contact after starting. Sam listened to every work intently. Making sure to absorb every little piece of information. Contact Shuri next.
"We figured something out. James helped of course. He was the key to figuring out the documents I had. Hydra was thorough in their note making, but of course they ignored an important part. The winter soldier himself."
A deep breath
"He remembers it all you know. James can remember the smallest of details of not only missions. He remembers when he was out of Cryo, he can remember when they tortured him. assaulted him. tried to break him repeatedly Wilson. There where times he would break protocol, things that snapped him out of his Winter soldier state. Once it was even just a woman crying for her son."
This man certainly had a way with words. His voice soft and controlled. He knew if he had been talking about his friend being assaulted by the monsters that where Hydra he would have anger in his voice. He wouldn't have even been able to have such a level tone.
"Together James and I went through old Hydra files, him filling in gaps and blanks. But something was still missing. The code words. Not the first set. Not the ones you and I both know. No mister Wilson, someone else found a second set. You see that's why we went back to the beginning. In the care of the new HYDRA, working within S.H.I.E.L.D., James had been the first subject of the Winter Soldier Program. In order to erase his memories as Sergeant Barnes and remold him to their liking, into the Winter Soldier, HYDRA frequently used the chair to perform electroconvulsive therapy, which inflicted serious brain damage on James. While first doing so, they inadvertently put in place a fist set of code words. A first set so to say"
Things were starting to click for Sam now. That was why the old code words weren't working. The Wakandans had been able to remove those ones. They deprogramed him from that. But not from the accidental ones that no one, not even James knew where there.
"We went back to Siberia to see if we could find any clues. And we did just before you lot interrupted. Someone had been there before us. Someone had been there very recently. But with all the commotion you brough in mister Wilson. I'm guessing all that evidence is now gone. The only thing would be a photo of the footprint I took on my phone."
"a footprint will not do us much Zemo"
"Not you probably. But I did send it to a friend"
Ah yes, Zemo was good at this. There was a reason Bucky had hypothetically broken him out of prison once. But he highly doubted it would be as easy for a third time.
"If you're going to get out of here Legally in the end Zemo, we are going to need to PROVE without a doubt it wasn't either of you."
He laughed then. A slow chuckle.
"Oh, mister Wilson. I know I will never truly be legally free. Not after what I did in response to Sokovia" his eyes where again dark and grim.
"I know full well you aren't giving up on him. You love him don't you Zemo?"
Sam was about to have some bad shit go down for him; he was sure of it. All he could think was 'dear lord Sarah please forgive me'
He walked slowly over to the Baron before him and set his hand roughly on the table flicking a small key into his hand discreetly. And under his breath in the most hushed tone spat "You know where to find me"
Then walked back to the interrogation room door, gave it a couple harsh nocks and it opened. "Be Good Helmut" he said as the door closed behind him.
