"You want this." The man holding the gun says in heavily accented English. "But you will not take it. I will kill it before I let you have it."
"He's a person. Not a thing." Steve snarls, face a picture of rage. He wants to charge in, to silence this man, but the gun held to his best friend's head won't let him. His mind scrambles for a way to end the stalemate without a hole punched through Bucky's skull.
So far, he's coming up with nothing.
He's not sure why Bucky has gone still and submissive, but he can guess. His friend is essentially a huge, stationary target for the moment. Even if he can subdue the man currently holding the gun, there's not much he can do to fight off the remaining HYDRA operatives if he has to cover Bucky at the same time.
He waits for an opening. A chance.
...And hopes like hell he'll get one.
"This is just a weapon." The man says lightly, indicating the Soldier, on his knees before him. He shoves his captive's shoulder with his foot and the Soldier sways slightly but otherwise makes no response. "It kills. That is its only function." He smirks at the Captain and the Falcon. "One does not get sentimentally attached to one's tools."
"You guys are seriously fucked up, you know that?" Sam adds, eyes hard and deadly behind his goggles. He's trying to come up with a backup plan of his own.
The gun presses harder into the Soldier's forehead.
Sam and Steve exchange eye contact. They don't speak, but the message is there.
Plan?
All three of us get out of here alive.
How?
Working on it...
"You believe whatever you want." The man with the gun says dismissively. "It doesn't matter. I will kill it if you take one more step, and that is what matters." He glances at the two operatives behind him again. "[I said restrain it]."
They hesitantly step forward, wielding heavy magnetic cuffs.
"You planning to carry him all the way?" Steve persists. "As soon as you let him up, he'll kill you, you know that."
The operative smirks and opens his mouth to retort, but before he can say a word, an arrow is suddenly protruding from his eye-socket. He makes a strangled noise. The pistol falls limply from his fingers as he collapses, and chaos erupts.
Even as the body falls beside him, Bucky shows no reaction. He is the one remaining point of stillness in the room. He doesn't appear to even notice the blood spray that is added to what was already on his face.
The Soldier makes no attempt to claim the fallen weapon. No attempt to rise. No attempt to escape.
No one has given him the order to move.
More arrows follow the first, cleanly dropping operatives one after the other, even as they scramble for cover or try to locate their attacker. The air is humming with the twang of a bow.
Well, I wanted an opening…
Steve hauls Sam behind his shield and ducks. He's fairly sure he knows who the mystery assailant is when there's no telltale ping of arrows against the metal. Even so, they're too exposed standing in the open and every instinct screams to find cover. Even perfect shots miss sometimes.
He pushes his way across the room, trying to make it to Bucky, to cover him too.
The fight is over quickly, long before he can get there, but Bucky sits unharmed, exactly where he'd been. Around him is a ring of corpses, each punctuated by an arrow.
He hasn't so much as twitched.