CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
( HIJACKED )
STEVE GNAWS AT his lower lip like he had been doing for the past half hour as he sits a few inches away from Blair. He analyzes her wound, the blood has started seeping through the hoodie he had but against for pressure. Granted, she was also putting pressure on it by crouching over and placing the metal shackles against it, it still wasn't working. She was going to bleed out at any given minute. She had already lost so much blood when he found her.
He could guesstimate and say she's lost about a liter and a half, just by how pale she was and how loopy she was getting. Her words would slur together if she was forced to speak to the guards.
His mind ran a mile a minute. Between Natasha and Blair bleeding out in front of him, Quinn being in danger, and seeing Bucky for the first time in decades his mind was a little preoccupied to care whether or not he was going to die if he stepped out of this vehicle.
"What's eating you?" Sam questions him as if he was reading his mind. A small smirk plays at his lips. Steve guessed that he was under distress from everything he had learned, from what he had seen. He shrugs his shoulders as he peers around the caravan, not caring if anyone thought he was about to talk crazy. "That guy that we fought," he pauses, looking towards the ground as he tries to find the right words. "He was my best friend,"
Natasha is the first to give off a strange look between the group. She even scoffs at the idea of his best friend being an assassin. "Like from before the ice?" she tried to clarify, earning a small head nod from Steve. "It was him, I know it, I know what he looks like,"
The memories of Bucky plays within his mind. There was no doubt that was him. "He looked at me like he didn't even know me," he trails off. He begins shuffling his feet against the tread of the van as much as he can given the ankle shackles they've given them. "That doesn't make sense, it was seventy years ago," Sam chimes in.
All Steve can think about is watching his best friend fall from the train, how he mourned for him, truth be told he hadn't stopped mourning for him. He blames himself heavily for what's happened to him. "Zola," he breathes out grimly as flashes of the old Hydra Nazi base flood his mind.
"Bucky's whole unit was captured back in forty-three, they did experiments on him. Whatever he did helped him survive the fall," his jaw clenches as he thinks of Bucky reaching out to him, trying to latch on to his hand. If only he had been a few inches closer. "They must've found him and..." he trails off, thinking of the unimaginable things they could've done to him. He walked in on a horror scene when he saved him back in forty-three, whatever happened since could've been a million times worse. The mere thought of it makes his spine shiver.
Natasha notices how uneasy he is. It was normal for Steve to try to take the blame for everything, it's his biggest flaw. She rolls her eyes at the pity party he was throwing for himself. "None of that is your fault, Steve," she hisses out, woozily tilting her head back on the window. Steve avoids any eye contact from any of his friends, instead choosing to stare at the closest wall.
"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," he whispers out, earning an audible scoff from Natasha. Her head was starting to feel light, no doubt in her mind that's also how Blair felt. They hadn't treated their wounds to attempt to keep them alive which meant they were prepping them for death. Sam notices the distress coming from his right.
He carefully studies Natasha as she groans, sweating starting to bead from her forehead. A small drop of blood threatens to pool over a crease in her leather jacket. She hisses in pain, as the wound begins to pulsate with her body. Each pump of her heart sent more blood to the area. Sam couldn't even begin to think of what Blair's injury looked like, she was half slumped over the silver shackle that restrained them to their seats in the upright position but, it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that she was losing more blood by the second.
Sam looks towards the masked guards, swallowing any hesitation that he felt as he peered over at Blair. "We need to get a doctor in here," he speaks up, catching both of the guard's direct attention. "If we don't get pressure on any of their wounds they'll -" he gets cut off by the sound of electricity whirring as the guard closest to him pulls out a shock prod, threatening to use it on him. He immediately backs down from the challenge. He looks taken back, almost as if the guard had gotten him by surprise (which they had).
He licks his bottom lip with hesitation as he prepares for what his next plea would be. Instead of begging the guards, the guard with the shock prod turns in their comrade. Kicking and tasing the fellow guard unconscious.
Blair wakes up from her state of drowsiness, the commotion startling her awake. She almost had a heart attack from just the sight of what happened, yet she narrows her eyes at the guard who attacked, along with the rest of the group. The guard slowly pulls the helmet off their head, revealing a sweaty and frizzy-haired Maria Hill.
Blair leans back confused at the sight of Nick Fury's right-hand man. She pants as she places the helmet on the ground. "That thing was squeezing my brain," she pants out, looking around at the wide eyes expressions of the group. Figures, she wouldn't get a thank you for saving their lives. Technically they weren't saved yet. "Who's this guy?" she gestures over to Sam while looking at Steve, a slight smirk on her face as she tries to lighten the mood.
Instead of getting an answer she earns a giggle from Blair. It's a hysterical, woozy giggle like that of someone who had just taken a tablet of acid and was going on a nice trip. "I've been asking that this whole time," she manages to squeak out, forcing Steve to roll his eyes. "A friend," he quickly explains before somewhat moving forward in his seat. "Do you have any ideas on how to get out?"
Maria rolls her eyes as she pulls out a small device from her pocket. "Do I have any ideas to get you guys out? No. I've just been patiently waiting for the right time to knock out this guard and reveal my identity to you guys for dramatic effect," she states, sarcasm dripping heavily in her voice as she crosses over to Natasha and places gauze from her pocket on to her wound, applying pressure.
Individually, she breaks them free from their shackles, stopping at Blair to look at her wound. As she tends to Blair's injury the van comes to a complete stop. Maria casually drops the device on the ground, letting it hum against the cool metal until it basically hovers over it. It cuts out a small hole in the truck's floor, making leeway for them to escape. Steve helps Natasha down the hole, along with Sam. "Keep absolutely still," Maria hisses to them as she puts Blair down the hole, laying her flat against the pavement.
They lay beneath the truck for a couple of minutes, hoping no one would catch on to them and their escape plan. As the truck rumbles to life and moves forward, they're out in the open for a split moment before being engulfed in darkness under the rear truck, then witnessing the bright light of day once again. Steve can't believe it actually worked.
Maria groans as she sits up, stretching before helping Blair up. Steve offers Natasha a shoulder to lean on as they stand up in the middle of the street. They're open and unprotected if they end up in trouble once again. Steve didn't like it. He looks down at Natasha who was now starting to fade in and out of unconsciousness like Blair. "Is there a place -" Steve starts just as Maria interrupts him with a, "Follow me." Steve has no choice but to shrug his shoulders and follow the agent blindly, using what was left of his trust.
BOOK ONE: THE WINTER SOLDIER
MARIA LEADS THEM quite a ways away from S.H.I.E.L.D. or Washington DC for that matter. Steve can hardly tell if they're even in its city limits due to the vast green vegetation growing on the deep hills that seemed to encase them. Washington DC was big but it wasn't that big. Surely he would've recognized this place by now or had seen any sign indicating they're not too far from the capital.
He's curious to find out where they are as Maria stops the van she had forced them to pile in. It seemed to relieve everyone. The back was dark and damp, it now reeked of the metallic scent of blood. Granted, Maria was able to place somewhat of a bandage over both Blair and Natasha's wounds it still wasn't enough to keep the blood from trickling out of their wounds. Blair still looked pale, yet she seemed in food spirits now that they were free of Hydra's attack. His eyes are blinded for a moment as Maria opens the sliding door to the back, ordering everyone to hop out.
Steve lends his shoulder for Natasha to lean on as her legs buckle from standing up. He peers down at her concerned. Had she lost more blood than Blair? Granted Blair's wound was larger and spread up and down her side, it wasn't nearly as deep at Natasha's. The bullet appears to have gone completely through. He follows Maria with Natasha clutching on to his frame for assistance, Sam and Blair following closely behind as they enter a long tunnel with a gated door. It eerily creaks open, the pungent smell of old sewage water fills his nostrils. It's unpleasant but at least they were in good hands.
His mind was elsewhere when he saw a figure running towards them in the tunnel, waving their hands towards the group. "GSW, she's lost about a pint," Maria informs the man running towards them. "Maybe two," Sam adds. Maria then directs her index finger back towards a limping Blair. She throws her a cautionary look before announcing to the man, "She's lost at least two. Several lacerations with foreign objects still intact in the wound,"
"Bring them to me," the man beckons, waving his arms towards them to help them out, his pace not faltering. Maria hesitates for a moment looking between Natasha and Blair. Natasha can somewhat hold her own along with Blair but she had been on the fence of passing out. It was a miracle she was even walking. "You can take Norris," she bargains, pushing Blair forward by the small of her back. Blair winces in the process of greeting the doctor, whose eyes shift towards Natasha and her wound.
"Romanoff will want to see him first," Maria states in a firm tone, one that everyone knew not to disobey. She wasn't as stiff as Fury but she still had a slight intimidating personality, especially when it came to her job. Natasha shares a confused look as they follow Maria, their minds filled with possibilities of what she had meant. Steve's automatically flew to Bucky. Although Bucky had tried to kill him earlier. He still can't shake what he had seen. Bucky was supposed to be dead. It wasn't possible for him to be alive.
Maria pulls back a plastic curtain which made a loud crackling sound, waking whoever was in the room. Steve's eyes widen with shock as he scans the hospital bed, with none other than Nick Fury laying in the middle of it, hooked up to several machines. His head whips up for a moment to scan the visitors and then he sighs and places his head back down on the pillow. "About damn time," he mumbles out.
Natasha let out an audible gasp as if someone had hit her right in the sternum and knocked the wind out of her. Steve clutches on to her tighter as her knees begin to buckle beneath her. The pure shock of Fury being alive was getting to her more than everyone else. She had known him longer. It was only fair for her reaction to be like this. Steve aids her as he pulls her towards a chair, placing her into it, he notices her eyes have never left Fury.
The doctor comes up from behind and places gauze on top of Natasha's wound. Steve questions where Blair is only to be informed a nurse is taking care of her in the next room over, Doctor Fine is the personal doctor of Fury and has to analyze and watch over him at all times due to how severe some of his injuries were. Steve continues to look at Fury in confusion as he tilts his bed upwards so he can have a better view of his guests. Even though he didn't want their company, he needed to see them. Every inch of Steve screamed for him to distrust Fury, especially after watching him flat line and gazing at his dead body on a table. The hell that he had put him through wasn't reprimandible.
His eyes lock with Fury's for a moment. Where Steve's eyes hold trauma from what he had been through today Fury's looks bored almost annoyed as if their presence here was more of a nuisance than anything or as if they had been tardy to some sort of scheduled meeting. "Explain," Steve spits out, his voice holding back a lot of annoyance and anger.
Fury can tell he's upset, yet he smirks just to spite him. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver. One hell of a hit," Fury attempts to explain, trying to point at every location of which he had been assaulted, either from the car accident or Bucky's 'fatal' bullet. "Don't forget the collapsed lung," Doctor Fine adds in as he adds another stitch to Natasha's shoulder. She glares at Fury with hurt and confusion. "Let's not forget that, otherwise I'm good, I'm alive,"
"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha says, her eyes still lingering with confusion.
"Tetrodotoxin B," Fury answers. "Slows the pulse to one beat. Banner developed it to use for stress. Didn't work for him, but we found use for it,"
The whole charade that Fury was putting on, about how he survived and everyone should've known better was getting on Steve's last nerve. Here they were trying to retaliate at S.H.I.E.L.D. and they needed help but Fury was already ten steps ahead of them. All of what they had been through was for nothing. "Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve was now starting to boil over with anger, letting it show through his closed fists that remained at his side.
"The attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Maria chimes in from behind them, causing Steve to direct his attention towards her as she saunters through the room towards Fury. The admiration she had for him made Steve feel almost sick. "Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I didn't know who I could trust,"
This is a direct blow towards Natasha and Blair. He can see the hurt in Natasha's eyes as she careens her gaze towards the concrete floor. She wasn't as tough as she looked. Steve bites the inside of his cheek, trying his best to refrain from berating Fury, that was the last thing anyone needed to hear at the moment. He just nods his head and hums as he thinks of Fury's words. It was almost as if it was a slap in the face, the two people who trusted him the most were in danger from Hydra.
He runs his hand down his face trying to clear his thoughts from Bucky and Quinn and instead tried to focus on the task at hand. There were about to be millions of innocent people's lives at risk. His eyes turn up at the sudden movement from Fury's bed. He notices Fury having a tough time sitting up on his own in bed. It must've been a long time since he's been out of it. When his eyes connect with his, Fury shakes his head. "Let's have a chat,"
BOOK ONE: THE WINTER SOLDIER
A PICTURE OF Alexander Pierce slides across the small metal table that Fury had called them to, including Blair who was the only one sitting down with Fury. Steve refused to sit. If he sat he wouldn't want to get up, his nerves would stop him from whatever directive Fury would give him. He wasn't here to follow his directives, he was tired of taking them. "This man declined a Nobel Peace Prize," Fury looks as if he's biting out every word as if he couldn't believe Pierce was now the enemy, the head of Hydra. "Said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. It's stuff like this that makes me have trust issues,"
Natasha lazily rolls her eyes at Fury before speaking up. "We have to stop the launch,"
"I don't think the council is accepting my calls anymore," Fury states as he leans up. He unlatches the black briefcase sitting on the table to reveal three muted blue SIM cards. Much larger than any SIM card anyone of this century would know but to Steve the objects still looked foreign, as if it was alien technology that Stark had been working on.
"What's that?" Sam questions in a monotone voice as he peers down into the briefcase. His expression wasn't exactly bored but more defensive and on-the-fence about everything he had been seeing or doing today. Steve was glad he was the one to speak up, and that he wasn't the only one wondering what the cards meant.
"Once the carriers reach three thousand feet," Maria interjects, displaying the laptops screen for each individual to gaze upon. "They'll triangulate with Insight's satellites becoming fully weaponized," she further explains.
"We need to breach and replace their targeting blades with our own," Fury takes over, holding up a SIM card for each of them to see.
"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are going to die," Maria finishes, gazing up at Steve with an almost mournful look. This was a serious matter and from what had happened she didn't know if he was in the right headspace to take on a mission as serious as this.
However, Fury insisted that he was the one to do this. She wouldn't go against his orders. Steve was now biting down on his thumb as if he was fighting back the urge to snap. Why would he want to do the dirty work for Fury after he had been tricked into thinking he was dead? Because of this, he was put through hell and he endangered someone he cared about. He glares over at Fury as he begins to speak up. "We have to assume everyone aboard those helicarriers is Hydra, we have to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe just maybe we can salvage what's -"
This was enough to make him snap. "Salvage?" The word comes out almost like a growl from Steve as he speaks gaining everyone's attention. "We're not salvaging anything. We're taking down those carriers. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this," Fury argues back, he wasn't used to having Rogers butting heads with him but lately it seemed like something they had been doing the most.
"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends," Steve informs him in an icy tone. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised, you said that yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed,"
"Why do you think we're hiding in this cave? I noticed," Fury challenges.
"How many paid the price before you did?" The words seemed to roll off his tongue like a burning fire. He was tired of putting S.H.I.E.L.D. before everything, especially with how it had been handled. Fury turns his head in the opposite direction from him. It felt like he had been slapped in the face. It was a low blow, something he hadn't received in a while.
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes," he says in a low tone, it almost sounded guilt-ridden. Even his name struck a chord in Steve's heart that made him feel an array of emotions - from sad because he didn't recognize him, too angry with Hydra for toying with him, too happy that he was alive at least for now.
"Even if you had would you have told me or would you have carpentalize that too?" His voice was threatening to crack in the process of speaking about Bucky. Fury's gaze still was filled with remorse as he looks up at Steve. "S.H.I.E.L.D. Hydra. It all goes,"
"He's right," Maria speaks up, catching Fury's gaze. He's astonished to see her agreeing with Steve instead of him. If anything she was his most trusted agent. His gaze falters over to Blair who just shrugs her shoulders. "Captain's orders," she says, voice cracking from exhaustion. She and Fury hadn't always seen eye to eye yet she still was one of the agents who he would trust the most along with Natasha, who slides down in her seat and ignores his gaze as he looks towards her to say something.
He finally looks up at Sam, who cracks a small smile. "Don't look at me. I do what he does but slower," he teases, crossing his arms across his chest. Fury looks around at the agents in the room. Not a single one of them had taken his side. He bites the inside of his cheek to try his best not to lash out in any way. Perhaps they were right. It was time to give S.H.I.E.L.D. up.
"Well," Fury addresses Steve, shaking his head in disappointment at his peers. "Looks like you're giving the orders now Captain," he sighs as he rubs his forehead with his thumb. He had lost his title at S.H.I.E.L.D. and had just lost everyone's approval in the secret base. He peers up at Steve one last time, he did feel guilty for not knowing about Bucky, however, he does have something that will help them.
"We have some Intel in S.H.I.E.L.D. at the moment, by we I mean Agent Hill," Fury informs, pointing towards Maria at the mention of her name. "Agent Thirteen has been able to give us information from the inside. Looks like your girl has been hijacked,"
Steve's brows furrow at the word 'hijacked'. Confusion riddles his face as he takes a step towards the table. "What do you mean? What have they done to her?" Steve questions, he's starting to feel light-headed at the thought of Quinn betraying them. Fury shrugs his shoulders. "She's been promoted to Pierce's personal bodyguard. It's thrown everyone through a loop at S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Thirteen suggests that they've gone in and messed with her mind in the same way they've been messing with Barnes',"
At the mention of Bucky and Quinn's names in the same sentence of being hijacked, Steve's knees begin to buckle. He quickly finds himself seated in a chair between Natasha and Blair. Two people he felt closest to were being used by Hydra. He immediately begins to blame himself for letting this happen. If he had been able to reach out for Bucky or been there for Quinn, Hyrda would have never gotten to them. He had made Quinn a promise that he would never put her in harm's way yet he unknowingly had. Hydra had been torturing her just for knowing him. "It's very possible that she may just be part of Hyrda -" Maria begins to explain only to have Blair cut her off.
"I think I would know if she was part of Hydra," she interrupts her voice rising at the sound of the accusation of her trainee being a Hydra mole. This catches Steve off guard as well and confuses him. How would she know? "Hydra would've put her through extensive training, and she would've known how to fight better than what I expected yet she hasn't exceeded my expectations - she's still learning -"
"She could be faking," Maria speaks up.
"I highly doubt she's a fraud," Blair scoffs. "Steve and I have spent the most time with her. If Hydra really wanted to kill any of us at any given time, why wouldn't she have killed us when we were alone with her?"
The room is silent for a moment while everyone takes in Blair's words. Steve's gaze finds its way to the ground as he thinks about Quinn once again. He thinks about how nervous she had been the last few times they've spoken to each other compared to their usual talks. Hydra must've gotten to her recently. "You should still take precautions if she really is Hydra," Fury states, bringing Steve out of his thoughts. "She's obviously been trained by you, Norris, so she is still lethal no matter how much you want to compare her to yourself. If she engages you and treats you as a target she's no different than any other Hydra personnel and should be shown no mercy as well any other Hydra agent,"
Steve abruptly stands up from his chair, tossing it behind him like it was nothing. His nerves were standing on edge at the thought of anyone hurting Quinn, he couldn't even think about doing something worse to her. Especially since this isn't her fault, it's his, he's the reason Hydra targeted her. If only he had stayed away and stopped pursuing the I.T. girl that people had gushed over. "Steve?" Blair's voice calls after him. He ignores it and continues to head out from the base. He needed to be alone before he went into battle.