Writing this fic is proving a little bit addictive.
Thank you to marylopez0812 for the review
And thanks to Plume85 for following.
Enjoy
xo
Chapter 4
Falling
After watching Natasha's interrogation of Alexia Nikulkin, the doctor arrived to evaluate Bucky.
Sharon switched the audio to the bunker he was being held in.
"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions," the doctor said calmly, opening a folder in front of him. "Do you know where you are, James? I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."
"My name is Bucky."
Steve smiled grimly at the screen, but began to think carefully through all the events of the last 24 hours. Alexia's alibi for Bucky also lingered on his mind. He looked down at the file in front of him, that showed the surveillance footage from the bombing. A thought occurred to him.
"Why would the Task Force release this photo to begin with?"
"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" Sharon answered matter-of-factly.
"Right. It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding. Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier," Steve said, narrowing his eyes at the screen.
Sharon considered his words for a moment. "You're saying someone framed him to find him."
"Steve, we looked for the guy for two years and found nothing," Sam argued, putting his hands on his hips.
"He didn't bomb the UN. That turns a lot of heads," Steve murmured, still thinking it through.
"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him. It guaranteed that we would," Sharon said before narrowing her eyes at the screen. Steve looked at her as she stared at the screen, deep in thought.
"Yeah." He looked back at the screen.
"Tell me, Bucky. You've seen a great deal, haven't you?" The doctor asked, his voice was European, but Steve couldn't place it, although he was certain he had heard a similar accent before.
"I don't want to talk about it," Bucky mumbled. Steve felt for his old friend.
"You fear that... if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop." Steve noticed the doctor touching his tablet, seeming to check his emails. It was an odd thing to do in the middle of an evaluation, especially one of such importance as this. "Don't worry, we only have to talk about one."
Suddenly, all power cut to the building, the screens went dead and the lights went out. Slowly, emergency lighting flicked on in the hallways.
Steve, Sam and Sharon all looked at each other in concern, before springing to action.
"Sub-level 5, east wing," Sharon said knowingly, walking to the door immediately and not looking back.
Steve and Sam hurried through the building. "Go and get Alexia," Steve ordered Sam.
"Alexia? Why?"
Steve stopped and looked at Sam. "She may not have gotten to the brainwashing stage, but she's one of them. She might be able to help us out where Bucky can't, she might even know something we don't."
"Roger that." Sam took off down another corridor while Steve continued looking for the room that contained Bucky.
He eventually found it, bodies of the security detail strewn across the floor under the red emergency lights. He hurried into the room, looking for any sign of Bucky, but the prison pod was empty.
"Help me. Help," the doctor called from the floor near the now overturned desk.
Steve moved towards him, grabbing him by his shirt and hoisting him to his feet. "Get up." He shoved him against the wall. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The doctor smiled menacingly. "To see an empire fall."
Sam hurriedly entered the room, looking around suspiciously, moving towards Steve. As Sam walked further into the room, Bucky stepped out from the shadows, swinging his fist at Sam. He saw him at the last moment, ducking and causing Bucky to smash his fist through the wall.
Bucky grabbed Sam by the throat and threw him at the open pod, causing him to land heavily, falling into a heap on the floor.
Steve lunged forward and landed a punch to Bucky's face, but it had no affect on the Winter Soldier. Bucky began attacking Steve with an onslaught of punches and kicks, causing Steve to fall back as he tried to duck and weave them.
He soon found himself backed against the elevator doors, he dodged another punch from Bucky that went through the steel elevator door like it was paper. Steve could see Bucky's next punch coming, but he had nowhere to go, and no shield to help protect him. He braced himself for the hit.
Suddenly, Alexia came charging through, tackling Bucky roughly from the side. Steve looked on in awe as she rolled away from Bucky before he could grab her. She crouched low, eyeing off Bucky as he glared at her, her blonde hair falling across her face. "Whoa, buddy, get up on the wrong side of the bed?" she murmured, with a menacing smirk on her face.
Bucky charged at her and she was quick to roll backwards, before lunging forwards and catching Bucky by his titanium arm, she used her momentum to throw him backwards, rolling away from him again. He stood quickly, as did she, and he began trying to punch at her, but she was quick to dodge his swinging arms.
Steve was quick to move in and try and help Alexia, trying to take some of the brunt of his attack. She slipped behind him as Steve drew his attention, launching onto his back in an effort to try and subdue him, but Bucky was able to grab her by her shirt, reefing her backwards and loosening her grip enough for him to throw her roughly into a wall.
While Steve's attention was on Alexia, Bucky attacked him again, backing him against the elevator doors again. Steve tried to dodge Bucky's attacks, but Bucky broke through his guard, kicking him with such force it sent him tumbling down the elevator shaft.
At the bottom of the elevator shaft, Steve pushed himself up off the ground with a groan. It had been a long way down.
"Hey!" A voice called from above him. He looked up to see Alexia looking down from the floor above him. "You might want to move your ass if you want to catch him, he's headed for the roof, and your bird buddy has gone after Zemo." She disappeared, and he heard running footsteps.
He was quick to climb out of the elevator shaft and headed up to the helipad. Steve rushed outside, seeing the chopper beginning to take off and sprinted towards it as it began to rise. He leapt up, grabbing hold of the skids.
Steve pulled down hard, using all his weight and strength to try and stop the chopper from gaining any height, but Bucky began steering the chopper away from the landing pad.
Steve tried to find some traction with his feet, but slowly, the chopper began to drag him onto the chain link safety frame that surrounded the helipad. Steve grabbed a railing with one hand, still clinging to the skids of the chopper with the other in an effort to stop him escaping.
He grit his teeth and strained with incredible effort to hold the chopper and prevent Bucky from getting away again. It had taken two years to find him, he wasn't easily giving up.
Just as Steve's strength was beginning to fail him, shots were fired, and the sound of bullets hitting metal rang out. Steve looked up stunned to see Alexia, with a rifle in hand, aiming at the helicopter.
The chopper's nose turned sharply and slammed into the edge of the helipad. The rotor blades smashed to pieces against the concrete and Steve ducked as the tail swung around, hitting the helipad as he endeavoured to avoid being sliced to pieces. The chopper lay as a twisted mess on the safety frame at the edge of the pad.
Steve rose from where he had dove out of the way, looking back at Alexia as she walked slowly towards the downed chopper, rifle trained on the cockpit, her eyes never leaving the still form of Bucky in the pilot's seat until she was next to Steve.
"You Americans like doing things the hard way, huh?" she mocked, glancing at him sideways as she went move forward again, rifle still trained onto the cockpit window. Steve stopped her with a hand, looking pointedly at her. She narrowed her eyes slightly, but held her position, allowing him to move forward towards the cockpit, he peered inside.
Bucky looked still, his head lolled to one side, some blood appearing in his hair line where he had struck the cockpit window in the crash.
Suddenly, the glass smashed as Bucky's titanium arm burst through the glass and he grabbed Steve's throat, growling angrily and beginning to squeeze tightly. Steve could feel his airways being crushed by the strength of Bucky's titanium arm and tried to pull away with no luck. The chopper started to list over the edge.
"Rogers!" Alexia shouted, dropping the rifle to grab at him, but Bucky's arm was too strong. "Stuff it." She punched through the glass, hard, smashing her fist to Bucky's forehead and knocking him out cold.
But it was too late.
The tail of the chopper broke off and fell into the river below. Although knocked out, Bucky's titanium hand still had hold of Steve, as the whole vehicle fell and slammed into the river below. Steve felt the cold impact as he hit the water. He managed to free himself and worked to get Bucky out of the chopper, trying to pull the door open. He heard a splash behind him and within seconds Alexia appeared beside him, helping him force open the door and pull Bucky out.
The body of the chopper sank to the depths of the river quickly, as Alexia and Steve broke to the surface of the water, inhaling air into their lungs. Steve looked to the female super soldier to check on her, but she was already taking Bucky's other arm and beginning to swim to the shore.
Shorter chapter, sorry to disappoint, just the way it worked out.
xo
Krayzee