Red in my Ledger

Chapter Twelve

YEAR: 2014

The second I stepped through the doors of the Triskelion I had about a dozen guns turned towards me.
I raised my hand in surrender and let three of them escort me to a room where someone was waiting.
"Y/n" he grinned. "We haven't been properly introduced. My name is Alexander Pierce."
"Yeah I know who you are."
I recognised him as the man in pretty sure was in charge.
We had never spoken directly, but I've seen him around a lot. He was often in the room when Dreykov had me tortured, and I saw him a lot with the Winter Soldier. So I asked him...
"Where is the Winter Soldier?"
He ignored me.
"Project Insight will be happening tomorrow morning and we need you to make sure everything goes accordingly. Kill anyone that tries to stop it."
I nodded.
"Then, we are done with you."
I nodded again, assuming this meant I would be sent back to the Red Room. Finally.
———
The next morning, I was taken to a room with the Winter Soldier. We were waiting to be released in case of an attack.
There was a table with a layout of weapons, and I chose some guns and knives to arm myself with before sitting opposite the soldier.
Something seemed off about him.
He was staring at me blankly.
"You good?" I asked after a while to break the silence.
He ignored me and I realised what Hydra had done.
They had reset his memories completely - started over.
I chuckled to myself as I remembered our conversation on the roof top the other day.
—
"Some things I'll never forget."
"You forgot your own name."
"That's not important."
—
It was bullshit. I shouldn't have let myself care.
I should've learned from my mistakes, like with Natasha.
Friends are just weaknesses.
I stared down at my lap.
Eventually, we heard gunfire outside, and I made eye contact with the soldier questioningly.
He didn't do anything, so I got up and walked out without him.
I heard him follow me.
I started running. He ran too. He overtook me.
"Bitch" I mumbled, trying to run faster.
I started shooting as soon as I saw people, not really giving a fuck whose side they were on.
The Soldier was already by a plane, smashing threw the window and throwing the pilot out.
He glanced at me before he got in, and hesitated to take off. He waited for me to get there.
I took down several agents on my way over, then jumped in the seat next to him.
He started flying towards the ship in the sky.
When we landed, he jumped and ran off quickly again.
I climbed onto the top of the plane and aimed my gun at Cap and the bird man.
The Soldier kicked Cap over the side. The bird man opened his wings and tried to jump after him, but the soldier grabbed his wings. He flew out of his grip and started shooting at him, so I shot at him from behind. I managed to break his wing suit, and he fell back to the floor.
Before he could stand, the soldier picked him up and threw him off the side.
I jumped off the plane and hurried to the soldier who was looking over the side.
Cap was still on the ship.
The Soldier headed towards a door that led inside the ship, and he held it open for me.
"I forgot how slow you were" he said when I caught up.
I looked at him in confusion.
"Oh come on you really thought I forgot you?"
I couldn't help smiling slightly.
"Let's go" I chuckled as I shoved past him.
We got inside, and beat Cap to it.
We stood side by side as Cap ran towards us, slowing down halfway across the bridge.
"People are gonna die" Cap said. "I can't let that happen."
The Soldier didn't do anything, so I raised my gun and shot at him.
He blocked it with his shield.
"Please don't make me do this" he said.
The captain was looking mostly at the soldier, even after I had shot at him. But he turned to face me and threw his shield towards me.
The Soldier blocked it with his metal arm, and it rebounded towards Cap. We started to fight.
The Soldier managed to shoot the captain, hitting him in the side, but he seemed unaffected.
He used his shield to hit the Soldier backwards.
I lunged for him with a knife, but he tackled it off me and held it up to my neck, pushing my back over the railing.
The Soldier came up behind him and pulled him back. He had his arm around him and I kicked at him.
Cap pulled off the soldiers arms and turned round to punch him in the face, but the soldier caught his fist.
He shoved him back so he fell on the floor by my feet. I had a knife in my hand and drove it down towards his face. He rolled over at the last second so the knife stuck itself in the floor. I left it and turned to where Cap was now standing, and I ran towards him. He grabbed my wrist before I could punch him, and stared into my eyes. I paused for a second as I stared back.
"Don't do this. For Natasha."
At the mention of her name, I became even more infuriated.
But he saw I was about to do something and pushed me backwards with great force.
My back hit the railing, but it wasn't strong enough.
The railing broke and I started to fall.
I tried to grab onto the side. I missed by just millimetres.
But before I could fall too far, the soldier jumped after me. He caught my wrist with one hand and held onto the bridge with the other. He threw me up into the air so I landed back where I was, and he climbed up beside me.
Captain America was pressing buttons on the machine in the middle.
The Soldier ran forwards to stop him, but the captain turned back with his shield.
They fought for a while, and I ran to the machine to try and undo whatever the captain just did.
But I didn't do much when I heard both the guys fighting go over the side. I ran over to look at where they landed.
The Captain eventually kicked the soldier right to the floor, so he landed on the glass window below.
"Weiner!" I cried.
He got up and looked up at me, then held up his arm.
I hope he meant jump, because that's what I did.
He caught me whether that's what he meant or not.
The shield was near us, so the Soldier picked it up and threw it at the captain.
I picked up a gun and started shooting, but by the time the bullets reached him he was holding up the shield.
He threw the shield back towards us, but the soldier hit it away and instantly ran to fight Cap again.
I tossed him a knife, he caught it and forced it into Cap's shoulder.
I ran for the small device that Cap was trying to reach, but he stopped fighting the soldier to stop me.
He held me up by the neck, so I wrapped my legs around him to hold myself up, and I bashed down on the top of his head.
Repeatedly. Until he finally built up another strength to knock me off him.
I was thrown back against something metal, hitting my head. I touched the back of my head, and saw blood on my fingers.
The Soldier saw too and stopped fighting to come towards me.
"No" I objected, but it was too late.
Captain America came up behind him and trapped him in a headlock. He forced him to the ground, and managed to hold down his metal arm.
I saw him struggling, until his eyes finally closed.
He dropped the small device.
"No!" I yelled. I stood up prepared to fight again.
Cap stood up opposite me, but ran in the other direction.
Even if I hadn't just been hit, I was no where near fast enough to catch up with him. So I ran to the Soldier.
"Hey get up! Don't do this! We gotta complete the mission!"
He slowly rolled over and opened his eyes.
I saw his gun, so I took it off him and turned.
Cap was climbing back up, so I shot at him. He was hit. He still tried to get up, so I shot again. Yet he still managed to get to the top.
I shot one last time, just as he reached the machine, and he finally doubled over in pain.
I turned around to face the Soldier, and he was now standing behind me.
I was about to step towards him, but we were suddenly blasted apart.
Whatever Captain America had just done, it meant he had succeeded. The ship was being fired at.
I couldn't see the soldier from where I landed, but I heard him screaming.
The shots were still coming.
I looked out the window at where the other ships were landing in the water.
I saw Cap jump down, and he landed near where I heard the Winter Soldier.
I tried to get myself to stand up. I was stumbling, and I saw my leg bleeding. But I pushed through it to find the Soldier.
I saw him just as Cap pulled him out from under the rubble.
"Bucky" Cap said. "You've known me your whole life."
The soldier hit him back in anger, but he didn't give up.
"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes."
"Shut up!"
The Soldier hit him to the floor, then looked over at me.
I wasn't moving. I had just been observing what was going on.
"I'm not gonna fight you" Cap said, so the soldier faced him again.
Cap dropped his shield and it fell through a hole in the floor.
"You're my friend."
The Soldier hesitated, so I looked around for a gun.
I heard him tackle Cap to the ground.
"You're my mission" he said, and started hitting him repeatedly.
I found a gun, and looked back towards them.
Cap wasn't fighting back as the Soldier punched him.
He was going to lose, I thought.
I held the gun just in case.
"You're my mission!" the Soldier screamed.
But then he stopped.
"Then finish it" Cap said.
The Soldier just stared at him, with his fist raised in the air.
"Because I'm with you to the end of the line."
"Kill him!" I yelled.
The Soldier didn't move.
"I'll fucking do it!" I lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. As I did, more of the ceiling fell down.
—
"Y/n!" Bucky cried as the ceiling collapsed in front of you. He prayed that it didn't fall down on top.
He stood up, about to search for you, but as he did, Steve fell down through the air.
His feet slipped as more of the glass broke, but he managed to hold on.
He saw Steve fall down into the water; he watched his eyes close.
He looked back up at the ship, but there was no sign of you.
So he let go.
Steve hit the water.
Bucky dove in and swam after him. He grabbed a hold of his body. Dodging the last parts of the ship that were still falling, he pulled Steve to the side.
He moved slightly, indicating life.
So Bucky looked back out at the river.
He had lost you.
There was no way he could find you.
But then he looked into the air.
There was an Iron Man suit flying head first for the water. He stopped to watch it before it disappeared beneath the surface.
It was so distant, so far away, it was hard to tell what it was carrying when it came back up.
But Bucky saw it was a person.
There was no one else on the ship with you, so it had to be you.
You were going to be okay, he thought, as he walked away from Steve. You were going to be just fine. He wouldn't let himself think that you were dead.