In Your Eyes - Bucky Barnes x Reader

     "Matching Wounds"

Free- it was the first word that came to your mind the moment consciousness returned to your mind, like waking up from a very long dream. Or, in your case, more like a nightmare. Why would that come to your mind anyway? Free was the furthest definition from a life that was quite literally a prison, where your mind was the cell and only a few words the key. A familiar panic rose in your chest as you gasped, trying to cling to the life left within you.

The next thing you noticed was the lack of cold that enclosed everything in Siberia, so where had they put you this time? A scent of sterilization and cheaply scented lavender filled the air. Hospital. Even if you didn't know how, you recognized the distinct sickeningly clean smell of one as if you had been in one before.

Glancing over, you could see some sort of clear liquid attached to your arm, dripping into the IV connected at your wrist; so different from the usual blue.

Blue? Something about it was familiar now, cracking at the steel built up around your heart.

Dread pooled in your gut at the possibilities of where you could have been put this time.

"Shut up!"

"Would you listen already? Shoot!"

"Nothing! You were nothing without us!"

Fractured memories rushed to you, breaking through the barriers in your mind, reminding you exactly why you needed to get out of here. To keep on fighting.

A chipper voice rose up behind you, "Oh, I see you're awake. Let me check your vitals."

Beside your bed, a nurse stood tapping on a device before reaching out, "Mr. Stark will be glad to know you're awake. I'll notify him."

Fight. Fight. Fight. No, whatever sick plan they had this time wouldn't work, even with this obvious setup with the nurse. You would fight, escape, and claw your way out if that's what it took, no matter what you had to burn down in your path.

The sound of shattered glass as the broken remains of the vase at your bedside fell like sharp snow around you registered before seeing the nurse on the floor below. Lily petals and daffodils contrasted with the crimson color dripping off the bright flowers.

She laid still, making everything quiet for a moment despite the growing chaos outside.

A HYDRA agent would have been able to get back up, brush off such a blow. Darkness passed over the world again, snuffing out any light.

What had you done? All you had wanted was to protect yourself, but it looked like she wasn't even a threat.

Looking down at unsettlingly still palms, you took in each stain, fresh and old of the blood on your hands.

Meanwhile...a few moments earlier.

"So what do you think it is again?" Tony asked for at least the thousandth time today as he chewed on some gummy bears, as if he weren't in the middle of a billion-dollar lab with sensitive equipment.

"She," Bruce corrected as he scanned some samples taken earlier today, giving Tony a sideways look, "Appears to be a modified human being as far as we can tell. DNA is altered but not mutated and definitely still human. The modifications imply that whatever they did to her created some sort of enhanced abilities. They're not like mine, radioactive, at least."

Good. Not like they needed another angry, green person running around here.

"What else?" Steve stood in the corner with a contemplative look on his face, staring at the room below from the observation deck. A fake hospital room had been made below in hopes of softening the blow of your arrival with some sense of normalcy. As much as Stark would hate him if he brought it up, the idea seemed like a waste. Nothing about your life would ever be normal, including this situation. "Do we know if she's...?"