Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter XXXVI - Obliterated

Bucky watched Elizabeth intently. Her lips were pursed and her eyes were swimming with something he couldn't identify; something he hadn't seen before. His own mind was being fractured and torn apart by a myriad of emotions: fear, worry, relief, pain, confusion, admiration, longing. But hers burned with a fire he could not recognise. It was agonising recollection: her mind swam in memories of the worst dream as she looked up at him. She needed to protect him.

"Wanda's right," Pietro shrugged nonchalantly, showing off. "Ultron is strong, but he can't fight their power." He watched as Lizzie stared up at Bucky, her eyes wide and pleading. "Why else do you think he'd try to end her?"

Pulling his eyes from hers, Bucky turned to Pietro and squared up to him, towering over him as he stared him down, his eyes burning with a rage that was familiar; a rage that belonged to The Winter Soldier.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't rip your head from your shoulders right now?" His voice was low, menacing. It was cold and quiet and as he clicked his neck his metal arm shifted, like he was preparing to do exactly that. The darkness of his past was a tornado in his mind, destroying his calm, destroying his control.

Her touch against the skin of his arm pulled him back.

"Bucky, please." He turned to her. Fear sparked behind her eyes as she pulled him towards her, away from the anger and pain. She pulled him away from watchful eyes and curious minds. "I can do this Bucky." She held his hand in her own as his eyes traced the river of blood dried against her skin. When his fingers brushed against her cheek and the cold metal of his palm cupped her cheek Elizabeth sighed. It was as if he was drawing out the pain and brushing it all away. "I need you to trust them Bucky. And I know that is asking a lot but I need you to trust them." She closed her eyes, knowing that what she needed now was something she didn't deserve. She swallowed her fear as his thumb brushed against her cheek. "And I need you to trust me."

There was a whirring in the air, a menacing push and pull of the atmosphere as a legion of metallic soldiers flooded the skies. The flicker of blue behind her eyes as they opened, the pulse of power from her skin, was instantaneous.

Bucky looked at her, really looked at her. He looked at the way her jaw set in determination. Her looked at the wiry muscles of her arms, at the way she rounded her shoulders and stood a little taller now that danger was close by. His mind drifted to the images that had filled the air between them as he watched her play the piano, it travelled to the way his heart ached with her pain the day he had followed her from the training suite and comforted her over the love she had lost; his love. He had so many questions for her. He wanted to protect her, to keep her safe, to keep her beside him. Instead he nodded silently, his thumb still brushing gently across her cheek as her thin blue wisps encased them both.

"Thank you," she breathed as she closed her eyes, pushing tears to spill. As Bucky reluctantly withdrew his hand from her cheek she channelled all of her fear into earth shattering pain and all of the pain into power. For the first time she felt control.

"Pietro, Clint?" She didn't open her eyes, instead she focused on the steady pulse of space and time mixing in her veins. "Get the civilians out."

"On it Little Lady." Clint responded as he jogged to the spot beside Pietro, looking him up and down before leading him away from the group.

"Sam? Bucky?" Her eyes flickered open and Bucky stood mesmerised by her. Her hair billowed around her, a shock of cerulean blue sliced through the deep brown and gold of her eyes, a wave of bright blue energy washed around her. His eyes met hers with such awe and wonder and his screams filled the darkness of her mind. She clung to the pain of her memories. "Fight."