Introduction: Rostov-On-Don

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Although all of the remaining avengers had been warned against it many, many times, James Buchanan Barnes had still been sent on a mission on his own. And it wasn't exactly just any mission either. James goddamn Barnes had been sent to Russia on his own, and he hadn't come back for more than three weeks. Knowing this now, Sam Wilson was furious. 

"You shouldn't have done this Banner...and you know exactly why, so don't bother trying to make me explain it." He snarled, staring up at the large green man. "I know, I know...but everyone's swamped with work right now, alright? We couldn't help it! It was an important mission." Bruce replied, sighing quietly and pinching the bridge of his nose. "If it was so damn important, why couldn't someone else make time for it? For gods sake man...you sent him to the one place...the one place that would be the hardest for him, do you understand that?" 

"Yeah, I know it! And I'm sorry, okay? We've been trying to contact him for days now, it's just no use. He....does have a history for hiding well." Hearing that last sentence slip out of a fellow Avengers mouth just seemed to fuel the anger coming from Sam Wilson. "So....what you're telling me, is that you think James has....gone back to hydra? After all of this?!"

"Well...it's possible...isn't it?"

"It would've been impossible if you hadn't told him to go."

"Please Sam...calm down. We're trying our hardest to find him."

"You sure aren't trying your hardest! If you were you would've found him already! Damn it Banner, I'll calm down when we know he's safe. Right now...somethings gone wrong. I can feel it. So hurry your ass up and try harder."

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Rostov-On-Don was...a beautiful city. But, as beautiful as it was, Bucky couldn't find an ounce of comfort in it. For most people, a trip to a foreign country would be a gift, even if you had to go through a rather tough mission first before you could enjoy things for a few days. But for Bucky...it had been much longer than a few days. 

He hadn't left his countryside safe house in more than two weeks. He was supposed to be back in America by now, he knew that. But he couldn't....move. It was hard enough for him to breathe, much less get out of the bed. He hadn't eaten in days either, leaving him cold, hungry, and tired.

And it wasn't exactly that he was injured, in a physical way at least. But his mind...that was different. His mind felt fuzzy, like he didn't exactly why he was doing it, but he could still remember the moment when he started. When he started to feel himself shutting down. 

It started with his hand, his flesh hand, beginning to shake slightly. He noticed it earlier when he was going to retrieve a file for his mission, but the paper had slipped from his fingers. Now, for a normal person, this might just seem like a simple mistake, but Bucky didn't make mistakes like that, especially on missions. Although his time under Hydra's control was quite literally a living hell, it had taught him to be very precise when he was working. 

He could feel right then that something was wrong, but he shook it off for the meantime, pushing his worries down so that he could continue. That was another thing that Hydra had...not exactly taught him, but more like forced him into understanding. But, regardless of how he learned it, it was effective on his missions, or at least he believed it to be.

Once he was finally able to return to the small, dimly lit wooden-log house, he ate one of those boxed freezer meals you could find in the frozen sections of grocery stores. They weren't great, but still edible enough for now. After eating he returned to his room, wanting to try and get a good night's sleep before going back to America. He started feeling a pit in his stomach...similar to just what food poisoning cramps were like, so once again he shook off the feeling, hoping it would be better in the morning when he woke up.

It was not better in the morning when he woke up. 

In fact, nothing seemed better when he woke up. The first thing he noticed, was that it was still dark outside. Now, normally it would still be dark when he would leave foreign missions. But, not this dark. Now it seemed to be around 3:00 AM, and that was confirmed by the glowing red clock by his bedside. 

The next thing he noticed, was the sweat perspiring from his forehead, and then the way his hand was still shaking, and then the way he couldn't seem to move besides the constant shivering. 

Now Bucky, along with most people, was wondering how in the hell did this happen so suddenly? Something like this had never really happened recently....so Bucky himself began to list off the options in his head. Food poisoning? No..couldn't be that, he would most likely still be able to move. And his meal wasn't expired, he had at least checked that before eating. Could it be just poison? No...he would've noticed that before, he had trained for that. 

As Bucky began to think of more options, his mind began to slow down, getting more blank until his thoughts felt like they were being spelled out, as though he was a child being taught to read. His eyes slowly shifted over to that bright red clock, which read 11:43 PM. How long had it been? He couldn't tell. All he knew now, was that he was hungry, he was tired, he was...confused, but above all, he knew that he couldn't get up. 

And that was three days ago.

And now, both Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson, could tell something was very wrong.

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