Clutching || Bucky Barnes

10

Basil wasn't sure how long he was lying there for. It could have only been five minutes, or it could have been a hour. After Bucky and the Doctor left the room, he was alone with no way of knowing what was going on. The concrete room was a cell with thick walls and utterly soundproof. If anything was happening outside, he couldn't know. It took a long while until someone came for him. During which he concentrated on being able to move again. 

Whatever the doctor had gassed him with must not have been designed for super soldier metabolisms. He could flex his fingers and just about clench his fists, limbs beginning to wake up. He was just trying to roll over when the door opened and someone entered. From the sound of the footsteps, he guessed that it was a man. The red lights were still flashing but Basil's night vision picked the man out easily in the dark. He sighed and tried to speak. The words coming out slurred. 

"Your highness", Basil greeted as T'Challa crouched down next to him. The king gripped him under the arms and pulled him across the room to lean up against the wall. The sitting position allowed Basil to see the bruises appearing on the other man's skin. There had been a fight. 

"Mr Parrish", T'Challa spoke calmly and quietly. "What happened?"

"The doctor", Basil swallowed and tried to speak clearer. "He had a plan. He was behind everything. The bombing, framing Bucky. And SHEILD gave him access". T'Challa's face was impassive. Outside came more footsteps. Natasha and Tony hurrying in. Tony's suit, which looked expensive, was ripped and he was limping slightly. A rather impressive black eye was beginning to form. Nat's throat was red and sore with the outline of fingerprints that made Basil instinctively  wince.

"Hey Baby boy", she rasped as she carefully lowered herself down to sit against the wall beside him. "You okay?"

"The doctor got me with some sort of paralysing gas", Basil huffed. "It's slowly wearing off but I still can't move my legs". 

"Barnes is gone. Steve and Sam with him", Tony announced as he lowered himself to sit on Basil's other side. The three of them half leaning on each other tiredly. It was like one of their avengers movie nights in the past and for a second Basil felt sad. He could feel the team crumbling around him and it hurt. He never wanted this to happen but he was caught up in the tide. 

Tony let out a long sigh. "What went wrong?" 

"The doctor. He had this book from hydra. The shit they left in Bucky's brain was still there and this man activated it. I couldn't do anything. He was screaming", Basil's voice broke on the last word and he was sobbing. Tears running down his face and he couldn't raise his arms to rub them away. "For a second I thought I had him back. He remembered me. Then this man ripped it all away again. When I find him, I'm going to make him wish he was never born".

"Not if I find him first", T'Challa muttered, expression angry as he glared at the floor. 

"Why would he do this? What would he gain from unleashing the Winter Soldier?" Natasha asked. She rubbed Basil's tears away with her fingertips. Touch gentle. 

Basil sniffed. "He said that he wanted to see an Empire fall". The man had said that. He had stood over his limp form as the winter soldier left the room and gazed down at him blankly. "This is not personal. Merely part of a plan. I want to see an empire fall", he had said before leaving the room after Bucky. Basil unable to follow, unable to scream.

"Fuck", Tony swore quietly and with venom. Basil felt the man sigh tiredly next to him and wondered if he should tell him the rest. The mission report the Soldier had told the doctor bright in his brain. The information a heavy weight on his shoulders. "So", Tony spoke up after a few seconds of silence. "I suppose that once you're able to move again, you will be going after them".