The Red Soldier: Rise of the Red Soldier

ISSUE #6

Bucky's eyes opened, his head lolling from side to side a couple times before he noticed the enormous vice trapping his left arm. He pulled at it a few times, trying to wriggle himself free. It was no use. 'Hey Cap!' a strange voice shouted, and soon enough two men were stood before him. One a stranger, and one all too familiar. Steve was there, he was safe. The same couldn't be said for (Y/N) though. Where was he? Was he alive?

'Which Bucky am I talking too?' Steve asked, looking him up and down, an unsure expression on his face.

'Where's (Y/N)?' Bucky demanded, trying his hardest to pull his arm out of the vice it had been trapped under. 'Where is he?'

'He got out,' said Steve, crouching down in front of him, 'news says he's somewhere in the city.'

'What? We need to go find him! He's sick Steve! He lost a lot of blood!' Bucky began pulling against the vice harder now, almost freeing his arm until the stranger turned a lever which made it clamp down harder, directly on his hand. Realising he wasn't going to get anywhere without answering Steve's question, he responded calmly, 'What do you want to know?'

Steve fell backwards, crossing his legs as he ran his hands through his hair, resting his elbows on his knees. 'Which Bucky am I talking to?' he asked again, hollowly, as he looked up at Bucky with empty eyes.

Bucky bit his lip, he didn't have time for this. He wanted to know where (Y/N) was. He wanted to know if he was safe. 'Your mom's name was Sarah,' he said, hoping what he was saying would be enough to set him free, 'you used to wear newspapers in your shoes.' He chuckled a little at the memory he had of Steve, in elementary school, complaining about his feet being cold. Bucky had told his mother, and she had told Steve's mom about a trick she'd learnt which involved using newspapers as insoles. Sarah Roger's wasn't the best cobbler, so it was always obvious Steve was wearing newspapers under his brogues in the winter.

'Can't read that in a museum,' Steve smiled, getting to his feet.

'Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?' the stranger asked, looking unsure.

'What did I do?' asked Bucky, fearing the worst, 'I didn't hurt (Y/N) did I? I didn't hurt him?' A pit formed in his stomach the more he thought about it. 'Is that why he isn't here? Did I hurt him?'

Steve rested a hand on his free shoulder as the stranger began to loosen the vice, 'you did enough.'

'I didn't hurt him, did I?'

'You didn't hurt (Y/N),' said Steve, 'but people are dead. The bombing, the setup. I need to know what happened – why it happened.'

'Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words.'

'He? Who's he?' Steve questioned.

'The doctor,' Bucky answered, 'he wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where.'

'Why would he need to know that?' asked Steve, closing the gap between himself and Bucky.

'Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier.'

Bucky sat on the floor, nursing the phantom pains he had in his left hand. He began to explain what had happened, in Siberia. How HYDRA had managed to recreate the super-soldier serum, how they administered it to an entire squadron of trained men and women before turning their brains to mush – just as they'd done to him. It felt good getting it off of his chest, processing the past to two people who listened so intently with no judgement.

'The doctor, could he control them?'

'Yeah, with that book he'll be able to control each and every one of them,' Bucky Barnes told them.