Tangled Paths | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 1: The Lost Mind

1
The Lost Mind

Washington D.C. April 13th 2014

It had been three days since the Triskelion wreckage, Three days since all of SHIELD and HYDRA's secrets had been made public, And three days since the Winter Soldier was presumed killed in action by Captain America.

A lost 6'2, steely blue-eyed man stood outside the Capitan America exhibit at the Smithsonian. He wore an army green jacket, a pair of jeans and a black baseball cap. His disguise made him blend in among the large crowds of people which allowed him to slip inside the exhibit unnoticed. He couldn't make sense of the things going on in his mind. Small fragments and blips of who he used to be would suddenly lash out at him. Between everything he'd found out up to this point, he knew three things for sure.
One, His name was Bucky, James Bucky Barnes. Two, Steve Rogers was his friend, And Three, he was being brainwashed. Over the course of the last three days whenever Bucky felt lost he repeat these three things to himself.

Once inside the exhibit, Bucky was almost paralyzed in shock when he saw a large glass engraved pillar with his face on it. At the bottom, a birth and death year finished the plaque.

March 10, 1917- November 4, 1944

Bucky could feel his heart begin to race. He attempted to calm himself as he pressed further into the exhibit. He saw a small theatre room that sat off to the side, Bucky slipped in and sat in the back beside the door. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and began to fiddle with his gloves as the lights went dark and the film began.

He watched a half-hour documentary about Steve's upbringing and his transformation into Captain America. His and Steve's lifelong friendship, the howling commandos, and how Bucky supposedly gave his life for the cause. How they claimed he was a war hero and thanked him for his service. Bucky could feel tears spilling over as he remembered the fall, and the 'surgery' Zola performed on him that gave him the metal arm. Bucky's heart rate began to increase again and he abruptly got up and walked out of the theatre causing almost everyone to look back at him as he quickly departed.

Bucky wiped away his tears and looked down in an attempt to keep attention off of him. His hat and long hair did a good job of hiding his face but a security guard saw him crying as he left the theater and caught up with him. He placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder.
"Hey, son you alright?" the elderly man attempted to ask. Without thinking in his panicked state Bucky turned and palm-struck the man in the chest causing him to fly back into a wall. Everyone in the exhibit turned to see what was going on with a gasp. Some pulled out their cell phones and began to record. Bucky whisper that he was sorry with a wide-eyed stare like a deer in the headlights and moved toward the man to try and help him up but another security guard came and pointed a gun at Bucky. He yelled for Bucky to freeze and for a moment Bucky complied as he thought about his next move. He said he was sorry once more and then sprinted out of the exhibit. The guard called after him and radioed to other security on site. Two guards attempted to block the doors. Bucky took a deep breath and shoved them both aside causing them to fly into separate walls and fall unconscious. Bucky busted out the front doors and ran down the stairs and off the Smithsonian property and continued to run until he found himself in a full parking lot a few blocks away.

Bucky crouched down beside a car and attempted to catch his breath and process everything he just learned and everything that had just happened. After a few moments of breathing and clearing his head, Bucky realized that the assholes that had done this to him were in the city. Bucky rose to his feet and began to walk in the direction of the Ideal Federal Savings Bank. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do once he arrived but the only thing on his mind at that moment was revenge.