III: The Soldier and the Fairy Queen: Red Eve

XV: השמחה שלי (My Joy)

Sunny was there. He felt it. He was in... the Red Room? HYDRA? He didn't know. It was a room. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor was covered in mirrors. Miniscule, circular mirrors. He looked down at his body. He was in his Winter Soldier get-up, complete with the familiar metal arm. He looked up when the end of the room warped. Sunny appeared out of nowhere. She looked like she climbed out of an old television set, the edges of her figure tapering out into fine lines. She was wearing a white dress. "Hey, Snowy? What are you doing here?"

Bucky tried to answer her, but no words came out of his mouth. He looked at the mirrors as they melded into one continuous mirror. They reflected him, but not her. He reached forward to touch her. She disappeared into smoke and reformed farther away. She frowned and yelled at him in Russian that could cut a bullet, "Do you know how hard I worked to keep you safe! I protected you! And look what you did!" Bucky stared at the handgun that had appeared in his hand. It was still smoking.

Sunny fell on her knees, clutching her chest. Bright red dying the front of her dress. It made the white streak in her hair turn the color of plum juice. It poured from her knee too, puddling around her on the ground, "Soldat!" She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, "I'll protect you until the end of the world if I have to, Snowy." She smiled, her eyes glassy. "I'll catch you."

She fell through the mirror floor into an abyss, and Bucky followed her. He hit the ground on his right side and jumped up.

He was now standing in a meadow of green grass with blue flowers growing in clumps. A girl wearing a scarf around her dark hair and a boy in suspenders were running ahead of him, holding hands. The girl knocked the boy to the grass, kissing him. Bucky looked away, then looked back when he heard them talking.

"Oh, Vlad! Chava is following us again!" The girl yelled, throwing a flower at the girl standing over them. Bucky could see they were carbon copies of each other. Blue eyes and brown hair.

"Shoshana! I'm going to tell Mama! It's almost the Sabbath, Shana!" Chava yelled and put her hands on her hips. Chava looked straight at Bucky, cocking her head, "Tell them to stop, James!"

Bucky frowned, something about the girl was familiar. Before his eyes, the girl aged, and became a woman in her middle thirties. She stepped forward and was in front of him in an instant. She put her hands on his face with teary eyes, "My boy, my boy. Ah! What did they do to you! My boy! השמחה שלי!"

Bucky tried to step back, but his feet were glued in place. Then they were in his childhood home. In Brooklyn. The woman stepped back and went to the stove, speaking perfect English with no accent, "Ah! I told them that you were too young to go to war. They even took Steven! Ah! What would Sarah think!" She shook her finger at Bucky as she stirred whatever was in the pot, "But no one ever listens to Mama, eh?"

The woman cooking at the stove morphed into someone else. Her dress turned into a familiar uniform. Bucky felt the restraints clamp around his arms and legs. The walls enlarged and turned into gray concrete.

Bucky gasped his breaths. In, out, in, out, in, out. The mask clamped over his face, but Bucky felt no pain. He just heard the conversation of his captors.

"This is not necessary," Sunny said.

"You don't get to decide that," was the harsh response.

Sunny huffed, "I am head of this Project, no?"

"You are only head of this Project because Dr. Zola believes you to be some kind of prodigy. But Dr. Zola isn't here now, is he, girl?"

"It does not matter whether or not he is here. I am in charge here. I will make the decisions," Sunny said defiantly. Bucky wanted to tell her to shut up, but he still couldn't speak.

"Fine, girl. If you want us to stop, you can take his place, da?" The others in the room sounded their agreement.

"Fine. Turn it off," Sunny said, her voice ringing through to the ceiling. "Now!"

The mask came up and the cuffs opened. Bucky didn't get up, but he was on the other side of the room immediately. Sunny was in the chair, staring at him. She had bright red lipstick on, and it was smudged, like someone had slapped her. "It's okay. I'll be fine," she said to him in Russian.

The mask went over her face, and the eye he could see flashed bright purple.

The soldier to his right grabbed his flesh shoulder, "Hey! Hey! Bucky!" Bucky looked at the man in surprise. He didn't have a face. "Hey! Wake up! We're here!"

Bucky's eyes opened to Steve shaking him, "You all right, pal?"

Bucky blinked, clearing away the dream, "Uh, yeah."

Steve's blue eyes held so much concern it almost made him sick, "Okay... well, we're here."

"Thanks for waking me up," Bucky said as he stood up, holding onto the side of the Jet for balance. He could feel Steve's stare, but he didn't say anything more.

The door was open to a little expanse of dead grass. Nat and Wanda were already outside.

"Great. Guess I'll stay here, then," Sam said. "All by myself."

Bucky ignored him and walked out onto the grass. He heard Sam talking quietly to Steve, apparently not wanting him to hear.

"What language was he talking in?" Sam asked.

Steve replied, "Not English. Wanda thought it was Hebrew or Arabic. She can't see inside his head. Something about HYDRA brainwashing being a wall."

"Hebrew makes sense if he's Jewish," Sam said. "I'll go park this somewhere else. Try not to get yourselves killed before I get there."

"Yes, sir," the sarcasm in Steve's voice was practically tangible.

Nat flagged them down up ahead, "Hey, boys, it's only a fifteen minute walk! I'm sure you won't die, so stop being so slow! I want to get there before one."

"What time is it now?" Steve asked at Bucky's side. Bucky jumped.

"Noon thirty!" Wanda told him.

Bucky frowned, "It's twelve thirty."

They argued about whether or not it was noon thirty or twelve thirty until they were standing in front of the crowded cafe. The cobblestone road was slick with water, and there was a mixed smell of petrichor and food in the air.

Steve pushed past a couple people in the entrance, "This is it?"

Natasha nodded. She turned to talk to a man in a blue shirt for a moment, then turned back to the group, "We're too late. There's a dead man in the cafe. It's closed. Cyanide, apparently. It happened half an hour ago."

Bucky heard sirens and peered down the crowded street, "We should go. It wouldn't be good it the police caught us now."

Steve nodded, "Let's go find Sam and the QuinJet."