Monster (A Bucky Barnes fanfiction)

Kat Oswald

Coulson pulled up the picture and my whole world stopped. Hydra sent a picture of my parents, bloody, bleeding from multiple wounds, most likely dead.

"Kat, I'm sorry. We found this just a few minutes ago. They called it, your parents are dead, I'm deeply sorry," he apologizes.

It wasn't his fault. "I th...th..thought they were at S.H.I.E.L.D.," I stutter.

"They were in hiding after the Triskellion was lost," he informs me.

"Wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D. protecting them?" I ask.

"We tried to find where they were, but our calls didn't go through. They didn't want to be found," he answers.

I notice something in the picture. "Coulson can you z..z..zoom in on that wall?"

Small, written in blood, was Give us back the Asset or they won't be the last. I look around the room, clueless. Who is the Asset?

I feel Bucky stiffen up behind me. I look up at him and his eyes are sorrowful. He stand there, frozen before saying anything.

"I'm the Asset. They want me," his voice sounds loud over the silence.

"Mr. Barnes, you will not go to them. I won't allow it," Coulson reads Bucky's mind.

"I have to. They're going to keep killing people if I don't turn myself in," Bucky argues.

"Then, we'll attack them. We're not giving them what they want," he says one word into a phone I didn't notice he had, "Foxtrot."

It's code for Mission Foxtrot, where all agents go into hiding at their safe houses or secret bases. Steve runs in the board room and looks around.

"Coulson, did you just order Foxtrot?"

"Yes, I need everyone except Cap, Bucky, and Kat to leave," he orders.

"Why did you make everybody but us leave?" Bucky questions.

"You two are under my protection. Cap, it's time to get the Avengers," he answers.

"No, if we're attacking Hydra, I need to go. This is happening because of me," Bucky says stubbornly.

"We can't just let you walk in there," Coulson argues.

"Why not? I could be bait."

"Bucky, that won't work. And I don't want to lose you, too," I speak up.

The three men turn toward me with sorrow in their eyes. Bucky speaks first, "We don't know that it won't."

"Bucky, they got you once, they can get you again. Let the Avengers do their job," I tell him.

"Kat, I can't sit back and watch other people get hurt because of me," Bucky responds.

"Bucky, you don't know this, but they battled freakin' aliens. Aliens! I think they can handle some Hydra agents," I tell him.

"Can we have a moment to ourselves?" Bucky asks Steve and Coulson.

They nod and leave the room.

"Kat, your parents are gone because of me," he says softly.

A pang in my chest reminds me that they really are gone. "It's not your fault. Hydra did this."

"Maybe, but they did it to get to me."

"Well my parents are the ones dead! That has nothing to do with you!" I shout.

Bucky pulls me into his chest. "They know about us. When I saved you back at Hydra, they figured it out. Hydra knows you're my weakness and that if you're hurt, I'm hurt. They're trying to get to me through you. And I'm trying to stop it from happening again."