Ascendancy

Chapter 18

        The first thought on Bucky's mind when he wakes up is Ella. Ella and acid. His throat burns.

        Wanda shifts beside him.

        "Wanda," Bucky shakes her shoulder frantically, "Wake up." Her eyelashes flutter.

        Abruptly, Wanda shoots up, eyes wide and milky, and leans over to her knees, vomiting violently. Bucky grabs her hair, his hand a claw around her straw-filled, tangled locks. Wanda heaves a moment more, then gasps deeply, leaning heavily back on Bucky.

        "Are you ok?" He asks her quietly.

        "Yes," Wanda replies, her throat horse.

        Despite Bucky's concern for Wanda, the gas hadn't upset his insides like her. It has covered him in darkness; a darkness that would not leave him until Ella was in his sight again. Bucky stands up, his boots thumping heavily on the ground. "Let's go," He says.

        "Wait," Wanda stands up, "We need to think this through."

        "I've already-"

        Wanda slices the air with her words. "What? Come up with a full plan on how to save Ella, keep the Avengers together, not manage not to get anyone killed?"

        Bucky looks at her silently, his face dark in the twilight light, the crinkles near his eyes sharp claw marks.

        Wanda touches his arm sisterly. "You can't rush into this. I know the temptation. But you just can't. Ok?"

        A owl hoots outside. "Ok," He whispers.

        "We need to call Steve."

        "Steve," Bucky repeats, mumbling.

        "He will know what to do; he can come up with a plan." Wanda sighs.

        "I'll pull the car around." And she walks into the fading pink sky, still groggy, but determined.

        Bucky stares after her, then around the barn. Everything she, Ella, has done for him lays in this room. Healing and love. Sacrifice.

        Nobody can stop the fury that is Bucky Buchanan Barnes now.

///

        All is black. My body is completely flat. Frosty metal sears my skin, turning my back numb.

         I can't move, my hands and feet are strapped down by more metal. If it weren't for the chill, it would be so dark I could almost be floating in a black hole. My body aches.

         A thump sounds on the metal. Bright light flushes into the capsule. Heat. It hits me in a sheet, coating my body in its gooey warmth. I cough, then see a grinning face staring down at me.

        Kurt.

         Anger oscillates through me with the heat, my body a slow simmer of acrimony. But fear shoots through me too. I'm strapped to a metal capsule. That obviously can't be good.

        "Good, you haven't wet yourself yet! Most do by this stage. I mean, you have been in there for a while," Kurt says with a smirk.

         Now that he mentions it, I do have to pee.

         "What is this?" I say through my teeth. Now's the time to make a zinger. "Um, by the way, y'all have a serious temperature problem in here, I was freezing but now I think I'm tanning. Weird."