Don't Let Me Go

Chapter Six

BUCKY'S POV

*Before the Mission*

I leave the conference room with a level of determination to save those kids from what they're going through. It's not fun to be used as a toy, as a weapon, enhanced or not. I grab my combat gear and put it on the before sheathing a couple knives to my lower back along with a few other weapons. Then I go looking for Clint, we need to have a chat.
"Clint, we need to talk." I found Natasha's best friend in the armoury, stocking up on as many arrows and arrow heads as he can fit in his dual quiver.
"Hey man, yeah. What's up?" Clint turns to face me while clipping his quiver to his body, adding a third quiver to his right thigh.
"Every single mission I'm on from now on is going to be dangerous because of Nikolai," I wring my hands while trying to piece together my words and what I want to ask him. I know he'll do anything to protect Nat which is why I'm asking him and not someone else. "Nikolai is after me to get to Nat, and if he finds me and takes me while Natasha is in range, she will come after us and be hurt... Or killed because that's what he wants."
"You want me with you on those missions to get her away before that can happen?" Clint asks and I nod, not able to meet his eyes because I feel bad having to ask this of him, even worse for even thinking Nikolai would hurt Nat but I can't take that chance. "If it's what you want, and if it means Nat gets to breathe another day, I'll do it."

*Now*

The mission went from perfect to disastrous. All went according to plan, we got the kids on Clint and Wanda's jet, and the scientist on ours but we couldn't get the jet up in the air and it didn't take me long to find out why. Off in the distance, I see a shadow of red; Nikolai. I send Clint a look before saying that I'm going to check for something to help back at the facility, Nat tries coming with but thankfully, Clint comes up with an excuse. I start heading to the building but as soon as I'm far enough away, I turn and head towards Nikolai with my gun ready.
"YA poluchil vashe soobshcheniye, Nikolay." It has been a while since the last time I spoke Russian but it's engraved into my brain. Nikolai doesn't remove his god awful mask but I know it's him, he's the only Guardian to ever go rogue because Natasha refused to marry him.
"Hello Soldat, I see you still remember Russian." Nikolai's cold voice infuriates me, it always has but now more than ever. I have to grip my gun a little tighter. "Is Natalia around? I'd love to see her again."
Nikolai speaking her name is all it took for me to lose it. I toss my gun behind me and scream as I throw my cybernetic arm towards his face but he easily catches it. I throw punch after punch where I can, occasionally catching his body but we're both so evenly matched that me landing a hit on him is difficult. I realise that he's not fighting back, he's just deflecting them.
"Are you done, Soldat?" Nikolai sighs when I step back after realizing he doesn't want to fight. "I don't want to kill you, not yet. I want to exact revenge on Natalia first."
"You don't have to do this, Nikolai." I put my hands up and take a couple steps back once I see him shift his body in the slightest to prepare to move in a split second.
"Oh, I do." I can practically see his evil smirk behind that god awful mask.
I smack away his first punch and duck his roundhouse kick, I jab his standing leg as hard as I dare with my metal arm, only to be met with armour and not a broken leg like it would've been. I jump when he goes low to knock me off my feet, getting in another punch to his head with my right hand. We kick, punch and dodge the others attacks in the field, both of us beginning to tire. Just when I think that I have the upper hand, something hard slams into the back of my head and I crumple to the ground, my vision going in and out of fuzziness.
"About time, Vladimir." I hear right before Nikolai slams his boot into my head, knocking me unconscious.
Volts of electricity pulse through my body, I can't find the centre of pain but that doesn't stop me from screaming, my eyes open wide but I can barely take in my surroundings from the pain everywhere. The electricity stops faster than it started and I slump, breathing hard, my arms stretched above me, bound in very thick chains that would take too long to break.
"yebat', he's still in there." I hear Nikolai curse somewhere in the room. I try lift my head but it hurts too much, so my head just hangs, hurting my neck. I'm spending too much energy trying to keep on my feet to push past my aching head to lift it up. "We need the Soldat, not him."
"Good luck." I can't stop myself from laughing. Maybe the pain is making me slightly delirious or maybe because they don't know Shuri has somewhat fixed my head. I'm not sure what but I just laugh until electricity spasms through my body and I cry out in pain, my legs giving out underneath me. "Still here."
The pain and torture goes on for hours, maybe even days. They never give up once not until I'm stuck in my own head watching my body do what they want while I feel like I'm pounding on glass, screaming to be let out. Crying for this not to happen, not again. It's like I'm here but I'm not. I'm unable to control my body, and I can't talk because they basically muzzled me, just like Alexander Pierce had done. This can't happen to me, not again.