Who Am I? » [Stucky]

116. Who Am I?

Scientists were gathered in the cramped dust cloaked room, many operating whirring technical panels, their fingers cleverly operating tiny eroded switches and rusty levers and many were twisting craggy dials, upping the power and concentration. The room hummed with the flow of the electrical current and the lights flickered as the power suffered to be redirected from the facility; to the chair at the centre of the room.

Bucky was strapped down, clamped in place by clamped metal bands looped on his arms and legs. His head was thrown back, his stressed throat bared to the harsh light above and he screamed in agony: his cries barely contained by the black rubber mouth guard shoved in his gob. He writhed like a snake and twitched like a body in the gallows, trying to shake himself free, trying to fight the process. Metal panels had descended and circulated surrounded his head, buzzing and sparking as they disembowelled his memories, emptying his personality and thoughts from his brain and clearing him until he was back to square one. Blood was dripping onto the floor from his thigh, bleeding through the fabric of his jeans. Steve could detect the spluttering sobs between the frenzied pained harrowing cries.

Steve shot out the scientists and guards in and instant, firing strict head shots and knocking a few to the floor with his shield; pumelling them and knocking them out. In seconds he had cleared the room of conscious people, leaving many bathed in lakes of blood, being drenched in the red substance, others were merely unconscious, but still touched by the dilating sea of red.

Bucky was still emitting estranged howls and the machine was still plucking apart his mind. Given a split second to make a judgement, he shot out the machine, putting bullets into the mechanics until it lost power. The bullets made sharp snapping noises as they tore apart the machine and the machine fizzled and crackled.

The device rose from Bucky's head: freeing the man in the chair. Bucky's chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate, still seething in snarling breaths through his nostrils. The metal circles unclasped his arms and legs, snapping free.

Steve rushed over in a flurry, frisbeeing his shield to the floor carelessly. He hauled Bucky out of chair, and his friend relied on him completely, boneless and exhausted from the process, lightheaded and breathless. His eyes were still wide and fearful and his body was quivering with shock.

Then Bucky shoved him away viciously, and teetered into a corner on unstable legs, with knees wobbling like they were made of Jelly. He threw himself against a wall and clung onto it for support, grasping gaps and cracks in the panelling.

"Oh my god... Are you alright?!" Steve gasped, praying for one answer.

Bucky's mind was scattered. He was still reeling from the torture, still trembling in fear and pain. His whole body was shaking. He tried to reign in his nerves. He tried to think clearly, but he was addled. Everything was wrong. He dug about in his head, trying to access cleaned out chambers of his mind, trying to find some answers. "Who Am I?" Bucky whimpered, still gasping for breath, cheeks slick with tears. They glided down his cheeks, making them shine with a polished sheen in the light.

Those words were like a knee to the gut and all the air left Steve's lungs in one shuddering breath. His blood ran cold and his heart floundered before blundering over heartbeats until it seemingly ceased. His pulse felt as if it had been terminated and all of his optimism and hope had been evacuated from him.

"No..." Steve sunk to his timorous knees, his head spinning, his heart racing and his hands shaking. "Please no... God no..." Steve toppled onto all fours and wept, hunched over like an old man. He unceremoniously sobbed, his body being wracked by the cries. He was being overwhelmed by a numbing heartache and tears poured from his eyes like a tidal wave. He pounded his fist on the metal floor in offensive defiance, rattling it and smashing it in livid rage. He was furious. "Why?!"