Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT XXXIII: If I Could Just Remember (A What If? Scenario for CATWS; Pt.1

Set during the events of Blood Phoenix 6

Winter Soldier/Asset

(Note: this will be slightly different from Blood Phoenix 6, with the HYDRA chapter and the Winter Soldier. This is a bit of an AU for our original character, Adelaide Lehnsherr. The basic question is that: What if Adelaide was brainwashed alongside Bucky, making her relapse to her original Winter Phoenix state so that them two could take on Cap in the whole helicarrier scenario? Wouldn't that be amazing? Well, now I give you it. Enjoy! Please let me know if you like this version better than the original one in Blood Phoenix 6. I think I already do - and I haven't even finished writing this What If? scenario yet!!)

I looked across at the pretty girl near me, barely feeling the doctors fixing my metal arm. She had a few bruises on her face from the previous altercation. The man on the bridge... and the girl... she seemed to know me. My thoughts were fragmented.

Why did she know me?

The man on the bridge - he looked familiar.

Why did he know me?

How did he know me?

If I could just remember...

'Sergeant Barnes...' I heard the voice of the little doctor speaking above me, leering with an ugly smile.

'... Bucky! No!' the blonde man shouted as I felt like I was falling into ice and snow.

'... The procedure has already started...' The blurred view of blood, the stump of a left arm... then the sounds of drilling and screaming filled my already fragmented mind.

'You are to be the new fist of HYDRA... Put him on ice...' Just then there was a foggy image of the first look at my new metal arm, then choking a doctor.

Then needles.

Then ice in a large tank.

Then a girl.

A girl that looked exactly like the one that was looking at me right now.

I snapped back into the present, my metal arm lashing out as I hit the scientist nearest me, then returned to my original state as one of the Strike team agents turned his gun on me.

'Winter...' I heard the girl say. I looked over at her. Just then the doors opened, and Secretary Pierce entered, flanked by Agent Rumlow and another Strike agent. Pierce stood in front of me.

'Mission report.' I didn't respond. 'Mission report, now.' It was an order, but I couldn't bring myself to respond. I was about too, but too late. I was struck across the face, my long brown hair flying in front of my face, my cheek stinging from the impact. I heard the girl let out a cry. Pierce turned. 'Well, someone's worried.'

'Pierce, please,' the girl pleaded. 'Don't do this.' I opened my mouth, the burning question in my mind lingering at the tip of my tongue.

'The man on the bridge - who was he?' My mind flashed back to when he had spoken my name, or at least what I thought was my name.

Was Bucky really my name?

Who was I exactly?

More things that I had forgotten.

More things I was trying to remember.

'You met him earlier this week on another assignment,' Pierce lied coolly.

'I knew him.' It came out of my mouth before I had even thought of it. Pierce sat in front of me.

'Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time,' Pierce said to me. 'Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning, we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves.'

'But I knew him.' I wasn't thinking. 'And I knew her.' I saw Pierce turn to the scientists.

'Prep him,' the older man commanded.

'He's been out of cryofreeze too long.'

'Then wipe him, and start over. And do the same with her.' I closed my eyes against it all. Opening my eyes, the doctors pushed me back into the chair, shoving a mouth-guard in my mouth to muffle my screams. I saw the girl fighting the agents that were keeping her seated. The chair leaned back and I felt the metal wiping device closing over my head and left eye. Then, I screamed. Loudly. The electrical shocks poured through my brain, making my head hurt. When it slid off, I was panting for breath, barely hearing them reset me fully. I looked across at the girl. The agent named Rumlow pulled her up and I was taken from the seat. Then, they placed her in the chair, none too gently. She continued to fight them, but to no avail. They put her in restraints.

'Sir?' one of the doctors asked. 'Should we put in a mouth-guard?'

'No,' Pierce replied. 'Let her scream.' She continued to fight them, but then the restraints closed over her, and she began to breathe hard, her eyes open wide, struggling against the restraints. Then the device closed over, and she let out her screams. Guttural. Full of pain. Her body convulsed on the chair violently as the veins stood out on her neck and arms. When the device slid off, she was panting, her hair covering her eyes. Her neck and bare arms, from where I stood, were covered in a thick sheen of sweat. They reset her. Pierce came forward, placing a photo in front of her. 'Do you know him?' It was the blonde man from the bridge. She looked at the photo with emotionless eyes.

'He's a target. The Captain.'

'Her?' he asked, pointing to the girl next to him. She had shoulder-length red hair.

'Also a target. Agent Romanoff.'

'And your mission?'

'To kill them both.'