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Chapter Fifteen
Secrets

EXHAUSTED. That's the word I'll use to describe what we all look like right now. Sam was still on alert despite the rough look he has, Nat is in pain due to her injury while Steve and I were both in dazed. Probably due to the same man that we all faced earlier, but I'm sure it's for different reasons.

The Winter Soldier was Bucky for him, but for me, he's someone I tried my best to save a few years ago.

I've always thought Zola denied my request to let the man live, to help him when we found his badly injured body near our lab.

More secrets I see.

"It was him." Steve suddenly said, breaking the silence that settled within us. "He looked right at me and he didn't even know me."

Well, hate to break it to you Cap, seems like I'm partly responsible with the device HYDRA used in order to erase your childhood best friend's memories. In my defense, though, I designed it believing that HYDRA will use it to any spies of the government that they find lurking around us, in order to make sure no information about the organization can be leaked.

I kept my mouth shut. I'm sure Steve isn't really in his right mind to listen to me explain as to how and why James Buchanan Barnes is alive. Not to mention, out to kill him.

"How's that even possible?" Sam asked, not getting a grasp of what was happening.

Oh, Sam. You better stop questioning what can and can't happen at this point. The universe is slowly proving to us how complex it actually is.

"Zola." Steve confidently replied, his eyes finally focusing on me. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on 'em. Whatever he did, it helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him."

Sighing in defeat, I shake my head in response. "Zola wasn't the one who found him. I did."

"What?!"

"In my defense, I didn't know who he was when we found him fighting for his life outside one of HYDRA's secret facilities. I was just minding my own business, looking around the area when I noticed a man lying in a pool of blood, desperately calling for help. So, I helped him. I ordered for him to be escorted inside the lab and I attended to him as much as I could." I explained, shrugging my shoulders to emphasize that I really have no idea it will turn out like this.

"Then what?" Sam was now in for the story, probably wanting to know what happened to the man Steve Rogers was known to be really close to.

"Then Zola arrived telling me that I should pack my stuff because Johann Shmidt told them that I should be working at the HQ so he can keep an eye on me."

"And you blindly followed that order?" I rolled my eyes at Sam's question.

"Well, it's not like I have a choice. Despite me being his only child, that psycho will not hesitate to kill me if I don't follow his orders." Steve frowned, his eyes showing how he hates the fact that Shmidt's authority was absolute in his time, something that Captain America wasn't able to fully erase even until now.

"Before moving though, I begged Zola to help the man I was tending to. He really didn't give me a reply so I just always assumed they would dispose of the guy." I further explained.

Steve and Sam were both about to ask more questions when my eyes travelled to Nat, who was uncharastically too quiet in this kind of situation. She usually grabs every opportunity she can get to ask questions and interrogate people like me. That is when I noticed how blood continuously dripped out her wound.

Sam and Steve caught up to what I was looking at. Sam was the first one to complain to the HYDRA agent who was with us, "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

I noticed how the HYDRA agent pulled out an electric rod, it made me instantly worried about Sam, who kept on shouting at the two agents. I was about to jump and defend Sam when the agent instead electrified the other agent.

The mysterious agent pulled the helmet off and revealed herself to be no other than Maria Hill. I sighed and shook my head. "Really now?" I asked, looking at her in disbelief. Hill smirked at me, "That thing was squeezing my brain."

"Seriously, what the heck?" I mumbled, she then chuckled at my disbelief of the situation at hand. "Who's this guy?" She then asked, motioning to Sam.

"Sam, this is Hill, Hill meet my new best friend." I sarcastically said, before thrusting my shackled hands in front of her face. "Now can you please free me so I can put pressure on that woman's wound?" I asked, motioning towards Nat.

——

I don't exactly know where we are but by the way Hill confidently stepped out of the vehicle we were all in, I can say that we're safe for now. Sam and I helped Nat, guiding her out and letting her lean on me.

"GSW! She's lost at least a pint." Maria announced to the doctor that quickly ran towards us as soon as we arrived.

The doctor then glanced at Nat, who was still leaning on me, one of my arms around her to keep her balanced. "Maybe two." Sam interjected, also looking at us.

"Let me take her." The doctor offered, but before I could hand Nat to him, Hill stopped him. "No, she'll want to see him first."

"Him?" I asked, confused as to who Hill was referring to. "Do you have a father we don't know of??" I asked Nat, who just rolled her eyes at me.

Hill shook her head in amusement as she guided us to a closed off space in the bunker. Pulling the plastic curtains away, it revealed no other than SHIELD's director himself, Nick Fury. "About damn time."

"What the hell?! Aren't you supposed to be like six feet under now?"

Fury lets out a laugh as we all looked at him in shock. I handed Nat to Steve, who took her with ease. "I mean, don't get me wrong..." I walked closer to the director, sitting in the empty chair near him "... I'm glad you're alive and all but it wasn't really fun getting all mad and upset."

Fury laughed in amusement while Hill smirked. "What? Are you having fun playing with my emotions, Miss Hill?" I then turned on her, she only shrugged her shoulders fully aware that I was mostly joking.

"Well, you look like hell." Steve then commented, placing Nat on the free chair near him, I nodded in agreement to his statement.

Fury on the other hand started listing all the damages his body had to go through. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

The doctor who was aiding Nat spoke up, "Don't forget your collapsed lung."

Fury scoffed a laugh, "Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"Need a band-aid for that?" I sarcastically said earning an amused look from the doctor.

"But they cut you open, your heart stopped." Nat was still in disbelief and quite honestly, I think we all still are, she just happened to be the one to voiced it out.

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury explained.

Doctor Banner and I need to talk, that type of invention could be useful for someone like me who somehow always finds himself in danger.

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The million dollar question all of us wanted the answer to.

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful." Hill replied, crossing her arms in front of her. Seriously, is she in his mind or something? I'm starting to hate how Hill answers all the important questions we asked on Fury. He has his own mouth and voice goddammit.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury smugly said as if he said something really clever. I know he looks physically older than me, but gosh, they really are all just children. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust." He then said before glancing at Nat then at me.

Natashia looked away from him, turning her attention on the floor. While I met his gaze, raising my brow, challenging him.

"I can say the same to you, Nicholas."

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A/N:
hey!! that's chapter 15 for u!!
2 more chapters and we're done with part one of this book! yeyy

anyway, y'all know the drill, give this chapter a vote and drop a comment too! i love knowing what u guys think of the story so far

xo, marveldefender (nicole)