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A Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Fic - The Constant	By : TheConstant1944 Category: Marvel Verse Comics > Captain America Views: 2391 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Chapter List
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Chapter Sixty
The Winter Soldier - The Mother Of The World

They are calling her The Mother of the World.
She is a wave sweeping the planet: a lone woman, fighting for peace. But she has been set up by the news agencies and their governments. Poor woman. She does not know what has hit her. She was a lone voice who started to talk to the world, to ask why there should be so much killing, so much unhappiness. The world needed good news and when the right TV crew interviewed her, it went global.
Neena herself was amazed – startled, even. She had started her life in a humble village in India, and moved to the city when she was lucky enough to be allowed to marry for love. Her parents were progressive; encouraged their two children to have a good education. “Our children are the future of the world,” her mother often told her.
Neena had been happy to be a mother to her three children before the terrible bombings had started. She saw mothers like herself mourning their dead husbands, their dead children, and she asked the simple question: why is there so much hatred in the world? Her brother had become a doctor, and what he saw in everyday life saddened him. They would talk for hours. Try to make sense of everything. One evening they had been talking quietly at the hospital where he worked; he had been up for hours trying to save the lives of people who had been caught up in the recent bombings. Neena had brought him food to eat. A TV broadcaster had heard what they were saying, and had interviewed them.
Suddenly Neena found herself propelled into an unknown world. People high up in the government courted her, and wanted her to speak out for them. The United Nations offered her protection so that she could travel and spread the question and so now she finds herself in a strange country, sat in a car with men she hardly knows, looking out at a city so different to hers.
London.
They are travelling to a venue in the country, Chequers, a mansion house in an area called Buckinghamshire where she will meet with all sorts of politicians and she asks herself for the umpteenth time: why me?
Why are they listening to me?
She had asked the same question of a reporter, a charming lady who now travels everywhere she does. The woman smiled, teetering on the edge of fame herself.
“Because,” she had said, “ the world has adopted you. You have become the mother of nations. No - the mother of the world.” The news reporter was pleased with the soundbite, and even more pleased when newspapers and news crews across the planet had picked up on the name. And now it is what Neena had become.
The day is overcast, grey. They were supposed to travel by helicopter but the British weather has put paid to that and so instead they are travelling incognito through the city of London. It is late in the day, 8pm, and Neena is tired. Her head is buzzing and all she wants to do is talk to her children, to her husband and then go to sleep. They have promised her once she is there she can do just that, the telephone would already be set up for her to talk to her loved ones a continent away.
The car she is travelling in is armour-plated, although you would never know to look at the sleek lines of it. Shadowed glass allows the passengers to look out, but no one to look in. At the moment, this is all the protection she requires, but once she has made her speech, once it has gone global, then security will be stepped up. She will be worth protecting. In the car with her are two men, acting as bodyguards. She has not got to know them yet although the one to the left of her is friendly and she felt herself trust him the moment they met.
“Call me Sam,” he had said and smiled, and she had smiled back:
“I'm Neena.”
*
She has become too much of a nuisance. She will give too much optimism to the world. There are people who do not want that, and so Neena has come onto Hydra's radar. The hope she gives people has to be nipped in the bud.
She has to be nipped in the bud.
“We can't get close enough to shut her down,” the assistant says, frustrated.
Jackson Caldwell looks at him, and nods. “Get on the phone to Pierce and tell him to send in the Asset. I'll follow up with details in the next few hours. Find out her schedule.”
As the assistant goes to leave, Caldwell looks up once more. “Tell him to make it public. I don't want any more bleeding hearts to come along. I want them frightened. I want them to keep their heads down and leave the world to those who know what they're doing: us.”
*
The city is awash with rain. The street lighting is just coming on, trying to give light where it is needed.
So different to my own country, Neena thinks to herself. Sam, sat next to her, is checking out the other side of the window and she wonders if he ever relaxes. What would make Sam choose to do this job? She looks again outside the window at people hurrying along the street, bright lights shining out of windows showing wares to the shoppers but no one at the moment taking any notice. It is too wet and cold, and they just want to get home.
That is all I want, she thinks to herself. To go home and see my children.
Sam's radio crackles and a garbled message comes through. How is it he seems to always understand what they are saying? she wonders. Western technology leaves her puzzled; she can understand it when it is used to save lives but otherwise why do we make the world so complicated?
The car slows as a set of traffic lights blaze red, and Sam leans forward to talk to the driver.
“Can you run them?” he asks, but the driver shakes his head. Sam's gut tells him to be careful. He scans the pavements but cannot see anything out of the ordinary, anything that shouldn't be there…except…for a moment he thought he saw something, a shadow...but he must be tired. It's been a long day.
“Should change in a minute. You're too jumpy.” His partner stretches and is about to say something else when without any warning the door on his side is wrenched open. It should be an impossibility: it is locked, reinforced, but the door is pulled away from its hinges.
Neena jumps with the shock of it and Sam screams to the driver to put his foot down as he watches his partner pulled viciously out of the car. The man doesn't have a chance and is dead before he hits the pavement. Sam pulls Neena towards him and yells at the driver again as the attacker reaches for her. There is no reaction from the driver and Sam sees why; there is a neat hole in the side of his head and only the seat belt is stopping his body from sliding forward onto the steering wheel.
A gloved hand has hold of Neena's sari and is pulling at it. She fights to go in the opposite direction, luckily for her the narrow confines of the car are helping to keep her in there. Sam is pulling her from the other direction as he scrambles for the door catch so he can pull her out of the car from his side. He reaches for his gun. He can't fire it inside the car, and so instead uses it to club the hand away. It is persistent and then someone bends down and looks into the car. Sam sees that it is a man but the face is masked, goggles covering the eyes. The arm pulling Neena is made from metal, and Sam realises who the man is. He is no-one – a rumour: they call him the ghost. His stomach falls. He has heard about the ghost, even seen a blurred photograph: but all of the intelligence world believes he exists, and right now Sam is the only thing between this assassin and Neena.
He has to risk shooting his gun in the confined space of the car. He has no choice, and he tries to aim and fire whilst yanking on Neena's arm. His shot goes slightly wide but still hit its intended target and there is a grunt from the figure. The gloved hand releases her, as the shot has taken him in the right arm.
Everything is happening too fast, yet Sam is thinking all the time. He needs to get her to a safe place. The door has opened and he pulls Neena out ducking as he does and a shot goes over the top of the car, aimed at them both.
“Keep down,” he instructs, and he can see pedestrians running down the pavements. He can hear screaming. He scans around quickly and sees an alleyway; at the same time he is trying to report in on his radio, but all he is getting in return is static.
“I repeat, man down! We are in need of assistance!” It is no good; his technology has let him down and he knows they are on their own.
Rain is pouring down, making it difficult to see, but he can hear footsteps and he knows the assassin is coming around to his side of the car. He raises his gun.
He watches and talks to Neena quietly. “When I say go, you run for that alleyway. Do you see it?”
Neena is petrified: her heart is racing, and she is trying to catch the folds of her torn sari so that she doesn't trip over.
“What about you?” she asks, concerned for him because that is who she is, she cares.
“Don't worry about me. Just get ready to run, okay?” Sam quickly turns to look at her because she hasn't answered, and he can see she is aware of the danger and she nods. He turns back, takes a deep breath, and places a hand in the middle of her back.
Sam closes his eyes. He counts to three and, pushing her forward, he stands to protect her as she runs...but there is nobody there, and for a moment his brain cannot register what is happening. Neena has started to move towards the alleyway but she turns to look back at Sam. He hears a noise and turns just as a fist comes forward and a knife is plunged into his belly. He looks at the knife handle in shock as it pulls back from him, then looks up as he sinks to his knees.
The man holding the bloodied knife watches as the bodyguard goes down. Sam thinks he is one of the most frightening sights he has ever seen. The assassin is clad in black leather clothes. His hands are gloved, but one arm is uncovered and is made of metal. A red star is emblazoned on the bicep. Longish brown hair now damp with rain, parted in the middle. Sam does not honestly know if he is looking at a human being or not.
He sees the man beginning to turn. His attention is now pulled away to follow Neena's progress and Sam desperately reaches to grasp the man's trouser leg to stop him, but he is too badly injured. The man stops and looks down at Sam's hand, then he reaches down and easily peels Sam's hand away and brings up his other hand. The metal one. In it, he holds a gun and he shoots Sam in the head, then he turns back to follow the woman.
He takes no notice of the people running away. They are not his mission: the woman is. The rain is inconsequential to him, and so is the blood running down his own arm from the bodyguard's lucky shot.
The woman has reached the alleyway and he strides forward as she runs down it. He follows her every step like a hawk.
She is his mission. He will not stop until she is dead.
*
Neena's heart is racing. She feels like she is going to be sick as she desperately tries the doors in the alleyways, but they are all locked. It is a dead end and only one more door left to try. She looks back. The man is calmly walking towards her. She can still see the car she has run from and Sam's body lying in the street.
How is this possible?
When the door opens in her hand she is too shocked at first to realise, but then her survival instinct kicks in and she is through the door, banging it closed behind her. She finds herself in a well-lit hallway with another door at the end of it. Piled along the sides of the hall are bags of rubbish. Halfway down the corridor, her feet slip on the floor and she nearly goes down but then she hears the door open and knows he is following her. She uses the wall to pull herself up. She doesn't look back, but instead focuses on the door ahead and before she knows it she is through that into another smaller room. She runs to a set of double doors and pushes through them and then stops.
She is in a department store. It is floodlit but looks deserted because it is now closed for the day. She looks around, panicked: where does she go? Where would she be safe? Can she hide? She hears a noise from behind her and knows he is coming and she starts to run again this time toward the clothing set out on rails. Maybe she can hide behind them? The shop is so quiet that she can hear her own breathing. She hears her own footsteps as she runs; the clothes in front of her are muted and her own colourful sari is bright. There is no camouflage here, nowhere for her to hide.
Neena turns to head back the other way but she sees him; he is looking straight at her and walking forward. He is in no hurry. He scans his surroundings, ensuring there is no danger. He holds his gun at his side. She cannot see any humanity in him. The mask covers too much.
Suddenly there is a noise to the side of him; another set of doors has opened and a man comes through them.
Neena watches in horror. The man is oblivious to the danger behind him. He is young, whistling, and pushing a bucket on wheels with a mop. She can see that he has headphones on. She tries to scream out to him but her voice makes no noise. She watches as the assassin walks up behind the man and, without any fuss, he takes the man's head in both hands and turns it sharply. She watches as the body slips to the floor and the headphones fall off. She stares in horror at the dead man, and then her eyes slowly move upwards, the assassin is looking at her. They are about 25 feet apart. He raises his gun but she is quicker and darts to the side. He doesn't even bother wasting a single shot. His hand goes down and he walks forward.
“Please help me, help me get back to my children,” Neena says, as she closes her eyes to pray.
She can hear him getting nearer and she looks around her. There is an opening, and above it says Changing Room. She runs into it and finds herself in a enclosure with four cubicles. The doors are shut but not locked. There is no other way out of the enclosure, and she realises she is trapped.
Pure fear and panic overtake her. She cannot beat this thing...this man. She is finished. She can hear him coming closer, and she backs up to the last cubicle. In a last, desperate effort to hide she slips inside it, pulling the lock over. The cubicle has mirrors on three of the walls, and she sees herself repeated for infinity. An older lady, dressed in a torn but beautiful coloured sari, her hair bound in a plait and clipped up at the back. She stares into her own wide, frightened eyes and sees show pale her skin looks under her natural colouring. She is trembling, wringing her hands together. She backs up until her legs hit a bench and she sits down abruptly, pulling her legs up onto the bench and wraps her arms around her knees.
To die alone, away from her family. Was this the plan all along? Why? All she ever wanted was peace in a world her children could grow up in, a world she could grow old in with her husband.
Suddenly her heart jumps as she hears the door of the first cubicle pushed open and hit the wall. Then footsteps. Then the second cubicle door. Then footsteps. The third door. And finally, she knows he has found her. For a moment everything is quiet and then the door rocks in its frame as the lock stops it from opening.
Neena whimpers. She cannot help it. She pulls herself smaller and backwards so that she is as far away as possible from him. The door crashes open and he is there, black-clad, death.
She cannot see his eyes. Cannot see anything about him but she can feel the violence in his countenance. She can feel the utter helplessness of her situation.
He stands there and slowly raises the hand with the gun in it. She cannot help but beg.
“I have children. Please. Please, let me live to see them again!” But the hand does not stop rising until the gun is pointed at her forehead, and mercifully she doesn't hear the bullet that takes her life.
The Winter Soldier lowers his hand and looks at the dead woman. If you were to look into his eyes you would see nothing. No remorse. No compassion. Emptiness.
He turns and walks away, leaving a trail of his own blood dripping along the floor.
His mission is complete.
*
You have been waiting for him to return. It is late, and you have been warned that he has been shot so you have everything ready in case the bullet needs to be removed. But first, they insist on mission report.
At last you see him and the wound is not too bad. The bullet passed through and the skin is already mending. You can feel heat coming from the wound.
He insists first on a shower. He looks tired, and is grouchy. He stays in the shower a long time and when he comes out you get him to sit whilst you attend to his arm.
He watches your every move.
When you look up, he is staring at you. Suddenly, he reaches out and pulls you forward into him. He kisses you as if he is drowning and when he leads you to bed before you can even think of getting him to eat, you follow without saying a word.
His love-making is desperate. Afterwards you try to leave and he stops you. He doesn't say a word, but his eyes implore you to stay and you move to be with him.
You listen to his breathing knowing he is awake and finally you ask him. “What is it? What's wrong?”
You don't think he is going to answer but then he takes a deep breath and lets it out. “I don't know. If I did, it wouldn't haunt me,” he says.
You move to look at him. Your rooms are never fully dark and you can see the light glistening in his eyes. You kiss his cheek, then his forehead, then his eyes and finally his mouth. He kisses you back.
“Try and sleep. I'm with you, you're not alone,” you say. You know tomorrow you are both due to go back into cryo, he needs to rest.
His arms tighten around you. He doesn't let go of you all night.
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A Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Fic - The Constant