PAIN RESONATED EVERYWHERE. white - hot, electric heat filling his veins, surging through his bloodstream with a VENGEANCE, straight to his brain - shocking, shocking, shocking - constant && unremitting and everywhere… UPROOTING him. STABBING SHARP AGONY that appeared to have no intention of stopping nor slowing, sparking relentlessly until that excruciatingly raw pain numbed into a blunted yet INESCAPABLE consistency. again. снова. again - increase the voltage. questions hemorrhaged, like blood gushing from an open wound, flooding his mind with panicked thoughts and ideas, intensified by the free - flowing pain inside him. where was he ? REPORT. what was his current mission ? REPORT. orders. what were his orders ? REPORT ;; ANSWER / COMPLY && THE PAIN WILL STOP. ready to comply.
THE SOLDIER KNEW THIS PAIN, knew it well. it hurt, the worst kind of intense shooting pain, in the beginning - but by the end ( грузовой вагон ) that pain will melt into a languid, all - consuming heat. the intensity will ease into something far more bearable, the voltage tapering out… but— where were the words ? why— why weren’t they saying the words ? please, please. please, say the words. END IT.
give him ORDERS and he will follow.
make it stop.
give him INSTRUCTION and he will follow.
make it stop.
give him PURPOSE and he will follow.
❛ tony — ? ❜ please, do not leave him strapped to this thing.
O R D E R.
O R D E R.
O R D E R. stop.
C O M P L Y.
ORDER ONLY COMES THROUGH PAIN. STOP !
THERE WAS A SUDDEN FLASH, a spark and then… nothing. the sweet absence of nothing. the static heat burning through his body retreated, releasing the poor man from its CRUEL grip, but the aftermath of its TORMENT lingered. the pull of gravity was instantaneous, dragging the soldier down, down, down and anchoring him there by the DEAD weight of his metal arm. its sudden absence left him disoriented && off - kilter, the only noise managing to break through his scrambling, panic - stricken thoughts being the sound of his heavy, labored breathing. focus. focus. he could feel the soldier, just beneath the skin, shifting towards the surface, SPARKED && enticed by the the low thrum of waning electricity. relying completely on instinct, the asset moved - scooting backwards until his back found something solid to pressed against. EYES FORWARD, SOLDAT. he spiraled, the lines separating man from MACHINE blurring, the rapid currents of past and present clashing together. the soldier pushed, angry / eager / desperate to unfurl its fingers and DESTROY.
IDENTIFY. IDENTIFY. IDENTIFY———— focus. blinking rapidly, barnes attempted to clear both his blurring vision and crowded thoughts in an effort to IDENTIFY his surroundings and current position. a body rushed forward, closer, reaching and it prompted a sharp flinch from the man. thankfully, barnes managed to recognize the face in front of him before the soldier could perceive stark as an active threat, but just barely. bucky repeated the man’s name, over and over again inside his head, lest he forget. tony stark. tony stark. the blood had long since drained from his cheeks, leaving him pallid && sweat. his eyes were too wide, searching for something to hold onto but losing life with each passing second he was left scrambling. he decided to focus on howard… TONY, weak attention glued to his every shuffle, every movement - but it wasn’t enough. he could still smell… blood && electrical wire and it left him grimacing, gagging on the taste as it coated the back of his tongue.
REACHING OUT, shaking fingers crumple around howa– tony’s shirt. with a quick tug, he jerked the other man slightly closer, attempting to focus on the material between his fingers. he needed to find something to TETHER himself to, before it was too late and the soldier grew too loud, but the cotton between his fingers was unexceptional, and the blood seeping into the fabric from his soiled fingers was painting an ugly picture. there was something else… block letters and some sort of masked face. stark was into some weird shit. what does it say ? focus…
right ! he could remembered… a very long plane ride spent listening to clint and tony droll on for hours, arguing over the topic of ‘ greatest rock band of all time ‘. james swallowed, pushing his head back until the crown of his skull bumped loudly against the metal storage unit at his back. his fingers remained tangled in stark’s shirt, gripping for purchase. gritting his teeth, he exhaled loudly and kept his eyes locked on the shirt.
❛ can you— ? FRIDAY - play some BLACK SABBATH. ❜
if anything could drown out the DRONE of hydra’s conditioning, it was tony’s music.
Friday’s pause only lasted a moment, waiting for the permission to comply with a voice whose instruction was still foreign. Barnes’ consistency around the compound had always been spotty at best. In the beginning, he’d skulked in and out of his personal quarters, tearing his way through the kitchen to devour a week’s worth of groceries before he disappeared again. Sometimes he’d linger long enough to shower or sleep for a solid block, but he rarely interacted with his fellows— least of all Tony.
Though lately, that behavior had begun to evolve. The two former foes had come to hospitable terms enough to exist on the same team; with trust hesitantly lended where they would inevitably need to work together. Steve eased the transition for both men, facilitating discussions neither of them actually wanted to attend, their emotional constipation broadcasted loud and clear in crossed arms and short, grumbled responses. But with time, came growth, and they realized that there was more that united them than divided.
They shared a similar sense of humor, sparked on accident one morning where Barnes and Stark burst into independent barks of laughter amongst their disgruntled fellows. Eyes met and Tony served him with a respectable nod and from there things grew more organically. Tony began working on Barnes’ prosthetic hardware, offering suggestions and areas for improvement based on the complaints that filtered through. In tandem, Bucky began to practice one-on-one combat with Stark, teaching him sly moves for men of their stature and way to give him an upper hand in questionable situations. It was nothing that Tony had ever expected to grow out of such tragedy, but he found himself pleasantly surprised with the earnest respect and trust both given and received.
Perhaps that was why Barnes burst in his lab begging for help at all.
THE ADRENALINE STILL pulsed beneath the surface, leaving Tony breathing hard as he was wrenched close by the collar. Blood smeared to stain, soaking through with a fist where it was knotted tight. He nearly protested to complain, ( It’s vintage ! ) but bit back the words as he was dragged unceremoniously forward to collapse. The cabinet groaned under their shared weight, as Barnes struggled for equilibrium where the entire ordeal still left him spinning. It was only then that the sharp opening chords of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath began to leak out of the speakers just in time, drowning out any spare room for thought beyond Ozzy’s signature wails.
Tony let it play, left in wait to see if Bucky had gotten what he’d come for in what was perhaps the most violent and dramatic excuse to listen to music together in history. There was little he knew about the conditioning they’d subjected Barnes to beyond the leaked SHIELD files and snippets of information gleaned from Steve. And in hindsight, maybe he should have avoided any techniques forcing him to endure more electroshock, but time had been short in the heat of the moment.
“ Hey, ” he experimented, voice rising enough above the music to be heard. “ It’s okay. You’re— uh. You’re okay. Don’t go nuts on me, alright ? I’m pretty much dead in the water if you decided to lunge up and strangle me. Besides, I’ve had kind of a boring day, so I’d prefer not to go out on such a mediocre note. I’m looking fore more of a blaze of glory type thing. ” The longer he rambled, the closer to the ground it felt like they were wafting toward. One inch at a time on and on until there was something solid beneath their feet. Tony managed a grin, though it stuttered with relief where the nervous energy still jittered. “ You good ? You had me worried there. ”
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theartofmadeline
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2087
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