Disclaimer: I do not own the Captain America or Avengers movies or their characters. Any unrecognized plot or characters are mine.

Don't shoot me, please, for what I am about to do. -Author runs and hides behind an armored door.-

Chapter Six: Summer Is Over

I lay content in Bucky's arms, my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart while he slept.

It was an oddly comforting sound.

A loud crash broke the peace, making me jump. Bucky jolted awake, blinking the sleep out of his eyes and groaning. I sat up a bit, ignoring his half asleep tugs on my waist. What was that?

I frowned, listening for another sound, glancing around in confusion.

The door to our cell was wide open, places along the side splintering or falling off. Armed men in full combat gear crossed the doorway at an alarming rate, guns raised at the ready as they immediately began shouting orders.

I screamed, gathering as much of the meager bed sheet around myself as I could. Bucky flew upright, releasing an earth shattering roar at the intruders as he settled into a defensive position in front of me.

Three Germans were stupid enough to charge, attempting to strike my alpha in the head with the butt of their guns to subdue him.

They failed, miserably.

He shot them, opening fire on the others to down as many as he could while they retreated. When the gun made a useless click, he threw it away and watched the door intensely for signs they would attack.

A single gloved hand darted out of the doorway, something round dropping with a thunk and rolling across the floor toward the mattress.

Bucky took a step forward, squinting at the ball, studying it. His eyes suddenly widened and curses I couldn't quite hear left his lips. He bent at the waist, quickly ripping a part of the sheet he could reach and doubled it up a few times, pushing it into my hands. "Cover your mouth."

I obeyed, holding it up to my lips.

A flash of light made my flinch, my eyes automatically closing against the painful brightness. A grunt followed by a thud close by increased my heart rate, worry spiking through me.

Was Bucky injured? Was he still alive? Why can't I hear him? I stressed for a moment, straining my ears for him.

A curse that always used to make me blush before ended the silence, assuring me that my alpha was alive. My sight cleared of spots and I used it to doubly confirm his safety.

Heavy footsteps reminded me of the danger.

The Germans rushed in a second time, five swarmed Bucky, surrounding him. Three beat him with the butts of their rifles, repeatedly knocking him to his knees or onto his stomach, while the other two worked to restrain him.

I surged to my feet, sheet forgotten, running to intervene. Three more Germans stopped me in my tracks, forcing me into a kneeling position with my hands behind my back. I struggled, knowing and not caring about how useless it was. I needed to help my alpha.

One of Bucky's attacker's struck him in the side, making him yell in pain and clutch his side. The second slammed the rifle into the back of his head, dropping him onto the floor.

"No! Stop it! Stop hurting him!" I shouted, tears streaming down my cheeks. "Bucky!"

He struggled and fought, even as his hands were tied behind his back with rope.

A sixth soldier walked into the room, ignoring me entirely and kneeled at Bucky's head. A gloved hand disappeared in his pocket and pulled out a syringe filled to the top with dark liquid. Without further delay, he stabbed the syringe into Bucky's neck and pressed the plunger all the way down until it was empty.

My alpha stopped fighting, his body going completely still.

The ice cold fingers of terror squeezed my heart in a vice like grip.

He couldn't be dead.

It just wasn't possible. Not now. Not in this horrible place.

"Take it to the morgue. The boss will know what to do with it." The sixth German said, standing and leaving the room without another word or backwards glance.

Two soldiers grabbed an arm and dragged Bucky's body out.

The world crashed back down.

"NO!" The scream left my lips at a volume I hadn't even known was possible, every ounce of pain I felt unreal and real all at once.

I can't say how many wordless screams followed the first, or how long I screamed.

I can say I remember every part of what came next.

"Shut her up!" A harsh voice ordered when I'd paused for a shuddering breath.

I heard a sharp crack and pain bloomed in the back of my head, my sight darkening slowly and steadily until all I knew was black.

I woke to painful throbbing and bright lights. Strange smells wafted to my nose, I was unable to recognize anything as familiar.

"Ah, ze patient has joined us." A thick accented voice crowed happily nearby.

My head turned, following the voice to find the source.

It was a short man with round glasses that gleaned in the light provided by a large fixture that reminded me of the one doctors used during my surgery two years ago. The thin metal and multiple joints arranged in a manner that gave it the ability to move in several ways that should have been impossible.

"Where am I? What have you done with Bucky?" I demanded, pushing myself up to even our heights.

At least I tried to, but I couldn't sit up or raise to a certain level due to the restraints.

"Is she the one you wanted for the study, Dr. Zola?" A soldier asked, standing a few feet behind the man in the glasses.

"She will make a fine specimen, you can leave now." Dr. Zola answered, ignoring my outburst and my frantic struggles to free myself. "Yes, we shall begin now."

"Begin what? What study?" I stopped when he picked a wickedly sharp metal instrument from the tray at my feet and walked around the stretcher until he was standing by my hip. "Hey, Hey! You get away from me with that thing, you creep!"

"I could tell you that this will not hurt, but that would be a lie. It is best that you lay as still as possible." He told me, a cruel smile on his beastly face. The smile remained firmly in place as he sliced through the sheet that I'd been covered with until a good portion of my skin was revealed.

My heart sped up and my struggles grew more frantic as he lowered the object to my skin. "No! Get away from me! NO!"

I screamed as Dr. Arnim Zola stabbed through skin, fat and muscle making a long jagged cut along my hip. The pain was indescribable and never ending, the sight of my blood pouring out of my body one I would never forget.

Finally, I lost consciousness.