Joana

Aleksi rushed down the halls, pushing past soldiers and scrambling scientists. Joana was on his heels. The red alert alarm blared over head as they raced down the corridors.

Aleksi took a sharp turn and she followed him down the dark corridor.

Where else would they put Bucky except in a dark, damp, secluded corridor? It made sense.

"Open this door!" Aleksi demanded of the guard placed outside. The guard looked pale, skittish. He debated with himself for a second before unlocking the door and throwing it open.

"Soldier!" Aleksi yelled it Russian as he stormed into Bucky's room. As Joana entered, she realized that the place they had moved Bucky to wasn't a room, but a cell. She almost froze in horror at the complete atrocity of Bucky's living conditions, but tears filled her eyes when at last she caught his gaze.

He sat in a chair, unmoving. His eyes were dead.

For a few brief moments, Joana feared that he was dead.

Bruises littered his bare torso. Blood dripped from his ear. His jaw was set.

When Aleksi and Joana walked in front of him, he finally responded to their entrance. His eyes widened and life filled his body. A smile spread across his face, but it was a small smile, weak. Joana could barely smile back for the pain in her heart was too strong.

"We need your help," Aleksi said, breaking the bond between Bucky and Joana. The soldier's smile fell and he swallowed. He nodded once. Aleksi undid the bonds on Bucky's wrists and legs and he stood.

"Follow me." Before Aleksi could walk away from her, Joana kicked the back of his leg. He cried out and fell to his knees. He was no where near as tolerant to pain as he was years before. Bucky stepped back.

"Jo-"

"Danika and I are breaking you out," Joana told him. She punched Aleksi across the face at least three times before he fell over, groaning. The guard from outside finally heard the commotion happening inside the cell and came running in. Bucky slammed his metal fist into the guard's chest. He fell backwards and hit his head on the ground with a crack. Joana took the keys from around the guard's belt.

"Come on." She held her hand out to Bucky. He took her hand and followed her out the door. She slammed the metal cell door shut and locked it. Aleksi stood and ran to the door as they were walking away.

"Don't walk away from me, Joana! Come back here!" Aleksi yelled as they turned the corner. "Soldier!"

Bucky tensed at the word, but Joana looked up at him and squeezed his hand. He glanced down at her and gave her a small smile. They dropped hands as soldiers ran down the halls.

"What's going on here?" one of them inquired. Joana stood straight and tall, eyes looking past him.

"Aleksi sent me to get him, sir." The soldier nodded and continued on his way down the hall.

"Run," Joana whispered under her breath.

"What?" Bucky asked.

"Run!"

The two started sprinting down the hallway.

"Get after them!" They heard a voice yell from behind them. "They're trying to escape."

Bucky and Joana ran faster. Joana made her way towards the funeral room, looking for Danika, but when she ran around a corner, there was the blonde haired beauty. Three soldiers lay on the ground by her feet. Her hair was sticking to her eyelashes. As she saw Bucky and Joana, she brushed the hair from her face and smiled.

"Ready to go then?" Danika walked up to them, a grin on her face. The two lovers nodded enthusiastically. "Follow me."

The trio now ran down the corridor, fighting and destroying everyone in their way.

"There!" Danika yelled after what seemed like hours of running. "That's the exit!"

"Stop!" Aleksi's voice shouted behind them. The three didn't turn but kept running towards the large metal door in front of them. That was their freedom, that was their way home. "Freeze!"

None of them could have stopped the turn of events that followed.

A gunshot echoed through the stone hallway. Joana looked over at Bucky first to see if he had been shot, then down at herself. There was no sign of new blood on either of them.

"Joana?" Danika's voice was hoarse, broken. Joana hadn't been shot, but as the realization dawned on her who had been, it felt as if a bullet was slowly tearing it's way through her heart. She turned on her heel, her hands unlacing from Bucky's and falling to her side.

Danika stood just inches behind her. Her hand was pressed against her stomach. Joana couldn't see the blood on her dress, but the sticky, red liquid was pooling over her fingers and dripping onto the floor. Danika looked from her stomach up to Joana. Her blue eyes had already lost much of their shine and colour, her mouth hung open in a pained 'O'.

"No," Joana breathed. Danika's knees gave way and Joana dove to the ground in attempts to catch her. Danika's legs bent in an awkward position under the burden of dead weight. "No, no, no, no. Danika, Danika, no."

Joana held Danika in her lap, rocking her back and forth. She brushed the blonde hair from her eyes, her throat swelling with tears.

She took half a second to glance up and saw Aleksi, a smoking gun at his side. His face was stone cold, blood dripping from the wound she had given him when she left him in that cell. Now she wished she had killed him.

Looking on him now, she saw nothing but red. Her entire body trembled with rage, large tears dripped from her eyelashes. She lay Danika's still breathing body on the ground.

"Joana, Joana, no-" Bucky tried to grab her arm as she walked towards Aleksi, but she couldn't hear him. There was nothing-no sound, no sight, no feeling-nothing but Aleksi. He raised the gun. He pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. Only one of them hit her. She didn't feel the bullet go through the muscle or bone in her arm. She charged Aleksi, blood lust on her mind.

Aleksi's expressionless face finally betrayed his fear as his eyes widened and he backed away. He pulled the trigger again, but the gun had jammed. Joana screamed in fury and leaped on Aleksi, knocking him the the ground. The gun slid from his hand down the hallway. There was no technique to her fighting in that moment. She was just fists and nails and teeth. She straddled him and she beat him with everything she had and showed no sign of stopping. Aleksi didn't even have the chance to lift his hands off the ground to protect his face. She screamed and growled and she beat him mercilessly.

Finally, her rage got the better of her.

She had never killed anyone before that day. She had never hurt someone so badly that they had never healed. But Aleksi had hurt her and Bucky and Danika more than anyone else had. There was no one alive in that facility who was more responsible for everything done to her. All the memories of everything he'd done passed through her mind and she hated him. She grabbed him by the side of the head and started smashing it into the stone floor repeatedly, a shout coming from her mouth each time his skull cracked against the ground. His eyes rolled into the back of his head far before Joana stopped her assault.

When she realized that Aleksi had stopped moving, she bowed her head and sobbed. Her body shook violently as the tears rolled down her cheeks. Everything was falling apart. When she opened her eyes, she saw, through blurry tears, that she hands were absolutely covered in blood, some of it Aleksi's and some of it Danika's.

She looked away from Aleksi and over to where Danika was. Bucky had her in his arms. Her eyes were wide open, staring at Joana with a cold, dead gaze. One hand lay limp on the floor, the other in Bucky's hand. Joana slowly tore her eyes away from Danika's and found her locking gazes with Bucky. His jaw was slack. He was staring at Joana in horror. His eyes left hers and traveled to her hands. Shame filled Joana's whole body and she had suddenly realized what she had done. She jumped away from the dead body beneath her with a cry of terror. She pressed herself against the wall and pushed the back of her hand against her mouth to stop the sobs from escaping her throat. Bucky lay Danika on the ground and walked over to Joana. He was shaking as well, as if he was scared to go near her.

Her body shook with sobs, tears refusing to stop running down her cheeks.

"Come here," Bucky whispered, crouching in front of her and holding his arms out to her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, careful not to touch him with her bloody hands. She buried her face in his neck and cried.

"Come on, Joana," he muttered into her hair. "We have to go."

Joana swallowed her tears and let Bucky help her up. She walked over to Danika and kneeled in front of her. She closed her friend's eyelids. Joana would later remember being able to only process one thought- she would never be able to see those beautiful blue eyes again.

She kissed Danika's cold, pale forehead and barely managed to whisper an apology before the thundering of boots down the corridor startled her back into reality. Bucky pulled her to her feet as she grabbed Aleksi's key card from Danika's pocket. The ran the rest of the way to the door. She stuck the card in the proper slot and punched in the code that Danika had given her at the funeral. One of the lights above their head flashed green. Bucky ran to the handle and started to turn it.

The large door started to open, painfully slow. When it had opened just enough for them to slip out of, they stepped out of the facility for the first time in 20 years and Joana's heart dropped to her stomach.

Snow.

They were surrounded by snow. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but white. Joana was still wearing her funeral dress and Bucky was only wearing pants.

They looked at each other once, knowing that it was either go forward into the snow or face the repercussions that faced them behind. Joana kicked off her heels and together, they stepped into the snow.

They got farther than expected before the hypothermia started to kick in. They trudged along, arms wrapped around themselves as if that was enough to keep them warm. Joana thought of warm fires, a good book, laughing with her friends in the library. Bucky thought of dancing, the feeling in his chest when he looked at Joana, the Brooklyn harbor. But thoughts and a strong will weren't enough to keep out the cold. They shivered and tried to carry on, but it was impossible. Joana collapsed first, overcome by terrible tremors. Bucky tried to pick her up and carry her, but he made it only a few feet before he too fell face first into the snow.

Three hydra agents found them a few minutes later, arms tangled together as if they could transfer what little body heat they had left to each other, but there was nothing either of them could do.

These three agents brought them back to the facility, where Alexander Pierce was already waiting to exact punishment.

Joana awoke slowly. She shivered terribly, even though her hand layers of blankets lay atop her. She could hardly see so for a brief second, she almost believed that she had escaped, but it was not so. She was not safe. She was nowhere near it. She was far from it. In fact, she was closer to danger than she had ever been before. 

_________

Hello friends. Here is where the real story begins. Now we see the Winter Soldier, the Red Room, and our beloved Natasha Romanoff. I am very excited to see how this plays out. 

Thank you for your reads, votes, and comments. They all mean so much to me.

I love all of you so much. I can't even describe it. I love you. 

With so much love and patience, 

authorsbane