𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 | bucky barnes

17: Winter soldier(s)

"So how did you become his friend, anyway?" asked Sam, as they waited in an abandoned warehouse for Bucky to wake up.  They had his metal arm stuck in an old machine, so that if he did wake up, he couldn't escape.  Just in case.

Cat had been leaning against a wall, thoughts to herself.  Steve was watching out the door at the search helicopter hovering above, looking for them.

"I know you said something about it before," he finished.

"I met him in Romania," she said.   "You could say... bumped into him at the market.  We told each other our names and started saying hi to each other every morning.  Until something came out about me in the newspaper."

"And what was that?"

"Sometimes my powers go haywire," she explained, looking at her hands for a second.  "Usually I'm alone when it happens, but that time I wasn't.  I was in the cafeteria of my university when it happened.  I almost hurt someone.  They expelled me immediately, and a week later I was called dangerous in the newspaper.  Bucky saw it, and I had to tell him.  The next day, he told me who he was."

"And you became friends from there?"

"Mmhmm," nodded Cat. 

"So how long was Barnes in Romania?" asked Sam.

"I don't know exactly. But I knew him for about six months."

"Huh," said Sam. 

Cat had just realized that Steve was listening to their conversation.  He was facing their way, but turned back around toward the door once the conversation was over.

Cat hoped Bucky was back to — well, Bucky.  Because she didn't want it to be the other way around.  She couldn't imagine what would happen if it was the other way around.

She didn't have to wait long to find out.  Bucky made a noise and began to pick his head up.  His face was scrunched up in agony, and he looked at his arm, then flexed his fingers.

Cat called Steve over before Sam did.

"Steve," she said, walking away from the wall she had been leaning on.  He jogged over and went into the room.  Bucky groaned as he picked his head up further.  All three were looking at him, watching to see which Bucky was present.

"Steve," said Bucky breathily.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" asked Steve immediately.

Cat looked at Bucky, almost sadly.  He looked as if he had realized something.

"Your mom's name was Sarah," he said, not looking at Steve.  He was silent for another couple seconds.  "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes," he remembered, smiling. 

He had made both Cat and Steve smile slightly as well.

"Can't read that in a museum," said Steve, looking at his friend. 

"Just like that we're supposed to be cool?" asked Sam, still suspicious of Bucky.

"What did I do?" asked Bucky, sounding like he knew it was going to happen.  He looked up at Cat, then to her scratched up and bruised arm. "I did that, didn't I?"

Cat bit her lip and tried not to tell Bucky what he knew he was going to hear.  But her actions said it all.

Bucky sighed and put his head down.  "God, I knew this would happen," he said.  "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there.  All he had to do was say the goddamn words."

"Who was he?" asked Cat.

"I don't know," said Bucky. 

"People are dead," said Steve. "The bombing, the set up, the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you.  I need you to do better than 'I don't know'."

Bucky scrunched up his face in thought and looked away. 

"He wanted to know about Siberia," he explained.  "Where I was kept... He wanted to know exactly where."

Cat scrunched her face as Steve asked a question.

"Why would he need to know that?"

Bucky looked down then back up at Steve again. 

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier."

Cat widened her eyes.

——— ✪ ⍟ ✪———

They took his arm out of the hold before continuing to ask questions.  But they immediately got back to it.  Cat would have given him more of a break.  But then again, they didn't have time for that, did they?

"Who are they?" asked Steve, referring to the other soldiers.

"Their most elite death squad," reported Bucky.  "More kills than anyone in HYDRA history.  And that was before the serum."

"They all turn out like you?" asked Sam.

"Worse."

"And the doctor can control them?" asked Cat.  "The same way he —"

Bucky looked down and nodded.

"Said he wanted to see an empire fall," said Steve. 

"With these guys he could do it," said Bucky.  "They speak 30 languages.  Can hide in plain sight.  Infiltrate. Assassinate.  Destabilize.  They could take a whole country down in one night and you'd never see them coming."

Sam walked over to talk to Steve, quietly.  Cat walked over to Bucky, who was sitting, head down.  She bent down.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Are you?" he replied, referring to her arm.

Cat looked at it, then back at Bucky.  "It'll be fine," she said. 

Bucky sighed.  "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry, Bucky.  It wasn't your fault.  It wasn't you."

Bucky sighed again.

"I don't want to hurt people anymore," he whispered, resting his head on his hands, looking at the ground.  Cat almost didn't hear. 

"I know," said Cat. 

——— ✪ ⍟ ✪———

If they wanted to really do something, they'd need their gear back.

Cap and Sam apparently had a plan.  They explained, but much of it didn't make sense to Cat.  Either way, she followed.  She got herself into this.  There was no getting out. 

Steve took a car for them all to ride in.  Something he claimed was low profile — a blue Volkswagen Beetle.  Cat wouldn't have called it that.  But hey, it did the job. 

He stopped under a bridge to see the blonde woman from earlier — the one who had helped them realize the doctor wasn't up to any good.  Steve got out of the car and walked up to her.  They began talking.

a.n.

heyyyyyyy

almost forgot to publish today whoops --

also spider man nwh was SO good

AND im going to see the 355 soon as well eeeee

anyways, don't forget to vote ♡

molly