Follow Your Arrow

2: 13

"Not an option!"

As the building was being destroyed, Sam and Elliot jumped out of the window as Natasha and Fury flew their chopper barely in time to catch them.

"41st floor! 41st!" Sam and Elliot yelled.

"It's not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building!" Fury shot back.

"Hill, where's Steve? You got a location on Rogers?" Natasha asked.

HELICARRIER

Steve helped Bucky out from being trapped under some fallen rubble.

"You know me," Steve said.

Bucky lashed out at Steve in anger and yelled, "No, I don't!"

"Bucky, you've known me your whole life."

Bucky hit Steve, but Steve chose not to fight back.

"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes," Steve said as Bucky hit him again.

"Shut up!" Bucky cried.

Steve took off his mask and dropped his shield out of the Helicarrier.

"I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend."

Bucky pushed Steve to the ground.

"You're my mission," Bucky told him as he mercilessly punched Steve repeatedly across the face. "You're my mission!"

"Then finish it," Steve told him. Bucky hesitated, holding his fist up. "'Cause I'm with you to the end of the line."

Bucky looked at Steve as though he was starting to remember. The bottom of the Helicarrier fell, sending Steve down into the river below. Bucky watched from the Helicarrier, then an unconscious Steve was being pulled out of the water and dragged onto the shore by Bucky. When he saw he was still breathing, he turned and walked away.

HOSPITAL ROOM

In a room guarded by two armed agents, Steve woke up in a bed to hear Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man playing with Sam sitting next to his bed.

"On your left," Steve said and Sam looked at him and smiled.

---

Fury was wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. He met Steve and Sam at a cemetery at his own grave before saying, "So, you've experienced this sort of thing before?"

"You get used to it," Steve replied.

Fury's gravestone bore the epitaph 'The path of the righteous man. Ezekiel 25:17'.

"We've been data-mining HYDRA's files," Fury informed. "Looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship. I'm headed to Europe tonight, wanted to ask if you'd come."

"There's something I gotta do first," Steve said.

"How about you, Wilson? Could use a man with your abilities."

"I'm more of a soldier than a spy," Sam answered.

"All right then." Sam and Steve shook Fury's hand. "Anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me right here." Fury looked at his gravestone and walked away.

Natasha and Elliot joined Steve and Sam.

"You should be honored, that's about as close as he gets to saying thank you," Natasha said.

"Not going with him?" Steve asked.

"No."

"Not staying here?"

"I blew all my covers, I gotta go figure out a new one."

"That might take a while," Steve said.

Elliot smirked lightly. "She's counting on it. That thing you asked for, Nat and I called in a few favors from Kiev." He handed Steve a file titled 'дело No. 17' (file No. 17).

"Will you do me a favor?" Natasha said. "Call that nurse."

"She's not a nurse," Steve pointed out.

"And you're not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

"What was her name again?"

"Sharon. She's nice." She kissed Steve on the cheek and turned to walk away. "Be careful, Steve. You might not want to pull on that thread." She nodded to the file.

As Natasha and Elliot walked away, Steve opened the file, which was about Bucky and the information regarding his Winter Soldier transformation.

Sam walked over to Steve and asked, "You're going after him?"

"You don't have to come with me," Steve told him.

"I know. When do we start?"

SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM - CAPTAIN AMERICA EXHIBIT

Bucky, in civilian clothes, stared pensively at the display about himself.

He walked away, hazy memories of a life long ago slowly coming together in his mind.