The Other Soldier -A Bucky Fanfic-

Naming the Soldier

Punch, punch, kick, jump, kick, punch.
That was the method, the system.
She was hitting him, hard. She was beating him. She was making him bleed.
"That's enough."
She froze, then backed away.
"You're getting better, Soldier." The man said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"You, get up." He said, and Bucky realized he was on the ground. He felt himself get up, but he had no control.
The girl had her hands at her side, they were in fists and bloody. His blood.
"You, Soldier, are getting weaker. You need more testing. Come, we'll do that now."
Bucky didn't want to go. He knew what testing meant. The chair. He didn't want it.
His feet were moving, he was walking with the man.
His neck turned, he was looking behind him now. The girl. Something in her mouth twitched, her eyes lightened for a split second before going back to dull.
He turned back.

No matter how cold his room was, he was sweating like a pig. He felt hot, too hot. He pushed the covers off of him and stood up. His knees felt weak, he didn't know why.
Her eyes. They were dull, then bright, then dull.
Were his eyes dull when he was The Winter Soldier? Steve, Steve would know. His feet moved without his permission, and soon he was heading towards Steve's floor. What if he woke Steve up? He didn't know what time it was.
A door. How did he get here? He didn't remember anything. Was this Steve's door? He opened it. He didn't feel like himself.
A shape, a shape in the darkness was standing.
"Bucky?"
"Steve."
"Bucky, what's wrong?"
"My eyes. What did they look like?" He was right next to him now. When did he move?
"What? Bucky, are you alright?"
"When I was The Winter Soldier, what did my eyes look like?"
Steve placed his hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes.
"You aren't you." He said simply, as if he were stating a fact.
Bucky shook his head.
"Bucky, look at me. You are James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes. Not The Winter Soldier. Remember that. You are my best friend, not my enemy." Steves tone was quiet and smooth, calming.
"James...Buchanan...Barnes. Bucky." Bucky repeated. He felt himself come back as if he were a gas that was being pushed by a fan.
"Bucky?"
"...I'm sorry."
"No, no don't apologize, you weren't all there. It's alright. But you did come in here for something. What was it?" Steve led his friend to his bed and made him sit down.
"I..I had another dream. And I wanted to ask you what my eyes looked like when is was The Soldier."
"I don't see how that would be important, but alright," Steve said, and paused to think about it.
"Now that I think about it, your eyes did seem a bit lifeless, dull even."
"And what about when you got through to me? Did they change?" Bucky asked, his words rushed.
"Yeah, they looked like you got the life shoved back into you. They seemed to lighten up a little bit."
Bucky took a breath and looked Steve dead in the eye.
"In my dream, the girl's eyes turned from dull to bright for just under a second. I was wondering if that meant anything."
"That means everything!" Steve said, standing from his bed. "I was thinking about how we could find this girl you keep seeing, and I realized how simple the solution really was." Steve was now dragging Bucky out his door and towards the elevator.
"Since you know what the girl looks like, I was thinking that we just have to hack in somewhere that can help us find missing people. You could describe to us what she looks like and we could put that in the information part and then we could see how many are missing. You could identify her when and if you see her. Then when we find her, you can connect to her like we did with you."
They stopped in front of the elevator, Steve's hand still on Bucky's wrist.
"We can't hack into anything, Stevie. You can barely work a phone and I still don't understand how a microwave works."
Steve looked at Bucky like he was an idiot.
"Bucky, we live in Stark Tower. We live with Natasha Romanov and Tony Stark." He said slowly, making sure Bucky understands what he's saying.
"They hack into stuff as a hobby, I'm sure they would be more than willing to help. You find Tony, I'll get Nat." The elevator dinged and opened up the doors.
"What if they aren't awake?" Bucky asked, walking into the elevator.
"First off, Tony is always awake. And second, it's just after nine, they should be up by now." Steve said, pushing two floors.
"Right."

The lab was cold and it made Bucky shiver. The doors opened automatically as Bucky approached, and he looked up at the ceiling and said a quick thank you.
Tony was sat at his desk, buried in metals, tools, and blueprints. Sparks flew from the table, and Bucky wondered if it was safe to approach.
"Tony?"
No response. To Bucky, it seemed really loud in the lab, but Tony never seems to notice.
"Tony!"
"One second! I heard you the first time!"
Bucky rolled his eyes and walked as close to the desk as he dared. He only had to wait a few seconds, half a minute at most, before Tony took off his mask and sent a cheeky grin his way.
"What brings you to my office at...what time is it?"
Bucky shrugged. "I think it's a little past nine. But I need your help."
"With what? I'm kind of busy today. Lots of things need upgrading and building-"
"I need you to hack into something for me."
"Schedule cleared. Let's go."
Bucky almost laughed. Almost.

They met Steve and Nat on the last floor.
"Where are we going to be doing the hacking?" Bucky asked, eyeing Tony.
Tony shook his head. "Can't be in my lab, I used it up a bit much and...disabled it all for a while."
"We could go to S.H.E.I.L.D and use the software there," Nat said, already walking towards the door.
"My software is better," Tony called, catching up to Nat.
"Yeah, and you used it all up." She countered, not even giving him a single glance.

****

Nat and Tony sat side-by-side, their eyes glued to the screens, their fingers typing in words and lines of code the Soldiers didn't understand.
"So, Bucky, what does your dream girl look like?" Tony asked, grinning at the screen.
"Well...She had green eyes, long black hair, pale skin? Does that help?"
"Sorta. What age do you think she would be?" Nat asked, cutting Tony off.
"Most likely around my age, so twenty-nine to thirty-five I would think."
Tony typed the details into the computer while Natasha pulled up the shield database.
"Tony, when you guys find her, tell me who she is and I can find her in the files," Nat said, sitting back.
"Yes, ma'am," Tony muttered.
Files and pictures of women with black hair and green eyes showed up. None of the first few looked like the girl he wanted.
"Tell me when to stop scrolling."
Tony started to scroll down the list of people, names and faces showing up. But none of her.
Patty Mane, Ruth Basher, Maria Wedge, Jess McKallen, Jonah Miles, Kali Vossen.
"Stop."
Tony froze with a picture of a pale skinned girl, high cheekbones, vibrant green eyes, oil-like black hair, red lips, and the hint of a smirk.
Her hair fell down over her shoulders. She wore a blue t-shirt and a black leather jacket.
"That's her.
Kali Vossen."