Soldier (A Bucky Barnes Fanfiction)

Prologue

The frigid wind picked up as snow blew in the faces of the search team. This far into northern Russia, there was never anything else but the bitter cold wind and the swirling snow.

"What do you think it is, chief?" One man shouted to the other, holding his hood down against the wind.

"Some sort of old world war bunker, I was told," the apparent chief said as they walked closer to the marked bunker. The recently discovered wreckage of the German aircraft that Captain America was found in, prompted numerous searches through the arctic. Ahead of them was the bunker, sticking out of the snow and the team that had surveyed the area, continued digging out the drifting snow.

"What have we got here?" The chief asked above the wind to another man in a red bulky coat that made the man's head get lost in the material.

"At first we thought it was just an old munitions bunker from the wars but it turned out to be a lot more," the Russian team leader responded as he led the men into the bunker. "This is a whole underground lab."

"Shit," the chief said, looking around at the large chamber. The lights were dim and a sickly yellow light flowed from a metal coffin. The chief walked up to the metal coffin, looking into the frosted glass. A woman rested, her eyes closed, frost gathering on her eyelashes. Her pale skin spider webbed with white frost and her hands placed on the window as though reaching for something.

"Chief, who is that?" The man asked, walking up next to the chief.
"I want her back in D.C. in 12 hours," the chief said, looking at the woman in awe.

|Tønsberg, Norway|
|March, 1942|

Distant gunshots could be heard as fast footsteps approached an old brick church. The man, who in the soft light of the candles, had red hair and a groomed mustache, but he looked disheveled, his eyes wild with fear as he quickly entered the church, closing and locking the large wooden doors behind him.

"They have come for it!" The man shouted in an urgent manner as the tower keeper briskly made his way down the stairs. He was an old man, he looked wise, his wispy hair and wrinkled face revealed his age.

"They have before," the tower keeper responded, walking around to stand in front of the young man.

"Not like this," the messenger responded in a frightful tone.

"Let them try," the tower keeper responded. "They will never find it." There was a loud rumbling and as it got closer, the building and its contents began to rattle. The metallic sound of chains echoed throughout the brick building until it stopped, leaving the church in a silence that promised ill fate. Both the messenger and the tower keeper slowly backed away from the heavy wooden door as they watched warily for someone to walk in. There was one last crash as the entrance was blasted in, the bricks scattering, barely missing the tower keeper who stumbled back onto the floor. The messenger, however, let out a short pained cry as he fell underneath the rubble.

The dust settled and the old man lifted a brick, confirming the young man's death as a battering ram retracted itself out of the now gaping hole that was once the entrance to the church. Harsh headlights poured into the old building as a car rounded the large tank revealing a decorative Hydra symbol placed on full display at the front of the car. A man clad in all black, his hair too groomed, his face too clean to be part of such a dirty war. Men came rushing in, all in matching uniforms. Three took to the large stone coffin placed at the center of the church, attempting to slide it off. Their grunts of effort revealed its true weight.

"Open it!" Their commanding officer yelled. "Open it before he gets -" The officer stopped upon the arrival of the man in all black. All soldiers turned to stand straight as though in the presence of a god. Each man moved out of the way while the tower keeper lay on the ground, watching the man pick his way confidently over the rubble.

"It has taken me a long time to find this place. You should be commended," the man said, his German decent clear in his accent. He turned to one of his soldiers, "Pick him up." The nearest soldier did as told, grabbing the old man, pulling him to his feet to stand in front of the man that everyone seemed to fear yet had a great deal of obedience toward. "I think you are a man of great vision," the man in black went on, now able to look the tower keeper in the eyes. "And in this way we are much alike."

"I am nothing like you," the tower keeper responded quickly, not shying away from the confident man.

"No, of course. But, what others see as superstition, you and I know to be a science," the man retaliated calmly.

"What you seek is just a legend," the tower keeper insisted.

"Then why make such an effort to conceal it?" The man in black asked, nodding to the tomb. The tower keeper had no response as the man in all black made his way over to the tomb, handing his military issued hat to a nearby soldier. He took a brief glance over the coffin before easily shifting the top completely off, revealing a human skeleton whose boney hands grasped a glass cube. The man in all black ripped the cube away with his gloved hand, turning it over to observe it. "The Tesseract - it was the jewel of Odin's treasure room," the man said, turning to face the tower keeper, deliberately letting the cube slip from his gloved hand to shatter on the floor, earning startled looks from everyone. "Not something one buries," the man continued, walking up to the old tower keeper.

"I cannot help you," the old man responded, keeping his voice calm, only his eyes revealing his true fear.

"No," the man said softly, "but maybe you can help your village. You must have some friends out there. Some ... some grandchildren, perhaps. I have no need for them to die." The old tower keeper looked to the tank outside the church which was turning to aim toward the village's houses. The tower keeper looked back, not at the groomed man in front of him, but at the design of a tree on the far wall. The man in all black looked back, following the tower keeper's gaze, slowly walking over to it. "Yggdrasil," the man started, looking over the carving in the church wall, "the tree of the world. Guardian of wisdom and fate, also." The man's gaze zeroed in on the roots of the tree until his finger came across a button that was slightly out of place. The man gave a slight smile as he pressed the button, revealing a secret container. He pulled the container out with a gloved hand, turning to his men as he opened it. A blue light lit his face, causing his figure to look sunken and etched. "And the Führer sends us for trinkets in the desert," the man mumbled to himself, then looked up to the tower keeper who had a sickly look on his face. "You have never seen this, have you?"

"It is not for the eyes of ordinary men," the tower keeper responded, not able to take his eyes off the blue light reflecting off the man's face.

"Exactly," the man said, quickly snapping the box shut, the haunting look of the man now gone. He then began to walk out, signaling for his soldiers to follow. "Give the order to open fire." He placed his hat back on his head.

"Fool! You cannot control the power you hold. You will burn!" The tower keeper called, causing the man to turn.

"I already have," the groomed man responded, unholstering his gun, quickly shooting the old man who fell to the floor next to the now cold body of the messenger. The man in black was not fazed as the gunshots fired heavily behind him.