Mission

It had been about five weeks now. They'd been staying at the safehouse, trying to sort things out, trying to move forward. Bucky didn't talk much-it was still too painful to talk to Steve, though he tried his best. Sam was quiet about it too. He knew Bucky was still hurt, and he figured it would be best to give him space. Bucky had been occupying his time by wandering around the woods surrounding the safehouse, disappearing silently and returning just the same.

The bitter October air stirred the leaves as he walked through the woods. He had wandered around the lake for a while, now making his way back to the house. It was late in the afternoon, the sun blocked out by slate grey clouds. It's been weeks now, I should feel fine. Weeks ago, he had felt despair. When he saw what Steve had done, he had felt heartbroken. Slowly, his sadness turned to numbness, and numbness to apathy. And now, as he walked through the woods in silence like he had for weeks on end, he felt bored. There was nothing left. He wanted to dosomething, and he hated it. He wanted to want to rest. He entered the house silently and began to walk to his room when he heard Sam calling him.

"Hey Bucky?

Bucky entered the sitting room. Sam was on the phone with someone.

"It's Sharon Carter. There's been a threat identified in Russia, a terror group took over a chemical weapon facility up in the Ural Mountains, she says she and her could use our help taking it down. If you're up for it,"

Bucky nodded. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as possible"- He gestured to the clock on the desk -"We're in."

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"Thanks, both of you for coming on such short notice. The task force has been a little slow to get back moving, a lot of people are still missing after...all of that." After the return from the snap, the world had been in a state of chaos as it tried to reassemble itself. Many people were still missing, returned to wherever they last were. Sharon walked briskly down the cold hallway to the glass doors of the landing pad. Droplets of rain spattered across the windshield of the jet as they boarded. Inside they met their team; Sharon commanding the mission as leader of the task force team, and a few members from different teams. Sam wore his falcon suit, newly outfitted with magnetic armbands and a back holster for the shield. Bucky wore a modified tactical suit he had found in the armory at the safehouse. As the jet took off, he wondered how Steve was doing. Sam had alerted him before they left, and he assured them that he was more than capable of taking care of himself for a few days. Bucky felt a little better now that he had something to do - maybe not good, but at least he felt something - but he missed doing this with Steve.

"We are in the landing zone, on the ground." The somewhat-unofficial team of 10 disembarked from the stealth jet in a flat, barren caldera on the side of the mountain. It was a beautifully clear night, but there was little time to admire it. Still, Bucky thought it was beautiful. It reminded him of going on missions with the Commandos. He had been in Russia for so long, and after he escaped he had vowed to never go back. He had already broken that promise once. He tried to repress the feelings of nostalgia, instead turning his attention to the mission.

Sharon gave them their tasks - half the team would break into the base, find and capture the leader, and secure the payload. The other half would secure the base from the outside to prevent the weapon from leaving the base. They moved silently. Bucky was assigned to break them in to the base and go after the leader - Sam would secure the base from the outside, and Sharon would locate and deactivate the chemical weapon. The base was located mostly underground, built into the a cave system in the side of a cliff. They had to make a bit of a trek down the valley to reach the tunnel entrance, and would then make their way to the higher levels through the evacuation tunnel. Bucky had been trained to do things like this. The goal was simple - get in unnoticed, make sure no one gets away.

He walked silently down the cold, unusually wide hall. Hollow and desolate, with high ceilings and wide, slanted walls, it should have echoed, but his footfalls made no sound on the concrete; decades of training had conditioned him to move noiselessly, blending with the shadows, unnoticed. A massive metal double door stood in front of him, painted whitish grey to match the walls, with chipped paint and rusty hinges. A garage. Bucky tensed, lifting his gun. He thought he heard something moving on the other side. Suddenly he heard shouting over the radio.

"BARNES, DO YOU COPY, THEY-" The sentence was cut off by a blaring sound. Someone had been made aware of their presence in the base and sounded an alarm. He heard a loud bang, followed by a low rumbling sound. "THEY'VE MOBILIZED, ON YOUR FLOOR-" The metal door came crashing open, ripped off its hinges as a tank drove straight through it. Bucky turned and sprinted down the hall. It opened into a small aircraft hangar, stretched out onto an outcropping in the rock - which opened directly out of the face of the cliff. The tank rounded the corner and fired. It missed him, but hit a large fuel tank. As it detonated, the hangar began to collapse, the outcropping began to crumble.

The floor cracked, sending Bucky sliding backwards towards the opening of the hangar. Flooded by terror and blind panic, he futilely attempted to climb the crumbling precipice. The ground was giving way under his feet; there was nowhere to go, nothing to hold on to - he was going to fall. Please not like this, please - he thought frantically. He cried out and shut his eyes, bracing himself to hit the ground; bracing himself to die. So when he swung sideways and slammed sideways into the wall, he assumed that he had fallen. It took him a moment to realize that he was still alive. Panicked and dizzy with shock, he willed himself to open his eyes, to see what had prevented him from falling to his death.

He looked up to see Steve Rogers staring back at him.

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Bucky kicked weakly at the wall, trying to regain his footing. Steve's strong hands wrapped around his wrist as he pulled him up over onto the ledge. He faltered as a sharp pain shot through his side. "It's ok, I've got you," Steve helped him to his feet, Bucky leaning against him, clinging to him tightly. The mechanical sound of wings approached as Sam alighted next to them. The ledge was the entrance to a maintenance tunnel that let out just below the hanger, sheltered by support beams buried in the cliffside. Leaning heavily on Steve and still too shocked to speak, they made their way through the tunnel and back out to the surface. The rest of the team had already been brought up by Sam, although some were in pretty rough shape after having been trapped in the rubble. Sharon met them as they approached the jet, a look of shock on her face.

"Captain Rogers...?" Her voice was a mixture of confusion and relief.

"Agent Carter," he smiled and nodded, adjusting his grip around Bucky's waist as they boarded the jet. As soon as they were on board, he began to explain. The time travel, his other self, everything.

At last Bucky found his voice. "How'd you get here?" He winced as he spoke, his ribs still aching from swinging into the wall.

"Strange sent me." Bucky remembered him; Dr. Stephen Strange. He was the weird wizard guy, with the facial hair. When he returned from the snap, Strange had opened a portal in Wakanda to bring them to the Avengers compound. He could also, if he recalled correctly, see the future. Bucky still felt dazed, still struggling to process as he listened to Steve's voice. Steve sat down next to him and grasped Bucky's hand, meeting his eyes. It was early morning now, and the pale, watery sunlight streamed through the panels of the jet. There he was; himself again, golden hair and sky blue eyes shining in the sunlight as he smiled at his best friend.