The final chapter! This started off as a one-shot but it kept growing as new ideas kept popping up. Oh, well, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
Chapter Four: Red, White, and Truth
Isaiah Bradley became Hydra's number one enemy. After Isaiah found out that the other super-soldiers in his unit were not dead but captured, he single-handily rescued them before the US government could blow up the POW camp to hide the evidence of their illegal experimentation.
Hydra operatives planted inside the American government were able to - unfortunately, rather easily - convince the government to imprison Isaiah for disobeying orders. There, Isaiah was no longer a threat but a lab rat. Hydra could perform experiments on the American super-soldier they would never risk conducting on the Winter Soldier.
Zola was, understandably, upset when he had to replace the asset's entire arm and found out that the Americans had their own super-soldier. Fortunately for Hydra, the Winter Soldier could carry out missions without interference from Isaiah.
/\/\/\/\/\
Bucky sat on the floor of his New York apartment, staring at the blank page of the journal Steve gave him. The therapy session earlier that day took a lot of energy, leaving him feeling drained. Instead of zoning out and sitting silently through the hour-and-a-half sessions, Doctor Raynor forced him to be more involved by suggesting to create a list of people he had harmed or helped as the Winter Soldier.
The list of amends sounded like a good idea at the time, but now, sitting alone with his thoughts, Bucky started to wonder if seeking out people for closure would help him sleep at night. It certainly wasn't an order, but it felt like he had no choice in the matter. His condition with the government practically forced him to listen to whatever Doctor Raynor said.
Sometimes it felt like the government treated him more like a villain instead of a victim. Doctor Raynor certainly did not seem to care much except to fulfill whatever contract she had with the government. It was stupid and nerve-wracking. Wasn't he supposed to feel better after therapy instead of feeling like throwing up before and after each session?
Maybe it would do him some good to do something other than blankly watching television between therapy sessions and lunch with Yori. He knew that he probably should not be thinking that way, but he could treat the amends as a mission. At least as Winter Soldier, he did not have to think - just carry out missions in a haze instead of actually feeling.
And, he had nowhere to start.
Most of the people he knew were dead, either from old age or an untimely demise by the hands of Hydra's prized assassin. Everyone the Winter Soldier faced in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Madripoor, Korea, and other countries were probably already moved on from whatever terror the Fist of Hydra put them through.
Besides, it's not like everyone he hurt knew the Soldier's identity. Only a few people, such as Steve, Sam, Natasha (rest in peace), and ... that one soldier in Goyang, knew Bucky's identity.
Bucky never got the super-soldier's name, but somehow the other man knew Bucky. And even stranger, nothing ever happened after that. It was like the super-soldier was there one day and gone the next, no trace of where the American soldier went. Maybe he was dead or assuming that the serum worked the same way with him that it did with Steve and Bucky, maybe the American was still alive and well.
Hydra never brought up the super-soldier again after Bucky confessed to losing his arm in a bar fight to the unknown man. Normally, with threats like that, the Winter Soldier would be deployed to eliminate them. Yet, they only crossed paths once, never to see each other again.
His curiosity piqued, Bucky jotted down "SS" for super-soldier on the first blank page in the notebook, leaving room to fill in the man's name later.
Sighing, Bucky leaned against the wall and gazed out the window. It would take some - maybe a lot of - research to figure out who this mysterious man was.
At least he had somewhere to start.
/\/\/\/\/\
Sitting on a crate in the airplane after the skirmish with the Flagsmashers, Bucky became lost in his thoughts. Any bruises he received in the fight were already healing, despite being administered by super-soldiers.
Super-soldiers, what a mess. Just when he thought that all the suffering with people attempting to recreate the super-soldier serum would stop, more people showed up - like a weed that refused to die.
Once word spread that the Americans had created a super-soldier during World War Two, everyone tried to replicate it. Bucky was the only one out of an unknown amount of test subjects to survive the experiments done by Doctor Arnim Zola. And the horrors that transpired with Isaiah Bradley and the other three hundred or so men injected with a lethal serum disguised as tetanus shots quickly followed. And now Bucky and Sam were stuck dealing with whatever the juiced-up Flashsmashers had planned.
Reading about Isaiah Bradley had left Bucky shaken. It hurt to think that if he had just kept his mouth shut and never told Lieutenant Nikolai Orlov about Isaiah, then maybe the American soldier would never have been tracked down and tortured by Hydra.
Still, he doubted that the American government would have let Isaiah go freely even without Hydra's interference. The thought had left Bucky feeling nauseous, and he had to leave the secure facility that he may or may not have broken into to obtain information legally or illegally.
Bucky added Isaiah's name to his list of amends as soon as he found out the mysterious man's name, as well as Isaiah's next of kin - Eli Bradley. Maybe once Bucky had the time, he would visit Isaiah and Eli at their Baltimore, Maryland home.
First, they had to deal with the stupid Flagsmashers and that stupid, freaking whats-his-face John Walker. Stupid Walker and his stupid face, and thinking that he had the right to carry Steve's shield. Stupid Walker and the stupid government that appeared to enjoy screwing people over, especially Bucky, Sam, and Isaiah.
"You alright?" Sam said from where he was lying on the seats, shaking Bucky from his thoughts.
Bucky frowned, staring at the floor. "Let's take the shield, Sam. Let's take the shield and do this ourselves," he eventually said.
"We can't just run up on a man, beat him up, and take it," Sam pointed out because they could obviously be arrested for assault, especially against a government official. Add that to his growing list of charges, and the government might finally decide to throw Bucky permanently into the Raft.
Sam sat up and looked at Bucky. Bucky still refused to look at Sam, partially, because he was still thinking about Isaiah, Walker, and the Flagsmashers, and partially, because some of the remaining conditioning knew that he was not allowed eye contact with anyone without permission.
"Do you remember what happened the last time we stole it?" Sam asked as if Bucky had forgotten the whole mess with the Sokoiva Accords.
"Maybe," Bucky said, briefly glancing in Sam's direction.
"I'll help you in case you forgot," Sam offered, which was nice but unnecessary. "Sharon was branded enemy of the state, and Steve and I were on the run for two years. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live the rest of my life la vida loca. We just got our ass handed to us by super-soldiers, and we got nothing."
"Not entirely true," Bucky said, thoughts circling back to Isaiah. More super-soldiers were around than most people realized, including people like Sam. Sometimes, that information was highly classified and not easily obtained through legal means. Sometimes, it took someone breaking into a secure facility to realize the truth: that the American government housed horrible secrets that almost rivaled Hydra.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bucky saw Sam stare at him with a confused expression on his face. Sighing, Bucky slid off the crate and sat down next to Sam.
Finally meeting Sam's eyes, Bucky forced himself to elaborate.
"There is someone that you should meet."
The End!
Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a review! My next story will be a rewrite of Oh Suzannah, Don't You Cry for Me. It might be a while before I find time to start rewriting that story, but I have so many new ideas that will make one of my favorite stories even better. :)