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.
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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.
