Till the end of the line

You are to be the new fist of Hydra

Steve...the last thing Bucky remembered as the rail of the train broke off, sending him plummeting to his death. He supposed Steve would never know how he felt about him. And that was okay. It was better this way. He had just seen Bucky as a friend. Never anything more, just like it should have been. Except Bucky saw Steve as so much more then that. Saw past the stars and stripes, past the muscles and confidence. To that little guy from Brooklyn, defending himself in the back of an alley with nothing more then the lid to a trashcan as a make-shift shield. And maybe he owed it to Steve that he was still alive. The one thought that kept him grounded; kept his sanity. The last thing that went through his head as he fell before everything went black. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be in love with your best friend.

      When he woke, all Bucky could think about was the pain. That...couldn't be right though. He should be dead. Until he remembered all the experiments he'd gone through, all the needles and tests back when his unit had been captured... It must have caused him to survive the fall. he could vaguely make out sounds, and suddenly his senses seemed to snap awake as his eyes shot open, panic quickly setting in. He was lying on a bed, several men crowded in the small room. A flash of silver caught his vision and he let out a surprised, strangled noise. He lifted his hands in front of him, studying his left arm with wide eyes. It was metal. The doctor -he assumed he was a doctor, with the lab coat and clipboard- came over to him, leaning over the bed to say something. He wasn't sure what came over him as he reached out, grabbing the mans neck and squeezing it, throwing him back as he got to his feet. The next thing he knew men were swarming him. He was forced into a room where they shoved him into a seat, holding his body down as something was placed into his mouth. 'You are to be the new fist of Hydra' he vaguely heard, right before he was inflicting with pain...Pain he wouldn't remember once he awoke. And this process continued for 70 years. Bucky was wiped of everything he knew. His name, his past, his life. He was given a mission after every wipe, and once he had completed  that mission they would wipe him again and then send him into the cryo chamber where he would be frozen until his next mission. It was one name that keep him going throughout all of this. Steven Grant Rogers. the name had no meaning to him, though he knew it had to be important. Some glimpse into his past. into who he used to be. Before he was the Winter Soldier. James Buchanan Barnes had become nothing but a weapon at this point. A shell of a man, who's only purpose was to kill. And slowly, the name Steve Rogers began to slip away, too.

     -"You've shaped the century," He stared into Alexander pierces gaze with a look of absolute hatred. "And i need you to do it one more time."

"That man on the bridge," He repeated the question he'd asked only moments earlier. His last mission was to take out Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov, but upon seeing the man dressed in his red white and blue, helmet fallen off as he lay on the ground... "Who was he?"

Alexander  Pierce looked over his shoulder towards the men behind him. "Wipe him," he ordered simply before standing to his feet, no intention of continuing this conversation. And that was the last straw. Bucky didn't remember the specific details, or even how he managed to get out of there alive with all of Hydra's staff lying either unconciounce or dead on the floor, but he didn't care. Hydra was done using him as a weapon.

From there he went into hiding, expecting the numerous hunts for him following his leave. But he kept hidden, moving from safe house to safe house, all the while memories slowly started seeping back into his mind. At some point along the way he purchased a backpack, where he kept whatever he owned. He began writing down whenever even the shadow of a memory slipped into his mind. Always foggy and unclear, but it was better then nothing. 

"And that's when i found myself at the smithsonian..." He let out a shaky breath, glancing at Steve briefly before his gaze swept back over the Avengers, all intently listening seated around the table. "I kept remembering this Captain America icon, and then it just all snapped into place. I remembered who i was, who Steve was..."

Sam passed Steve a worried look, seeing as the man seemed to have aged ten years just over the course of the story. Sweat was beading across his forehead; entire face pale. "Ste-?"

"Excuse me," The blonde managed, quickly pushing himself up from his chair, stumbling towards the door. He honestly looked like he was about to throw up. But Bucky was quick to follow, assuring the others that he needed to handle this. He'd been expecting this kind of reaction, anyway.

"Hey, hey, you gonna be alright?" He led Steve out to the balcony, stepping back as Steve made his way over to the rail.

"Oh my God..."   Steve dropped his face into his hands, head spinning. He felt sick, just thinking about what Bucky had been through.

A warm hand was swiftly brought up to his shoulder, a firm grip, causing Steve to look over at Bucky. The blonde let out a shaky breath, meeting the brunettes gaze.

"I made it out, Steve. All because of you."

"I should have come back for you after you'd fallen. It could have all been avoided."

Bucky saw guilt in the other man's eyes, shaking his head slowly. "If i had to do it all over again," He whispered, stepping closer. "I would."

Steve's eyes widened, not able to comprehend what Bucky had just said.

Bucky offered him a small smile, drawing in a breath. "You never let me finish the story," He reasoned, a gleam appearing in his eye.

It took a moment of silence before Steve was able to regain his composure, hesitating only a moment before giving a small nod."Go on."

It  had been about a year since escaping Hydra, Bucky realized as he slowly made his way from the museum, baseball cap pulled tightly against his head. But then a strange thought settled over him. Sure, he'd been through hell and back with what Hydra had put him through, but at the same time...No matter if he had lived, Steve still would have flown that ship into the ice...Still would have been frozen in time. And Bucky would have grown old and died along with everyone else in his time. But that hadn't happened. Steve was alive, still his same age. Maybe everything could go back to how it was before. As that thought began to settle in, the faint whirring of a helicopter caught his attention. The next thing he knew, men were dropping down around him, weapons in hands, all aimed for Bucky. He'd been found.

There were too many of them to fight. It was over. Ready to surrender himself, A sudden flash of red and gold flew past him, followed by the collapse of several Hydra agents. Bucky couldn't process what was happening, as the next thing he knew, a man dropped down beside him in some metal suit introducing himself as Ironman, having just taken out about 40 Hydra soldiers.

"He instructed me to stay here, and that someone named Sam would come and get me. Sure enough, this guy drops out of the sky in some bird costume and takes me here."

This comment brought a small chuckle out of Steve, as he straightened, a million thoughts swarming through his head. "This seems so unreal," he breathed, gaze drifting off to focus on something in the far distance. " Just a few hours ago Natasha and I were talking about how much I missed you."

This comment brought a small smile to Bucky's face as he placed his arm across Steve's shoulder. "I'm here now, and not even Hydra will be able to separate us again."

Steve let out a breathy laugh, leaning into Bucky as he wrapped him in a hug. "Punk," he muttered, grin creeping into his face.

"Jerk," came the expected reply.