“Wait Fury stole all of our DNA?”
Rhodey raised his eyebrows at Sam “Are you really that surprised?”
“But it’s all done now right? No World War IV happening?” Bucky interrupted.
“We’re only on World War III Buck,” Sam corrected, kindly. Bucky wasn’t half as clueless as Steve, but Sam was still semi-regularly amazed at some of the gaps in his knowledge. Hydra was clearly selective in what current affairs the Winter Soldier got to hear of over the years.
“Sure, that you know about maybe,” Bucky grumbled back under his breath.
“Okay, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that, but, yeah, Skrulls’re taken care of and it’s pretty much all good now. I mean the president may never look at me the same again, but no World War III. For now at least.” Rhodey confirmed.
“Sounds good to me so,” Bucky leaned back and took a swig of his whiskey.
“Man, you are being way too casual about this- Fury stole our DNA! Did you miss that part?” Sam could not believe how blasé the two of them were being.
“Well, technically is it stealing if it was just lying around in the open?”
“YES, Rhodey. Don’t be an asshole man.” Sam groaned.
“I mean I don’t get what you’re so riled up about Sam,” Bucky cut in, clearly amused by Sam’s reaction, “You donate blood all the time. It’s practically a hobby.”
“Man, that is different and you know it. Who knows what Fury might have done with those samples, and we’d never have even known!” Sam protested.
Bucky, halfway through another slug of whiskey, almost choked as he started laughing. “What, are you worried that they’ll use your DNA,” he was really losing it, “to make a normal guy into a really really annoying guy?”.
Rhodey snorted, then looked at Sam apologetically. “Hey, you and me both brother.”
“Fine, maybe the worst they’d do with my DNA is make a really handsome dude with great taste in music, but it’s the goddamn principle man! Do you really not give a shit at all?” Sam asked, incredulously.
Bucky just shrugged back, “Not really,” and poured himself another drink. Rhodey should have known better than to bring the good stuff for drinks with a super soldier. He knocked back his own, not willing to be left behind.
“C’mon Rhodes, you can’t be chill about this too.” Sam pleaded, looking for some sort of sane reaction out of at least one of them.
“Oh hell no,” Rhodey said, and Sam nodded in triumph, “I’m mad as shit. If Fury hadn’t just saved my life, I’da punched him in the face right there and then. Hell I still might. Though there’ll probably be a line.” There was, in fact, a lot of names on the list of “harvested” DNA. A lot of names you would not want to piss off.
“Oh man,” Sam was starting to think it through, “Do the others know yet? I can’t imagine Banner being happy about this.”
“Oh he wasn’t,” Rhodey stated, matter of fact. “But if you’d seen Hope Pym’s reaction, trust me, you’d rather take your chances with the Big Guy.”
Bucky laughed at that, drawing Sam’s attention back to himself. “See that is a normal reaction to having your DNA stolen Buck. How is it that us regular dudes are madder than the guy who had his super-blood stolen?”
“Sam, c’mon,” Bucky rolled his eyes at him, “it’s not like they were actually going to do anything with it.”
“Uh, I think the whole point of “The Harvest” was to do something with it Barnes.” Rhodey corrected.
“You know what I mean.” Bucky waved them off, exasperated. He spun his glass between his hands on the table.
All of this was just making Sam more confused. “Uh, not really Bucky. C’mon man. You’re almost as bad as Zemo about the whole super-soldier thing, however much you try to deny it. Why are you so chill about this?”
“Seriously?” Bucky stared at him.
Rhodey kept quiet. He felt a change in the atmosphere in the room, and no way in hell was he getting in the middle of it.
“Yeah, seriously,” Sam repeated, leaning forward.
Bucky rolled his eyes, leaned back and looked off to the ceiling, before locking eyes with Sam again. “Did you say “Hail Hydra” when you woke up this morning? Salute the six-tentacled banner? No? Great, so I’m guessing Hydra hasn’t taken over the world with the secret army of super-solders it’s had stashed away all these years.”
Sam just looked confused “Man what are you talking about?”
Bucky didn’t break his gaze “What I’m talking about, is that Hydra had my DNA for about seventy years, and the world isn’t overrun with super soldiers. So if you’re asking why I’m not worried about Fury squirrelling away a few drops of blood, there’s your answer.”
Sam sat back “You’re chill about it because you don’t think they’d be able to do it.”
“I know they wouldn’t.”
Sam frowned “But Hydra did make other super soldiers. You said it yourself, the other winter soldiers Zemo found in Siberia-“
“-Yeah who were made from serum I had to steal from Howard Stark. That was a pretty important part of that story actually. If you remember.”
Sam ignored the sarcasm, well used to Bucky’s attitude at this stage, “But if Howard Stark could do it, how can you be so sure someone else can’t?” Sam pressed him.
“Sam.” Bucky said, and just looked at him like Sam’s disappointed English teacher used to.
“Because Stark wasn’t working on your blood. It must have been Steve’s or-“
“Isaiah’s. Yeah.” Bucky at last broke off his stare at Sam and took another drink. Sam did the same.
“Wait, Isaiah - Isaiah Bradley?” Rhodey jumped in, throwing his sense of self preservation out the window. This he needed answers to. He’d gotten most of the story from Sam last year, but the thought that Tony’s father was one of the ones who’d experimented on Bradley… Bucky just glanced at him and nodded.
Sam deflated in his chair. “So the other winter soldiers were from Isaiah. The flag smashers were from Isaiah. Even Walker. Goddamn.” He clenched his fist and worked his jaw.
“Damn, that’s heavy.” Rhodey shook his head. Of course, Tony wouldn’t have known about any of this. Hell maybe even Howard hadn’t had the full picture of things. But still. It felt like something he should be able to talk to his best friend about. But Tony was gone, and that conversation could never happen.
Sam took a breath. “I hear what you’re saying Buck. But are you sure-“
“Godammit, Sam!” Bucky slammed the table, so hard the whiskey bottle jumped and fell, spilling out what little liquid remained. “You think Hydra’s first choice in super-soldier was a guy with one arm, whose brains they had to fry every five minutes to keep him in line? Well it wasn’t. They tried real hard to make more of me. They tried everything. For years.”
Bucky paused, took a breath and regained some of his composure before continuing “And none of it worked. I’m a fucking dead end Sam, and I’m fine with that, but I don’t know why in the hell you aren’t.”
The silence in the room was heavy following Bucky’s outburst.
Eventually, Sam spoke. “I’m sorry Buck.” From the way he said it, Rhodey knew he didn’t just mean sorry for pushing the topic tonight.
Bucky swallowed, looked away “Whatever, it doesn’t matter.” He stood up, “Sorry about the whiskey Rhodes. Think the liquor store’s still open, I’ll be back in a few.”
“Well shit”, Rhodey said when the two of them were left alone.
“Yeah,” Sam said, “Shit.”