During Project Insight Steve catches sight of Agent Coulson and afterwards liaisons with him bringing Natasha and Sam with him. Clint joins them later. No one calls Tony. Reaching out to Bruce is much more trouble than it’s worth. Thor of course hasn’t returned at all. They work with Coulson’s team and with their help find Bucky rather quickly. Within the year even.
Coulson uses a device they have for bringing memories back. So Barnes remembers everything. It doesn’t quite work the way Steve hoped. Bucky was 25 when he was enlisted. 26 when he became a POW and was injected with the serum. 27 when he fell from the train in the ravine. He spent 70 years as a POW first with the Soviets then later he was either sold or stolen by HYDRA in the late 80s. He speaks with a Russian accent most of the time intermixed with a slight Brooklyn drawl. He speaks almost fondly of the Soviets comparatively as after they had broken him he had much more freedom and was allowed on longer missions than HYDRA’s pattern of cyro, mission, chair, cyro.
He’s quiet but when he does speak it is with the immense weight of decades of experience. It’s bantered about what remains of SHIELD (mostly just Coulson’s little group of trusted agents and the Avengers sans Tony) that Barnes is the most dangerous human on the planet. Once he starts writing down the unconfirmed kills he’s committed his number quickly goes from 100 to in the thousands. Apparently the Soviets let him loose during Vietnam and Korea. Only Steve and Natasha reframed from tiptoeing around him.
He’s much less the Bucky Steve was expecting to get back and more the Yasha Natasha knows. The Yasha that trained her. That in some part helped raise her. Clint hates him. Yasha refers to Natasha as Natalia and he is very harsh on her. Tells her she’s been slipping. That he’s disappointed in her slack. Natasha in the face of him frequently seems to become doll-like if not even a little child-like and Clint hates him for regressing his friend.
There’s some whispers of a relationship between them but Natasha is adamant it’s not like that. Yasha in many ways is the only thing she has to a father figure. They see him being harsh. She sees him being worried. If she's not at her best it could see him losing the last of his daughters. Natasha is quieter but realer than anyone has ever seen her, even Clint, when she tells them that there were rumors that her group in the Red Room had been bred from superior stock. There’s a good chance Yasha truly is her father. And he knows that. Still when she comes to him shyly asking to be handcuffed to the bed in a tone reminiscent of a child asking to be told a bedtime story it really truly dawns on the young agents like Skye and Jemma who subtily idolized Natasha just what the price of her skills were.
Steve, though still close to Natasha, resents that she got her Yasha back while he only gets occasional glimpses of his Bucky. He tells stories of Brooklyn in the 1930s and occasionally he’ll get a roguish smirk and a clap on the shoulder and a much more embarrassing retelling that he nonetheless cherishes.
Into this complicated dynamic comes problems with Barnes’ arm. There’s serious worry about a tracking device somewhere in the thing. Coulson’s science team of Fitz Simmons are brilliant. They do find and eliminate the tracking device but truly truly fuck up his arm doing so. Pinched nerves, constant pain, it starts grinding somewhere they can’t figure out where.
Finally and with great GREAT reluctance Coulson puts forth the suggestion that if anyone on Earth who isn’t Hydra that could fix this it's Tony. Arguments come from all sides except strangely Barnes who agrees immediately.
They contact Tony. Explain about Barnes, his arm and Tony immediately invites them to Stark Tower in New York. Along the way there Barnes is given the SHIELD profile of Tony so he knows what to expect. He is immediately disgusted. For one thing he’s seen the HYDRA profile on Tony Stark and this insulting farce of a report doesn’t come close. For one thing no “Narcissist, doesn’t play well with others” would invite these people into his home. Offer to help the murderer of his parents...It occurs to Barnes as Tony greets them with a smile that Tony. Doesn’t. Know. And Barnes is coldly furious.
As most of the group try to crowd into Tony’s workshop making the mechanic visibly uneasy at the large group in his space Barnes promptly turns around and orders them to leave.
“I’ll not have my technician distracted. Leave. Now.” He has to physically push Steve from the room before turning to face a slowly relaxing Tony. Barnes remembers what HYDRA’s report on Tony was. More than a bit of it he’d filled out himself. While the billionaire had been a master of masks and a consummate schmoozer at a very young age with what seemed to be an extremely public private life a deeper dive revealed a man who treasured his privacy and his workshop, his inner sanctum, was the ultimate safe space for the man. He was all out brazen in the public with seemingly no secrets but in the privacy of his home he was quieter, more real and at home with his bots than with people.
“So Robo-Hobo let's look at that arm.”
“Before we get started I need to ask and perhaps explain some things. Definitely apologize.”
“Apologize for what?” Tony said, taking a seat at his desk and waving Barnes forward.
Barnes sighed. “What do you know about December 16th, 1991?”
Tony freezes. “My parents died that night. Dad was driving drunk. Crashed.” Tony’s face was blank as he tucked all his emotions back behind his mask again.
Barnes shook his head. “Howard had managed to reverse engineer the super soldier serum. He had five doses in the trunk of the car. I, operating as the Fist of HYDRA, was sent to retrieve them, kill Howard and remove any witnesses.”
Now Tony showed emotion. Pain, sorrow, and pure rage flashed across his face as he threw himself at Barnes. He got a solid right hook across Barnes’ jaw which Barnes allowed before grabbing Tony’s hands and flipping him around. He held the squirming screaming body close as an alarmed British voice spoke from the ceiling.
“I know you’re hurting Tony but you’re only gonna hurt yourself if you throw yourself against me.”
“Did you know? Did you know who you were killing?”
Barnes shook his head. “No. They wiped me right before that mission to ensure I wouldn’t. Coulson’s machine brought it all back. Howard recognized me but I...I knew nothing but the mission.”
Tony ripped himself free of Barnes’ arms. Once again Barnes allowed this.
Tony held up his hand. “Stand down Jarvis.” Tony took several deep shuddering breaths. “Did Steve know? Before he brought you here. Did he know?”
Barnes nodded again but as Tony's back was still to him. “I wrote out all my past missions after I got out of the memory machine. He knew. On the way here I wondered if you’d been told. Greeting your parent’s murderer with a smile? I knew you hadn’t. Don’t bother hurting your hands again. I’ll be kicking his ass good and proper once I leave. He should have told you before ever bringing me here. You shouldn’t have heard this from me.”
Tony nodded with several short jerks. He wrapped his arms around his torso. Barnes noted he was a very compact man. Quiet and still his current posture belied his over the top persona.
“Did you want me to call someone?”
“Ms. Potts, Colonel Rhodes, and Mr. Hogan have been briefed on the situation and are enroute.” Jarvis said.
Tony took a deep breath and turned around. His eyes moved constantly like he was still processing everything.
“Alright then. I’ll go. I know it’s inadequate but I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what. Being captured and tortured and made to do horrific things for decades?” Tony took a deep breath and swatted at the air in frustration. “It’s not your fault.”
“But I still did it.”
Tony shook his head sharply and didn’t quite stop shaking.
Barnes hoped Tony’s friends got there soon. He was more than a bit worried about the man. “I understand if you never want to see me again. I’ll be going.”
“Sit. Down.”
Barnes’ whole body froze and he’d turned and halfway made his way to the chair before stopping himself. It’d been a while since he’d gotten such a succinent order like that. He hadn’t been able to help reacting. He looked up at Tony to find the man had stopped shaking and was now studying him. Even Barnes was willing to admit it was unnerving having all that intelligence focused on him.
Tony looked like he’d just come to the conclusion of a problem. “Sit down. You’re not leaving here until I look at that arm. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do everything I planned today but at the very least I’m gonna make sure it’s not hurting you.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I know I don’t. I never do anything I don’t want to. You should try it. If I let you walk out that door in pain I’m every bit the monster they think I am. Now sit down.” Tony took a seat next to Barnes and if his eyes seemed a bit shiny or his muscles a bit tense Barnes didn’t comment on it.
An hour later Tony had a good portion of the arm disassembled and finally turned off the pain receptors. He sighed. “Choice time. A little more work and I can remove it entirely. Or I can close it back up for now but it’ll be dead weight until I see you again.”
“Which is easier for you?”
Tony shook his head. “Not the question.”
Barnes thought for a second. “Jarvis what’s the ETA on Potts, Rhodes, or Hogan?”
“Three hours, and tomorrow morning respectively. Ms. Potts and Mr. Hogan are traveling together.”
“How long will both take?” Barnes asked and hid his chuckle at Tony’s unimpressed look. Yeah he wasn’t fooling the genius.
“Closing your arm backup will take about 45 minutes. Finishing up the dismantle will take another hour or so.”
“Do you need a break? Hungry? Thirsty?”
“An hour ago you couldn’t wait to get out of here. Now you’re trying to figure out how to stay until Pepper gets here? What’s your angle?”
“Just trying to be a decent human being. I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
“I’m a big boy. Been taking care of myself since I was-”
“Seventeen.”
Tony stared at him in defiance. “Fourteen. That’s when I got shipped off to MIT. Happiest day of my dad’s life. What was left of it.”
Their eyes held. Gallows humor? Barnes could work with that. He thought it was a little soon. The wound a little raw but maybe in the future. “What about your mom?”
“I think I actually saw her more after I went to college. She had to pencil me in during school breaks. It looked bad otherwise you know.”
“My Ma, with there being five of us, after I was old enough to start working I barely ever saw her except for the mornings and sometimes at night. Dad died when I was ten. Got ran over on his way home from work. Asshole didn’t even stop. Never caught him.”
“How’d you make it look like an accident? I never suspected and I’ve been over every inch of that accident report.”
“I didn’t. Kill Howard. Retrieve the serum. Leave no witnesses.” He frowned. “I remember shooting out a traffic camera but I made no effort to set it up to look like an accident. HYDRA didn’t do that. To them I really was a Fist. Point and attack. The Soviets allowed me to run longer missions. Covert stuff. I trained the little spiders in the Red Room. Things like that.”
“If the Soviets had you then how’d you end up with HYDRA? And what do you want done here? Close or remove?”
“Remove.”
Tony nodded and got back to work.
“Would you believe Chernenko lost me in a dog fight?”
“You’re kidding me?”
Barnes shook his head. “I was his guard that day. HYDRA leader starts asking lots of leading questions as to my skills, my strengths. Obvious in his ploy. Chernenko was arrogant, bragging that I was one of a kind. Irreplaceable. Boasting of my kill count...is it wrong that I was proud of it back then? I couldn’t remember anything but being the Winter Soldier and I was the best. Chernenko had been winning all night when the bet was made. I could see what was happening. How he was playing into their hands but I was muzzled that night. Of course the next fight went HYDRA’s way. Chernenko was furious but he’d overplayed his hand. Made the bet in front of many other powerful men. To go back on his word at that time…”
“”Yeah I get the picture. Merchant of Death. I’ve been in those places. With those men. A second of weakness and they’ll eat you alive.”
Barnes nodded. “So I was ordered to gather up my gear and go with the man from HYDRA.” Barnes spat off to the side. “The Soviets though they didn’t want to give me up without causing some trouble. Gave HYDRA the words to activate me but not to stop me. And not all of the words needed to fully keep me under control and compliant. Without the reenforcement words HYDRA had a ticking time bomb on their hands. I started to remember the time before the Winter Soldier. Started killing them anytime I wasn’t under constant guard. I got wiped more and more. Finally they were forced to keep me in cyro unless they needed me. Stupid pricks. Not one of them thought to order me to just go get my full controls from the Soviets.” Barnes rolled his eyes.
Tony huffed a laugh. He was frowning down at the metal arm as he slowly pried the many tiny parts away from the flesh of his stump. “Has this thing always hurt?”
“It didn’t used to. My owner’s manual had the full instructions from Zola on it’s maintenance. Another thing the Soviets didn’t hand over. HYDRA did a lot of guesswork. Glad I killed the little punk who found the pain receptors. After that they’d tune up it too tight to punish me if I got out of line during a mission.”
“There was a witness left.”
“No there wasn’t.”
“The accident report said a witness saw the whole thing.”
“Cover up. I don’t know by who. I had reported back and been put back on ice by that time.”
Tony frowned.
“I can find out if you want. Howard was my friend. We killed many a pot of coffee talking weapons out at the front.”
“I know.” Tony pointed at the wall. A small framed page as if torn from a journal hung from the wall.
“Holy fuck is that my old list?” A bit of Bucky’s Brooklyn drawl came through of amused huff of disbelief.
“Ten things every rifle should have. My bible for years.” Tony gently unscrewed more metal from around his shoulder. “You were always my favorite.”
Barnes felt a drop in his stomach.
“Dum Dum was full of stories about you. I used to sneak in when they were talking. Hid behind the curtains and listened. Dum-Dum would sneak me sips of beer.”
“He was a hell of a soldier.” Objectively Barnes admired Tony’s ability to compartmentalize though it was worrisome. He looked down at his shoulder as Tony peeled back the metal plating over his shoulder.
“Jesus is this thing bolted into your bones?”
Barnes nodded.
“Fucking barbaric.” Tony examined the revealed foundation with a frown. “You’re gonna need surgery for this part. Not even super soldier serum would save you if I yanked this part out.” Tony kept removing plates and panels. “I have a synthetic skin I’ll put over this to keep it clean until you can come back. I’ll contact some bio people in my R&D department about this part. I know an exceptional doc too.” He finished with what was apparently the last thing he was planning to remove. “Stand up. I want to get some final scans of you so I can plan out the next stages. Then you can go.”
Barnes stood as commanded. “Jarvis ETA?”
“Ms. Potts and Mr. Hogan are twenty minutes out.”
Tony rolled his eyes but Barnes detected a slight relaxation in his trapezius.
It took more than twenty minutes to get all the scans Tony wanted and to apply the synthetic covering. Once Tony had finished it looked like someone had taken a scoop to the muscles around Barnes’ shoulder. It all itched fiercely. Probably healing Tony theorized and wanted to be kept posted if Barnes regained any lost muscle around the remaining bones. Barnes had half his humerus still intact surprisingly but Tony said that would help later.
Finally and with more trebudantion than Barnes had seen since everyone had crowded into his workshop earlier they mounted the steps into the house proper.
There was a standoff in the living room and it looked like plenty had been said already if the quietly furious Pepper Potts and the abashed faces of the baby agents behind Coulson were any indication. Steve had his chin up like he was about to argue when he saw Barnes.
“Holy shit Buck what happened to your arm?”
“Tony removed most of it, obviously.” Barnes turned away from Steve abruptly to face Tony who was looking at Steve betrayed with hot eyes. “Thank you. You are a far better man than ANYONE standing in this room right now.” Barnes offered his remaining hand.
Tony seemed to jerk out of boring a hole through Steve with his eyes to reach out and clasp Barnes’ hand with both of his. “You’re welcome Sgt. Barnes and thank you. You keep me posted with any changes like we talked about and I’ll see you back here as soon as I can get my people lined up to remove the last of the arm.”
Barnes resisted the urge to click his heels and salute only barely. For a non-military man Tony commanded respect. He knew the man was usually much more flippant and sarcastic but he was still reeling and faced with Steve had made him shorter than he’d been in the workshop. He turned and grabbed Steve’s arm. “Let’s go.” His words came with a Russian growl and everyone hastened to obey him.
Back in the van taking them to the airport where their airbus awaited Steve asked what had happened. “I did what you should have done. I told him about his parent’s murder and my hand in it.”
“After he’d done all that to your arm?”
“No you stupid bastard before. I wasn’t about to take the man’s time and resources when he didn’t know that I’d murdered his parents.”
“That wasn’t you!”
“Still my hands. This hand Steve. This one right here? I squeezed the life out of his mother’s throat with this hand. I remember her rushing pulse beneath my hand. How it shuttered and stopped when I snapped her neck. Was I ordered? Yes. Did I know who Howard was when he begged me, begged Sgt. Barnes to save his wife? No. But it was still my hands. You wouldn’t ask a man to clean the gun that killed his parents. Why would you think it’d be okay to ask Tony to fix me without him knowing?”
“You’re not a gun!”
“Back then I was!”
Both super soldiers glared hotly at each other for a minute before Steve took a deep breath and hauled his emotions back under control.
“What happened after you told him?”
“He punched me. Little punk’s damn lucky he didn’t break his hand. He calmed down. Asked if you knew. He shouldn’t have heard it from me Stevie. He should have heard it from you, from Coulson, from a friend. After that I tried to leave but he stopped me. Said he wasn’t about to let me leave while still in pain. SHIELD’s report was the most bogus piece of fiction I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. HYDRA’s report was much more in depth and complete. I am lucky that Tony is a man of immeasurable compassion.”
Barnes spotted the tight face and the shame Natalia tried to hide. Ah there’s the source of the report. Barnes would be getting an accounting from her after he dealt with Stevie.
“Immeasurable compassion? Really?”
“What reason besides SHIELD’s bogus report do you have to doubt that?”
Steve opened his mouth then closed it. “He’s mouthy and arrogant.”
“So are you. So was Howard. Big surprise there.”
“He’s flippant. He doesn’t take anything seriously.”
“I would argue he takes everything way too seriously. You have misjudged that man. You’ve looked at the surface only. At the flimsiest of his masks and taken it as truth. You have seen exactly what Tony wants the world to see. A flippant billionaire playboy. Ignoring the genius, the industrialist, the Merchant of Death, the Hero. I guess I’m not surprised. Thinking was never your strong suit.” He sneered at his old buddy but in the way of old friends felt comfort calling a spade a spade. He turned to a quiet redhead in the corner. “I am disappointed in you Natalia. I expect a new SHIELD report by the end of the month. Maybe this one will be worth the paper it’s printed on.”