Life Doesn't Discriminate

“Buck, I know this’ll be hard, but we need everything you know about Nemea.” Steve’s words echoed through Bucky’s mind as they worked on plans and tried to contact Palmarius using Vision’s stone, and the time stone. Steve seemed to sense Bucky’s shift in mood, as the super soldier kept throwing side long glances at him, his eyes filled with concern.
“Hey, you okay?” Steve asked, pulling him to the side while everyone else continued to work. Rhodey and Falcon had already headed out to fight the Nemean helicopters that kept flying in, Natasha and Wanda getting ready to as well. Tony had wanted to go, but was told to stay and help plan as he would be the best at finding Peter as Mindy wasn’t there, and Happy had yet to return.
“I’m fine,” Bucky lied, the world sounding slightly muffled. Steve looked at him skeptically, a silent promise for a long conversation later on, before heading over to where Bruce was calling his name to ask about something.
Okoye had decided that she would be joining Natasha Wanda, much to their relief. THey could use another strong fighter with them. Shuri was happy to volunteer, but T’Challa shut that idea down immediately.
“No. You will be staying here, where Nemea ISN’T,” he had said, much to the young scientists annoyance.
“I can take care of myself, brother,” she complained, but T’Challa only turned back to whatever he’d been working on, leaving Shuri to rant in piece.
“Peter would agree with me. He’d already be out there.”
“Well, given the amount of times Peter has almost gotten himself killed doing stupid stuff, I wouldn’t use him as your lead example,” Tony said, walking by to get to the lab.
“Hey Star-spangled Superboy, outta my way,” Tony demanded as Steve had been too caught up in wondering what was going on with Bucky to notice Tony was trying to get through.
“Sorry Tony, I was just-”
“Yeah, don’t need an excuse. Kinda busy at the moment,” the genius replied tersely, continuing down to the lab and passing the tense form of Bucky as he went. By now the world sounded like it was underwater to Bucky, the word Nemea pounding in his mind. FIght it, he told himself. HE didn’t know if he could.
He felt like screaming. Screaming just to prove that he could. That his voice was under his control. He wanted to beg Steve not to make him remember. Not to make him talk about it. A part of him knew it was too late, though.Whatever walls he’d managed to start building against the worser parts of his training were shattered from that phrase alone. Bucky slipped silently away, everyone to stressed to notice him leave as voices he’d prayed not to hear again roared to life in his head.

“Send him to the Nemea branch. They should be able to finish his training.” A train ride. He remembered a train ride. And a boat. He was tied down, and unable to look out any window to see if it was day or night, or anything about his surroundings.
“Asset, what is your name?” His handler barked.
“I-I don’t know,” Bucky stated in confusion. “Can you tell me?” he asked, looking up at the one familiar face. He it back a whimper when he was backhanded across the face by the man’s metal coated glove and pulled towards his face by the front of his shirt.
“You ask for nothing. You demand nothing. You are compliant,” he hissed, throwing him back down to the floor. Bucky lowered his eyes, and would keep them down for the next 70 years.

“This is it?” a heavily accented woman’s voice demanded.
“Yes,” the voice of his handler replied, a waiver of fear slithering into it.
“You, on your feet,” the woman barked at Bucky, yanking him up by the hair when he hesitated to comply. “You do as I say now. No one else,” she growled, using his hair as leverage to keep him looking at her. She had steel blue eyes and wavy red hair which framed her square jaw and high cheekbones. She smirked and glanced over to the handler. “Why is his hair so long, I thought he was military.”
“He’s been in the cell for weeks, we didn’t want any sharp objects near him. We’ll cut immediately,” the man said, seemingly wanting to do anything to keep the red haired woman on his side.
“No,” she said, turning back to Bucky with a terrifying glint in her eyes. “I like it long. Gives me some leverage,” she said giving Bucky’s hair a painful tug that loosened a few strands. From his head.
“You are dismissed,” she said to the handler.
“Shouldn’t I stay? I was assigned to-”
“Please. Once I’m through with him, he won’t even remember your voice, let alone your role. I will be the only thing he knows, and the only thing he fears,” she said before pulling out a previously hidden pistol from her lab coat. “Watch carefully, asset. This is what happens to those who fail to follow my direction,” she said before putting a bullet through the handler’s head. “Now. We shall begin.” With that the blindfold was put back on, and would remain there for the next three months.

Bucky sat huddled in the corner of his bathroom, the mirror in shards on the floor and the sink ripped out of the wall. Water spilled form the pipes and mingled with the red of the blood Bucky had spilt while demolishing the glass. He had no memory of doing it, but knew that it had to have been him. He pulled a splinter of glass out of his metal arm and threw it to the other side of the bathroom, watching it land in the water with a plucking sound. He could feel water soaking through his clothes, but he didn’t care. Not now. Dr. Leonie Alert’s harsh voice rang in Bucky’s mind as he felt phantom electricity wrap around his body, frying his nerves and burning through his flesh. His first instinct was to scream, but he remembered Dr. Alert’s demands; Silence unless told otherwise.
Bucky collapsed into the water, tears welling in his eyes. More memories poured back as the word Nemea continued crashing through his mind, destroying everything he had worked so hard to build up. He didn’t want to break again. He couldn’t break again, could he? T’Challa had said the work they did on Bucky was theoretical. They had no idea if it would work fully or not. Could he become the Winter Soldier again? Bucky clutched his head, growled and shaking, trying to sort out everything going on inside it. Steve. Where was Steve?

Sam and Rhodey had been the first to leave to start fighting and Sam had to say, he wished they’d brought more people. Nemea’s helicopters were armed to the teeth, all carrying highly trained soldiers and covered in heavy duty armor which reflected their bullets right back at them.
Sam saw Rhodey dive beneath one and attach a grenade to the bottom before racing away as the ship was blasted out of the sky.
“Well that works,” Sam said.
“Good, ‘cause we’ve got more company,” Rhodey groaned. Sam looked to where he was pointing and saw five more helicopters soaring towards them, the roar of their propellers making it almost impossible to hear each other.
“Well good thing there’s more of us here now too then,” Came the voice of Wanda. Sam flipped around to see the Scarlet Witch keeping herself floating with a stream of red coming from her hands. Natasha had a powerful jetpack on with the name ‘STARK’ written down the side in bright orange, while Okoye had some sort of jet pack made of vibranium.
“Oh thank God,” Sam replied.
“So, what do we know?” Natasha asked.
“Bullets won’t work. So far we’ve been using grenades on the bottom, like so,” Rhodey called, throwing another grenade onto another ship and watching the bottom explode. “It usually takes a few though, the armor on these things is insane,” he said, adding another grenade to the same ship.
Wanda through a bolt of red at the propeller of one and knocked it out of the sky, only for it to come back up like a rocket.
“Are you kidding me!” Okoye demanded, firing bolts of blue light at one of the helicopters. Wanda growled and blasted the nearest one with even more power, not relenting until it was spiraling down towards the street.
Natasha jumped on top of the propellerless one and made her way across the roof until she was perched right above the door, where the soldiers were firing at them from within. She took one of her tiny electric bolts and through it inside, enjoying the yell of surprise that came from within.
“Well I think she’s got that covered,” Rhodey observed, watching as Natasha licked her way into the ship and threw two of the soldiers out of the copter.
“Dang, would not wanna be them,” came the voice of Shuri.
“Shuri! What are you doing here!” Okoye demanded angrily.
“Relax, what my brother doesn’t know won’t hurt him. I was dismissed from the lab, so I decided to come here. I’ll be back at the compound before he even knows I’m gone.”
“SHURI!” roared T’CHalla, seeming to have somehow patched into their coms. “What do you think you are doing!”
“Your job apparently,” she sassed, blasting the propellers off three approaching copters so that Natasha could get on the roof.
“T’Challa, as worried as you are about Shuri, I doubt distracting her will keep her safe,” Natasha’s voice cut in as T’Challa began a sure to be long lecture.
“Fine. But the second I get there, you’re done,” he growled.

Bucky had been gone for too long. Natasha, Wanda, and Okoye had left to join the fight twenty minutes previously while Tony, Bruce, Dr. Strange, Shuri, T’Challa, and Vision had all gone to the lab. Steve had tried going down there with them, but hadn’t understood half of what was being said, so decided to just wait until he was allowed to go out and fight. Normally he would have just left, but he knew better than to cross Tony when the man was in a mood like this. That, and he didn’t know where the jet packs were, which was a crucial part of fighting in the sky.
He was just wondering where Bucky had gone off to when he heard the sound of metal hitting metal coming from upstairs. Bucky’s room. He was running before he'd realized it, not paying attention enough to notice Shuri leaving the lab in a huff behind him. He sprinted up the stairs in two’s and three’s until he finally stood in front of Bucky’s door. It was open which was odd. Bucky always kept his door closed. Steve cautiously stepped into the room and looked around.
The bed was made and the closet was closed. Every drawer was in order, and the shades were pulled, just like always. Bucky had yet to decorate his new living corridors except for a small frame he kept by his bed, which contained a small piece of paper on which Steve had drawn him a wolf. Steve was about to deem the room completely in order when he noticed the water. The rug outside the bathroom door was slowly being soaked with water which was seeping out from under the door.
“Bucky?” Steve called. He was met only with the sound of trickling water. He tugged on the handle only to find it locked. “Guess we’re going this again. Sorry Stark,” he grumbled before smashing into the door with his shoulder. The wood yielded easily, and Steve found himself ankle deep in water, surrounded by chaos.
The sink had been ripped out of the wall, and the mirror broken. The shower curtain was in tatters and the faucet handle was discarded on the ground. It took Steve a moment to get over his initial shock and locate Bucky. When he did, though, the rest of the bathroom was forgotten.
Bucky was sitting in the corner closest to the door, surrounded by broken glass. His clothes were soaked through and he was shivering slightly, his eyes trained on the window who’s curtain had been aggressively ripped off to reveal the bright sun and puffy clouds of the day outside.
“Buck?” Steve asked again.
“Three months,” Bucky murmured, not taking his eyes off the view outside. “She wouldn’t let me see anything. She had a special mask that impossible to get off without the key. Not even my arm could break it. I think it was vibranium. Is it time?” Bucky asked, finally looking back towards Steve.
“Time for what?” Steve questioned, sitting down in the water beside Bucky.
“Time for me to tell you what you need to know. What you need to know to stop Nemea.”
“This was all because of-” Steve began, eyes wide.
“I’ve made my peace. For now,” Bucky stated, leaning heavily onto Steve’s soldier. “There’s a lot you need to hear though. A lot that only I can tell you.”
“How much do you know?” Steve asked uncertainty. He had known Bucky had known about Nemea, but he didn’t think it would be information that could change the fate of the war.
“Enough. They’re the ones that made me. She commissioned the arm as well.”
“Who’s she?” Steve asked, after a pause. Bucky stayed silent for a moment, a lost look in his eyes before opening his mouth and beginning the story of the past seventy years.

Explosions were everywhere. Peter ducked behind pieces of rubble and jumped over fallen benches as he tried to get people to safety. He had tried to help May first, but she had refused to go until everyone else was safe. Palmarius was running around trying to locate the other hidden explosions around Queens, the infinity stones helping her pick up their energy signals.
“Peter watch out! There’s one in that fire hydrant!” Palmarius screamed. Peter leaped out of the way and was halfway up the side of the nearest building when it went off.
“Where are the other Avengers?” Palmarius yelled up to Peter.
“I don’t know!” Peter called back. “They should be here by now!”
“Look!” Palmarius yelled suddenly. Peter looked where she was pointing to see what seemed to be a battle where the helicopters were covering the sky like clouds. “They’re here! At least, some of them are anyways!”
“Tony hasn’t come,” Peter observed. “He must be planning something, or he’d be out here.”
“Well they seem pretty occupied up there. It’s up to us to hold the fort down on the ground level,” Palmarius decided. “Come on!” Petrer leaped down to follow her only to see the patch of land where he was planning to land suddenly erupt as a previously undetected explosion ripped through the ground. He heard a scream of horror from who he guessed was Palmarius and prepared to get caught up in the whirlwind of dust and rock when suddenly there was an orangey flash, and he was in the Avengers Compound, Dr. Strange, Tony, Bruce, and T’Challa standing over him.
“Palmarious! Come through!” The doctor ordered. The infinity warrior took no time jumping through the portal and shifting back into Mindy.
“Good timing,” Peter said, panting.
“Kid, are you alright?” Tony asked hoisting Peter to his feet and checking him over briefly.
“Yeah, yeah, did you guys get May?” Peter asked, looking around.
“No, isn’t she evacuated?” Strange asked.
“She refused to leave until everyone else had,” Peter explained in a rush. “Please, you’ve gotta open another portal,” he begged, turning back to Dr. Strange. The doctor nodded and asked for a location, which Peter gave. Strange had to go through to get her though, as they didn’t have an exact location beside the building she had been staying in, so they had a few moments to kill.
“Hello, Peter. It has been a long time,” The voice of T’Challa said.
“Mr. King T’Challa sir!” Peter squeaked, having not noticed the presence of the Wakandan King in his panic about May.
“We’ve been over this, you can just call be T’Challa,” he said, knowing that no matter what he told the kid, it wouldn’t stick. “I was trying to get in touch with you and Bucky. I believe that after this is all over, it would be beneficial for a few more discussions about what went on in the golden light.” Peter nodded, flashes of the group of three’s time in their prison flashing before him.
“Yeah… yeah I think I could use that,” he agreed.
“Hey, where is Bucky?” Tony asked, looking around. “And for that matter, where’s Steve?” They didn’t give the subject much thought though, because suddenly another portal opened in front of them, and a very battered looking Stephen Strange and May Parker came stumbling out.
“What the Hell happened?” Bruce asked, staring in shock at the ash and blood covering Strange’s tunic. The cloak of levitation was wrapping protectively around him and looked like it would strangle anyone who came near.
“Guys, we’ve got a problem,” Strange said before swaying and falling sideways, very nearly taking Tony with him who just managed to catch the man.

Steve wasn’t sure how long he and Bucky had been in the bathroom, and he hadn’t bothered checking to see what was going on downstairs. He was too busy staring at Bucky in horror as the other man recounted the monstrosity that was Nemea’s training program. He recounted every whipping, ever hour on the electric table. Every time they whipped him, and everytime he was told to kill for practice.
As Bucky spoke, Steve noticed his hands clenching and unclenching as he began to shake, making Steve move closer and pull Bucky towards him.
“I killed you, once,” Bucky said. “She had one of the agents use tach like Nat’s to make their face yours. I didn’t hesitate. Later that day she told me something. She said, ‘he’s out there, soldier. Under the waves. Buried deep in the ice. He waits for you, but you will not go. Not unless I want you to.’ She knew you were there, Steve. She knew exactly where you were. She left you there, though. She didn’t tell Hydra.”
“Why?” Steve asked in a voice that was barely a whisper.
“I think that she was going to see if the Winter Soldier project worked out. If it did, then she would have added in another. One that would work as more of a symbol to break the world.”
“She was going to unfreeze me and make another you,” Steve clarified.
“Yes. She didn’t live long enough to, though. Only long enough to finish making me. Her name was Dr. Leonie Alert. If you want the head of Nemea, look for her bloodline. She would have left her work to no one else,” Bucky instructed. It seemed to Steve that Bucky was done for the day, as the man suddenly slumped against Steve’s side, and let his eyes fall shut. They both sat in the chaos of the destroyed bathroom for a few more minutes before Steve sighed and half supported, half carried the other man to hi bed and lay him down.
“I’ll be back for you. I promise,” he murmured before grabbing his shield and heading downstairs.