Take That
There’s questions weighing heavy on his mind as he drives to his apartment. How the hell did Rumlow know the name Winter Soldier? How the hell is Pierce and his men messed up with Hydra? It’s something that James plans on finding out the answer to before the night is over. He’s already cleared his apartment and the surrounding area of Pierce’s men and thrown his tac gear on. He’s ghosting his was to Clint’s now to regroup before heading out to where he knows Pierce is. He’s also called in and let Tony know he might not make it into work tomorrow.
By this point, Pierce has most likely called all of his people back to him to defend both him and his base. Pierce knows James is coming for him, because if left alive, James doesn’t just let you get away with trying to kill him. Plus, Pierce has been on James’ nerves for far too long.
He climbs the stairs of Clint’s building with something alive in his steps in a way that he hasn’t felt in a long time. He steps over the broken door into Clint’s apartment, raising an eyebrow at the people gathered inside. Natalia is settled on the couch arm, Clint’s beside her. Matt Murdock is standing by the window, listening to Thor as the jovial gunsmith talks his ear off. Bruce, a surprisingly strong combatant is settled on the couch beside Clint, a cup of tea in his calloused hands.
He’s used to these people, but he’s pleasantly surprised at the presence of Peter, Scott, Luke and Carol all standing around the room, geared up and ready to go. Natalia notices him first, but Scott’s the first to speak. “Holy shit, so this is the look we’re going for? All you need is warpaint man and you’re easily the scariest fucking guy I’ve ever met,” the guy says. Loudly.
James glares at him, making his way over to Natalia and Clint. “Everyone’s been briefed?” he asks them.
Natalia nods. “Everyone here has some problem or another with Pierce’s crew,” she says.
“We’re all going to benefit them being gone,” Matt speaks up, looking over in their direction.
James hums, hiking his rifle up further on his shoulder. “So we’re good to go, then?”
“Good as ever,” Clint assures him.
James nods, ready to give directions to where they’re going when everyone’s attention shifts to the doorway. James has a gun pointed at the intruder’s head a split second later, finger only just hesitating on the trigger. “You’re joking me,” he sighs, lowering the gun.
Steve knocks on the doorframe, raising an eyebrow. Sam just shrugs from next to him, a what-can-you-do look on his face. “It’s not like you can’t use the help,” Sam points out.
“Who’re they?” Peter asks.
James sighs again, putting more exasperated into it. “Everyone, this is Steve and Sam, aka Captain America and…?” he trails off, looking at Sam.
Sam waves. “Falcon, I guess. I can fly,” he announces.
James lets that slide, not asking about it. “Okay. Fine. You two can be briefed on the way there. It’s a half hour drive so we better get going, it’s best to get this over with before the sun comes up,” he says, looking over everyone.
They’re all nodding. They head down to the cars, piling in. Steve and Sam end up in the same car as him, Clint and Natalia, much to James’ irritation. He deals with it, tuning out Natalia briefing the two and focuses instead on what’s going to happen once they get to Pierce’s safehouse.
All of Pierce’s men are thugs, mostly untrained in anything but a gun and intimidation. They have no chance, not against all of these people James considers friends. He wonders if he’ll get to Pierce first. He doesn’t mind, really, as long as the bastard dies. He’s been gaining too much power, so much that the rest of the underground is starting to get antsy, what with the way Pierce is starting to expand his business into other territories.
“We’re here,” he says, parking the car and popping the boot.
They all pile out of the car, the other pulling up in the carpark too. James grabs his rifle, the rest of his weapons already clipped onto his tac gear. He looks over all of them, nodding once in a ‘good luck’ gesture before turning to go up the nearest tree and take out all the guards. He finds himself looking at Steve, who’s staring straight back at him.
James clenches his jaw before tilting his head in a ‘come with me’ way and stalking off. He hauls himself up a tall, big-branched tree with his rifle on his back, Steve following him. They’re barely halfway up when Steve starts talking. “So Sam told you I’m Captain America,” he says.
James doesn’t grace that with an answer, hauling himself up onto a branch and settling down, setting up his rifle. Steve sits on the branch next to him, simply watching. “Everything you’ve done...I don’t care, Bucky. It’s not your fault,” Steve speaks again, just as James is lining up the first shot.
James feels amusement curl in his stomach as the first guy goes down. “Steve, killing people is literally my job,” he says, taking the next guy out.
“You didn’t choose this life, though,” Steve insists.
James takes down the next few people before speaking again. “I’m genuinely choosing to kill people right this very second,” he reminds him.
He takes a moment to glance over at Steve, taking him in in the dim light. He seems scarily unfazed. “You’re only killing the bad guys,” Steve says.
“The bad guys, right. You sound like a fucking comic book,” James snorts, shooting the next guard. People are starting to come out of the building now, looking like frazzled ants. “These people have families, lives. Just because they’re hired by Pierce doesn’t mean they’re bad people. Hell, I was hired by Pierce. I’m probably worse than all of them put together, what with the shit I’ve done, Hydra taken into account or not,” he continues, picking the people off. They’re starting to turn around and run inside now. They know who’s here.
“What are you trying to do? Tell me you’re a bad person?” Steve questions, swinging his legs.
James gives him an incredulous look. “I’m trying to make you realise that I’m a horrible person. Shit, the things I’ve done, you couldn’t even imagine them. I’m trying to get you to see that I’m not your Bucky. I’m James Barnes and I’m a damn mercenary, despite the fact I attempted to be a mechanic for a couple of days,” he says, packing his rifle up.
“You’re so much like him,” Steve says, following him down the tree.
“But I’m not him.”
“No, you’re not. I know that. But you’re still the guy I’m in love with,” Steve continues, dropping down to the ground and watching as James stashes his rifle in the boot of the car.
He follows Bucky towards the house where everyone is already in position. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Steve, eleven years. And you’re still in love with Bucky?”
“Yeah,” Steve shrugs, pulling his cowl over his face and striding into the house alongside James.
James feels something wild unfurling in his gut as Steve effortlessly takes down the first thug that comes at them using only his fists. James has noticed that Steve’s not carrying any weapons. Rolling his eyes, James moves upstairs, knowing that most of the others are clearing the basement and first floor.
“And you know I’m not him?” James checks, tugging his knife back out of his opponent's thigh, watching Steve swing his body around and use the momentum to throw his own opponent downstairs.
“It’s drilled into my brain at this point, thanks to you and Sam. Sam may have had a chat to me on the way to Clint’s,” Steve admits, following James to the top floor.
James sighs, meeting Steve’s eyes meaningly at he shoots one of the particularly vicious thugs near point-blank. Steve flinches at the sound of the body hitting the ground, but he doesn’t do anything else other than narrow his eyes. James raises an eyebrow and ups his game, moving through the people coming at them with and effortlessness that feeds the ferocity pounding in his bloodstream.
Steve...Steve matches him almost as easily, if not hindered only by the fact that he’s leaving everyone he touches alive. James sneers at him, kicking in Pierce’s office door, looking away from Steve as the man winks at him, knocking out the last thug and coming to stand behind him. The adrenalin from the fight is still flooding James’ system as he takes in the sight before him.
Natalia has Pierce with his arms up, back to the window. Nick - Nick Fury - is standing beside her, a tired yet pleased look on his face. Clint is standing behind Rumlow and Rollins, both thugs tied to chairs. Rollins is out cold but Rumlow spits at James the moment he sees him. The guy’s face is a mess and James takes in Clint’s bloodied knuckles with an incredulous look.
“Okay, this has just completely stumped me,” James admits.
Natalia snickers, waving her gun at Pierce who sits down obediently, a scowl on his face. “You were set up by Pierce, kotik. Pierce is the head of a new American branch of Hydra and when he was given clearance to know about the Winter Soldier, well. He knew your face immediately. He needed a reason to bring you in and kill you for Karpov, who’s the dirty root of all of this, so he got you to kill Nick. It was plausible that he wanted no witnesses, only Nick’s a clever man and on top of being a lawyer, he’s also the head of Shield and I have your apartment bugged. I knew you were going to kill Nick, so I let him know and he played dead. He was wearing armor when you shot him,” Natalia explains, a smile on her face.
James scrapes his hand down his face, reeling. “I’m even more stumped. I just want to kill Pierce. And probably Rumlow,” he says, looking at the men in question with a meaningful expression.
“We need to take Pierce in for questioning, Mr Barnes,” Nick speaks up, raising an eyebrow. “He’s very deep in some shit and he’s sitting on valuable information that could crack open a case Shield has been working on for a very long time.”
James looks at him, frowning. “All I heard was that I can’t kill Pierce, to be honest,” he bites out.
“That’s correct, Mr Barnes.” Nick says.
James purses his lips and looks at Pierce, who’s standing very still, probably planning something right now. James sighs. “There’s no way I can kill him?” he asks.
“No,” Nick says, sounding irritated this time.
“Bucky…” Steve cautions from beside him.
James can hear the others coming up the stairs, knows his window is getting smaller. Shield - where the fuck do all these organisations keep coming from? - wants to take Pierce in. James knows Pierce has several aces up his sleeve. If he gets out of here alive, he’ll slip through Shield’s fingers like a damn eel. He’ll get away, and they’ll have to go through this all over again.
Pierce is on the ground and James’ gun is smoking a second later, the shot ringing through the room. “He flinched!” James protests before people can start yelling at him.
“Barnes!” Nick starts forwards, but James is already stalking over to Rumlow, a scowl on his face.
For the first time, James sees real fear on the bastards face. “Four four seven three six nine eight two. That’ll get you into that vault over there, and in it you’ll find more than you would have ever gotten out of Pierce,” he says, tucking his gun away and coming to stand in front of Rumlow.
Nick makes a disgruntled noise, but goes over to the vault, tapping in the numbers. Clint moves over to him and Natalia after leveling James with a cautioning yet impressed look. James can feel eyes on him, but his attention is on Rumlow. He smiles, shark-like, pulling a dream-memory from the darker vaults of his mind. Since moving to Brooklyn the disjointed memories have started making more sense.
“Vstat' na koleni, Soldata, otkryt' etot krasivyy rot tvoyego,” James purrs, echoing something that had haunted his mind for weeks after that particular dream.
Rumlow goes deathly pale and he starts straining at the bonds with more effort now, a choked whine of fear crawling out of his throat. James kicks the chair he’s in over, feeling grim satisfaction at the crack of Rumlow’s had against the floor. Rumlow sputters, writhing against the rope around his wrists.
“Bucky,” he hears Steve speak up, voice laced with concern and uncertainty.
James ignores him and moves over Rumlow, crouching beside him, still smiling. He spares a glance for Steve and the others gathered in the room. “Rumlow here was apart of the Winter Soldier project,” he announces. “He helped me be a better little puppet, didn’t you, Rumlow?”
“Fuck you, sobaka,” Rumlow spits, fear dancing in his bloodshot eyes.
James hovers over him, looming, dark. “Razve vy ne znayete, chto slezy tol'ko poymite menya boleye vozbuzhdennym, domashneye zhivotnoye?” he echoes, flashes of barely repressed nightmares coming to the forefront of his mind. He can almost feel the startled horror sluicing it’s way through the room.
A hand comes down on his shoulder a moment later, steadying him. Grounding him. He looks up at Natalia, who looks down at him with a soft expression. She kneels beside him, her hand cupping his cheek. “Let me, kotik. Revenge does not help, trust me. I know. Better to let someone else make him suffer for what he did to you,” she whispers, her words only for him.
James stares at her incredulously. She just smiles sadly at him, tapping out a sentence in morse code on his cheek. He swallows dryly, glancing down at Rumlow, before tearing his gaze away and feeling pure darkness drop off his shoulders. He sucks in a shaky breath and stands up, stalking away, heading for the door. Most everyone has headed back to the cars now, but Sam and Steve are there, as well as Clint and Nick in the vault.
James shoulders past Steve, his face carefully blank. He can hear the screaming start up before he makes it to the stairs.
“Bucky?” Steve calls after him, footsteps hurrying his way.
James picks his way down the stairs, over the bodies and the mess, past the death he’s created and outside. He pauses, looking across the large lawn at the horizon. The sun’s coming up.
“Bucky?” Steve asks again, coming to stand beside him.
James watches at the sky begins to lighten, feeling oddly calm. “I think I’ve killed enough people,” he murmurs.
A tentative arm comes around his shoulders, and James lets himself be pulled into a soft hug. He lets himself breathe.