Chapter 6
The silence hung thick and heavy in the bunker after Natasha finished her Tale. No one wanted to state the obvious, not with the way Steve held his head in hands, but two pieces of Bucky’s soul were still unaccounted for. His humanity, and his heart.
Tony opened his mouth several times, for once trying to mind himself but unable to keep quiet, before finally settling on, “how come when the pieces broke apart, they didn’t go back to him? He was right there.”
“Seventy years is a long time,” Natasha said. “I’m not sure, but my guess is that the soul was in too much pain to recognize itself or its body anymore, so it found others. Besides, the heart is the most important. Where the heart is, the rest will follow.”
Eyes settled on Steve, but Steve didn’t raise his head.
“So where’s he keeping the pieces?” Tony kept on, the questions burning inside him. “If we can make the leap that he’s figured out how to carve pieces of souls out of people, then he has to be keeping them somewhere. And have a shit ton of power to do so. Which we already solved with Loki’s scepter and the Tesseract, but how did he get the scepter? How do we stop him? He has to realize we’re planning on regrouping, but how can he be so sure he’s going to win? I still don’t feel like we have all the answers. Why is Loki helping Pierce out anyway? I can’t imagine he could have much interest in our politics.”
“Loki wants nothing more that to breed chaos into the lives of others, and he has a grudge against me and this world. He wishes to rule and is no doubt using this ‘Pierce’ in order to do so.”
“Great,” Clint said. “You had a fight with your brother and now the rest of us have to suffer for it? My brother’s an asshole too, don’t see me collapsing governments and taking over planets because he took some money or something.”
“Take care of how you speak of my brother.”
“He killed eighty people and enslaved many others in the month he’s been here,” Natasha said.
Thor looked a little cowed. “He’s adopted?”
“And to answer your question, Tony, he keeps most of the pieces in his New York office. The rest he’s using at the time are kept on his person.”
“See — that’s helpful.”
“How’s Loki planning on taking over the world?” Fury asked. “Pierce has his eyes on the U.S., but it’s gonna take a lot more man power to subdue all seven billion of us.”
“He has an army called the Chitauri. Their kind was made for destruction and death and they will stop at nothing to conquer all they set their eyes on.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know when they’re coming, would you?” Maria asked. “It would be nice to be able to be able to prepare beforehand.”
“I am afraid I do not know. I would expect it to be soon, but unfortunately I was left cursed before I could uncover this.”
“How about when Project Insight was supposed to go up? When was that?” Clint asked.
“In seven hours,” Maria answered grimly.
“We’re certainly cutting it a little close,” Natasha said.
“As soon as we make a move, they’re gonna hit us full force, so we might not have that much time,” Sam said. “Y’all got some powerful friends that we know have their souls intact?”
“Rhodey,” Tony said.
“Anyone else?”
“The World Security Council isn’t exactly taking my calls anymore,” Fury said dryly. “But they’ll be in the building in a few hours to celebrate the launch of the virus.”
“So we hit his office first,” Steve interjected, sitting back in his chair. He didn’t meet anyone’s eye and stared past at the wall opposite. “We release everyone from his control that we can. We hit hard and we hit fast, in several places. We need to alert everyone who is pieced together of what happened, and I am sure they will fight with us. If we assume that once we do, Loki will make his move, we’re going to need all the help against the Chitauri we can get.”
“But where is Loki going to do it?” Tony asked. “Okay, so, we go with the sibling rivalry thing. He’ll want to rub it in your face how you couldn’t save Earth or whatever. He’ll want lights, flowers, everyone in the world to see where he—”
Steve raised his eyebrows.
“Son of a bitch,” he said. “He’s gonna use my Tower.”
“Okay,” Steve said. “Then here’s what we do.”
~*~
They take the Quinjet and make a pit stop in DC. Sam had pulled him aside earlier, hand on his shoulder trying to soften the blow of his words.
“You know, even if you manage to complete his soul, he’s not gonna be the same. He might not be able to handle the strain of his soul coming back together after soul long. You know it might kill him, right?”
“I know Bucky,” Steve said. “He’d rather die in pieces and himself than live broken apart and lifeless.”
And Sam left it at that, though Steve felt the weight of his gaze as they snuck into the Smithsonian.
If they’re going to fight a war he’s going to need a uniform, after all.
~*~
They split up. JARVIS was still running in in the SHIELD security system, so Cap, Falcon, and Agent Hill were able to sneak in much easier this time. The gaping hole from Bucky’s grenade was boarded up, construction workers filing in and out. It was easy enough to grab a few agents in full gear and use their uniforms. With JARVIS leading the way, finding the 12th floor broadcast station was a breeze.
Hill continued on upstairs to the security station so she could have eyes on everything.
They made quick work of subduing everyone in the station and locked most of them in a room without their phones. Steve apologized while he did so, feeling bad about having to do this. Barely anyone on this floor was trained in fighting, and the few that had some field experience looked more interested in getting Captain America’s autograph than putting up a fight.
They keep two people to help them run the camera with Sam’s supervision. Captain America was going to make a statement.
Lights struck, camera on, and Steve’s face showed on every national broadcast network, his voice through every speaker in SHIELD headquarters.
He took a deep breath.
“Attention everyone. This is Captain Steve Rogers. I know you’ve heard a lot about me these past few days. Some of you in SHIELD have even been ordered to hunt me down.”
He glanced at Sam, before settling back onto the camera.
“We the people have been lied to. SHIELD is not what we thought it was — it has been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader.”
Seventy floors above Steve, the four World Security leaders turned and gaped at Pierce. Pierce sighed in disappointment and took out his phone.
“He has committed horrible crimes of human torture by way of tearing pieces of people’s souls out of their bodies and then using that piece to control them. These are people in the past few weeks who have turned against their friends and family, who isolate themselves, and act completely horribly. This is so Pierce can gain control over the most influential people in the world — and those who serve the greatest threat to his plans.
“And this is only the beginning. Once Pierce has secured control over the United States government and its military, he’ll turn his sights worldwide. It’s only a matter of time before Hydra spreads across the world, and it has already infected SHIELD. The STRIKE team is Hyrdra, and I don’t know who all else. They could be standing right next to you.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Steve can see the two agents helping with the broadcast cross their arms and shake their heads, desperate to show they weren’t Hydra.
“I know I’m asking a lot. The price of freedom is high, always has been. But I cannot stand idle and watch such atrocities committed and especially not while I know that others are being tortured and forced to act against their will. If I’m the only one, then so be it. But I have a feeling I’m n—”
The wall blew out and Steve ducked behind his shield against the debris. Something giant and green landed on the floor and roared before it lashed out, striking Steve and sending him flying through the wall and out into the street below.
“Steve!” Sam yelled into the coms.
“I’m fine!” he said as he spread his limbs out to try to slow his speed. “Get them out!”
“What the HELL IS THAT THING?”
Steve curled into his shield just before he slammed into the ground. He narrowly missed landing on a car and another two cars narrowly missed him as horns honked and people around him screamed.
“Shit, that’s the Hulk!” Clint said.
“I thought he was supposed to be in India,” Natasha said.
“Obviously not anymore!” Sam said. The roar echoed through the coms.
Steve winced in pain but got himself up, watching as the screens in Time Square showed the Hulk thing tearing up the room, Sam flying around it, before he threw something at the camera and the screen went black.
“How do we fight it?”
“You don’t,” Fury said.
The Hulk leapt from the building out onto the street. People scattered, abandoning their cars and Steve backed up on the defensive, the Hulk batting cars out of his way like batting flies.
“Any ideas?”
“Ask him to stop?”
“That things a monster, Hawkeye, he’s not gonna listen—”
“A monster?”
Sam swore. “Steve, no!”
“So I know this isn’t the best time for bad news,” Tony said. “But Loki just opened a giant portal on the roof of my Tower and I am not happy about it.”
“Steve,” that was Maria, “the monster is named Doctor Bruce Banner, but think of him like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and right now he’s Mr. Hyde. He gets stronger as he gets angrier and so far nothing short of knocking him out can stop him. Until now Banner was in India helping the poor children get medical help.”
Steve dodged and rolled away from the Hulk’s giant fists sparing a glance to the open sky. A beam of bright blue light erupted from Stark tower into the clouds, a circular opening gaping into the darkness of space. Several somethings started flying out of it.
“Hulk SMASH!” he yelled before throwing his fists to the ground, splitting the pavement down the middle and making the earth tremble.
Steve took a deep breath. One problem at a time.
“Hey Hulk!”
The Hulk was surprisingly fast and agile for his size, and Steve put all his energy in diving and dodging around his fists. If he got caught by a punch he’d be done for.
“Why are you fighting me?” he asked. “Who told you to?”
“HULK FIGHT PUNY MAN!”
“Well I don’t wanna fight you,” he said and narrowly missed being brained.
“Cap, do you wanna speed this up? I’m biting my nails up here watching him try his best to squash you like a bug,” Sam said.
“They probably make you angry!” Steve said. “They make you feel terrible for being what you are!”
“HULK DON’T CARE!”
“I don’t think you’re a monster!”
Steve must’ve touched a nerve with that one, and the Hulk barreled right at him, tearing up the streets of Times Square.
“I know you’re not! You went far away, you just wanted to be left alone, you wanted to help!”
The Hulk threw a car and Steve rolled out of the way.
“I need you to prove to them you’re not! Prove them wrong by fighting back!”
He slowed, breathing heavy, but focused on Steve.
“I’ll vouch for you,” he promised. “I’ll tell everyone you’re a hero. You’re not a monster, Hulk, so go and show them wrong and fight!”
“Who Hulk fight?” he growled.
“We got company,” Tony said, desperately trying to stay calm. “We got big blue whale sized company. With way more weapons.”
A huge, well, whale-shaped creature was honestly the best way to describe it, came swimming through the portal and down into Manhattan, tearing the sides of buildings of as it did. More aliens spilling off its sides and onto the streets.
“That,” Steve said.
The Hulk looked between him and the alien whale-beast.
“You will vouch for Hulk?”
Steve raised his right hand. “I swear on my life.”
“HULK NO MONSTER!” he roared. “HULK SMASH MONSTERS!”
Something smacked him in the forehead and he growled, wiping his face, before leaping hundreds of feet into the air to punch the alien whale-beast head on.
“Well fuck. Good job, Cap,” Clint said. “Except what now?”
“Call it, Cap,” Tony said.
Steve patted the rubble, but fortunately the piece of Bucky’s soul wasn’t hard to find. He grabbed it and sprinted towards the police arriving on the scene.
“Iron Man, get Hawkeye up on that building across from the Tower. I want you to keep a lookout and direct those in the air. Thor, you got the lightning, light ‘em up. Falcon, you and Widow are on ground control. We need to prevent as much collateral damage as possible and keep them from entering the buildings. Hill, keep your eyes on everything. I have a feeling we’re going to be fighting more than aliens soon.”
The ground shook as the Hulk took down the whale-beast, tearing it apart singlehandedly.
“And Hulk can keep doing what he’s doing.”
He made it to the policemen, directing orders at them to help keep the civilians off the streets and underground.
“Hey everyone, it’s Colonel Rhodes. What’d I miss?”
“Rhodey! The light of my life, you made it!”
“What the… hell is that?”
“Just fry anything that isn’t human. Except for the giant green rage monster. He’s on our side, miraculously.”
“Rhodes, I need you to join Iron Man in patrolling our perimeter. I need to get back into SHIELD. Do you copy?”
“Roger that, Captain.”
In the time that it took Steve to make it back to SHIELD Headquarters, at least a dozen new heroes had shown up, and not all were on their side.
“There’s Daredevil!”
“Is that Spideman?”
“CAPTAIN MARVEL IS NOT OUR FRIEND. I repeat, someone with superpowers should be helping!”
“There goes the Human Torch! He just tried to burn me alive, so not friendly, and probably does bode well for the rest of the Fantastic Four!”
“I know this may be difficult, but try not to hurt anyone who belongs on Earth unless they’re Hydra!” Steve cautioned as he sprinted up the steps of SHIELD. A strong sense of déjà vu struck him, and he just knew this wasn’t going to end well.
He slowly entered the 68th floor, creeping down the dim hallways. The lack of people made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, knowing they were expecting him.
He turned into the open space before Pierce’s office, and there stood Bucky, clearly waiting for him.
Steve swallowed before he strode into the space in his uniform from WWII, stopping mere meters from Bucky.
“People are gonna die, Buck. I can’t let that happen.”
Bucky did not react.
“I can help you. I did before.”
Bucky slightly lowered his head rolled to the balls of his feet.
“Please don’t make me do this,” Steve begged. He took a deep breath and threw his shield.
Bucky deflected with his metal arm and took out guns as Steve charged forward, launching into a spinning kick and kicked the gun out of Bucky’s hand. He grabbed his shield just in time to deflect a punch from the metal arm, the clang of it echoing around the room.
“Cap, we really need your help out here,” Sam said. “There are too many of them!”
They kicked and punched and dodged — Steve tried to stay mostly on the defensive as Bucky went in for the kill, his moves brutal and fatal, managing to clip Steve’s side again with a bullet. Steve shoved him hard with his shield and ran into Pierce’s office.
“Could you hurry it up with getting their souls back please?” Clint asked.
He just managed to rip the portrait of the wall to reveal the extra door before Bucky caught up, and Steve ducked to miss a metal punch to the head. Bucky’s hand got stuck in the wall and he kicked at Steve to launch him into Pierce’s desk. Steve rolled over and Bucky pulled his arm out, flicking a knife in his other hand.
His team kept naming more heroes that had come out of the woodwork, most of them unfriendlies, and Steve had to hurry lest they be completely run over.
They collided again and this time Bucky managed to steal his shield, tossing it into the wall behind him. He came at Steve who caught his fist before the knife could pierce his eye and it stuck in the drywall, Bucky slicing it open like paper in his quest to get to Steve’s head. Steve flipped them, smacking his palm against Bucky’s solar plexus to stun him then roundhouse kicking him in the stomach.
With two steps Steve was back the portrait, quickly sticking the bomb on the door handle and arming it before Bucky chucked the shield and hit him in the back.
The shield bounced away and Steve took the punch to the head because it meant the bomb wouldn’t be destroyed. He flew into the windows, his head cracking against the glass. Bucky came at him again, and Steve only able to barely deflecting the ruthless onslaught.
He counted down the seconds, letting Bucky beat on him until two seconds were left on the timer and he tackled Bucky to the ground just before the blast went off.
Bucky surprised him with a gunshot to the shoulder and rolled them over but Steve hooked his legs around his waist and his arm around his neck, pinning the metal the arm down.
“Stop it!” Steve said through gritted teeth as he continued to cut off Bucky’s air supply.
Finally Bucky went limp, and Steve pushed him away before grabbing his shield and running towards the extra room.
There he entered into another posh and unnecessarily decadent safe room. It was easy to see the pieces of souls — they had been collected in jars and were on display along the walls.
On first estimated there were well over two hundred. Steve felt thick satisfaction taking his shield and smashing up the jars.
There were disagreements on how to actually do this. Another bomb was suggested, but they weren’t sure if soul pieces could be destroyed, so they couldn’t risk it unless it was a last resort. Fortunately this worked just as well, and the pieces scattered back to their respective bodies.
He kept an eye out for a star, any star, but none fit the description from Bucky’s tale. Pierce must have it, Steve thought wildly. At least his team could report that the heroes were being released from Pierce’s control.
“I’ve gotten about half of — AH!”
He heard the gunshot before he felt it, but he stuttered forward, when he finally did. He collapsed against the wall in pain, the blood soaking through his front. His team shouted in his ear for his status as he looked up as Bucky stalked into the room, no doubt the finish the job.
Ready as he may be to accept the consequences, he couldn’t leave others to suffer due to his failures. This called for the last resort and he threw the grenade into the other half of the room.
Safe rooms were built to withstand grenades, not contain one, and the whole wall facing the outside blew out, leaving a gaping hole into the floors below and the outside.
The blast threw Bucky against the wall, cracking his head against it, and he slumped to the floor.
His team was yelling in his ear, but he couldn’t have them be distracted from the invasion because they were worrying about him.
“I — ne, the — oms —aged —” he said, purposefully cutting out his words. “Ke — oing!”
He took the earpiece from his ear and crushed it in his palm. His body ached from new wounds and old, and he hauled himself back up. There was one thing he hadn’t tried yet.
Bucky glared at him, breathing heavy, but nothing had changed. None of his soul had come back. Well, what had Natasha said? The pieces follow the heart?
“Bucky,” he gasped, arm crossing his front. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find your heart. I’m sorry I failed you.”
Bucky growled, leaping up and punching Steve down. The both collapsed — he could see the blood on his head where Bucky had hit the wall.
“I’m not gonna fight you,” he said.
He took off his helmet, not wanting anything between them.
“I can’t give you your heart, but I can give you mine.”
“Shut up!” Bucky yelled, striking him in the face again. Steve could feel the huge bruises begin to form along his cheek and jaw.
“I love you, James Buchanan Barnes—”
Bucky lunged out and tackled Steve, Steve’s head landing over the side of the gaping hole, the broken floor digging into the wounds in his back.
“Shut up!” Bucky yelled again and reared back to punch him in the face, his human hand bracing against Steve’s chest.
“—I always have—”
Bucky cut him off with a punch.
“—and I always will—”
And Bucky punched him again, and again, and again.
Steve breathed in shakily as Bucky paused, fist held high for the next punch. Steve could barely see him through his swollen eyes, his broken jaw unwilling to cooperate for a moment.
“—’cause ’m… I’m with you t… til the end of the line.”
Bucky let his fist land, finally knocking Steve completely unconscious.
He gasped for breath, staring down unbelievingly at the man beneath him, his face purple and swollen, the blue of his uniform stained red with his blood, and yet he used his last breath to tell the soldier that he loved him.
He had to finish his mission, but something stayed his body, and he continued to crouch over the body of the Captain, captivated by his words and his actions. After a moment he felt something in his right palm, the one on the Captain’s chest. When he turned his hand up, he saw a bright red star.
The next second it slammed into the soldier’s chest, sending him flying across the room.
And he screamed.
~*~
Clint was a lot of things, okay, and he'll be the first to admit that maybe he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when compared to people like Nat and Tony and he wasn't the best at planning when compared to the likes of Fury and Cap, but he was far from stupid.
(Technically the argument was still out of that one, but he didn't mean to digress.)
Anyway. He knew that Cap wasn't fine or probably anything close to the sort. So he caught a ride from Captain Marvel (he'll have to thank Cap for freeing her soul right before she incinerated him) and started climbing down the stairs of SHIELD Headquarters.
Maria had to help him avoid the fallout. Apparently the non-Hydra agents of SHIELD had answered Cap’s call, if just out of vengeance and necessity if nothing else, and there were shootouts every other floor. The STRIKE team was currently holding the World Security Council hostage, but Clint was not about to bust in on that party without someone like Thor for backup.
This whole thing was a crapshoot. So Steve had been right that when people were freed they would help fight, but they were fighting wounded. It’s not like all of them were like Thor and could discount their soul becoming whole again as a bee sting. And the aliens and alien-murder-whales kept pouring out of the sky, leaving them severely outnumbered.
Thor had flown over to Stark Tower to beat up Loki, but couldn't find a way to break up the force field surrounding the Tesseract. Loki had disappeared again, no doubt watching the ensuing chaos and murder with glee. He did not expect his day to go like this at all.
So he continued down the steps (what he wouldn't give for Cap’s stamina or Sam's wings) and finally made it too the 68th floor.
Fight in buildings was literally his least favorite thing to do besides going to the dentist. He just didn't like close combat, hence his bow. He could see better from a distance. And he especially didn't like it when he might come across Captain America's body.
Still breathing body, he corrected. As long as the body was still breathing they could deal with whatever else happened.
He crept around corners - he'd never seen this place so empty before - with his bow up. He could feel the breeze and smell the smoke from the bomb and beyond that, he could hear groaning.
He flexed his fingers gripping the bow, and stepped silently through Pierce's office.
The secret door was blown apart, the walls around it burnt. The rest of the place was completely trashed; the desk broken in half, dents in the wall (a few distinctly shield shaped) with a long sliced through the drywall. The sheer amount of blood smears in different places worried Clint, which he knew Steve's back hadn't healed completely from the glass. He'd never seen anyone so indifferent to so much blood loss, but he supposed that much shock to a system could do it.
He peeked with his camera phone around the door to prevent any surprise knives to the face, but he needn't have worried.
The small pained groaning was coming from the Winter Soldier, who lay curled up on the floor next to a pile of vomit. Steve lay opposite, his body still and bloody, too far over the edge for Clint's liking.
“If he's dead I will shoot you. If he's still breathing we'll talk.”
The Winter Soldier - or Sergeant Barnes, he wasn't sure - didn't react and stayed where he was Clint walked around him, giving him a wide berth, and reached down to check Steve's pulse.
Still beating. A little too light and fast, his breath a little too shallow, but Clint will take it.
“Looks like we're talking.” Clint sighed and put his arrow back in his quiver. “I'm assuming you got your heart back, of Cap would be fully dead instead of half-dead. Do you remember who you are?”
He mumbled something into the floor, which Clint couldn't hear.
“What?”
“He should have just killed me!” he spat, lifting his head enough to glare at Clint. “Go ahead. Finish what he couldn't.”
“As tempting as that is, I'm gonna pass. You see, I need you to help me keep him not-dead.”
“What's their location?” Sam asked. “I'll come to you.”
“Hold on,” Clint said into his coms then addressed Barnes’ uncomprehending stare. “You see Steve here is like well over two hundred pounds of supersoldier muscle. And that's awesome for him! But it fucking sucks for someone to have to carry him. You get me?”
Barnes didn't reply.
“That's why I need you to carry him. We need to get him out of here and to our healer so we can make sure he stays not-dead. I've seen you throw him across the room, I'm sure carrying him wouldn't be a problem.”
“No.”
“No? Really? That's your answer? Steve would have died for you and you can't even help me make sure he doesn't? You can't really want him to die, can you?”
Barnes didn't answer, resting his head against the floor.
“Well I'm not gonna make that choice for you. This is up to you. Either you let him die here, or you pick him up and make sure he doesn't.”
“You're issuing a lot of faith here, pal,” Tony said over the coms. “Don't actually let him die.”
Barnes stared at Clint like he couldn't believe him either, his eyes flicking to Steve's still body. It seemed to take ages, but Barnes slowly pulled himself off the floor onto unsteady feet. He took a deep breath and on his first step got hit in the back of his foot, flipping him over onto his back.
He screamed in pain, clutching his leg, and Clint could only feel sympathy. If it felt like his ankle had broken because his soul piece had been apart for a few weeks, he couldn't imagine what it felt like it coming back after seventy years.
Despite the pain, or maybe because of it, Barnes rolled back onto his feet. It seemed easier now, his movements more sure.
“C’mon,” he grunted, kneeling by Steve and scooping him up into his arms, “I'm not about to let this dumbass kick the bucket yet.”
Clint grinned and grabbed his bow. “You lead the way!”
Which wasn't exactly true, since actually Maria led the way. They (meaning Clint, since Barnes had his hands full at the moment) busted up two standoffs and freed about a few dozen hostages on their way down, so on a normal day Clint would be feeling pretty good about himself. But this was not a normal day, because he stepped outside, and there were aliens on hoverboards flying over them.
Barnes stopped dead. “What the fuck?” he asked softly.
“Yeah, aliens. Portal to space. Feel free to shoot at will.”
The desperate look Barnes gave him begged him to be kidding. Clint shrugged and shot an alien out of the sky without turning his head.
“Anyway, we should get going.”
There wasn’t really a good place to meet Sam, since nearly everywhere was overrun with aliens, but they ducked into the back of a 7-Eleven and hoped for the best. Sam was just a moment behind.
“I can’t believe I’m healing Captain fucking America next to a cart full of beef jerky and tourist key chains,” he muttered, but moved to start checking him over, hands glowing a warm orange.
“This isn’t gonna mean anything unless we shut down that portal,” Natasha said.
“Well I’d love to do just that, but that thing is pretty indestructible,” Tony said.
“I’ve got an idea,” she said. “But I’m gonna need backup.”
“Got it,” he said. “Barnes, you’re up.”
Barnes didn’t seem to hear him, staring dead at Steve.
“Is he… is he gonna be okay?” he asked.
Sam looked up, studying him. “Yeah,” he said. “I mean you certainly did a number on him, but he’ll be okay. If only because he’s too stubborn to die.”
The joke fell flat on Barnes’ ears, eyes too intense and face too pale. Sam stood up and stepped over to Barnes, who flinched away. Sam held up his hands in a placating gesture.
“What are you doing?” Barnes snapped. “Heal him!”
“Okay, but he’s not fighting any time soon,” Sam said. “If you’re going go back out there, you gotta be feeling your best.”
Despite the distrust written in every bone of Barnes’ body, he let Sam get closer. He squeezed his eyes shut when Sam took hold of his shoulder, and flinched when he popped it back into place. The glow of his hands seeped into the muscle, soothing the pain away.
Sam backed off to give Barnes space, who slowly opened his eyes again. He blinked, rotating his arm to test it out.
“You’ve been in so much pain for so long,” Sam explained, and settled back down next to Steve again. “I’d like to take away as much of it as I can.”
Bucky stared for a moment before something struck him in the palm and threw him across the room, crashing into boxes of chips and bottles of pop.
“Shit,” Sam said, and he and Clint ran over to help.
They heaved him back up, dazed and probably in too much pain to process it all. Sam was surprised he hadn’t passed out yet. He stumbled, breathing heavy, clutching his right palm.
“Sorry, but there’s not much I can do for that one.”
He nodded in understanding, but they weren’t sure how much he actually knew. As he recovered from the brutal ache of being pieced back together, they filled him in as best and as quickly as they could about the current situation.
“You… you said I’m up?” he asked Clint.
“Yeah, you know, I don’t know—”
He shook out his palm. “Where?”
Clint looked at Sam for help, who shrugged. “You’re the one who gave the option to choose.”
“Oh so this is my fault?” Clint sighed. “Widow, where do you need backup?”
“SHIELD. I’m going after Pierce.”
“How do you feel about going after Pierce?” he asked Barnes, whose answering murderous face said it all. “Then go back to the SHIELD building. Black Widow will meet you there.”
Barnes nodded, sparing a glance at Steve.
“If he’s dead by the time I come back,” he muttered darkly. “There won’t be a place you can hide.”
“We got him,” Sam promised. “Go.”
He didn’t trust them, not even a little, but he had no choice. He turned and ran out of the store and into the chaos that was Manhattan.
It had been a long time since he’d been in New York. It’d been before everything, before the war, back when he’d been a poor Brooklyn kid named Bucky trying to keep another poor Brooklyn kid named Steve alive and fed. The city towered over him, the buildings imposing and everything and nothing at all like he remembered. The amount of memories that had been crammed into his head at once was too much to process and he staggered down the street, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. It was too much to think of what happened, let alone trying to find his way through this mess. Aliens? This couldn’t be real. Nothing about this could be real.
Breaking glass and a shout drew his attention — a body flung from the SHIELD building and he didn’t even think, he sprinted forward. The person released a grappling hook but couldn’t stick into the smooth glass and they were falling—
He leapt forward and just managed to catch her, his body taking the brunt of her momentum. They landed hard on the ground and she rolled away. He stayed down, the wind completely knocked out of him. The blonde woman groaned, slowly picking herself back up while he tried to do the same. He made it as far as his knees.
“Thanks, I thought I was dead meat there for a…” Her dark eyes widened. “You!”
He couldn’t move in time to dodge the kick to the head, but he rolled away from the second blow. He backed up and frantically stumbled to his feet, unsure if this is what Hawkeye meant he was supposed to meet the Black Widow.
“Whoa! Whoa there lady!”
A red human shaped robot flew in between and he had no idea what to expect anymore.
“Move Stark,” she said, pulling out a gun. “He killed Fury and took souls of my friends!”
“And normally I am all for vengeance! Fuck that Yoda-crap of letting go of your anger. Except not this time. Who are you?”
“Agent 13, Sharon Carter with SHIELD Special Forces. Now move.”
“Mm, no can do. You wouldn’t happen to be missing a piece of your soul, would you? Or be secretly working for Hydra?”
Her gun did not waver. “I’m following the Captain’s orders. And that means taking out Hydra agents.”
“Okay, let’s think about this real hard. See this guy? This guy’s James Buchanan Barnes.”
Sharon reared back in surprise, ducking around Stark to get a better look.
“You might know him as Cap’s dead best friend Bucky who’s actually not dead, because guess what, he’s been used as a soulless sock puppet by Hydra. Now, dear old Cap just found this out, along with the fact that they took not just one, but seven pieces of his soul. Over seventy years. I don’t know about you, but I really wouldn’t want to be the one to put a bullet in his head after Cap and us went through all the trouble of trying to get his soul back. Especially not after he just saved your ass. Nice catch, by the way.”
Sharon swallowed, lowering her gun. “Nice to meet you, Sergeant Barnes. Heard a lot about you.”
Barnes stared at the ground and clenched his jaw.
“Thank you. Now, it’s time to get Cap’s tin soldier home.”
“Right. I’ll save these bullets for those who actually deserve it. Besides, I have a few Hydra assholes to give a piece of my mind.”
She headed back towards the building, hesitating next to Barnes. “Thanks for, you know. And good luck.” And then she was gone.
“Okay, now to get tall, dark, and murderous up to the 83rd floor. Fortunately I can give you a ride, no need to thank me, and—”
“She was right,” Barnes interrupted.
“Oh boy.”
“I’m not worth all this,” he continued. “I’m not his friend. Not anymore. Not after everything… even if I got my soul back, I’m not gonna be what he knew. And he’s got…” He gestured a little helplessly. “Robot friends and friends who can fly, and I—”
“And I’m gonna stop you right there. First off, not a robot.”
The faceplate popped up and Bucky stared at the face of Howard Stark with a goatee.
“Hi, I’m Tony, you knew my dad, moving past that now and cutting to the point. Steve needs you.”
Barnes shook his head, but Tony plowed on, stepping up to him.
“You have no idea, do you? You should have seen his face when he realized what they’d done to you. I had to listen to him blame himself for everything you went through, and had no idea what to say. Can you imagine? Me! Not knowing what to say! And I could tell, too, he had no desire to go through with this before. He didn’t want to be a Hero. I guess you could even say he had no heart in it.
“And then you appeared, and I swear Steve was about to tear apart everyone in SHIELD personally. With his bare hands if he had to. And I get it! I do! I thought, you know, at the beginning, we had nothing in common. He was all ‘big speeches and following the rules’ and I’m ‘fun times and drunk times.’ Except now I see it. We’d both do anything for our friends. And so this is me, doing anything for my friend by helping his long lost brainwashed assassin buddy, because if someone had taken my best friend from me like that… well. Let’s just say the aliens are causing enough destruction right now.”
Tony put a hand on Barnes’ shoulder.
“He needs you so much, especially now. And you need him. And please, please don’t make me watch him lose you again. I don’t think anyone could bare that.”
Barnes swallowed hard, his breaths shaky and his eyes wet.
“I don’t want to lose him again either,” he said, and got pile-drive’d in the stomach by the fourth piece of his soul. Tony rubbed his back while he vomited up bile, saying he’d been there.
It took a few minutes before Barnes could stand back on his feet, and a few more before he was ready for Tony to fly him up to the 83rd floor.
By that time, the Black Widow had already reached the floor, and was in position to take down the STRIKE team and Pierce. On her mark, Tony blasted the windows and threw Barnes through them.
The Widow and the Sergeant made quick work of the STRIKE team, the leaders of the World Security Council backing up to allow them space. Together they turned on Pierce, who stood watching the display with narrowed eyes.
“Well isn’t this a sight. The Black Widow and the Winter Soldier working side-by-side of their own free will. Tell me, soldier, how does it feel to remember everything you did? There’s a lot of blood on those hands.”
He scowled. “My name is Bucky.”
Pierce chuckled. “Is it? Are you really able to call yourself that? After everything?”
“Don’t listen to him,” the Black Widow murmured at his side. “We need to provoke him into calling the scepter.”
“Oh, is that all,” he drawled and lunged at Pierce.
Pierce threw of a force field, blocking him out. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to try harder than that.”
He snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. He snapped them again and a new man in green appeared behind him with the scepter, who shoved it into Pierce’s stomach.
The Widow swore in Russian.
“Now, let’s get onto the main act, shall we?” Loki said, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face. “You didn’t really think that I would let this pawn take all the credit for my discourse, would you? No, I am the true destined ruler over you! Now kneel!”
They stayed standing, even the leaders in the back of the room, everyone except Natasha wondering if he was serious. Bucky was also wondering why he chose to wear a golden helmet with giant curved horns on it of his own volition, but that seemed like a less important detail at the moment.
“I said kneel and witness my true glory as your ru—”
“LOKI!” Thor called from outside, diving head first into the room and tackling Loki, tearing through walls all the way to the other side of the building.
“Right on time,” the Widow said. “At least he was nice enough to leave his scepter.”
She strode to it, picking it up, before handing it to him.
“Here, take this. It should be able to bypass the barrier around the Tesseract and close the portal.”
Bucky looked down at the scepter and then back at her.
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m trusting.”
Bucky shook his head. “It should be you, Black Widow.”
“Another time, maybe,” she said. “But this isn’t my Story. Just know that if you fuck this up, I won’t be happy.”
She grinned wolfishly, showing all her teeth, her threat heard loud and clear.
“And call me Natasha.”
Bucky nodded, only managing to lay a hand on the scepter before the fifth piece of his soul punched him in the back. Natasha sidestepped and avoided being crashed into, and Bucky landed face first on the floor.
By the time Thor came back, Bucky was unsteady but back on his feet, adrenaline the only thing keeping him remotely upright.
“Loki has escaped back to the Tower,” Thor said, roughed up and bleeding from one side. “Come, friend of Rogers, let us do glorious battle!”
He grabbed Bucky’s arm, leaving Bucky no time to protest, and flew them across Manhattan to Stark Tower.
The sight left Bucky in awe. He watched as alien after alien was taken down by all sort of people that made Thor look normal.
Too soon they reached the Tower before Bucky could take in everyone fighting. They crashed into one of the top floors, which was much bigger and colder than it had any right to be.
Two huge, looming creatures made of ice guarded the Tesseract, and Bucky thought that this would be the best time for him to leave, Natasha’s warning be damned.
Thor grabbed him by the jacket.
“Come! We must defeat these Frost Giants to stop this invasion!”
Thor seemed positively gleeful at the prospect, which confirmed Bucky’s suspicion that he was crazy.
“I can’t!” he said, shaking his head. The cold seeped into his bones and he thought of years suspended in ice, the terror of being unable to move as it killed him slowly, the frost fogging up the window and cutting out any sort of light, the knowledge that he was destined to suffer this fate over and over and over again, because no one cared, no one would ever come for him, he deserved this torture for everything he did—
“Good Sergeant!” Thor said, grasping his shoulder and shaking him.
Bucky seized up, breathing in short insufficient gasps, his body shaking as he cowered away from the cold and Thor’s big hands.
“You will not face this terror alone,” Thor promised.
“I can’t do it. I’m too afraid. Even if I — even if I get my soul, Steve’s going to realize that I—”
“That you have suffered a great deal, and that you will blame him for their actions.”
Bucky jerked his head to stare at Thor.
“I have seen his worst fear, good Sergeant, and it is that you will hate him. I cannot promise that you will be the same, or that this will be easy. I can only promise that you will be brave enough to face it.”
“I am too afraid. I can’t.”
“A wise man once said to me, that bravery is not action without fear. It is action despite fear. So come, good Sergeant, let us go and face your fear.”
He took a deep breath and nodded, gripping the scepter tighter.
“You ever heard the story of David and Goliath?”
The fact that he expected to be hit with a piece of his soul didn’t make getting smacked face down into the ground any less painful.
Thor hauled him up and they dove straight into battle, the Frost Giants large but slow, and they scuttled around their feet, blasting straight through their legs to bring them down. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, anyway.
Except unlike Goliath, they reformed. “Go!” Thor called. “I will take care of them!”
Bucky ran up the stairs, only to be cut off by Loki. He dodged magical blast after magical blast, but he was running out of steam. There was no way he’d be able to keep this up, his body and soul too beaten and worn down by the abuse of the last seventy years.
Fortunately his savior appeared in the form of a giant green rage monster.
He burst through the floor, startling both Loki and Bucky, roaring loud enough to shake the windows.
“You monster! How dare you challenge me! I am a God! You are nothing more than an ant to be squished underneath my boot, no deserving of any kindness or—”
The Hulk grabbed him by the feet, smashing him back on the ground like a ragdoll.
“HULK — IS — NO — MONSTER!” he yelled, giving Loki one more good smash before stalking off. “Puny God,” he scoffed, before jumping out the window.
“Uh, thanks?” Bucky said to the empty room. He didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth and ran past to the roof, where he came face to face with the portal and the Tesseract itself.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Bucky said as he stabbed the scepter into the barrier, dispelling it completely.
“No!” someone yelled, and Bucky looked back in shock as Pierce appeared behind him. “You will give me the Tesseract!”
Bucky had no idea how he was standing, although it looked like the stomach wound had at least ceased bleeding, although he was sure he and Natasha had left him for dead a few minutes ago.
“Even if you close that portal, the aliens will not leave!” Pierce said. “You can’t do anything right, you worthless piece of scum. You’re a traitor to the one person you cared about most. You would have killed him without a second thought! You’re nothing but a monster.”
Bucky could feel the familiar pull, the urge to obey, and he grit his teeth.
“You don’t have my pieces, you cannot control me.”
“Oh, but I do,” he said, smiling. “After all this time, you cannot resist this. Come, step down from there like a good little soldier, and follow orders.”
“No!”
“No?” he asked, face turning ugly. He held out his hand, and to Bucky’s horror he couldn’t move his body and had to fight against leaving the Tesseract. “You will come to me, and you will leave that portal alone!”
“I will close it, whether you like it or not!”
“Then you will die!”
Rage bubbled up and a burst of renewed strength sang through him.
“Then I will die knowing that I was loved!” he said, pulling his feet backwards towards the Tesseract and against Pierce’s control. “I will die knowing that I saved others, that I helped my friends who trusted me to do so, and be brave enough to admit that you are the monster, not me!”
The last of Bucky’s soul smacked him in the forehead, and he used the momentum to propel him toward the Tesseract, stabbing it down with his left hand into the center of the cube, which exploded into a bright, white light.
~*~
This light burst throughout Manhattan, spreading in a huge shockwave outwards and upwards. The beam blasted straight into the portal, incinerating the Chitauri home base. The Chitauri still on earth shut down, crashing out of the sky. The shockwave powered through anyone else still in the air, striking them down and letting them fall.
Fortunately enough high-powered folks were able to catch them, like the Hulk catching Tony and Spiderman webbing Rhodes before he could smack into the ground.
Hulk, Natasha, and Clint all gathered around Tony, whose suit was out for the second time in less than 24 hours.
“Holy shit guys, did we do it? I think we did it. What the fuck. Holy shit. Good work team!” Tony said.
“Um, wasn’t that bright beam of light where Barnes was?” Clint asked.
“Oh,” Tony said. “Oh shit. We should go check on him. Shit. Someone help me up.”
~*~
Bucky breathed, well, could barely breath past his broken ribs, slowly coming to. His head pounded and the rest of his body was just one giant ache. Dust settled in his mouth and he coughed, the action shaking his body back into awareness. He groaned, knowing he had to get up, but unable to remember why at the moment.
“You… you ruined everything!”
Bucky’s eyes flew open. He knew that voice.
Pierce staggered, somehow still alive for some ungodly reason, and leaned against the wall of the roof. Bucky pulled himself up and overbalanced— his left arm was completely shattered, only the shoulder piece remaining.
He didn’t have time to process this, as Pierce threw a magical blast it him, and he flew of the roof onto Tony Stark’s landing pad twenty feet below.
Bucky rolled out of the wall so Pierce would land on him as he came down, nearly as winded and out of power as Bucky. Still Pierce came at him, and Bucky could only stumble backwards back into the Tower, no fight left in him, unsure how he managed to survive thus far.
“I don’t believe this,” another voice came up from behind him, and oh, of course, how could he forget Loki? “How were my plans foiled by a mere mortal? You will die slowly and painfully for what you have done!”
Bucky backed up now, with both Pierce and Loki advancing. He couldn’t win this time.
Thor came flying up through the broken floor. “Loki, brother, that is enough!”
He swung his hammer, his aim true, and knocked Loki to the ground. “That is enough. You will come home to Asgard and you will be tried for your crimes against Midgard.”
Then he set his hammer on Loki’s chest, and satisfied, he stepped up beside Bucky to face Pierce.
The Hulk came next, Natasha riding on his shoulders, just before Tony came flying through with Clint. They too took place beside Bucky.
“I cannot believe you would stand by a traitor,” Pierce snapped. “I was offering control and peace! And you choose to destroy everything instead! You will regret this. Hydra has not been beaten! It never will be! Cut off one head, and two more will—”
The red, white, and blue shield came soaring through the open windows and struck Pierce, throwing him to the ground and knocking him out cold.
Sam and Steve followed shortly after, Steve catching the shield easily as Sam set them both on the ground. He staggered a little, and had to lean on Sam, but he was there and real and alive.
“I know I couldn’t have been the only one who was tired of hearing him talk.”
Steve’s eyes found Bucky’s, standing for the first time in nearly seventy years as two whole men.
And Bucky promptly fainted.
He dropped like deadweight to the floor, everything finally catching up to him and his body unable to handle to strain.
“Bucky!”
Steve left Sam’s side to kneel beside him, gently turning him over on his back. He checked for a pulse, and finding one, nearly collapsed beside him in relief. He gathered Bucky in his arms, and hung his head, unable to speak past the lump in his throat or see through the tears in his eyes.
“Aw, but what about true love’s first kiss?” Clint asked.
Natasha punched in the arm.
“Ow! What was that for? It’s only obvious that Bucky’s Steve’s Happily Ever After.”
Thor, knowing both of their fears, shushed him.
“C’mon Cap,” Sam said, kneeling beside him. “Let’s get you both some rest.”
Steve could only nod. They had so much cleanup to do, after the fall of SHIELD and the Chitauri attack, but Steve could only think about laying next to Bucky and never getting up.
If Bucky would want him after this, of course.