Inspired by The Night War: 60th Anniversary Edition by praximeter (Zimario).

Many many trainloads of thanks to praximeter, for giving me hope, that I could actually write and not die trying!

Austria, March 1945

"Bucky!" Steve yelled as he balanced carefully, fighting the cold wind…"hang on!""…edging out onto the blasted-out wall of the train car, reaching for Bucky's desperate outstretched hand…stretching out…"Grab my hand!" no… out of reach…the rail -….HE'S FALLING… disbelief … Bucky FELL, HE FELL…white snow - cliff - he's GONE - no AIR…anguish…NO…Buck….WHY didn't I reach you?! Why?

Steve climbs back in the train somehow, without another look down at the snowy, jagged cliff. Bucky is GONE. because I couldn't reach

Why? the mission. think…the mission. Zola. anger. building…hate… He looks around, intent on finding his shield. The mission has changed. Dodging quickly through the car, he sees a .45 on the floor and picks it up. Bucky had been firing it, before…stabbing...grief...can't breathe… it had been burned by that blue fire but was still functional. Check the magazine, empty. He quickly reloads with a new *mag from his belt, while looking forward to where the Hydra agent fell. The one who shot Bucky. He's dead, chest crushed, the shield still stuck in it. Steve puts a bullet in his head anyway.

Kill that miserable bastard. Rip him to pieces with his bare hands. Steve forcefully holsters the .45. He wrenches the shield loose and moves quickly forward through the cars to the engine. He bursts into the engine room, coming in beside Gabe. Gabe is holding Zola and 2 train crewmen prisoner, he has them kneeling with their hands up, except one who's controlling the train. Gabe glances around to check who came in, and sees Cap bearing down on him.

Steve presses forward, ignoring Gabe, his whole being focused on Zola. Shoved back, Gabe is shocked by the hatred twisting Cap's face. He doesn't know what's going on, but Cap's intent is obvious. Zola. The other prisoners bunch to the side wall of the engine, scrambling to stay out of the way. Gabe pushes hard to stay in front of Steve, calling out, trying to get his attention, but Steve just shoves harder, driving Gabe back into Zola, pressing them both against the hot engine compartment wall. Cap doesn't say anything, just keeps hitting Zola over Gabe's shoulders, shoving Gabe back into Zola with each lunge forward.

Gabe is getting hurt, and fuckin' pissed off, he shouts "Cap, stop! What'n hell's going on! What are you doing?! We need him! Remember the mission! Come on man!" Gabe uses his Thompson, held across his chest like a bar, to try to hold Steve back and keep from being plowed under. Steve pauses and focuses on him, blinking in confusion… "Bucky is gone, this bastard killed him, and I'm gonna…" and he lunges, reaching out over Gabe, grabbing Zola by the throat.

Gabe shouts, wrestling to stay between them, "Steve! He needs to go back alive! We need him! STOP!" Gabe had suffered a few glancing blows, wondering why he's taking these hits when he'd rather just get out of the way. He shouts "Remember the mission! Captain! …damn!"

Steve finally looks at him, lets go of Zola with a shove and a snarl, and takes a step back. Zola is pale with fear, gasping for breath, sweat glistening on his face, eyes round, a line of blood running from his nose. Gabe yells in Cap's face "We gotta stop the train!" Steve sees the blood running down Gabe's forehead from a gash in his scalp, and takes a breath. Another step back.

They stand in silent tension for a second, broken by Gabe turning and pointing his Thompson at the frightened engineer, "Stop the train!" The engineer had abandoned the controls when Steve crashed in, and the train is still going too fast. After the engineer continues the braking sequence, it takes 10 miles to slow down enough to slowly crawl up to the rendezvous point.

Steve had retreated to the roof, not being able to stand being near Zola, and shouted down to Gabe when he saw the signal light flashing the prearranged code (Morse letter K, repeated). It was the reception team, a *troop of Special Air Service Brits and about eight partisans, at the rendezvous point, the one flat place on the line with a road close by. The tesseract powered train comes to a halt almost silently.

As they disembark the train the SAS team materializes out of the trees. A few of them take the prisoners, search them and tie them up. Zola stands close to Gabe, watching Steve. Steve narrows his eyes at him, considering. Zola sidles closer to Gabe, who glares at him and shoves him toward the soldiers. With a sigh, and a quick nod to Gabe, Steve turns to climb back on the train.

From inside, Steve sees the SAS men moving quietly through the snow, setting charges on the train cars. Walking back through the cars, he steps over the dead Hydra agent…not angry anymore, just… empty. He finds Bucky's Tommy gun on the floor, undamaged, an empty magazine beside it. As he stares down at it, he hears someone coming up behind him and turns. Gabe takes in the damage to the car and looks at him, amazed. "What happened?"

Steve feels his chest tightening up. "I deflected a shot from a Hydra guard and it took out the side of the car," motioning to the huge hole in the side of the train "the impact threw me down against the wall… I saw Bucky, he was using my shield, shooting at him…" Steve flips a hand at the dead guard…defending me…(breathe) "then the guard fired another blast that hit the shield and threw Bucky…out of the train." (breathe, focus damn it) Steve puts a hand on the wall and shakes his head. "Buck caught a rail on the side out there, but it broke off and he fell…" choking back a gasping breath "…before I…" Gabe moves closer and squeezes his shoulder, Steve's grief finally flooding out.

Gabe shakes Steve, gently, and pulls him close. Steve is shaking and gasping, but he stands up and regroups as he wipes away silent tears. Gabe bends to pick up the Tommy gun, saying softly "Let's get to the trucks, Cap, they're almost done". Steve breathes in deeply, recovering, trying to center on here and now but he can't stop shaking. He has a thought and starts shifting cargo boxes. "His *piece was empty so I threw him mine, but I don't know what he did with his, maybe he dropped it? I don't want to leave it." Gabe watches Cap going through the scattered cargo for Bucky's .45 for a second, shakes his head and then starts looking too.

A Brit passes by, gives them a glance and says "Best get off the train yanks, the *808's all in place." Dropping a box, giving up the search, Steve sighs. "Well, it must have gone…"(with hin...breathe). With a final glance around, and a short silence, they both jump down and crunch through the snow to the trucks. Gabe is carrying both Thompsons. As they walk, Steve holds out his hand in the direction of Bucky's, and Gabe hands it to him. Steve's heart aches, looking at it. This can't be real. Any moment Bucky will come around one of the trucks and take it back. breathe, don't go there

An SAS sergeant comes up and confirms the route to the extraction point, and gives a quick update on known enemy positions and movement in the area. Steve gives the ok, and the soldier gives the command to mount up. The team finishes loading up prisoners and equipment, and Cap and Gabe climb into the back of the truck that carries the soldiers' gear. The civilian trucks were supplied by the partisans for the SAS, who had made arrangements for them by radio, weeks ago.

As the trucks form a line and get on the snowy mountain road, Steve sits on a pack with his back and shield against the cab wall of the truck. He stands the Thompson on the floor, straight up between his knees. Holding it, he thinks about how pleased Bucky was to have it, and all the time he spent cleaning and taking care of it. He'd liked the hard-hitting full auto .45 for close-in work, even though it weighed a ton. But the Stark-modified *sniper rifle was his favorite, his baby, kept in a custom case under his cot. Steve wonders what will happen to them both, and runs a hand over his face.

"Gabe," he says "I'll have to go with Zola to England and make a report, so I won't be around to watch out for Bucky's gear, would you take charge of it 'till I get back?" Gabe smiles, "Sure Cap, his stuff will be safe with me. With us." Cap smiles, a small upturn of the corners of his mouth, "I know, but it's the army, you may need to ship his trunk home right away, before anyone gets ideas." Gabe nods and says "The quartermaster is gonna want some stuff back, what should I do with the Tommy gun? And his rifle?" Steve thinks, then says "Put'em with my gear, they should be ok there till I get back. I shouldn't be gone long."

Everyone hears the train explode, but by then they were far enough away to see only the fireball, laced with blue lightning, rising over the trees. A thick black cloud of smoke rises up and blends into the low grey clouds.

Afterward
Steve left the .45 in his footlocker when he left for England, and Gabe stored Bucky's Thompson and his sniper rifle, until the Army tried to recover both of them after Sgt. Barnes and Captain Rogers were declared MIA. But when Peggy learned of it from Gabe, she and Howard arranged for the Thompson, the Johnson sniper rifle and Steve's .45 to be housed in Stark's private collection. In 2012, the Smithsonian asked to borrow them for their Captain America exhibit, where they were reunited with other weapons from Bucky's collection, kept by his family and friends.

(To see the exhibit, find downrangedragon on tumblr.)

*mag - short for magazine, a plastic or metal container that holds rounds under spring pressure in preparation for feeding into the firearm's chamber. Examples include box, tubular, drum and rotary magazines. Some are integral to the firearm while others are removable. Internal magazines are loaded with a thin metal stripper clip of ammo.

*Piece - short for Piece of Ordnance, used by the U.S. military to refer to any weapon, from handguns up to the largest artillery pieces. The word "gun" was used only to refer to the big guns on various warships of the time.

*808 - One of the simplest plastic explosives, Nobel's Explosive No. 808 (often just called Explosive 808 in the British Armed Forces during WWII), developed by the British company Nobel Chemicals Ltd well before World War II. It had the appearance of green plasticine with a distinctive smell of almonds.

*Troop (SAS) - 16 men - 4 troops made a squadron, 4 squadrons made a regiment.

*Sniper rifle - Bucky used a modified Johnson rifle - the Johnson is a short recoil system with a rotating bolt (very similar to the later AR-15 bolt, which Johnson would influence). It is chambered for the standard .30-06 cartridge, and feeds from a 10-round rotary fixed (internal) magazine which can be fed by stripper clips or with individual cartridges.

Notes:
Very short story, it's my first, hope you like it! Please leave comments, advice, tips, pros, cons etc., I love feedback! I know it needs some embellishment, but I'm a straight-to-the-point sort of person. If I don't die from creative stress, I'll try something a bit longer later, with more fluff (and more Winter).