He leaves the man by the river, the man who had now become the failure of his mission. The man he was supposed to kill.
The man who had given him a name. Bucky.
He takes one last look at him, searching his mind for some memory, some recollection of who this man was. The only word that comes to mind: target.
So he walks away. The Winter Soldier walks out of the woods, walks until he finds a coat, gloves and hat that someone's left outside their house. He puts them on, good cover for the metal arm and protection from the chill that's settled into the evening air.
He walks until his eyes and limbs grow heavy from exhaustion. He curls up on a bench in the park he's wound up in and closes his eyes. He dreams, unlike the frozen nothingness that is cryostasis. He dreams of the man from the river, only smaller, with a bright smile and a high voice that says, "Come on, Buck!" He wakes with the name Bucky burning in his head, making him wince. It was his name, but how could that be?
He walks until his aching and rumbling stomach become too much to bear. He follows his hunger to a bakery, where the kind owner gives him a loaf of bread and a little money. As he's eating, he catches sight of a sign posted to the bakery wall. "Come see the one-of-a-kind Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian, only through August!" He see's the face of the man again, and realizes it's a place to find answers.
He walks until he finds the place, a huge exhibit with the face of the man painted in a huge mural outside. He slips past the security guards, making his way toward the rows of uniforms, searching for the one that belonged to him. Or what used to be him. He stares at the white, flickering screens, seeing a man who looks like him but seems a million times more full, while he is just an empty shell. He frowns a little, searching his mind for any piece of memory that connects him to the person on the screen. He can find none. But he knows the man on the river. Steve Rogers.
That's his name. He thinks. And mine is Bucky Barnes
I'm just not sure what that means yet.