"Remember when I made you ride the cyclone at Coney Island?" Bucky's voice is quiet, reminiscent and nearly lost in the wind of the mountain. Steve manages to fight back a smile at the memory, blue eyes fixing on the tracks where he can all but see the train, his new objective.
"Yeah, and I threw up?"
"This isn't payback, is it?" Bucky and Steve both look up at the wire just above them, the thin cable shifting, as though to add insult to injury. Was this really going to work? The question wouldn't leave the tips of their tongues, hanging and drifting along with the zip line they'd be racing down as soon as the signal was given.
"Why would I do that?" Steve can't help but smile.
"We were right; Doctor Zola's on the train." The two soldiers turn back to their interpreter, Jones and Morita both huddled around the radio to hear the orders coming in from the German conductor, their expressions intent as they flick from the Captain and his friend to the device again, where new orders are being shouted in rapid German. "Hydra dispatch just gave them permission to open up the throttle. Wherever they're going he must need them bad."
Bucky turns to Steve. Are we really going to do this? He doesn't have to say it, the message passing between the two as silently as before. Steve puts on his helmet, an order Bucky follows as he moves to stand behind him. He manages to hide the trembling in his fingers by tightening his grip on the handles of his pulley.
Just to the side of the cable, Falsworth pulls his eyes away from the binocolars in his hand, expression solemn as he watches the train pick up speed, passing over the bridge and gaining on the Howling Commandos and their Captain.
"Let's get going because they're moving like the devil." He watches the men line in, Steve taking the lead.
The patriot turns back to his team, blue eyes seeking them all out from beneath his equally blue helmet. He swallows hard the bubble of nerves threatening to burst from his lips, face as stoic as ever. He would not show weakness; could not, not at a time like this. He was a Captain, and he would set the precedent. Lining his pulley up with the wire, he shouts back to his team, reminding them of the time window. Ten seconds. "You miss that window, we're bugs on a windshield."
"Mind the gap." Farlsworth says just loud enough to be heard. Steve's lips twitch into a hint of a smile.
"Better get moving, bugs!" Leave it to Dum Dum to have the last word.
Steve braced himself, eyes locking on the speeding train. The signal is given, and his feet lift the ground as he kicks off from the mountain side. The air bites at his cheeks and eyes as he sails down the line, eyes stinging and breath coming in short gasps as the frozen wind is pushed into his nose, his mouth, and fills his lungs without waiting for him to acclimate himself. The line sinks a little lower as he feels Bucky joining him just behind, then again as the third soldier joins in.
His feet touch solid matter just as he passes the train, and immediately lowers himself flat to the top of it, fingers clenching for some sort of purchase on the worn black metal of the roof. He can feel more than hear Bucky and their companion landing as well, and without looking back progresses to the next point: the ladder, the sliding door. He does not look out around him. Does not, until he lowers himself to make sure he has the clearance and notices the severe drop just behind him. His stomach bottoms out, and his hands clench to the small rungs of the ladder even tighter than before.
'Please God, don't let me fall.'
They make it to the door without a problem, and soon he and Bucky made it in. The sliding door shuts just behind them. The grey interior is packed, filled near to the ceiling with canisters that Steve can't quite understand what they are for, knowing only that Hydra getting these to their next point will mean he failed. He can't fail. He won't fail.
Guns drawn, and shield in front Steve takes left, Bucky right. His best friend looks like he's about to hurl any moment, knuckles white on the rifle in his hands. Steve can't focus on that right now, fixating his eyes instead on the door just up ahead. It's open, an invitation to the next check point. Steve gets there first, taking point as he steps cautiously through the two doors. Why are they so empty? Before he can so much as look back at Bucky, who'd been keeping a keen eye on the corners for anything Steve might have missed, the door slide shut, locking the two out and away from each other. Trapped. Steve throws his shoulder into the metal of the door, eyes catching Bucky's figure turning to shoot at oncoming targets.
From behind, a familiar whine, the sound of a gun warming up and readying itself to fire at Steve. Hydra's secret weapon is pointed at his face by the time he turns around and shoots at the man. The opponent only ducks behind a stack of what must be weapons, head low and the gun still revved and ready to go with his finger on the trigger. Steve's heart races, seeking a better, quick shot to end this and get back to Bucky. He can hear the gunshots from the other room, and hear the German doctor shrieking into Steve's own attacker's earpiece. It didn't sound good for Steve. The man knocks over the barricade he'd been hiding behind, whipping his weapon around to shoot at Steve, who manages to get the shield up in time and deflect. He could kiss Stark the thing worked so well, though he might save it for a later date. Preferably one where there wasn't the possibility of him losing life and limb.
Before the weapon can reload, Steve hides himself behind a couple crates near the back of the room, ducks as the cannons discharge twice more: once just above his head, the other to the side. As the machine whines again, Steve takes his chance and strikes, running from his hiding spot to catch onto the overhead track on the ceiling. He rides it with ease to his opponent, who seems to be jerking the weapon to try and make it load faster. It isn't enough, and Steve's feet plant themselves in the man's chest, sending him to the floor. The shield to his face finishes the man off, his body limp on the metal ground. Steve waits, hardly breathes. Is he out? The weapon had gone silent, and the man motionless, so Steve can only assume so. His attention turns again to the door separating Bucky and himself, his eyes searching for any sort of a weak point despite being halfway across the room. There had to be one, but the shots are still coming from the end of the room. Bucky had to be alive, and thinking quickly Steve aims the Hydra weapon at the door, manages to get it to wind up through sheer luck, and feels his arm jerk backwards with the powerful recoil as the weapon releases a ball of energy that blasts the door as though it were wet tissue paper.
On the other side, Bucky's huddled behind more crates, the hand gun in his right hand aimed at the soldiers on the other half of the room. Steve's eyes turn to the door and fall upon what he hoped was the open, not close button. Cocking his gun, he hits the button with his elbow, relieved to see the door slide without a problem to give him free access to Bucky. The brunette's attention turns immediately to his Captain, who throws him his own hand gun. Bucky barely holds back a grin of gratitude; his own clip was empty.
Knowing they wouldn't expect an attack from a second party, Steve charges, yelling as his shoulder knocks into one of the crates and sending it sliding so that the Hydra soldier has to lurch to the right to avoid it. Bucky takes the shot, brings the man down.
"I had him on the ropes," the Lieutenant says.
"I know you did." Steve's words nearly muffle the renewed whine of the weapon, pointed right at their backs. Steve catches it before Bucky does, super hearing and all that, and pushes the man behind him as his shield goes up to protect them both. The blast punches a hole in the side of the train. Bucky goes sailing past, back into the crates, his head fuzzy as Steve drops the shield and is pushed to the side as well, but it's the latter that recovers first. He picks up the gun dropped by Bucky, and his shield, just barely getting a grip on it before the second shot knocks it from his hand, and sends him to the edge of the train. His gloves barely gain purchase of the railing, clinging onto the side for dear life. He would not look down. He would not look down, even as the wind bit at his cheeks and the piece of blasted open train seems to weaken beneath his hold. He didn't need to know what was waiting just below. Bucky shouts, managing to spring to his feet, and toss the discarded shield just so it catches the hydra assailant and sends him flying back.
Steve catches sight of his best friend shouting to him. "Steve! Hold on—I'm coming!" He swears, aligning himself with the railing Steve has been holding onto so tightly. Railing he can feel giving just beneath him.
He knows what's coming before it does, but that doesn't stop him from extending his hand the same time Bucky does. Their fingertips touch as Steve falls, the railing unable to support his shifting weight anymore. Bucky's screams are the last things he hears, muddled with his own pounding heartbeat and cry of disbelief. The train rushes out of focus as he falls into the abyss he'd been trying so hard not to think of, Bucky's name still on his lips.
A/N: Hello! Hope you liked the first chapter; as stated in the summary, this fic will eventually get into M territory, but it's got a bit of a build up before it gets to that point, so I apologize if you came here immediately looking for smut!
Also, this is my first fic that I've written in, literally, years, and it is unbeta'd, so if there are mistakes I'm really sorry about that, but feel free to point them out and I'll do my best to fix them!
The title for this fic comes from the song No Light, No Light by Florence + The Machine, which I don't own, along with the Avengers, Marvel, etc.
Thanks so much for reading!
