A/N—total speculation based on the trailer. Not sure HOW Bucky got into that vise. Really. And is he in Germany? Or Wakanda? Here's the best I can do with such little info.

Somewhere in Germany about a few days before Brock meets with Baron Zemo in Wakanda

The smell of gasoline and industrial machine lubricant was thick in the humid summer air. Barnes couldn't tell if he was smelling the iron of the machines around him or tasting his own blood. Wan light filtered in through dust motes making the room a vague haze. Rivulets of sweat trickled down his back and into his eyes but he didn't bother wiping it away, allowing gravity to pull them down to splash meaninglessly on the floor.

His left arm was clamped tightly by the machine press. It didn't hurt, per se, but the arm sent back information that it was unhappy. Not pain, but annoying notifications to his brain demanding he fix the situation immediately. In the back of his mind he wondered if pain would be preferable than this inexorably annoying system update.

When he had woken up from the ambush a few days prior, he contemplated ripping the arm off somehow. First, he started pulling, then increased the effort. Skin began to stretch as 70-year-old scar tissue pulled tight. Tiny beads of blood began to dot the flesh-metal interface. Panting with the effort of pulling his own arm off, he stopped when Crossbones showed up. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, even if it's a totally badass decision."

Barnes looked up at the mercenary hiding behind his skull-mask. If looks could kill, Rumlow would have been a pincushion of knives.

"Yes, Asset. If you rip that arm off, you'll bleed to death in a matter of minutes." Crossbones paced around the captive Barnes in his vise, "It's very intimately attached to you. I've read the schematics. I've read a lot about you, actually. Pierce's records were very complete."

"I have a name." Bucky growled, his voice rough from disuse, eyes burning holes into Rumlow.

"Not to me, Asset." Brock swung around the vise, cuffing Barnes across the head staying just out of reach but close enough to sneer grotesquely even from behind the mask.

"What do you want?" Bucky returned, tossing his filthy hair back, unfazed by Rumlow's punch and display of bravado.

"You are the bait. And a scapegoat." Brock commented, moving away, "Isn't it great you can multitask like any 21st century guy?"

"Bait for who?" Barnes didn't care about the scapegoating. He'd been Hydra's lackey for so long, his list was red with their incriminations.

"Really?" Rumlow looked genuinely annoyed, "Perhaps someone close to you? A friend?"

It took every fiber of Barnes' being to sit absolutely still and not give Brock any sign of knowing exactly what Crossbones was talking about.

"Going for stoic. So 1940's. Or is your brain still half frozen, Asset?" Crossbones badgered, "Your friend, comrade in arms, best buddy… Steve Rogers? Or should I say Captain America!" Brock stood up straight at attention feigning patriotism with a false salute.

James didn't flinch. Inside the privacy of his head, he raged against Brock thinking if he touched one hair on Steve's head, he'd rend Crossbones piece by piece until he died the most tortuously painful way he knew how to deliver.

"Ok. Have it your way. You're both dead men either way you look at it. Then we'll just mop up Stark and the rest of his dumbass crew." Brock shrugged mildly disappointed by Barnes' non-reaction to his fate. "I've got a plane to catch. Enjoy your stay."

Mutely, Bucky watched Crossbones leave, lightly flexing his left hand, planning revenge.


The second plane Brock caught was not a commercial one. The small bush plane set down surreptitiously at sundown just outside the city limits and was quickly unloaded of cargo into a Range Rover. Hoping into the passenger seat, the Wakandan driver sped off quickly into the encroaching gloom, heading to the safe house located within the suburbs of the city. Tomorrow, there would be news about meeting the infamous Baron Zemo.


"We have word of a sighting." Widow said quietly to Steve before Tony arrived to the meeting. Falcon had relayed the information to Romanov earlier that morning because she would see Steve before he would and he should hear it in person.

Rogers's eye brows ticked up and a sparkle came into his eyes, "Yes?"

Natasha sighed inwardly. Cap's inescapable feelings for his best friend would always be his Achilles heel. She felt sorry for him, or was it envy? "Yes. We have word that Brock Rumlow is holding him hostage. Right now, he's in Wakanda."

Rogers' body became a statue; only the vibration of his tensing muscles in rage betraying his emotional state. His eyes became cold, "I thought he was dead."

"Apparently not. Goes by the mercenary name 'Crossbones.'" Widow slid a thin file towards the Avenger. He took it as Tony appeared down the hallway through the glass walls.

"I'm going after him." Steve replied tersely and Natasha didn't need to wonder which 'him' it was.

Cap barely heard or cared what Tony had to say. He stayed mute and nodded when expected and was appropriate. His mind was contemplating the slow death he was going to give Brock. Rumlow knew Bucky was the Winter Soldier. He knew the whole time that he was Steve's best friend. He knew.

When the meeting was over, Steve made a measured and hasty retreat from the office. When the door had closed and the broad shoulders of the Avenger had disappeared, Widow leaned towards Tony slightly, a small frown between her brows, "I don't like this, Stark."

Tony turned with his enigmatic smile, "Why not? Nick used to do this all the time."

"Because Bucky is his best friend." Natasha defended, "Not just a hostile to be eliminated."

Stark's face frosted over at the mention of Barnes being Steve's best friend, "Well, I see Cap as uniquely qualified for this mission."

"And you're letting him go in alone. Against Rumlow. How kind." she glared at him.

Tony waved a hand at her, nonchalantly, "Well, I assumed you certainly would follow him, right? After all, if things go south, I still need Barnes."

Natasha gave him a stony look and then departed wondering sometimes if Tony had taken his heart out with that arc reactor years ago.

That's a good girl, Tony thought, tapping his chin, as the Black Widow departed.