Hey guys—just a short A/N: Thanks for following my story so far; unfortunately, I won't be able to continue due to a variety of reasons that have decided to occur simultaneously in my life.

Basically, I had planned to finish it after 5-6 more chapters (depending on length), but I simply can't commit to it at the moment. I still have a short blue print however, regarding how the story would have eventually panned out, including some of the developmental arcs related to the characters. I'd also planned and organized the ending of the story.

If any one is still interested in knowing what might've been, I thought I'd at least give a brief relay of the ending to those who've been following it so far. I don't like to leave things hanging.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read and review.

Cheers!

The story picks up where it left off. The Winter Soldier finds himself under Shield's authority now, confined to a cage similar to the one they used to hold Loki in The Avengers. Steve asks for his immediate release but his request is denied by Fury due to the soldier's presumed instability—they need to be sure of his motives...whether he is really on their side.

The story continues with the soldier in confinement; a prisoner to a new prison. Steve initially attempts to reconcile with James. He is, of course, rebuked. At first. Over the course of events, the soldier experiences brief memories of his past; of his time in the forties, to his culmination as The Winter Soldier. He also inevitably suffers from flashbacks involving his training in the Red Room but especially from his time with the Black Widow. Gradually, he starts to piece together his memoirs.

The events culminate with a face-off of sorts between the Winter Soldier, and the Black Widow. Incognito, she slips into the area confining the soldier and comes face to face with him for the first time in years—their forms only separated by a veil of thick glass. He remembers some of their most intimate memories now...taunts her about it, asks her to release him...reminds her of how good it once was. She of course, holds her own. The soldier still hasn't figured out her main betrayal of him, however. He will soon. She leaves him be.

Later, Steve visits his imprisoned friend, maintains small talk. Steve has hope; James is still cold...but he's beginning to thaw out. Starting to give the possibility of another life...a new life, some contemplation. Steve unlocks the glass cage. James is no longer confined and is given an opportunity to run with Shield or deflect into absolute normalcy...even oblivion if he wishes. Steve convinces his reluctant friend to strike whilst the iron is hot. With their newly acquired intel on Hydra's 'blueprint' that James had acquired during his escape, their shot at taking down Pierce is more prevalent than ever. James accepts, if only for a chance to find his place in the new world.

The story continues and covers James' rehab into the new world—this time, under Shield's watch. His new missions involve his old love, Natasha and his foray into his past involving her, is systematically unveiled. It leads to an unabashed confrontation on one of their missions into Hydra, where he finds himself alone with her. The memory of her betrayal is now frightfully clear to him. When she made the choice to deflect...to oppose her KGB handlers for the super-soldier serum, he was against it and disregarded her actions.

Hey...being repeatedly brain-washed under the Soviets can do that to a guy.

Still, his attempts to stop her resulted in his ultimate fall. In his heart of hearts, he would never have hurt her, even at the cost of having to let her go. She got her opportunity, pre-emptively hurting him instead...putting a few bullets in him...leaving him for as good as dead. She always knew when to cut the bait.

Present time—they—James and Natasha only *just* manage to evade Hydra's fire, barely escaping together yet achieving their sub-mission. It's here that James finally confronts Natasha on her actions—one that starts with a myriad of tumultuous emotion...seething anger, hurt, rage, sorrow—and ends with only one...passion. Yet, they remain strained in the days ahead. James just doesn't trust her...not like he once did; conveys this to Steve as such. Steve and James Barnes bond somewhat over Coney Island; over the Howling Commandoes and the War from way back when. The Winter Soldier begins to thaw out somewhat...

James looks into Pierce's whereabouts, aiming to take out the man once and for all. He feels lonely and questions his place in his world. Contemplates upon his purpose. It's all mildly existential; he tries to impose an essence on the blank canvas of his character, yet he struggles with the empty well he can't seem to fill. Who...what, am I, he asks himself.

He thinks about Natasha...his Natasha and wonders why she did what she did. Her reasons fail to console his tortured soul, his wounded disposition. He wonders what lies for him after his plans to put a bullet into Pierce. Wonders if this pursuit should indeed be his last—a suicide mission if you will.

A turning point occurs when Pierce contacts the Black Widow, attempting to manipulate her interests by using the super-soldier serum as leverage. Pierce is privy to Natasha's past, to her betrayal. He offers her the choice to become something more, a second chance of sorts as well as full immunity from danger. All she has to do is give up her position...and the Winter Soldier, back unto Hydra. All she has to do is give her former lover, a Judas Kiss; betray him again like she once did.

James gets light of this. Confronts Natasha in front of Steve. She swears her loyalty, alleges her innocence but to no avail. Yet, James is absolutely sure of his mistrust of her, thwarts the possibility of regaining a working relationship at the very least, with her. She hasn't changed, he thinks. Now, it is the Black Widow who is confined—in the same glass cage used to house the Winter Soldier once upon a time.

Steve Rogers and James Barnes suit up for their final roll call—to take out Pierce. Before leaving, James meets her eye, yet his gaze is unreadable. She thinks she sees a hint of pity...perhaps compassion. Natasha isn't sure. She does know one thing though. She wouldn't have taken the serum. She wouldn't have betrayed Shield or Steve...or him. She was someone else now.

In the final chapter, Pierce succumbs to the wrath of the Winter Soldier; yet, in a twisted mirror image to the events of The First Avenger, it is Steve who falls to his death this time. James is shattered yet makes it back to relative safety. He is livid at the Black Widow and confronts her in kind...interrogates her in scathing contrast to her interrogation of him when he was once caged.

They talk, fight, engage...her seasoned spy against his seasoned soldier. The black widow breaks momentarily and for the first time, she is completely and utterly bare...stripped of all of her indiscretions, her secrets. It is the same feeling she felt when she first stood before him—student before teacher—all those years before in The Red Room. She is Natalia now and not The Black Widow. Under a last ditch effort to convey her innocence, the truth leaves her lips for the first time in a long while. She reveals her humanity to the only man who ever slipped through the cracks of her reinforced facade.

A brief flashback...a past memory engulfs the soldier just as he remembers...

Soviet Russia, 1989

She's there. She's younger. She had confided in him-her instructor-on one of numerous occasions, pouring out her sense of disillusionment between could recall certain aspects...her shoulder length hair, cut short and sleek as she'd fumbled to move a few strands from her face.

There's this thing in my heart...picking at me; it tells me that the only thing awaiting me is failure. That, no matter how much I try...no matter how hard I work...at the end of the day, it's all futile. Nothing will change and that's alright. See, it's supposed to be alright. Because everyone has a part to play. Like that saying, some are born great, others have greatness thrust onto them. Yet, there are those who are not meant to be great at their craft. They are simply meant to be mundane...ordinary, because their destiny isn't to be at the top; no, they only serve to lift others—those truly meant for greatness—higher and higher.

Those truly meant for greatness—like you.

But those like me...they will forever lurk in the shadows, vying for success but having to settle for something wholly unfulfilling instead.

I dream about running away so that I don't have to confront these problems.

I'm so scared. I'm scared of failure...

James...I'm scared of failing...

He remembers now...

Natasha tells James she is sorry for her mistake. It is genuine—guilt inducing after all those years burdened by the one sin that tore at her otherwise neutral demeanour. Natasha is only human despite her attempts to convince herself otherwise.

Her sincerity is questioned yet she notices something different—a hint of softness amidst the jarring pain, his beautiful blue eyes convey.

In the days after their reconciliation, the Winter Soldier...James, finds himself drawn towards her...Natasha. The only woman who ever left her mark on him; physically and intimately. They talk...incredibly strained at first, like a long lost dog being re-united with his owner after eons...hesitant, reluctant, suspicious even, yet curious under the well-held facade.

Then...they contemplate; over an entwined past, over kills and losses and scatterings of colour amidst the dark grey blots of the lives they've both led thus far.

Soon...they laugh, occasionally. Bitter at times, frivolous otherwise yet soothing all the same.

Then...they touch. Familiar in many ways, different in some yet all-consuming nonetheless. They melt unto each other.

He may have loved her once.

The epilogue is like any other; a man, every bit the Winter Soldier, as he is James Buchanan Barnes, lays his gaze out onto the vast horizon of the brightly lit city below. It is nightfall and he stands alone at first, contemplating upon his life thus far, wondering if it should've been him—once again—that took the fall. It should have been him, he fights with himself, yet another voice—one of solace—tells him otherwise. Steve would've wanted him to live on...to move on, he convinces himself. Or tries to.

A figure approaches close behind, deep red hair, all curves. Everywhere. The Widow...his Natasha—the woman he comes across years later, still retains her striking good looks; yet she's changed from an innocent novice to evincing a sleek and seasoned command of self. She says nothing, just brushes the tips of her fingers lightly against his...teases him a bit with her delicate touch. He encloses her small hand with his fist...pulls tight.

She says nothing. She doesn't have to. She's here now, and with him. Just two against the world, baby.

Word is out of a new, looming threat ahead; that involving a man known as Baron Von Strucker—one, curiously familiar to both, the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow.

The fight never ends.

Nothing ever ends willingly; not really.

Not with the world. Not with her.