His mind was hazy, like it had been on the river when he pulled Steve from the water. As it had been several times over the years as he was 'prepared' for missions. As it was when they first started erasing Barnes and 'installing' the Winter Soldier. Like every time he 'woke up' from the effects of those damned words.

As he spoke to Steve and Wilson about the other Winter Soldiers, the memories of what had happened while under the effect of the mind control were slowly coming back. He had fought Steve and others as he got away.

What truly bothered him was when the memories showed him fighting himself. Had the years of HYDRA butchering his mind finally made him crazy? He was not the picture of mental health as it was, but seeing things that were not there had not happened yet.

So far.

It was not the present him he was fighting. He looked to be about 16, 17 maybe. But the skills were not of his teenager self. What was his mind trying to tell him? He was no doctor, so he couldn't tell. He just didn't like it. He was just starting to get his mind back, to be Bucky again. Then all this had to happen.

Then three kids stepped in his line of sight. One redheaded girl, one brunette and... himself.

He felt his breath caught on his throat. It was the same image of the boy he imagined fighting, the girl was there too. But he had imagined it, hadn't he?

He looked so real. Even with those cold eyes that seemed to look into his soul and judge him unworthy.

" Winter Soldier. " He said, it talked. His hallucination could talk. " HYDRA's most cherished asset. Finally, we meet. " There was a smile on the face starring at him, but it didn't feel right. The eyes were still cold.

The voice sounded real. Bucky looked at Steve. Steve he was sure was real.

" Yeah, about that. " Said Steve, looking at the group of kids. " There's something you should know. " He looked uncomfortable.

" HYDRA had their own experiment factory. We're experiments. They used your DNA on me and Marina. " Said the boy in a cold and impersonal voice.

" Hey. " Said the brunette girl, who looked about 10 or 11.

He felt his eyes widening further. And his brain stop for what felt like forever. It couldn't be. HYDRA had turned him into their personal slave and forced him to do horrible things, now they had 'created' more of him? More slaves for their ranks?

He stopped again.

He was a father. Of two!

He ran a hand over his face, taking a careful breath.

" I... they never said anything about something like this. " He said, finally finding his voice. It couldn't be true.

" They wouldn't have. " Said the redheaded girl. " It was need to know. "

That made sense. HYDRA was always doing something more. Some new improvement, new weapon. The other Winter Soldiers were proof of that.

It still was hard to wrap his mind around it.

" You're my kids? " He asked, looking at them. Begging in his mind for it not to be true. That HYDRA hadn't gone that one step further in their torture of him.

That got the three to look at him with an analytical expression, better to say an even more analytical expression. Their eyes were similar to the Winter Soldier's, but without the emptiness Barnes left when he was 'gone', just the cold. He felt like he was under a microscope, as he had felt so many times during the times he was out of the ice, as the scientists ' worked ' on him.

" Your DNA was used to make us, yes. " Said the boy. His son.

" Your data to calibrate our training. " Said the smaller girl. His daughter.

" Training. " He said, not a question, not a realization, something in between.

Impatience flashed on their eyes.

" Your intelligence was greatly exaggerated on your file. " Said the boy, a raised eyebrow.

" Nine. " Said Steve, in a tone of voice that asked to ' take it easy '. " He just learned about you, have some patience. "

The boy's eyes had a sharper edge to them. He gazed into his eyes and Bucky felt like he somehow disappointed him.

" I'm... going to be someplace else. Pretending this isn't awkward. " Said Wilson, leaving for another part of the abandoned building they were in.

" What.. What are your names? " Asked Bucky.

" Marina Barnes. " Said the girl. " That's Nine. "

" Nine? "

" Steve was the one to name me James Barnes Junior. " He said. " I go by Nine. "

" Actually, it was until or if he wanted to change it. " Said Steve, with a small smile, trying to defuse the tension. " He doesn't seem to care and everyone else calls him by Nine. "

Bucky nodded, then looked at the red-headed girl.

" You are? "

" Ava." She said.

" My daughter. " Said Steve, with a slighter larger smile. " HYDRA got a hand on my DNA too. "

He nodded. He truly couldn't be surprised for his friend at the moment. He had his own worries.

The red head, or better Ava, exchanged a look with his son, 'Nine'. A look that seemed to contain an entire conversation. Then she left. A moment later, Steve offered him a comforting smile and left too.

Silence hit him like a punch. Neither of the three moved, except for his eyes that went from one kid to the other.

Then Nine shifted in his place, breaking Bucky from his silence.

" Why do you go by Nine? "

" Experiments don't have names. Just Identification sequences. " Said Marina. " Me and Ava chose names eventually, but he likes Nine because Ava calls him that. " The boy looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and a curious expression. " It is true! "

The boy didn't seem to want to argue so he looked back to Bucky. Still, no expressions on their faces.

" What have you been doing? " Asked Nine. " Since you abandoned HYDRA? "

" I... " He felt in an interrogation. Or was it just the way he talked? Bucky was almost sure he hated him. The girl too. Why wouldn't they? " Hiding. "

The boy shifted again, then turned around and left, leaving him alone with the girl.

" You are currently Barnes, then. " Said the girl.

" I am. " He said.

" You shouldn't worry about introductions. " She said. " We studied everything that there is to study about you. "

Once again, he felt like he was being studied. Which he had been, probably still was.

" I don't know what to say to that. " He admitted.

The man sitting in front of him was not the one he read about on his studies. The face is the same, as his measures. His skill set as well. But there was something broken in him. His posture, his expression, him not knowing what to say. It was all wrong. Normally he would not have been that bothered by inaccurate data on a subject, but this was the Winter Soldier.

It was wrong and it made him angry.

When he felt something run down his back, he had an excuse to leave.

Ava was sitting on the crater from before, looking to be deep in thought. He smiled to himself. She probably already had three alternatives of plans and was fine tuning them and figuring out which one was best.

Steve and Sam were further down the floor, on the opposite side, speaking lowly about what they would do next.

He walked over to the crater.

" Stitches in my back broke. " He said, already sitting down, taking his jacket, shirt and working on the lightweight bulletproof vest.

" Should have looked at it earlier. " She said, moving from her meditating pose to face my back, taking the small emergency kit from one of her pockets. " And it should have healed already if it wasn't deep. "

" Sorry for the miscalculation in the report of my condition, ma'am. " He said, like a soldier reporting to a superior, but smirking. " It will not happen again. "

" It better not. " She said. " I cannot calculate for you if I do not know your exact state. " She added. She could actually, but it would be an approximation, and she preferred the least of those as possible.

She removed the blood soaked bandages from over his injuries. Then the broken stitches.

" Before us running from the Maternity, you would never have put yourself in harms way for someone else. " She said. " Even if in the long run, the action could have been useful in the way we are perceived. "

" I wouldn't have. " He said. " Do you think you have changed this much as well? "

" I'm not sure. I suppose that's something that can only be decided when I face the situation. " She said, trying to clean the area. " Lay down, gravity is getting in the way. "

He lay with his belly down. She cleaning the slowly running blood and finally succeeding in doing it. She then took the needle, passed the thread through it and started to sew the wound shut.

" You're a butcher with a needle. " He said.

" You can take it. " She said, smirking. " And it's not wise to insult the one that has a needle on your skin. "

He turned his head to look up at her.

" Should I be worried? " He asked with a smirk as well.

" Not if you stop insulting my skills with a needle. " She said with a small smile.

" Noted. " He said, looking back to the wall, his head on his crossed arms. " But you are a butcher with a needle. "

She pulled the threat a little harder, just enough to make him feel it. He laughed a little.

When she was done, she put another bandage over it, closing and protecting the stitches.

" All done. " She said, he sitting up.

" So, we should decide what to do next. " He said, lowly so that the enhanced hearings in the building wouldn't hear it.

" I don't know. Things are too tense, people can go one way or another. There are too many unknown variables, specially with the UN. " She said, pausing and speaking even lower. " This situation, it has no right or wrong. If it was just for me, I would stay away until the dust settled. But, strange as it seems, I feel like I should make sure that the others won't be treated like criminals. And our actions can determine that. "

" Feelings. " He said. " Sometimes it feels like they're a virus, corrupting my mind. No wonder they manipulated our DNA to get us rid of them. " Were they starting to see the other experiments as something more than organic things that were raised in the same place as them?

" Indeed. " She agreed.

" We should have Phebian and Bubbles keep track of Stark and Natasha. " Said Nine, taking his phone out and sending a text.

" Do you want to make sure Barnes comes out on top after this? " She asked, sounding thoughtful.

He sent the text and stayed in silence for a moment.

" That man in there, he is not the one I studied. " He said. " I was created at his image, with his DNA. That pathetic specimen in there was the one I had to overcome? The countless hours, the incessant training, all with one goal. "

" Be better than them. " She completed the sentence. It was the goal of all experiments. At the same time as the donors were removed from the equation by making sure they never learned of the experiments and with the removal of familial and emotional bonds. They were put in the center of their lives by making them the bases for their existence, their objectives as weapons from HYDRA was to be them. Better versions of them by critically and relentlessly studying everything there is to know about them, in order to erase all defects.

In a way, the experiments knew the donors better than they knew themselves.

Had HYDRA fed him with bad info? Or he never had truly succeeded in his studies? Or something had happened that had made the man he thought he had pinned down, a stranger?

" He ends up on top. " He finally answered her question. " But only if it means we do too. I am not making any sacrifices. " He then smirked at her. " I haven't changed that much. "

" Good to know. "