So, this is the role division: Steve DoesTheRightThing. And Bucky? Bucky deals with the fallout.
Back in the war, Bucky was the one that shot the rogues coming at Steve from behind. He was the one that kept the team together and out of direct fire. And, after a battle was done it was Bucky that made Steve visit a medic and have his wounds treated even when Steve would be adamantly and repeatedly telling everyone he was fine.
It had always been the whole nine yards; before the Serum, Bucky made sure Steve got his medications, got fished out of the gutter and didn't get murdered by a kitten. After, Bucky still made sure Steve ate his veggies. Kept his nose clean. And, most importantly, Bucky was the one that smoothed out the ruffled feathers and bleeding hearts. Because Steve may have always been an absolute ace at DoingTheRightThing, he was also an ace at being a self-righteous asshole.
It seemed only right that James Buckinham Barnes went straight back to that job after he'd been rescued (again) by said Steve, aka Captain America. Seventy years late, but hey who's counting? And also, get over yourself James. Or Bucky. Or whoever. Be glad you got rescued. The guy had other things to do, okay? Can't go around digging up all of Germany for a dumb-ass friend that fell off a train and was probably dead. Likely dead.. No definitive proof but hey Bucky didn't have no Serum and with pre-Serum-Steve Bucky had spent enough nights coming to terms with Steve not lasting till morning.
Yeah; Bucky is totally over it. Anyway, he doesn't even remember it. Not really; not much. And, as said, Bucky is back to his old job. Which is, for all intents and purposes, saving Steve from himself. Because, seriously? Just after watching the guy for five minutes James/Bucky (he should just get used to Bucky- that's the name for the job) is seriously impressed by the amount of righteousness right there. Captain America does not half-ass anything. He's a take-no-prisoners kind of justice. And Bucky admires that kind of determination, that kind of single mindedness without even a thought for the consequences, painful and scary as they might be.
Yet it also appals him. Because, really? Captain America is a suicide waiting to happen. How had he even survived those seventy years without Bucky? Or, right; he didn't. Jumped right into the arctic and had himself frozen. Which, also, 'bad life choices, Steve!' James knows all about getting frozen and it's a definite don't-try-this-at-home.
So, Bucky gets back with Steve (he didn't want this job but why fight the inevitable), and the next thing he knows Captain America and Tony Stark are duking it out. To the death, or near enough. Somehow Bucky is at the center of it; the cause even. Or, with Steve, perhaps it's better said Bucky is the provocation. Again, at some point everyone wants to take a piece out of Captain America. He's that bad. (or that good?) You don't need issues like your parents getting murdered, or dealing with shit like drinking and drugs and building guns as a coping mechanism to qualify for that. Not at all.
At any rate, Bucky's not at his sharpest during the fight. Sure, reflexes are there, but as far as putting out fires; thinking about the bigger picture? Bucky is still in plant-vs-zombie mode. As in, he could be either: the plant or the zombie. Seriously, the only thing Bucky contributes during that fight is not drooling on anyone. And while that's always a personal victory, especially when forced to watch videos that Definitively Do Not Cause any unwanted and debilitating memories to surface… yeah. It's Tony's parents murdered in that video, but it leaves Bucky so shell shocked he actually looks to Steve to be his guiding light while his higher functions check out.
Lo and behold, Steve decides to add some gasoline on the fire.
As soon as they're out of the fight, and back to breathing and thinking.. Bucky (Bucky?) doesn't get much further than ' oh shit.' Because talk about burning your bridges. Tony's a big fish; pulls a lot of weight. And Steve was already up to his armpits in shit, setting governments against him with his blatant disregard for the akkords. Bucky knows they need Stark on their side to face whatever fallout's heading their way from that. But worse, Tony is Steve's friend and part of the team. No; Tony is the backbone of it. The provider of a home, the tech miracle worker. And likely (it's Steve's team) the only voice of reason on said team.
Without Tony there are no Avengers. And Steve without a team? Or Steve missing a friend? Can you say moping abyss of depression?
This little spat? It's a fucking disaster. Another Steve commiting suicide plot. Basically, Steve losing a friend, or losing his title, would make Bucky's main task -keeping Captain Dramaqueen alive- just that much harder:one the one side, it's one less man on board the SS Keep Steve Breathing. On the other, like Steve needs any more help doubting himself? That'd just be another good reason for mr. Hero to jump or crash or blow himself up. Bucky's good; but he's not sure he can manage that much self hate into anything beyond more self destruction.
Consequence: there's a sudden and urgent need for Bucky to go on a little side-mission. That side mission is dubbed 'Save The Avengers'. And, at first glance, it sounds a bit of an overreach for Bucky to achieve.
And it would have been, had he just been good ol' James Buckingham Barnes. But, he's not; not really. He's also the Winter Soldier and the Ghost and about a dozen other things; things that lied and manipulated so well he was never even discovered. There'd been a time that 'the Ghost' could end revolts with a few well-placed threats and not a drop of blood spilt. A time before, when they'd not even known to give him a name, and all he had to do was listen to the right politicians, add a comment here and there, and have a vote split the other way without anyone even aware they'd been manipulated.. Well, whatever. None of that is important now. What is important is that Bucky can fix the issue. But to do so he will need to talk directly to Stark. Without Steve.
Getting there was the easy part. The Ghost was a spy like no other. Back when metal detectors were not that common, and a good paint job hid the fact that his arm wasn't normal at all, he travelled across Europe undetected all the time, even visited America several times. Sure, that all went to hell when he asked a few too many questions, and they started wiping him. But, now that he's out for a while and his brain is past mashed potato mode, Bucky knows enough to do it again.
It is painfully easy to give Steve the slip. Not even T'Challa has transportation for the whole team of rescued/fugitive Avengers at the ready, so they end up boarding a private QuinJet from a nearby airport. They bypass security in ways that has Bucky wonder about how save these airport regulations are, and reach the plane's dock without mishap.
All it takes is a little sleight of hand, a bathroom break and two cigarettes left close to a smoke detector. Five minutes later the whole C-gate is evacuating, and Captain America saves the day by almost single handedly getting everyone out of a burning airport. Bucky's kind of sorry he misses it; he wonders if the other fugitive Avengers helped in cognito. He wonders if Steve tried to stay in cognito too, and failed.
Instead of finding out, Bucky sneaks out through the conveyor belt, manages to knock out the first worker he finds without lethal injury (so proud), and steals his id card and some overalls. With an acquired a smartphone he figures out what hospital Stark was taken, hitches a ride in the plane's baggage storage and steals a car to this luxury Polish resort hospital.
Interesting point of note, Bucky's arm is still pretty much ruined at this point. All that's left is the shoulder joint and the main vibranium fixture for his upper arm; a hand's length of pole of the most solid material known to man. The handicap doesn't slow him down, and he shows up at the hospital with it wrapped in clean linen bandages. Decked out in a middle-grade suit pilfered for the occasion he walks in with a smile and his one arm overladen with biggest gift basket he could find.
The lack of security measures are insulting at first. Bucky charms the nurse at the reception with a smirk and a few well-placed compliments. She laughs at his 'armless jokes and nearly falls over herself to help him figure out the right room number when he alludes to the fact that his memory might be slightly damaged. Bucky is sent up in the elevator towards room 1304 with only a minute's delay,
It's too easy, Bucky decides on his way up. Some instinct is set off as he listens to the ambiance music on the elevator. Yet he squashes the instinct and tells himself he really should just worry about Stark's lack of self-preservation. Seriously, this kind of trust in the good of mankind seems more Steve's style. Is stupidity a prerequisite for joining the Avengers? The dissociation hits for real when Bucky walks down the hall towards the room and has to accept that the security battalion sent up to detain him.. simply isn't coming.
Of course, Stark sets any worries of the man being another incompetent dreamer straight up to the moment Bucky sets one foot into that hospital room.
Bucky stepped into a silent hospital room, his right arm hugging that encumbering large get-well basket against his chest. He was not surprised to have an energy glove aimed at him by the bed's occupant. He was, however, very surprised when after closing the door with his hip, he found a third person in the room with them.
Tony Stark had not been alone; behind that door a striking lady stood waiting, and Bucky really should have been able to hear her. Actually, perhaps he had heard her, but had opted not to dwell on it. It would not have mattered; Bucky would have happily walked into that room even if he'd heard an entire SWAT team breathing behind this door.
The thing that did give Bucky pause was that the lady cupped an open flame in her outstretched hands. She wasn't tall, not even on her ridiculously high heels, but she had a commanding presence, and a ridiculous amount of naked rage shining in her eyes. Bucky, recognising the primary source of danger, threw the woman his most charming smile, waved his metal, bandage-wrapped stump in what he hoped was a comical gesture. "Don't worry, I'm unarmed."
She did not smile in return, though she did bare teeth at him. "Tony just got out of three hours of surgery thanks to you. You think that I'm going to fall for the old 'armless act?"
"Easy, Pepper." Stark called, erasing any doubts Bucky might have had over her identity. Then, Tony demanded any and all attention on himself, simply by reffing the engine in his single energy glove, tone calm but calculating. "What do you want, Winter Soldier? "
A quick stock of Stark's current health made one remember not all Avengers were super soldiers; a dark stain had spread from above the man's eye, puffing up his left cheek. Bucky assumed it was blood from a cut above his eye, that had leaked down the inside of his skin; the paint-like darkening drooped down to his collarbone. Stark's chest was bandaged in so much white linen Bucky couldn't even guess what was wrong down there. His left leg, similarly wrapped in a cast hung from a pulley block up on the sealing. The left arm, closest to Bucky, was fixed against his chest with more bandages. And finally a right arm, free and bare, and shaking with the effort to keep that glove aimed at the perceived threat.
"Bought you a get-well gift basket?" Bucky's supposedly disarming smile had the opposite effect; the energy-glove burst a short wave, narrowly missing his face in favour of the extended plastic-wrapped basket. It was swiped from his hand and splattering against the door behind him in a squash a shattering of the door's glass window.
With a mental step back, James regarded the ruined flowers and leaking fruit. The wicker decorative basket hit the floor, followed by a thump- then another thump. An apple, then a mango, finally getting unstuck from cracked glass. Tony had unscrupulously murdered the hell out of that gift basket, but was apparently far from done: "Fuck your gift basket, Hydra dog! What the hell do you want?"
Bucky sucked in a slow breath, back in the forefront, but calm again. Perhaps good manners were dead. That didn't change the objective. Also, him and Stark had so much in common already : a dislike of Hydra, a disposition towards shooting things... They were practically destined to be friends. Also, not trusting the Winter Soldier just made him smart. There was no reason to take offence.
"I came to apologise." Bucky offered; hazarded. Not because of Stark's rage, but because Tony Stark thrived on doing the unexpected. He was erratic that way. Not unsteerable... but to get Tony to do what was right, he needed to have that take people by surprise. Tony only hit curveballs, it seemed. Or; perhaps a bounced ball would do the trick. Bucky turned to Pepper Potts. "I think he's upset."
The lady, did not disappoint. "Fuck you, you nearly killed Tony. Give me one good reason not to burn that grin off your face."
" Fuck trying to kill me." Stark couldn't leave a comment like that. Wouldn't. "I'm Tony fucking Stark. Everyone tries to kill me; and it was mostly Steve besides. I can totally respect someone trying to kill me. It's a decent ambition. You!" spittle dripped as the bed-ridden man stabbed his glowing hand Bucky's direction. "You killed my mother!"
"Hmmm." Bucky took one step closer to the bed, raised his single hand in surrender. "Well, not my best work. I'll give you that."
"You fucking strangled her."
Ah. So this is the part where James had to pay . Pay Stark, pay miss Potts and by extension pay the same price to Sam in the retelling now. It's a small thing, really. Not a memory from down below; not one out of the original Bucky, so looking at it should not cause any catastrophic breaks. He can get at it easily. Hell, he's already been made to relive it before, when that recording played for him, Tony and Steve. "And what would you have expected me to do differently, exactly?"
Stark wavered only slightly in that self-righteous fury, sputters only a moment. But it's there; James sees it, catalogues it. Stark may be a rich pampered son of a bitch, but he's smart, and jaded enough to know this world. Still: "You should have told them to stuff it. "
Explaining gets at the worst pain James knows his past selves have experienced; a betrayal of a magnitude he can only truly appreciate now that he's removed from the people who lived it. Now that he can see all the memories and put them together. How in half a century he had gone from someone willingly helping a government that he owed and loved, to a mindless puppet that had no choice at all.
Because the Soviets had saved James. From Hydra. THey had rescued him from a lab; the only survivor despite two bullets to the brain. A broken thing with a rotting arm and no memories, and they'd nursed him back to health, made him whole, and given him a purpose. That nameless American POW would have done anything for the USSR. He had done everything for them. Even when he'd seen the poison spread, the corruption. Watched a Party that was supposed to herald a new age of communism and equality tear in on itself. Watched mother Russia sink down in hate, fear and despair. And then, one day, he woke up to find himself, still in the same hands, with the same people, but very much an Agent of Hydra .
"That's the thing about Hydra, isn't it?" Bucky was but a paper-thin layer, peeling easily. Exposing this still-open wound. "They tell you to do something and you do.. Or, you tell them to stuff it, and then; after.." James nearly breaks for it. "You do it anyway. Only badly ...
"I think, if you look at that video," James tried to meet Stark's eyes. Tony's. Tried to see if he was connecting. Or if he was spilling his guts to the floor for no reason. He could not. It was like his gaze had turned to lead, weighted down to the floor. "Look at what a botched job I did, and you can see. I did tell them to stuff it?"
"Is that..?" Stark faltered, then hardened again, overriding Pepper's 'Tony' hard. "you think I care for an apology?"
It's interesting, James thinks, that his first instincts can be right, but that he'll fall for false assumptions all the same. First, Tony is more alike to him then he'd first realised. Second, Pepper Potts really is the true threat here. Not because she's the one that will kill him; gods no. she is indeed to voice of reason and calm in this room. But, because her opinion is the one that matters .
"Whether you care or not,.."James had already known that Antony Stark didn't consider himself a very good person. He's not even above doing the wrong thing, just to make an impression. But not here; not with Pepper watching. Because to her; he does want to be good. Do good. All Bucky needs to do is win her over. And he's pretty sure his little sob story already got here there half-way. He can hear it in her breath, uneven, like she's trying to object; trying to think of what to say, though she's not convinced of what she wants to say. She'll need a little push yet. Bucky has just the thing.
Once upon a time, there was a Ghost that could infiltrate every government, every military facility in the world, even with a metal arm only hidden with a thin layer of paint. He'd done it without acrobatics, few words, and the greatest weapon in his arsenal: a smile.
To James that Ghost had been the top; the pinnacle of his abilities. He had had many different smiles for different situations. For different audiences and purposes. First, the one that must have carried from before, the one he recognised now, looking at war-time footage from the old Buckyy: a tough-guy, rough-guy hard-around-the-edges, slightly self-deprecating uneven grin.
Second, a more sultry one full of naked admiration that always troked those bloated egos. Next there's the slower, softer I-went-through-bad shit hesitant one, that begged with his eyes: 'won't you rescue me?'
And many more, like the Cheshire, zipper ripping open in the dark. All sharp knives for teeth. Promising pain, death, oblivion and despair. The one he'd lost last, and at least scared even Hydra bad enough to cover up, behind a mask so at least they wouldn't have to see.
James got them all back now though, and Bucky's face successfully morphs the first three and turns it on his new ally: Pepper; Stark's conscience, and his true reason for trying better. Does she even know? Alike indeed; Pepper is to Tony what Steve is to James. A guiding light, when the difference between right and wrong become muddled. A moral compass for the one he lacks. Stark might not be above murder, but Tony would not make her watch .
"I am going to beg for forgiveness anyway ." James didn't check her reaction. Didn't make sure he had her sympathy. If she wasn't the type to rescue the basket cases, she wouldn't be here with Tony-I-literally-didn't-have-a-heart-Stark now. And Bucky really did make a good charity case. The best lies are truth, after all. Beyond that, it didn't even matter what she thought now. She wavered; Stark saw. At this point her presence was enough to seal the deal. No need for any more emotional confessions, and Bucky could skip the very dangerous offer of a free-bee hit for Stark. (Because he's not sure Tony would be above ordering a hit on Steven Rogers himself, and that would be defeating the whole purpose.) .
Attention back on Stark, it's all James that took that final step and slid down, pushing folded legs under the bed's down-turned railing so far they locked. "I can do them really good. Beg on my knees and cry ." the soft humming of the power glove became loud as he moved within inches from it. Ignoring such dangers was easy. Still, reflexes can be strong, so James shoved his one hand behind him, wedged it under the belt of his pants.
He knew Pepper saw it, from her intake of breath. Knew Tony realized too; and he nearly smiled from the betrayed look the man gave him. Like Stark had somehow expected better from the man that murdered his parents. But then that iron-gloved hand drew back all the way, and threw forward. The world exploded.
He'd expected it; counted on it. Still, even without the full suit's power behind it, even with Tony wounded, a metal first to the face was a metal fist to the face. Bucky reeled back, staring up at the ceiling, stuck somewhere between the bed-railing on his legs and his abdominal muscles drawing him taut, hovering over the floor. Wet heat was streaming down his cheeks and pooling around his eyes. His nose broken; a good, clean break he reckoned. James closed his eyes and pulled himself back into a kneeling position.
After a beat too long, Bucky opened his eyes to see Tony Stark's exasperated expression. He was done, James realised. For all his bluster and posturing, Ironman does not strike those that will not defend themselves. Not with this audience watching. That one hand dropped, and a glove turned into a bracelet. "I want to take you apart, you know." Tony sounds wary, exhausted. James secretly thought it was an act. "But right now I haven't got the energy."
"Aaah." his voice sounded wrong and nasally, so Bucky wormed his hand free, checked the time, and deftly set the bone cartilage of his nose back straight. "Well, how about a rain-check."