Chapter 27: Rescue

November 1, 1943

That name does sound familiar.

The words hit him like a punch in the gut, and Steve still felt the familiar ache as he ran back to the stage tent. Somewhere around a hundred men were stuck in a Hydra base, and the Colonel was just going to let them die there. It's called winning the war. What an asshole.

Steve knew about risk, and he knew about reward. And he knew about having a friend that you would move heaven and earth to save.

So he threw off his raincoat and grabbed his leather jacket, hoping it would be good enough to protect him from the elements in Austria. He wouldn't take any weapons from the soldiers here - they needed them more than he did - but he would take his shield. Okay, and maybe a pistol. But just one.

And maybe a helmet.

He was striding out of the tent and towards a Jeep when he spotted - or rather heard - someone crying just outside the tent. She was young, her dark hair escaping the knot she'd probably hastily tied it into. He paused then, knowing that while he needed to get moving, he couldn't just leave her on her own.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, feeling bad as she started and looked up at him with big doe eyes. He wasn't used to being so stealthy, even as big as he was. "Sorry."

"No, no you're fine. I'm - I'm fine." she stammered, wiping away her tears and pretending she hadn't just been breaking down. Her white nurse's uniform had a large red stain along one hem, but she didn't seem to notice it. "Thank you."

"You-" you don't look okay is what he was going to say, but Peggy taught him to be a little better than that when talking to girls. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

She gave him a sad smile, shaking her head. "Not unless you can bring people back to life." she said, looking down at her hands and picking at her nails. Her hands were dry and red, probably from washing them so much, and possibly wringing them with anxiety.

"You're missing one of the soldiers. The ones caught behind enemy lines." he said, realization dawning on him. But she shook her head again.

"My friend. A nurse. She sent me back to the camp, the night they…" her voice grew tight, her emotions threatening to spill over again. "I just miss her, that's all." she finished.

Steve nodded, for once not pressing further. "I'm sorry. I lost one of my friends to them too. That's why I'm gonna go and save them." He knew he should say that he would try and save them, but failure was never really an option for him, especially now. She perked up at his words.

"They changed their minds? They're doing a rescue mission?" she asked. She looked hopeful, and trusting. She believed in him, and so did Peggy. You're meant for more than this.

"Not exactly." he said honestly. He tried to put on a confident smile, to play into the character they made for all those Hollywood films. "But someone's got to go, right? Who better than Captain America?"

She saw through the facade, but didn't comment on it, instead just pressing her lips together and trying not to cry again. "Well, Captain America, please bring my friend home."

"Yes ma'am." he said with a mock salute, making her laugh. She was cute when she laughed, her smile lighting up her whole face. He'd have to remember that, if he made it back alive.

It wasn't until he was halfway to the Jeep that he realized he'd never asked the girl's name.

...

For a moment when Bucky woke up, he forgot what was happening.

For just a moment, he thought he was just waking up. His last memories were of Lu's face, gazing at him with feeling. He felt warm. He was laying down on something that wasn't the metal floor of a cage.

That's when his eyes snapped open. This time, there wasn't a light to blind him, just a dim lamp on a table in the corner. He tried to move and quickly realized he was restrained, the thick leather unforgiving as he tugged against it. There were three other men in the room with him at varying degrees of consciousness, all of them trying to free themselves too. There was one metal table with four syringes on it, their glass showing off the red liquid inside. The lamp gave them a sinister glow, like a fire about to ignite. He swallowed thickly, reminding himself that Lu survived this, and if she survived, then he needed to also. He couldn't leave her to fend for herself here. He couldn't let her be here alone.

"What the fuck-"

"Where are we-"

"What's happening-"

"We're tied down-"

The men next to him were waking up and realizing their situation, and part of Bucky wanted to give in and panic with them. But panic wasn't going to do anything to help them; if anything, it might hurt them.

"Hey, hey shut up." he said, his voice barely louder than them. "Hush!"

"Or what? They'll kill us? We're dead anyways! You saw what happened this morning!" one of the guys said. Bucky didn't recognize him, and didn't bother trying to read the tag on his uniform. All he cared about was that he was encouraging the others to lose their minds.

"We gotta get outta here!" another guy said, his voice probably an octave higher than usual as he started struggling heavily against the restraints. The first man did the same, both of them flopping like fish caught in a net.

"There's nowhere to go." Bucky said, frustrated. "You have to calm down and save your strength. You're gonna need all of it."

"We're done for!" the man right next to him said, bursting into loud sobs. Everyone responded differently to the realization that they were about to die. Some panicked, some got angry, and some only held a deep sadness. But one thing everyone had in common was that there was a layer of regret. Bucky could see all of those things now in the room with him, and for some reason with all this turmoil, he only felt numb. He didn't feel like he was in that room anymore, he was just seeing these men like actors on a screen. At that point they were both alive in front of him, but also dead. The first guy was right. Dead men walking.

He didn't answer them after that, letting them cry and yell and scream to whatever god would listen to them. It wouldn't do them any good. He laid his head back against the chair, clenching his fists and trying to think of the good things in his life. That's what he needed to hold on to right now. His body betrayed him, a few tears leaking out of his eyes and into his hair, combining with all the sweat and grime from the past few weeks. That was fine. He needed to have some sort of release.

The door opened and three men walked in, Dr. Becker trailing after them. He looked vaguely upset - probably annoyed that all of his other lab rats had died. The other men yelled and begged and bargained with him, but he ignored them, instead holding the glare that Bucky was sending his way. Bucky said nothing, and neither did the doctor. He simply gestured towards the syringes, and the men went to take them. One grabbed two, and Dr. Becker stopped him, holding his hand out for one of them.

"I'll do this one myself." he said, his accent sharp. There was no hesitation, no pretense that they could be talked out of this. They went, one by one, and sank the syringes into the arms of the men. Screams of fear turned into screams of pain, the noise so loud that Bucky felt like he was back on the Cyclone at Coney Island. His stomach clenched, his breath was short, but he didn't give Dr. Becker the satisfaction of begging for his life.

"Any last words?" he asked with a grin. Fuck you, is what Bucky wanted to say.

"Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. United States Army. 32557038." he said instead. The doctor didn't bother cleaning his skin, just pushing the needle into his arm and emptying the syringe. If Bucky thought the first injection made him feel like his world was on fire, this second one sent him into the fifth circle of hell. He held out as long as he could, clenching his teeth and gripping the armrests of the chair, but soon his screams joined the chorus as whatever it was burned inside him.

One time in 1935, their senior class had taken a trip to the Upper West Side to the American Natural History Museum. There, Bucky had gotten to see dinosaur skeletons, replicas of mammals in their habitats from all over the world, and creepy crawlies that lived deep in the ocean. But the most important thing was the opening of Hayden Planetarium - the whole reason for their trip. There they got to see constellations up close and see planets in their positions. A man in a white lab coat with a flimsy clipboard told them that when two stars collided, it burned with a heat so bright and hot that it turned white.

Bucky reckoned that's what was happening in him right now. Whatever was in the injection was colliding with every bit of stardust he'd collected over the years, making new universes explode in his blood. He no longer knew his name, or where he was, or what was happening, he only knew the pain. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knew that he had to survive this, that it was possible to survive it. But for the first time in his life, he wanted to give up. Luckily, before that thought could take root, he lost consciousness.

He couldn't say how much time had passed. He was only awake sporadically; the first time he woke, all four men were still in the room. The second time, one was missing. The third time, he was alone. He didn't know if they were moving them or if they were dead, and he found he didn't have the capacity to care. The world didn't seem real right then, and he only focused on himself, rather than the others. He couldn't save them unless he saved himself, right?

"Right." a voice said. He looked over to see a scrawny guy leaning against the wall, his arms crossed as he grinned at Bucky. "You got a lot of people depending on you, Buck."

"Steve?" he asked, his throat dry and his voice cracking. Steve nodded, pushing off the wall. Bucky lost him for a second in the shadow; but instead of Steve coming out of the dark, he saw a different blonde.

"You can't save me if you don't live." Lu said with a gentle smile. She laid a hand on his cheek, but he couldn't feel it over the pain.

"Well you saved me first, Doc." he said. Her hand moved to his chest, tapping his dog tags.

"Turnaround's fair play, sergeant." she said. Something flashed in his memory - Sergeant James Barnes. 32557038.

"32557038." he murmured. She nodded, patting his sternum again. The touch felt like it was from a ghost.

"That's right, Bucky." she said. He blinked for a second. Bucky? She never called him Bucky. He didn't think she even knew that name for him. Something wasn't right. He looked at the ceiling, trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. "Bucky? Bucky."

He felt his body shake, and then his ankles felt strangely light, followed shortly by his torso. He could breathe a little easier now. Lu said something else, but he couldn't quite discern it. He blinked, his vision clearing a bit. Lu's face turned into a man's, the top half of it framed by a helmet. He blinked again. He knew that face.

"Hey, hey it's me. It's Steve." he said. This time, when the hand was put on his shoulder, he could feel it.

"Steve?" he asked, almost wanting to cry again. He could feel every finger as Steve grabbed his arms, hauling him to his feet. It was real.

"Yea, yea come on." Steve said, holding him tight as he regained his balance. His body still hurt from the injection, but adrenaline was starting to rise, masking some of the pain. Steve had that vaguely confused look he got when he was thinking of too many things at once. "I thought you were dead."

Bucky looked up at him and decided not to tell him that he felt dead. Wait a minute, since when did he look up to Steve? His vision stopped swimming and he could finally fully see the man in front of him. "I thought you were smaller." he said, the first thing that came to mind. Explosions and gunfire sounded from outside, and Steve pulled Bucky's arm over his shoulders and started half helping, half dragging him out of the room.

"Come on." he said as Bucky tried to keep up, tried to get his feet underneath him. The man carrying him was a solid brick house. There was no way this was his Steve, but at least it was someone that was helping him out.

"What happened to you?" he asked. Hallucinations could change people, but they couldn't carry him.

"I joined the Army." Steve said lightly, still pulling him forward.

"Smartass." Bucky murmured. Perhaps this was, in fact, Steve. They rounded a corner, and Bucky felt like he was breathing for the first time. He pushed himself off of Steve, finally standing up a little taller.

"Did it hurt?" he asked, wondering if whatever the Army gave him was like the shit the Nazis had pumped into him earlier. Steve seemed fine. Maybe he would be fine too.

"A little." Steve said, his eyes scanning the area in front of them. Bucky actually had to hurry to keep up with him now. This was definitely new.

"Is it permanent?" he followed up. They'd read the comic books, seen how a man could lose his power if he used it too much. And that tended to happen at inopportune moments - like escaping an underground hellscape.

"So far." Steve said over his shoulder. The building above them rocked and shook as something exploded, and Steve took off at a jog towards the stairs and started going up. Bucky started to catch up to him, but then was hit by a wall as his mind fully came back to him.

"Wait. Wait!" he said, skidding to a stop at the landing. "We have to go down first, Doc is still down there!"

"I - what? Who?" Steve asked, but Bucky could tell they didn't have time for an explanation. Any pain he had left him as he stumbled down the stairs, nearly falling in an effort to get down into the basement. Steve was yelling behind him but he was also following, which was the most important part. Bucky pulled open the door and stopped in the hallway, looking left and right to see which way to go. He could see the elevator shaft in the middle, and at the end of the hall, a door. That had to be it. He took off running, hearing Steve's footsteps behind him, and shoved through the door. It gave much easier than he thought it would, causing him to fall onto the floor and roll with momentum. He was dizzy when he stopped, but he didn't care, pushing himself back up onto his feet.

"Barnes?" a voice asked. Oh thank God, she was still alive. "Barnes!"

"Oh so this is Doc." Steve said from behind him. Bucky rushed to her cage, realizing too late that he didn't have a key to the lock.

"Fuck!" he said, looking around for anything they could pick it with. Of course, the floor was bare, and all the other cages were empty.

"Barnes, Barnes get me out, please, I don't know what the fuck is going on up there but we're stuck-" Lu was starting to lose her head a little, and Bucky didn't blame her.

"No hey, hey, it's okay, we'll figure it out." he rushed, grabbing the bars and pulling. Maybe they left it unlocked?

No dice.

"Fuck!" he yelled again, pulling the bars harder. In his panic, it almost felt like they gave a little, but when he looked again they had not.

"Let me try." Steve said, appearing next to him. Bucky stepped to the side, still gripping the metal and watching as Steve took one bar of the door in both hands and pulled. The door stayed locked, but he was knocked back as the bar itself snapped off. "Holy shit. Can you fit through that?"

Lu moved and stuck her leg out, but the remaining bars squeezed her hips and ribs, reminding her of pain that she thought faded. "I can't. I need one more."

"Coming right up." Steve said, grabbing the bar next to it and repeating the process with a grunt. It was obviously a strain on him, but Bucky couldn't help but let his jaw drop, even as Lu nearly fell out of the cage and into his arms. He had to take a couple steps back to right them but held her up, crushing her to his chest and making a note to ask Steve about this later.

"We gotta go, okay?" he said, pulling Lu's face up and framing it with his hands. She looked like she wanted to cry and took a shuddering breath, nodding when it was through. Her hands were shaking but he could see the resolve in her eyes: she was ready to run for her life.

"This is sweet. Can we run now?" Steve asked, gesturing towards the door. Bucky nodded, grabbing Lu's hand and taking her along for the ride. Adrenaline was a beautiful thing, giving them a burst of energy and pain killers so they could sprint up the stairs to the ground floor.

The whole base was in flames, huge parts of it falling and crumbling. They had to get out now. They followed Steve up the steps to the catwalk high above the bunker, keeping them safe from the fire below. It was rickety at best, the metal straining with the heat even without any of their weight on it.

"Captain America! How exciting!" a German voice yelled. Three pairs of eyes snapped up and spotted the man in the black suit across the catwalk blocking their way out. He handed something to the man behind him, who looked considerably more nervous. "I am a great fan of your films."

They did not know this man, but Bucky could tell by the way Steve shifted his weight that he could not be trusted. He put his arm in front of Lu, gently guiding her behind him. She didn't let go of his hand, and he had a feeling his knuckles were going to be bruised when this was all over.

"So, Dr. Erskine managed it after all." the German man continued, stepping out onto the catwalk. Steve walked out to meet him, holding himself at his full height. Bucky once again was astounded by how massive he was now. "Not exactly an improvement but, still. Impressive."

Steve reached back and shot his fist out, clocking the guy across the jaw with a jab that Bucky's father would be proud of. The man stumbled back a few steps, grabbing onto the railing to regain his footing. "You've got no idea." Steve said as he stood up. Half his face seemed to sag slightly, red showing underneath his eye. Wrong. Wrong. This was all wrong.

"Haven't I?" he said, sending out his own punch. Steve got his shield up just in time, but the resounding clang echoed through the bunker before being snuffed by the fire. Steve went to pull a pistol from his hip but the moment of distraction left him open, the guy landing his punch this time and sending Steve to the ground while his gun fell off the edge and into the inferno below. He didn't hesitate, sending a leg out to kick the German. The kick actually lifted the man off his feet before sending him flying backwards and crashing onto the metal walkway. The man behind him could take no more, pulling a lever that separated the walkway and the dueling men.

"No matter what lies Erskine told you, you'll see I was his greatest success!" he cried, reaching below his jaw and slowly peeling off the skin of his face. Something cold and heavy settled in Bucky's stomach at the sight, too thick to throw up. Behind him, Lu choked out an oh, my God. The skin left behind was red and tight, nearly glowing from the fire below. He no longer looked human.

Then his words hit him. "You don't have one of those, do you?" he asked. If the man who made Steve also made this guy...they were going to have to have a chat later about taking up offers from strangers.

"You are deluded, Captain." the Red Skull continued, moving back towards the doors behind them. The small, round man in glasses moved with him. "You pretend to be a simple soldier, but in reality you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind! And unlike you, I embrace it proudly! Without fear!"

"Then how come you're running?" Steve asked, and Bucky added don't challenge the weird alien people to the list of Things To Talk About. Red Skull didn't answer, only giving them a sinister smile as the elevator doors closed.

The bunker shook again, and Steve looked around for an exit, his eyes settling above them. Lu followed his gaze, spotting the door - and the thin beam in front of it.

"You've gotta be kidding-" she started to say, but was interrupted by Steve herding them towards the stairs.

"Come on, let's go." he said. Bucky saw the plan too, but didn't have the same reservations she did. He pushed Steve and Lu in front of him, taking up the rear as they climbed and climbed all the way to the top. They reached the beam and Bucky helped Lu climb over the banister, holding her hand as long as he could before she was on her own. The heat from below swelled and threatened to choke her, and the idea of being stuck here threatened to get her stuck back in Hawaii, but she gritted her teeth and only focused on the door in front of her. It couldn't have taken her longer than a couple minutes to cross, but it felt like days, and when she reached the end she collapsed onto the landing exhausted, coughing and trying to get her body to stop shaking. The adrenaline was wearing off, and she was about to crash.

Behind her, the beam groaned, and she forced herself up to see Bucky carefully making his way across. Her heart was in her throat, her hand outstretched over the railing. She couldn't breathe with the smoke and couldn't think with the exhaustion, she just knew that she had to get him across safely. The metal hinges squealed under his weight, the middle supports snapping and dropping the second half of the beam down a step. Lu felt like she was watching it all slow motion, her chest aching with the way she was holding her breath. Bucky kept his eyes on hers, his steps careful. A loud creak sounded from the joists next to her, and he felt the reverberations as one by one the bolts failed. He had a split second to make the decision, to take three quick steps and leap for the railing. He slammed into it, hurting his already bruised ribs and straining his arms to hold on. Lu's hands were on his shirt and his belt, holding on for dear life as the beam fell away into the fire below. He tumbled over the railing, then used the metal to pull himself back up to his feet. Steve was still on the other side.

"There's gotta be a rope or something!" he called to him, knowing even as the words left his mouth that the idea was stupid. The distance was too great, there was no way he would make it, and by the time he or Lu were able to find anything to help the bunker was going to be reduced to ash.

"Just go! Get outta here!" Steve yelled, gesturing towards the door. A protective feeling welled up in Bucky; Steve had come this far to save him, he was not going to leave him behind.

"No! Not without you!" he shouted back, his voice raw with strain and emotion. He already had enough strikes on him, Steve would not be one.

"Maybe he can make it." Lu said softly. He turned to her, already feeling hurt and betrayal at her implication. But she didn't mean that Steve could make it if they left; she was looking at the distance, her eyes shifting. "But we may have to catch him."

Bucky turned back to Steve, and realized he was having the same thought. He bent a piece of the metal to open the side of the ramp, then backed up to give himself a long enough runway. For the first time in a long time, Lu thought about the planes that were on the battleships at Pearl. Not the ones that came for them, but the American ones, who had a super short runway but always managed to take off in time.

"He can do it." she said, more to herself than anything. As if Steve could hear her words, he set his shoulders and put his eyes on the target, gearing up for it. The fire below continued to rage and grow, threatening to devour them all where they stood.

He took five long, powerful strides and then jumped.

Steve! Our boy Steve! He's got 'em! This wasn't exactly where I wanted to end the chapter, but the very very next part is something I've been waiting for so I wanted to get the chance to savor it.

I can't thank y'all enough for your amazing reviews. They keep me going and keep me inspired. I'm so glad y'all are having fun with this story like I am!

Hope y'all continue to stay safe. Protect yourself, and do what's best for you.

Please let me know what y'all thought!

-XM