Chapter 9
March 17th, 2013
The Avengers sat in the conference room once again. They were having a meeting, again, on Hydra and possibilities on where to find them. They weren't having much luck.
"The point of the matter is," Natasha said clearly frustrated, "we can't fight them. We don't even know where to start."
As the arguing continued, Steve rubbed his temples, as he felt a headache coming on.
"Excuse me," Jarvis said, "I don't mean to interrupt, but another one of those videos has been posted."
Tony was quick to pull up the video as everyone else quieted down.
!
"What's up Freedom Fighters? I'm Patriot and this is Char, and welcome back to another unboxing video!" Patriot said cheerfully.
"Now if you look around, you'll see that there seems to be very little as far as the eye can see. That's because we are outside of the city of Lubbock Texas. It's flat out here. Real flat. If I were to stand on a soup can right now, I'd be able to see Colorado." Patriot said seriously.
"But, I digress. Anyway what we are here for, is that." Patriot said, pointing over to the hydra base in the distance, with the night sky as its background.
"Before we get started, I have a very important question to ask all of you." Patriot said, "what do you think of this?"
Patriot then turned around to show the back of their helmet. It was a stencil of Char snarling, while being carried by a Bald Eagle, with the American flag waving in the wind as a backdrop, and the words, "IF YOU DON'T LOVE AMERICA, THEN KISS MY ASS!" underneath it.
"It's awesome right?" Patriot asked, "Now, back to our regularly scheduled program."
The two of them silently approached the base. Ninja style.
They ducked behind cover and blended in with patrol groups to get inside the front door. Then they began their descent.
Half way down, they came across another one of those torture chambers from the second base. A bit of red caught their eye, so Patriot stepped further into the room. When they got closer they saw that the red that they saw was in fact a red notebook, with a black star on the cover.
Patriot picked it up and flipped through it, reading a few pieces of it, as most of it was in russian. But the words that Patriot was able to read were, "Asset", "Programming", "Soldier", and "Siberia". All of that being in German. That is until the translation program that Patriot had made and then installed into the helmet kicked in.
"This looks important." Patriot said. And then stowed the book in their backpack for later. Then planted another bomb right underneath the chair in the middle of the room.
When they got down to the bottom, Patriot planted the last bomb, programmed the bombs and then started the countdown before the two of them made a break for the exit.
!
Agents Halsfer and Green were gearing up Hydra's Asset for a mission when the opening cords of, Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue, by Toby Keith started.
American girls and American guys, We'll always stand up and salute. We'll always recognize, When we see Old Glory Flying, There's a lot of men dead, so we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our head
"They're here!" Green said, slightly panicked. "What do we do?"
"Hold on. Don't panic. Let me think for a moment." Halsfer said, as she thought of a plan. Then her eyes landed on the Asset. "I've got an idea."
!
Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack
Patriot and Char were making their way back up to the top, they got to level four when Char let out a warning bark. Patriot threw themselves to the side, just as a bullet went whistling by.
A mighty sucker punch came flyin' in from somewhere in the back
Patriot rolled, and came up in a crouch. Then twisted to face the attacker that came from behind them. Another shot rang out, that Patriot was just barely able to dodge in time. The bullet grazed Patriot's helmet. Leaving behind a grayish streak across the left side of the helmet just above the visor.
Soon as we could see clearly, through our big black eye
Patriot looked around for the origin of the bullets, when a man in tactical gear stepped forward, into the light of the hallway. He was wearing goggles over his eyes, and a mask covering his nose and mouth. A flash of silver in the overhead fluorescent lights caught Patriot's eye, and made them look over to see that the man's entire left arm was exposed to reveal a metal prosthetic arm. And right on the shoulder of the metal arm, was a big red star.
!
Natasha lost all color in her face, upon seeing the man that stood across from Patriot.
'Get out of there.' Natasha pleaded in her mind.
"Nat, who is that?" Bruce asked.
Natasha was barely able to get the next words out of her mouth, "The Winter Soldier."
'Oh, hell nah!' Fury thought.
!
Patriot thought back to what they had asked themselves when they first learned about the Winter Soldier back in November, and thought to themselves, 'Oh, so that's a Winter Soldier.'
Man, we lit up your world Like the 4th of July
Patriot pulled out their SIG and had begun to fire at the soldier, but the soldier blocked every one of the bullets with his left arm.
Brought to you Courtesy of the Red White and Blue
The soldier kicked the gun out of Patriot's hand, and made to grab Patriot. But Patriot ducked down, and slid between his legs. Then Patriot kicked the man in the back of his right knee.
Justice will be served, and the battle will rage
The grunted and he whipped around to face Patriot.
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
Char came up behind the soldier and bit the tender flesh of his left shoulder where flesh met metal, causing him to let out an all mighty roar.
You'll be sorry that you messed with The U.S. of A.
It became abundantly clear to Patriot, that even with the pain of Char's bite, and the fact that he was fighting two well trained opponents, that there was no way that they were going to win this way.
'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass, It's the American way
Patriot desperately thought for a way to stop the soldier without getting killed, when the notebook from earlier came to mind.
Hey Uncle Sam, Put your name at the top of his list
While Patriot was trying to remember what the book said about getting the soldier to stand down, Patriot ran and used the wall as a springboard to jump over the soldier. And landed behind him.
And the Statue of Liberty Started shakin' her fist
"Зима закончилась, пришла весна!" (Winter is over, spring is here!) Patriot shouted desperately.
The Soldier then stopped his attack on Char mid-kick, and stood at attention.
Patriot and Char picked themselves up, and cautiously approached him.
"Soldier?" Patriot asked.
"Готовы соответствовать." (Ready to comply.) the soldier said in a monotone voice.
Patriot said, "Follow me. And don't listen to any order that Hydra gives to you from now on. That can not be trusted."
Patriot got a nod, before the three of them started to run for the surface again.
With the Winter Soldier by their sides, Patriot and Char were able to get out of the base with ease. The soldier fought with them, and protected them without complaint.
With the base exploding behind them, as they escaped, Patriot sang out, "Cool guys don't look at explosions!" as they drove away, without looking back once.
It wasn't until they were driving off of the base, as it exploded that he stopped.
The backup programming that they had put into his head, should any one take the Asset without authorization, activated. The soldier reached for his gun on his hip. Char saw this and gave out a warning growl to Patriot.
Patriot, who was alerted at Char's warning, yelled out before the soldier could pull the gun out all the way, "Спутник!" (Sputnik).
At those words, the soldier fell unconscious and slumped over to the side, leaning against the passenger door.
"Sorry. I know that you aren't doing this of your own free will. I read your file. I know about the torture. About the brainwashing. The programming. Some of the things that those monsters forced you to do. I don't know everything, but I do know enough. I'm sorry you went through all of that." Patriot said, even though they knew that he couldn't hear them.
When they got to their temporary camp, an hour later (that was edited out of the video), Patriot parked the car and then turned to the unconscious soldier next to them. Char stood over them, on guard as Patriot began to speak again.
"Let's see who is behind the mask shall we?" Patriot said, "Now, keep in mind what I said earlier. This man has been brainwashed, and forced to do horrible things against his will. So whoever he is, don't be too harsh in your judgments of him."
Patriot chuckled as they reached for the mask and goggles, "I feel like Scooby Doo."
Patriot slowly removed the goggles, then the mask. Then the hair was pushed aside.
"Sergeant James Barnes?" Patriot said, completely shocked.
"Rhut rho."
!
Every single avenger sat, shocked to the very core over this new development.
A minute later, Steve stood up, "Excuse me." He said with barely restrained rage and grief.
The other Avengers followed him at a distance, as he made his way down to the gym in the tower. Steve didn't even bother to wrap his hands, before he just went to town on the punching bag. After he destroyed the third bag, which Tony was kind of shocked to see. Seeing as those are the bags that he had made after seeing Steve destroy the punching bags when he found out that Hydra was still around.
Steve screamed in rage after destroying the last one, falling to his knees with his hands in his hair.
"Steve?" Bruce said.
"I thought," Steve said brokenly as he began to sob, "I thought he was dead. I should have kept looking. I should have looked harder. If I had then…"
"Steve," Natasha said firmly but kindly as she came around to kneel in front of Steve, her face level with his. "It is not your fault. If you had gone out there and looked for him as hard as you had wanted, then Hydra could have grabbed you as well. And all would have been lost."
Natasha sat there with Steve, then the others slowly joined in, one by one. All sitting in a huddle. Drawing comfort from each other. And giving comfort to each other.
"Excuse me, Sir?" Jarvis said with all the polite gentleman-ness of the comic book character Alfred Pennyworth.
"Yeah J?" Tony said.
"There is a video that was sent to the avengers from an unknown source." Jarvis informed them. "I have been requested to ask all of you to return to the conference room."
Five minutes later saw the Avengers, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill back in the conference room. Once everyone was sitting down, a new video started.
!
Patriot stood in front of the car that was their get-away vehicle. Bucky was visible through the front window.
"So… I found Bucky." Patriot said awkwardly.
"I know that this is a big shock for all of you. It was for me." Patriot took a breath, "I am contacting you, in the hope that you all will be able to help him. I will be hiding Sergeant Barnes out here in a park in Lubbock Texas with plenty of trees and foliage. I will be giving you his coordinates along with all of the information that I have gathered on what they did to him."
Patriot shifted, "There's something else. In the data banks that I have taken from Hydra, one thing has become very clear to me." Patriot paused, "Shield is compromised."
"What?!" Fury was the loudest in his exclamation.
"Hear me out." Patriot said, holding out their hands in a placiting manner. Patriot brought up various files and pictures onto the screen using their computer, "At the end of World War II, the German scientist Arnim Zola, was not tried for his crimes. He convinced the American government and Allied Forces that he would be more useful alive. The UN ended up recruiting him for Shield."
Steve, along with the Avengers, broke out in outrage. It was only Thor, using his booming voice, that kept them somewhat under control.
"If you don't believe me, then Mr. Stark, you should look up Operation Paperclip."
Tony pulled out his phone and looked up the aforementioned file in Shield's "secure" servers. If he had to do a little hacking into Shield's network, then that was neither here nor there. A vein pulsed on his forehead as he read the file. Tony looked up to find that everyone was looking at him. He was so upset that he didn't even say anything, not even a sarcastic comment. He just put the file up on the screen, so that it was side by side with the video.
"I don't know how much of Shield is compromised, the people that I know for certain are Hydra are, Agents Rumlow, Mark Basso, Mitchell Carson, John Garrett, Jeremy Ward, Jasper Sitwell, and the head of Shield itself, Alexander Pierce." Patriot informed them. "Pierce himself is in actuality the head of Hydra. The bastard."
Fury and the Shield agents in the room, sat shocked for a moment that so many of them are the enemy. And that, more than likely, there are many more that are Hydra and need to be dealt with.
"The only ones I know for sure that are not Hydra are all of those that I had asked to watch this video, and those on Lola, minus Ward.
"Another thing, Captain Rogers, you should check out the training camp that you were trained at. Use this information as you will.
"Now, the matter of Sergeant Barnes' location. He is at 33.57250003519794, -101.88259264088447. Do not bother looking for me. By the time you receive this, I will be long gone. This will be the last time I will contact you. Live free. Goodbye."
!
There was a beat of silence, before the room broke out in a flurry of activity. After a few minutes of discussion it was decided that the Avengers would be going to retrieve Bucky, and that they would keep this among themselves. No one else was to know.
Steve was the first one on the QuinJet, and the first one off of it, when they arrived at Tech Terrace Park. He ran towards where Bucky was hidden, ripping the camouflage off of the car. And then there he was. He sat there unconscious and slumped against the car window, as he breathed slowly and evenly. Alive. In need of a head doctor and a bath, but alive nonetheless.
Steve carefully pulled Bucky out of the car, and carried him to the QuinJet, as Natasha grabbed the red notebook and the hard drive sitting on top of it. Then when everyone was in the jet, Clint took it back to the tower.
After Bruce had looked over all of his wounds and did his best to treat them, Bruce and Tony had Bucky's head scanned in every which way. Bucky was then moved to one of the more comfortable holding cells.
Natasha pressed the button to be heard on the speakers in the cell, and said, "Пробудить." (Awaken). (AN: Again, I have no idea if that is the right word that was used on him in either the movies or the comics.)
The soldier woke up in an instant. He jumped out of the cot that he was placed on, and took in his surroundings.
The large mirror across from him turned transparent. On the other side, where a group of people that he didn't recognize. None of them were any of the recognized Hydra handlers.
"Где я?" (Where am I?) the Asset demanded.
"Bucky," the large blonde with much shorter hair than the other blonde one spoke, "It's me, Steve. You're safe."
There was a moment of silence as the Asset just looked at this Steve. "Who the hell is Bucky?"
Steve felt like Hulk had punched him in the gut. He took a moment to collect himself, "It's okay," he said in a pained voice, "We're going to help you."
Then the window became a mirror again, and the Asset was left alone.
On the other side of the glass, Steve looked at his best friend with a myriad of emotions playing across his face.
"Hey doc," Clint asked Bruce for Steve, "how long do you think it will take before he remembers?"
"I don't know. The damage to his mind and his psyche is extensive. It could take anywhere from a couple of months to years. And even then, he will never be the same." Bruce explained.
Everyone looked at Steve and Bucky, and each were determined to help Bucky, in any way he needed.
For Steve's sake.
!
"Do you think that if I went in there and hit Barnes over the head with a metal bar, that he'd go back to normal? And get his memories back?" Clint asked, while looking at Bucky through the window.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Do, and I'll kick your ass, if Bucky doesn't first."
"Clint, why would you ask that?" Natasha asked him in a tired voice.
Clint just looked at them, and then said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Cognitive recalibration."
!
12 hours later
Steve and his team landed on the Armies training camp, Camp Lehigh that Steve had gotten his training at in New Jersey. Each suited up in their uniforms. They took a look around, to the sound of crickets and the moon and stars illuminating the way.
"Over here." Steve said, as he gestured to a bunker looking building that said "Armory".
"What's so special about this building?" Natasha asked.
"U.S. army regulations dictate that the armory is to be more than 500 yards away from the rest of the main base. This building shouldn't be here." Steve explained.
After they descended the stairs, going all the way to the bottom, they came to a room where there were many tall and towering computer servers. In the middle of the room was a raised platform, with a desk and several computer monitors.
They slowly approached the desk. Natasha noticed a flash drive port, and quickly pulled out a large flash drive from the depths of her jacket pocket. When Nat plugged in the flash drive, the central computer activated, when suddenly, it began to speak.
"Steven Grant Rogers, born July 4th 1918. Natalia Romanova, born December 3rd 1943. Clinton Barton, born June 18th 1982. Robert Bruce Banner, born December 18th 1969. Anthony Edward Stark, born May 29th 1970. Nicholas Joseph Fury, born July 4th 1950. Thor Odinson, born 510 AD."
Everyone jumped. Steve the most, as the voice that came from the computer's speakers was not a voice that he had heard since the forties. A most unwelcome one, to be sure.
"Who's that?" Clint Asked.
"Arnim Zola." Steve growled through clenched teeth.
"Captain America." the electronic voice of Zola said as a badly pixelated image of Zola's head appeared on one of the computer screens, "We meet again."
"What's up bi-och?" Tony said.
"I am addressing Steven Rogers. Not you Anthony Stark." Zola said.
"Mr. Rogers can't come to the phone right now," said Tony.
"He is standing not four feet from you." Zola said, frustration clearing heard in his mechanic voice.
"Can I take a message?" Tony continued as if Zola hadn't interrupted him.
Zola was quiet for a moment. Realizing that there was no way around Stark and sarcasm.
Deciding to play his game, he said, "Yes. You may tell him that I quite enjoyed breaking his dear friend Sergeant Barnes."
"What did you do to him?!" Steve demanded.
"Barnes is a very stubborn man." Zola reminisied, "It took us 20 years to break him."
Steve ran forward and punched the computer monitor with Zola's face on it, breaking it.
"During that time, he was so…" Zola paused as if searching for the right word, "convinced, that you would come and save him."
Steve drove his shield into the monitor that depicted Zola's face, that he had moved to after the first time. Only to move again.
"But you never came." Zola continued as if Steve's actions were nothing more than a minor inconvenience, "The moment that I broke Barnes, it was so… delicious."
Steve looked like he wanted to tear every computer monitor and server down to their base components. However Natasha grabbed him and held him back. To the sounds of Zola's laughter.
"Don't." Nat said, "He's trying to get a rise out of you. Don't let him."
Clint pulled the flash drive out of the port, "We got everything that we need."
"Uh guys." Tony said to the team, while listening to whatever Jarvis was saying to him. "We need to go. Like, right now."
"Tony, whats-" Bruce started to say.
"Move! Now!" Fury yelled.
Everyone made a run for the stairs, to the sound of propeller blades outside. Steve, who was taking up the rear position, just barely made it clear of the building when the missiles hit the building.
Thor was quick to summon lightning and strike the helicopters and quinjets. Causing them to come crashing down.
"Guess Patriot wasn't lying." Clint said.
!
Six weeks later
The Avengers stood once more in front of the window leading to Bucky's cell. They watched as Bucky sat on the cot in the corner, with his head in his hands.
"I want to talk to him." Steve said.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Bruce said hesitantly, "Remember what happened last time?"
"I know, but I have to try." Steve walked to the door leading into the room.
Natasha reached forward and grabbed his arm in a gentle hold, "Be careful."
Steve gave her a nod of his head, before he opened the door, and stepped inside.
Bucky's head snapped up at the hissing of the cell door, tense to who might walk through. He relaxed minutely when he saw Steve.
"Hey Buck. How are you doing today?" Steve asked.
"Better." Bucky said, with a ghost of a smile flickering onto his face. Steve smiled back.
Bucky stood up from where he sat, and slowly made his way over to Steve. He looked at Steve with a smile on his face, and his childhood friend smiled back.
Bucky reached up as though to pull Steve into a hug, instead, he clenched his hand into a fist, and punched Steve in his stupid, idiotic face.
Steve was knocked flat on his back. He held a hand up to his face as he looked up at Bucky in surprise, shock, hurt, and so many other emotions. The spot where Bucky punched him, already bruising.
"What the hell! What was that for?" Steve asked.
"No! I should be the one to be asking you that! I was gone for two weeks!" Bucky yelled. "And you, in all your idiotic glory, decided to comitt suicide?! I mean, did you just go, 'Buckys' gone now. I wonder what kind of trouble I could get into? Oh, Look. A plane. I know, let's crash it into the arctic!' You didn't even give anyone your coordinates! What the hell is wrong with you?! You never think! You just jump head long into any given situation whenever I'm not around! I mean, do I have to get one of those backpack leashes to keep you out of and from doing shit?!"
Steve didn't reply, just sat on the floor as he stared at Bucky as he ranted. After he snapped out of his shock, he stood up and glomped onto Bucky in a hug. Bucky could feel the tears begin to soak into his shirt.
"Yeah, Yeah. I missed you too punk. No need to blubber all over me." Bucky said, tears leaking from his own eyes as he hugged Steve just as tightly.
Back behind the observation window, every single person stood, shocked. Their jaws on the floor. They had fully expected Steve to tear Bucky a new ass hole for punching him. This. This is not what they expected.
!
"Hey Bucky?" Steve asked his friend, "You were joking about the backpack leash right?"
Bucky ignored him and pulled out of the hug.
"Bucky? You were joking? Right?" Steve asked again. "Bucky?"
Bucky continued to ignore him, as he picked up one of his books that they gave him.
"Bucky? You. Were. Joking. RiiIIIIIGHT?!" Steve asked slowly and enunciated every syllable.
Bucky finally looked up from his reading, and looked at Steve with a tired, sarcastic and just down right done expression on his face. As though to say, "What do you think?"