I'll say it right now: this chapter was a bitch to write. It fought me every step of the way, to the point that I'd get maybe one or two sentences done per day. Sometimes, not even that much. Eventually, I wound up changing the direction it was going in to fit the prompt better, especially since my old idea (and the whole reason why I chose this prompt for Part 2) wasn't quite flowing. On the plus side, though, I finished writing the last chapter of 'Two For The Price Of One' early (it was supposed to wait until after I finished this). Not that there was much left to write; it was already halfway done. Also, when I get stuck on one fic, I tend to walk away, do something else, and come back when my mind is clearer. When doing this, I also try and work on another fic for the same fandom, so now I've made some significant progress with 'Dahlia Parkinson is Dead', which, in case any of you didn't know, is a full-length continuation of my response to Prompt #14 of Whumptober 2018. I've completed nine chapters, now, and am approaching the climax of the story. While I'm not supposed to be working on any new stories until my two incompletes and Whumptober 2019 are finished, sometimes the muse wants what the muse wants, and who am I to say no?

I should warn you, I'm not very proud of how this turned out.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any of the characters therein.

WORD COUNT: 1452

They were all put in the same room, with no windows; only a couple of bare bulbs (one of them flickering occasionally) hanging from the ceiling.

Shackles lined both side walls, and it was by those that the Commandoes and the unexpected time-travellers were restrained. The future version of Bucky and both Steves were the exceptions; the HYDRA agents knew better than to take their heavy-duty restraints off, so the three super-soldiers were instead dragged over to the back wall, where six metallic circles were affixed several feet above the floor. Their purpose became very clear when they emitted a soft humming sound, and the wrist shackles of their restraints were suddenly yanked up by the very powerful magnets within. The three men were left hanging from the wall, their feet not even touching the floor.

Then they were left alone.

As soon as the HYDRA agents were gone, Bucky immediately began struggling with his restraints. His friends in the 21st century knew how much they were freaking him out. Being restrained reminded him too much of the Chair, and of the torture he'd been forced to endure when he'd been confined to it. The additional hardware – including the heavy-duty leg shackles that functioned more like an inflexible knee brace, limiting his ability to effectively kick out at his captors – groaned, but didn't budge.

"Babe, try to breathe, okay?" Darcy urged gently.

"I am not letting them put me back in the Chair," Bucky growled, continuing to try and brace his feet against the wall so that he could pull his arms free of the magnets.

"Neither are we," the future Steve assured him, "But we need to take a breath, and figure out an escape plan. I want to know is how they knew about us."

"You mean how they knew they would have to restrain three super-soldiers instead of one?" Bucky retorted, still struggling with the restraints, "And how they just so happened to have the right equipment on hand?"

The past version of Bucky raised a hand – well, as much as he was able to in his shackles – clearly with a question to ask. "I'm still stuck on the 'three super-soldiers' thing, to be honest. Since when was I dumb enough to try and become one?"

"I didn't exactly try-"

"Spoilers!" Darcy interrupted her boyfriend, "Big spoilers, people! I know that all I know about time travel is from movies and TV, but I don't think sharing too much news about the future is a safe thing to do!" She chewed her lip. "Even the parts we'd want to change."

"Just a bit more," Jane whispered encouragingly. She had been chained up closest to the door, along with Morita across from her, and they were keeping an ear out for the enemy. However, both were often looking back at the three super-soldiers in the back of the room.

The three of them were working to try and break Bucky's leg shackles. The 1944 version, on one side, had one foot braced against the side wall and the other foot against the back of Bucky's knees, to hold his legs in place. Meanwhile, the older Steve was also bracing himself against his side wall, but he was pushing his other foot against the lower half of the brace-like shackles, adding extra force to Bucky's attempt to bend his legs and snap the restraints. They were already bent quite a bit, and creaking loudly as the three soldiers pushed, which was both a sign of progress and something that could draw unwanted attention (hence Jane and Morita keeping an ear out).

Jane nearly jumped out of her skin when the knee shackles finally broke in two with a loud snapping/cracking noise, and winced when the Bucky shook the pieces off and they clattered loudly to the cement floor.

A murmured "Uh-oh…" could be heard from Darcy, in response to the sound of shouting coming from outside their cell.

It was chaos. They had been lucky that the first HYDRA agent to run into the cell had been stupid enough to get as close as he did to Bucky.

The former Winter Soldier had managed to trap the goon's neck between his lower legs and the ankle shackles, and threatened to snap his neck if he didn't unlock said shackles. And the rest of the restraints, while he was at it.

The goon had been skeptical of his ability to do so, but when asked if he really wanted to test his theory (and when Darcy had casually remarked about Natasha Romanov's own Strangling Thighs of Death™), he had come within an inch of wetting himself and hastily complied.

Unfortunately for him, while it turned out that Bucky really hadn't been able to snap his neck with the ankle restraints, he had no problem doing so without them – after he and both Steve's were freed, of course.

The shackles holding everyone else may as well have been tinfoil to the super-soldiers – especially the one with a metal hand, so while the future version of Steve held the door shut against the other HYDRA goons who finally decided to check in on their buddy (one of the higher-ups could be heard giving his underlings a well-deserved verbal thrashing for their stupidity), the other two freed everybody.

Then they had to fight their way out. And that was when chaos erupted.

Steve had yanked the door open just as a pair of big, burly agents tried to body-slam it, his timing sending them sprawling onto the floor. It took only a second to grab the four most visible weapons on their persons, and then the firefight started.

Dugan, Jones, Falsworth, and the past version of Barnes were the ones with the guns, and they managed to take out all the HYDRA agents gathered outside the cell, which meant more guns for the good guys – a lot more guns, as each one was carrying at least two – and quite a few knives (most of which the future Bucky took for himself). Even Jane and Darcy carried a gun each, although that was for a last-resort scenario.

The group quickly made their way through the complex, retracing their steps and making it all the way to the final corner unmolested before coming up against a rather large group of HYDRA agents. Unfortunately, it seemed like most of the incompetent ones had been trying to break down the cell door, because these ones were smart enough not to waste their ammo shooting at thin air while the would-be escapees were hunkered down behind the cement wall. It took the future Bucky blocking shots with his metal arm (something that made the Howling Commandoes goggle a bit) and working with his past self to pull off a few headshots to get the bastards to pull back.

This bought the escapees just enough time to run out the door, but they were still being pursued. The compound was located in the middle of a forest, but there was still a wide expanse of snowy ground for them to cover before they reached the relative safety of the treeline.

They were almost there when things went even more downhill.

"BUCKY!"

Bucky skidded to a stop when his girlfriend's scream, coming from behind him, reached his ears. He looked back, only for his blood to run cold at what he was seeing.

Darcy was on the floor, with a HYDRA agent pinning her down, one of his knees digging into her shoulder blades and a knife up against her throat. Her gun was in the snow several feet away, having apparently flown out of her hand when she was tackled to the ground.

"I'll cut her throat!" the agent threatened, "Come back to us, Soldat, and we'll consider letting her live!"

"Fuck you!" Darcy growled, although her voice was shaking.

Bucky froze. His girlfriend had a knife to her throat. At a glance, he could tell this man was no amateur; if Bucky took two steps, Darcy would be dead.

CRACK!

The knife-wielding agent's head jerked as a something exploded out of the side of it, and then he went limp, collapsing on top of Darcy.

Bucky switched his gaze to the direction the shot had come from and saw himself – his past self – lowering his still-smoking weapon (before turning to return fire at the compound). He shook off the shock and darted forward, helping Darcy throw off the dead weight pinning her to the ground – literally; he picked the dead man up with one hand and tossed the corpse off to the side. Then he half-dragged her into the tree line, firing back at the HYDRA agents as he went.

Yes, this is where I'm ending the story. No, I'm still not revealing anything about how the HYDRA agents from the modern day got to 1944. Sometimes, I daydream about possible fanfic scenes, and sometimes I can get full-fledged fics out of them. Other times, I don't. So, you're only getting the snippets, sort of like a belated Evil Author Day.

Honestly, I know this is probably very unsatisfying. I'm not happy about it, either. I'm just not getting any inspiration for anything beyond what's written. Just writing this chapter was like pulling teeth!

I often like looking at how characters have changed, especially time-travel fics wherein past versions characters meet older versions of themselves and/or their friends, and their reactions to how they have changed. That was a huge part of what I was aiming for in this fic, and I think it's safe to say that I mostly failed.

So, if you have an idea of how to work with this, I am putting this story idea up for adoption. You will need to message me directly and ask for permission, first. I will want credit for the original concept, of course, and to be messaged or otherwise alerted when you put your version up so that I can read it for myself. But, again, ASK FOR PERMISSION, FIRST.

The next Whumptober entry, for the prompt '"Stay with me"', is a 'Supergirl' fic called 'Listen as You Die'. It's a two-parter, with Part 2 being for Prompt #19. I'm hoping for a May 25th release, but as of writing this note, I haven't even started writing that, and I've also gone back to 'Reawakening' now that 'Two For The Price Of One' is done with. Damn it, these past couple of months, I've (mostly) been getting chapters written at least a week in advance, but this damn story has gone and eaten up all that time! So, don't be too surprised if the next one ends up being released in early June, instead.