I've written the next few chapters and I'm excited to finally get close to posting them :D

Let me know what you think! I kind of danced around Civil War because I'd begun writing this story before it came out. I pulled some elements, but for the sake of simplicity, I've taken out the major plot and stuck with my own. Maybe I'll circle back to the parts I missed of Avengers vs Avengers, but for now, it's all bout dat Bucky.

Chapter 27

By the time they landed in front of the warehouse in Siberia, it had been an entire day since Clara had been taken. Steve was worried about running in so quickly while running on fumes, but knew Bucky would be going in with or without backup.

The three men hovered around the back of the aircraft. Bucky was going through the arsenal Tony kept in the back, filling holsters with pistols and knives before his eyes grazed over some of the larger guns. Bucky picked out a long rifle, smirking at the familiarity.

"How many times did I save your ass in the war with something like this?" he muttered to Steve, who was pulling his mask over his face and strapping it in place. He studied the gun for a second as Bucky pulled out ammo and filled a few pouches at his waist.

The corner of Steve's lips lifted briefly. "Too many to count, pal."

"We ready?" Sam asked as he tapped on a control pad strapped to his arm near the door.

"As soon as we leave, take to skies. Let us know if anyone escapes. Keep 'em grounded if they do," Steve commanded in his no-nonsense tone.

Sam nodded and pushed a lever to release the lock on the door, barreling out as soon as it was open enough. His metallic wings sprung open and lifted him off the ground.

"You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?" Steve asked, hesitating as they stood waiting for the ramp to finish its decent.

Bucky looked at him with a smirk. "Was that the time you used out train money," he responded slowly, remembering, "to buy hotdogs?"

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a redhead," Steve chuckled.

Bucky struggled, eyes narrowing as he tried to remember better. "What was her name again?"

"Dolores," Steve filled in quickly. "You called her Dot."

"She's gotta be a hundred years old by now," he frowned, thinking briefly of all these people he knew and this vast expanse of experiences and life they acquired without him.

"So are we, pal," Steve said, breaking into his train of thought and reminding him that he was still there. Not just in the literal sense, but in the long run. Steve began a quick trot down the ramp. "They can't have been here more than a few hours. Sam, eyes on anything?"

"Copter on the roof, hasn't moved in a little while from the snow build up on it. Two SUVs around back."

"They took her here," Bucky muttered as they approached the door, which was cracked open.

"It looks abandoned," Steve grunted as he helped Bucky push the heavy metal door open.

Bucky pulled his rifle from his back and held it ready and cocked, not liking the pure silence. He had tried to prepare the other two men as best he could while they suited up before they landed. The short plan was to get in and get Clara out. The long one included Bucky describing what he remembered of the layout to Steve. He wasn't sure where they would keep her, but he had a few guesses.

"There were cages down in the lowest level where they would have us fight and train," Bucky had explained. "My guess is they would keep her there, at least until they know they have me back in their custody."

"Alright Buck," Steve said from behind his shield as they took a few steps into the cold warehouse. "Where are we headed?"

Bucky jerked his chin towards the elevator that was clearly still powered, and then led them to a door for the stairs. "Be on your guard," he murmured needlessly. While the main entry was dark, cracked concrete covered with a thin layer of dust, the lights along the ceiling not working, the air wasn't as stale as Bucky expected it to be.

Bucky had told them he remembered five floors that existed beneath the main level, the cages being on the lowest one. He pressed his lips together, fighting the urge to just jumped down the center of the stairs to make it to the bottom in half the time. He felt his heart drumming against his ribs beneath the several layers he'd thrown on.

He focused on the sound of their footsteps echoing in the stairwell as they approached the landed of the third floor down. The door opened and an unlucky agent stepped into the stairwell, nearly running face first into Bucky's rifle. A metal arm shot out and grabbed his face, covering his mouth before he could alert anyone to their presence. Considering how surprised he was, they didn't know he was there despite having parked the Jet at the door.

"Where is she?" he demanded in Russian. "Scream and die painfully."

"Bucky—" Steve stepped forward and grabbed his friend's arm. "We're not here to kill."

"Why not?" he hissed back. "They will kill her. The first chance they get."

The Hydra agent's expression changed and it almost looked like he was smirking beneath Bucky's hand, setting him off in a blind rage. Red shot through his vision and the next thing he knew the agent was slumped against the wall and bleeding from his temple.

Steve leaned down and looked for a pulse at the man's neck, letting out a puff of air when he found one.

"We should keep moving," Bucky suggested gruffly. "They woke me up here right before they brought me to the states. It shouldn't be this…abandoned."

"Maybe they knew this would be the first place we'd come after," Steve suggested, standing up straight. "If SHIELD had you and you told them where their main base was."

"He warned them," Bucky ground out suddenly, eyes roving over the unconscious man to see a radio in his hand. Bucky lifted his rifle back up and turned to continue quickly down the stairs. As soon as they made it to the bottom floor, Bucky kicked open the door and an alarm rang out through the whole facility.

Steve stepped up behind Bucky, who'd stopped in front of two men.

"Who're these guys?" he muttered, glancing between the genuinely surprised look on Bucky's face and the two men dressed like Bucky had been the first time he'd seen him on the bridge; black cargo pants, combat boots, and a vest over long sleeves.

"Winter soldiers," Bucky breathed. "They really woke up other Winter Soldiers for this."

"There are more of you?" Sam asked through the comm, having heard all of that. "I can't scan heat signatures of the building. Too much cold and the concrete is too thick for my sensors."

"She's not here," Bucky muttered to him. The cages partitioned off the room into sections, all of them empty.

"Whoever is orchestrating this knows how your mind works," Steve muttered. "They knew you'd check here first."

"Where is she?" Bucky asked the other soldiers in Russian.

"On ice," the dark-haired one of the left said in heavily accented English, a smirk forming on his face.

Bucky got a shot off towards them, knowing neither of the soldiers would be hit by it. They were too skilled at that. But like the explosion of the bullet, the Soldiers took off towards them, Bucky wasting no time in tossing his rifle aside and meeting them in the center of the room, Steve hot on his heels.

"We've gotta take them out if we're going to find her," Bucky grunted to Steve as they tag-teamed one of the guys like a pinball. The second grabbed Bucky by the collar and tossed him over his shoulder like it was nothing. He grunted as he bounced off the floor and into the metal mesh of a cage.

"Steve, we got backup," Sam's voice crackled over the comm.

"Us or them?" Steve demanded as he defended himself against the two soldiers in front of him and Bucky got to his feet.

"Us."

With a powerful punch to his shield, Steve slid back several yards on his feet. "We gotta do better than this," he mumbled to Bucky.

"I told you," he breathed. "They only get that title if they beat me."

"But they didn't," Steve smirked, eyes flicking to Bucky's rifle on the floor. "They beat Hydra's Winter Soldier. They didn't get the chance to fight Bucky Barnes."

Bucky frowned as he dodged a punch. "Bucky Barnes was a little smartass kid from Brooklyn."

"Maybe that's what we need," Steve grunted, deflecting a kick.

"Or," a metallic voice echoed through the large empty room. "You just need another Avenger."

Steve threw his shield, catching on of the Soldiers off guard as they both turned their attention to the flying man. "Tony? What are you doing here?"

Ironman landed in front of them and shot a beam at the other soldier, sending him spiraling through the air and into a cage wall. Tony rounded on Cap. "Well," he started sarcastically, "when Sam called asking for use of the Jet, I did some very brief digging and found out our team doctor was kidnapped by Hydra. Didn't think that was useful info for me, Steve?"

"Sorry," he breathed, resetting his shield on his arm. "Was a little bit distracted."

"You upset Pepper," Tony replied smoothly. "She was crying."

"I'll make sure to apologize." Steve tossed his shield across the room at one Soldier as Tony sent a blast at the other. Steve glanced over his shoulder at his silent friend and saw him taking a position in a corner, rifle back in his hands.

A flap on Tony's shoulder opened and a small projectile flew out of it, landing at the feet of one Soldier. It was enough that caused the man to hunker down as the blast went off, and Bucky wasted no time getting a shot off.

Three against one was enough to keep the soldiers down. Several minutes of fighting and Bucky had reloaded three times, not a single shot missing.

"What does it take to keep these guys down?" Tony asked. "JARVIS, scan for weak points again."

"We just gotta keep at it," Bucky called from the corner. Anytime a soldier went after their sharpshooter, Steve would push them back, protecting Bucky.

A soldier grabbed on of Tony's legs and his scans pointed out every bullet wound, all non-lethal. "You're holding back, Barnes!" Tony accused.

"What?" Steve glanced back at Bucky, whose eyes were level with the top of the rifle, focused.

"They can be saved," he argued tightly. "They were like me—"

"We don't have the time for rehab," Tony shouted back, blasting the soldier off him. Their movements were drastically slower than when he arrived, but there was no sign of the fight stopping. "Clara's on the third floor."

"I know," Bucky snapped.

"Buck, do what you gotta do," Steve ground out, a soldier catching his throat. Steve lifted a leg and caught the Soldier in the chest, but it wasn't enough to shake him off. "This is a war. Tony's right. We've gotta get to Clara."

Bucky bit down on the inside of his cheek, tasting blood. After another few seconds of hesitation, he finally squeezed the trigger, the Soldier holding Steve dropping like lead. A flash of similarity pulsed through Bucky's mind, and he remembered being on a snowy hill in the woods outside a Hydra camp as Steve fought off agents. And up sixteen feet in a tree next to a bunker as other Commandos defended themselves trying to get inside. And from the top of a building in London as a politician left his home, kissing his wife goodbye. And from the backseat of an unmarked black sedan outside a pub where one of his targets frequented.

His time as the Winter Soldier and as the American Soldier began to mesh in that instant. He'd been a killer long before Hydra had gotten to him.

But he couldn't get past the fact that these Soldiers were just like him. Humans, experimented on. But the question that nagged him now was, were they made like this against their will, or were they just like him…a prisoner…

Bucky shifted slightly and pulled the trigger again, the other Soldier, being held down by Steve the time, stopped moving, too.

Don't forget to let me know what you think!