I've had these and the next few chapters written for a while, but I need to space out my posts otherwise you guys are gonna get the idea that I just update all the time, when I do not, in fact, do that. At all. I typically work during the week like crazy early in the morning and then get home and sleep all day, but some of my shifts got stolen by a co-worker soooo you guys get this instead.

Let me know what you think, I'm always interested in hearing thoughts/comments/questions/concerns. Or you can send me stuff anonymously on tumblr under the same username.

Chapter 28

"Are you alright?"

Bucky looked up, lowering his rifle. "Huh?"

"Buck, are you alright?" Steve repeated, holding out his hand.

"I killed them," he grunted, taking his friend's hand and getting to his feet.

"Don't dwell on it, Buck-cicle," Tony commented as he joined them. "We need to find Dr. Maitland."

"They froze her," Bucky remembered, pulling a few bullets out of a pouch and refilling his rifle.

"We're still not alone in here, I took out about a dozen agents on my way in," Tony told them.

"Sam?" Steve asked, finger at the comm in his ear. "Anything?"

"I caught about five heat signatures on the main floor. They might be running. I'm circling back to the SUVs."

"Keep 'em grounded." Steve motioned for the door and took off for the stairs again, Bucky and Tony right behind him. They only made it up to the landing of the floor above them before they were stopped by a group of Hydra agents.

One of them called out to Bucky in Russian, and Steve glanced in time to see his friend flinch at the words.

"Sorry," Tony muttered after a blast sent the agent tumbling down the stairwell. "Were you guys having a conversation?"

Three other agents wasted no more time in launching themselves at the men. While fighting in such tight quarters was easier for Bucky and Steve, who simply knocked the men unconscious and tossed them over the rails, Tony was struggling a bit and blasted his way through the door onto the floor.

He froze as he stepped into the room, which was anything but empty. Huge tanks lined the far wall, the glass on the front facings shattered and defrosted enough on the right two to see figured slumped over inside them. The other two were clearly empty. In the center of the room was a chair surrounded by computers, an armature connected to the back clarifying exactly what it had been used for.

A dozen or so Hydra agents had frozen and turned to him on his entrance, but had yet to fire on him.

"What? No warm welcome for me?" he asked as one agent in a white coat stood from the computer he was at to Tony's right.

The smirk on the man's face made Tony want to make him melt.

"Anthony Stark," the man greeted. "Was not expecting you. Not today, at least."

"Who're you?" Steve demanded, stepping up next to Ironman, Bucky close behind.

The man held up a finger. "I have gifts," he said, turning slowly to tap on the computer he'd been working at. A screen to their left flickered to life and began playing security footage, a road at night.

"I know that road," Tony said, stepping closer. He looked back at Steve and Bucky, but Steve was confused and Bucky had his jaw clenched as they all watched it happen on the screen.

"Please, Sergeant Barnes, help my wife!" the pleas continued and Bucky couldn't breathe.

When the video ended, Steve snapped out of his daze and tossed his shield across the room. It didn't exactly slice through the monitor like he'd hoped, but it was enough to break it.

"Please, Captain. The soviets designed this chamber to withstand a few hundred rockets," he said with a smirk as the shield returned to Steve's hands.

"I'll bet I can beat that," Tony snarled.

"Ah-ah! More gifts!" The man held up a very familiar, worn red book with a black star stamped on the front.

"That's it," Bucky breathed. "That's the book."

The man opened it and began to read aloud in Russian. "Longing…"

"Don't let him finish!" Bucky warned, jerking up his rifle and managing to pick off two agents that jumped in front of the man quickly before the others even began to move.

"Rusted…"

Steve immediately made his way towards the man, tossing agents over his shoulder easily, but was distracted when one managed to land a well placed hit to his cheek, another jumping at the chance to knock him back a few paces.

"He's getting away!" Bucky shouted firing off a few shots towards where the man was being escorted out by two agents.

"Sam!" Steve shouted, trying to shake off the agents attacking him so he could pursue the man. "Dark haired man in a white coat. He has the book."

"Little busy!" Sam snapped back.

"He has the book!" Bucky snarled, trying to keep his friend alive. "Shake them off and get him."

He didn't get a response, so he made quick work of the three guys left on Steve, who immediately took off out the door the man had gone through. Ironman was holding his own against the last two. Bucky tried not to think about the two dozen agents whose bodies littered the cold concrete.

Bucky quickly made his way past them and up the stairs, quickly reloading his rifle as he went. All thoughts of Clara vanished at the sight of that book. That book. That book. The words bounced through his head, consuming all parts of him.

Bucky burst through the door at the top of the stairs and out onto the snowy rooftop where the chopper's blades were already spinning, lifting it off the roof in a swirl of powdery snow and bitter wind. Steve was off to the side, preoccupied with three more agents.

"No, no, no!" He screamed, taking aim at the propellers. A loud snap, audible over the noise of the chopper and wind made his whole body freeze as he looked down to see the bullet jammed in the chamber. He didn't have time for this.

"Longing…" The voice from the day at the café echoed out around him, but Bucky tried to ignore the words, their meaning, as he rocketed towards the quickly ascending chopper.

"Sam!" he screamed, the red bird nowhere in sight.

"Rusted…" They were teasing him…

Bucky let out a feral scream as he jumped up with all his strength, reaching for the copter. His fingers brushed metal, but he couldn't get a grip. There was a metallic ringing as his left hand grazed the bar before he fell back to the roof, landing heavily on his feet before falling forward into a roll and skidding to a stop on his knee.

"No!" he screamed, putting his fist through the roof in a burst of rage. He pulled a pistol out of the holster at his waist and emptied the clip. There was satisfaction in the helicopter's windshield shattering, but it kept flying. He let out another yell and rounded on the remaining two agents still on Steve, easily breaking the neck of one and tossing the other off the roof with Steve's help.

"Buck, calm down," Steve panted as he glanced over the edge of the roof, noting the unmoving form of the agent. "We'll get it."

"This. Is. Bad," Bucky ground out, jerking a hand through his hair. "They have the book, they have me. Whenever they want me."

"You have me, Bucky," Steve snapped back. "They didn't get you last time, they won't next time."

"They got her!" Bucky yelled, voice cracking and he gestured widely to the door back into the building.

Steve gripped his shoulder and waited until he had Bucky's attention. "Let's get Clara, we'll take out this base, we'll go home and we'll regroup. Commando days, alright?"

Bucky let out a harsh breath but nodded. "Where's your bird?"

"Busy with the guys pouring out of the building, thanks for asking," the man finally responded over the comms. "A lot more people in here than we thought."

"We're gonna go get Clara and torch it," Steve said, heading back into the building. But he got down a level and saw Ironman standing in the middle of a hallway just inside the door to the stairwell.

"Everything good?" Steve asked.

"Floor is clear," Tony confirmed, faceplate flipping up. "You guys?"

Steve glanced at Bucky next to him and nodded.

"You," Tony said menacingly, pointing at Bucky. "we need to have words, Pal." Tony stomped up to Bucky, getting in his face, but the Soldier stood still as stone, unmoving.

"This isn't the time, Tony," Steve tried.

"He was yelling for you to help him!" Tony yelled. Steve moved to intervene, but Bucky simply stood there, seemingly unaffected. He didn't need this kid telling him what a monster he was. He'd spent enough time with Howard, he got to know the man quite well in the 40s. Bucky knew very well what kind of person he was, and Tony didn't even know a fraction of the shit he'd done.

"Tony, stop this," Steve demanded. "We've been down this road—"

"That was before I had proof, Cap," Tony responded, voice dangerously low, but wavering. "That was before I saw it."

Tony lifted a hand and fired a blast directly at Bucky's chest, sending him flying back into the stairwell, before snapping his helmet down and flying into the stairwell after him. He wrapped an arm around Bucky's neck as he was trying to get to his feet. "Do you even remember them?"

"I remember all of them," he choked out, struggling against Tony's grip.

Steve caught up and grabbed Tony, ripping him off Bucky with a feral yell. "Enough!" he roared. He rounded on Tony. "We've been through this, and somehow you managed to get past it the first time. I'm not asking you to forgive him, but put it aside so we can focus on saving Clara."

"I remember them the most now," Bucky said, voice rough.

"Speak up," Tony snapped.

Bucky met Tony's glare as the helmet opened back up. "I remember them the most," he repeated, louder. "I remember the whole thing, getting back to Hydra, and then remembering Howard. They tried to control me, but I managed to kill thirteen agents before they finally got me strapped me into the chair again."

"Bucky—" Steve tried to interrupt.

"They had to shock me for over an hour before I stopped remembering who Howard Stark was and what I'd done to the man who had been my friend."

"That doesn't make it better."

"No, it doesn't," Bucky ground out, picking his rifle off the ground. "But you asked me if I even remembered them. And I did. I remembered them then, and I remember them now. And that will live with me for the rest of my life. You ever been forced to kill a friend, Tony?"

"He was under Hydra's control," Steve pressed, staring Tony down, who seemed to be having an internal war with himself.

Tony's face scrunched up and he pinched his eyes shut. "Yeah—yeah I get it."

"We've gotta get to Clara and get her out," Steve said, trying to refocus them. "Sam needs help on the ground." Steve looked to Bucky, contemplating where they should split.

"I got it," Tony said.

"Tony—"

"Go!" he called back, helmet snapping down as he took off up the center of the stairwell.