A/N: *waves* Hi! Yes I am alive and no I have not forgotten about this story! I'm so sorry for the long wait, between moving three times and writer's block for a certain scene, writing hasn't been easy. But I'm back with a new chapter at last. Yay! The trailers for Captain America: Civil War inspired my muse. ;)

A special thank you to all those who have left reviews/favorited/followed this story. You guys are fantastic. :D And as a bit of a gift, this story has now expanded to be six parts plus and epilogue (which has been written since last summer, lol). So there are two more chapters coming and then the epilogue. :) Hope ya'll will enjoy it.

Finally, and above all, I want to say thank you to my lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for His great blessings and unending love. I have been blessed!

Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing

Oh and uh, not beta'd so please forgive any mistakes. This chapter proved a real challenge...though the next one has been even tougher. Anywho, enjoy! :)


My Mission: Part 4


By nightfall, the Soldier was exhausted and bleeding anew. HYDRA had sent three stealth teams to take out the captain over the past several hours. He'd killed every operative and hidden the bodies in dumpsters and shadows of the alleys. After the first team, he had gained a machine gun and several more handguns, complete with bullet clips. Once more he carried a full arsenal with him and it left him satisfied. He was prepared for anything. The other two teams found that out right away.

It was past midnight and he was watching from the rooftop across and down from the Captain's new room. Apparently, for some reason the Soldier couldn't fathom, his mission had been relocated to the top floor of the hospital. It irked him to no end that after taking out the first HYDRA team, he'd had to find the Captain all over again.

A roar like the jet he flew up to the helicarrier yet far quieter cut through the night. He ducked down into the shadows, pressing in close to the wall, not moving and barely breathing. The sound grew closer and he dared to peak out.

The roar came from a metal flying object. It looked like a man, painted obnoxiously in red and gold. Not a stealth suit so not likely to be HYDRA. Nevertheless, the Soldier tracked the metal man's progress carefully. There was something on its arm…

The Captain's shield!

But…it had been lost in the river.

"I'm not going to fight you. You're my—"

Ruthlessly, the Soldier cut off the memory as he scuttled along the rooftop to get a clearer view.

The metal suit landed on the hospital roof and suddenly the metal began to fold away, revealing a man. He looked…familiar. A threat. He studied the man closer, noting the swagger as he picked up his metal suit which had folded into a suitcase of all things. A threat. An iron man…distantly the Soldier recalled a briefing on such a man and how his skill with technology was almost unparalleled. And he had the Captain's shield.

Fire burned in his blood and the Soldier almost sited the man with his gun but refrained. There was something about the iron suit…something…dangerous. He had to be cautious.

He settled for watching. The man with the iron man suit went inside and it wasn't long before the Soldier saw him in the Captain's room. The metal suit suitcase was gone, but the shield was in the man's hands. His eyes narrowed as he studied the man's features in the artificial light. Dark hair, goatee, lined face suggesting someone older, forties to fifties perhaps. Odd. The Captain was much younger than he. Still there was something…the way the dark haired man moved, his appearance…it was familiar. Not just because of the report he'd read, no, this was similar to how the Captain seemed familiar. But whereas the Soldier was confident that he knew his mission at some point, he certainly had not known this man with the iron man suit.

The Soldier's confusion was disrupted by the man handing the shield to the bed-ridden captain. Suddenly it felt like a great weight had lifted from his shoulders. The Captain had his shield back!

The two men spoke for a little while longer and then the older man moved out of his line of vision. He did not seem to have left the room and the Soldier frowned in irritation. He had weapons now but still no way to know what was happening in the hospital except what he could see through the window. While it was obvious the Captain was not in danger from his injuries, the Soldier knew the injuries were nonetheless severe. The Soldier considered for a moment. He would wait until everything was quiet and then he would sneak into the Captain's room. It was time to assess his mission up close.


Hours slipped by and everything had been quiet since the Iron Man arrived. It was time. With expert stealth, he made his way from roof to roof, jumping and landing with silent tumble rolls each time. Then he was directly across from the hospital. It was a high jump. Calculating trajectory and height, he took a couple running steps and leapt. He caught the ledge and easily pulled himself up and over, barely making a sound as he scuttled into the shadows of a vent. He stayed in a crouch for a long minute, barely breathing, listening to see if anyone heard him. Everything remained quiet. Machines were humming and beeping, nurses and doctors talking…it made the Soldier cold.

Suddenly he didn't want to go into the hospital at all. It was dangerous. A threat. But if it was a threat then the Captain needed to be taken out of there. The Captain was hurt, however, and the doctors and nurses were helping him. It wasn't like the care the Soldier received from Hydra. There wasn't any pain. No chair…

Again, the Soldier thrust those thoughts into the far corners of his mind. Focus!

He would have to enter the same service door that the iron man from earlier had. It could be wired, though he doubted it. The Captain seemed to be surrounded by idiots and proper precautions seemed to be the last thing on their minds. And it made no sense. Black Widow at least should have recognized the danger. But then it had been some time since he had spotted her. Perhaps she was doing something useful. He may encounter her now. Well, he could beat her, even if he didn't want to. That wasn't his purpose in visiting the hospital. He was here to assess his mission up close.

The door opened easily, squeaking far too loudly for the Soldier's taste. He scanned the dark stairwell and found nothing.

They really were idiots.

Silently, he slipped down the stairs and found the door to the Captain's floor. This was where it would be tricky to get in unseen. Carefully he peered into the dimly lit hall. To his shock, no one was around. The hair on the back of his neck immediately stood on end. This wasn't right.

He pulled out his knife with one hand and Glock with the other. And he waited.

Finally there was movement down the hall. The Wing Man stepped out of the Captain's room, rubbing the back of neck and muttering to himself. The other hand touched his ribcage where the Soldier had kicked him when he took down the flier. The Soldier remained perfectly still, breathing regulated to slowness near impossible to detect. Then a phone buzzed and the black man looked at.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he grumbled. He rubbed his face once more and walked to the elevator. A minute later it was gone and everything was utterly still.

Quietly, the Soldier pulled open the door and darted inside the hallway. It was twenty steps to the Captain's room from his position. He made it in fifteen. He peered inside quickly and listened. No one was here but the Captain. He quickly slipped inside the room, thankful there light was off and ducked into the shadows.

He stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of the Captain's battered face in the faint light. It felt like a cavity had opened in his chest, stealing his breath and thoughts so fast it hurt. He had done this. He had almost completed the wrong mission. He had almost completely failed. And if he had…

A shuddered wracked him from head to toe. Suddenly all the reasons he had to check on the Captain in person disappeared. Why had he come?

The hospital room melted away, leaving a far different room. Shabby and rundown, a small form was on the bed shivering under a small mound of blankets.

"The fever's breaking," a tired feminine voice said. He tried to see her, but found he couldn't turn away from the figure on the bed.

"How do you know?" He asked, not able to speak above a whisper. "He's been so sick. The doctor…"

"Has never believed in his survival, But my boy is a fighter."

He swallowed, cold.

"Can I…?"

"Of course."

Then he was walking forward and he could see the boy on the bed. It was the Captain. Years younger and frailer than the man he just saw in the hospital bed, but not as young as the previous time he saw him with the book about Oz.

The Soldier was not equipped to comprehend the backlash of feelings. A whine sounded in his throat. He couldn't do this. He was completely useless; utterly helpless in face of this attack on the Captain's person.

Blue eyes blinked at him, unfocused for a moment. "Bucky?"

The Soldier reeled back and the vision fell away, leaving him in the hospital room once more, panting for breath. He pressed a fist to his face, scrambling to regain control. These…these flashes had to stop! How could he complete his mission with these things popping into his head? The voices, the emotions; it was too much! He was vulnerable and HYDRA would defeat him if he faltered.

Unacceptable.

Taking a deep breath, the Soldier straightened and looked down at his mission. The man was moving slightly, clearly disturbed by his presence. He stepped back and turned away.

He would not approach the Captain again. Everything was worse the closer he was. And he dared not think if…

"Bucky."

He froze, another shudder hitting him. Slowly he turned around, already knowing what he would find.

The blonde man's fearful expression wasn't the fear he was accustomed to. There was a softness to it, an edge that did not fit with the flashes of men and women cowering before he ended them. He could see their round eyes, tears and puckering, quivering mouths as they plead and screamed if they had a chance. Most didn't. Why? Who was this Captain America that he would look at the Soldier in such a way? Why did the Captain save him on the helicarrier when he had the chance to kill him?

The questions that started when he fought the man on the helicarrier were crowding his mind again with fresh vigor and he had no way to handle them. He wasn't supposed to ask questions beyond Intel necessary to complete his mission; except the Intel on this mission had been wrong since the beginning. Now he was malfunctioning with increasing intensity and frequency. He had to stop this. He needed to leave.

"Bucky…"

Frustrated he rammed his metal fist into the mattress.

"Stop calling me that!" The cry tore out of him without his permission. But it was true. He was not this…this Bucky person. He couldn't be. He was the Soldier, the Asset, the Fist of Hydra. A machine of destruction. A killer. He had no name. His mission may have reset, but that did not change what he was, did it?

It was a question the Soldier had no answer to. And the more time passed the greater his confusion became. Peirce had given him a faulty mission. What else could his handlers have told him, ordered him to do, which was inaccurate? His mind shied from the thought. Don't go there. Don't think of it. If he did…he shivered, feeling as if the ice of the cyro-freeze chamber was stealing over him.

The Captain had obediently fallen silent while he'd battled his thoughts. So caught up in the confusion, he was not prepared for the light brush of fingers on his curled, flesh hand. He jumped back, a knife immediately in hand, ready to fight.

"I'm sorry," the man said, looking down. "I…I just can't believe you're here."

The Soldier didn't know what to make of this. No one had ever apologized to him. For anything. He was given orders and he was expected to obey. Failure was met with severe punishment. But this man, Captain America, looked at him differently. Spoke different. Like he didn't see a machine but a person. He didn't know how to respond to that.

Abruptly, the Soldier sheathed the knife and turned away from the bed, stomping toward the door.

"Wait! Bu—You're hurt."

He swore silently. For a man who nearly died a day ago, he was terribly observant. It was also clear that if the Captain noticed his injuries then others would as well. He had to tend to them somehow. That meant leaving the Captain vulnerable. No, the Captain had his shield back. Even in his hurt condition, the Soldier knew that the Captain could best a squad of HYDRA. He'd done it before. Wait, how did he know the Captain had fought HYDRA while hurt before?

Cursing more colorfully now, he forced himself not to think about the mystery of how he knew that. Instead he glanced around the room for the familiar shield. It wasn't there.

"Where's the shield?" The Soldier spun around sharply. The iron man had taken the shield and given it to the Captain. The Soldier had seen him! Why wasn't it here? The Captain's brow was furrowed. His confusion infuriated the Soldier. He stalked back toward the bed. "The shield. The iron man had it. Where is it?"

How could the Captain defend himself without the shield? He needed that shield!

"Tony has it. He's bringing it back."

A growl rumbled in his throat. That shield belonged to the Captain, and the Captain alone. No one else had any business with it.

Instead of being fearful, the blonde man quirked a smile; "You were the one taking out the HYDRA teams all day."

The Soldier stared at the bedridden man, baffled and infuriated that the Captain knew of the attempted attacks. There had been no indication that any of them—the Captain or his companions—were aware of how vulnerable they were. Stupidly, they had remained in the hospital, acting as if the few guards that had come would be enough to deter HYDRA. It had frustrated him to no end, especially since he dared not leave any bodies to be found in case a lockdown was initiated and those who were supposedly there to protect the Captain turned out to be HYDRA. HYDRA was everywhere. And the idiots supposed to be guarding the Captain had not gone beyond basic measures of protection.

He glowered fiercely at the man, not having the words to describe his displeasure.

The Captain grew serious and met his gaze directly, to the Soldier's disbelief. "That's why Tony is here. I'm going to stay at his place while I heal."

Simultaneously the Soldier felt another wave of contradicting sensations. It was good the Captain was aware of the danger and leaving this vulnerable position, but why was he informing the soldier where he was going? He had just tried to kill the man! Faulty mission or not, the Soldier was certain that the Captain should not be this calm or informative. It came back to—no, he wasn't going there.

"You need the shield," the Soldier ground out. He was not going to be distracted!

The Captain nodded. "I know. Tony should be back with it soon. He wanted to clean it up."

His scowl deepened. He would have to check the shield then to ensure this iron man, Tony, did not do anything to it.

"Steve!"

The Soldier whirled to find the red and gold iron man charging from the doorway. On his back was the Captain shield.

Snarling, the Solder charged in turn, already weaving, ready to take back what belonged to the Captain.

The Soldier heard the Captain shout, but he blocked it out. His mission was clear: protect the Captain and ensure the Captain could protect himself. He was getting that shield.

...

tbc...


Well, how was that for a cliffhanger? :P Yeah, sorry, no fight with Iron Man yet. The Winter Soldier and Iron Man haven't been cooperating. Next chapter, promise!

Thank ya'll so much for reading. :)

Please leave a review and tell me what you think? Reviews are hugs for authors. :D

Have a great day! -Noelani