Back for another chapter! Again, it's different from CAWS. That's pretty much it, so enjoy!
Steve landed hard on the ground and groaned, wishing he could lay there until it was over.
But no. He had a job to do.
Bucky was coming towards him again, a knife in his hand.
"Bucky. It's me," Steve pleaded as Bucky raised the knife and brought it down.
Unprepared for his attack, Steve couldn't block fast enough and the knife went into his shoulder.
He yelled in pain and kicked Bucky away. Steve pulled the knife from his shoulder and threw it unceremoniously onto the ground. Bucky came at him again and this time it was Steve that ran towards him. He pinned Bucky down and got him into a chokehold. If Bucky was unconscious, Steve had a better chance of getting them both out alive.
Bucky stopped squirming after a few seconds and Steve quickly released his grip and checked for a pulse. It was there and Steve made up his mind to try and push the timer back a few more minutes to give them more time.
While Bucky was down, Steve ran up and vaulted off a piece of metal, landing and running forward to get to the explosives. As he was within arms reach of it, a shot was fired and Steve felt extreme pain in his upper thigh.
Looking back down, Bucky was standing below him and holding a gun. He started following Steve up as Steve reached the explosives and set in an extra five minutes.
As he turned back around, Bucky was standing there, the gun pointed at Steve's midsection.
"Bucky, don't do this. Think about what you are doing. It isn't you. It's HYDRA. They've gotten into your head."
"You lie," Bucky snarled. His voice was deeper and more raw, so unlike the light and friendly voice Steve loved.
"Why would I lie to you? Bucky, I'm not going to fight you anymore. You're my friend," Steve said as he dropped the shield.
"You're my mission!" Bucky yelled and positioned his finger on the trigger.
Steve's gaze never left Bucky's. He fired the gun and a scorching pain criss crossed all over Steve's abdomen. He bent and fell over in pain, clutching his stomach tightly. When his hands came away, his gloves were red.
"Bucky you have to get out of here," Steve gasped. "Explosives go up in a few minutes. You. Have. To. Survive." His voice was cut off by a fit of coughing, which left his lips flecked with blood. He held Bucky's gaze, hoping to make him understand. If Bucky survived, maybe he could get help and live a good life.
"Bucky. Please. I'm going to die here anyways. So you can get out happy that your mission was completed."
Something started to shift in Bucky's eyes. Almost as if he was trying to break free of his monster shell.
"You're a punk if you don't leave me now," Steve whispered as he lost consciousness.
Internally, Bucky was fighting with himself. Snippets of memories came. Almost all of them included Captain America. But he was smaller in size. However, not smaller in spirit.
"I'm with you 'til the end of the line pal," he heard himself say.
Bucky then made the split section decision to save a man he used to know.
He slung Steve's body over his shoulder and groaned under the weight. He jumped down to the lower glass level and tried to figure out how to get from the ground down. Below them was the Potomac.
No way out. Bucky didn't have to make that choice, however.
After a minute of trying to figure out how to get Steve out, the explosives went off. Bucky grabbed a metal shaft as Steve's body fell down to the water below, a mess of blue and red amidst the falling grey and black.
He could feel his shell cracking, as if the unfeeling layer of ice that had seemed to cover him was melting away. Bucky felt something for Captain America. A bond, buried deep beneath the layers of the soul that HYDRA had placed into him.
He felt the bond tugging him towards the Captain, the man who seemed to know him better than himself.
But HYDRA. Surely, if he saved Steve, there would be consequences. His mind would be wiped again, the searing agony of losing memories. The feeling that was all too familiar to him. Was he willing to go through extreme pain for a man he used to know?
Bucky let go of the metal beam without another thought. If Steve used to know him, maybe he could help him become who he once was. Of course, if Steve had survived the fall.
Once Bucky made contact with the water, he wanted out. It was ice cold and stabbed at every part of his body. No sign of Steve on the surface. He took a deep breath and put his head underwater, forcing his eyes to look through the murky water to find anything that looked like the Captain.
It was all debris. Debris and dirt, stirring at the bottom of the riverbed.
Bucky popped up to the surface, gasping for air, and swam a few yards before going down again and coming up shorthanded.
"Steve!" he yelled. He had no idea why he was yelling, but it seemed right. Bucky swam another few yards and went down again, beginning to shake from the cold.
Something caught his eye. A flash of light reflecting off of something that was not the metal debris. He swam towards that and found himself looking down on the submerged body of Captain America.
Bucky swam quickly underwater and grasped Steve's uniform, yanking his body upwards and out of the water.
Bucky swam as fast as he could back to shore, cursing under his breath about how heavy the captain was. He finally reached the shore and plopped Steve unceremoniously onto the sandy ground. A trickle of water and blood escaped Steve's lips as he gasped for air.
Bucky turned around to leave. Captain America was alive, his duty was done. Now he had to make a new life, find a new alias, create a new place to hide from the past that would chase him relentlessly forever.
His boots sunk into the watery sand as he heard something behind him.
"Bucky," a voice whispered. Bucky turned around to see Steve, bleeding out and waterlogged, laying on the beach. He couldn't have looked more different.
But his eyes. Their intense, electric blue color, unchanged over the course of the years. All of the times when Steve had looked up to Bucky with those eyes.
When he looked down as Bucky fell.
The memories came washing over him in a torrent of new information, too much for him to bear. As if the floodgates had opened in his mind, releasing years and years of memories he never knew he had. Of a life he never knew existed.
Bucky sank down onto his knees in the sand and put his head between his hands, rocking back and forth.
"Buck," Steve said again, shifting his body towards Bucky, wincing with every movement.
The memories kept coming, constant images playing in his brain.
Coney Island. Saving Steve from countless fights. Going off to war. Getting captured. Steve saving him for a change. Falling from the train. Becoming the Winter Soldier. The countless mind wipes and the never ending list of people to kill.
It was all too much to bear in one moment.
Bucky collapsed onto the ground, his vision going dark as Steve continued to yell to his brother.
As always, feel free to leave a review.
Natasha will be in the next chapter, so don't worry, I haven't forgotten about her. I hope to get the next chapter up in under a week, hopefully Friday or Saturday, but until then, I'll see you all next week! ;)
Thanks to everyone for reading!