Chapter 5: Machines~

"They'll come for us..." Sherlock mused, wind catching in his long dark coat, and sliding up his back like a teasing sword. The road to Kiev was silent as graveyard song, and cold...

Sergeant Barnes slowly came to his side, and drew a deep breath of the air. Sherlock studied his mysterious companion, making rapid deductions. The Winter Soldier was very apply named. So little of himself remained beneath the rock solid ice exterior, that it was hard to believe the words of endearment he had said about Captain Rogers, or the fact that he had been rebelling against his masters for 70 odd years all on behalf of Rogers, and when this was discovered, always resulting in serious torment that would include a temporary brain washing.

"Law of the jungle ,kid. A'course they're coming for us. Probably already set the hounds loose from the Gates of Hell..."

"You will pay dearly for all of your rouge missions, I take it. No one could have expected a slave on such a short leash to act of his own will, and assasinate enemies of America, as well as enemies of the Red Room, your masters. It's almost commendable in their eyes... Your daring...They'll have to devise an adequate punishment for you ..." Sherlock grinned at the Sergeant's cleverness.

Bucky smiled ,wryly.

"Yeah, I suppose that's how it'll be. I don't care where you're from the whole "double agent" thing is seriously frowned on... You're not getting off so easy either ,Sherlock. You broke into that hell hole to confirm your calculations, and now you know for a fact how deep Moriarty had gotten with Hydra. The Consulting Criminal was basically their chief sponsor before the end of it all. His guys are the ones that ratted me out in the end, and I guess they were getting the "water to a boil" in the pot they wanted to cook me in, when they found you, and it delayed the whole brutal execution thing. Now that the two of us conspired together to break outta that place, with what we know..."

"We will be corporately punished. Probably assasinated, but...not in the usual "bullet between the eyes" fashion...No they mean to be creative...This will probably call for some human experimentation..."

"Gee..I wonder if you'll get to have a bionic arm too before its all said and done? I don't know if that will be amazing, or if the whole matching metal arms thing will just be girly? I guess it's nylons and red lipstick for us next, Sherlock."

"Whatever it is, the two of us are going to die, and rather beautifully. But before we do I suppose we'd best get on with trying to spill these secrets to my brother, and guaranteeing that Captain Rogers and John Watson willl not be intermingled with the whole blood bath..."

"Ehhh...no...the thought of Steve wearing lipstick is a bit too disturbing even for my fried and scrambled brain...You're right, Sherlock. We are machines of war, and its time we finish our last mission. If God hears robots' prayers, I hope he hears me when I ask for those guys on the homefront to make it out of this ok. And I really hope, if that's the word I can use, that they don't have to watch the show..."

Sherlock looked to the sky ,at the sun shining white like a wraith of mercy through the clouds.

"Amen." he whispered, remembering the day he made John watch him fall...