Wanting Answers
The Winter Solider finds Steve, wanting answers. When their fearless leader goes missing, the team suits up to find him.
Captain America: The Winter Solider X Avengers
Disclaimer: I do not own CA:TWS or Avengers or anything Marvel related.
Wanting Answers
Steve Rogers sighed deeply as he climbed the stairs to his apartment. He and Sam had been searching for Bucky for the last month. He had broken down and asked Tony Stark for some help trying to track his best friend, but no dice.
He fumbled around in his pockets for his house key; Tony had extended an offer to the whole team to stay in the tower in New York, but Steve decided to split his time between his own place and the tower. All the super solider cared about at this time was being able to lie in bed and pass out for a week. He knew Sam was at his own place doing the exact same thing. He would call Tony like he said he would when he got in, Stark didn't come off as overprotective but once you made your way into his tight knit circle of friends then he would do anything for you.
He unlocked his front door and sighed out happily as he stepped into the familiar environment. However he barely had a moment to enjoy the environment because the second he shut the door behind him a cold metal hand grabbed the front of his jacket and tossed him across the room.
Surprised Steve yelped before grunting as he crashed into a bookcase, sliding to the ground. He looked up and saw the very man he and Sam had been searching for standing before him, half encased in shadows.
"I know you." Bucky growled.
"Bucky…" Steve breathed out as he pulled himself onto his own two feet.
"Don't call me that!" The Winter Solider growled again, his metal hand lashing out. The fingers curled into the fabric of Steve's shirt, yanking the blonde towards him roughly.
"It's your name." Steve tried to get through to his best friend.
"No. It's. NOT!" The solider frowned glaring at the other solider.
"Yes. It. IS!" Steve said back, eyes narrowing.
"I know you, how do I know you? WHO ARE YOU?" Bucky shouted shaking the blonde.
"I'm Steve, your best friend… Please try to remember Buck." Steve felt like he was pleading.
"SHUT UP!" Bucky shouted once more and slammed the super solider against the nearby wall. The metal hand moved from the front of Steve's shirt and went to grasping his throat tightly. Steve's hands out of reflex gripped at the strong metal fingers at his throat restricting air access to his lungs.
"Buck…Stop…" Steve gasped out.
"I want answers. I will find out why I know you." The Winter Solider promised as he let go of Steve's throat, letting the blonde slid to the ground gasping loudly.
"I will find out!" Bucky growled before kicking Steve in the side harshly, cracking a few of his ribs along the way. Steve tried to roll away from Bucky's foot but the winter solider was too fast and with a well-placed kick in the chest sent the super soldier flying backwards into the wall behind him. Bucky stomped down on Steve's left knee, breaking it causing the super soldier to bite back a scream of pain.
The dark haired man bent down and grabbed Steve's right wrist and using his free hand pulled out a pair of cuffs made of unbreakable metal and cuffed the super soldier's wrists together in front of him. He stared down at the man lying on the ground in front of him, he reared backwards and the last thing Steve remembered seeing his metal fist flying towards his face.
~~/~~
Tony Stark leaned back in his chair looking out of the large window of the common floor of the Avengers tower. He kept glancing down at his phone, waiting Steve's call. After Steve and Sam came home from looking for his best friend from the war. When he was told about how HYDRA took Bucky Barnes, gave him a new arm, removed his memories and froze him. His mind hurt when he thought about it too much, so he did what he could in the meantime.
He gave the Avengers a place to call home. He gave them help where he could. He did all he could and now he had to sit back and wait for them to come to him. Bruce was already well integrated into his little family, Hawkeye stuck around when he wasn't on mission and Black Widow did the same every so often. Steve came in now and again.
He glanced at his phone again; it was an hour past when Steve said he would call. Normally Tony would brush it off, but this horrible feeling in his gut wouldn't leave him alone. He swiped his hand across the air in front of him as a computer screen appeared.
"Security cameras around Roger's apartments J." Tony said absently.
"Right away Sir." JARVIS agreed, bringing up the CCTV feed for him. Tony watched the feed of Steve going into his apartment, but he never emerged.
"Are there any other angles J?" Tony asked worried.
"Yes Sir." JARVIS brought up the one other camera and Tony watched, his eyes widening as the Winter Solider himself stepped out onto the fire escape with an unconscious super solider slung over his shoulder. The blonde's wrists were cuffed together and arms hanging over his head.
"Ah shit." Tony groaned.
"Shall I start tracking 'the winter soldier's' movements and alert the others?" JARVIS asked.
"Always reading my mind J." Tony tried to crack a smile, but the image of the Winter Solider taking off with Captain America slung over his shoulder prevented him from doing so.
"That's what I am here for sir." The British voice rang out as the elevator doors opened and Bruce stepped off looking confused.
"What's wrong Tony?" He inquired worried, adjusting his sleeves.
"Let's wait till Nataslia and Legolas get here then I'll explain." Tony quickly hid the CCTV footage before Bruce could see. Bruce nodded in agreement and settled onto the couch seat beside Tony. Minutes passed and the elevator dinged once more and the two assassins exited the elevator.
"Now that we are all assembled, time for me to tell you why I called this meeting." Tony stood up, hands clasped behind his back.
"That might be a good idea." Clint nodded his head.
"The Winter Solider." Tony stated and Natasha's back straightened up and eyes narrowed. "He took Steve, J bring up the footage."
JARVIS cued up the footage and the assembled team sat quietly as the Winter Solider took off with their unconscious and handcuffed friend.
"I followed Master Steve's movements and found where the Winter Solider took him." JARVIS announced bringing up a CCTV feed of the Winter Solider and the Super Solider entering a run down warehouse on the outskirts of the city.
"Alright, let's suit up and bring the Cap home." Tony looked at the other three, waiting for someone to tell him off for taking the lead. He got no words of discouragement, just head nods as the two SHIELD agents went to suit up. Bruce followed Tony down to his lab where his Ironman suit assembled on his body.
"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Bruce asked Tony as they exited the lab onto the large balcony where the 'Avenger's Quinjet' was parked, the two ex-SHIELD agents were getting ready to fly it.
"He's Steve, he'll be fine. If he's not he'll have to answer to us." Tony swore and Bruce nodded mutely as he hurried over to the quinjet to join Clint and Natasha. Tony fired up his repulsors and jetted off towards the locations JARVIS provided them, the jet trailing behind him.
The warehouse Steve had been taken came into view and the approaching Avengers readied them selves for what may or may not come next.
~~/~~
Steve groaned as the throbbing of his head came back into existence as he slowly woke up. With some force on his part, Steve opened his eyes and took stock of his position on a cold cement floor. He was sitting down with his back to a pole and wrists cuffed behind his back.
"Finally, I was getting tried of waiting." Bucky said from his spot across from Steve, cleaning one of his many guns.
"If you didn't want to wait, you shouldn't have knocked me out." Steve snapped back, feeling rather like Tony Stark and his mind wandered slightly. Wondering if Tony had noticed that he never made that call and if he managed to figure out what happened to him.
"You wouldn't have come otherwise." Bucky said simply.
"You could have tried asking me." Steve leaned his head against the pole behind him.
"Give me some real answers and I will let you go." Bucky re-holstered his gun before leaning forward on his knees looking at Steve intensely.
"Every time I speak truthfully you don't believe me." Steve shifted slightly, taking inventory of his ribs and leg, both starting to heal slowly already making him wonder how long he was out for.
"I have done my own research… I will try to keep an open mind this time around." Bucky said after a moment of silence. He gestured with his hand towards the cuffed super solider who took a breath to steady himself before he dove back into his memories of a different lifetime with full force and everything he knew about Bucky Barnes came tumbling out of his lips. Telling the Winter Solider of the life he didn't remember. The life he was forced to forget.
Steve just got to the part where he was telling Bucky to leave him behind; the longhaired man spoke for the first time in a while.
"I said… I said… No… Not without you!" His eyebrows furrowed together.
"Yes." Steve breathed, hope flaring up in his chest. "That's exactly what you said and true to your word we got of there together."
Steve went on to talk about the missions they went on, jokes they shared, anything he could think of. When it was time to tell Bucky about how he fell from the train, Steve couldn't stop his eyes from becoming watery, his voice breaking as he relived the moment Bucky disappeared from his life and trailed off looking intently at the Winter Solider and was startled to see a few tears making their ways down his cheeks, he was unaware of this as he was still staring at Steve intently.
"What happened to you after?" He inquired in a softer tone than Steve thought possible for this version of Bucky. Steve took another breath and told him about everything that happened with Red Skull, how he was frozen for 70 years and SHIELD de-thawed him. He talked about the whole Loki deal, knowing most of it wasn't classified because it was all over every media outlet for months after so there was a high chance the man in front of him heard about it in some form.
"Do you… Remember anything?" Steve asked a few minutes after he finished his long tale.
"I UGH!" With that Bucky fell to his knees, holding his head in pain.
"BUCKY!" Steve cried, thrashing around in his cuffs, the annoyance of the newly founded unbreakable metal really grating on his nerves. He couldn't break the cuffs but he could however break the pole, he leaned forward, pressing the metal cuffs against the weaker metal pole until he heard a loud creaking sound from the bending metal. With a grin slowly forming on his lips, he jerked forward once more and the pole broke. Not caring about his almost but still healing wounds he ran to his best friend's side. He adjusted so his cuffs wrists were in front of him and using that new advantage he pulled his oldest friend into an embrace, letting the man lean against his chest as his mind was assaulted with his old memories, the ones that were his, the ones that HYDRA/SHIELD took from him.
They stayed like this for a long while until a creaking sound coming from an upper window caught Steve's attention. He looked upwards, spotting the gold and scarlet of Tony Stark's Ironman suit. The genius raised a hand in greeting and Steve nodded his head showing that he was okay and nothing was wrong. Tony cocked his head to the side as he spoke into the com's, more than likely alerting the others that Steve was alright and not in any danger from the Winter Solider. Steve noticed two dark figures sneak back out of various escape routes. Must be Clint and Natasha, Steve reasoned.
"Hey punk." Bucky's strained voice came from where his face was buried in Steve's shirt.
"That sounds more like you Buck." Steve couldn't help but grin at the familiar nickname; it was a sign that his best friend was back.
"Thanks for finding me Steve." The two separated and they couldn't help the grins that spread across their faces.
"Well you found me…" Steve pointed out and ducked Bucky's punch with a chuckle.
"Never lost you after I hauled your ass out of the river." He admitted. "You were the only one who held any idea to who I was." He looked away, like he was embarrassed.
"I never knew you cared so much Buck." Steve smirked and laughed as Bucky swore colorfully at him.
"So can we get out of this warehouse and out of these cuffs or are you into some sort of kink now?" Steve rattled the metal cuffs.
"Kink? This Tony Stark must have some real influence on you now." Bucky covered his mouth with his metal hand.
"You don't even know, but you will soon find out for your self." Steve jerked his head up at where Tony was keeping watch over the rooftop.
"I bet we are become best buddies." Bucky said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
"Let's just go Buck." Steve and Bucky climbed to their feet.
"Where?" Bucky asked as they headed towards the doors of the warehouse.
"Home. Let's go home." Steve grinned and Bucky couldn't help but smile back. It felt just like old times and now with Bucky's memories back they could move forward.
Steve knew that with the other Avengers (and Sam) on their side they both would merge into the times with some ease. He watched as Tony and Bucky shook hands and started to talk. He knew that they were going to make his life interesting.
He wouldn't have it any other way however.