Chapter 4
By: MysticFantasy
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Steve held the edges of the sink as if for dear life. His entire body shook and his breaths came out quick and short.
He looked himself in the mirror and saw a man who looked like he was loosing his mind. He hadn't dare told the others who the person was that he saw even though he was sure they knew who he had in mind.
There's no way that it could be him. Steve thought to himself as he splashed water onto his face. I saw him...
Knock, knock.
Steve looked to the open bathroom door and spotted Natasha.
"Steve,"
"Please, I want to be alone." Steve stated. "I...I need to clear my head for a minute."
"I know you want to be alone right now but we need to know what you saw. We need to know why you got so worked up." she said.
"I can't." he replied. "I already feel like I'm loosing my mind. If I say it, let others hear it, then I know I'll have lost it."
"Steve, we know that there's something going on here." Natasha said placing her hands on his shoulders and making him face her. "This Winter Soldier has a connection to you because you are the one he wants. There's something about him and your past that's connecting and we need to know what it is. Let us help you Steve."
"I...Natasha..."
"Shhh." she whispered as she pulled Steve into a comforting embrace. She felt Steve hang onto her as if she was about to slip away from him forever. His grip was strong but not enough to hurt her.
"I'm seeing things Natasha." Steve whispered after a few quiet moments. "There's no way it could have been him. I saw him die."
"I know Steve." Natasha said pulling back just enough for him to look her in the eyes. "Whoever this Winter Soldier is, he knows enough about your past to try to mess with your head. But you're stronger than this Steve. You can't let him get the better of you or else he'll be successful in his mission and you can't let that happen. You can beat his mind tricks Steve."
Steve looked into her eyes for a moment, processing everything she just said. He nodded.
"You're right." he said and gave her a weak smile. "Thanks Natasha."
"Glad I could help." she said. "Come on. Let's go talk to the others."
Steve nodded, still unsure if he should tell the others who the person he chased after reminded him of. He knew Tony could give him a hard time but the others were a bit more understanding.
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"You're serious?" Tony questioned just as Steve had predicted.
"Yes, I am." the soldier answered staring at his untouched mug of steaming coffee.
"It could have been someone that looked like him. There's a lot of people that look like someone else. I once saw someone who looked like Thor." Bruce said.
Steve remained silent. He knew the others would have a hard time understanding. It had been best to keep it to himself but Natasha had been right about the others needing to know what he had seen.
He had drawn them a picture of the person when he had spotted him standing in the distance watching him.
The second the others had seen it, they had right away gone into shock. They had seen the face of the person before in old and nearly worn out photo's. Some of which Steve possessed.
The face of James 'Bucky' Barnes.
"Steve, we're not saying that you didn't see what you did. But you have to admit that this is a little hard to accept." Bruce said looking at the picture again. "This man does look like Sergeant Barnes but there are some differences."
"I know." Steve agreed. It was the differences he noticed right away which caused him to second guess if he had seen right to begin with.
The hair color and body build were different. Bucky's black hair was now a shade of brown and he seemed to be in better shape then the last time Steve had seen him.
He was sure that it had been Bucky but now even he was questioning himself. It could have been another person that looked just like his best friend. It would explain why he ran off in such a hurry and never looked back.
Steve wasn't sure what to think anymore. Ever since the Winter Soldier showed up his world was turning even more upside down than before and he didn't like it. He hated not knowing this new century he'd awaken in and now things were turning out even worse than before.
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The calm and quiet of night were the only things that hadn't changed over the near century he'd been frozen. Really the biggest difference was that the stars weren't as easy to see anymore.
Maybe I am loosing my mind. Steve thought to himself as he turned away from the window to lie down. I saw Bucky fall and even though the man I saw looked like him there's no way it could have been him. Maybe I'm still coming to terms of what's happened to me. There's no way that I could get over what happened to Bucky. He was like my older brother.
"Captain Rogers, I am very sorry to interrupt but are you still awake sir?"
"Yes Jarvis. What is it?"
"Sir, Dr. Banner is asking for your presence in the morning. He asked for me to ask you as he is still down in the lab." the AI answered.
"Did he say what he needed me for?" Steve asked.
"Yes sir. He explained that he wanted to do a facial recognition scan to determin if the Winter Soldier and Sergeant James Barnes are the same person."
Steve sat up hearing that.
"Is he still in the lab?" he asked.
"Yes sir." Jarvis answered.
"Tell him I'm on my way." Steve said as he got up and quickly found the sketching of the Bucky look-alike and a photo of himself and his friend from the war before throwing a shirt on and practically running out of his room toward the elevator.
The elevator felt like it was taking its sweet time just getting from one floor to the next and it was causing Steve to want to hit the emergency stop and run down the stairs even though he knew that wasn't the safest idea.
Finally, he reached the floor where Bruce was. He punched in his special code at the lab door and was right away given access.
"Dr. Banner?"
"Steve."
The blond turned to see Bruce standing at a desk looking like he was going to pull another all nighter.
"Guess Jarvis caught you while you were still awake huh?" the doctor asked with a knowing smirk.
"Yeah." Steve answered and held up the drawing and photo. "Don't know if you'd want to try them now."
"I think we can agree that it'll be on both of our minds." Bruce replied taking the items and walking over to a scanner with Steve close behind. He was about to lower the top of the scanner when he looked back at the captain. "You're sure the drawing of Winter Soldier wasn't just from thinking you saw Bucky?"
"I know what I saw." Steve answered. "I didn't draw my best friend."
Bruce nodded and closed the lid.
Steve wathed as a light slid from one side under the lid to the other and back again. Bruce switched on a monitor where the two images showed up. He quickly typed a few things and Steve watched in amazement as his own face was removed from the war picture and only his drawing and the actual photo of Bucky remaind.
Soon a scan was processing the chances of the two men in the photo.
"It'll take a minute or two." Bruce said softly.
Steve nodded and sat down on a chair with his head slightly lowered and his back hunched.
Bruce right away took this as disconcerning. Steve was the perfect picture of manners and etiquet. Holding doors for others, clothes neatly pressed, using a napkin after every bite...
Seeing Steve slouching wasn't a good sign in Bruce's opinion and he had an idea why.
"What are you going to do if it's a match?" he asked.
Steve sighed but remained in his current position.
"I don't know." he answered which also made Bruce a little more nervous. Steve not having a plan wasn't something none of them ever wanted to hear. "My question is, how did he survive the fall?" Steve said softly.
Bruce wished that he had an aswer to that. For Steve and himself. Though it had been against Steve's wishes, Fury had shown them a photo of the cliff where the train mission had taken place and how high the cliff was from the icy ground below.
Steve and Thor were probably the only ones who could survive a fall like that but a regular human didn't stand a chance.
Bucky was a regular person and there was no way he could have survived that fall without some kind of help. Either from an unknown being or a higher power.
A small DING alerted the two Avengers. The scan was done.
Bruce right away checked the results and Steve stood close by waiting to hear what the results were.
Bruce checked the percentage and looked at Steve with an unreadable look.
"What is it?" the super soldier asked.
"It's...It's a fifty percent match." Bruce answered. "We're not any closer to finding out who Winter Soldier is."
Steve sighed heavily as he ran a hand through his hair.
I really am loosing it. he thought. Someone else is going to have to lead the team. I'm not in my right mind to do this.
The legendary soldier quietly walked out of the lab to head back upstairs. The entire time Bruce had watched him go, sad that he couldn't help Steve more.