Chapter 5

"We're surrounded," Black Widow growled, ducking so that she and Falcon were out of sight of the windows. No one in the room noticed how still the Winter Soldier had gotten or how conflicted his expression was.

"I can see that," Steve grunted, reaching for his familiar shield. It had taken the remnants of SHIELD three days to find the thing, three days in which Steve felt completely vulnerable. However, the all-American soldier quickly donned the straps he wore to holster his shield. "Natasha! Can we get out of here?"

"Negative," she replied, pulling out dual pistols and quickly firing through an already shattered window. "There's too many, and Falcon is bleeding out from a bullet to the shoulder."

"How did they find us?" Steve was nothing but confused. The location they were in - a rainforest - was far too out-of-the-way for an organization like HYDRA. The grip he had on his shield tightened in expectation of a fight.

"I told them."

Everyone in the room turned to see the Winter Soldier staring at the wall with an intense gaze.

"You did what?" Shocked, Steve Rogers could only stare at his old friend. Would he really have done that?

"He's not lying," Black Widow said, coming up behind the Winter Soldier and pulling a comm device out of his ear. "The bastard was going to betray us the whole time!"

The Winter Soldier looked up and saw Steve staring at him, his expression somehow calm. It was almost like he had expected the Winter Soldier to betray him, and that hurt the Winter Soldier more than he would care to admit, even to himself.

"That's not what we have to worry about right now," Falcon coughed, one hand applying pressure to the wound in his shoulder. "We need to get out of here!"

"Not an option," Black Widow snapped. "I already told you that, and they're jamming our distress signals!"

Steve and the man that used to be Bucky were still having a kind of staring contest that neither party seemed willing to break out of. With a sigh, Black Widow glanced out the window again. No doubt the soldiers were still firing, and the walls of the cabin wouldn't offer much more protection for very longer. Suddenly, she frowned. The hail of bullets had seemingly ceased. Falcon had noticed as well, and was giving Black Widow a confused look.

"Everyone, stay here," Black Widow ordered. Slowly, she eased over to the door and pushed it open with her foot, remaining to one side. Instead of the expected rain of gunfire, there was nothing but the usual sounds of the rainforest, though those were more distant than usual due to the loud gunfire that had likely scared off the wildlife. Cautiously, Black Widow slid outside, keeping her guns ready. If anyone so much as twitched, they would get a bullet between the eyes. However, Black Widow lowered her weapons when she saw all of the collapsed HYDRA soldiers. There was one thing in common about all of the soldiers: they had arrows protruding from their bodies. There was only one person that was capable of such high-accuracy high-speed shooting with a bow and arrow.

"Come on out, Barton!" Natasha yelled, holstering her pistols. Immediately, a man jumped out of one of the tall nearby trees, a black bow across his back by a quiver full of multi-purpose arrows. There was an easy grin on his face which only got brighter when he looked at Natasha.

"Hello, Natasha. Long time no see."

"We saw each other yesterday," Natasha replied flatly. "What are you doing here?"

"Fury got a bit impatient. You know how he wants the Winter Soldier locked up and-"

"Clint!" Natasha hissed, cutting him off, but it was too late. Steve was behind Natasha, his expression so blank it was angry.

"You want to arrest Bucky?" Steve asked, his tone intense.

"Cap, he did kill at least two dozen people and is an ally of HYDRA," Clint replied, holding up his hands. "Just look around. Isn't this proof that he doesn't want to be saved? He doesn't even think he needs to be saved!"

"You don't know him!" Steve yelled back. "Bucky wouldn't do that!"

"Hate to break it to you, but whoever you've been talking to isn't Bucky," Clint growled. "Fury was explicit. Whatever they did to him is permanent."

"How could you even think that?" Steve seethed. "You know what it's like to be controlled, and look where you are now!"

The color drained out of Clint Barton's face and his hands dropped to his sides. Even Natasha gave Steve a shocked look, surprised at the man's outburst. Apparently the Winter Soldier was more of a touchy subject than Captain America was willing to admit. Usually, Steve wouldn't bring up what had happened to Clint during the Loki incident.

"Sorry, Clint," Steve eventually sighed, rubbing his face. "I just . . ."

"It's fine." Clint still seemed offended, but he was willing to brush it off. He still got flashbacks from that, and every now and then he would wake up in a cold sweat, sometimes in a different room than the one he went to sleep in.

Suddenly, there was an explosion from inside the house. The three people outside were thrown from their feet, with Natasha and Clint being knocked out from the impact of their heads on exposed rocks. Steve groaned, shifting and looking back at the splinters of the destroyed building. At the last second, he'd been able to deflect flying debris with his shield, but his body still ached.

There was one familiar silhouette that stood in the rubble, holding the unconscious form of Falcon with his metal arm. Steve's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"No, Bucky-" he coughed, but he was cut off when dust coated his throat and forced him to cough instead of speak.

"HYDRA wants to talk to you," the Winter Soldier growled, tossing the injured Falcon aside and walking over to a downed Captain America. In a swift movement, the Winter Soldier kicked Captain America hard enough to instantly knock him out cold.

"Good work," a HYDRA agent grunted, climbing to his feet. There was no arrow wound on him, so he had likely been playing dead. "Your acting was incredible."

The Winter Soldier said nothing, simply staring at the unconscious man at his feet. His expression betrayed nothing of what he was feeling, but his eyes were full of internal conflict. The HYDRA soldier didn't notice as he approached Steve, specially-made handcuffs clutched in his fingers.

He didn't even notice that the Winter Soldier grew more tense the closer the agent got. Once the handcuffs were on Steve, the HYDRA agent sighed.

"Pick him up," he ordered the Winter Soldier. "We need to get back to base before these idiots wake up and signal for help. That archer was just the first of them."

The Winter Soldier still did not move, his gaze fixed in front of him while his jaw muscles clenched. He flexed and relaxed his hands, by now used to the feeling of his metal arm moving. He barely even realized it was metal at this point.

"What are you waiting for?" The HYDRA soldier snapped. "Pick him up and let's- agh!" His fingers scrabbled at the hunting knife now buried in his throat, blood spurting out from around the wound. In his last moments of life, the HYDRA agent saw the Winter Soldier staring at him, an angry expression on his face.

"I don't take orders from you," the Winter Soldier growled. Some of his memory had returned; enough to know that he didn't always work for HYDRA. If they weren't the ones who created him, then he owed them no more loyalty than the man at his feet. He realized that now.

Looking around, the Winter Soldier saw that he would have to leave the area. He couldn't stay where more people would find him. He'd heard that man - Clint -talk about how SHIELD wanted him captured, and he couldn't let that happen. With one last glance at the desolated wooden cabin, the Winter Soldier reached down, picked up the Captain, and began walking away.

So the Winter Soldier was not as innocent nor good as everyone thought . . .

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-RoR