Steve had taken advantage of the fact that it was only him and Sam and managed to arrive at the place that intel had determined Bucky was before anyone else.

He was both hoping and dreading meeting his best friend again but when he entered the apartment it was empty.

At first glance there was nothing to show who lived there.

Steve picked up one of the notebooks and opened it. His own face stared back as a flyer for the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian was used as a bookmark. He couldn't help but feel relived as he saw Bucky's familiar scrawl on the page.

Sam's voice came though loud and clear from his earpiece, "Heads up Cap. German special forces approaching from the south."

"Understood," He acknowledge still looking in the book.

Aideen few in and landed on the counter next to Steve, silently letting him know that Bucky was now behind him.

Steve turned to face his friend for the first time since DC.

Bucky was looking at him silently so Steve asked, "Do you know me?"

There was a pause before the other man answered, "You're Steve." He glanced at the notebook Steve still had in his hand and added, "I read about you in a museum."

Sam's voice came through the radio again, "They've set the perimeter."

It was time to speed this up, he had to get Bucky to come with him.

Steve placed the notebook on the counter next to Aideen and moved towards his friend, "I know you're nervous," he stopped moving as Bucky seemed like he was about to run and tried to pin him with a look, "and you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying."

"I'm not him," Bucky said softly, "My dæmon-" he trailed off.

"You're not severed," said Steve. Natasha had told him that rumour about the Winter Solider but he had seen a few unfortunate souls that had been during the war. Most had faded and died no matter what anyone could do but they were all flat somehow. Steve had known as soon as he fought the Solider on the freeway that it wasn't the case with him.

"You must just be separated. If you haven't fond her we can-" Steve stopped as a flat pallet of wood that was leaning against a wall moved. It had been hiding a hole that led into the next apartment. A large sinewy body slinked into the room.

"James Barnes' dæmon was a lioness." Bucky stated flatly.

Steve almost smiled, of course the guy who would drag him to science fairs wouldn't get a mythical dæmon, he had to get dinosaur instead.

"Aideen used to be a harpy eagle and I'm pretty sure Schmidt had some sort of lizard before it became a hydra."Steve explained, "It's the serum. I thought she looked a littler different after Azzano but I put it down to seeing properly for the first time."

Aideen had her own way of trying to get though to her friend and flew over to the velociraptor. "Elena," she said, just inch away from the bigger dæmon, "we've missed you."

Bucky looked at the two and then back to Steve. "I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore."

Sam's voice piped up reminding him of the problem, "They're entering the building."

Steve he had to get Bucky to come with him before they arrived so he moved slowly closer, "Well, the people who think you did are coming here now." He stopped as he saw Bucky swallow nervously but continued talking, "And they're not planning on taking you alive."

Bucky just looked resigned, "That's smart. Good strategy."

Sound of movement came from above as Sam reported in, "They're on the roof, I'm compromised."

Elena dashed back though the hole to the other apartment, turning only to move back the wood covering it. Aideen took to the air but didn't try to follow.

The sound of movement could be heard coming up the stairs.

Steve tried to stop what he could see coming, "This doesn't have to end in a fight Buck."

He could hear them outside the door but Bucky only sighed, "It always ends in a fight."

"Five seconds," Sam warned.

Steve tried one last time, "You pulled me from the river," he watched as Bucky took off the glove on his left arm revealing the metal hand, "Why."

Bucky looked at him, "I don't know."

Sam announced, "3 seconds."

Steve looked Bucky directly in the eyes "Yes you do."

Suddenly all hell broke loose as Sam yelled, "Breach, breach, breach!"

A smoke bomb came crashing thought the window.

He had run out of time, it was too late.

End Notes:

Bucky gets captured but Elena doesn't as there's no record of the Winter Solider having a dæmon. The movie plays out the same but they pick up the dinosaur before going to Wakanda.

It's a pity I couldn't fit in more rumours about the Winter Solider. Like how his dæmon is actually in his arm and that's what's powering it (kind of like the ghost story told to Lyra in the books only they were powering the lungs). Or that he's actually an Armoured Bear that sold his arm to a witch to be turned into a human and is arm is his armour re-forged. (because Buck Bear).

Also in my head but could fit nowhere in the story is the fact that Natasha is separated from her dæmon. When the girls in the Red Room settled and so lost that advantage in spying they were brought to a secret place in the Russian wilderness that had been struck by a meteor that dæmons couldn't enter. So like the witches in the book they had to cross it.

This was based on a prompt by tigriswolf ages ago:

"Bucky Barnes' daemon was an African lioness. She jumped after him from the train.

The Winter Soldier has never met his daemon; he does not even know what daemons are. But she terrifies Hydra in a way nothing ever has because she is either a

deinonychus or a utahraptor, author's preference. She shifted the moment Bucky Barnes died and the Winter Soldier/asset was born from his corpse. The only reason Hydra hasn't destroyed her is because they want to see if they can replicate whatever let her shift.

They really should have destroyed her. Because when the asset pulls Steve Rogers out of the Potomac, his daemon escapes Hydra (after slaughtering everyone in the facility) and goes to find her person.

What happens next? No idea. I'd prefer, though, that she doesn't change back to being a lioness."

I didn't exactly fill the prompt but it's been sitting there unfilled for ages and I meant to do something with it for a while now. I finally got around to it.

Steve's dæmon was a harpy eagle before it became a phoenix during project rebirth.

I picked it because it's one of the world's biggest eagles. It's also the base for the phoenix Falkes in the Harry Potter movies.

Aideen (pronounced ay-deen) is an Irish name which means 'little fire'.

Bucky dæmon was a female barbary lion rather then just an African because I wanted to go with angst and they became extinct from the wild around the 1940's.

Technically she turned into an Achillobator as velociraptor's were actually pretty small, about the size of a turkey.

(I changed it from the prompt of a utahraptor simply because of the size. But she could be a small utahraptor instead)

Steve would call her a velociraptor as I doubt he would be up to date on his palaeontology knowledge but has probably seen Jurassic Park by now.

I purposely did not mention feathers or scales as some people have very strong opinions about dinosaurs but since the serum turns dæmons into mythical creatures it doesn't really matter.

I wanted a Romanian name (because Sebastian Stan) but Elena is also Russian as well as Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovak, Lithuanian, German and medieval Slavic. It's probably because it's a cognate of Helen. It means 'light'.