A/N: For anyone who might be wondering about it, the Battle of New York is imminent!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7 - 2nd/3rd May 2012

When Fury showed up at the gym to talk to him and Steve about saving the world, Bucky wasn't altogether surprised. Honestly, he was happy to know they had something to do, some direction and purpose to their life, for however long it took to deal with the situation at hand. Of course, he didn't like the idea of anyone in danger or anything too awful happening, but if there was one thing soldiers well understood, it was that there was always a battle to be fought somewhere. At least the two of them were built for such things.

"You recognise this?" Fury asked, handing Steve a file of papers that Bucky read easily over his buddy's shoulder.

The cube was certainly familiar, a fact they both confirmed to the man in charge. It was the very same that had caused some very strange happenings onboard the plane that they had crashed into the water and ice not long after. Somehow, it had made Johann Schmidt disappear into thin air, or space, or something. All Bucky and Steve really knew for sure was that it was dangerous. All Fury knew was that it was in the wrong hands.

"You expect us to stop this hostile threat alone?" asked Steve, closing up the folder. "I mean, I'm not saying we couldn't but..."

"We're assembling a team," Fury explained. "One or two people involved, you may recognise..."

As he trailed off, Bucky noticed a figure in black stepping out of the shadows, felt his eyes go wide when he realised he absolutely recognised the man in question. "So, that's why you moved in across the hall."

Barton smiled. "Somebody had to keep an eye on you. You're two of our greatest assets right now, Sergeant, Captain," he said, nodding politely to each of them.

"Didn't seem to matter too much for the first few months," said Steve with a look.

Fury smiled. "Actually, it did."

That was when the penny dropped, the bulb went on, and Bucky forgot to breathe for a few seconds too long. It wasn't just Barton. Before him, there was another person keeping tabs on him and Steve, another agent watching over them. Natalie Rush wasn't a pretty nurse with an abusive boyfriend or father. She was a plant too. She was with SHIELD.

"Well, I'll be damned."

"I'd apologise for the subterfuge, but I'm sure you can understand it was a necessary evil," Fury explained. "And yes, you will be seeing Agent Romanov again on this particular mission, just as soon as she gets back from India with another member of our new team."

"Romanov?" Steve frowned on hearing that name, but not half so hard as Bucky did.

"Natalie Rush was an alias already established in the area with medical credentials," Barton explained, "but the woman watching over you was actually Agent Natasha Romanov. She's one of the best there is, trust me."

Bucky wasn't sure why he seemed to be saying those words more to him than to Steve, or maybe he did and he just didn't want to think about it. Not that he had much chance to deliberate. Fury was talking again, about the blue cube and the other members of the team they were forming, something called the Avengers Initiative. It was enough to make anybody's head spin, and through it all, Bucky found himself more than a little distracted by the truth he just learned about Natalie, or Natasha, as he supposed he should learn to call her now.

"Buck? You, okay?"

It was more Steve's hand on his shoulder than his words that finally snapped him out of a trance. "Sure, I'm fine," he promised, shaking off the things that couldn't matter right now. "So, what happens now? This Loki character, who is he?"

Fury made a face. "That's a little more complicated to explain..."

The smirk on Bucky's lips just wouldn't go away as he watched the one they called Agent Coulson fawn over Steve, like he were the second coming or something. It wasn't as if the great Captain America never had fans before, but this guy was something else. He talked a lot about being there when Bucky and Steve were unconscious, and about his collection of Cap memorabilia, especially the vintage trading cards.

Vintage. The word stuck in Bucky's head and made him wince worse than the headache he had been nursing these past twenty-four hours or so. Him and Steve, they were literally men out of time, and yet, Bucky had never felt it as keenly as he did now. As the truth of their situation was explained to them, as they were put on a jet more advanced than anything he ever could have imagined, to be flown to an aircraft carrier. While Fury and Coulson talked of Norse gods of myth and legend that were actually aliens from a far-off planet, and tried to put into layman's terms what the blue cube Schmidt had once been so obsessed with really was. Bucky had gotten so lost amongst talk of gamma rays, a doctor who became a green monster when angry, and a man who flew around in a metal suit, saving the world.

Not that he helped himself by only listening to half the information. For the most part, he had a woman on his mind, a fact that would usually make Steve laugh, if he were to say it out loud. Of course, in these particular circumstances, Bucky got a little more understanding out of his best buddy.

"Hey," said Steve himself, sitting down in the next seat over with a sigh. "Coulson seems like a great guy, but honestly..."

"A little more fanatical than you can handle," Bucky finished for him, his smile more genuine then. "Yeah, I heard."

"You understand any of that?" he asked then, gesturing to the folder in his friend's hands.

Bucky had almost forgotten he was even holding it, though a quick glance down reminded him how he had become so easily distracted all over again. Amongst the pictures of their new team of allies was one of Agent Natasha Romanov, the woman he had known for months as Nurse Natalie Rush.

"None of the details really matter all that much." Bucky shook his head, closing up the file fast. "In the war, did you need to know all the whys and wherefores before you went into battle?"

"Wasn't an option we were ever really given back then." Steve shrugged. "But at least I understood who the enemy was. Schmidt was stronger than some, like we are, but he was still a man, for the most part. All this talk of aliens and monsters..."

"It's a lot." Bucky nodded his head. "Especially for two good Catholic boys from Brooklyn."

Steve smiled at that. "We've come a long way, in every sense of the words," he noted, looking out of the window as the jet started to descend towards the aircraft carrier below. "You ready for this?"

"As I'll ever be. Just another mission, right?"

"I wasn't only talking about the cube and the Avengers Initiative," said Steve with a look.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "She's just a girl, Steve, that's all. So, she happens to be a secret agent, so what?"

"So what?" Steve echoed, shaking his head. "Come on, Buck. This is me you're talking to. I know she meant more to you than that. Finding out she was lying to us the whole time, it doesn't exactly thrill me either, but she was just doing her job. You can't hold that against her."

"Hey, I'm not holding anything against her," he promised, hands held up in mock surrender. "I'm just wondering, how much of it was a lie? Not that it matters now, right? We have a job to do, at last. Beats sitting around wondering what we're here for."

Steve looked like he wasn't so sure he believed that, but as far as Bucky was concerned, he just wanted something to be doing. Something useful, something worthwhile. Preferably something where he got to let out his frustrations by punching bad guys. That would make him feel better. At least, he hoped so anyway.

She wasn't sure what she expected when she saw them again. Natasha had almost hoped that it would never happen, and yet, at the same time, knew that she couldn't really live the rest of her life without crossing paths with James Buchanan Barnes. Even if SHIELD would allow it, she wasn't sure that she could herself. That guy had gotten under her skin in a way no other ever had. She wished she knew why, yet at the same time, was almost afraid to examine it too much.

Not that it made a difference. It was pretty clear, when they were reintroduced aboard the helicarrier, that Captain Rogers well-understood the need for secrecy and subterfuge, while Sergeant Barnes was decidedly less thrilled by all the lies that went before. They both shook her hand like professionals, but while Steve smiled like he meant it, James could hardly wait for an excuse to turn away and talk to anyone else about the mission at hand. She supposed she couldn't really blame him. She would love to, but she couldn't.

"I've seen that look before," said Clint, coming to sit beside her, wearing an expression she knew well enough herself - that was his patented 'Tell Uncle Clint all about it' face. "It's Barnes, isn't it?"

"I don't suppose there's any point in my saying 'no'." She rolled her eyes. "Now is really not the time for me to start pining like a teenager, believe me, I know."

"But you're doing it anyway." Clint smirked. "You know, Nat, it's not a crime to like the guy. For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure it's mutual."

"Was mutual," she pointed out, sighing heavily. "James Barnes had a crush on Nurse Natalie Rush. That's not me, Clint. You know that better than anybody."

She wasn't kidding anymore, because there was nothing to kid about it. When she saw the smile slide from his face, she knew he realised it too. The kinds of people they were as agents, that would be enough for an upstanding, old-fashioned solider type to swallow, but Natasha's time with SHIELD was short so far. Before that, when she was part of the Black Widow programme, when she was in the Red Room, those were parts of herself she could never share, not with someone like him. It was yet another reason why it was so ridiculous that she had developed this crazy infatuation in the first place.

"I just have to get over myself. I know I do."

Clint sighed, his arm around her back in a brief hug. "I'm the wrong person to advise on this, and you know that better than anyone," he said with a look.

Nat smiled, she couldn't help it, just as the door slid open and Fury's voice boomed in at them. "Romanov, Barton, I need one of you to pilot the Quinjet. Doesn't matter to me which one, but you're leaving, right now."

"What's the mission, sir?" asked Clint curiously.

"Taking Captain Rogers to Stuttgart, Germany. Seems Loki has made a surprise appearance. A lot of people could end up hurt if we don't act fast."

Though her friend's mouth was already open, his legs tensed to rise from his seat, Natasha beat him to the punch. "I'm on it, sir," she said fast, speeding past Fury before another word could be spoken.

She needed off the Helicarrier, far away from James Barnes, with something bigger than the both of them to take her mind of her foolish schoolgirl crush. Not that she really believed that was all it was, but in the circumstances, it was going to have to be treated as such, until it hopefully, eventually, faded away.

Bucky thought he knew exactly how out of his depth he was when he found himself on an aircraft carrier that turned into some kind of spaceship at the orders of its captain. He realised he had no idea just how overwhelmed he could really be by what the future had to offer when he strolled into a lab, met Dr Bruce Banner, and found out a little more on the details of their current situation.

"You're looking a little pale there, Sergeant Barnes," the good doctor smirked a little. "I get it, I mean, this would be a lot for anybody to take in, but you and the Captain, you kinda missed a lot in those sixty-seven years."

"Yeah, I think I'm beginning to understand exactly how much." Bucky shook his head, marvelling yet again at talk of gamma rays and rage monsters, instantaneous space travel and energy fields, Norse gods that were actually aliens.

It ought to be nothing but fairytales and ghost stories, but he was clear by now on the fact that it was all very real. His own survival these past seven decades proved to Bucky that literally anything was possible. Still, he felt more than a little bowled over again when Steve returned from his trip to Germany with a strangely familiar man at his side.

"How you doing, Buck?" his friend asked, but Bucky was too busy staring at the other guy.

"You're Tony Stark," he said, hopping down from the counter he had perched himself on and extending a hand for Iron Man's alter-ego to shake. "I'm-"

"Sergeant James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes," Stark said for him, a half-smile pulling at his lips. "Yeah, I did the homework," he said, shaking Bucky's hand.

"Your father was a great man."

Tony shrugged. "I'm better."

Bucky wasn't sure he had an answer for that one, but he didn't miss Steve's eye-roll at the remark. There wasn't much small talk after that as Steve and Tony debriefed Bucky and Banner on what had happened with Loki. Apparently, he was now aboard, held in a cell designed for something much worse than he ever could hope to be.

"Let me guess what that might be," said Bruce with a look, proving it was his own alter-ego that had everybody running scared.

Once again, Bucky got a lesson in the true abilities of beings in the new world he and Steve had woken too. If the intel they had was to be believed, this Loki character had the power to summon an army from space to attack the Earth, this according to a big guy who called himself Thor and wielded a hammer in his hand. Bucky figured that was reason enough not to argue with him, unless it was absolutely necessary.

Of course, when talk turned to the true reason for all of them being gathered together - what Fury might be planning that they didn't know about, why Loki might have allowed himself to be captured - things actually started to feel clearer for Bucky and for Steve. Whatever else they were, whatever abilities they had been given, they were soldiers, first and foremost, and in the case of Captain America at least, built for truth and justice. The merest possibility that Fury might be planning to use the power of the cube to make weapons had Steve off on a mission to find out for sure, one way or the other. Forever having his best friend's back, Bucky went with him to search the helicarrier from top to bottom.

"Are we really expecting to find anything?" he asked, unsure what to think as they took the elevator down.

"I honestly don't know." Steve sighed. "But we need to find out. There are too many lies flying around this place already," he noted, stepping out through the now open doors.

Bucky followed suit, catching a brief glimpse of red hair disappearing around the corner. "Yeah, don't I know it?"

"This day is just getting worse and worse."

For a while there, Natasha really hadn't thought that it could, but every time, another disaster loomed large on the horizon then came quickly to clobber them all. It seemed that while she was interrogating Loki about his true motives aboard the helicarrier, the two super-soldiers among them had searched the whole ship and come up with the HYDRA weapons that Fury intended to use against any out-of-world threats. Needless to say, nobody was happy to hear about that.

From there on out, it all went to hell in a handbasket. Bad enough that the so-called Avengers all turned on each other, nobody quite sure who to trust, that was when Loki's mind-controlled agents decided to attack, while Dr Banner lost control and the Hulk emerged, larger than life and twice as frightening as any of them could ever have imagined.

As Stark and Rogers dashed off to fix a disabled engine, Clint jumped into a jet to distract the Hulk and remove him from the helicarrier. Thor took it upon himself to go after his adopted brother, and Fury fought to keep the bird in the air.

All this left Natasha alone to face down several mind-controlled agents, a couple of which she actually knew by name. It shouldn't matter. She had a job to do and she would do it just like always. Five on one left her a little unnumbered, but not quite as badly as a less well-trained agent might be. At least, she hoped not.

There was no telling how amped up they would be with Loki controlling them, at least, not until the fists and feet started flying. To her chagrin, Natasha found that maybe she should have called for back-up when she had the chance, when she was caught in a headlock by one guy, legs held down by another, with a third pointing a gun at her exposed underbelly.

"Hey!"

A yell from the other end of catwalk was just enough distraction for her to twist away, and even then, she found she was no longer fighting alone. The identity of her saviour really shouldn't have mattered, but she couldn't help the smile that pulled at her lips at the realisation it was Sergeant James Barnes who was her dancing partner, the two of them soon back-to-back, as they fought off attackers left and right.

Natasha did her best to keep her opponents at bay without doing them any unnecessary damage, urging Barnes to do the same. After all, the agents were not to blame for their actions and there was every chance what had been done to them by Loki could also be undone. Reasoning with them certainly didn't work, she tried it and failed already.

"I don't think we're talking them out of this," said James, clocking one guy in the face, catching another who almost fell over the rail to his doom and throwing him aside instead. "Any other ideas?"

"Just one." Natasha grunted, knocking another assailant onto his back. "Cognitive recalibration."

"Smaller words, ma'am," he urged her, making her smile in spite of the seriousness of their situation.

"How about no words, Sergeant?" she suggested, turning around at the same time he did, the man each of them was holding onto colliding, their heads smacking together hard and knocking them both old cold. "I'm guessing when they come to, they'll be back to normal, but we should probably secure them fast, just in case."

"Before or after the second wave?" he asked, as two of the original five attackers came at them on the walkway again.

She didn't bother to answer his question, just worked on getting the job done. Before long, they had a pile of five unconscious agents that all had to be carried and dragged into the nearby med bay, each one strapped down to a gurney before they had a chance to wake. By the time the job was done, Natasha was breathing heavily from the extended exertion, and not entirely surprised to find that James was too.

"So, you can get tired," she said, only half-joking.

"Apparently," he replied, bending over and sucking in a deep breath before he righted himself again. "That's the biggest work-out I've had in a while."

"I guess even super soldiers have their limits."

"Depends what you're talking about." He shrugged, meeting her eyes. "Physically, I'm not sure I'm there yet, but I hit my limit on lies I'm willing to swallow a while ago."

Natasha winced at that comment, knowing she had no good comeback for it. To say she was just doing her job would be true, but they both knew there was more to all of this than just her being an undercover agent.

"How much do you know so far?"

"About what?"

"Me. The real me," she emphasised, swallowing hard before she could go on. "I know Barton and Fury told you some things..."

"That your name is Natasha Romanov. That you're an agent of SHIELD. That's about all I have so far. After all, everything else I thought I knew about you was actually just a cover story, right?"

Natasha shook her head just slightly. "Not everything," she said softly, hoping to elaborate, stupidly thinking there might be time. "James..."

Immediately, a very serious sounding Fury was in her earbud, telling her that a man was down. It seemed Agent Coulson had bravely but foolishly taken on Loki alone. Now, the maniac from outer space was long gone, and a good man was dead.

To Be Continued...