Winter of the White Wolf

Chapter 33 - Dark Matter

By the time Sam'd gotten with the program, every single person in the whole damn room was already at least five to ten steps ahead of him. Maybe more.

A lifetime in the military honed a very particular set of his reflexes to the point that they ran on pure instinct. But none of them, not one of them, got a jump on this.

It all happened faster than he could process. One moment Bucky'd been lying there with his eyes closed as he played Marco Polo with Shuri describing whatever he was seeing in his head. The next moment, Ayo'd pivoted her spear towards Bucky and barked a command in another language that had an immediate domino effect on everyone in the room except Sam.

Yama responded instantly by stepping in front of Shuri and using her left hand to push the princess back behind her and away from where Bucky rested on the recovery chair. The Dora Milaje's expression went cold as she planted her feet and brandished her spear, pointing it squarely at Bucky's throat. Across from her, Ayo did a commander's quick math when she apparently realized they had not one, but two unarmed bodies in need of protection.

One of those bodies was Sam.

His brain still hadn't caught up with what exactly was happening when a vibranium spear flashed silver and flourished in front of him, and he felt more than saw Ayo close the short distance between herself and Bucky.

It wasn't Bucky though.

It looked like him, but it was definitely not the man he knew.

Near as he could tell by that intense, blank expression, it was the other guy.

The one that was supposed to be buried and benign behind Shuri's handiwork.

Sam didn't have time to think, no less react, because the world might as well have been a wind-up toy for all the sense that the next ten seconds made.

Everything happened at once.

The Soldier lunged straight for Ayo, reaching out his newly-upgraded vibranium arm to grip the shaft of her staff. It was clear her next move had been to reach forward and disable the arm, but when she got close, he anticipated it, countering by slamming his other forearm against hers. There was an audible crack and a visible spark in the air as the Kimoyo Beads on his wrist struck the vibranium plating on her arm. At the same time, he fiercely twisted the hilt of her spear with his metal arm, making his combatant choose between reflexively loosening her grip or allowing him to potentially break her wrist from the sudden burst of force.

She leaned her weight into him, rolling to one side to dodge a follow-up blow from his right fist. Ayo was fluid on her feet as she worked to keep him off-balance and herded him back towards the chair with a sweep of her leg. His hip slammed into the side of the armrest and the unexpected contact momentarily staggered him, but he quickly recovered his balance, lowering his head like a predator bracing to strike. The Soldier didn't even flinch, didn't give any indication on his next move as he cruelly swiveled Ayo's spear around on her.

The pivot was clean, smooth, and lightning fast. The sort of move that spoke to experience and had too much speed and force to be completely human. It was like watching a rattlesnake strike, only without the early indicators of where it was planning to land the blow.

The efficiency was wholly frightening.

It wasn't Bucky.

Shit!

Not only was it not Bucky, but this wasn't the Ayo he saw in Latvia either. This wasn't the performance and showmanship of putting Walker in his place and teaching him to have some firsthand respect for the Dora Milaje and all that they represented. This was like watching a puma fight for her life while trying to subdue a gator who was intent to make a kill.

As Sam tried to get his brain with the program and how he could possibly help, Nomble'd joined the fray from somewhere to his right. She came in quick on her feet and had the sense to protectively push Sam back and away from the surreal confrontation taking place a few feet in front of him, inserting herself between the two of them and coming swiftly to Ayo's aid. Her spear clashed audibly with the one Bucky gripped in his left hand, and Nomble stepped forward to force Bucky to choose between retaining his grip on the shaft or allowing his face to come within striking distance of the tip of Nomble's spear. Ayo was able to use the brief distraction to reclaim control of her own spear, leveraging the momentum of the swing like a reverse trebuchet as the two of them struggled to try and keep Bucky contained near the recovery chair.

There were a lot of things screaming through Sam's head during a flash that amounted to probably no more than five seconds of real time, but, the loudest of which was that he was unarmed and decidedly out of his element here. No one had thought to talk to him about a possible "What if…?" scenario, which told him no one here thought this - whatever this was - was even a remote possibility.

Across the way from him, on the other side of the sprawl, Shuri's head was darting all around her, probably thinking the same thing he was in the hopes of finding something to diffuse whatever this was. Yama kept herself positioned between the princess and the fight, and Sam was pretty sure when Ayo'd snapped something aloud, that her words were intended for Yama, who immediately responded by forcing Shuri further back and away, regardless of Shuri's own thoughts on the matter.

Sam got that, understood the priorities of the room, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to step in and help.

Because he was too much of an idiot to know when he was clearly in over his head.

He didn't see anything that looked like a gun on the countertops surrounding him, which wasn't surprising, and to be honest: he wasn't sure what he would have done with one if he'd had one. He'd like to think he could have gone for a disabling shot, but the idea of doing even that to Bucky was hard to stomach, regardless of if he was going full Winter Soldier on two Dora Milaje or not.

The lab was well-kept enough that there simply weren't useful things lying about. The nearest object his mind identified as potentially useful was the metal tray a few steps away that Shuri'd carried those diodes in on. He made a move to it and with a sweep of his hand, cleared off the paper towels from it and took it up in one hand as he tried to reimagine it as some sort of shield.

When he turned back to the fight, he saw Nomble adjust her positioning in an attempt to get behind the Soldier so he had to choose between two targets rather than face them together. When the Soldier turned his attention to Ayo, Nomble was able to twist her arms around him to plant the shaft of the weapon under his chin and against his throat. The move was clearly meant to keep her out of range of getting grappled while she and Ayo could subdue him.

That's not at all what happened.

As Sam rushed in with his medical-grade shield of destiny, the Soldier visibly held his breath and twisted sideways in place, landing a pony-kick on Ayo's nearest knee that would have snapped it clear in half had she been even an inch or two closer to take the full brunt of it. Sam had seen that kick before and the deadly force behind it. He watched helplessly as Ayo staggered backwards and grimaced as she took a limping step onto left leg. She recovered, snarling something under her breath as she adjusted her weight onto her good leg to compensate.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Sam wasn't entirely sure what his play was other than to try and intervene so the Wakandans could get things under control, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware Ayo'd switched over to shouting something in what he was pretty sure was Russian. He didn't have a damn clue what it was, but the force she put behind those words made his blood run cold. They were commands. He knew that much.

And they weren't doing shit.

"Buck, stop! This isn't you!" He heard himself shout above the deafening clash of metal striking metal when Bucky's left arm took a calculated swing at him. He caught the momentum in the center of the makeshift shield, but the inhuman force of the impact left a massive dent in the tray and sent him staggering backwards a good five feet and onto one hand.

The moment that Ayo and he were no longer on the Soldier, he twisted in place again and turned his full attention back to Nomble. One instant she was standing behind him trying to use her spear to choke him out and subdue him, the next, there was a horrific impact of flesh and bone slamming against metal as Bucky - as the Soldier - caught wind of Nomble's play and hurled her and her spear full-force end over end across the room.

Sam's breath caught in his throat as he saw her body fly backwards and strike hard against the vibranium glass about fifteen feet away and a good six feet off the ground. His panicked mind flashed to Lamar Hoskins' final moments, and he hoped, prayed that when her body hit the floor, it wouldn't be with the same unspeakable finality of Battlestar's limp and lifeless form, crumpled over to one side like a used-up ragdoll.

Instead, Nomble grunted at the impact and groaned softly as she hit the floor with one hand and one elbow under her, saving her face from striking the tile by mere inches. She was disheveled but alive as she worked to get her bearings, but it was obvious the impact had taken the wind out of her. She pushed herself to all fours as the Soldier's eyes flashed to Sam and the man with Bucky's icy blue eyes saw his opening.

It was easy not to think of Bucky as a Super Soldier sometimes. For one, he didn't have that same bulky build and chiseled features Steve did. He was strong, sure, but he didn't flaunt it.

But right then, the Soldier pushed himself, simply launched himself at Sam at an inhuman speed so swift, so precise, that one moment Sam was standing there with his stupid tray in one hand, and the next he was flat on his back, being not just hauled to his feet, but lifted to his feet by the Soldier, who had his vibranium arm slung around his neck like he was a literal toy.

The Soldier's grip around him was tight and firm enough that he struggled to take a single breath, and when he raised the hand with the metal tray in a brief burst of defiance, it was quickly wrested from him and tossed like a misshapen rectangular frisbee squarely in Ayo's direction. The Dora Milaje managed to deflect it at the last moment with her spear, but only just. It went flying across the room from the force of the impact, and Sam had to tell himself that what he'd just seen wasn't true: that Bucky hadn't just gone and tried to aim for her neck in retaliation. If it had hit her...

He pushed the morbid thought away, using his hands to instinctively claw at that metal arm wrapped around his neck like a constrictor, but it wasn't giving way.

And then, a husky voice he hadn't heard since that fight on the highway overpass spoke up not an inch from the head. The tone was flat, merciless, and deadly-serious, "Drop the weapons, now. If you come any closer, I'll kill him."

Sam might not have been able to see the Soldier, but he had a damn good look at the rest of the people in the room. A distance to their left, Nomble was still working to get to her feet again, but she was inclined to leave her spear on the ground where it'd landed after the impact. Nomble looked to Ayo for guidance, who had a forward position closest to Sam. A short distance behind her, Yama defensively protected princess Shuri behind her.

Shuri's expression held the most emotion of any of them, and her eyes glanced past Sam, presumably to Bucky, before they rested back on Sam's own. There was terror there in those brown eyes of hers, and she made a slow calming gesture with her hands, as if to communicate that he shouldn't try anything brave or hasty.

Ayo's own countenance was fierce and no-nonsense. She kept her eyes locked on the Soldier, as if she was worried what he might do if she looked away for even a moment. Initially, she held fast and didn't move a muscle, but slowly, carefully, she pivoted the spear's tip away from Bucky and lowered it.

The fact that she truly believed his threat was a terrifying prospect.

"We do not wish to fight you," Ayo spoke slowly as she placed the spear on the ground so it rested beside her. Her movements reminded Sam of how he used to approach the wounded strays he used to see around town when he was growing up. The ones that you couldn't read, that you couldn't be sure if they'd be more inclined to run or lash out and turn feral. Either way, Sam had to give Ayo credit for trying diplomacy. Considering how hard she was breathing and how she was favoring her right leg, he was amazed she was able to pull off the calm grace she infused into her voice, "You're confused." She pressed, "We're trying to help. What is your name?"

The Soldier didn't respond but he used his free hand, the flesh one, to pin Sam's hands behind his back before he clutched both wrists in one steel grip and locked them there, hard. It wasn't enough to break his wrists, but the torque and pressure holding them firmly in place took away any remaining struggle out of him in an instant.

Sam'd had enough hostage de-escalation training to know that the difference between if people lived or died could be a wire-thin line. The only reason he wasn't freaking out half as much as he probably had every right to was the fact he could tell himself that whoever'd grabbed him was someone else, not Bucky. But with that vibranium arm wrapped tight and business-like around his throat, it was hard to picture it being anyone else, and that frightened him in a way he'd never experienced before. The last time he'd come face-to-face with this guy, he hadn't known Bucky.

He'd read all those files Nat had handed off to Steve, and between that and the data dump from HYDRA, and he sure as hell didn't recall any instances where the Winter Soldier had taken a hostage and allowed them to live after they'd proved useful.

That was part of what allowed him to exist out of sight from the public eye and even intelligence agencies for so long: He left no witnesses.

The Soldier walked him backwards at a predator's prowl, dragging Sam along with him as he navigated the two of them back-first towards the entrance to the lab. The man wasn't even winded. True-to-form, Ayo didn't intervene or pursue, but the fact that she didn't told Sam that she believed the Soldier had every intention of acting on his threat if it came to it. Once they were about ten feet away, Sam caught her attentive eyes flicker to his, and he swore he saw her lips tremble, but it could have been his imagination.

He hoped it was his imagination.

No one in the room moved a muscle or said a word as they slowly retreated. The Soldier adjusted his grip, and Sam found his head pinned tight enough that his view was mostly limited to the ceiling. He could just barely make out Yama in the rear of the room, glancing longingly to the spear at her feet, and Shuri coming up beside her to lay a hand on her shoulder, as if telling her not to consider whatever was on her mind. Yama relented, but her apologetic eyes met Sam's as he was dragged backwards out of the lab.

"Walk," the command was for Sam.

"Havin' trouble breathing," Sam confessed, and he was. He wasn't on the verge of passing out, but the Soldier was half-carrying him by the throat, and it made it awfully hard to get his feet under him. They scrambled, doing their best to keep up, but each step had a way of making him feel like he was walking the green mile backwards until the lab and the Wakandans were both out of sight.

He tried his best not to imagine that the last thing he might feel in this world could be his friend's hands clenched brutally around his neck.

He tried to imagine it was someone else. Anyone else.

This wasn't how he wanted to die.

The moment that Sam and Bucky disappeared behind the sliding glass doors and far corner of the distant hallway, the lab sprang back into motion again, though this time it was a very different sort.

Yama and Shuri rushed over to Nomble's side as Ayo remained still and attentive, watching and listening as she faced the hallway Bucky had just pulled Sam into, like a lion dragging a kill back to his den.

Ayo shook away the thought, waiting until the moment she felt the coast was clear for her to bring up her Kimoyo Beads. With trembling fingers, she punched in a security code followed by a message that would be broadcast to any Dora Milaje within the Wakandan Design Center. She focused on her role as Chief of Security for Wakanda, pushing down the surge of worries that ran counter to that solemn purpose before they sought to overwhelm her:

-~- Unexplained Event and Hostage Situation Originating in Lab B-4-05. -~-

-~- White Male Patient - Unarmed, Violent, and Dangerous. -~-

-~- Lockdown All Staff. Clear Path to Allow for Uninterrupted Retreat to Main Entrance. -~-

-~- DO NOT ENGAGE.-~-

-~- REPEAT - DO NOT ENGAGE.-~-

"What was-?" Yama began.

Ayo made a *tssst!* noise to silence her lieutenant, using her free hand to make a gesture to her ear followed by a lowering motion: a reminder to speak softly if they didn't want to be overheard by the hidden figure's enhanced hearing.

"What was that we just bore witness to?" Yama repeated more quietly, her tone verging closer to annoyance than Ayo would have preferred, but she understood what drew out her lieutenant's emotions. This was unheard of. Shouldn't have been possible.

Yama's question was for any who would answer, but Ayo had none. She picked up her spear from the tile floor and pointed it down the long hallway before she rotated her body so she could monitor both the entrance to the lab and Shuri's face as she and Yama quickly checked-over Nomble. The princess's face was lost in thought as she obviously struggled between being present and coming to an understanding of what had just happened and why.

"Are you alright?" Shuri asked, voice tempered with concern.

"I am fine," Nomble insisted, "The vibranium weave took the worst of the impact."

"Not all of you is protected by vibranium weave." Yama tilted Nomble's head up towards the overhead lighting, observing, "Your eyes are dilated. You likely have a concussion."

"I have suffered far worse."

Shuri was still lost in thought, but before she could step away, Nomble grabbed the princess's wrist, halting her progress. "The other Doras do not know him as we do." Her eyes went to Ayo, "And he does not know them."

Ayo frowned but nodded in understanding as she switched her Kimoyo Beads to an emergency channel. General Okoye's face appeared without delay and Ayo launched into the purpose of her call. There would be time for salutations later, "General. Princess Shuri is safe and unharmed, but support is needed at the Design Center. Something has gone amiss and White Wolf has glimpsed a Black Hole Event. He is violent and not himself and has taken Samuel Wilson hostage. They retreat towards the main entrance." The next part hurt to speak out loud, but it was critical Okoye understood the dire nature of the situation they faced, "I think he means to run, but I do not know if he sees the value of another's life in his current state."

Ayo didn't need to say more. She saw the look in her General's face at the flash of a memory of when Killmonger took Xoliswa hostage on this same mountain before he drew her life out with a cruel pull of his blade.

Okoye's face was grim, but before she could say a word to Ayo, her attention shifted as she shouted a code word to someone nearby. The projection of her torso cut-off abruptly as the General switched her signal to audio-only so her hands were free. By the sounds of it, she was already moving, "You will have our support, but I am not close. Did you already give him the arm?"

Ayo found herself glimpse to Shuri at that, "Yes yes. We did not know. Please hurry."

Okoye swore something under her breath and cut the transmission.

Shuri shook her head rapidly, her fingers flickering over her palm as she reviewed the last scans she'd collected when she'd been speaking with Bucky, "I do not understand what has happened," She admitted, "the readings… they are not showing as a Black Hole Event."

"Then what?"

"I do not know," Shuri repeated, her voice apologetic, "It makes no sense!"

"Could you have missed a trigger word?"

"I do not know," the princess's voice was exasperated, on the verge of panic that was not directed at Ayo, but was also enough to draw out Ayo's emotions as well.

"He anticipated the failsafe," Ayo spat out in frustration.

"He did?"

"He did," Ayo confirmed, "I saw it in his eyes. He saw the move coming. Countered it."

"That makes no sense." Shuri's face crinkled as she ran calculations and possibilities through her mind, "Are you certain? The Soldier should not know."

"I am certain," Ayo confirmed, and she was.

"But James knew," Yama reasoned aloud.

"That was not James," Ayo countered, perhaps a bit more defensively than she intended. She turned her attention back to the room, "But it is no matter because we have seconds before Nomble and I must move to try and cut them off at the surface." She gestured her hand to Yama, the only uninjured Dora among them, and therefore clearly the best-suited to protect their royal charge, "You will stay and guard our princess."

"I'm coming with," Shuri objected without hesitation. Yama did not contest her commander's order, but her eyes shared the same intense desire for disobedience as the princess.

"You will do as you are told and seal the room once we leave."

"I will do no such thing!" Shuri countered.

She could be so frustrating! Like a child throwing a tantrum. Ayo retorted, voice hot and no-nonsense, "We do not understand what has happened. I will not put your life at risk for your stubbornness." Ayo did everything she could to temper her tone, "I cannot guard you while I seek to de-escalate and try to get Samuel to safety."

"Then tell the other Dora Milaje to guard me, for I am coming. This is my choice, not yours." Shuri's tone held firm.

Infuriating!

Ayo could have howled at her for her insubordination, but knew the Princess was her charge, not her lieutenant to command. She tried to appeal to her sense of logic, "You have no weapon, no armor."

"I will have both," Shuri was already moving to the nearest chest of drawers, pulling them open in rapid succession as she searched for something among her creations. She tossed a small dome-shaped device the size of a thumbnail to Ayo, "For your knee, it will numb the nerves enough until we have time for proper treatment."

Ayo said nothing as she caught the device and did her best not to flinch as she pressed it against the outside of her knee. Immediately she could feel the prick as a small needle push itself between the vibranium weave and into her flesh, allowing nanites to penetrate her skin and offer momentary relief to the area. She shifted her weight onto it. It was still painful, but it was now manageable. She would be able to walk, but she was not sure if she would be able to run.

It would not be the first time.

There was no time: It had to be enough.

Shuri waved a hand between Ayo and Yama, "Where did some isidenge* see fit to move my tools to while I kept the ancestors company?"

"We must hurry," Nomble offered by way of encouragement as she regarded a readout from her Kimoyo Beads, "The others report they have already made it to the next floor. Sam is still with him, appearing conscious and yet unharmed."

"I am hurrying, I am hurrying!" This was Shuri, who pulled a handful of items into her pocket, as if she either didn't have time or the patience to sort them out now, or wasn't at all certain what might come in useful for whatever they might face next. Ayo didn't know either. They would have time to talk once they made way to the hidden exit. Their best hope was that they might be able to overpower the Soldier before he took Sam Wilson's life, or anyone else's.

She knew in her heart she was willing to lay down her life for Shuri, for T'Challa, for Wakanda. She truly wanted to think herself capable of making a call between James's life and the lives of those around her and Samuel's own, but she could not be certain in that moment if she would be capable of making that final strike, even if it was wholly necessary.

She had to hope others could be strong if she could not.

For a moment, she let herself take comfort in the belief that Okoye would not hesitate if the situation was so dire.

But Ayo hoped, prayed to Bast it would not come to that.

Years of careful training heightened his reflexes to razor-sharp focus, but they hadn't prepared the soldier for this, whatever this was.

His attention ran a constant cycle between situational awareness, ongoing threat assessment, the positioning of the man shielded in front of him, and the not-so-subtle discomfort that he was both unable to piece together where he was or how he'd gotten here.

The latter was something he felt a pressing need to understand, but it could wait.

His best guess was that he was deep within one of HYDRA's many bases of operation, or perhaps he'd been taken and rented out to one of their allies. Either way: he hadn't missed the sight of the cryo chamber nestled within the center of the lab: a telltale sign of a participant in the Winter Soldier program.

The stark black, white, and glass-lined corridors offered a surprising amount of visibility into adjoining rooms where labcoat-laden staff pressed themselves against far walls, flanked by bald, female soldiers who brandished what appeared to be matching spears rather than handheld munitions. Strange. They watched him warily from a distance with a predatory intensity he recognized, but they did not move to intervene. There were a surprising number of them too, perhaps one for every ten or fifteen scientists.

The soldier pivoted the man in front of him like a full-body shield when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The woman froze, removing her hand from a bracelet around her wrist that wasn't unlike the one on his own. He regarded her intently as he pulled the hostage around a corner and to another intersection.

He stopped, listening for anything. Any sound of doors, footsteps, or voices. When he felt certain they weren't being followed, he pivoted around to face an approaching intersection. The soldier let his grip loosen just enough so that he would be able to work his vocal cords, "Which way?"

The man he was holding squirmed his head right then left, then back again, "Right, I think?"

The soldier kept his voice low, sinking his intent into the words, "If it's the wrong direction, you'll be the first to die." He had no patience for trying to read this man's intentions. His heart was racing so fast it was impossible to even guess if he was lying or not. He could smell the primal reek of fear about him, though.

Pathetic.

"I've been here a grand total of three times in my whole life," the man responded as they entered a section that wasn't surrounded by glass, "The last two times, I wasn't paying close attention on account that someone led us back out."

The soldier caught the 'us' and scowled inwardly, debating on believing the suggestion or going against it, "Do you have any weapons on you?"

The response was a flat, "No, I do not have any weapons on me."

"I'm going to let go of your wrists for a moment. If you try anything-"

"You'll kill me. I get it," the man in front of him deadpanned, "No desire to be a hero, man. You tell me what you want me to do. I'll do it. I've got a family. Sarah, AJ-"

"Stop talking." The soldier tightened the hold of his left arm around the man's neck while he used his other hand to first pick off whatever was itching his scalp. He pulled something off of his temple and regarded it critically. A device of some kind? A bug, perhaps? He dropped it to the floor and crushed it under his heel. One-by-one, he removed the others and destroyed them as well. Did they have something to do with what was done to his hair? If so: why?

He turned his attention back to the man obediently standing in front of him with his hands behind his back. The soldier used his free hand to pat him down carefully. Part of him was actually hoping the man might be lying and had something on him: a knife, a gun, anything. But the only thing he found was a wallet and what felt like a cell phone in his pocket. The soldier fished them out and slipped them both into his back pocket to review later.

Satisfied he was unarmed and telling the truth, he took the man's wrists again and prompted him to step down into the hallway on the right. The soldier pivoted, brandishing the man like a shield when he caught sight of another one of those strange women with the spears standing guard behind a glass door a short distance away. She watched them intensely as they slowly made their way past, but she did not move to intercept them.

Part of him almost wished she had.

She probably had some spare weapons on her.

The soldier kept his voice low as he kept the man moving in front of him. He felt like he should know more about this place, something he could use, "Where are we?"

The man struggled to speak beneath the metal of his forearm. He relented the tension just enough so he could speak, "Wakanda."

He found didn't have much of a frame of reference for the place beyond that it was a country in Africa. It explained the locals but little else.

But it didn't explain any number of questions he had about the strange gaping hole in his memory and how he'd ended up in that lab, with, of all things: a different arm and these ridiculous clothes.

"Buck, c'mon, you know me," The man mewled softly against his forearm. He debated tightening his grip again, but part of him was curious where he was going. What his play was.

He wasn't going to admit that he did in fact recognize the man he'd taken hostage. He just didn't understand how Sam Wilson was connected to that lab. None of the possible scenarios added up.

"What are they waiting for?"

"They probably don't want anyone to get hurt," Sam paused, adjusting his voice in an apparent attempt to garner his sympathies, "You really don't remember me?"

He ignored the question and shoved him forward, "Where's the armory?"

"The armory? This isn't a military base. It's a research center."

Having a hostage was leverage, but the soldier knew it wouldn't get him far, not with this many armed combatants nearby. True, it was possible he could be overwhelmed, but in tight hallways like this, he felt confident he could use the space to his advantage, especially since it was abundantly clear they wanted him alive.

If the prior skirmish was any indication, he still had the upper hand.

And unlike them: he also had no qualms in using lethal force if it suited his purposes.

He would not be taken alive.

Too much about this wasn't adding up, though. Why were they allowing him to retreat in the first place? His only explanation was that Sam Wilson was a far more valuable target than he first expected.

Was it because he was still acting as an undercover agent in America?

The soldier shook his head once quickly to clear it, solidifying his focus. He didn't have time for this now. All he knew was he'd chosen a high-value target, and if they made it out alive, he could find a way to get Sam Wilson to talk.

He had training enough for that too.

Author's Remarks:

* Isidenge - Wakandan Translation: fool or idiot

I remember waaaaaaaay back, someone asked me if we might see any sign of the Winter Soldier in this story, or if that was to be limited only to flashbacks.

Whelp… here we are, friends. Here we are. Oh, how the page has turned and cannot be so easily turned back...

As always, thank you once again for all your wonderful comments, questions, and words of encouragement on this story. Knowing that others out there are alongside me on this crazy journey truly keeps me fueled to keep on writing, and oh, is there a lot ahead of us!

Written to "Soldier" by Fleurie and "Gasoline" by Halsey (which are both songs that remind me of Bucky and his time as the Winter Soldier).