It had been forty one years since the Commandos split up and had their last mission stopping HYDRA.

As planned they went to the bar every Friday but as they got older, it eventually stopped leaving Bucky alone.

Howard and Peggy had both retired twenty years ago leaving Bucky in charge of SHIELD himself.

Nick Fury was the Director with Maria Hill second in command but Bucky was still in charge and had to come to him for everything and anything.

Howard and Maria had ended up with a son and named him Anthony Howard Stark. But he goes by Tony and is even smarter than Howard as Bucky predicted.

Bucky was offered the position of godfather and gladly accepted it while Peggy was offered godmother and gladly accepted it as well.

Howard hadn't treated Tony that well as a child so Bucky had taken the step up like he had with Steve and his four sisters all those years ago.

Howard and Maria were killed in a car crash in 95 while Peggy was in a nursing home with dementia he was paying for now.

Her kids had offered to pay but he knew they didn't make enough for a monthly pay and said he'd do it for them because she was a close friend.

Not to mention they themselves weren't that young.

Bucky was at a frozen wasteland where whips were showing and headlights approached. A high-Tech HMUV grind through an Arctic snowstorm. The HMUV stopped and Bucky and another SHIELD agent got out as the whipping snow was deafening and they could barely see.

The search Team Leader, a civilian, met them, offering his hand.

"You the guys from Washington?" search team leader shouted over the wind.

"Get many other visitors out here?" Bucky asked.

"How long have you been on site?" SHIELD tech asked.

"Since this morning. A Russian oil team called it in about 18 hours ago." search team leader said.

'Russian?' Bucky thought. 'It can't be, can it?'

"How come nobody spotted it before?" he asked.

"Ice melts. Storms blow in. Landscape changes all the time." the search team leader said gesturing around them. "You mind if I ask what this thing is, exactly?" he said getting a worried look.

"Would you believe us if we said it was a weather balloon?"

"No." the search team leader said and the men started while he shrugged and walked off. "Listen, for the record, I'm not sure we have the equipment for a job like this."

"Is the sonar up and running yet?"

"Sure. We're getting deep ice preliminaries now. Very deep."

"So? How long before we can start craning it out?" SHIELD tech asked.

He stopped the Shield Tech, a bit incredulous.

"I don't think you quite understand..." the search team leader said and pointed at something. "You guys are going to need one hell of a crane." he said and the two SHIELD men looked off screen, awestruck.

A big wingtip jut from the ice, towering above them like a skyscraper.

A skull and tentacle logo was just visible through the ice with German words stenciled ominously below.

"Oh my god." Bucky said covering his mouth knowing exactly what that is and had a flashback.

"Sergeant Barnes, come in..." Steve said on the radio and Bucky ran in grabbing the radio, frantic and relieved while everyone else was shocked and confused why he called Bucky, a sergeant, and not Peggy or Phillips.

"Steve, is that you? Are you okay?" Bucky asked.

"I'm fine."

Through the window, the invaders were rounding up the surrendered HYDRA men.

"Where's Schmidt?" Bucky asked.

"Schmidt's dead." Steve said on the radio.

"Jesus." Bucky said but shook his head. "What about the plane?"

"That's a little bit harder to explain."

On the suborbital bomber Steve stared at the New York map, radio in hand. His compass lied open on the control board.

"What did you do?"

"Like I said. It's uh, a little hard to explain." Steve said and Bucky groaned rubbing his forehead.

"Just give me your coordinates. I'll find a landing site-"

"There isn't going to be a landing. Schmidt's locked the navigation system." Steve said and eyed the relined engine gauges in front of him.

"Excuse me?" Bucky said and winced a little feeling a cramp in his stomach.

"And there's more than enough power to reach the East Coast." Steve said and Bucky looked grave then waved Phillips down.

"We'll get Stark on the line. He'll know what to do."

"I'm sitting on a hundred tons of explosives. Hot wiring this thing's not an option." Steve said and looked out the window at the vast, blue expanse of ocean. "I've got to put her in the water."

Bucky shut his eyes tight from a mixture of pain and fighting tears.

'You're a soldier and soldiers don't cry.' he repeatedly thought.

"I thought you said you couldn't steer it." Bucky said.

Steve scanned the control panel and saw a thick cable running from the ignition to the engines.

"I can't. But I think I can crash it." Steve said and yanked the cable out.

Blue sparks flare then all the lights die. The engines stop and the plane went quiet.

"Crash- have you lost your damn mind?! You've done plenty of crazy things over the years but this is mad!" Bucky said. "I've called you a punk since we met but I think I might start calling you crazy or insane and have you put in a damn mental hospital after this!" he said and winced at strong cramp and took a deep breath through his nose.

Steve eyed the navigation charts.

"I already did. Right now, I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer, a lot of people are going to get hurt." Steve said. "Bucky, this is my choice."

Peggy and Phillips looked at each other, slowly accepting what's happening and looked at Bucky seeing him close to a mental breakdown but taking a shaky deep breath.

"We'll send out rescue ships. We'll find you." Bucky said.

"I don't think there's going to be much left to find." Steve said and leaned on the stick with all his might and the plane started a screaming dive. "Bucky?"

"I'm here," Bucky started, looked at Peggy and Phillips and saw they figured out their relationship and nodded. "Love. Peggy and Colonel Phillips figured it out."

Steve's compass spun wildly and he just stares at Bucky's picture.

"I'm going to need a rain check on that dinner."

"All right. A week Saturday. The park." Bucky said holding back tears.

"Okay. You got it."

"7:00 as usual. If you're late I'll be looking to see who beat you up that time OK?"

"You know I don't need that anymore." Steve said and Bucky closed his eyes.

"You'll always be that scrawny little kid from Brooklyn to me. Besides, even though you're Captain America you were only really trained for a few days while I was trained for three years. So in my mind, you're nothing but a Private that has to listen to a Sergeant." Bucky said smiling a little with tears going down. "Just be there."

Clouds whip past the windows as the plane plummets. Steve pocketed the compass and slid his mask over his face. Arctic ice rushed up at the cockpit window.

"I love you Bu-" Steve started but the radio in Bucky's hand went silent and Bucky sat there in silence fighting tears while Phillips put a hand on Peggy's shoulder.

It was pitch black and a frozen plane was flying by. The laser burned through, cutting a hole. The metal circle dropped, letting in a shaft of light.

Bucky and the SHIELD tech operatives from the HMUV rappel down the ropes, crept through the frozen, devastated plane as shattered control screens reflect their flashlights.

Bucky eyed a panel, "GEFAHR. explosive toffee."

"This is a World War II. And I know exactly what it is." Bucky said in the radio.

"General?" SHIELD tech said.

"Hold that, Base." Bucky said in the radio and the tech chips at an ice floe, then stopped.

"What is it?" SHIELD tech asked while Bucky stared fighting tears of shock and relief.

"Base, get me a line to the colonel. I don't care what time it is." Bucky said in the radio. "This is an order from General Barnes." he said, knocked away the last of the ice, revealing a red, white and blue shield.

At a frozen wasteland a snowcat hauled out a huge block of ice and the shield was barely visible inside.

At Castle Rock Tower two partisans raced across the cobblestones. An ominous clanking fill the air.

"Go and tell the Keeper! Hurry!" Erik said in subtitled Norwegian.