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A Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Fic - The Constant	By : TheConstant1944 Category: Marvel Verse Comics > Captain America Views: 2391 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters. They are solely owned by Marvel and MCU. No money is made from this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Eighty-Three
The Rescue

Steve Rogers watches James Barnes.
His friend cannot settle; it is not the first time he has been like this and it will not be the last. He knows why they are waiting until the following day to carry out their plan but it doesn't mean he has to like it. He can just about cope with that - but the Winter Soldier cannot. Since he found out that Freya is still alive, he simply cannot let the thought go. She is his. She belongs to him. They are delaying him because they want her for themselves, they want to give her freedom, to make her leave him.
He can't allow that. If he does then he will die. To find her after all this time when he thought she was dead, and then for them to take her away again? Bucky has his Steve, so why can the Soldier not have her? The internal struggle inside his mind is tremendous. Two opposing forces, one with an iron will, the other just clinging on to the vestiges of himself. His reasoning makes no logical sense, but then again it never has and probably never will. Bucky has not slept and is irritable, talking to himself and Steve genuinely does not know what to do to calm him.
He's aware that Rogers is watching him and he tries to calm himself down, tries to sit and read quietly, but how can he concentrate? Tony is with them at the moment talking to Rogers about what they will need to take with them. From time to time he turns and asks Bucky questions. This is a waste of time, he wants to shout. We should just get going!
The conversation in his mind is daunting; it flips from one personalty to another and it causes physical pain. I need to keep her. You can't! Why not? I won't hurt her this time, I won't...You will, you always hurt people. She is mine! No she is not, she is her own person. We have to let her go, we owe her that. I need her. I know you do. No you don't! You have Steve and he has you. She is all I have! She is mine!
“I can't believe that someone let bombs off thirty miles outside of Washington and no one thought what the hell?” Tony is grumbling. His temper seems to be sympathetic to the Soldier's own bad temper. All this time wasted when the answers may only be thirty miles away.
“I asked Armand about that,” Steve says. “He explained that Pierce had Hydra people in the seismic research centre and they would alter the readings to show there had been a minor earthquake, that there was nothing to worry about. It shows you how Pierce had covered every base. I guess that day with everything else happening, a low grade quake was nothing.”
“I still don't like it,” Tony grumbles as a parting shot leaving them finally in peace.
Steve has gotten used to Bucky disappearing at times. He knows he is always to be found in the exercise suite Tony has set up. Bucky told him that when the Soldier is at his most vulnerable, at a point when he wants to explode with fury, he goes running on one of Tony's exercise machines and this is what he tells Steve now. He looks exhausted.
“I'll just run for a while and then shower and sleep. I'll use my old room for tonight and see you in the morning.” And Steve nods. It is rare, but there are times Bucky needs his space.
It is a shame that Steve doesn't realise that Bucky is already asleep. That only the Soldier is awake.
*
“You're going to have to tell lover boy we're not going tomorrow,” Tony's tone of voice is argumentative. They need to be prepared because they do not know what they are going to find. Tony has asked for another twenty-four hours in case they need to bring heavy excavating equipment in. Steve doesn't like it but he can see where Tony is coming from.
“I know, Tony, and please stop calling him that!” Steve takes a deep breath. Tony may be a good friend, but sometimes he feels he could punch him in his perfect teeth when Tony gives him that Stark smile. “His name is Bucky,” Steve reminds him.
“Hmm, yes. Says a lot about him too. Boy Wonder Bucky, sidekick Bucky, superstud Bucky,” and at that point Steve's eyes go dangerously dark and he steps up into Tony's personal space.
“Sir...” Jarvis' voice rings out.
“Don't start, don't call him that, don't...” Steve glares at Tony and if looks could kill...
“What? Bucky?” Tony taunts.
“Sir...”
“You just told me to call him that.”
“Captain Rogers...” Jarvis' voice tries to break in once more.
“Everything's always a game to you isn't it Stark, everything, doesn't matter if you hurt people as long as you get your kicks!” and Steve jabs him in the chest.
“Sir I need to...”
“Shut up Jarvis...” Tony snaps.
“But I...”
“I don't care if the goddamn building is on fire...NOT NOW!” Tony yells and then turns back to Steve.
“Sometimes, Rogers, I feel as though I could punch you in your perfect teeth!” Ironically snapping the words that only moments ago Steve had been thinking about Tony.
“Everything with you has to be about your good friend Bucky Barnes, superhero, super victim, super...” he sees Steve's eyes darken further and smiles. “You wanna hit me?” he says as Steve gets even closer. “You want to have a go, then go on!”
Jarvis is quiet. He is an electronic system, but as he listens to the argument brewing between the two men he begins to feel his difference to other machines. A machine should not feel anger or pain or just be plain fed up, but he is actually learning to. He is evolving. And Tony has not quite realised that yet.
If Jarvis was capable he would mutter and walk out. Instead in a low grade hum neither man can hear, he mutters to himself. “Then I won't tell you that Sergeant Barnes has just stolen the Quinjet and left.”
*
“What! What! Why the hell didn't you tell me!” Tony's voice is incredulous as he listens to Jarvis telling him that Barnes has already left the tower five hours ago.
“I tried to tell you but at the time you were busy swapping insults with Captain Rogers...and I believe your words to me were NOT NOW Jarvis!” and he plays Tony's voice back to him.
Tony stands there stunned. He doesn't know what has surprised him more: the fact that Barnes has gone AWOL, or the fact that Jarvis is actually developing a personality. A sentient personality. A sarcastic personality. This is something he will have to tuck away in his mind and think about later.
“Do you know where he's gone?” Sam asks, and Tony tuts. Jarvis relates the co-ordinates for the base.
“Well now, there's a surprise,” he mutters, then turns to Steve.
“I take it this means you can't control your...Bucky.”
Steve looks at him and then strangely enough the anger that has been gnawing at him for so long seems to drain out of him and he sighs heavily, wipes his face with his hand.
“I've never been able to control my Bucky,” he replies. And for some reason ducks his head and smiles.
*
Two hours later they are ready to leave. There are six of them all together. Steve, Armand, Natasha, and Doctor Ales Novak in one helicopter with Nat at the helm. Sam is bringing in a second helicopter full of supplies which may be needed. He will stay up top and monitor any movement to ensure they do not get caught by either Hydra or their own government.
Tony travels in his Iron Man suit and will meet them there. Pepper is arranging for a medical bed to be set up. When they bring Freya back they will use the Quinjet and Tony is planning on keeping her at the tower with a personal nurse. If any other special care is needed then they will cross that bridge when they come to it. They do not want anyone else knowing about this patient.
When they arrive they can see the Quinjet parked up but it is deserted. The place is eerily quiet. The demolished buildings are little more than stacks of wood and rubble. The base looks as though it has been deserted for years. It is supposed to look that way. There are alarms that will be tripped so the idea would have been to get in there and out as quickly as possible, but Bucky's early leaving schedule has put paid to that plan. As Tony flies in, Jarvis confirms that there are three alarms sending out pulses to different locations but as yet nobody seems to have responded. It could be that for now Hydra has left it unguarded as they had not expected to lose in such a permanent way. Jarvis silences the alarms.
Armand points out the Project Winter Soldier building. He has already given them a good indication of what to expect and a floor by floor layout from what he could remember. Nat asks him what he will do now. Armand explains he is going back to his country of birth to start a new life. It is what he intended to do all along but he wanted to make sure that Freya was rescued first. He had heard that his friend Morgan, who had helped save her, was dead – he had been one of the people Rumlow had found and killed. Armand now knows the Winter Soldier has killed Rumlow and put an end to him hunting down Hydra traitors.
Sam has his wings. He will keep look-out together with his robotic drone, Redwing, who will scout the outlying area. With him up top they should be safe down below.
It turns out to be far easier than they had first thought. Bucky has already cleared what small amount of debris there was away from the lift shaft and has thrown a rope down to what they assume is the correct depth. Even if it not, it will have been well within the Soldier's power to jump the rest of the way. They set up lights and follow the rope's descent. It does not reach to the bottom, but it doesn't need to. It just needs to go to the third level down where the cryo freeze rooms are located.
Armand explains each floor has its own independent power source and lighting. The base is – was - earthquake proof. The idea of the detonations were to take out the top layer but the layers underneath would be safe. When they reach the correct level they should find it unbreached.
They don't.
When they come out of the lift shaft the lights are on but flickering. The long corridor of concrete has large cracks in the walls and they can hear a noise from up ahead but cannot see until they walk around the corner. Both Armand and Ales insist on coming down with them. Armand explains where they need to go.
Up ahead the corridor is blocked by fallen stone. And up ahead is the Soldier. As they get nearer he stops and turns. Steve swallows. The Soldier is a mess. He has been moving rocks from the fall, trying to clear a way so he can continue down the tunnel. He's covered in dust and dirt, his hair greasy and pushed back, his clothing is torn, his jacket is discarded in the corner. He is sweating, his right hand is bloodied, the tips of the fingers shredded and his metal arm is making noises it shouldn't be. His face is scratched and there is an open wound on his cheek that has bled badly and the dried blood is smudged and dirty. His eyes are the worst: bloodshot, with black shadows underneath showing he is in pain with this head. But Steve knows he is looking at the Winter Soldier and not Bucky.
Jarvis had confirmed it had taken eleven minutes for the Quinjet to reach its destination. It would have taken less than hour for the Soldier to clear the rubble by the lift and get down here. That means the rest of the time has been spent trying to clear the fall, and you can see it in his face. It is amazing how much he has managed.
The Soldier throws a large rock away from him and straightens up. He looks at Steve. Steve opens his rucksack. He does it slowly so the Soldier can see what he is doing. He then takes a bottle of water, indicates it is for the Soldier and throws it to him. It is caught.
Tony for once sees sense and hangs back, allowing Steve to talk to Bucky even though Nat has already said to him quietly that she doesn't think it is Bucky watching them.
The Soldier unscrews the bottle top. He trusts Steve Rogers, he then drinks down the water, it was desperately needed. He wipes his arm over his mouth.
“I don't want an argument. I don't want to fight. But I do want to deal with Bucky, and not you,” Steve says calmly.
The Soldier's eyes narrow, then he laughs and throws the empty bottle to the side. “It's always Bucky you want,” he says.
“We can debate this all you want but whilst we do time is wasting. I thought you came here to get your Constant. We came to help, and if you let us the sooner we can get her out of her and get her medical help.”
“And the sooner you can take her away from me.” The voice is hard, the words said through gritted teeth.
“No one is going to take her away. She'll be given a choice, and nothing you can say will alter that.” Steve holds his hands up in an it's up to you gesture.
Armand is talking quietly to Natasha, trying to give her an idea of the layout of the floor they are on. In the time they have been down here it looks to Nat as if the Winter Soldier is unravelling. She is watching the two men and it is the Winter Soldier's eyes that look to her. She says nothing, she does not fully trust him and it will be a long time until she does.
The Soldier nods and turns away; he needs to start digging again. He dislodges a large stone that starts a small rockfall and the rocks nearly knock him over.
“Buck, hang on, wait, this isn't going to work.” Steve looks back at Tony, who steps forward as though summoned.
Steve walks forward and takes his friend's shoulder to pull him away; the Winter Soldier spins around and very nearly punches him but lowers his fist just in time. He is so tired, he knows he cannot do this by himself.
“I need to find her,” he says his voice quiet and earnest and he looks back along the corridor filled with rocks.
“We will, I promise.” Please God let her be alive when we do, Steve prays.
Tony knows he has to play it straight but even so there is a swagger in his walk. He lifts his hand with his IM laser then looks at the Soldier and uses his hand to indicate he needs to step back. He looks at Steve and Steve nods.
“Trust him,” he says quietly, and the Soldier steps back.
The Iron Man suit takes down the rubble fast and as soon as there is an opening the Winter Soldier scrabbles up the rock pile and through.
“Buck wait,” Steve calls following him. The passageway has been shored up on this side but they don't know what to expect on the other side.
By a miracle the passageway is not only clear but there is still power and most of the lights are on. It is eerie; there is no sound and as they follow in the Winter Soldier's trail their footsteps ring out from the concrete walls.
This is where the Winter Soldier spent so much of his time.
The Winter Soldier runs and soon disappears around a corner. They follow. Tony is behind, talking to Jarvis ensuring that Jarvis gets every detail he can, instructing him to miss nothing. After they have found whatever it is they are after he will blow this place to high heaven. If he truly had his way he would do it with the Winter Soldier still down here.
Steve, Natasha, Armand, and Ales follow with Armand telling them what the rooms were used for. “We just need to throw a few switches in here first,” he says, pushing through a door labelled Main Room.
They find themselves in a large room full of machinery and computer screens. In the middle of the room is a chair. It is a chilling sight. The leather seating is old and cracked and has seen a lot of use. They look at the restraints. They know the darker patches in the leather are blood. Armand confirms it is what they called the Master Chair and it is the chair that Bucky was strapped into it when the wipes takes place.
Armand presses some switches and then nods.
“We need to get to the cryo freeze rooms. That is where he has headed.”
When they arrive at cryo room room one, Steve feels sick. You can almost smell the iron smell of dried blood and you can see it in dried pools on the floor. The Winter Soldier is there, staring at the stains. Looking at it, he can see a trail of it leads through to cryo room two.
“No, no,” he is saying quietly to himself. He goes to the door and pushes but it doesn't open. Steve goes over to it and looks around the door; it is the same type they would find in a submarine. Armand is over at the control desk clicking on switches. He doesn't know the full procedure, he can only remember some of what his friend showed him. He prays it is enough. Both Steve and the Soldier try to push the door across but despite their combined strength it will not budge.
“Do you know how to open the door?” Steve asks Armand as the Soldier pounds on it.
“It has a code but I don't have it,” but before Armand can say any more Tony, who has caught up with them, reaches forward and forcefully pulls the Soldier back and away. The Soldier actually growls but Steve steps in between them.
“He can open the door Buck, you have to trust us,” and in the Soldier's eyes he sees for the first time signs that Bucky is there, is awake. Steve lowers his voice “You need to control him,” he warns.
Tony blasts the door lock and the door stutters back and into the wall. Immediately a coldness seeps out and around their ankles. They step through the door opening and walk through to the next room and as they do automatic lights come on and they realise the room has not escaped the damage. The place is covered in a thick dust with cracks running around the walls but the worst is the ceiling, part of which has started to collapse.
Steve doesn't think he has ever seen a more depressing sight than the room. It is so cold their breath mists out in front of them and there is a smell of mould and age. The light is murky almost as if they are in some underwater cavern. The walls are sheathed in metal which is frosted and is rusting at the seams. Where it is so cold and where the damage has taken place the metal itself has cracked, bent and bowed under pressure.
“No, no, no,” that is when Steve hears the desperation in his friend's voice. Sees him staring ahead.
Packed into the corner is some type of pod. And a concrete beam has fallen and sliced it in half.
When the Soldier sees it he stops dead in his tracks, but then it is Bucky who walks very slowly over to it but as he gets closer he begins to realise it is empty and instead he spins around to the second one.
His pod.
Armand comes up behind Steve and Bucky. “We put her in yours because of the different power source. Morgan said it would be safer for her, more likely to remain stable,” he then sees the damaged pod and realises the shock the Soldier must have had when he first came in.
The Soldier walks to his pod, which lies undamaged and closed. They can hear a hissing sound coming from it as it sluices the cold mixture around and as the Winter Soldier wipes the moisture away from the small glass panel they can see there is someone inside. But he also sees the amount of dried blood on the outside of the pod, he cannot believe he has finally found her only to find she is dead.
Tony approaches. He is talking and for the first time the Winter Soldier listens to what he is saying, but it makes no sense to him. Jarvis is inside the computer in the previous room and they are discussing how to open the pod and the details of who is inside.
“This is her?” Natasha asks. The Soldier looks at her and for the first time ever she feels compassion for him; the eyes are the window to his soul. He is so close to being broken.
“My Constant,” he says. He turns to Steve, puts his hand out as if by touching Steve it will help. Steve realises it is now Bucky looking at him. “Don't let her be dead, please don't let her be dead.”
“Do you know how to work this thing?” Tony asks Bucky.
“No, but..”
“Then shut up and let me concentrate.” He turns back to the pod examining it.
Bucky removes his hand and Steve can see by the sudden tensing that the Soldier is back in charge. He takes a step towards Tony, who moves around the pod. Tony turns back to him. The look on the Soldier's face is frightening but Tony remains calm although inside his heart starts thumping. He looks at Bucky then at Steve. “Temper tantrums? Really? I'd take your boyfriend and move away and let the experts do their work.”
Tony pushes past speaking to Steve indicating he is to get Bucky out of there. Then, clipping something to the keypad, he leaves it to Jarvis.
“Come on Buck, you need to let them work it out.” Steve pulls Bucky by the arm, there is resistance but then he moves but he won't leave the freezing room.
Ales approaches Bucky.
“Can either you or Armand give me an idea about her injuries so I know what I'm looking at?” he asks and Steve sees Bucky tense. Ales continues to watch him until Bucky ducks his head, coughs to clear his throat and then looks at the floor.
“Knife wounds,” he says, and Ales nods even though Bucky is not looking at him
“Where?” he asks. For a moment Bucky doesn't understand and looks up.
Steve touches his arm. “Where on her are the knife wounds?”
Bucky again looks at the ground and crosses his arms.
“Um. In, in her stomach and in her side...between her ribs,” he says softly.
“What type of knife was it?” Ales can see he needs to explain things more in his questioning. “Was the blade serrated or smooth and how deep were the cuts? I need to know so I can work out the damage, I may not be able to see the entire wound.”
The Soldier looks at him and before either Ales or Steve can move a knife appears in Bucky's hand. He hands it handle-first to Ales. “It was like this one.”
He watches as Ales checks it over. He hands it back.
“What about other wounds?”
Bucky takes a deep breath.
“Her left arm, it's...cut at the top, skin deep, then the skin removed.” Ales and Steve both try not to let any emotions show on their faces; Ales needs these details but for one second he is tempted to ask why the skin was removed. He doesn't.
Bucky clears his throat again. Steve picks up the backpack and passes him another bottle of water.
Bucky talks whilst opening the bottle. “She went through a glass panel. I think she may still have shards of the glass in her.“
“Okay, where on her body?”
“Her back mostly...
A new voice joins the conversation: Armand. “We removed some of them but there are two large pieces, here and here,” he shows Ales where the glass is using Steve as a model, “...and a piece here just above the hip on her left side. There are probably much smaller shards under her skin as well.”
Ales is beginning to realise this is not going to be a walk in the park. “Anything else?”
“Morgan gave her a dose of antibiotics because there were...other cuts and bruises and...bites...” He has to tell Ales but he feels uncomfortable in front of the Soldier.
“And. I raped her.” Bucky says, so quietly that they barely hear him.
“It sounds like the worst of the wounds will be the knife wound in her stomach so I'll concentrate on that first,” Ales has to turn and walk away because if he doesn't he feels like he is going to reach out and smash Bucky against the wall, even though he does not consider himself a violent man.
When this is all finished he will sit Natasha down and demand to know the whole story. He needs to understand what has actually been happening here just so he can cope with it. He approaches her now.
“Hey...” she says looking at his face, which has paled under its natural colouring.
“Could you assist me when they get that...thing open?” he asks.
She frowns. “I'm not a nurse...”
“No but you are a woman and so is she,” he says and they look at each other without speaking. Finally she nods. It is a testament to the life she has lived that she understands what he is saying.
It takes Jarvis fifteen minutes to find the information he needs and another fifteen minutes to start the process to release the woman from cryo freeze, but he warns that she is close to death. They will need to evacuate her the moment they can. Ales stands by ready to step forward as the pod is opened. He is in awe of what is happening and is saying a silent prayer that he can do what is needed.
The pod makes a deep clicking noise and the top opens upwards and then away down to the side. Curled on her right side in the middle of it is an unconscious woman in the foetal position. The blood, although dried, is still red and is now beginning to defrost and dribble down the side. She is so pale they could believe she is already gone. As her skin becomes more supple it turns a worrying grey colour. She has on what was once a white shift but it is stuck to her body with the dried blood. Her hands are curled together at her chest almost as if in prayer. Her hair is frosted still and her long plait is draped over her body. On her left hand side at the top of her arm the shift is completely stuck to a large blood stain. It looks to Ales as if it is a star shape and for a moment he glances back at the Soldier whose own star shows high on his left arm.
Ales turns back to Freya and begins to evaluate her wounds. Meanwhile, Tony is checking that Jarvis is searching and downloading everything he possibly can.
Steve realises Bucky is holding back, his eyes wide and a look of utter fear and desperation on his face. He is willing to bet that look is the Soldier's as well as Bucky's. He wants to step forward, he wants desperately to see her but he is so frightened at what he will see.
Ales looks back at them. “She is breathing, barely. I just don't know what the situation is with someone who has been...frozen so I will work on the assumption as I would in a normal case. Her blood loss is great and we need to get her out of here as soon as possible to try and stabilise her. You said she has some of the serum in her?” Steve nods. When Ales had joined their circle by looking after Bucky, Nat had been honest with him and told him about the serum.
Ales looks at her now. “We cannot turn her on to her back because there is still some glass in there, but I do need to remove the gown to see,” he says and she nods and steps forward to help. The other men move away to give them privacy.
Tony has everything standing by; he is determined to keep her close, determined to keep her at the tower because he knows by doing so he will keep the Winter Soldier shackled to him as well but Ales is now saying that may not be possible. She may need to be flown to a hospital; her wounds are too serious. She will need intensive care.
The Soldier finally takes a step forward and a for a moment everyone goes quiet. Ales continues to work on Freya and Bucky steps around to the other side of the pod. He puts his hand out to touch her cheek. Steve can see his jaw clenched, his other hand is in a fist. They realise he is crying.
He looks down at the woman. At Freya. At the woman who has constantly been at his side all the time he was a prisoner and the Soldier prays that she will live because he doesn't just know who she is, he remembers everything about her. And it feels as though his heart is splitting in two.
As Nat peels away some more of her shift Bucky sees something on Freya's hip that he recognises because he had the same mark on his. He looks up at Steve.
“She has a tracking device. The same as mine, in the same place,” and Steve nods. Tony looks at him.
“You still got yours?” he asks and Bucky shakes his head.
“Do you think that one still works?” He indicates Freya's and Bucky nods.
“How did you get yours out?” Tony asks.
When Bucky looks up at him, it is the Soldier. “I used a gun and a bullet,” he says.
Tony is quiet for a moment. “Makes sense, should have let me do it,” he mutters.
“And let you miss the mark? Shoot a bit higher up than necessary?” the Soldier asks and Tony smirks, he knows exactly what the Soldier is thinking.
“We'll have to make sure her's is removed,” Steve says. They cannot risk anything giving her or Bucky away.
Tony nods. “Couldn't agree with you more.”
Bucky looks down at Freya. Please God let her live. If you need a life take mine just don't take hers. If you let her live I promise I will let her go. I will give her the freedom she deserves.
And it is the Soldier who makes this last promise.
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A Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Fic - The Constant