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"Look, I'm Battlestar, yeah? John's partner," Hoskins says.
"'Battlestar'?" Bucky repeats. "No. Fuck this." He stands, not waiting for the vehicle to stop before he vaults over the back and lands in the road.
After he’s walked a few minutes, Sam is back with him.
"Battlestar. That was your call sign, wasn’t it?" Sam asks.
Bucky slows for him. "Yeah. Never liked it. Hate it even more now. Had more of a purpose then, it was never meant as a fucking... heroic codename."
"Yeah, you're telling me," he agrees. "Falcon isn't so bad, though. I don't think I'd use Battlestar, either. Sounds like a boat."
"Falcon was your call sign first?" he questions, glancing at him. "You know. When I first saw the star on my old metal arm, I thought it was our government. Knew I was with the Soviets but they were our allies back then. That fucking star. It felt like a sick joke, they'd put it on Steve and now they were doing it to me." He shakes his head. "Still don't know if it was deliberate."
"Battlestar, are you in position?"
Bucky ignores the radio.
"Battlestar, come in."
He shifts his positioning slightly.
"Bucky!"
"Yeah, I'm in position," he answers.
"I'm not the Winter Soldier anymore," Bucky says.
"You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be?" Isaiah shakes his head. "It don't work like that." Then he scoffs. "Well, maybe it does for folks like you."
Has he decided who he wants to be? Or has he just been forced into different roles?
James. Bucky. Sergeant Barnes. Winter Soldier. Winter. Yasha.
Battlestar .
"So, what do you think?"
Bucky eyes the table before him. The comics, with a blue-and-red character stood next to Captain America, blazing text announcing his new sidekick. A poster with his likeness, a domino mask over the eyes not covering up enough that it's him. Next to it sits a brown teddy bear wearing a mock-up of the comic character's costume.
"How much choice do I have here?" he asks.
"Not much."
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Battlestar is—"
"Your call sign-cum-codename. A hero's name," says the suit.
"I don't like it." Never has. "Doesn't suit that bear either."
"The decision's already been made, Sergeant Barnes. Captain America's sidekick in all the materials is Battlestar."
His grimace intensifies. "Alright, how about you change the bear's name and I agree?"
A pause. "Change it to what?"
"I dunno. Bucky Bear."
"I'm sorry about Lemar."
"You're not," Walker says coldly.
"I am," Bucky says. "I know that—"
"You don't know anything about losing a friend like that," he snaps. "Fuck, I should've known that codename was cursed."
"It is cursed," Bucky agrees, trying not to get into arguing with him. "But you didn't know that, and Lemar didn't know it either."
After some silence, Walker turns to him. "What, that's it?"
"It wasn't your fault," he says quietly. "Don't blame yourself like Steve blamed himself."
"Difference being, Bucky, that Lemar isn't coming back."
"Hey, Bucky! Look what I got." Spider-Man's voice interrupts him from staring into space. He turns and looks at the unmasked hero carrying a bunch of... teddy bears? "Avengers merch just came out. Hope we're getting a cut. Look! You got two."
Peter juggles out two of the bears, one dressed up in Bucky's costume made by Shuri, black and silver, stars much more subtle than the one forced onto him. The other is much more familiar, blue and red with a black domino mask.
Bucky takes them both in hand, looking them over. The label for the first announces him as The Sergeant, a blatant rip-off of Steve going by The Captain. The other's label is Bucky Bear .
"Huh. Haven't seen one of these in... since the war." Bucky glances at him. "What am I meant to do with this?"
He gets a shrug in return. "I dunno. I'm keeping my Spider-Teddy for my kids."
He thinks of Sam's nephews and the kids in Wakanda. "That's not a bad idea."