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Bucky trailed behind the others as they stepped into the void, taking one last look at the city darkening around him.
New York disappeared in an instant, replaced by a dimly lit room. He didn’t recognize it at first - an empty holding cell. Metal walls, floor, ceiling, and minimal furnishings held to the wall with thick chains. He could hear the faint hum of medical equipment from outside the door, but the sound barely penetrated the thick walls.
A hoarse whisper sounded through the silence, startling him, and he located the source of the sound in an instant.
Crouched in a corner behind the bed.
“You have to get me…please…they’re gonna keep me alive forever…”
As he stepped around the bed, his eye caught on the silvery glint of the man’s left shoulder.
This…version…of him was staring right through him.
Cautiously, he moved in closer, crouching so he wouldn’t scare him as badly, but it was like Bucky didn’t exist at all to him.
He should remember this. That’s what Walker said, at least, but he couldn’t piece the memory together to save his life. A nondescript cell, reinforced - solitary confinement, but nothing outstanding.
Out of the blue, a man wearing a trench coat and a small cap barged through the door, and they both backed against opposite sides of the wall instinctively.
“Leave me alone, I didn’t do anything!” The younger version of him yelled, frantic. “The guard started -”
“You do not speak unless spoken to.” The man replied in Russian, cold and unemotional.
“Please, I promise -”
“ Do not speak. ” With surprising force, the man lunged at him, grabbing him around the neck. Bucky struggled against his grip and wrenched his hand away with his metal arm, sending him flying across the room. Two guards marched in an instant later, dragging him in front of the man and kicking him to his knees.
Suddenly, the moment rushed back into Bucky’s head.
He launched himself at the man on the ground, too panicked to think before the man rose to his feet and, with inhuman strength, tackled him to the cell floor.
“Too late, Soldier.” Another four guards filed through the room to restrain him, all of them somehow stronger than he was, shoving him against the wall and forcing his head forward.
The other version of him just stared, almost curious, before his attention snapped back to the man in front of him.
“Longing.”
“Stop!” both versions of him yelled, synchronized. The men ignored them.
" Rusted .” He tried to yell again, but one of the guards slammed his head into the wall so forcefully he thought he blacked out for a moment. He landed on the ground, dizzy, as the words continued in succession.
“Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign.”
He crawled towards the other version of himself, unsure of what he was even trying to do.
“Benign.”
He tried to lunge at the man and was yanked back to the wall in an instant.
“Homecoming. One.”
He shut his eyes, desperate to look away.
“Freight car.”
A pause.
“Soldier?”
“Ready to comply.”
The men filed back out of the room as quickly as they’d come in. Bucky watched them leave, speechless, and in the moment he looked away, the younger version of himself had returned to his corner.
“You have to get me…please…they’re gonna keep me alive forever…”
“What the hell…”
Bucky walked forward, and once again, the other version of himself didn’t react to his presence.
He reached out to him, cautious, and pressed a hand to his clammy shoulder.
The other man’s eyes shot straight to his, and instead of recognition, he stared up fearfully.
“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he tried to reassure him, voice shaking. Before the other version of him could react, the faint sound of footsteps outside the door alerted him that the men were nearby.
“We need to leave.”
In one motion, he scooped up the other man in his arms and ran out the door as soon as the doctor slammed it open.
The scene melded around him and he landed on a concrete floor with a thud. Through a hole in the ceiling, he could still see the prison cell, his old self curled up in the corner.
He looked forward and was greeted with…himself. Again. A ratty shirt was wrapped around his bleeding arm as he stumbled across the skeleton of an abandoned warehouse, coughing and gasping. He tipped to the side and crashed into a pile of wooden pallets, groaning as he heaved himself to his feet.
This was the first place he’d crashed after HYDRA, delirious from withdrawals that made him so sick he thought he’d die.
The sound of retching startled him out of his train of thought.
“Jesus,” he muttered, walking past his old self without another glance. He found the nearest window and punched through it, staring into a room that made his blood run cold.
He backed away. This was better than that. There had to be another way through.
He tried another window across the room, and the same scene appeared in front of him.
“No.”
He punched through the concrete wall, frantic, and the gap was just wide enough for him to see the same room again.
He needed to focus, to get to Bob. He had to be in this maze somewhere.
But there had to be another way.
He tried three more windows, one door, and a last-ditch attempt to pummel his way through the floor.
Seven identical rooms surrounded him now, accompanied by a harsh wind that carried debris through the shattered windows, threatening to slice him to pieces.
So there was no getting out of this.
He steeled himself, took one final breath and jumped through the nearest window, landing on his side on a plate of thick glass. He scrambled to his feet and ran to the edge of the metal frame, teetering over the edge dangerously.
“I’m not gonna fight you. You’re my friend,” a voice carried through the whistling wind. Bucky turned away, wincing at the sound of his own barbaric yelling. He scanned the room for any way out. A piece of shrapnel came loose from the helicarrier and he jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed, which put him even closer to the fight.
“I’m with you ‘til the end of the line,” Steve rasped. Bucky turned in his direction instinctively.
His face, bloodied and swollen, burned into Bucky’s brain the instant he caught a glimpse of it.
The helicarrier split apart one final time, and Steve was gone.
Bucky tried to move, but he might as well have been rooted to the spot as the scene fell back into place.
“Your name is James…Buchanen…Barnes.”
“SHUT UP!” He screamed, like an animal, as he knocked Steve to the ground.
He needed to focus. Find an exit. Get to Bob.
“YOU’RE! MY! MISSION!”
He couldn’t do it.
“STOP!” He shouted at the pair, directing their attention at himself.
The helicarrier cracked and Bucky raced for Steve.
Not quickly enough.
The scene reset itself.
Bucky backed away, heart pounding in his chest.
“Your name is James…Buchanen…Barnes.”
Bucky squeezed his eyes shut, breathing heavy. He needed to leave. He needed to leave.
“I’m not gonna fight you. You’re my friend.”
“I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.”
He needed to leave.
“SHUT UP!”
“I’m not gonna fight you. You’re my friend.”
“You’re my mission. YOU’RE! MY! MISSION!”
“Then finish it.”
“Your name is James…”
“You’re my mission.”
“SHUT UP!”
“...End of the line.”
Bucky was standing right next to them. He hadn’t meant to move. He shouldn’t have been there. He…
“I’m not gonna fight you,” Steve stated, exhausted. “You’re my friend.”
Bucky ran at him before the Winter Soldier could reach him, shoving Steve out of the way of himself. When the Soldier charged at him, he tackled him to the ground hard enough to knock him out.
He ran back to Steve, throwing his arms around him. Steve didn’t react, couldn’t, probably, but Bucky didn’t care. He held him so tight he couldn’t move, stunned at how real he felt, until a metal arm tore him away after a few seconds.
“NO!” He screamed, shoving him off just in time for the scene to reset itself.
“I’m not gonna fight you.”
Bucky took one last glance in Steve’s direction and jumped off the edge of the platform, careening into the water below.
He blacked out.
-
Shakily, he pulled himself to his feet. This was another laboratory, didn’t matter which. He didn’t care. He pummelled his hand through the nearest wall and continued on, through four more rooms, never giving any of them a second glance.
Finally, he came crashing through a wall into an unfamiliar attic. The others were here already.
In the time it took for him to figure out what was going on, the room behind him had disappeared.