New Mission

Pleasant Flight

Bucky's POV

Sam, Zemo, Star and I were on Zemo's private plane heading back to the States until we could find a new lead.

Sam was on the phone to Torres telling him to see if he could find out anything about Donya Madani, Star was sitting in the arm chair diagonally behind me typing away on her phone, she said she had some things to sort out before landing in the States for the first time in years; and Zemo was away making us something to eat, while I lounged on the couch oiling my metal hand.

Once the phone call ended Sam slumped in his seat looking pretty defeated.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah. Just thinking about all the shit Sharon had to go through. And Nagel referring to the American test subject like Isaiah wasn't even a real person. Just makes me wonder how many people have to get steamrolled to make way for this hunk of metal.
"Well, it depends on who you ask. That hunk of metal saved a lot of lives."
"Yeah, I get that. Alright. Maybe I made a mistake."
"You did."
"Yeah."
"Maybe I shouldn't have put it in a museum. Maybe I should have destroyed it."
"Look, that shield represents a lotta things to a lotta people, including me. The world is upside down, and we need a new Cap, and it ain't gonna be Walker. So before you go and destroy it, I'll take it from him myself." I promised. We were interrupted by Sam's cellphone vibrating. Zemo brought through plates of sandwiches, giving one to Star before walking towards us. He divvied up the plates before sitting in the arm chair directly behind me.
"They found Madani... dead." Sam told us "She died in Riga, a city near the Baltic Sea."
"I have a place we can go." Zemo offered "I, for one, am looking forward to coming face to face with Karli. Oeznik, we're changing the course." Zemo told the pilot.

"Is that ok with you Star?" Sam checked.
"Yep, gives me more time to get things sorted and some people I was looking for to resurface."

A while later we all relaxed into the journey and moved around the plane. Sam was now asleep in the chair Star had been in, Zemo also fell asleep in his chair and Star was now lounging on the opposite end of the couch I had been on, the soft glow of a screen told me she was still awake. I was sitting in the arm chair opposite Zemo trying not to fall asleep, I did not want to wake up from a nightmare in front of others. As I felt my legs cramping from being in a sitting position too long, I stood up and walked the full length of the plane.

"Can't sleep?" I heard Star ask softly.
"Can't stay seated anymore. It's odd - I done a lotta missions as the Winter Soldier where I had to stake out a target or wait hours to strike - now as me I can't imagine staying still for that long."
"You want the couch back? It's not as restrictive as the arm chair."
"No, it's fine. I just need to move around a bit. Why are you still awake?"
"Different things." She said shrugging causing me to raise an eyebrow. Star let out a puff of air "It's been a while since I've been on a mission, I'm just brushing up on a few things."
"May I?" I asked gesturing to the iPad, she bit her lip then handed me it. I sat down at a respectable distance from her and looked at the page she had open. It was all notes, pictures and videos relating to Karli, the flagsmashers, the serum and the GRC.
"You done all of this in the last, what 3 hours?"
"Yeah."
"It's very comprehensive."
"I'm the type of person that needs to understand everything about a situation to understand any of it."
"Including how their minds work." I noted seeing a lot of psycho babble Dr. Raynor uses on me.
"It's interesting and annoyingly handy, but not so fun when you're the one being psychoanalysed."
"You've been psychoanalysed?"
"Yeah, part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s recruitment - guess they missed a lot of cues from the secret Hydra agents."
"Or they were the ones running the tests. Was it... bad... when you found out?" I asked not really knowing how to phrase it. Star furrowed her brow trying to answer the question, I was about to take it back when she started talking "Yeah, I guess. Luckily, I picked the good ones and not too many of my friends turned out to be Hydra; but then we all had to split up either to work for other government organisations, move into the private sector or go on the run from enemies we made who were free to chase us now that all of our secrets were spilled online."
"Sorry." I apologised feeling partly, if not, fully responsible.
"Hey, you were brainwashed. You don't count as one of them." Star told me dead serious and looking me straight in the eye. It felt amazing to hear someone impartial say that and that emotion almost dipped into something else but I immediately squashed that down.

Clearing my throat and continuing to scroll down I noticed a video under the serum section. "Is this him?" I asked pointing to the blonde man in the frame. "Yeah, that's Jace, Captain America 2.0."
"Can I watch it?"
"Ok, but don't judge me - that was my first training session after I'd been injured and he's incapable of losing a fight. Here." She said passing me an AirPod.

For being just recently injured and sparring with a super soldier she was very good, but "He's fast." was all I that I commented on.
"And strong." Star pointed out.
"And you still went up against him." I stated - noting how much trust there must have been between them.
"It was only training and he knows how to hold back."

There was something I was curious about, especially after overhearing her conversation with Sharon "Can I ask about the whole no name thing?"
"Can't promise I'll answer, but sure."
"You said some S.H.I.E.L.D agents had to go on the run after it fell, is that why you don't use your name?"
"No, I had it before then. It's just easier this way. My turn and this may be overstepping but why were you called the Winter Soldier? Did they only send you out on missions in winter?"
I laughed - nobody had actually asked me that before "I don't know. I wasn't aware of the passage of time in the cryo-freeze; but I know they found me in winter, so maybe that's why."
"Makes sense. Okay, what about 'Bucky', is that like a 40s thing?"
That made me laugh again and I looked over my shoulder to check Sam and Zemo were still asleep - they were. "James Buchanan Barnes is my name. Everybody called me by my first name, until I met Steve. He's the one who started calling me Bucky. I kept his bullies away, like a horse bucks threats away." I made her giggle. "You ever gonna tell me your name?"
"Sure, when you earn it."

Star's eyes were soon drooping and she fought to keep them open as we constantly switched from adding things to the 'profile' - which she'd informed me was the proper behavioural analysis term - and to regular conversation topics for a super soldier and former spy, such as weapons, languages and fight techniques. Although we did somehow end up on the topic of music as I informed her about Sam and Zemo ganging up on me about the Trobleman soundtrack. Star agreed with me about it being all right but she preferred newer music to it rather than older like me, which was fair considering the generational gap.

After Star finally gave into sleep, I lowered her upper body down and lifted her legs up onto the couch before returning to the seat in front of Sam where I could watch over all 3 of them, feeling much more comfortable now. I even slept peacefully for a short while before we landed.

Riga, Latvia

The four of us walked through the narrow streets to get to Zemo's place. Of course, he never stopped talking "I heard what became of Sokovia. Cannibalised by its neighbours before the land was even cleared of rubble, erased from the map. I don't suppose any of you bothered visiting the memorial?"

None of us answered - none of us were directly involved in that fight.

"Of course not. Why would you?" Zemo rhetorically asked just as I noticed something familiar on the ground "We are here." He announced. I continued looking around for who could've left it there as the others headed for the door. "I'm gonna go on a walk." I told them.
"You good?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. I'll see you guys in a bit." Sam and Zemo didn't bat an eye and headed inside but Star stayed where she was "Bucky, are you ok?"
"Yes princess, go on I'll be back shortly." I reassured but the girl was smart, she knew something was up. "James," she started walking towards me "I did not come here to be treated with kid gloves. This used to be my job, I know when something feels off."

'Kind of, amongst other things', I thought.

Then I heard the small device on the ground starting to beep softly. "Star I really need you to go inside." She went to argue again but I knew something that would stop her "Mia! Go inside."
"How did you...?" She stuttered
"Super soldier - super hearing. I overheard you and Sharon. You can shout at me later. Just get inside." I said pushing her up the stairs. I made sure she went inside before doubling back to the tree where the Wakandan device was in the gravel. I then made use of my super hearing to find its partner - it was on a wall across the street. I picked it up and headed down the alley to find who had left it there "You dropped something." I announced showing them I had found the metal balls; nobody came out for a few moments and I checked behind me before feeling a familiar presence from the direction I had been facing a minute ago "I was wondering when you were gonna show up. I said whilst turning around.
"I'm here for Zemo." Ayo said in Wakandan.