Frostbite |The Alternate Timeline

The Man Who Deserved Better

We arrived in Baltimore hours later. Bucky led us through neighborhood after neighborhood, refusing to tell us what the hell we were doing here. Or how it would help us with the current super soldier situation. As we rounded a corner, two kids were sitting against their fence and glanced up as we approached.

"Hey, it's Black Falcon. What's up?" the younger one greeted.

"It's just Falcon, kid," Sam corrected with a small smile. Bucky and I slowed down as they interacted.

"No, no. My daddy told me it's Black Falcon."

"Is it because I'm black and I'm the Falcon?"

"Well, technically- I mean, yes."

"So are you, like, black kid?" Sam retorted with a laugh as he turned to the older kid, "I got him, right?"

"Whatever, man," the young kid sighed with a shake of his head. Sam and the other one fist bumped, laughing together. We left them sitting where they were and continued on.

Finally, we approached a small white house and entered through the chain link fence, climbing the steps to the door quietly. Bucky hesitated, but eventually pounded on the door, waiting for an answer. A teenager appeared, keeping the screen door closed as he peered out curiously.

Bucky gave a small wave and said, "We're here to see Isaiah."

"Nobody named Isaiah live here," he answered harshly. I exchanged a glance with Sam, but let Bucky handle it.

"Look, we just want to talk to him."

"You must not have heard what I just said. You ain't getting in this house. Y'all can leave now."

"Tell him the guy from the bar in Goyang is here. He's gonna know what that means," Bucky finally sighed in a last attempt to see the mysterious Isaiah person.

"All right, wait here."

The door slammed shut, and we were left outside to wait.

"Nice kid. How do you know this guy?" Sam inquired, glancing at Bucky.

"I used to. We had a skirmish during the Korean War."

The boy came back and opened both doors, "Today's your lucky day. He said he wanna see for himself."

We filed into the house, and I looked around curiously. An older man stood across the room, staring at Bucky in disbelief.

"Isaiah," Bucky greeted.

"Look at you," the man muttered.

"This is, uh, Sam and Melanie. Sam, Mel, this is Isaiah. He was a hero. One of the ones that Hydra feared the most. Like Steve. We met in fifty-one." Bucky explained, glancing around nervously. My mouth dropped open as the information sunk in. Steve had never been the only super soldier. The government had lied, yet again. Steve couldn't have known. He would have surely said something if he had.

"If by met, you mean I whooped your ass- then, yeah," Isaiah corrected, "We heard whispers he was on the peninsula, but everyone they sent after him, never came back. So the U.S. military dropped me behind the line to go deal with him. I took half that metal arm in that fight in Goyang, but I see he's managed to grow it back. I just wanted to see if he got the arm back. Or if he'd come to kill me."

"I'm not a killer anymore," Bucky told him quietly.

"You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be? It doesn't work like that. Well, maybe it does for folks like you."

I wanted to say something, but I wasn't sure if I should. He didn't seem thrilled to have us in his home as it was, but he was wrong. People were given choices. What Bucky was forced to do as the Winter Soldier didn't define who he was. He did get to choose who he would be now. By the look on his face, I could tell he took what Isaiah had said to heart and it hurt.