The Red Soldier: Rise of the Red Soldier

ISSUE #8

Bucky sat at the back of the Quinjet, where (Y/N) lay, shivering. He hated seeing him like this, cold and in pain. There were tears threatening to fall from his eyes as he slept. James Barnes leaned down, brushing his hands through (Y/N) (L/N)'s hair, careful not to pull at the knots which had formed within it. He looked at his feet, bare, blistered, scratched, and bleeding. Bucky kicked off his shoes, peeling away the socks from his feet and pulling them over (Y/N)'s.

'You really love him, don't you,' Steve said, turning around to look at the pair.

In all the excitement he had from seeing (Y/N) again, he'd forgotten he'd never had that conversation with his best friend, 'would that be an issue for you?' he asked, carefully. It was definitely not accepted back when they were young, but lots of things had changed. Bucky Barnes hoped the view on his feelings for Dr (L/N) might have changed too.

'Hey, you like what you like,' Steve smiled, 'and you've liked him since forty-one, haven't you pal?'

'Yeah,' Bucky's lips turned up into a half-smile.

'Things are different now, in a good way,' continued Steve Rogers, 'no polio, men can marry men, women can marry women, internet,' he listed.

'I don't see wedding bells any time soon,' chuckled Barnes, 'you should have seen how angry he was in Scotland.' Bucky supposed he would have been angry had he been left alone, his two best friends alive after being presumed dead.

Steve nodded, 'when I got out the ice, I was confused – lost. Then I found out Peggy was alive, and a part of me felt like I was home again. I remember how confused she was when she saw me for the first time. If she wasn't confined to her bed, I swear she would have slapped me.' Bucky nodded, he was surprised (Y/N) hadn't slapped him.

(Y/N)'s eyes began to twitch open slowly. He sat up, groaning slightly as he held onto his ears. Bucky remembered how he'd do the same back in the war whenever they were on a plane and his ears popped. 'Where're we going?' he groaned, scratching a hand through his knotted hair.

'Siberia,' Steve called from the cockpit, 'here, drink this.' He flung a canteen of water behind him which Bucky caught, handing it to (Y/N) who twisted off the lid and began to drink.

He swallowed with a twisted face, 'Siberia?' he questioned, 'why the fuck are we going to Siberia?'

'Language (L/N),' scolded Steve. (Y/N) pouted, taking another sip from the canteen.

James Barnes turned to him, meeting his eyes. 'Back in Berlin,' he began to explain, 'when you were in the hospital, a doctor came to see me. He had that book I was telling you about. He wanted to know about Siberia, where the other Winter Soldiers are kept.

'Others?' inquired (Y/N)

'Bucky's not the only one,' inputted Steve, before letting James Barnes continue his story.

'He read the words and I escaped.'

'That's what we walked into,' Steve added, referring to what they had seen when leaving the hospital wing.

'Now he's probably gone there to do the same. If he has control over them...'

'Then he can do whatever the fuck he likes?' (Y/N) nodded in understanding.

'or 'see an empire fall' as he put it,' quoted Steve. Bucky shuddered at the words. He knew what he was capable of, he knew that with ten or so Winter Soldiers the doctor would get what he wanted.

The Quinjet landed atop a snow-covered mountain. 'This is the place,' Bucky said as he stepped off the jet, 'that door there, the lock's been broken.' Steve followed on foot, whereas (Y/N) floated just a few inches off the ground, it was obvious he didn't want to get his socks wet. Bucky would have given him his boots if they were the correct size.