SENTINEL ↝ MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE [1]

[2]

Following a burial service in a nearby cemetery to the cathedral, and a luncheon full of people giving a second and third glance to the unfamiliar teenage boy sitting with the rest of the Carter family, James finally found himself walking back through the cloudy streets of London to the hotel Sharon had booked for the duration of their stay. He walked behind Steve and Sharon, who were deep in conversation as James half-listened, instead looking around him at the city his mother had grown up in, though he'd only had a brief chance to explore with her once when he was a child.

"My mom tried to talk me out of enlisting, but uh, not Aunt Peggy." James turned his attention back to Sharon and Steve's conversation as the hotel doors opened in front of them, welcoming them into the air conditioned lobby. "She bought me my first thigh holster."

"Very practical," Steve said.

"And stylish," she added, pressing the up button on the elevator that would take them to their respective floors.

"CIA has you stationed over here now?" Steve asked, but Sharon shook her head.

"Berlin," she corrected. "Joint Terrorism Task Force."

"Right, right," Steve said, nodding, "Sounds fun."

"I know, right?" she agreed. "Though once Peggy started to get sick, and brought me onto Project Sentinel, I'd go back to London every few months, to check on James," she said, grabbing the boy's attention as he looked back over at them, his heart sinking in his chest at the mention of his mother's name. "Had to make sure the chamber was still intact, and that his vitals were still stable once she couldn't do it anymore." Sharon gave the boy a polite smile, and he nodded back in her direction.

"I've been meaning to ask you..." Steve trailed off, and James's eyes moved back and forth between his father and his cousin. "When you were spying on me from across the hall..."

"You mean when I was doing my job," Sharon corrected, causing James's eyebrows to furrow together in confusion as he watched them.

"Did Peggy know?" he asked, but Sharon shook her head again.

"She kept so many secrets," she said, letting out a sigh. "I didn't want her to have one from you."

The elevator button chimed, alerting them that it had arrived as the doors began to open, though before James could step inside, a voice sounded from behind them.

"Steve," the voice called out, and James quickly turned around to see Sam not far behind them, an unreadable expression on the man's face, though he looked far from happy. "There's something you've gotta see." his gaze moved over to James at Steve's side. "Both of you."

"What's going on, Sam?" Steve asked, and Sharon quickly motioned for them all to follow her into the elevator.

"Come on," she said, studying the other hotel guests milling about in the lobby. "We'll go up to my room, less prying eyes."

The three men nodded, following her into the elevator, and she pushed the button for floor number fifteen as it began to slowly make its ascent up the building. A faint violin melody played through the ceiling's speakers, starkly contrasting with the tense mood of the elevator's four occupants.

"What's going on?" James asked, breaking the silence.

"Somebody attacked the United Nations complex in Vienna." Sam explained as the elevator stopped at their floor, Sharon moving out first to lead the others back to her hotel room. "Where the world leaders were meeting to sign the Sokovia Accords."

James's eyes widened as Sam spoke, thinking back to Natasha, the friend of his father's who had been at the funeral service before leaving for the accord signing; the documents that would dictate how enhanced individuals, both James and his father included, would be allowed to use their abilities. How, mere moments ago, she had invited Steve and James to join her at the event, now making world news as someone very clearly hadn't wanted them to move forward.

"Natasha?" Steve asked Sam, his voice hardening as they entered the hotel room. "Is she alright? Has anybody heard from her?"

"She's fine," Sam assured him, grabbing the television remote and switching it on to the first news channel he could find. "But there's something else you need to see."

James took a seat on the edge of one of the two beds in the hotel room, watching intently as a video surfaced on the screen, news footage depicting a fire crew working diligently to put out the fires that raged through the United Nations. As the video continued to play, it showed different angles of the UN complex, including the crowd now milling outside, presumably made up of those who had been inside the building during the attack.

"Holy shit," Sharon breathed, quickly reaching for the phone that was tucked into her back pocket and heading for the back of the room. "I need to make a call."

"A bomb hidden in a news van ripped through the UN building in Vienna," the news anchor was saying as Sharon began to pace the room, phone pressed against her ear as she began to converse with whoever was on the other line of the phone call. "More than seventy people have been injured. At least twelve are dead, including Wakanda's King T'Chaka. Officials have released a video of a suspect, who they have identified as James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier."

James's blood turned to ice in his veins, thumping loudly in his ears as the name rolled across the screen, accompanying a picture of a man dressed head to toe in black, save for a small space near his eyes left uncovered; a pair of eyes James had seen in pictures he'd looked at hundreds of times before in his youth. He quickly rose from the bed, the room seeming to spin around him as it pulled both Steve and Sam's attention to him.

"James?" Steve asked.

The Winter Soldier, the man James had been tracking down since 1961, finally had a name and a face, fifty-five years since he'd first gone into the cryogenic chamber.

The Winter Soldier was James Buchanan Barnes, the man he himself had been named after, thanks to all of the stories his mother used to tell him growing up of his father and his best friend, Bucky.

The Winter Soldier was Bucky.

"He's the Winter Soldier," James breathed out, his gaze moving back to the image of Bucky still on the screen. "It's Bucky."

"I know," Steve said, causing James to pause as he looked back at the older man.

"You know?" James asked, confused.

"We ran into some trouble with the Winter Soldier two years ago." Steve explained. "Me, Sam, and Natasha. Last year, we broke him out of the HYDRA compound, tried to fix his brainwashing, but it didn't work. HYDRA got him back, and he vanished without a trace. We haven't seen him since."

 "That's my mission. Everything I've trained for, everything I've been working for, has all been to bring down him. To bring down Bucky." he quickly reached up, loosening his tie and running a hand through his hair as his mind began to race at thousands of miles per second, his heart nearly beating out of his chest. "I have to get to Vienna, I need to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

And maybe, just maybe, if James had just been smart enough to track him down sooner, those seventy individuals, including the King of Wakanda, would still be alive.

"You do," Steve agreed, pulling James's attention back to his father.

"Dad, that's your best friend, I can't expect you to come with me." James said. "But I made a promise to Mom that I'd find him, and I can't break that."

"You don't have to break it." Steve assured him. "I'm going to help you find him, on one condition: we bring him in alive. HYDRA's done a lot to him over the years, his brain's almost unrecognizable, but he's in there somewhere. I know he is. We got him back once, and I know we can do it again. Now the question is, Sentinel: will you let me help you bring him in alive?"

James nodded finally, his breathing starting to get a little more under control. "Y-yeah," he stammered. "We'll bring him in alive."

"Good," Steve said, a buzzing sound coming from the TV stand, where Steve had left his phone. James glanced down at the screen, seeing the name Elysia Sparks move across the device.

"Who's that?" James asked, his eyebrows furrowing together as Steve reached for the phone.

"That would be our backup," Steve said. "She'll be here soon."