Who Killed Jack Thompson?

Chapter 14

Dottie managed to sneak the group in unnoticed while the Howling Commandos guarded the door. The lights flickered and, on a lone cot in the middle of the room, sat a hunched figure with his back to the door. They couldn't see his face, but his dark brown hair was wavy and nearly touched his collar bones. His white tank top was stretched tight over the muscles on his back, and he took heavy breaths. The most striking of his features, though, was a shiny metal appendage where his right arm should be. Dottie stepped forward, speaking in Russian.

"Zdravstvuyte," she said. Hello.

The Soldat turned slowly with his fists clenched. Dottie saw his face before the rest, who were in stance to fight. She gasped, her hand flew to her mouth. "James," she uttered weakly. "Kto, James?" He coldly said, turning to face the entire group. Who is James?

There was a collective moment of awe from Peggy and the Commandos. There was the face they hadn't seen in years. A face they thought to be dead. "Sergeant Barnes," Peggy formally said, realizing the last piece of her past was sitting in front of her, and was a murderer. "Bucky," Dugan said, stepping forward. A moment of recognition flashed in Bucky's eyes. Slipping into his native language, he said, "Who the hell is Bucky?"

In a split second, he erupted from his perch upon the cot and rabidly attacked. He attacked with such precision, that the ones who knew him as Bucky failed to believe it was him. Dottie, who knew him as James Sokolov, saw him as something much more sinister. He whipped a dagger from his black pants and hurdled towards Dugan, the largest of them all. He cut his cheek, and was holding the knife to his throat with much resistance. Dottie had reluctantly acted against him, dropping low and kicking his feet out from under him. She rose back into her full height in true Red Room fashion, ready to fight. "Bucky what happened to you?" Peggy screamed above the fighting. "I am not Bucky," he hollered, kicking one of Dugan's men to the ground and knocking him out. "YA Zima Soldat," he yelled in Russian, all the while taking out more Commandos. I am the Winter Soldier. He stalked towards Peggy, and Daniel defensively took his place in front of her. The Winter Soldier raised his metal arm and threw Daniel aside. Peggy raised her fists to fight, but she knew she was likely to lose. She saw him clench his metal fist, and raising it above her eyeshot...

There was a definite crack as Dottie brought a metal bar down onto his skull. He collapsed onto the cold floor, a heap of pure danger and a symbol of fear.

And there he lay, cold. Dugan pressed the wound on his face with a scrap of cloth from his jacket, standing over Bucky's body. Tears formed in the huge man's eyes.

Peggy refused to look. Although she had only met him once, she knew how much he meant to Steve, and the lengths he went to to save him. Now he was working with the organization that eventually killed Steve.

Dottie was mumbling, "Malen'kiy utenok,"
over and over in shock. And all for good reason. The man she loved didn't remember her.

The whole flight home was silent and grieving. Howard, too, knew the pain behind Barnes being Zima Soldat.

The plane engine hummed; that was the only sound. For the first time, the whole gang was sad together. Although it be for different reasons— lost love, an old friend, sympathy— they all felt the same pit of sadness that followed the Winter Soldier's wake.