Sergeant Barnes: The Last Mission (COMPLETE)

Chapter 8: Bucky

    We didn't say much on the drive back to New York. Natasha turned up the radio and focused on driving, and I just looked out the window most of the way. I didn't recognize most of the songs, but it filled the silence, so I didn't mind.

I clenched and released my vibranium hand a few times. Mind controlling someone, controlling me, was one thing. I hated it, and even though I knew that I was finally out from under the thumb of HYDRA, I still couldn't wear scarves or hats without remembering how the Winter Soldier's mask felt, and how it became a constant reminder that trying to speak out against HYDRA was forbidden, but I was still mostly me. My left arm was gone, but it was the only thing HYDRA added to me.

Putting a human brain inside a robot was different. It shouldn't even be possible, but I knew that wouldn't have stopped them. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Did they take the minds of living people, or dead ones? Were the people inside of them still there, could they still live like that? Did they know what was happening? Could they fight back? Did they remember who they were, who they loved? Or were they like me, and were programmed to follow orders? Could I help them?

Even as I thought it, I knew I shouldn't have. How could I save them the way Steve saved me when I didn't know who they used to be? For all I knew, their families were already gone. Whether they had been alive or dead, the people they lived with probably assumed the worst by now. Manipulating someone like that took a long time. The person who attacked us today was probably declared dead a long time ago. No one would know what had really happened to him, if anyone still cared.

And there were more out there. I didn't have any proof, but I knew there was. HYDRA didn't stop at one Winter Soldier, and they wouldn't have stopped with only one cyborg. Once they had perfected the design, they would have massed produced them, building an army of obedient soldiers to do their dirty work, and if they had wanted to kill Natasha, then SHIELD was their first target, and wouldn't be their last.

I glanced over at her. I still wasn't used to her with blonde hair, and personally, I thought the red looked better, but I understood how important it was to her. Somehow, in the eight years since Zemo bombed the UN, she managed to wipe out her guilt, the red in her ledger. Her hair wasn't a safety hazard, as the KBG had always insisted it was when she was training, but it was a reminder of her past, and her guilt. I couldn't imagine what she must have done to finally move on, but if she finally let go of what happened, then I was glad for her. She deserved to.

It was still hard to see her as the same girl I trained all that time ago. The Black Widow, top of her class, had changed a lot since then, and not just her hair. It had been so weird to pull the bait move when we were trying to protect innocents instead of assassinating a target, but once I saw her out of the corner of my eye on the street, working together to bring the cyborg down was almost natural. We had gone on so many missions together that I didn't have to walk her through the plan anymore.

But this wasn't Natalia Romanova anymore. She knew her place, and her purpose. She didn't just take orders now, but worked with people she trusted, and fought to help those who didn't know better. I was almost jealous of her ability to move on, and work for SHIELD without showing signs of regret, whether she did or not. Maybe if I could do the same, I could have helped SHIELD stop HYDRA before they made these cyborgs.

"Barnes, wake up."

I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Ow. I slept on my neck wrong.

"We're almost there."

I looked out the window and squinted as our surroundings came into focus. Natasha had just pulled off the main road and onto a back route. I saw the Avengers compound up ahead.

We pulled into the garage space as Natasha followed the signals to park in whichever spot she was supposed to. Just before we drove into the building, I caught a glimpse of an orange car parked just outside the entryway. Apparently Stark decided to join us. As guilty as I still felt around him, Stark was good. His suit would definitely come in handy when the fight came around. If it helped stop HYDRA, I could put aside the past long enough to work with him.

I hoped he could do the same