War Torn || Civil War

Chapter Twenty-Two: Nostalgia

Music is "Until The End (Acoustic)" by Quietdrive.

Picture is Bucky and Steve.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Nostalgia

S I B E R I A

"What's gonna happen to your friends?" Bucky inquires as we fly over the white mountains of eastern Russia, over the area known as Siberia.

Steve hesitates. I see him sigh and shake his head from my seat next to Bucky, my head on his shoulder. "Whatever it is, we'll deal with it."

Bucky's eyes turn distant, and he stares straight ahead, at the back of Steve's chair. "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."

I tenderly reach over and wind my fingers through his, ignoring the flinch he does when I touch his metal arm. He tries to pull away, but I move my other arm around his, leaning onto the metal shoulder. I want him to know I'm not afraid of him, not afraid of his prosthetic.

"You are," I mumble, looking down at our wound fingers.

"What you did all those years...it wasn't you," Steve agrees. "You didn't have a choice."

"I know," Bucky states, then hesitates to continue. "But I did it."

I shake my head, drawing his attention to me. "I don't hold you accountable for any of it. Nothing. I hope you know that. One day soon, I hope you can trust me enough to tell me everything. Tell me every terrible thing you did while you were him and let me love you anyway." Bucky nods once. "I thought you'd forgotten me for a while," I mumble.

Bucky hears my verbal concern and turns to look down at me. "Never." He presses a hesitant kiss to my bangs. "But I don't want memories as much as I want you."

A few minutes later, Steve puts the Quinjet down on the top of a mountain. He's tracked the man we now know is called Baron "Helmut" Zemo, a Sokovian military operative that lost his family during the Ultron Incident. Grant had figured all this out while surfing the CIA and UN web, listening in to their communications. Zemo isn't some super-powered accident or part of an alien army. He's just a man who lost everything in a battle Steve tried to win.

Even when you win the war, sometimes you have casualties. But Zemo is playing a game and using the Avengers as pawns. For that, he has to be stopped.

I feel Bucky tense up beside me as Steve sets the aircraft down. He's been here many times before, but only as a puppet of HYDRA. Being here as an autonomous being must be terrifying.

I squeeze his metal hand and give a nod of assurance. "We're here," I tell him softly. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

He takes a deep breath in and nods hesitantly. Steve hops up from the pilot's chair heading to the back of the craft. He pops open his little locker, the one that keeps his weapons. His shield is perched along the wall, and he swipes that up.

"Grant, you should stay here," he tells his nephew with a hand on his shoulder. "Can you let us know if anyone comes after us? I have a feeling it might be Tony."

Grant nods, salutes, and hurries up to the pilot's chair. "No Galaga," he grins back at me. "Promise."

I give him a motherly kiss on the forehead, then turn back to the rear of the plane. I wave Bucky along with me. "You'll need weapons," I inform him. "I think you'll like Natasha's locker."

I press a button that unlocks the locker labeled "Romanoff." A shelf of various guns slides out from the wall. Bucky looks over each of them quickly before deciding on a big on from the center.