Sergeant Barnes: The Last Mission (COMPLETE)

Chapter 32: Bucky

Decades of missions and assignments prepared me for the sudden change in lighting and temperature, but it still shocked me a little. The tunnel, being underground, was much warmer than out here.

The cave we had come out at was about halfway to the truck we had come here in and the facility. Good news was that there was no one to see us leave. Bad news was that we still had about a half mile hike back to our ride. At least it had stopped snowing.

I took the lead again, moving at a quick pace back the way we had came. We moved faster with just the two of us. Raven was really light on her feet, which helped. I guess in order to sneak around the vent shafts, you kind of have to be.

She had seemed very certain when she was talking earlier, as if she was enjoying the conversation the way anyone else would have, but I had spent too much time training Natasha to not notice that she was keeping her body language in check. Even the way Raven phrased her words was on purpose. I should know, I taught Nat some of those tricks. Any normal person would have thought that she answered honestly, but I knew that there was something she was hiding. She wouldn't have appeared so at ease unless she wanted to look that way.

I put it out of my mind, though. It wasn't like I was going to get it out of her, and I think what she did say was true, to some level. She had opened up more than I expected her to. I think Steve would have liked her. She really was like Natasha.

We made it back to the road in about half the time it would have taken the whole group to get there. I started towards the driver's door at first, before realizing I didn't have keys.

"Does Natasha still have the keys on her?"

Raven stopped in her tracks, thinking. "She does, but we have other options."

Other options? I guess this was a SHIELD vehicle.

She walked up to the lock on the door, tapped it twice, and lined up her eye with the lock. A camera revealed itself and scanned her retina, then retreated again. Raven adjusted her head so her mouth was closer to the lock, and said, "Emergency unlock code 8."

Just like that, the doors unlocked. Go figure.

She moved out of the way to let me in, but I waved her back and walked around to the passenger side instead. "You drive. SHIELD has weird rules about their trucks, anyway."

I wasn't up to date on everything, but I did know that you had to be a SHIELD insured driver to operate their vehicles. Honestly, I don't think Raven would have objected, but I wanted to be able to get out quickly if it came to a fight.

I climbed into the passenger seat, like before, and closed the door behind us. Raven tapped the ignition lock twice and the vehicle started. We took off in the direction we had came, and shot off towards the Berlin airport.

"Once we get closer, we will be able to use the earpieces to get a message to them," Raven said, eyes on the snowy road. "Hopefully, they aren't in too much trouble yet."

I pressed my lips and sighed under my breath. "If only we had a phone or something..."

She shook her head. "No good. I have mine, but HYDRA will be tapping all cellular calls and messages between here and Berlin. They wouldn't want us to call for help, from SHIELD or anyone else."

It made sense. I would have done the same thing. "But they won't block the earpieces?"

"In order to block radio waves, you have to isolate the frequency. HYDRA probably just did a mass blockage, interfering with all frequencies except their own, and that takes more power. It would be harder to do that out here rather than at their base."

Why did she know so much abou-

A thud came from above us.

Raven acted immediately, swerving and speeding up to try and shake off our visitor, but whoever it was had a strong grip. Probably safe to assume it was another cyborg.

I unbuckled and told Raven, "Keep driving, I'll get him," but as soon as I said that, a gun appeared in her window and started to shoot.

She ducked out of the line of fire, but the window held anyway. A voice in the truck started to call out the integrity of the window, but I didn't pay any attention. Instead, I rolled down my own window and climbed up to join our new friend.

I managed to plant my feet before the cyborg (I think it was one, anyways) noticed me, which gave me enough time to prepare myself. I swiped at its feet, trying to knock it off the truck, but I had no such luck. It flipped towards the back of the truck, putting space between me and it. It slid to a stop and looked up at me, briefly, before going for a mid-body tackle. I dropped to my back as it sailed over me, barely digging a hand into the roof of the truck as it flopped down onto the front window (definitely a cyborg, then). Thankfully, Raven kept her cool, and didn't lose her control of the truck despite a cyborg body-slamming into her line of sight. It tried to stand up on the hood, but I didn't give it that chance, opting to punch it in its metal face with my vibranium arm a few times.

I managed to make a dent in its nose, but after a few hits, it blocked my punch with his other hand and held me back. This had to be a vibranium cyborg, then. I probably should have guessed. It had a more impressive suit, and more weapons on it, including some kind of painted gear strapped to its back, which I assumed expanded into something else.

He pulled on my arm and jumped up on top of me, kneeing my side once or twice. I shoved him off, towards the back of the truck instead of over the side, unfortunately. We both got to our feet, and I was about to make another move, but before I could, the cyborg said something I wasn't expecting.

"Sergeant Barnes located. Engaging morph."

I didn't want to find out what that meant, or what he was morphing into, so I yelled and sprinted towards him (by the way, this is all happening on top of a moving truck going at about 50 miles an hour. It's harder than you think). The cyborg didn't try to block me, but closed its eyes and began its morphing thing. I jumped and aimed a kick square in its chest, actually landing it, to my surprise.

The cyborg started to fall off, but the morph had reached the cyborg's face. The skin of this thing started to shift the moment its feet broke contact with the truck, and at the same moment, I could have sworn time slowed to nearly a stop, because I could see the changes in the cyborg as it happened.

The jaw started to get longer, and more defined. The cheeks flattened, and its face got longer, nose shifted and got a little longer, but not by much, the skin tone lightened just slightly, and the hair started to lighten to a color I knew all too well.

When it opened its eyes again, my breath caught in my throat. They were blue. Not just blue, but THAT blue. His blue.

It could have been a trap. It could have been apart of that General's plan to bring me in, but somehow I knew, I knew it was him.

I didn't think, I just reached for him as he fell out of the range of my grasp. I fell to my knees, barely staying on the truck. Yelling, screaming the name of the person trapped inside that robot, begging him to see me, to know, to remember just who he was, who I was. I screamed and I screamed, hoping that my voice would penetrate what HYDRA had done to him the same way his broke through the Winter Soldier, because there was no way that Captain America would be HYDRA by choice.

"STEVE!!!"