Sweet Surrender

Chapter 5

"Upon your arrival, Captain Rogers gave me a folder of important details regarding your past," This time Barnes was fretting before Maxanarda finished her comment.
"I know what you're thinking, lad. But you've trusted in me this long. I wouldn't want you to cease now. Or ever." She lead him to one of the gyms inside the base for the N.E.S.T soldiers.

It was eerily empty. Every inch seemed sparkling clean, not a speck of dirt on the floor. She'd requested the facility be cleaned prior to their session, unbeknownst to Bucky. All that remained was the exercise equipment. He continued on walking, making his way inside. Despite the place being fit for humans, Maxa didn't let that get in her way. She fittingly transformed into a wolfbot, and strolled right on in. Just like all her beast alt modes, this too had six legs.
What do you NOT turn into? Bucky scoffed to himself.
"You needn't trouble your mind. This is one of the last alt modes I possess." She'd read the look on his face like the page of a book.
"Now, treat this like an ordinary day, and you're doing a workout routine. Use anything in this room you'd like."
Could today really be this simple? No, he thought. Not with her.
Mentally, Bucky tried to prepare for anything that was about to be thrown his way.

To start, he sat down to do certain dumbbell exercises. Now and again he glanced Evanna's direction, but she would say nothing. She simply watched, supervising as she casually walked around. It wasn't until then he noticed how brilliantly the artificial light glistened off her metal skin. It brought out such detail in her features, more than she already had. The paint job, the four spikes down along her back, it was all starting to stand out to him a bit more as days went on. Whether or not he realized.

Fifteen, twenty, even half an hour of silence went by. By then Bucky had moved on to bench presses. Multiple weights were gathered on either end, but it was as if they were merely feathers.
"Longing." Bucky glanced at her with worry while lifting the bar.
"Rusted."
"Not again..." He mumbled.
"Seventeen."
"What are you doing?" His eyes doubled in size.
"Daybreak. Furnace."
"Maxa please..."
"Nine. Benign."
"Please, don't..." He pleaded, but she raised her head which showed a look saying otherwise.
"Homecoming. One."
"Stop..." Rage was rising like the sun inside his body. His grip on the bar tightened. The one hand was crunching it within its grasp, and the other's knuckles were turning red.
"Freight car." The Winter Soldier gently put the bar back in its place and sat up. He just stared off with a lifeless expression.
"Ready to comply." He spoke in a familiar foreign tongue. The Titan stepped in front of his gaze,
"They do not own your soul, Sergeant Barnes. STOP," she paused, "listening to them when they're not even here, lad." His eyes dragged their way into hers, just before he snapped. The Soldier leapt for Maxa. He took her down in one fell swoop, having grabbed her head which swung the rest of her body down thunderously.
"Lock it down, colonel!" She ordered.
"Go go go!" Colonel Lennox yelled just as loud if not more. Walls of iron coated with an invisible electric fence immediately covered all windows and doors of the gym. This caught Bucky's attention just long enough for Maxa to toss him off. When she'd gotten up, her absence revealed a massive crater in the floor. To anyone else, Maxanarda foolishly reiterated those words yet again. And, again to anyone else, it was making things worse. The more and more he heard them, the more fueled his demons became. Bucky started using his environment against her, tossing anything he could lift.
"Focus, lad! Let out what they put inside! You are still fighting it off!" Maxanarda shouted in between dodges. He swung his fist towards her helm, only to miss. His Soldier side had completely taken over his actions, but not his mind. Parts were actually hearing her, trying to listen.
"Every fist you throw is a foot step backwards!"

His attacks were relentless. No matter how many times Bucky was knocked down, right back up he went. To the monsters inside, his mission of termination had to be done. She could see it in his eyes. He was fighting with himself, not her. After long enough, Maxanarda knew what had to be done.
"Forgive me, lad." Her two tails formed into its sword at the end, and illuminated with open flames. All this just before she pounced. Luckily for him, her ability to adjust her weight proved fruitful in not crushing him completely. She placed one paw at his throat, while the other pinned down his left arm. The blazing blade edged closer and closer to his neck while he struggled. It was only until it grazed his skin did he give a teeth-barring groan of surrender.

Hours later, Bucky woke in his bed. He'd been knocked out with heavy sedatives, groggy as he sat up. And right there, by his bedside, lay the wolfbot herself.
"You shouldn't of done that."
"I am doing what it best for you, lad. How do you expect us to conquer your evils if we don't face them head on?" He buried his face in his hands.
"No one said we had to do it like that." She rose to her feet,
"No, but it is necessary. The more you try, the stronger you get. The stronger you get, the weaker it becomes."
"IT, knows no limits." Suddenly Maxa leapt up onto his bed, starring him dead in the face.
"That is the exact kind of attitude that'll get you no where fast. I shouldn't have need of reminding you that." She scolded. After turning wide eyed with shock, he released a deep sigh. His eyes drifted down,
"I know...I'm sorry. I just..." He trailed off. Bucky couldn't even bare to finish his sentence, what he carried inside burdened him so much. Maxa shifted to where she sat next to him,
"I understand. Truly I do. And that is why I'm not going to stop. Not now, not ever." He nodded, seeing her from the corner of his eye. Without even thinking, he'd turned to wrap his arms around the caring beast. No words could explain the appreciation he had for her. Day into night, night into day, she was there. She gently rested her head on the back of his shoulder. They stayed that way for quite a while, until eventually they pulled away. She ended up being in his room for some time after, telling him stories of her past and vise versa to her. Bucky told of the family he had, his younger siblings up to and including Steve. There was nothing he and Steve didn't do together. Nothing he didn't push his best friend into doing. Maxanarda explained how she came to be, that a spirit-being gradually made her into who she is. She spoke of how she herself has siblings. Or rather, how they gained her. She was made with their CNA in mind, along with a few other's, despite how she'd come to be before them. He heard her tell of the Great War, and the part she played. Three predacons Maxa rebuilt remained asleep beneath the surface of their planet, until she'd had time to train them. In the mean time, she'd fought through the war as nothing but a legend, given the name Soaring Phantom.
Guess I'm not the only one who once lived as a ghost.

About three weeks had gone by. Maxa kept a consistent schedule with Barnes, with days of rest in between. Each time his demons woke, the closer the two soldiers became.

At the brink of sunset one day, Maxanarda Evanna had chosen to take Bucky on a flight with her fellow beasts. This included the three predacons mentioned days prior, plus the only flying dinobot, Strafe. Echolukii and Scarlett Barracuda were the twins, and Zicanicus had known her since her first sparkbeat on Cybertron.

Maxa took flight first, and the others followed suit. Bucky looked down at first as the ground grew smaller, but quickly pulled his eyes away. Instead he looked between the upward side extensions of Maxa's helm. It wasn't long until she asked him to stand tall. He wanted to protest a bit, seeing as how he thought this was a day to just relax. But then he quietly stood up on her back.
"Good. Walk across us, lad. We are your bridge in the sky." He looked down to see Scarlett Barracuda waiting for him just under the edge of Maxanarda's front left wing. Oxygen filled his lungs while he walked to the tip. His foot hesitantly slid to the edge, but took the rest of his body with before he could back out. Much to Scarlett's amusement, he landed on her wing with utmost grace. A sharp glance from Bucky put the beast back in line. He then looked across her back and onto the other wing, his feet following his mind. He stepped onto Zicanicus' wing next, and continued the same steps to Echolukii. Each new step granted him more balance, stabilizing on each different beast he walked upon. When it came time to return to Maxa, he froze. The movement of her other wings reflected the beating of his heart. There was a part of him wanting to join her, but he didn't exactly know why. The feeling tugged and pulled at his heart with each breath he drew. It was becoming overwhelming. His face tightened from the pain, and his fists clutched the shirt over his chest. She looked over to see why he was hesitating, and right away she could see what was happening. It, whatever IT was, was back.
"Let go, lad." The leader softly pushed words into his busy head. Bucky's breaths became irregular, until it was finally too much. His legs slowly collapsed from underneath him. Bucky gradually fell off of Strafe's back and into the clouds. The last thing he saw through the darkening haze was the Naita Koa's sharp silhouette.