eight.

o'captain, my captain

BUCKY AWOKE SLOWLY, his senses coming to him in pieces. The first thing he noticed was the darkness, then the pressure on his metal arm, then the quiet voices that were murmuring about... him? He managed to open his eyes after a few minutes, his head lolling to the side, a headache hammering at his left temple. His mouth had a hauntingly familiar metallic taste and he ran his tongue over his teeth, despair hanging over him. He'd done it again. 

He'd turned into the Winter Soldier.

His chest tightened at the realization, a hollowness consuming him from the inside. The past few days he'd felt something bubbling inside of him, something he'd finally labeled as hope one night while staring at his ceiling. All because he was able to hold onto a few more memories, all because Maev was helping him.

Bucky hadn't felt hope in nearly seventy years until that Witch came barreling into his life, drunk off her ass, proclaiming she could help him. He hadn't kept his expectation particularly high, but to know that all the careful work they'd done together, all the days they'd spent sprawled out on her floor digging through his memories, all the days she'd guided him through his mind, helping him deduce what was real and what was false, hadn't been enough to keep him from turning back into the Winter Soldier... 

"He's awake." 

He moved his gaze from the concrete floor, slowly shifting it upwards until he could clearly see the two men walking towards him. He knew the one on the left, had spent hours decoding their past, had seen his face in his memories before HYDRA captured him, had fought him a few years before and dragged him out of a river. Before he knew it, the man's name fell out of his lips as easily as it had in 1940, "Steve."

Steve Rogers gave him a calculating look, "Which Bucky am I talking to?"

Bucky didn't blame him for the hesitation, in fact, he wouldn't have blamed Steve if he turned him in right now. But, as Bucky stared at the man, he realized that something was coming to the surface of his mind. He blurted out the memory, "Your mom's name was Sarah," his eyes grew unfocused, the barest hint of a smile on his lips, "you used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

Steve's eyebrows flicked up, "You can't read that in a museum."

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam Wilson asked him incredulously, remembering the punches the two had traded earlier that day.

Fear lanced through Bucky, "What did I do?"

Steve gave him a look, one he wasn't used to receiving, one of pity and sadness, "Enough."

He sighed heavily, his head hanging, "Oh god, I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside of me is still there, all he had to do was say the goddamn words." For a brief second, Bucky felt a hand land on his right shoulder, gently squeezing as an act of silent comfort. 

"Who was he?" Steve asked, breaking Bucky out of his rapidly spiraling thoughts.

"I don't know." His voice was quiet.

"People are dead. The bombing, the setup, the doctor did all of that to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know'." Steve was growing frustrated and Bucky could only stare at him. The more he spent around the real-life Steve, instead of relying on newspaper articles and terribly written articles, the more he could feel things coming back. It wasn't a lot, but it was little things, fuzzy memories slowly appearing.

Bucky closed his eyes and slowly shook his head from side to side, needing to clear his mind. He thought back to the containment unit, thought about the doctor and the terrible blood-red book that he loathed with every fiber of his being. 

Something snapped into place and he opened his eyes. 

"He wanted to know about Siberia," dread started to trickle in, "where I was kept, he wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he want to know that?" Confusion was apparent on both Steve and Sam's faces.

Bucky wanted to be wrong. He wanted his hunch to be completely false and that whatever the doctor wanted wasn't what he was thinking. He finally met Steve's gaze, each word tasting foul in his mouth, "Because I'm not the only Winter Solider."

He felt Maev's shock, both in the invisible tether that stretched between them, and in her fingers tightening unconsciously on his shoulder. 

Steve and Sam exchanged worried looks before the former turned back to him, "Who were they?"

"Their most elite death squad," he murmured, "more kills than anyone in HYDRA history. And that was before the serum. The doctor said he wanted to see an empire fall and with these guys, he could do it. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilized. They can take down an entire country in one night and you'd never see them coming."

Silence fell, thick and heavy, the weight of the situation bearing down on everyone. Sam stepped closer to Steve, lowering his voice, "This would've been a lot easier a week ago."

Steve sighed, "If we call Tony..."

Sam shook his head quickly, "He'd never believe us, and even if he did, who knows if the Accords would let him help."

Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to think this through, "So we're on our own then."

Sam shrugged, "I know a guy."

"And you've got me." Without warning Maev dropped the shadows she'd cloaked around her, standing behind Bucky. 

Sam jumped back, a string of curses falling from his lips before finally managing to spit out, "Fuck, it's the voodoo girl."

Maev raised her eyebrows at his words, "...voodoo girl?"

He threw his hands in the air, gesturing wildly, "You flipped out in the meeting room and the lights were flickering and if that ain't some voodoo shit then I don't know what is."

Bucky turned his head to look at her, about to ask what Sam was talking about when Steve took a step forward. "How do I know you're here to help?"

Maev turned her attention from Sam to Steve, choosing to first look him up and down. There was nothing but cold calculation in her eyes as she examined him, almost as if she was sizing him up. She pursed her lips before answering, "Because I'm the one who's been helping him the past few weeks. I assume you're Steve Rogers?"

She received the same scrutiny from the man, his eyes flickering with a number of emotions. "Yes ma'am, and you are?"

Maev grinned, sweeping her arms out in a mock bow, "Maev Barebone at your service."

She didn't know quite what was running through Steve's mind, but whatever he had been searching for he'd found after a minute of looking at her. "You know anything about stealing cars and combating frozen soldiers?"

She shifted her weight onto her left leg, "I know a thing or two. Plus, I've been told I have a mean right hook."

He nodded slightly, already looking as if he was planning the next few steps they were going to take, and Bucky took this time to speak up, "You can trust her Steve." The assassin turned human knew that look behind Steve's eyes and wanted to do something to ease the wariness. 

Steve glanced between the two, something clicking behind his ocean blue eyes, "Alright then." 

He looked around the room: one falcon, two super soldiers, and a mysterious woman who could appear out of thin air. The odds could be worse. 

Steve Rogers clasped his hands together, "Let's get started."

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