First things first. I highly doubt any of you care, but I probably won't be writing for a while. Drama stuff and school stuff, you know how it is. So I highly recommend not waiting on updates until at least after January. That said, enjoy! :)

"We all good, Your Majesty?"

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that, Captain." Shuri's voice crackles over the radio.

"But you're royalty, ma'am. it's only polite to treat you as such." The sarcasm in his voice was crystal clear.

Still a smartass, huh?

The familiar voice shakes the captain from his rare joking mood. "But anyways. Are we good, Shuri?"

"No jokes?" The princess sounds vaguely disappointed, but the captain waves it off.

"Don't worry about it. Just remembered something is all." He sighs and tightens the straps on the vibranium shield painted with red and blue stripes. The symbolism was nice and nostalgic, and the meaning behind it was clear, but he still wishes it were a little easier to use it on a stealth mission. Tony had quickly returned it upon finding out what had happened to Bucky. The captain shakes off the traumatizing memories, and prays that the voice disappears with them.

Remember your mission, soldier

He cursed. Shuri answered his profane declaration with a voice tinted with concern. "Are you alright? Is he back?"

"Yeah. But I'll be fine, let's just get this over with." The captain adjusts the straps on his helmet.

"This is one opportunity of many, Captain. If you're not well enough to finish this-"

"He would have wanted me to finish this," He snapped back.

"He would have wanted you to be safe," She answers back waspishly. "You can't lead an assault on a HYDRA base with hallucinations like this."

"It's a voice, Shuri. I'll be fine."

She's right, you know.

"Shut up," He answers with a growl. "I don't have time for this."

You have time for your personal health. A break would be good for you and you know it. Come on, I know you want to.

"Fuck off. You're dead, you're gone, you aren't talking to me." The captain clenches his jaw, waiting for a reply. When nothing answers, he speaks into the comm. "Shuri."

A bit of shifting on the other end. "We're good on this end, captain. Are you ready?"

You aren't. You know you aren't.

He ignores this. "I'm ready."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He wasn't ready. The voice was still protesting and tapping on the inside of his skull, pleading that you need rest and I never would have let you go like this, just let them handle this. The captain shook off these warnings. He had lost too much just to let a complete stranger avenge his...

Best friend.

Husband.

Teammate.

Comrade.

He didn't shake off the grief, but instead used it as fuel. HYDRA had started this fight, and he was going to finish it no matter what.

Kill Evil Nazi Scientists Or Bust. That's what the deal was. He was going to be the lead man to obliterate the last HYDRA base, or he was going to die trying. Preferably both.

He was old, far to old to have survived this long, but thanks to those cursed German scientists, both he and the man he loved were preserved long past their expiration date. The captain's love had already passed, and now it was his turn.

"Captain?" Shuri's voice brought him back to the present. He cleared his throat. "I'm about to enter the base. Let me know if any hostiles come near."

You shouldn't be doing this. It's too dangerous. Please, leave it to the professionals.

The captain frowned at that. He was the professional. Nobody else could handle a mission like this. No Tony Stark and his billion-dollar suits, and certainly none of the underage recruits that Maria had kept trying to push on him. As the captain crept the dark and cold metal hallways, he held the shield close to him on pure instinct.

As he entered the large room with the large machine that looked disturbingly similar to an electric chair, he flipped on the light switch to find that the chair wasn't empty.

He almost threw up. "Shuri," he breathed, trying to clear any shakiness from his voice, "Get in here now."

The man in the chair opened his eyes, and the captain gagged. They were dead eyes, surrounded by Kevlar and bloodred leather. He tilted his head to the side like a robot, and smiled mechanically.

"Hello, Captain. They told me you'd be arriving soon."

Wrongwrongwrongwrong. The movements, the eyes, the voice, the tone. The face was beautiful, angelic, even, but it was as if they had replaced his eyes with marbles and replaced his heart with an engine.

The voice filled his head. Don't trust what you see, it warned. It isn't him. They want you to fall for him again, to get him close enough to kill you.

For once, the captain listened. He stood his ground. "Nice try. How much surgery did they have to do on you to make your face look like a dead man's?"

"None at all, actually." A new voice caused the captain to turn, but not soon enough. A bullet ripped into his stomach, then another lodged into his lung. He gasped and collapsed, and the mechanical corpse fell with him.

Oh god, what have I done? The voice sounded panicked for once. You wouldn't listen to me.

The captain coughed up a blood and phlegm. "I'm okay. I can see you again, I'll be okay."

No! No, you idiot, why are you doing this? You want me to be happy, don't you? Don't do this. Escape, for me. the voice pleaded, but the captain wasn't listening. He sang softly to himself, a lullaby that a woman used to sing to him, about lives of riches and green grass and blue skies. Maybe that's what was on the other side, he thought to himself.

The man who had shot him was long gone by the time Shuri got there. "Cap- Oh no," she fell to the captain's side. "There's no saving you, is there?" She asked softy. " You want to see him again?"

"Yeah." He was delirious from blood loss, and he knew it, but he didn't care. "Don't try. I've lived 104 years, I can't stand one more. Not without him." he grasped at Shuri's arm. "But, can you do the Wakandan death rites? I want to make sure I see him again."

Shuri nodded, and began chanting in her native language, gently stroking the captain's arm. After a few years of visiting Wakanda, he got the gist of what she was saying. As black lace began weaving itself into his vision, the captain vaguely heard Shuri whisper something to him.

"Goodbye, James Barnes."

A voice coaxed Bucky gently to sleep. Just close your eyes, sweetheart. I'll see you on the other side.

Captain Barnes died to the sound of Shuri's and Steve's voices.

(;

Have a good day!