[ WWII AU ] a ghost story

[from_the_outside]

It's been almost two years since she's been home, and little by little, the grief has gotten easier to live with.

It hasn't gone away. But she's able to focus on her job, watch movies, chat with friends, sleep most nights. She still dreams about him, but the dreams are tinged with wistful longing and only sometimes does she wake up with tears on her cheeks. She can't have his picture out in this apartment, Kate's apartment, but it's safe in the mountain house, along with his last letter to her, and she has a scan on her phone to look at when the long day is over and she's in bed, the stars from the lamp he'd given her filling her dark room.

Steve has helped, more than she could ever explain, and she hopes she's helped him in return. Aside from a few deeply classified missions here and there, they haven't worked together all that much, but she still sees him almost every day. In the halls, she's undercover as his mild-mannered neighbor, Kate, but in her secure apartment they can talk over anything, everything.

And it works. Every day is a little easier. They lean on each other when they need to, and they spend hours remembering and reminiscing about Bucky, talking shop, chatting about how Steve's fitting into the future. It's nice. She still misses Bucky, an ache that never really goes away, but they can both breathe through it, work through it, live through it.

She's on her way up from the basement laundry machines when she hears a familiar step in the hall, and has to smile to herself – first her own, then Kate's sweeter, more open one. "Hey, neighbor."

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[nerves_of_ice]

He shifts to the side with lithe speed and brings his hand down on her stomach hard enough to drive the air from her, then gives her a flat stare. "Would you rather be unconscious?"

Something flickers in his glance, just for an instant; something almost like realization. "You can, if you prefer not to see it happen."

[from_the_outside]

She doubles over, desperate for breath, the tape fluttering over her mouth as she tries instinctively to gulp air. By the time she's forced herself to breathe deeply through her nose, she's so light-headed that it wouldn't be hard at all for her to simply slip into unconsciousness.

The way he says it, it's almost like he's offering mercy. She glares, fury and desperation mixed with the shock and confusion that hasn't gone anywhere, and meets his glance steadily, refusing to give in.

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods, reading her denial of that option in her eyes. "Then stop fighting me," he warns, and reaches to continue doing up the harness.

[from_the_outside]

He trusses her up in the harness as she watches his every move, searching for any hint that Bucky Barnes is alive inside his own mind, his own body. What did they do to him? What happened?

[nerves_of_ice]

He checks every buckle, every strap, then stands in a single swift movement. He retrieves two nylon climbing ropes from the bag and throws one end of each over the rafter that holds the bell, one on each side. He brings the loop ends back to her and uses two D-rings to clip the ropes to the harness at her shoulders.

With ruthless efficiency, he cuts the rest of the comforter away and checks her ties. Her ankles are loose, he finds, and tightens them again before he hauls her to her feet.

"Stand still," he orders, and pulls out her phone, aiming the camera at her.

[from_the_outside]

She stares at him as he aims her phone camera at her.

("Smile."

"Will you look at that?"

"Like magic, isn't it?")

With her hands tied and her mouth covered, she can't offer any kind of warning to Steve, any kind of preparation. All she can do is watch the Winter Soldier and hope that there's some way, somehow, of bringing him back to himself.

[nerves_of_ice]

He adds location data to the image, watching as it generates a small map image with a pin in it, and texts both to the targets' number with a succinct message.

proof of life. if you want her to stay that way, hurry.

That done, he grabs the ropes and hauls her upward. Once she's hanging midair below the tower bell, ten feet above ground, he ties them off and returns the bag and scraps of comforter to the trunk and slams it shut.

[from_the_outside]

It's far from comfortable, hanging here like this. At least she isn't so high that the fall will severely injure her... probably. Not unless she lands wrong.

Not that she has much of a choice in how she lands, all tied up like she is.

The only thing to do now is to wait, and to hope Nat had managed to keep Steve away like she asked.

[nerves_of_ice]

There's no way for the target to approach the tower unseen. All the trees are set back far enough that they can't use them for cover beyond a point or to drop down. The marble columns of the tower itself will prevent the man from using that shield of his to slice the ropes from a distance; the only way to free her is to get inside, and once they do, the team will surround them and open fire from the compass points, covering all angles.

The Winter Soldier circles behind her so that she can't watch him leave, then moves around the memorial and takes up position on top of the opposite bell tower in the shadows, and waits.

[from_the_outside]

She doesn't know how long she hangs there, watching the shadows lengthen and shift around the memorial, but it's long enough that her arms have gone completely to sleep and a dull ache has spread from the temple he'd hit and turned into a raging headache.

The memorial is silent. There's no sign of the Winter Soldier, STRIKE, or Steve and Nat. The only movement she sees is the shadow of some large bird – an eagle, maybe – as it circles high above.

She blinks her bleary eyes. Is that shadow getting bigger? And that sound –

A rush of air is the only warning she has before a winged man barrel rolls into the bell tower. There's a flash of metal and then she's weightless for a second before he catches her and swoops down out of the tower, then climbs toward the sky. "Hey," he greets her, grinning. "We haven't met yet. I'm Sam."

[nerves_of_ice]

This hadn't been in the file. He hadn't planned for the targets to have an ally with wings.

The Winter Soldier flings a grenade into the air above the hostile to drive them lower, follows it with a burst of gunfire, then leaps as high and far as he can, clamping onto the man's calf with his left hand.

[from_the_outside]

There's a violent lurch, and Sam yelps. "What the hell, man?"

He looks down and kicks at the man's hand as the extra weight strains his wings. In his arms, Sharon does her best to yell behind the tape, desperate to get it off her mouth, but Sam's arms are full. He twists in the air, trying to shake the man – and then a red, white, and blue streak sizzles through the air, and Steve's shield strikes the Winter Soldier's metal wrist, full force.

[nerves_of_ice]

He twists in midair as the blow knocks his grip loose, grabbing the leather straps on the back of the shield in order to bring it down with him as he lands on solid earth once more.

The redheaded woman has engaged the team from cover, he sees, while the blond man is running toward him at superhuman speed. The Winter Soldier flings the shield at him as he'd done before, and this time follows it up with a rush of his own, slamming his left fist down to shatter the man's skull.

[marvel_npc]

Steve catches the shield and just barely gets it up in time to block the punch, which hits hard enough that only the vibranium of the shield manages to stop it. Even so, Steve's pushed back several feet before he can leap back to the attack. "Sam!" he yells, his focus on the Winter Soldier. "Get her out of here!"

There's a flurry up in the sky, and then he hears Sharon's voice, desperate and strained. "Steve! It's – "

A burst of gunfire sends Sam wheeling through the sky to avoid the rain of bullets. Steve has just enough time to see that a cluster of STRIKE operatives have come around to engage Sam, but there's nothing he can do about it right now, not with the Winter Soldier bearing down on him.

[nerves_of_ice]

He draws the pistol at his hip and fires several staccato bursts, all of which ping from the shield with no effect. He discards it in favor of the Skorpion automatic which he draws from behind his back, only to find it has no better effect.

He has to clear the shield from his target to remove his protection. The Winter Soldier closes with him, grabbing for the metal edge with his left hand, and wrenches it around in a spinning twist.

[marvel_npc]

He flips with the momentum of the twist and lets go of the shield, then presses his own attack, throwing hard punches at the Winter Soldier and dodging the metal fist and the edge of his own shield.

The long-ago boxing lessons with Bucky had started his training, but he's worked hard since then, and he's picked up a few tricks of his own, most of which take advantage of his sheer size, speed, and strength. He goes for the body, fists thudding against body armor, and can hardly believe how fast the other man is.

[nerves_of_ice]

He drops a knife into his right hand and slices across the target's center mass, only for a blow to his arm to knock the blade free and send it clattering away. He flings the shield again, hard, and the man ducks beneath the metal disc, which embeds itself deep in the side of one of the marble colums.

The fight, deadly as it is, begins to take on a strange resonance as they struggle. Block after block, stab and punch and slash and twist away and in again -- there's something about it, something --

( -- like training, or being back in the ring with -- )

-- almost, almost familiar.

The blond man grabs his forearm, and the Winter Soldier's arm flexes and metal plates ripple violently as he tries to rip it away again. He goes tumbling as he rips himself free, then kicks the target in the gut as the man charges him and sends him flying, slamming back into the side of a stone wall. He follows with a rush that brings them both up against the wall and locks his left hand around the target's throat, but somehow, impossibly, the man manages to tear free. Another flurry of blows, another desperate wrestling struggle, and this time it's the Winter Soldier who goes flying, his mask ripped from him as he goes rolling across the ground toward the fountain and back onto his feet.

He turns to face the other man once more, ready for the next assault.

[marvel_npc]

Steve stands, slow, his gaze caught and disbelieving. He can't feel the breath as his chest rises and falls, rapid and shallow.

It's impossible. It's –

"Bucky?"

[nerves_of_ice]

That name again. He stares at the other man in frustrated disbelief, and repeats the question he'd asked before.

"Who the hell is Bucky?"

But the answer doesn't matter; the blond man's shock, whatever the reason, gives him an opportunity. In a heartbeat, the Winter Soldier levels his pistol at his target.

[marvel_npc]

Steve can't move. He's frozen to the ground, his shield loose at his side.

Bucky. It's Bucky. But – how? Why? He'd seen his best friend fall, had heard his screams echoing off the mountainside. He and Sharon had held each other as they cried.

The Soldier – Bucky, Bucky – levels a pistol at his face, but before he can pull the trigger, Sam swoops down, hitting Bucky in the back with both feet at top speed and sending him sprawling.

[nerves_of_ice]

He rolls with the impact, over and over across the concrete, and finally ends up back on his feet beside another marble column. Voices begin to scream inside his head as he stares at his opponent. His target. His mission.

(confirmed death in ten hours)

Something wrenches sickly within him, and sudden desperation twists his features. He raises his gun again, only to duck as the red-haired woman launches a grenade at him from the other side of the fountain. It hits the tower, exploding it in smoke and fire and marble shrapnel.

He can hear distant sirens approaching, hear STRIKE yelling as Rumlow brings the perimeter in, and realizes the window of opportunity is closing. He'll pay for this failure, he knows it, but it would be worse to be taken alive by the enemy. He knows that too, as deeply as though it's engraved on his bones.

He has to run.

[marvel_npc]

Steve ducks as Nat fires a grenade and destroys the tower Sharon had been in earlier. When he straightens again, Bucky's gone.

Maybe he was never there. Maybe he's seeing things.

Sam comes jogging over, and Steve turns to him, his glance searching around the memorial. "Where's Sharon?"

[marvel_npc]

"She's fine, I dropped her over by the monument out of range of this mess," Sam assures him. "You okay?"

"Never mind that, we've got to go, now!" Natasha snaps, sharp, as she runs over to join them. "Come on!"

[marvel_npc]

He can't even begin to answer Sam's question. He gives Nat a quick onceover and notes that she looks bruised but fine, and takes refuge in what needs to be done. "Sam, get her out of here," he orders, and takes off at top speed for the Washington Monument, fueling every step with the adrenaline that hasn't stopped pumping through his body.

Was that really Bucky? Bucky's alive?

[marvel_npc]

She clutches the grenade launcher as Sam wraps his arms around her and heads for the sky, tracking the activity below. Nat takes one last shot, this time hitting STRIKE’s tactical vehicle as it starts to pull out. It goes up in a burst of flame, blown over on its side and skidding.

It’ll buy them the time they need to get clear, she hopes. She drops the gun - ammo exhausted, it’s useless now - and holds on to Sam as he arrows off in a dizzying, swooping flight to throw off pursuit.

She couldn’t see what happened to James. He had just disappeared.

Again.