Till The End Of The Line

Three days. Three days since the news broke that Bucky set the bomb off in Vienna. Frankie called Steve repeatedly. Sitting in her room with a laptop she took from Tony’s lab. Typing away, she was able to hack into the security system. She saw Steve and Sam sitting in a conference room. Bucky was confined in a little metal and glass box. He was drained, tired. The cameras were down for the facility, but the feed was still strong.

The person talking to him was making him uneasy. His breathing was heavy, he continually twitched. Begging the man to stop, his lip quivering. The metal hand flinching and clenching. The man circled the little cube. As he screamed and punched at the glass and steel, she saw it in his eyes. He’d switched sides. Bucky was gone, the solider was in his brain again. She watched as he broke free from the box, the man talking to him before throwing the him against the wall. Sam and Steve came into frame. Sam thrown against the cube, Steve and Bucky going at it.

She switched cameras. Watching them move throughout the entire building. Bucky attacking everyone, throwing people in each direction. Frankie started crying. Alone in her bedroom, halfway around the world, she saw the one person she wanted to help the most. Following him around the building, she watched him go straight to the helicopter.

‘Bucky stop fighting. Please, stop fighting’

Bucky awoke, his arm pressed tightly between two pieces of steel. Sam called for Steve, telling him he was awake.

“Steve” Bucky called.

“which Bucky am I talking too?”

“your moms name is Sarah” Bucky laughed “you used to wear newspapers in your shoes”

“can’t read that in a museum”

“just like that we’re supposed to be cool?” Sam questioned, giving a look towards his Captain.

As Steve explained everything that’d happened, Bucky seemed conflicted that HYDRA was still in his head. Sam told him Frankie had mentioned she’d turned him to the solider. As Steve released his arm, he looked hopeful.

“Frankie’s okay?” a sigh of relief fell over him. “you found her?”

“a few years after the two of you disappeared, yeah we found her. A bit too late. They tortured her Buck, they injected her with our serum, amongst other things” Bucky’s face fell. All he wanted to do was protect Frankie and he failed.

“can I talk to her, just really quickly?” Bucky nearly begged. Sam looked over at Steve, who just shrugged. Steve didn’t know what their relationship was like but saw how much he cared for her. It was written all over Bucky’s face.

Steve finished his phone call with Sharon. He looked at Bucky, watching him closely. He dialed the number to the compound, waiting patiently. Frankie answered, sounding annoyed at Steve.

“Frankie, I uh, I’m sorry” Steve half-assed apologized. “I have someone here” he looked at Bucky, handing him the phone. As he placed it to his face, the biggest smile he’s ever seen Bucky have was plastered on his face.

“Frankie” Bucky breathed. Her breathing stopped, tears ready to overflow, stomach in a knot. She finally heard his voice, two and a half years after being separated. It wasn’t a broken-up voicemail anymore. It was him.

“Bucky, oh thank god” she smiled, though she knew he couldn’t see her “I’m so sorry”

“Frankie, they turned me back to the solider. He’s still there” he sounded ashamed. His heart fluttered, looking at Steve and thanking him. “I heard you, tell me to stop fighting”

“I know Buck, we’ll get him out. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out” neither of them talked for a minute, all you heard was breathing.

“Frankie, I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you. I can never forgive myself for what they did to you”

“Bucky don’t be sorry. Just come back with Steve. We can go back to the cabin and figure everything out. Just come back to me Mr. Barnes” she choked as she was talking, whispering “don’t leave me again”

“I will never leave you, I am always going to be with you Frankie, no matter where I am” he promised her.

Steve took the phone, explaining they had some things to take care of before they’d come back. He told her Maria was picking her up, bringing her to get some more tests done to find out what she could do.

“Steve, I need the three of you to be careful. Please. I can’t lose any of you” she told him “you are my best friend Steve. I am so sorry for everything”

“you aren’t going to lose any of us Dum Dum, we’ll be there in a few days to pick you up. All three of us. I promise”

Maria showed up a day later at the compound. She was silent the entire way to the secret headquarters SHIELD had. Walking into the large, concrete room. Standing dead center, was Nick Fury.

“well hello Agent Dugan” he smiled.

“I thought you were dead” she scoffed. Maria shook her head, joining Nick’s side.

“he had us all fooled” Maria rolled her eyes.

“Steve asked us to take you in, run some extra tests on you. Keep you safe”

“I don’t need any tests done. I am fine, I’ve been running my own tests. I’m perfectly fine”

“Frankie, we need to know what you can do” Nick looked at her, taking a chair and spinning it so he could sit. He stared at her, watching as she tapped his finger against her arm, annoyance written all over her face.

“I don’t even know what I can do yet, Nick. I’m not sitting here to try and figure it out either”

“Steve wants you here, Frank” Maria looked up, walking back across the large room to be at her side. “he wants you safe”

“I can keep myself safe”

Frankie turned, walking away from the two people she once took orders from. Finding her way through the large underground compound, she found the garage. Staring at the many different cars, she saw a bike in the corner. She was no longer able to be hurt. The keys were already there, like it was basically telling her to take it.

Making her way to the highway, she started making her way back to the compound, to patiently wait for Steve, Sam and her Bucky to come back. She drove past a clearing of trees that looked as if they’d been on fire. Turning down the windy road leading to the place that was now her home.
It was silent.

No one was in the compound, calling out to Friday, Frankie asked what had happened.

"it seems as though the Captain needed some help. He sent Clint to retrieve Wanda. They left together. Vision wasn't far behind"

Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she dialed Steve's burner phone. Ringing repeatedly, he never answered. Asking Friday where they were, she paced impatiently around the kitchen.

"I am getting a signal from Sam. They are currently leaving Germany"

Bucky and Steve made their way up the snowy mountain. Shield in hand, gun at the ready. Bucky was uneasy. He hadn't been back to this place since they'd made him the asset. A million things flew through his head. He had his best friend back, which in reality is all he really ever wanted. He now had Steve and Frankie. In a few days he'd be back with her. They'd go back to the cabin and figure everything out together.

Steve noticed the smile on Bucky's face. Giving him a look, it quickly disappeared. Slowly walking through the empty halls, they both got a chill down their spines. Crouched on some stairs after hearing a noise from the elevator, they were ready for the fight. To their surprise, it was only Tony on the other side.

"They are all dead" Bucky mumbled, looking around at the other soldiers.

His mind went back to training day. They had all just become new assets. Trained to kill. In a cage, he tried his best to put one of them down, but new with strength and anger allowed the solider to over power him, a doctor being killed in the process. With a gun next to his head, he helped and protected a HYDRA agent to get out of the cage, slamming it closed behind him.

They were strong, angry. They were designed to blend in and kill without anyone noticing. That's exactly what they could do. But now, in their cyro-chambers, they were killed.

While off in his own little world, he heard Zemo talking, the old beat up TV flashed a light and a very familiar scenario popped up on the screen. He couldn't help but stare at it. Watch as Tony saw his father call out his name, just before he'd bashed his head in. Walking around to the side, snapping his mothers neck. Just for the serum he had in the trunk.

"did you know?" Tony asked, after lunging at Bucky, Steve stopping him. Bucky just stared.

Frankie couldn't handle being stuck in this compound any longer. Vision had returned, but refused to inform her on anything that had happened. All he would tell her was that Roadie was hurt. Grabbing her leather jacket, she threw on her boots and grabbed a duffel bag. Vision asking repeatedly where she was going, she gave him the same treatment he'd given her.

I'm coming for you Bucky

Flying down the hills and turns of the roads, she made her way back to the secret headquarters Maria had taken her too. Storming in, ignoring the fact that they were in the middle of something, she threw her duffel onto the floor and stared at them.

"I can put messages into peoples minds. That's all I know I can do right now. So go ahead, put me in the enhanced data base. It's not much, I'm not really even a threat"

"is that why you came all the way here, to tell us that?" Nick gave her a funny look "or was there another reason why you angerly interrupted Hill and I?"

"I need to know where Sam Wilson is" she stared "he isn't with Steve, I know that for a fact"

"Sam and a few others got themselves arrested. They are in a high max prison in the middle of the ocean. No way in, no way out. You need special clearance for that" Maria told her, gaining an eye from Fury.

"so give it to me, I need the clearance" Frankie stood there, arms crossed, foot tapping.

"Frankie, that's some high level stuff. Not a lot of people have clearance for that"

"so this B.S fight that just happened in Germany, with all my friends, who are now in prison for trying to do the right thing, don't deserve some sort of help?" Frankie asked, leaving both looking bewildered. "Steve might try to protect me, and he can try all he wants, but I am not stupid. I have degrees, I am a scientist. I was top of my class. and now, I am enhanced. I can hear Maria thinking about it"

"so you're a mind reader too huh" Fury questioned.

"Nick, please. I need to know they are all okay"

It had been a long day. The events didn't go as they planned. He laid there, on the cold wet concrete floor. He was in pain. Could hardly get himself up. The one thing he hated and always wished gone, was now blown to pieces. He heard Steve and Tony, they were still fighting. In just a few seconds, Steve was helping him off the ground. Wrapping his good arm around his shoulders, he lifted his best friend up and helped him towards the stairs.

"that shield doesn't belong to you! my dad made that shield!" Tony yelled. It was silent for a few seconds, before you heard the clank of the metal disk hitting the floor.

The two things that defined them both, were now gone.