[Leipzig AU] a means to a necessary end

[nerves_of_ice]

It's a long flight from Berlin to Novosibirsk and the secret location far beyond it, even in a Quinjet. They spend the time planning and coordinating. Bucky describes the structure and security of the facility itself as best he remembers. Tony calls up plans and blueprints from god knows where and throws them into the middle of the plane for all to see. They're not the same as what Bucky remembers, they figure out fairly quickly, but they're better than nothing.

Tony also takes over the back of the plane and snaps at anyone who comes close, doing something that involves shifting screens and models of buildings and wave patterns and a human skull, and the eventually the low humming grind of a machine. Soon after, he stalks back up to the front of the plane and shoves a set of custom-fabricated earplugs at Bucky, who stares at them and then at Tony.

"Noise-cancelling all the way to total sound blackout. Tap the end of the earpiece to deafen yourself," Tony informs him. "Last thing we need's for you to be his puppet." Bucky starts to stammer a thanks, but Tony growls something under his breath and stalks back to the back of the plane again to work on something else. Steve catches Bucky's eye and shakes his head, and Bucky decides to leave well enough alone.

Sam advises everyone to rest in shifts; Bucky knows he's not wrong, but neither he nor Steve can do it, and after a while Sam stops trying to convince them. Natasha sits with him for a while, her eyes dark with concern. They don't say much, but there's no need to.

A Snowcat is parked outside the door of the facility when they land. Bucky's jaw sets in hard lines at the sight of it, and he trades a look with Steve.

They're already here.

Comments

[marvel_npc]

A monitor flickers to life, and Tony slowly paces to see the screen, the stark white date already reflecting in Steve's wary eyes.

December 16, 1991.

"I know that road," he hears himself say, his eyes locked on the grainy security footage. He knows that road. He knows this date. He knows what comes next, and indeed a car comes hurtling off the road, out of control, and smashes so hard against a tree that it bounces back again, hood crumpled and engine steaming.

He feels it in his chest, but he can't stop watching. Not as the motorcycle pulls up nearby. Not as the uncaring tall figure in black comes around to the driver's side door, his metal left arm glimmering in the glow of the single streetlight.

Tony doesn't look away, his chest and shoulders rising and falling with his rapid, shallow breaths as the Winter Soldier drags his father from the car. He can hear his mother calling for him, hears Howard's confused voice saying Sergeant Barnes?

Each hit feels like it hits him. Slam. Slam. As if in a dream, he hears his mother weeping, sees the Soldier carefully put Howard's body back into the car before he comes around the car.

After another moment, there's no sound but that of his own harsh breathing, and the gunshot that ends the video.

[marvel_npc]

They're standing on the edge of disaster. He watches Tony's face as Tony watches his parents die, sees the way he winds tighter and tighter.

"Tony," Steve says, low, and Tony glances at him, his eyes burning and furious, then lunges toward Bucky as Steve grabs him by the shoulders. "Tony, no!"

He can feel Tony trembling even through the alloy of the Iron Man suit, but the other man turns to face Steve once more, his face distraught, every line in it carved deep. For a long moment, they stare at each other.

"I know," Tony says, finally. It looks like it costs him. Steve's fingers relax, very slightly, as Tony breathes deep. "Watch your eyes, Cap," he says, low and intent, and his helmet and faceplate snap back into place as he wheels, lifting both palms to the silo window and firing both repulsers at their highest intensity.

[nerves_of_ice]

He watches himself on the monitor, although he doesn't need to. He can see it clear in his own mind's eye at any time, by just thinking about it, every detail, every nuance, and is horribly aware of the tension thrumming through Tony Stark as he watches his nightmare unfold in front of him.

Bucky jerks to the side away from Sharon as Tony spins to face him, his weapon half-rising by reflex before he gets himself under control. If Tony tries to kill him, at least the shock won't hit her, not if she's out of the direct line. He can draw the fire away from her. If Tony succeeds, Steve can get her out. If--

Steve grabs Tony by the shoulders and calls his name, and Bucky remains frozen still and silent as the two of them stare at each other in silent communication. He's dimly aware of Zemo edging closer to the window, watching.

And then Tony spins and fires at Zemo, lighting up the missile silo with the force of his repulsers as they whine with increasing intensity, and Bucky makes a break for the corridor that leads to the access door for the control chamber.

Zemo can't escape. He won't let it happen.

[marvel_npc]

No.

He steps back from the window, reflexive, even as his logical mind tells him the blast will not get through.

This shouldn't be possible. Everything he's learned about them both says his plan should have worked. Steve Rogers, faced with losing his best friend all over again, should be leaping to his defense. Tony Stark, emotional hotbed of anxiety and grief and strain, should be trying to kill Barnes for the murder of his parents.

But none of it is working as he thought it would, even with the girl. Steve Rogers, who so famously loved and lost Peggy Carter, ought to have run to his beloved to ensure her safety. Her presence should be pushing the strain of the situation even further, make them even easier to break.

Was he mistaken? Was he mistaken in all of this?

The light in the window dies down, and Zemo snarls at Tony Stark's implacable faceplate, then jams a finger on the intercom button once more.

This plan may not have succeeded, but he is by no means finished. "Zilánie," he shouts, the word echoing in the nearly empty cavern of the facility core.

[nerves_of_ice]

"NO! DON'T!"

His scream is full-throated with agony and the bone-chilling terror that Tony's gift won't work, that Zemo will claim him and own him and turn the Winter Soldier against them.

He skids to a stop before leaving the chamber, his left hand throwing up sparks from the metal rail that he grabs on to in order to slow his momentum. Steve and Tony have to be able to see him, need to be able to stop him if -- if --

With a shaking hand, he slings his weapon from him and kicks it across the floor, just in case, then frantically scrabbles to tap the end of the earpiece and waits, breathless.

[marvel_npc]

"Bucky!"

But as he lunges for his best friend, Tony's armored hand slams against his chest. Steve looks at him, desperate, and sees the same horror in Tony's eyes. "Don't," Tony warns. "Don't get too close."

It means Steve's thrumming with tension, like a racehorse at the starting gate, every cell in him begging him to run, to get to Bucky now.

Zemo's voice echoes as he snarls each word into the air, and Steve can't take his eyes off Bucky, hoping desperately that Tony's earplugs will work.

They will, they have to, Tony's work is solid –

"Gruzavój vagón!" The words echo a moment, then everything dies into silence. Steve can't hear anything but the rasp of his breath and the thunder of his heart as he strains against himself. "Bucky?" he asks, unable to contain it.

"Soldat," says Zemo, grimly triumphant.

[nerves_of_ice]

He can't hear anything. He can't hear anything, except for the panicked drumming of his own heart inside his ears. It worked. They're safe. Only--

He knows down to his bones how long it takes to go through the sequence, knows what he'd look like and feel if it did. The idea springs full-formed into his mind and he runs with it, slowly straightening to stand perfectly still. He sees his best friend's lips form a familiar word, his name, and knows what Zemo must be doing now.

Slowly, he turns to face the man behind the window, keeping his gaze expressionless and empty. As he does, he holds his hand low against his leg, slightly behind his thigh, out of Zemo's sight, and gives one of the hand signals the Howling Commandos had used all those years ago. Don't worry. Disregard.

"готовность к выполнению," he tells Zemo, and watches the man's lips carefully.

[marvel_npc]

"Fuck – " hisses Tony, and Steve feels the repulser in the armored palm begin to vibrate, warming up.

"Wait," he says, immediate, his eyes locked on Bucky's hand, not his face. Don't worry. Disregard.

Tony slants a glance at him, but does as he's asked. "You better be right about this, Cap," he mutters, sotto voce.

[marvel_npc]

He grips the edge of the desk nearby hard enough it feels as though his fingers will snap, but the triumphant wave that rushes through him when the Soldier straightens and replies, dead-eyed and still, is worth it all.

Every drop of blood. Every wound. Every sleepless night.

Zemo smiles. "Kill them," he orders.

[nerves_of_ice]

He spins to face the two of them where they stand together, turning his back to his 'handler' as he would without thought if he were truly under Zemo's control, and gives a deliberate wink.

"Run," he mouths, his face hidden from the man behind him. "Get Zemo." With no more time for warnings or for anything else, the Winter Soldier leaps forward into a flat run, charging at the two of them.

[marvel_npc]

Steve hears Tony's disbelieving huff of breath that's almost a laugh as relief rushes through him.

"Tony, go!" he shouts, setting the shield in front of himself. "I'll hold him!"

It's the last thing he can say before there's a clash of metal fist on vibranium shield, and he grunts as he braces against the attack. "Let's make it look good, pal," he mutters, and springs backward to fling the shield directly at Bucky's face.

His actions are minutely slower than usual, but the only other person who might be able to notice is the one he's currently pretending to fight.

[marvel_npc]

Repulsers whine as Tony kicks off into the air, dodging the attack as it comes and fleeing for what looks like another corridor off to the side.

"FRIDAY," he snaps. "Get me into that silo."

[nerves_of_ice]

He twists as if he's going to follow Tony and lets himself take the blow Steve gives him, using the momentum to throw himself into a shoulder roll that conceals when he deactivates the earpiece so he can hear again. He has to be able to hear, in case of any other commands, any threat to Sharon, anything else that he'll need to react to.

It's not unlike running one of the training exercises the two of them had done, just a fraction slower than deadly, a scaled down version of their battles in D.C. Bucky snatches the shield from the air as Steve flings it at him and holds it in front of himself, then sweeps it back in a blow that bounces off the floor to catch him in the gut and follows up with another kick.

They have to make it look good, this murderous show for a murderous man. They have to buy Tony time.

[marvel_npc]

He barrels into the silo control room with a scream of his repulsers, every nerve on alert as data dances across his HUD.

It's empty. "FRIDAY?!" he demands, fear rising in his throat. "Where the hell is he?"

Working on it, boss, FRIDAY says, and lights up his HUD with a real-time tracker on Zemo's heat signature.

Tony studies it, the path he's taking, and swears viciously. "All right," he mutters. "Hold on. Things are about to get as fast as my freshman year girlfriend."

[marvel_npc]

He'd evaded Stark easily enough, and now he slips through the bowels of the facility, quickly making his way to the center chamber where the battle still rages.

His plan will still succeed. If Stark kills the Soldier, Rogers will never forgive him. If the Soldier manages to kill either, the Avengers lose one of their greatest captains.

And if Steve Rogers insists on not playing the game, well –

There are ways he can force his hand.

Zemo slips into the main chamber and takes up position before whistling, sharp and loud. "Soldat," he calls. "That is enough. Stop."

[nerves_of_ice]

He rolls free of Steve and across the chamber floor for as far as he thinks he can get away with before climbing to his feet and standing still to await further orders. Bucky keeps his deliberately-empty gaze fixed on Zemo while he waits.

Where the hell is Tony? Fear rages through him, but he doesn't let it show. He can't afford to let anything show.

[marvel_npc]

"You know, Captain," Zemo says, his tone conversational as he lifts the handgun from the back of his waist band, "I've learned so much about you over this past year. Your past, your present, your abilities."

Idly, he checks the magazine, then clicks it home and thumbs off the safety. "I know how strong you are, how quickly you heal. And I know how fast you are. For example –"

In the blink of an eye, he has the gun up and aimed directly at the forehead of the sleeping Sharon Carter, unknowing in the cryo chamber. "You might be able to stop one or save the other," he finishes. "But not both. Choose, Captain."

Lifting his voice, he calls to the Soldier. "Tony Stark is in the silo control room. Kill him."

[nerves_of_ice]

Terror rips through him, chilling his blood. Zemo may claim to know Steve's abilities, but Bucky does, just as well as he knows his own, and two things are immediately evident:

Steve's in range to put himself between Sharon and a bullet. He himself is not.

Everything in him howls for him to try anyway. But he can't. He can't. It's not that he'd blow the illusion of control. It's that Zemo's too good a shot. The bodies of the five Soldiers are silent testimony to that. Every single wound is right in the center of the forehead, perfectly placed. Steve's fast enough to stop one shot and strong enough to take it, but Bucky knows all too well that too many bullets will leave him vulnerable - which will give Zemo the opportunity to kill him and Sharon both.

He trusts Steve. He trusts him absolutely, and that trust has never been misplaced. Bucky makes the conscious choice to trust him again now, and turns toward the silo control room.

[marvel_npc]

When he gives the command, three things happen simultaneously:

The Soldat turns to fulfill his order.

Steve Rogers grabs his shield and flings it toward Zemo, throwing himself directly after and into the path of the bullet.

Zemo's finger tightens on the trigger.






Half a heartbeat later, a fourth thing happens: there's a cacophony of heavy metal music, a flash of blue light, and Iron Man drops like an avenging angel out of the sky, cracking the cement beneath his metal boots as he lands and throws his palm up. Sparks fly as the bullet launched from the handgun collides with the steel-titanium alloy of the suit.

Two more things happen in quick succession: Stark grabs the gun as Zemo, despairing, turns it on himself. He crushes it, then hits Zemo with a pulse of energy that sends him flying into the wall, hitting it with a sickening crunch.

Dazed, he slides down to the floor, and looks up as Stark stomps forward. Servos whine as Iron Man raises his palm again. "He doesn't need to be in two places at once," Stark says. "That's what he's got me for. Now stand the hell down like a good little boy and let me arrest you."

[nerves_of_ice]

He spins in an instant, and the speed with which he dashes across the room makes it clear just how much he'd been holding back before. Bucky jerks to a stop in front of Sharon's chamber and slams the activation sequence, then takes a single step back to watch, his heart in his throat, as the cryogenic mist is sucked out of the tube and the locks and seals begin to release.

[from_the_outside]

It's cold.

It's cold, and nothing feels right. It's dark – she realizes her eyes are closed and blinks them open, slow and drugged, but it doesn't help much. Her vision is so blurred she might as well be under water.

Slowly, she stumbles forward, shivering. Her leg gives beneath her like water, pitching her towards the ground before she can stop herself.

[nerves_of_ice]

She doesn't fall. Bucky snatches her up as she stumbles, one arm under her legs and the other around her back, and cradles her against his chest.

"Sharon," he murmurs, uncaring of who might hear him now. "Sharon, baby, it's me. I've got you. You're safe."

[from_the_outside]

The ground swoops away from beneath her feet and she finds herself tucked against a solid chest as she shivers and shiver and shivers.

It feels like she'll never get warm again. She can feel his body heat, but her cold self sucks it away as fast as she recognizes it, absorbing it like a black hole.

"Bucky." Her voice is rough and cracked, her throat horribly dry, and the words come out slow and drugged. "I had the weirdest dream."

[marvel_npc]

At the other end of the room, Steve rises from cuffing Zemo with plastic zip-ties. The man's eyes aren't on him at all, but on the two people near the open cryo chamber: Bucky, cradling Sharon in his arms and whispering softly to her.

"Ah," Zemo sighs, and shrugs slightly. "A miscalculation on my part."

"One of many," Tony informs him, then looks at Steve. They exchange a complicated glance – one full of apologies and familiarity and determination – and Tony nods. "Go ahead," he says. "I'll keep an eye on this guy for a second."

Steve gives him a grateful glance, then jogs over towards the cryo chamber and the small pile of items he'd noticed beside it. Lifting the winter coat, he comes over to put it gently over Sharon like a blanket, tucking it around her as Bucky holds her. "Hey," he says, gently. "Welcome back."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I know," he says softly. "But it's over now."

He looks up at Steve as his best friend places the coat over Sharon, heartfelt thanks in his eyes.