[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

[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.

[from_the_outside]

As the fog begins to lift from her brain and vision, memory slowly seeps in. Her apartment – the fight – the needle –

Sharon struggles in his arms in sudden panic, trying to be put down.

"Bucky," she gasps. "You can't be here. It's a trap – he – I told him everything, you have to go, now!"

[nerves_of_ice]

Not wanting her to feel restrained, he lowers her feet to the ground, but keeps his arm tight around her and a grip on the coat so it won’t fall.

“It’s okay,” he soothes. “It’s okay, baby. We got him. He’s not going to hurt anyone else. Steve, show her—-“

[from_the_outside]

"We got him," Steve says, and shifts so she can see Zemo sitting on the ground, his wrists bound behind his back as Tony Stark finishes putting a piece of duct tape over his mouth.

Steve blinks at that. "Where did you get that?"

Tony flips a hand at him. "Uh, I carry it. Obviously. You know how many times this stuff has come in handy? Why don't you have duct tape?"

"Forget I asked," says Steve, and looks back at Sharon and Bucky with a shrug.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky gives him a small answering shrug, then looks back at Tony. “Good thinking.”

He can’t look too long at Zemo, he finds. Too many emotions crash together inside him in a twisted tangle when he does. Bucky gives the man a cool, blank stare as his arm tightens around Sharon protectively, then turns back to her. “See? It’s over. He’s done.”