Holy shit. That was a twist I wasn't expecting. I'm not sure how I feel about Bucky not being Steve's soulmate but the Winter Soldier being that. It's narratively interesting, but I'm not sure if I like it, character-wise. That said, this is incredibly well crafted, and it's going in my bookmarks forever.
These parts are particularly moving:
“That is,” he says, because he is just an asset, he understands that. But he still gets to choose. “I don’t want anyone else. So you just keep me until you do, then decommission me.”
“Jesus, Buck--” the man chokes in horror, and the asset’s glare darkens. “No! It’s not--you’re not mine. You were . . . you were born with a soulmark. And it was always the size it is now, it never changed. I’m younger than you, it would’ve been--it would’ve changed.”
“I don’t care,” the asset says again, because he doesn’t. He knows he must belong to someone. Of course he must. But this time he chose that someone, and he’s not going back on that just because the man has mistaken his programming for the existence of an immortal soul. “Keep me until the hand on your neck comes for you and then decommission me. Or don’t. Put me at the foot of the bed. Put me in the basement or a cell and bring me out when you need me. I don’t care. I can still be a valuable asset. I will shape history for you.”
…
“Bucky,” the man says hoarsely, grabbing the asset’s hand and turning it over in his own. The asset looks down at it. He has killed people for touching him less deliberately than that. He has done nothing to people who touched him so much more terribly. “That’s not . . . it’s your hand on my neck, Buck. Of course it’s your hand on my neck. I won’t keep you because it’s not mine on yours.”
Comment on a mark, a mission, a brand, a scar
LemonScience33 on Chapter 4 Tue 18 Nov 2014 10:13PM UTC
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