Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pagophobia. The fear of ice and frost.

Chionophobia. The fear of snow.

Cryophobia. The fear of extreme cold.

Bucky knew of these terms because he happened to be afflicted by all three.

Which might make someone wonder why in the hell he’d volunteered to work at a research base in the Antarctic for eight months of winter.

It was a fair question, and one that many people had questioned him on. His family in particular had been especially concerned, but Bucky had waved them off. And true, he’d lied during the psychological exam they screened everyone through before letting them come to the station, but what was one little white lie?

And besides, Bucky had been spending years facing his fears, figuratively micro-dosing on cold in the winter months of New York. He wouldn’t let his irrational fear control him, and had been working tirelessly on himself to overcome the one thing that held him back from his dream.

But as he stood there in heavy layers of arctic clothing, standing outside the base and facing the endless horizon of white, he had to wonder if he was a little crazy.

His heart hammered in his throat as his mouth went dry, his boot scuffing the snow underfoot as he shifted restlessly. He watched as powder-fine snow flew across the flat plain in a dance of mist, like ghostly fingers groping the skin of icy sheets, ready to reach their cold digits into his marrow and freeze him from the inside out-

“Buck, you with me?” Clint asked, yelling over the harsh wind the buffered them from the side.

Bucky blinked, turning away from the endless ocean of ice and snow to face Clint, his face shielded with goggles and a face mask.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said I’m done, we can go back in” Clint said, motioning to the external breakers he’d been checking over. The cover was now sealed, something Bucky had missed as he’d had his back turned.

“Right” Bucky said, following Clint as they made their way back inside, away from the icy cold.

Once they sealed the hatch behind themselves, the two men started disrobing instantly, the heavy layers of clothing now overkill in the room-temperature station.

“Hopefully that fixed the fuse” Clint commented as he hung up his coat and overalls, shucking his boots with the rest of the pile and changing into their indoor shoes.

“What if it doesn’t?” Bucky asked, pulling off his mask and goggles.

“Then I’m gonna have to open the outlet from inside the walls- that or we just accept that the outlet is gonna be dead for the rest of the winter”

“Yeah, no. Nobodies gonna buy into that” Bucky said. One broken electric outlet on base was enough of an issue, but a broken outlet in the rec room? Hard sell.

Bucky was just glad he wasn’t responsible for fixing the problem. As a climate expert and paleoclimatologist, his expertise was decidedly not electrical engineering like Clint’s.

Clint, who’d turned down work at NASA, was essentially their on-site handyman, keeping their base, equipment, and vehicles in top order in the harsh southern climate.

Really, the only reason Bucky had tagged along was because of their whole buddy-system when going outside, especially during inclement weather. He’d just been unlucky enough to draw the short straw on this occasion.

“Yeah, that’s about what I thought too” Clint agreed.

The two of them made their way deeper into the base, passing by various labs and sleeping quarters before arriving at the rec room.

The entirety of the expedition had congregated to the room, sitting around the various chairs and couches as they waited for him and Clint’s return. Heads turned as the two of them entered, several members perking up at their presence.

“How’d it go?” Bruce asked.

“Plug something in and we’ll find out” Clint said.

“I got it” Natasha said, moving to plug in the popcorn maker. Everyone watched with baited breath as she flicked the switch, and then collectively let out a sigh of relief as the machine came on with a whir.

Clint clapped his hands together then threw both fists in the air. “And God said on the eighth day: let there be power!”

“Good job man” Sam, their astronomer and astrophysicist, said.

“Saved our asses” Steve said. He was their Antarctic marine biologist and researcher, on board to study impacts of natural or anthropogenic changes on sea life.

He also happened to be the handsomest bastard on base, in Bucky’s opinion, but that was neither here nor there.

In addition to them, there was also Thor, the Norwegian glaciologist, geologist, and mineralogist; Natasha, the Russian viral ecologist; Bruce, the Antarctic lichenologist and mycologist; and Tony, the... well, Bucky didn’t know exactly what it was he did, but it was somewhere close ecotoxicolgy and chemistry. That or mad scientist, he couldn’t say.

It was a predominately American expedition, with a surprising number of them from New York that almost felt like too much of a coincidence, but hey, it gave them something to talk about.

Bucky had so far gotten to know the seven of them over a period of three weeks as they’d done training together, getting ready spend an isolated eight months in the Antarctic as they studied their respective fields.

It wasn’t a great start to find the outlets in the rec room down, but Clint’s engineering magic had saved them from a crisis of leisure.

“Alright, well, not to be a wet blanket,” Tony said, getting up from his seat, “but now that that’s settled, I need to go check my samples, and if I’m not mistaken, you guys all have your own stuff to do”

There were a series of groans as everyone was reminded of their work, the little impromptu meeting only held to solve the matter of the broken outlet Bucky had discovered.

“You guys have fun with that” Clint said, taking Tony’s seat and putting his feet up on the coffee table. Lucky bastard was free most days considering he didn’t actually have much in terms of research to do.

The rest of them however were on a schedule- not a tight one admittedly, but their days couldn’t just be spent doing nothing. At any given time there was some kind of research going on, samples that needed to be tested or observed, on-base chores that needed doing, etcetera.

“We still on for movie night tonight?” Sam asked as he got up.

“Not like we have anywhere else to be” Bucky said.

“I might not be able to make it, but you guys start without me” Natasha said. “One of my rats isn’t taking to the new virus too well, I might have to quarantine with it and observe the infection”

“Great, you have fun with that” Tony said in barely subtle sarcasm.

Bucky shivered, not envying the rats in Natasha’s lab, nor Natasha for that matter. Her lab was located on a hub outside the base for safety reasons, seeing as she was studying many infectious diseases and viruses. She said she decontaminated every time she came and went, but the thought of catching something off her never really left Bucky’s mind. Just his luck he’d catch Ebola- or worse- out in the middle of nowhere.

The group of them made their way to their respective labs, splitting off into pairs. Asides from Natasha, the rest of them shared a lab space for economical reasons.

Steve paired off with Sam, Tony paired off with Bruce, and that left Bucky to go with Thor.

Climate and paleoclimatological studies were somewhat related to glaciology, and so he and Thor made sense to split their lab, taking ice and atmospheric samples together. It also helped that Thor was a fairly decent lab-mate, boisterous personality aside.

Thank god he at least didn’t have to share with Tony. The man liked to blast rock music that could be felt throughout the base, and he liked poking at people to talk shop about thing only he understood.

Bucky didn’t know how Bruce managed to stay so calm and collected around the man- Bucky would’ve snapped day one if he had to study his research under those conditions, but hey, more power to him.

As Bucky entered his lab with Thor, the two of them splitting off to their respective desks, he couldn’t help but wish it was Steve he’d been paired with.

Marine biology wasn’t even that far off from Bucky’s own studies, or at least, were no further than the astronomy and astrophysics that Sam studied.

But then, Bucky didn’t even know if Steve was interested in men- he didn’t know if any of the men on base were. For all he knew, he could be the only gay dude on the expedition- but hey, if he didn’t shoot his shot, he’d never know.

And if Steve fell through, well... Thor was pretty easy on the eyes, and so was Sam and Clint. Bruce was a little too timid for Bucky’s taste, and Tony was... a lot, to say the least. And then there was Natasha, but she was out for obvious reasons.

But then again, who was he to say what was off the table? As the saying went in the Antarctic: ‘the odds are good, but the goods are odd’.

It was no secret that sex happened on these kinds of expeditions. There was a store of about three hundred condoms on base for everyone to access, the unspoken and unacknowledged stash an open secret that nobody talked about but knew of anyways.

It was a well known phenomena, so much so that they had a name for it: Ice Husbands and Ice Wives. People would pair up and form a temporary relationship during the isolated months away, even if they had a spouse back home. It was an unspoken trend that Bucky had admittedly been a little excited for.

Back home he’d had no luck on the dating scene, date after date ending in either being ghosted or just dying out in a shameful waning of conversation.

And true, Bucky didn’t come out here with the express purpose of getting laid- that would be crazy, and not worth facing his fear of ice and snow. No, he truly was here to study his field, but was it too much to ask for a little action while he did so?

He sighed at his desk, looking down at the readings he’d collected yesterday, the little squiggles of lines indicating fluctuations of oxygen and other gases in the air from the past week. The information wouldn’t be very useful until he had at least three months worth of readings to compare and cross-index them to, but he had to start somewhere.

What would be more useful would be when he and Thor went out in the next couple of weeks to get ice samples from over a hundred feet deep, enough that he could test samples of frozen air that dated back to nearly eight-hundred-thousand years ago and see what the air composition had been like then.

He thought wistfully of all the information he’d get just from a few inches worth of ice, of the chronology of temperature and precipitation, of the oxygen-18 changes, and possible volcanic ash helping him date seismic events.

He imagined Thor had similar thoughts, and the two of them may well end up studying the same sample of ice in turns.

But that was a good few weeks away, seeing as there was an oncoming storm about to hit in the coming days that would leave them trapped in the station for a week or two. Already, from what Bucky had seen outside, the weather was growing worse.

There wasn’t much they could do but prepare and stick to their studies, and that was exactly what Bucky was going to do.

And maybe see about asking Steve out.

Chapter Text

Bucky grunted as his back hit the door to his room, his body pressed against the wood and crowded in by Steve’s own.

Their lips stayed connected despite the roughhousing, the two of them making out with an intense passion.

“Get a room” Tony heckled as he walked by in the narrow hallway, not pausing as he stepped by the couple.

“M’ tryin’” Bucky muttered into the kiss, his hand reaching back and grasping for the doorknob.

Steve for his part didn’t let up, pressing his whole body up against Bucky as he groped his ass.

“C’mon” Steve groaned into the kiss.

Bucky finally managed to get the door to open, the two of them tumbling in and hastily shutting the door behind them, never once disentangling themselves.

“Oomf” Bucky huffed as Steve all but threw him down onto the bed.

Steve pulled off his sweater, and them his other sweater, and then his undershirt. As he did this Bucky did the same, yanking off his many layers of clothes until the two of them were nude.

“You wanna top?” Bucky asked, breathing hard as he took in the taught muscles of Steve’s body. God, but was he built! Bucky got an eyeful in the lit room, gaze travelling from Steve’s chiselled pecks to his chiselled abs to his jutting cock, one that made Bucky’s mouth water.

“Sounds good” Steve said with a grin, bending down and pulling something out of the pocket of his discarded jeans.

“A condom?” Bucky asked.

“I know we all got tested before we left, but I figure better safe than sorry” Steve said almost sheepishly, his cheeks pinking up.

Bucky cracked a smile at how cute Steve was. “Yeah, okay, but before you put it on...” he said, crawling up to the edge of the bed.

“What?” Steve asked in a confused tone.

“I wanna suck you off” Bucky said, laying on a heated look to emphasize his words.

Steve returned the look, his cock twitching as he looked down to Bucky’s parted lips. “Yeah, okay” Steve said almost thoughtlessly, reaching a hand out to cusp Bucky’s chin, his thumb pressing along Bucky’s lips in wonderment.

“C’mere” Bucky said, guiding Steve to come closer until he was right in front of Bucky where he knelt on the bed.

Without much more fanfare, Bucky took Steve into his mouth, sucking him down with ease until he hit the halfway point. He revelled in the stretch of his jaw, the heavy feel of Steve’s cock on his tongue, the flesh warm and hard in his mouth.

“Fuck” Steve breathed, hand reaching down to fist Bucky’s hair, not forcing him to move but to simply hang on. Bucky appreciated that, not one to be forced down on a blowjob.

He worked his tongue against the underside of Steve’s cock while at the same time sucking his cheeks in, slowly moving his head back and forth. He hummed in appreciation, enjoying the clean taste of flesh and musk, working his way to take Steve just a little bit deeper, the fluff of Steve’s hairs just barely tickling his nose.

Suddenly Steve was pulling him off, and Bucky looked up with a questioning sound, his mouth still hanging open as if Steve might shove back in.

“I’m close” Steve panted in explanation.

“Oh”

Without waiting for Bucky, Steve bend down and shoved him onto his back gently, then grabbed both of Bucky’s legs and spread them apart.

“Mind if I use my mouth?” Steve asked, just barely holding himself back as he eyed Bucky hungrily.

“Uh, sure” Bucky said, his mind halted for a moment at the sheer sexual energy Steve exuded. The man was all power, and yet it was reeled in for Bucky, as if Steve might hurt him by accident and was trying desperately hard not to. Not that Bucky would have minded.

Without further delay, Steve dove in, tonguing at Bucky’s hole. Bucky threw his head back and groaned, reaching a hand down and grasping at Steve’s shorter hairs, tugging on them. Steve hummed in response, licking into Bucky further as he reached a hand up and started jerking Bucky off.

Before Bucky knew it he was practically mewling in pleasure, writhing in his sheets and panting, sweat on his brow as his body was impossibly warmed from the bigger man between his legs.

He heard Steve mutter something, but the words were lost to his ears.

“Wha?” Bucky asked between breaths.

“I said ‘do you have any lube?” Steve asked, raising his head away from Bucky’s hole.

Bucky nodded, then spoke aloud. “Yeah, yeah, in the dresser”

Steve shifted over and opened the dresser drawer, pulling out one of the many tubes of lubricant Bucky had packed for the expedition. If he noticed that the drawer was practically overflowing with them, he didn’t comment.

Steve popped the cap open with a small click!, the sound causing an almost Pavlovian response in Bucky as his cock twitched. Steve put some lube of his fingers before bringing them down to Bucky’s hole, slowly easing two of them in.

Bucky groaned, closing his eyes for a moment at the pleasure of it all. It had been a long time since someone else had been inside him, and he tried to commit the moment to memory. His eyes fluttered open to be greeted by Steve’s own heated look, the other man clearly enjoying himself as he fingered Bucky open, his other hand out of view down at his crotch, presumably jacking himself.

“I think I’m good” Bucky said after a few long minutes of just the two of them just groaning with each other. If Bucky wasn’t ready by now he’d eat his hat, his own impatience getting the better of him.

“Alright” Steve breathed with a grin, pulling his fingers out and grabbing for the condom. He ripped it open with his teeth, putting it on before getting up and onto the bed on top of Bucky.

“You sure you’re ready?” Steve asked, and wasn’t that sweet?

But yes, he was.

“If you don’t start soon, I’m gonna kick you out and finish myself”

Steve chuckled and shook his head in amusement. “Alright, alright” he relented, reaching down and grabbing himself to line up against Bucky’s hole.

Bucky slowly breathed out as Steve pushed in, relaxing himself against the stretch of Steve’s admittedly large cock. He breathed in sharply as Steve tucked himself all the way to the hilt, then let out a groan.

Above him Steve was moaning too, legs shaking slightly from presumably holding himself back.

“Come on” Bucky goaded, wrapping his legs around Steve’s waist and pulling him all the way in. “Move”

Steve didn’t need much more prompting after that, pulling out slightly before shoving in at Bucky’s insistence.

“Fuck, yes” Bucky groaned, body shoved back and forth against the sheets as Steve really laid into him, pumping his hips with wanton fervour.

The feel of him, the stretch, the constant hitting of his prostate, it was all so good.

“Fuck, fuck” Bucky swore in pleasure, legs tightening around Steve’s waist. Warmth was pooling in his gut, electricity roving up and down his body as his pleasure crested.

“I’m close” Bucky gasped into Steve’s mouth, the two of them kissing and Steve drove into him.

“Me too” Steve muttered, breath coming fast between kisses and his tempo starting to turn more frantic.

They breathed each other’s air in desperate pants, body slick with sweat and sliding against each other passionately.

Suddenly Bucky pleasure washed over him and he came, spurting wet between their bodies. Bucky let out as long groaned, tightening around Steve in his orgasm.

Steve grunted as his hips suddenly snapped up into Bucky one last time, locking in place for a moment as his body went taught and he presumably came in the condom.

Slowly Steve relaxed, as did Bucky, and the two just lay there one on top of the other, catching their breaths.

Steve moved his head to bury it at the crook of Bucky’s neck and slowly licked up the sweat there. Bucky couldn’t hold back the laugh at the ticklish sensation, and he felt Steve’s own smile against his skin.

“Hoo, that was good” Bucky couldn’t help but comment, unwrapping his legs from around Steve’s waist. He felt Steve slip out of him as his cock softened, but otherwise Steve made no move to get off him.

Bucky didn’t mind, enjoying the press of Steve’s body against his own.

“So” Steve said after a moment.

“So?”

“I guess this makes us Ice Husbands” Steve said with a grin.

Bucky threw his head back and laughed.

Chapter Text

There was a knock at the lab door, prompting Bucky to look up. Thor was off for the day having finished his own studies early, leaving Bucky alone to pour over his atmospheric readings.

Bucky raised a brow when he saw it was Natasha. “Hello?” Bucky said, not sure what she was doing here.

“Hey,” Natasha said. “There’s a meeting in the communications room”

“What about?”

“Not sure, but Clint got a message from the head office”

“And they want me in the meeting?”

“They want everyone at the meeting”

A meeting with everyone? What could this possibly be about, Bucky wondered, getting up from his seat, leaving his research for the time being. He followed Natasha out the door and down the hall, past the other labs and towards the communications room.

‘Room’ being a generous term. It was more of a closet really, housing a single desk, chair, and radio, along with a few other odds and ends that probably only Clint knew the purpose of.

Already the room was packed, with Clint at the seat with the set of radio headphones on, seeming to be occupied with listening in. Steve, Sam and Thor were crowded in around him, and Bruce and Tony were just at the doorway, leaving Bucky and Natasha stuck standing outside listening in.

“That’s everyone” Natasha announced once they arrived. Clint gave them a brief look before fiddling some more with the radio, pulling the headphones down around his neck and bringing the microphone up to his mouth.

“Alright boss; that’s everyone here. Go ahead and tell them what you told me”

There was a crackle of static before the voice of Nick Fury came on the line, filling the packed room with his dulcet voice.

“We got a reading off the WISE satellite above your region, and they’ve detected some abnormal readings”

Sam leaned in and spoke into the mic. “What kind of abnormal readings?”

“It’s in the infrared thermographic range. We weren’t specifically looking for anything, but one of our techs noticed an anomalous reading not too far from your station, it reads as a whole lot warmer than the surrounding ice. We want you to check it out”

“Any idea what it could be? Maybe it’s just a volcanic vent under the water”

“We though so too, but the heat signature is too close to the surface to be a volcanic vent, and, more importantly, the area we’re detecting the heat isn’t a known ice-flow. This one is on land”

“Huh” Bucky muttered under his breath, wracking his brain for what that could possibly be. A heat signature on land? He supposed a volcanic vent could maybe still be the culprit, but that was a big maybe.

“Could it be man-made? Another base maybe?”

“If it is, it’s not an officially registered one. That’s partly why we want you to check; we want to know what the hell this damn thing is, and your station is the closest one to it”

“How urgent is this? We’re looking at a snow storm in less than twenty-four hours, depending on how far this is we may not be able to make it”

“I’d say this is fairly important, but don’t worry, the location is barely six miles out. It’s practically next door”

“Alright, we’ll check it out” Sam said.

“Good. I’ll relay you the coordinates, report back ASAP”

Fury started listing off the coordinates by rote, and Clint hastily grabbed a pen and paper to start writing them down.

Then there was a final click!, followed by static as the radio went silent otherwise.

Clint dropped the pen on the desk, leaning back and letting out a breath. “So how do we wanna play this?” he asked.

“Depends what it is we’re going to find” Steve said. “If it’s just a volcanic eruption then we don’t need more than three people, tops. On the other hand, if it’s an unregistered base, there’s safety in numbers in case they’re not friendlies”

“I suppose it’s best we play it safe then” Thor said.

“We should probably leave someone here in case anything goes wrong, they can radio back for help” Natasha said.

“Woah, woah, I think you’re all jumping to a few conclusions here” Bruce said sensibly. “You’re making it sound like we’re going to meet a bunch of commandos with machetes and machine guns out to take hostages”

“I mean, that’s worst case, but yeah” Natasha said as if it were an obvious thing. “We have no idea what we’re going to find out there. Could be some civilian explorers, could be military, could be mercenaries, we just don’t know”

“You seem awfully sure it’s gonna be people” Bucky said.

Natasha shrugged. “It seems pretty coincidental that this heat signature cropped up so close. Could be someone is looking for us”

Bucky supposed as the viral ecologist on base, she had the most sensitive research. It wouldn’t be so far out there that someone would take interest in her work for less than innocent means, and he supposed Natasha knew that well enough.

“What do you suggest then?” Steve asked.

“Like I said: we leave one person behind to man the radio, call in if we suddenly go radio silent. The rest of us go out and see what it is”

“Sounds good enough for me” Sam said, looking around.

The rest of them gave their assents in varying words and nods.

“So who stays behind?” Tony asked.

“Draw straws?” Steve suggested.

Chapter Text

Bruce drew the short straw, and so it was decided that he’d hang back at base. Of course the one time Bucky wanted to draw short he’d gotten long like everybody else, which meant he had to go out into the snow with the threat of a blizzard on the horizon. Just perfect.

The seven of them suited up in their outdoor gear, then made their way towards the garage hub that housed the snow mobiles.

Thank god each machine was custom made with an enclosed heated cab, so they wouldn’t be directly exposed to the cold, something Bucky was extremely thankful for. The cabs seated two per machine, and they had a grand total of five, enough for all of them plus an extra for redundancy.

The seven of them entered into the cabs, naturally pairing up with their lab partners and Tony taking Clint in lieu of Bruce.

Bucky huddled in next to Thor, letting the larger man take the controls and drive the snow mobile, Bucky’s hands a little too shaky for the job.

They were driving out into the cold, cold unknown with nothing but some coordinates and whatever provisions were kitted in the machines; sue him for being nervous.

Bucky tucked his hands between his legs to hide the tremors, sitting back and letting Thor steer them into the lineup of snowmobiles.

He looked out of the cab to the vast expanse of ice and snow, and had a sudden feeling of terror as they departed into the frosted wasteland. The winds were strong enough to buffer against the cab windows, and Bucky had to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment against the panic in his chest.

I’m warm, I’m safe inside the cab. I have winter gear thick enough to keep me warm if hell freezes over, Bucky assured himself over and over. He let the hum of the motor beneath them help distract from the bellowing wind outside and the vast frozen desert they were traversing, driving further and further away from the safety of the station-

Okay, not helping distract him. Bucky took in a slow breath, focusing on the artificial warmth of the air heaters in the cab, reassuring himself that he was warm, that the cab was warm, that he was dressed to stay warm and not cold cold cold.

Thankfully, six miles wasn’t too far with the snowmobiles, and in no time they were coming to a halt. Bucky peeked out from beyond the hood of his parka to see if they had come upon a newly formed encampment of some sort, but was only greeted with the hellish frozen wastes he’d come to familiarize himself with.

“Well, I guess it’s not people” Bucky said, and Thor hummed in assent.

“But over there, look” Thor pointed, and Bucky followed the path of his finger towards a great big crack in the icy ground.

Bucky frowned. “Maybe it is volcanic” he muttered.

Outside, the others were getting out of their cabs, and so Bucky and Thor followed suit, all of them huddling close together against the wind.

“So it’s not people” Tony yelled.

“What is it then?” Bucky asked, his own voice raised against the howling of the wind.

“Only one way to find out” Clint said, waddling out of their huddle and making his way to his snowmobile, grabbing something from the back. He returned to the huddle with his gloved hands full, presenting the items to the group.

“You can’t be serious” Sam said.

“Do you wanna find out what it is or not?” Clint said.

“Can’t we just say there’s a big ass crack in the ground and call it a day?”

“Look, I’m not getting paid to half-ass things, are you?”

Sam grumbled something in reply, but it was lost to the wind.

“Alright then” Clint said, handing out the mountaineering supplies. “We’re going in”

You’re okay, you’re warm, the ice can’t hurt you, Bucky thought over and over again as he slowly descended into the dark, cold abyss that was the giant crack in the icy ground.

And wow, wasn’t that just a terrifying way to phrase that little tidbit of information?

Bucky swallowed down his fear, slowly letting himself get lowered into the mysterious crevasse, repeating his litany of self-assuring affirmations. One positive in this situation- the howling of the wind was much quieter down here.

Bucky still kept his eyes firmly shut so as to not see the layers upon layers of ice he was passing by. Just hours ago he’d been hyped to study the stuff, he’d just assumed it would be a small sample in his lab versus this very visceral face-to-face encounter with it.

“You alright man?” Sam asked, and Bucky peeked an eye open to find himself hanging just a scant few inches from the bottom, the rope suspending him in the air. Sam stood at the side to help guide him, several flares lit to illuminate the otherwise dark cavern.

“Yep, yep, all good” Bucky said quickly, unhooking himself from the cable. He gave the rope two tugs to let Clint know he’d made it down and to send the next person.

Stepping onto the solid ground below, Bucky slowly took in his surroundings, expecting it to all be ice.

While half-right- what with the walls indeed being made of condensed ice and snow- what really got Bucky’s attention, along with Steve and Sam’s, was the metallic looking structure just ahead of them.

“What the hell?” Bucky muttered.

“I know, right?” Sam said. “And hey, put your hood down, breathe the air down here”

Bucky looked to Sam like he was crazy, but saw that both he and Steve had lowered their hoods and removed their mask and goggles. Reluctantly, Bucky did the same, taking a breath in then raising his brow in surprise.

“It’s... warm”

“Yeah, the warm thermal images were pretty spot on” Steve said in wonderment.

Now that Bucky was paying more attention, he saw that the ice walls weren’t just jagged from being cracked- they were smooth, like they’d been melted. He looked down to see puddles at his feet, then looked up to see little icicles dripping droplets onto the floor below.

“What the hell?” Bucky muttered, reaching for the flashlight in one of his many pockets and turning it on, shining it around to get a better look at it all.

He slowly approached the metal structure with Steve, the two of them inspecting it closer.

“It looks man-made” Steve said in wonder, pulling off his glove and reaching out a hand to feel the flat surface of it. “It’s warm too”

Bucky took off his own glove and did similar, marvelling at the warmth the metal seemed to emanate.

“What the hell?” Natasha said from behind them, pulling off her own mask and goggles as she looked on in surprise.

“I know, right?” Bucky said.

Eventually everyone but Clint descended- Clint being the one who knew most about the ropes, and so was left in charge of bringing everyone back up when it was time.

They all stood at the face of the metal structure, feeling it up and inspecting it to the best of their ability, muttering among themselves as to what it might be.

“What’s your situation? Over” Clint said through their radios.

Steve answered the radio for the group. “Well, there’s a, uh, a metal... thing down here. Over”

“What, like a submarine? Over”

“We’re not too sure, give us some time to figure it out. Over”

“What is it though? It can’t be a submarine, we’re nowhere near the ice field” Sam said.

“Well it’s something” Tony said, rapping on the metal with his knuckles and eliciting a hollow clank clank sound.

“Maybe an aircraft? Could’ve crashed years ago” Natasha theorized.

“But then why is it suddenly warm?” Steve pointed out.

“Nuclear waste? The decay from a radioisotope could be giving off heat. Could even be a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that powered it” Tony said.

“But why now? The satellites didn’t notice this until a few days ago at most”

Tony shrugged. “Could’ve been covered by the ice this whole time, maybe a shift in tectonic plates combined with all the slow melting finally made the crack we came in through”

“Damn, should we even be this close if it’s radioactive?” Sam asked.

“Eh, it’s fine” Tony dismissed. “So long as we don’t spend a week in it’s presence, we should be good. And that’s assuming it is radioactive. Could be aliens”

Bucky scoffed. “I’d believe this is a sub before I believe it’s aliens”

“Wanna bet on it?”

“Sure, twenty bucks”

“You’re on” Tony said with a grin.

“How far do you think this thing goes?” Natasha asked, shining her light on the structure, illuminating it’s flat plains and strange ridges.

“Hard to say” Tony said, feeling along the surface with his hands, occasionally knocking on it. “Could be this is all there is to it, but based on how much heat is coming out here, I’d say we’re looking at about a hundred yards, maybe more”

Sam whistled, shining his own light on it. “That’s one hell of a plane”

“If it was a dark ops, nobody would’ve reported it missing. Could be from any nation’s air force” Natasha said.

“Tony, what are you doing?” Steve asked suddenly.

Bucky turned to look and saw the Tony was crouched down, pushing his hands against an odd ridge.

“I just- if the heat’s escaping through here, it’s gotta be a door, right? I mean, an exit could act like a funnel for all the heat, so it stands to reason that...” Tony trailed off.

“That...?”

“Aha!” Tony exclaimed as he felt something underneath the ridge, and suddenly there was a loud clunk!, clunk!, clunk!, as the metal started to shift and recede.

Everyone jumped back as the metal slid apart, revealing an entryway.

“What’d I say, huh?” Tony beamed, standing up proudly.

“Well, it appears to be a door” Thor said.

“An alien door”

Natasha clucked her tongue. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves”

“I’m telling you guys, this is a spaceship. I just know it”

“Or a heavily classified stealth plane that may or may not be American”

“Boo, you’re no fun” Tony said in mock hurt.

“Well,” Natasha said, hoisting her gear bag over her shoulder, “like you said, we’ll be fine as long as we don’t spend a week down here; let’s go check it out”

Bucky gulped, shining his light down the slanted corridor in front of them.

Yeah, just go explore the weird plane under thousands of tonnes of ice. What could go wrong?

Chapter Text

They radioed Clint to let him know they were okay, and gave him a rough description of what they’d found, along with the fact that they were going to explore it. Clint, in turn, would radio back to the station for Bruce to remain apprised of the situation.

Steve and Natasha took the lead, followed by Bucky and Tony, with Sam and Thor taking up the rear. The six of them all had their flashlights out by now and were shining the beams in all directions to get a better look at the inside.

“Come on, you can’t seriously tell me this isn’t an alien ship” Tony said, motioning to the oddly warped walls. They looked almost like still ocean waves, the metal rising and falling in little ripples throughout.

“Tell you what- show me an alien body and I’ll believe you” Natasha said.

“Challenge accepted”

They continued moving deeper at a slow pace, taking in their surroundings with wonder and amazement.

Eventually they entered a large antechamber, the room tall and wide with odd markings on the walls. Strewn about the room was odd detritus that appeared to be of similar material as the walls and floor, looking like loose metal shrapnel. Along the walls were three openings that looked like rounded doorways.

“Well gang” Tony said, shinning his flashlight at the three openings, “Looks like we should split up”

“I don’t like that idea” Natasha said immediately.

“Come on, two each, we meet back in twenty minutes?”

“Two people isn’t enough in case something happens”

“I agree with Nat” Steve said. “A place like this, we don’t want to split up”

“Fiiine, we’ll all go then” Tony whined, then shined his flashlight at the entryways again. “Question is, which door do we go through?”

“I vote the middle one” Thor said.

“Middle seems good to me” Sam said.

Tony clapped his gloved hands together. “Middle it is then”

They went down the middle path, keeping close together as the corridor narrowed slightly.

Then, suddenly, it opened up to a large room much more complex than the one they’d been in previously.

This one looked, as cliche as it was, like a control room to an alien ship.

It was fitted with several rows of controls like a tiered classroom, but with each tier of seating seated at a huge panel of buttons, switches, and screens. It reminded Bucky of NASA control.

All of it faced towards a blank wall of metal, the surface rippled like a body of water on a vertical plane.

“Guys, look at this” Steve said, shining his light downwards,

Everyone’s light beams coalesced to the same place, shining on a corpse of some foreign humanoid creature. It was clearly not human based solely on the fact that it had four arms. It was tall too, at least nine feet if not more, and it’s skull was too oval to be that of a normal human.

“Guess I’m owed twenty bucks” Tony said distractedly.

“Ho-ly shit, it’s a goddamn alien” Sam said.

Thor muttered something in Norwegian, while Natasha stepped forward and knelt down by the body, inspecting it.

“Something ate this” she said after a moment.

“What? How can you tell?” Bucky asked.

“Here,” she said, pointing with her gloved hand, “There’s teeth marks on it, see?”

Bucky leaned in for a closer look, as did everyone else, to see that there were in fact scratches and nicks on the yellowed bones.

“This is one hell of a find; no idea how we’re supposed to report this back though” Sam said.

“I’ll do it if no-one else wants to, I’m not passing up this find of the century” Tony said.

“Hell no, we’re reporting this together” Steve said.

“Man, I bet Bruce is gonna be so peeved he missed this” Bucky said.

“Let’s look around a bit more before we head back” Natasha said. “Get some more information, but be careful”

Tony unzipped his coat. “Well if we’re gonna be sticking around for a while, better strip down. This place is turning into a sauna”

Bucky had to agree; the warmth was starting to leech into their suits, and getting sweaty out in the Antarctic was close to a death sentence. While in here was no problem, they’d have to leave eventually, and it was better to be safe than sorry.

They all stripped down to their underclothes, pulling off jackets, gloves, and snow pants, along with their boots too, padding around in their thick woollen socks.

They split up then, exploring the room in their own way. Natasha stayed by the alien skeleton however, studying it more.

Bucky left her to it and approached one of the control desks, reaching out and touching what looked like the keypad. It looked more akin to an audio mixer, with too many buttons and sliders and switches to count. It made Bucky’s head swim just looking at it.

He leaned in closer to look at the little symbols on the keys, noting how there were much more than what you’d find of an English keyboard. There had to be at least a hundred, and Bucky had to wonder at the complexity of the language. But then, maybe not all the keys were part of the alien alphabet. Could be some of them were things like control-alt-delete and such. Numbers too, and no telling how their system worked. Bucky was used to a base ten, but for all he knew they could’ve worked on a base twenty or something.

And if this really was a spaceship, then that made some sense. Bucky didn’t know how complex a spacecraft had to be, but they weren’t a simple thing, he knew that much.

“Find anything interesting?” Natasha asked, causing Bucky to jolt in surprise.

He’d been so invested in reading the keys that he’d failed to notice Natasha’s approach.

“Oh, uh, not too sure. I mean, I’m no linguist, so this doesn’t really make much sense to me, but I imagine it’d take a lot of study to understand this alphabet”

“Hmm” Natasha hummed, leaning down to take a look at the keys.

“So did you find anything else about the, uh, the body?”

“It’s hard to tell what the flesh body would’ve looked like based solely on the skeleton, and it’s not exactly my area of expertise, but judging from the size of it and the chairs in here, I’d say they were some tall aliens”

Bucky shined a light toward the chairs that sat in front of the control panels, all of them bolted down. He had to admit, they were slightly scaled up from what a regular chair would look like, almost like they were novelty sized.

“The four arms present an interesting quandary though. The muscular system alone would be fascinating. There also some other strange skeletal structures when I looked closer. Like, there were two jaw bones overlapping, and there was a secondary set of ribs. Plus an extra joint on only one of the legs, I can’t help but wonder if this was an outlier instead of the norm”

“Weird” Bucky said. “Any idea of how long they’ve been down here?”

“That’s tricky. While in nature the bones would take roughly twenty years to break down, in a more sterile environment like this they could last upwards of a hundred years, maybe more”

Bucky frowned. “That’s not really a long time for this to have been here”

“No, it’s not” Natasha agreed.

They were quiet for a moment.

“Earlier,” Bucky said, “you said something ate that body. Any idea what it was?”

“Hard to say, but whatever it was had sharp teeth, I can say that. And looking at the body’s teeth, I’m guessing it wasn’t cannibalism”

“So what does that leave?”

“I’m not entirely sure. Could be a seal got in here, but this far inland I highly doubt it. Could be they had a pet carnivore on board, like a cat or dog or something”

“And what if it was something else?”

“What else could it be? There’s no other major land carnivores in the antarctic besides seals, and I doubt a penguin would have done this, so...”

Bucky hummed. It was something to think on, that was for sure. When they reported their findings later, Bucky would be interested in what a specialist had to say on the matter.

“Do you think-”

Bucky’s words were interrupted by a sudden shout, he and Natasha both shining their lights in the direction of it, along with everyone else. In the dark of the room, it was impossible to tell whose light was whose.

“Roll call, who yelled!” Sam called.

“I’m fine” Thor said.

“Me too” Tony answered.

Bucky and Natasha gave their own calls, and Bucky felt a sinking feeling in his gut. He quickly counted the beams and noted that one was missing.

“Steve?” Sam prompted.

There was no answer.

“Steve, come on man, give a shout”

There was still no answer.

“Did anybody see Steve?”

“There was a resounding ‘no’ from everyone, making Bucky feel nervous. What had happened to Steve?

“Okay, spread out and look for him, but be careful!”

They all started shining their lights downward, spreading out in the direction of the yell from earlier and looking for Steve.

Bucky and Natasha were checking between the rows of seating, when suddenly Thor shouted.

“I think I found him!” he yelled, then waved his beam to indicate where he was. “But be careful when you come, there’s a hole here”

They grouped up around Thor, shining their lights down at what wasn’t just a hole, but an entire chasm. The room suddenly ended at this section, a dark abyss extending out not unlike the crack they’d come down earlier.

At the bottom of it, many yards down, was the shine of a flashlight, though it lay unmoving and still.

Chapter Text

“Steven!” Thor yelled, his flashlight beam not strong enough to reach the bottom. “Steven, can you hear us?”

“Steve, shout if you’re hurt!” Sam yelled.

“Guys, I don’t think he’s awake to hear us” Tony said.

“Shit”

“Yeah, you got that right”

“What do we do?” Bucky asked.

“Someone needs to go back and radio Clint that we need more climbing gear” Natasha said, taking charge. “One of us will go down and harness him, then we’ll pull him up”

“What if he’s, you know...” Tony asked.

“Dead? We can’t make that assumption right now” Natasha said matter-of-factly. “As of now this is a rescue mission, we’ll deal with things as they come up, Now, who’s gonna make the run to Clint?”

“I’ll go” Sam volunteered. “I did track in high school, I can make good time”

Natasha nodded to him. “Go then”

Without much preamble, Sam left in a hurry, his light quickly disappearing.

Natasha shined her light down the chasm, crouching to get as close a look as she could. Bucky watched her reach a hand down and feel the sheer edge of the drop.

“Look,” she said, “the wall here is perforated- we can get a hand and foothold on the climb down”

Bucky shined his light down to see, noting that there were indeed a bunch of holes in the wall here, almost like Swiss cheese.

“I rock climb in my free time, I can make the descent” Thor said.

Natasha nodded. “Sounds good” she said, then bit her lip, looking back into the control room they’d previously been exploring. “The rest of us should put our gear back on, we’re going to want to leave as soon as we get Steve up”

They all went and collected their gear again, donning their winter suits in a tense silence, leaving their coats unzipped for now as the heat of the room was still too warm. Once they were all geared up, they tensely waited for Sam to return.

Was Steve alright?, Bucky wondered, looking down the chasm at the still light of his flashlight. It was an awfully far way to fall, and Steve’s silence was foreboding. He could have broken his neck in the fall, or split his head open on impact. There was just no way to tell.

In their solemn silent watch, the sound of heavy breathing and quick footfalls was heard almost instantly, and everyone turned to the entrance to see Sam return out of breath, his arms full of climbing gear.

“I got the stuff” he said, panting as he handed over the gear. “Clint says he’s gonna keep one of the skidoos running so we can drive him back right away. He’s also gonna radio Bruce, he’ll get the medbay setup for him”

“Good work” Natasha said, passing the gear to Thor who immediately started donning the harness. She looked down at the anchor for moment before speaking. “Where do we anchor it?” she asked the group, for once unsure.

“Over there” Thor said, pointing at the nearest control panel. “Tie it to the chair, they should be strong enough to support my weight”

Natasha nodded, then went about anchoring the equipment. Bucky, Tony, and Sam stood by impatiently, wanting to help but not having anything to do, and so were left to act as light holders as they shined their flashlights to illuminate the area.

“Alright, you’re good to go” Natasha said when she finished anchoring.

Thor nodded before he started making the descent, going down backwards as he gripped at the holes in the wall.

The four of them stood at the top shinning their lights down, watching as Thor made quick progress down.

Please be okay, please be okay, Bucky thought over and over, his worry for Steve growing with each passing minute. The eerie silence of the room was deafening, the only sound heard was the breathing of his teammates and the slight muttering of Thor as he climbed ever downwards.

Finally Thor made it to the bottom, and they all waited with baited breaths as his flashlight beam swept the area, suddenly stopping and landing on a familiar body.

“I found him!” Thor called up, quickly making his way to the body.

Please be okay, please be okay.

“He’s breathing!” Thor yelled with joy, and they all let out a collective breath at the news. “He’s bleeding a little from a head wound, but otherwise seems-”

Thor suddenly cut off, going silent.

“What?” Natasha called down.

“There, uh, there seems to be more skeletons down here”

“Is that important?”

“Not really, just. Well, it’s quite concerning” Thor said, then shined his light beam to show them.

Bucky raised his brow at all the skeletons, looking like a mass graveyard. ‘Concerning’ was right, what had put all those bodies down there?

“We can’t worry about that right now. Can you send Steve up?”

“Right, right” Thor said, grabbing Steve’s body and dragging him back towards the wall.

It took a bit of doing, but with their combined effort they managed to pull Steve back up to the lip of the room.

Bucky reached down and hauled Steve up over the edge, pulling him inward until his whole body was back on their level. He and Sam made quick work of undoing his harness, tossing it back down for Thor to use as he climbed up.

“Can you two carry him back?” Natasha asked, motioning to Sam and Bucky, the next two strongest members of the expeditions. They could’ve probably waited for Thor and have the stronger man carry Steve all on his own, but time was of the essence here, and they had to get Steve back and checked out as soon as possible.

Bucky and Sam nodded, looking to each other and wordlessly communicating where the other should go.

Bucky ended up taking Steve’s legs while Sam gripped him under the armpits, the two of them lifting Steve between them with some effort.

Leaving Natasha and Tony to help Thor out of the bone pit, the two of them immediately made their way back towards the exit, hustling with Steve between them as they hurried back.

Bucky noted the blood leaking down Steve’s forehead, the wound slowly oozing. Bucky prayed there was nothing else wrong with him.

Both he and Sam were breathing heavy by the time they got to the opening in the ice. Bucky had a moment of fear when he saw the thick ice walls and felt the bite of the cold coming down from above, but he pushed past it for the sake of Steve, gently setting him down on the icy ground.

Bucky zipped up his parka as Sam radioed Clint to let him know they were there, then knelt down by Steve and attached him to the harness that would carry him back up.

“Shit, we forgot to put his stuff on” Sam swore, and it was then that Bucky realized Steve wasn’t in his winter gear. He didn’t even have his boots!

“It’s too late now” Bucky said, shivering in fearful sympathy with Steve. “We’re gonna move him into the heated cab anyway, he won’t be exposed long” Bucky reasoned, ignoring how that very same exposure was his own worst fear.

Sam nodded, accepting the answer. Once they had Steve connected to the harness, Sam radioed up that they were set. A moment later and Steve was slowly rising, Clint hauling him up using the snowmobile.

Bucky watched his ascent with worry, having to squint against the bright white light that shined down from the crack above. His breath puffed out in front of him, the earlier warmth of the control room slowly leeched away by the unforgiving cold all around them.

Steve disappeared over the lip of the crack, and he and Sam waited together for several tense minutes before Clint’s voice came over the radio.

“I got him in the cab. One of you come up next and drive him back, I gotta stay behind and bring everyone else up”

“You go” Bucky said, handing the harness to Sam.

“You sure?”

Bucky nodded. His nerves were so frazzled that he didn’t trust himself to drive Steve to safety, and figured it’d be better to let Sam handle it.

He took the radio from Sam, standing by as Sam was hauled up, watching his ascent like he’d done with Steve. A moment later and Sam disappeared into the bright white of the world above, leaving Bucky alone.

Alone, surrounded by walls of ice, the warmth of before slowly ebbing away. Bucky hugged himself, watching as his breath escaped him and drifted away on the updraft of the chasm. He shivered as the wind from above wailed against the lip of the crack.

“I’m okay, I’m okay, he repeated to himself like a mantra, his throat closing on a swallow as his heart pounded in his chest.

He closed his eyes against the blue-white of the walls, burying his face in the neck of his parka, hastily throwing on his hat and gloves before throwing up his hood.

“Bucky, is everything alright?” Thor asked suddenly, making Bucky jump before forcing himself to calm down. It was just Thor for god’s sake, along with Natasha and Tony. It made sense that they’d come out at some point, the excursion cut short as it was.

“You guys find your way back alright?” Bucky asked.

“No trouble” Tony said, before the rope and harness suddenly plopped down in front of them.

“Good to bring up the next person” Clint said from the radio Bucky held.

“I suppose we ought to get out of here” Thor said.

Bucky couldn’t agree more.

Chapter Text

Returning to base took longer than leaving, as the wind had kicked up and reduced visibility. The little convoy of snowmobiles had to inch their way along, periodically radioing each other to make sure everyone was alright and relying more on their compasses than their sight to get them back home.

Eventually they got back to the station, and Bucky and the others hurried inside, rushing against the cold wind and snow that buffered them from all sides. It was so bad that they could hardly see a few feet in front of them, nothing but a wall of shifting white that sent terror down to Bucky’s core, but he pushed past it like he always did, hurrying to get inside and away from the all-encompassing snow.

Sam had left them at the crack in favour of making time in returning to base, and so had arrived before the rest of them. They didn’t bother stripping of their outer layers save for their snow-encrusted boots, instead rushing to the medical bay in full outdoor getup to check on Steve.

“How is he?” Bucky asked, entering the med bay first.

“I’m fine” Steve said, sitting up in the medical bed he was in. Bruce was sitting at his side, stitching up the wound at his head.

“Woke up on the way back” Sam explained, “Had to damn near drag him here, but says he’s fine”

“It’s just a bump on the head”

“And a concussion” Bruce added.

“Light concussion”

“If it resulted in loss of consciousness, I’d say moderate”

Steve rolled his eyes, unhappy with the diagnosis. “Well I feel fine, just got goosed on the head is all”

“Do you know how it happened?”

Steve frowned, making an odd face before speaking. “I, uh, I’m not sure exactly how it happened, it’s all a bit blurry”

“Even more proof of a moderate concussion” Bruce said.

“Well, glad you’re okay at least” Tony said. “You are okay, right?”

“Again, moderate concussion” Bruce said.

“Besides that,” Steve said, “I’m fine”

“Well you’re one lucky son of a gun. That fall could’ve killed you” Sam said.

Bruce finished off the stitching, cutting the string with a pair of medical scissors and then pulling off his latex gloves. “Well, besides the stitches, I’d recommend rest and nothing strenuous for the next two days, but if things don’t get worse, I’d say you’re alright for now”

“Thanks Bruce” Steve said, gingerly feeling at his own stitches.

“You’re sure you’re okay?”m Natasha asked.

Steve looked to her, a little put off. “I’m fine. Really guys, you don’t have to worry”

“Alright, if you say so” Tony said.

“Well, if nothing else then, we ought to report our findings back to Nick” Thor said.

“Who wants to do the honours?” Clint asked.

“We should all go,” Natasha said. “It’s only fair, we all made the discovery together”

“Most of us” Bruce said sardonically.

Natasha grimaced. “We can still credit you” she offered.

“Yeah buddy, you were there in spirit” Tony said, moving to pat Bruce on the back.

“No, no, it’s okay. Somebody had to stay behind, and besides, I probably would’ve bungled the rope climbing anyway. Never was good at sports”

Bucky grimaced, feeling bad for Bruce even though just an hour ago he’d been envious of his position. It was just plain old bad luck that he’d missed the find of the century.

“Alright, if you’re sure” Natasha said.

“Hey, maybe when the storm is over we can take another trip there, explore it a little more” Sam offered as consolation.

“Thanks you guys, but if I’m being honest, I don’t all that mind. Really, you guys go report what you found”

“Your call I guess” Sam shrugged.

“Come on, let’s go radio Nick before the storm gets worse” Clint said.

“What are we even going to tell him. Can’t exactly go ‘hey boss, we found an alien spaceship’” Tony said.

“Dammit, we should’ve brought cameras with us” Natasha said.

“Maybe on our second trip” Steve said, standing up only to wobble and fall back into the bed.

“Woah, woah. You dizzy?” Bruce asked, hands reaching out to catch Steve in case he fell.

“Yeah, just got a sudden dizzy spell”

“Maybe you should lie down here for a while, wait ‘til it passes”

Steve nodded, hand on his head. “Yeah, I think I will” he said, sitting back on the bed.

“Shit man, you sure you’re okay?” Sam asked in concern.

Steve nodded. “Yeah, just got a little tipsy. You guys go on ahead, report without me. And yes, I’m sure” he said, cutting off whatever consolation was about to be offered.

“Well, come on guys, time’s a wastin’” Clint said, backing out of the room.

Everyone save Bruce gave their parting words before leaving as well, heading to the communications room to radio Fury.

Bucky stayed behind, his own worry for Steve outweighing the desire to be part of the report. Odds were they’d all be questioned separately anyways, this was just a preliminary report to give Fury the gist of what they’d found.

He went up and sat on the bed by Steve. “So I know you already said this, but are you really okay?”

Steve looked to Bucky, then to Bruce, biting his lip. “Actually, can I be honest with you two” he said.

Bruce put down the medical equipment he’d been sterilizing, giving Steve his full attention. “What is it? Are you still dizzy? Any new pain?”

“No, nothing like that. Actually, I only pretended to be dizzy”

“What?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, I just wanted an excuse to stay behind”

“Why would you want that?” Bucky asked.

Steve hesitated a moment before he spoke. “The thing is, I do remember how I fell down that hole”

“What? Why didn’t you say?” Bruce asked.

“Because somebody pushed me”

There was a serious beat.

“Are you sure” Bucky asked.

Steve nodded. “Sure as can be, somebody shoved me down into that pit. And right now, the only person I know who didn’t do it was you and Clint” Steve said, indicating Bruce. He then looked to Bucky with a guilty look. “Sorry Buck, I know that’s not fair to you, but it could’ve been anyone who pushed me”

“I was with Natasha when you fell. We heard the scream together, so we can both verify each other”

Bruce rubbed his chin. “If that’s true, then that leaves Sam, Thor, or Tony, and I can’t imagine any one of them to have done it”

“And why would they do it?” Bucky asked. “What’s the motive?”

“That’s what’s been bothering me too” Steve said. “I’d like to think that we all know each other pretty well by now, and for the life of me I can’t think of why anybody would want me-”

Steve cut himself off as he looked towards the doorway. Bucky followed his gaze to see the group had returned, a mix of irked and despondent looks on their faces.

“Well, bad news guys” Clint said. “The storm’s gotten worse and the radio’s out. Looks like we’re gonna have to wait until it blows over”

“What?” Bruce said.

Tony nodded. “Unfortunately. We’re gonna have to bunker down and wait to share the big news”

Bucky frowned. That meant they were all stuck inside with each other.

With a would-be killer.

Chapter Text

“Well, I’m gonna go take off these twenty layers I got on” Tony said. “Then make the best of a bad situation and hit the rec room. Anyone wanna join? We can play some ping-pong, put a movie on in the background”

“I think we could all use a break after today” Thor said, pulling his hat off.

Tony clapped his hands together. “Great. Allons-y!” he said, taking lead and heading out.

“Actually, Natasha, Clint, would you mind staying back for a sec?” Bruce said before they all left.

“Sure, what is it?” Clint asked, leaning against the doorway and shoving his hands in his pockets. Natasha raised a curious brow, crossing her arms, though not without some difficulty in her thick puffy jacket.

“What is it?” Sam asked, also staying behind.

Bruce had a disarmed look to him, like he was trying to think of something.

“Oh, uh, I- I just wanted to get a biological perspective on what you all found”

“Then why do you need me?” Clint asked.

“Oh, uh, I have, I have other questions for you” Bruce said lamely, and wow, Bucky was feeling bad for the guy.

“It’s alright Sam, we got this covered” Bucky said. “You go ahead and make sure Tony and Thor don’t put on some weird movie before we get there”

Sam looked like he wanted to argue for a moment, but then looked to Steve with a non-discernible look before he let it be, giving them all a nod. “Alright. Hope you feel better” he said, directing that to Steve before leaving them be.

“So what do you want to know?” Natasha asked.

“When Steve fell” Bruce said, “Were you with Bucky at that time? Did you both hear the scream together?”

Natasha looked caught off-guard by the question, taking a moment to answer. “Uh, yeah, I guess we were. Why do you ask?”

“Because somebody pushed me” Steve said.

There was a beat.

Clint whistled. “Shiiit” he said, stretching out the word. “You sure?”

Steve nodded gravely. “Felt a shove from behind and was falling. Next thing I know I’m waking up in the skidoo”

“And if me and Bucky were together when we heard you shout,” Natasha said in realization, “And Clint and Bruce were topside, that means one of the others shoved you”

“That’s what we were thinking, yes” Bruce said.

“But who would want to kill you? Why?” Clint asked.

“That’s what’s got us stuck too” Steve said. “I don’t have any beef with anybody, and I can’t imagine what benefit anyone would get out of killing me”

“Sam maybe? You work with him day-in day-out, he could’ve gotten sick of you”

“Then why would he drive me back? Wouldn’t it make sense to finish me off while we were alone?”

“It would’ve been too late then” Natasha said. “He wouldn’t be able to kill you without bringing suspicion on himself”

“Well what about Thor? Nobody here knows him at all, he could have some kind of vendetta against Americans or something” Clint said.

“What about Tony? He’s not the most stable personality” Natasha said.

“It could’ve been any of the three of them” Steve said. “There was just no way for me to tell in the dark like that”

“And none of you saw who it was?” Bruce asked.

Bucky shook his head. “It was too dark down there- all we had to see by were our flashlights, and someone could have easily turned theirs off to sneak up on Steve. And after his fall, we did a roll call, but it wasn’t easy to tell where everybody was. Or at least, I wasn’t paying enough attention to note who was closest to Steve when it happened. What about you Nat?”

“No, I can’t say who was where” she said, shaking her head.

“Then we’re short on leads”

“What do we do about it?” Clint asked. “Do we bring this up with everyone else?”

“No, I think that’s a bad idea” Bruce said. “Whoever did this will likely go to ground if they realize we know, act innocent”

“Well what’s the alternative?” Steve asked. “Whoever pushed me is still on base, we can’t just do nothing”

“I’m afraid that’s exactly what we have to do” Bruce said grimly. “Whoever pushed you may have taken the opportunity in a spur-of-the-moment decision, but it could also be something that’s been planned for a while. For all we know, they might try again, and if they do, we might catch them at it”

“So you want to use me as bait?”

Bruce grimaced. “I wouldn’t call it that, but yes. If we can catch the person in the act, we can actually do something about them and not just sit on our thumbs”

Steve didn’t seem all that enthused with the situation, but then, neither would Bucky if he were in his shoes. Sitting around and waiting for someone to kill you didn’t sound like a good time in any respect.

“Unless anyone has a better idea?” Bruce asked the room, looking to each of them.

Bucky pressed his lips together, stumped on any ideas. He looked over and saw the rest of them were in the same boat and stuck on what to do.

“Then we wait” Bruce said after a long moment where nobody spoke.

“Great” Steve huffed, and Bucky felt for him.

Reaching out, Bucky took Steve’s hand in his and gave it a light squeeze, silently lending his support. Steve gave him a soft look and smiled weakly, returning the gesture.

“So how do we go about waiting?” Natasha asked. “We can’t just leave him alone- but the culprit won’t attack him if he’s with someone”

“Hmm, that’s a good point” Bruce said, scratching the back of his neck.

“It’s probably fine- I’d like to think I can handle myself” Steve said.

“Well what if it’s Thor?” Clint said. “He’s the strongest guy on base. I’m not saying you’re not a close second, but the guy’s fit”

“And you’re strength means nothing against a wrench to the head” Natasha added. “All it takes is one solid blow and you’re out. Or they can take a knife to your throat while you sleep. Or poison your food with one of the many deadly poisons we all have access to on base”

“You sure do know a lot of ways to kill someone out here” Clint said.

Natasha shrugged. “I have time to think on these things”

“I think,” Bucky said, “that someone should stay by you at any given time. I’d rather we don’t catch the killer than potentially leave you in harm’s way”

“I’ll be fine. Like I said, I can handle myself” Steve said stubbornly.

“Did you not hear Nat just now? There’s like, a hundred different ways to kill you that doesn’t need strength. Hell, the person who pushed you got the jump on you and almost got you killed Just let us look after you”

Steve sighed. “Fine, but I want it noted that I don’t like this”

“Noted” Bucky said, giving Steve’s hand a squeeze.

“So,” Bruce said, “Who’s on first shift?”

They decided to take turns watching over Steve as subtly as they could while still maintaining the guise that things were okay.

Time spent in the rec room was easiest, because there was always at least three people there at any given time. Later on in Steve’s lab was a little harder, but Clint managed to make the excuse that he was taking an interest in Steve’s work to coast by on sitting in while he did his studies.

And now it was night time, with a howling storm outside beating against the walls as Steve and Bucky got ready for bed, opting to sleep together for Steve’s safety, not that Steve was complaining.

“So how was today?” Bucky asked, sliding into bed. “Not too overbearing with everyone watching over you?”

“I could’ve done without it” Steve said, sliding in after Bucky. “But not the worst I guess. I just hope we don’t have to keep this up all winter”

“Nah, just until the storm passes, and then we can radio it in”

“What will that do though? Short of cancelling the expedition, I don’t know what kind of measures they’ll take”

“Oh, they’ll probably send someone, and do a more thorough background check on everyone while they’re at it”

Steve sighed, but in the dark of the room Bucky couldn’t quite see the expression on his face.

“You don’t think they’ll cancel the expedition? Let us go back home?”

Bucky shook his head. “Not unless there’s an actual murder on base, and I don’t see that happening so long as someone stays by your side”

“Hmm”

Steve turned around then, giving his back to Bucky, who snuggled in close and spooned him from behind.

“It’ll be fine” Bucky assured him, breathing in his scent. He nuzzled the junction of Steve’s neck, holding him close.

“We won’t let anything happen to you”

Steve didn’t answer that with a remark, only sighing where he lay.

Chapter Text

The shrill sound of Steve’s alarm woke Bucky up from a deep sleep, making him groan in dismay.

Fuck, I forgot he’s an early riser.

“Mmf, Steve, your alarm” Bucky groaned, pulling the blanket over his head.

Only, the alarm didn’t stop.

“Steve. Steeeve. Your alarm”

Still, the shrill tones continued.

“Fuckin’- Steve!” Bucky snapped grouchily, turning over and feeling for Steve only to find his half of the bed empty.

Grumbling, Bucky belly-crawled his way to the alarm on the night table and shut it off before promptly face-planting into the pillow once the blessed silence returned.

Except something was nagging at Bucky now that he’d been awake for longer than two seconds.

Where had Steve gone, anyway?

Wait.

Where was Steve?!

Bucky shot up, wide awake with the sudden realization that Steve wasn’t by his side.

Bucky was on Steve duty for the night, he was never supposed to let him out of his sight! And yet here he was without a Steve to watch over.

Bucky hastily got out of bed and threw on yesterday’s shirt, not bothering with pants as he hurried out the room.

He looked both ways down the hallways before his mind caught up to him.

Where would Steve go?

Most likely option: the bathroom. Steve was a prideful man, and no doubt didn’t think he’d need nor want to have an escort for such a matter.

Well, Bucky was gonna give him an earful when he found him.

Makin’ me walk around in my goddamn underwear- you better be dead!, Bucky thought grouchily, stomping his way to the shared bathroom.

Only, he found the bathroom to be empty, no a single person inside. He paused at the sight of the sink, a thin pink film layered on the inside with flecks of red interspersed. On the floor under the sink were three drops of blood, glaringly red against the pale gray of the floor.

Someone had been bleeding over the sink. Bleeding a fair amount, more than just a cut from shaving.

Oh god.

He thought of where else Steve might be.

His lab?

Bucky made his way over, his feelings of annoyance gone, replaced with worry and fear .

When he didn’t find Steve there, his fear slowly morphed into dread.

Surely he’s in the rec room , Bucky thought. Hoped.

Making his way to the rec room, he was greeted with the sight of Steve and Clint talking to each other over their respective cups of coffee, making Bucky’s heart do a somersault in relief.

Steve turned when he entered, pausing his conversation. “Oh, hey Bucky. When’d you get up?”

“You idiot” Bucky said. “You’re not supposed to go out alone. Nearly gave me a heart attack when I woke up without you there!”

“It’s fine” Steve countered, then motioned to Clint with his mug. “Clint was up with me anyways; I didn’t want to wake you”

“To be fair” Clint said, “I bumped into him in the hallway, so technically he was gonna be alone otherwise”

Bucky gave Steve an irritated look. “Steve, you have to be more careful”

“It’s fine. I really don’t think whoever pushed me is going to try anything anyway, not on base”

“You don’t know that!”

Steve gave him a look of annoyance, but bit his tongue and took a sip from his coffee instead of arguing. Clint slurped his own coffee while looking between the two men.

Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, just, wake me next time, okay? At least tell me where you’re going”

“Yeah yeah, alright”

“I mean, not to beat a dead horse here, but you really should have someone with you” Clint said, agreeing with Bucky.

“Thank you” Bucky said pointedly.

“I get it, I get it” Steve groused. “I’ll wake you up next time”

“That’s all I’m askin’”

“You’re weirdly chill about this, you know that?” Clint said. “I mean, if I were the one whose life was on the line, I know I’d-”

“FUCK!” someone yelled down the hall, interrupting Clint.

The three of them turned their heads sharply towards the door of the rec room, the voice cutting into the silence of the early morning. Steve and Clint put down their mugs before they all made their way out to investigate.

They came across Tony standing out in the hall, one hand on the wall as he leaned over and retched.

“You okay man?” Clint asked.

“Bruce, Bruce is, oh god, hurgh-!”Tony wretched again, a thin strand of drool falling to the floor below.

“What’s going on?” Natasha asked tiredly, coming down the hallway in her pyjamas. She was rubbing the sleep out of her eye, slowly blinking awake.

“In there” Tony said weakly, pointing to the door of his and Bruce’s lab.

The four of them crowded in at the door, looking in.

Bucky gasped and covered his mouth with his hand, while Natasha swore in Russian. Clint spat out his own ‘fuck’ before turning away, and Steve was struck speechless.

Inside the lab was Bruce, on the floor in a pool of his own blood. His shirt was torn open, as was his chest and stomach.

Bloodied ribs poked out of freshly torn skin, his body cavity a viscera of red stew. Pink intestines unravelled out onto the floor like a gored serpent, his lifeless gaze set on the ceiling, blood flecking his lips.

“Guys,” Clint said. “Where’s Sam and Thor?”

Now there was a good question.

“Group meeting, now” Natasha said.

Chapter Text

Sam and Thor had similar reactions of disgust and horror at Bruce’s corpse, Sam almost retching like Tony had.

The six of them were crowded out in the hallway while Natasha inspected the body, a pair of latex gloves that quickly turned from white to pink as she poked at the corpse.

“Who the fuck could’ve done this?” Sam said.

“Someone on base. Someone standing right here with us” Steve said.

They all looked to each other with assessing looks. Bucky hugged himself, fighting off a shiver of fear.

“Whoever it was, they took some of the organs with them” Natasha said, poking around the body. “Half the liver’s missing, and so it the stomach and kidneys”

“Oh fuck” Tony said, unable to look into the room. He was leaning against the hallway wall, eyes squeezed shut.

“We need to report this in” Thor said gravely.

“Can’t,” Clint said. “Radio’s out until the storm passes”

“And how long is that?”

“At least two more days, maybe four”

“And we have to spend it with a killer among us” Sam said, shaking his head.

Natasha looked up from her inspection. “Steve, I think we should tell them”

Steve nodded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Tell us what?” Sam asked.

“In the ship,” Steve said, for lack of a better word, “I didn’t fall- somebody pushed me. We know it wasn’t Bruce or Clint because they weren’t there, and Bucky and Nat were together, so they’re each other’s alibi. That’s leaves you, Tony and Thor as suspects”

“Wait wait wait,” Sam said, “How do we know it isn’t one of you though? Pushing you off an edge and... this, ain’t the same thing. One of you could be taking advantage of the situation”

Natasha hummed in agreement. “That’s true. We can’t know for sure who did this. Did anyone see anything? Anything suspicious?”

“Not since last night” Thor said, shaking his head. The rest of them agreed, except for Bucky.

“Um, actually” Bucky said. “Earlier I checked out the bathroom, and there was- there was blood at the sink. Not as much as here, but, but more than you’d get from a cut shaving”

Natasha nodded. “So the killer went and washed up” she said. “Judging from how clean the rest of the room is, I’d say they were pretty careful about this. Notice how there’s no footprints or signs on a struggle. Whoever did this was fast and clean”

“Can we, I don’t know, get fingerprints?”

Natasha shook her head. “Not from here. We’ve all been to this lab at some point or another, and same with the bathroom. There’s just no way to tell”

“So where does that leave us?”

“Right now? It leaves us with few options” Natasha said, getting up and pulling off her gloves with a snap. “Until the storm clears and we call it in, we’re just stuck here”

“That can’t be it, can it? There’s gotta be something we can do?” Clint said.

“How about a buddy system?” Bucky suggested. “Groups of three, that way we all keep an eye on each other”

Natasha nodded. “That seems the best options. Nobody goes out alone, we all stick together as much as we can”

“What do we do about the- about Bruce?” Tony choked out.

Natasha sighed. “Well there’s not going to be any forensic investigation out here- by the time they send someone, it’ll have been days. The next best thing I can think of is we move the body out of the way and clean up”

“Where do we put him?” Clint asked.

“I want to say outside where he’ll be preserved, but freezing and thawing a body leaves it pretty grotesque. I’d say put him in the cold storage as the next best thing”

“And who’s gonna- who’s gonna do the cleaning?” Tony asked.

“Any volunteers?” Natasha asked the group.

“I’ll do it” Clint said.

“I’ll help” “As will I” Sam and Thor added.

“Good,” Natasha said, “The rest of us should head to the rec room for now until we figure out what to do with ourselves”

Bucky nodded, following behind her. He paused next to Tony, however, when he saw the man was crying.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked.

Tony sniffed, wiping at his eyes. “Not really, but, fuck, it’s just. He was my, he was-”

Tony couldn’t even finish his sentence, choking on a sob as he cried. Bucky felt sympathy for him and reached out a hand, squeezing his shoulder.

“We’ll figure out who did this, okay?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, coming up beside Bucky, “We’ll figure this out” he echoed.

Tony nodded, wiping his nose with the back of his wrist. “Yeah, okay”

The four of them made their way to the rec room, leaving Clint, Sam and Thor to deal with Bruce’s body.

Things were uncomfortable after that, the tension so palpable you could cut the air with a knife. There was an awkward silence as everyone looked at each other, trying to discern the culprit by looks alone.

“This is crazy, man” Sam said. “We can’t spend the next few days like this, I’m almost jumping outta my skin here”

“Yeah, and how are we gonna handle sleeping arrangements?” Clint asked.

“We could take shifts” Bucky suggested. “Sleep in here as a group”

“Doesn’t sound the most comfortable” Sam said.

“Nah, it’ll be fun, like a sleepover. We can put the couch cushions of the ground, bring in extra pillows and blankets, put on a movie. Hell, get some popcorn goin’, make a real night of it”

“A man was murdered” Thor said sombrely. “I don’t think we can make light of that”

“Hey, he was just making a suggestion. Gotta make the best of a bad situation” Steve defended.

“I understand things are tense right now” Natasha said. “But Bucky’s right- we can’t just sit around glaring at each other the whole storm. We need top fill the time with something”

“Yeah, and we can’t exactly work on our research right now, not in groups of two at least” Sam pointed out.

“Fair enough” Thor conceded.

Bucky looked to Tony, who was uncharacteristically silent. His tears had stopped, but the man had crumpled into himself once he’d sat down, withdrawn and depressed after the death of his friend- and possibly more than just a friend.

What if it was all an act though? Tony could very well be the murderer and was just hiding his offence behind a veneer of depression.

But then, why would he be the one to bring attention to the body? And the vomiting outside his lab- surely that couldn’t be faked?

Bucky shook his head. He just couldn’t know. Any one of them could be the murderer, though Bucky had his eyes set more closely on Sam, Tony, and Thor. After all, they were the three possible culprits for having pushed Steve off the ledge.

But, what about the point Sam had brought up? What if Clint or Natasha had taken advantage of the incident with Steve and committed the murder under the guise of someone else’s earlier attempt?

Bucky looked to Steve, considering him too.

They’d spent the entire night together, true, but Bucky had awoken to an empty bed. What had Steve been doing up so early, going off on his own when he was at risk like that?

Bucky shook his head. He just didn’t know. Any one of them could be the killer, and there was just no way to tell.

“Well,” Natasha said into the silence of the room. “As much as I’m loving this atmosphere, I do have a favour to ask. My rats haven’t been fed in a day, and I don’t want them to starve to death while we figure this out, so will some of you come with me to the lab so I can feed them?”

There was a beat.

“Wanna draw straws for it?” Clint asked.

Bucky sighed. Great.

Chapter Text

Just Bucky’s luck, he’d drawn the short straw.

But then, so had Steve and Clint. It was decided the four of them would go out to Natasha’s lab and feed her rats, leaving Sam, Tony and Thor back in the rec room to stew in suspicion and sadness.

Bucky supposed it would do good to have a distraction of going outside. The storm was in full effect now, and there was nothing like walking into your worst fear to stall your paranoia.

The four of them got dressed in a tense silence, stepping into their snow pans and then their boots, layering on sweaters and then their jacket- and couldn’t forget about the accessories. There were gloves, hats, masks and goggles, the face coverings especially important in the buffeting winds outside. Frostbite was a real possibility even with all their gear, and getting lost was almost a given if they didn’t stick together.

It was lucky they had spares of everything, otherwise Steve would’ve had to borrow someone else’s gear. It was just bad luck they’d left all his original stuff back at the space ship.

Clint lead the procession outside, having to put his whole body weight into opening the hub’s door as the winds pressed it back. Bucky gulped as he saw the harsh winds blow inside, bringing with them a coating of snow that instantly covered the floor of the station.

“Stick to the rope!” Clint yelled above the gale of the storm, taking the first steps outside.

Bucky followed behind him, followed by Natasha and then Steve. There were tall pitons set with rope leading to the extra hub just for such an occasion, and the four of them simply had to hold onto the rope and follow it along until they reached their destination.

It was a good thing they had the rope; Bucky literally couldn’t see beyond his goggles, a blanket of shifting white taking up his entire view. Clint was just a vague shape ahead of him, one that could easily disappear if he walked more than a few feet ahead.

In the raging winds, nothing could be heard, and they couldn’t even shout to each other to check in. Their world was reduced down to a white nothing, with only the rope keeping them on the path.

A particularly harsh wind blew at them from the side, and Bucky had to pause a moment and just hunker down at the rope lest he be pushed away.

I’m fine, I’m okay, the storm can’t hurt me, Bucky thought desperately. His mouth was dry, and his throat clicked when he swallowed, his heartbeat load in his ears.

It was fine! Everything was fine!

Bucky let out an anxious laugh, the sound instantly carried away by the wind, unheard by anyone but Bucky.

“I’m okay” Bucky said to himself, the words, like his laugh, gone unheard. “It’s just a little storm- just gotta keep to the rope, and I’ll be fine. Just one step at a time”

Following his own advice, Bucky took it one step at a time. He even started counting his steps, hoping the numbers would help ground him.

-four... five.... six...

Bucky took a breath through his mask, the air cold and biting, even through the fabric. The shriek of the wind was almost enough to drown out his own breaths, the deadly snow a blanket of white across his vision.

-ten... eleven... twelve...

If he even so much as let go of the rope, he’d get lost in almost an instant. He could very well wander off into the icy expanse of the snowy desert, lost in the frigid cold where he’d die just a few yards away from the station. The warmth leeched away from his body, ice in his veins.

-seventeen... eighteen... nineteen-

Bucky bumped into Clint’s back, the shock of it jolting him out of his thoughts. He squinted into the white flurry in front of him, seeing, just barely making out a structure in front of them.

He waited a moment while Clint finagled the door open, then followed him inside. Natasha and Steve followed in closely behind, Steve shutting the door on his way in.

“Woof, it’s worse than I thought out there” Clint said, pulling off his mask and goggles.

“You thought it’d be better than this?” Natasha asked, unzipping her coat.

“Yeah, figured we’d get a small blizzard, not a snowpocalypse”

“Well it’s looking like a severe horizontal advection blizzard” Bucky said, shivering in his suit. “I’d give it a NESIS value of at least six, maybe nine”

“I have no idea what that means” Clint said.

“It means it’s bad” Steve said.

“Exactly” Bucky confirmed.

“Well, while you boys talk about the weather, I’m gonna head into the lab” Natasha said, shucking off all her outwear. “I’ll see you in about ten minutes or so”

“Don’t take too long” Bucky said, shifting where he stood. He didn’t bother pulling off any of his outerwear, though his did unzip his coat to prevent overheating.

“How do you think the others are fairing?” Steve asked.

“Probably trying to figure out which one of them did it” Clint said.

“You think it’s one of them?”

“It’s gotta be. I mean, one of them definitely pushed you, I’d expect the same person killed Bruce”

“Could be any one of them” Bucky agreed.

“Not Tony though, right? You saw how he was when he discovered the body”

“I don’t know” Bucky said. “He could’ve been faking it”

“Faking throwing yup?”

“You can fake that if you try hard enough” Clint said.

“I guess”

“Which one of them would have the motivation to kill though?” Bucky said. “Before yesterday, I didn’t think anyone would’ve had a motive to”

“Me neither, but obviously we were wrong” Clint said.

“Do you think it was planned?” Steve asked. “Obviously the pushing was a spur of the moment thing, I don’t imagine any of us saw a spaceship coming, but do you think they would’ve tried to get one of us on base given the chance?”

“I guess they would’ve now. But like, who’d have a problem with Bruce of all people. No offence Steve, you I can kinda get, but Bruce? Guy was a total sweetheart”

“Hey now, what about me is so killable?” Steve asked.

“Well, I mean, you’re all built and stuff. Handsome, and confident too, I could see someone getting jealous of that. Bruce was more of a quiet mouse kinda guy, and I’m not saying he was ugly, but he had more of a modest look to him. Plus, the guy studied moss. Not exactly the sensitive material you’d want to kill someone over”

“Maybe it was because he was American” Bucky theorized. “Thor might have something against Americans, could be he hates the whole base. Even Natasha” Bucky said, including the Russian woman.

“Well what about Sam?” Steve asked. “He could’ve just snapped, we don’t know it wasn’t him”

“Don’t you work with the guy? You probably know him best out of everyone on base, did he give you some reason that he might want you dead”

Steve shook his head. “Not... not really. I don’t know, I’m just spit-balling here”

“And hey, what about Natasha?” Clint said. “She may not have been the one to push you, but like Sam said, someone could be taking the opportunity presented with Steve to murder without the blame being shifted on them. And if anyone has the guts to murder someone, it would be her”

“Then that would put you two on the suspect list too” Steve pointed out.

“And you” Clint added.

“Let’s not point fingers” Bucky said. “Right now the best we can do is keep an eye on each other and stay safe until the storm blows over, then we can call it in and figure it out from there”

Their conversation was cut short as the inner door to the lab hissed open, a decontaminated Natasha stepping out.

“Alright, they should be good for another day or two” she said. “Did I miss anything while I was gone?”

The three men shared a look, before Clint spoke.

“Not really”

“Alright” she said, accepting the answer as she put on all her outdoor gear.

“Everybody ready?” Clint asked, taking the leading position again as they all zipped up and realigned their masks.

“As we’ll ever be” Bucky said.

Chapter Text

The trip back was just as harrowing, but a little easier now that Bucky knew what to expect. It didn’t stop his fear of the all-encompassing cold that could easily kill them all, but it was somewhat tolerable.

They made it back inside the silent base, pulling off their suits and hanging them up on the hooks by the door, shucking off boots and gloves and masks.

“Better get back, see if they’ve killed each other yet” Natasha said jokingly, though it didn’t quite land and only succeeded in turning the silence more awkward.

“Um, yeah” Bucky said.

The four of them made their way to the rec room together, the air tense again now that they were back.

Clint suddenly stopped at the front of the procession, forcing everyone else to stop as well.

“Guys...” Clint said in a choked voice.

Bucky peered past Clint, sudden dread filling him.

Immediately noticeable was the thick red trail of blood on the white linoleum floor, leading from the rec room doorway and down the hallway.

“Shit” Natasha swore.

The four of them hurried to the rec room first, checking in and pausing at the sight in front of them.

The first conclusion they came to realize was that the trail of blood didn’t lead out, it led in; and the sight that drew all their eyes was the mass of red, pulpy flesh in the centre of the room.

Bucky could hardly identify what he was seeing at first. The mound was a twisted pile of flesh, with multiple meaty protrusions and bare muscles and ligaments poking out of it. Around it lay severed pieces of itself, one looking like a human arm, another looking like a distended foot with finger-like claws instead of toes.

There was a twisted face in the middle of the mess, it’s form bloated and indistinct, a huge crack down the centre where pinkish-grey brains oozed, white bone sticking out.

The silence was piercing, and Bucky looked to the side to see Sam sitting on the couch, his entire front covered in heavy blood. It coated his face like a mask, dripping down onto the couch below him. Between his legs he loosely held an axe from the emergency kit, the end of it covered in blood.

Behind him, off in the corner, was Tony sitting with his knees pulled up and his head buried in them, his hands interlaced behind his head. He had a faint streak of blood on his arm.

“What-” Clint asked, got caught on his own question, then tried again. “What happened here?”

“Bruce’s body, it just- it crawled in” Sam said almost dazedly, eyes still locked on the mass of flesh. “It just- it came in on all those legs, like a spider”

“Where’s Thor?” Natasha asked.

Sam pointed with the hand that wasn’t holding the axe, his finger aimed accusatory at the mound.

“It happened so fast, it just... it ate him”

“What?”

“It ate him!” Sam yelled, finally looking away from the piles of flesh. He stood up suddenly, his whole body taught. “It crawled in and fucking ate him, bit him in half! Look!” Sam said, pointing now a little further into the room. They all followed where he was pointing, Bucky having to cover his mouth with his hand as he saw the lower half of what must have been Thor.

It was a pair of legs attached to a waist that ended suddenly in a pool of blood, its intestines snaking out onto the floor like spilled food. The sight made Bucky nauseous.

“Oh God” Clint swore, covering his own mouth.

“Jesus” Steve said in disbelief.

Natasha spoke next. “Are you saying this... thing, was Bruce-”

“Ghurraaaaak...”

They all jolted as the mound made a noise, and Bucky’s eyes widened as he saw the whole thing shift, animating slowly as it twitched and gurgled.

“NO! YOU STAY DOWN!” Sam yelled, hoisting the axe up and running at the thing, bringing it down on it. “YOU STAY DEAD! YOU FUCKING STAY DEAD!”

The axe made a wet squelching noise as it connected with the flesh, blood spurting out as the hard edge of the tool impacted.

The group of them collectively took a step back as blood flew through the air, Sam wantonly whacking at the thing on the floor with the axe like a crazed lumberjack. He yelled the entire time, going at it like a madman until the pathetic pile of flesh was minced beyond recognition. Bucky couldn’t even make out the disfigured face, the thing looking like soggy raw beef piled onto the floor, bones and all.

Sam was breathing hard by the time he stopped, holding the axe poised over his head for a moment before he let his arms drop and took a step away from the mess. He turned to the group, a dreadful look in his eyes.

“This thing ain’t right” he said.

Chapter Text

They moved out of the rec room, leaving the pile of flesh alone for now.

They all congregated down the hall at the bathroom, where Sam stepped into the shower clothes and all to wash the blood off. Slowly he started to peel off his soiled garments, nobody caring about modesty in light of the horror they’d just witnessed. Steve made a quick run to Sam’s room to grab him a change of clothes, returning hastily.

In the meantime, Natasha sat Tony down on the closed lid of the toilet, took a wet cloth and wiped the blood off of Tony’s arm, the man completely comatose. He seemed checked out of reality, placidly going wherever he was led, eyes dull and empty. They tried getting through to him, but were only met with more blank stares.

“So what you’re saying is,” Natasha said, “You were just minding your business in the rec room when Bruce’s corpse showed up? Like a zombie?”

“Not like a zombie, no” Sam said, putting on his pants. “He was... disfigured already, like some kinda Lovecraft thing. Just a pile of flesh on the floor. He had all these spindly limbs like a spider, and he moved like one too”

“And then what happened?”

Sam pulled on his shirt. “Then he split down the middle, his whole body like a giant mouth, and he attacked Thor first. Sucked in half his body and just bit him in half” he said, an uncontrolled shiver wracking his body. “I grabbed the axe off the wall and went at it, I hardly thought, I just, on instinct went ham on it”

“Hmm” Natasha hummed in thought.

“What are you thinking?” Bucky asked.

Natasha bit the nail of her thumb, casting a glance at the door. “It’s just a theory but...”

“But what? If you got answers to whatever the fuck that was, I’m all ears” Sam said.

“When we were in the ship, we may have picked up an alien microbe. Could be we all have it, or maybe just one of us. But whoever murdered Bruce may have passed it on to his body, which led to... this”

“What makes you say that?” Steve asked.

“It’s just- that skeleton we found on the ship. It’s anatomy didn’t make much sense. It almost looked fasciated in places. And then, there was the evidence that something had been eating it. I think... I think there was something on that ship that killed all those aliens, not just the impact of the crash”

“And you think whatever it was, it’s infected at least one of us” Clint said.

Natasha nodded. “That’s my theory at least”

“So what, are we all just gonna turn into what- what Bruce became?” Steve asked.

“Maybe. Maybe it only happens in death, like a postmortem mutation”

“Fuck, and I got his blood all over me” Sam said in disgust.

“Did you get any in your mouth or eyes?”

“I- I don’t know. Maybe. It all happened so fast”

“But if it only kicks in after death, Sam should be fine, right?” Bucky said.

Natasha gave him a skeptical look. “I don’t know. This is all just theory, mind you”

“So what the hell are we supposed to do, huh?” Clint asked. “We’ve got two dead people, one of whom mutated into a horror from our worst nightmare and ate the other. Plus we have a murderer in our midst who’s likely infected too. Just what exactly are we supposed to do?”

“I have an idea-”

“Uh, guys” Steve interrupted, standing at the door of the bathroom. “I think we have another problem”

“What now?” Clint asked in irritation.

“I don’t think Sam killed that thing” he said, pointing down the hallways.

They all filed out except for Tony, who stayed seated on the toilet.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me” Sam cursed.

Down the hall from them was the mass of the flesh, slowly oozing its way towards the bathroom using many spindly and fleshy legs to pull it along. Trailing behind it was Thor’s legs, a rope of flesh connecting them to the main mass like a battery cable.

It wasn’t making quick time, but it would certainly reach them within minutes.

“Fuck. Fuck me” Clint swore.

“The flamethrower” Natasha said suddenly. “Clint, where’s the flamethrower?”

“The what?” Bucky asked. “Why the fuck do we have a flamethrower?”

“To thaw ice if something freezes over” Clint answered. “Actually, we also have a-”

“Not the time, Clint” Natasha said.

“Uh, right, right. I guess I’ll just, uh, go get it” he said, breaking off from the group and running down the opposite end of the hallway, leaving the rest of them to face the monstrosity making its way towards them.

“What do we do about this thing?” Bucky asked.

“Hang on, I think we have...” Natasha said, rummaging through the closet in the bathroom, “Aha!” she exclaimed, pulling out a broom and a mop.

“What are we supposed to do, clean it?”

“No, she’s got the right idea” Steve said, taking the broom. “If we can push it back, we can buy Clint more time to get the flamethrower”

“Will it even work on this thing?” Bucky asked.

“I’ve yet to meet any disease or infection that can survive fire” Natasha said. “Now come on, let’s push this thing back before it blocks us in”

Bucky and Sam hung back while Natasha and Steve went ahead with the broom and mop, each of them holding the cleaning tool out like a spear.

They watched as the two of them made contact with the thing that used to be Bruce and Thor, first tentatively prodding at it with then ends of their implements, then getting bolder and putting more force into it.

While it didn’t completely stop the thing, it did succeed in slowing it down. That was, until the handles started to sink into the flesh, getting absorbed into its mass.

“Shit” Natasha swore, letting go of the broom and stepping back. “Steve, you gotta let go”

“Hold on, I think I can...” Steve said stubbornly, pushing his mop handle further into the mass like he might overcome it somehow.

“Steve, you gotta get outta there” Sam warned, taking a step back himself.

“But-”

“No buts!” Bucky said tersely. “Get the fuck outta there, before it eats you too”

Steve gave Bucky an irritated look for a second, before letting go of the mop and stepping back with Natasha.

The thing seemed to gobble up the cleaning tools, slowly swallowing them into the folds of its flesh until they all but disappeared.

Thankfully, Clint returned with the flamethrower strapped to his back. He elbowed his way to the front of the group in the hallway, brandishing the nozzle of the flamethrower.

“Alright guys, here goes nothin’” Clint said, then fired up the device.

The thing on the floor let out an ear-piercing screech, recoiling as the flames licked its flesh. It’s sluggish movements forward were now reversed, the thing trying desperately to get away from the flames but impeded by its own slowness.

Clint advanced on the thing at an even pace, shooting more and more fire at it until it caught aflame. Bucky winced as its screeches hit a whole new pitch, the thing flailing and trying to escape the inescapable searing heat.

They all watched on from behind Clint, the flames reaching higher and higher as the thing’s movements slowed them stopped, it’s singed flesh turning charcoal black as it burned, pustules of puss popping like water balloons. In the air was the acrid scent of burned flesh, somewhat reminiscent of a barbecue, the thought making Bucky sick.

The screeching petered off into a high whimper, and then only the crackling roar of the fire taking up its spot.

Eventually Clint stopped spewing flames at it, the thing caught on fire on its own by now, a heap of burning minced and mutated flesh.

They all watched it burn, the flames licking at the walls and turning the wallpaper brown. Bucky could feel the heat of it from where he stood down the hall, almost like the glow of a bonfire.

Suddenly Natasha came in with the fire extinguisher and sprayed the retardant over the flames in a sweeping motion. They were all silent as she did so, until the flames were smothered and they were left with a charred corpse.

“What the hell” Sam finally said into the silence.

“I think we need to have another group meeting” Steve said.

Chapter Text

“What in the hell was that thing?” Clint asked, the group of them watching as Natasha inspected the burnt remains with her sterile gloves on.

“I don’t... I don’t know” Natasha said.

“You said it could be an alien virus that mutated it?”

“Just my theory, but yeah. But what could keep going after all that? Did you see its form? The limbs were hanging off by a thread, I can’t imagine what would give something such postmortem endurance” she said, pulling off one of the spider-like limbs with a sickening crack!

“Is there any way for you to be sure?” Sam asked.

Natasha was silent for a moment, turning the charred legs around in her hand. “There is one thing I can do”

“What’s that?”

“If I can go back to my lab, I can grab some blood testing kits. I can know for sure if this was a virus, and I can also test us all to see if we have it”

“What happens if any of us have it?” Steve asked.

“We’ll be quarantined, for one thing” she answered. “And maybe we can figure out what exactly this is”

“What does quarantining entail though? Will they hold us in a cell when we get back or something?”

“More likely we’ll all have to stay here”

“Hold on, stay here? With that... thing, and a murderer around us?” Bucky said.

“It’s better than bringing whatever this is with us to the known populace. Whatever this is, it’s dangerous”

Bucky frowned, not particularly liking that. Stay here, with a murderer and an alien virus? Not his idea of a good time.

“You think they’ll send anyone?” Clint asked.

“Some viral specialists, guys from the CDC, maybe even the military. There’s gonna be interest in the alien discovery, that’s for sure”

“Great; so we’re gonna be lab rats”

Natasha gave him a sympathetic look. “Probably, yeah”

“Fun” Bucky said sarcastically.

They drew straws again to figure out who would go to to Natasha’s lab with her. Lucky Bucky, he drew one of the short straws again.

Straws just really didn’t seem to like him.

Along with Bucky and Natasha, there was also Clint, because pairs were too dangerous with a murderer among them.

It left Steve, Sam, and Tony to remain in the rec room while they waited.

That presented a problem, however.

“Are we sure we should be leaving them alone?” Bucky asked. “I mean, with Tony so out of it, it’s kinda just Sam and Steve”

Which was true. Ever since Bruce’s corpse animated and attacked Thor, Tony had been near comatose. He moved like a doll with the strings cut, going where he was directed but otherwise remaining collapsed in on himself.

“We don’t have much choice. It’s gotta be groups of three for our own safety” Natasha said.

Which was true, but Bucky worried for Steve’s safety. Sam had admittedly gone a little hard on Bruce’s mutilated corpse, and he worried what else he might do with the axe.

“Can’t Nat go on her own. I mean, it’s just a few dozen feet to your lab”

“Not in this weather it isn’t. Every step will be a mile in the snow” Clint said, shaking his head. “We have to go out as a group for our own safety. If something happens, we can support each other and carry ourselves back”

Bucky frowned, not liking that for several reasons. Not just the risk it posed to Steve if Sam turned out to be the murderer, but also the fact that he had to go out in the raging storm as well.

But like Clint said, there wasn’t much choice. They had to be in groups of three now for everyone’s safety, the murderer among them a wildcard. There was no telling what the mind of a killer would do in this situation. Could be the alien virus had changed things for them, and they put a halt on the killing. Could be the situation accelerated their murder spree. Could be that Thor was the killer, and Bruce’s reanimated corpse had done away with him.

Could be any one of them was the killer.

There was just no way to tell.

“Alright” Bucky said begrudgingly. If this was how things had to be, then so be it.

The three of them made their way to the front exit, donning their outerwear as a group. It took several minutes with all the layering, finishing off with their masks and goggles.

Bucky always felt like a penguin once he was all geared-up, the puffy material at his legs making bending the knees awkward. The three of them had to waddle out the door, and then huddle close together as they followed the rope to Natasha’s lab.

Bucky grit his teeth against the harsh wind the buffered them from seemingly all sides, a swirl of white powder blasting him in the face constantly. It felt like walking into a frozen hellscape, the very air trying to kill them by sheer brute force. Somehow the storm had gotten worse.

By now the snow had gotten to knee height, and they fought to wade through the dense obstacle. Natasha especially struggled, her shorter stature unhelpful in the winter landscape.

Clint had taken the lead and was doing double duty of creating a path for the two of them to walk in with his footprints, plowing ahead with Natasha behind him, then Bucky at the rear. They all had one hand on the rope to stay anchored to the path, and then the other arm on the person in front of them to stay anchored to the group.

With the gale shrieking and drowning out any sound they could make, along with the visibility almost nil with the blowing snow, they all had to rely on touch more than anything to navigate by- an act that compounded Bucky’s fears.

He could feel the cold seeping into his extremities already, claws of ice and snow scratching at the skin, leaving frostbitten tears. The image of blackened fingers and toes were summoned in Bucky’s mind, then the image of them snapping off like pencil lead, leaving behind bloody stumps with the frozen blood oozing out like molasses.

Bucky couldn’t help the shiver that wracked his frame, and it wasn’t so much from being cold so much as being in the cold.

But he swallowed down his fear and took another step, not wanting to be left behind on his own. He had to keep up with the others if he wanted to stay alive.

Clint had been right earlier, every step felt like travelling a mile. They had to fight against the raw elements out here, the wind an assaulting source, the snow like violent daggers stabbing at them.

Bucky bumped into Natasha as she stopped suddenly. He frowned under his mask, tapping her shoulder twice to see if she was okay. He felt her reach a hand to her shoulder and tap his own hand once, but there was only so much Bucky could interpret from that.

Without being able to communicate, Bucky was left in the lurch on what was going on. He tried squinting into the flurry in front of his eyes, but at best he could only make out the vague shape of the back of Natasha’s parka.

A moment later and he felt Natasha take another step, so he followed behind without much choice in the matter.

Eventually, with much effort, they reached her lab. Bucky cursed that she had to do her studies so far out from the base, even if it was only a few yards in reality. The storm just made it such a hassle to get to.

He hurried in behind Natasha into the foyer of her lab, closing the door behind him. He stomped his boots to get the snow off them, and then pulled the hood of his parka down and pulled off his facial coverings.

He inhaled the warmed air of the hub, blinking away the brightness of outside-

Only to count three bodies in here with him.

“What the-?”

Clint had pulled down his own hood and face coverings, putting a hand on the shoulder of mysterious fourth member of their party.

“What are you doing out here, we’re supposed to stay in groups of three!” Natasha chastised.

Which one of those idiots came out to join them, and why? Didn’t they know it was a risk to come out alone, they could’ve easily gotten lost and frozen to death!

The three of them watched as the mystery person pulled off their mask and goggles, gasping loudly in the silence of the lab.

“Steve?!” Bucky exclaimed.

What the hell was he doing out here?!

They were all shocked to see him, his face pale save for the ruddiness of his cheeks and nose. He was visibly shivering even under the layers of his parka, snow melting off his body like the rest of them.

“W-w-what the h-hell?!” Steve stuttered as he shivered from the cold. “Y-you left me”

Chapter Text

“Steve, why the hell did you follow us out?” Natasha asked with some irritation, clearly unhappy that he’d followed them.

“Yeah man, what the hell? You’re supposed to stay with Sam and Tony” Clint said.

“Wait, what happened?” Bucky asked, seeing a bloody trail down Steve’s face, like his head wound had started bleeding.

The weird thing was, however, that the blood had long since dried.

“W-what are y-you talking about?” Steve said, teeth chattering as he hugged himself. “You guys l-left me at the ship!”

“What?” Bucky said.

“I w-woke up at the bottom of th-the pit and you were all g-gone!” he exclaimed. “I h-had to climb out and walk b-back on my own, I n-nearly got lost!”

“Steve, what are you talking about? We left you with Sam and Tony back at the main station” Natasha said.

“What the h-hell are you talkin’ about? You left m-me at the ship! N-naked!”

“Hold on, hold on” Bucky said. “Start from the beginning. What exactly do you think happened?”

“I was- We were exploring the sh-ship, right? And then something grabbed my f-foot and pulled me down into a, a pit or something” Steve explained, his shivers not abating. “I woke up down there, bare n-naked, had to grab m-my flashlight and climb out. F-found all my gear in a pile w-where I’d left them, thanks a lot for th-that by the way” Steve said sarcastically.

Bucky’s eyes cut down to Steve’s outdoor gear. It was true, they had left that all behind when they’d taken Steve out of there. He’d been in nothing but his underclothes.

“Wait, but you-? You were-? What?” Clint said.

“I’m goddamn l-lucky I had my c-compass in my gear, or I never would have found my w-way back” Steve said, then looked at them all with vexed look. “Why the hell did you l-leave me naked? Was this some kind of sick prank? Y-you guys know I could’ve died, right?”

“But we didn’t leave you” Bucky said. “I- we, we found you down there unconscious, we had to carry to back to base”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about? I woke up alone and n-naked. You guys LEFT ME! NAKED!”

Steve’s voice pitched higher in perplexity, and Bucky didn’t blame him. He’d be perplexed too if he found himself waking up naked when he’d last remembered having clothes on.

But that brought up a quandary.

“Wait, if you’ve been at the ship this whole time... who did we bring back to base?”

The three of them shared a look of worry.

“What? What is it?” Steve asked, looking between them.

“Steve... we brought you back. Or, something that looked like you” Natasha said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means” she said, “That we have a bigger problem than we thought”

Chapter Text

It took some time to get Steve up to speed on what happened on base. In that time Natasha had also gone into her lab and gotten her blood-work kit, and proceeded to take Steve’s blood as they explained.

By then Steve had warmed up some, but Bucky had to imagine he was cold down to the marrow with how long he’d been outside in the storm. Walking just from the main hub to Natasha’s lab had been a harrowing experience, he couldn’t imagine what Steve must have gone through to walk a whole six miles back.

They continued talking while Natasha inspected Steve’s blood under the microscope she’d brought out with her.

“So Bruce and Thor are... dead?” Steve said in a small voice.

Clint nodded gravely. “And Bruce’s corpse animated after he was killed, then killed Thor. We had to go at it with the flamethrower to actually kill it”

“And there’s another me on base; or one you thought was me?”

“The one of base could still be the original Steve,” Natasha said as she inspected his blood, “but nothing I’m seeing here says you’re not our Steve, so I’ll need a sample of his blood to be sure”

“Do you think-” Bucky swallowed, “Do you think the Steve on base is the one who killed Bruce?”

“If he’s the one who grabbed this Steve and pulled him down into the pit, then I’d say probably, though I don’t fully know why he’d want to kill Bruce”

“Maybe to eat? You did say Bruce was missing some of his insides”

Natasha nodded. “And the bodies on the ship... that one looked like it had been eaten, and I’m betting all those skeletons in the pit have similar markings. Could be this thing, whatever it is, eats fresh meat”

Suddenly Bucky got a dreadful feeling in his gut, thinking back to last night.

“Guys... what if he didn’t kill Bruce for food. What if he killed him to force our hand and leave early?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Well, it’s just... I slept next to the Steve back on base, and he asked me some questions while we- while we cuddled” he said, shivering at the thought of who, or what, he’d been sleeping with that night.

“What kind of questions?”

“He asked me what it would take for the expedition to be cancelled, and I said short of an actual murder, they probably wouldn’t send us all home. And then the next morning, he wasn’t in bed with me...” Bucky gasped in sudden realization, covering his mouth with his hand. “Oh god, I gave him the idea. It’s my fault”

“Hey, hey, you can’t blame yourself for that” Clint said, putting a hand on Bucky’s shoulder.

“There was no way for you to know” Natasha comforted.

“Hold on, hold on” Steve said, looking perplexed. “So this doppelganger of me murdered Bruce, who then murdered Thor, and is now with Sam and Tony as we speak?”

“Oh god, Sam and Tony!” Bucky gasped. “They could be next!”

“I don’t think that’s the case” Natasha said, biting her thumbnail in thought. “He can’t murder anyone else without suspicion falling onto him. He got what he wanted out of Bruce’s murder- the expedition is all but likely to be called off now. It’s just this postmortem infection that’s complicating things”

“How so?” Clint asked.

“Well he now knows that we’re likely to be quarantined, which means we won’t be going home anytime soon. If his goal is to get off this continent, that would be one of the first things I’d need to think of. Odds are, this doppelganger is patient zero of this virus, and if we do a blood test, I bet that would prove it”

“If that’s the case, why let us do the blood test at all?”

“He wouldn’t... oh shit” Natasha said, eyes widening. “He wouldn’t want the blood test at all”

“Why do you sound so worried about that?” Bucky asked with trepidation. He didn’t like the look on Natasha’s face at the moment.

“Because it means his only other option is to... is to kill the rest of us” she said. “It means Sam and Tony could be dead right now, and he’s waiting to ambush us when we get back”

“What?” Steve said in confusion.

“No, no, she’s right” Clint said. “We never reported in, the people at home have no idea of the ship or the aliens or the virus or nothing. If he kills us all, he can make up any story he wants. Could say one of us went crazy and killed the others, he had no choice but self-defence”

“Are you sure that’s what he’d do?” Bucky asked.

Natasha nodded. “It’s his only way out, unless he can somehow fake his way through a blood test. But even then, the CDC would still quarantine us here because of the virus. If he wants to keep that part quiet, he’s gonna have to take out all witnesses”

“So what exactly can we do?”

“Well, there’s no guns on base, so that rules that out”

“But he has access to the flamethrower, and the axe” Natasha pointed out.

“It’s the flamethrower I’m more concerned with”

“Wait, we have a flamethrower?” Steve asked.

“Buddy, you’re really behind on what’s been going on” Clint said.

“Sorry, excuse me for having hiked here in a blizzard after being left behind. Naked”

“Oh my god, how many times can we say we’re sorry?” Clint griped. “We thought we grabbed the right one, sorry we mistook a doppelganger for you”

“I’m more concerned it was smart enough to take your clothes, and act like you to such a degree” Natasha said. “That level of intelligence... I wonder at how the alien ship ended up crashing”

“Hey guys, while I’m sure this alien has plenty of neat things we can conjecture about it, I’m more worried about Sam and Tony” Bucky said. “Every minute we spend out here is another minute they could be murdered. Like, you saw what Tony was like when we left. It’s practically Sam on his own in there”

“You’re right” Natasha said, shifting back into focus. “We have to be smart about this. Right now we have only a few things we can know for sure. One: the thing back on base may or may not be the real Steve”

“Hey” Steve said.

“Sorry Steve, but one blood test doesn’t rule out that you’re the fake one. I didn’t exactly run a battery of tests, just a simple microscopic observation”

Steve didn’t look too happy about that, but he kept his peace.

“Two;” Natasha went on. “The Steve on base has access to knives, an axe, and most dangerous of all, a flamethrower”

“If he killed Sam and Tony already, all he’d have to do is set up at the hub’s entrance and wait for us to get back, then just blast us with the thrower” Clint pointed out.

A shiver ran up Bucky’s spine. If the doppelganger had killed Sam and Tony already. If he was awaiting their return to ambush them. If he was even the fake Steve, or the one in front of them was.

Too many ifs, not enough solid facts.

“So then what do we do?” Bucky asked. “If he is waiting for us to return, we can’t exactly go through the main entrance”

“We go through the side one” Clint said. “It’s closer to the tools room too, so we can grab our own weapons for protection”

Natasha nodded. “That’s a good idea. And Steve, I think it’s best if you stay here”

“What? No way, I’m not leaving you guys alone to deal with that thing” Steve protested.”Also, can I remind you you already left me behind once; I’m not eager for a second go of it”

“I’m sorry Steve, but it’s for the best. If you are the actual fake one, it’s easier to isolate you here. For all we know nothing could’ve happened on base, and we can test the blood of the Steve there”

“Well what happens if his blood is the same as mine?”

“Then we’ll have more troubles, but let’s not look that far ahead. For now we need a strategy to deal with the other Steve and his possible ambush”

Steve pressed his lips together, clearly unhappy with Natasha’s plan to exclude him, though he couldn’t find fault in her logic.

“There’s another problem though” Bucky said. “How do we get to the side entrance from here? It’s a full blown blizzard out there, and it was hard enough navigating with the rope to help us”

“We take the rope back, and then edge our way around the outside of the base until we hit the side door” Clint said, making Bucky frown.

With the way the winds were blowing, snow was piling up higher on the base’s walls than in the open areas, and scaling the side of the base would be a harrowing ordeal. And yet, Bucky couldn’t come up with a better idea.

“Is everyone good with the plan?” Natasha asked the group.

“Yep” Clint said, while Steve nodded.

The three of them turned to Bucky, awaiting his answer.

He sighed, rubbing his hands together for warmth. “Yeah, I guess there’s no other choice.

“Good, then let’s head out” Natasha said, pulling on her coat.

Clint and Bucky did the same, donning their outwear once more to go back out into the cold. Steve took a seat on floor, one knee up as he watched them. Bucky both did and didn’t envy him. On one hand, Steve didn’t have to risk anything by staying; but on the other hand, the entryway of the hub was bare bones and empty. The only saving grace was that it was warm, but after being abandoned for over a day, Bucky imagined Steve had been hoping for more accommodations than this.

“You guys be careful, alright?” Steve said as they lined up to exit the hub, showing genuine concern as they prepared to leave him.

“And you stay here no matter what, alright?” Natasha said. “But if we don’t come get you in an hour, assume the worst and be careful”

Steve nodded, watching as Clint opened the door and let in a flurry of snow.

Bucky took a breath from behind his mask, preparing himself to go back outside into the blizzard, though it was the least of their problems right now.

Chapter Text

The trip back to the station was just as harrowing as they trip out, but Bucky grit his teeth and bore it. The three of them felt their way along the rope and each other until Clint hit the door of the base. Rather than open it, however, he started to inch his way along the edge of the structure, arms hugging the walls like they were scaling a sheer cliff face.

Admittedly, the walk to the side door was a touch easier than with the rope, and the wall provided some cover against the wind. Instead of being buffeted on all sides, they were only accosted by the one as the wind howled and shrieked in the air. The snow piled around the edge was far deeper than what they’d just walked through, but with Clint plowing the way, they made okay time considering.

They thankfully reached the side door without issue, Clint opening the hatch and hurrying in, Natasha and Bucky right on his tail.

Bucky closed the hatch behind them, shaking off the layer of snow that had accumulated on his person.

They quickly disrobed their outer wear, shucking everything off onto the floor while eyeing the doorless entryway into the station for signs of the false-Steve. If he even was the false Steve. Could be all three men were exactly where they’d left them, not a thing wrong other than the heavy suspicion that had permeated the base.

“This way” Clint whisper-spoke, the three of them trying to make as little noise as possible, though the creak of the exit hatch had certainly alerted anyone nearby.

He led them to a side closet where Bucky saw a mess of tools and supplies for the base. Things like cleaning product, but also mechanical tools for fixing whatever broke.

“Here” Clint said, passing off a wrench to Bucky, then a hammer to Natasha.

The two of them took the makeshift weapons with unease, Natasha testing out the swing of hers in the cramped space.

“Are these even going to do anything?” Bucky asked, turning the wrench over in his hand. While it definitely had heft, he didn’t know how well it would hold up against a flamethrower.

“Better than nothing” Natasha said.

“You guys just stay behind me” Clint said, rifling through a large box. “I’ll handle the lead” he said as he lifted out a-

“Why the fuck do we have a chainsaw?” Bucky asked in shock, seeing Clint lift the sawing tool out of the bin.

“In case of ice”

“You said that about the flamethrower too”

Clint shrugged. “They wanted us to be prepared in case of anything”

“But a chainsaw?”

“A gun would’ve been better, but if it’s what we have, then we’ll have to suffice” Natasha said.

Bucky huffed, gripping his wrench more tightly. He didn’t like this one bit.

“You guys ready?” Clint asked, grabbing the ripcord.

“Wait!” Natasha said suddenly, “You can’t turn that on just yet. The noise will alert Steve”

Clint frowned. “It’s not that useful stopped though”

“We’ll take the lead” Natasha proposed. “You stay in the back and prepare to turn it on when needed. But right now, I think a more silent approach would do better”

Bucky swallowed. That put either him or Natasha up front, a task he didn’t particularly want.

“I’ll lead” Natasha said fearlessly, taking the hard choice away from Bucky, much to his relief. He nodded and got behind her, with Clint in tow, hand on the ripcord and ready to start it up at the first sign of trouble.

The three of them crept deeper in the station, Natasha opening doors with her hammer raised, clearing each room like they were a SWAT team.

It was a tense time to put it lightly. All of them were on-guard, waiting for something to jump out at them. The eerie silence of the base didn’t help, with only the low hum of the heating system as white noise.

They cleared out all the sleeping rooms, moving on to the labs. Bucky’s and Thor’s was empty, leaving them with Sam’s and Steve’s-

“NO!” came a booming voice, and Natasha jumping back and into Bucky as an axe came down scant inches from her face.

“Woah! Woah!” Bucky said, raising his hands to show he meant no harm as Sam stood at the doorway to his lab, bloodied axe in hand.

Sam’s eyes were buggy and shifty, his breath coming quick as he held the axe in a white-knuckling grip.

“It’s just us” Natasha said, slowly lowering her own weapon once she saw who it was.

“Oh thank god” Sam said, shoulder sagging in relief. “You guys, it’s Steve. He’s the killer- he killed Tony!”

That was distressing news, but not wholly unexpected. In all honesty, Bucky was surprised to see Sam still alive.

“And guys- I think he was infected with the virus too, because he started to, to change-”

“Oh, thank god you guys are back!” a voice said, coming down the corridor.

All four of them turned to the newcomer, spotting Steve.

His shirt had a huge cut running down the front, blood oozing out. In his left hand he brandished a clean knife, holding it like a weapon. His expression was that of alarm, eyes cutting to Sam.

“Get back! It’s Sam, guys. He killed Tony right in front of me!”

Bucky gulped.

Now things got complicated.

Chapter Text

The five of them stood in the crowded hallway in a standoff, each of them holding a weapon.

“See, that’s a funny thing” Natasha said into the tension of the air. “Sam here says you killed Tony”

“That’s right! He snapped his neck with his bare hands” Sam explained, holding his axe back like he was getting ready to swing it.

“That’s not true! I saw him snap Tony’s neck. Then he swung at me,” Steve said, motioning to the huge cut along his chest that could feasibly come from an axe. “He also destroyed the flamethrower!”

“Bullshit!” Sam yelled. “You snapped Tony’s neck, and then you destroyed the flamethrower. Then you came at me with, with your mouth all, jesus, it was like a shark’s-”

“He’s lying!” Steve shot back.

The thing was, if it weren’t for the Steve back at Natasha’s lab, Bucky would easily take Steve’s side. Sam was the one with the bloodied weapon, and Steve was the one with the wound. Sam had already proven he’d use the axe when push came to shove, and it would’ve been oh so easy to shift the blame.

But the Steve back at the lab spoke otherwise, and Bucky suspected the other two knew it as well. All suspicions were on Steve.

Or maybe, something that wasn’t Steve.

“How about you both put your weapons down?” Clint said, hefting up the chainsaw, “And go take a seat in your lab?”

“No way man, I’m not waiting around to get killed by that thing-”

“Are you crazy? Sam could snap at any moment-”

Both men spoke at the same time, airing their concerns.

“We’re not asking” Natasha said seriously.

“You can’t be serious” Sam said, not putting down the axe.

“Just, put down your weapons” Bucky said, backing up Natasha. If this was how they wanted to play it, keeping the potentially false Steve in the dark on their suspicions, then so be it.

Surprisingly, it was Steve who acted first, letting his knife drop to the ground with a clatter. He held up both his hands in surrender.

“Fine, fine. If this is what it’ll take” Steve said.

“Nuh-uh, I ain’t trustin’ you” Sam said, not letting go of the axe.

“Sam, just... give me the axe” Natasha said. “And you can get behind Clint. You two don’t have to stand together”

Sam pressed his lips together, unhappy with the proposition, but after a tense moment, he relinquished the axe to Natasha, quickly stalking over to Clint to put as many bodies between him and Steve.

“Alright, now” Natasha said. “I’m going to take a blood sample from the both of you, and we’re gonna sort this out reasonably. Steve, you go first”

“What? Why me?”

“Because I said so”

Steve frowned, displeased with the order of things. “Fine” he said, rolling up his sleeve and entering his and Sam’s lab. Natasha followed him in, putting the axe down and setting up her blood drawing kit.

“I just need to take a sample, and we’ll be done” she said, sitting in front of Steve and tearing open a sterile wipe.

“You be careful” Sam warned. “He’s definitely infected”

“We’ll just wait until I can see his blood” Natasha said.

Everybody was tense, watching as Natasha sterilized the crook of Steve’s arm, getting ready to draw blood. All eyes were forward, watching the procession.

All eyes, except Steve’s.

Bucky made eye contact, the two of them gazing at each other for a long moment. Bucky didn’t know what to make of it. Steve’s gaze then flicked down briefly as Natasha pushed the needle in, before returning his gaze to Bucky, locking eyes.

“You know,” Steve started casually, “You didn’t have to make it so obvious”

“What’s obvious?” Natasha asked.

“None of you are even looking at Sam” Steve observed. “Haven’t even given him a second glance”

“Clint’s got him handled” Natasha dismissed.

“That’s not what it looks like to me”

Quicker than the blink of an eye, Steve was up and grabbing Natasha, turning her around and holding her in a choke-hold, arm squeezing her neck. Blood trickled out where the needle dug into his flesh, dribbling down the front of Natasha shirt.

Natasha was gripping at his arm, choking as he squeezed.

“Woah man, woah!” Clint said revving up the chainsaw with a metallic growl. Sam and Bucky both pressed themselves against the wall, not wanting to taste the bite of the chainsaw’s blades.

“You couldn’t just leave it alone, huh!” Steve snarled out. “Had to make this difficult!”

Then in one fell swoop, he shifted his grip and snapped Natasha’s neck, a loud and wet crack! sounding in the room, even over the chainsaw. He let her body drop limply to the ground, like a marionette with the strings cut.

“You bastard!” Clint yelled, running at Steve with the chainsaw. He swung it in a high arch, connecting with Steve’s shoulder and cutting diagonal.

Steve let out an ear-piercing screech that had everyone flinching. It’s not human, Bucky thought, covering his ears. The sound was primal and animalistic, dredged from the most savage of sources. Blood was flung into the air in an arc against the wall, running all the way up to the ceiling, spurting out from the fleshy wound Clint had just made.

Then, to everyone’s horror, Steve opened his mouth, wider and wider and wider, needle-like teeth extending from the gums instead of human ones. He was still screeching like a banshee, his arms coming out and gripping Clint, pulling him closer, heedless of the chainsaw that dug into his chest.

He opened his moth wide and bit into Clint’s throat, letting out a huge spurt of blood. He pulled his head back and tore out Clint’s jugular, mouth now blood-red with Clint’s flesh hanging out between his lips.

“Guh” Clint garbled, losing his grip on the chainsaw and reaching up at his throat as if he might staunch the blood, but there was no staunching that mess. Clint was a dead man, that much was obvious.

Steve- or decidedly not Steve- took a step towards Bucky and Sam.

Chapter Text

“Oh hell naw!” Sam swore, reaching inward and pulling the door shut, cutting off their view of the bloodbath. “Nope, nuh-uh”

Sam made a hasty retreat deeper into the base, and Bucky followed him, unsure of what else to do.

“What do we do?” he asked hurriedly.

“The flamethrower” Sam said.

“What about it? Didn’t you say Steve destroyed it?”

“Yeah, but not all of it. He just made the shooting mechanism useless, but the fuel is still intact”

In their hurry to return to the rec room, Bucky couldn’t track what Sam was getting at.

“What does that matter?” he asked breathlessly as they entered the rec room.

“That matters” Sam said, “because I can make one hell of a Molotov cocktail”

It took Bucky a second to parse that, but when he did, he immediately felt trepidation.

“You want to set him on fire?!”

“You got a better idea?” Sam snapped, kneeling down and grabbing the flamethrower pack, stripping it of the firing mechanism.

“Uh...”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought”

There was a crashing noise from down the hall, sounding suspiciously like a door being broken down, and then a loud shrieking hiss, slowly growing closer.

“Shit, shit” Sam swore, tearing off more of the flamethrower accoutrements. As he did so, he looked up to Bucky. “Go grab the first-aid kit” he ordered.

“What? Why?” Bucky asked distractedly, head swivelling between Sam and the decidedly open entryway of the rec room, where the thing that wasn’t Steve could very easily access.

“Just do it!” Sam yelled, grabbing the throw blanket off the couch now and tearing it.

A building panic was filling Bucky’s chest, telling him to run, and run far. Except there was nowhere to run, and the approaching monster would easily catch him. So Bucky did as he was bid to and retrieved the first-aid kit that sat on the far wall of the rec room.

He returned a moment later with it to find Sam unscrewing the top of the fuel tank, tilting it to soak the patch of blanket he’d torn off. When he said Molotov cocktail, Bucky hadn’t been thinking of something so literal, but they were short on time so he supposed it was better than nothing.

Bucky held out the first-aid kit with shaking hands, constantly turning back towards the doorway until he did a double-take, spotting not-Steve stepping in.

His whole front was soaked in blood, painting him red. Red dripped from his mouth, which hadn’t fully closed. Bucky didn’t think it could close, not with all those pointed teeth. The thing let out a hissing sound, rapidly approaching them.

“Sam! Sam!” Bucky yelled, backing up as the thing closed in.

He watched as Sam opened the kit and rummaged around, finally pulling out a little pack of matches.

Ripping it open one-handed, he plucked a match from within and struck it with the edge of his teeth, causing a spark to alight.

There was a wet ripping sound, and Bucky looked to the thing that wasn’t Steve, its body tearing itself open. Skin came undone like paper, revealing a sickening interior that nauseatingly looked like butcher meat, wet and glistening. Clothes tore as the thing seemed to balloon then burst with a sickening snap!, several insectoid legs erupting out to grip the floor, leaving behind string trails of bloody fluid.

It all seemed to unfold in slow motion, the monster skittering in with a hissing noise, expanding itself impossibly, rending its own flesh in terrible, glistening detail. At the same time, Sam brought the match to the soaked cloth that was sticking out of the flamethrower’s fuel tank, the fabric instantly catching.

Bucky realized that Sam didn’t have much time before the flames reached the inner chamber of the container, and he watched as Sam stood and hurled the whole thing at the monster.

There was a second as the bomb flew through the air, black smoke echoing its path, before it struck the creature dead-center. Flammable fluid splashed from within the open container, coating the monster for a second before flames instantly took it’s place.

There was a high screeching sound as the monster’s limbs flailed, throwing itself about the room, its prey forgotten in the searing pain it was experiencing.

Bucky watched, frozen and wide-eyed, as the thing slammed itself against the wall, against the couch, against the floor, leaving behind a smear of the flamethrower fluid that caught fire too.

There was the scent of burning hair and bacon, the smell sickening Bucky. He couldn’t get himself to move, eyes raptly on the creature as it struggled

Bucky’s eyes started to water as smoke wafted in his face, and moment later he was shocked by the high, shrill sound of the smoke alarm, just barely louder than the shrieking of the monster. The result was an assault on Bucky’s senses, the smell and even taste of smoke clogging his mouth and throat, his eyes blurring with tears, ears ringing.

“Come on!” Sam yelled from the doorway of the room, voice barely penetrating the shrill screams and alarm filling the room. He somehow managed to get past the creature while Bucky had been struck with fear, but the shouted use of his name got his attention off the monster.

Sam was holding out his hand, as if prompting Bucky to grab it despite the distance between them. Bucky was a good nine feet away, the recliner between them. It, by some miracle, hadn’t caught fire yet, but with the way the creature was spreading the flames around the room, it wouldn’t remain that way for long.

Swallowing his fear, Bucky forced his legs to move. His muscles seemed coated in molasses, the five or so step it would’ve taken to get to Sam taking forever. In slow motion, he reached out and took Sam’s offered hand, and then time seemed to speed up all of a sudden.

Sam yanked him out of the room, then started running to the opposite side of the compound, dragging Bucky along with him.

Behind them was the continued screams of the monster, singing in duet with the smoke alarms.

It’s gotta die soon, right? Right?

But as Sam hauled him away, the screams only seemed to get louder.

Chapter Text

Steve sat in the hub, hugging himself and shivering slightly. He couldn’t quite get the cold out of his bones from his ordeal of a hike back to base.

How could they have left me there? he wondered still. Their explanation made some sense, but Steve was struggling to believe it. A doppelganger? An alien doppelganger?

He shook his head. It sounded fantastical. For something to have survived on that ship at all, biding its time until someone came along? It was a stretch, yet Steve couldn’t poke holes in their story.

But part of him still didn’t fully believe it. Part of him thought this was some kind of cruel prank, that everyone was sitting inside the base and laughing as he sat here and shivered miserably, having been inches from death on the way over. The Antarctic was an unforgiving landscape, and Steve could have very easily died on his trek back. He was damn lucky that he’d made it back at all.

He tried to wrap his head around the story he’d been told. Of the murders, and the mutated bodies of the deceased. He couldn’t quite picture it, his imagination failing to conjure something so horrid.

Suddenly there was a grinding creak from the hub’s door, and the handle turned to open. Frigid air came blasting in along with falling snow, the storm really taking hold outside. A snowy figure came stumbling in, hastily closing the door behind them with stilted movements of frozen limbs.

“Jesus, were you out there without a coat?” Steve exclaimed, seeing the figure had nothing but a sweater and jeans on. The snow covering them quickly melted, revealing a bloodied Bucky, teeth clattering and body shivering.

“It- it k-killed them” Bucky stammered as Steve hurried to undo his own coat, wrapping it around Bucky. He noted that Bucky’s sweater was frozen stiff with blood, as where the splotches on his jeans. He at least had boots on, but otherwise had been completely at the mercy of the elements.

“It, it killed Tony, and Natasha, and Clint, and Sam” Bucky blabbered, hugging himself under the shawl of the coat Steve had wrapped around his shoulders. His hair sat stiff and frozen with blood in it too.

“Jesus” Steve swore. The story was a little more believable seeing all the blood on Bucky’s body. “Is it-?” Steve wet his lips, “Is it still out there?”

Bucky shook his head, eyes distant with shock. “Sam, he- he set it on fire. It burned. The whole base is burning”

That shocked Steve, and made him worry. The hub they were in was all well and good for now, but how would they survive here? Natasha probably stocked some food and water, but not enough for a long period of time. Plus, the communications array was back in the base, and if that burned, they’d be stuck here.

Wait, no, there was still hope.

“We can wait her through the storm” Steve said. “Once it clears, we can go to the sheds and get the snowmobiles. The Norwegians have a base thirty miles from us, we can get help with them”

Bucky nodded, shivering still.

“W-when the storm clears” Bucky repeated, as if comforting himself.

Steve held him close. “Yeah, when it clears”

Outside the wind howled, and the two men sat in silence. Biding their time.