Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Steve’s condition is clearly off.

Natasha presses the gunshot wound on her shoulder, blood welling between her fingers and thinks calmly. Ever since Steve knocked off the Winter Soldier’s mask, his face has looked like the aftermath of a Florida hurricane. He’s trembling, gasping for breath in large gulps, seemingly completely lost in a whirlpool of memories. Those once bright blue eyes are now shattered, clouded over with a deathly haze. Like collapsed stars, all their light vanish.

Sam watches him with concern: “Cap? Cap? Are you alright?”

Steve doesn’t answer him. After the intense pain, his expression becomes empty and calm, stirring a thread of panic in Natasha’s heart. The blond man in front of her exudes an eerie oppressive aura, like a calibrated machine, like… like the Winter Soldier on the bridge.

She knows about Captain America’s past. Limited to the part that exists in history and archives of course. She knows who Captain America meant by “Bucky” - the best friend in childhood, the loyal comrade on battlefield, the only Howling Commando who sacrificed his life for the country. She has developed some kind of working friendship with Steve since the battle of New York, where he occasionally opens up about his past from seventy years ago - Carter, Stark senior, and the Howling Commandos. But he never truly brought up Barnes.

There was a time when Natasha casually asked about Captain’s closest friend, the role he played in a certain story, Steve’s unusual reaction caught her attention. He was initially lost in thoughts, seemingly trying to recall, then expressed surprise and confusion, shaking his head saying he didn’t really remember much. She once thought their so-called lifelong friendship, which was described as childhood sweethearts and a bond stronger than gold, was mostly part of wartime propaganda, much like the love story between Captain America and Agent Carter - loyal friend, beautiful lover. So wonderful, so inspiring.

But the current situation bewilders her completely. The appearance of that “Bucky” seems to have scrambled Steve’s brain, plunging him into some states of depersonalization and derealization. She knows Steve’s mental state isn’t too great- considering his trauma as a World War II veteran and the disorientation of being out of his time. But he has been trying to adapt, and has done quite well, except for the lack of interest in her matchmaking attempts. Over the past two years, she’s never seen Steve so… puzzled and anguished, even to the extent where his brain is activating self-protection mechanism.

“That wasn’t your fault, Steve.” She says tentatively. “You have no idea what happened to Barnes.”

Steve’s eyes flicker slightly, seemingly in response to the word Barnes. Natasha understands immediately. She knows a part of the Winter Soldier’s past. Connecting those details with the War World II hero declared MIA in history books, she eventually traces out a rough outline.

She sighs inwardly but still tries to bring Steve out of his trance: “You have no idea that Barnes survived that fall, nor Hydra would turn Barnes into a killing machine. Steve, you don’t need to feel guilty about this.”

The hollow mask peels from Steve’s face, his look is filled with pain and struggle again.

“Oh God…Bucky…” He mutters incessantly, body trembling with panic. “They captured him, experimented on him, forced him to kill…over and over again, all because I didn’t hold his hand.”

“Hey Steve, take a deep breath.” Sam lifts his cuffed hands, palms down, making a calming gesture. “You need to step out of your memories, Steve. Now Hydra is still running rampant outside, we’re wanted criminals locked in the truck headed who-knows-where for execution, Natasha’s hurt and still bleeding… We need you, Cap. Pull yourself out of those terrible emotions, come back to reality. Can you do it?”

“All these years I’ve been living in reality but thinking I was merely having an absurd dream.” Steve speaks with difficulty, his trembling still not stopping. “I forgot everything, cowardly hiding beneath the ice, expecting the nightmare would stop.”

He looks up at them, deep blue eyes hiding a steely resolve. “I won’t run away this time - not anymore.”

The guards brandish their electric batons; the high-frequency current emits a buzz, carrying a threating warning. They wisely shut their mouths. In the next second, the smell of burning flesh fills the cramped compartment. Maria Hill takes off her helmet.

When S.T.R.I.K.E. opens the rear compartment door, there was only a charred hole left in the empty vehicle.

Nick Fury isn’t dead. Given Hill’s rescue, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Steve. Helicarriers are about to take off, he understands Fury’s helplessness to save S.H.I.E.L.D., but Hydra has spread its tentacles too deeply, S.H.I.E.L.D. is just a shadow under their vast network.

To build a new world, sometimes it must completely tear down the old one. Peggy’s and Pierce's words take turns flashing through his mind, differing only in purpose and means. Once they swore to eradicate the Nazis at any cost, filling the world with countless blood and flesh so it could be reborn from an expanse of ash, praying for the bones to rest in peace. But now, seven decades have passed, those who once lived are long buried, while the dead crawl out from the graves, circling back to the starting point.

Victory and sacrifice are annihilated in the ceaseless flow of time, becoming mere dust crushed beneath the rolling wheels of time, while some souls meant to rest are instead imprisoned, wandering in hell with no end in sight. He silently repeats that name, feeling a searing pain with every breath.

Doing the right thing is hard, but fortunately he sees through the enemy's true colors. Steve calmly refuses, as if merely making a simple declaration: “Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., the whole thing - it all goes.”

Fury glares at him, explaining in a low voice, “I didn't know about Barnes.”

“Even if you did, would you have told me?" he retorts, a dark blue rage rising in his eyes. "I bet you’ve figured out my background too - at this point, you still have illusions about S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

Fury is speechless. The man before him has changed. Three years ago, Steve Rogers was an open book. He was lost and angry, adrift in a strange era. Fury could see the void in Rogers' heart - For him, the victory of the anti-fascist war was merely a vague concept. Deep down, he believed the war had never ended. So Fury offered him a chance to join another war, to lead another team. Here, he could serve his greatest value: to be a soldier, a leader, a symbol.

Steve Rogers seemed eager too. Fury tried not to dwell on the reasons. Maybe for him, apart from continuing to fight, nothing in the 21st century was connected to the world he came from.

He’s never seen such intense emotions surrounding Captain America. During the battle in New York, Steve had told him: “Nothing surprises me anymore”, but Fury bet he would. In fact, aliens, oddly dressed teammates, mutated monsters, and superpowered beings… he had accepted them quickly, like a stagnant dead pond without even the slightest ripple.

But now Rogers is clearly like a boiling torrent, Fury can see something burning fiercely in the depths of his originally hollow heart - hatred, regret, and desperation. Those emotions are so intense, so scorching, so… personal, making Captain America no longer look like a symbol on a propaganda poster now.

Perhaps he underestimated Barnes’ significance to Rogers.

Fury sighs helplessly: “I didn't know it was related to Hydra then… The truth I was told was that in 1991, S.H.I.E.L.D. found Captain America's crashed plane in the Arctic Ocean, but due to the immature thawing tech, your body suffered severe damage, so they decided to… re-preserve you. It wasn't until 2011 that the awakening plan was back on the agenda.”

Preserved. Steve can recall the chill seeping into his bones, like millions of needles piercing his flesh, burrowing into his marrow. He’s used to it; during those years, people in white coats did it to him many times. Since he woke up in the melting ice-cold seawater, the cold has lingered in another part of his life, refusing to fade.

“That was a lie. Hydra found me in 1975. They sent me to the Soviet Union for reprogramming, wanting to make me another Winter Soldier.”

Natasha’s head snaps up, her eyes brimming with disbelief.

Sam is completely taken aback: “What do you mean? You're saying… you were once a member of Hydra too?”

Steve lowers his eyes and sneers: “Yes. Петрушка, sometimes they called us that. Stringed puppets, experimental subjects, assets, weapons… That's all we were to Hydra.”

“’We’? You and... Barnes?”

He recalls the harsh red star on Omega's silver mechanical arm.

“Yes. Bucky was taken by Hydra after falling into the Alps in ‘44. I don't know exactly what happened to him in those years, but I can make a rough guess. Hydra's research on the human brain was far ahead of its time. They developed a technology that could erase everything from a person - memories, emotions, and self-awareness. On that blank slate, they could paint any personality Hydra needed.”

“Brainwashing, memory implantation… I still remember their methods,” Natasha murmurs, suddenly looks up, gazing at Steve's blond hair. “Some memories, I can't be sure they’re real.”

Steve shakes his head sorrowfully: “They are hard to tell. Without a fixed anchor, those images are like sand in your palm, impossible to grasp at all.”

“Wait, so I'm the only one here who has no idea what's going on?" Sam runs his hand through his hair in frustration. “What is it, did everyone here have a skeleton in the closet from working at Hydra or something? And now you decide to be the karma your heartless old employer deserves?”

Fury wipes his bald brow, and Hill raises her hands in surrender. “Very decent summary, Wilson. Doesn't sound harsh at all.”

Steve is clearly choked up, then nods helplessly: “In a certain sense, you're completely right. After all, it seems that there is no essential difference between working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and working for Hydra now.”

Fury weighs his words before speaking: “Pierce knows your past, Cap. This plan was aimed at you from the start. Maybe his intention isn't to kill you, but to retrieve you-”

Which means Pierce will try again. Pierce knows that Steve will do whatever it takes to stop Helicarriers from taking off, for certain Bucky will be sent again. Steve suddenly recalls the conversation in Pierce’s office. When he refused to reveal any information about Fury's last moments, the old man looked at him as if he were a naughty child.

“Oh Cap, you leave me no choice.”

Doubts and fears make him prepare a backup plan before setting out on the mission. He reminds Sam and Natasha, if anything happens to him… they should not hold back.

When the familiar Russian words echo through the broadcast, Steve finally realizes what the fear buried deep in his memory is. Pierce's smug smile is flashing through his mind, and cold sweat instantly soaks his back. Everything seems to be in slow motion; the people around him gradually shrink and distort, becoming blurry and distant as if from another world.

Obey the orders. He watches his body like a puppet on a string, betraying his own will and veers off the designated path, striding towards the council meeting floor. Many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents rush to stop him, but he mercilessly knocks them down with his shield. He barges into the 71st-floor conference room door, with bloodstained shield in hand. Pierce turns around to look at him, unsurprised, revealing a pleased smile.

“My dear friend,” he says in a drawn-out voice, “Welcome home.”

Natasha stares at Steve's bloodstained face with terror. She knows the broadcast did this. Just a few words had changed the appearance of this man: mechanical, cold, precise, like a well-polished gun. It is impossible to expect Steve in this state to replace the chip. She prays Fury’s backup arrives soon.

Everything has gone out of control.

No. She vaguely senses that Fury may have predicted this long ago. This shrewd old fox knows much more about Steve Rogers' past than he shows. She observes stoically as Alexander Pierce maneuvers among the other council members, all while playing her own part flawlessly. Obviously, Pierce's persuasion is not very successful. As one gets older, it becomes difficult to instill extremist ideas while still maintaining charm, he doesn't have the cunning oratory skills like Hitler after all. Natasha feels sorry for him. The glory days of achieving the Nobel Peace Prize through eloquence and disguise are gone for good.

Finally, Pierce also realizes he is wasting his breath and decides to resort to violence early. He affectionately calls Rogers “Soldier” and orders him to execute one dissenting man. Just as Steve is about to move, without hesitation, Natasha activates the Widow’s Bite hidden in the Captain's uniform.

The overwhelming strong current instantly knocks the six-foot-plus blond man to the ground; he soon convulses into unconsciousness. She quickly picks up the dropped gun, aims it barrel at Pierce's slightly surprised face, curling her lips: “Terminate the Insight Project, or I'll put a few holes in your chest.”

“I'm surprised, Ms. Romanoff,” Pierce raises an eyebrow in amusement, “You actually showed no mercy to your comrade.”

Natasha's hand holding the gun doesn't tremble at all: “He's not my comrade anymore, is he? Steve Grant Rogers has always been your biggest pawn in S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“102 has always been our favorite puppet, of course, compared to the other one. He’s stronger, harder to tame, and importantly, he is far more radical than 037. Although we’ve only developed less than one-tenth of his potential, his serum, his identity, his secondary gender… everything about him is unparalleled.”

Pierce is unstinting with praise; the pride in his words makes Natasha feel disgusted.

"You don’t agree with me, madam? Isn’t that how you see him too? A saint embodying American spirit, a flag symbolizing democracy and freedom? People don't care about Steve Grant Rogers himself, they care about Captain America, a living legend. One day, the people will discover they have been deceived. Rogers reveals his true face beneath the mask, and they will spit on him and curse him. How can someone who has stained the shield with blood be Captain America? See? this is where the hypocrisy of humanity lies.”

“I'm following Steve Rogers, not Captain America.” Natasha glances at the blond man lying on the ground, a ghost of smile playing on her lips, "if Hydra forced him to be an inhumane weapon, you should be prepared to reap what you sow.”

“Like you did to your motherland, Black Widow? No, he wouldn't dare do that.” Pierce scans at the three trembling council members, thoughtfully stroking his fingers. "People are always so easy to control. When they have a soft spot, everything can be predicted. This is human nature. Even if we’ve been working to free him from this, nothing is perfect, right?”

“You still underestimate humanity, my old friend.”

The access control system beeps a confirmation message. Fury strides in, wearing his usual black coat.

“If you knew him, you'd know Rogers never compromises.”

Pierce seems utterly unsurprised by the resurrection of Fury. He chats with him casually, as if he hadn’t ordered the Winter Soldier to carry out the assassination.

“Your mutual defense is truly heartwarming, but sadly, Nick, no one is impenetrable. Just like Hercules wearing the poisoned gown, people are never able to guard against those close to them. The plan has progressed to this stage, can you guarantee that he won't betray you for his Omega at the last moment?”

“You shouldn't have been so arrogant as to think you could control everyone, Alex,” Fury sighs, his remaining eye full of pity. “Sometimes betrayal is not the goal, but a means. This is all I learned from you.”

The figure on the floor moves soundlessly, coils his core to leap up, then dodges behind the chatty old man. Pierce lets out a painful scream. Steve, who comes to his senses, instantly shatters the old man's right wrist that is trying to press the control button.

He seizes Pierce's other hand, forcing him toward the iris scanner: “If I didn’t need you alive to unlock this, I’d have already gouged out your eyeballs.”

Cold sweat covers Pierce’s aged face. He looks with a hint of surprise at the furious Steve, voice tinged with regret: “…Sixteen years was too short. Those words haven't truly become a part of you. Such a pity…”

“Arrogance is a common trait of Hydra," Steve says sarcastically. The machine in front authenticates successfully, thanks to the dual verification of Pierce and Fury's blind left eye - another piece of solid proof.

“Are you really ready for the world to see your true colors?” He slowly scans everyone present, revealing a cryptic smile. “As far as I know, none of you here... are clean.”

Fury motions for the utterly terrified members to leave immediately. Natasha spares a moment from complex controls to retort: “And you?”

Is Hydra ready to be exposed to the world?

Perhaps he should strangle Pierce right here. Steve thinks inconspicuously, he is fast, just put his thumb and index finger on the windpipe...

“Iron Man is in position.”

Tony Stark's usually flippant voice comes through the communication earpiece, and Fury's eye sparkles with amusement. Steve lets out a barely perceptible sigh of relief. He releases Pierce's hand, tilts his head to motion for Natasha. Black Widow glances at the increasingly vibrant online world as secrets upload, aims her gun at the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director.

“Chip in Sector C has been replaced. Now retreating to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building.”

Steve strides quickly to the floor-to-ceiling window and asks, “Falcon?”

“Still working on it!” Sam yells on the channel, his voice urgent. “Cap! I saw the Winter Soldier when flying past the bridge of Sector B!”

“Does the little birdie need my support?”

“No, Tony. You come to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, 71st floor.”

Iron Man's puzzled voice chatters non-stop in the channel, but soon a golden-red armor appears outside the window.

Steve nods at Fury, throws his shield as he lifts his leg. The impact point on the window instantly spiderwebs. He runs at full speed, quickly calculating the shield’s rebound angle in his mind, grasping it firmly just before the edge of floor. The next instant, using his momentum, he leaps up fiercely, crashes into the center of the spiderweb cracks with the shield held in front of him. The specially reinforced glass of the building shatters instantly into pieces under violent impact.

“How would I know which floor?!”

“After I jumped down.”

His body hangs in the air for a fraction of a second before falling. Steve stretches out his arms upward, hooking onto the fast-moving armor merely by instinct.

A muffled voice comes from within the suit: “May I ask where our destination is, Estel?”

“Sector B. Take the chip, I'll go stop Bucky.”

“Got it - but who the hell is 'Bucky'?”

Tony soon finds out. An assassin with a silver arm makes him suffer a few rounds of grenade shells in mid-air. His ferocious, beast-like combat style is far from the name “Bucky”. Taking advantage of Iron Man's evasive movement, Steve lets go of his hand and lands lightly on the deck. He runs quickly, aims at Bucky's position and throws the shield with all his might. The killer's grenade gun flies out of his grip instantly.

Sure enough, the Winter Soldier is successfully distracted. He does a side turn to dodge Iron Man's repulsor, finds cover, and shoots at Captain America without hesitation.

The communication channel was filled with Iron Man's curses: “Shit! They sent out an entire tactical team!”

It’s obvious that Hydra laid down suppressing fire on Iron Man, but ordinary humans are hardly a match for Tony. To avoid damaging the control console of Helicarriers, the team also has no advantage of heavy weapons. Steve turns his attention back to the murderous Bucky. He knows how lethal the Omega in the Winter Soldier state is - precise, efficient, and merciless, the proudest human weapon of Hydra.

For the controlled super soldiers, their pain threshold far exceeds ordinary people; body’s self-healing ability depends on willpower. As long as the target is still active, they won’t give up the mission unless completely incapacitated. Steve knows Bucky's combat style very well; there is a natural tacit understanding between Alpha and the bonded Omega, which made them fight as one.

But there is an obstacle lying between them. Steve noticed it back on the bridge during their confrontation: Bucky showed no reaction to the oppressive pheromones he released during the fight. Now, even when he unleashes more violent pressure, it only makes Bucky hesitate for a split second before firing. The Omega seems completely immune to any command from his Alpha, which defies Steve's understanding. Could it be that Hydra has conducted new experiments on Bucky? Thinking of this, anger gathers in his chest.

“These soldiers are also enhanced beings! Damn it! Cap, their strength is insane, one of them even punched a hole in my armor. What kind of monster is this?!”

Tony's armor is mostly made of titanium alloy. It requires at least nine tons of impact force to cause deformation, The Hydra agent can break its structure with his bare fist, meaning his strength is completely on par with Steve and Bucky who have received serum enhancement. He doesn’t recall Hydra ever creating any Winter Soldier that could rival them - those experimental subjects all had some flaws, were eventually destroyed, never deployed into battle. Did Hydra create another batch of Winter Soldiers after he escaped? Where did the modified serum come from? Even though so many replication studies based on their blood had ended in failure-

Проект   Гея.

Two Russian words suddenly flashes through his mind, but the related memories remain completely blank. Project Gaia?

Not the time to think about this. He quickly snaps out of it and sends a message to Tony: “I suspect they are the creations of the Hydra serum experiment. Most of them have flaws, both physically and mentally. They are irritable, lack endurance, have poor judgment and adaptability. These are all fatal weaknesses. Aiming for their glands. Without their glands, these guys’ attacking power would be significantly diminished."

Bucky uses the gunshots as cover to shoot out the grappling hook forward. The weapon originally designed to deal with Falcon is now turned into a tool for him to move quickly through the air. In just a few leaps, he is upon Steve, a dagger glinting coldly in his grip. His legs, bearing all his weight, slam down on the shield. If Steve had been a fraction of a second slower, he has no doubt that Bucky would have directly smashed his ribs. However, the vibranium absorbs the brunt of the fatal impact. Just as Omega reverses his grip on the dagger to stab it into Steve's brain, he hurls him bodily into the ground.

The Winter soldier nimbly rolls twice on the ground, his metal left hand carving five deep gouges into the deck. He rises, inorganic eyes gleaming with bone-deep coldness.

“Sector A chip replacement complete. Falcon retreating. Cap, do you need backup?”

"Affirmative. Twelve super soldiers near Sector B bridge. Divert as many as possible to give Iron Man an opening.”

"I've already taken down seven, though I'm not sure how many are truly dead - these monsters don’t feel pain! They’re as stubborn as a bunch of cockroaches! Only dismembering can make them stop... Fuck! What the hell is this thing...”

Steve calls out for Tony worriedly, but in the next moment, three knives from the Winter Soldier streak toward him. The blades skims over his hair and skin, leaving fine bloodstains.

Seizing the moment while Steve blocks with the shield, he closes in, lightning-fast, drawing two M9 pistols to fire relentlessly at the unarmed parts of Alpha’s body. One bullet grazes the shield and pierces Steve's abdomen, instantly staining the white uniform crimson around his waist.

The pain from the gunshot is trivial; it doesn’t slow down Steve's combat speed. He swiftly knocks the gun away with his shield and uses the opening to land a punch on Omega’s unprotected abdomen. Bucky cries out in pain. Suppressing a flicker of surprise, Steve leverages a joint lock to pin Omega beneath him, his right elbow pressing tightly against the opponent's carotid artery. Choking ,the Winter Soldier's face quickly flushes red.

Hill’s warning echoes in his ear, Steve must end this quickly to prevent complications. Gritting his teeth, he bares his canines and sinks them into the gland beneath him. The injected Alpha pheromones instantly shatter the restraints, joyfully intertwining with his Omega. The feeling of reconnecting with Bucky’s mind leaves Steve momentarily stunned, but after breaking the barrier, the despair and rage flooding through the bond catch him off guard.

A dagger seizes the opportunity to plunge into his thigh. The pain makes him falter slightly. The Winter Soldier breaks free without hesitation, flipping him onto the ground. In the blink of an eye, the positions are reversed, and metal fist rains down on Steve’s face.

Steve’s actions completely enrage the Winter Soldier. He howls in agony, striking the Alpha with wild, desperate blows like a cornered animal. Steve can only rely on instinctual gender dominance, enveloping the Omega in overwhelming pheromones.

Submit.

Engraved genetic hierarchy forces Bucky’s head down. His clenched left fist hesitates, unable to strike for a long time. Steve lifts his swollen eyelids to look at the Omega atop him and finds those steel-blue eyes filled with tears.

He grips Bucky’s right wrist against his own chest, struggling to speak: “James Buchanan Barnes. You told me to call you Bucky. We’ve known each other since we were six, spent a lifetime together. You’re my brother, my best friend, my family. We share one life. I’m Steve. You promised you’ll be with me ’til the end of the line…”

“Stop!” Tears roll down unconsciously as he screams. “Stop!”

“…Break free, Buck! Remember! I need you! Don’t you recall it? I need you—”

Need. The Asset knows this word. Handlers always say it before missions. I need you, Soldier - Then comes the inevitable killing. Taking lives is the Asset’s purpose. Useless things in HYDRA are doomed to be destroyed; he doesn’t want to become scrapped weaponry. Half a skull exploding through a sniper scope, a crushed windpipe under a mechanical grip, vivid red blood spraying as blades pierce flesh…He feels nothing. It’s all cold and lifeless, he’s done this thousands of times. This time should be no different… Should it?

Heartbreaking blue eyes. Striking blond hair. Mission target - No! AlphaAlphaAlpha… The Omega within this body is screaming. Every cell thrums at the familiar scent. The world unfolds in warm hues before him; something is different. He is gasping for air, the consciousness reassembling like scattering snowflakes. A man bites into his gland over and over again, pulling at his long hair, pain and suffocation come as expected: Remember me, 037.

I need you to remember.

Directives overwriting… Trembling, he relinquishes control to the bowing and submitting Omega. His brain nearly overloads; the headache is unbearable…

Mission parameters updated - Assassination changed to protection - Authority transferred to α102.

All hostile intent vanishes from the Winter Soldier. Earlier bloodlust is shackled beneath docility and obedience. He quickly releases his weight from Steve’s legs and kneels in a submissive posture before the Alpha, his expression hidden behind tangled hair. He licks his lips, and a phrase in Russian slips out naturally, as if spoken a thousand times before.

“Ready to comply, Sir.”

Chapter Text

This tactical team of super soldiers is incredibly tough to deal with. Tony blasts off one guy’s arm, only to see him grab the gun and shatter the repulsor with the other.

Damn it, that’s exactly how he lost the other repulsor earlier; these monsters with no pain perception…The longer he gets entangled with them, the deeper a chill settles into his bones. They are silent, fighting like machines programmed with a single deadly command. Aside from the occasional communication in an unfamiliar language, they show no human reaction when getting hurt.

Ever since he saw the half-mechanical, half-carbon-based Chitauri in the battle of New York two years ago, he thought there would be no enemy that could make him fight with fear and trembling anymore. But life is always full of surprises, right? When you’re fighting for your life against a teenage suicide squad on S.H.I.E.L.D’s Helicarriers, you’ll understand why the great Tony Stark is fighting while vomiting inside his armor.

Maybe he made the wrong decision. He should have just let Banner turn into that low-intelligence big guy and jump down, smashing the three Helicarriers to smithereens; that would be better than now, tormented by the conscience he’d so painstakingly grown. This is different from the guilt he felt, realizing he manufactured weapons that blew up a kindergarten full of children; this is… firsthand experience. He is deliberately, racking his brain, and killing these kids.

Falcon, rushing in for support, gets his wings ripped off by one particularly strong boy using a grappling hook and then kicked off the carrier. Tony spares a thought hoping he’s okay. There’s been no word from Steve for a while, he’s to rely on his own. He looks up at the boy guarding near the chip; the kid is holding a specially made sniper rifle, using the high ground to fire at his arc reactor constantly, cunningly refusing to leave the control console and give him any opening to exploit. There are only three minutes left, he has to finish the job quickly.

A spinning star-spangled shield comes knocking down two agents charging at him. Steve swings across the high platform and lands besides Iron Man: “Can you still fly?”

Tony rolls his eyes, thankfully hidden behind the helmet: “Lost the boot jets right at the start, now the hand ones are gone too!”

Steve nods: “Then leave it to me.”

After taking the chip, he raises his hand and makes a few gestures to the upper left. Iron Man looks in that direction, surprisingly finds the Winter Soldier nodding back at Steve on the high platform.

“What the hell is-”

“Bucky will handle the guy with the sniper rifle. I’ll replace the chip. You deal with the rest - just don’t let them shoot me down.”

He runs extremely fast, leaping up to the fourth-level platform just in a few moves. Tony is certain that he just saw the vivid red wounds on Steve’s abdomen and left leg, but his movements aren’t affected at all. An unexplainable thought sends shiver down his spine; he concentrates his mind, shooting through an agent’s gland during the fight. Several gunshots echo from the high place; it seems someone got hit, but no one cries out.

The next second, a dark figure plummets from the high, falling right on the head of the last enemy fighting Tony. Immediately after, another dark figure with a glint of silver leaps down, his knees landing hard on the fallen body’s chest and abdomen. Tony clearly hears the sound of ribs cracking. The Winter Soldier’s metal arm tightly clamps onto the boy’s neck, his surrounding pheromones saturated with violent fury.

Oh, this one must be the little sniper brat. He struggles fiercely under the Winter Soldier’s grasp, but the fall has caused serious damage to his body. The boy’s breathing becomes labored, his hands desperately clawing at the seams of the metal arm.

“Chip in Sector B replaced. Hill, execute the plan.”

Steve’s voice sounds breathless, lacking its usual calm. The mystery behind the gunshots is solved.

Tony shouts into the comms, “Call for helicopter support! Cap is injured; my trusters are toast!”

“Copy. We’re on our way.”

Natasha’s steady voice comes through, Tony decides that from this moment, Black Widow is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, of course, after Pepper.

But then something unexpected happens. The very young Hydra agent seems to say something, and the Winter Soldier lets go of his hand as if he’s seen a ghost. The boy gasps for air between coughs, his whole face turning a bit purple from suffocation. Tony immediately goes on alert. The Winter Soldier is still stunned; the boy’s gaze lingers on Steve’s direction for a few seconds, then with a twist of his thigh he rolled over the edge of the carrier, dragging the Omega along.

“Bucky! NO!!”

A gut-wrenching voice of Steve comes from above, the next moment, Tony sees the guy leap directly from the high platform. Even with the Potomac River below, he shouldn’t… this is a drop of over a fucking thousand meters!

“Captain!!”

Tony yells in panic. This is nuts! What the fuck is Steve Rogers thinking?!

“Fuck! Natasha, Steve just jumped off the Helicarrier - God bless him, he better not have smashed himself to death in the river with the Winter Soldier! Yes!! He fucking jumped after the Winter Soldier!! Goddamn it!”

If only his trusters weren’t damaged… Tony dismisses the thought. It’s useless to say anything now.

“Calm down, Tony. They’re all super soldiers. Besides, Steve never wears a parachute when he jumps out of planes.”

“I know! But that’s when he has his shield and isn’t injured!”

“We’ve already picked up Falcon, now heading your way-Oh, here you are.”

The multibillion-dollar Helicarriers are exploding behind him. Tony can still recall when Fury asked him to help design it. Building a gun isn’t a problem, the problem is the person using it behind the scenes. He thinks of the twelve super soldiers he fought, Hydra’s evil and depravity exceeds all imagination.

“What happened? Why did Steve suddenly jump after the Winter Soldier?” Natasha asks, puzzled.

“A Hydra agent, also a super soldier-I bet he’s not even an adult, took the Winter Soldier down with him. Then Steve jumped like he went crazy. God! Who knows what’s going on in that old fossil’s head?!”

Fury and Natasha exchange a look; their expressions are both troubled. “After you left, Natasha and I dug something… out of Pierce’s mouth, about the squad of super soldiers.”

Natasha frowns, seeming reluctant to speak, which is unlike her. “Before Steve was found by S.H.I.E.L.D., he had a past in Hydra. Like Barnes, he was also an experimental subject in the Winter Soldier project, trained by Hydra as a weapon. Pierce also mentioned another project, the products of which were those young boy . Only twelve survived, but eleven of them are flawed.”

“Wha-what? Steve Rogers and Hydra?”

“The boy you mentioned who took the Winter Soldier off the Helicarrier, might be the only successful subject of that project,” Fury muses. “The obsession of Hydra in replicating the miracle of Steve’s serum is not a secret. Over so many years, only survived one who received Zola serum, Barnes. That boy… I suspect he is deeply connected to both of them.”

Connections? Tony remembers the surging pheromones on the Winter Soldier’s during the fight, clearly an Omega, and Steve…

“Oh…” His jaw drops in astonishment, and stomach sinks heavily, “Don’t tell me the boys I just killed are Steve’s sons?”

Natasha shakes her head. “I don’t know, Tony. The truth might only be known by finding Barnes, perhaps even Steve himself doesn’t know either… You said one boy was very strong, exceptionally strong. Could the others be his clones?”

“No, impossible. They are totally different in looks, some have dark hair, some blond…” Tony recalls the boys’ features, suddenly a cold sweat breaks out. “Jesus Christ… in a way, they do look a bit like Steve…”

Fury cuts off Tony’s train of thought immediately. “Stark, how did Barnes end up fighting that boy? Did he regain his memory?”

“I’m not sure, maybe.” Tony comes to his senses. “When we first arrived, Barnes was still relentlessly shooting at us. Then Steve lured him away, and when he came back, he totally sided with Steve. During the chip replacement, the boy fired a shot at Steve, so Barnes threw him off the five-story platform.”

He remembers Barnes’ murderous look, wait- “When he used his pheromones to suppress the boy, I smelled a scent of Alpha in it. It smelled like milk. Need I say more?”

Undoubtedly Steve’s. God knows how surprised they were to find out Captain America’s pheromones smelled like milk; it became an inside joke within the Avengers.

Tony guesses Steve used the mark to control Barnes temporarily. The bond between them is somewhat unusual. He can’t help but think about Hydra’s plan to send the Winter Soldier to assassinate Steve. Were they sending Barnes to destroy them both, or were they confident he could show no mercy to his own Alpha?

“Their bond must be very strong, far beyond ordinary Alpha-Omega pairs. Not only can it convey basic emotions but also exchange some simple messages. On the carrier, I saw how Steve and he communicated; they barely needed to talk. And… when Barnes fell, Steve was still on the high platform. He shouldn’t have been able to see anything down there from that angle.”

With such a powerful bond, they would be the most terrifying war machines on the battlefield. It’s no wonder that Hydra covets this near-divine power.

Natasha agrees. “That would explain Steve’s memory problem. After Fury was assassinated, Steve knocked the Winter Soldier’s mask off on the bridge. Later he told us he remembered some of his past from Hydra.”

“The top priority is to find them asap,” Fury sighs. “Rogers, Barnes, along with the boy-what a bundle of unsolved mysteries.”

The soldier drags the two unconscious bodies slowly towards the riverbank. He doesn’t know what’s got into this big blond guy, daring to jump from such a height while seriously injured. The impact with the water knocked him out instantly.

The other one… the little blond guy. Even though he has injured him pretty badly, depending on his healing factor, it won’t be fatal. The soldier had seen him before. The young Alpha, at the Hydra base, he even trained him for a while. Clearly the little one remembers him too. The words he said on the carrier made the soldier hesitate, and he used the opening to pull him down.

He decides to put aside these thoughts for now; the real emergency is the big blond’s injuries. He pulls out his last remaining dagger, cutting through the other guy’s blood-soaked uniform on the abdomen. The healing flesh has wrapped the bullet inside. It’ll hurt a lot; the soldier knows it. He stabs into the bulge and flicks; a bloody bullet drops out.

There should be one more. He glances at the small figure beside him, feeling the anger surge again. In fact, he has no right to be angry, as he was the one who delivered the previous bullet. But it doesn’t mean that someone else can do the same.

Protection-that is his mission, to protect his Alpha. Even without memories, the instinct of his body won’t lie to him. As for the name, James Buchanan Barnes, and Bucky or whatever, nothing appears in his mind. Maybe the Alpha can tell him when he wakes up. Steve… He remembers a man biting the back of his neck in his memories. α102. They are the same person.

It hurts like hell every time he bites. The soldier harshly thrusts the blade tip into another patch of healed skin, quickly digging out the bullet. Rogers’s healing is strong, faster than his, but slower than the little guy’s. The wound he just made is already starting to clot. On his left, the kid’s eyeballs start to roll, looking like he is about to wake up. The soldier looks at his dagger, then decides to put it away.

The young Alpha opens his eyes, freezes for three or four seconds, and suddenly sits up. The fractures from the Winter Soldier’s blow on the carrier aren’t fully healed yet. He frowns, putting left hand behind his waist, staring at the Omega in front very warily.

The soldier tilts his head and signals to the disassembled parts of Colt M45A1 laid out to dry nearby-the very gun he just took from the kid’s lower back. The young Alpha stiffens. He was searched thoroughly, not even a dagger left. This discovery makes his eyes redden with anger.

“You failed the mission.” He says stiffly.

“Your mission failed too.” The soldier replies, totally indifferent.

“We should bring α102 back to the base,” he suggests. “There’s still time to move.”

The Winter Soldier shows no intension to leave. He checks Captain’s heartbeat and breathing again, lifting the torn uniform to examine the wound healing.

The young Alpha is very confused. “My shot wasn’t fatal.”

Fiercely at him glares the soldier. “I warned you.”

“You shot him too-why are you blaming me for this?” he suddenly feels wronged. It was all for the missions, what else could he do?

The expression of the solider darkens for a moment. He falls silent, just staying beside Steve.

“If you want him to wake up faster, you should perform CAB on him.” He says awkwardly.

The soldier thinks for a while, puzzled. “How?”

He says in little smug. “I know.”

“Don’t even think about hurting him,” the soldier warns, “I’ll be watching you.”

He ignores him, He goes straight to Rogers, kneels before him, and adjusts Captain America’s blond head to a right position for breathing. He leans down to blow air into the mouth, then rises, interlacing his hands to press on the chest. After repeating it several times, suddenly, Rogers turns his head and vomits a mouthful of water. His eyeballs start to move.

He and the soldier hold their breath in unison.

The next moment, those azure blue eyes open, as clear as a sky washed clean by rain.

“Rogers?” he asks tentatively, looking up at the soldier with a secret joy. A layer of emotion he can’t read covers the Winter Soldier’s face. He observes in curiosity, is it… fear? How can that be? The Winter Soldier has no fear.

He waves at the soldier. “Come on.”

The soldier stares blankly at the waking man on the ground, completely missing his words.

“Who are you?” Rogers furrows his eyebrows. He looks around, immediately spots the person frozen in place.

“Bucky?”

The soldier trembles, starts to back away involuntarily, almost turning around and run away the next second. The young Alpha can’t figure out what he’s thinking. He’s about to shout at him when the big guy who was just lying beside him rushes out.

To his astonishment, the legend of Hydra, the ruthless, precise and efficient Winter soldier who never fails, is engulfed in the big blond man’s arms. This is absurd, he doesn’t get it. Such a large target, not allowed to kill, not permitted to hurt, and doesn’t want to see him awake, what the hell is the Winter Soldier doing? Is it a new tactical strategy? And “Bucky”, what Bucky? Is that the name of Winter Soldier? But he clearly told him none of them had name.

Suddenly, anger wells up in his heart again. Within thirty seconds, he gathers all the parts of the Colt and assembles them, then aiming at Rogers’s back. “Hey! Let him go!”

The soldier, who was dazed a second ago, instantly pushed Rogers behind him, metal arm guards tensely and ready to strike at any time. He now looks totally like a mother leopard protecting his cub, eyes fixed warily on the gun in the young Alpha’s hand.

“Hey… relax, Buck. It wasn’t loaded.” Rogers strokes the back of the soldier’s neck, walking up to him slowly. “Kid, what’s your name?”

“I have no name.” “Eden.”

He looks at the soldier in surprise, the other is still with that tense expression, as if he wasn’t the one who just blurted out a name his way. Eden? Sounds better than α217. He puts down his fake threat and tosses it away casually.

“All right. My name is Eden.”

Rogers murmurs the name, his expression somewhat dazed. Eden doesn’t get it, what’s wrong with them? Are all guys codenamed Winter Soldier like this?

Steve carefully observes the angry boy in front of him, finding the childish round face terribly familiar. He blinks large steel-blue eyes, the wet, curly blond hair tangling on his forehead.

Jesus…

A memory flashed - a brown-haired infant, terribly frail, as if a light embrace would crush him. Bucky lifted the giggling child overhead, radiating the joy of being a new mother…

Oh God, forgive me.

Steve breaks down into quiet sobs, unable to control himself. He covers his face in agony, completely sunk into regret. The soldier looks at him with concern; fragments of memory flooding him through their bond. It seems that there was once a child named Eden too, with silly long brown hair, laughing in the hug of “Bucky” with two arms. Maybe that was him, but not anymore. He is completely a different person right now.

Hesitating for a moment, he withdraws the hand he was about to comfort the Alpha.

Eden walks over impatiently, very dissatisfied with the current situation. “What are you doing? S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra will be here soon, we’d better leave here, right now.

The soldier thinks for a moment, pulls out his only remaining dagger and throws it to Eden, then returns the pistol and micro-bombs he confiscated from him before. He checks his own M9 carefully, tosses it to Rogers behind him.

“Take care.” He takes one last look at Rogers and turns to leave with Eden.

“I’m coming with you,” Steve wipes his face, trying to pull himself together, “Don’t leave me behind again, Bucky. I can’t take this.”

The soldier stops, weighing his words. “Rogers, I’m going into hiding.”

“I’m following you.”

“What if I’m going after Hydra?”

“Then I’m following you and destroy every base.”

So he’s not the only one who dislikes Hydra. Eden thinks with relief, he really doesn’t want to go back to the dark cell anymore.

“Come on,” he says in excitement, “One more traitor, one more chance.”

Rogers shrugs, offering a pleading smile.

The soldier looks away, nodding awkwardly. “Up to you.”

They quickly erase all traces of their presence on the riverbank and head into the nearby woods. The trackers in the Winter Soldier’s and Eden’s uniforms were thrown away when they fell into the Potomac River. The tricky ones left are embedded in the soldier’s metal arm and implanted near Eden’s gland respectively.

They initially take shelter in an abandoned cabin. Eden hands the dagger to the soldier, who cuts an incision three or four centimeters deep to remove the implanted tracker. The one in the metal arm is more complicated. Steve remembers its construction, but they lack proper tools here.

“Do you have that disc of the Black Widow’s?” the soldier asks.

The Widow’s Bite Natasha placed in his uniform has come to Steve’s mind. He feels for it and finds it still there. “It got wet, and likely is disposable. Can you activate it?”

Using the resources at hand and some discarded circuitry from the cabin, they rig up a conductive gel and decide to take a chance. Winter soldier applies the hydrogel to the thing that looks like an electrode patch, then places it where the metal arm meets his shoulder. A sharp pain follows as the activated strong current reboots the arm. He swings it in a circle to calibrate it, hoping the overload will cause a short circuit in the tracker inside.

After leaving the woods, their training in disguise and stealth comes in handy. Eden snatches three sets of clothes from a laundry room, finally dropping the ridiculous excuse about “cosplay” (no idea where Steve got this). Motels provide good shelter,. The soldier slipped some cash from the counter while the owner is napping at noon and uses it to pay for the room the same night.

Three males showing up together is indeed conspicuous, but posing as a family of three is much more plausible. Steve and Eden buy a cheap hair dye, and both dyed their blonde hair brown. They hide their eyes with black-framed glasses and wear worn-out baseball caps. The two elder men decide to grow beards, while Eden can’t do anything about it. He’s too young to grow beards, which would make him very strange. When the disguise is done, they successfully create a visual age gap with Eden, making the parental story more convincing.

None of them are very used to beds. Every time Steve wakes up, he finds the others curled up on the floor or in the closet. The programming Hydra instilled have become an integral part of their bodies. Winter Soldier needs Steve’s commands to function; Eden often seems at a loss. Among the three, Steve, who left the system years ago, becomes the only one who is normal.

Being on the run like this isn’t unfamiliar. Confined to Hydra for decades, Steve attempted resistance more than once. Since waking up and seeing Bucky for the first time in 1975, he had known the man with a metal arm was the only tangible reality he could touch. Even though they didn’t recognize each other, their destinies inextricably intertwined under Hydra’s oppression-the mark on Bucky’s neck, Eden’s birth, and the countless souls dead by their hands.

In the midsummer of 1935, Steve marked Bucky for the first time in the new house they saved up to buy. They weren’t married yet; two seventeen-or eighteen boys privately made a promise to be together forever. No church, no priest, only scattered suppressants and a shaking sofa.

They were like Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit in Genesis, sucking and biting each other’s reddened skin on the shabby sofa, squeezing out abundant, decadent juice. The air in the room was damp, cloying, like the malt sugar stuck on teeth in childhood.

He repeatedly bites Bucky’s gland, because it’s the softest spot on the Omega’s neck. Bucky’s slender legs obediently wrapped around his waist, allowing him to thrust recklessly, mouth opening in a silent scream as reaching the peak.

The memories are distant like a gorgeous dream.

A year later, their first son is born. Steve still remembers the joy of becoming a father for the first time; the cherishing love that overwhelmingly filled his chest hasn’t faded away even after eighty years. The soft baby curled in his arms, opening clear blue eyes as if lighting up the whole world.

Steve once had very little-his mother, Bucky, and a not-so-healthy body. After Sarah’s death, a huge void collapsed in his heart; there were no more blood relatives left for him in this vast world. The nineteen-year-old Bucky gave him a new home, a new life symbolizing a new hope.

So he named the child Eden.

Later the war broke out. Bucky was conscripted; he participated in the super soldier project of S.S.R. soon. The pain of the serum injecting his body was far beyond his expectation. Every piece of him felt like it was breaking down and rebuilding, his consciousness almost drifting away to the other world. The gland was strengthened accordingly, the once-present scent of green tangerine, signifying his bond with the Omega, had disappeared. Howard speculated this might be a side effect caused by the serum.

The bond formed by the mark was broken. His genes were reshaped by the experiment, so it couldn’t withstand the impact of the strengthened Alpha’s pheromones. The mark of the Omega’s neck began to burn and fell off the moment the serum was injected.

Bucky never talked to him about it, especially after Peggy appeared. But Steve could imagine that. When forming Howling Commandos, countless soldiers submitted application files, he carefully read each one, including Bucky’s. Clear memory in his mind, Sergeant Barnes’s marital status was listed as “Widowed”.

He thought that kind of pain would be no different from widowhood for Bucky.

Eden passed away before they joined the army. He was born weak and sickly, succumbing to pneumonia at the age of five eventually. This was his fault, Steve knew it. Eden most likely inherited his problems; someone with a healthy body like Bucky’s couldn’t have produced such an ill child.

Bucky had a fierce argument with him. He called Rogers a coward, said this was God’s will and no one was to blame for. But Steve couldn’t suppress the guilt in his heart. The marriage gradually became a shackle weighing on his heart, the self-blame and guilt over dragging Bucky down and causing Eden’s death tormented him unbearably.

He began to buy himself suppressants, deliberately avoiding the other during heats and ruts. Bucky obviously noticed, but he said nothing. They still lived together like before, only without any boundary-crossing physical contact. They both step back tacitly, understandingly maintaining an awkward distance.

The night before Project Rebirth, Dr. Erskine had a long conversation with him. The old man told him that only the weak knew the value of strength, while the strong could not understand what it means to cherish something. But Steve knew Bucky wasn’t like that. James Barnes was stronger than anyone he’d ever seen in over twenty years, but he always bended down to talk to Steve, never even fighting for the dominant role during the sex. He was nearly a foot taller than him yet always gave Steve an illusion of being looked up.

Bucky never interfered with any of his decisions, only stepping in to block punches when the short blond got into trouble, then shaking his head helplessly with a sigh, over and over again.

Those who voluntarily receive the serum usually have an inherent belief in supremacism. They crave to be above others, pursue power, and the serum amplifies them. Steve wasn’t without desires. But what he wanted was not to lord over, but to have a level of health that could be comparable to a normal person. He longed to have enough strength to protect those he loved one day, to pursue the justice in his heart, or prevent tragedies from happening.

He even thought that maybe he could finally repay Bucky’s heart and become his perfect match. But it was too late.

In the tavern, Bucky’s left ring finger was bare. He laughed and toasted to Steve, offering a basketful of advice on dating girls, and admired his buddy’s good luck after Peggy Carter left. He seemed to be really drunk, excited and rambling, Steve didn’t know how to feel.

It turned out he was the only one remained stuck in the past and refused to let go.

Exactly as what all Allied propaganda posters said, they were a pair of loyal and close friends. Interviews poured in like snowflakes during the war. Steve went from being clumsy and hesitant to speaking confidently and fluently. He adapted to being followed by spotlights, skilled at avoiding various traps in conversations. He became Captain America, a legend of war. Piles of newspapers and posters gradually erased all traces of the blond kid from Brooklyn, and the boy who was beaten up next to trash cans for his stubborn temper also became forgotten by everyone.

And the one who connected his past and future fell off the cliff in 1944. He had no time to mourn, because his soul had already perished along with Bucky on that speeding train.

After that, he crashed a plane full of bombs into an iceberg.

As his blood froze, many things flashed through his mind. He was destined to miss the dance with Peggy, not because of the chasm between life and death, but because the person he unknowingly and unconsciously failed was already forever asleep. Losing Bucky meant losing everything. Now all Steve had to do was follow in his footsteps and reunite into another world.

But what awaited him was hell.

α102 thought he was protecting the world, but many of Hydra’s orders he couldn’t understand. He questioned, but various punishments followed one after another, so he learned to be silent and obedient. Brainwashing and memory implantation blurred his perception, he became someone else-a well-calibrated weapon, the shield in his hand ready to sever any enemy’s head.

The serum amplifies everything. When Hydra tried to suppress the “good” part, violence and darkness began to grow wildly within him.

The appearance of ω037 bore all his malice. He let his body assault him, control him, force the Omega to act according to his will. The mark made ω037 completely loyal to him, and the wholehearted submission satisfied him even more.

Bucky’s hollow eyes looked up at him from below, his body obediently kneeling on the ground. He gripped his jaw, using thumb to slide over the Omega’s sharp teeth hidden behind his lips.

“See clearly who I am?”

ω037 mechanically replied. “My Alpha, sir.”

“I need you to remember me, 037.” His palm slid down, gripping the Omega’s fragile neck. “No matter how many times they wipe your mind, your body must not forget.”

“Understood.” ω037 licked his dry lips, the fresh bite mark on the back of his neck still faintly burning. “Ready to comply, sir.”

He wore a satisfied smile.