"It was him". Steve's voice broke the silence of the van. Two hydra agents with shock stick were at with their backs to the cab. Watching them through their black helmets. Everyone was cuffed. Nat leaning dozily on Sam, sleepy from blood loss. Basil was resting against Steve. At any other point in time he would be panicking over his patient but he was in too much shock to really compute. Luckily his bandaging from earlier was holding up though the cloth was beginning to deepen with colour.

"He looked right at me like he didn't even know me", Steve continued, head bent and eyes fixed on the heavy iron chains around his hands. Basil had his eyes closed on his shoulder and was humming a song under his breath. The tune eerie and slow.

"How is that even possible?" Sam said. "It was like 70 years ago".

"Zola". Steve inhaled and sighed. "Bucky's and Basil's unit was captured in 1943. Zola experimented on Basil and Bucky. It's how Basil here got his powers. Whatever he did to Bucky must have helped him survive the fall". The tune cut off and Basil bent over to press his face into his hands with a whimper. They had never even considered that Bucky would have survived that fall. They never even bothered to look. Why did he take Steve at his word back then? He should have gone to verify it himself.

"None of that's your fault", Nat pointed out.

Steve didn't seem to hear her. "Even when I had nothing I had Bucky. I promised him"- he glanced at Basil. The man was curling up in his seat. "I promised him". He didn't finish the sentence. Silence falling on the van again.

Basil still had his head in his hands but he was half mumbling, half singing under his breath. The noise small in the silence. "We'll meet again. Don't know where. Don't know when. But I know we'll meet again. Some sunny day". He paused and took a shuddering breath. His voice trembling and cracking. "Keep on smiling through. Just like you always do. 'Til blue skies drive the dark clouds far away". He broke off with a choked sob. The others watching sadly as he sat up and rubbed at his red eyes.

"Zola took me first", he muttered, eyes fixed on distant crowed cells and concrete rooms. Bucky watching him as he was pulled back. His own laughter echoing in his ears. "I was singing as they dragged me away. Any last hope for the others. Not to show them the fear I was feeling. I was in there for a week. Strapped to a metal table as scientists injected me with things that made me burn and freeze from the inside out. Then at some point Bucky was there. We went through hell in that place together". His voice cracked and broke and he sniffed. Then tilted his head back against the metal wall and closed his eyes. The song still spilling quietly from his mouth.

"So will you please say 'hello'
To the folks that I know.
Tell them that I won't be long.
They'll be be happy to know that
As you saw me go
I was singing this song.

We'll meet again.
Don't know where. Don't know when.
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day".

It was then one of the hydra agent's shock sticks buzzed to life. There was a cry as it jerked into the agent next to him and the black armoured person fell convulsing to the floor of the van. Basil's singing cut off and he blinked open his eyes lazily. Watching as the hydra agent pulled off their helmet. "Ah", Agent Hill groaned. "That thing was squeezing my brain". The captives stared at her. She flicked back her hair and looked at them. Then she turned to Steve. "Who's this guy?"

——

They escaped by cutting a hole through the van floor and rolling out. Then Hill stole a car and they drove out of the city. Basil followed along listlessly. Mind still trying to catch up. He felt lethargic and mentally exhausted. For the first time ever he felt old. He felt ninety three. There was too much pain in him for only twenty three years. It hurt. He slept most of the car ride. No more mentions of Bucky or the winter soldier as they drove. He woke as they arrived at a wooded area at the base of a dam. The big concrete structure looming.

Hill led them through a service door and down a dark, damp corridor. "GSW. She's lost at lest a pint", she called to the figure jogging towards them. Nat was leaning on Sam. The man supporting her as she walked.

"Let me take her!" The man waved. He was a older man with silver hair and glasses. Dressed in a suit. Hill walked right past him and the turned to walk with them.

"She'll want to see him first", Hill stated as they continued down the corridor. It opened up into a big basement like room. Multiples concrete pillars keeping the rook up. Boxes and puddles littered the space and the air was cold. Basil looked around. The room was as big as a football pitch and in the centre was a white square of plastic sheets. Hill stepped over the puddles and drew the sheets aside.

Everyone stopped as they looked in. Nick Fury was lying in a hospital bed. Monitors hooked up around him. He sat up as he saw them, eyepatch fastened to his head and a iv stuck in his hand. "About damn time", he greeted as he straightened painfully.

"So you're alive too", Basil stated. He crossed his arms and smiled. It wasn't a happy smile. It was cynical and painful as it tore at his cheeks. He still had blood on the corners of his mouth and around his chin. It made him look like a little inhuman with the shadows and the white lighting. His black shirt stained and ripped and his trainers were blood spattered. "Is there anyone else who's secretly alive that I should know about?" He asked the general room. He waved his arms with a angry noise. "What about any more of the howling commandos? Any of them secretly alive too? Or Phill Coulson? He up and kicking again?" Silence as they watched him begin to scream.

"Fuck! Is it trauma for Jahi week? Because in the past few days I've had a shit ton of fucking problems!" He was shouting now. Eyes wide and arms flailing as his voice echoed round the room, bouncing back to them like a bad record player. "There's been a man shot in a place I considered safe! Who then later dies on the operating table in front of my eyes! Then I have to leave my fucking cat and go on the motherfucking run over some memory stick that I had no part in. Then I find that the scientist my lover gave his life to capture is bloody alive and has been helping shield and recreating hydra, the organisation I died to freaking destroy. That same organisation who has been trying to kill me. Tried to blow us up then sent the fucking Winter Soldier after". He paused with a sob. Arms falling and tears dripping down his cheeks. His eyes were red and he was panting from the shouting.

"The same man who I loved", he spoke quieter but with no less weight to his words. For the amount of emotion hanging on them, Steve and the others actually preferred him to be shouting. "The man who I loved doesn't know me. He is nothing more than a machine for hydra. They have ruined his mind. Torn out who he was". Basil gave a choked laugh. "I would actually prefer it if he had stayed dead. They sent my lover to kill me. And he did. Many times. He tried to kill Steve. He tried to kill me. He looked us in the eyes, we saw his face. There was nothing there". He shuddered so hard that it looked like he was about to visibly shatter into a thousand pieces on the ground.

"Is this just a game to you?" He glared at the room. At agent hill, fury in the bed. "You people in power manipulating and playing with our lives like it means nothing. 'It's for the greater good'. Fine! Then why do you sick fucks keep on picking us? Of all the people why does it have to be us who have our lives ruined? I gave everything to the cause back in 1944. But no. It's never enough for no of you". He stepped forwards and inhaled deeply. "I have been experimented on. Lost my lover. Lost my family. Died. Been brought to an unfamiliar world. Fought aliens. Fought people. Killed and healed. All for some greater cause. Because people tell me that I am saving lives. Well when is it going to be my life? Am I not due the same?"

He blinked. "My lover is dead and there is a cruel man playing puppet with his body to torment me". He looked around at their shocked faces and laughed shakily. His smile wild and manic and tragic. He pressed his face into his hand. "I need some air". Then he was stumbling out back down the corridor they had came through. The others watching in silence as he went.

Unedited

AN: Whose crying?