TWO WEEKS LATER: OCTOBER 7, 2014

★ ★ ★

"I can't believe they made us wait two damn weeks for a quinjet." Bucky frowned, pulling his black glove onto his metal hand.

He had retrieved his Winter Soldier suit from its hiding spot in the woods, where it had been tucked away in the dirt ever since he dragged Steve's unconscious body out of the Potomac.

"I'm sorry, Buck, but Maria tried everything to get us one sooner." Steve sighed, glancing at his friend as he attached his shield to his back.

"I know. Let's just get going." Bucky slipped his black boots on and stood up from his seat inside of the jet.

"You ready, Natasha?" Steve called out, turning to face the front where the redhead sat in the pilot's seat, clad in her black spandex suit.

"I was born ready, Rogers." She winked, starting up the engine.

It was only a matter of minutes before they were up and flying, and Sam was more than excited that the Winter Soldier Squad was finally getting some action.

"The squad is back at it and may I say, looking sexy as ever." Sam smirked, pushing his red tinted goggles on his face.

"Is he always like this?" Bucky's lips were still pulled down into a frown. He was agitated that Sam was making this mission out to be fun. None of it was fun for Bucky. He was out for vengeance and he assumed Sam was not aware of how far he would go to get justice for Marlena.

"Shut up, Wilson, or I'll turn this quinjet around," Natasha yelled flatly from the cockpit.

Steve gave Sam a look and sat in the seat next to Bucky, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"We will take down Hydra, Bucky. Permanently," Steve said quietly, his facial expression serious and sincere.

Bucky turned to Steve, a weary look on his face. He nodded, his icy blue eyes staring at his friend.

"I'm with you till the end of the line," the words Steve had told him that day on the helicarrier even after Bucky had tried to kill him echoed in Bucky's mind. Steve had never given up on him and for that, Bucky was eternally grateful. He would never be able to thank Steve enough.

"I won't stop until every last one of them is dead, Steve. I mean it." Bucky clenched his jaw, looking away from his friend and focusing his gaze on his booted feet.

Steve didn't say anything, but he kept his hand firmly on Bucky's shoulder. He knew how pained Bucky was from Marlena's death; he understood what it felt like. After all, Steve had thought that he'd lost Bucky all those years ago. He blamed himself for it, too, just as Bucky felt that it was he who was at fault for Marlena's death.

For the most part, their journey was in silence, only the low hum of the quinjet's engine filling their ears. The air was heavy, and their minds were all working like gears in a clock. It had been hours since anyone had last spoken, and no one made a move to say anything more in fear that they would only further upset Bucky.

"Svoboda," Bucky finally broke the silence, his blue eyes focused on the equally blue sky on the other side of the quinjet's windshield. "It means 'freedom' in Russian."

"What?" Sam asked, his eyebrows pulled down in confusion.

"The inscription on the wall in the picture," Natasha kept her eyes on the sky as she piloted the jet, "you carved them, didn't you?"

"Yes," Bucky nodded, his eyes refocusing on Natasha's reflection in the windshield.

"Why 'freedom', Buck? You weren't free; Hydra was holding you as their prisoner." Steve swallowed, looking at Bucky's profile as he spoke.

"At the time, I didn't know that. Hydra taught me one thing; the world deserved freedom and I had to kill whoever stood in the way of that in order to give the world that freedom." Bucky sighed, his eyes trailing down to his metal arm—the one Hydra had given him—the arm that had once held Marlena flush against his body, but had also inflicted pain upon her.

"You were brainwashed, Bucky. It wasn't you that killed those people," Natasha replied, her red lips forming a frown.

"You're right; that wasn't me." Bucky stood up, walking over to the arsenal where a dozen guns sat on display, all for his taking. "But it is me that is going to kill all of Hydra's soldiers." He picked up a gun, his flesh hand feeling the cool metal on his skin.

Steve and Sam exchanged cautious glances before both of them looked back at Bucky.

"And whoever 'B. R.' is, is going to wish he was dead after I get through with the sick son of a bitch," Bucky growled, turning and walking over to the cockpit.

He could not control his emotions; the anger was blinding him and he wasn't aware that he was speaking like Winter. Marlena would have been concerned to hear Bucky like this—but she couldn't; she was dead. B. R. had killed her, and now Bucky was going to make him suffer for his actions.

"B. R.," Steve repeated under his breath, catching Bucky's attention.

"Brock Rumlow." Natasha had done it; she had put together the missing piece of the puzzle.

"Not possible," Sam stood up, his eyes narrowing, "I killed Rumlow."

"Technically, you didn't," Natasha pointed out, her eyes focusing on snowy mountains below. "The helicarrier crashed into the building while he was still inside. There's a chance he could have survived."

"Damn it!" Sam clenched his fists together; now he was feeling somewhat responsible for Marlena's death.

"Well, if Rumlow did survive, then he's going to have to go through a lot worse when I get my hands on him. We're close," Bucky said loudly, exiting the cockpit area and walking to the back where the door was sealed shut.

"There's no way I can land this thing so close to the base and go unnoticed; you guys are jumping. Now," Natasha said, pressing a button that caused the door to slowly fold out.

"Oh, hell yes!" Sam's frown lightened up as he joined Bucky at the back of the quinjet.

"Not you, Wilson. You're sticking with me; we'll meet up with you guys after we land," Natasha replied as Steve stood up, grabbing a parachute for himself and one for Bucky.

The frigid air flooded throughout the jet as the door fell completely open. A few stray hairs had escaped Bucky's bun and were now whipping in the wind, his nose turning red from the cold.

"Here, Buck," Steve handed him a parachute and his grenade launcher.

"Thanks," Bucky pulled the parachute on and slung the grenade launcher's strap over his chest as he had done with his gun, holding it firmly with his metal arm.

"See you boys, later! You take the east side; Sam and I will take the west!" Natasha called out over the sound of the wind.

"Copy that!" Steve yelled back before giving Bucky one last look of reassurance. "Ready?"

Bucky simply nodded before the two got a running start and jumped off of the quinjet, weightlessness overtaking their bodies as they fell.

In that moment, Bucky felt a rush that he had not felt since he started falling for Marlena. He felt weightless yet he felt in control of where he would land. He felt adrenaline pulsing through his body and a sense of peace coming over him, just as he had experienced while loving Marlena.

As the soldiers neared the ground, their parachutes released and they floated into the snowy mountains quietly, about a mile from Hydra's base.

"You okay?" Steve asked as he came to a stop, his booted feet landing on the ground.

Bucky was only a few yards away from him and he had landed a few seconds before.

"Yeah, you?" he asked in return, absentmindedly scanning Steve for anything that could possibly be wrong.

"I'm fine," Steve assured him, dropping the parachute pack as Bucky had already done.

"Then let's go." Bucky clenched his jaw, walking through the pure, white snow towards the base, Steve following behind.

As the two neared the Hydra base, they stayed quiet and cautious. They eyed the perimeter as they hunched down, Steve pulling his shield off of his back. Soldiers dressed in Hydra uniforms stood on guard around the large facility, making it impossible for Steve and Bucky to get through.

Steve cleared his throat, causing Bucky to look over at him. Steve pointed to the guard closest to them and Bucky nodded, knowing exactly what Steve was referring to.

Steve stayed hunched down behind a large boulder as he watched Bucky sneak up on the guard from the left, his metal arm latching onto the guard's throat in a flash.

"Where's Rumlow?" Bucky demanded, his anger getting the better of him. "Tell me, now!"

His voice only drew attention to him from the other guards and Steve immediately stood up from behind the rock, aiming his shield at a guard further down the side of the building. The shield hit him right in the head just as he had begun raising his pistol.

Bucky slammed the guard he'd been holding onto by the throat into the ground, "Tell me!" he repeated.

"Hail Hydra," the guard muttered as Bucky strangled him to death, unhappy with his lack of cooperation.

Steve's shield hit the wall after knocking down the other guard and bounced back, his hand catching it perfectly.

"Bucky, look out!" Steve yelled as another guard shot at Bucky, the bullet barely grazing his metal arm, therefore causing no damage.

Bucky pulled out his grenade launcher and aimed it at the guard as he, along with three others, came running out of the building.

"Kontakty Rumlow, skazhite yemu Zimniy Soldat vernulsya!" One of the guard's yelled out.

Unlike Steve, Bucky could understand every word the guard had said: Contact Rumlow, tell him the Winter Soldier has returned!

So, it was true; Rumlow had survived and he was the man responsible for murdering Marlena. Bucky felt no relief in this information being confirmed; he only felt a dull pain in his chest, but it subsided as he shot at the men, the grenade exploding.

The four guards went up in a blaze, several limbs flying out of the fire. Bricks from the wall of the building soared through the air, as well, forming a large hole in the facility.

"Steve, come on!" Bucky called out, climbing through the rubble and into the building.

Inside he was met by the unhappy faces of many Hydra soldiers, all pointing guns at him.

"Sorry we had to meet again like this," Bucky grinned, remembering some of the men from his time in Hydra.

Now was his chance to get his revenge—to punish the very men that had taken almost everything from him. All at once, though, they pulled their triggers, bullets flying through the air like rain.

Not a single one hit Bucky. He turned around quickly to see Steve's shield, the bullets bouncing off of it. No one was going to shoot Bucky; they needed him alive. This was Rumlow's plan, and this was why he had heard the guard tell the others to contact Rumlow. They wanted the Winter Soldier back; this was the surrender Rumlow wrote about in the letter.

Bucky immediately pulled out his gun and his finger locked on the trigger as he swept the metal back and forth, sending every last guard to the ground. Some cursed in Russian, but Bucky only weaved his way around their immobile bodies, shooting every survivor in the head.

Steve was shocked; seeing the Winter Soldier shooting people on the bridge all those months ago was hard enough, but this? Watching Bucky kill, even though he was putting down the bad guys, was still a difficult scene to watch.

Just then, alarms sounded, the shrill noise echoing throughout the facility and causing Steve to wince. Bucky growled as he looked up from his last victim, blood seeping from the bullet wound on his head and pooling around Bucky's boots. His eyes landed on another soldier across the room, his hand on what Bucky assumed to be the alarm trigger.

Before Bucky could raise his gun to shoot him, Steve's shield soared through the air, taking him out.

"Shit, Steve! Do you ever use a gun?" Bucky yelled out as he stepped over the dead bodies, his boots leaving bloody footprints on the cold floor.

"Guns aren't really my style." Steve shrugged, his voice barely audible over the sound of the alarms.

The two then took off, both more than ready to give Hydra the very punishment they deserved.