Dear Diary,

It's way too early for literally anything but this. I mean, the sun's not even up yet and it's basically still night time.

—————

We were up in the air headed to the drop zone over the Hydra Camp and I was awaiting the moment that I could jump out of that damn plane and get going on my rescue mission.

"The Hydra Camp is in Krausberg tucked between these two mountain ranges," Peggy told me as she pointed at the location on a map. "It's a factory of some kind."

"We should be able to drop you right on the doorstep," Howard Stark yelled back from the pilot seat of the jet he had been flying.

"Just get me as close as you can," I yelled back. "You two are gonna be in a lot of trouble when you land," I started saying to Peggy.

"And you won't?" She asked me, slyly.

"Where I'm going if anybody yells at me I can just shoot 'em," I replied.

"They will undoubtedly shoot back."

"Well, let's hope it's good for something," I told her, regarding my child that had been on the seat to my right the whole while.

"Agent Carter," Howard began from the front of the jet. "If we're not in too much of a hurry, I thought we could stop off in Lucerne for a late-night fondue," he continued with a strange tinge in his voice.

Was he talking about... well, you know...?

She looked at me with a sense of obvious unsureness in her eyes. It was almost as if she didn't want me, of all people, to hear him say something like that to her.

I looked at her almost as if to ask a question with the look in my eyes. Like how dare he speak out like that while I'm here.

"Stark is the best civilian pilot I've ever seen," she went on, ignoring what he'd said and seeming like she was trying to either impress or distract me with his achievements. "He's mad enough to brave this airspace. We're lucky to have him."

I nodded. "So are you two..." I started, trying to fully figure out the situation. She made a face at me like I was insane. "Do you..... fondue?"

She looked down in her lap at what she was holding and ignored my question by beginning the instructions on how I would keep in touch with them after I'd landed. "This is your transponder. Activate it when you're ready and the signal will lead us straight to you."

I looked at it and thought about what had just transpired. What the Hell is going on between them?

"Are you sure this thing works?" I finally asked.

"It's tested more than you, pal," Howard answered me rudely.

Before UI could come up with a sly response of my own, our jet started shaking atdcrackling as we had begun to get attacked by gunfire from the ground. I picked up my shield and started for the door. There was no way I was forcing them to go through these dangerous conditions.

"Get back here! We're taking you all the way in!" She yelled after me.

I sat at the base of the door and looked down at the explosions going on in the dark abyss below me. "As soon as I'm clear, you to turn this thing around and get the Hell out of here!" I yelled over the roar of the wind and bullets pelting the jet's armor.

"You can't give me orders!"

"The Hell I can," I looked up at her smugly. "I'm a Captain."

Just then, I pulled my goggles down and jumped straight out of the plane as she watched me. I know I'm supposed to be brave after the whole transformation and everything, but holy crap that was a scary jump.

As soon as I had landed with the help of my parachute, I started making my way through the woods and towards the Hydra Camp. I had a difficult time finding my way at first, seeing as it was foggy in addition to the fact that it was unimaginably early in the morning.

I made my way towards a clearing and finally found what I had been looking for. There were giant bright spotlights surveying the perimeters, barbed wire atop each and every (very tall) fence, men with large guns at every checkpoint as well as watch towers scattered intermittently throughout the area.

These guys don't mess around, do they?

I heard a noise distant, yet approaching, and behind me. I turned and ducked to see shipment vehicles being escorted into the premises. This may be my only opportunity to get in.

I waited for the last truck to approach my position until I ran out into the road behind it, jumping into the back of the trunk that had been protected only by a tarp flap... or so I thought. I get in there only to meet myself with two other men who had been heavily armed.

"Fellas," I greeted them as they looked down at me.

They came at me, as I had been intruding or whatever, and... for a lack of a better expression, I kicked the living daylights out of them and tossed them out of the back of the truck onto the muddy pathway like they deserved.

I felt the truck stop, go into reverse and stop again. Then, a man opened the flap only to have his face met with my shield. He flew back into the facility so far, I didn't actually see where he'd gone.

I then jumped out from within the tarp covered trunk and made my way to the giant building at the other side of the camp. I snuck around vehicles, tanks and even more armed guards before I was able to make my way to the top of one of the smaller buildings that led to the one that almost definitely would have held the prisoners.

Once I had made my way through a side entrance of the building, I managed to get through a hallway, though, the door at the end had been locked from the inside. I tapped three times on it from my side and watched as the guard approached through the glass pane.

Just as he opened the door, I slammed it shut on his head, which had been between the door and the frame, then I punched him square in the face and dragged him into the hallway after he fell to the floor.

Wielding my handgun, I weaved through boxes and machines with crazy German words and letters on them that I didn't understand, other than the word 'Hydra'. Eventually, I was met with a table full of metallic and blue glowing supplies. I quickly took a little something off and shoved it into my pocket. Maybe Howard would be able to figure out what it was.

After doing some snooping, I somehow made my way atop the jails that held the war prisoners. I waited patiently as a guard passed, the keys jangling at his side. I then attacked him and stole his keys after his body hit the grate that was the floor.

The men in the jail below me looked up so that they might be able to figure out what the Hell was going on.

"Who are you supposed to be?" A man asked.

"I'm..." I waited a moment. They wouldn't take well to a silly old name like Steve Rogers, would they? No. That's not who I am anymore. Even though I might not know exactly who I am anymore, I don't think Steve quite fits. "Captain America," I finally replied.

"I- beg your pardon?" A British soldier asked as I began to walk down to their level.

Once I had freed them all, I made my way through the large crowd looking for him. Where the Hell was he? Please don't let him be dead. I started asking around for him and, a man I learned to be called Timothy Dugan, began to show me how much he didn't care about anyone else.

"What, are we taking everybody?" he asked, looking at a man who he thought to be foreign.

"I'm from Fresno, ace," the other man replied, both of them seeming like they were about to begin a confrontation. I stepped through them, breaking it up and continuing my search through the lot of them.

"Is there anybody else?" I asked everyone. "I'm looking for a Sergeant James Barnes," I continued, feeling strange calling him by that name when I'd known him as Bucky our whole lives.

As we made our way out, a man approached me at the front of the procession and told me that "there's an isolation ward in the factory, but no one's ever come back from it," which only seemed to make me feel worse that they would do something like that to anyone, but especially to him.

"Alright," was all I could think to say to that. "The tree line is northwest, 80 yards past the gate. Get out fast, and give 'em Hell," I announced to the men behind me as loud as I could without tipping off any of the guards that they'd been freed. "I'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else I find," I told them, really only talking about Bucky.

"Wait- you know what you're doing?" A man called over to me.

"Yeah... I've knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times," I replied, neglecting to tell him that it had all been part of an act.

I then jogged out of the room and down a hallway in search of that isolation room the man had told me about. I found myself in a massive factory room with an extraordinarily loud siren sounding above me. I then was forced into fighting my way through a crowd or guards and men in armor with giant weapons.

I made my way through the factory towards the other side. After I finally had, I met a brick hallway and saw a short man in a black had with a briefcase exit from a room at the other end of the hall.

Instead of chasing after him, I walked myself into the room he had just left, hoping to find a potential lead.

I stopped at the doorway when I heard a groan coming from inside it's archway.

There's someone in there...

I took a few steps in and paused as the person started talking. I looked over at him as he laid strapped to a metal table. There were large amounts of machinery all around that looked as if they had been used a lot and recently, too.

"Sergeant. Three-two-five-five-seven," he mumbled too himself.

I ran over to the table after recognizing what was left of his small voice.

"Bucky-" I said, bending closer to his nearly unrecognizable face.

His eyes flickered open as he met my gaze in amazement. It seemed like, at first, he wasn't entirely sure who I was, at least not until I continued talking.

"Oh my God," I said, looking down at his body strapped to the table like an animal.

He seemed to stare off into space as I walked to his legs and began to tear the straps from their latches. It wasn't until I got closer to his face that I started to see something stir within his frozen eyes. "Is-is tha..." he began, trying to put two and two together.

"It's me. It's Steve," I told him, attempting to aid him in figuring everything out simply because he seemed unusually dazed.

"Steve," he said, a smile growing on his face as he finally saw through this new skin of mine.

I grabbed hold of him and helped him stand up. "Come on," I encouraged him, smiling back.

"Steve," he repeated, seeming to be almost in shock that it was really me.

I helped him stabilize in front of me. I placed my hand on him where his neck met his shoulder and took him in. His raggedy hair and dirt sudden face didn't hide the person I'd grown to love all those years ago, not even for a second.

I tugged at his neck, as if to lean him closer to me so that he might see that all I wanted - more than anything in the world right now - was to kiss him.

He looked down at my chest, where my eyes would have been if I hadn't grown to be taller than him. Once his eyes met mine, God, I was gone.

"I thought you were dead," I finally came out with.

"I thought you were smaller," he remarked on my height and stature. I figured he might say something like that anyway, though.

I heard an explosion behind us coming from outside the room we had been alone in. I looked around at my surroundings; at a map on a far wall, even, and tried to remember the pin points on it. "Come on," I murmured as I led him on with me out of that room that he had been in for God knows how long.

He was struggling to walk out of the room and I wished I could just carry him but, instead, I tried to allow him to gain back his bearings. "What happened to you?" he asked, trying to figure out how I had grown so tall and how I was now able to practically carry him with no problems whatsoever.

"I joined the army," I replied shortly as we made our way down the hallway.

He finally separated from me after he gained back his senses. "Did it hurt?" he asked, stumbling on beside me.

"A little."

"Is this permanent?" he followed.

"So far," I replied, looking back at him and making sure he was still okay to walk on his own.

Eventually, through the end of the hallway and entered the factory where the explosion sounds had been radiating from. I looked around as I leaned up against a metal guard rail, noticing for the first time all the machinery that had been exploding below us.

After shrapnel flew up at us, I decided to run up the stairs so that we may have a chance of getting out of this in one piece.

I reached the top with Bucky at my tail as I heard a voice call out to me.

"Captain America!" a man said with a German accent. "How exciting!" he continued, handing something over to another man who stood beside him... the man I had seen in the hallway just before. "I am a great fan of your films!" He proclaimed, walking closer.

I made my way onto a little bridge that connected the two sides of platform that we stood on together. "So, Dr. Erskine managed it after all," he went on.

In that moment, I knew who he was. It had to be that man the Doctor had told me about. Johann Schmidt, I believe... the man who wanted nothing more than the power that would bring him to his end.

"Not exactly an improvement but, still, impressive," he remarked, walking ever closer.

I punched him straight in the face and watched as his head flew back on impact. "You got no idea," I told him.

He grabbed his face in pain as he looked back up at me with a look on his face that I wasn't;t quite sure what to do with. There was something... off.

"Haven't I?" he asked, throwing a punch at me and hitting my shield, leaving an impressive fist shaped dent in it.

I reached for the gun at my side, but before I could aim it at him, he punched me straight in the face, knocking me down, somehow.

He walked closer to me, as if to finish what he had started, so I kicked him with both my feet and saw him fly back to the other side of the bridge.

The man from the hallway pulled a lever and separated the bride at the center, pulling us apart from one another.

"No matter what lies Erskine told you, you see, I was his greatest success!" he called out to me as he reached over to his neck and began to... pull his face off. Literally. He had worn a false skin that was seemingly hiding a terrifying, malformed, red skull.

"You don't have one of those, do you?" Bucky asked.

"You are deluded, Captain. You pretend to be a simple soldier," Schmidt interrupted, throwing his mask over the ledge and into the flames. "But in reality, you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind. Unlike you, I embrace it proudly. Without fear!"

"Then how come you're running?" I asked as he and the other man walked into an elevator that led to unknown destinations.

Without saying anything more, the elevator doors closed and they were gone, leaving me and Bucky alone in this exploding factory with no way to get to the other side. I looked around, hoping that I might find- there! I saw an exit above us with a support beam leading to it. That was our only chance.

"C'mon, let's go. Up." I directed him as he followed my lead up the stairs.

As we approached the beam, I examined it from afar so that I might get a better idea as to whether or not it was safe to use as a means to getting to the other side.

"Let's go, one at a time," I told him, helping him over the railing so that he might go first and stabilizing him once he stood on the beam.

I watched him as he carefully made his way halfway, that is, until it buckled below him. I wanted to close my eyes or look away or something else because I could not stand losing him again. He had to make it across. He just had to.

The beam nearly collapsed below him, so he ran and jumped as he reached for the railing, making it across somehow, and just barely. He climbed over to the safe side of the railing and I felt relief wash over me.

We both looked down at my lack of ability to cross over and meet him there. "There's gotta be a rope, or something!" He called out to me.

"Just go! Get outta here!" I shouted over at him, so that at least one of us might make it out of this death trap alive.

"No! Not without you!" he yelled back, leaning over the railing and standing his ground.

"Hell," I whispered to myself, trying to find a way over there. I looked down and noticed the railing, so I took hold of it and bent it out of the way in order to make a path for myself.

After doing this, I backed up and prayed that I'd be able to do this and that I wasn't overestimating my abilities for Bucky's sake.

With that, I ran and jumped across the divide, feeling the flames brush up from below me.

• • •

We made our way down the dirt path just as the sun began to shine through the morning clouds.

Men in the distance shouted things like I can't believe it! and look who it is! at us while cheering for us at the same time as we approached the base.

I saw them all huddle around the entrance as we made our way even closer to the final destination; me, Bucky and all the other men I had managed to save from that Hydra camp.

Colonel Philips approached me with Agent Carter as we approached the center of the camp. I saluted him out of respect, despite the lack of respect he had for me only yesterday. "Some of these men need medical attention," I told him as he looked around at what I had to present to him.

I heard the medics and others discussing such matters behind us as we spoke.

"I'd like to surrender myself for disciplinary action," I continued, trying to show him that, while I was right in doing what I did, I still had disobeyed his clear, direct, order.

"That won't be necessary," he replied, observing everything that was going on before looking back at me with a slight smile.

"Yes, sir," I smiled back.

"Faith, huh?" the Colonel said to Peggy as he turned and walked away from us.

"You're late," she said as she approached me, looking at every inch of my face peculiarly.

I pulled out the device she had given me on the airplane only a few hours earlier and showed her that it had been destroyed. "Couldn't call my ride," I told her.

"Hey!" Bucky shouted from the side, making em look right at him with a smile, though, not stopping Peggy from looking at me some type of unrecognizable way. "Let's hear it for Captain America!"

—————

And, they all cheered for me.

It was a feeling like nothing else I could ever explain, honestly, all of it.

Though, finally seeing Bucky again? That was... that, was truly incredible.

~ Steve Rogers