![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psl for Steve
[The war had been raging for a long time now, and James Buchanan Barnes had been drafted some months ago to ship out to Europe and fight with all the others in the trenches and on the front lines. Telegrams came back daily with the news of more brothers, sons, fathers, and husbands killed. More friends who will never return, and still there was no end in sight.
But then something even stranger began happening on both sides of the timeline.
It was the result of Thanos trying to pull the time gem to him from where it was hidden on Earth, though nobody else knew that. It was just that the occasional object tended to disappear and then end up where it wasn't supposed to be, though only usually for a few moments or so before it returned. SHIELD, what was left of it, and the sorcerers worked to seal the issues and they managed to do it within only a few days. No major issues, no big anomalies in the past to muck things up.
But there was one piece of the future lost in the past that hadn't made it back.
The Winter Soldier-- Bucky-- whoever he was now, confused fragmented memories all he had to go on, had been thrown through time unceremoniously into a street that looked altogether familiar and confusing. He immediately went into hiding for a few hours, meaning he got missed when people tried to clean up the problems that the Infinity Stone had caused, but when nobody came for him by dusk he began to move again. His manner of dress was out of place now with jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, nobody else seemed to be wearing that sort of thing, but very few people stared. He didn't change it, he didn't have anything to change into. He found his feet taking him somewhere only half remembered.
An apartment with a key hidden under an old brick. Why did he know it was there?
He didn't know. He just let himself in, quiet as a whisper, and made his way through to the bedroom where someone was asleep under the covers. Skinny, blond, somehow also familiar (the man on the bridge? The man in the Potomac? The man at the museum? No, that didn't make sense, that man had bulging muscles, but somehow he was sure they were the same). He didn't say anything, just stood there and watched impassively, waiting for the man to wake up.]
But then something even stranger began happening on both sides of the timeline.
It was the result of Thanos trying to pull the time gem to him from where it was hidden on Earth, though nobody else knew that. It was just that the occasional object tended to disappear and then end up where it wasn't supposed to be, though only usually for a few moments or so before it returned. SHIELD, what was left of it, and the sorcerers worked to seal the issues and they managed to do it within only a few days. No major issues, no big anomalies in the past to muck things up.
But there was one piece of the future lost in the past that hadn't made it back.
The Winter Soldier-- Bucky-- whoever he was now, confused fragmented memories all he had to go on, had been thrown through time unceremoniously into a street that looked altogether familiar and confusing. He immediately went into hiding for a few hours, meaning he got missed when people tried to clean up the problems that the Infinity Stone had caused, but when nobody came for him by dusk he began to move again. His manner of dress was out of place now with jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, nobody else seemed to be wearing that sort of thing, but very few people stared. He didn't change it, he didn't have anything to change into. He found his feet taking him somewhere only half remembered.
An apartment with a key hidden under an old brick. Why did he know it was there?
He didn't know. He just let himself in, quiet as a whisper, and made his way through to the bedroom where someone was asleep under the covers. Skinny, blond, somehow also familiar (the man on the bridge? The man in the Potomac? The man at the museum? No, that didn't make sense, that man had bulging muscles, but somehow he was sure they were the same). He didn't say anything, just stood there and watched impassively, waiting for the man to wake up.]
no subject
"I'm not sure."
His voice sounded too quiet and too raspy, a leftover of not being allowed to use it except for mission reports for so long.
"I don't think I'm supposed to be here."
no subject
This person sounded and vaguely looked like Bucky but there were too many differences all at the same time. "You're supposed to be at training. You left a couple months ago. Mighta been drafted by now. Probably. You were always the overachiever type."
Fondness stretched across his face, easy and plain to see. "What's the last thing ya remember?"
no subject
"I was in Bulgaria."
He probably shouldn't tell him anything, should just leave and try and find a way back. But he suddenly didn't want to; if nothing else, nobody from HYDRA had ever even heard of him in this time, so nobody would be hunting him.
"I'm not who you think I am."
no subject
Just as he expected, this Bucky while similar in appearance had a completely different path and outcome. A time warp, which happened frequently in the sci fi novels he devoured more than he would admit to. But why here and why now? In the novels, a reason always existed, everyone just needed to figure it out.
Leaning forward a little more, he wrapped his arms around his upturned legs, regarding this Bucky with a tilt of his head. "You're still Bucky. I sense it and how you're looking at me is very familiar. This kinda wistful thing."
A pause as he considered a few things. "You're safe here, you know. Got a look like ya think somebody's gonna come and take you away." Another pause. "You hungry? Thirsty? Forgot my manners bein' wokin' up so suddenly."
no subject
"I want to know where he is, the other-- James Barnes."
He had a sudden realisation that maybe if he could get to him first, a sniper shot from the distance, the man would never become the Soldier. He didn't even think about the potential paradox of that.
"I have something I need to take care of with him."
no subject
He barely refrained on commenting on how bad Bucky looked because he figured it would bother him in a way it never managed with his punk. His. Even just the terminology sent shards of pain and he needed a minute. Coughing into his hand soon after, he slipped from the bed.
"You're not from this time. What time are you from?"
no subject
He didn't sit.
"A long time from now, and that's why I know what needs to be done."
Killing him before he became the Soldier would surely save hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people. Nobody else was a viable candidate, not without the bastardised serum he had in him.
no subject
"Never lose your stupid do ya?" Steve accused once he managed the coughing fit. "Pretty sure killing your past self isn't gonna change anythin' in the way you want it to. It'll only make things worse." He read plenty of sci fi novels, thank you very much.
"Ya know what it'd do to me if ya never existed?" Steve asked, softer, the frown morphing into something more painful.
no subject
Bucky knows, without the shadow of a doubt, that the world would be much better off without him in it. It wouldn't make anything worse, it would make so many things safer and save so many lives.
"I wouldn't have never existed, it'd just be like..." He paused for a moment, brow furrowed as he tried to find the right words. It was hard, this was the longest conversation he had had in decades. "...like I died in the war. Lots of people died in the war and never came home, you'd get by."
no subject
"Ya don't know what kinda things you did after all that. Takin' away yourself now as the war is goin' on -" He trailed off with a shake of his head. "I know Bucky Barnes made a difference over there. Wouldn't do nothin' right without him bein' there."