Name: Sra
DW username:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aizen
E-Mail: decadent.illusions@gmail.com
IM: the.mighty.sra
Plurk: sarrasi
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes
Series: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Timeline: From the end of CA:TWS, when he drags Steve to the riverbank.
Canon Resource Link: MCU Wiki
Character History: To quickly preface this, there's a Captain America: TFA tie in comic called First Vengeance that deals with a lot of pre-TFA/in-between events and some more of MCU!Bucky's character. The tie-in comic conflicts with movie-canon in some places, such as when Steve's mother died (8 months prior to meeting Bucky, as opposed to some years after). I'm sticking to movie-canon with the tie-in comic filling in the blanks, since they are still a part of the same universe, so I hope that's okay! Please let me know if there are any conflicts and I'll be happy to address them.
**Some earlier history has also been updated with new canon from CA:TWS.
—
Not much is given about Bucky's early life. While he grew up in Brooklyn during the Depression, his family was at least doing well enough to afford a car, and Bucky himself was was shown to be both well-dressed and popular with women.
The first time he appears in canon, it's in a back alley full of bullies kicking around a 90lb asthmatic who doesn't know when to stay down. Kids harassing each other is so common that Bucky doesn't even really think twice about it at first - they leave him the hell alone, after all. He knows he can take them, easy, and they know it too. Most kids will wise up and just give the bullies whatever they want, or at least have the good sense to stay down until they're left alone. This kid? Not so much.
Steve gets up, and gets put down again, over and over, until Bucky can't just watch anymore and he has to intervene. He helps Steve chase the bullies off, and the first thing Steve tells him is he could have worn them down eventually on his own, and he'll take Bucky too. Bucky likes him right off, and he tells Steve that he inspired him to stand up to the bullies when it never really occurred to him before, to stand up for someone else.
They become very close friends, and their relationship is like this for years to come. While Bucky is the one who saves Steve's skin time and time again, Steve is the one who inspires him to be a better person. Much like Steve, Bucky is a genuinely good person, and an extremely loyal friend. When Steve's mother passes away, Steve still thinks he can do everything on his own. Bucky knows Steve is capable of far more than people give him credit for, so he's got a lot to prove, but their friendship means that Steve never has to go it alone. He's as important to Bucky as his own family, and they're here to support each other, as Bucky tells him, to the end of the line.
As they get older, it looks like Steve is going to be an artist and maybe Bucky will put those back alley brawling skills to good use as a welterweight boxer. He's young and obviously a cocky, confident playboy. But there's a war brewing on the horizon, and he knows it's eventually coming home. They're in one of Steve's art classes when they hear the news on the radio about Pearl Harbor. After that, Bucky knows he'll enlist, and helps train Steve, who also wants badly to join the war effort. Unfortunately for Steve, no amount of training is getting him into the war, no matter how many times he tries.
Bucky gets his marching orders, and it looks like Steve will stay in Brooklyn for the duration. It's a point of contention between them -- not because Bucky is leaving, but because Steve refuses to accept that he's got no choice but to stay behind. Years later, he's still that kid who doesn't know when to stay down. Bucky heads off the argument and drags him out to the World's Fair. He brings a girl for each of them, and there's a swagger in his step as he watches a bright future unfold all around them. Maybe it's going to be tough to be away from home, but he's proud; he's going to fight for something and protect his family - a family that always includes Steve.
Steve disappears partway through their double date, and Bucky finds him trying to enlist yet again. There's no avoiding an argument this time. It's not a back alley anymore. He's scared for what will happen to Steve if he goes to war, and he wants him to find some other way to help. Steve says there are men laying down their lives, and he has no right to do any less than them, and Bucky argues back that yeah, Steve's clearly got nothing to prove. He almost walks off right there, but this might be the last time they talk, and he can't leave it like that. He calls Steve a punk, Steve calls him a jerk, and between them those words say everything that neither of them are willing to voice out loud. Bucky tosses off one last salute before he leaves with a couple of girls in tow.
Meanwhile, overseas, there's a faction growing within, and rapidly separating itself from Hitler and the Nazis: HYDRA, led by a man who calls himself the Red Skull. The Red Skull is a monster; ruthless, sadistic, and hellbent on a new world order. He uses an unfinished version of the "Super Soldier Serum" developed by Dr. Abraham Erskine to turn himself into what he considers a superior human. The serum makes him faster, stronger, and crazier than before. He also has a red skull for a face, but really, that's the nicest thing about the guy.
HYDRA is all about harnessing the power of the gods - in the form of the Tesseract, an artifact left on earth by an alien race - for science. (It's a comic book movie, don't ask.) The Tesseract powers their weapons, which are completely unlike anything else seen in the entire European theater of war. Arnim Zola, a HYDRA scientist, is largely responsible for these weapons. They emit a blue energy that literally vaporizes the target.
There's a deleted scene from the movie that shows Bucky in the trenches, pinned down by gunfire before HYDRA captures most of his unit. War isn't what he might have imagined it to be. It isn't even close. Bucky is put into one of the Red Skull's weapon factories, where he and the remainder of his unit are meant to be worked to death. HYDRA has deliberately separated the prisoners into diverse cells, so that the internal conflict will prevent any kind of revolution. Initially, it works flawlessly, and the men in Bucky's cell can't help but argue and insult each other.
Bucky has pneumonia from the battlefield already, but he also manages to earn himself a lot of abuse for sassing the guards, one in particular who beats him with a metal pipe. After that, he's barely even able to stand up, and knowing that he'll probably be sent away to the labs and never heard from again, the rest of the men finally rally together. They combine their talents to rig an 'accident' that kills the guard who has it out for Bucky, buying him a little more time at the expense of docked rations. Bucky is not the least bit pleased that they nearly got themselves killed for him too, but these are the men who will later become Captain America's Howling Commandos.
Bucky does eventually get sent up to Zola's lab to be experimented on regardless. Turns out, he's interested in creating more than one type of weapon. There's no indication of how long Bucky is there, or exactly what's done to him, but when Steve finds him, Bucky is murmuring his name, rank, and serial number like he's been trained to do under torture or interrogation.
Unbeknownst to Bucky, while he was away Steve was given the Super Soldier Serum. Unlike the Red Skull, he just got taller and put on maybe 150lbs, no big deal. Against orders and all odds, he came out to rescue Bucky and all of the other prisoners taken by HYDRA. They face the Red Skull and escape the burning facility together, because Bucky refuses to leave without Steve.
Their relationship changes, obviously. Steve doesn't need Bucky to protect him anymore. People finally begin to see Steve the way Bucky has always seen him. Though he starts up the cheer for Captain America when they get back to base camp, his smile fades as soon as Steve looks away because he doesn't know who he is to Steve anymore.
He's alone at the bar later, while the Commandos sing drinking songs, and that's where Steve finds him. Even after everything, after almost being tortured to death, when Steve asks Bucky if he'll follow Captain America to hell, Bucky says hell no. But he'll follow Steve. Because what never, ever changes is that Bucky has Steve's back.
He meets Agent Peggy Carter at the bar later that night. Through Steve he knows she's an agent working for the SSR, a branch of the US military that will later become SHIELD. He takes one look at her (okay, maybe two) and Steve, and knows exactly what's going on. He flirts with her for Steve while Steve stands there tongue-tied. Though he bemoans her mostly ignoring him later, it's obvious from the get-go Steve and Peggy only have eyes for each other.
With the backing of the SSR, Cap and the Commandos cross Europe destroying HYDRA bases, until they finally get ready to capture Zola's train as it speeds through a sheer mountain pass. Bucky jokes with Steve about the drop being revenge for when he made Steve ride the Cyclone, but he's obviously a little nervous about the whole zip-lining across a chasm and jumping onto a moving train deal. It all goes well until they board the train. Steve and Bucky are cut off from one another, and after a fierce fight with HYDRA Heavy Troopers, Steve gets knocked down and Bucky grabs his shield to draw attention away from him. The blast from the trooper knocks him out of the train, and though Steve finishes the guy off and scrambles out after Bucky, yelling at him to grab his hand, Bucky can't reach.
Bucky falls from the train to the icy gorge below, but that's not the end for him. He's taken back to HYDRA and eventually Zola, so he can finish what he started. The years that follow are mostly presented in jump-cuts of memory. Exactly what is done to Bucky to force him to obey HYDRA is unclear, but it's likely that they applied their overarching principals to his conditioning. One of these principals, repeated by several other HYDRA agents in the MCU, is order through pain. It's very likely that whatever was left of Bucky after years of torture and brainwashing is someone who sees HYDRA as order in confusion, and obedience in pain.
Bucky doesn't go without a fight - he clearly remembers strangling a scientist with his newly minted metal arm - but it's not a fight he was ever going to win. HYDRA takes everything from him; his memories, his agency, and anything that is unnecessary for their asset.
Over the years that follow, throughout the Cold War, the Winter Soldier makes a name for himself taking out HYDRA's targets. Natasha claims he's responsible for at least two dozen assassinations in the course of his ~60 year career. After every mission, he's returned to chryostasis, and thus effectively "disappears." Because of this, most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. No one knows who he is, not even the Winter Soldier himself.
He's brought into the new century by a man named Alexander Pierce, a high-standing member of SHIELD who's secretly an agent of HYDRA. Throughout the years, HYDRA has embedded itself in SHIELD and other organizations, quietly instigating conflict and inciting fear. Their goal of total world subjugation and domination hasn't changed -- but their methods have. They hope to put the world in such a state of fear and confusion that people will trade their freedom for safety. On a larger scale, they hope to achieve order through pain.
The Winter Soldier's first mission out of cold storage is to kill the Director of SHIELD, Nick Fury. The ambush was meticulously planned from start to finish, likely by Pierce himself, with the Winter Soldier as the final, impassable line. Fury narrowly escaped, seeking refuge in Captain America's apartment, where he revealed to the Captain that SHIELD was compromised. The Winter Soldier, having tracked him down, was able to use Rogers' eyeline to discern Fury's position in the apartment and shoot his target at a distance, directly through the solid wall between them. The whole ambush reflects directly on his level of control and skill, and the competence with which the Winter Soldier generally preforms.
When Rogers spots him on the roof after he shoots Fury, he's unable to confirm the death and is forced to bolt. Rogers gives chase, and even manages to throw the shield at him, which the Winter Soldier catches and throws back before disappearing.
The next time he's seen, it's in Alexander Pierce's house. He leaves a gun on the table between them; arming his handler is likely a part of his conditioning. Pierce gives him two more targets, their level, and a time frame of ten hours. Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff are now targets, and why that might be simply isn't relevant information. What he doesn't know is that the information Fury passed along was enough for Steve to distrust SHIELD with it, at the very least, and in retaliation Pierce has decided he and any allies need to go.
The Winter Soldier and his team ambush them on a highway overpass, and what follows is an extremely public fight with a lot of collateral damage. Early on, Romanoff manages to get under the overpass and shoot a part of his mask off. With Rogers likely injured and trapped inside an overturned bus after the initial confrontation, he determines that she's the greater threat and leaves Rogers to his men. He goes after her personally and ruthlessly... and falls directly into her trap. She's able to catch him by surprise with a garrote and then an EMP, but after the latter proves only temporarily effective, he's able to catch up to her and shoot her in the shoulder.
Steve Rogers interrupts the fight then. He and the Winter Soldier battle viciously... at least until Rogers manages to knock the rest of the mask off. The Winter Soldier hesitates. Steve says Bucky and he replies Who the hell is Bucky? before lifting his gun again. Even after he gets knocked down again by Sam Wilson, he's visibly shaken, and he disappears when reinforcements from HYDRA roll in to take Steve and the others into custody.
Maria Hill helps Steve and the others escape, and reveals to them that Fury has been alive the whole time. They form a plan to stop HYDRA, who are going to launch Project Insight: a program that will destroy all threats and potential threats to their organization in one fell swoop, using three highly weaponized helecarriers to do it. The survivors hatch a plan to stop Project Insight.
Meanwhile, it only becomes more apparent from there that something is wrong with the Winter Soldier. When he returns for repairs, the scientists call him unstable. He remembers snatches of information, out of order -- first Zola calling him Sergeant Barnes, then Steve yelling Bucky from the train. He remembers being dragged through the snow, having his arm removed and replaced, being told he's to be the new fist of HYDRA. He remembers strangling a HYDRA scientist with his new arm and being put in chryo. He lashes out.
When Pierce returns to demand a mission report, he's nearly catatonic. He barely reacts when Pierce slaps him across the face, but he does finally respond -- not with a formal report, but with questions. He wants to know who the man on the bridge was. The connection is, at the moment, more important to him than anything. He doesn't understand who he is or why it matters, but he feels strongly enough that he repeats I knew him even when Pierce tries to twist the truth away from him. It's the closest he comes to defiance and to breaking down, all at once.
So they wipe him, and start over.
His next mission is to prevent Captain America and his team from taking down the Insight helecarriers. Once they're operational, the helecarriers will commit mass genocide for HYDRA, wiping out all of those who would oppose them in a single strike. He executes his mission, killing anyone who stands in his way.
He's the first one to make it to the bridge of the last remaining helecarrier. In every other instance, he's taken the element of surprise, but this time he stands waiting, his expression blank. Steve pleads with him, but he neither attacks nor moves out of his way until Steve makes the call and throws his shield. The fight is even more vicious than the first - both of them take injuries. The Winter Soldier is obligated to complete his mission, and Captain America can't let people die.
Steve just barely manages to get the last Helecarrier down in the end, with the two of them still on it. He frees the Soldier from under a piece of debris, and insists that they know each other. The Soldier screams that he doesn't, that Steve isn't his friend, but his mission. He's telling himself as much as he's telling Steve, if not more. Because Steve tells him his name, tells him they've known each other their whole lives. He keeps hitting Steve, who doesn't hit back, who doesn't shut up.
Steve tells him to finish it, if he really believes a mission is all they are to each other. No matter what, Steve says, he's with Bucky to the end of the line.
Steve slides out of his grasp and into the Potomac and for a long moment, the Soldier watches him fall.
In the end, he does what feels right. He swims down after Steve, drags him to the riverbank, and lingers long enough to confirm - for once - that his target is still alive. After that, he does what he does best: he disappears.
Abilities/Special Powers: Even before he was taken by HYDRA, Bucky was a soldier, so physically he's very fit and highly trained for armed or unarmed combat. He's an excellent sharpshooter, and has been shown handling a wide variety of firearms, blades, and explosive weapons with an extremely high degree of skill. He was trained for years for a singular purpose, and he's very good at what he does.
Whatever Bucky was given during experiments conducted by HYDRA - likely a version of the original Super Soldier Formula - makes his speed, strength, and stamina directly comparable to that of Steve Rogers himself. His metal arm gives him some degree of enhanced strength as well.
Third-Person Sample:
Every day his routine is exactly the same. He sees that all of his basic needs are met; food, sleep, shelter. His physical condition is maintained with regular exercise, with a strict regiment of training drills that can be preformed in the privacy of a room, independently. He doesn't stay in the same room more than one or two nights. He never stays on the seventh floor, in any room. He never deviates from his routine, which has always been the default for any Standby time the Soldier is permitted.
He understands that he no longer needs to be permitted, that this isn't Standby time between missions. He understands that there are no more missions. This has been made abundantly clear, by the residents of the seventh floor that he avoids. He knows their names and faces, though he didn't know them until he arrived. He knows that they name themselves friends of his or Steve's. They want to help him, want to tell him about the man they knew. Some of them are afraid, and pretend they're not.
He understands enough. He adheres to his routine, but not always. He understands that if he doesn't follow protocol, he will sit in the corner of a room with a gun in his hands and think about the number of bullets he put into Steve Rogers, into people whose names or faces he's still remembering, then he will think about one bullet in particular, and the cold press of the barrel beneath his chin.
If this is better, he hasn't decided yet. He follows his routine.
First-Person Sample:
[ Voice only. He triple checks, and makes sure there's a piece of tape securely covering the camera. This is the last place he wants to be at the moment, but it's also the widest net he can cast. And he needs to cast a wide net for this one. ]
I've heard you can make a deal with the vendors to have certain things returned to you, in exchange for memories. What if the thing you're after is memories? Is there anyone here who deals in getting those back?
DW username:
aizenE-Mail: decadent.illusions@gmail.com
IM: the.mighty.sra
Plurk: sarrasi
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes
Series: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Timeline: From the end of CA:TWS, when he drags Steve to the riverbank.
Canon Resource Link: MCU Wiki
Character History: To quickly preface this, there's a Captain America: TFA tie in comic called First Vengeance that deals with a lot of pre-TFA/in-between events and some more of MCU!Bucky's character. The tie-in comic conflicts with movie-canon in some places, such as when Steve's mother died (8 months prior to meeting Bucky, as opposed to some years after). I'm sticking to movie-canon with the tie-in comic filling in the blanks, since they are still a part of the same universe, so I hope that's okay! Please let me know if there are any conflicts and I'll be happy to address them.
**Some earlier history has also been updated with new canon from CA:TWS.
—
Not much is given about Bucky's early life. While he grew up in Brooklyn during the Depression, his family was at least doing well enough to afford a car, and Bucky himself was was shown to be both well-dressed and popular with women.
The first time he appears in canon, it's in a back alley full of bullies kicking around a 90lb asthmatic who doesn't know when to stay down. Kids harassing each other is so common that Bucky doesn't even really think twice about it at first - they leave him the hell alone, after all. He knows he can take them, easy, and they know it too. Most kids will wise up and just give the bullies whatever they want, or at least have the good sense to stay down until they're left alone. This kid? Not so much.
Steve gets up, and gets put down again, over and over, until Bucky can't just watch anymore and he has to intervene. He helps Steve chase the bullies off, and the first thing Steve tells him is he could have worn them down eventually on his own, and he'll take Bucky too. Bucky likes him right off, and he tells Steve that he inspired him to stand up to the bullies when it never really occurred to him before, to stand up for someone else.
They become very close friends, and their relationship is like this for years to come. While Bucky is the one who saves Steve's skin time and time again, Steve is the one who inspires him to be a better person. Much like Steve, Bucky is a genuinely good person, and an extremely loyal friend. When Steve's mother passes away, Steve still thinks he can do everything on his own. Bucky knows Steve is capable of far more than people give him credit for, so he's got a lot to prove, but their friendship means that Steve never has to go it alone. He's as important to Bucky as his own family, and they're here to support each other, as Bucky tells him, to the end of the line.
As they get older, it looks like Steve is going to be an artist and maybe Bucky will put those back alley brawling skills to good use as a welterweight boxer. He's young and obviously a cocky, confident playboy. But there's a war brewing on the horizon, and he knows it's eventually coming home. They're in one of Steve's art classes when they hear the news on the radio about Pearl Harbor. After that, Bucky knows he'll enlist, and helps train Steve, who also wants badly to join the war effort. Unfortunately for Steve, no amount of training is getting him into the war, no matter how many times he tries.
Bucky gets his marching orders, and it looks like Steve will stay in Brooklyn for the duration. It's a point of contention between them -- not because Bucky is leaving, but because Steve refuses to accept that he's got no choice but to stay behind. Years later, he's still that kid who doesn't know when to stay down. Bucky heads off the argument and drags him out to the World's Fair. He brings a girl for each of them, and there's a swagger in his step as he watches a bright future unfold all around them. Maybe it's going to be tough to be away from home, but he's proud; he's going to fight for something and protect his family - a family that always includes Steve.
Steve disappears partway through their double date, and Bucky finds him trying to enlist yet again. There's no avoiding an argument this time. It's not a back alley anymore. He's scared for what will happen to Steve if he goes to war, and he wants him to find some other way to help. Steve says there are men laying down their lives, and he has no right to do any less than them, and Bucky argues back that yeah, Steve's clearly got nothing to prove. He almost walks off right there, but this might be the last time they talk, and he can't leave it like that. He calls Steve a punk, Steve calls him a jerk, and between them those words say everything that neither of them are willing to voice out loud. Bucky tosses off one last salute before he leaves with a couple of girls in tow.
Meanwhile, overseas, there's a faction growing within, and rapidly separating itself from Hitler and the Nazis: HYDRA, led by a man who calls himself the Red Skull. The Red Skull is a monster; ruthless, sadistic, and hellbent on a new world order. He uses an unfinished version of the "Super Soldier Serum" developed by Dr. Abraham Erskine to turn himself into what he considers a superior human. The serum makes him faster, stronger, and crazier than before. He also has a red skull for a face, but really, that's the nicest thing about the guy.
HYDRA is all about harnessing the power of the gods - in the form of the Tesseract, an artifact left on earth by an alien race - for science. (It's a comic book movie, don't ask.) The Tesseract powers their weapons, which are completely unlike anything else seen in the entire European theater of war. Arnim Zola, a HYDRA scientist, is largely responsible for these weapons. They emit a blue energy that literally vaporizes the target.
There's a deleted scene from the movie that shows Bucky in the trenches, pinned down by gunfire before HYDRA captures most of his unit. War isn't what he might have imagined it to be. It isn't even close. Bucky is put into one of the Red Skull's weapon factories, where he and the remainder of his unit are meant to be worked to death. HYDRA has deliberately separated the prisoners into diverse cells, so that the internal conflict will prevent any kind of revolution. Initially, it works flawlessly, and the men in Bucky's cell can't help but argue and insult each other.
Bucky has pneumonia from the battlefield already, but he also manages to earn himself a lot of abuse for sassing the guards, one in particular who beats him with a metal pipe. After that, he's barely even able to stand up, and knowing that he'll probably be sent away to the labs and never heard from again, the rest of the men finally rally together. They combine their talents to rig an 'accident' that kills the guard who has it out for Bucky, buying him a little more time at the expense of docked rations. Bucky is not the least bit pleased that they nearly got themselves killed for him too, but these are the men who will later become Captain America's Howling Commandos.
Bucky does eventually get sent up to Zola's lab to be experimented on regardless. Turns out, he's interested in creating more than one type of weapon. There's no indication of how long Bucky is there, or exactly what's done to him, but when Steve finds him, Bucky is murmuring his name, rank, and serial number like he's been trained to do under torture or interrogation.
Unbeknownst to Bucky, while he was away Steve was given the Super Soldier Serum. Unlike the Red Skull, he just got taller and put on maybe 150lbs, no big deal. Against orders and all odds, he came out to rescue Bucky and all of the other prisoners taken by HYDRA. They face the Red Skull and escape the burning facility together, because Bucky refuses to leave without Steve.
Their relationship changes, obviously. Steve doesn't need Bucky to protect him anymore. People finally begin to see Steve the way Bucky has always seen him. Though he starts up the cheer for Captain America when they get back to base camp, his smile fades as soon as Steve looks away because he doesn't know who he is to Steve anymore.
He's alone at the bar later, while the Commandos sing drinking songs, and that's where Steve finds him. Even after everything, after almost being tortured to death, when Steve asks Bucky if he'll follow Captain America to hell, Bucky says hell no. But he'll follow Steve. Because what never, ever changes is that Bucky has Steve's back.
He meets Agent Peggy Carter at the bar later that night. Through Steve he knows she's an agent working for the SSR, a branch of the US military that will later become SHIELD. He takes one look at her (okay, maybe two) and Steve, and knows exactly what's going on. He flirts with her for Steve while Steve stands there tongue-tied. Though he bemoans her mostly ignoring him later, it's obvious from the get-go Steve and Peggy only have eyes for each other.
With the backing of the SSR, Cap and the Commandos cross Europe destroying HYDRA bases, until they finally get ready to capture Zola's train as it speeds through a sheer mountain pass. Bucky jokes with Steve about the drop being revenge for when he made Steve ride the Cyclone, but he's obviously a little nervous about the whole zip-lining across a chasm and jumping onto a moving train deal. It all goes well until they board the train. Steve and Bucky are cut off from one another, and after a fierce fight with HYDRA Heavy Troopers, Steve gets knocked down and Bucky grabs his shield to draw attention away from him. The blast from the trooper knocks him out of the train, and though Steve finishes the guy off and scrambles out after Bucky, yelling at him to grab his hand, Bucky can't reach.
Bucky falls from the train to the icy gorge below, but that's not the end for him. He's taken back to HYDRA and eventually Zola, so he can finish what he started. The years that follow are mostly presented in jump-cuts of memory. Exactly what is done to Bucky to force him to obey HYDRA is unclear, but it's likely that they applied their overarching principals to his conditioning. One of these principals, repeated by several other HYDRA agents in the MCU, is order through pain. It's very likely that whatever was left of Bucky after years of torture and brainwashing is someone who sees HYDRA as order in confusion, and obedience in pain.
Bucky doesn't go without a fight - he clearly remembers strangling a scientist with his newly minted metal arm - but it's not a fight he was ever going to win. HYDRA takes everything from him; his memories, his agency, and anything that is unnecessary for their asset.
Over the years that follow, throughout the Cold War, the Winter Soldier makes a name for himself taking out HYDRA's targets. Natasha claims he's responsible for at least two dozen assassinations in the course of his ~60 year career. After every mission, he's returned to chryostasis, and thus effectively "disappears." Because of this, most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. No one knows who he is, not even the Winter Soldier himself.
He's brought into the new century by a man named Alexander Pierce, a high-standing member of SHIELD who's secretly an agent of HYDRA. Throughout the years, HYDRA has embedded itself in SHIELD and other organizations, quietly instigating conflict and inciting fear. Their goal of total world subjugation and domination hasn't changed -- but their methods have. They hope to put the world in such a state of fear and confusion that people will trade their freedom for safety. On a larger scale, they hope to achieve order through pain.
The Winter Soldier's first mission out of cold storage is to kill the Director of SHIELD, Nick Fury. The ambush was meticulously planned from start to finish, likely by Pierce himself, with the Winter Soldier as the final, impassable line. Fury narrowly escaped, seeking refuge in Captain America's apartment, where he revealed to the Captain that SHIELD was compromised. The Winter Soldier, having tracked him down, was able to use Rogers' eyeline to discern Fury's position in the apartment and shoot his target at a distance, directly through the solid wall between them. The whole ambush reflects directly on his level of control and skill, and the competence with which the Winter Soldier generally preforms.
When Rogers spots him on the roof after he shoots Fury, he's unable to confirm the death and is forced to bolt. Rogers gives chase, and even manages to throw the shield at him, which the Winter Soldier catches and throws back before disappearing.
The next time he's seen, it's in Alexander Pierce's house. He leaves a gun on the table between them; arming his handler is likely a part of his conditioning. Pierce gives him two more targets, their level, and a time frame of ten hours. Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff are now targets, and why that might be simply isn't relevant information. What he doesn't know is that the information Fury passed along was enough for Steve to distrust SHIELD with it, at the very least, and in retaliation Pierce has decided he and any allies need to go.
The Winter Soldier and his team ambush them on a highway overpass, and what follows is an extremely public fight with a lot of collateral damage. Early on, Romanoff manages to get under the overpass and shoot a part of his mask off. With Rogers likely injured and trapped inside an overturned bus after the initial confrontation, he determines that she's the greater threat and leaves Rogers to his men. He goes after her personally and ruthlessly... and falls directly into her trap. She's able to catch him by surprise with a garrote and then an EMP, but after the latter proves only temporarily effective, he's able to catch up to her and shoot her in the shoulder.
Steve Rogers interrupts the fight then. He and the Winter Soldier battle viciously... at least until Rogers manages to knock the rest of the mask off. The Winter Soldier hesitates. Steve says Bucky and he replies Who the hell is Bucky? before lifting his gun again. Even after he gets knocked down again by Sam Wilson, he's visibly shaken, and he disappears when reinforcements from HYDRA roll in to take Steve and the others into custody.
Maria Hill helps Steve and the others escape, and reveals to them that Fury has been alive the whole time. They form a plan to stop HYDRA, who are going to launch Project Insight: a program that will destroy all threats and potential threats to their organization in one fell swoop, using three highly weaponized helecarriers to do it. The survivors hatch a plan to stop Project Insight.
Meanwhile, it only becomes more apparent from there that something is wrong with the Winter Soldier. When he returns for repairs, the scientists call him unstable. He remembers snatches of information, out of order -- first Zola calling him Sergeant Barnes, then Steve yelling Bucky from the train. He remembers being dragged through the snow, having his arm removed and replaced, being told he's to be the new fist of HYDRA. He remembers strangling a HYDRA scientist with his new arm and being put in chryo. He lashes out.
When Pierce returns to demand a mission report, he's nearly catatonic. He barely reacts when Pierce slaps him across the face, but he does finally respond -- not with a formal report, but with questions. He wants to know who the man on the bridge was. The connection is, at the moment, more important to him than anything. He doesn't understand who he is or why it matters, but he feels strongly enough that he repeats I knew him even when Pierce tries to twist the truth away from him. It's the closest he comes to defiance and to breaking down, all at once.
So they wipe him, and start over.
His next mission is to prevent Captain America and his team from taking down the Insight helecarriers. Once they're operational, the helecarriers will commit mass genocide for HYDRA, wiping out all of those who would oppose them in a single strike. He executes his mission, killing anyone who stands in his way.
He's the first one to make it to the bridge of the last remaining helecarrier. In every other instance, he's taken the element of surprise, but this time he stands waiting, his expression blank. Steve pleads with him, but he neither attacks nor moves out of his way until Steve makes the call and throws his shield. The fight is even more vicious than the first - both of them take injuries. The Winter Soldier is obligated to complete his mission, and Captain America can't let people die.
Steve just barely manages to get the last Helecarrier down in the end, with the two of them still on it. He frees the Soldier from under a piece of debris, and insists that they know each other. The Soldier screams that he doesn't, that Steve isn't his friend, but his mission. He's telling himself as much as he's telling Steve, if not more. Because Steve tells him his name, tells him they've known each other their whole lives. He keeps hitting Steve, who doesn't hit back, who doesn't shut up.
Steve tells him to finish it, if he really believes a mission is all they are to each other. No matter what, Steve says, he's with Bucky to the end of the line.
Steve slides out of his grasp and into the Potomac and for a long moment, the Soldier watches him fall.
In the end, he does what feels right. He swims down after Steve, drags him to the riverbank, and lingers long enough to confirm - for once - that his target is still alive. After that, he does what he does best: he disappears.
Abilities/Special Powers: Even before he was taken by HYDRA, Bucky was a soldier, so physically he's very fit and highly trained for armed or unarmed combat. He's an excellent sharpshooter, and has been shown handling a wide variety of firearms, blades, and explosive weapons with an extremely high degree of skill. He was trained for years for a singular purpose, and he's very good at what he does.
Whatever Bucky was given during experiments conducted by HYDRA - likely a version of the original Super Soldier Formula - makes his speed, strength, and stamina directly comparable to that of Steve Rogers himself. His metal arm gives him some degree of enhanced strength as well.
Third-Person Sample:
Every day his routine is exactly the same. He sees that all of his basic needs are met; food, sleep, shelter. His physical condition is maintained with regular exercise, with a strict regiment of training drills that can be preformed in the privacy of a room, independently. He doesn't stay in the same room more than one or two nights. He never stays on the seventh floor, in any room. He never deviates from his routine, which has always been the default for any Standby time the Soldier is permitted.
He understands that he no longer needs to be permitted, that this isn't Standby time between missions. He understands that there are no more missions. This has been made abundantly clear, by the residents of the seventh floor that he avoids. He knows their names and faces, though he didn't know them until he arrived. He knows that they name themselves friends of his or Steve's. They want to help him, want to tell him about the man they knew. Some of them are afraid, and pretend they're not.
He understands enough. He adheres to his routine, but not always. He understands that if he doesn't follow protocol, he will sit in the corner of a room with a gun in his hands and think about the number of bullets he put into Steve Rogers, into people whose names or faces he's still remembering, then he will think about one bullet in particular, and the cold press of the barrel beneath his chin.
If this is better, he hasn't decided yet. He follows his routine.
First-Person Sample:
[ Voice only. He triple checks, and makes sure there's a piece of tape securely covering the camera. This is the last place he wants to be at the moment, but it's also the widest net he can cast. And he needs to cast a wide net for this one. ]
I've heard you can make a deal with the vendors to have certain things returned to you, in exchange for memories. What if the thing you're after is memories? Is there anyone here who deals in getting those back?
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