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Go read their works and give them some love!
Part One: Freedom
Bucky and Steve are lying in bed, lazily cuddling after a marathon round of hot sex last night and an impromptu repeat performance this morning. Since the serum, they can both go multiple rounds, and they enjoy testing the other’s endurance. Bucky smiles softly as Steve grazes his fingertips over Bucky's cheek and stares lovingly into his beautiful gray-blue eyes. “I love you, Bucky Barnes.”
“I love you, too, Stevie.”
They are so lovingly matched - equal in every way, that even competitive sex brings about a levity and thrill that rivals anything they have ever experienced together before they both had the serum. Bucky never thought he'd get this kind of freedom. He never thought he’d get to have this with Steve - never imagined they'd get to lie in each other's arms again - never dreamed he’d get to wake up with Steve's mouth wrapped around his cock.
Never dreamed he’d wake up one day.
Never dreamed he'd wake up.
Never dreamed…
Bucky wakes up. It was all just a dream.
Technically, he thinks, it wasn't just a dream. It was a memory. A wonderful memory of his short time with Steve - on the run - free to be themselves and fight together again - free - before he turned himself in.
But, for a little while, he had his freedom, he had Steve in his arms again, and they were happy. It had really and truly happened - even after everything. The UN bombing. The fight in Bucharest. His arrest and transport to Berlin. The trigger words. The escape. And Steve had found him again - in the midst of his Hydra Rampage.
Steve tracked him down and joined him in destroying Hydra bases all over Eastern and Central Europe. The punk just couldn't stay away, and truth be told when Bucky realized that Steve was tracking him - maybe he had made it kind of easy for Steve to find him. He missed him so much and he was lonely.
They had gotten together again, and it wasn’t even awkward after they made contact. It was as natural as breathing, and they didn't waste a moment making up for lost time.
But Bucky knew he couldn’t drag Steve down with him. He was a wanted man in almost every country in the world, and the kill-on-sight orders remained in place. He couldn’t do that to Steve. He couldn’t let Steve continue to be on the run with him, and Steve would never have left him. So, Bucky did what he thought was best when they ran out of Hydra bases to destroy in Europe. He turned himself in and made Steve an honest man again. He wanted to do the right thing and let Steve be the hero he was always meant to be.
However, the right thing is never the easy thing, and Steve was furious.
Regardless, Steve and the rest of his friends, the Avengers, are sitting in a courtroom - fully dressed in their best and most intimidating armor and suits. Except for Stark - Stark is wearing a Tom Ford, and signature sunglasses. And maybe that is intimidating after all.
He does have his Iron Man bracelets on his wrists so he's “armed” so to speak. (Sidenote to brain: stop making quips in my head.)
Everyone here is gonna think he's lost his marbles, not that they don't already think he's crazy.
That’s the basis of his defense after all. (Side note to brain: you need to stop, now.)
Anyway, the Avengers are sitting in the courtroom in mutual support of Bucky
- watching the proceedings
- watching as the psychologists are questioned
- watching as witnesses are questioned
- watching as Bucky is questioned.
Everyone is watching.
After all, it's the trial of the century - the trial of the Winter Soldier.
The US court system & the military had come to an agreement. Although Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes had never been released from service, the circumstances of the trial were such that it was only fair that a jury of twelve people should have the right to examine the evidence and pass judgment in this unusual case. After all, it had been almost 75 years since Sergeant Barnes had served in the army.
That, combined with all the media and social justice reforms, it was decided that a military tribunal would not be enough for the government to convict him for the crimes of which he was accused as the Winter Soldier in the public eye.
And so, Bucky’s sitting quietly in a metal chair - inside a steel and titanium cage - which is bolted to the bare concrete floor. He’s been told this is a special federal containment facility he’s been transferred to in the United States, and this courtroom was a preexisting part of the building - only used for the most dangerous people. People who had been accused of espionage or mass murders. He’s been accused of both. The fact that the cage hadn't been erected specifically for him, soothes his nerves somewhat, but he also knows that it's been upgraded and reinforced before he was transferred into the facility.
In addition to the small prison that clearly sets him apart from the rest of the people, he's wearing the orange scrubs that all federal prisoners wear - all of the time.
It doesn't matter that he's in a courtroom, and everyone else is wearing suits - even the Avengers in their unique way.
It doesn't matter that he's accused of every atrocity that the government can pin on him.
It doesn’t matter that his attorneys requested that he be allowed to wear a suit like any other person who stands trial.
It doesn't even matter that he's on trial for his very life.
Actually, most of it doesn't matter much to him at all. He figures it's more clothing than Hydra usually gave the Winter Soldier to wear when it was in a base.
So what if he doesn't look good in orange, at least he's wearing clothes, and he smirks to himself at that thought. (Sidenote to brain: I asked you to stop.)
However, what does matter to him is that they shaved his head when he was first arrested - like Hydra did when they attached the electrodes to his head in the early days of his electroshock “therapy.”
Of course, it's grown out now to Winter Soldier length. Privately, he sorta wishes they had cut it again so he doesn't look so much like IT did during the trial.
Another thing that matters to him are the electronic collar and matching mag cuffs that have been locked onto his wrists and neck 24/7 since he was arrested ten months ago.
They’re made for Super Soldiers and send powerful electric shocks through his body or suddenly snap together with the push of a button. He's already experienced both enough times to know the electrical pulses are debilitating, even for him.
That damn button is now in the hands of the psychotic lead officer, Billings, who's in charge of keeping him on a proverbial short leash. He knows the officer's sister was killed in the skirmish on the bridge, so he just stays quiet and accepts the punishments without telling Steve. It's the least he can offer the man, and he knows he deserves worse than just this small bit of retaliation.
In reality, the agent is one of a dozen armed men stationed around the room holding rifles and ready to take him down if he so much as blinks at someone the wrong way. That's fair, too. He's one of the most dangerous people on the planet, and he can't count on being in control all the time. Luckily, no one here seems to know his code words or want to trigger him. If they do know, they're probably afraid he'll go on a killing rampage instead of actually becoming a robotic and obedient slave.
And he's so damn tired of it all.
Tired from not sleeping well. (The Soldier doesn't sleep without permission.)
Tired of being a prisoner. (He's been a prisoner for almost 80 years.)
Tired of being punished. (He's been punished for one thing or another for a lifetime.)
Tired of being forced to do what other people want. (Hydra made him their slave.)
Tired of sitting in the hard metal chair that makes his ass hurt. (The god-damn Winter Soldier’s ass hurts from sitting in a hard chair, day after fucking day. He must be going insane if that's a problem for him! Sidenote to brain: Are you kidding me? Stop!)
Tired of his wrists being bound to the arms of the chair so he can't move them. (He's done this more than once before.)
Tired of his neck being chained to the back of the chair by the collar, unable to move his head. (The Asset was always chained when it was awake and not on a mission.)
Tired of being cooped up. (It's not like he didn't endure worse in the cold Siberian cell.)
Tired of fighting. (That's what the Winter Soldier is - a weapon.)
They release his right arm every day for him to eat lunch at noon, and they let him use the bathroom during the mid-morning break at ten AM and the mid-afternoon break at three PM. Other than that, he's in his prison cell in the basement of this federal containment facility, or he's in this special cage in the courtroom.
Other than his attorneys, only Steve gets to visit him - for 30 minutes every day.
He can't blame the government for trying to avoid a repeat of his escape from the mobile containment unit in Germany after the UN bombing - not that he would try to escape. He didn’t mean to do it back then. He wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been triggered. Of course, everyone now knows he wasn’t responsible for that fiasco, and Zemo has been captured.
Stark has even been informed that the Winter Soldier killed Howard and Maria when the Avengers discovered a veritable trove of evidence in a Hydra vault. It contained notes, diagrams, and video footage of his torture, training, and brainwashing.
Both he and Stark were horrified. However, after a relatively brief meltdown and drinking binge, Stark very generously provided a team of attorneys to defend him, and Bucky couldn’t be more grateful to the man. Stark hasn’t exactly forgiven him. Nevertheless, he does realize that while Bucky might have pulled the trigger, Hydra had ordered the kill.
Still, the Winter Soldier is responsible for the murders of more government officials and high-level, prominent civilians than any other wet-work operative in history. Since there's sufficient evidence that Bucky is, without a doubt, the man who committed all the assassinations that are attributed to him, he isn't specifically on trial for slaying all those people (and the myriad civilian casualties that Hydra deemed acceptable.)
However, he is on trial to determine if he had the autonomy and presence of mind to be held accountable for committing those murders.
Presence of mind? Autonomy?
He can tell them that he didn’t have a mind at all.
He can tell them that he had no autonomy - no agency.
He can tell them that he wasn’t allowed to think.
He can tell them that every trace of his being, his personality, and his memories were wiped from his brain.
He can tell them that he would never murder anyone of his own volition, and everyone agrees that killing during war isn't the same.
But, they don't care what he can tell them. The word of the world’s most notorious assassin would never be taken seriously - would never be good enough. And even though the world respects and admires Captain America, his opinion, when it comes to Bucky Barnes, isn't good enough either.
Bucky hates that the world feels that way about Steve. Because Steve? Steve’s the most truthful, loyal, honorable, and best man that Bucky’s ever known - ever loved.
So here he is. Being judged by a jury of his peers.
He can't help but laugh to himself when he thinks about that - but the irony. Really? His peers? (Sidenote to brain: fuck you.)
Honestly, he doesn't know of any other person:
Who's both as old and as young as he is, except Steve.
Who’s been kept a prisoner for almost 80 years.
Who’s been tortured into submission.
Who’s had their mind wiped of all memories.
Who’s been electrocuted to within an inch of their lives.
Who’s been drugged into compliance.
Who’s been programmed to kill.
Who’s been through the shit that he's been through.
Steve is as close as he can get, and his story is different enough that he's not really a “peer” when it comes to most of the shit he endured under Hydra’s control for so long.
So he sits here, shackled to another damn chair while a jury of his “peers” decides his fate. Really, he thinks, he ought to be used to it by now.
His life has been a shit-show since he first went to war. He's never wanted any of this. But when has he ever gotten anything he wants?
He just wants to be left alone. Maybe alone with Steve. (Sidenote: Brain!)
Instead, the prosecution went over, in excruciating detail, every murder he ever committed, while his attorneys reminded the courtroom that it was a well-known fact that he did, in fact, commit those assassinations.
Using actors and surveillance footage, the prosecution demonstrated a variety of the most ghastly methods the Asset used to commit those murders.
The jury got to see not only how to use a garrote, but what the victim looked like after she was dead.
The whole courtroom witnessed what the back of a man's head looked like after being shot between the eyes with a high-caliber rifle.
A hush fell over the entire courtroom and someone retched loudly when a video was shown of the Soldat reaching through a man's stomach with the metal hand and simply snapping his spine.
In addition, the prosecution showed numerous videos of the Winter Soldier’s “interrogation” techniques.
Someone in the jury box vomited as they watched and listened to the Asset methodically crack and crush bone after bone after bone of a prisoner.
Another person fainted as footage displayed the Soldat slowly and carefully carving a prisoner’s eyes from his head with a knife during questioning.
The judge called for order in the courtroom as everyone watched the Winter Soldier slowly disembowel a person so they didn't die too quickly during the interrogation.
They showed videos of the attack on the bridge and the devastation on the streets below.
They showed videos of the carnage and destruction on the Helicarriers in DC.
All the while, Bucky’s attorneys reminded the jury that this was not what Sergeant Barnes was on trial for. They reminded everyone that he had been captured by Hydra and held against his will for seven decades.
The defense countered with the most logical, straightforward, and gut-wrenching displays of the torture, humiliation, and conditioning Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes experienced as he was transformed into the Winter Soldier.
He sat in the cage, full of shame, as Steve ground his teeth, and his attorneys showed their own videos of the agony he endured during his time as a POW.
Surveillance footage of him in a cold, dank cell after he was “rescued” by the Russians.
Surveillance footage of him being beaten.
Surveillance footage of the operation to attach the arm without anesthesia.
Surveillance footage of him going into Cryo and being frozen.
Surveillance footage of him coming out of Cryo and being dragged to the Chair.
Surveillance footage of him being conditioned.
Surveillance footage of him being electrocuted in Russia and the mission briefing to kill Howard. (Sans trigger words.)
Surveillance footage of him being maintained in the bank vault.
Surveillance footage of Pierce backhanding him across the face.
Surveillance footage of him being prepped before the Helicarrier mission.
They even released his restraints from the chair long enough to have him remove his shirt and display the striations on his back from a whip and the puckered scarring around his left shoulder where the metal is fused to his flesh. At least he's still built like a tank, and his shoulders and chest look great. (Sidenote to brain: Not appropriate!)
Still, the prosecution wanted to know what kind of person committed the heinous acts of violence he undoubtedly perpetrated. They put forth that no one - absolutely no one - possibly could have been so brainwashed and so unaware of the horrors he committed.
And wasn't it defined in the court records that he had “gotten away” from Hydra on more than one occasion? He even made it back to Brooklyn one time before his handlers “recovered him.” If he was able to remember where he was from and how to get back there, how is anyone to believe that he didn't know exactly who he was working for? How could he not know that what he was doing was not only wrong, but grotesque!
After all the evidence had been presented and the closing arguments were finished, the jury retired to deliberate. It took hours - days - as he sat in his prison cell and waited.
Hours of boredom.
Hours of lethargy.
Hours of routine.
Wake up, use the toilet, wash off in the sink, eat breakfast, exercise a little, eat lunch, disassociate, pass out from exhaustion, eat dinner, try to sleep, repeat. At least he can keep food down now. It's been almost four years since he first escaped Hydra, and the Helicarriers crashed.
But, it’s still hard. Hours of being alone - of being lonely - with only his thoughts and nothing else to pass the time, except for 30 minutes every day that he gets to see Steve.
And that's all that's saving him from losing what little of his mind he has left. Although they're not allowed to touch, and the bars are electrified, Steve always tries to be positive. He asks Bucky how he's doing. They sit on either side of the prison cell and reminisce about the past. They talk about their dreams for the future together after this is all over.
He never tells Steve that sometimes his routine is broken up by a little humiliation. He never brings up the fact that the agents like to activate the cuffs which suddenly drag him to the metal wall and pin him in place as they enter his cell to clean it. He never mentions that Billings likes to stand behind the wall to the cell room and watch through the reinforced glass window as he uses the remote to shock Bucky when he's not expecting it.
Unfortunately, those secrets spill out one day when Billings activates the cuffs and the collar as Steve is standing in front of the prison cell chatting with Bucky. Steve grabbed the electrified bars and hollered- incapable of unclenching his hands as electricity arced through his body. He could only stare and scream in agony as Bucky thrashed uncontrollably against the metal wall he had unceremoniously been shackled to.
Afterward, Steve wanted to know why. Why did they do that to Bucky? Why didn't he say anything? Why didn't he report their abuse?
Bucky asked Steve who he could go to. What could he have done? What if it just made things worse?
Silently, they agreed never to talk about it again.
When they're together, they never discuss the trial or the evidence that has been presented during the day.
But he can see the toll that all of this is taking on Steve. He can see the lines in his forehead deepening. He can see the dark circles and bags under his eyes worsening.
He's pretty sure he doesn't look any better, but he can't tell since he doesn't have a mirror in his tiny cell. They're all afraid he'll either kill himself or someone else.
So for now, he just waits. And waits.
He waits to see if his lawyers presented enough evidence to support the claim that he had no agency.
He waits to see if the defense team is really as good as Stark thinks they are.
He waits for the jury to come back with a verdict.
He waits to see if he'll ever get his freedom back.
And he waits and waits and waits …