He was coming for you. The Winter Soldier. The skin on your hands was torn and bleeding, bruises were already beginning to take on their darkened hue before your eyes. The dirt covering your face hid the expression of fear you were wearing, and your breaths were ragged after running for miles without reprieve.

And this was how you would end.

You had run for cover in an abandoned building, but the HYDRA agents you were trying to outrun had seen you. When the bricks and wood fell around you after the blast, you knew you were finished. You were trapped. You had become disoriented in the chase and cutoff from your ride to escape, with your only shred of hope now being that your rescuer might be looking and could maybe still save you.

You could try to use your powers of reality warping to help, but it would only be to fool them long enough to escape. Any attempt at using your skills would end terribly; the memory of the people you loved abandoning you long ago out of fear that you would harm them again was now attacking your mind. The only power you felt safe using was mentifery; using the thoughts, memories and imaginations of the other person to manipulate the reality around them, meant to disorient them, but there were too many here to be able to control it that specifically.

His footsteps were getting louder; you could hear him above you, no doubt listening for the sound of your breathing under the rubble.

He never failed, you had heard. If you were his target, you were dead; no one had yet to live to tell of their experiences first-hand, and you knew you were next.

"Give me your hand."

His voice was deep and unnerving, sending a shiver down your spine at its intimidating tone. You looked up and saw his metal hand shoved through the splintered beams that lay around and over you, but you couldn't see his face.

"Why? So you can kill me more easily? Just do it, and be efficient at least."

"I'm not here to kill you."

"Then why are you here? You might have noticed, I'm running from your bosses."

"So am I," he said, pushing his hand further towards you, almost desperately. "We need to move."

~~~

"Why are you running?" the soldier asked, pulling you behind a large tree with him, making quite the display of his sharp-shooting skills on the agents who pursued you. "Get a better offer?"

"Why are you running? HYDRA has made quite the reputation for you. You're famous. Seems a little ungrateful to me."

You immediately realized that you had made an enormous mistake. He spun and grabbed your arms, lifting you in the air and slamming your body against the tree, knocking the breath from your chest with a loud cough. "Ungrateful? You don't know the first thing about what they made me into. If you want to talk about ungrateful, consider yourself for a minute before you speak again."

The force of his action fed your instinct to protect yourself, and as much as you tried to stop, you pushed your way into his mind to find any memory strong enough to distract him so he would release you. The environment began to shift and alter to match what you saw, becoming dark and ominous with the sounds of men yelling, explosions and gunfire surrounding you.

His hands immediately released, dropping you several feet to the ground with such force that you could barely stay upright. The soldier spun around with wide eyes, his senses attacked by what he saw in front of him and within his own mind. You could see his hands begin to shake as he wrung them together, and you tried to stop the imagery but it was too far gone to pull back.

"I bet you're rethinking following this dumb kid into a fight now, aren't ya?"

"I'll admit, the bullies have gotten bigger, that's for sure."

The soldier took slow and cautious steps towards the two men he was seeing, recognizing one of them as a younger version of himself. "What is this?" he whispered, kneeling in front of the images of a past that he wasn't allowed to remember.

"I'm trying to stop it," you said, your eyes closed tightly, trying to remove yourself from his memories. "I have a hard time controlling it..."

"Buck, if we don't make it out of this one, you need to know..."

"Shut your trap, Rogers. This ain't the end of the line yet."

"I'm serious."

Now he turned back towards you, his face angrier than it was only moments ago, though you thought it not even possible. "I said, what is this?" When you didn't answer fast enough, he turned back towards the two men and his expression softened at a feeling of familiarity that he couldn't quite place.

"Okay, so what is it, Steve? Is this some grand declaration of love?"

"Well...yeah."

Finally feeling a small sense of control, you were able to dissolve the imagery you had built around him, falling to your knees as your energy drained from the effort. You watched until the very last detail was gone before closing your eyes to avoid his gaze. "I'm sorry. It was a reaction. I didn't mean for that to happen," you said quietly.

He spun to watch as his own memories faded away, not unlike they had within his own mind. He was frustrated at their loss again, but also took on a sad tone to his voice. "I've seen him before. That man. And now again..."

With an exhausted sigh you sat back against the tree you had been pinned against only moments ago, with your eyes still closed, trying to focus on anything other than the pain that was growing in your head. "Your name is Bucky Barnes."

He gave a final look around the area, being certain that you were no longer pursued by any more HYDRA agents; when he was satisfied, he sat next to you. "I think so, yeah. I've heard it a few times...from that man in the memory." When you leaned forward to hold your head in your hands, he became concerned and put his hand on your arm to support you.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I just need a minute."

"So," he said, "you seem to know my name, but I don't know yours."

"(Y/N)," you smiled gently, finally opening your eyes to look at him. "I really am sorry."

Bucky shrugged, doing his best to look unaffected, "Eh, don't worry about it. I'll be alright." He lifted his arm slightly to casually nudge yours with his elbow, "so, what else can you do? Laser eyes? Super strength? Hey, can you fly?"

"I wish," you laughed, "it sure would've made getting out of here a lot easier." You stood and brushed the dirt and broken leaves from your clothes, looking around for any sign of danger, feeling like something was coming. "I don't think we should stay here, Bucky."

"Then we won't," he said firmly, standing next to you and grabbing your hand, "I'll be damned if I let them catch us now."

"Oh, so we're an 'us' now?" you smirked. He returned your smile with his own, and it completely changed his appearance. The Winter Soldier that you had feared, the man that you were convinced was sent to kill you, was no longer there. "Okay, I've got a ride waiting for me here somewhere...which way back to base?"

"It's about six hundred yards east."

"Specific, thanks," you laughed, squeezing his hand and pulling him back into the danger that you had just fled.

~~~

"He's here, trust me!"

"I haven't known you long enough to trust you!"

"Says the top-secret assassin!"

"Point taken!"

Bucky had spent nearly all of his ammunition covering the two of you as you made your way back, hoping that your escape would actually be there and that you weren't just running towards your own demise.

"(Y/N), we should fall back!" he yelled over the sounds of the ambush that was nearly upon you.

He has to be here, you thought to yourself, finally calling out to your partner when you spotted the jet just a few hundred feet away, hidden just out of sight. "There! Come on!"

The back of the jet opened as you approached and the engines began to roar as they prepared for a fast takeoff. The two of you sprinted in, quickly shutting the door behind you, panting and pausing to catch your breath.

"We good?" the pilot called out, glancing back at you.

"We're good. Thanks for finally showing up," you huffed. "Here, sit and strap in," you told Bucky, pointing to the row of chairs next to you. "I'll be right back."

He sat quietly, carefully securing himself into the chair, looking around at the jet and hoping that he had made the right decision to join you. There were only two of you, and he knew that if it came down to it, he could easily overtake you both. He could fly any aircraft, so a complete disappearance would be simple.

It bothered him to think that way, and how natural it was for his mind to go there; to killing. He didn't want that to be his life anymore, he didn't want anything to do with the life he was running from. He decided to take the chance that you were trustworthy and see what played out.

"Bucky, I think you should meet our pilot, Steve Rogers."

You stepped to the side, allowing Bucky a full view of Steve, who was looking back with a complex mix of sorrow, anxiety and joy on his face. "Buck? Do you remember me?"

He looked at Steve, then back to you, unsure of how he should answer. He remembered the man's face from the few times he had seen him, but he didn't know the person himself. "I don't know," he said quietly.

You put a reassuring hand on Steve's arm for a moment before sitting next to Bucky, looking him in the eye so he would see that you were committed to helping him. When Steve promised to help you flee HYDRA, you promised to help him retrieve his friend, and you never broke a promise.

"You will."