Nick Fury had been shot. The woman across the hall from him began furiously communicating with S.H.I.E.L.D (Steve would have to have a talk with Natasha about that later). The assassin began to flee, and Steve Rogers -Captain America - pursued him. Without his star-spangled costume, but with his Vibranium sidekick on his arm, he finally faced off with the man on the roof - the man adorned in black with a mask covering his definable features. And Steve did the thing he thought Captain America would do - he whipped the shield as hard as he could at the man, feeling no regret or mercy, only rage. Except the shield did not knock the man over or make him fall down from the building's rooftop.

The man caught it. Caught it with inexplicable ease in his left hand. And just as quickly, the shield came whipping back to Steve.

Nick Fury was dead.

Natasha said she knew who his assassin was.

"The Winter Soldier," she'd said. "He's just a ghost story."

Captain America fought the Winter Soldier again on the highway on the bridge, with Natasha and Sam Wilson. Captain America was trying to keep innocent people alive, but Steve Rogers was fighting for revenge - Nick Fury's revenge.

But the Winter Soldier's mask came off, and ever reason that Steve Rogers had for fighting him crumbled away in that single moment.

"Bucky?" He'd said, something like disbelief and awe in his voice.

The Winter Soldier paused at the name. Like hearing it meant something to him. But he shook that feeling quickly as it'd come. "Who the hell is Bucky?" He asked.

"That man on the bridge… Who was he?" He asked his superiors as they strapped him down to a metal chair.

"I knew him," He said quietly. The men standing around him began murmuring and whispering, strapping him down tighter. "But I knew him."

But everything went black. And somehow, he no longer knew him.

"I'm not going to fight you," Steve had said to the Winter Soldier as the helicarrier began malfunctioning, crashing into the lake below them.

"Your name in James Buchanan Barnes," he continued.

"SHUT UP," The Winter Soldier yelled at him as he kept on fighting.

Steve Rogers took a deep breath. "You're my friend," he said through bloodied lips.

"You're my mission," The Winter Soldier replied, because it was all he could really say. Captain America was his mission. And none of the names and memories that Captain America was spewing - if he could even remember them, if he even wanted to remember them - would mean nothing to him. This is what he kept telling himself.

"Then finish it," His mission said, spitting the words out like the thick blood that fell from his mouth. "because I'm with you till the end of the line."

There's a painful familiarity at the words, but the Winter Soldier chided himself not to feel it. He attacked his mission and, strangely, he didn't fight back. Not like the other times. There was something different in his eyes.

Kill him, the Winter Soldier thought. Finish it.

No, said a forgotten voice deep inside his head. No. said James Buchanan Barnes.

He fights with his memories. As he sleeps (or pretends to), names appear in his head and he cannot stop them, no matter how he tries to keep them away. Each memory that resurfaces is more painful than the last.

James Buchanan.

Bucky Barnes.

Howling Commandos.

Captain America.

Steve. Steve Rogers.

He puts little things together. First it's his name – James Buchanan Barnes. That's what that man had called him (he no longer refers to him as his mission). He doesn't go by Bucky. A part of him feels like he doesn't deserve it.

Next, it's the Howling Commandos. He remembers war. He remembers 1945. He remembers… the costume. That ridiculous costume. He remembers Captain America's costume.

He remembers Captain America.

He remembers Steve Rogers.

James Buchanan Barnes does not know where to find Steve Rogers.

He overheard some people talking about a museum – "There's an exhibit on that Captain America guy… remember? From New York?" So he goes there.

He reads about himself. He reads about his past. He's still not sure he believes it all, but he takes all that the small exhibit has to offer.

He lingers around the display about himself. He reads it and rereads it until most of the museum patrons have gone home. Except one.

Steve Rogers finds a man standing at the memorial to James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. One gleam from underneath the man's long sleeved shirt and Steve Rogers knows exactly who it is. And he knows exactly why he's here. Steve doesn't say anything. When the man turns around and their eyes meet, he knows he doesn't have to.

That man is no longer the Winter Soldier. It is James Buchanan Barnes.

And James Buchanan Barnes knows the man across the room with that smirk on his face is no longer his mission. It is Steve Rogers. It is his friend.

Till the end of the line.