I always felt guilty about abandoning this fic. It was only supposed to be two chapters, and as you all can see it really got away from me. Eventually it just got to be too much, and went in a direction that made ending it really hard.

I had this ending planned since I expanded it past two chapters, and just could never find the right time. I figure since it's been a while, I can do it now.

Enjoy. And sorry.

It was almost three years later.

The small dog had grown into a fully adult dog by now, and as Steve had suggested Bucky had been training him to go out with them on missions.

Angela and Vicky were doing well. Vicky had started school, and Stark had pulled some strings to get her into a private school where her expensive-looking prosthetic limb wouldn't be called into as much question. Angela had begun working part time with the Avengers and SHIELD, office work but it paid enough for her to move to a better neighbourhood and be able to relax from her museum job.

Wanda and Vision had surprisingly not progressed much in terms of their relationship, both of them being too awkward to make big moves, but the small moves they made were enough for them. Wanda was still close to Bucky, closer now that he had finally begun letting her into his head. He had healed enough now that he felt this was appropriate, and she confirmed that fact to him when needed.

He was reminiscing on these facts when Steve walked through the open doorframe.

"Hey Buck, we got a mission. Big one."

"How big?" Bucky hopped off of his perch on his desk.

"If we do this, Hydra is down. Permanently. We found the last base."

Bucky grabbed a gun he'd concealed behind his dresser and strapped it to his back. "Let's go. Small dog?" The small dog leapt up, barking happily, and did a circle around his feet. "Time to do this."

Almost everybody was on this mission. The only one staying behind was Bruce, who had scientific conferences to attend and couldn't risk Hulking out so soon beforehand.

They were all piled into the jet, and Bucky cleaned his guns while he watched Wanda play with the small dog, trailing mist around for it to leap after.

"You gonna be alright for this one?" Sam asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this is the biggest Hydra attack we've done. Where's your head at?"

"My head's on getting the mission done. Kill them, roll out."

Sam nodded a bit. "Do you know what you're gonna do afterwards?"

Bucky hadn't thought about it. His life since beginning to remember himself had been about finding Hydra and destroying them, and about remembering more of his life. He remembered almost all of it now, and Hydra was going down today.

"I suppose it'll be one day at a time."

"If you need anything, let me know man."

Bucky nodded thanks, and Sam went to talk to someone else.

Stark looked back at them. "This is it folks-!" The jet was rocked by a blast. Apparently their entrance had been noticed.

"Everyone out as soon as we're down!" Steve ordered, putting his helmet on, and everyone did their final gearing up. He strapped down the small dog's bulletproof vest and double checked its weapons, and when the door to the jet opened he nudged it before hopping out, laying down fire on the already shooting Hydra agents.

The woods were teeming with them, and everyone took up cover as they began clearing them out.

He saw Wanda leap off of Steve's shield to send a pulse of power through a small group of them to one side, while Natasha and Clint were back-to-back shooting in a circle around them, having been separated from the rest of them and surrounded.

Bucky picked off some of the soldiers around them and made his way over, tossing Natasha another mag when hers ran out.

"Thanks lover boy." She slid it in quickly, and he winked at her before darting forwards to take out a few soldiers he saw targeting Vision.

The small dog bounced to and from his side as it did its job taking down Hydra soldiers with bites to the limbs and neck, and the gun Stark had rigged on its back was more than helping it out.

Bucky was getting confident. They were going to take down Hydra, and it wasn't just him, it was a whole team of people he had come to trust taking them down with him.

Until.

He saw the small dog get slammed to the ground out of the corner of his eye, and his head whipped around to see a soldier unload a dozen bullets into it.

That was when he clicked.

Everything was gone but his instincts and his training, and without hesitation he began tearing through soldiers with the clinical efficiency of a surgeon. Shot after shot hit its mark as the world drowned of noise, and all he could hear were the sounds of bullets firing.

He couldn't hear Steve calling for him over the earpieces, nor could he hear Wanda cry out and collapse as she tried entering his head only to be pushed out with a shockwave that knocked her out cold. He couldn't hear Vision's laser beam mowing through soldiers so he could guard Wanda's body. He couldn't even hear the arrows whizzing past his head from Clint in an attempt to halt his path of destruction.

He got into their headquarters and continued his killing, stopped halfway by Stark dropping in through the ceiling. He didn't hear Stark ask him to hold, only the sound of his bullets ricocheting off of the Iron Man armour enough to get the man out of his way.

Sound only came back when he killed the last solider, and it was then that he realized he was crying. While his face had been a mask of calm anger, the tears on his face and the choking sounds from his throat told a different story.

He looked around him, then up to see Steve standing at the top of the staircase, staring down at him.

He couldn't face it.

Bucky ran.