Chapter Text
Thank you everyone that is still reading and all of you that have sent me encouraging emails, messages, comments/reviews. They all help keep me motivated. I want to finish this before the end of the year. I’m sorry it has dragged on so long, but we’re really close to done.
Anyone that likes a good DC/Marvel crossover RavenclawAngel has a series Steve Rogers: Man out of time. It’s really good and worth the read. She does a great job with both DC and Marvel characters with Steve being the focus. Give it a shot if you’re so inclined. Tell her I sent you. "https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872217"
Take Arms
Steve hadn’t felt this kind of gnawing at his stomach since he’d first found out that Bucky was alive and missing. Slade’s weight where he’d tossed the unconscious man over his shoulder didn’t register as Steve jogged down the stairs. What if they couldn’t help him? What if Bucky still felt like he had to kill Steve? What if he was a trigger for his best friend? The fear that Bucky would never be able to look at him without whatever Hydra did to him being triggered terrified Steve like nothing before ever had.
He must have stopped on the stairs because Felicity was holding his free hand and saying something to him. He couldn’t focus. The adrenaline of the fight hadn’t worn off then the worry and the feeling of helplessness hit him at once. It was too much. “What if I can’t fix this?” He whispered. “I failed him once, I can’t do it again.”
“You didn’t fail him. You couldn’t have known he was still alive.” Felicity pressed a finger over his lips when he went to deny her statement. Her soft hand soothed across his cheek. “Now isn’t the time to debate this. Your friend needs you. I know you’ll do everything you can for him. All of us will, Steve. You aren’t alone in this.” Her eyes held such concern and kindness. It humbled him. Her calm touch helped ground him. One thing at a time. Bucky was alive, he was awake. They’d deal with whatever came next.
Letting out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding, Steve squeezed her hand and leaned down to press a kiss on her forehead. He quickly caught the Slade’s limp hand that flopped over his shoulder when he leaned forward and flipped it over his back before straightening up. “I love you, Felicity,” he told her.
“I love you too.” She searched his face for a minute. She must have found what she was looking for. She smiled at him and dropped her hand. “Let’s go see if Sara’s super knockout venom works on Slade so you can take care of Bucky. We’ve got this. All of us.”
Bucky wasn’t moving when he came into view. Bruce was beside him talking quietly to him, but his friend's face was blank. His body was ridged.
“He’s sedated but the venom isn’t working as well anymore. We can keep him quiet but I don’t think we can give him enough to knock him out again or keep him out of pain.” Sara told them without being prompted. She looked at the man Steve had over his shoulder. “This one I can keep out.” She told him and showed him where to lower Slade. Steve left her to watch Wilson and made his way to Bucky.
Bruce was fiddling with a machine at the foot of where Bucky lay. He turned to Steve, his face kind, but lined with worry. “Tony is on his way back. The pain of the feedback loop the nerves are in is breaking through anything we can give him. His blood pressure is rocketing. Even with the serum in his system it is unsustainable.”
Steve’s stomach dropped. Did they bring him this far to lose him to Hydra again? Zola was going to win. The evil little man had made life living hell for Bucky and now he was making his death as bad. He reached for his friends hand and squeezed, trying to comfort him in some small way.
“If we can get the arm hooked back up, the feedback of the nerves should stop.” Bruce was telling him. The banging of the door at the top of the stairs broke the silence. “Tony,” Bruce started.
“Is here and armed,” Stark finished holding up the case he was carrying. Steve’s eyes were drawn to what looked almost like a rifle case that the genus carried. “Armed?” Tony repeated holding up the case again. He rolled his eyes at everyone’s lack of response and tried again. “Anyone order a replacement robo arm?”
Bucky’s moan pulled his attention back to his friend. He felt a chair pressed up against the back of his legs. He glanced at Oliver and nodded, grateful as he sank down into it and leaned over his friend. “I’m here, Buck,” he whispered. “They’re going to get you fixed up. You’ll be right as rain in no time. Just don’t go giving up on me.”
Steve was aware of the movement around him as Tony and Bruce prepared Bucky to receive Stark’s new replacement arm, but no one tried to move him out of the way. Maybe they realized that it wouldn’t have worked. He wasn’t going anywhere. How many times had Bucky kept Steve alive by sheer force of will through all the ailments that should have killed him? He knew firsthand what having someone in your corner could mean. Steve wasn’t letting go.
_________
Oliver watched as Stark and Felicity finished connecting the cybernetic arm back on the Winter Soldier’s shoulder. No, not the soldier anymore. This man was Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers’ version of Tommy. A best friend he’d grown up with and who knew him better than anyone else ever could. Oliver missed Tommy. He missed that acceptance that only a childhood friend could have. They’d had their fights, but they’d always gotten through them. Oliver wanted to believe they’d have gotten past the last one if Tommy had lived.
“That’s it,” Stark was telling Steve. “He won’t have any of the feedback through his nervous system.”
“Or the cocktail of deadly psychotropic drugs being pumped into his system,” Dry Banner added. “We’ve cleared his system as much as possible but there is a lot of damage.”
“What are we talking here, Bruce?” Steve inquired, he didn’t look at all like the confident leader of the Avengers he’d had a little while ago when they’d all met and discussed their next steps with Slade. Oliver watched Steve’s face. His whole body was held tight, but there was a deeper exhaustion that he wasn’t doing a very good job hiding at the moment. Dr Banner shifted. This wasn’t going to be good.
“I can’t say for sure Steve, but I will be surprised if much of his mind is intact. From the limited scans I’m able to do here I can see an incredible amount of damage to his brain. The serum he has is not as good as yours. It is working, but between what Hydra did to him to keep him under control and the drugs pumped into his system…” Banner trailed off.
“What Bruce isn’t saying is that we have an idea,” Stark sounded uncharacteristically somber as he ignored the dirty look that Banner shot his way. Banner looked like he was about to interrupt but Tony cut him off. “He has the right to hear all the options. He’s the closest thing Barnes has to family.”
The two scientists had some kind of a silent discussion between them before Bruce nodded slightly and pulled off his glasses motioning with them for Stark to continue. “We think we might have an idea. Well we know we have an idea and it will probably work, but there is a chance it will kill him so…”
“Stark,” Steve snapped. Oliver winced in sympathy. He wouldn’t have lasted that long.
“Mirakuru,” he stated as if that explained everything. He looked at the confused faces around him before continuing. “Mirakuru is more like a steroid when it hits the body than it is like the serums that we’ve seen. The aggression, the sudden strength, healing are all typical of a steroid type reaction. The serum in Barnes needs a boost to help heal him.” Stark was pacing back and forth now. Oliver thought he could see the man struggle with the explanation before Bruce stepped back in.
“We think that introducing Mirakuru into Bucky’s system might kick start his healing like giving someone with a lung infection a steroid inhaler when their lungs need help or stopping an allergic reaction by giving steroids.”
Oliver couldn’t listen quietly anymore. “You want to give one of the world most successful, unstoppable assassins Mirakuru to go along with his new arm?” He couldn’t believe what these two were saying. He couldn’t believe that Steve hadn’t shut them down immediately. “You saw what it did to Slade, what it's doing to Roy. You cannot be seriously considering this.”
Steve hadn’t said much at this point and that worried Oliver. He’d come to see this man as the voice or reason. He didn’t know what he’d do if that voice of reason was suddenly considering such a dangerous path. He’d begun to see just how stubborn Steve Rogers was. The man was a force of nature. He calmly led and people followed. His team was incredibly loyal. How the hell was he going to fight if these people made the wrong choice here?
“Steve,” Felicity spoke up. “Oliver’s right, this stuff changed Roy. He’s a good person but he can’t control his anger now. What if your friend gets even worse than he was in the parking lot? He nearly killed you.” The worry was evident in her voice.
“He nearly killed you because you won’t fight back,” Natasha pointed out. “When it comes to Barnes you're compromised, you don’t have a clear head.”
“And you think I should?” Steve snapped, turning on the spy. “I should have a clear head when my brother in everything but blood needs me. He’s my friend, Nat and he needs me. It's my fault. I left him in the snow in those mountains for Zola to find.”
Oliver had never heard Steve as angry as he sounded in that moment. He stepped up behind Romanov. She wasn’t saying anything any of them weren’t probably thinking, not to mention she was right. He wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of fighting his friend on this, but the redhead was right so he braced himself for the reaction he expected and stepped behind her to add his support.
Steve met Oliver’s eyes for half a second as he swept the room. “Any of you think this is a decision I’m making with a clear head, because it's not and it shouldn’t be. That man layin on that table pulled my ass out of more fights than I can count. He aint ever gave up on me.” Steve took a breath and visibly pulled himself back. “When I had nothing, I had Buck,” Steve told them, visibly fighting for control.
“We’re all getting ahead of ourselves,” Bruce raised his voice and reached out to rest a hand on Steve’s shoulder. The super soldier tensed, but turned to meet the doctor’s eyes. “We don’t believe that the Mirakuru will have the same effect on Barnes as it has on an unenhanced individual. His serum will clear it from his system, almost like yours does any painkillers we try to give you.” Bruce dropped his hand and looked to Stark before continuing.
“We’ve been looking at ways to cure the effects of Mirakuru. While I was waiting for Tony to get back I ran a few scenarios. The serum in Barnes system is a bastardized version of yours Steve. From what I can tell, Mirakuru wouldn’t have more than a momentary effect on you. It wouldn’t act as a steroid in your system because your system would clear it too fast. You’d probably suffer nothing more than the initial severe pain that the drug induces.”
“Is that all?” Steve's voice held more sarcasm than the anger of a few moments before. Banner ignored Steve’s sarcasm without comment.
“In Barnes’ system we believe the effects would last long enough for him to benefit before his version of the serum cleared his system out.”
“And you think in that time that it would help him heal?” Steve questioned. Oliver opened his mouth to point out again that they couldn’t take the chance, but he felt a hand on his arm. As their eyes met, Romanov shook her head. Oliver quieted for a moment, hoping Steve wasn’t going to accept this option, hoping he wouldn’t have to try to stop this group.
“What are the chances that it wouldn’t be cleared from his system?” Steve asked. He was at least trying to be a little more reasonable from what Oliver could see. He met Sara’s eyes from where she’d been quiet all this time. For once he couldn’t read her.
“We believe that it will either cure him or kill him,” Stark spoke up. “The serum isn’t compatible with the Mirakuru. Long term they won’t play well together in his body. It will help him, but if it isn’t cleared from his system it will kill him.”
Felicity moved to Steve’s side. She slipped her hand into his in support. Oliver was a little surprised to find that seeing them together was getting easier. He studied Steve’s face. Was he really considering this option? Should they try to stop him? Wouldn’t he give anything to have Tommy back, to have been able to save him?
“Do it,” Steve said, his voice resigned.
“Wait,” Romanov stepped forward. Steve dropped Felicity’s hand and turned on the assassin.
“Nat, just don’t,” he interrupted whatever she was about to say. “This isn’t open for discussion. This is my decision and I will deal with the consequences.”
“Will you, Rogers? You’ve almost let him kill you twice,” she didn’t allow her voice to rise to meet his. “That isn’t dealing with the consequences. If this goes south, I need your word that you will step back and not stop us from doing whatever needs to be done to keep Barnes from hurting anyone, including you.” Steve’s face turned stormy.
“That’s fair,” Oliver put in. “You want to save your friend. Everyone here is just trying to make sure we don't lose our friend either.”
“I want you to have Bucky back, but I don’t want to lose you, Steve,” Felicity told him.
“Square deal, Rogers,” Stark advised. “Take it or we don’t move forward.” He smiled before adding, “You’ve got two geniuses telling you this will probably work, take the odds.”
“Your word, Steve,” Romanov pushed. Steve sighed. It was like the air was let out and he deflated along with his anger. He looked down at Felicity then at the rest of them.
“You’ve got my word,” he agreed. “I understand the risks, Bruce. Buck wouldn’t want to live like you’re talking about. If there is a chance this will restore him enough to give him a chance at some kind of life, then we gotta do it and if it goes bad, he shouldn’t have to live like that. We’ll deal with whatever comes next, together.”