This is a wild leap of optimism. He’s usually a cynic, but sometimes that old faith in something better shines through, some vestigial instinct which sounds an awful lot like Steve’s voice in the back of his head, the invisible Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder: you should try trusting people once in a while, Buck.
And he looks up and up across the warehouse, to meet Gamora’s eye. Catches the glint of metal at her hip. He wonders what it’d be like to fight someone with a sword; of all the things he’s done in his over-long life, that hadn’t been ticked off the bucket list. Yet.
He considers the offer she’s made, and continues doing that math.
“You can’t just walk out the front door, even if I turn back with a black eye,” Bucky says. The wheels are turning, waiting to catch on an idea. Because Gamora’s back is to the wall and there really isn’t an easy way out of this location — the authorities have the building surrounded.
Except.
Except that when he got the brief, he also got detailed blueprints of the building, which she wouldn’t have had access to. It mapped air ducts, basement passages, maintenance hallways.
A potential way out.
The pause goes on a bit too long, and then: “You’re not gonna be able to get out of here alone,” he says. “But I know a route.”
She wants to fight him on that, to protest. Of course she can walk out the front door just like that. Slaughter her way through their forces and...
Well. And die. Gamora knows the odds are not in her favour, no matter how it raises her hackles to have anything to that tune suggested to her.
"You know a route."
The words hang between them for a moment. To those outside it looks like they must be squaring off. Like perhaps Bucky is talking her down, into coming willingly so he doesn't need to kill her. The situation is tense and might yet come to blows. Of course, that is not the case.
Gamora presses her lips together, briefly.
"You would do this for me?"
A simple question about the things he is putting on the table, the sacrifice he's willing to make. It astonishes her - the implication of a kindness of that scope. He might yet betray her. Lead her to presumed safety only to avoid an outright fight.
But sometimes... sometimes hope is too sweet to ignore in favor of the distrust that was nurtured in her. She's seen him after all, fighting alongside so many who had rallied to save the lives of millions at their own peril, for no reward and little glory.
It’s a big jump; almost impossibly large, to imagine that he’d do this for someone who doesn’t even know him. Set aside everything he currently knows, burn up his current life and set it ablaze, sacrifice it in order to give Gamora a safe way out. It might seem saintly. Why would he do this for her?
But that’s the whole point.
The corner of Bucky’s mouth flickers; a little sad, a little rueful, a little set in his ways. “Someone else did the same thing for me, once,” he says. “I’m just paying it forward.”
Steve had offered him a way out. Steve had reached out a hand. The circumstances weren’t exactly the same, but he’s got this debt hanging around his throat and if there’s at all a chance he can save another assassin, another cornered animal who doesn’t have to die—
Bucky’s made up his mind. He reaches to the SWORD earpiece that he can activate at a touch, but instead he just takes it out, drops it to the floor. Stands ready with his heavy boot to smash it, as soon as she says yes. If she says yes.
“I was getting tired of the leash anyway,” he adds.
That... is something he will have to get used to with her. The way she will absolutely not understand the turns of phrases that are so common on Earth. And the way she will correct him almost gently - though something with a good dose of annoyance - on these things.
For now...
She moves fast. He drops the earpiece, waits for her response. Gamora gives it by way of stepping on the earpiece herself, crushing it underfoot.
"Do not make me regret this."
A warning, calm but fierce. She means that, very clearly. Is still poised to strike at the wrong move, but for now... nods, after a deep breath, to signal that she's in agreement with his plan. That she will follow him. And hope for her own sake that this man is worth his word.
“Likewise,” Bucky says, with a flash of teeth. They both know the risks and the score. They’re metaphorically holding hands and both walking off the edge of a cliff, with nothing else but the blind hope that there’ll be solid ground to catch you below.
The earpiece shatters underfoot, and he sets off through the warehouse. He doesn’t like having Gamora walking behind him — that sword could so easily slip between his shoulder-blades — but he does need to take the front and lead the way through what he’s memorised of the blueprints.
And this trust is a two-way street. He could be taking her out back to where a secondary team is waiting; he could be leading her into a trap.
But he doesn’t, is the thing.
It takes a few minutes before SWORD realises that they can’t raise Barnes on the comms. Even longer before they send in one anxious agent to check for him, expecting to find the Winter Soldier dead, only to see that he’s —
gone, just gone, the pair of assassins vanished into the maintenance tunnels as if they were never here.
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And he looks up and up across the warehouse, to meet Gamora’s eye. Catches the glint of metal at her hip. He wonders what it’d be like to fight someone with a sword; of all the things he’s done in his over-long life, that hadn’t been ticked off the bucket list. Yet.
He considers the offer she’s made, and continues doing that math.
“You can’t just walk out the front door, even if I turn back with a black eye,” Bucky says. The wheels are turning, waiting to catch on an idea. Because Gamora’s back is to the wall and there really isn’t an easy way out of this location — the authorities have the building surrounded.
Except.
Except that when he got the brief, he also got detailed blueprints of the building, which she wouldn’t have had access to. It mapped air ducts, basement passages, maintenance hallways.
A potential way out.
The pause goes on a bit too long, and then: “You’re not gonna be able to get out of here alone,” he says. “But I know a route.”
no subject
Well. And die. Gamora knows the odds are not in her favour, no matter how it raises her hackles to have anything to that tune suggested to her.
"You know a route."
The words hang between them for a moment. To those outside it looks like they must be squaring off. Like perhaps Bucky is talking her down, into coming willingly so he doesn't need to kill her. The situation is tense and might yet come to blows. Of course, that is not the case.
Gamora presses her lips together, briefly.
"You would do this for me?"
A simple question about the things he is putting on the table, the sacrifice he's willing to make. It astonishes her - the implication of a kindness of that scope. He might yet betray her. Lead her to presumed safety only to avoid an outright fight.
But sometimes... sometimes hope is too sweet to ignore in favor of the distrust that was nurtured in her. She's seen him after all, fighting alongside so many who had rallied to save the lives of millions at their own peril, for no reward and little glory.
"You would save me?"
no subject
But that’s the whole point.
The corner of Bucky’s mouth flickers; a little sad, a little rueful, a little set in his ways. “Someone else did the same thing for me, once,” he says. “I’m just paying it forward.”
Steve had offered him a way out. Steve had reached out a hand. The circumstances weren’t exactly the same, but he’s got this debt hanging around his throat and if there’s at all a chance he can save another assassin, another cornered animal who doesn’t have to die—
Bucky’s made up his mind. He reaches to the SWORD earpiece that he can activate at a touch, but instead he just takes it out, drops it to the floor. Stands ready with his heavy boot to smash it, as soon as she says yes. If she says yes.
“I was getting tired of the leash anyway,” he adds.
no subject
That... is something he will have to get used to with her. The way she will absolutely not understand the turns of phrases that are so common on Earth. And the way she will correct him almost gently - though something with a good dose of annoyance - on these things.
For now...
She moves fast. He drops the earpiece, waits for her response. Gamora gives it by way of stepping on the earpiece herself, crushing it underfoot.
"Do not make me regret this."
A warning, calm but fierce. She means that, very clearly. Is still poised to strike at the wrong move, but for now... nods, after a deep breath, to signal that she's in agreement with his plan. That she will follow him. And hope for her own sake that this man is worth his word.
wrap!
The earpiece shatters underfoot, and he sets off through the warehouse. He doesn’t like having Gamora walking behind him — that sword could so easily slip between his shoulder-blades — but he does need to take the front and lead the way through what he’s memorised of the blueprints.
And this trust is a two-way street. He could be taking her out back to where a secondary team is waiting; he could be leading her into a trap.
But he doesn’t, is the thing.
It takes a few minutes before SWORD realises that they can’t raise Barnes on the comms. Even longer before they send in one anxious agent to check for him, expecting to find the Winter Soldier dead, only to see that he’s —
gone, just gone, the pair of assassins vanished into the maintenance tunnels as if they were never here.