Unmuzzled ... it felt strange ... HYDRA kept him muzzled, kept him silent and anonymous. He didn't question, he didn't fight, and now his mask was ripped free.

But he was still the Winter Soldier, attacking without a moments hesitation. 

The unmasked soldier rolled to the side, putting some distance between himself and Cap, hand reaching for a holster, for a gun. He'd aimed to slit her throat, quickly and quietly, it had turned into a brawl. As tough as she was, even Captain America couldn't swallow bullets all day. The pistol slid free, magazine empty, he had to reload and that gave the fraction of a second for Stephanie to see him. To [i]truly[/i] see him and recognise him.

Black Widow couldn't believe it either ... [i]Bucky?[/i] ... He couldn't be ... Bucky was in the Howling Commandos. He fought the Nazi's, he couldn't be ... He died in the Alps, he wasn't the monster who tested her in the Red Room. He wasn't the monster who broke the little ballerinas the KGB turned into assassins, he wasn't the monster who ruthlessly murdered hundreds indiscriminately. 
He was the best friend Steph told her about. The cocky ladies man who always hauled Steph's ass out of trouble. The cheeky gent who flirted and danced the charleston and shrugged off his coat in the rain to throw over Steph's shoulders so she wouldn't catch a chill ... He was a jerk, a geek ... loyal to Steph when she became Captain America, even when she stole his thunder. 

He'd been a hero, the only Howling Commando to give his life to beat the Nazi's. He'd covered for Steph when they were on that train, only to get blasted clean out of it. 
This couldn't be him... and yet, Stephanie recognised that unmistakeable face although all life in those features had been stripped away.

[b][i]"B-Bucky?"[/i][/b]
For a fraction of a second the Soldiers eyes changed ... haunted, confused ... [i]childlike[/i]. Natasha noticed, it was as if the ruthlessly efficient killer had been replaced by a dazed child. Utterly lost. He didn't know his own name, but something about hearing it had caught him off guard, more so than any sneak attack would have.

[b]"Who the hell is Bucky?"[/b] 

His voice lacked any emotion, but for the shortest fraction of a second, his eyes were alive, lit up with horrified confusion. His steely unwavering gaze faltered for a second before he snapped back to his mission, jamming the magazine into the gun and levelling it on Cap ... He was about to squeeze the trigger until Natasha fired off a Widows Bite, narrowly missing him, but it disrupted his clear shot at Cap's head. An explosion rocked behind him and there was shouting, SHIELD were closing in and the Winter Soldier scarpered, quickly scaling a stairwell and vanishing in the upper darkened levels, likely heading to the roof and running as SHIELD stormed in through the bottom, hoping to corner him upstairs ... Natasha knew they wouldn't corner him or catch him ... the Winter Soldier was a ghost for a reason. He couldn't [i]be[/i] caught ... but now, he had an identity-

[b]"Cap-"[/b] Nat's attention snapped back to Steph as the backup SHIELD troops done their sweep of the warehouse, finding nothing of course. 


The Winter Soldier vanished ... Karpov waited for a confirmed kill ... It never came and the Winter Soldier never made it to his rendezvous point.