PSL for Serene_Rage

[irememberedhim]

The Soldier still hadn't remembered his name. Most of the mutants in the base had taken to calling him Winter after he'd given his code name when Erik had captured him. He knew he was still being watched. That the telepaths closest to Erik were doing everything they could to make sure he was still stable and mostly sane.

Over the weeks since they're fight and being taken in by Erik he had started to see things the way the man saw them. It wasn't much different from HYDRA. Honestly, in a way he thought Erik's view was better. The special people of the world, the mutants, people like him even, who had powers of different kinds...Erik wanted a better world for them because they were the future.

Well, who was he to argue, right? He just leaned into his bed, closing his eyes and sighing before shifting a bit to lay down. His memories, some of them anyway, had been coming back. He remembered a scrawny guy, remembered being close to him. But that guy would be long gone by then, even if he could remember his name.

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[serene_rage]

The news that there were more of them was almost a surprise. Erik had suspected as much but he hadn't had any proof before, and hearing it from Bucky wasn't as jarring as he'd thought it would be.

Of course, the news was a surprise to many of the others who hadn't even heard as much as rumors, and caused a wave of murmured concern, even questions, to which Erik just lifted both brows, waiting to see how Bucky handled that before deciding whether to step in himself.

[irememberedhim]

Bucky straightened up when he noticed the wave of concern, holding his hands up. "Thats why I'm trying to teach you everything I can about the way they work. About how HYDRA works, how they fight. I would prefer you to never have to face any of them, but if you have no choice...then that is what I'm here for."

He answered everyones questions to the best of his ability, clearing his throat before looking at Erik. "The best thing to do is immobilize them as quickly as possible. Use your abilities to your advantage. If they have a gun, disarm them, immobilize their arms as quickly as possible if you can. We are trained proficiently in knives as well and the Soldiers carry plenty of them. If they can't get to them, you'll be better off."

[serene_rage]

While that wasn't enough to put everyone completely at ease, it was enough to have them quieting again, apparently the difference between 'do not engage' and 'use your abilities to prevent engagement' were two different things, and the latter was more what they were used to.

Erik nodded once, a small, even pleased, smile catching at the corners of his mouth, Bucky had done well in recovering the situation, and answering specific questions had done more to ease the group than anything else, which was also a good thing.

[irememberedhim]

Once the session was completely over he stepped out of the room with Erik and looked at the man. "Was that okay? I needed to get it out there...if they didn't know about the other Soldiers...it could have ended up..." He frowned, looking down for a moment.

"I just didn't want anyone to get hurt because I couldn't warn them about it, about them. But I did now. And none of the Soldiers are as well trained as I am. None of them were with HYDRA as long as me."

[serene_rage]

He shook his head, "It was good. The correction was better." A small smile, "You have to understand that most of them have only ever been told what they can't do under the guise of it being for their own good. So giving them an alternative was probably one of the best things you could have done."

[irememberedhim]

"Well...I mean I've been here long enough now to see the things everyone can do. Why should they be told they can't when most, if not all, would be perfectly capable of finding a way too incapacitate the other soldiers and probably any other HYDRA agents they come across?" He asked, tilting his head a bit.

[serene_rage]

He nodded, "you've learned that much faster than many of the others have." Even other mutants sometimes didn't catch on or understand just what their own were capable of.

Even Erik had taken some time to learn that telling them not to do something -as opposed to alternatives to doing it- was the fastest way to make sure they did exactly the opposite of what he wanted them to do.

[irememberedhim]

"You took me in, they've become my friends...my family." He said with a smile, looking at him and then away. "Are there any that could stand swimming in ice cold waters? I know where the plane went down. HYDRA has looked for ages, but they don't have the resources we do."

[serene_rage]

"You're our brother the same as any of them." He agreed, though the question had his expression smoothing again, "Come with me to my office." He said, turning to lead the way and closing the door behind them once they were inside.

He didn't hesitate, not exactly, he'd been waiting for the question of Steve's whereabouts to come up again eventually, especially the more Bucky remembered, and all he did was to slide the master timeline away from the wall, turning the board around to reveal the smaller information array on the back.

It wasn't a timeline of what was upcoming, but of what had already happened on multiple fronts, people searching for Steve and how far they'd gotten, what information they had. So far no one had actually found him, or if they had they'd kept it quiet enough that even he didn't know about it, which was possible, but unlikely.

"Tell me what you see." He said, "Besides the Captain, what's the common thread?"

[irememberedhim]

Bucky tilted his head and slowly moved closer to the board, looking over what information they had, his fingers tracing beneath before looking at Erik. "He went down in the Atlantic...but..." He frowned deeply, shaking his head. "These aren't the right coordinates, Erik. This isn't where he went down."

[serene_rage]

His brows both lifted at that, just a little, "No?" If everyone had been working from incorrect information, he supposed it made sense that no one had actually found him yet.

He smoothed out the map on the board, "This is the last known location of the Valkyrie he was piloting, last transmitted coordinates before communication was lost." That was the one thing everyone agreed on, though there was some variance from there, factoring in ocean flow and tides and even just the aircraft's actual velocity and projected velocity.

"Or is that incorrect as well?" He asked, studying James once more, curious now just how much the man knew but didn't realize.

[irememberedhim]

He kept looking over the information before shaking his head. "No." He said suddenly, metal fingers moving over the map. "No I...I managed to break free one day. I got into one of their labs and I do remember the paperwork. They didn't have the...tools to go looking, but they had the right information at the time."

He brushed his fingers through his hair. "Everyone thinks he was headed this way and he was. This was the course the Valkyrie was supposed to be taking, but Steve took it off course slightly." He grabbed a pen, changing the course by drawing a line. "I know Steve. This would have been the best way to take her down, especially since he had been fighting Red Skull before he crash landed."

[serene_rage]

He nodded at that, mulling it over, not that he could even begin to guess what had been in the Captain's head at the time, nor how Hydra would have had the correct information but still hadn't found the man -unless they were still under-equipped, which he supposed was possible- nor anyone from the now-defunct SSR wouldn't have known the correct coordinates for when communication was lost.

But he was willing to let that go, for the time being, James was resolute in what he knew, and that was enough for him to go on, "We'll adjust our search area and do our best not to alert anyone to that fact."

[irememberedhim]

"Thank you, Erik." He said as he looked at the map. He brushed his fingers through his hair before looking back at him. "I want to go with the next search group. If they find him...I want to be there. If there is any chance he could be alive somehow..."

[serene_rage]

He nodded once, "Of course. We wouldn't dream of trying to keep you away." He clasped James' shoulder for a moment, "He was your brother long before you were ours."

That was the kind of bond Erik wasn't about to get in the way of if it could at all be helped.

[irememberedhim]

He nodded, sighing before pushing his fingers through his hair. "I think I should rest. I guess...let me know if there is another training session? Or if you need me...if you send a team to look for him..."

[serene_rage]

"Rest is probably the best thing for you now." He agreed with a nod, "And I'll let you know as soon as it's viable for us to send a team."

They were going to have to do some scouting first, he knew, and Pearl wasn't yet up to traveling with more than one or two others and he wasn't going to press her into trying more, he knew enough to let her recover first.

[irememberedhim]

He nodded before heading out and going to his rooms. He was hopeful, having a purpose and a goal in his mind. He would help them find Steve. He would bring Steve back with him...the way it should be.

[serene_rage]

It was another two weeks -and a handful of training sessions that Bucky was involved in- before Erik summoned him to the office.

"We've found something." He said, "We aren't sure what, we can't even guess whether or not it's him, but we're putting together a team to investigate."

[irememberedhim]

Bucky looked hopeful and he nodded quickly. "I want to go with them, if thats alright with you." He said, crossing his arms over his chest.

[serene_rage]

He nodded once, "I suspected as much, which is why I asked you here, I want to make sure you're prepared in the chance that it isn't him." A pause, "Or ore importantly, if it's merely his remains."

Erik wasn't going to bar him from going in any case, he just needed to know so he could assemble a team that would be able to handle the fallout.

[irememberedhim]

That thought had his metal hand clenching in the back of the chair he'd been standing next to and he ended up snapping the wood without meaning to. Though he understood that it was a very real possibility. He closed his eyes, taking a breath before nodding. "Yes I know. Its not something...I am trying to hold out hope that its him...that he is alive, but I know he might not be."

[serene_rage]

The physical reaction as well as the verbal one told Erik all he needed to know and he nodded once more, "We'll leave this afternoon, sixteen hundred." That would get them to the location during the warmest part of the day, not that it would make much difference, considering that was just the difference of slightly above zero instead of slightly below.

[irememberedhim]

He nodded again before turning and leaving to go get ready. Once it was time he met up with the team that would be heading out to go see if they could find Steve, or at least what possibly remained of the man.

[serene_rage]

The team was, for the most part, the same team he usually ran drills with, Thorne, Pearl, Rocky, Kite, Tempest, who could control the weather at least enough to keep the snow off of them, Pulse, who was one of the team's healers, and Magneto himself.

Pearl was the one to transport them, her usual shimmering blue-green rift opening in the hangar, stepping through herself to verify the location and that the snow would hold them all, followed by everyone else. They all immediately went about their assigned tasks, Kite keeping a lookout from above, Tempest keeping the snow off and even warming the air around them a few degrees, and Erik leading the rest of the team to the area they were going to be searching.