CHAPTER 48

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After Charles' call, I opened a portal to where the old doctor was, to find him and Bucky talking about the old days. At my arrival, Charles tensed, and so did Bucky, but in a different way. Unlike Charles that looked at me with a sense of guilt, Bucky looked at me like he was afraid of judgment. 

"Hello there," I greeted with a warm smile.

"Mr. Walker," Charles smiled, an empty smile at that. "I did what you what you asked me to do, Mr. Barnes is now clean of Hydra's programming, and is by all means a free man," 

"Thank you," I honestly was grateful he did what he did, without his powers, it would've taken me a long time to free Bucky.

"I heard.. I remember a lot of you," Bucky started, "Hydra… they were planning your demise with a bio-weapon they were developing,"

I looked at him, "Hive?"

"Yes," Bucky replied, eyes wide as he came to a realization, "You killed Hive,"

"Yes," I nodded, "It was both hard, and easy to do," it was basically an environmental kill.

"Good," Bucky nodded, "Then for what you came, I want to destroy Hydra, so that I can start to atone for what I did," his eyes were full of determination, and pain, so much pain, to think if things were different, if I didn't have this ever changing power, that could've been me.

"Well, about that," I smiled, "You won't need to do a thing, I mean, I can leave a base without destroying if you want to have your fun,"

Bucky blinked, clearly confused by my statement, confusion that soon turned to anger, "I don't understand, what do you mean I don't have to do a thing, it's the only way I can atone, that I can…" 

"Bucky, Hydra is no longer a threat, and it will never be, not anymore," I grinned. Since my satellite launch Hydra bases had not stopped appearing, one by one, sealing their fate. By the end of the day, I estimated I would know where every single Hydra base was.

"They will always be a threat, Hydra is a disease, one that needs to be stopped, they took my life, they took Emily's, they took yours!" Bucky growled.

"I know," I nodded, a cold air rushing through my face, "And I am taking everything from them," 

Taken back by my declaration, the Winter Soldier took a step back, "I still don't understand,"

"I will soon know where every Hydra base is located, and… you know," I winked.

"You will do what you did for the others," Bucky replied, "That won't work on all of them, some are close to civilians, you would be killing thousands of innocents, so far the bases you bombed, had no civilians close, but some will," he had a point.

"Shit, you right," I sighed, "Ok, then… let's empty those bases together," I smiled, extending my hand to the Winter Soldier who did the same, giving me a firm old style handshake.

"Let's," Bucky hissed, already imagining himself killing Hydra agents.

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And so, my quest to eliminate Hydra began with the Winter Soldier by my side. Some bases were bombed, others were eliminated by hand, some were easy to deal with, others not so much, In some bases, we encountered unfinished experiments that made things like the Hive look pleasant, in others, we saw how deep Hydra's connection to the world government ran, and so we took names, and then their lives, each day nearing us closer to a Hydra free world, well, as free as it could be.

In some raids S.H.I.E.L.D aided us, not because we needed it, Bucky and I were more than enough to deal with most things, but because I was helping Fury get some flashing recommendations for his future promotion, and what better than a young agent leading the charge into Hydra's base, but I ain't gonna lie, the other reason I was… revealing myself to the government was rather simple, I was still missing a piece, an ingredient to start crafting my armor, and to find it, I needed to work the system from the inside out.

It didn't matter anyway, if they knew or not about me, the only reason I ever hid was because of Hydra, and they don't scare me anymore, they can't hurt me anymore.

In a way, I was pulling a Tony Stark, telling the world I was here, and I didn't give a fuck about people knowing it, it was a power move, one that I know had the power to back it up.

"This is the last base, right?" Bucky asked, reloading his weapon, as the hundreds of Hydra agents came at us shooting.

"No, there is still one left, but it has no living beings inside," If I had to take a guess, it was the base where Arnim Zola's mind was.

"I still can't believe these bitches had so many properties around the world, instead of world domination the fuckers should've gone to real estate, by this point the world would've been theirs," Fury commented, throwing a grenade into a group of incoming soldiers.

"Hydra's Real Estate? Yeah, no," I snorted.

"I refuse to acknowledge that ill attempt at comedy," Bucky replied with a serious expression.

"Did the cryogenic chamber took your sense of humor too?" Fury chucked.

Bucky remained stoic, though in the left corner of his mouth, I could see he was almost smiling, "Let's end this, I promised Emily I would let her braid my hair,"

"I am suddenly glad I shave bald style," Fury chuckled.

"I don't think she would ever ask to braid your hair," Bucky replied, in the kind of tone kids used to say things like, she likes me better than you.

"Do you believe this bitch?" Fury turned to me, as I created a shield around us.

"Well, he does live with me for the moment, and Emily has taken to him like an uncle," I chuckled.

"Ok, that's it, I am taking time off next week," Fury declared. "I will not let grandpa popsicle over there outshine me,"

I laughed, to think Emily would grow so much on them. Then again, it was one of the reasons I reintroduced Emily to Bucky, she was therapeutic to him.

"Let's end this," I chuckled, rushing at the few Hydra agents left, with Bucky and Fury on my back, what a day.