WS AU - 3

Cont...

James rose and dressed quietly before leaving the men to sleep. He found what he was looking for one of the few unopened bottles of scotch left. Taking it he found himself a glass and a secluded area.
The feeling that Steve would disapprove almost made him stop but the need for that almost bliss of forgetting pushed him on. It was dark when he opened the bottle and by the time Carter found him it was brighter and he could hear the soldiers working.

 "I thought you might do this though I would think by now you would be drunk beyond passed out," Peggy said sharply standing over him.

 James smirked a bit fingering the empty bottle. He had figured it out as the hours progressed and the bliss he sought kept skipping away. His head was clear and all his senses were straight. The fog and heavy feeling that alcohol brought had never come nor had the drunken forgetfulness. "I apparently can't get drunk." He chuckled amid the sorrow.

"He had the same problem," Carter responded.

James felt his eyes getting bigger. He looked up and her. She was put together as always though today the clothes were simpler and the makeup she wore could disguise the subtle signs of tears, puff eyes, and red nose.
But all that was glazed over by her words, "What are you suggesting?" James demanded, rising to his feet.

 He wasn't sure Carter even heard him as she started pacing, "Steve mentioned it but we waved it off as adrenaline."

James lost his patience and grabbed the woman to still her, "What are you saying?"

Peggy's curls bounced as her head kept shaking as she thought, "Dr. Erksine made a serum and gave it to Steve. You know this. The effects were miraculous and then he rescued you. After your original physical after you came back, there were some minute odd findings in you. We waved it off as the lasting effects of the drugs. Then you went into the field. Steve began noticing irregularities in your actions. You were rising to his level as the drugs had changed you."

James stepped back comprehending what she was saying. His head was spinning way too fast to comprehend what Carter was saying and he wondered for a moment if he was going to simply topple over if it wasn't for her constant motion.  That couldn't be right, couldn't be true, could it?

"But of course, you knew that. Barnes, you have the same ability as Steve." Crater stopped moving in front of him, eyes widening, "That means you could take up the Captain America mantle."

 "No, that was for him, not me." James protested but the woman was already speed walking away. James hurried to keep up.

"I don't think you see Sergeant, the SSR division will be shut down without the Captain. If you can take on the role even on paper it could save us, save the mission." Carter headed towards Stark's tent.
"Howard!" She bellowed flying in. James trailed behind as science lackeys jumped in various directions out of her path.

 The engineer looked up from his work, "Peggy, James?"

"Do you still have the paperwork I gave you?" Peggy hissed getting down to business.

Confusion flashed through Howard's face before his eyes widened, "Yeah why?"

"Get them and meet us at the medical center," Carter ordered before flipping on heel and marching out.

James shared a confused look with Howard before following the force of nature that was Agent Carter. She flew into the medical center and headed to the back where the supplies were. James followed in her wake pulling the door closed. She moved a few things before coming to a vault-like box built into the ground. James watched as she spun in a combination and pulled out a briefcase from the crude safe. Howard came in making the storage closet even tinier.

"I'm going to test your blood against his. I'm assuming that it's a knockoff concoction but one can hope." Peggy opened the briefcase and carefully pulled out the syringe.

James tensed at the sight of the needle. He closed his eyes and braced himself as Peggy gently rolled up his sleeve. He could feel a panic attack coming and tried his best to breathe.

"Done," Peggy said gently.

James looked up in surprise he hadn't felt anything, unlike the stinging sensation the scientists had inflicted.

She held up a vial of red blood. Howard took it and placed it in a wheel-like contraption. It spun violently in a blur separating he's blood from the alternative serum. Howard pulled out the two vials now separated. The serum was an unappealing yellow color, unlike Erkstine's bright blue. Howard carefully ran a portion of the yellow and the blue, both taken from different vials of blood, against one another in a different contraption. James watched in curiosity as the engineer wrote down the outputs of the machine.

 "It's an 86% match. There will be some side effects but it'll hold." Howard nodded to Carter.

"They did it." She sighed, "We had hoped that we would get more time before it got leaked but in the current circumstances I suppose we can count this as a blessing." She leaned back on the balls of her feet and finished securing the briefcase and safe again.

"We've got a meeting across camp. This," Howard held up the page of output writings as they left the closet, "Should clear us for the operation."

"Good now let's not be late." Peggy dove through another hall, heels clicking rapidly on the floor.

"So what exactly are you saying?" James asked finally as they sped to the meeting.

"You have been injected with a knockoff of the Super Soldier serum. It won't be as functional as Steve's was but it will hold. That will pacify the board and allow us to continue hunting Hydra." Peggy filled him over her shoulder.

James stopped abruptly and Howard slammed onto him. "They - they enhanced me?" He spat half disgusted and half horrified. In truth, he had known deep down that they had done something like this. They had created it to combat Steve. They had recreated him to combat Steve. The realization made him sick and relieved almost. Steve was gone, the threat of being turned on his best friend was gone. But Steve was gone if they got their hands back on James no one would be coming to save him. James landed back in the moment harshly as someone yelled at him.

"Let’s go! Unless you want to be late?" Howard hollered from down the hall.

James bolted down the hall and slid in the swiftly filling room silently. There was only one empty seat at the war room table, at the head, Steve's seat. The reality hit James again like a sack of bricks. That was his seat now. He slowly sank into it and looked down the table.

Peggy was examining her painted nails recalling names, dates, and places. Howard was looking through the papers he had. The General strolled in purposefully and the meeting began.

"According to my new friend, there will be an attack on the eastern seaboard in 24 hours." The man cut to the chase. There are some gasps of horror and such. "It will be devastating."

The general shook his head indicating Howard to take over, "To our knowledge, they are using firepower we have no comprehension of. They can wipe out the eastern seaboard in an hour." There were more murmurs of fear that rippled through the room.

"Their last base is buried deep within the Alps. It's a stronghold unlike any we've come up against before." Carter stepped in. More murmurs.

"What are we gonna do? We can't just knock on the front door." Jim asked leaning back.

James frowned thinking. Jim was right, they couldn't. None of the normal procedures or tactics would work. They need something crazy, something new, something borderline stupid. Crazy and stupid but good, like Steve. A pang went through him at that line of thought of his fallen friend, what would Steve do? Without thinking, Bucky looked up from the grainy photos, "Why not?" The whole table collectively turned to him. "That's exactly what we'll do."

 "No offense son," some big shot military man said, "But you're not Captain America."

Something about that comment stung James even though he fully agreed with the man. "You're right, I'm not." James took a deep breath before saying the one thing that would sell the committee and cause him unimaginable pain, "I'm something better. I'm what they created."
Gasps flew through the room full of shock and scandal.

Howard cleared his throat drawing the attention away from an increasingly uncomfortable James. "They were able to replicate Project Rebirth within 86% success. He will be fully functional in the field, perfectly acceptable, and safe."

"How did they get ahold of the project in the first place?" Someone asked.

"Secrets can be spilled and spies cultivated." Peggy shrugged, "What matters now is how we move forward in the mission."

They voted to proceed and somehow James had found himself stepping into the role of leader. It was odd telling not listening as he laid out the plan.

So now here he was driving straight into the heart of Hydra territory trusting that this was the only way. He had donned the suit to ensure his capture.

It didn't matter who was under the suit, the instant you donned the bright shield and uniform you vanished and all that was left was Captain America. You became the symbol and the person under the suit was reduced to a puppet. It was the one thing that could take James from zero to a hundred when it had been Steve who was ignored, now, it was his saving grace.

It went according to plan but it didn't stop the panic from squeezing James' chest when they dragged him in before Red Skull.

"You have given me quite a bit of trouble and you aren't even him." The man snapped.

James smirked, "No one is."

Red Skull proceeded to sucker punch him. James grunted forcing himself to stay on his feet.
"I see why the doctor chose you. Too bad I will have to eradicate his work." Schmidt said turning for the revolver on the table behind him.

"I am what you made me." James snarked back before kipping up and sending one of the guards into Red Skull and smashing the other guard's head into the table. Somersaulting away there were multiple loud crashes as the Howling Commandos zip lined through the windows.

They had all changed some parts of their outfits to honor their fallen leader. Red white and blue graced the already unique uniforms as they attacked. Chaos ensued as Hydra panicked and tried to fight back and the Commandos swarmed them.

Schmidt fled and James gave chase. He snagged the shield on the way out. Waves and waves of Hydra soldiers tried to stop him and with a few expert flips and shots, James kept running. He almost got fried by a flame thrower before someone vaporized them. Carter nodded to James as he sped by. James skidded into the hanger in time to see Red Skull vanish into a monstrous plane that was speeding down the runway.

James took off after the huge plane as it sped up. There was no way he was going to catch up even as he pushed his enhanced body to the max.

"Hey!" The General's voice made James look back.

Carter and the General were in a car. James vaulted into the car and the General floored it for the back of the plane. James stood and snapped the shield to his back.

"Go get him." Carter encouraged as they got closer.

"Yes, Ma'am," James said before jumping out of the car and onto the plane's landing gear that was coming up.

The darkness welcomed him as the landing gear closed and the plane jerked as it lifted off. James shoved away the thought that he was going to be hundreds of feet in the air with no way out. He hated falling and heights more than most things. Being in a plane didn't bode well.

James climbed higher up until he came to another hanger only for much smaller planes. There were a few Hydra goons running around getting ready to take off. James shrugged off his small but efficient rifle and sniped them all. His enhanced hearing told him no one else was down there. Climbing up he finally came to the command center of the whole boat.

Red Skull was nowhere to be found. James walked over slowly. Powering the whole show was a glowing blue cube like the blocks toddlers played with. It seemed not of this world through the way it hummed and glowed. James heard someone before he saw them diving over the power source and felt a pang of energy bounce off the shield.

"Why don't you accept it? We have surpassed humanity, you and I!" Schmidt called out.

"You misunderstand humanity then," James called back pulling the shield off his back and watching for where the voice was coming from. "Humanity is our ability to connect. To empathize, to love and, be loyal."

Red Skull leaped out of his hiding place and fired off three shots, one crashed through the window behind James and the others slammed into the shield. James and Schmidt went at it trading blows until James flipped Red Skull over his shoulder into the power generator. Alarms started blaring as Schmidt rose from the broken generator and the cube tumbled to the floor.

"What have you done?!" The man howled picking up the cube. Before Red Skull could do anything about the accident he seemed to blame James for the cube began to disintegrate him into another dimension of a bright cosmos. The man howled in rage as the unstable power source swallowed him up. James watched speechless as the blue cube landed on the floor. The Red Skull was gone.

Now, what do I do with it?

As in response to James' unasked question the cube began to burn through all it touched before vanishing out of the craft and fell into the sea.

 James turned to the helm. The readings said that the course was set for New York. Sparks were flying from the consuls. Everything was busted beyond use or repair. There was no way to stop this thing short of crashing it into the ice below. James flipped on the radio system thankfully still intact, "This is Sergeant Barnes base do you copy?"

"James? Did you get him?" Carter ask on the other end.

"Schmidt is dead," James replied sitting in the pilot's seat.

"And the plane?" Carter demanded.

 "On course for New York with no way to stop it and completely fried controls holding a payload that will wipe out the country. I'm gonna have to crash it now if there's any hope of fewer casualties." James pulled out his dog tags so that he could see them. Steve's clanked next to his own, the only thing they had found.

"James-" Carter gasp on the other end, positively horrified at his decision.

"Peggy, this is the only way. Take care of my family, tell my mom I served like my father and my sisters that I'm proud of them. That they can do anything they want." James shoved the controls down so now he was plunging towards the earth. He was going to die in the one way that was his worst fear. How ironic.

 "Okay," Peggy said quietly.

"Promise me you preserve his memory. Promise me he won't be forgotten. Promise me he'll be remembered." James ordered. He was about to finish Steve's goal, legacy, he could only hope now the world would remember.

"I promise," Peggy said, sounding like she was crying.

"He never told you the man was never one for the ladies but he loved you, Peggy, he really did," James said as the ground grew ever closer. "Guess I'll have to explain that to you like I always did. I'm sorry Peggy."

The radio sparked and static filled the air. James flipped the radio off and fought gravity to get out of the chair. Laying down on the floor he set the shield atop him and relaxed.

I did it, Stevie. I did it. I'm coming to you now. We're at the end of the line. Guess I'm a little late but I'm coming.

He felt the jolt of the nose of the plane connecting with the ice and closed his eyes. The cold crept in and everything went dark.

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