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“I’m with you till the end of the line.”
He isn’t quite sure what it is that these words spark in the back of his mind that make him stop. He isn’t quite sure why these words sound oh so familiar to him. He isn’t quite sure what it is about this one simple sentence that tells him that this mission is not supposed to be completed. The Winter Soldier is not supposed to kill Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers needs to live.
Steve Rogers needs to live and he can’t live if he’s at the bottom of the Potomac River.
The Soldier dives out of the crashing helicarrier after the Captain, cutting into the surface of the river like a bullet from a gun. Had it been anyone else, anyone completely human, and the impact of a human body hitting the water would have been like hitting concrete. But the Winter Soldier is not completely human, not anymore.
The Captain hasn’t sunk far and it isn’t long before the Soldier is pulling him out of the river and up onto the rocky bank. He could kill the Captain right there with as much ease as squishing a bug…. but he doesn’t. His mission to kill Steve Rogers has been terminated and a new one has taken it’s place. Steve Rogers needs to live.
The Soldier leaves the Captain lying there on the banks of the Potomac. His friends will be along soon and there is no doubt that they will find him. Steve Rogers will live and perhaps one day the Soldier will remember why he needed him to.