Steve didn’t know the risks – and quite frankly – he didn’t care.
To lose Bucky once had almost killed him. It had broken his heart into such small pieces that he never considered the chance of recovering from what he had lost. But Destiny had a way to be a playful bitch – and seventy years after – Bucky was once more back into his life as the Winter Soldier. They fought and in the end, he found his way to his best friend’s arms once more. Life seemed to have given them a chance to live. A chance at peace after everything they had done and suffered. And for what? For a lunatic with powers that transcended Gods to take Bucky away from him a second time.
With a snap of his fingers – Bucky had become dust.
And this time around, the pain was too much. The grief that consumed him was driving him insane – the loneliness killing him in ways too damn horrendous to be spoken. Bucky had been taken away from him yet again – and this time around, Steve would not sit idly by and wait for Fate to pull another prank on him. Bucky should be alive. Not him. Bucky deserved his chance at a normal life, without chaos and conflict. He had seen enough and done enough. His time was over – and Steve was more than ready to deal with the consequence of his actions.
If that meant summoning a demon and sell his soul for Bucky to be brought back? Then so be it. “I don’t care about others.” This time – he cared about Bucky. Steve knew he couldn’t save everyone but he could save Bucky. A life for a life. “As long as you can guarantee me that you will bring him back without some sort of nefarious side effect – as long as you can bring him back the way he was right before he vanished – I will do whatever you want. Take my soul to hell and torture me for eternity if that’s the price… but please…. Bring him back.”
he could have just said that he’d do it with no strings attached. a favor in return for a life brought back. all ky had to do was act; make deal, bring bucky back, and be through with it. he’d actually had done it before; the price was always a favor if he knew they could give him an advantage. a soul was powerful, yes, but word of mouth was far more powerful – at least to him.
“i can assure you that he will be brought back exactly the way he was before.” a truth. the one thing good about ky was he didn’t like – never in deals -, but he could twist the truth to his liking. though, in this case, he wasn’t even going to do that.
in ky’s mind, he knew what steve was going through, and knew the man would do anything – make any deal – to bring back the one person he loved. ky might not have been through it, but ky could relate. he’d tried to find his mother -bring her back- just to talk, to get to know her. sure, it didn’t turn out as he wanted it, but he knew what steve was going through, and why… he was going to make the deal.
part of him knew what it would cost – knew – that it wouldn’t turn out well in the long run for steve. though, he was willing to make deal, and that was honestly the the defining factor. no other reasons, no willing to inch their way out of it; he was ready to do whatever was possible to bring back someone he cared about.
“no torture,” he wouldn’t put steve through that. no one deserved to be put through that. “all i ask is that when the time comes. you do exactly as i say; no questions asked.”
Hellfirebound 