Winter Soldier then met with Pierce at his home and was told that he needed to confirm the deaths of Captain America and Black Widow in the next 10 hours. He sprang into action after Captain America, Black Widow, and Sam Wilson AKA Falcon had gotten information out of another secret HYDRA agent inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Jasper Sitwell. As the heroes transported the traitor by car, Winter Soldier snatched him out and threw him into the path of an oncoming truck. During the ensuing fight, Winter Soldier fought all three heroes until the assassin’s mask came off and Rogers recognized him as Bucky—a name Winter Soldier didn’t recognize. He managed to escape, but was now filled with questions.
Back with the HYDRA scientists, Barnes remembered bits and pieces of his past, but also wanted to know who Steve Rogers was. Not liking all these questions, Pierce ordered Barnes’ memory wiped again. Reprogrammed, they sent the Winter Soldier to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, the Triskellion, to help ensure HYDRA’s plan to launch a trio of Project Insight Helicarriers they could use to destroy potential threats. Barnes took out pilots and planes looking to help Captain America and Falcon in their mission to give control of the carriers to Nick Fury. In the process, Winter Soldier tore off one of Falcon’s wings and would have killed him, had Wilson not used a parachute.
Winter Soldier met Captain America once again in the last of the three Helicarriers that Cap needed to take control over. Cap fought his old friend, while also trying to get the new targeting server blade in place, and persevered even as Barnes shot at him several times. Once Fury and Maria Hill gained control of the targeting systems, they aimed the carriers’ weapons to blast away at each other, sending them crashing back to Earth with Cap and Bucky still aboard. The Winter Soldier became trapped under some wreckage and Cap worked to save him, despite his own injuries. Once free, Winter Soldier tried again to fulfill his mission of killing Captain America, but Rogers refused to fight back, until the glass under Cap gave way and he fell into the water below. Barnes impulsively jumped into the water, dragging Rogers to the shore and saving his life, but then immediately fled the scene.