Awww, you guys are awesome.
I have to say, I never write to please other people these days (I'm too old to give a s**t to be honest haha), I write for my open pleasure, but you guys that have sent me reviews and what not have certainly made my days.
I did get a message recently about whether or not the fic was going to continue on after Civil War...well, I just started writing drafts on what I'm calling Part 2 for the moment. So yes, it's going to keep going for a little while anyway. Don't worry, I'm keeping it all in one place and not making a separate fic out of it (I'm too lazy for that)
Many thanks to 19vanelkc (cracked me up, man), FutureOlympian, and Kimberley for the reviews
Thanks also to FutureOlympian, AnimeFreak71777, Toons230, Gilded Dragon, mochadeer, , Nazuki Hanae, and JohnnyStormsGirl for tagging along on the adventure.
Enjoy
xo
Chapter 11
Broken
Steve supported Bucky as they slowly made their way out of the bunker.
Lex was on his other side, doing what she could to support him as well, but he could see she was in a lot of pain as she tried to walk along with them. Blood was running down the side of her head, her face was grazed and scratched, her left shoulder was jutting out at an odd angle. Her usually olive skin, seemed to pale under all the dirt and blood.
"We've got to get out of here, fast," Steve murmured as he hurried along.
"Where are we going to go?" Lex asked breathlessly, reminding them that they were still fugitives. Steve sighed as they continued out into the frigid, cold air outside the bunker. Snow had begun to fall from the sky again. The already deep snow made it hard for them to move quickly, and the temperatures were dropping dramatically as night began to approach.
They were only a hundred metres away from the Quinjet when Bucky felt Lex's grip on him slacken. He looked to his side as she began to fall to her knees. "Lex!"
Steve stopped, trying to catch Lex with his spare hand while still holding Bucky, but Lex's knees hit the snow and she began to fall back as she lost consciousness.
Steve and Bucky both scrambled to Lex, Steve feeling for a pulse while Bucky tried to rouse her, touching her cheek and gripping tightly to her shoulder. He found moisture there as he squeezed. Confused, he pulled his hand away to find it covered in blood. "Steve..."
Steve looked at Bucky's hand, before pulling Lex forward to look at the back of her shoulder, there was a deep wound there, it looked like she may have been impaled by something. "We've got to get her to a medical facility, she's losing a lot of blood."
"Where are we going to go?" Bucky demanded as Steve moved her onto her side. "Wherever we go we're wanted men, and so is she by association now." Bucky felt his anger and frustration rising. Steve was silent, as he continued to try and render aid to Lex.
The silence between them was broken by the crunching sound of snow under foot behind them. Steve was quick to his feet, spinning around with his fists raised, while Bucky moved to his knees, shifting closer to Lex.
The Black Panther stood before them, his hands raised up before him, showing he was unarmed and meant no harm. "Perhaps I can help?"
Steve and Bucky glanced sideways at each other, before Steve narrowed his eyes at T'challa suspiciously. "You want to help us? A couple of hours ago you were wanting to kill us," Steve said coldly.
"I wanted to kill him," he said motioning towards Bucky before continuing. "However, I have since found the truth and captured the man responsible for the murder of my father," T'challa answered, reaching up and removing his helmet. "We are all victims of a troubled man, I would like to make amends for my slights."
Steve hesitated for a moment, before lowering his hands. Bucky saw T'challa look from Steve to Lex.
"She's been injured," Bucky explained, putting his hand on her neck, trying to feel for a pulse. "Pulse is weak."
T'challa and Steve hurried back to Lex's side, T'challa checking her over himself. "We can take her back to Wakanda, my doctors can help her."
"We need to make sure she will make it there, first," Bucky murmured as T'challa rolled her onto her back again.
"I have the necessary medical equipment on my jet," T'challa replied, sliding his hands beneath her body before hoisting her up and into his arms. "Come." Steve reached down, helping Bucky up and they both hurriedly followed T'challa to his jet.
Bucky wasn't even sure when it was they had arrived in Wakanda, nor did he know how long it had taken.
His whole focus had been on Lex as she lay inside the pressurised medical chamber. He stood and moved to follow it as the Wakandan medical facility doctors rushed towards them, as the Wakandan King barked orders at his people.
T'challa stopped Steve and Bucky as the doctors wheeled her away. "She is in the best hands, I will ensure you will be kept informed."
He then motioned to four tall women, dressed in colourful and embellished armour, walked onto the ship, their shaved heads giving off an intimidating presence, if their sharp looking spears weren't enough. They moved towards Helmut Zemo, who was subdued in the corner of the ship, hoisting him to his feet roughly and pushing him to stand between the four of them.
He was led him from the jet, his expression was set into a grim and menacing smile as he fixed his gaze on Bucky. Bucky felt the urge to grasp Zemo around the neck, suddenly lunging for the Sokovian.
"Whoa, Buck," Steve warned, quickly grabbing him, as T'challa moved between Bucky and the escort. "Leave it to the authorities now." Bucky glared at the smiling Zemo as the Wakandan guards took him away to another waiting aircraft.
"He is being delivered to Everett Ross, and an in depth explanation as to how he was discovered and captured," T'challa explained, motioning for them to follow him into the medical facility.
"Detailed?" Steve pressed pointedly.
"Mostly." T'challa grinned, before looking between them both. "My doctors will see to your wounds too, by then, perhaps Alexia will be out of surgery."
"Lex," Bucky corrected the Wakandan automatically, the King's gaze shifting to look at him with raised eyebrows. "She doesn't like being called Alexia." T'challa smiled apologetically before motioning to a medical room. As they entered, two doctors and some nurses stepped forward to treat them.
Bucky sat on a lounge outside the room they were keeping Lex in. His wounds had mostly been superficial, a few needing stitches but most just needing to be cleaned up. Right now, his destroyed arm was the main problem. T'challa said he had someone in mind to try and remove the broken cybernetic prosthetic and was sending for them.
Lex was out of surgery, but had yet to regain consciousness. She had suffered contusions to a lot of her body, apparently being caught in the explosion and following collapse of the silo. The doctors were slightly concerned about some damage to her spine, apparently it appeared some of her spinal column had been fractured. She had also had most of her ribs broken, and fractures along her arms and legs, but they weren't sure whether the serum would have any effect on the healing process of her injuries. To aid in their research, Bucky had offered up his blood to compare to hers, hoping that it might offer answers as to whether her recovery would be similar to his own abilities.
He leaned back, resting his head against the wall, as he thought about what he had put Lex through. He recalled their first meeting in their apartment building and her bubbly nature from the beginning. It made him smile.
"Ah, James?" T'challa called, appearing around the corner.
Bucky looked up, furrowing his brow at being addressed by his first name, it was an unfamiliar sound.
T'challa was walking with someone else. She was much shorter than him and apparently much younger. She appeared to be only a teen, an inquisitive look on her face as she looked at him, and wearing a casual shirt and jeans. It was a vast contrast to the Wakandan King next to her.
They stopped in front of him as he stood up slowly. Due to his partially missing cybernetic prosthetic, he felt off-balanced often, it was taking some getting used to moving around.
"This is my sister, Shuri, the head developer at the Wakanda Design Group. She will assist with the removal of that," T'challa explained, motioning to his left shoulder. Bucky glanced sideways at his destroyed titanium arm. He considered it for a moment, trying to move it even a little. There was no movement in response, but a slight spark.
The girl frowned and balked slightly. "Oh yeah, that's going to have to come off," Shuri scoffed. "What ancient technology is that?"
She moved to look closer at it. "World War two," Bucky murmured in response.
Shuri's eyebrows raised and she gawked at him for a moment. "You're joking, right?" Bucky didn't answer her, blinking instead. "Whoa..." she looked to her brother for confirmation, but he ignored her questioning look.
"Can you do it, Shuri?" T'challa demanded of his sister.
"Yeah, I mean, it might just take awhile, I need to figure out how they did it and work backwards."
T'challa nodded. "James, if you could go with Shuri sh-"
"I would rather wait for Lex to wake up," Bucky interrupted. Shuri raised her eyebrows, before looking through the window into the hospital room curiously.
"I must insist, James, you are rather dangerous to my staff with those wires exposed," T'challa replied, looking apologetic.
"It's alright, Buck," Steve said, appearing down the corridor. Bucky looked expectantly at Steve. "I'll stay with her and call you if she comes to."
Bucky hesitated, considering Steve for a moment and thinking about Lex lying in her hospital bed in a strange place. It was only when his shoulder emitted sparks again when Shuri touched it out of curiosity did he finally agree to go with her.
Bucky sat on a gurney as Shuri used some type of scanner on his shoulder. She scanned from where his flesh and the titanium met, all the way down and under his arm.
"I must say, for 1945, this is some pretty advanced technology," she murmured, furrowing her brow as she looked at the screen in her hand. She glanced sideways at him. "What happened to your real arm?"
Bucky sighed. "I don't know. The last thing I remember before waking up on a table with doctors working on me and a metal arm is being on the mission to catch Arnim Zola, the head scientist for HYDRA. It was an ambush and I ended up thrown from the train and down a cliff."
The painful memory flashed through his head, causing him to clench his fist.
Shuri jumped back slightly as his arm sparked again. "Okay, let's not talk about that again until AFTER I get this off of you."
He looked apologetic as she stepped forward and continued scanning it. Shuri glanced up at his face through her lashes, narrowing her eyes. "So it's true, you're actually one hundred years old? And Captain America too?"
Bucky nodded. "Yeah. We're old men."
"Damn, what did they use on you guys?" Bucky didn't say anything as she put down the scanner and pulled out some tools. She touched the loose wires here and there, narrowing her eyes whenever a spark would flare. "So, you were a good guy and they turned you into a bad guy? How?" Bucky grimaced. Shuri was terribly inquisitive.
He sighed. "There's these words, they can say them in the right order and it triggers something in my head. I'll become completely complicit, I'll do whatever I'm ordered to do."
Shuri stared at him in awe. "What?" He found her gaze unnerving and looked to the ground. He was a monster. "So it's cerebral programming? Fascinating. Do you know when it's happening?" He nodded. "Man, that's terrible. Is that what happened in Berlin?"
He was silent again, as he began to remember all that he'd done. He was dangerous, if anyone was to find the journal with the instructions, he was putting many more people at risk too. "I need to be put away."
"What?" Shuri asked, stopping what she was doing and looking at him in confusion. "Put away? What, like jail?"
"No, that won't hold me if someone activates the programming," he replied grimly. "Bury me, freeze me, anything, anywhere, where no one can find me."
Shuri pressed her lips together and looked sympathetic. She patted him on his other arm in what he supposed was to cheer him up, before continuing to analyse his shoulder. "And the girl?" Bucky looked at her expectantly. "The one you were waiting to wake up? Who is she?"
He considered her question for a moment. "A friend."
"Yeah?" He couldn't help but note the tone of scepticism in her voice. She gave a light laugh before putting down her tools. "If you say so. Is she like you?"
"No, she's more like Steve. Her mind is her own to control."
Shuri nodded and considered Bucky for a moment, folding her arms across her chest and looking thoughtful. "Well, I can look into cerebral programming, see if we can't get some of that brainwashing out of you."
Bucky shrugged. He didn't like her chances of getting it out of him. It had already been over seventy years, what was this teen ever going to achieve.
"Okay, I think I know what to do about this thing," she said firmly, motioning to his shoulder, smiling. She set to work, calling in a doctor and moving him into a lab to start work on removing his titanium arm.
After an hour and a half of work by Shuri and the doctor, Bucky's arm was removed and a temporary prosthetic shoulder added to help keep him balanced again.
Shuri took him back to the medical facility, continuing to question him about his mental conditioning and programming.
He was relieved to be back at the medical facility, finding Steve standing at the door. "Hey, Buddy," Steve greeted him, looking at his left shoulder. "How do you feel?"
"A little to the right," Bucky joked.
Steve grinned, patting him on the shoulder. Bucky looked past him, through the door. Lex lay on the bed still, tubes in her arms and hooked up to machines inside the room. He grimaced.
"She hasn't made a move yet, doctors are saying her brain activity is off the charts though."
"So she's going to pull through, right?"
Steve looked apologetic and sighed sadly. "They can't tell us."
Bucky sighed again, staring into the room. "Are we allowed in?"
"Yeah, I've already been in." He grabbed the handle to the door and pushed it open, walking in and moving to stand beside the bed, letting Steve shut the door behind them.
Bucky looked down, at Lex. Her eyes were closed, although there seemed to be a pained expression on her face. Her arms lay lifelessly by her sides, her blonde hair flowing down the side of her face where the nurses had placed it after cutting off her hair ties to access her head injuries.
He reached out and touched her hand, it was warm. Of course, from his own experience, that didn't mean much for them. Their bodies always ran hotter with the serum in their veins. He had never touched her skin directly before, it was smooth and soft, strange, when you consider how hard she could hit.
Bucky considered his conversation with Shuri at the lab, thinking about what options they now had. They were all fugitives, him more than anyone else. Shuri had given him an option, but he wasn't sure what Lex could do, if she even woke up. "So what are you going to do now?" Bucky asked, looking up at Steve as he withdrew his hand from Lex.
Steve stood on the other side of the bed, and looked seriously at Bucky. He sighed, shrugging. "I don't know."
"What about your friends?"
"Well, there's that, I'll have to get them out, but once that's done, I'll think of something for us," Steve assured him.
Bucky was quick to shake his head. "No, I'm staying here."
Steve furrowed his brow. "What?"
"I spoke to T'challa's sister, Shuri, she can put me back into a freezer, then she's going to find a way to undo everything they put in my head, make me relatively sane again."
Steve looked stunned, and mildly hurt. Bucky understood his feelings. It had taken seventy years to be finally reunited, and now he was willingly going under again. It wasn't the easiest decision to make, but he knew it was the safest.
Steve finally recovered, speaking quietly. "You sure?"
Bucky nodded, glancing back down at Lex, before looking straight back at Steve. "It's for the best."
Steve sighed and looked down at Lex, grimacing. "I'll have to take some pointers from Lex about laying low, for awhile."
"Well, she is an expert at it," Bucky commented, as they both looked at her. He reached out to move a stray hair from her face, his index finger just brushing her face as he moved the strand away.
In an instant, her hand had grabbed his roughly and squeezed, holding it away from her, her eyes wide in alarm.
It might be awhile until the next updates come through, its going to get difficult to write in the next few pieces of fic so they all marry up nicely through the transition.
I shall return!
xo
Krayzee
