Chapter 1 - Backfire

'I have a favour to ask you.'

Loki looks up over the top of the book at him, one eyebrow raised. 'Are you speaking to me?'

'No I'm talking to the smurf sat next to you,' Bucky huffs, he's already nervous about having to ask this as it is without the trickster making it more difficult. 'Yes I'm asking you.'

The god lets his book fall into this lap and looks around the room as if he still doesn't believe him; once he's satisfied they are in fact the only people here he turns back to him and leans back in the chair, one hand resting against his mouth. 'Very well, proceed with your request Winter Warrior, though don't expect me to say yes.'

Bucky nods and takes the seat opposite him, glad of the coffee table between them to act as some sort of barrier. He's still not sure he really wants to be asking for this, but he needs to know. 'I- you took over Clint's mind when you first arrived here didn't you?'

Loki scowls. 'If this is going to be another rerun of my past misdeeds then I'm not interested in continuing this discussion,' and he picks up his book again to make his point.

'That's not what I meant,' Bucky hurries to add. 'Sorry, I meant – man I'm shit at this. What I meant to ask was: you have experience with mind control right?'

Loki lowers the book again but the scowl is still on his face. 'Yes Barnes I have experience with mind control. Both on me and by me. What exactly are you trying to say?'

Bucky growls, feeling his frustration rising at the god's aggressive tone, and stands up. 'Look all I want to know is if what HYDRA did to me is going to make me more susceptible to mind control when Thanos gets here, because if it is I need to know so I can find a way to stop that from happening. Because I'll be damned if I let some bastard turn me against my friends again, alright? But if you're not interested I'll go find someone else.' He turns to leave, feeling like a fool for having even entertained this idea.

'What did you mean by what HYDRA did to you?' the quiet voice asks, suspicious still but gentler than before.

Bucky pauses halfway to the door and sighs, feeling some of the fight leave his body. He hates talking about that time, hates remembering what he was forced to do for the very people he had tried to take down. He'd been wary of Vision before coming back, knowing what he did about his abilities and worrying the android would try and take over his mind; it was only Steve's assurances that had meant he was willing to try and come back at all. If Wanda hadn't been fighting on their side when he first met her he imagines he would have felt the same way about her. 'They brainwashed me,' he replies after a few moments of silence, not turning to face the god however. 'They took away my memories, took away who I was. I was just a machine to be used as they wanted. I was their Fist.' He looks down at his clenched metal hand. 'They turned me into the thing I had started fighting against, and they nearly succeeded in making me kill Steve. If Thanos has people that can use mind control I want to know that what they did to me isn't going to make it easier for him to turn me against my friends.'

'Before I agree to help I want to ask a question,' Loki says eventually, and Bucky turns to face him, nodding his agreement. 'Is this, in part, the reason you have been so against my being here until I helped Peter?'

Bucky feels shame pooling in his gut and looks to the side, nodding. 'Yes, and I'm sor-'

'Spare me the words, Winter Warrior,' Loki cuts him off, though his tone is not aggressive, 'I don't tend to believe them anymore. Words are like wind: here one minute and then gone the next. You attempted to defend me and Peter against Strange, I will take that as apology enough.'

'Why do you call me that?' he asks, turning back to the god.

'What? Winter Warrior? That is your title is it not? Similar to Tony's Iron Man, and Peter's Spider-Man?'

'No my title is Winter Soldier.'

Loki snorts. 'A soldier goes where he is told and does as he is told and does not question; he is a cog in a larger machine and is useful only in the number of him there are. You are no soldier, you are a warrior.'

Bucky blinks, thinking he's just been complimented but not sure if that was the trickster's intention. 'Um…thank you?'

'Don't be too proud,' Loki smirks, 'most warriors I've met also tend to be unsophisticated brutes who live only for the fight and the drinking celebration that follows. If you think my brother is bad you should be thankful you were spared the rest of Asgards warriors.'

'Do you always give back handed compliments or am I just special?'

Loki laughs. 'You shall have to discover the answer to that yourself. Now are you sure you are willing for me to help you?'

Bucky takes a breath. He's helped Peter, and the kid trusts him. You can too. 'Yes.'

'Don't sound too enthusiastic or I might think you have doubts,' Loki smirks. 'I can check to see if there are any lingering effects from your torture that may make you more susceptible to mind control, but I am afraid to do so I am going to have to look through some painful memories. Are you prepared for me to do that?'

I relive them most nights in my nightmares, this shouldn't be much worse. Outwardly he rolls his eyes. 'How do you think I got to this stage? By ignoring those memories? Just get on with it Night King.'

Loki grumbles. 'I detest that show solely for that reason.'

Bucky grins. 'Then you should have left the insult out of the compliment.'

Loki smiles this time, rather than smirks. 'Touché. Come sit next to me here,' he moves to the couch and gestures at the space next to him. Bucky follows, reminding himself that this is a good idea. 'Now,' the god continues, 'I should only have to look through one or two memories in order to check so it should not take long. Try not to think of any of them, I shall see if I can find the ones that are most useful to this experiment. And try not to get distracted, or you'll bring other memories and thoughts to the front of your mind and make this longer than necessary. Just try to keep your mind blank. It shouldn't be too difficult.'

Bucky doesn't respond, just glares at the smirking god in front of him and closes his eyes, remembering the meditation exercises he'd started practising once the programming had begun to wear off. He feels fingers on either side of his temples and tries to stay calm.

-I shall communicate this way until we are done- he hears Loki's voice inside his head.

'What are you doing?' he asks out loud, starting to move away from the god.

-Relax, Barnes. I have formed a temporary connection so that I can more easily assess you, this means I can communicate with you telepathically and means I only need to concentrate on one place. The mind is more complex than you could begin to comprehend, even yours.-

'Very funny,' he mutters.

-Yes well as entertaining as my comedy is, there are more pressing matters to attend to- and with that memories begin to flash across the back of his closed eyes. Memories of him and Steve playing as children, fighting in the war with the Commandos. Then some more recent ones: arriving back in the States, training with the team once everyone was back, kissing Tony in the lab.

'Hey!' he tries to pull away again but Loki's grip is strong.

-Apologies. I am attempting to get a feel for your mind, and that was a particularly strong memory- there's an edge to his voice that Bucky can't quite place.

'I thought you were going to look at the memories with HYDRA?'

Then those are the memories flashing across the back of his eyelids. The chair. The machine they would use to recalibrate him. His missions. The pain. He suddenly realises he's shouting out with the remembered pain, and then he panics. Being dragged further into the memory.

-Barnes calm yourself! You're safe!- Loki's tone is urgent in his mind but all he can feel is the pain.

Then it changes. Instead of the shock of electricity running through his veins he can feel the sting of a thousand tiny needles piercing his skin. There's another voice crying out with his own.

'You're worth nothing to anyone unless he is there with you. Why deny it?' a horrible voice, one he has never heard before tells him before he loses consciousness.

What the hell? Bucky thinks as consciousness begins to creep up on him. There's a lot of people talking, though it sounds like they're shouting, and he's got a pounding headache.

-Must you think so loudly?- a familiar voice demands. –My headache is bad enough as it is without you contributing as well.-

'What the hell?' he asks out loud, finally opening his eyes. 'What the fuck is he doing here?'

'Trying to help you,' Strange replies, raising a single eyebrow in annoyance. 'Although if that's the thanks I'm going to get you can forget about it, Stark.'

'Give him a break, Strange, he's only just coming round,' Tony comes to kneel next to where Bucky's lying on the sofa. 'How you feeling?'

'Like my head's ready to explode,' he grumbles.

Tony chuckles softly. 'Yeah Loki said the same thing.'

'And yet you still insist on shouting,' the god grumbles.

'What the hell happened?' Bucky asks again.

'It appears,' Strange says, cutting off Loki as he opens his mouth to reply, 'that during your little experiment the apparent master of magic managed to make a mistake that resulted in you forming a mental bond.'

'What?' Bucky starts to panic. The whole point of this was to check no one would be able to take control of his mind again, not form a mental connection with someone that meant-

'Will you please calm down? You're thinking far too loudly,' Loki snaps.

'Wow and I thought it was only me that was able to think loudly,' Tony chuckles, his expression softens and he takes Bucky's hand. 'Listen to me, Bucky. The bond is only temporary and it can be removed. Strange thinks it only formed because you panicked when a particular memory was brought up, and that Loki had a similar memory that the magic latched onto and caused both of you to black out from the panic it caused.'

'Until your minds have stabilised,' Strange adds, 'we won't be able to break the connection without risking permanent mental damage.'

Bucky can feel himself panicking again, then there's a sharp pain in his head. 'Ouch! What was that?'

'Apologies,' Loki groans from where he's holding his head in his hands. 'I didn't mean to be quite so forceful. Your mind was so loud it was causing my headache to get worse so I formed a barrier between your mind and my own to block out your thoughts. In my haste I was more forceful than intended, hence why it caused you pain. When this headache has subsided I shall teach you how to do it so you can shut me out should you wish to for the duration of this bond.'

'Fuck this,' Bucky growls, standing up and hurrying towards the door.

'Wait!' Strange shouts after him. Bucky feels white blinding pain shoot through his head and he stumbles, falling to his knees and, dimly, he can hear an answering shout of pain from behind him.

'What was that?' he hears Tony ask as tears blur his vision.

'As the bond is still so fresh they cannot be too far apart. As their minds stabilise they will be able to move greater distances until they could be entire worlds away with no adverse effects. For the first twenty four hours at least, they will not be able to be more than a few feet away from each other.'

'Please tell me he's joking,' Bucky groans, trying to stop the bile from rising at the pain.

'I don't think he's big into comedy,' Tony answers, helping him stand and bringing him back over to the sofas. 'So how about we sit like grown ups and work out how we're going to deal with this?'

A/N: Hi everyone! I'm back with the next instalment. I hope you enjoy this first chapter; the entire story is written which means there will be weekly updates without fail. I'm not going to start posting any project from now on without having it finished before hand as my working situation has got a little more hectic and I don't want to lose the definite weekly updates for you all. This means there may be slightly longer periods between each story, but at least you know once it starts going up you've got a finished story.

As always please do let me know what you think and if there's anything you want to see in the future!

Love always,

L x

And this means the sneak peeks are back too:

'Pepper you've been seeing each other for nearly a year now. I might have missed you and Natasha meeting up for coffee but I've definitely not missed my CEO and Head of Security getting cosy. That and I built your phones.'

'Tony Stark are you saying you've been hacking into my phone?' Pepper shrieks, face bright red.