A/N: I'm happy so many people enjoyed my April fools prank, it really motivated me into finally finishing this chapter. Thank you Emerald2211 and BlueOwl for helping me with this chapter.


Steve wasn't going to lie, hearing that his best friend was personally responsible for the death of Howard and his wife was shocking. He knew what it meant that Hydra forced Bucky to be their personal assassin, but it was very different to know that Bucky killed one of their friends from before. Was forced to murder.

Bucky was closer to Howard than Steve was. Not at first, but after Bucky talked to him about getting a custom made uniform along with some other member of their group, it felt like whenever they were stationed in the same place as the scientist, Bucky would be there. It shouldn't have been too surprising. Bucky always loved science fiction stories and been somewhat obsessed with the man even before the flying car fresco. Howard even made Bucky a special sniper rifle without being asked, so it wasn't like their friendship was one sided.

Steve was almost happy that Bucky couldn't remember Howard right now because it would have destroyed the old Bucky if he found out he was anyway responsible for Howard's death. Now Bucky just looked confused and Steve wanted nothing more than to ask what he is thinking, how he is doing, but they have some damage control to do.

It made Steve wonder if Hydra assassinated Howard and his wife just as a show of how much they controlled Bucky. Some sick power play. Sounds like something they would do, but in the end it doesn't really matter.

Doesn't change the fact that this might cause Tony Stark from being one of their few allies to another enemy. Steve wants to believe Stark will do the right thing in the end, but he looked like he was getting ready to punch Bucky in the face until Lani literally popped into their conversation.

And now they are about to tell Fury about Bucky. That seemed like a reasonable idea a few hours ago, but now Steve just kept looking at Stark.

When they walked into the conference room, a different one from that morning, the director of Shield was already there along with Natasha, Barton, and Banner. No one looked happy to be there, but Fury was on a whole another level.

"Does anyone feel like explaining why I had to cover your collective asses today? And who the hell is that?" Fury asked, somehow glaring more effectively with the one eye of his than most people Steve have met.

"You heard the man, Cap," Tony said nonchalantly as he dropped down in one of the chairs, effortlessly putting all the blame on him.

Which, if that was the only pettiness Stark was going to show during the meeting, Steve can deal with it.

"This is Sergeant James Barnes. He's also the reason we know about Hydra." Steve explained right off the bat.

"Sergeant Barnes? Like your friend from the war?" Fury asked, highly suspicious, but before Steve could explain, Stark opened his mouth.

"The very same Bucky bear, who also just so happened to be Hydra's personal attack dog up until a few years ago. Too bad it wasn't any sooner."

Steve glared at Stark who was still wearing a fake calm expression.

"What happened a few years ago?" Fury asked, evidently ignoring Stark's comments for now.

"Broke out of one of their bases and stayed in hiding until recently," Bucky of all people answered, something that was good for their cover story, but also Steve was now looking at him and wondering if he was back to normal.

Or whatever counted as normal for Bucky in this new century.

"And you just happened to be in New York yesterday?"

"I 'just happened' to get a tip off that Steve was alive and wanted to confirm that for myself," Bucky responded with a look that was a carbon copy of the one he would give Colonel Phillips when Steve needed help convincing the man to let the Commander on a mission.

Steve knew he needed to focus on explaining the situation, but he was shocked by how Bucky was acting. It was completely different from the blank expression he was wearing one moment before.

"You were also the unknown fighter during the invasion," Fury realized before turning his attention away from Bucky. "Why wasn't this explained before?"

"Bucky was worried about Hydra tracking him down and I wasn't willing to trust Shield," Steve said, which was as truthful as he was willing to be about this.

"And what happened earlier today?"

"Hydra found Bucky and we found them." Steve wasn't sure what to think about the hard look Fury was giving, but he wanted to hope it wasn't doubt in their story.

Steve has been told he was a lousy liar (usually by Bucky), but this was more omitting parts of the truth than lying: explaining to Director Fury what happened, while purposely being vague about the parts where Lani was involved. Bucky added his side to the story here and there, still acting like his old self which Steve took as a good sign.

Lani did mention she thought the trigger word thing they used on him was temporary.

"You should have told me all this before, but I understand why you didn't. Romanova, you think we can trust Barnes on this?" Fury asked, and Steve was momentarily shocked that out of everyone he would ask her.

"He proved himself willing to fight them and so far the information he gave is viable."

"Fine. We can't be too picky about this. From now on, if you want to talk about Hydra talk to Agent Hill. It'll be too suspicious if you're always going to me, and I need the Avengers to lay low in the public eye for a while. People are starting to think you're going rogue—"

"Going rogue? People should be worried that Hydra is still around!" Steve tried very hard not to yell, but it was close.

"And where would that bring us? A bunch of civilians panicking is not what we need after what happened yesterday." Fury glared at Steve as if trying to challenge him.

And did Steve want nothing more than to rise to the challenge, but he knew that would cause more problems.

"Now if I could continue, it would be best to have Barnes somewhere safe. There's a safe house where—"

"Okay, now I'm going to have to interrupt here. The last thing we need is the murder bot back with Hydra, and until we know what club jackets everyone is wearing, that includes Shield. Barnes will be safer in my tower for now unless you can tell us for sure that no one else in Shield knows about this safe house," Tony announced, still looking nonchalance even with the hardened look in his eyes.

Fury was silent for a moment before saying, "You do realize doing that puts all your employees here at risk, right?"

"Oh I know, but it's still the least shity option."

After that, the conversation was more or less done. Natasha and Clint remained behind, but the rest were free to leave with only another warning for no repeated events.

Banner rushed out in a hurry, but Steve hoped it was due to anxiety rather than anything wrong. Or maybe the high tensions were making it hard to keep control of the Hulk. Steve wasn't sure how the always angry mentality works.

Before Tony could take off as well, Steve held out his hand.

"Thanks, Stark. For letting Bucky stay. It means a lot to me."

"Don't get it confused, Cap; I'm not doing this for you or him."

Then Tony was off to who knows where. Bucky was still standing next to him, but as soon as Steve looked over he started walking. Probably to go check on Lani.

"Bucky wait a second," Steve said, grabbing his wrist.

Bucky froze, staring at his hand before Steve was able to remove it. It was suddenly like they were back during that first few weeks after Steve got everyone out of Azzano and Bucky would flinck whenever Steve touched him. Maybe not so bad, but Steve could still recognize that flash of panic in Bucky's eyes for just a brief moment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean... I just wanted to ask if you're ok before we get back with Lani."

"I'm operational." Bucky said in a monotone voice, but the look he was giving Steve was everything but monotone.

It was the 'you really ask me that? Have you looked in a goddamn mirror lately?' look that Steve was all too familiar with. Which was why Steve was more confused with what Bucky acural said.

"I'm not wondering if you're mission ready Buck, I just want to know how you are. Back with Fury you were... You were acting like your old self." Steve admitted.

"I was just acting in a way that would make it easier for the mission to succeed."

"The mission? You mean getting Director Furry to believe our story?" Steve asked and Bucky gave a single nod.

It felt like his heart fell to his stomach. Bucky was just acting that whole time. Here Steve was thinking that he was starting to remember things and it was just...

"Right. Thanks for doing that Bucky. It... helped a lot." Steve forced himself to say, even giving a smile that felt fake.

From the raised brow, Bucky probably could tell it was fake too, but didn't say anything. It wasn't Bucky fault that Steve got his hopes up.


I was sitting in the bed for only a few minutes wondering if I should just try sneaking my way into the meeting when I got a notification.

[Quest Updated: Mediator]

[Finished]

I froze for a second after reading that. That was... good right? If I failed, it would tell me like when Feliks...

Yeah I was not going to think about that right now. Personal guilt needs to take a backseat until Hydra isn't right outside. Which is what I've been doing for the past few years now but still! Once Hydra is gone for good I'll ask Bucky to take me to therapy or something.

Still...

"Hey Jarvis? If I were to ask what is going on in that meeting would you even be able to tell me?" I asked, looking at the ceiling even though his (their?) cameras wouldn't be there.

Probably.

It took a moment for Jarvis to respond, almost like he was thinking about his response. Or maybe he was doing it to make me think he was thinking about how to respond.

"Unfortunately you do not have the required credentials for me to inform you of the details of the meeting, however, if you ask me some worries you have I can do my best to answer them, Miss. Lani."

That sounded like a loophole. I still just wanted to go to the meeting myself, but now that I'm like 90% sure Bucky is no longer in danger of getting arrested by Shieldra, I guess I could talk to Jarvis more. Who am I kidding, I've been waiting to talk to Jarvis this whole time. Personally the whole AI thing might be cooler than the superhero thing, if only because I know how far my old universe was from getting true AI instead of some impressive machine Learning.

"Um, okay," I started out like a champ.

But I should really figure out what is going to be happening in the near future before asking Jarvis some personal questions like if he has anything similar to emotions or considers himself a person.

"Is Tony still mad? Wait, that's a dumb question, is he still..." I trailed off.

Is he still what? Going to rat Bucky out to Shield? Going to wash his hands of this mess, which is something I can't fault him for.

"Sir has made it clear that you and Sergeant Barnes are welcome here for the indeterminate future."

"Well, yeah he said that but that was over ten minutes ago. A lot can change in that amount of time."

"In that case, as of two minutes ago, Sir told Director Fury that Sergeant Barnes is to remain here."

"Oh," I said because, that made sense.

Matches the time the quest was finished with Tony telling Fury that Bucky is remaining at the tower. Also that is like the opposite of giving Bucky away to Shield.

Right. That was one issue solved. For now.

"Is it okay if I ask you some personal questions? And you can totally say no if now's not a good time or if you don't want to."

"Maybe you should ask the questions first then I will decide if I can answer them," Jarvis said in his smooth British voice.

I always wondered how close that was to the OG Jarvis that was Tony's buttler. But that's not a question I could ask.

"Right, okay. So, I guess I'm just curious how close your artificial intelligence is to human intelligence. Or maybe not intelligence per say but, personhood?"

"Are you wondering how 'Human' I am Miss. Lani?" And it might have just been me, but Jarvis sounded amused.

"...maybe, though I didn't want to be so human centric?" I said with a half shrug, still mindful of my arm in the sling.

"That might be more due to the limitation of language, but to answer your question, I am self aware. While I do not have the hormones and neurotransmitter to simulate emotions like you, I do consider myself able to feel. For example, I experienced frustration at the fact you were able to get past most of my firewalls to give sir that message."

"Your firewalls? Oh, sorry about that," I said awkwardly.

Tony didn't seem too upset about me hacking. More worried about how I knew about the palladium poisoning. It did make sense that Tony would have Jarvis in charge of the digital security, and apparently he took his job seriously. Or Jarvis is the digital security. Would that mean that I basically hacked Jarvis?

I really hope Jarvis isn't too pissed at me for doing that.

"There is no need to apologise, Miss. Lani. The fact that your note increased Sir's life expancity is more than enough for me," Jarvis said and I let out an audible sigh of relief.

"That's good to know, though I will try not to hack you again."

"You do not need to worry about that. You pointed out the few flaws in my system that has been fixed a while ago. I doubt if you were to try now you could succeed getting as far in."

I didn't doubt that since the only reason I was able to get through the first time was because I kept reloading whenever I failed. Wasn't fair to Jarvis that I had close to unlimited time to do that.

But...

"That sounds like a challenge?" I asked hesitantly, hoping that I wasn't misreading the situation.

"Indeed it does."

[Relationship up]

[JARVIS correspondent 1]

[JARVIS is willing to help you with furthering your hacking skills]

[Quest Updated: relationship thing with JARVIS]

[Finished]

[Additional relationship perk found]

[JARVIS no longer has you listed as an active threat]

Okay. That was a lot. I was hoping for friendship, but I guess I have to start somewhere, and that is pretty good place considering Jarvis had me on some kind of threat list.

Maybe he was more pissed about me hacking then he let on.

Before I could ask, or even figure out if that was something I wanted to ask about, the door opened. Steve and Bucky were there, the former giving a strained smile that put me on edge.

"You're back," I still ended up saying in relief before following up with, "Is everything okay?"

I know Jarvis told me at least Tony didn't sell Bucky out, but that still leaves a lot of other options. I mean, why did they even have Bucky meet with Fury in the first place? They know Shield is compromised, and even though Fury is okay, the people he is in contact with might not be.

"Everything is fine, Lani," Steve said and I may not be the best at reading people, but I could tell that was a lie from a mile away.

"Yeah, cut the bullshit and please just tell me what's going on."

Steve looked shocked at my frustration, but luckily Bucky decided to tell me what had been happening.

"It was decided that revealing my presence as Bucky Barnes to the director of Shield was an explanation to why the Avengers infiltrated the Hydra base we were being held in while also keeping your existence hidden."

That was a lot.

Yeah, I could see why the Avengers attacking what most people thought was a bank could be iffy, and saying that Steve's bff was there was a good reason. I mean, that was probably the whole reason the Avengers attacked, because Steve wanted to find Bucky.

"But why didn't you tell him about me? Not that I really wanted you to, but I'm more worried about more people finding out that Bucky is here and I'm way less recognizable than the Winter Soldier."

"We decided telling Fury about you wasn't worth the risk," Steve said, and I had a feeling that wasn't just a royal we.

"Okay, not sure if I agree, but not like there is much I can do about it now." And even as I said that, Bucky gave me a warning look.

Interesting. Does he still know I can reload even though he doesn't really remember me?

"Don't worry, things might not be... fine right now, but you two don't have to do this alone. We're going to help you both and get rid of Hydra once and for all."

"Yeah, okay," I said because... what else could I say to that?

If anyone can defeat the monsterous Nazi plague that is Hydra, it would be Captain America. Even if only because of comic logic, which who knows, maybe that does work in this universe.

"I have a deck of cards if you want to play, or Bucky and I can play while you rest." Steve ended up suggesting after a long pause in the conversation.

I was a little tired, but there was no way I was going to sleep just yet. I needed to see if anything goes to hell in the next few hours because I need to feel safe about overwriting my save.

"What game?"

"Do people still play crazy eights in the future?" Steve asked while pulling out an unopened deck of 52 cards.

"Most people play uno, but that's pretty much the same game only that when you have one card left in your hand you have to say uno before anyone else or you pick up the discard pile."

"That doesn't sound too hard, you up for that, Bucky?"

Turns out, it was kinda hard because unlike with uno which had the card tell you that they do, every person has their own house rules with crazy eights. Like I was taught that 2 skip your turn, 3 you skip your turn and have to draw a card, and if you don't have a card to play you have to keep drawing until you find one. Either Steve learned other rules or the game has changed a lot more than I thought in the 70 odd years.

"You can't play two 3's in a row!"

"What? Of course you can."

"No you can't, Bucky back me up here," Steve pleaded, but Bucky just placed his card down.

Which was another 3. I started laughing at Steve's yells of frustration even though I was the one who had to pick up an extra card.

It was totally worth it.


A/N: Still not totally happy with that first scene, but some times you just have to move on.

Thank you everyone who has followed and favorited this story. Last time I checked there was over 2K people following on this site and ao3 which is a lot of people. And the reviews! We're getting close to 1000 total reviews and comments. It is seriously amazing how many people like this self indulgent story I'm writing. Also, since I didn't do it for the bonus chapter, I have to thank all the reviewers for two chapters (okay more like 1.5 chapters if I did it by length).

So Thank you so much Deyalep, KingCat48, Rosiekay, Rezan, The guest called TactfuLizard (if anyone drew a picture of Bucky with a bunch of kittens sleeping on his feet I think I would die), Inu-Angel Z (times 2!), Haydoge, Omega-66 (times 2!), Hearteyesmf, Roxycall18 (times 2!), RavenGryffindor35 (times 2!), verycoolname (times 2!), Blueowl, KEZZ 1, seraphina987, Jdh2 (times 2!), blacklily725 (times 2!), Steven Bentiss (times 3!), the two(?) guest on chapter 2 who commented about Lani being born in a world were SCP existed (So this is what game be the idea of doing an April bonus chapter and I was going to write an AU thing, but my mind exploded whenever I thought about that), Emolover1792, ThatOneGuest (with animals I feel like there is a difference between communication and having a real language, so you might be able to learn to speak with wales/dolphins but not dogs), Eyolf, pinkiemillie, Guest g (Thanks for your supportive review), Bisexuwhale, andibella, curry-llama, leeny Glen, Altria-Aty (times 3!), the guest reviewer who must have been looking for a more traditional (?) gamer fic, Lady Kaiki, The guest who wondered if it was bad luck to kill black widow and spicy (I would say yes ;) ), Guest who said this storyline was amazing (sorry for the long wait), moonnightcat, Aquilapalla129, Ahliyn, KingCat48 (who left 8 reviews!), PrincessMagic, Mitsuo the Universe jumper, Secret618, SunnySides (I hope this chapter answers your questions from last time), JularaVon, Death Fury (I might have thanked you already by name), bored411, Rc Jackson, In Pursuit of Magic, CrystalAris, CyberWolfWrites, I.D's Fantasy, Fantasia Komix, HuangBaiLian, Azaira, Arkyong, doctordan123, Adagio521, the guest who caught my poet's not poems mistake, Cboylan, BlackDove WhiteDove, and last but not least zackman2k12.

See that wall of text? That is a lot of reviews and I love each and everyone of them (okay maybe not the ones who get mad at this not being like other gamer fics but still). I hope everyone is doing okay right now and feel free to give me any light heart ideas. There will be some avenger bonding coming up before the next major plot point so I won't mind squeezing some of your ideas in.

Hope you all have a good night/day!