Day 15

Into The Unknown

Possession | Magical Healing | Science Gone Wrong

"Just a couple more adjustments and I think we'll be able to give it a try," Bruce said as he and Tony worked on their machine.

Clint glanced over at Bucky to see his reaction. He was sitting on a table a few steps away, Steve hovering next to him. Bucky had his hands braced on the edge of the table on either side of him, his features carefully blank as he stared straight ahead.

"We don't have to do this right now if you don't want to," Steve said quietly, turning his back to Bruce and Tony so that he was fully facing Bucky. "There's no rush."

Bucky stared at Steve for a moment. Then his gaze darted over to Clint. Clint was leaning against the wall with one shoulder, his arms crossed over his chest. He met Bucky's gaze evenly, silently sending his support for what he knew his answer would be.

"I want to do it now," Bucky finally said as he turned back to Steve. His tone was carefully even though, betraying how nervous he really was.

Clint understood. He had spent only a few days under Loki's mind control, forced to do horrible things against his will. Bucky had been used on and off for fifty years, his brain scrambled repeatedly until Bucky barely knew who he really was anymore. It was so much worse than a nightmare, because there were real life consequences. So, Clint understood the desperation to clear out any residual brainwashing to make sure nothing like that could ever possibly happen again. It was why Bucky had asked him to be here to offer support during this experiment.

That, and because Steve and Clint might be needed to contain Bucky if this experiment failed.

"Okay, I think we're ready to give this a shot," Bruce finally said.

"Step right up, big boy," Tony said briskly, indicating the chair in front of the machines they had been working on.

Everything in the lab went deadly still. Clint watched Bucky carefully, noticing how he was breathing heavier than he had just a minute ago. After another tense minute passed, Bucky gave up pretense as he leaned over and gasped in several deep breaths.

Steve reached out and placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder, looking pained. "Are you sure-"

"Just give him a minute," Clint spoke up firmly.

Bucky sent him a furtive, thankful look. He ran his hand over his face, took a couple more deep breaths, rolled his shoulders and then resolutely pushed himself up off the table and strode across the room.

"We just need you to sit here," Bruce instructed as he waved a hand toward the chair. "And try to relax."

Bucky eyed the chair and then shifted to look at the machine behind it, where Bruce and Tony stood. Clint saw the anxiety mounting in Bucky's gaze and was already moving when Bucky glanced over at him. Clint situated himself to one side of the machine, still within Bucky's sight, but also close enough to be able to get to Bruce and Tony if anything went wrong.

Because that was what it all came down to. Bucky desperately just didn't want to hurt anyone ever again.

Bucky gave him a small nod of appreciation. Then he took a steadying breath and sat in the chair, his back rigid as he gripped the armrests, the left armrest bending under his metal fingers. Tony came around the machine and started placing sensors on Bucky's temples, on his forehead, on his bare chest. As he worked, Steve came over to stand beside Bucky, watching stoically.

"How sure are you that this is going to work?" Steve asked.

"This is uncharted territory, Cap," Tony pointed out. "We can't know anything for sure, especially without viable experiments on record."

"It's a sound theory," Bruce said as he adjusted a few dials on his end. "And it's benign enough that if it doesn't work, there shouldn't be any permanent damage. But in all honesty, it's probably going to take us a few tries to get this right."

"You're sure?" Steve pressed anxiously.

"As sure as we can be," Bruce hedged with a sympathetic look.

"Let's just get this over with," Bucky mumbled.

"That's the spirit!" Tony exclaimed. "Okay, I just need to get this in place and then we're ready to rock and roll."

Tony reached behind Bucky to a rod that was attached to the machine. It was on an adjustable arm that Tony rotated around. At the end of the rod was a metal circle that Tony brought down and adjusted to go around Bucky's forehead like a halo, about a half inch between the metal and Bucky's skin. He tweaked a few pieces of the halo and then clapped his hands, causing Bucky to flinch slightly.

"Alright, let's do this thing!" Tony said as he moved around the machine to take his place next to Bruce.

"Try to relax," Bruce urged again. "You'll feel a little discomfort, but let us know if it gets too bad. We can stop at any time." He paused, looking at the back of Bucky's head unsurely. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Bucky said, his tone clipped.

"Steve, I need you to take a couple steps back," Bruce said, and Steve reluctantly complied, taking two generous steps back.

Clint didn't pay much attention to what Bruce and Tony were doing behind the console. Instead he focused on Bucky, noting every shift in his features and every twitch of his muscles as the machine whirred to life. For a minute, it didn't look like much was happening. Then, a metallic buzzing came from the halo around Bucky's head. Bucky was breathing harder and he winced.

"Buck?" Steve said. "You okay?"

Bucky swallowed thickly as his eyes darted around anxiously. "Uh. Yeah."

"We're going to up the power a little," Bruce reported.

The hum from the machine shifted up a pitch and increased in frequency. It was enough to bother even Clint's ears as he squinted slightly against the uncomfortable feeling in his own head. Bucky's features tightened as he clenched his jaw. His eyes squeezed shut and his head leaned forward a bit…

The second Bucky's forehead touched the metal loop, there was a loud crack as sparks flew and Bucky let out a raw scream.

Everyone was moving. Steve ran toward Bucky. Bruce stepped back from the machine, eyes wide. On instinct Tony started to come out from behind the machine, but Clint threw out an arm to stop him.

"No, no, get Bruce and get out," Clint commanded loudly.

"But-" Tony started, only to be cut off by the shout of rage as Bucky reached up with his metal hand and ripped away the halo.

Clint grabbed Tony by the sleeve and shoved him toward the door as he moved toward where Bruce was frozen in place, grabbing him by the shoulders and physically moving him.

"C'mon, Bruce, go, go, go," Clint said urgently, keeping his body squarely between Bruce and Bucky as he pushed him to the door where Tony was waiting for them.

Because a Hulk in the small enclosed space with the Winter Soldier would be catastrophic.

"I'm sorry, I-" Bruce started.

"Tony, get Bruce far away from here," Clint ordered as he pushed Bruce into Tony. Both ducked out the door and Clint yanked it shut. "JARVIS, lockdown protocol."

As the emergency alarms sounded and metal emergency doors slid into place, Clint whirled back around to the situation at hand. Bucky had ripped away all the equipment that had been attached to him and was now on his feet. Clint would never get used to the way that the Winter Soldier presented as a completely different person than Bucky Barnes. There were no physical changes when he made the switch, but the Winter Soldier held himself with an aggressive menace that Bucky never would. His shoulders were hunched and his arms were out and coiled to attack.

"Bucky," Steve said, putting his hands out as if trying to calm a wild animal. Which was essentially what was happening. "It's me, it's Steve. You know me, right?"

And then Bucky lunged.

Steve would always have a weakness when it came to Bucky Barnes. And that wouldn't change even when he was the Winter Soldier. So, when Bucky lunged at him, Steve was immediately knocked off balance, unsteadily blocking two blows before a roundhouse kick landed firmly on his side and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Clint sprinted forward as Bucky pounced on Steve, winding up with his metal arm to deliver a devastating blow. Clint threw himself forward, wrapping both hands around the metal arm and using his momentum to yank it to the side, sending Bucky sprawling with it. The Winter Soldier was never down for long though. Clint immediately rolled away, but Bucky was already lunging for him with a growel. Clint spun around, frantically ducking a swing from the metal arm and diving toward Bucky's legs to throw him off balance again. While Bucky was stumbling, Clint came up behind him and pushed his advantage, grabbing Bucky's real arm and twisting it up behind his back. But Bucky spun with the movement and Clint was forced to let go and drop to the ground to avoid getting beheaded by Bucky's metal arm.

"Bucky!" Steve shouted as he had come up behind them and hit Bucky at a full sprint, pinning him into the nearby wall. Bucky yelled and struggled as Steve held him. "Stop, please, stop!"

"You gotta put him down, Cap!" Clint yelled as he pulled a syringe from his pocket, filled with a specially formulated sedative strong enough to take down the Winter Soldier. He bit off the safety cap with his teeth and tossed it to Steve, who easily reached out and caught it.

Unfortunately, the second Steve removed one of his hands, the Winter Soldier sensed the advanged and jumped on it. He pushed out viciously, sending Steve sprawling to the floor again, then he spun around and stomped hard on Steve's chest.

"Shit," Clint hissed as he sprung to Steve's aid again.

But this time, the Winter Soldier was expecting him. He threw out his metal arm in an arm bar, firmly hitting Clint across the chest and sending him flying a good six feet, colliding hard with the machine in the room. Clint let out a cry of pain as he slumped down to the floor. He took a moment to clear his vision and get his bearings, and by then the Winter Soldier was looming over him. He reached down his metal arm and seized Clint around the throat, and it felt like a vice had clamped on his windpipe. Clint choked and kicked his feet, but without being able to get a breath in before Bucky had grabbed him, his vision was already starting to tunnel.

"Stop!"

And suddenly Clint was on the floor, coughing and wheezing desperately for breath. His hands went to his throat, which already felt like it was bruised and swollen.

"Clint? Clint are you alright?"

Clint squinted up at Steve's terrified face above him. He glanced around, spotting Bucky laying deathly still behind Steve, the used syringe discarded on the floor next to him. Relief washed over Clint as he realized the danger had passed.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hesitated," Steve said. "It's just…" He sent a pained look over his shoulder at Bucky.

"I know…" Clint rasped.

Clint and Bucky were both transported to the medical floor of Avengers Tower. Bucky was given his own, secured room to sleep off the sedative that would hopefully reset him back to his normal self. Clint was checked out extensively by the doctors in his own room. Thankfully, his trachea wasn't damaged in the attack, and though his throat would be sore for a few days, it would heal on its own. He did end up needing a few stitches in his lower back from where he had hit the console and a few pieces of metal sliced him pretty good. He hadn't even noticed it at the time. He was also diagnosed with a mild concussion.

All in all though, he had come out the other side of a fight with the Winter Soldier in better shape than he thought he would.

Clint had redressed and was getting ready to head back to his own room in order to rest. He looked up and started as there was a silent figure standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry," Bucky murmured, his gaze immediately falling down to the floor.

"Bucky," Clint said, surprised to see him up and around so soon. And there was no doubt which person he was looking at. Bucky's hands were shoved deep in his pockets, his shoulders sagging and he wasn't able to meet Clint's gaze. "Are you okay?"

At that, Bucky looked up, though he still couldn't quite meet Clint's gaze as he blinked in confusion. "Am I…?" He trailed off and started again. "I attacked you," he said as if he thought maybe Clint had somehow forgotten.

"That wasn't you," Clint said firmly. "You wouldn't have done anything like that on your own free will."

"Yeah, but you got hurt," Bucky insisted.

Clint smirked. "Barely." He stood up, only swaying slightly. "See? I'm fine."

"I'm still sorry," Bucky insisted.

"That's your prerogative," Clint said with a shrug as he walked up to where Bucky stood. He paused and then placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder. "Look at me." He waited until Bucky finally met his gaze. "You are not the Winter Soldier. You are not responsible for the things that he's done. Tony and Bruce are already back to work on their anti-brainwashing machine, and if anyone is gonna be able to get it to work, it's the two of them. So, we'll try again. And again. And again. Until the Winter Soldier is finally gone for good. Alright, Buck?"

Bucky nodded and a small smile tugged at his lips. "Thanks, Clint."