Hi all- here we have the next instalment- I'll keep them coming as much as I can but RL is a little hectic at the moment- we're moving soon, plus my job is ultra-hard right now, so all the pressure is piling up. Patience is appreciated, this fic will never be abandoned- I promise.

As always, all things belonging to MCU are nothing I own- no copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Sixteen- Making Improvements

Bucky stared down at Tony sat on the floor of the entertainment room after Tasha had left. He had been surprised that Tasha had been so forthcoming with the reveal of who had set his mission, and surprised further still at Tony's reaction.

He had been waiting for the eruption of rage, the accusations to fly. His entire body had been coiled to jump up and protect Tasha, but he hadn't needed to. The hot-headed man had reigned any anger in and behaved rationally, being gentle and kind with a woman who had never so much as cried once when they had been in HYDRA.

Seeing her so hurt had struck deep, those huge eyes brimming with tears, her lip chewed to shreds and her body vibrating with tension and nerves. He had seen the relief in her eyes when Tony had told her she wasn't being cast out, then the fear when she had to tell him more, then relief again.

When she had left, he could see the cogs of Tony's mind start to turn, the look in his eyes that meant he was sorting through the information received and trying to come up with something out of it. Hazel eyes looked into his blue ones. "You are an unusual man, Tony Stark, HYDRA was extremely wrong about you."

Confusion flashed through the hazel eyes, head cocked in thought. "How so?"

Bucky smiled. "I remember the many files given on you, and out of all the information in them, there was nothing for your capacity to show kindness and generosity. You were going down the same path as your father, I recall the many weapons you provided to the military and they grew scarily more powerful, until you were obliterating entire mountains. Then Afghanistan happened and you were changed. You were shown your mortality, you realised that even your money could not save your life if you were in the hands of the wrong kind of people."

He watched Tony shudder, the fear in his eyes as he was taken back to the time he had almost died. "You're right. I came out of that scarred and changed. I could the see the destruction my weapons were causing when arms dealers found out about them and wanted them. When I was forced to build the Jericho missile, I knew the devastation it could cause to mountains, as you say, if used in a village, it would be annihilated."

Bucky nodded. "Yes, so instead, you stalled for time and built a suit you could use to escape. Another prisoner helping you, ultimately giving his life to ensure your escape. Thus, the Iron Man was born."

Tony couldn't help but laugh, having heard those same words from Clint at some point. Time, and events, could severely change a person, as Tony had learned from Afghanistan and New York. After the worm hole trip, he had been changed again, and it was then he realised his life had started to fall apart.

"Yes, indeed. What Tasha said about your programming, I think we can use that to our advantage. Our main concern when you go soldier is that you're intent on killing me, so what if we removed that mission protocol?"

Bucky frowned slightly. "Do you really think that removing the protocol will be as easy as that? We've hit brick wall after brick wall, it can't really be as simple as that."

Tony shrugged and gave him a lop-sided grin. "Yeah, I do. Tasha was the vital missing piece, something I couldn't see because you both chose to withhold information from me. If I had known this sooner, it's possible that I could have had the protocols from HYDRA fully removed and when triggered, the need to kill me might not have been there. To be honest, the worst you might have done would be to destroy some equipment. But we'll not know unless we get those protocols removed."

There was sense in the words, but Bucky had reservations on it. He wasn't entirely sure Tasha would want to use his words to remove or enter new protocols, and he was concerned that afterwards, if he did trigger, that Tony was wrong and equipment wouldn't be the only thing he damaged.

At the same time, though, he knew that if they didn't try, they would never know. So, after some further thought, Bucky nodded and agreed to try and have the protocols removed. But, and he stressed this, they had to dig and make sure that any hidden protocols were removed, and that his words were changed, or at the very least, they put some sort of shut down so that if he did go nuts again, everyone had a codeword that would essentially disable him.

Tony readily agreed and they started to brain storm, getting details down. As to who had to tell Tasha that she would have to essentially hack into Bucky's brain? Well, that delightful job fell down to him after he lost the coin toss.

-oo0oo-

When Tash returned with Steve, Tony filled the Captain in, and he took the opportunity to inform Tasha of their plan. Naturally, she rejected it instantly, as he had expected.

"Tasha, come on, listen to me. You can remove all this crap from my brain, I might not be a danger to people once you're done," he pleaded.

Still, she refused, begging not to be given that kind of power. She even tried to get Steve to talk some sense into him, but his oldest friend agreed that this was the best plan- despite it being Tony's. He had to laugh at that.

He tried again. "Tasha, please. I hate knowing that I could kill anyone at any point if I trigger. It terrifies me to know there could be other protocols in my brain that we don't know about. There could be sleeping ones that even you didn't put there."

Bucky could see he was winning, her eyes widened at the thought of deeper protocols, fear creeping in. He was getting through to her, but she wasn't there yet.

"Soldat," she whispered. "You don't know what could happen. That is a lot of power you're giving me, what if I say something wrong?"

He laughed and hugged her tightly. "Malen'kiy pauk, you're worrying needlessly. Tony is going to oversee everything, and we've already got Steve searching for new words that can be given to me, ones that are less…troubling."

He knew she caught his hesitation, and it was the clincher that got her to do what he wanted, what he needed. They agreed to wait a few days before actually putting their plan into action, Tony was still healing and he couldn't risk another injury, and Tasha was emotionally strung out. At the weekend was when Bucky would have his brain re-wired, and hopefully, they would start to get somewhere.

Everyone filed out of the entertainment room, leaving Bucky alone. The idea that he might be able to get some semblance of his former self back was exciting, a glimmer of hope shone at the edges of his mind, but he tried not to latch on too tightly.

Oddly enough, his mind switched back to the night of the fundraiser he had attended with the other Avengers. Members of HYDRA had tried to capture him, but he was absolutely certain there were no major players left of the group, so who could be pulling the strings now?

Even more troubling was what would have happened if Tony had not been so inclined as to refuse, or worse, they had taken him forcefully and there had been casualties. Why had they decided to strike then? Why that fundraiser?

"FRIDAY, I'm not sure if I have privileges for this, but could you check the security takes for the night of the fundraiser?" He asked.

"Of course, Sergeant Barnes, could you specify the times you would like me to check?" Came the disembodied voice.

Thinking about it, Bucky answered. "An hour before we left, up to an hour after we returned, please."

He waited patiently for her to return. "Sergeant Barnes, are you wishing to view the footage? There are over 100 images running at any one time. It might help if you can give me some indication of what exactly it is that you're searching for?"

Bucky scratched his chin, the skin catching on the stubble. He needed to shave. "I'm not too sure. It bugs me that they knew to attack the night of the fundraiser, but they made no move to actually apprehend me."

If he was doing reconnaissance, he would make sure that he knew every in and out of the people he planned to attack. So that meant that someone had to have been watching them to know what time they would be leaving, to know what time they would be attending the fundraiser.

"FRIDAY, are there any time skips in your recordings? Any blank spots? No matter how short?" He asked.

There was pause while, he assumed, she checked her data banks. "No, Sergeant Barnes, no glitches, blank spots or missing data."

"Hmm," he sighed. "Okay, around the time we're leaving, can you pick up anyone who is watching closely? Paying too much attention?"

Again, a pause. "No, no persons that pay attention to the building other than passer-by's who glance. Would you like me to check for anything else?"

He thought about it before answering the AI. "Yes, please. Will you check the building surrounding cameras, not Stark Tower ones, but the city cameras, and see if anything is different when we set off for the fundraiser?"

A projection appeared near him, several screens showed images of the camera that sat opposite the entrance to the tower. FRIDAY showed one still shot for several days in a row where the camera was facing the oncoming traffic on the one-way road, but on the night of the fundraiser, it was facing the entrance to the Tower, and the still shot had all of them filing out and climbing into cars.

"Jesus, they had the camera pointed on us. How the hell?" He muttered.

"Hey, Buck, what're you looking at?" Came Bruce's voice.

Bucky peered around and frowned. "I'm not sure yet. The night of the fundraiser, when HYDRA gate crashed, the camera outside the entrance to the Tower was facing it. But on all other days, it always faced the oncoming traffic."

Bruce looked at each of the images and tutted quietly to himself in thought. "It would take someone very smart to be able to hack into the city's surveillance and alter a camera position, and then change it back. Look, FRIDAY has included a shot taken not ten minutes after everyone left, and the camera is back facing its regular position."

Bucky's frown deepened. "That is some serious hacking. What do you make of it?"

Bruce shrugged. "Depends. HYDRA didn't try really hard to re-capture you, so maybe it was never about that to begin with. Perhaps it was simply gathering information on us as a unit. All the major players of HYDRA were ruined after the helicarriers went down and Pierce was revealed. So, it would stand to reason that there are new players involved, and they might not have the kind of background info Pierce did. So, I guess the next question is who is now in charge, and what do they really want?"

He turned and face the man who housed the Hulk. "What do you mean?"

Bruce folded his arms over his chest, and rested his left hip against a counter. "Well, if I'm honest, I don't really think they were after you. Like I said, it stands to reason that they were gathering information. I think that if they actually wanted you, they would have simply used the words that put you under their control. Either they didn't know them, or they didn't want to re-capture you. Something niggles me about it all, and I can't put my finger on it right now, but it's there, just scratching the back of my brain."

Pondering over it all, Bucky scratched at the red star on his left arm. "You're right. I think we have a new boss in town, and whoever that is, they're specifically looking to reclaim Assets. Something I did notice, none of them seemed big. Most HYDRA field agents were burly, strong. I swear these guys all had a build like yours, wirier. No offence."

"None taken."

"They handled their weapons with surety, but even at glance I could see the head one had the safety on. If you're planning to capture, you don't have your safety on. You flip it off before you enter to make sure you can get the drop on anyone that tries to get the drop on you."

Silence hung in the air, both trying to put the pieces of the elaborate puzzle together, but neither had any answers. In the end, Bucky asked FRIDAY to create a folder for his search and add any notes he wanted, giving the others access. Bruce left with a quick smile, and Bucky was once again alone.

The urge to busy himself with something had him making his way down to Tony's lab, searching for the billionaire mechanic. He asked FRIDAY for entry but she refused, instead alerting Tony to his presence. The reinforced glass door slid open, so he took that as permission and stepped through.

He found Tony hunched over a gauntlet, screw driver in hand, tongue caught between his teeth. He waved at a stool on wheels, still busy. Bucky sat down silently and waited for him to finish whatever he was tightening or fixing with his gauntlet, trying desperately not to fidget.

Finally, after a string of curses that made even Bucky blush, Tony threw down the screwdriver. "Need something?" He asked.

Bucky shook his head. "I thought you might like an opportunity to tinker with my arm. It needs a check-up anyway, and I can't exactly pop to the local hospital."

A quick smile quirked Tony's lips. "Sure, whatever. Anything in particular bothering you with it?"

He shrugged, listening to the click of plates, one sticking. "That, there's a plate sticking, it's not causing any problems right now, but it could present concerns later."

Tony nodded and pulled out the same mini pack he'd used when he's repaired Bucky's arm, to sort out the pressure sensors. He found the hatch that let him into the arm and jimmied it open, peering into the wiring.

He hummed and tutted as he looked his arm over, and Bucky tried not to squirm too much, the scrutiny into his arm becoming a little too intense for him. "Erm, so I kind of have a confession to make."

Tony sat back and frowned slightly at him, hands splayed in invitation to keep talking.

Bucky huffed a sigh. "I maybe sort of bust the plate myself, so I could come down here," he murmured.

Eyebrows climbing his forehead, Tony shook his head but a smile tugged his lips. "Alright. So, either you want to talk and thought the only way you could get down here would be to bust your arm, or you bust the arm so I'd fix it and be all happy that I could tinker with every mechanic's wet dream."

A dark blush filled Bucky's cheeks and he sucked in a breath. "Err, the latter one. Mostly. Erm. I, uh, wasn't sure I'd be allowed back down here after what I did. What you've been told."

Chair rolling away, Tony stood and went to the other side of the work room. There was rustling and clanging until he came back with more tools. "Shit, happens, Barnes. I'm not going to be all best pals with you, but this anger that's been eating me up has consumed my life for the past few days. It's no life, and I'm just glad that I have my friends back here. Even if I'm still pissed at them for some things."

Bucky gave him a lop-sided smile and nodded. "Guess I get that. For what it's worth, after we left Siberia, the guilt ate at Steve all the time. He checked the cell phone twenty times a day, hoping you would text or call. But you never did. A little more of the hope in his eyes died until there was nothing left but the mission at hand. Seeing that in him almost had me dragging him back to New York. But truth was, he was a rogue after he broke everyone out of the Raft, and it took a hell of a lot of work for Ross to be smoothed over and calmed down."

Tony looked at him carefully, hazel eyes thoughtful. "That would have been me. When I heard what had happened, I called Ross off. Had some dark secrets he didn't want getting out- promised they'd stay hidden if he left Steve alone."

It made a lot more sense, Bucky realised. Especially since Ross was a determined man who didn't let diddly-squat go. Hell, he heard that it had taken Ross's daughter- Betty- to call him off Banner and let him live a normal life. Even after he saved hundreds of lives from one of his minions, but he couldn't remember the name.

"Blonsky," he murmured under his breath.

Tony's head shot up and he scowled. "What did you say?"

"Emil Blonsky. I remember Steve mentioning him."

"What the hell has Blonsky got to do with anything?"

Bucky shrank back from the biting tone and shook his head. "Nothing, sorry, just a random thought that popped through my head."

He sat in silence while Tony worked on his arm. He felt the him fixing the plate that he had purposely cause the jam, and several clicks of tools inside his arm. Because of the many sensors, he could feel most of it, like an itch that he couldn't scratch, though mildly more annoying.

He had to stifle a few annoyed grunts when a sensor was knocked, the movement making him grind his teeth. Tony finally threw down his tool and ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Fuck, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. Blonsky is a bone of contention in the Avengers family, and hearing his name makes me pissed. He nearly killed Bruce, destroyed most of Harlem and Ross was the cause. He even gave that mad creature a name- Abomination. Which had to make me laugh because he always called Bruce that, then went and created a Hulk himself."

"I honestly don't know much about it other than what Steve told me, which wasn't a great deal. It came up during a HYDRA base raid, I asked and Steve shut the conversation down quickly, only telling me the basics."

There was a good moment's silence before Tony answered him. "Ross found a way to make a serum that mimicked what happened the Bruce. The Hulk was borne from a ridiculously large amount of gamma radiation, it caused something to happen to Bruce, and he changed into a green wrecking ball of rage. Months of chasing him, Ross kept hounding him, always after him, never letting him settle down. He wanted to dissect Bruce, make more of him for the army. He didn't care that Bruce was a man with a life, didn't care that his daughter loved him and would fight for him, didn't care what he had to do to get him."

Bucky sat listening, horrified at the tale he was being told. He'd heard Ross was a cold-hearted bastard but he had no idea just how badly.

"When he was able to find someone insane enough to have his serum, Blonsky became uncontrollable. He wanted more, and only after realising he could no longer control him, Ross began to regret what he'd done. But after Bruce took on Abomination, beat him, and saved Harlem from complete annihilation, Ross still wanted to have him under army supervision- which translated to lockdown in a cell on the Raft, a reinforced one."

He locked eyes with Tony's. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "You weren't to know. Ross is a sore point. Bruce was forced to go on the run again. Ross looked, but he couldn't ever find him. When Fury put the Avengers together, he made sure Ross couldn't touch Bruce. And if he tried, well, it wouldn't have ended well for him."

Once he'd settled, Bucky nudged a screwdriver back his way. "So, you wanna fulfil that wet dream and play with my arm?"

Tony burst out laughing and slapped his shoulder. "Sure thing, Tin Boy."

If making some amends meant that he would get his own pet name, Bucky figured he would let Tony play with his arm whenever he wanted. Perhaps he would have to bust it a few more times to ensure time down in the workshop with him. "Whatever, Stark."