I don't believe this! After all this time, after everything I've done for you, you turn goody two-shoes over a god damned girl...

Ward punched out a couple of guards, determined to ignore the voice that was going through his mind. I don't have time for this, Garrett.

Make time, Garrett 'replied' in Ward's mind. You really want to give up everything we've worked for for Captain Oblivious and his team of goody two-shoes?

Ward aimed his weapon down a long corridor and fired four time, killing the four onrushing soldiers instantly. You don't understand, he declared. You never did. And now you never will...

Ward shook his head with greater force as he returned his attention back to his present and physical surroundings. He forced himself to smile even If the expression didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm fine."

Skye eyed her former S.O. warily. "You sure?"

"HELP! IS SOMEBODY THERE? WE NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE!" The piercing echo of panicked screams broke up Ward and Skye's conversation almost instantly. They turned toward the distant sound, never breaking stride even as Steve and Bucky overtook them.

Steve got to the prisoners first, going straight to the woman who had been doing the yelling. "You must be Darcy," he greeted the woman with a smile as he broke the lock on her cell.

Darcy's eyes widened. "You...you're Captain America!"

"Ma'am," Steve agreed with a smile, tipping an imaginary cap in Darcy's direction.

"How...how do you know my name?" stammered Darcy.

"Jane Foster sent us," Steve replied while he opened the door to Darcy's cell. "And you didn't look like your friend over there would be a Darcy. He's Doctor Selvig, I take it?"

Darcy nodded and smiled broadly in response. "I don't think I've ever been so happy that my boss is dating a Norse God," she commented, leering at Steve's body as she passed him. "So...are you seeing anyone?"

Steve swallowed hard...and Alexis turned a flaming mix of red-headed temper and Hulk-green jealousy. "He most definitely is seeing somebody," she declared, firmly marking her territory as she spoke.

"Now, that is something of a surprise," an unfamiliar voice chimed in in the background, "since it is somewhat difficult to maintain a dating relationship when one is supposed to be dead."

The group turned as one to face the man who had just spoken. Confusion and a lack of recognition were written across every face...save one. "I suppose you would be something of an expert on the subject," Steve countered, "Doctor Reinhardt. Unless I miss my guess, you might be the only person in this building older than me."

Whitehall raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I am impressed, Mr. Rodgers. Our files on you did not mention that you were so...perceptive. Tell me, what gave me away?"

Steve blew off the backhanded compliment. "Takes one to know one, I guess. You look surprisingly young for your advance age, though. Don't tell me - HYDRA invented Botox?"

Whitehall took his turn at blowing off Steve's taunting. "I suppose you think you're simply going to walk out of here with my assets."

Darcy leaned in to whisper to Alexis. "Assets?"

Alexis shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe that's HYDRA code for hostages?"

"That's the plan," Steve argued coolly, his focus exclusively trained on Whitehall.

"Because you have your 'best friend' back, fighting by your side?"

"That's not the only reason," Steve retorted, "but it does help."

Whitehall's group took a few cautious steps toward Steve and his team, finally leaning in to speak to Steve in his own conspiratorial whisper. "But would you have the same level of confidence if your best friend once again became your worst enemy?" He turned and looked down to his lieutenant. "Mr. Bakshi, if you would do the honors?"

Sunil Bakshi grinned wickedly. "It would be my pleasure, sir." He then turned his focus exclusively on Bucky. "Mr. Barnes," Bakshi instructed in a dull almost monotone voice. "Take a deep breath. Calm your mind..."

Ward's face paled. "No..." He exclaimed in a terrified whisper.

Bakshi continued steadily and without interruption. "You know what is best Mr. Barnes. What is best is that you comply..."

Skye noticed Ward's obvious discomfort. "What is it? What's he doing?"

"Activating Bucky's programming," Ward replied, swallowing nervously.

"Compliance will be rewarded," Bakshi finished the mantra.

Steve caught Ward's reply and the line of fear that ran through his every word. He turned to face his best friend...

And found himself looking into the cold dead eyes of the Winter Soldier.

The fight began almost instantly. Bucky hit Steve with everything he had, sending Steve reeling from the shock of the attack. "Buck..." Steve breathed out, stunned as much by his friend's personality flip as from the force of the blows themselves. "Buck, this isn't you..."

Steve's pleas were met with an even stronger, more vicious attack by the Winter Soldier.

The fight went on for what felt like eternity before the rest of the group recovered from the shock of seeing Bucky. In truth, it was only a few moments before Skye caught on to what Ward had been trying to tell her. "HYDRA uses brainwashing?"

Ward nodded. "All the time."

"And Bucky's been brainwashed?"

Ward nodded again. "For the past sixty years." A lightbulb seemed to go off over Skye's head. It shined a light on the situation that Ward couldn't help but notice. "Skye?" Ward asked warily. "What are you doing?"

"Changing Bucky's programming," Skye replied, her determination evident.

Ward's eyes widened as the implications hit him full force. "Skye, don't..." The words trailed off as Ward's plea fell on deaf ears. Skye connected with Bucky's mind, tuning out everything else as she focused on opening herself to the new information she expected to flood into her consciousness.

Those foreign thoughts never arrived; instead, all Skye felt was the sensation of being lost in a fog. The intensity of the feeling overwhelmed her, and Skye rubbed her arms as if she were shivering in the real world. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly; it was all the time she needed to understand the source of the feeling. Come back to us, Bucky, Skye projected. Follow my voice and come back to us.

Can't, Bucky's voice countered in Skye's mind. Can't find you.

Let me see if I can clear the path for you, then, Skye declared. She pushed through the 'fog' with a wave of as much mental energy as she dared.

The fog lifted, and the mental 'clouds' parted, leaving Skye with the impression of hyper-clarity, like the calm after a fierce storm. Bucky crossed the span between himself and Skye, his smile growing as he walked. You're one of the Guardians, right?

Skye returned Bucky's smile. Not quite. But close.

But you are part of their squad, aren't you? Skye nodded. You know so much about me, Bucky then continued, but I don't think I even know your name...

It's Skye, Skye replied.

Bucky nodded in acknowledgement even as the connection between them started to fade. It's very nice to meet you, Skye...

That easy disconnection broke in an instant when the thundering boom of an explosion echoed in the distance from the opposite end of the corridor. Skye quickly realized that her 'discussion' with Bucky had taken less real-world time than it was taking her team to react to the explosion that had snapped her back to reality. "That can't be good," Skye exclaimed.

"Actually, I think it might be," Alexis added. "The block's gone."

Steve's eyes darted between Alexis and "Merlin", who seemed to be matching Alexis in his rapidly growing level of confidence. "You guys are back at full strength?" Steve asked Blair.

"Yep," replied Blair.

Steve finally relented to the idea of a strategic retreat. "Good," he ordered the wizards, "then get us out of here."

#

The group was back in the warehouse a heartbeat later, and in the next instant Steve's attention was back on Bucky and Ward's was completely focused on Skye. "Are you all right?" the two men asked in unison.

"I'm fine," Skye insisted to Ward. "Fixing Bucky was a hell of a lot easier than fixing you."

"I'm guessing that Bucky was a lot less screwed up," Alexis argued, glaring Ward.

Steve studied his best friend skeptically. While the lively spark was back in Bucky's eye (to Steve's great relief), the old soldier couldn't shake the feeling that they might have another Hulk on their hands. "Is this true, Buck? Did Skye 'fix' you?"

Bucky searched his thoughts carefully before answering, his eyes widening in awe and amazement at what he found. "I think she might have, yeah."

"How can you be sure?" Jim asked, equally skeptical.

"Try me."

Ward stepped up, reciting the words that had been drummed into his mind through his own years of experience with the technique. "Take a deep breath. Calm your mind. You know what is best Mr. Barnes. What is best is that you comply. Compliance will be rewarded."

The entire group held their collective breath, expecting Bucky to break down and immediately start trying to kill them. When nothing happened after a tense, awkward, but full minute...Bucky smiled. "See? It really worked!"

"You're...you're still you?" asked Steve.

"I'm still me," Bucky replied confidently. "And if nothing's changed by now, I can promise you I'm going to stay me. For good this time."

The group's collective sense of awe and amazement shifted away from Bucky and landed directly at Skye's feet. "How? How'd you do that?" asked Steve.

"And why was I harder to fix?" asked Ward, finally taking Skye's off-handed comment personally.

"Garrett played on your past and your personality," Skye replied, deciding to answer both questions by answering Ward's. "You accepted so much of what he said as instant truth that I had to wade through every thought in your head and straighten out the tangled mess that he'd made. Bucky was tortured into believing every truth that HYDRA drummed into his head. So much so that the 'brainwashed' part of his head found it easier to accept that there was no truth than to have HYDRA torture him. The Yìzhī had already healed most of the tortures that HYDRA had done to him. I just had to sweep through and clean the bad conditioning out of his head."

"So you're a telepath?" asked Blair.

Skye nodded hesitantly. "More of a projector than a telepath. It's much easier for me to plant thoughts in people's heads than it is to read what's already there."

Blair's expression formed a silent "oh" as his mind connected the dots. "So that's why your code name's Shadow..."

Skye nodded again. "Cerberus is a big fan of the old radio show." It was only then that the group realized how many people were missing from the team assembled on the launch pad. "May," asked Skye, a worried knot suddenly forming in her stomach, "Where's Coulson? And the Guardians?"

The way May's face fell did nothing to ease Skye's worry. "You guys heard the explosion?" The group nodded. "We found Loki's scepter. It was being protected by a shield that hurt the Guardians every time they got near it. Fallon and Coulson...they took it on themselves to take down the shield. That's what exploded. It killed them instantly."

Ward and Skye looked like they had been sucker punched. "They're dead?!" Skye exclaimed in a shocked gasp. "They're all dead?"

Even as May nodded, a voice chimed in to the conversation from down the hallway. "Not exactly..."

May, Ward and Skye had to support each other to keep from collectively fainting as Coulson, Fallon and the Guardians met up with the rest of their team. "Coulson?!" May exclaimed. "I saw you! I saw your body! You were dead! Again!"

"Actually," Coulson argued, blushing, "I believe the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." He then grinned wickedly and turned to the Guardians. "I've always wanted to say that."