Chapter 48

Bringing home James Buchanan Barnes had been one of the harder parts of her plan. She knew that it was going to take a lot to be able to convince the man to come home after everything that had happened in his life. And she'd been right. It had taken ages to track him down and convincing him to come back with her had been an entire ordeal.

But that was only the first part of the plan.

The legal process had already started, what with her lawyers preparing a case for her. And she'd already reached out to the US Government to tell them she had the Winter Soldier in her custody. It had taken a while to convince them to let her be the one to look after him. But given that Barnes hadn't made any moves to leave her tower, she supposed that certainly helped her case. Barnes was safe from the world, and the world was safe from the Winter Soldier.

She knew he'd probably have to have some sort of public inquiry, either a trial or a hearing or something to be able to fully clear his name. But the most important part so far was to mitigate the risk of the Winter Soldier surfacing again.

Which brought her to where she was now, sitting in the lab, looking over the scans she had of Barnes' brain pulled up on the screen as Bruce and Ava studied them as well.

"So what's the plan here, Toni?" Ava said, as she looked over the MRI she'd done of Barnes earlier. "There's hardly any precedent of how to handle removing brain washing from victims that were prisoners of war."

"I know," she let out a sight, "This isn't going to be easy. I don't expect either of you to be able to look at this and just know how to make it all better for Barnes. It's going to take a lot of work to remove whatever conditioning HYDRA has done to him."

"We can take a look, I just don't want you to get your hopes up," Bruce told her carefully, "This isn't going to be a walk in the park. HYDRA had nearly seventy years to break Barnes and recreate him in their image. He wasn't even alive before for half the time they had him under their captivity. James Barnes might not even exist anymore. Are you prepared to accept that?"

"I am," she said with a nod. "And I've talked to Steve. It's hard for him, but he accepts that as well. Barnes can be whoever he wants to be, as long as it's not a HYDRA controlled agent. We just need to remove the conditioning done to him."

"Easier said than done," Ava sighed, "Just look at these scans. His brain is a mess. Human brains are messy by default. They're so complex, and of course they are. They make up almost all the processes in the human body. But one that's been tampered with? That's completely uncharted territory."

"Which is why I thought we might need some help," Toni nodded. "None of us have specialized in the brain and how it works. So I called in someone who knows the brain better than anyone else in New York, and debatably the entire world."

"Miss," JARVIS called out to her, "A Dr Strange is here to see you. I have approved his request as per your earlier note that he would be visiting. He is currently heading towards the labs."

"Thanks J," she said as Bruce gave her a surprised look.

"I thought you hated Stephen Strange," he said, confused.

"I don't hate him," she corrected, "I met him once at a party and thought he was pretentious. That's completely different. Besides, he is probably the most qualified person to help with this kind of thing. So it doesn't really matter what I think of him. Just what he can do."

"I've never heard kinder words," a voice said drily from behind her, "Really, please do stop singing my praises, Stark."

"Strange," she said, turning around to look at the man, "Thank you for joining us."

"It's not every day that such intriguing cases come across my desk," Strange tilted his head at her. "I almost thought it was some sort of hoax. But of course, the mystery of it all was too great and I just couldn't stay away."

"Glad you found it interesting," she rolled her eyes, "Do you need any more background, or can you take a look at the scans we have so far and make decisions about what our next steps should be."

"I don't need anything else from you," he said, a bit dismissively, "I read the full file you sent over. Let me take a look at your recent scans and see what I can find from it. Of course, I probably will take more; ones that have been done by actual medical doctors and not just those who call themselves doctors after a bit of studies."

"Of course," she said, with a bite in her voice. "Well Doctor. Please let me know if there's anything my team and I can do to assist you. But if you'd rather handle this all on your own, without any help, then go ahead. It's not like there's not other components to this or anything."

He grinned at her, "You're far more fun than I remember Stark. It's not every day that I meet someone who can keep up with my banter while actually matching my level of genius. You bother me far less than half the doctors I work with."

"A ringing endorsement I'm sure," she said, with a shake of her head. "Anyways, we pulled these scans yesterday, so they're recent. You can see from the MRI that there's already quite a bit of behaviour that doesn't match up with a 'normal' MRI scan."

"Yes, I can see that," Strange noted, as he looked at her screens. "These are very interesting readings. Are you sure the scans were properly completed?"

"Very sure," she confirmed moving towards him to take a look at what he was seeing.

"Hm," he said, as he immediately began to circle stuff on the screen with his finger. "Can you see these spots here? This isn't normal as per a healthy functioning brain. It looks like they've been created over the years, but the tissue isn't consistent with that of the patterns of a regular brain."

"So there's a physical component to this," she said, confirming one of her original theories, "Whatever was done to him might also be psychological, but we have some physical damage that we're going to have to clean up."

"Yes," Strange nodded in confirmation. "There's no standard medical protocol for how handle a case of mind control so whatever we decide to do will need to be properly documented. Both for research purposes but also because of legal reasons. We won't be covered under any of the existing medical practice laws if we don't. And I'm assuming you're going to have a legal case soon to allow Barnes to be cleared of all charges. You're going to need something to give to the courts while doing so to prove that you didn't make the damage worse, or even use it to your advantage."

"What do you mean?" Ava asked, a little confused.

"Stark Industries might be out of the weapon producing business, but you were in it for decades. All one prosecutor needs to do is suggest that the Winter Soldier is still susceptible to his conditioning, and that either SI or the Avengers Initiative plans to use him as a weapon."

Toni pursed her lips at that. While the theory in itself was absolutely ridiculous, she'd known better by now to expect any differently from the world. They'd always rushed to think the worst of her. It wouldn't be the first time they took something good she did and used it against her to help further themselves.

"So everything needs to be by the book," Bruce said finally, "We need to pull in some renowned psychologists as well, especially if we think one of the keys to helping him would be to work through his trauma. Regardless of the physical damage done to him, he's going to have some long-lasting PTSD."

"I can recommend some names," Strange nodded. "There are a few doctors around the world that I'd trust for something like this."

"So what's our first step?" she asked Strange, "I doubt this is something we can just operate on and remove."

"Depends," he contradicted her, "We need to see how he responds to stimuli. This is his brain scans now, as James Barnes, prisoner of war. From what you've described, the Winter Soldier seems to be an entirely different entity. Do they have similar brain scans? Is it a separate personality all together? How can we help mitigate that personality? And does his brain show signs of naturally healing when not in the presence of his captors? You've described him to have super healing, does that extend to abnormalities in his brain functions as well? Will he just heal if given time and treatment for his PTSD?"

"Sounds complicated," she noted.

"Very," he agreed, "This isn't going to be an easy process, Stark. We have so much we don't know about the brain, and this is the first recorded case of any sort of mind control, so we have no protocol to follow. It's going to be a long road ahead of us as we figure out how to heal him. But you must also be comfortable with the idea that we might never be able to heal him. Not fully. It may be possible to treat his trauma and help him readjust to society, but without knowing what was fully done to him, we may never be able to heal him. And even if we did know what was done, we don't know if there will be anything that can cure this."

He paused for a second, "The closest thing we would even be able to compare this to is Dissociative Identity Disorder, in which the patient experiences, what we would call, multiple personalities. His brain scans look similar, but I don't know if I could definitively say that that if we treated it in a similar manner that we'd be able to help him."

She looked over at Bruce.

"What is the treatment for it?" she asked finally, wanting to know if she had been right in some of her earlier theories of what would be able to help.

"The main treatment for that is psychotherapy," Strange told her, "Basically where you work through whatever trauma created the other identities in the first place. But that still raises the question of was the Winter Soldier created by Barnes to protect him from the torture? Or did HYDRA create him to be complicit?"

"If psychotherapy does work, would a machine that allowed one to work through their traumas, in a manner that presented it in front of them as if they were in that moment once more, be able to help?" she asked finally.

"Do you have something capable of that?" Strange asked her, a bit suspicious.

She shook her head, "No, not fully. But it was something I've been working on as a side project. To help with some of my own traumas that I've had through the years. It doesn't work yet, and it may take a few more weeks before I can even produce a working prototype. But if it could help Barnes, I can increase priority on the project to get it working sooner."

"It could," Strange acknowledged, "But it also may not. I cannot say too much about it one way or another, not without knowing more details about Barnes. If you would like me to continue to work on this project, I will need to meet him and conduct some evaluations of my own."

"I can arrange that," she nodded.

"Good," Strange said, "Please call my offices to schedule an appointment with whenever works for you."

She nodded at him, and he turned, leaving the room quickly.

"Well that was interesting," Ava noted, looking after the man.

"He's certainly a character," Bruce said wryly.

"He's also the best in his field," she shrugged, "Slightly obnoxious personality or not, he's our best chance of being able to truly help Barnes, so I'm willing to work with him for as long as needed until we are able to come up with a suitable solution to helping Barnes."

"Have you considered what's going to happen if you can't?" Ava asked her gently, "What if there's nothing we can do? Your entire legal defense is based on the premise that we're able to help Barnes and free him from his conditioning. What if we can't? What are you going to do when the US Government and every other government comes knocking on our doors to demand they take him in?"

"I won't let them," she said firmly. "Even if we can't help him, I'm still Toni Stark, and I will not let them come into my home and take him. Barnes will be safe here, for as long as he wants to stay. He will have nothing to fear while he is here."

"Okay," Ava said, satisfied.

"Ms?" JARIVS called out then, "Mr Rogers would like to know if you and your 'science bros' are going to be joining the team for movie night. I believe he wants to show Mr Barnes Star Trek."

"Is Peter present?" she asked quickly, "Because he would never stand for such an atrocity."

"Mr Parker is not present," JARVIS confirmed for her, "He is currently at band practise."

"Good," she said firmly. She knew Barnes was harmless, and in the case he was not, there was more than enough security around the Tower with all of them there. But still, watching Star Trek? At Steve's suggestion? Peter may never forgive the man for even suggesting such a thing. "Please let Steve know we're on our way."

Ava grinned at her, and she quickly got JARVIS to save their projects before they made their way back up to the common floor where the Avengers were currently all assembled around the couch. Even Loki, as unamused as he looked, sat on an armchair slightly off to the side. She saw Steve in the middle, with Barnes on one side of him and an empty spot next to him on the other.

She sat down beside him, quickly pressing a kiss to his lips, and he smiled at her.

"Did you have a productive session?" he asked her carefully.

"I did," she nodded, "We learned some new things, confirmed some old things. But we have a good basis to start with. But we need to all remember somethings."

"In that?" Steve questioned.

"In that this is going to be a long process," she told both Steve and Barnes gently, "There isn't going to be some overnight fix for everything. We need to remember that. But we also need to remember that no matter what happens, Barnes is safe now. And nothing's going to happen to him from here on out."

"Thank you," Barnes said softly, "For everything, Stark."

"Toni," she told him. "Call me Toni. If you're going to live here from now on, you might as well use my first name."

"Toni," Barnes tested it out on his tongue.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful Lady," Loki commented, and she winked at him.

"We've discussed this, Reindeer Games," she wagged a finger at him, "I am very much taken."

"A shame," he drawled, and Steve shook his head amusedly.

"Can you call me James?" he asked her, and she looked at him. "I've spent so long unable to use my name. To being reduced to nothing more than just the soldier. I think I would like to go by James. Or Bucky. Please, if you don't mind."

"Of course," she said gently. "Whatever makes you more comfortable. You do not need to ask for permission for your own happiness, James. If there's anything I can do to make your life easier, just let me know. And if you can't find me for some reason, as JARVIS, and he'll take care of it immediately."

"You've already done so much," James said, a bit overwhelmed.

"That's just who Toni Stark is," Clint said, coming from the kitchen with bowls of popcorn in his arms. "She gives her best to make the world happy. She adopted all of us, didn't she?"

"That she did," Natasha said, glancing over at her carefully.

"I still appreciate it," James said, as Clint handed out the popcorn.

Steve squeezed her hand, "She's something, isn't she?"

"You did real well for yourself, Stevie," Barnes grinned at him, "Your Ma would have loved her."

"Yes, she would have," Steve gave her a gentle look. "She also would have embarrassed me endlessly with stories of me growing up until Toni ran away screaming from boredom."

"She sounds like she was amazing," Toni grinned, "I would have loved to have met her. And to have heard some of these stories about you."

"I still have plenty of those," James said, and Steve let out a groan.

"Please don't," he pleaded, "She thinks I'm cool. Please don't ruin that for me."

"Darling, I never thought you were cool," she let out a laugh, "I just love you despite all of that."

"My heart," Steve said, grasping his chest dramatically.

"Okay enough of this," Natasha said throwing a pillow at the group of them, "Can we please start this movie at some point today before we get old and die of boredom?"

"JARVIS?" Toni asked, and the film began playing on the screen.

Steve kissed her forehead and she leaned into his chest, as his arm wrapped around her. There was going to be a lot that she'd need to do to figure out how to help Barnes. But for now, she would just live in the moment. And that would be enough.


Harry walked into the Tower a few days later, looking agitated and she immediately went over to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked, as he shook his head.

"Is everyone here?" he asked her quickly and she nodded.

"Yeah, they're all around here somewhere. I think Steve and Nat are training, Bruce and Ava are looking over some samples, Thor and Jane are making up for lost time, and Loki is brooding in the library. Clint's probably in a vent or something, but we're all here. Why, what happened?" she asked him again.

"I need you to gather everyone," he said firmly, "Something's come up and we need everyone on board."

"Avengers level on board?" she asked him, a bit warily. They hadn't done any full Avengers missions since New York, with Thor off world, and Bruce choosing to leave himself as a reserve in case of emergencies for most missions. And she'd hardly suited up as Iron Woman for actual fighting since they'd fought HYDRA in Washington. Sure, she'd suited up from time to time to help out with rescue missions and the such, but it wasn't the same.

"Gather everyone," Harry said again, not denying what she was thinking, and she let out a sigh.

"JARVIS, can you ask everyone to come down to the common level please? Tell them it's urgent and that we need everyone here," Toni said, "Including Loki and James. They may be able to provide insight if we need any."

"They are on their way," JARVIS confirmed, "ETA in thirty seconds."

Well that was certainly quick. It was barely a few moments before the full Avengers stood in front of her, and she looked over at Harry.

"What's happened?" Steve asked, crossing his arms as he looked at them.

"We've still been sorting through everything at SHIELD," Harry told them, "After the fall in Washington and since Stark Industries provided us with a new home. And as such, we've still been trying to find half our lost weapons and tech and make sure that everything is accounted for. There's been a lot of work that's been needed to have been done to make sure that everything is still in check."

"And I'm assuming something is missing," Natasha noted, "What is it? What did HYDRA get their hands on?"

"Loki's scepter," Harry let out a deep breath, and the reactions around the room were instantaneous.

"What do you mean they took the scepter?" Steve immediately asked.

"The same scepter that had us under its control?" Clint demanded, "The same one that caused us to hurt people? That scepter?"

"Yes," Harry confirmed, "It was supposed to be locked up deep in SHIELD's underground faculties so only certain members could access it until we knew it was safe. But when going through the faculty, we found that it wasn't there. That it had never been there."

"What does that mean?" Ava asked her brother, reaching out to grab his hand. She knew this must have been rough for him, given that he'd gone through so much because of it. He'd still had nightmares from time to time about everything that had happened because of the scepter.

"It never made it there," Harry said grimly, "HYDRA took it long before it ever reached the site. They've been in possession of the scepter for the last few years. And we have no idea where it is now."

"I can trace it," Loki said for the first time, and Thor looked at his brother in surprise.

"Brother are you sure?" Thor asked him carefully.

"Yes," Loki said with a nod. "I was under its presence for the longest. I can trace its energy signatures and find out where it's being kept."

"That's only one of the issues," Harry said shaking his head, "Even with knowing where it is, we need to get it back. We believe List has the scepter and if that's true, he's been conducting experiments on it this entire time. We need to get it back, before any more damage is done with it. Who knows what they've been up to this entire time? It's been three years, and if they've had it for three years, it cannot be good. We need to get it back."

"If you need help finding some of the bases I may be able to remember where some of them were located," James said finally, "Once you get a location on it. As the Winter Solider I went to quite a few of them. And I-I remember seeing scepter of sorts once. Only briefly. I wasn't told what it was, nor did I have any idea of what it did. If I had I would have told you all immediately."

"It's not on you, Bucky," Steve said quickly. "We have plenty of time to go over other HYDRA related stuff with you later. We still have quite a few operatives to bring in. But in the meantime, the most important thing is finding the scepter and returning it here. And then finding out what was done with it. Without those two things, we cannot proceed."

She looked over at Steve, nodding in agreement. "Loki, do you know how long it will take you to get a reading on where you think it is so we can see if James remembers any of the bases in that area?"

"I need a little bit of time," he told the group, "Not too long, but I just need to get a focus on the energy from the scepters."

She nodded as Thor looked slightly worried for his brother.

"Of course," Steve said, looking over at the group, "In the meantime, everyone gather your gear. I want everyone ready to go as soon as we have the information as to where the base is. Avengers, it's time to assemble."