When Theo shows up for communal Sunday breakfast the next morning, Bucky knows he isn't the only one who's surprised. Pietro and Wanda are with him, the twins bringing chocolate chip cookies (smuggled from Rebecca Barnes, of course) for the team. Barton cheers and Romanoff smiles at the sight, and Bucky hides a smirk when the rest of the team bite into their own cookies and figure out why.
"Wanda won't leave me alone until I eat," Theo grumbles as he pulls out a chair next to Steve.
He looks tired. Tired but ignoring it like that would make it go away. Bucky knows that feeling. He passes the plate of bacon to Steve sitting next to him and Steve passes it to Theo. Theo takes it with a mumbled thanks and a yawn.
Pietro sits on Bucky's right. "For good reason. When's the last time you slept a full night?"
"I slept last night!"
"For how long?"
Theo purses his lips with a scowl and doesn't answer.
"Four hours," Rebecca fills in, smiling sweetly when Theo glares at her.
"I was getting somewhere!" the blond argues with a scowl. "I just have to figure out how to control— Fucking hell, that's it!"
Theo perks up suddenly and with a strange gesture of his hand, an interface of holograms appears in the air in front of him. Bucky can see maps and mugshots and blueprints all scattered in the air around Theo. The young man studies the images, moving some of them around and muttering to himself. It's a familiar sight.
"The Red Room's mind control could work on the Soldiers… But it was only a prototype… Banner, how do you feel about working on a mind control drug? And if I can get in contact with the Widows—"
"Kid," Tony says, his voice dry and clinical from his place across from Theo, "I think I speak for all of us when I say, what the actual fuck."
Theo stops and blinks. "What?"
"Mind control drug?" Tony stresses, almost speaking for all of them now because they're all looking at Theo in confusion and varying states of shock. "The Red Room? What are you talking about?"
"The SNAKE team—"
"No." The word passes Bucky's lips the instant he hears the name. "Don't use them. Eliminate them."
Theo frowns now. "They'd be incredible assets—"
"We don't treat people like weapons, Theo," Steve says firmly. "Allies, yes, but not as mere assets."
"But the SNAKE team—"
"We are not waking the Winter Soldiers," Bucky stresses again, and the room bursts into a cacophony of shouts now that everyone knows who the SNAKE team is.
"Absolutely not—"
"No—"
"That's a shit idea—"
Bucky watches as Theo blinks in astonishment, then raises a droll brow. He waves his metal hand in the air, moving the holograms around him to make room for an image of a globe with thirteen blinking red dots and dozens more green dots, all scattered around the world.
"This is what I'm looking at," Theo starts, and there's a bite in his voice that says Black Infiltrator, not Theodore Rogers. "I need a way to attack at least thirteen locations around the world at the same time. I need skilled agents who don't pose a risk of stealing anything they come across in those locations. I need soldiers. The SNAKE team fits perfectly, if they can be controlled."
"They can't be," Bucky argues. "That's why they were put on ice."
"They can be," Theo argues back, pulling up a new schematic. "The Red Room had agents working on a form of chemical manipulation. A form of control better than what HYDRA had. It would be impossible to disobey, no risk of escape or disobedience. If we can finish it—"
"We are not engineering chemical mind control." Steve's scowl was set firmly in place, his arms crossed. "Think of something else. And aren't you supposed to be taking a break?"
Before Theo can reply, the holograms around him flicker out and disappear. He scowls, instantly turning to glare at Rebecca. She only smiles innocently and disappears. Theo huffs, which is followed by a yawn, a snicker from Pietro, and a deeper scowl. Steve nudges him sharply, and Theo picks up his fork and starts eating again.
Slowly, chatter starts up again around the table. Thor turns to give Steve a few suggestions about attacking multiple places at once, something that Theo only seems to be half-listening to. The other half of his attention is somewhere lost in his thoughts, that Bucky can tell from the blank, empty-eyed stare on his face as he eats sullenly. Romanoff and Wilson are telling Barton some sort of story, if Wilson's hand gestures and Barton's disbelieving expression are anything to go by. Bruce is listening to them with an interested nod or a raised brow every so often. Tony however, turns to Pietro and Wanda with a curious curl to his lips.
"So," he starts, "You two seem to be playing parents to Mini Rogers over there."
Wanda arches her brow and shares a look with Pietro before she nods. "I suppose so. He is our friend, after all."
Tony nods in consideration. "I have friends like that. Most of them are here right now. I have to get dragged out of my lab a lot. Does the kid—?"
"He skips meals in favour of planning," Pietro huffs.
"We have to drag him away often enough," Wanda adds with a pointed look at Theo. "And even then, he doesn't eat enough to make up for what he's missed."
Tony frowns in confusion and interest, now looking at Theo sitting across from him. "You don't eat like a super soldier."
"I'm not a super soldier," Theo returns in a huff, his mind clearly still on his planning.
It takes a second before he snaps his head up, realizing what he just said, but it's already too late. Bucky sees the surprise on everyone's expressions, even Romanoff.
"Did Sergeant Barnes not say Little Rogers was enhanced?" Thor asks in confusion.
Bucky shakes his head, remembering the brief conversation during Heimdall's illusion. He was more Soldier than Bucky then, but he remembers. He remembers a lot now.
He shrugs. "I didn't say he was a super soldier."
"You're too strong for a normal human though," Romanoff points out, pinning a calculating stare on Theo.
Theo sighs and scowls. "I didn't get the serum. The fact that I age normally enough out of cryo is proof that I'm not the same. They experimented, injected some of Dad's blood into me to see if the serum in his cells would adapt and replicate itself in mine. I'm… half super soldier, I guess."
Despite the talk of HYDRA's experimenting, Bucky still notices the way Steve lights up at what Theo called him. Steve brightens, but Bruce's eyes widen in mild horror.
"Are you saying that anyone with a sample of Steve's blood could create more super soldiers?" the scientist asks sharply.
Bucky pales. So do most of the others.
"That could be disastrous," Tony starts, though no one really needs the consequences to be explained. "You're from what, nineteen-forty, forty-six or so, Kid? If they had more of Cap's blood— If your blood can be used the same way—"
"It can't be," Theo cuts in drolly. "Any experiments with mine failed, and so did the rest of the experiments with Dad's. The shit-monger who took me, his best guess was that when the serum was introduced to Dad's cells alongside whatever big flashy thing Erskine did, it binded to his DNA. It refuses to attach to any stranger cells."
Bruce nods slowly. "And it only worked for you because you share half of Steve's DNA."
Theo yawns and nods. Without looking, he reaches for his water glass with his metal hand. Bucky watches and notes that those metal fingers don't extend to wrap around the glass and the metal wrist doesn't move to position the fingers properly either. Instead, the back of Theo's metal hand knocks into the glass and tips it over, sending the little bit of water still inside splashing across the table.
Theo blinks in surprise, then turns his full attention to his metal limb. He stares at it for a second or two, watches the fingers move jerkily from one position to the next, and then, with all the resigned exasperation that Bucky remembers him always feeling when his arm malfunctioned, Theo declares:
"What the fuck."
His metal fingers twitch and jerk through a series of gestures and hand signs, then a panel in the metal bicep hisses open. He pulls a small multitool from inside, using his one functioning hand and the edge of the table to open the needle-nose pliers.
"Wires or joints?" Rebecca asks with a smirk.
Theo rolls his eyes. "Always the wires, Reb."
"You don't know?" Tony asks with a slight frown. "And this has happened before?"
"I'm not a chemist, engineer or scientist." Theo shrugs carelessly, poking at some of the servos in his arm. "I'm a hacker and a spy. I usually come up with ideas and hand them off to engineers for them to design and build. I know enough to fix this motherfucker, but—"
"Sir," JARVIS interrupts, "I'm picking up on a tracking beacon of some sort emanating from Mister Rogers' arm."
Steve's eyes snap up to the ceiling for a second before refocusing on Theo. Bucky frowns. Tracker? He supposes it makes sense; there was a tracker in his old arm, but it had been damaged by Steve's shield when they fought on the highway and it hadn't been replaced in time for the launch of Insight. If Theo's tracker was anything like Bucky's had been though, it should only have activated at a remote command.
"I'm sorry?" Theo huffs with an offended scoff. "HYDRA knows exactly where I fucking am, what—?"
Rebecca cuts in now. "It seems to be wired to send a beacon whenever your arm malfunctions, Gen."
"I'm sorry?" Bucky watches as Theo's lip curls into a sneer, fist clenched around the multitool. "Well, fuck them too."
Rebecca hums, taking the snide comment seriously like she usually does. "JARVIS is already blocking the signal. HYDRA won't be able to track it."
"Good," Steve says with a nod that seems more Captain America than Steve Rogers.
Theo nods once before disconnecting one of the wires. The metal wrist flexes forwards slowly. Theo pushes the wire back in place with a huff and his wrist extends to neutral position again.
"Do you want help?" Tony asks hesitantly, like he's unsure of what he's offering. "If your arm is anything like Barnes' was, I think I might be able to eliminate the problem."
When Theo looks at him, Bucky nods encouragingly. Theo purses his lips in consideration before slowly sliding the multitool over to Tony and resting his metal arm on the table between them. Tony grins, though it is a grin less excited than usual. He shoves aside a few plates in his way and leans forwards to look into the open panel. Bucky watches curiously as Tony uses the pliers to nudge aside a bundle of wires.
"Rebecca, do you have any schematics of this thing?" the engineer asks. "A full interior view or anything?"
"Indeed," the AI replies, and Bucky doesn't miss the impressed look in Theo's eyes at the fact that Tony addressed Rebecca directly and didn't go through Theo.
A glowing hologram appears above Theo's arm. It looks like just a mess of wires and servos, the external plating missing and leaving only the guts of the arm. Tony spins the hologram slowly, inspecting it.
"And you said it's usually the wiring?"
Theo nods and Tony hums. He pokes at something that Bucky can't see.
Steve nudges him gently and asks, "Did your arm malfunction like this?"
Bucky blinks and shakes his head. "No. Mine only needed fixing if it got damaged on a mission. Serdtse's arm has a tendency to glitch and lag."
Steve frowns, turning to look back at where Theo is watching Tony. It seems Theo has activated the skeleton function, because his entire arm has blossomed open, metal plates opening along the hidden hinges from upper arm to wrist, exposing all of the wires and servos inside. Around the table, hesitant conversation has started up again. For the most part, everyone is done eating. Bucky, Steve, and Thor are still going, courtesy of super soldier metabolism and Asgardian hunger.
"Aha!" Tony crows suddenly, a grin on his face. He has six wire ends in one hand and with the pliers, he starts attaching them to something near Theo's wrist. "It's usually your hand that lags, isn't it? This is wired wrong. It's a complicated, connected network, so the signal could still get to the right place, but this should fix it so it doesn't have to go through that." Theo frowns slightly and nods, and before he can reply, Tony goes on. "I disabled the tracker from going off at every malfunction, but I'll keep it there just in case something happens, like HYDRA, and we need to find you. But what's this—?"
"Don't touch it." Theo's voice is sharp and he yanks his arm back when Tony points to something near Theo's elbow.
Tony frowns. "It's connected to all of the outer plates, and it has some sort of power storage unit. I know it's not necessary for mobile functions, I just can't figure out what it's for."
The engineer has finished reattaching wires, so Theo takes back the multitool and slips it back into place, nestled amongst wires. He uses his other hand to close the plates, staring at Tony with pursed lips. Bucky looks between the two, curious and ready to intervene because Theo has a calculating pinch to his expression and Tony is starting to look unsure.
"It's a weapon," Theo admits after a long moment, and Bucky realizes what Tony must have been describing. He remembers that weapon. "I didn't… All of the functions of my arm can be activated through a unique series of hand gestures and positions. Like a passcode, you know? But that weapon is also designed to go off when touched, because there's no 'good' scenario when it gets touched in the first place. It… It hurts."
"It hurts you when it's activated?" Steve asks darkly.
Theo nods hesitantly. "That's not its purpose, but they couldn't figure out how to stop it from happening. They didn't care enough."
Steve scowls but forces himself to ask. "What is it, Theo?"
"My arm can become electrified." Theo ducks his head and mumbles. "There's a few levels of strength. The strongest is around two amps."
Barton's jaw drops. "Regular tasers and stun guns are like, three milliamps! And that charge hits you too?!"
"It's subdued." Theo lifts one shoulder weakly. "The techs put in some ways to lessen how much I get, but it's still around point-one of an amp. I don't use the function if I can avoid it."
Bucky doesn't voice the memory that comes to the front of his mind. He doubts Theo—or Romanoff for that matter—would appreciate it being aired out for everyone to know. No need to remind them that in the Red Room, Theo was tasked with teaching the Widows to build resistance by using the electric function of his arm on them, starting at the lowest setting and working up to the highest. Bucky winces; no need to remember that at all.
"...Your arm malfunctions enough then?" Tony asks slowly, and no one misses the yank on the conversation steering wheel. Still, however, there's a glint in Tony's eyes that says he's planning a new project. "Can HYDRA not fix the source of the problem so it stops completely?"
Theo scoffs slightly and shrugs. "Now why would the organization who cut a five-year-old's arm off be nice?"
The air turns cold.
Well… There was an attempt to avoid stewing in HYDRA's cruelty.
There's a familiar tension rippling under Bucky's skin, ready to fight or run. Theo blinks dumbly, looking around the table as though he doesn't understand the reaction. Everyone looks some version of murderous (Steve, Tony, Wanda, Thor, Wilson) or deadly calm (Bruce, Pietro, Romanoff, Barton). Rage on Steve's face is familiar enough, when he got so furious he couldn't manage to voice it and instead settled for a glare burning with hellfire.
It's Barton who breaks the silence, a dark glare on his face. "They did what?"
Theo winces slightly and lifts one shoulder in a weak shrug. "HYDRA amputated my arm when I was five."
"Five," Romanoff hisses, her butter knife from breakfast clenched tight in her fist. "I thought you lost it not long before I met you. I thought you injured your arm and couldn't save it."
"No," Theo shakes his head slowly, "I'd just gotten a new arm then, I was getting used to it. It doesn't grow, right, so every so often as I get older, the techs build me a new one."
"And why did they decide you needed a metal arm in the first place?" Wilson asks sharply, his arms crossed.
Bucky suddenly shoves himself back from the table. His heart is racing, he can feel it as the memory comes crashing back. His eyes are wide, bile rising in the back of his throat. He stands, palms resting on the table and his head bowed as he tries to control the sudden nausea. Memories came back so suddenly now, triggered by words or scents or sounds or feelings. This one is revealed from Wilson's words slashing through the fog and the scene becomes clear. He has to get out. Get somewhere else. Steve will hate him for this—
He backs away, but then he makes the mistake of raising his head and looking up. Steve's eyes are wide and worried. He's always so worried now. Always so tired. Bucky breaks. He was never very strong when it came to denying Steve's concern.
"Sorry," he rasps, arm out to keep Steve back when the blond tries to get closer. "I'm sorry. I tried, I tried, and it didn't work. They caught us and I'm sorry— Steve, please— I didn't mean— Serdtse—"
Bucky chokes on what might have been a sob. He can barely manage any more, but Steve has gotten good at reading him.
"It'll be alright, Buck," the blond says gently. "Whatever it is… I could never hate you, Buck. Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't, but I can never hate you."
"You've saved me more times than I can count, Dusha," Theo adds. One look at his expression and Bucky knows that Theo understands his sudden panic. "When you were starving or scared or nearly dead, you took care of me. I don't blame you for what those piss-goblins did."
Bucky snorts weakly and one corner of Theo's mouth twists upwards in a wry smile. Steve smiles at the language too, while Clint coughs in a poor effort to suppress a snicker. It's all a small light in the storm. Bucky's panic lessens slightly, but he can still hear Theo's begging and his screams and he can't stop his pounding heart. Theo seems to understand, because he's standing and walking closer and Bucky lets him.
HYDRA couldn't erase the relationship they shared. They stopped caring when the Black Infiltrator openly showed care for the Winter Soldier. The Infiltrator is used to caring for the Soldier in front of others. Theo isn't hesitant in gently tugging Bucky over to the living space, pushing him down onto the couch and tucking himself against Bucky's right side. Bucky's flesh arm curls around Theo's shoulders, fingertips touching Theo's metal arm. He winces at the reminder.
"Not your fault." Theo pokes him in the side. Loudly, Natasha starts cleaning up the table, dragging the others into helping her. Theo rolls his eyes then quietly goes on. "They were going to remove my arm anyway. Wanted me to have a weapon that could be disarmed and stolen. They just used it to punish you."
Bucky swallows tightly and says nothing. Theo is used to that.
It doesn't take long for nine people to clean up breakfast. Soon, Steve is settling on Bucky's other side and the other Avengers, Sam, Pietro, and Wanda are finding their own places in the living room. Natasha takes a soft-looking wingback chair. Sam takes the matching one next to it. The two loveseats are taken by Clint and Bruce, and Tony and Thor. Pietro sits cross-legged in front of the coffee table while Wanda opts to use her strange powers to float.
Apparently, team bonding time isn't over. Bucky isn't sure how he feels about that. Maybe it's more team bonding-over-trauma.
"Do you feel like telling the story?" Steve asks hesitantly. A genuine question, not a nudging suggestion. "I want to know and understand both of you."
Theo glances at him, tilting his head. Bucky shrugs weakly. He can handle hearing the story, can't he? It was three years ago and decades ago at the same time. It's not the only time he was forced into compliance through threat of harm to Theo. He can handle hearing it again. Now, he nods.
"It was May, nineteen-forty-five," Theo starts hesitantly. He swallows tightly, flesh hand coming up to pick at his lower lip. Steve used to have the same tick. "HYDRA didn't see me as a threat, I was just a kid, so— They didn't lock me up. They put a tracker around my ankle and let me wander in that base. As long as I didn't get in the way, they didn't care."
"I thought you were Zola's." Natasha arches a brow. "Seems like something they would've cared about."
Theo sneers, glaring at the floor. "That came after I started forgetting. After I stopped kicking and spitting at them every chance I got."
"You're Steve's for sure," Tony teases with a roll of his eyes.
Steve smiles proudly, like making life hard for Nazis is all he ever wanted his son to do. It's not, Bucky knows that, but fucking up HYDRA plans is definitely on Steve's 'Reasons my Son is the Best' list. It's on Bucky's 'Reasons to Love my Godson' list at least.
Theo smiles weakly and goes on. "I found this newspaper in one of the control rooms. The front page— I knew where they were keeping Dusha. I knew he was there and he knew I was. They'd tried to break him using the knowledge that they had me—"
"It didn't work," Bucky adds in with a scowl. "Just made me scared… and angry."
He remembers that feeling vividly. He'd been stuck in a cell like Azzano, tall metal bars caging him in. It had been quiet, but then he'd heard screaming. Screaming and sobbing and a voice he hadn't heard in two years. He should never have heard that voice again, because he wasn't going to make it home and because that voice should never have been there, but two guards came dragging a small body between them and Bucky had reacted before he could think. He'd done his own screaming then. Demanded they let Theo go, banged and reached through the bars, trying to do anything. Nothing worked.
Theo's voice is small. "I was allowed to see Dusha. Spent most of my time sitting outside the cell they had him in. I brought the newspaper to show him. The front page… It was in German, but I saw 'Captain America' and knew it wasn't good. Dusha got really quiet when I showed him. I don't remember—"
"'Captain America Crashes into Arctic Water, Presumed Dead,'" Bucky says emptily around the lump in his throat, looking right at Steve and his pale face. "That's what it said."
Theo nods, lips pursed. "Oh. You got really quiet, and then you were telling me how to pickpocket the guard—"
"Help wasn't coming." Bucky swallows thickly. He drops his gaze to the table in front of him, fists clenched. There's something heavy in his chest, compressing his lungs. His lips feel numb, tongue all wrong, but words still come out. "Help was dead and we had to get out."
Steve's expression is very pale. Everyone looks pale, nauseous, hateful, or some combination of the three.
Natasha's lips are pursed, her voice blank in a way that says she understands and maybe she does. "You tried to escape with Theo. You got caught and they used him to punish you."
Bucky nods silently. He'd tried. That was all he could have done, but he'd been exhausted and grieving and missing one arm. There was only so much he could fight past. He'd tried, and Theo had paid for it. They'd both paid for mistakes the other had made, when being conditioned. That didn't stop the guilt.
Steve's lips are pulled into a thin line as he stares at Bucky. "You thought I'd hate you for this? You thought I'd hate you for trying to save him, and yourself? Bucky…"
He winces slightly. Steve doesn't touch him, but he does hold out his hand, palm up. Bucky glances down at it, then back up to Steve. The blond doesn't smile and it's easy to recognize the determined look in his eyes. Unsure, Bucky slides his free hand, the metal one, into Steve's. Steve squeezes his hand, smiling now and uncaring of the cool, unrelenting metal.
Steve is too… Steve for his own good. He always has been. Bucky hopes he doesn't stop any time soon.