This chapter was brought to you early due to three snow days. Yay!

Of course after I posted last chapter, I realized I should've had Tony make a crack about the US having Queens, but Steve and James not liking it because they're from Brooklyn.

James focuses his punches with his right hand, because if he sees his prosthesis punch through a bag, it's going to bring forth images of it breaking people's faces instead of padded leather.

He stops himself, just to ensure he can, and lowers his fists to his side. He hasn't been able to say much to the Professor, but one benefit of a telepathic therapist is that words aren't needed. At least, not out loud.

The Professor is trying to help ease James's mind about Loki, and is giving Harry's concerns equal value, though Harry asks about the medicine balls just as much as the recent events with Loki. "Are they Bludgers? Quaffles?" He hoists one of the lighter ones into the air and starts to carry it to his motorbroom.

James's mind is far from eased. He can fight the trigger words now, but what use is that against Loki, who seems to use a whole other level of mind control.

Part of James wants to take Harry and flee, to disappear rather than stay in the same tower as Loki, but he's painfully aware that, no matter where they go, somebody will find them.

As Harry zooms by on his broom, he offers again to fly them to their safe house. Yet HYDRA had found Xavier's Institute. Many of the X-Men are here in the tower, meaning they would have fewer allies in the mansion. They might be safer here, despite sharing the tower with, as Harry says a brain taker.

With Loki and HYDRA vying for world domination, nowhere they go will ever be truly safe.

As James thinks this, an explosion shakes the tower gym.

James's prosthesis whirs, the plates rippling as it clenches into a fist. Surely Loki's escaped, or Stark has blown up the scepter in his lab.

There is no blaring alarm, thankfully. Instead, Jarvis reports that an arrow has struck the tower and Barton and several agents have entered. The only good news is that Loki is still in his cell, being constantly monitored, and the scepter is intact.

According to Jarvis, Barton and the other agents have infiltrated a few floors above the gym and are busy fighting Romanoff, Steve and Logan.

James still grabs a large barbell, ready to fling it at any intruder. He distantly hears the Professor say, in his head, that such a method is too violent, too lethal. James doesn't want to kill, not anymore, but if it's between killing a HYDRA agent and being recaptured,

Then, a roar shakes the floor, loud enough to be heard from several stories away.

"Hulk." Xavier explains, closing his eyes, clearly trying to form a link with Hulk.

"Hulk's a good guy?" Harry checks, glancing at James. He attempts to lift a small free weight, then drops it and clutches his Wii wand.

James doesn't know if the Hulk is on their side or not, but a more pressing issue presents itself.

Barton drops out of an air vent, not quite catching James by surprise, but dodging the weight hurled at his head. He unslings the bow hanging over his shoulder. Despite the tense situation, Bucky sounds amused. A bow? Those were outdated back when I was active, pal.

Harry waves his wand furiously, shouting "Go 'way, arrows!" It is not as effective as when he'd unintentionally disarmed Romanoff. One arrow drops feebly out of Barton's quiver. A more vigorous wave makes an arrow shoot upward. Barton grabs the arrow from midair, nocks it in his bow, and fires.

Barton's aim and speed with his bow easily rivals James's own marksmanship. James's prosthesis is the only thing stopping him from being pierced, and he flings the arrow away in case it explodes.

James leaps at Barton, who dodges behind a treadmill, then vaults off of it too retrieve his arrow from the ceiling.

James wants to shout at Harry to run and find somewhere to hide, but it sounds like Banner's still rampaging somewhere as the Hulk. Harry could run into the other agents or, even worse, Loki.

"Get behind the ring!" James orders, but Harry does not listen. He's flying toward them on his motorbroom, struggling to hold a medicine ball with one hand. The weight of the ball makes him lose his balance and he topples off the motorbroom onto the floor. An easy target for Barton.

Barton turns toward Harry as the ball rolls to James's boot. James hurls it at Barton, who spots it coming and ducks just in time.

Barton uses the large gym to his advantage, keeping his distance and climbing up a rope for a better perch. He is far more impressive a fighter than other enemy assets- namely Snape- were, despite not appearing to have any magic. His weaponized sticks are all projectiles, and when James corners him on the ground, he uses his bow as a quarterstaff.

Romanoff drops out of the vent, wrapping her arms around Barton's neck. James punches him in the head but holds back, not wanting to kill him. Barton has no more say in what he does under Loki's control than the Soldier had under HYDRA's, and despite Loki's threats to mess with Harry's magic, Barton had not attacked Harry.

Barton goes down with the blow, groaning, and Romanoff rolls off his shoulders but crouches, ready. Barton's eyes are no longer the blue of the scepter, and they soften slightly when they catch sight of Romanoff.

"'Tasha?" he asks. His eyes travel to Harry, bruised on the floor, and widen, concerned.

Romanoff kicks Barton in the head, and he goes down. A hearing aid slides across the floor. He's alive, but unconscious, though Harry clearly doesn't know the difference, nonchalantly asking if Romanoff killed him.

Romanoff's face is blank, but James knows she would be devastated to lose Barton.

James glances back at the Professor, who had backed his chair off to the side during the fight. His expression is far-off, his mind clearly somewhere other than the gym. Despite all his telepathic powers, the Professor could not break the control of the scepter, yet a solid blow to the head seems to have returned Barton's mind to him.

If a punch had been enough to break the Chair's effects, well, the HYDRA handlers would have seen different results during compliance conditioning.

Romanoff picks up the hearing aid and starts to haul the unconscious Barton off, saying she'll check his allegiance when he wakes.

James kneels down, checking Harry's injuries. He's bruised from his fall, but it's no worse than the injuries he'd sustained on other flights.

"Don't ever do that again," James tells him sternly. "I told you to hide."

"But it's medicine!" Harry argues. "It makes the sick stop. And gives brains back."

If the ball had hit Barton in the head, it likely would have had the same effect as a punch, but Harry doesn't need to know that.

Harry would likely try throwing it at Loki next.

"I don't want you getting hurt." James says.

"I don't want you getting hurt!" Harry says back, furious tears welling in his eyes. "Nobody hurts my dad!"

"I'd hurt more if you were hurt." James pulls Harry close. "Stop doing dangerous things."

Even though Harry and Steve are not particularly close, they share a similar trait of stupidly throwing themselves into danger. The Bucky voice would probably be amused if he wasn't so worried about Harry and whatever Steve is up to now.

Punk's probably throwing himself at the Hulk. Bucky is clearly itching for James to go check on Steve, even though he's no longer ninety-five pounds and with a long list of health conditions.

James knows Jarvis can't hear Bucky's voice, but Jarvis answers all the same "Captain Rogers has just neutralized the agents that accompanied Agent Barton. Mr. Stark and Professor X have talked the Hulk back into Dr. Banner, but not without some significant property damage. Loki remains in his cell. He attempted to trick Thor into thinking he escaped until I informed him Loki was casting an illusion. Mr. Moody is keeping his eyes on Loki as well."

All in all, it could have gone a lot worse. Barton was likely trying to set Loki free, but they set Barton free instead.

It would be best if Barton wakes up to a familiar face. Romanoff sits beside the bed where Barton lays unconscious. The bed is angled, more like a chair. When she'd brought Barton in, Romanoff had started to strap his arms down. The sight made James's breath come out harsh, his body rigid despite there being no metal halo above the bed.

James and Harry wait in another room, behind a one-way mirror. Not even Barton's sharp eyes would be able to pick them out.

"Is all his bad out?" Harry asks for the tenth time as he rolls the medicine ball around the floor. He swings the Wii wand at it, trying to make it roll on its own, but nothing happens.

"Seems to be," James replies. "We can't be sure until he wakes up."

The Professor has not probed Barton's mind to check, claiming he's been invaded enough recently and has not consented.

"Why's he sleeping?" Harry pokes the glass. "He's a grownup. Grownups don't take naps."

James recalls at least three assassinations that would disprove that, the napping targets unaware that they'd never wake up.

"They do if you hit them hard enough." James says. He never liked bullies and doesn't want Harry to learn the wrong lesson. "Don't hit people to make them go to sleep."

"You did,"

We don't hit you at bedtime, Bucky says, then swears colorfully, sounding guilty. James does not voice that thought aloud.

The medicine ball thunks against the wall separating the two rooms. Harry does it again. "When's he going to wake up?"

Barton groans in the other room, squinting before opening his eyes. James watches Barton's eyes do the familiar scan for threats, allies, weapons exits. Barton grimaces, clenching his fists, and his forehead shines with sweat.

James hears Romanoff tell Barton he's going to be all right. "You know that?" Barton echos in disbelief.

"Have you ever had someone take your brain out and play? Pull you out and stuff someone else in?"

All the time, pal.

"You know what it's like to be unmade?" Barton asks, almost demands. Romanoff remains calm.

"You know that I do," Romanoff had even told Loki, during the interrogation, of how Barton had been sent to kill her but made a different choice.

Romanoff glances at the one-way mirror. "But I know someone who knows even better than I do."

James takes his cue from Romanoff, stepping into the room. Barton's gaze fixes on James, boring into his eyes, likely assessing if they're tesseract-blue. James knows his own eyes have some gray in them, aren't the same color as the brainwashed agents' or Loki's.

"I fought you." Barton tells James, unnecessarily. His memory isn't quite that bad. "You're on our side."

"I'm won't work for SHIELD." James says, tone flat. Barton had recruited Romanoff, but he won't recruit James.

Barton snorts slightly. "I'd be worried if you wanted to, at this point. Seems half of SHIELD was secretly HYDRA."

He grimaces as if smelling something foul. "How many of our agents did I-"

"Don't." Romanoff cuts him off immediately. "Don't do that to yourself. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and HYDRA. Nothing we were ever trained for."

Barton's eyes dart back toward James. Clearly he hadn't missed how Romanoff had been speaking to both of them.

In 1.2 minutes, Barton's already said more about his time under Loki's control than James or Logan have shared about the Winter Soldier or Weapon X programs in weeks.

"You got him out of my head." Barton says to James. "How'd you do it?"

"Cognitive recalibration," Romanoff says. It sounds like-

THE CHAIR.

Barton's brow furrows, and Romanoff explains "We each hit you really hard in the head."

Part of James is still jealous it was that easy, but he's glad Barton didn't lose himself permanently. It appears Barton has been repaired, re-made. There was enough left of him to return.

Too much of Bucky has been wiped out. The Professor confirmed that Bucky is a memory, an echo, not enough to become a person again. Even if Bucky had somehow made it back fully, Professor X had stressed to both Steve and James, he wouldn't be the Bucky that Steve remembers. Becoming a parent changes people.

James wonders what would have happened if HYDRA had used the scepter to control him rather than the chair. He pushes the thought away. There is no use thinking of what-ifs.

Harry bursts through the door without knocking. "Is all his bad out?"

Barton stares at Harry, eyes quickly cataloguing his bruises. "Did I knock you off that- whatever it was?"

"I fell," Harry says carelessly. "Does Dad need to punch you again?"

"No, I'm good." Barton huffs and turns to James. "You've got a mean swing. I've heard you have wicked aim too. When all this is over, ten bucks says I can beat you at darts."

Ten bucks?! Bucky's probably remembering how much that was in the forties.

"Aun' Tuna hit me with a pan and I waked up in my cupboard." Harry rubs the back of his head this time, mussing his long hair with a petulant pout. "Why's my bad guy still in my head?"

"Loki's got you too?" Barton stares into Harry's green eyes.

"I have another bad wizard."

Barton winces in sympathy and turns to Romanoff. "When Coulson gave me the crash course on magic, well... I didn't expect mind control."

The words are light, but his tone is heavy.

"Thor says Loki's being controlled too."

Barton scowls and thinks. "I don't like the bast- bad guy" he quickly censors himself in a way that indicates he's familiar being around small children. "When he first showed up through the portal, he was sweaty and shaking. Pale."

Just as Barton is, now.

Barton doesn't need to say more. James is familiar with torture, and he's sure the two agents are as well.

"I don't think he's the head honcho." Barton mutters, clearly unhappy about the fact. Harry rubs his head again, confused, and Barton cracks a minuscule smile. "The big boss. The person upstairs. At least, not this time. But he's going to make his move soon. Today."

"He's still locked up," Romanoff glances at the ceiling, and Jarvis confirms that Loki is still in his cell.

"If we hit Loki, will his bad come out too?" Sure enough, Harry looks back toward where he left the medicine ball before looking at the ceiling as well. "And then there's no war?"

"It's worth a shot," Barton says with a frown. "If it doesn't work, well, a shot from my bow might do the trick. And help me sleep at night."

I hope I did Clint justice here. I really wanted both James and Nat to help break his brainwashing. I still wanted to keep Natasha there because he helped her defect, but James really needs to help someone else break free of mind control.

I've been reading a lot of Clint and Bucky fics recently but found it sort of tricky to write. But I guess he has experience befriending former Russian assassins.

Thanks to my brother for telling me what a medicine ball was called, because I originally just had "ball weights" and wouldn't have had Harry's new mind control theory without knowing the right term.