He was getting used to the feeling of waking up. The heaviness of his body. The incompressible whispers around him. Light bleeding through his eyelids. He wondered how long it has been this time? A Year? Maybe ten? What was the last thing he remembered? Ah… that’s right. Steve…

He can feel his eyes opening. It took a moment for his vision to clear up. Steve. He was standing there waiting for him with a smile. He tried to smiled back.

"What a touching reunion. But please Captain move out of the way now." Bucky finally looked away from his friends to the old man standing next to him.

"I’m sorry Doctor Pym. Will it be ok if I stand over there?" Steve asked and pointed to Bucky’s left.

"Just don’t get in my way." The old man grumbled as he began taking out a band of metal from a metal case.

As he was working Steve came closer.

"Hey Buck. How are you feeling?" He asked.

He opened his mouth to speak but found unable and began to cough.

"Easy. Easy. You’ve been asleep for five month. That’s Doctor Hank Pym. He’s a renown scientist and he has something that’s going to undo your conditioning." Bucky just nodded.

"You have the worst bedside manners Captain. If a man can’t speak because his throat is dry your suppose to get him an ice cube." Bucky senses must be still dulled. He had not noticed T’Challa coming in from the entrance.

"Ah! Sorry Bucky."

"Here you go my friend." He accepted the ice cube from T'Challa with his mouth. It felt like heaven. He could already feel it soothing his throat. So he was still in Wakanda.

"King T’Challa. I asked for the labs to be vacated." The Doctor stated while he glared at the King.

"Ah. When I heard you allowed Captain Rogers in I thought I might be able to join you here in the lab." T’Challa replied.

Bucky noticed the old man shifting his body to hide the view of the machine from the young king.

"I don’t have to worry about Captain Rogers from understanding what I’m doing." Bucky felt Steve move uncomfortably and looked up to see him blushing.

"Doctor. It’s rude to call Captain Rogers slow. He is a brilliant man" T’Challa icily responded.

The old man’s eyebrows rose and he smirk and stated. "I’m not the one who called him slow"

Steve squirmed more and Bucky began laughing out loud as he watched the face of his friend turned into a tomato.

"Ow. My throat. Haha… Hello Doctor Pym." All three occupants in the room stared as James Barnes spoke for the first time.

The old man smiled. "Nice to meet you Sargent Barnes."

XXX

Peter was having a great day! Mr. Stark had given him a day off from the lab. (not that he didn’t love every moment there). It seemed like forever since the last time he was walking about as Peter Parker. He rushed back home excitedly. He couldn’t wait to tell Aunt May everything that’s been going on in the Labs. (He was quite surprised when Mr. Stark allowed him to tell his Aunt everything) But the moment before he rushed into his house, his body froze. This tingling. He slowly opened the door.

In the living room was man. And the man was pointing a gun to his Aunt’s head.

Peter stood still. He could feel the blood on his face draining. Aunt May looked frightened but gave him a small smile.

"I don’t know what you want… But if you hurt even a hair on my aunt’s hair your going to regret it!" Was he going to risk his identity? He really didn’t want to… but to save his aunt he was willing to lose everything.

"Peter Parker. I do not want to hurt your aunt. And if you do everything I tell you, no one will get hurt." The man was tall but other than that he could not tell what he looked like with the helmet on his head.

"Ha. Yeah right. I saw enough movies to know that’s a lie." Peter secretly pushed the help button on his watch.

"I will promise you no harm will come. All you need to do is follow exactly as I command." Ok… If this man turns just a little bit to the right… He could use his web-shooter to disarm him.

"Let’s first hear what you want." Peter growled.

"I know you work for Tony Stark. I need you to copy a file for me." Peter easily caught the USB stick the man threw at him.

"File?"

"I need you to copy a research from a man name Aldrich Killian." Peter began thinking fast. Shit… Killian’s research. Why did this man want it? There would be lots of way for a criminal organization to use that research. Shit…

"From the way your staying silent… you know about the research don’t you." The man asked menacingly.

"You can say that. I have the whole research memorized up here." Peter tapped his head. "Let go of my aunt and I’ll tell you anything you need to know." (Of course He’ll only tell him the useless things).

"No. You will copy the files. And until then your aunt stays with me." He growled and pushed the gun harder into Aunt May’s head.

Peter saw red as he watch his aunt flinch. Just one more time, man… One more time and this man is going to really regret coming anywhere near his family. Screw one more time… Peter was going to beat this man to a pulp.

Peter was getting ready to fight when he noticed Vision float in. The man also noticed. He pointed his gun toward the android and shot which Vision easily stopped. In a blink of a eye Vision was on the man and the two of them began hand to hand combat.

Peter rushed toward his Aunt and the two of them ran out of the apartment.

"Peter you ok?" Aunt May asked him as she inspected him from head to toe.

"I should be asking that question! Are you ok? Did that creep do anything?" Peter asked hurriedly. Aunt May seemed uninjured but you never know... "Come on we shouldn’t stop here we need to get outside." Peter yelled as he pulled his Aunt harder

The moment both of them were outside the apartment complex a black car pulled forward with a screech. Peter tensed for a moment before the door opened to show Mr. Stark.

"Both of you in now."

XXX

Bucky tensed a little when Doctor Pym put the metal band on his head. It was a feeling he was used to way too much. He had to stare at Steve to stop himself from thinking back on his times in numerous Hydra bases. Steve gave him a bright smile encouraging him on.

King T’Challa had decided to listen to Doctor Pym’s order and left the Lab. Just the three of them remained.

Doctor Pym explained what he was going to do while attaching wires to the band on his head. "This machine is going to help your brain self heal. While you were being conditioned it would not have affected all the brain. So I’m going to trigger you so that the machine can tell which parts were affected. Then all I’m going to do is shock the area that was unaffected and let your own brain do all the work. Do you understand Sergeant?"

Bucky nodded. Steve nodded with him.

"Let us see what your brain looks like." Doctor Pym touched a button on his computer and the room was lit up with a blue hologram. Steve was instantly reminded of Tony’s Lab.

"You see this? This is your brain. Now…" Pym pinched Bucky on the arm. An area lit up blue suddenly and as quickly returned to normal. "That’s how we are going to tell how your brain was affected. Understand?"

Once again both soldiers nodded.

"Now relax Sergeant. I’m going to read the trigger words. And for heaven’s sake Captain Rogers. Sergeant Barnes isn’t a kid that needs his mother next to him. Move aside a bit!"

Steve blushed once more but listened to the doctor after giving Bucky a comfortable squeeze on his shoulders.

Pym became silent as he took the red book from the table next to him.

"Longing" suddenly one part of the brain lit yellow. All three of them watched the rest of the brain flaring blue as if trying fight the yellow part.

Steve watched in awe. He felt pride rise up as he watched Bucky’s brain fighting the conditioning by itself.

Pym continued. "rusted" More part of the brain lit yellow.

"furnace" Bucky face scrunched in pain. Steve looked towards Pym in concern.

"Sergeant Barnes you need to relax into the conditioning. You’re feeling the pain because the rest of the unaffected brain is fighting back." Bucky tried. He really did. But years of experience held him back from relaxing.

Pym continued as the unaffected part of the brain cooled down.

"daybreak’’ The Doctor watched the process of the closely.

"seventeen" now about half the brain lit up yellow. And Bucky growled as the pain became too much.

"Doctor…" Steve said full of concern.

"Five more to go Captain. From this point, with each word the Sergeant’s headache will disappear due to the fact it will no longer have the capacity to fight off the conditioning and the heat will cool down."

"benign" Steve watched as Bucky’s brain started losing its battle against to Hydra’s conditioning. As more parts of the brain shown yellow the remaining part of the brain flared less and less.

"nine" with three more words to go, Steve watched his friend’s face relax a little as the headache began to diminish.

"homecoming" Bucky’s whole body seemed to sag.

"one" almost all part of the brain froze with no neurons firing.

"freight car" Pym finished. The results were terrifying. Bucky disappeared as the Winter Soldier waited for his command.

Hank could see on the hologram that from this point on, the Sergeant would have no control of his brain.

"Soldier status." Hank Spoke. Both Steve and Hank watched the brain finally flare with neurons reacting to his voice.

"Uninjured. Missing the arm from a fight with Iron Man." His brain died down again waiting once again for a command.

Hank continued to order the Winter Soldier to do small tasks such as moving an arm or leg. He watched the brain only functioning on his command. Hank smiled when he found the place. It was exactly as He and Stark thought. In the deep core… It was not firing neurons even though all the other places were.

Now time for a command that even the Winter Soldier would have a hard time following through.

"Soldier. Kill Steve Rogers."

XXX

Tony took both Peter and his aunt back to the tower. He could hear from the driver seat both people in the back seat trying to comfort each other.

He frowned. Today had been way too close. He knew Peter could take care of himself but if his aunt was hurt… It would be on him.

As soon as they arrived Tony told Peter to take his Aunt to his room so that she can rest and told him come to the lab straight away. Peter nodded.

"So what was it?" Rhodey asked in worry. They were together when the distress signal came from Peter’s watch.

"Some creep took his aunt as hostage. I haven’t asked what he wanted. But I’m sure Vision has him by now." And at that moment Vision phased in.

"So where did you put him?" Tony asked when Vision came in empty handed.

Vision looked trouble for a moment. "I have lost him"

"What! You lost him?" Rhodey exclaimed. "How can you loose him?"

"I was trying hard to capture him alive and unharmed but he was too skilled for me to hold back. And he took the moment of hesitation and ran away."

"Shit…" Tony cursed. "You find out anything about him?" He asked

"I have a recording of our fight."

And Vision waved his hands and both Tony and Rhodey watched his fight. The man was indeed very skilled. The more Tony watched the more the dread in his stomach increased. With this man’s skills even Peter would not have been able to take care of it by himself. Shit… It was too close of a call. Too close.

Rhodey stayed silent as he watched. This fighting skill. He witnessed it before.

"This man. He’s a soldier in the Wakandan Army. That fighting style is very distinct." Rhodey stated.

Tony scrunched his eyes. "FRIDAY confirm the analysis."

"Colonel Rhodes is correct in his analysis. It is a fighting style from Wakanda."

Shit…

Peter walked in and stated instantaneously. "That man wanted the research files of Aldrich Killian"

Double shit…

"Hank…"