Chapter Text
“Thor couldn’t give you any more info?” She asked scoffing slightly causing Bruce to shrug.
“You know him, giving vague pieces of information is what he does.”
“He should be the god of vagueness.” Evie stated as they walked up to the door. Bruce nodded and knocked once. No answer. Evie sighed and knocked again. The door creaked open slowly making an ominous noise. Both exchanged a glance.
“Uh…” Bruce was at a loss for words.
“Yeah, no. Excuse me, Mr. Wizard or whatever.” She called. “I’m not walking through the mysterious doorway without some reassurances that you’re not going to suck my blood or something.” A beat passed and a man stepped up to the door.
“Please step right in Dr. Stark and Dr. Banner.” He invited. Both followed him into the entrance hall of the admittedly impressive house. A man Evie faintly recognized from charity circles stood on the staircase.
“Dr. Stephen Strange… It’s been a while. I’m glad to see you are doing well.” She greeted inclining her head. The man seemed surprised she remembered him.
“Dr. Stark, thank you for the sentiments. Now why are you and Dr. Banner gracing my doorstep?”
“Thor sent us.” Bruce answered. “He says there’s a threat you might need to be made aware of, a threat to the Infinity Stones.”
“The Infinity Stones?” The other man repeated suddenly alert.
“Yes, does that mean anything to either of you?” Evie asked. The man waved his hands conjuring images.
“At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing, then… Boom. The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.”
“Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind, and Time.” Strange finished clicking the amulet he wore and moving his hands in a strange motion. The amulet opened to reveal a glowing green stone.
“Wait a second, you have had that thing all this time?” Evie demanded.
“The Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj mainly the Sorcerer Supreme have been the guardians of the Time Stone for centuries.” The other man answered. “We swore an oath to protect it with our lives.”
“So, there are more than one on Earth.” Bruce mused.
“I’m sorry we didn’t catch your name.” Evie told the other man kindly.
“Wong.” He introduced shaking their hands.
“So, what else do you all do? Besides making balloon animals?” Evie asked Strange who gave her look.
“Protecting your reality, smartass.” He shot back.
“That’s only cute when my boyfriend calls me that.” She told him. “And you’ve done a bang-up job, Loki… Maximoff… I mean well done.” She told him slowly clapping.
“Maximoff wasn’t on our radar. We thought enhanced were your problem.”
“A person who can do…whatever the hell she does is not enhanced. Whatever the Mind Stone did to her-”
“Wait, hold up… she got her powers from the stone?”
“Yeah, keep up.” She said waving her hands.
“Well, that would have been good information to have.”
“Your existence would have been good information to have.” She returned. Bruce and Wong watched the thrown barbs like it was a tennis match.
“Oh my god, there’s two of them.” Wong said.
“Yep.” Bruce sighed before whistling. “Break it up you two.”
“Bruce is right, what matters now is how we go forward. If there’s a threat to the Stones it’s not just to you, it’s to all of us. What if we worked together?”
“I’m listening.”
“You and all your group look at the accords and work on magical protections that would help you. And make it so you don’t need to be secret. The Avengers will back you. And in the meantime, we figure out a way to defeat this super-secret calamity causing cosmic entity with a flair for the dramatics.” Evie proposed causing Wong to chuckle.
“I like her.” Evie grinned.
“I like you too. So, what do you say?”
“We’d have to confer with other head sorcerers, but it could work.” Wong told Strange.
“We’ll debate it and let you know. But in the meantime, as a show of good will and teamwork we will investigate Wanda Maximoff.”
“I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership.”
Stark Tower a Few Days Later
“Okay, here we go.” Evie said to herself as the video call connected.
“Hello, Toni.” Shuri greeted warmly.
“Good evening, Shuri. How are you?”
“As good as circumstances would allow.” The princess said diplomatically.
“Are they being assholes that much?”
“Yes.” The princess deadpanned causing Evie to giggle. “But anyway, onto the matter at hand.”
“Yes, where is our mutual acquaintance?” At the question a mechanical hiss was heard and Shuri waved someone off camera over. “Hello, Sergeant Barnes.” Evie greeted neutrally.
Bucky’s POV
“Before you say anything let me say this in person, I’m so sorry for what I did to you. In the past and present.” The man said honestly looking her in the eyes hoping his showed the shame he carried for what he had been forced to do. James had thought long and hard about this when Shuri had told him the genius had wanted to speak with him.
“I forgive you.” The woman said softly, shocking him.
“What?”
“Let me rephrase, I forgive you for what happened in the past, you had no control over your actions. Hydra is the real monster, as for the present… I accept your apology and while I can’t forget what happens, I’m open to work towards forgiveness provided your remorse and such is genuine.”
“It is.” He replied immediately.
“Now onto matters at hand.” Shuri spoke after a moment.
“Yes, I want to inform you that next week at the upcoming council meeting, T’Challa will reveal to the council that you and the rest of the rouges are in Wakanda.” Dr. Stark told him.
“I figured that it couldn’t be hidden forever. Will Wakanda be in trouble for this?” He asked Shuri. He knew how much she loved her country and didn’t want to be part of the cause it was vilified or worse harmed.
“That is what we are trying to mitigate.” She answered solemnly. “I’ll be honest, my brother brought you all here without informing any of Wakanda. Our council has now been informed and are not too pleased with him. But they are also worried for the fragility of our place in the world, which is why I have stepped in to handle some of that. The fact that my brother took you and left Dr. Stark in Siberia will not go over to well.”
“As well as the fact that you are all wanted fugitives that have been given “sanctuary” in their eyes when they hear this.” Dr. Stark chimed in from the monitor.
“So, what can we do?” He inquired, wanting to do his part in helping.
“T’Challa and Shuri will make the case that Wakanda is the best place to hold them. They believe they are being protected from their actions and know that the rest of the world won’t give them what T’Challa is. So, they are placated. I and the rest of the Avengers will help by pointing out we have no way to hold them, Rogers, Barton and Maximoff sabotaged the Raft on their way out. Luckily no one was killed.” She said firmly causing him to wince. “We also have no way to contain Maximoff, we aren’t taking any chances again.”
“What is it with her? She’s off and those powers…” James asked wanting to know. Steve would be vague when he brought up the subject. Only saying that she was like him in a way. A victim of tragic circumstances. Dr. Stark frowned as she took in his question before sighing in acceptance.
“I will tell you only if you swear to me, you can keep your cool. If you storm back in there and attack her all this is for nothing, they will know what we are up to, and she could hurt the people around her to escape, she’s done it before.”
“I swear.”
“You are aware that HYDRA had Loki’s scepter in their possession during and after the fall of SHEILD correct?”
“Yes.”
“Well, the scepter contained an object called an Infinity Stone more specifically the Mind Stone which Vision now carries. But I can send you more detailed information later. The cliff notes version is the scepter was sent to a base in Sokovia, where they carried out experiments on subjects who most we believe were there against their will. But two of the test subjects were volunteers, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff… Those experiments gave them their powers and turned them into weapons for HYDRA.” She finished.
“WHAT?!”
“I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”
“She’s HYDRA…” James said trying to wrap his head around it.
“Essentially yes.” He took this in before another thought occurred to him.
“Did Steve know?!”
“Yes. He supported her joining the Avengers against my objections.” She told him.
“And he let me work alongside her…” James was going to punch him all over again… multiple times… with a brick.
“Sergeant Barnes.” Dr. Stark said firmly snapping him back to reality. “You gave me your word, please don’t break it.” James’s shoulders slumped. It was true, she had no reason to trust him. But a part of him wanted to earn that trust and if this was how he started, so be it.
“I won’t. I’m not happy but I can play a part, one of the things I remember learning from HYDRA. But I would like more information if you can give it to me.”
“I’ll send to Shuri what I have on the twins and the Sokovia project. Now before we got sidetracked, we were talking about how we currently have no way to contain her. That is true we are working with some new allies to see if we can get a better understanding of her to do that but until then, best she not be unleashed on a population.”
“Once the Avengers are able to safely contain the fugitives, we shall give them up.” Shuri told James.
“I understand.” He was ready to face the consequences of what he had done for the better part of sixty years.
“However, if all plays out as we hope… you will not be going to jail with them.” Dr. Stark told him stunning him.
“R-Really…?” She gave him a calculating look before nodding.
“You so far have been the only one to show genuine remorse for your actions. Plus, your offer to be our inside man will not only help Wakanda’s position that they can keep Rogers there but will earn you goodwill in the council. Zemo has also confessed that he intentionally triggered you in Berlin and set you off on the building. Bastard is either playing a long game, or his conscience woke up for a moment. Since then the Task Force is digging into the information from HYDRA on the Winter Soldier. You did commit crimes as the Winter Soldier, but I think the fact that you are willing to own up to that and cooperate with any investigations will help strengthen your case. A lot of cold cases or cases that were blamed on other factors can be closed with your help. With all that I think that when the time comes, we can see about getting you maybe probation under the supervision of the Avengers.” She explained.
“But the triggers, I’m still dangerous.” He would not be used as a weapon again by anyone. If Zemo found him and found out about the triggers anyone could.
“That would harm your case, unless we deal with them.” She said motioning to her and Shuri who pulled up a design for a headset on a smaller screen.
“What is that…?”
“It’s what I call BARF, Binary Augmented Retro-Framing, it’s a device that can help clear traumatic memories in layman’s terms.”
“We believe that we can use this technology to treat your triggers.” Shuri told him.
“But there are some stipulations.” Dr. Stark cut in.
“Which are?” If there was a chance of removing the triggers he was willing to do almost anything.
“First, we can’t move forward without the approval of the council. Working in the shadows is what led to messes like this in the first place.”
“I understand. Full transparency.”
“Second, for this to work, you need to accept what happened to you.”
“I do.”
“No, you see the Soldier and you as two separate entities. But it’s not, I’ve read the reports. The Soldier, the thing you hate so much. Is the part of you born out of the need to survive. Accept that, accept the Soldier and learn to live a new life with that acceptance.” James sighed.
“That’s the hard part.”
“Nothing worth doing is ever easy, Sergeant Barnes.”
“James.” He corrected. “I’d like to be called James, Dr. Stark. I’m not Bucky or Soldat… I’m James.” She studied him for a moment before smiling.
“Looks like you just took the first step.”