"Absolutely not," Bucky exclaimed, eliciting a sigh of defeat from the two girls standing in front of him.

Wanda and Marlena had just finished explaining to him what it was that Tony needed them to do, and Bucky was not a fan of it at all. The two girls were far too important to him, and he didn't want to see them experiencing the same pain he had to just to win a court trial for him as he knew they would have to do if they were to go inside his head. His head was a dark and painful place, and though he had no problem with them reading it from time to time, he had an enormous issue with the two of them delving deep for something he was sure would have some sort of lasting effect on them.

"Why, Bucky?" Wanda questioned him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We're just trying to help you," Marlena added, a frown on her face. "We care about you, y'know?"

Bucky let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "I understand that, and I care about you both just as much, which is why I can't let you venture inside my head. I don't want you two to have to experience what I did for the sake of this trial."

"But if they know what you went through there's a better chance they'll let you go," Marlena tried to reason with him, though it didn't seem to be working.

She and Wanda knew trying to convince Bucky to let them in his head was going to be hard, and they had a plan if they failed. They just hoped they wouldn't have to count on that plan to get the job done for them.

"I don't care, Marlena," Bucky retorted. "If the lawyer Stark hired is as good as he claims he is, then he should be able to get the job done without your assistance."

"He's being stubborn, Wan."

Wanda glanced at her and let out a low scoff. "Stubborn is quite the understatement, my dear cousin."

"I really don't want to have to do this to him."

"What are you two talking about with each other?" Bucky questioned with narrowed eyes.

Marlena turned back to look at Bucky just as Wanda's voice flooded into her mind. "We might not have a choice, Mar. I don't think we're getting anywhere with him; we've been trying to talk him into it for almost ten minutes."

"Nothing at all," Marlena answered Bucky with a sigh. "Just please let us do this, Bucky."

Bucky shook his head and stood up. "No. It's not happening."

Wanda gave a nod, knowing she and Marlena had no other option but to put their plan into action. "Okay, okay; we are sorry for bothering you, Bucky. We'll just tell Stark he's gonna have to find some other way to help convince them."

"Thank you," Bucky said as he pushed passed the girls. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go rummage through Clint's fridge."

Marlena bit her lip as she watched him head towards the door, and she glanced over at Wanda, who only gave her a nod of encouragement.

"I'm gonna regret this," Marlena muttered to herself as she threw her hands up, allowing the blue of her energy to engulf her petite hands.

In front of her, Bucky stopped walking. His eyes widened slightly as he noticed his body becoming trapped within the familiar sapphire hue. "Marlena Claire, I swear if you don't let me go right now, you'll live to regret it."

"I already do," Marlena said as she approached him, her glowing hands still bared in front of her. With a swift movement of her hands she was turning Bucky around to face her. The expression on his face made her want to release him, but she knew she couldn't. She had to help him; she couldn't let them take him away from her again.

"Please don't do this," Bucky pleaded with her, his eyes flashing to Wanda. She was now approaching him as well, her fingers curled around a sphere of dark red energy. "Consider the consequences of your actions."

"We have no choice," Wanda told him as she stepped closer and closer to him. "We are only trying to help you, Bucky."

Bucky looked back at Marlena, his eyes and thoughts begging for her to stop—for her to let him go. "I'm only trying to protect you two. Does that not matter to you?"

"Of course it does, but you matter more," Marlena strained as she lowered him onto his knees. "I won't let them take you away from me again."

"Neither will I," Wanda added.

Bucky struggled to break free, but it was no use; Marlena was too powerful for him.

"I'm sorry," Marlena apologized to him in an attempt to make herself feel better, though the look of betrayal on his face did nothing to ease how horrible she felt; if anything, it only made her feel worse about the situation. "Just know that we're doing this to protect you."

Before Bucky could even respond, Wanda curled her fingers in front of her, sending a wave of her own energy zipping towards him. Bucky's irises flashed with a deep red color as he looked up at the two of them, and in seconds he was falling unconscious. Marlena swallowed the lump in her throat and lowered the rest of his body onto the floor as gently as possible, gazing over at Wanda with a saddened look on her face.

"He's going to be so mad at us, Wanda," Marlena said to her.

"Maybe so," Wanda started, shifting her gaze from Marlena and down to Bucky. "But he will thank us for doing it when all of this is over."

★ ★ ★

Marlena took a deep breath and snatched her hands away from Bucky's head, running a trembling hand through her short hair. Her body felt cold, much colder than it should have been, and she knew that was because of what she had just experienced when she ventured inside his mind.

"I think—I t-think we're done f-for the d-day," Marlena spoke as she ran over to grab one of Bucky's hoodies from her dresser. She threw it on immediately, allowing the heat from the fabric to encase her trembling body.

"I would hope so," Wanda said quietly. She sat curled up on the floor against the wall with her knees pressed to her chest. She was working on recovering from her painful experience of Bucky having his arm sawed off without so much as an anesthetic to numb the pain for him. Not to mention, she had also just endured the pain of his many memory wipes. She felt as if her brain had been ran through a meat grinder over and over again, though she was thankful the sensation wasn't exactly real. She just hoped her headache went away soon.

Marlena sat down beside her, laying a head on her shoulder. "Tony said it would be overwhelming; I just wasn't aware it would be this overwhelming."

"He's been through so much," Wanda whispered. "All that pain, Marlena. . .all that guilt."

"I'm almost terrified to subject those jurors to this horror, but if we don't then they'll never see that he deserves to be free," Marlena said to her. "He didn't choose this life; Hydra chose it for him."

Wanda frowned and looked down at Marlena. "Should we, uh. . .should we wake him up?"

Marlena leaned her head up, her eyes never leaving Bucky's unconscious figure. "You know that if we do he's going to be livid with us."

"I know." Wanda sighed, "But we were only trying to help him. He needs to understand that."

Marlena shrugged and stood up, using the wall to steady herself. "Let's get to it then."

After pulling Wanda off of the floor, the two girls headed over to the bed and sat down on the mattress beside Bucky. Wanda waved her hand towards Bucky's head, sending a wisp of red energy into his mind.

About thirty seconds later Bucky began to stir, and a mere ten seconds after that he shot up in bed, startling the two girls slightly. He seemed a bit frantic, but the moment he remembered what had happened to him, he froze in his spot. He turned his head to look at Marlena and Wanda, both of whom were sitting a good foot away from him. They gave him an innocent smile, but Bucky was in no mood. He was angry—angry that they had went against his instructions not to venture inside his mind, angry that they had forcibly put him down to do so, angry that they had betrayed him.

"Hi, Buck," Marlena said slowly, tightening her grip on Wanda's arm.

"I hope you two got what the hell you wanted," he snapped. He ran a hand through his hair and stood up, making his way over to Marlena's bedroom door.

Marlena and Wanda hopped up quickly, both of them rushing out of the bedroom to catch up to an angry Bucky.

"Bucky, please stop," Marlena said as she pushed her way in front of him. In her haste to reach him she hadn't been aware of just how close he had been to the stairs, so she misstepped, which sent her falling backwards.

Despite his anger towards Marlena, Bucky reached out to grab her before she had the chance to hit the floor. He latched tightly onto both of her arms, turning her around and shoving her back towards the bedroom, grabbing Wanda as well in the process. He pushed the two girls into the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"We know you're angry," Wanda started as she took in his expression. She wasn't given the chance to continue before Bucky spoke.

"I'm not just angry," he exclaimed. "I'm hurt. I told you two I didn't want you inside my head, but you didn't fucking listen to me. I only did it to protect you from all the horrors I've had to experience, and you didn't care one bit."

"But we're okay, Bucky," Marlena assured him, though they both knew her words were a lie.

"Is that why you're shivering to death and why she's clutching her left arm like she's afraid to fucking lose it?" Bucky countered as he gestured back and forth between the two of them. "You're paler than normal, Marlena. And you look like someone has completely removed you from reality, Wanda."

Wanda frowned and released her arm, scratching the back of her head nervously. "I'm so sorry, Bucky. We just wanted to help you; we don't want them to take you away from us again."

"That's understandable and admirable, but there are other ways to prevent that from happening," Bucky told her.

Bucky looked between the two girls he had come to love so much, wishing he could feel something else towards them other than the anger and the hurt now currently flowing through his body. It was because he loved them, though, that the situation effected him so deeply. It hurt him to even look at them.

Marlena shook her head at him, hugging her arms over her chest. "No. . .no there's not. All they see when they look at you is someone who has killed; they see someone who has taken more lives than one can count on their hands and feet. But we see someone who was tortured and abused; we see someone who had their life ripped away from them, someone who was turned into something they never would've become if they had a choice, someone who was forced to kill and feel nothing afterwards. We see a victim who deserves a chance to live his life the way he's always wanted to, and if showing these people why you deserve that means making them feel what you had to, then I won't hesitate to make that happen, Bucky."

"That's the thing, Marlena!" Bucky nearly shouted, once again startling both of the girls. "I don't want people to experience all the pain and suffering I had to; there's a lot of things I wish upon people, but that is definitely not one of them. My time as the Winter Soldier was the darkest and most painful time of my life, and it's a pain that I still live with every single day. It's a pain that will never go away, and I've accepted that, but it's also a pain that I hoped no one else would be unfortunate enough to endure. That's why I was terrified after you had been taken, Marlena; that's why I spent days comforting you after you came home with Marlena, Wanda, even though I barely knew who you were. Now, because you decided not to respect me or my privacy, you two have experienced it secondhand, and it nauseates me to think about how it effected you."

Both of the girls were practically speechless; they hadn't been expecting that to be his response.

"We didn't know, Bucky. . ." Marlena trailed off, unsure of what she should say next.

Bucky just shook his head and backed towards the door. "I just—no. I don't wanna be around you two right now; I don't even wanna talk to you two right now. I just can't handle this. I'll be staying in a separate guest room tonight and until we leave, too, so. . ."

"Bucky, please don't do this," Marlena said, her voice cracking slightly.

"Consequences, Marlena. If you would've listened to me I wouldn't have to do it," Bucky told her. "I hope you two are happy with yourselves."

Neither of the girls were given the chance to respond before Bucky fled the room, leaving the two of them alone to ponder in regret over what they had done.