W  A  N  D  A

My whole body aches and every nerve still feels burned, my head pounding. I slowly wake up in a cold cell, sat against the wall in a tight straitjacket. Panic settles down when I remember what happened and I try to free myself until an electric shock shoots through my body and I hiss in pain. My eyes are filled with tears and I immediately stop moving. Hydra has me. Again. Maybe I don't deserve better. But the last time, I at least had Pietro with me.

"We may be in a desert or something, judging  by the dry air." The male voice catches my attention and I slowly look to the left cell. My eyes widen and I tense up. It's Barnes. "You okay?"

"Y-yes." I nod. He looks tired and not like a killer anymore, he's different. I would look in his head to find out his intentions but the jacket stops me, I can't move my hands.

"I'm so sorry for what happened... that wasn't me..." He mumbles and I can hear the guilt in his voice. It sounds sincere.

"Eve." I mention her and he immediately looks up, a desperate longing in his eyes. "She didn't really tell much about you but the important things. Do you remember her? Or Steve?"

"I remember everything." He confirms gravely, an incredible fear lacing his voice and my heart skips a small beat. Eve could be happy again. "But I'm scared I won't soon anymore. Hydra will brainwash me again and will try the same to you."

"How?" I question and lower my voice.

"With the ten trigger words. My mind reacts to them if I want it or not. I lose control. If you get the chance to escape, do it immediately. And if Winter is back, then don't hesitate to attack me."

So it's his mind. "What if I can help you?"

"How do you wanna do that?" He almost scoffs hopelessly and my voice turns into a weak whisper, in case someone listens.

"What if I work on your mind and block the reaction to the words or change something? I don't know if it works with my abilities but we must try if we want to escape with memories." I consider and the despair in his eyes shrinks. "We don't have much time."

He glances at my straitjacket, a familiar look on his face. "It will be painful for both of us though."

E  V  E

"The plan's easy. Three out of six of us can fly, so they'll just search through the more empty areas of Mexico in the air after we land the jet at our destination. Tony built for you a scanner to find the bunkers and look through the old factories faster." Steve instructs and glances at me, giving me a sign to take over with explaining.

"Bruce, Steve and I are gonna work on the footage that was taken yesterday, trying to find any clues and watch FRIDAY's satellite records in the jet in case something happens. If any of you notices any signs, let us know and we'll figure it out. Code Green will also just be used in emergencies. Our first priority is to save Wanda and Bucky, then we'll just blow up the Hydra facility. Questions?"

"Yes. Since when do you and Capsicle act like twins?" Tony lifts a brow in the air as he flies the jet. Clint is usually our pilot but he's gone and FRIDAY is not ready yet to fly this jet on her own.

"Shut up, Tony." I roll my eyes and cause Sam to chuckle slightly. "The one who finds the facility first will inform the others for support. Get ready, guys."

The team nods and goes back to their seats, a tensed silence settles down. I glance at the ground and watch the billionaire focusing on flying the jet. Yet, I can see through the mirror how deep he's in his thoughts right now, his gaze is glossed over. Understandable, he's about to free the murderer of his parents. Even though he promised me to save Bucky and understands now that he's a victim of Hydra, it must still be difficult for him.

"We're landing!" Once he lets us know, we feel a steady ground beneath the jet and the gate opens, the suffocating hot air of Mexico invades the quinjet. Tony snaps the Iron Man mask shut as his eyes start glowing. "Vision, you'll fly northbound, Sam westbound. I'll look in the east. We'll be back in a few hours."

The three of them fly away and Steve grabs a few cold water bottles, handing them to Bruce and me. "Let's get to work."

"FRIDAY, try to list the trigger words from the footage and translate them." Bruce commands as he takes a sip of the water. Even with his short purple T-shirt, it's not helping against the heat and he already sweats lightly. I admit that my combat suit itself isn't really convenient. "And activate the air conditioner."

"Yes, Dr Banner." The female AI answers and the sound of the air conditioner turns on, cooling down the temperature. Yet I feel how I break out in sweat of nervousness, pure concern and anxiety making it hard for me to sit quietly. Even though we're doing something, it feels like we're doing nothing at all. I've always been more the fist of a mission, not the brain.

"How long will it take until FRIDAY's finished?" Impatience runs through my question and Bruce sighs.

"I don't know, five minutes maybe? She just started." He shrugs and Steve looks at me with a knowing glance, familiar with my nervous impatience. The blonde sits down next to me, his lips forming a little smile.

"What are you gonna do when Bucky's back?" Steve suddenly asks and I shoot him a confused look, Bruce doesn't seem to understand either. "I'll definitely go to eat hot dogs with him. They taste so different nowadays, not dry and charred anymore. I bet he'll love them."

Now it clicks in my mind. Steve tries to distract me by being optimistic. Even if it's more likely a dream than reality, the corner of my lips goes up, thankful for his idea. The thought of Bucky being back warms my heart and this old feeling of excited happiness arises in my stomach, making me feel like a sixteen year old girl from Brooklyn whose beloved one returns from war.

"I think he's gonna love Disney movies a lot. I mean, we were obsessed too, remember? You couldn't stop crying during The Lion King."

"I didn't cry!" He claims and Bruce chuckles lightly, remaining out of the conversation. "I just had something in my eye."

"Three times?" I lift an eyebrow and he shrugs.

"I, uh, had allergies."

"Steve, you're a super-soldier." Now a chuckle slips through my lips while he rolls his eyes playfully. "I think you're gonna like him, Bruce. He's slightly cocky but apart from that, he's a good and caring man."

"I believe so." The scientist smiles slightly. "If Thor was here, he'd probably crush Barnes into a hug."

"True." Steve hums in agreement with a low chuckle until the AI interrupts the moment the three of us were having; a rare moment of light easement and normality that none of us has had for a long time. And now it's time to get back to the complicated reality.

"The results are ready, Dr Banner." FRIDAY announces and a hologram appears with ten Russian words, next to them their translation. My eyes are attached to the trigger words that release the Winter Soldier, my mind working on their meaning but it yet remains a mystery to me. Bruce adjusts his glasses while Steve arches an eyebrow, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight Car." I read out loud and my head is completely empty. "That's what the trigger words mean? In what connection are they standing to Bucky?"

"I have no idea and I mean, we're supposed to know since we know him the best. Banner, any idea?"

"These words don't make any sense." Bruce mumbles confused, his hand running through his dark curls. "When you told me of the trigger words, I actually thought of some kind of Russian formula. But this goes so much deeper into his psyche, this is really the most progressed brainwashing method I've ever seen. FRIDAY, show me the areas in the brain that could be possibly involved during this procedure, I'm working on this. You two try to understand the words, their meaning is important."

"Yes, Dr Banner." Another graphic hologram appears, a brain with red marked areas presented.

"To understand how the Winter Soldier works?" Steve raises a brow in the air.

"To find a way to heal him." He corrects him and my heart rhythm fastens, thinking of the old, cocky Bucky. Everything could be like in the old times again. As naive as it sounds, I hold onto it, because without any hope, I'd be lost. Steve and I drag the hologram to our side while Bruce works on the other side of the jet, needing his time and silence.

"Freight car could stand for the train." Steve assumes and I glance at him, my heart sinking. "The train he fell off."

"Makes sense..." I only agree. Thinking of this incident brings my worst nightmare back, the worst day of my entire life. "The others are totally random though- wait a minute."

"What?"

I collect the trigger words that are numbers, putting them into the correct order. "Seventeen. Nine. One. It's 1917, Bucky's birth year. Bruce, do you think they have to be in a certain order?"

"I believe that it only works if they're perfectly spoken in this order." He answers, still focused on the biology. "By the way, I noticed on the footage that you tried to stop it and maybe that was enough to break the Winter Soldier. He was hesitant and not as obedient as he should've been."

"So the words are the key." I look back at the screen, my concentration dedicated to the solution as Bruce continues his work. "Could Rusted stand for his condition when he was under ice? It was standing in the file."

"Possible." Steve nods. "What if Longing and Homecoming belong together?"

"Daybreak... daybreak..." I continue our theory, drowned in the river of my thoughts. The meaning of the words start to fit together like a puzzle. "Mostly stands for a new beginning, right? It's a new day."

"For Bucky, it was a whole new life though, a terrible one. But what's about Benign and Furnace? They're quite the opposite of the Winter Soldier." He questions and I shrug.

"Absolutely no idea. Let's focus back on the words we've already got." I pull the words we may have solved on the screen together and we stare at them intensely. "There must be a connection between them, they all have something in common."

Steve's blue eyes suddenly widen as he sucks in a deep breath, acting rather urgent. "These words are all based on the bad things that happened to him and remind him of the things he'll never get. That's it what they have on common."

"You mean- "

"The rage and pain release the Winter Soldier!" Bruce suddenly shouts, enthusiasm and excitement mirrored on his face. A face a scientist carries when he figures it out. He motions us to come over and points at the middle area of the brain.

"Explain it, Bruce." I demand, reminding him of our lack of scientific knowledge.

"His brain reacts negatively to this order of words, but only exactly these words. Hydra trained and tortured him to react just to these words which would be shown in this area of the brain then, emotional pain. It's like with me and the Hulk just more complex. I get angry, I get green. He's triggered, he becomes the Winter Soldier."

"And how do we heal him? How do we help him to never become the Winter Soldier again?" Steve wants to know and it suddenly clicks in my mind, I look at Bruce.

"Break the words."

Bruce points with his finger at me, signaling that I'm right. "If even one of those words doesn't have a negative meaning for him anymore, it won't trigger him anymore. The solution is so simple, yet brilliant."

"But is it gonna work?" My best friend wants to know and before Bruce is able to answer, Tony's voice suddenly echoes through the jet.

"I thought you wanted to watch the satellite records!" He huffs on comm and I frown, hearing shots in the background.

"Tony, what's going on?!"

"Good news, Vision found the Hydra base. Bad news, the government found us and it seems that they want to arrest us." Sam answers instead and I share a shocked glance with Bruce and Steve.

"What?!" Bruce sounds unpleasant, taking a look at the satellite records. In fact, the Air Force flies through Mexico, following two points on the map which would be Sam and Tony. "Why that?? We're trying to defeat Hydra."

"They want a trial about what happened in Sokovia and are on their way to the jet." Tony's voice is low, almost anxious. "And they don't give a damn about Hydra right now. I've got a plan, okay? They haven't found Vision yet, he's gonna lead you to the Hydra base while we try to hold the government down. I'm afraid your presence is demanded for an attempted negotiation, Cap. They would lock down Bruce and Icy without a second thought and then no one can save Wanda and Barnes."

"Okay, I'm waiting in the jet for them." Steve decides and looks at us. "Just run and save them, if we waste more time, you'll find Bucky and maybe even Wanda without memories."

"But we both were supposed to save them, Bucky's waiting for you too." I say but Bruce already transfers the information that we have gathered on a flash drive and grabs me by my arm.

"You gotta do it alone. Now leave!" The sounds of helicopters and jets appear from the distance and it's too late to leave through the gate, so Bruce and I crawl out through the hatchet, the first one rather clumsy. The heat hits my skin and I cough because of the dusty wind, the bright sun blinding my view.

"Come on, we need to hurry." Bruce urges and we don't waste another second to run to the village that is close to our landing spot. Soon, we arrive at a few bushes and trees where we hide and while Bruce tries to catch his breath, I watch how the jet gets overrun by soldiers of the government. Since when did the Avengers become their enemy?

"Miss Farrell, Mr Banner." Vision calls us and flies down, landing behind us.

"You found the Hydra base?" I ask and he nods confirming.

"We need to leave now if we want to save Wanda and Mr Barnes." I shoot Steve a last glance, witnessing how he gets carried away by agents a soldiers, an angry look on his face. Swallowing deeply, I nod.

"Let's go."