Not Enough Rope to Tie Me Down, Not Enough Tape to Shut This Mouth
“Bucky?” Steve asked. Bucky just continued to stare vacantly forward, every muscle tensed as though he were preparing to attack. Steve carefully approached him as Okoye carefully rested her hand on her spear. Everyone watched as Steve approached until he was standing right in front of Bucky. “Bucky?” He asked again. Bucky looked up at him, eyes blank, before answering.
“Code not accepted,” he said shortly. It was at that moment that Steve seemed to shatter. His expression crumbled and tears wet his eyes. He reached up a shaking hand and ran it softly along the other mans cheek, but got no response. A broken sob ripped its way out of his throat and he lowered his hand. Bucky's face remained dispassionate and any signs of love or recognition that had sparked in his eyes had been chased out by shadows.
“Guys, get anything sharp away,” Tony said. Wanda nodded and summoned all the various weapons that were not being held by a clear minded person to her. It was not the best idea.
Bucky jumped at the motion, and lunged at the person closest, who just so happened to be Steve. Tears streamed down Steve's face as he tried to keep Bucky from choking him to death without hurting him, flinching everytime he was forced to land a hit on the other man.
Everyone jumped into action to try and get Bucky off of him, but found themselves blasted back by a flash of purple. Once the light had cleared they looked up to see Bucky being held down by a yellowish light coming from Palmarius’s hands. He struggled for a moment before going limp on the ground.
“What did you do to him!” Steve yelled, running over to the unconscious man and cradling Bucky's head in his lap.
“Relax, I fixed him,” she said. “He is exhausted though, you’ll need to take him back to his room,” Palmarius instructed. Soon both Steve and Bucky were out of the room, leaving everyone in a shocked silence.
“Well that was… enlightening,” Tony said.
“Yes, I believe that we can determine that this has something to do with Hydra,” Wanda agreed.
“The symbol is different though. Hydra is an Octopus, and this is a lioness,” Tony observed.
“It’s the same general design though, so maybe it’s some sort of offshoot, like a plan b in case the main thing goes under.”
“Well that would make sense, the main thing did go under after Cap destroyed the helicarriers, and then Wanda turned on them during the whole ‘Ultron’ thing,” Thor said.
“So what does Ross have to do with them? I mean, I hate the guy, but his main concern is America. He doesn’t seem like the kinda guy who’d work with Hydra,” Bruce said, walking into the room. “Peter’s awake,” he added, looking at Tony. “So, Hydra, huh?”
“Evidently. Nothing else could possibly trigger Bucky like that,” Okoye replied.
“Yeah, uh, I thought you guys had fixed that,” Tony pointed out. T’Challa sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.
“The work we did on Sergeant Barnes had never been tested, and we had no knowledge of exactly what Hydra did to him. We did all we could, but there was always a chance that something like this would happen again.”
“Well can you fix it now?”
“I do not know. We will do our best, but once again, this is new territory. Even for us,” T’Challa explained.
“Well, someone’s gotta alert the guys on the field,” Tony finally said. “And I have got to go see Peter. Pepper had an idea that I need to run by him,” Tony said, striding quickly from the room.
The asset was tired. It felt as if it had been drained of all energy, like a phone at 7% on low power mode. The asset felt upset. Wrong, the asset felt nothing. The asset wasn’t supposed to feel anything. Something was wrong, the asset needed to be wiped. No, it didn’t want to. The asset wasn’t supposed to want. It needed-
“Bucky?” a voice asked. That voice, it was familiar. The asset knew that voice. The asset loved that voice- the asset loved nothing. Love was weak and foolish. But the asset knew that voice. Bucky knew that voice. “Bucky, it’s me,” the voice repeated. Bucky, he thought. That sounded right.
“S-steve?” he asked. That name sounded right. It matched with the voice in his mind. He heard what sounded like a sigh of relief and felt the warm weight of an arm being wrapped around his shoulder. He automatically moved closer to the warmth, and shifted his head until he heart the calming melody of a heartbeat.
“Yeah, you back with me?” the voice asked. Bucky opened his eyes slowly and found himself curled up against Steve in his room, blankets wrapped around them both.
“What happened?” Bucky asked tentatively. His chest hurt, and his arm felt like it had been twisted in the socket.
“Hydra,” Steve growled. “Stark is looking into it. Natasha sent us a picture of a symbol the soldiers have on their uniforms. You came into the room, took one glance at it, and suddenly you were gone. You were the Winter Soldier,” he explained, voice breaking at the end.
Bucky nodded slowly. He remembered the symbol alright, he remembered it very well. Project Nemea, named for deadly beast of greek mythology, had been a very minor part of Hydra. They had been the ones who had overseen the more… difficult, parts of his training. Now that the main branch of Hydra was gone, it made sense that Nemea would be next in line.
“Nemea,” Bucky whispered, closing his eyes again and curling himself into a ball. “Tell them it’s called Project Nemea,” he instructed before slipping back to the realm of sleep.
“What is Hydra doing here?” Peter asked the second Tony walked into the room. He still had the headphones on, but his enhanced hearing allowed him to still hear Tony through them.
“How the Hell do you know about that?” Tony asked in surprise.
“I hacked the surveillance tape and spied on you guys,” Shuri said, looked up from behind one of her many view screens. “How’s Bucky?”
“Steve reported he woke up, and we’re now looking into what he calls ‘Project Nemea’,” Tony reported. “Now, how’s Peter?”
“He’s currently stable. His ears received very little damage from what I can tell, which is a lot, but I’d keep the headphones on to be safe.”
“Great,” Tony said, nodding. “I’m gonna need to ask you a favor,” he said, turning to Peter. “You don’t have to do it, but Pepper thinks it will help us turn the tides,” he said.
“What does she need me to do?” Peter asked, seeming to ignore the ‘you don’t have to do it’ part of Tony’s sentence.
“She wants you on camera, talking about what it’s like for you here,” Tony explained. Peter looked puzzled.
“Why would she want that?” he asked.
‘Because, you’re young, you’re relatable, and you have those puppy eyes. We just need raw emotion and heartbreaking tales, and then the public will love you,” Tony said.
“But then they’ll know I’m Spiderman,” Peter pointed out.
“Now they won’t. Pepper already came up with a story. You’re my top teenage intern whom I brought to Wakanda for a ‘learning experience’ pre-travel ban. All you want to do is get back to your friends and family, and try to mention how awesome the Avengers are while you’re at it. Oh! And throw in the part about Hydra, that’ll definitely get ‘em on our side,” Tony instructed.
“Alright, when do we start?” Peter asked.
“Not yet,” Shuri said. My brother wants to give them a little longer to surrender. He says if they still refuse by 0800 then we will start using extreme measures. THat means you’ll want your message being broadcasted at around 0730,” Shuri explained. “Until then, you can prepare what you’re going to say. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. We happen to be in a war, in case you hadn’t noticed!”
The battlefield was a mess. After the revelation that the soldiers were not hard working Americans who were serving their countries but Hydra warriors, their ‘no kill’ spree ended pretty quick. Sam blew them away as he and Rhodey soared above the battlefield. Flashes of electricity showed him where Natasha was, and the occasional explosion gave him eyes on Quill.
His head jerked up when he heard a loud bang, and his eyes widened as he took in the cause. “Guys! We’ve got incoming!” he yelled. He watched as more of Hydra’s troops came pouring out of bushes and hidden forces.
“Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!” Rhodey yelled, quickly flying low and dive bombing the incoming forces.
“Guys, you might wanna call inside, things ain’t looking to good,” Quill yelled into the coms. “We need more ground support!”
“Quill is right,” Nebula agreed. “They’re closing in!”
“You asked for ground support?” Came the voice of Palmarius. Suddenly there was a purple flash, and at least twenty of Hydra’s agents were thrown back to reveal the form of Palmarius.
“YES!” Drax yelled, leaping through the field of bodies.
“You sure you wanna do this Palmarius? If they do this, then Hydra, Ross, and the rest of the world will know your here. The accords will become your problem too, and you’ll face the problems of an Avenger,” Natasha warned.
“I was put here to help the Avengers stop Thanos and save the universe. I’ve done that, my purpose is fulfilled. Until the stones require my assistance again, I will stay here and fight,” she said before diving into the crowd.
“Well I’m definitely not complaining about that,” Sam said, shooting down a few more Hydra soldiers.
Peter sat on a cushioned stool in Shuri's lab. He looked out the large windows to see the son rising over the large field below where soldiers still fought viciously. He was set to broadcast live to the entirety of America in five minutes. He was terrified. Tony and Shuri were just in the other room so if anything went wrong, they'd know. Pepper was going to be uploading his message straight to the website she'd created to protest the war, where practically everyone would be watching.
"You ready, kid?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, yeah, fine, Mr. Stark," he replied convincingly. Tony gave him a quick thumbs up before leaving the room. A sign from Shuri in the other room alerted Peter that the camera was now rolling. He looked straight into the lens and took a deep breath.
"My name is Peter Parker, and I am here to tell the truth." Tony looked at Shuri in confusion. This wasn't the script they'd prepared.
"What is he-" Tony started.
"Shut up! He's talking," Shuri hissed, leaning forward.
"I am currently in Wakanda with the Avengers, where we are being attacked by troops. You're probably wondering what I'm doing here. Well, I came here with Mr. Stark to fight Thanos, because I'm Spiderman," he said, pausing to let his words sink in. Both Tony and Shuri were shocked. It reminded them a bit of how Tony had told the world he was Iron man.
"Ever since Secretary Ross declared war on Wakanda, we have been trapped here, unable to see friends or family members. Unable to help rebuild New York. I died when Thanos turned half the population to ash. I died, came back, and have not been able to see the only family I have left. Is it worth it? Is settling a petty vendetta worth all this?"
"While we have been trying to settle this with diplomacy, Secretary Ross snuck hundreds of soldiers over the border, who attacked us at 2400, and killed the Ant-man in cold blood. These are not normal soldiers, though. They're highly skilled Hydra agents, and we have no way of knowing how many there are. People are dying. Innocent people are dying! Please, stop him!" Peter yelled, tears welling in his eyes as he thought of the bodies that now littered the land below.
"I received word before coming on, everyone we have will soon be released on the battlefield, and there will be no mercy. Please stop before anyone else dies!" He begged, before the connection was ended.
Peter stared at the ground for a few minutes before Tony and Shuri came rushing in.
"That was brilliant!" Shuri exclaimed.
"Kid, you realise what you just did, right?" Tony asked. "The world knows you're Spiderman. Hydra knows you're Spiderman." Peter nodded before looking up.
"I can't ask them to trust me if I don't trust them," he stated simply before heading back to his room in a daze. Tony watched him go and nodded to himself. He'd made the right choice.