Chapter Text
Steve led us to the basement of the facility, to a secluded place.
It was a laboratory.
There were some people in lab coats around as we entered and he led us to the strange metal tube.
Inside, there was Bucky.
He looked some years older. A stubble over his hard jaw and chin length hair, but undeniably him.
"You were used as a Hydra puppet for decades. When they didn't need your services as an assassin, they'd put you in cryo." He said as Bucky slowly touched the metal over his own body.
"I remember them trying to break me. For years. They gave me the arm, tortured me in any way they could…" He said and we stayed silent.
"I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, Buck." Steve let out a strangled breath and Bucky turned to him.
"You couldn't know. Don't beat yourself." He said, trying to place his hand over his friend's shoulder.
I took a deep breath.
"We need him completely alive to do that. Please, make it happen. I've got something that belonged to Bucky, his soul and a dear friend, which is all the spell asks to bond his body to his soul again." I said and Steve nodded.
"You heard her, Banner. Please, wake him, but stay alert. I'll call some of the other guys to help if the Winter Soldier manages to escape." He said, and I gestured to Bucky to follow him as I noticed Stark in a corner.
I walked slowly towards him and offered my hand.
"I don't like to shake hands. But I'm glad you're here." He said and I nodded.
"That soulless person killed my parents. It will be good to know he won't tear other families apart after today." He said and I slowly nodded.
"I hope it works. Bucky deserves to find his peace, even if it is still in this life." I said and he nodded.
As people started gathering around the room, the Winter Soldier was already thrashing inside the cryo tube.
"Guys. Listen carefully." I said and everyone stood quietly looking at me.
"This is a Soul Bonding spell. I need you all to stand back as I know the Winter Soldier will probably whoop my ass, but you cannot touch him unless I'm already dead, ok?" I said and I heard some gasps as Bucky came at me desperately.
“Wait, no.” He protested and I ignored him.
"Now, magic tends to have a cost, whatever it is. The people who took his soul from his body paid the price, but if there's a price to pay for putting it back to where it belongs, I'll be the one to pay it. It is part of being a Mediator, and you guys need to let me take the fall if anything happens because there's literally no other way, understand? I want this." I asked and Steve swallowed, but closed his eyes in agreement.
"You never told me that." Bucky said and I gave him a small grin.
"No one can touch a soulless body while in a Bonding spell besides the enchanter. You and I are the only ones that can touch him. Good thing I'm as tough as they come. And if anything really bad happens, I'm the only one capable of surviving it, should fate choose it." I said and his eyes widened.
"Stop that! Freeze him again!" Bucky yelled in desperation but I shook my head at Steve as I walked towards the Cryo Tube.
"Please, stop it! Don't! I'm fine like this, he'll kill you! I can't put your life over Fate's hands!" Bucky pleaded as I looked inside the Soldier's soulless eyes and he stared back at me with a hard and empty gaze.
Steve looked at me and I nodded for him to get away.
I grabbed the baseball and nodded.
"Open it." I said as Bucky literally tried to yank me away from the place, protesting loudly.
The door hissed and I slowly stepped back as he stepped out of it.
He was towering.
He was huge and intimidating as he looked around, registering the space crowded with Avengers, squinting his icy eyes, then, he looked at me again.
"Bucky, when you see the breach, go for it." I said, then grabbed the baseball tight and started repeating the words.
The Soldier squinted his eyes at me, walking towards me as I walked back, never even stuttering as he grabbed me.
“EVERYBODY STAY THE FUCK BACK!” I yelled as the Winter Soldier grabbed me and yanked me up by my neck and Bucky looked in absolute desperation at us.
He tried to yank me back but he simply couldn’t.
The Soldier had cold, dead eyes as he stared right into my soul.
His body was hungry for one.
I kicked him and he simply didn’t even feel it.
“Why did you have to be even a tougher fucker alive, huh?” I asked Bucky as I managed to get out of his grip and rolled away from him, chanting desperately the words.
I started screaming the words as the Soldier came viciously after me and Bucky followed us desperately while the Avengers stood by, watching us in a tense silence, ready to jump in.
I repeated the words tirelessly as I ducked from another punch that simply ripped a piece off the concrete wall.
“Ok, enough playing nice!” I said, jumping backwards and placing my legs over his shoulders, then put my hands over his temples.
I chanted another spell and he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Show me.” I murmured as he got into a state of hypnose.
My eyes rolled back as I saw unspeakable horrors inside the Soldier’s mind.
Death. Violence. Torture. Disasters. Bombings. Abuse. Drugs. More deaths and torture. A brainwashing machine as he kept on thinking desperately of how much he needed to get his control back. Desperation. Hurt. Confusion.
Then a sequence of words.
I repeated them and he threw me on the ground while screaming, squirming away as I finished saying them.
He knelt in front of me and looked at me blankly.
“Ready to comply.” He said, just like a brainwashed puppet, in Russian.
I gasped as I put my hand over my own neck.
I got up as he stood there, completely quiet and waiting for instructions.
“Stay there. Wait.” I coughed out and grabbed the baseball that had fallen over the ground and held it.
"Open your hand." I said and he did. I placed the baseball in his flesh palm and he closed his fingers around it.
I breathed loud and hard as I started chanting the words as I saw Bucky being sucked into the Soldier’s body.
I repeated the words over and over, feeling the strength being drained out of me, then repeated the locking spell, the soldier grunting as the pain seared through him as I almost sewed his soul back to his body.
I lost all of the strength on my body and fell on my knees as I felt the bond was done.
I felt happiness take over my senses right before passing out.
If I was actually going to pay the price, I'd do it gladly.
The last thing I felt before fainting were strong arms holding me, not letting me fall face first on the ground as everything else faded away.