"HOW'S MY FAVORITE patient doing today?" Shuri quipped with an amused grin as she skipped her way into the infirmary, eyeing up Bucky, who was sitting comfortably on one of the beds. Her hair was pulled back into a braid that cascaded down her chest, resting on one shoulder. "They're all out of pudding, so I brought you some ice cream. Elda says you like that, right?"

Bucky, evidently more himself by the way he rolled his eyes and allowed an easy smile to grace his face, scoffed. "You watch too much American TV, usisi," he hummed. Sister. Regardless, he reached out with his metal hand and retrieved the small pint of ice cream from the princess's tight grip. "Does your brother know you've been taking this from his royal stash of emergency ice cream?" When her eyes widened and her lips curled in a shocked smirk, he chuckled lightly. "You're not the only one that talks to me. He confides in me sometimes. You know, when he wants to feel like something other than a king or a brother."

Shuri smiled mockingly. "Oh, good. Just what I needed. My ubhuti going off and giving my blood brother my deepest, darkest secrets." Rolling her eyes, she tossed Bucky a spoon. "Be glad I'm sharing it," she advised him with an amused warning tone.

The door to the infirmary swung open, revealing a t-shirt-clad Steve, hands already on his hips in his "superhero" pose that was so natural for him despite his every effort to detach himself from the moniker. "Hey," he greeted, walking towards the bed that the two friends were sharing. "Mind if I join you today?"

Shuri shrugged, shifting her eyes up to Bucky's. "It's all up to him."

"I don't mind," he decided. "Just, don't give me your whole worrying routine. It's really annoying."

Steve rolled his eyes, an easy smile rising to his lips. "Says the guy who spoon-fed me broth when I had a cold back in the thirties."

Even with the spoon in his mouth, Bucky managed to make a noise of contempt. "Hey!" He protested, swallowing the sweet substance. "That's totally different. You were an asthmatic with a cold. If I hadn't been there to nurse you back to health, you'd have died right there on the spot, in that grimy old apartment."

Wakanda's first in line whistled lowly. "It's a wonder Elda doesn't get jealous when you two are alone." She gestured between the two men with a spoon, emphasizing their close proximity. "That right there? That needs to be resolved."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Steve inquired, genuinely thrown off by her innuendos.

But Shuri decided to take the teasing no further. "Never mind," she replied evenly, hopping off of the bed and patting it so Bucky would return. "We've got some tests to run, Buck. Sit your white ass down and let's get this day going."

The first thing they did, as they did every week, was scan his brain. Using the wheels on the bottom of the bed Bucky was sitting on, Shuri pushed him into position by the Wakandan technology that would perform the procedure.

Steve couldn't help but notice the bright smile that was on Bucky's face at the motion. "You're a child," he teased, crossing his arms.

"Fuck off, Rogers," Bucky retorted, though it held no hostility. He lay back and took a deep breath, clasping his hands, flesh and metal, together over his stomach. 

With one press of a button, Shuri brought up a three-dimensional view of Bucky's brain, hovering over his head. Using her hands, she poked and prodded at the fake, yet articulate image of his mind. "Huh," she pondered.

"What?" Steve asked nervously.

She shook her head. "It looks different than last time. Remember when I told that his brain looks like it's rewiring?" When he nodded, she continued. "Well, I was right. It's like he's got another...something in here with him. One more consciousness than just himself."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "Like that one mental illness? What is it called, split personality?"

Unsure of herself, Shuri puckered her lips, biting the inside of her cheek. "I don't think so," she admitted, "but I'm not completely sure."

Suddenly, Bucky let out a low groan, his alertness throwing off the scan and causing the image above his head to dissipate as if into thin air. His hands went up into his hair, clutching his head as he sat up and tucked himself into the fetal position on the bed. "What the fuck?" He muttered, rocking back and forth. 

"Shuri, what's happening to him?" Steve said, concern etched on his strong features.

The princess was at a loss. "I...I don't know, I—"

"Can you fix it? Can you fix him?" He was so unfamiliar with these types of situations. It had been so long since he'd had to help Bucky recover from the horrors he'd been put through. After bringing him to Wakanda the first time, everything seemed to be going just fine. But now, looking at his best friend since childhood in so much unprecedented pain, Steve was at a loss for words.

But just as abruptly as it had begun, whatever it was seemed to stop. Bucky stopped rocking, his hands came down from his head, though they were still shaking. He wrapped his arms around his legs that were still folded up toward his chest. Peering up at a shocked Steve and wide-eyed Shuri through his thick brown locks, Bucky's voice shook. "I thought it was over," he whimpered. "I thought she was gone, that once I was out of there, she'd..." he trailed off and dropped his eyes to the floor. "It's never gonna end."

Steve felt his heart ache for his friend. Reaching out a comforting hand, he offered any sort of reassurance that he could. "Buck—"

"Everyone needs to hear this." He interrupted him with a tone of finality that rang through the infirmary. "Sam, Elda, Nat, Ross. Everyone."

||

It hadn't taken much to find the others and corral them into the infirmary. After hearing the urgency in the voices of the messengers that Shuri had sent out, each one of their so-called team came to Bucky's aid, curious and anxious to hear what he had to say.

Elda, upon seeing Bucky so shaken up, had immediately gone to his side, announcing herself before calmly and gently placing her hand on his shoulder, squeezing to bring him back from whatever world he'd found himself in. "Buck, I'm here," she whispered in his ear. "Come on, baby, we're here."

He looked up to find the newcomers staring at him. Sam, Nat, and Cara had arrived at the same time, quickly followed by Ross and Wretton. The only one missing was Elda's brother Cade, who had flown back to the States in the hopes of moving forward from his turbulent past. It had taken him awhile, but when he was ready, he left. No one blamed him for wanting to escape the fallout of Cerberus.

"I should have told you guys before today," Bucky started. "I should have told you sooner, and I'm sorry. I just...I thought it would go away. I was sure that she would get out of my head."

"What are you talking about?" Elda stared at him with curious eyes. "Who's she?"

Shuri let out a small gasp. "Wait, that explains it."

"Explains what, exactly? 'Cause I thought we were just getting started," Sam asked.

The young genius glanced at Steve. "I told you it looked like there were multiple...things in his brain." He nodded, and she kept going. "Maybe it wasn't just what it looked like. Maybe that's what it actually was." She pondered it for a moment, stroking her intricate braid that still fell over one shoulder. "But how is that possible?"

Bucky cut in. "I think it's one of the serums they gave me." He paused. "I can't remember which one, exactly, but it was...it was when they first got me. There was this, this woman. She said that she knew me, and at the time, I had no idea what she was talking about." He shifted his metal arm beside him. "But I think I actually knew her. I think she...trained me. The Winter Soldier." He shivered with the memory.

"I'm confused. Who is this woman and what does she want with you?" Cara put in, crossing her arms. 

Bucky glanced at her with a sad look in his eyes. "When Cerberus...when they had me, she was always talking to me in my head. Trying to get me to be as numb and as emotionless as possible. It worked, for a time." He reached for Elda's hand and squeezed, a comforting presence. "But what she said just now, it's nothing like she's ever told me before."

Nat was skeptical. "Hold on, how is she alive if the CIA and every Australian soldier took down that compound? How is she still speaking in your head?" She shifted her weight and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't get it. We destroyed that place."

"Unless..." Sam pondered. "Dirty cops? Did the CIA, or Australia, did they cover it up?"

Ross held up a hand, his eyebrows raised in offense. "I'm sorry, what the fuck did you just say?"

Bucky shook his head and spoke again, his words diffusing the tension quickly. "It's not the CIA. It's...something more. Cerberus was never just the compound in Australia. There's got to be another one. Somewhere."

Elda was nodding. "That makes sense, if they wanted to stick to the mythological creature." She looked around and noticed the confused faces. "Cerberus, the Greek mythological guardian of the Underworld. The three-headed dog. Like in Harry Potter."

Steve took a stumbling step back. "So you're saying there could be three of these things?" He blew out a breath and cursed. "Fucking hell."

"I don't know that for sure, but it could very well be possible," Bucky agreed grimly. "She's not by herself, I know that for a fact."

"How can you tell?" Sam asked. "Did she tell you that?"

Bucky shook his head. "All she said was..." he paused, thinking it over. "'I don't remember who I am, I am only known by my number. Fifty-three. I know you are free, and I know that we have done terrible things."

"How's that supposed to help us find them, though?" Ross asked, hands on his hips like the CIA agent that he was. 

But Bucky wasn't done. This time, he stared at Steve. "She said, 'Find Tony. That's all I know. Find Tony, and I will be free.'" He shook his head again, running a hand through his hair. "That's it. Then she was just...gone."

Elda rubbed circles on his hand with her thumb, eyebrows furrowed in concentration and concern for her love. She didn't know what to do with any of the information Bucky had just dropped on the lot of them. She wanted all of this shit to be over with, but alas, there they were, contemplating what their next step had to be in regards to Cerberus.

"Find Tony? Like..." Cara trailed off, eyeing Steve, who had cleared his throat roughly. "Oh, boy."

"I'm sorry, that's all I have. I just...I thought you guys should know." Bucky sighed and gestured to Shuri. "Can I have any more of that ice cream, usisi?"

Steve was fishing in his pockets for something, a look of grim determination on his face. When he found what he was looking for, he pulled it out into the open. 

Cara couldn't help but scoff. "A flip phone? Really, Captain Crunch? Can I interest you in an upgrade?"

But he didn't have an answer for her. He completely ignored her, staring at the outdated piece of technology. Without even a single word, he turned on his heel and began to walk out of the infirmary. His eyes were trained on the small device in his hands, still looking as if he was unsure what he was going to do with it. 

"Hey, where are you going? Shouldn't we, you know, deal with this?" Sam called after him.

"I am," Steve responded, sounding resigned. 

"I've got to make a call."

||

wow. wow. i'm actually finished with this book. it's currently 12:15am writing this, and idk why i stayed up so late to finish it. but anyway, i hope you enjoyed this ending. it's kind of leading into stoneheart, the sequel to heartless, my tony stark fic that i wrote sometime in 2019. basically this was just giving you info on the synopsis of that book if you want to end up reading it.

if not, i hope you really enjoyed elda and bucky's ending that i gave them. i hope you enjoyed this book as i am super duper proud of it and how it turned out, even though depression decided to ravage me towards the ending. we got through it, folks.

also, coronavirus has closed my school until april 6, so uhhhh....stay safe and healthy everyone!

much love,
laura xx

p.s. this is not the last time you will see cade reid. :)

march 15, 2020