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Wakanda [May 2015]
–Jack Sullivan–
"This is nice," He commented after a while as he basked in the companionable silence, watching some team play with a ball on a green court. Okay, he knew that they were playing rugby but he had no idea who was doing what, or if they were winning or not.
He was mostly lost in his thoughts as he thought about the current situation and how to best resolve it. Bucky's issues are in a realm of their own. According to the last report he had gotten from the handler assigned to both of them, Bucky's brain had shut off the part of memories where he knew what he had done.
They were still devising a strategy on how to break the news to him but for the time being, they were content on letting him be amnesiac and stay out into the open, as was his choice. They were given the option to reside in any of the areas in and around the Capital City but Bucky wanted something remote, and so did Bruce so they gave them this mountain.
It wasn't really tall or anything, and at the base itself, a small platoon of armed soldiers, armed with advanced Vibranium weapons along with a small localised forcefield projector that could isolate the mountain in an instant, was also installed.
That was only in case of emergencies and both Bucky and Bruce were made aware of everything beforehand.
"It would be nicer if the guy below could join us," Bucky commented as his hand once again detached itself from his body, dumped the now empty beer bottle into the recycling bin, and then brought another cold one straight to him.
Not gonna lie, it was a neat trick. How did that feature even come to be anyway? He was tempted to ask but he didn't know if it was appropriate or not.
Plus, he had a hunch that it was probably due to some sort of pseudo-Ai that was built into the arm to help monitor and/or protect Bucky. Since they were upfront with both of them about everything, he saw no reason to doubt about them knowing about this as well.
About Bruce, "Yeah, I too think the same but honestly, the man is–"
"Completely depressed?" Bucky said in an apathetic tone.
"Yeah, I've met the guy a few times whenever he comes up to get some fresh air. Always goes back into his hole whenever I've tried to make conversation beyond the casual though," Bucky shrugged as he chugged on his beer like it was just water. With his super soldier physique, it might as well be water for him.
"..Yeah, the things that have been done to him, for no fault of his own. You might not know but something happened–"
"Yeah, in Johannesburg. Yeah, I read the reports. What? They get me things to read if I ask nicely," Bucky explained as he levelled a questioning look at the man since he could spot no modern equipment in the cabin and Bruce was not really in a talking mood with him.
"Look–" He looked to the side as Bucky set down his beer and seemed to come to a decision of some sort.
Resolutely looking into his eyes, "--I know that things have been missing from my head. Plus, all of this doesn't make any sort of sense, atleast from where I came from," He raised his very advanced left arm and waved at him with it.
"Also, things are very different from where I came from. Sure, things were turning around but I have never seen so many…coloured people in positions of authority. Are we in Africa or something? How much time have I missed? And why am I still so young if I have missed so many years? What happened to my body? I have sparred with the guys from the base of the mountain a couple of times and I have thrown them around with ease. I have some flashes of memories but I can never seem to pin them down. What time is it? Why—"
Bucky abruptly stopped before taking a deep breath in as his arm began flashing red. He did the same for three more times before he opened his eyes, returning back to the calm if a bit apathetic self.
"...Look, I am just saying. I know I am not ready to know but I have a feeling that something bad will happen if I try to probe deeper but my gut feeling tells me that I should, deserve to know more. Whenever I ask the guys downside, they tell me that you are the one who can make it happen," Bucky said in a pleading tone.
His hatred for HYDRA reached new heights as he took in the poor, broken down man in front of him. No, he had to do something but he knew as well as anyone that forcing Bucky to remember all his memories would do nothing but make him completely suicidal.
No, they needed another approach and he would have to discuss with Wakanda's mental health professionals for further recovery.
"Look, I'll get the ball rolling. I have to warn you, it will be a long and painful journey—"
"I am okay with that."
"...Okay. We will talk soon. Now, I have to check in on Bruce because it truly has been a long—"
"..Um, Hi." He turned around, still in his chair as Bruce stood behind them, the letter from Betty clutched in his hand.
"I–I just came here. D-did I disturb something?" Bruce asked him as he must have felt the solemn atmosphere in the cabin.
"No. Nah, we were all done. All yours, doc," Bucky said as he left the room, the beer bottle still in his hand. Beer bottle in left hand, and an axe in the right, the man left the cabin.
Damn, talk about badass exits.
"So, ready to talk?" He asked Bruce who fidgeted with the beer bottle that Bucky handed to him before leaving the cabin.
"..Yeah. The letter, did you read it?" Bruce asked him as he set the beer bottle down and sat on a nearby chair.
"No. Why? What did it say?" HE asked, pretty eager himself to know more because his interaction with Betty was limited to her approaching him when he was signing for one of the many kids who always approached him throughout the day. She told him that she just needed the letter delivered to Bruce.
It also had her address written on the envelope so he assumed that she wanted him to contact her in case something about the letter or Bruce panned out.
"..*Sigh* She says that she wants to meet. Look, I–it's nice that you did this for me but I don't think I am ready to go out yet. The world doesn't need me anymore, they have you. Plus, I don't think I have still recovered from the….you know," Bruce said with a haze of sadness lingering around him.
Yeah, he did know about Bruce's trauma. Aside from all past trauma, the latest in a string of life altering traumas that Bruce experienced was the suffocating feeling of being stuck in space with nothing to hold onto, for leverage, or anything else.
Sadly, Bruce was in space for more time than he should have been, for some reason. The Ancient One didn't rescue him immediately and that irked him a bit but what could he say?
He was the one who punted Bruce into space with all his might. They had already had the whole apologising for sending Bruce into space conversation and Bruce had repeatedly assured him that it was the only option available to him at the moment.
Bruce had gotten access to the energy readings from the fight and let's just say that according to Bruce himself, if he was allowed to ramp up his energy more and continued to fight him on the planet, he would have eventually reached critical mass and created an explosion so vast that the entire Australian continent would have ended up feeling the impact, cratering the city and all its neighbouring areas.
The guilt of ending even lives in single digits was already eating up Bruce from the inside. He couldn't even imagine what Bruce would do if he came to know that he was responsible for mass genocide, the destruction of an entire major city.
Maybe, Bruce as he knew it would be gone, his mind fractured under all the stress, with only mindless rage left behind in the form of Hulk, which would have been another disaster in the making.
"Yes, I totally understand but Bruce, it's been months since you have been here and every time I talk to T'Challa, they tell me that you have blown off the latest meeting with your–"
"Yes yes, I get it. I need to see the shrink about all this stuff but it is not easy, you know. Especially with all the stuff I have pending in the laboratory. If only my cells were not that strong, I could have used the solution I developed to completely suppress my powers," Bruce muttered to himself, seemingly losing himself as he then began muttering what sounded like gibberish to his ears but was most likely nuggets of gold to anyone studying Gamma Radiation and its effect on the human body.
"Bruce. Bruce!" he had to resort to zapping Bruce with one of his barriers, the feedback of the same still not pleasant, as Bruce's body seemingly devoured his barrier completely without any trace, severing his connection to it…violently.
"Look, I know you are hurting, and what if you don't even have to go anywhere else? I could bring her here. I am sure she will agree plus, you can be rest assured that nobody will be able to disturb both of you guys here," What went unsaid but was more important was the fact that the Hulk would not be able to hurt anyone here. Well, except Betty herself.
"You will be here as well, right? I don't think the Other Guy would do anything to her but just in case…"
"Yes, I will be here. Now, will you please come out with me and get some fresh air?" He gestured to the open cabin door, Bucky's form visible in the distance. He was fooling nobody with that aloof act. With his super soldier senses, he was more than capable of snooping on their conversation but he would not fault Bucky for trying to make sense of the situation of who was, essentially, his roommate.
A superpowered, Gamma Radiation big head of a roommate but a roommate nonetheless.
"...Yeah, sure," Bruce said as they came out of the cabin and took in the beautiful view afforded to them. As far as his vision went, he could see greenery before it all abruptly ended in a small shade of blue that flickered occasionally, showing the barrier that surrounded all of Wakanda.
Apparently, people living below the mountain peaks all saw a continuation of the greenery but after a certain height, the illusion was dropped off for some reason.
"Hi." Bucky smiled awkwardly, as if his face wasn't used to that specific motion, and joined them as they sat on a crudely made wooden bench and looked at the view, especially the sunset behind the Great Mound, the mountain made up of Vibranium.
"So, beer?" Bucky asked them as his hand was already in the process of floating back into the cabin.
Okay, seriously. How was he doing that?
____xx____
"Mr.Sullivan, I have been expecting you," T'Challa greeted him as he flew into the palace, or rather, flew right outside the window of the office he knew belonged to the T'Challa, and then knocked as a courtesy, and once being acknowledged, opened a portal and flew out of it, straight into his office.
"Yes, I just came to check in on both of the people whose mental health I entrusted to you," He said, with a tad bit of accusation leaking into his voice.
Which was recognised by the Crown Prince who put down the paperwork with a sigh and slid it to the side as T'Challa gave him his undivided attention.
"Mr.Sullivan, the cases are very complex. We have our best people working on it but they simply can't do anything if the patient himself is not cooperative. Sgt. Barnes has been remarkably cooperative and just last week, I have received reports that they can begin trying to unlock specific parts of his memory, painlessly."
He had a point but that did not make it any less frustrating. It had been months and aside from Bruce getting the lab of his dreams, there was no improvement on that front. In fact, it seemed to have backfired, judging by the Gamma Sharks, talk of suppression serums, and total isolation for weeks at a time.
"So, Bruce not being cooperative was an issue so why was I not informed about it in advance? I could have done something to facilitate that. Also, what is up with Bruce's lab? I am sure that your father would not have approved such a large-scale use of Vibranium outside of Wakanda's laboratories," He asked him the question that had been bugging him for a while now.
While he was aware of the lab and the tinkering space that Bruce got as a gift or pity from the Royal Family, it was nowhere near this advanced the last time he had seen it. It also did not have that much vibranium and space as well.
So, something had changed for them to allow Bruce this much freedom and he was very curious because he would not let Bruce be used by someone, even if it was someone well meaning like T'Challa or Shuri.
For all the mental health issues that Bruce faced, he was a veritable genius capable of surpassing most people in their fields with a fractional amount of study.
"..That, Mr.Sullivan, is something that was facilitated by my sister. She has hired Dr.Banner as a scientist for the Royal Wakandan Laboratories." T'Challa's face looked as if he had bit on a particularly sour lemon.
"..Wait a minute, Royal Labs means Vibranium and its weaponry. I don't think you guys allow anyone to enter the labs without them being, essentially, Wakanda born. What? Did you guys give him citizenship or something?"
"..I am afraid that Shuri was able to convince Baba to give Dr.Banner a Permanent Residency. A Visa program that didn't exist before, and had to be created just for one individual,"
"I see. So you guys are using him? And postponing his mental health sessions is a way to do what? Eke out more out of him before he leaves Wakanda?" His already bubbling anger rose to the surface, menacing green waves wafting off his form, as green began tinging his vision.
T'Challa began looking increasingly alarmed as he spoke, his voice gaining a guttural tone at the end of his sentence.
He could hear faint sounds of alarms ringing as he stood up, towering over T'Challa.
"...Wait! Wait, you misunderstand. No, we wouldn't even dream of doing that to Dr.Banner. He is a hero of Humanity. No, Dr. Banner himself requested for everything, and we just provided everything that he asked for, considering that he was already hurting. You have to believe us!" T'Challa began shouting, as he backed up to the wall, his hand going to his necklace, just short of activating his nanite armour to don the Black Panther suit.
He let out an explosive sigh as his vision returned to normal, his barrier returning to its normal subdermal state.
"Fine but this has gone on long enough, T'Challa. The Scarlet Witch is still out there, doing who knows what and we need to be prepared for that eventuality. I will not have Bruce's mind toyed again, after all that he has already been through. I will be back, in a week, with a guest. I suggest you make sure that you have a viable strategy when I come back." He said and stepped out of the portal that he made in front of T'Challa's desk.
He was already in a bad mood and was not willing to stay in Wakanda any longer.
Sure, that place was in the process of improving and was their best shot at creating a hidden force with enough firepower to hurt their enemies where it would hurt but damn, that place was a cesspit of racism, xenophobia, and extreme superiority and arrogance.
"Now, where was Tony when you needed him?" He asked himself as he flew towards the Avengers Tower in the distance, the portal opening above the sea.
Word Count - 2846
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