𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 - Bucky Barnes

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐭𝐰𝐨

(Be advised, this is a long chapter. About double the usual amount. Includes the entirety of Infinity War. [If you actually look at the movie, despite the runtime and the cuts between perspectives, it doesn't cover a lot of actual time.])

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❝ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝟏𝟎𝟎-𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬. ❞

THE KING BROUGHT them out of Shuri's lab and back to the city, specifically to the landing strip. Steve and whoever was with him, flew in past the shields over the lake, settling on the runway. Okoye grumbled something to the King as he and his Dora Milaje approached the quinjet. 

The hatch opened, and out came Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, Bruce, Vision, and Wanda. Thaea was happy to see them again, but she waited off to the side with Bucky. The two had grown closer over the last eight months, and she could almost say that she was as close with him as she was with Steve. Maybe more-so, due to the respective circumstances she had spent time with the two. The King began to lead the large group toward the building behind them.

"How we looking?" Natasha asked.

"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and-"

"A semi-stable 100-year-old man." Bucky interrupted, walking forward. Thaea followed him, a step behind. He embraced Steve like the old friends they were.

"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked, smiling.

"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world," He replied. "Good company."

"I should think so." Thaea joked, stepping forward. She smiled to her old friends, giving Steve a half hug, Natasha a full hug, and Sam an interesting handshake. She waved in greeting to Rhodey, Bruce, Wanda and Vision.

T'Challa led them all back to Shuri's lab, and Steve filled Thaea in on the situation, via mind-link. While they travelled to the lab, Sam, Bucky, Rhodey and Thaea would stay at the platform. It was something she had learned how to do during her time here, and she could see and hear as if they had audio and visual feeds built into Steve's mind. They were headed to analyze Vision's make-up, hoping they could find a way to separate him from the mind stone. Thaea frowned, knowing first hand how much damage that thing could do.

"So, giant purple man coming down from the sky to kill us and half the universe, unless we stop him from getting the rock." Thaea summarized, earning an amused look but nod from the rest of their company.

"Sounds easy enough." Bucky said sarcastically as they waited on the landing platform. Shuri gave quick greetings before bringing Vision away and lying him down on a table. She used her kimoyo beads to scan and examine the stone.

"Woah." Banner marvelled at the technology.

"The structure is polymorphic." Shuri observed.

"Right. We had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Banner explained.

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri asked, confused. Even Vision turned to give the scientist a look.

"B-because we didn't think of it." Bruce stammered in reply. Shuri sighed, turning back to the diagram.

"I'm sure you did your best." She stated. Thaea had to bite her lip to stifle a laugh. Ultron definitely wouldn't have happened if Shuri was there. Bucky raised an eyebrow at her in question and she shook her head.