Having resolved the trouble at the factory, they finally caught up with the cultists who had chased out earlier. After rescuing the mother and son and setting off to return with them, Lin Huai and Banner looked at the pair in the back seat.
"Amon won't give up just like that. Bear kids are really annoying," Lin Huai said, slapping his forehead... Sokovia, HYDRA Base ruins.
The sky had already darkened. Searchlight beams swept through the ruins, and the dust kicked up swirled in the light. Stark Industries' Iron Legion was clearing the battlefield, with Drones humming as they moved piles of twisted metal wreckage to designated areas.
Steve Rogers stood on high ground, looking at the busy scene below, and spoke through the communicator: "Tony, Area Three has been cleared; no survivors found. The intel 'Pierce' gave is very accurate; the defense nodes and armory locations here all match up."
"Of course, I personally watched it'speak' it," Tony's voice came through the communicator, with a hint of fatigue and mockery. "But seriously, your security work is like a sieve."
"Now is not the time for that," Steve's tone was serious. "How are things on your end? Have those twins settled down yet?"
"Settled down? They're covered in thorns, ready to scratch someone at any moment," Tony sounded very irritable. "Just now, that fast-running kid broke the motherboards of three more of my Drones. He unscrewed all the screws right under my nose! Jarvis didn't even capture his movements!"
Steve sighed: "They've been through war, their home was destroyed, their parents..."
"I know, died from Stark Industries' shells," Tony interrupted him, his voice devoid of emotion. "I've checked the files. That's why I have to find a way to talk to them properly. That girl, Wanda, her abilities are dangerous; we can't let them go down the wrong path."
Steve fell silent.
Just then, a red figure appeared in front of Tony.
It was Wanda Maximoff.
The girl's eyes were full of hatred. She stared fixedly at Tony, her hands unconsciously beginning to condense scarlet energy.
"Stark," she spoke, her voice soft and cold.
"Hi, little Witch," Tony raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Can we talk properly? I know you're upset, but right now we're all helping clean up the mess in your country."
"Clean up the mess?" Wanda smiled, a smile full of cold hatred. "You created all of this! If it weren't for your weapons, my parents wouldn't be dead! Sokovia wouldn't have become like this!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a surge of mental power slammed into Tony's mind.
Tony's pupils dilated instantly, and the scene before him changed.
He was back at the wormhole above New York. Coldness and silence enveloped him, and in the distance was the infinite Chitauri fleet, swarming toward Earth. The armor on his body had lost power, and his body was falling helplessly.
"Tony! Tony, wake up!"
Steve's voice pulled him back from the hallucination.
Tony gasped for breath, his face pale and his forehead covered in cold sweat. He looked at Wanda in front of him, his eyes filled with lingering fear.
"You... what did you do to me?"
"Just letting you taste what we feel," Wanda's voice carried a hint of satisfaction.
A silver shadow suddenly appeared and supported Wanda. It was Pietro.
"Sister, don't waste your breath on him," Pietro looked warily at Tony and Steve, who had just arrived. "Let's go."
"Hold on!" Steve stepped forward. "We mean no harm. HYDRA is our common enemy."
"You are all enemies!" Wanda's emotions were very agitated, scarlet energy dancing at her fingertips. "We won't trust any of you!"
With that, Pietro pulled her away, and the two turned into a blur, disappearing into the shadows of the ruins.
"Are you okay?" Steve supported the still-gasping Tony.
"Not great," Tony shook his head, looking in the direction where the twins had disappeared, his eyes complex. "Captain, I take back what I said before. They are two unstable bombs. Especially that girl; she can directly attack a person's thoughts, which is very tricky."
Steve patted his shoulder without speaking. He knew this incident had a big impact on Tony.
"Bucky has a new discovery over there," Steve changed the subject. "He found a hidden data interface, which might be connected to the Base's core database. This wasn't in Pierce's intel."
"Tell him to be careful," Tony's tone became serious. "In a HYDRA nest, there are all sorts of strange things."
...Deep inside the Base, in a narrow maintenance passage.
Bucky Barnes stopped in his tracks, staring at an inconspicuous metal plate on the wall. He reached out with his metal arm, his fingers exerting force, and pried the metal plate right off, revealing a data interface flashing with red light behind it.
"Found it," he whispered into the communicator.
"Good job, Bucky," Steve's voice came through. "Natasha is on her way; she'll handle the data decryption. You stay alert on the spot for now."
"clear."
Bucky turned off the communicator and leaned against the cold wall.
In the seventy years he spent as the Winter Soldier, he had been sent by HYDRA on countless missions, entering and leaving various secret Bases. He knew HYDRA's architectural style and their habits for hiding mechanisms like the back of his hand. After regaining his freedom, these memories he once loathed had now become the most useful tools.
He was lost in thought when a surge of hostility suddenly made all his muscles tense up.
Bucky whipped his head around.
At the end of the passage, two people stood there at some point.
A man and a woman—it was the twins.
Wanda's gaze fell on his silver-glinting metal arm, and her eyes instantly turned cold.
"Winter Soldier," she said, enunciating each word, her voice filled with murderous intent.
Bucky's heart sank. He naturally knew what that name represented.
"I'm not..." He wanted to explain, but the words caught in his throat.
Would explaining be of any use?
He was the Winter Soldier. He had killed many people; it was a past that could not be erased.
"We've been looking for you," Pietro spoke, his voice elusive. "HYDRA's sharpest blade, their most obedient dog."
"We've seen you," Wanda took a step forward, scarlet energy swirling around her. "In Sokovia, you killed our people. Your hands are also stained with the blood of our compatriots."
Bucky's breathing became rapid.
Blurred memory fragments filled with blood came to mind. Sokovia, mission, eliminate target... "I... I don't remember." His voice was somewhat raspy.
"Don't remember?" Wanda sneered. "It doesn't matter, I'll make you remember."
Before she could finish her sentence, Pietro's figure vanished from where he stood.
Bucky's combat instincts made him turn instantly, raising his metal arm to block.
But it was too fast.
A massive force slammed into him from the side, knocking him hard against the wall.
Before Bucky could react, Pietro had already appeared behind him, his arms tightly gripping his waist.
"Sister!"
The red light in Wanda's eyes flared.
A massive surge of mental power flooded into Bucky's brain.
Buried memories and bloody images were forcibly dragged out—everything he had desperately tried to forget.
Cold snowy mountains, a red five-pointed star, piercing Russian commands... "Longing."
"Rusted."
"Seventeen."
"Daybreak."
"Furnace."
"Nine."
"Benign."
"Homecoming."
"One."
"Freight car."
The brainwashing commands echoed in his mind, intertwined with those images of killing. Bucky let out a roar, clutching his head, feeling as if it were about to split open.
"Bucky!"
Steve's shout came through the communicator; he had heard the commotion and was rushing over at full speed.
But it was already too late.
Wanda pushed her hands forward, and the scarlet energy transformed into two chains, tightly binding Bucky's body.
Bucky struggled under the restraint of the energy, but the light in his eyes was rapidly fading, becoming hollow and numb.
"Take him away," Wanda said coldly.
Pietro shouldered the bound Bucky, and the two of them, like phantoms, quickly disappeared into the dark depths of the passage.
A few seconds later, Steve's figure burst into the passage.
He looked at the empty passage and the wall that had been dented from the impact, his eyes filled with rage and anguish.
"Bucky—!"
His roar echoed through the deserted Base.