Remember Me

Chapter 2

As Steve is piloting the jet, Natasha notices he's flying really low and awfully close to the trees down on the ground and barely missing the trees from the forest below.

"Maybe you're flying a bit low, Steve?"

"No.. not really."

"You really need to watch out for the trees Steve. Do you know what you are doing? Is your fossil brain not noticing the trees?" She jokes with a worried smile on her face.

Steve rolls his eyes. "My fossil brain is just fine. We're on course. Just trust me already. Wakanda is hidden behind that mountain."

"Okay, then please fly over it and not through it.. Steve.. Watch out!"

Natasha yelps as she ducks, thinking they are plunging to their death as Steve flies through the barrier surrounding Wakanda.

"We're here."

Natasha raises her head and opens her eyes. She is baffled. "I knew Wakanda was hidden but this is ridiculous."

Steve laughs. "Well, it works. Doesn't it?"

* * *

Steve lands the jet, a group of warriors arrive at the jet holding there spears towards the backdoor of the jet. The door opens and Steve and Natasha exit the jet.

"Please, put your weapons down. This s a friend." King T'Challa and Shuri greet them with open arms. "Welcome my friend. Can I ask who you have brought along?" He asks beckoning at Natasha.

"Thank you T'Challa, this is Natasha Romanoff, a colleague and a dear friend of mine."

Natasha shakes the King's hand. "It's my honor your majesty."

"Please, call me T'Challa. Nice to meet you miss Romanoff."

"If I may ask, what is your business here?"

"We've come to warn you for incoming intruders."

"I pity the fools who tries to enter our heavily guarded kingdom. But please come in and explain."

Two gigantic doors of the castle are opened for the king and his friends. Natascha is stunned by the beauty of the inside of the castle. Images of panthers adorn the towering walls of the hallway. Banners hang from the high ceiling, fluttering softly as the giant doors close behind them.

After walking together down the long embellished hallway they arrive in a royal office. The walls are as high as the hallway but these have floor-to-ceiling windows. Their view extends over the entire city. It's beautiful.

The king invites them to sit on the sofa in the corner.

T'Challa turns to a lady standing next to his desk. "Can you please get us some refreshments?" The lady nods and leaves the room. The king turns to Steve and Natasha who placed themselves on the sofa. It's been a long time since they sat on such a comfortable piece of furniture. Natasha lets out a soft sigh. Her hand slides over the soft upholstery of the sofa and her butt cheeks are pleasantly surprised.

"Please tell me, what danger do you want to warn us about? Wakanda's location is a secret except for a small selected group. And if someone discovers where we are, I can assure you that they will have a difficult time to enter our Kingdom. So please, enlighten me, Captain." He says with a smile.

"We are chasing a Russian group. We are trying to locate the leader of this group but unfortunately we do not know who he is. We have a picture of the assumed leader but the database is not able to find a positive match." Steve looks at Natasha. "A few days ago we located a safe house of this group and found some documents which lead us here. We were shocked to find a link between someone who you have here." Steve reaches in his pocket to grab the picture they found earlier. He hands it to T'Challa.

The king hums as he studies the picture. "Is can see it's old. And why do you think they want to find Sergeant Barnes?"

"Those documents we found, where taken from a safehouse we think belonged to HYDRA. We think they are after him, controlling him and using him for bad." Steve clenches his jaw. "We can't let that happen to Bucky again."

"I see... Let's meet up with Nakia and Shuri in our Medical Center, they are in charge of monitoring the sergeants health. Please follow me."

They are now so close that Natasha's stomach knots together. She has never been this close since she can think clearly. Both Steve and Natasha get up from the sofa and follow the king. After walking through the same eccentric hallway they end up in a high tech laboratory.

It smells sterile in here and almost everything is white except for the workbenches, which are made of stainless steel. Natasha sees many surgical instruments and almost all the scientists here are wearing gloves and a facemask. Some fill test tubes with some kind of blue or clear liquid, others peer through a microscope, twisting the buttons as they take notes. An entire wall is full of screens, with all of Bucky's medical data on them. Of his arm, body and brain.

And in the middle of the room they see a tall, upright pod with a glass cover, the glass is all fogged up from the inside. Natasha gasps. "Is that Barnes?" she asks. Steve nods, and turns to Nakia. "Nice to see you again Nakia, how is he?"

Natasha slowly walks up to the pod and takes a look through the glass to find Bucky. She places her hand on the glass trying to wipe some of the fog but she cant. She studies his face. He looks asleep, he has a calm expression on his face, peaceful. She only seen this look on his face only once before. Bucky still has a stump on his left shoulder where his arm got blown off when he fought Stark. She is horrified at the sight, yet her lips form a small smile. "Soon James.." she whispers to herself.

"He is stable and doing great. But unfortunately we have not yet found a solution to remove or suppress the mind control."

"We need to talk to him, because we think he is in danger"

T'Challa gives Nakia the picture Steve gave to him. "We think HYDRA is trying to capture him and use him. They have located Wakanda and they could already be here as we speak."

"We can't wake him up, he does not want to."

T'Challa interrupts Nakia. "We do not have a choice. Sergeant Barnes must have the chance to defend himself if they succeed breaking through our barriers."

"He will be really bad-tempered when he wakes up." Nakia shakes her head.

"Okay everybody, make the preparations and let's wake him up."