Red Star ✴️ Bucky Barnes X Reader

10: Bucky's Arm

When Shuri eventually detached herself from T'Challa's side, she took on a serious demeanor. It was as if she was trying to be an adult, and only mildly succeeding. "Brother, there was actually another reason I came to speak with you."

T'Challa looked confused. "Is something wrong?"

"Actually, the opposite," she smiled. "We have a redesign for Bucky's Arm."

Bucky's face lit up with a mix of shock, awe, and joy. It was as if his childhood innocence was restored and for a brief moment, he had hope.

Shuri skidded a metal disk onto the middle of the table. After clicking a button on the side, a hologram erupted from the small gadget, showing a network of nerves connected to mechanical parts.

"We were able to accurately identify how Bucky's nerves interact with his arm and give him full control of the prosthetic. Many of the mechanical parts are outdated and connect to... Well..." She scrunched up her face, thinking of her next words carefully. "Let's just say the arm connects to parts of his brain he doesn't want it connected to."

Bucky looked at the girl, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." She stammered, trying to think of an answer. "From the design, we were able to figure out it connects to certain pathways in the brain. It's hard to explain, but basically... Uh... Bucky? Have you ever been in like... An accident?"

"What?"

"Well, uh..." She stammered. "There's signs of brain damage... Well, not brain damage so much as neural pathways that have formed that shouldn't be there. We don't know how to get rid of them yet - we don't even have a proper mapping of the human brain. But we can at least disconnect the arm from those pathways."

Bucky sat forward in his chair, resting his forearms against the edge of the table. His eyes darted around the holographic model as this young girl pointed at specific nerves and explaining how it worked. Her words slowly turned into muted background noise as Bucky's gaze got lost in the intricate design.

"So, will I ever have a new arm?"

"Yes. Well, sort of?" She looked back at the model. "There are parts we would need to leave that connect your skin to the prosthetic. These neural pathways though? That will eventually be removed, once we have the technology for it."

Bucky nodded, satisfied with her answer.

"While we have one team working on how to do that, we have a second team designing your new prosthetic." She swiped her hand in the air, moving to another holographic model. It showed a dark grey arm with golden accents. "It has 360° rotation, a reinforced hinge, and it will only connect to the parts of your brain that are required for motor function."

"Pretty impressive kid." Steve smiled. Everyone sat in awe of the design for a moment, no one more than Bucky. The idea of having his ties to Hydra finally severed... It sounded too good to be true.

Shuri collapsed the hologram back into the disc before plucking it from the center of the table and putting it in her pocket. "I figured during all the diplomatic talk, you guys could use some good news."

Bucky shot a smile her way. "Thank you, Shuri."

Bowman saw the genuine smile on his face, and it was contagious. She wished he had smiled more like that back in the Siberian bunker. It might've made that hellhole a little less frozen.

Her wandering mind was snapped back to the task at hand as the group continued to discuss plans of infiltrating the Raft into the late afternoon.