Red Winter: Timeline

Chapter Eighteen: Day 29

(Author's Note: This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter really starts the rating. You've been warned.)

"Ok...let's give it a try." Shuri looked at Wanda and nodded, grabbing her ear plugs and waiting for Wanda to start. Bucky was sitting in his chair, strapped down, wired connected, but they hadn't done anything yet today. Bucky wanted to try and see if the new phrases activated or if the old ones didn't work. So he sat still, staring straight ahead and waited for Wanda to speak.

Wanda looked at the soldier, she had already memorized both phrases after repeating them for the past twenty-nine days. "Ready?" Bucky nodded, Wanda took a deep breath.   "Тоска ржавая, печь, рассвет, семнадцать, добрый, девять, возвращение на родину, один, грузовой вагон.(Longing, rusted, furnace, daybreak, seventeen, benign, nine, homecoming, one, freight car.)" Wanda starred at Bucky for a long moment, once her lips stopped moving Shuri turned and watched Bucky's brainwaves. Bucky didn't move, he still starred ahead, he heard what Wanda had said, but usually after Seventeen his mind would go blank and he wouldn't hear the rest of the phrases, at least not until now. This was the first time he heard everything, and nothing seemed to be happening. So, Wanda repeated herself, "Тоска ржавая, печь, рассвет, семнадцать, добрый, девять, возвращение на родину, один, грузовой вагон.(Longing, rusted, furnace, daybreak, seventeen, benign, nine, homecoming, one, freight car.)" She took a step forward, "James?"

"Call me Bucky." His eyes shifted up to her, a large grin fixing on his face, "Bucky..." He laughed softly. "Ok...ok..." Although they were all growing with excitement he was anxious, "Do the new ones." His face fell back into seriousness.

Wanda nodded, trying to not show her excitement, she turned to Shuri who nodded, and then took another deep breath, "Луна, Тревога, Медь, Апельсины, Алый, Драгоценный камень, Инструмент, Дым, Звук, Любовь.(Moon, Alarm, Copper, Oranges, Scarlet, Jewel, Instrument, Smoke, Sound, Love.)" After a moment she thought it didn't work, not that it would be a bad thing, but as the last word left her lips she saw the coldness appear in Bucky's dark eyes.

"Я готов отвечить. (Ready to comply.)" His accent was thick. Wanda turned to Shuri who quickly flicked a few switches and suddenly Bucky was yelling in pain. Wanda made her way over to the monitor that Shuri worked at and looked up at the screen.

"Not a single peak." Shuri pointed to the monitor where Bucky's brainwaves displayed, "Not a once with the original phrases." The joy in her voice was high pitched, "Wanda...we did it!"

"You did it." Wanda smiled, the two shared a gentle moments smiling at one another before they turned back to the screen. "What about the new phrases?"

"As far as I can tell," She pulled up another screen, "From the first time we did the original phrases...it looks the same. Just what we wanted...replace the old with the new."

"That's genius." Wanda looked at the readings, they were almost identical.

"I'll let him go for a moment, but as far as I can tell...that may be the last time he will ever greet The Winter Soldier." Shuri tapped the glass a few times bringing it back to the home screen. After a few minutes passed she flicked her switches and Bucky slowly calmed down. Shuri began to walk over to him, leaving Wanda at the monitor alone.

Looking at the folders her eyes planted on the one that read, "Vision Project", she closed her lips are and swallowed. Looking over to Shuri, she watched as she was removing the wires from Bucky, who had passed out this time. Shifting her gaze back to the screen and clicked on the file, pulling up the operating menu. Slowly she dragged her finger over to 'DELETE' but lingered there. The idea of erasing Vision forever felt haunting to her, but Vision was already gone, he had been for years. Just when she seemed to heal with that, Shuri showed her this. Wanda just wanted to forget it ever happened. As the screen began to flicker Wanda stepped back, watching a loading mark pop up she wondered if she did something wrong. But just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. Wanda clicked away from the folder and left the screen where it was before stepping away from it all together. Wanda wouldn't delete Vision, but she wouldn't bring him back either. Time had healed, and so had she.