Gunfire echoed off the hangars. Heat from explosions rippled across the tarmac, but you barely felt it. The world was muted under Hydra's commands, your pulse synced to the rhythm of the song in your head the one they'd carved into you. Targets: The Avengers. Priority: James Buchanan Barnes. You spotted him through the haze, trading blows with Sam. He moved like the Bucky you remembered from before Hydra, but his eyes... they still held fragments of the man buried under the Soldier. Fragments Hydra told you to destroy. You started humming. It was quiet at first, barely a thread of sound, curling around the chaos. Clint stumbled mid-aim, his arrow dropping as the melody seeped into him. Sam hesitated, turning toward you-and that gave Bucky just enough time to see you. His steps faltered. The hum became words. You slipped between Tony's blasts like they were nothing, Hydra's training guiding every movement. Bucky's breathing went sharp, uneven. His hands twitched, eyes flickering with static—he was fighting it, but the song pressed deeper. Hydra's voice whispered through your skull: Bind him. Break him. Bring him in.

The words coiled around his mind like chains. His jaw clenched. His knees bent slightly—not in surrender, but because the fight in him was being stripped away piece by piece. Guest he rasped, his voice rough, desperate. "This isn't you." You took another step closer, boots crunching on shattered glass. The song didn't waver. His vision blurred—you saw it in the way his gaze kept slipping out of focus. For a heartbeat, it felt like you had him-completely. His hands dropped to his sides, the fight gone slack in his frame. Hydra's control surged through you, sweet and cold. Until his flesh hand shot out, gripping your wrist. "Then I'll drag you out of it, even if it kills me.” The connection jolted something in you-brief, fleeting—but enough to make your voice falter on the next note. And in that tiny break, he pushed back.