Chapter 13: Shock

By the following morning Adam and the three Avengers were already in route back to the Infinity with a still frozen Bucky in the cargo hold. They had been able to destroy the base and rescue Bucky with little to no retaliation, this was all thanks to the simulator. This boosted Tony's confidence and confirmed within his mind he needed to get himself one of those helmets.

Tony was enjoying himself the most as he sat in the copilot seat and tried to get as much information on the power source, the engines the ship used to shuttle thru space and how the ship was able to generate gravity without spinning.

Natasha and Steve remained quiet and observed the comedic scene of Tony going all fan boy on the new technology in front of him. It had gotten so bad that Adam relegated Eve to answer most questions with very vague answers.

Although Natasha and Steve observed the interactions between Tony and Eve, neither had a smile on their faces. They both had other things on their minds.

Steve was worried about Bucky and wondering just how much his best friend would be different once he is awakened.

Natasha had Yelena, Antonia and her fellow sister widows on her mind, her past decision to abandon the Red Room and kill General Dreykov weight heavy on her mind.

She had done everything for her sister Yelena in hopes to save her from all the pain and suffering she had gone thru herself at the hands of the Red Room, only for all of it to have not only been for nothing but it also caused even worse conditions for those she had left behind.

The Red Room had developed the mind control chemical Red Dust in response to her own betrayal, she was the cause of so much suffering and did nothing once again. She began to doubt herself and her choices. Her mind had even begun to wonder about her adoptive mother, she knew where her father was which was a black site prison in Russia, but since leaving the Red Room she hadn't heard anything about where her mother was or if she was even alive for that matter.

It wasn't long until Tony's voice brought the two out of their thoughts, "Holy Hell! Now that's a ship! Infinity, that's a good name. How fast does she go?" Tony exclaimed as another round of questions were shot in rapid succession.

After getting closer the three were shocked by the activity in and around the ship, various mining ships all moving to an orderly fashion dropping loads of metals, water, and various other resources that would be needed, all gathered from asteroids.

Upon entering the main hanger and landing at a predetermined place, a group of medical staff was there awaiting them. Once the hatch to the ship was opened, all but one moved instantly towards the cryo chamber that held Bucky and began to move it to the medical facility.

When Steve saw them taking Bucky away he moved to stop them, but was held back by Adam who placed a hand on Steve's shoulder, "Do not worry about your friend. Cryo sleep is nothing new to us. They are merely going to run some diagnostic tests to determine the best treatment plan. You will only be in the way if you go now."

Steve thought about Adams words and although he didn't like them, he couldn't deny the statement was false, "Can I at least be there when they wake him up? I want to ensure the first thing he sees is a friend, I know how waking up in a strange place can be very unsettling."

To Steve's as well as Natasha and Tony's shock, Adam's suit changed shape. His helmet and suit liquified and receded back to reveal Adam's handsome smiling face, the suit turned into a Black UNSC officer uniform.

"Holy shit! You're not disfigured? I definitely pegged you as being horribly scarred under that helmet." Tony spoke out in a playful tone. "Nanotechnology? Is that how you're also able to magically pull multiple types of guns out of nowhere?" Tony's inquiring mind was like a child playing 100 questions in the back seat of a car, he remembered seeing a different gun in Adams hands almost every time he saw him during the assault of the base earlier.

After giving Tony a nod of acknowledgement he looked at Steve and answered, "No problem, they will be filing a report with me before they start the procedure to wake Bucky up. I only ask you to be patient and allow us to help him." After receiving a nod of acknowledgement from Steve he looked to the only remaining person out of the group who escorted Bucky away.

She was a young brunette woman with a slender figure, rosy cheeks and full lips. "Commander Adam, I am Doctor Gibson, I am here to escort you to the other arrivals, both teams made it back with no issues or injuries. All but one of the ones brought in are doing fine. It's the elder one that has some complications that are prolonging the recovery."

"What complications? We have had a cure for her disease for a while now." Adam asked a little dumbfounded, Alzheimer's had been practically abolished along with most genetic disease in 2183.

"True, however her disease isn't natural or hereditary. It is artificial which was why none of her previous treatments worked, they couldn't fight what they didn't know. If you'll follow me I will bring you to where we have the group of women." The doctor answered then led the small group towards the medical bay where they were treating the widows and Peggy Carter.

As they walked the young doctor continued to explain to Adam, "Whoever poisoned her with the artificial disease was after information, the disease would mimic Alzheimer's by clouding the memory and slowing down the electric signals that constantly travel within the brain. This would make it harder to think and remember while also making the subject more susceptible to coercion and programming. Thankfully we were to catch it in time, in another year or so the damage would've been unrepairable and would eventually lead to death due to the brain just stopping. Miss Carter is quite lucky, she is still recovering and is in a deep sleep, she should be awake in an estimated 30 minutes to an hour."

"Excellent, notify me as soon as she is awake. I will have her make her choice before I have to bring these three back, if she refuses I can bring her back with them and at least she will live longer than a few more years. How are the others?" Adam asked which caused Natasha to perk her ears up since she knew he was asking about her sisters.

Steve was too busy thinking of Bucky to be paying much attention so he had no clue they were talking about his lover from World War 2.

"All of them are physically fine. Emotionally tho is another story. Many after coming too after realizing they were no longer being controlled began crying, several attempted suicide. I guess whoever was in control made these women do some pretty horrible things. The drug doesn't affect memory it only made them have no free will, so they were basically passengers along for the ride as their bodies moved on their own. They remember everything that they were ordered to do." Doctor Gibson shook her head in pity, she may not know exactly what these women went through, but they were all beautiful women so murder wasn't the only thing they were forced to do more than likely.

Hearing this Natasha felt tears beginning to pool in her eyes, as she fought them back. Her heart ached for her sisters because she knew exactly what they went thru since she herself went thru the same treatment. The difference was that she could've fought back since she wasn't being controlled like they were. She had the chance to escape.

"What about the other one, Miss Dreykov, what's the story about her?" Adam asked since he was curious on what they could do regarding her.

Doctor Gibson shook her head and released a sigh, "We were able to remove the chip which controlled her mind and body, however we can't regrow memories. She has lost all memories of her childhood or anything for that matter. It isn't an issue with her brain itself since no issues were found with the signals in that part of the brain, she is like a robot that still waits for a command even tho she is no longer under someone else's control. It's quite sad really."

As the doctor finished her explanation they arrived at the door to the medical bay. As soon as the door opened a shout was heard from within the medical bay.

"Nat!!" Yelena dashed to Natasha excitedly hugging her. "Even though you left me, you still came back for me. I thought you had abandoned me." She said amongst her sobs.

Natasha could no longer stop the tears from falling anymore after hearing her sister. "I didn't mean to abandon you, I left to try to protect you. I'm so sorry Yelena, I never meant for any of this to happen." She said as she hugged her sister tight.

Tony began walking around and starting conversations with the doctors asking what equipment did what, although he was a playboy he knew these widows were off limits, especially when he wasn't wearing his own suit. He had left it in the ship they arrived in.

Steve however had noticed an older woman in a recovery pod off to the side as he had scanned the room out of habit. As soon as he saw he knew exactly who it was, even with a mask covering most of her face and her eyes were closed he knew it was his Peggy.

His already emotional state of realizing his friend Bucky was alive this whole time and being brainwashed and controlled by his arch enemy caused him to snap upon now seeing Peggy in such a state.

Grabbing Adam by his chest, Steve shoved Adam against the nearest wall, his strength surprised even Adam.

"What is Peggy doing her damn it! What did you do to her? I swear to god if you hurt her I will end you!" Steve shouted in an emotional rage.

This caused many of the security forces to pull out their weapons and aim at Steve, this development shocked Tony and Natasha both since it was the first time they ever saw Steve so angered.

Adam quickly raised his hand to stop the security forces from doing anything to Steve. He then looked at Steve and asked, "Where are we Steve?"

Steve shook his head and once again slammed Adam against the wall, "I asked you what did you do Adam, and I better hear an answer or you won't like what comes next." Steve said thru his gritted teeth.

"And in response I asked you where we are Steve so please answer the question." Adam calmly stated with both hands up showing he wasn't meaning harm.

"I don't care if we are on your ship I wi...." "Good, but I am asking more along the lines of where on my ship are we?" Adam cut Steve off as he tried to reason with him. Adam knew Steve was an emotional mess right now so he was just trying to get him to calm down to think more clearly.

"Medical bay..." Steve answered after he took some deep breaths but he still hadn't released Adam.

"Good man, now let me ask you, on our way here to this medical bay, did you listen to my conversation with the doctor that brought us here?" Adam asked Steve again to see just how much he needed to explain.

"Not really, I have a lot on my mind already so no. I heard you talking but I wasn't listening. So now I'm listening." Steve finally released his grip onto Adams uniform but he didn't back down. If he didn't like what he heard he was going to make sure he would do some damage before his suit fully equipped.

With a deep sigh Adam straightened his uniform then began to explain in detail what his medical personnel were able to find out and what they were currently doing. He even had one of the medical personnel bring over her chart and the recordings of her brain scans upon arrival and her current scans which showed massive improvements.

After seeing that what he was told was true, although he wasn't a doctor himself, with what was shown to him he knew they were helping.

"I'm sorry Adam. I was in the wrong. I shouldn't have let my emotions get the better of me. I should've known you were helping." Steve finally said with a sincere tone as he walked over to Peggy's pod.