"Here are my credentials." Betty pulled her certificate for her PhD in psychology out of the bag she carried with her.
Iron Man didn't even glance at it, waving a hand dismissively:
"You can begin right now."
All Tony wanted was someone who could provide a definitive answer. As for whether she actually held relevant certification in psychology, he couldn't care less about that document.
He certainly hadn't known that Batman was equally versed in psychology, either.
"Is he able to communicate with people?"
Looking at Bucky's dazed state, Betty asked Iron Man.
"I don't know," Tony shook his head.
In Washington, he had grabbed the unconscious Bucky and flown straight off. Detecting signs that Bucky was regaining consciousness while up in the air, Tony had immediately delivered a heavy blow on the spot to knock him out again.
From then until now, Bucky had indeed woken up, but he hadn't uttered a single word.
Betty turned her eyes toward the others. Seeing Batman also shake his head to indicate he didn't know, she took a light breath:
"Could I ask all of you to leave the room for a moment? Give me half an hour alone with Bucky. With so many people surrounding him here, even if he doesn't feel pressured, my psychological consultation will still be affected."
Without a word, Batman turned around and left Avengers Manor, with Iron Man following closely behind him.
Seeing this, the other Avengers also stood up one after another to depart. Spotting Batman and Iron Man standing together in a corner of the garden, they broke into small groups and found places to rest temporarily.
"Where did you find this Betty? What's her connection to you?" Tony asked casually.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him, Batman spoke:
"She's Dr. Banner's girlfriend."
Tony nodded.
The two were silent for a moment before Batman also spoke up to ask:
"If Betty tells you shortly that Bucky wasn't brainwashed, will you choose to kill him?"
Tony Stark turned his head to look at Batman, his tone utterly serious, devoid of even a trace of his usual carefree playboy attitude:
"I will."
"Seventy years ago, he met my father alongside Captain America. Even the shield in Captain America's hands was made by my father."
"If, even under those circumstances, Bucky still chose to kill my parents while fully conscious, I will kill him—even if everyone tries to stop me."
Batman looked back at Tony, knowing that there was no element of joking in Tony's words right now.
He did not use his own moral baseline to make demands of the man, responding instead with equal seriousness:
"I won't stop you. But in truth, you know better than anyone that Bucky really is in a state of being brainwashed, don't you?"
Tony let out a long sigh, looking up listlessly at the cloudy sky:
"Yes, I know. But no matter what, Bucky has to pay the price for this—even if killing my parents, or even Jack Monroe, wasn't his intent."
"What price?"
"I haven't decided yet."
The two lapsed into silence once more.
Half an hour later, the door to Avengers Manor was pushed open. Betty Ross stepped out from inside, looking at Batman and Iron Man with a complex expression:
"Come on in."
Batman and Tony exchanged a glance, returning to Avengers Manor first. The other Avengers looked at each other and followed them back inside one by one.
Bucky was still sitting in his chair, looking utterly dazed and at a loss.
Even when the Avengers walked back inside from the outside, he merely raised his head briefly to take a glance before reverting to his dazed state.
"The situation is worse than I imagined. He isn't merely brainwashed—his entire mind and memories have been sealed away using high-intensity methods," Betty said.
"What method can resolve it?" Tony asked.
"Unless we know his specific brainwashing methods and the trigger keywords used to make him accept commands, it will take me a very long time to restore him to normal. That timeframe could span several years," Betty explained.
Iron Man paused, then spoke:
"I need to make another trip to Washington."
Just as Tony finished speaking, a voice echoed from outside Avengers Manor:
"No need."
Then, a figure wearing a stealth suit and holding a Vibranium shield appeared at the entrance of the manor—it was Captain America.
Meeting everyone's gazes, he walked into the room, pulled a palm-sized notebook with a red cover and a five-pointed star printed in the center from his coat, and tossed it onto the table:
"This is what you need."
Tony Stark looked at Captain America, stepped forward, and picked up the notebook. Flipping through it casually, he saw that the words written inside were all in Russian.
Tony could recognize the meanings conveyed by those words, but he wasn't foolish enough to read them aloud on the spot. Instead, he handed it directly to Betty Ross:
"How much time do you need now?"
"I can't say for sure," Betty shook her head, quickly skimming through the notebook. "Give me another half hour."
"Do we still need to step outside?" Tony asked.
"No, not this time," Betty said. "On the contrary, I need you all to protect me."
And so, the Avengers remained seated. Captain America also sat down in a corner in silence, gazing at Bucky with a complex look.
Only when the eyes of Batman and Tony swept past him would Captain America subconsciously avert his gaze from the two.
"Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak..."
Betty spoke slowly, reading out the vocabulary recorded in the notebook word by word, phrase by phrase.
She was not merely a PhD in psychology; she was equally proficient in various languages, so Russian posed no hurdle for her.
As Betty Ross read out these trigger words one by one, Bucky, who had been sitting dazedly in his chair, began to grow agitated.
A flash of hostility flickered in his eyes, his hands clenched involuntarily into fists, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
Batman quietly stepped forward, ensuring he was positioned to protect Betty at a moment's notice should Bucky make a sudden move.
Captain America grew tense as well, fidgeting anxiously as he watched.
Iron Man directly charged the repulsor blast in his palm, ready at any moment to give Bucky a shot.
"...Home, one, freight car..."
Betty finally finished reading the last set of trigger words. Bucky's trembling body restored its calm, those eyes filled with hostility turning cold and ruthless, while all the dazed confusion on his face vanished completely.
He had once again become that ruthless killing machine.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Barnes," Betty spoke up. "You can call me Betty. I'm not with Hydra, nor am I with S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers. I'm just a doctor."
"I am not sick," Bucky's voice was icy cold.
"Sometimes, having your memories buried in ice is also a form of illness," Betty said. "Let's start with something simple. Can you tell me what your earliest memory is? A general image or feeling is fine."
Betty showcased her professional side as a PhD in psychology.
After five hours of verbal communication and therapy conducted by Betty with virtually no rest, along with Captain America standing right before Bucky, a flicker of emotion finally surfaced in the eyes of Hydra's Winter Soldier.
His gaze was no longer cold; instead, he looked at Captain America with a trace of fear and panic:
"Steve?"
--
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