AN: Believe it or not originally this story was pretty much this chapter, and then I had a dream about Bucky running into a hermit psychic and this monstrosity of a story was born. Insert usual disclaimer here yada yada yada enjoy

Bucky was expecting the knife, but it still took every ounce of self control to not block the impending attack. She needs to think she's in control or she'll never listen to me, he reminded himself. He was in an alley making his way towards where Arianna had told him to go, when he first saw her following him. A few steps before the line where the street light threw its light she pounced. "What are you doing here Soldier?" she asked in her husky voice. He had a hard time believing that he had forgotten this woman, her voice alone was so distinctive. Mentally cursing Hydra and the people who had done this to him to the deepest pits of hell, he raised his hands in surrender, which was slightly difficult considering the knife she hand pressed against his throat.

"That's not who I am anymore Miss Romanova." She pressed the knife to his skin a little tighter. "I'm here to help Steve."

"How do you know about Steve?"

"I've made some friends in high places since I started running from Hydra." He was true to his promise to keep Arianna a secret.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Doesn't the mere fact that I remember who Steve is count for anything? Or how about that I didn't stop you from digging a knife into my throat. Which you know I could have done easily."

"Oh really?" she asked skeptically.

"I know more about you than you do currently."

"I find that hard to believe." Bucky braced himself, slightly scared of her reaction to the next question. "How much do you remember about the people who trained you in the Red Room?"

He felt her stiffen minutely before she withdrew the knife and stepped back, suddenly preferring to threaten him from a distance.

"What's it to you!?" she demanded.

"I'll take that as a nothing"

"I remember there was one man who actually cared if I lived or died, but they made me forget his face and his name, along with all the other monsters who ruined my life so I wouldn't go after them if I ever went rogue."

"You set up a trigger code so that if you ever found each other you'd remember."

She shook her head. "No way, there's no way that was you. The Red Room was the KGB, not Hydra."

"You were the most promising child they had ever stolen, they thought you could become the greatest in the field and you kept proving them right. So they brought in the best. Hydra was happy to gain a few million dollars."

"Prove it."

"Buchanan 32557038 Dimitri 3816." The memories of their time together came flooding back, countless hours of training, harsh words that prepared her for the life the KGB was shaping for her, and many conversations that lead them to become tentative friends without letting their superiors know it.

Natasha gasped very slightly and whispered the rest of the code. "Alianova 47193 Anastasia 9274."

An almost smile breached Bucky's usually stoic face. "So can we trust each other to not kill each other while we rescue Steve and your flying friend?"

"I think we can manage that." She grinned. "I'd hate to be the one who snatched Sam and Steve."

"Details." They had both transitioned smoothly into work mode. "How did it happen, who did it, and how many of them are there?"

"I bet you can guess the who."

"Hydra." He cursed.

"Bingo. They were following a lead, trying to find you actually, and they ended up here where they stumbled on a Hydra science lab. They tried to destroy it but they had something big enough to prevent Captain America from wiping them off the map."

"And you know this how?"

"I gave Sam a sort of panic button before they left DC; it told me where they were. The rest I've gathered in the few hours since I've been here."

"How'd you get here so fast? Unless you've got a quinjet stashed somewhere."

"I was in Budapest."

"That leaves 'how many of them are there.'"

"I don't know. And I hate not knowing."

"I assume it's just us?"

"Unless you brought backup."

He shook his head. "So it comes back to the basic standby,"

Natasha was smiling widely now. "Strength or Stealth."

"Hurry up." Bucky whispered.

"This isn't as easy as it looks." Natasha scowled. "Twelve dead locks and two 6 digit keypads take a while to unlock. Whoever came up with this door is paranoid." She was on the seventh deadlock.

"There'll be more of them any second." The universe enjoyed toying with them because at that moment five more Hydra agents rounded the corner heading straight for them. Bucky pushed Natasha out of the way so he could get a better angle and ripped the hinges of the door and pushing it into the next room.

"Why?" she demanded crossly, "didn't you do that in the first place."

"They would have heard it."

The two assassins ran down the hallway, occasionally pausing to dispatch anyone who got in their way. They were headed towards the detention block, the location of which had been provided thanks to some quick computer hacking, compliments of Natasha. Finding Sam was easier than it should have been. Mostly because he was shouting insults at the guards running past his cell trying futilely to prevent the Black Widow and the Winter Soldier from rescuing him.

"Take that Hydra scum! Nobody messes with the Black Widow and -" Sam finally got a good look at Bucky. "The guy who tried to kill us?"

Bucky stood guard while Natasha picked the lock. "Uh, Natasha? I know that the whole reason we're in this mess is because we were trying to find this guy, but last time we saw him he was trying to kill us, and you seem to be oddly trusting."

"Yeah sorry about that," Bucky commented as he took aim at the next idiot who had thought they stood a chance.

"You can hug it out later." Natasha quipped. "Where's Steve, so we can get out of here." The lock clicked and the door swung open.

"He's downstairs in the main lab. We busted in through the fire escape. When they realized who we were they let this black cloud thing from a jar and it attacked Steve like it was sentient or something. They're trying to extract the super serum I think."

They fought their way downstairs, when Sam saw something scarring. "What did they do to my wings?!" It was like someone had punched him in the gut. What had clearly once been Sam's precious wings lay dismantled on a workbench.

"Nevermind your wings, we need to find Steve," Bucky reminded him.

They found Steve in a dimly lit room behind another imposing door made not so imposing by Bucky's arm. He was on a gurney repeating the same string of words over and over to himself. "Captain 54985870 Rogers."

"Steve?" Bucky ripped off the straps that confined his friend. Steve turned to look at him sluggishly.

"Is that…"

"It's me, It's Buck."

"Buck…"

"Come on." Bucky helped steve onto his feet

"Buck." Once on his feet Steve stared at Bucky. "I thought you didn't remember."

"I thought you had more sense than to get yourself caught. Now let's get out of here." There was an intense feeling of deja vu with this scene and Bucky was fighting hard to suppress a memory that was trying to resurface because he couldn't afford to black out right now. Steve was leaning heavily on Bucky as they made their escape.

"Please tell me you have an escape plan to get us out of Serbia!" Sam shouted over the deafening sound to ricocheting bullets.

"Of course we have an escape plan!" Bucky shouted back. "Natalia, what's our escape plan?" The exit was in sight now, as they ran past Bucky caught a glimpse of what looked like a golden spear/scepter thing. Bucky filed it away in the back of his mind sensing that it might be important later.

"That's something else you missed by the way, I changed my name to Natasha. New person and all that. As for escape plan, Stark was supposed to be sending a jet." She managed to say all this without sounding the least bit flustered despite the fact that they were being shot at.

"You two know each other!?" Sam and Steve yelled at the same time.

"Long story." The assassins answered in sync. The four of them burst through the exit and ran to where Natasha had a car waiting. In spite of not seeing anyone following them on the way to a small air strip on the outskirts of the city they made the transfer from the SUV to the plane Tony had sent as quickly as possible.

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