Relentless Chapter 25

"I promise that one day I'll be around, I'll keep you safe I'll keep you sound. Right now it's pretty crazy and I don't know how to stop or slow it down...Take a piece of my heart and make it all your own. So when we are apart, you'll never be alone." Shawn Mendes Never be alone.

Anna never made it to the factory. She switched directions when she heard the dozen or so sirens. She couldn't let anything happen to James. She never should have left him in the first place. Bad things always happened when they were separated.

Skidding to a halt on the street of their apartment, Anna stared in utter horror as she saw James fling himself out of their building and onto the roof of the one next door. When the helicopter showed up, she almost had a stroke. She should have insisted James leave with her. So what if someone found the journal, they could make up a new escape route on the go. It wasn't like they hadn't done it before.

For a split second, James thought it might be safe for him to meet up with Anya. In that second he saw them making their escape to a further, more remote area, able to once again start rebuilding their lives. Then that second came crashing to an end as a guy in a black cat suit jumped into the mix. He was strong, fast, and had James scrambling to get away and put as much distance between him and the apartment building as possible. Between the cat man and the helicopter it was becoming harder to shake the people determined to chase him down.

Eventually, with the help of Steve and his flying sidekick, James was able to get a little bit of a head start. Once again he felt hope grow in his heart at the thought of losing his pursuers and meeting up with Anya. Not that hope or the help mattered in the end. Both the cat, and the cops caught up to him. Steve hesitantly held his hand out, as though James would really try to fight his way out from being surrounded by cops as well as the trash can version of Tony's suit. He wasn't an idiot. Resisting would only get him killed, and he had no plans of dying while Anya was still out there.

They weren't gentle, slamming him face down into the grown. It would have been easy to break the cop's hold. Even if the cop used his whole body weight, with a few maneuvers James could be free. But only for as long as it took for one of the two dozen cops surrounding them to shoot the guns they had drawn. One shot would make them all start shooting. The smartest move was to make none. Going quietly would get the streets cleared of cops and allow Anya time to slip away.

"Let me through!" James eyes darted to the perimeter at the sound of the familiarly stubborn female voice. It was hard to see more than the feet of the officers surrounding them when he was spread out face down on the ground, but he managed to catch a glimpse of Anya, red faced with anger. He had no idea how she'd gotten there, but he wished she'd stuck to the plan. Especially when one of the cops man handled her into the backseat of a car. His heart slammed in his chest and he could feel his pulse skyrocketing as the cop slammed the door shut in her face. James was sorely tempted to buck the man restraining him. If he used the man as a shield he could make it to Anya with only a few grazes, maybe one through and through.

"Fighting on her behalf will only make things worse," Steve murmured, noticing the warning signs from Buck. He had the same tense set to his body and look on his face that he'd had whenever he was about to go after someone on Steve's behalf back in the day.

"Why are they even taking her?" James spat out. Anya wasn't in the papers, only him. And she hadn't been at the apartment when the cops showed up. They had no reason to take her.

"Because she knows you. And she was trying to talk to you, get to you. The law takes accomplices just as seriously as criminals." The German forces most likely thought Anna knew something. They'd take her in to question her, and book her if necessary.

"Neither of us did anything," James insisted, his heart squeezing in fear. Why couldn't Anya have went to the factory and stayed there? She'd be free, and safe.

Anna couldn't believe they'd arrested her. Actually arrested her. They didn't even care to hear what she had to say, or that she was a witness to prove James hadn't done any of the things they were accusing him of. Just like they hadn't listened when she demanded they let her through to see him when they had him spread eagle on the ground as if he was going to kill everyone. As if that would stop him from killing everyone if he wanted to. Which he didn't. Not unless they gave him a reason to.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, what's your name?" The cop demanded. They'd already made it to their destination after a painstakingly long drive. Now the cop had a tight grip on her upper arm as he forced her out of the elevator. She hadn't seen James, Steve or Sam when she'd been pulled out of the cop car. It had her worrying they'd taken James to a different facility. It looked as if she was at some kind of law enforcement headquarters judging by the offices. Although, Anna barely had time to register more than that before someone called out to her, inadvertently answering the cop's question.

"Anna!" Tony called out, barely believing he was actually seeing his baby sister. It was as he was approaching that he noticed the tight grip of the cop beside her. "Paws off," he ordered before he grabbed a hold of Anna and squeezed her tight. It really was Anna banana.

"You know this woman?" The cop asked dumbly to which Tony responded with a sharp 'she's my sister.'

Anna was completely confused about where she was, where James and Steve were, and why Tony was there. But as soon as Tony enveloped her in a hug all she could do was hold him and cry. It had been months since she'd last seen him, and there'd always been that tiny nagging feeling in the back of her mind making her wonder if she'd ever see him again.

"Don't you ever disappear on me again," Tony ordered gruffly, his voice muffled by Anna's hair. "I didn't know if I'd ever see you again."

The sound of a very angry voice buzzing from the phone Tony had left in his hand caused the siblings to break apart. With an apology to his sister, Tony raised the phone back to his ear and returned to the call with the enraged senator. His eyes kept flashing back to Anna during the call, half afraid she'd vanish as mysteriously as she'd returned to him.

While Tony paced and attempted to pacify whoever was on the phone, Anna wiped the tears from her eyes. Her thoughts turned back to James and where they could have taken him and Steve. Eying the door, Anna considered going to look for him until the sound of heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway. A few minutes later half a dozen men entered the room, most wearing law enforcement gear. Steve and Sam followed behind, but not James. Realizing James wasn't with the group had Anna's heart plummeting. They'd been taken in together, why weren't they being held together? What had they done to him?

"Where's James?" Anna asked as she sidled up to Steve and Sam.

"Nice to see you too. We've been better, thanks for asking," Sam retorted sarcastically. His response had Anna turning her full attention to Steve for an answer. Steve was the only other person in the world that cared about James. He'd give her a serious answer.

"I don't know. They have him in some sort of special containment box and took him in the opposite direction as us when we arrived," Steve responded, causing Anna's shoulders to slump. It wasn't great news, but at least they hadn't killed him. Yet. Who knew what their plans for him were.

Anna needed to talk to Tony. Tony always had some kind of influence over situations. Maybe he could help her get the government to listen to her. James hadn't done what they were accusing him of. Tony might be able to get whichever government was holding him prisoner to let him go. However, before she could follow after Tony, the guards that led Steve and Sam in had reappeared and were herding all three of them to separate offices. However Anna refused to leave the conference room they led her and Steve to once she saw James on the monitors adjacent to their room.

"This is unnecessary. He's not that man anymore," Anna murmured to herself as she continued to stare at the monitor. He didn't deserve to be locked up like some uncontrolled animal. Turning to face the government official who had yet to leave, Anna attempted to plead with him. "Just let me talk to him. I can fix this and clear things up."

"You're lucky you're not in custody like he is for conspiring, Stark. If it was up to me, you'd be interrogated from inside a cell. Don't push it," the suit responded before ducking out of the room.

"It'll be okay," Steve insisted, placing a comforting hand on Anna's shoulder. At the incredulous look Anna shot him, he pressed on. "At least he hasn't acted out, which would give them even more reason to condemn him."

…

James was trying his best to remain calm, though it got increasingly difficult the longer he was confined in the box prison. Unable to move his legs, arms, and shoulders was becoming stifling. And he thought the sling Anya had made him wear twice was bad. This contraption was so much worse. James was fairly confident, if he applied the right amount of pressure, he could get himself out of the metal confinements. Instead of attempting it, he remained still.

Breaking out of the box or putting up any kind of fight would just give them incentive to blame him for whatever crimes they thought he committed. Although James knew they had already convicted him in their minds. The same way he knew Anya would be futilely defending him. He would not give the agents reason to mistrust her by acting out. If sitting still in this box was his only way to save Anya, he would do everything in his power to stay calm.

"Hello Mr. Barnes," the man in a suit who sounded suspiciously like a shrink addressed him as he took a seat at a table in front of James' box. "I've been sent by the United Nations to evaluate you."

So he was a shrink. James didn't like shrinks. They thought they knew everything and understood you when they don't know the hell of it. The shrink wasn't James, he hadn't been through anything remotely close to what James had. There was no way the shrink could understand him. The only reason the authorities brought the man in was because they thought he was insane, or they wanted to rule out insanity so they could try him without immunity. Which meant James was going to refrain from talking as much as possible so he wouldn't condemn him or Anya.

"You're first name is James?" The shrink asked, trying to ease James into a conversation. "I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions."

"Do you know where you are, James?" The shrink continued on when James didn't respond to anything he'd said. "I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James." It was as if the shrink knew using the name James would provoke him into talking, with the amount of times he'd used it.

"My name is Bucky," James responded in a monotone. Only Anya called him James. He didn't like hearing the name from the shrink.

"I apologize. That was the name the girl used for you. I assumed it was what you went by." James head snapped down, his eyes moving from the ceiling to meet the shrink's eyes at the mention of Anya.

"What did they do with her?" James asked, breaking his promise to speak as little as possible. It was the first time anyone had said a word to him, and the first time he'd heard word of Anya. At least he knew she was in the same building, if this guy had heard her use his name. Not that the idea of her being held by foreign authorities was very comforting.

"You care about her. That's good to know," the shrink responded, making a note on his paper. "She is being held upstairs for the time being. Perfectly safe."

James let his head fall back again at the shrink's answer. Anya wouldn't be safe until she was set free and allowed to leave. Even then she wouldn't really be safe with Hydra and Rumlow out there. It was obvious the shrink hadn't actually talked to Anya. He knew scarcely more than James did about where she was and what was happening to her. The shrink was simply using her to get him to talk, and he wouldn't let that happen again. If they wanted him to say more than a few words, they'd have to let him see Anya was alright, then they'd have to let her go.

…

"So, why's Tony here?" Anna asked, her eyes flickering away from the monitor to take in Steve beside her. It didn't take a genius to know Tony was, in some capacity, working with the people who had brought her and James in. The way Steve's jaw tightened confirmed Anna's suspicions.

"He's having a bit of a guilty conscious. He's working with Senator Ross to limit the Avenger's actions," Steve answered, keeping his eyes on the monitors in hopes that Anna wouldn't realize how tense things had gotten between the Avengers while she was gone.

"He's agreeing with a politician?" Tony was the one who always referred to politicians as lying, cheating, scumbags that sold you a promise they never intended to keep.

"I still think they're scumbags, but this scumbag has a point," Tony responded, taking a seat at the conference table and motioning for Anna and Steve to do the same.

"Where's Pepper? She should be here to talk some sense into you," Anna retorted, surprised to hear Tony say something positive about a Senator.

"She's..um…kind of. Well not kind of, definitely," Tony fumbled for words, something that was completely out of character for him.

"Pregnant?" Steve offered up hopefully, causing Anna's eyes to widen at the thought of Tony being a father.

"No, definitely not. She's in a medically induced coma to help her recover faster," Tony finally admitted, his stomach lurching like it always did when he thought of Pepper.

"What happened? Is she going to be okay?" Anna pressed, her heart tightening in fear at the thought of losing Pepper. Not only did she bring out the best in Tony, but she'd become part of the family and a sister to Anna ever since she started working for Anna's brother.

"She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. She's hanging in there. If it wasn't for Killian's experiment and you for stabilizing her after, she might not even have made it out alive," Tony admitted. He hated that what Killian had done to Pepper had helped her survive, but it was the truth. Even with the molecular changes to Pepper's body, she was still on the edge of recovery.

"If I'd been home I could have helped. No one knows what Aldrich did to her better than me. I'm so sorry Tony," Anna whispered, folding her head into her hands.

"There wasn't anything you could have done Anna Banana. To tell the truth, she never would have been hurt if it wasn't for our little spat. She didn't really take the whole me building Ultron very well. In a way the accords are my way of making it up to her," Tony admitted. If he hadn't built Ultron and almost destroyed the world, Pepper and him never would have fought and she wouldn't have put all her energy into the business. The meeting wouldn't have taken place and she wouldn't have been in the explosion.

"I don't mean to make things difficult," Steve lamented when Tony sent him a pointed look.

"I know, because you're a very polite person," Tony retorted, rising from his seat to stand beside Steve and Anna.

"If I see a situation pointed south, I can't ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could." Steve's comment had Anna suppressing a smile. She couldn't see a world where Steve wished he could ignore anyone in trouble. He was constantly in hero mode.

"No you don't," Tony insisted, calling Steve on his bull.

"No, I don't" Steve admitted with a smile. "Sometimes…"

"Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth," Tony interrupted, not wanting to hear anything else Saint Steve was going to say.

"Tony!" Anna scolded, speaking up for the first time since Steve and Tony's verbal tennis match. She knew the two rarely saw eye to eye, but she'd thought they were past their cheap insults phase.

"We still need you Cap," Tony pressed on, ignoring his sister. "So far nothing's happened that can't be undone. If you just sign. We can make the last 24 hours legit. Barnes gets transferred to an American psych center instead of a Wakandin prison."

"James isn't going anywhere," Anna interrupted. She might not fully understand what Tony was talking about or what he wanted Steve to sign, but the part about James she did understand.

"Anna, he blew up the building where the accords were being signed. He killed the king of Wakanda. He doesn't have much of a choice." Tony knew how much Tin Man meant to Anna, even though he didn't particularly understand why. But after everything that had happened, it was the best Tin Man was going to get.

"He didn't blow up that building," Anna refuted, slamming her hand down on the table in frustration. Why wouldn't anyone listen to her? Now her own brother didn't believe her

"We have physical proof Anna Banana," Tony responded in a soft tone. "Security camera footage showed him on site at the time of the explosion.

"Yeah because we live in the 80's where photoshop isn't available to the masses and hacking a security feed is impossible," Anna retorted rolling her eyes. "There's no way he could be in Vienna at the time of the accords because he was in Romania, proposing to me," she added, holding up her left hand. It wasn't exactly the way she'd planned on breaking the news to her brother, but she had to do something to make him believe her.

"You're engaged," Steve cried out happily, smiling brightly at Anna. At least one of them had a good reaction to the news. Tony shouted the same thing, but in a completely different tone than Steve had.

"The point is, James didn't set off that bomb. He's not that person anymore, he's not the Winter Soldier. You know that Tony," Anna pushed on, hoping to get Tony's focus back on freeing James and not their engagement.

"Even if that's true, there's not much I can do Anna. It's up to the CIA really and I don't think they're going to take into account a witness statement from a possible accomplice and Tin Man's fiancée," Tony had to force the last word out, as the thought of Anna being engaged to anyone, let alone Tin Man, caused a lump in his throat.

"What if a contingency of me signing meant Bucky went free with community service or something," Steve asked, breaking up the intense stare down between the Stark siblings.

"They'll never go for it. The most I can try for is a limited sentence at a psych center with ample visitation time until they feel Tin Man has rehabilitated," Tony sighed, rubbing his temples. Fighting with Anna always stressed him out more than anything.

"There would have to be safeguards for the Avengers as well," Steve murmured after a pause, turning the fountain pen in his hand as he stood from his chair.

"Sure," Tony readily agreed, excited at the idea that Steve might actually sign and they could put this whole thing behind them. "Once we put out a PR file the documents can be amended. I'll file a motion to have Wanda reinstated."

"Wanda, what about Wanda?" Steve interrupted, which led to another shouting match between the two that ended with both leaving the room.

At that point Anna was lost again. She didn't know who Wanda was. She didn't know what the accords actually meant for the Avengers. All she knew was that the best anyone could offer James was a padded cell in a psych ward. Which pissed her off. He was already rehabilitated. Now some mumbo jumbo psych doctor had to decide he was fit for society again after they'd been living in it peacefully for months? A doctor who didn't even know him, and who James probably wouldn't even talk to. Because, although he wasn't the Winter Soldier anymore, James still had trust issues and he didn't do well with confinement. It stirred up his PTSD.

Anna wouldn't accept confinement as the best case scenario for James. She would find a way to bargain for his freedom or she would find a way to break him out.

A/N Hello all my lovely readers! I'm so sorry it took so long to update. With getting into Civil War plot lines I need to watch the movie while writing and pause and rewind about a million times to get scenes right and accurate as possible to the story line while adding Anna to it. Weekends are my only time to do this and it so happened that this last weekend was Christmas so I didn't watch or write at all, and the previous weekend was my wedding weekend. Anyways, I'm back in writing mode and even though this weekend is New Years I have no big plans so I'm hoping I can write some next weekend.

ALERT: I posted the one shot Warning Signs under that title if you're interested in Anna/Brent past. I also posted another chapter to In a way he was her first.

I hope you all enjoyed this update, it was written over several days spread about a week or two apart. I tried editing best I could, but let's face it. You know I probably missed some grammatical things. I can't wait to hear what you all think of it regardless!

I REALIZE WHEN I STARTED CIVIL WAR I JUMPED TO THE POINT PAST WHERE THE AVENGERS FIGHT RUMLOW. NO RUMLOW IS NOT DEAD YET IN THIS STORY. IF YOU ALL WANT A ONE SHOT OF THAT PART OF CIVIL WAR IN THIS TIMELINE LET ME KNOW. IT'LL PROBABLY PLAY OUTVERY SIMILARLY EXCEPT OBVIOUSLY RUMLOW WON'T DIE IN IT.

Rach

Xoxo

Onto guest review responses

Janya Aw: Love you're guest name ;) I'm so glad you're loving the story! It's nice to know you appreciate Anna being Anya in James POV because that was one of my favorite little tid bits to put in. Thanks for the suggestion with Warning Signs. I posted it earlier today if you wanna check it out, as well as another chaper to In a way he was her first. Thanks for reviewing and let me know what you think if you check those one shots out.