So, the mission in Barcelona went well, but Schmidt's going to have something to say about that...

Bucky wasn't going to lie and say he wasn't worried about what Schmidt might do in retaliation for them getting in his way again, especially considering they'd more or less signed their names to the act. But the days stretched by with no new atrocities from the front lines, and everything around Hogwarts seemed peaceful, and he started to relax a little.

One day while the weather was still nice, several of the guys got together and started a game of baseball out on the grounds. Peggy and Kelly wanted to join in, interested in how the game worked, and Monty was incredibly skeptical about the whole thing but they made him play anyway.

Bucky hadn't actually played baseball in what felt like forever—he didn't think he'd been in a game since Steve had gotten big enough to hit a home run and make it all the way around the bases without collapsing. It was a lot of fun, and they'd attracted something of a crowd by the time they were done—evidently the American sport was quite the novelty.

"How you doing, Steve?" Bucky asked as they walked back up to the castle afterwards. He knew Steve had been worried too about repercussions from their last mission.

"Pretty good," he said. "Nothing's happened yet—I know that doesn't mean it won't, but…" He looked around and smiled. "Big picture, right? Days like this, this is what we're fighting for."

"Yeah," Bucky agreed.

The next few days passed quietly, and as they started to move into their second week of no word from Schmidt, they started to relax some more. Maybe things would be okay. They even started looking over intel for another factory mission. They hadn't found the next one yet, but they were close to tracking it down.

"Ja-ay!" Becky moaned, dropping down in a huff next to him at lunch.

"What?" he asked, unable to stop a smile at the over-dramatic whine she managed to work into his name.

"Professor Marsh wants me to come see her as soon as I'm done eating. In her office," she added grumpily.

"So…" Bucky prompted.

"So," Becky huffed. "It's lunch! I've got stuff to do!"

"You mean like your Herbology homework that you should have done last night?"

Becky ignored that. "She wants to talk to me about my homework I turned in."

"Having trouble with it?" Bucky asked. Transfiguration was one of Becky's harder classes.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I don't think I did very well on it. It's not my fault, though! She was sick yesterday, and I don't know why they got Professor Ellerton to sub for her, because he's the Care of Magical Creatures teacher; what does he know about Transfiguration? I didn't understand any of it." She slumped down dramatically onto the table.

Bucky chuckled. "Well, tell you what. If you're still having trouble after you talk to her, come find me after school and I'll help you with it."

"Okay," she said, brightening. "Thanks!"

Marsh must have explained whatever Becky was having trouble with pretty well, because his sister didn't come and find him after school. He caught up with Colin on the way to their planning session—they had pinpointed a factory in Austria, and they were gearing up to go this weekend.

"Hey, how's Alfie doing?" Bucky wondered.

"Nasty scar, but his leg's good as new otherwise," Colin said. "He's champing at the bit to get back out there."

"I thought you guys had already been back out. Weren't you the ones who ran that recon op in Dublin?"

"Yeah, that was us, but it was fairly low-key. Alfie, like a lot of the new lads, was hoping for a bit more action."

Bucky chuckled. He didn't know the kid too well, but everything he did know about him reminded him of Steve when he was little. "Well, they're new," Bucky allowed. "Give 'em some time, they'll look forward to the easier missions."

Colin laughed. "Too right."

The planning session for the mission went as well as they usually did. Although some details had gotten around after the Howlies' run-in with Schmidt in the mine, most of it had been kept classified. They hadn't told the 89th or 107th about Schmidt's threats to back off—it hadn't been directed at them, and they hadn't seen the need to freak other people out about it. Bucky could tell Steve was a little on edge about this one, since it was definitely more up in Schmidt's face, but the Howlies had all made their peace with keeping the fight going. And, as Steve had pointed out earlier, they'd already jumped back in. May as well keep swinging.

The mission itself went pretty well too. The factory went down, the prisoners got out, and Gabe found a letter up in the office that mentioned the Valkyrie. It was encrypted to hell and back, but it was something. The mission counted as a success, but they didn't come away completely unscathed. The 89th lost Peter, and the 107th came really close to losing Chris, but Rains was able to pull him through. Lots of injuries too, but minor for the most part. Aside from Chris, Steve's broken arm was the worst of them.

They came back and showered and fell into bed. Bucky got up the next morning to write his folks and let them know he'd come back from another one alright, but as he made his way up to the Owlery, the school seemed eerily quiet. Nearly all of the owls were out when he got up there, but he found a sleepy one in the back and persuaded it to fly off with the letter. It was still quiet when he came back downstairs. He ran into Peggy outside of the dining hall.

"There you are!" she said. "I've been looking for you—Phillips wants everyone in his office."

"Okay. Can I just—" He hadn't eaten yet, but as he pointed toward the dining hall, Peggy took his arm and pulled him away.

"No," she said. "Sorry. It's important."

He hurried along after her up the stairs to Phillips' office. Everyone else was already there, though they'd evidently hauled Monty and Jacques out of bed, as they were still in their pajamas. "What's going on?" Bucky asked cautiously, taking a seat at the table next to Steve. Whatever it was, it didn't appear to be good.

"It looks like Schmidt is making good on that threat he made back in France," Phillips said grimly. He tossed a piece of parchment down onto the table. "Professor Marsh is dead," he said. He gestured at the parchment. "That was in her hand."

Above a sketch of the multi-tentacled skull that was the Hydra emblem were the words, 'I did warn you'.

Bucky was glad that Peggy hadn't let him eat anything, although he wasn't sure he wasn't going to throw up anyway.

"When did it happen?" Steve asked softly.

"This morning," Phillips said. "The house elf who was bringing her breakfast, well…the body was still warm."

"How did it happen?" Steve asked. He seemed to be the only one capable of speech.

"Stabbed," Phillips replied. "There was some sort of poison on the blade…Nurse Rains assures me that it would have been very quick."

Steve lapsed into silence with the rest of them, his face hard and unreadable.

"How did they…" Bucky croaked. He cleared his throat and tried again. "How did whoever did this get in?" He was assuming they didn't know the culprit, or else they would have started with that.

"We don't know," Phillips replied. "All the wards around the school are still up. Haven't been tampered with. Perimeter spells don't record anyone unauthorized coming onto the grounds."

"Qu'en est-il des passages secrets?" Jacques asked. "Je ne connais que deux d'entre eux, mais il y en a probablement plus."

Bucky knew the school was kind of a maze, but this was the first time in six years here he'd heard of secret passages. If anyone was going to find them, though, it would be Jacques.

Phillips didn't seem surprised by it either. "Well, you've found half of them," he said. "There are four that I know of. I have the house elves looking them over."

"What do you want us to do, Sir?" Steve asked.

"For the moment, nothing," Phillips replied. "A murder investigation isn't exactly up you boys' alley. The S.S.R. has people on this. I just wanted you to be aware."

Steve nodded. They were all quiet for a minute, taking everything in. Bucky was still having trouble wrapping his head around the fact that someone had been able to sneak in and do this. Maybe Hogwarts wasn't as safe as everyone thought. Even though he couldn't get his head around it, his stomach was twisting itself into sick, nauseous knots. Professor Marsh was dead. Bucky had talked to her just yesterday. Transfiguration was his last class before lunch, and she'd been getting them ready to start practicing human transfiguration soon. She'd warned them it was a lot harder than anything they'd done before. There had been a spark of humor in her eye as she joked that if it wasn't so tricky, she'd have transfigured herself a new leg by now out of the artificial one she wore.

"I'm sorry, Sir," Steve said quietly, and his voice sounded normal, if a little tight, except to Bucky, who knew he was trying very hard not to cry. "This is my fault. He warned me, and I—"

"Shut up," Phillips said, and Bucky was surprised, not by the words, but by the fact that the tone he said them in was the gentlest Bucky had ever heard him use. "This isn't on you. Any of you," he added, casting his eyes around the table. "That was the other reason I wanted you all here. After the mine…" He paused, considering his next words. "I know you all had to make a choice. And you all chose to get back out there. It was the hard choice, and the brave choice." He cast his gaze around the table again, looking each one of them in the eye. "And the right choice. Johann Schmidt is crazier than a bag of wet cats—not one of you had the means to predict or control what he did next. But you have the means to end him. Caroline Marsh did not deserve to die so that skinless nutjob could try to show us how tough he is. And she does not deserve for the best team in the S.S.R. to back down now."

Something stirred in Bucky's chest, quieting the sick feeling in his stomach. Something resolute and determined and angry. Phillips was right. Schmidt wasn't going to get away with this.

"Yes, Sir," Steve agreed, and he had some of that fire back in his voice.

"Yes, Sir," Bucky echoed, along with the others.

"Good," Phillips said, and he sounded pleased. "My people will investigate this, and once we have a target, you boys are up."

They left the meeting then, passing Phillips' special investigative Aurors coming in. Peggy and Steve were discussing the case as they walked out, and though Bucky itched to join them, he thought he should probably go check on Becky first. Jim had told him that Esther, as far as anybody knew, had been the last person to see Marsh alive—she'd gone in early to drop off a missing piece of homework to avoid the morning detention an hour later, and Jim shuddered at the thought that Marsh's murderer could have been hiding in the room then, just waiting for his sister to leave. Esther was certainly shaken up by that fact, and Becky was Esther's best friend, and Marsh was their Head of House, so Bucky should really go make sure she was doing okay.

"I'm really alright, Jay," Becky insisted when he found her. "I mean, I…" She sighed. "I don't think it's really hit me yet, you know? I've been all worried about making sure Esther's okay and everything."

Bucky nodded. He got that. "Okay." He looped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head. "But when it does, you let me know, alright? I'm here for you, Munchkin."

She smiled. "Thanks." She looked back at the stairs that led to Ravenclaw Tower. "I should go check on Esther." She moved to go, then stopped. "Did you write and tell Mama you made it back okay from your mission?"

"I did," he assured her.

"Good."

"You know where to find me when you need me, right?"

She nodded. "I do. Thanks," she said again, then turned to go up the steps.

Bucky decided to head down to the punching bags. Phillips was right—they had to keep going until they got Schmidt, but that anger and fear and wondering if there wasn't something different they should have done was clawing its way around in his stomach and his thoughts were churning a million miles an hour.

Steve was already down there, and with as hard as he was hitting, Bucky wondered if Howard's reinforced punching bag might need some reinforcement of its own. Steve grunted a greeting at Bucky, but didn't slow down. Bucky bypassed the gloves, but he took the time to wrap his hands before getting down to work.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when his head started to clear and his suddenly exhausted muscles started to give out. He staggered backwards and sat down heavily on a bench, breathing hard. He reached up a bloody, dirty hand to brush his sweat-soaked hair out of his face, and when he looked up, Steve was standing in front of him with a canteen. Bucky accepted it eagerly.

"Becky okay?" Steve asked, sitting down beside him.

"For now," Bucky said. "Hasn't really hit her yet."

Steve nodded. "You okay?"

"For now," Bucky said again. "You?"

Steve shrugged. "As I can be." He looked over at Bucky's hand. "You break anything?"

Bucky had been drinking with his left hand, and lifted his right experimentally. "Yeah."

"Lemme see," Steve said, reaching over for his wrist and pulling out his wand. Jim was the team medic, but little stuff like this, they all knew how to do. Bucky felt the weird sensation of bones snapping back together, then moved his fingers tentatively.

"Thanks."

Steve nodded, and they decided to head up to the kitchen to get something to eat. They'd missed lunch. The whole way up, they discussed the case, how they thought the assassin might have gotten in, and who it could be. When they got to the kitchen, they asked Winston if the elves had turned up anything in the secret passages, but he said no. They headed outside to eat, and were joined by Peggy, who sat upwind of them, and later by Dugan and Gabe. Though they discussed it from every angle they could think of, not one of them felt like they were any closer to figuring it out by the time it was getting dark. Bucky hoped Phillips' investigative team was having more luck than they were.

While the general student body didn't know about the note from Hydra, there was no hiding the fact that the Transfiguration teacher was dead. For the next several days, it seemed to be all anyone could talk about. It frightened and disturbed everyone, but, as far as Bucky could tell, the fact that something like this could breach the security of Hogwarts didn't seem to have occurred to a lot of people, particularly the younger students. That was good, he supposed. Better than just living in fear. There wasn't anything they could really do about it.

The older students, especially those involved in the war effort, had put together that this shouldn't have happened in the first place. They were a little more on edge, but there was an undercurrent of vigilance there. No one wanted to alarm the younger students, but Bucky noticed that wherever the younger kids were, there was always an older student around. He hadn't noticed it until he realized that he was doing it too.

To say things were slowly starting to feel normal as the days went on would be overstating it, but some of the edge was starting to wear off. Phillips and his team hadn't come up with any leads on the murderer, but he'd insisted he didn't want them stopping their work while all this was going on. They didn't have any missions on the docket, but they still kept up their regular meeting to go over intel.

That evening, Monty came over to where Steve and Bucky were working in the library. "It's happened again," he said in a low voice.

"What?!" Bucky hissed.

Monty nodded. "One of Phillips' investigators. Stabbed, just like Marsh. Same poison, no traceable magic."

"Does Phillips want to see us?" Steve asked, already closing his book and sliding it into his bag.

"No," Monty said. "Just wanted me to pass it on. He, ah, he does want to see you, though," he said to Bucky.

"Just me?" Bucky asked, confused.

"Yeah. You know how the investigators have been interviewing the students?"

Bucky nodded. They'd been talking to everyone, gathering as much information as they could.

"The last one this guy was supposed to talk to was your sister. She's fine," Monty hurried to assure him. "But she's sort of freaking out, and Phillips wants you to come and calm her down."

"Yeah," Bucky said quickly, standing up. "Yeah, I…"

"Go," Steve told him. "I'll clean all this up."

Bucky hurried up to Phillips' office, and as soon as he had the door open, Becky flung herself out of her chair and up into his arms.

"Jay!" she exclaimed.

"Hey," he said, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "Are you alright?"

"Uh huh," she nodded. "I just, I just…Jay, what if I'd been in there?!"

"Shh," he soothed, running his hand down over her hair as she shook. "I know. But it's okay, you're okay, you're safe."

He just stood there and held onto her for a few minutes, whispering reassurances and stroking her hair, and she started to calm down.

"You okay?" he asked her as she stepped back, crouching down so he was on eye-level with her and leaving his hands on her shoulders.

"Uh huh," she said softly. She sniffed and wiped her nose. "Sorry."

"Hey, it's okay," he assured her, squeezing her shoulders. "This is totally an okay time to be scared."

She smiled at that.

Phillips had remained over at his desk, knowing he wouldn't be any use making Becky feel better, but as she started to relax, Bucky saw him nod at Peggy, who'd been waiting with him. She walked over, resting one of her hands on Becky's shoulders. "If you're feeling alright, do you think you can tell me what you saw?" Peggy asked. "Anything at all. Even something small might be important."

Becky shook her head. "I wasn't there," she said. Her cheeks flushed just a little. "I was supposed to go and have my interview, but I was late," she admitted. "When I got there, all these Auror guys were outside the office, and they told me what happened." Her eyes started watering. "If I'd been on time, I…"

Bucky grabbed her and hugged her again. He looked over her head at Peggy, and saw the same thing in her eyes as he felt in his chest. He was so glad Becky had been late.

He sat with her a while longer, then walked with her back to her dorm, stopping at the infirmary to get something to help her sleep. After telling her goodnight, and that she should come and get him if she needed anything, even if it was the middle of the night, he headed back down to Hufflepuff. Steve was waiting in their room, and Bucky quickly filled him in on what had happened.

"Wow," Steve breathed. "Man, it's a good thing she was late."

"Yeah," Bucky agreed, a knot forming in his throat. He hated to think what could have happened if Becky had been there. Would the murderer have waited, like they did with Esther and Marsh? Or would they both have been…

"I was thinking," Steve said, rousing Bucky from his thoughts. "Two people have been killed now. And Esther and Becky were both almost there."

"I'm not tracking you," Bucky said.

"Well, they're both related to someone on the team," Steve pointed out. "Maybe it's a coincidence, but what if that's another part of Schmidt's message? Showing us how close he could get to us if he wanted to."

Cold shot down Bucky's spine. "You're right. We have to…" He swallowed hard, unable to finish.

"We have to talk to Phillips," Steve finished for him, the same fear in his voice that would have been in Bucky's if he'd been able to talk.

They hurried back up to Phillips' office, but Phillips was way ahead of them. The same thing that had occurred to them had occurred to him too, and he'd acted quickly. Special defensive Aurors had already been dispatched to each of the Howling Commandos' homes to set up security for their families. Becky and Esther were going to be watched by a group of house elves Phillips trusted most, and Bucky felt that knot of fear in his gut start to unclench. Their family would be safe, and as far as inside the school went, Bucky was more than happy to put his faith in the house elves to keep his sister safe.

Now that there had been another attack, and it seemed this assassin hadn't just come and gone after Marsh, Phillips and the headmaster were enacting some new rules as well. Students were no longer allowed to go anywhere alone, and no one was allowed out of the castle after dark. Several students from the military units were pulled off active duty and given assignments around the castle, monitoring groups of students, checking spells and entrances, and running messages for the Aurors on Security. The Howlies had volunteered to help out with all of that as well, but Phillips had turned down their offer. He wanted them free to move once they had a plan of action. Still, he had told them, that was no reason they couldn't keep their eyes and ears open.

And so they watched. And waited.

Steve growled in frustration as he shifted in his chair, stretching his long limbs out. After the Auror had gotten killed last week, all semblance of normal life had shattered. Rules had been put in place to keep the students safe and secure, but Steve almost felt like they didn't need them. Everyone was so nervous now, no one felt like going anywhere alone. Even the most adventurous students were keeping well back from testing the boundaries. Especially after what had happened last night.

It had been six days since the Auror had been killed, and everyone was nervous and on edge—not because anything else had happened, but because nothing had happened. There were no leads, no clues, nothing. This assassin was a ghost. But six days…Everyone was just starting to think things might be safe again.

Then they found Professor Caan.

He was dead, same as the first two, and the fact that someone had been able to kill the Divination teacher really shook everyone up. Of all the people on campus, surely he would have seen it coming. The fact that he hadn't drove another wedge of fear into everyone's hearts. This assassin could get anyone.

After Professor Caan's death, all the students were confined to their common rooms except for classes and meals. It wasn't that great a change anyway—people had been gravitating to the common rooms anyway, feeling safer there. Steve hadn't had much time to talk to Peggy, since she was up in Gryffindor, but she told him she'd heard from Phillips there were rumors of shutting the school down. No students had been harmed yet, but if this kept up, it was only a matter of time.

"Would they really send people home?" Bucky wondered. "I mean, it's supposed to be safer here. I know there's a murderer running around, but if the security measures here are slowing them down, think how much worse it would be outside."

"I don't know," Steve sighed. "I mean, maybe people would be safer—if Schmidt has reasons for the people he's killing, at least people who aren't targets would be out of the way."

"Who says he has reasons?" Bucky countered. "Maybe this is what he wants. He's freaking everybody out, hitting us where we live, and if we all go home, that's the Howlies split up and out of his way."

"I don't know if Phillips would send us home," Steve mused. "He keeps saying he wants us free for missions."

"Yeah, but we're still his students," Bucky reminded him. "You know how seriously he takes threats to the students."

"If he sends us home, there's nothing stopping us getting together and hitting back at Schmidt," Steve said. "Peggy's got intel—we could still meet up somewhere and run our own missions."

"If Schmidt didn't kill us, Phillips would," Bucky said, though he was smiling.

A burst of laughter drew their attention from the corner they were sitting in. Over by the fireplace, Dave was surrounded by a crowd of First-Years, telling them some kind of story. Jacques was acting it out for them, dramatically and to great hilarity. Another knot of students was sitting in a circle by the big window, playing some kind of game that involved quick movements and hand gestures, and whoever lost had to sit in the middle. Morris was running some kind of card game tournament over in the other corner, and Helen Thorpe was coordinating a circle of knitters who were working together to make something really big. In spite of the worry gnawing at his stomach, Steve found himself smiling.

"This is why we're gonna win," he said, turning to Bucky. Because they looked out for each other. They stuck together. They were scared but they didn't let it take over. "This is why we have to win."

Bucky nodded at him and smiled, and they left their worried discussion and went to join the rest of their house. Whatever story Dave was telling, Bucky evidently knew it, and he jumped in so that Jacques didn't have to play every character by himself. Steve walked over to join the circle of knitters. Helen smiled at him, but several of the Third-Year girls eyed him skeptically until he pulled out his own set of knitting needles. It turned out they weren't making anything in particular, just something they could all work on together. It was a mishmash of colors and patterns, and Helen told Steve she imagined it would end up being a rug, or they might hang it on the wall opposite the fireplace. He picked up a section of it and started adding a block of bright green yarn, and after a little while he felt a pair of eyes on him. The girls had all stopped staring once they realized he knew what he was doing, but these eyes were on his back. He turned his head to see one of the Second-Year boys, Geoffrey, watching him curiously.

"Hey, Geoff," Steve said.

"Hi, Steve," Geoff replied. As if Steve's greeting had been an invitation, he scooted closer.

"You want to join in?" Steve asked. "We can scoot over and make room."

"Well, I…I don't know how," Geoff said.

"You want to learn?" Steve asked.

Geoff considered. "Well, I mean, it looks interesting. If it's, you know, if it's alright…" He looked around the circle, and Steve realized that he was the only boy in the group.

"Sure, it's alright. I'm here, aren't I?" Steve said. He held up his section of knitting to demonstrate. "And you know who taught me how to knit?" he asked, lowering his voice conspiratorially.

Geoff leaned in. "Who?"

Steve nodded over towards the fireplace. "Bucky."

Geoff's eyes went wide, and he studied Steve skeptically for a minute.

Steve smiled. "Boys can knit too, you know."

"Of course, they can," Helen declared from the other side of the circle. "Can't they, ladies?"

A chorus of agreement rounded the group, and Geoff smiled, sliding in to the circle only a little hesitantly next to Steve.

"Julia, why don't you go and sit over by Geoff?" Helen said. A Fourth-Year girl got up and came over, picking up a spare set of needles on her way. "She's quite a good teacher," Helen told Geoff. "You watch her, and you'll soon have it figured out." She smiled across the circle at Steve.

"So, what was that thing you guys were making?" Bucky asked later as they headed to bed.

"I still don't know," Steve admitted. "I think it was a circle when they started, but it's kind of more spiderweb-shaped now."

"You think they'll kick me out if I try to join in tomorrow?" Bucky asked. His knitting abilities, though valiant, were still thoroughly unimpressive.

Steve laughed. "Nah. Becky's not here to pass judgement. Knit away."

Bucky laughed and turned off the light.

The next morning, things were a little tense again as everyone prepared to leave the safety of the common room and move around the castle. Everyone left for breakfast in large groups. After the meal, the First, Second and Third-Years all knotted up in their little groups with their older supervisors to be escorted to classes, while the older kids clumped together and set off. Bucky just had time to check in with Becky before leaving with Steve, Peggy and Jim for Potions.

They talked quietly as they went, though Peggy didn't have a lot of news for them. She was still a student too, and had spent most of yesterday confined to Gryffindor Tower with the rest of her house, much to her annoyance.

"At least we know we're safe for a little while, though, right?" Jim said. "I mean, what happened to Caan was, well, that was two days ago. If whoever did it is still around, we should have three or four more days until something else happens."

"That has got to be the most depressing encouragement I have ever heard," Peggy said.

Jim shrugged. "Hey, I'm taking what I can get. And, you know, maybe they'll get caught before then."

The morning classes went on without much incident. They had Transfiguration today, and Professor Applegate was going over the rules of human transfiguration with them. They'd done that with Marsh, but Applegate had never taught pre-N.E.W.T. level classes before, and he wanted to make sure they really knew what they were doing before they actually started transfiguring each other. Steve was okay with that. His last experience with being transfigured had not been the greatest, and he wasn't in a great hurry to repeat it.

There was lunch and then afternoon classes, and then it was back to the common room. "Steve!" a voice hissed, and Steve turned around to see Becky hovering in the door of an empty classroom.

"Becky? Aren't you supposed to be going back to Ravenclaw?"

"Yeah, but, Steve, I have to tell you something first."

"Okay." Steve looked around. Bucky had just gone around the corner with the rest of the group. "You want me to go get Bucky?"

Becky shook her head. "No, I don't want to take too long and get in trouble for being late back. You can just tell him when you see him."

"Okay," Steve said. "What's going on?"

"It's about the people getting killed," she said, stepping back into the classroom and motioning for him to shut the door behind him. She grimaced nervously. "I think I saw something."

"You did? What? What happened?"

She didn't seem sure what to say. "It's probably stupid," she said.

"No, it's okay," Steve assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Any little thing could be important."

She nodded. "Well, it is a little thing. Two little things, actually." She stepped closer, fiddling with a button on the front of her coat.

"Two things?" Steve asked, leaning in. She was being awfully antsy.

"Two things," she confirmed. She smiled suddenly in a way that Steve didn't think he'd ever seen her smile before, and it was very unnerving. "And we're very good at what we do."

Before Steve could open his mouth to say anything, there was a sharp, burning pain in his abdomen. He looked down to see the hilt of a knife protruding from just below his ribs. Becky's fingers were wrapped around it.

"Up and under the ribcage," she said sweetly. "Skinny little arms like mine, you're never going to get the force you need to break bones." She twisted hard on the knife, and Steve felt it move inside his chest and he gasped in pain. He felt like he should step back or push her away or…or something, but nothing would…staring down at her in shock seemed to be all he was able to do.

"After I move it around a little, tear things up faster," she went on. "Then I yank it out." She did so, very forcefully. "And there's nothing to keep all that blood inside anymore."

Steve was having trouble moving, and his brain felt sluggish and uncooperative, making it hard to think. Why couldn't he move?

Becky placed a small hand on his chest and pushed, and he found himself unable to offer any resistance, toppling over and crashing down hard onto the floor. She stepped into his line of vision and smiled, waggling the knife back and forth. "Poison on the blade, remember?" she said, as if she knew what he was thinking. "It'd be awful stupid of me to go up against a big guy like you, otherwise."

She crouched down so that she was closer to his face, tracing the knife along his jawline. "Much as I'd like to see this through to the end, if I'm not back up in the Tower with everyone else, there are going to be questions I don't want to answer. So, I'll go, and leave you to your last two minutes on earth in peace. Fun fact: I got your lung, so you're probably going to drown in your own blood before the poison or the stab wound kills you. If that helps."

"Why?" Steve croaked. There were so many questions racing through his mind, but that was all he could get out.

"Orders," she said sweetly, patting his cheek. She grinned wickedly and stood. "Hail Hydra."

She walked out of his line of vision and distantly Steve heard the slamming of the door and the click of the lock. Becky…Becky couldn't be Hydra, she couldn't, it didn't make any sense. She'd been right about the knife, though; he could feel his lung filling up with blood, and it was getting really hard to breathe and his vision was starting to go. He was going to die. He was going to die and Becky…Whatever had happened to Becky, whatever Hydra had done to her, no one was going to save her if he died, because no one would know. But he couldn't…He couldn't move and there was no one…

A hazy memory flickered through the lethargic fog in his brain. Nurse Rains in the infirmary. They'd come back from the mine, and she'd needed help. Willow hadn't been there, but she called her, she just called her name and she came. Could he…maybe he could…

"Winston," he croaked, his throat straining with the action, and whatever was keeping him from moving had crept up into his throat and he didn't think he'd be able to say anything else. Even that had barely gotten out, and it wasn't very loud. But it worked. There was a sharp snap of magic in the air, and Steve felt the little elf's presence more than he saw him. He couldn't see much of anything.

"Master Steve!" Winston exclaimed.

Steve gurgled in response, the blood in his lung coming up into his throat, making him cough and cutting off his air.

He heard Winston talking but he couldn't understand it anymore. He could feel his body shutting down, motionless limbs growing heavy, and all the pain fading away and maybe he was moving, maybe he heard people talking, but maybe he was imagining it all. It was so hard to tell. It was so quiet. So cold. So…

Nothing.

Well. That's not good.

See you Friday!