Okay, poor Becky and Esther have waited long enough. Zwart has some pissed-off Howling Commandos headed his way.


Steve woke up feeling stiff and achy, but he could move again, and the more he did it, the easier it got. He could talk too, although his voice felt like he hadn't used it in about a thousand years. He was worried at first when he woke up and saw Bucky laid out in the next bed over, thinking he'd gotten hurt while they all went after the other assassin last night, but then Bucky woke up and Steve realized he'd just been camping out overnight to keep an eye on him, like he always did.

"The other one was Esther?!" Steve asked while Bucky filled him in. That, well, that made a lot of sense, actually. They were the only siblings of Howling Commandos on campus, after all, and Schmidt would know that. Who better to try to use to hurt them?

He was still kind of clumsy as he started moving, and Bucky was good enough not to say anything when he tripped a couple of times on the stairs leaving the infirmary, just throwing out an arm to catch him. By the time they made it all nine floors back down to the ground level, Steve was moving smoothly again, the last of the stiffness gone from his muscles. He showered quickly and changed into his uniform, contemplating the scar on his chest as he did so. It didn't hurt anymore, and it had faded to a soft pinkish line, barely visible against the rest of his skin. It would be gone in a day or two. Steve was glad of that. Though he certainly got hurt often enough, between magic and his own advanced healing capabilities, he didn't end up with a lot of scars. The ones he did have, he didn't mind, but he would have minded this one. It wasn't Becky—the real Becky—who'd tried to kill him, but it was her face he saw. The memory would fade in time, but not if that mark was there on his skin reminding him every day.

Although they were in a hurry to go and bring their girls home, they didn't actually leave until well into the afternoon. There was more planning to do, and gear and spells to get ready. They had to do this right.

There was transport to arrange too. Zwart wasn't at his home in Salzburg, but in a Hydra safehouse outside of Berlin. Germany was hard enough to get into these days, never mind the building itself. Yvonne and Helena had only been there to drop Esther and Becky off, so their knowledge of the place was limited, but they'd provided what they could. Yvonne had even offered up copies of her memories so they could get a visual—she was doing everything she could to make herself useful enough to earn protection from Schmidt.

Calling the building they were heading for a 'safehouse' really felt like it was understating things. Steve thought the word 'fortress' would have been more appropriate. It was a hulking gray mound of stone, barely any windows or doors, and so many magical wards around it, Steve could almost see them. The warding was identical to what Zwart had had around his house in Salzburg, there was just a hell of a lot more of it. Again, an invitation was the only way in, barring a lot of explosions and aggressive magic that would have drawn enough resistance to keep them from getting in the door.

It was a long, nerve-wracking hour of waiting before anyone came out of the building. Two guys in civilian clothes came out and headed for a car in the parking lot. None of the team could cross the magical barrier, but Monty's curse bombs could. From the tree he was sitting in just outside the barrier, he tossed one in, where it landed with a precise clink on the cobblestones. The men didn't have time to do anything but look down at where it landed between their feet before it exploded into a silent puff of green smoke. The Confundus Curse in place, he threw in another one, and this one hissed as it sprayed the light purple mist of belladonna extract into the air.

The confused men by the car, merely stumbling and staring dumbly at first, began to yell, ducking and hiding from whatever it was the belladonna was making them see. Peggy walked into view around the gate, calling out in German to ask the men if they needed help. She smiled when they replied, evidently having gotten the invitation she needed, and hurried into the yard. They were silenced and stunned, bound and gagged in under a minute.

"Do come in, gentlemen," Peggy said, turning to where the rest of them were waiting. They hurried over to her, and while Dugan and Gabe loaded the unconscious bodies into the car, Peggy grabbed Jim's arm. "You said you have the antidote for that stuff, yeah?" she asked. "There was still some of that mist in the air when I got here, and…"

Jim winced in sympathy. "Yeah, hang on just a second."

Steve wrapped a hand around Peggy's arm while Jim dug through his bag. "You okay?"

"Mm-hmm," she a little tightly. She was studiously not looking at anything besides Jim's bag on the ground, but she raised her hand up to grab Steve's. He wondered what she was seeing.

Jim handed her a little vial and she downed the contents quickly. "Better?" Jim asked.

"Much," she said, handing it back. "Thanks." She squeezed Steve's hand to let him know she meant it, then let go.

"This way around to the back is clear," Bucky said from the other side of the car. "Jacques has an eye on the door." The two of them had gone around to check while the others cleared up at the car. He led them around into the shadow of the building, and maybe it was just Steve's imagination, but it felt a lot colder there. They crept around to where Jacques was examining the spells surrounding a small door. Dugan and Jim moved in to help.

"So, you're sure we don't need an invite into the house too?" Gabe asked.

Peggy shook her head. "We did in Salzburg because that was just a house. There's multiple buildings on this property, so that bit of security is just expanded outward."

"And it's just standard security on these doors here," Jim said, not looking up. "A lot of it, but nothing we haven't seen before."

"And we're assuming he'll have some way to tell it's being tampered with," Steve reminded them. "Maybe we'll get in unnoticed, but it's safer to move quick and be ready to fight once we're in." Unfortunately, they weren't sure where to go once they were in. Yvonne hadn't been able to tell them that—she and Helena had handed off the girls in the parking lot. They'd debated for a while over the wisdom of splitting up once they got inside. It was dangerous territory, and there was safety in numbers. The longer they were there, though, time was going to become a factor, and speed would be an asset. They had finally decided to stay as a group until they cleared the main area, then split into two groups of four for the search—they could cover more ground that way without getting too isolated.

Dugan got the door open and after they all got into position, they burst inside. Steve was up front, shield held high, with Bucky, Peggy and Gabe projecting shield spells out to the sides. Monty was covering their six, and Jim, Jacques and Dugan were in the center, weapons ready. Six men in Hydra black were lounging in what was some sort of break room, and the team made quick work of them, surprise still on their side.

They kept going, one room at a time. The place was big—maybe the size of a warehouse—but not as big as Schmidt's castle had been, and if they could keep this pace up, they should have the main level cleared fairly quickly. Of course, with all the noise and damage they were causing, they were attracting more company, and that was slowing them down. They didn't waver, though, fighting with a ferocity Steve didn't think he'd ever seen in the team before. This fight was personal. For all of them.

Every room they came into, the battle was intense. These guys were more of the caliber they'd seen at Schmidt's castle, tougher than the average Hydra goon, and there were a lot more of them than there were in the castle. The team was taking some pretty good hits, but they all got up and kept going, Jim darting in with quick fix-it spells that would buy them a few hours when they couldn't. Dugan was howling wildly, his energy gun firing blasts that took out opponents and chunks of wall alike. Peggy and Gabe were flinging spells so fast the air around them was glowing, while Monty was tossing curse bombs and explosives with deadly precision. Jacques was flying around the room so fast Steve couldn't even see him, but he could hear him, and Jim was just a blur of motion and magic. Bucky had his wand in one hand and his gun in the other, and he hadn't missed a shot yet.

Steve flung his shield out in a wide arc, taking down four soldiers as it bounced off their heads, and then two more with quick blasts of magic from his wand. The shield came back to his hand just in time for him to smash it up into the face of an approaching soldier, but with his midsection briefly unprotected, he took a spell to the gut that sent him flying back into the wall hard enough to knock some bricks loose. He hit the floor with a groan, and Peggy was there in front of him, holding his shield up to protect them both, and yelling for Jim, who appeared so abruptly Steve could have sworn he'd popped up out of the floor.

Jim muttered three quick spells, patted Steve on the back and said, "Good to go," then disappeared again. Steve shoved himself to his feet, grabbed the shield back from Peggy, and jumped back into the fray. He threw the shield back out again in one direction, taking out a guy who was fighting with Bucky and another who was fighting with Dugan. A wave of his wand in the other direction picked up all the bricks he'd knocked loose and sent them flying back to land in a heap on top of the guy who'd thrown him into the wall in the first place.

Steve was well aware by now of the way time slowed down in combat—though it felt like he'd been fighting forever by the time things started to clear up, it had probably been only twenty minutes or so. Dugan shielded the door to the room they were in, giving them all a quick minute to catch their breath.

"Okay," Jim panted. "I'm not reading many people left on this floor. We've got some up above—don't know what they're waiting for—and several on the basement level. I thought I picked up a trace of the magic from that linking spell downstairs too, but they've shot up a bunch of wards and sealed themselves in. Those two things together probably means that downstairs is where we want to go."

"Right," Steve nodded. He looked around the room. Everyone looked tired, and they were bloody and dirty, but still on their feet. "If we can get downstairs, can we seal ourselves in to give us time to find the girls without the people upstairs joining the party?"

"Probably," Dugan allowed. "But even from here, I can tell the wards around the downstairs entrance are a doozy. They'll take a while to get through."

"Well, screw that," Bucky said. "If they locked themselves down there 'cause they know we're coming, who knows what they might do to Becky and Esther if it takes us a while to fight our way in? It's already taken too long."

"What're you thinking?" Steve asked.

Bucky shrugged and pointed at the floor. "Let's just blow a hole in the floor and go straight down."

Dugan grinned, his teeth shining brightly against the dirt covering his face. "I like your style, Sarge."

"It's a good idea," Peggy said. "But if we're trying to regain the element of surprise, an explosion might not be the best way to do that. Why don't we try Vanishing part of the floor instead?"

"Can you even do that?" Gabe asked.

"Well, maybe not one person," Peggy said. "Since it's such a big, solid thing. But there's eight of us."

"Seven," Monty said, slipping his bag off his back and digging through it. "If it's surprise we're after, why don't you lot work on the floor, and I'll send some of these back the way we came," he said, pulling out some more curse bombs. "That way it'll sound like we're still busy up here."

"Okay, but we can't let you go out there and plant those by yourself," Steve said.

"No need," Monty assured him. "They've had timers for a while now, and Howard came up with this new wandering feature. I can activate that while you're working on the floor, and then all I have to do is roll them out the door and they'll take off on their own."

"Do it," Steve said.

Monty got to work on his curses and the rest of them set to work on the floor. They all were more than capable of Vanishing things by this point, but like Peggy had said, the floor was big, thick, solid stone. It was much more massive than anything they'd tried to Vanish before, and it took a lot of work. For a couple of minutes, it seemed like nothing was happening, then one of the bricks disappeared.

"Alright!" Jim exclaimed. "Okay, everyone concentrate your magic on that spot."

Once the first brick went, the others started going faster. Soon they had a small hole, and they stopped for a minute so Jacques could stick his head through it and look around, then declare the coast was clear. They kept going, and soon the hole was big enough to give them a good view of the floor below, and wide enough to accommodate Steve's shoulders. He slipped through first, standing guard while the others came down, and then standing directly underneath the hole to help Jim, Jacques and Peggy down. Monty came through last, magically shielding the hole above them so no one could follow them down.

"Alright," Steve said quietly. "Which direction are we going?"

Jim checked, running the spell that would look for traces of the linking spell. "That way," he said, nodding out the door and to the left.

"Then?" Bucky asked.

"That's all I got," Jim said. "Look," he added at Bucky's exasperated huff. "It's a little spell, and there's a whole hell of a lot of magic happening in this building, okay? It's the best I have."

"Alright," Steve said, stepping in before Bucky said something he'd end up regretting later. Steve knew it wasn't Jim he was mad at. "Let's go that way."

They moved out into the corridor. It was narrow and poorly lit, and they stayed close together until they hit a fork. Jim couldn't tell which one would take them the direction they needed to go, so they finally had to split. Jacques, Gabe, Monty and Dugan went one way, Steve, Bucky, Peggy and Jim another.

"Is it too quiet down here?" Bucky whispered to Steve as they walked.

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "I mean, they know we're here, so…"

Bucky nodded. They were waiting for them somewhere.

"Guys, I'm reading some people up this way," Jim said quietly. He'd been running the spell that checked for people every minute or so, but all the magic in the building was interfering with his readings. If he could read them for sure, they had to be close.

"Wands and guns ready," Steve whispered. It could be Becky and Esther, or it could be some more of Zwart's guys. It was starting to bother Steve that they hadn't seen Zwart yet.

A faint light shone under the door of a room up ahead. They exploded through it, weapons held high, but only silence greeted them. There were no soldiers in the room, no guards. Only a table full of radio equipment and a line of metal bars walling off one end of the room. Becky and Esther were each asleep on a cot on the other side.

"Becky!" Bucky exclaimed, rushing forward.

"Esther!" gasped Jim, running with him.

"Peggy, watch the door," Steve said, and she nodded, then he followed them.

A quick tap of Bucky's wand on the door had the lock springing open, then he and Steve were pressing inside to where Becky was lying, Jim doing the same on the other side.

"Becky?" Bucky asked nervously, dropping down to sit beside her and resting a hand on her shoulder. She was curled up on her side, hands cuffed together and tucked up under her chin. She was kind of dirty, and maybe a little paler than she usually was, but she didn't look like she was hurt. She was still asleep though, unheeding of their presence.

"The necklace," Steve said, catching the glint of the green jewel as Bucky brushed her hair back.

Bucky reached for it, then stopped. "Can I just take it off?" he asked. "Is there, like, a spell to break, or do I just…"

"Yvonne said taking it off was all you had to do to break the link," Peggy said from the door.

Bucky slid his hands under her hair, one lifting her head up while the other slipped the chain off. He tossed the necklace down to the floor with a harsh clink, and Steve heard the echo of Esther's necklace hitting the floor over in her cell.

"Becky?" Bucky asked again as she started to stir.

Her eyes blinked open sleepily, and one of the worried knots in Steve's stomach started to uncurl. Then she gasped and scuttled away to the head of the cot, pressing herself up against the wall.

"No, hey, Becky, it's me," Bucky said, reaching out a hand. "It's okay, it's just me."

He rested his hand on her arm, and she tensed, looking down at his hand and then back up at him. "Jay?" she breathed.

"Yeah," Bucky replied, smiling warmly. "I'm here."

"You're really here?" she whispered.

"I'm really here," he said, squeezing her arm.

She stared at him in shock for a moment, then a relieved smile broke across her face. "You're really here," she breathed happily.

She started to reach back for him, then a knot of magic twisted and clenched in the air, and she was gone.

"NO!" Bucky screamed, lunging forward to where she'd been sitting. "NO! No, no, no, no, no, no!"

Steve was staring in shock at the empty space where Becky had been. "What…" he asked numbly, unable to figure out what the rest of the question should be.

"It was a Portkey," Peggy said, and she wasn't by the door anymore, she was next to Steve, holding on to his arm.

"What?" Jim whispered, drawing Steve's eyes over to the other cell. Esther was gone too.

"It was a Portkey," Peggy said again. "I'm sure of it."

"But they weren't…" Steve protested. They hadn't been holding anything.

"The cuffs," she said. "It had to be. They were both wearing them. And Bucky and Jim were touching them but not the cuffs—that's why they didn't go anywhere."

"Where are they?" Bucky whispered brokenly. "They…" He'd been fighting so hard, and they'd found her, they'd finally found her, only for her to disappear literally through his fingers. He looked absolutely crushed, utterly defeated. Steve knew exactly how he felt. "Peggy, where are they?" he whispered. Peggy was the only one who seemed to have anything left. If they had any hope, she was it.

"They're gone," Jim rasped. "It's a freaking Portkey, they could be anywhere!"

"No, I don't think so," Peggy said.

"Why not?" Steve asked quickly, latching onto whatever hope she was offering.

"Portkeys are like apparating, they're limited by magical warding. That's why you couldn't just Portkey into a place like Hogwarts, or why we couldn't just come straight in here."

"Peggy, we Portkey into Hogwarts all the time," Jim argued.

"Yeah, but we belong there," she pointed out. "Some random stranger couldn't do it. Anyway, listen, remember at Zwart's house, when we got out, we made a Portkey?"

Steve only vaguely remembered that, but Jim and Bucky nodded.

"We had to go outside the magical bounds of the house so we could use it," she explained. "That's why we had to walk so far. These are the same wards here, but like you said, a lot more of them. So many more of them that even someone who belongs here couldn't just transport out. No one can magically transport out of here without getting outside the wards first." She looked them all in the eye. "They're still in the building."

A crackle of static and a raspy chuckle came through the radio over by the door. "Very good, Miss Carter," it said, sending a shiver down Steve's spine. He knew that voice.

"Zwart," Steve growled, spinning and glaring at the radio.

The voice chuckled again. "Hello, Captain Rogers. You sound well. You must be doing better than last time I saw you, if you were able to fight your way in here."

"What have you done with my sister?!" Bucky demanded, jumping to his feet.

"As the woman said, I've simply moved her," Zwart replied.

"Where?" snarled Jim.

"Further in. Harder to get to," Zwart said. "You see, I always knew the Koenig twins would fail. Favorites of Schmidt's, I know, and effective in their own way, certainly, but I do have a good deal more insight than most into how hard you are to take down. No, I knew they would fail, and I knew you would come. And I knew…" Here Steve heard a smile in his voice, the kind of smile he always had before doing something that was really going to hurt. "I knew there was no chance of you cooperating if you thought they might be dead. So I let you see them alive."

"Cooperating?" Steve asked.

"You don't think these two little girls were who we were really after, do you?" Zwart asked with a disdainful snort. "They're just bait. Very effective bait, too. For the moment, they're still alive, and whether or not they stay that way depends entirely on you. Come and find them, and then we'll see how tough you really are."

The line went dead.

"Let's go," Bucky said, moving for the door.

"Wait," Steve said, catching his arm. It burned him to have gotten so close and have them snatched away like that, and everything inside him was screaming to go tear the place apart until they found them, but Zwart was probably counting on that. "He wants us to come running out there half-cocked. We have to think about this."

"Steve, he—"

"I know!" Steve snapped. "And he's going to die for it. But he's not taking us with him." Bucky glared back at him, and Steve could feel him trembling with rage in his grip, but Bucky drew in a deep breath, nodding sharply.

"Right. You're right. I'm sorry. What are we going to do?"

"He wants us to come to him, right?" Steve started. "That means he's probably got something set up, some kind of trap. All those people Jim sensed earlier, before we came down here? They're probably with him."

"We need a distraction," Peggy said. "Call the rest of the team—don't bring them to us, but have them start raising some hell to draw some of the soldiers away."

"Okay, good. Do that," Steve said, thinking as Peggy passed the instructions on to the rest of the group. "The four of us need to stick together, but stagger it out. I'm guessing when we find wherever he has them, it'll be some kind of… 'drop your wand or I kill them' kind of situation." He felt a little nauseous just thinking that. "So, when we find them, one, maybe two of us go in, and then two stay back until eyes are off them. He knows there's four of us, but if we don't all go in at once, he'll think we've split up to look."

Everyone looked at each other, then nodded grimly. They set out carefully into the corridor again, eyes and ears wide open for any flicker of shadow or movement of air. Steve was trying very hard not to imagine what kind of things Zwart could do to Becky and Esther. Surely, no matter what he intended to do them, surely he wasn't hurting them right now. He had an ambush to set up. Time for torturing your prisoners later. Right?

"Stop!" Jim hissed. "We've got people. Gotta be in that next room down there," he said, nodding at the next door in the hallway. "I'm counting five."

"Okay, they'll know we're coming," Steve said. "Jim and I will go in. Bucky, Peggy, you stay here."

"No, I—" Bucky protested.

"Stay. Here," Steve said firmly. Bucky opened his mouth to argue again and Steve grabbed his arm. "Listen," he said, lowering his voice. "If something goes wrong in there, only one of us will be down. She's gonna need you." Bucky looked like he wanted to argue again, but he nodded slowly. "Hang back, get a feel for the room. Then come in and help us send them to hell."

Steve and Jim moved in. The door wasn't locked, or even closed all the way. They eased it open, rounding a stack of boxes, and came face to face with four guards in black uniforms and masks, and Esther, sitting in the corner with her wrists cuffed to a chair. No sign of Zwart or Becky.

"Jim!" Esther whimpered, tears running down her face.

"How sweet," one of the guards said. "Big brother to the rescue."

"Let her go, or I'll tear you apart," Jim snarled, stepping forward and raising his wand.

"How about I make you a counter-offer?" the guard said. He nodded, and the guard closest to Esther stepped back, closing the distance between them, and placed his gun to the side of her head. "Drop your weapons, or he'll splatter her brains all over the wall."

"Jim?" she whispered, looking terrified, and Steve fingered the edge of his shield, itching to hurl it straight into the guard's skull. All he had to do was pull the trigger though, and if he was fast enough, the shield wouldn't get there in time. Steve nodded to Jim, and they dropped their wands. Jim tossed his gun to the floor with a loud clatter, glaring daggers at the guard with the gun to his sister's head, and Steve threw the shield down with more force than necessary, making sure Bucky and Peggy could hear it outside.

"Good," the guard said. He raised his own gun and gestured to the corner opposite Esther where another set of metal bars walled off a section of the room. "Over there."

They complied, moving slowly enough to get a good look around the room, eyeing the walls and making sure there wasn't anyone else hiding in the shadows. Jim nodded at Esther, shooting her a quick wink. It would be okay.

The guard over by Esther lowered his gun once Steve and Jim were in, though he didn't move away from her. Steve caught a flicker of movement over by the boxes where they'd come in and stopped walking, putting on his most obstinate face. "Alright, fine, you caught us," he snapped. "You can let her go now."

"I didn't say you could stop moving," the guard said. "And I don't think we're—"

Whatever he didn't think they were going to do was lost in an explosion of light as Bucky and Peggy burst into the room. Peggy shot a blast of magic at the guard who'd been talking, knocking him off his feet and throwing him across the floor, and Bucky's gun caught the guard standing by Esther in the throat and he dropped like a rock.

Peggy scooped up the wands from the floor and tossed them over, and Bucky hurled Steve's shield toward him. Steve felt its comforting weight smack into his hand, and then the fight started.

It was chaos for a little while. The guards who hadn't been hit were surprised, but quick to react, and the one Peggy had thrown across the room was getting to his feet. Jim pointed his wand at the chair his sister was in and yanked, pulling it across the room and over to the side of the boxes by the door—still in view, but out of the line of fire. They punched and fired and kicked and slashed, and Steve thought he heard someone scream, and then it was over. Four Hydra guards lay dead on the floor, Esther was curled up and shaking in the chair and crying, and they were all still alive.

Jim hurried over to his sister, pausing just long enough by the body of the guard who'd been talking to hiss, "Told you I'd tear you apart," and kick at what was left of him, which was, actually, in more than one piece. He dropped to his knees by Esther's chair, loosing her cuffs with a tap of his wand. She melted off the chair into his arms, crying and burying her head in his chest. Jim was crying too, murmuring softly in Japanese and stroking her hair.

Steve looked around. Bucky was bleeding from somewhere up under his hair, but he was getting to his feet. Peggy was sitting up, but Steve realized with a jolt that she was the one he'd heard scream earlier—almost all of her right leg was covered in blood.

"Peggy!" he exclaimed, rushing over. She was pressing shaking hands and a knot of cloth to her knee.

"I'm alright," she hissed. "Is Esther okay?"

"She's fine, Peggy," Steve assured her. "But you're not alright. What happened?"

"Gun," she breathed, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall. "Can't move it." She opened her eyes and managed a pained smiled at the look on Steve's face. "It's a lot of blood, but it didn't hit any important arteries or I'd've bled to death already."

"That's not funny."

"I know. But I'll make it," she assured him. "Although, if Jim could get over here sooner rather than later, that would be good."

Bucky had come over, and Steve nodded at him to take over putting pressure on Peggy's wound, then pushed himself to his feet to get Jim. "Hey, Jim?" he asked, brushing his shoulder. He hated to interrupt, but they needed him. Jim looked up. "Peggy got hit pretty bad. Can you take a look?" He nodded at Esther and opened his arms. "I can take her, if you want."

Jim nodded, blinked the water out of his eyes, and stood up. Esther whimpered as he started to move her and he kissed the side of her face. "Hush now, my little Hotaru," he whispered. "I have to help Peggy, but Steve has you now. It's alright." He kissed her again, whispered something in Japanese that elicited a tiny watery giggle, and placed a hand on her head. "I'll be right back," he promised.

Esther wrapped her arms around Steve's neck and he hugged her tightly. "Are you okay?" Steve asked, rubbing her back. She nodded uncertainly into his shoulder. "They didn't hurt you?" She shook her head. "I'm glad," he said. He knew there was still a lot of psychological damage she would have to unpack, but at least there was that. Steve felt a little bit of the worried pressure in his chest ease. "We were worried about you."

She lifted her head, tears swimming in her dark eyes, but she smiled just a little bit. "Thanks for coming to find me," she whispered.

Steve hugged her tighter. "Anytime," he whispered back, all the volume he could get over the sudden lump of emotion in his throat.

She nuzzled her face into his chest again. "Did you find Becky?" she asked softly.

"Not yet," Steve replied. "But we will. Do you know where she is?"

She shook her head. "He took her away," she said. "After the magic pulled us out of the cage, he grabbed her and took her away."

"Do you know who he was?" Steve asked, though he had a sinking suspicion.

"I don't know his name," Esther said. "But he's the guy who put the spell on the necklaces. He was always there at night when they took them off and we woke up, and he was always making sure they were working right when they put them back on in the morning." She sniffed. "He was really scary. He really wants to hurt you—all of you." She looked up at him again sadly. "Be careful when you go find Becky."

"I will," Steve assured her. "And we will find her, and then we're all gonna go home. I promise."

"Okay," Jim said, standing back up, frowning at the blood on his hands before wiping it off on his pants. "I've got it stabilized so she's not losing any more blood, but she's not walking anywhere on that. I don't know if it was just a lucky shot or what, but that bullet absolutely shattered her knee. I'm talking bone fragments are all that's left."

"Will she be alright?" Steve asked worriedly.

"Yeah," Jim said. "Rains can fix that easy, but it'll have to wait until we get back. I can't do a break that complex."

"Okay," Steve said thoughtfully. If Jim said she'd be alright, then she'd be alright. They couldn't leave her here on her own, though. And Esther, well, they couldn't exactly take Esther with them into combat. They could leave her here with Peggy, but if someone came in here, Esther wouldn't be any good in a fight, and Peggy could get even more hurt trying to protect them both. Steve exhaled unhappily. "Alright, Jim, you stay here with Peggy and your sister." It was a bad idea, but it was the only one they had.

Jim looked like he was about to argue, but Steve could see the same thing that had occurred to him occurring to Jim. He nodded, stepping forward to take Esther. "I'll keep them safe, Captain," he promised. "You go find Sarge's sister and bring her home."

Steve nodded, knelt down and kissed Peggy on the forehead, then hopped back to his feet. "Buck, you ready?"

"Hell, yes," Bucky agreed, pushing up from where he was crouching next to Peggy. He picked up his rifle from where it had fallen on the floor and slung it back over his shoulder.

"Esther said Zwart took Becky after he pulled them down here," Steve said, checking the corridor before they moved back out.

"Smart," Bucky said, and Steve caught the furious undertone in his otherwise flat voice. "Wear us down by making us fight more, try to split us up."

Steve nodded his agreement. "I don't know how many guys he's got with him."

"Doesn't matter," Bucky shrugged. "They're all dead meat. And Zwart is mine. I mean it, Stevie," he said when Steve started to open his mouth. "I should've killed him in Salzburg for what he did to you. But after this?" He shook his head. "He's mine."

Steve didn't know how this fight was going to go, but he wasn't going to argue.

They checked every room they passed, finding nothing each time, until they finally came to the end of the corridor. The room at the end had no door, it just opened up into a large, dark space, shelves of equipment blocking their view into the rest of the room. Steve held up a hand and Bucky stopped, silent. Steve listened carefully. He could hear people breathing, the slight footfall of a shoe on stone. "This is it," he whispered.

He knew there was no point in telling Bucky to hang back this time, and Steve sure as hell wasn't going to send him in there on his own, so they went in together. Moving softly, they crouched down and peered through the contents of the shelf in front of them. The room beyond was wide but fairly shallow, lit with pale fluorescent bulbs hanging from the high ceiling. Steve could just make out a large door at the far end, and there were several cars parked between them and it. This was the garage. He nodded at the door, and Bucky nodded back. They'd have to make sure no one made it to the door during the fight and got away.

In the center of the room, next to a table full of tools and a large pillar, was Becky, cuffed to a chair just as Esther had been. A guard with a large gun was pacing the floor near her, and three more were moving around the room. Steve couldn't see Zwart, but he had to be there somewhere. He decided not to risk running a spell to count people—it was a little spell, but these guys were on such high alert, they would pick it up, and no one seemed to have noticed their arrival yet. They couldn't get to Becky without revealing themselves, but maybe they could take out a guard or two before being seen.

Steve motioned to Bucky, pointing first to him, then the guard closest to Becky. Bucky nodded, then moved to the far end of the shelf. Steve stayed where he was, eyeing the room and wishing he had a couple of Monty's curse bombs right about now. He looked down at Bucky to see if he was in position. Bucky nodded back. Steve held up three fingers to give a count.

Three.

Two.

One.

The guard by Becky dropped to the floor, struck by a silent spell and clawing desperately at his throat. The other guards turned at the sound of his body hitting the floor, then spun around again as Steve's shield struck another one of them and a car with a loud clang. Steve and Bucky ran out into the garage, yelling as they rounded the sides of the shelf, drawing eyes away from Becky and onto them. They entered a furious duel with the two remaining guards, bullets and spells flying, and the best they could do was try to keep it on the far side of the room from Becky—Steve tried what Jim had done with Esther, but the chair Becky was in must have been bolted to the floor, because it didn't move.

The fight was over almost as quickly as it began, but as they whirled back to where Becky was, a sick knot twisted in Steve's stomach and made him wish he'd tried to count after all. Another guard was standing next to Becky's chair, and Steve didn't think he'd ever seen anyone that big in his life. The guy had to be half-giant or something. One meaty hand rested on Becky's trembling shoulders, the other sat casually on the gun still in his belt.

For a long, tense moment, no one said anything, the three of them simply sizing one another up. Steve edged his shield down his arm, getting it in position to throw. The gun wasn't pointed at Becky yet—Steve had time to throw the shield, draw his attention, and the shield could get him from one side and Bucky could get him from the other while he was distracted, and if nothing else, it would move him away from Becky, even if it took a few more hits to bring something that big down.

Shield in position, Steve pulled back his arm to throw, but the guard clocked the movement and yanked his gun out of his holster. Instead of aiming at Steve, though, he swung his arm up and around, far faster than anyone that size should have been able to move, and fired at Bucky, who fell against a Jeep and then to the ground, his hand clutching at his midsection.

"JAY!" Becky screamed.

"I thought I told you to shut up," the guard snarled, backhanding her across the face so hard he cut her cheek.

The world went red for a minute, and Steve had crossed the space between him and the guard before he was conscious of doing so. He slashed with his wand, a spell he'd learned from Peggy, and the guard screamed as the hand he'd hit Becky with fell away from his arm in a bloody mess. "Don't you touch her again," Steve snarled, and then they were going at it, spells and fists flying.

They both got in some pretty good hits, even with the guard being down a hand, then the guard struck out with a length of pipe at Steve's feet and he jumped and rolled out of the way, coming up a few feet away.

"I think that's quite enough of that," came a familiar voice from behind him.

Steve turned, shield and wand still raised. Zwart was standing back by the table. He'd uncuffed Becky from the chair and was holding her up off the ground against him, one hand around her throat. "Shield and wand down, Captain, or I snap her neck like a twig."

Without a second thought, Steve let go of the shield and the wand. He'd seen what Zwart could do, and he had no doubt that he'd carry out his threat.

"Good boy," Zwart said. Steve felt the big guy move up behind him. Zwart smiled. "I should have tried this last time."

Steve swallowed down a knot of anger, his eyes scanning the room for options. Automatically, they went to the Jeep behind Zwart where Bucky was lying on the ground. Steve had seen the shot go high, missing all the vital organs in Bucky's abdomen (hopefully) and catching him below the ribs. Not good, but not fatal, provided he could resolve this quickly. Bucky moved, his hand searching for something on the ground, and Steve let out a little breath of relief. He darted his eyes back to Zwart before he noticed where he was looking.

"Congratulations," Steve said. "You got me. Let her go and I'll do whatever you want." He had no intention of keeping that promise, but he couldn't do anything to get them out of this with Becky in the middle of everything.

"No, Steve…" Becky protested.

"Quiet, girl," Zwart snapped, shaking her roughly.

Steve swallowed down another angry knot, his eyes catching Bucky moving again. He was still lying on his back, but he had his rifle up now, holding it steady against his chest. He rolled his eyes to meet Steve's, and Steve read the question there, giving him a nearly imperceptible nod in return to let him know he understood. He had a clear shot at Zwart, but with Becky's feet up off the ground and Zwart's long coat hiding them, Bucky couldn't tell where she was. He didn't want to hit her.

Steve looked back at Zwart. "I mean it. You let her go and you can have me." He dropped his gaze down from Zwart's, meeting Becky's eyes. "Becky," he said. "Becky, look at me. Look at me." She locked her eyes on his and Steve stared back intently, knowing Bucky could see where his eyes were. "It's gonna be okay, alright? I promise. Everything's going to be okay. You just keep looking at me, alright? You keep your eyes on me."

"Okay," Becky whispered, and she was shaking and trying not to cry, but she kept her eyes on Steve.

Steve looked back up at Zwart. "I know I'm the one you want. That's what all this was about to start with, wasn't it? So, let her go and I'm all yours."

Zwart chuckled. "It's terribly gallant of you, Captain, but you do realize I'm holding all the cards, don't you? I already have you, and I still have the girl, and as long as I continue to have the girl, I have your cooperation. I'm certainly not ready to let her go just yet."

Steve risked another quick look at Bucky. Steve didn't know why he didn't roll over for an easier shot, but the gun was in position, and if anyone could make that shot upside down, it was Bucky. Bucky blinked at him. He was ready.

"Last chance, Zwart," Steve said. He looked down to where Becky was still staring nervously at him. "Becky, close your eyes," he said gently. Confused and frightened, she nodded minutely and obeyed. He met Zwart's eyes coldly. Those cruel green eyes that he still saw sometimes in his nightmares. "Let. Her. Go."

"You think having her close her eyes will spare her from what's coming next?" Zwart scoffed. "You know full well what I can do to you, and she's going to watch every—"

The sharp crack of a bullet rang out through the air, and the back of Zwart's head exploded out of the front of his left eye socket. He dropped like a rock, but Steve was already moving, his foot coming down hard on the edge of his shield and bouncing it up off the floor in front of him and into his hand, where he whirled it around with enough force to crush the face of the stunned behemoth behind him and send reverberations racing up Steve's arm.

The giant fell and did not rise, and Steve spun around again to where Becky was laying on the floor pinned underneath Zwart's body, eyes still closed and shaking in terror. He snapped the shield onto his back and knelt to scoop her up, and she yelled and struck out at him, but he tucked her in close against his chest. "Ssh, it's okay, it's Steve," he soothed, and she quit fighting. "It's Steve, it's okay. You're safe now, I've got you. I've got you." She sobbed and buried her face in his chest, and he kissed the top of her head and hugged her closer, trying to shield as much of her as he could with his arms. "It's all gonna be okay now," he told her.

He stepped away from Zwart, pulling his hand away from the back of Becky's head and clicking his radio. "Jim, we need you," he said. "Very end of the corridor. No hostiles left, but Bucky's been shot. Get here quick." He let go of the radio and went back to stroking Becky's hair, murmuring reassurances as he walked over to Bucky.

He rounded the Jeep and dropped down to his knees. Bucky had let go of the rifle and was clutching a bloody hand just below his ribcage. His eyes were shut, but he opened them when Steve knelt down. "She okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Steve assured him. "She's shook up real bad, but she's alright." He looked down at Bucky's chest. There was less blood than he'd been expecting, considering how long it had been since he got shot. That was probably good. "You?"

Bucky nodded. "I'll live. Shot went high. Didn't come out the back." That was why he hadn't rolled over yet—he was using gravity to try to keep more blood inside and keep the bullet from dislodging and making things worse.

Steve nodded. "Jim's on the way." He smiled. "That was a hell of a shot, man."

Bucky smiled back. " 'm team sniper for a reason." He reached up his free hand to touch Becky's back. "Can I see her?"

Steve nodded. "Becky?" he said, nudging her away from where she had burrowed into his chest. "Bucky's here; you wanna see him?" She looked up and nodded, and Steve turned her in his lap so she could see her brother. "Careful," he said. "He's been hurt. Stay up by his head, alright?"

He let go of her and she slid down to the floor, laying her head on Bucky's chest and wrapping her arms around him as best she could. "Jay?" she whispered. Steve leaned forward to take over putting pressure on the bullet hole, and Bucky grunted, then raised his arms up to hug her.

"I'm right here, Munchkin. I'm right here."

She started crying again, and Bucky just hugged her tighter. "Please, don't die, Jay," she pleaded.

"I've survived worse than this," he told her, turning her head so she was looking at him and not Steve's blood-covered hands on his stomach. "Really." He smiled at her. "I didn't come all this way to clock out right after I found you. I'll be okay."

Jim burst loudly into the room, breathing heavily, and Steve took one hand off of Bucky to wave over the hood of the Jeep. "We're over here!" he called.

Jim rounded the front of the Jeep and Steve could see why he was breathing so hard—he'd run all the way down here carrying his sister. "Here, you sit with Steve, alright?" he told her, sliding her down into Steve's lap again. "Becky?" Jim asked, kneeling down beside Bucky. He placed a hand carefully on her hair. "Hey, I'm glad we found you, kiddo; you okay?" She nodded a little bit. "Okay," he said, smiling warmly. "Alright, now, I know you just got him back, and I'm sorry, but I need you to move for me, sweetie, okay? I need you to move out of the way so I can fix him up. Here, come sit with Steve and Esther, alright?" She let him tug her back a little, and then Steve looped an arm around her waist and pulled her up into his lap too. "Okay," Jim said, smiling again. "Don't you worry. He's gonna be just fine."

Jim turned his attention fully to Bucky now, waving his wand over the bullet hole and muttering, and Steve pulled the girls in a little closer, resting his head on top of Becky's. "Oh, yeah," Jim said. "Yeah, you're gonna be fine, Sarge. This is an easy one."

Bucky shot a quick smile over in Becky's direction. "See? Told ya."

"I gotta get the bullet out first, though," Jim said, pulling a long pair of tweezers out of his bag. "Sorry, man, this is gonna hurt."

Bucky nodded. "Just do it."

Steve flinched in sympathy as the thin metal arms slid into Bucky's chest cavity, then he pulled his hands up over the girls' ears, cradling the two of them against his chest as Bucky screamed in pain. Esther turned away, burying her face in Steve's shoulder, and Becky whimpered softly. Jim's hands stayed steady, then started slowly pulling back. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay, I got it. I got it. Here we go." The bloody tweezers glistened in the overhead light, then the bullet dropped to the floor with a wet clink. Bucky was gasping in pain, every hitching breath only making it hurt more. Jim picked up his wand again, waving it over the wound. "Here we go," he said, mostly to himself. "Here we go. Okay." Bucky relaxed back into the floor with a long, low exhale, and Steve let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Thanks," Bucky rasped.

"You're welcome," Jim said. "But I'm not quite done yet. You lost a lot of blood, and the bullet left a tiny nick in your lung, and there's more blood in there than there should be."

"Yeah, I felt that," Bucky said.

"I fixed the hole, but we need to clear that out," Jim said, handing him a small vial from his bag. "Drink this, and it's gonna make you start coughing and getting it out. That's probably gonna hurt too," he said apologetically. Bucky took the vial and drank it, then Jim rolled him over on his side—thankfully, with his back to the girls. He started coughing, bringing up the blood that had gotten into his lung, and the wet, splattering sound couldn't help but make Steve think of a few months back and Bucky slowly dying of tuberculosis on the floor in front of him.

Jim rolled Bucky back over and handed him another potion. "Okay, this one will help to start building up all that blood you lost. Don't get up for a few more minutes—you're gonna be kind of light-headed."

Bucky nodded. "Thanks," he croaked.

Jim nodded, then turned to Steve. "The other guys got the rest of this level cleared out. Gabe's back with Peggy, and the other three headed up to seal off the top level so no one can come down until we get out of here. We've got a little time to catch our breath."

"Thank you," Steve said.

Jim nodded. "They're also laying explosives all over the place—there's not gonna be anything but a crater left of this place after we leave."

"Good," Bucky grunted. Steve nodded in fierce agreement.

Jim took Esther back, and Becky slid back down onto the floor. Bucky was sitting up slowly and carefully, and he reached forward and wrapped his arms around Becky. She kept one hand fisted in the front of Steve's uniform, pulling him with her, and Steve threw his arms around her and Bucky both, sandwiching her between them. Steve finally felt like he could breathe again, after so long of trying to keep calm and be strong, for Bucky, for Jim, for all of them. All the doubt, all the guilt, all the fear of losing her, all the joy of finding her, all the fear for Bucky and the relief that he was okay, he couldn't hold it in any longer and he let it all out, hot, salty tears spilling down his face.

The sniffles and stifled sobs he heard and the trembling muscles he felt under his hands told him he wasn't the only one in this hug who was crying, but that was okay. They'd all been through a lot, but they all came out of it together. They were going to be okay.

Their family was back together.


The girls are a little shaky on their feet yet, but they're safe. Tune in Monday for some nice recovery time and Becky getting taken good care of by her big brothers.

"Hotaru," which Jim calls Esther after they find her, is a Japanese name that means "firefly".