Bucky started having nightmares after that day. Nightmares of Ivanoff coming and taking Anna away, nightmares of him killing Anna right in front of Bucky, Anna looking right at Bucky and saying that it was all his fault. Bucky would wake up in a cold sweat, his entire body shaking in fear and panic. Then he would get out of bed and tiptoe over to Anna's room. Anna would always wake up as soon as she heard the door opening and once she saw the look on Bucky's face, how terrified and vulnerable he seemed to be, she would open up her arms and he would climb into her embrace. The truth was, Anna was having nightmares herself, so they were both comforting each other.
Tony gave Anna a few days to recover from her ordeal before asking her to be there with him when he questioned Ivanoff. Anna agreed, albeit hesitantly, she wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing that man again.
"You don't have to do it." Bucky said softly as he took Anna's hand. "Tony can go and question him by himself, you don't need to be there with him."
"No, I want to be there." Anna insisted, but inside, she wasn't so sure about that. Did she want to be there? She didn't know. She looked at Tony and took a deep breath. "When are we going to question him?"
"As soon as possible." Tony said, he seemed surprised that she had actually agreed to go with him. "When do you think that you would be ready enough to do it?"
"Honestly, I don't think that I'll ever be ready." Anna told him. "So let's just get this over with as soon as possible."
"Alright. Feel like going right now?"
"Let's do it."
"I want to be there with you." Bucky told Anna, taking her hand gently in his own.
"Bucky-"
"Please Anna, I don't like the idea of you being down there with that guy. I know that Tony's gonna be down there with you, but it would make me feel a hell of a lot better if I could be by your side."
"Alright." Anna pressed a small kiss to his lips. "If it makes you feel better, than you can come with us."
Tony pretended to gag a little bit. "You two are so sappy that it makes me sick."
"Oh please." Bucky scoffed as his arm wrapped around Anna. "You're just jealous because you and Pepper aren't like this."
"Oh please, we could be all cuddly and cozy if we wanted to be, and we are, just not in front of everyone. I have a reputation to keep up after all."
"Are you two going to stand here and argue with each other all day?" Anna asked as she rolled her eyes. "Or can we just get going?"
Tony sent her a look. "I'm not sure that I like it when you're in sassy mode, I think that you've been hanging around my daughter too much."
They went down, down, down to the prison cells. Anna was starting to wonder whether or not the elevator would ever stop. "How far down does this go anyways?"
"Pretty far down." Tony told her. "Some of the people that we have down here have special powers, so I wanted the cells to be far enough underground that they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone or anything on the surface if they were able to break out. This elevator only works on my biometrical signature, plus the doors are camouflaged, so you would have to know exactly where they're at."
Finally the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Anna walked out, then glanced back one last time as the doors closed. Sure enough, once they had closed you wouldn't even know that they were there.
Anna and Bucky walked behind Tony, Anna gripping Bucky's hand tightly as they walked past the numerous cells. There were all sorts of people down here, there was a middle aged woman with wings, and she growled at the threesome, showing rows of extra sharp teeth.
"We have a lot of mutants down here." Tony said as they walked further on down the hall. "We're working in league with Charles Xavier and his group of X-Men, and any mutants that we capture, we give him a call and he sends someone to come and retrieve them. He's sending a team on Saturday to come and get them."
Finally they stopped in front of Ivanoff's cell. Ivanoff was curled up on a small cot, his back to them. There weren't any bars on the cell, there was a force field that kept the prisoners from escaping.
"Ivanoff." Tony said sharply. "Get your sorry ass up, we have a few questions that we need to ask you."
Ivanoff didn't respond, and Anna frowned softly. "Tony...his shoulders aren't rising and falling..."
"So what?" Tony asked her.
"Tony...his shoulders should be rising and falling if he was breathing..."
Tony's eyes widened as he realized what Anna was saying. "Shit." He quickly pressed the button that lowered the force field to that one cell and went inside, rolling Ivanoff onto his back.
Ivanoff's eyes were wide and unblinking, white foam was at the corners of his mouth.
"What happened?" Anna gasped, and Bucky shook his head grimly. "We won't know for sure until we get him to Bruce, but if I had to take a guess, than I would say that it's cyanide poisoning. It's common for agents to have them hidden somewhere, that way if they were to be captured by the enemy, they would take the pill, and die before they could be questioned or tortured for information." Bucky stood in front of Anna, shielding her from the body. "Come on, let's get you out of here." He grabbed her lightly by the shoulder, leading her back towards the elevator.
The winged woman from before snarled at them again. "You think you're so much better than us, don't you little girl?"
Anna turned to look at her, confusion written on her face. "Um...I'm sorry?"
"I know who you are, I know what you can do. You think that just because you aren't in a cage like we are that you're better than us?" She cackled with laughter. "You are no better than we are, and sooner or later, you'll wind up in one of these cages, just like me."
Bucky gripped Anna's hand firmly, dragging her towards the elevator as Tony joined them.
"You really should have it so that the prisoners can't talk." Bucky grumbled as the threesome stepped onto the elevator.
"She says that kind of stuff to everyone." Tony assured Anna. "Don't worry about it too much, okay?"
Anna nodded her head, still hearing that woman's witch-like laughter as the doors slid shut.