Anna gasped, her face going an almost ashen color. Her legs felt ready to give way on her, and she had to sit down. Xavier gave her a glass of water, and Anna took a shaky sip. "Do they know where HYDRA took her?"

"No, but Tony's working on it as we speak. He also told me to ensure that you remain here, because he believes that they may use Taylor as a way of luring you in. If that is the case, then you must remain here."

"But I have to do something!" Anna cried out, now over the initial shock of things. If they had abducted Taylor, then I need to do something, I have to help save her!"

"Anna, I know that Taylor has a special place in your heart, but if they are indeed using Taylor as a way to get to you, then they'll kill her as soon as they have you in their clutches. Tony told me to use whatever means necessary to keep you here, and if that means using force to ensure that you remain here at the school, then that is precisely what I am going to do. I know that you may not like it, but we are doing it to ensure your safety-"

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, entered the room. "Sorry to disturb you Professor, but one of the students found this on the front steps." He held up a yellow manila envelope. "It has Anna's name on it." Scott walked over to Anna, handing her the envelope. There was nothing on it to indicate who had sent it, but something told Anna that it had been sent from HYDRA. So much for them not knowing where the school was. Inside of the envelope was a black cell phone, and upon turning it on, Anna found that there was already a message waiting in the inbox.

It was a video, Taylor was tied down to a hospital bed with wires attached to her body. A woman in a white jacket appeared in front of the camera. "I'm sorry that it had to come to this Anna, but you ran away from us, you got one of our handlers killed, not to mention that you got numerous soldiers of ours killed as well, thanks to your precious little Avengers. And you know what happens to subjects that misbehave Anna, they get punished." She went over to a switch that was on the wall and flicked it.

Electricity started to course through the wires and into Taylor's body, and the girl began to scream and writhe in pain. Xavier noticeably winced and it took everything that Anna had to not break down into tears. The woman turned the electricity off after a few seconds, looking at the camera once more. "You've forced our hand here. A rendezvous point will be sent to your cell, and if you are not at that meeting place in forty-eight hours, then we will kill Taylor. It would be unfortunate to lose someone like her, with her abilities, but you clearly need to be taught a lesson. And if this does not teach you that lesson, then we are going to storm that school that you are currently residing in, and every man, woman, and child in that building will be killed. Now, you wouldn't want to be held responsible for the deaths of all of those children, would you? Like I said, forty-eight hours."

The video cut out, and Anna exchanged a look with Xavier. "Still think that I shouldn't do anything?"

"Anna, you can't possibly be thinking of giving yourself up to HYDRA!"

Anna had told Bucky about the video and her intentions of giving herself up to save Taylor, needless to say, he wasn't that happy about it. "Anna, they'll torture and kill you!"

"I don't have a choice, Bucky! If I don't go then they'll kill Taylor, and then they'll kill everyone in this school!"

"They could be bluffing!"

"That might be a risk that you're willing to take, but I'm not."

Bucky shook his head. "Why are you so hell-bent on getting yourself killed?"

"Bucky, I don't want to, but it's something that I have to do, I can't have Taylor die because of me." She took Bucky's flesh hand. "Bucky, you have to trust me on this, I doubt that Tony is going to be able to find her in the next two days. This will give Tony time, plus it'll keep them from hurting Taylor even more. I know that it isn't ideal, but right now it's the only plan that we have."

Tony actually agreed to Anna's plan, to the surprise of both Anna and Bucky. "We can attach a tracker to you." Tony had arrived at the school, along with Bruce and Natasha. "If we put a tracker on you, then we can figure out where they take you, and that's probably where they're keeping Taylor as well."

"I can't believe that you're going through with this." Bucky growled. "They could kill her, brainwash her, and none of you even give a damn!"

"Bucky-" Anna started to say, reaching for him, but Bucky shook his head and stormed away.

"Just let him go." Tony said to Anna. "He'll come around eventually, he just doesn't like the idea of putting you in danger. We're doing the right thing, this is the fastest way of making sure that we find Taylor while also keeping you relatively safe."

"You'll be going to the rendezvous point by yourself." Natasha spoke up. "They might suspect that something's up if anyone shows up with you."

"They know that you're selfless enough to give yourself up for Taylor without a second thought." Bruce added. "They know that Taylor, that any of us, that we're your weakness."

"Guess that it's my fault for having so many weaknesses." Anna commented, and Tony put a hand on her shoulder. "It isn't a weakness to care about people," he told her. "That's what makes you human, it's what makes you different from the people in HYDRA."

Anna sighed softly. "But it's also what got Taylor into this mess."

"And I'm sure that Taylor doesn't blame you for anything that's happened. Now, we only have a couple of days to plan this out, so I suggest that we get to work."

For the next two days they planned, and for that entire time, Bucky ignored Anna. If she tried to talk to him, he would ignore her and walk the other way. Their bed felt incredibly empty without him in it with her, and for the past two days, her nights had been spent tossing and turning. Finally, the big day arrived, and Anna went out to a car that Xavier had agreed to supply her with. The tracker had been injected into her arm; it was tiny, practically invisible. Right before Anna got into the car, she glanced up at the school and saw Bucky staring at her through one of the windows before turning away, and Anna sighed before getting into the vehicle and driving away.