Chapter 13

Anna, Clare and Blair weren't much help, besides for speaking of a man they only knew as Baron. The three were shipped off to the Raft as soon as possible, never to be spoken of again as they were useless pawns in the scheme of things.

A couple of weeks after Salem's kidnapping, the HYDRA Siberian Facility was raided by the Avengers, trying to find her.

Instead of finding her, they found a dozen dead Winter Soldiers and a videotape that proved Bucky's innocence along with Zemo's involvement. They figured out that Zemo was the Baron.

Bucky was soon sent to Wakanda for treatment at Shuri's insistence, letting the brainwashing that HYDRA put him through wash away in the coming months as he was frozen.

While the mission to find Salem was stone cold, Tony never stopped. He started to improve what could be put into the Accords, changing them enough and telling the public so the Nations would have pressure put onto them to do as asked.

The Accords changed from being so restrictive that none of them could help in another country without request or permission, to being more of a guideline for the Avengers, which now had several more members since the two teams became one.

As days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, Tony Stark could not be seen without Duke.

It took a while for the animal to warm back up to Tony but it happened and neither dark being stayed away from each other as they searched for her.

The day Duke disappeared was the day Tony had a feeling that something was going to happen, so he assembled the Avengers, along with a new Winter Soldier that now took up the mantle of Winter Sergeant.

He was a hit with the kids.

)()()(

The final day came two hundred and twelve days after her capture.

While she didn't know the date of when she had her final test, she knew it was two hundred and twelve days since she was put into this glass cell. Before that, she had been in the other room for about a week or two but since she didn't know exactly when, so she could only estimate a date.

Argh, she hated not knowing.

The lights in her cell turned on, creating a flash against the floor as she got up from her shitty little bed with ease. It wasn't comfortable so she didn't spend much time in it to become attached to it.

Sleep was a privilege here, she had found out after they tried to do something similar to the Russian Sleep Experiment on her with some sort of gas but she fell asleep after the third day. While she had her father's endurance for staying awake, she couldn't match his seven-day streak.

Very few could do that.

She dressed in something Niver called her uniform. It was a set of heavy suit trousers that hugged her form to reduce resistance when fighting, and a black t-shirt under a leather jacket that had insulating properties

It made her look less like a spy and more like a rebellious teenager which she was so she loved it. She still paused when she saw the HYDRA insignia on her sternum, looking at it before brushing the image of it off in her head.

Slicking her hair back with a bit of water and gel, she was allowed out of the cell when Niver came to the front, the glass dropping into the floor to let her out.

"Good morning. How did you sleep?" He smiled when she didn't respond to his words. "We're meeting someone important today, so be on your best behaviour."

She stayed blank and numb, feeling the pinch of the needles in her forearms as Niver activated the HYDRA gloves as a way to keep her docile unless otherwise wanted.

Niver had a nasty habit of activating the gloves whenever he felt like it, sometimes even doing it when she was asleep to remind her of his control over her.

He was a cruel bastard.

They walked through the empty halls of the facility, quickly getting to an elevator that lifted them from the lower levels to the higher ones.

She felt LILITH pulse the nanobot bracelet and watch, telling her that she was finally once again connected to the wider world.

LILITH sent her location out the second she was within range of any internet or connection source.

She was sad and annoyed that she couldn't speak to LILITH or interact with her while she was with HYDRA even if she had the AI in her watch. She didn't want them to know she still had LILITH with her, fearing they would take her away in any form.

)()()(

Niver drove a car to a huge facility, uncaring for her presence in the car as he thought she was brainwashed enough to obey him. They were the only two in the car, but Salem didn't take a chance with checking her watch with Niver right next to her.

Instead, she scratched the right side of her head, sneaking a nanobot earbud in before she felt the numb pain of a thousand needles in her skin again and she dropped her hands to her lap.

"Pleasure to speak to you again, Salem," LILITH's voice said, speaking into the single earbud she had in. "I've sent your location to FRIDAY who has sent it on. She said that a couple of the Avengers will come to get you, or rather try."

Without a form of communication between them, Salem didn't reply. She couldn't even use Morse Code since she would be in pain again as Niver saw her move without permission.

After a couple of hours of driving, they arrived at a facility and she followed him in calmly as they went down several levels.

They met a man named Helmet Zemo, a Sakocian man who Niver addressed as Baron.

Zemo didn't give much attention to Niver, looking at Salem who stood next to Niver with the numbness of a soldier ready to take orders. His eyes flickered between Salem and Niver before he took a step back.

He smiled and ordered, "Take his gun."

She disarmed him with ease, using a tactic he taught her to point the gun at him without a chance

"No, what?" Niver took a step back, faking confidence as fear overwhelmed him. "She can't kill me, she's not allowed."

"When those words I gave you, did you ever consider the meaning of some of them?" Zemo just tucked his hands into his jacket, a grin splitting across his face. "Why would I let you have control over an asset such as this one? A Darkling under my control? The damage would be amazing."

"A Darkling?"

"Didn't you know? Little miss sarcasm here is a being from the Dark Dimension with powerful untold of, and she's going to kill you for me," Zemo looked to her, eyes cold. "Shoot him."

Salem's watch vibrated once, alerting her to a notification from LILITH.

Between the time it took to get to this bunker and when she sent the notification, a few hours had occurred. Plenty of time for the Avengers to be notified and ready.

She felt the familiar wait on her shoulders, a hiss coming from there but she knew nothing was there. Raising the gun and aiming it at him, Salem shot him in the head as the doors right across from her opened to a few Avengers standing there.

A lot could happen in a single minute.

Niver fell to his knees before he landed on his front, the wide-eyed stare forever on his shock stricken face.

Salem aimed and shot Zemo in the knees, keeping him immobile and injured to ensure his capture.

A short-haired Winter Saregeant leapt forward, tackling her by the waist and took the gun from her.

Salem let him, quickly finding herself with her front pressed into the nearest wall as she felt the clamp of a metal hand on her wrists which were behind her.

"Watch it, Barnes," Tony said as he rushed over to them. "That's still my daughter."

"I'm not brainwashed. I'm not a member of HYDRA. I'm not one of them," Salem muttered as he came closer. "Dad. Dad, please, j-ju-just get these gloves off me. They hurt, they hurt a lot and I'm sick of this fucking place and I just wanna go home."

After a nod from Tony, Bucky let her go and let her turn around.

She clawed at her jacket, wanting to just pull it off completely but she couldn't. When the zipper got caught and wouldn't move, she started to panic. Bucky saw, seeing the telltale sign of panic across her eyes before ripping it down the front and getting it off her.

She didn't even think to try to remove the gloves without the remote, getting it out of the Niver's pocket without regard for the sacredness of a dead body. The gloves unclipped from around her forearms, letting her take a huge sigh of relief before she backed away from his body until her back hit the wall. She slid down it until she sat on the floor, legs bent towards her.

Once again, she felt the weight of a snake on her shoulders as Duke suddenly materialised around her neck like a loose noose.

The three Avengers, Steve, Tony, and Natasha, sorted out Zemo and got him into custody.

Bucky crouched before her, watching as Salem looked and examined the marks on her forearms.

Both of her forearms, back of her hands and her palms were covered in millions of needle marks, deep and in different stages of healing. Some had a colour of dried blood on her skin. She scratched at them like they insulted her, making several of the scabs bleed as her heart rate increased and breathing became difficult.

She couldn't keep the emotions down anymore, finally safe to show and express them. She was so tired of masking, of hiding, of keeping everything to herself over the last seven or so months.

As the results of the past months came barreling back to her, she started to silently cry.

Bucky tried to comfort but she refused it, flinching if he tried to touch her. He had to wait her crying out, feeling the anger in him well up as he thought of what HYDRA did to her, and what Tony didn't.

His daughter was panicking, close to breaking completely down and he wasn't here. His daughter should have been prioritised over Zemo since there were several of them there.

Duke curled around her shoulders, closer and closer around her throat to apply needed pressure to get her to calm down. She pet his head as she did, wiping tears away as she stood up.

"Careful," Bucky said, helping her and noticing the tension of muscle when he touched her. She was anticipating pain but she relaxed when he let her go. "Let's get these wounds cleaned."

"Don't need it," She walked over to Niver again and rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a pair of anklets and a set of fingerless gloves.

Salem paused at the gloves. As much as she wanted the fuel to heal herself, she didn't want the gloves on. They would feel wrong, like a chain, like a slave as she was with HYDRA. She knew these gloves wouldn't hurt her but she almost didn't trust this, this false hope of safety.

She didn't want the pain again, so she refused to put them on.

She slipped her own gloves into a back pocket, but she put on both anklets to feel some sort of energy source as she walked.

She turned back to Bucky with a strained smile.

"I'll be fine. I heal quickly." She looked around the room they were in, frowning at Niver's body before looking back at Bucky. "Can we leave? I wanna go home."

He took a second, analysing her as she did him before she lifted a brow in much the same manner that Pepper Potts did.

"Guys," Bucky said into his comm. "I'm taking her back to the jet. She needs to be checked out before anything else happens."

"I'm on my way back to the jet too," Natasha said.

Tony chimed in. "Capsicle and I are getting a lift from the govt."

"And the other body?"

"SHIELD is taking that body," Natasha added.

"Okay. See you all back at the compound. Barnes out," He said, taking his comm out and tucking it into a pocket. He gestured for her to follow. "Let's go. We landed on top of this place."

"Where are we anyway?" She asked, following him up several stairs and levels as they got to the top. As soon as he opened the door to the roof, the freezing cold wind was familiar to her but it still startled her. "Fucking hell. We in Russia?"

"Siberia to be precise. Come on, Nat's in the jet already."

He went to help her into it but she looked at his hand like she didn't know what to make of his gesture. He dropped his flesh hand, finally realising she had been conditioned into things. He didn't know exactly what but he saw the unsureness of awaiting pain as she tensed her arms each time.

They strapped into the small jet, Salem taking a seat behind Natasha's while Bucky took the passenger while Natasha flew.

Salem tapped her fingers on her knee, a rhythm that could keep her calm and in time with what was happening in the moment instead of what was happening in her head.

She looked at her watch, silently swiping out the holographic screen in front of her until it looked like a computer with a keyboard in front of her.

Bucky looked back when he saw the reflection of a slight blue glow from the glass in front of him, watching as Salem was in her element and was typing away at the holographic keyboard in front of her.

"What's she doing?" Bucky almost whispered to Natasha who just glanced back before shaking her head.

"It's Salem, it could be a number of things,"

"What's the most likely?"

Natasha tilted her head in question. "Could be murder, doing the work she missed, or contacting someone."

Salem let her lips curl up in a smile, closing the holograph program.

"By that smile," Natasha said. "Maybe murder would be the most accurate. Oi, kid, what are you smiling at?"

"Just sent SHIELD the data I got from the HYDRA facility I was at," She said.

"What happened to you?" Bucky suddenly asked, turning his seat until it faced her. "You were kidnapped by HYDRA and yet you almost act like you're alright but I can tell you're not. What did they do to you?"

Salem scratched the back of her palm, making a couple of the scabs from the needle marks dislodge and coat her hand in a little bit of blood before they healed. "Enough that, if I was a weaker person, I would need therapy for a lifetime or two."

"They did a great deal on you then," Natasha said.

"Tried to do something to my memory too. Faked forgetting everything and they told me a whole great deal of lies that I pretended to believe. A lot happened in the past… How long was I gone?"

"Seven months," She said. "Tony has been on a rampage for seven months. He had the Accords changed too."

"He did?"

"Yeah, enough that Stevie and the others signed too," Bucky said. "I didn't get introduced to you, did I?"

"You're Bucky Barnes, best friend of Stevie Wonder-Pants and you used to be a Sergeant in the army," She said, her eyes flickering to his left arm which was mostly hidden by his jacket. His grey metal hand could still be seen since it wasn't covered. "I read your file a while ago, but most of the HYDRA stuff was kept quiet and confidential so I couldn't get into that file."

"It's probably best you don't see what they did to me,"

She looked away.

"I think Stark will get you the therapy you need to overcome your trauma over the last seven months," He tried to change the topic a little, shifting it over to a more positive area. "He'll get the best money can buy."

"I don't want therapy, I just want to forget I was ever in their clutches. I've become desensitised to most of it so it won't be a problem."

"You broke down earlier,"

She turned back to look at him with a snarky little eye roll. "I've been masking for far too long in fear of being hurt."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I've got Asperger's syndrome, meaning I have high-functioning autism that has troubles with social cues, facial expressions, tones of voice and that stuff but I've conditioned myself to understand," She continued. "Masking is where I pretend to be like everyone, eye contact, not fidget when I would like to, not oversharing information about what I hyperfocus on, speaking slowly and clearly so others feel comfortable. I had to pretend to not be myself for the last seven months because if I so much as made eye contact or spoke when not allowed, those gloves HYDRA made me would stab me with a thousand needles. That little breakdown was needed for me to regulate my emotions better for now."

"You have… Autism?"

"It's perfectly acceptable nowadays, some people think we're still too stupid to be able to function without help but we all have different needs," She explained. "Most of my needs are with time management and task prioritisation. Writing an important essay and drawing a flower have the same level of importance even though I know there will be different consequences if one was done and the other not. I don't like being touched, and this whole kidnapping shit made it worse so don't be offended if I look repulsed."

"Right."

"And yes, I do talk a lot. I have little to no filter."

"Gift or curse?" He grinned.

She returned the expression, "A little bit of both."

)()()(

The first night Salem spent in her own bed was spent in a vain attempt to fall asleep.

Even with Duke around her, never letting his mistress be alone unless necessary since her return, she still felt a little trapped. She didn't like how bare her room was, how the walls spoke of sanitary white and easy to clean, how the floor was shiny and reflected light.

She put on a pair of shorts and a loose t-shirt, one that used to be her father's but he had long since outgrown it.

Salem sat in the middle of the conference room, cross-legged on the table as she opened up a program on her watch that let a holographic screen come up. The place was silent as she worked on a blueprint for a project she thought she would never have the courage to do again.

She was creating a new robot.

She had spent only an hour or two on it before she paused, her ears picking up on faint footsteps and the turning gears of a metal arm. She was at the door before he could knock, opening it to find Bucky standing in a pair of sweatpants and a loose T with two cups of something balanced on his metal hand.

"You don't ever sleep the day after getting away," He said calmly, low enough that no one would hear but her. He jutted a cup forward. "Since you refuse therapy, we can discuss it instead. That is, if you would like to. I'm not gonna force you to talk about it if you don't want to, doll."

She scoffed, huffing at the term. "Don't call me doll."

"Alright, delinquent,"

"That's worse."

He laughed. "Perhaps brat fits you better? Or sugar with how much you have in your forsaken coffee?"

"Fine, the delinquent is it. Thanks, old man," She grinned, letting the smile falter when she realised she had to take it from him.

She was halfway there to grab it but something stopped, her mind flaring danger before she could help it. Her fingers twitched, wanting to take the cup but unable to.

Bucky nodded, gesturing if he could come in. She nodded, letting him in and watching as he put the cup on the table while he sipped from his own. She leapt back onto the table, sitting there as she drank the coffee with a satisfied smile.

"Do you not like taking things you're handed?"

"Dad doesn't like being handed things so it's a habit I got from him," She swallowed her pride and spoke. "HYDRA enforced the fear of being handed something and that something being a distraction. I got stabbed a couple of times because I didn't expect it."

"That's a new tactic," He muttered.

She sipped her coffee. "I heal quickly. The needle marks will be gone by tomorrow, and the… brand should be gone within the month if I keep up the energy absorption."

"You read my file and I read yours," He said. "You're not going to wear your old gloves, are you?"

"No." She fiddled with the handle of her mug, losing eye contact as she spoke. "They're too similar to the HYDRA gloves. I've been conditioned to think that gloves equal pain. I'll need to condition myself out of that but it'll take time. I'm still not allowed near a defibrillator so healing will take time."

Bucky snorted into his coffee. "I remember Stark saying something about that. What happened?"

"I ran out of fuel, energy that keeps me being more than human, and I was kicking one of Cap's reinforced bags since I thought I could handle it, and I was doing well until I ran out of energy. I shattered my right talus and I couldn't heal," She said sheepishly. "Went to the infirmary, found out that I could use energy as a way to do shit that included powers and healing, and used a defibrillator on myself to get a blast of electrical energy. It worked but I'm no longer allowed near them. Dad's rules."

"Smart man," He looked over to the blue holographic screen, nodding towards it as he took a long draw from his cup. "Whatcha doing there, delinquent?"

"Designing a robot,"

"What kind? Like Stark's suits or what?"

"No, like a little helper robot, one with an arm or something that can help me when needed," She said.

"Stark names his robots, do you?"

"Yes," She said. "I named my first robot U and this one will be called V."

Bucky nodded, letting her get back to work after another moment of silence.