Sorry, this took so long! Hopefully, with Uni break coming up, I'll have more time to write but I'll probably need to guys to remind me not to start a new TV series and actually write.

And I've reached 200 reviews and 500 followers! Thank you so much to all of you for reading my story and giving me encouragement.

Warning: pain. A lot of pain. The next few chapters will be pretty dark because Annie is with HYDRA and Bucky is miserable.

Chapter 36

It was the morning two days after Bucky had first arrived at Avengers tower. They had once again gathered around a large round briefing table. Bucky found his transition from alone to surrounded by six people difficult. He had mainly stayed in his room, scribbling down a memory from his nightmare last night. His sleeping habits had not improved since he had found residence among the Avengers. He knew Annie would want him to sleep more and look after himself but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Steve often spent time with him whether it was talking to him in his room about their past or dragging him out of said room. It was strange seeing the scrawny boy he remembered in fragmented memories as a strong man taller than himself. The blond haired man was clearly intent on being friends with him again. The cheerful man reminded him of Annie, especially with his stubbornness. Bucky did not mind Steve's persistence much but he often found Steve realising that Bucky was not the man he had been hoping for.

"So how are we going to find Annie then?" the irritating man called Tony questioned to the group of Avengers sitting opposite him. "Bruce, could you track her like you did for the tesseract?"

Bruce, the man he was not to anger, sighed rubbing his forehead, "Well if Annie is emitting only a fraction of the tesseract radiation it'll be very difficult to locate her through gamma radiation. Sorry, Tony but I don't see much chance of finding her that way."

Steve with a typical hopefulness took charge, "But is it possible?"

Bruce opened his mouth to once again explain how difficult and time consuming the task would be but Bucky cut him off with a stern, "Yes."

The heroes seemed were surprised by Bucky's participation in the conversation. Most had only heard him talk once or twice when the situation demanded it. Sometimes he still refused to talk even when the situation did demand it. But this to find Annie so he had to talk even if he didn't want to.

"How would you know frosty?" Tony jarred with a stupid nickname. At least he hadn't called him the Winter Soldier.

"It must have been how they found us." It made sense. A month without any sign of HYDRA and then a sudden attack.

"Are you sure that in your old age you didn't miss any tracking devices or cameras?" Tony sarcastically questioned.

His remark earnt him a glare from Bucky before the later stiffly corrected, "There were no camera's, people or 'tracking devices' around and I know what I'm doing."

"Well clearly th-"

"That's enough!" Steve broke in. He knew Tony was just about to test Bucky's patience, which he had little of.

Steve moved things back on track, which Bucky was grateful for. "Alright, Bruce and you try and trace her and the rest of the team needs to gather as much intel. on where they could be keeping her. We have three more HYDRA bases in our database so we need to use those to find out where the remaining bases are. She has to be in one of them and we're going to find it."

"Why were you at the base?" Bucky's voice creaked in, realising that he didn't know the Avengers motive for attacking the HYDRA base.

"What?" Steve finally paused.

"You thought Annie was dead so why were you there?" Bucky questioned more assertively, falling back into his old patterns of mistrust.

Tony answered after asking the computer-man he called Jarvis to project an image of a cosmic powered sceptre. "We were looking for this." He gestured to the image. "Loki's sceptre. Loki is Thor's crazy brother that tried out the whole world domination thing, by the way. We think that HYDRA got their grubby little hands on it."

Natasha, the woman who had remained contemplative and reserved for most of the discussion, clarified, "The weapon is very powerful, allowing Loki to mind control whoever he touched with it-"

"Except me," Tony added proudly.

Natasha rolled her eyes before concluding, "We don't think they can use it like Loki did but it's still not a weapon we want in HYDRA's hands."

"But now we have another objective," Steve stated.

Bruce with nervously crossed arms observed, "Fortunately we can search for them both at once."

Bucky carefully taking all this new information in before he inquired, "So what's the plan?"

The Avengers looked to Captain America, the man was the clear leader of the team. Steve griped his chin with this thumb and index finger in thought. "First of all, we need to be prepared for the possibility of Annie being brainwashed against us as well as able to teleport."

"She will be," Bucky assured. The curious gazes of the Avenger's encouraged Bucky to elaborate. "HYDRA will have done anything it took to make Annie into the weapon they want. She will have complete control over her abilities and she'll be ready to kill us with them," Bucky sighed. He did not like to think about the things HYDRA is and has been doing to her for the past six months.

Clint, perched on the edge of the briefing table, fiddling with one of his arrows, pessimistically summarises, "So we going to try to catch an impossibly fast teleporter who we can't hurt but is intent on killing us. After we infiltrate a HYDRA facility whose location we don't know. This is going to be interesting."

Steve, ignoring Clint's sarcasm, soldiers on, "We need to contain her when we do find her. Tony, can you figure out how to do that?"

Tony, already with one of his little devices out, scribbling on it as he spoke, "Well according to what we know about the tesseract and what I've learnt from Annie's blood sample, She will be able to teleport through solid metal. Even vibranium I think but a surge of energy may disrupt her powers. I can make a cel-"

Tony stopped himself from saying 'cell' as he glanced as the glares shot by Bucky and Steve. Bucky definitely not happy with the idea of putting Annie in a cell. "I mean containment room and set up a strong force field around it."

"That doesn't solve the problem of how we are going to get her from the HYDRA facility back to the containment room," Natasha criticised.

"I could make a smaller version of the force field into some restraints to stop Annie from teleporting while we bring her back to the tower. As long as it's around a body part, it should prevent her from going anywhere."

Steve nodded at Tony, pleased with his ideas. "During sieges of HYDRA bases, we will need to split into two teams. The outer team will take out their outer defences and stop HYDRA's escape. The inner team will infiltrate the base and search for Annie as well as the sceptre."

Natasha, hands strongly on her hips, expanded on Steve's teams, "The outer team should have the heavy fire to take out any torrents and large defensive weapons. The inner team will need to be made of those with the stealth and combat training to keep up with Annie. Will she remember her tactical strategy training?"

Steve answered quickly, "She's always been strategic, that won't change."

Bucky hesitantly added, "HYDRA has mastered wiping memories while keeping specific skills."

Clint sighed, "So this just got even harder."

Nat continued her aloud thought, "Then she will look for weaknesses which means we have to use her lack of knowledge to our advantage. HYDRA removing her memories means that she won't know anything about us or how we fight. Thor, Tony and Bruce should be in the outer team. If we sent them in after Annie she might run and she will definitely use their more brawn, weapon dependent fighting against them. Steve, Clint, the Winter Soldier and I should be on the inner team. Our more agility-based technique should be enough to distract her long enough for one of us to get the restraints on her."

The red-headed woman refused to look at Bucky. It was clear to him that Natasha did not trust him. Most of the others had settled a little to his presence. Steve seemed extremely happy to have him around. But the woman named Natasha continued to send suspicious glares at Bucky the few times she did look at him. She seemed hesitant to add him to the inner team, though that wouldn't have stopped him going in after Annie. Natasha, from his knowledge, was an intelligent woman. She knew Bucky would best understand the threat Annie posed as he not too long ago was that threat. The way she used his HYDRA alias showed just what she thought of him.

"Good thinking Nat," Steve patted her shoulder.

"Where did you learn all that?" Tony dug. He though Natasha's past taught her how to be a spy and assassin, not a strategist.

Natasha folded her arms confidently, "I was Annie's friend for nearly a year. You pick stuff up."

Clint chuckled, "It's true. That girl spouts strategy like a facet does water."

With Steve ordering Tony to update him on the progress of the containment plans the meeting was finished. Bucky wasn't sure about how to feel about this whole situation but if it brought Annie back then he would suffer through it.

-5 months, 2 weeks earlier-

Annie had been sitting in this cell for two days. From the amount of food they were giving her, it was clear they wanted her alive. She couldn't remember anything from the trip. The only information she could gather about her location is from the cramped ceiling and large, dark stones that made up the walls of her cell. The building she was currently being held in was clearly very old, confirming her fear that she was no longer in America. She had hoped to narrow down the possible countries from the accent of the guards but they refused to speak.

She tried not to think about her future or if they had kept their promise of allowing Bucky to live. Instead, she pondered why HYDRA wanted her. If they had wanted Bucky they would have taken him back right away, using her as a constant threat. It is unlikely that she is being used as bait for Steve. They have more to worry about after the damaging blow to their organisation that Steve. Even though Steve did play a large role in exposing them, HYDRA's strategies were always build up their strength and then overpower their enemies. And they are clearly too close to finishing their revival of strength. That doesn't make any sense, though. Why would they leave Bucky, their perfect weapon? But he is no longer the perfect weapon. He has reverted twice, the second time much faster. They likely see him as a failure now which means they will want a new weapon to carry out their dirty work.

It could not be her, though. Her ability and training are limited. She's nothing in a fight compared to Bucky or Steve. Unless… the strange healing is not her imagination…

She had been feeling different lately. Stronger. Energised. Just different. What if this was somehow connected to her capture by HYDRA? What if HYDRA knew something important that she didn't? It wouldn't matter if she did, though. She would not remember anything soon.

She tried to distract herself once again from the horrific fact that she would every likely soon forget everyone she had ever loved. Which led her to another dangerous line of thought. She had said 'I love you' to Bucky before she was taken. Why had she done that? It just slipped out. Annie knew she cared about Bucky a great deal but love? Was it because she would never see him again and she wanted to express that she cared? Or was it-

No.

She would not think about things like this. She was better than this.

She would think about the best way to escape. Yes, that would be productive. From what she could see the cell was very well structured with strong, large brick walls with no holes what so ever. The door was the same thick, impenetrable metal as the first cell. It had a small slot at the bottom with the shutter to open and close it on the outside of the door. They sent food through it twice a day, though night and day were hard to judge from the windowless cell. Annie had to use her inner clock to estimate the time pasting.

She could not see any plan to use to slot to escape other than using it to communicate and leer in the guards, hoping they left the door open when they came in. That plan was unlikely. HYDRA was, unfortunately, good at building cells.

A sudden clank came from the outside of the door. It sounded like someone was opening the chunky mechanism holding it closed.

Finally, the waiting game was over.

In came a short man with neat grey hair and a large nose. His face seemed in a constant state of anxiousness and curiosity. He wore an immaculate suit and vest minus the blazer jacket which was replaced by a not so sterile lab coat. He was followed by four large bodied HYDRA agents, all clutching their firearms.

The older man's eyes set on Annie straight away and he ordered with a German accent, "Bring it."

Annie's body stiffened. That was how they talked about Bucky at HYDRA. Her suspicion was right. She was HYDRA's new weapon.

The HYDRA guards were relentlessly close as the forced her down the just too narrow stone corridor. At least being out of the cell gave her a chance to gather more information. The architecture is very old and sturdy, not matching any type of American building she could recall, leading Annie to believe she is being held in a secret European base. It was most likely an abandoned castle that HYDRA have revived into a base. At least to already came with dungeons.

As the man in the lab coat entered a room ahead, the guards forced her to follow. As she entered the white tiled room Annie froze. In the centre of the room was a steel chair with metal restraints on the arms and legs. Helmet shaped device with around hundreds thin of needles inside it extended from the top of the chair. Annie did not have a fear of needles but the device would look terrifying to anyone. From behind the chair protruded large rods that looked like mechanical arachnid legs coiled with wires and electrified ends. The later device did not appear to be part of the chair but reach over it. The combination left Annie with the innate need to run as far from it as possible. The closer the guards forced her to it the harder it was to sneak air through her tightening throat. With a rough jab, Annie was knocked into reality and began to tensely walk toward the lab-coated man who stood at the screen beside the horrible machine.

He tipped into the keypad underneath the screen before turning to the guards and commanding, "Strap her into the machine."

Two of the guards roughly grabbed Annie's arms and dragged then into the metal restrains on the chairs arms. The position forcing her to sit in the chair. Her legs pressed tightly down onto the cold steel by the leg restraints the other two guards locked. Another restraint she had not seen appeared from the sides to wrap around her torso making her movement limited to a small struggle and hopeless tug.

One HYDRA agent placed a mouth guard between her teeth. The connotations of the action causing sharper breaths to pass through the plastic. The guards spread out into the corners of the large room as the aged man tipped the last few characters. With the last click, the helmet lowered towards her head. The desperate tug against the restraints unconscious. It fit neatly onto her head. Annie squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the edge of the needles lightly against her scalp with the deafening promise of pain.

For a few minutes, Annie sat like this as the man typed away. She felt fear creeping into her and she is unable to do any more than slow it to a trickle. It still built and built.

With a colloquial, "Wiping number one," and the typing of a few keys a click sounded throughout the helmet, echoing around her head. Next followed an instant, unimaginable pain. Annie couldn't hold in the raw scream as all hundreds of needles punctured her skull, making it feel like with was being crashed into itself. The fiddling in her brain almost unnoticed under the movement of the needles. Small but painful zaps chorused through her brain, throbbing her head and involuntarily flinching her body. Her constant screaming muffled by the mouth guard, her teeth would have shattered without it.

The unbearable feeling of her brain being skewered disappeared for a moment before returning the next instant. Her eyes darted around at the loss of pain, straining against the helmet squeezing and twisting her skull. As the pain once again faded for a moment, she could see her arm radiate a sickly blue as it begins to disappear through the corner of her eye. With an absence of mind-numbing pain, she noticed the pulsing through her arm. The foreign energy the coiled and danced through her. The arm becoming solid once again as the pain returned to blasting though her brain.

She focused on the odd energy. It was also separate from herself. With its own sense of life. And yet bound to her. She did everything to ignore the pain that infected very part of the clenching body and called to it. Begging it to make the pain stop. It seemed to answer as it built up from the centre and stretched out through her limbs. There was a strange but satisfying pulsing as her veins danced underneath her skin. It raced faster and faster as she encouraged it, lived off it.

The racing slowed as she began to breathe again. With the remaining gone after a few seconds, she opened her eyes, not aware she had closed them. She wasn't inside that chair anymore but across the room leaning on the floor as she breathes now came strong and heavy.

How did that happen? How did she escape from steel restraints and travel to the other side of the room in under a second?

As he looked around the men around her looked as shocked as she did. Before a man in a lab coat's confused expression trued into a victorious smile. He whipped out a small note book and scribble something down. The larger, more armed men it the corners of the room seemed to register the events and rushed towards to her prevent escape.

The older man waved them away and he continued to scribble in the notepad muttering, "Of course, it's pain."

She was almost dragged to a small room with large brick walls and a heavy metal door with a tiny slot at the bottom. She sat on the raised bed sad at the insufficient cushioning.

She wondered what she was doing here?