After three agonizing days of feeling like I had just downed seven shots, the venom finally wore off. Timing couldn't have been better because as we were leaving the hotel we had been staying in, we got into a firefight with some HYDRA agents right there in front of the building.

Glass shattered and Bucky threw me behind a parked car and Io tore out from behind the shrub she was hiding in and ripped one of the HYDRA agent's arms clean off.

He screamed and I heard someone else scream from inside the building and Steve threw his shield and sent one of the HYDRA guys flying. I shouted at Io to get civilians out of the way and she leapt through the broken window into the hotel.

The fight didn't last longer than five minutes and we threw ourselves into our stolen car and tore off.

The sun hadn't even gotten over the horizon, the pale light cast a pink glow on the blood-spattered concrete behind us.

No civilians had died, but an innocent woman had gotten shot in the stomach and was in critical condition in a nearby hospital. Later on the screen of the next motel tv, the reporter said they suspected gang activity.

Bucky woke me the following morning by clamping a hand over my mouth and nearly giving me a heart attack.

"What is it?" I hissed at him, throwing his hand off of my mouth.

"We need to leave," he said, barely above the silence in the motel.

"What, why?" I whispered back, rubbing my eyes and checking the clock. 3 am.

"We can't be with Steve anymore," he said simply. "They're blaming him for HYDRA trying to kill me. Get dressed."

My reply stuck in my throat for a minute.

"W-we can't just leave," I sputtered.

Bucky threw some clothes onto me and gave me a hard look. He was dead serious.

"We're gonna get him and Sam killed if we stay with them," he said lowly, his eyes flicking to the door. "Stella please –" His voice raised a little as I opened my mouth to argue and he clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut. "Don't argue with me, we have to go, now."

In a daze, I got dressed and followed Bucky out of our room. My eyes lingered on the door to Steve's room, briefly wondering if I should pound on the door and wake him up. Bucky wasn't wrong though… yesterday had been way too close.

We got into a car and I hid Io in the trunk and sat in the front seat, hugging myself.

"HYDRA is still going to try to kill him, you know," I said thickly as the motel faded in the rearview mirror. "The two of us leaving won't stop that."

Bucky was gripping the steering wheel so hard I was surprised it didn't snap. "I know. But this will take some of the attention off of him and that damn secretary of state might stop blaming him for everything I've done." Bucky glanced in the rearview mirror at a convertible that was working on going around us.

I swallowed the halfhearted protests I had. I knew he was right, but I still wanted to stay with Steve and Sam. Was that selfish?

"Now what?" I said, wiping my eyes.

"We hide." Bucky replied grimly. "We live."

We drove up north into Maine. Bucky was trying to get us out of the country, but he had to sort out fake passports first. I had the feeling that he knew something that I didn't; he was acting more paranoid than he usually did. He started writing in notebooks, trying desperately to cling onto the memories that came back to him before they drifted away. Spring was bright and stormy, dark clouds looming behind sun-gold leaves.

I had been tinkering with a little robot for a while now; it looked like a metal spider that was as big around as my palm with long needle-like arms for climbing on things. It didn't have any software in it of course, so it was just a model for now. I finished it in our motel room, bored because Bucky had disappeared for the night, and promptly fell asleep at the desk with the light still on.

When I woke up the little spider had gotten up off of the desk and had perched itself in the corner of the ceiling, swaying back and forth while Io and Cirrus stared intently at it.

I sat up and gaped at it. It was just metal, no hardware, just scrap metal, and it was moving. More than moving, it seemed like it was alive.

It climbed down from the ceiling and onto the desk right in front of me, bouncing up and down slightly. Io put her head on the desk, eyeing it warily.

"Did I make you?" I asked out loud. The spider tapped one of its feet on the desk.

Bucky came in the door then, opening his mouth to say something to me and noticing the spider. He whipped out a gun faster than I would have thought possible, but I stood up and put a hand out to stop him.

"It's ok!" I said quickly. "It's not a HYDRA bot or anything, I… think I made it."

Bucky's eyes moved from me to the spider and back again. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I mused, looking back at it. "I've been tinkering with it for a while… I… don't know how I made it like that, though."

Io had climbed partially onto the desk and was sniffing the spider cautiously. The spider twitched and Io fell backwards and yapped and I shushed her.

"Io, it's okay," I told her, holding my hand out to the spider. It climbed onto my hands like a trusting pet. I held it out to Io and she squinted at it. "It's not a threat, okay?"

Io blinked and sat down, accepting the information and repeated "Not a threat."

Bucky walked up next to me, eyes fixed on the spider too. "What are you gonna call it?"

I thought over this, staring down at the spider as it did its bouncy little dance in my hands. "How about… Oswin?"

Bucky shrugged. "I like it."

"How about Oswin?" I asked the spider. Oswin jumped off of my hands onto the desk and did a sort of barrel roll.

I was in awe of Oswin for several days, wondering how the hell I had made it. Io made sense to me; I had slaved over her and at least tried to create a functioning apparatus for her to work from. Cirrus made sense to me; I had worked on it in one of the most advanced labs in the world for weeks. Was all of my success in robotics due to this dormant enhancement that I had never known about? The thought irritated me.

Oswin was much easier to hide than Io; if he tucked his legs in and sat still, he could easily fit in Bucky's pocket.

Motivated by my sudden success with Oswin, I started working on what I hoped would eventually be armor like Tony Stark had. Not exactly like it, I wanted one with claws and teeth without flight so that I wouldn't be so useless every time we got into a fight. At the very least I wanted it to stop me from getting shot. It didn't need to fly, I had Cirrus for that.

Later that night, Bucky was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring into space, and I felt worry squirm in my stomach.

"Bucky?" I asked gingerly, sitting down slowly next to him. "Are you oka –"

"I killed Tony Stark's parents," he said dully and I blinked.

I was quiet for a minute, taken aback. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he said tonelessly. "I remember seeing their faces behind the windshield and I remember Maria begging me not to finish Howard off. It was 1991."

I didn't know what to say and Bucky took out one of his notebooks and wrote his new memory down.

Bucky arranged to meet with a person that was going to sell us passports in a nearby mall, so we dressed as inconspicuously as possible and lingered around. I noticed Bucky's backpack twitch as we walked inside and I patted it and told Oswin to relax.

I got some French fries from the food court and Bucky and I sat down at one of the tables. There weren't many people in the mall; it was early and it was a weekday, so the only other people in the food court were a janitor, an older couple sitting next to the window, and a man talking to one of the employees.

Bucky's eyes scanned the building behind me and I chewed a fry thoughtfully.

"Where next?" I asked quietly.

"Russia," he replied. "It'll be easy to hide there."

"Hm," I said, vaguely watching the man walking toward us. "You'll have to teach me a little bit, unfortunately I took French in scho –"

I broke off when, without warning, the man that had been walking by us grabbed a chair and broke it over Bucky, sending him flying.

"SHIT!" I screamed, tipping over my chair and falling over.

Bucky picked up the man and threw him but he just ran back at him and kicked him in the stomach and landed a blow on his face.

Bucky's eyes found me as he backhanded the man and wrestled with him.

"STELLA RUN!" he bellowed and I scrambled to my feet, frozen for an instant. I couldn't leave him!

"GO! TAKE CIRRUS!" Bucky yelled as he brought his elbow into the man's back and I flinched as the man threw Bucky into a wall. I remembered Io and kicked myself for not doing so sooner, and my feet finally moved to run outside to find her, but something tackled me from behind and knocked me down to the ground. Some agent, either HYDRA or SHIELD I couldn't tell, was kneeling over me, his foot on one of my hands, pinning me down.

He flipped me onto my stomach and held my hands behind my back and I saw the older couple slowly fleeing from the fight as Bucky threw the other man over our table, sending my fries flying everywhere.

I inhaled deeply and whistled, desperately hoping that Io could hear me, and the agent attacking me squished me with his knee, cutting the whistle short. Io came tearing in, breaking through both sets of glass doors that led out of the mall and sprinting up to us, growling viciously. The man on top of me threw something at Io but it missed and Io slammed into him and his weight left me. I scrambled to my feet and ran up to Io, un-attaching the clawed gauntlets I had made from her side and slipping them on. I yanked Cirrus's box off of Io's back and pressed the button to fold it out into the glider. Not an entire suit, but much better than nothing.

"Bite him!" I told Io and I ran to where Bucky and the man were clashing. I landed a blow on the man's jaw, knocking him away from Bucky for a second. "Offensive measures!"

Cirrus knocked the men off their feet with an angry beep, giving Bucky an opening to get to his feet.

"STELLA JUST GO!" Bucky roared at me and I heard something running up behind me and I shielded my face just in time to stop the other man from breaking my nose and Bucky backhanded him away from me.

"Don't move!" The man demanded, pointing two guns at Bucky and I. We were both still, chests heaving, and the two boulder-like men stalked around us.

Bucky glared at me from the corner of his eye and I stared defiantly back at him.

"Eyes on me," One of them ordered and my eyes flickered to him just in time to see Io leap at him and sink her teeth into his shoulder, making him drop the guns long enough for Bucky to bound up to him and throw him into wall and the other man roundhouse kicked Bucky in the face before Cirrus shot out a wire to drag the man off.

"GO, NOW!" Bucky ordered me and panic gripped my stomach. He was right of course, he had demanded that I abandon him and run as far away as I could if we ever got into a confrontation, but how could I just leave him?

The man that was being bitten all over by Io drove a dagger into her head that let out a surge of electricity, short circuiting her and making her crumple to the ground, twitching. The man's cruel eyes found me and he stepped toward me but Bucky threw the other man into him and they both tumbled to the ground. It was now or never and this wasn't a fight we were going to win.

"Cirrus, evacuate Stella!" Bucky shouted.

Yet another agent leapt on him and put him in a headlock with her legs and the other two angry and bruised men turned to me. Cirrus knocked me off my feet and swept me up and started zipping away.

"Dammit," I swore under my breath.

Shots whizzed through the air at me as Cirrus carried me off. I felt something bite into my thigh. I swore loudly and saw a dart sticking out of my right thigh and I immediately yanked it out, but it was too late. I tried to stand up but I fell down, unable to keep myself upright. I felt like the floor was warping and my whole face stung like I had just been punched. I heard several different voices including Bucky yelling and more glass breaking and several more pairs of boots running across the mall floor. I slipped off of Cirrus and crawled into a hallway that I hoped led to an exit and I heard nails tapping on the floor and saw Io padding up to me, a smoking hole in the side of her head. I could hardly see and I knew I was going to pass out. Cirrus was trying to scoop me up and Io was nosing me onto the glider. Io looked up behind me and I suddenly felt very cold as my vision left me.

"What are we gonna tell her?" I heard a warped, high voice ask.

Through a thick haze I thought I heard people talking and I tried to remember what was going on. Where's Bucky? That didn't sound like Steve either.

"The truth," another voice answered nervously. "I'm mostly worried about how she'll take it –"

"Look, she's moving!" The first voice exclaimed, loudly, and I groaned.

I opened my eyes to see two familiar, worried faces above me. Both Isabel and Ghost were staring down at me.

I blinked and sat up, suddenly remembering what had happened. I had been shot with a dart full of something and Bucky had been captured.

"Stella please lay back down," Isabel said gently. "You've been through a lot, please, take it easy."

She gently pushed me back down to the pillows and I stared at her.

"Werzbucky?" I slurred, rubbing my right eye, and Isabel bit her lip and looked over at Ghost.

"Well…" Ghost began, avoiding my eyes. "HYDRA doesn't have him, so… that's good, right?"

I sat up again and Isabel huffed and stuffed some pillows behind me.

I was somehow back in Isabel's apartment and I noticed Poppy and Io curled up in the corner, watching me. Never had such a familiar sight looked so surreal to me.

I moved to look at Ghost then Isabel then back to Ghost.

"What happened?" I asked, bewildered, realizing that I had a massive headache.

"Mary saved you from getting caught by HYDRA, but she couldn't save Bucky too," Isabel explained gently. "She brought you back here on your glider and you slept off the stuff they shot you full of."

I just stared at her. "Wait, who's Mary?"

"She's Mary," Isabel replied, nodding to Ghost. "I think you two have already met."

I gawked at Ghost. "You're Mary?"

"Yep," she replied simply.

"Oh… okay," I said, realizing there was no point in disbelieving. "Wait did you say HYDRA has Bucky?"

"Well, we think he got away from them," Isabel said, frowning. "But… a lot's happened."

I stared at her intently, waiting for her to go on.

Isabel seemed reluctant, but she knew I wouldn't just drop this. "Okay. Well. The first thing we've heard about on the news was Captain Rogers and some of the other Avengers stopping Rumlow from getting a biological weapon in Lagos, but in the process Wanda Maximoff set off a bomb that killed two dozen civilians that were helping the poor there. I don't know what actually happened, but a lot of the media is blaming Miss Maximoff and Captain Rogers."

I must have looked as angry as I felt, because Ghost cut me off and told me to let Isabel finish.

"The secretary of state saw this as an opportunity to push the 'Sokovia Accords' on the Avengers. They haven't been released to the public, but they seem to be about the UN completely controlling the Avengers and everything that they do. Captain Rogers and Mr. Wilson rejected it outright but the others including Mr. Stark, Miss Romanoff, Colonel Rhodes, and Vision have signed it. The signing took place in Vienna where a bomb went off, killing the king of Wakanda and several others."

I blinked, unsettled. How awful. I opened my mouth to speak again but apparently the pause Isabel gave was just for her to take a breath.

"And Bucky… was seen leaving the scene of the bombing and it's assumed that he set it off."

At this I did interrupt. "YOU ARE SHITTING ME, BUCKY WOULDN'T DO THAT!" I bellowed loudly enough that Io leapt to her feet and Poppy screeched and darted out of the room.

"Raising your voice does nothing but knock spiders from the ceiling," Ghost said, blinking rapidly.

"Stella, goodness!" Isabel said indignantly. "I'm just telling you what I saw on the news!"

I feverishly went over this new information in my head. "But I've only been asleep for like 5 hours!"

Isabel gave Ghost a nervous glance. "Stella, you've been asleep for a week."

I stared at her. "A – a week?"

"Yes," Isabel said, gauging my reaction. "I think you were tranquilized, but it was a dose meant for Bucky, not for you. Frankly you're lucky that your heart didn't stop. I guess it's good anyway; otherwise you'd be caught up in all of this mess."

I nodded, noticing how stiff I was. "Where is Steve now?"

"In London," Ghost said, oddly soft. "For the funeral of Peggy Carter."

6 hours after I had woken up in Isabel's apartment I was on a plane headed for London, sitting next to Ghost who was fast asleep with her mouth hanging open. Ghost was apparently very wealthy, which I privately assumed was from stealing, but I didn't bring that up to Isabel as she tearfully said goodbye to the both of us. Ghost had been hanging around Isabel for several months now, apparently at first she was just protecting Isabel from HYDRA's influence, but over time they had gotten to know each other and became friends in earnest.

I was surprised that Ghost was coming with me, but Isabel explained that Ghost wished to pay her respects to Agent Carter. She didn't explain why, but I was happy for the company nonetheless.

I wasn't sure what had happened to Oswin; I hoped he was with Bucky somehow and not lost, but there wasn't any way to search for such a small creature. I was especially thankful for Ghost's company when we got to airport security because I wouldn't have been able to bring Io or Cirrus without her. Ghost, using her confusing array of powers that I didn't understand yet, melted into a shadow and disappeared from the cabin of the plane before we took off, was gone approximately 15 minutes, and then materialized next to me, assuring me that Io and Cirrus were safely tucked away with the other pets in the cargo bay. I imagined Ghost struggling to drag Io around by her hind legs, invisible to everyone else.

Ghost took several sleeping pills and was unconscious immediately after we left the ground and didn't stir until I prodded her awake seven and a half hours later.

I would have liked to look around London, it was a place I had always wanted to visit, but I had more important things to do than tour the city.

We had just missed Agent Carter's actual funeral by a day, but Ghost and Isabel had found out what hotel Steve was staying in thanks to some teenager that had taken a picture of him outside of it with the caption "Look who I found outside the London City Hotel? Looking to be Captain UK now, are we?". I didn't like that someone had posted a picture of him online, especially since he was mourning, but there wasn't anything to be done about it.

Ghost checked us into the hotel with more money that she inexplicably had, and convinced the woman at the front desk to tell us which room Steve was in. Ghost left the hotel, not wanting to be part of our 'gross, weepy reunion', but I figured she was likely going to where Agent Carter was buried, seeing how puffy-eyed she was.

I stood outside of the room Steve was supposedly in, hesitant to knock on the door. Did he even want to see me right now? I had no right to infringe upon his mourning. I had added to his worry by running away. I was a burden to him.

I wasn't Bucky.

I stood there for longer than was normal, until I decided to go ahead and knock before someone called security on me for standing out in the hallway like a weirdo.

I tapped on the door and worried at my fingers. I heard footsteps and the door swung open a second later.

It was obvious that Steve had been crying, his face was flushed and his eyes were pink and swollen. My insecurities were instantly forgotten as he registered who I was; utter relief crossed his face like I was exactly who he wanted to see.

I felt my throat tighten and I threw my arms around his neck and squeezed him.

"I heard about Peggy," I said thickly. "I'm so sorry."

His arms tightened around me and he took a shaky breath. "Me too."

Steve let me into his room and shut the door. He sat down on the bed and I sat next to him; he didn't seem to be able to stop the tears running down his face and I patted his shoulder and tried to comfort him.

Steve worked on his breathing for several minutes, trying to calm himself down, and he eventually looked up at me.

"You hear about Bucky?" Steve sighed, sitting up.

I nodded. "HYDRA has him. They made him do it."

Steve nodded. "How did you get away from them?"

"I got tranquilized and Ghost hid me from them. She told me that Bucky got away from them, but obviously not if he blew up a building," I said quietly.

Steve nodded again, staring down at the floor.

"…I'm sorry that we left," I mumbled. "Bucky thought it would keep you and Sam safe and I didn't want to let him leave by himself."

"I understand," Steve replied, wiping his face. "I knew it was only a matter of time before he left again. I was just glad you were with him."

I shrugged. "I couldn't protect him from HYDRA, though."

Steve gave me a small, sad smile. "Neither could I."

I wiped at my face and stood up, took an unsteady step, and fell down. Steve caught me and sat me back down on the bed, frowning in worry.

"Looks like whatever they tranquilized you with hasn't worn off," Steve said, frowning. "Where did they hit you with it?"

I pulled up my skirt a little bit to show him where there was a dark red dot on my thigh surrounded by a green and yellow bruise.

"I think I know what this is," Steve mused. "And if they shot you full of enough to take Bucky down it's no wonder you were under for a week."

I shrugged, starting to feel dizzy. Steve was watching me with concern.

"Maybe you should stay here for the night," Steve mused.

I nodded and rubbed my eyes. Steve tried to get me to sleep in his bed, but I refused and curled up on the couch and was out cold not long after.

Steve woke me up several times during the night to check on me and I noticed that he had moved me to his bed, but I was too groggy to argue with him.

Steve woke me up for good early in the morning and told me that we needed to meet up with Sam and Agent 13. Cirrus, with Io in tow, had been tapping on the window in the night, so Steve had let it in and Io had jumped up on the bed at my feet.

It was raining heavily, just like in every movie I had ever seen that took place in London, and Steve used his jacket to try and shield me from the rain as we scurried to our meeting place. I sent Cirrus back into standby mode with Io and told it that I was serious, and not to come until I called for it. It beeped reluctantly at me, blinking innocently with the little emoticon face it had developed.

Sam was already in the restaurant, sitting at the bar and drinking some orange juice and he nodded at us as we walked in.

"Glad to see you're in one piece," Sam said to me as I sat down next to him. "Hungry?"

"Starving," I told him and ordered exactly what any other American would order; loads of bacon, toast, and eggs.

Agent 13 didn't show up for about half an hour in which I coaxed Steve into eating a bit of toast and we watched the coverage of the Vienna bombing and the update on where Bucky was on the news. I was relieved to find that they had no concrete leads. Steve talked on the phone with Agent Romanoff, who told Steve to keep out of this, but Steve told her that he couldn't. I was sorely sorry that she wasn't on our side.

Agent 13 was tall, blonde, and beautiful and I couldn't help staring at her as she discreetly walked up to stand by Steve without looking at him.

"We've had numerous calls; everyone seems to think the Winter Soldier goes to their gym," She said out of the corner of her mouth, looking down at me and smiling. I was suddenly very aware of the butter smeared on the side of my mouth.

"Most of it's noise," she continued, sliding Steve a light brown folder. "Except for this."

Steve swiped it off of the counter, seeming to be looking at the tv. "My boss expects a briefing pretty much now, so that's all the head start you're going to get," she said, lowering her voice further. "They've also given us the order to shoot on sight."

"Thank you, Sharon," Steve said quietly and she nodded, turning around and sweeping out of the café.

We didn't talk to each other until we were well away from the café.

"What's it say?" I asked urgently, having to take quick strides to keep up with Steve and Sam.

"Bucharest, Romania," Steve replied. "It's about six hours by plane."

I nodded, feeling my breakfast wriggle around in my stomach.

"Who knows what HYDRA did to him, he might not recognize any of us," Sam said, glancing behind us.

"I'll go in after him, you guys help me keep watch," Steve said quickly.

"Can I come too?" A new voice chimed in, making Sam and Steve both jump.

Ghost was suddenly keeping stride between Sam and I.

They both moved like they were going to attack, but I stopped them.

"It's okay, she's fine," I told them and looked at Ghost. "I thought you would have headed back to Isabel's by now?"

Ghost shrugged, her pale eyes flickering to one of the shop windows we passed. "I doubt Isabel would speak to me if I left knowing that you still needed my help."

Steve gave her a distrustful glance and she made a face at him.

"How do you plan on getting that big metal dog on a plane without me?" She asked cooly.

"She's right," I added. "We can use all the help we can get."

Steve was reluctant, but he told me that if I trusted her that was enough for him. We booked a flight to Bucharest and had to wait in the airport for the longest half hour of my life. Ghost kept showing Sam videos of cats on her phone.

Ghost followed the same routine as the last plane trip; she stowed Io in the cargo hold and promptly fell asleep. We were all four in one row and I tried to get myself interested in a book I had borrowed from Isabel, but I was so distracted that I found myself reading the same sentence for several minutes at a time.

Somehow the four hours to Bucharest seemed to take just as long as the seven hours to London and when we finally got off and headed to where Bucky was supposedly staying, I felt extremely uneasy. Who knew what state he was in now…

Sam and Ghost were going to keep watch while Steve and I went in after him. Io followed the two of us up the stairs and I felt my heart thudding uncomfortably in my chest.

"If something goes wrong I want you to go with Ghost, okay?" Steve murmured as we ascended the fourth flight of stairs. "If he attacks us because he doesn't recognize us or the GSG9 bursts in, you need to get out, okay?"

"If I say 'okay' that'll make me a liar," I replied and he smirked slightly.

The apartment Bucky was staying in was rundown, even more so than a lot of the cheap motels we had stayed in. Yellow, moth-eaten curtains covered the dusty windows and the walls were spotted with water stains. Steve walked silently across the room to the tiny kitchen, picking up a book from the top of the fridge and examining it.

I walked up next to Steve and glanced into the notebook. There was a flier for the museum exhibit of Steve and a lot of scribbles, some in Russian, some in English that said things like 'This is Steve, he won't hurt me' and 'Steve мой друг' and 'motorcycle?'. There was a surprisingly good sketch of me on the fridge, patting Io and smiling.

"He's been writing in notebooks a lot lately," I commented, looking down at Io as she stared at the door. "It helps him hang onto things –"

I glanced up to see what Io was staring at and my heart leapt into my throat.

Bucky was standing there, looking healthy, albeit confused.

"Bucky," I breathed and moved to run up and hug him, but Steve put his arm out to catch me.

"You know us?" Steve asked clearly.

Bucky frowned. "Yeah, of course."

"GSG9 is heading toward the building," I heard Sam say through my earpiece.

"How did you get away from HYDRA?" Steve asked.

"I had help," Bucky said, smirking slightly, and Oswin wiggled out of his jacket pocket and scampered up to sit on his shoulder.

I grinned and looked up at Steve. He didn't look down at me, his eyes were fixed sternly on Bucky.

"People think you set off a bomb in Vienna," Steve said.

"Thirty seconds, Cap," Sam warned.

"You know I didn't," Bucky sighed tiredly.

"I believe you Buck, but the people that think you did are coming and they're not planning on taking you alive."

Bucky nodded, his eyes drifting to the ceiling and I realized that I was digging my nails into the arm of Steve's suit.

"That's smart," Bucky rumbled. "Good plan."

"They're on the roof, we're compromised," Sam said and all three of us looked up as we heard footsteps on the roof and plaster flaked down from the ceiling.

I knew the drill; bullets were going to fill the air in a minute, so Ghost appeared next to me, grabbed my wrist just as I called out in protest, and I had the familiar feeling of a bitter cold sweeping over me and my vision spun away from me. I just managed to stay upright as my feet collided, hard, with the pavement.

I heard an explosion and a close gunshot and Ghost shoved me to the ground and I heard a choking noise as Ghost grabbed the GSG9 agent that had shot at me by the throat and they both disappeared.

I pushed myself up, hearing gunshots and fighting from inside of the building above me. I spun around, needing to help somehow but now knowing how to.

I whistled for Cirrus and saw Bucky leap from the building and for a heart stopping second I thought he would miss the roof he was aiming for, but he hit it and disappeared from my sight.

I jumped onto Cirrus and sped around the building, hoping to see what was going on and a helicopter zoomed overhead, spraying bullets onto the rooftop.

Ghost appeared behind me and I whipped around to look at her. She was clutching her shoulder and crimson blood stained her hand.

"I'm hurt," she said matter-of-factly. "I have to go; it's just you."

I nodded and she disappeared. I saw Bucky leap down from the building with some man in a black suit on his heels and I sped after them.

They jumped down to a road below the ground and I swore loudly, braking and frantically searching for a way down.

I cut off several cars as I sped down into the tunnel and I saw Bucky sprinting up ahead, followed closely by Steve and Io as they ran after him.

A police car sped by me and I heard whoever was inside of it demand Steve to stand down. I slammed Cirrus into the side of it and it crunched against the wall of the tunnel and fell behind me.

"Steve, here!" I shouted, pulling up next to him.

Without pausing, he grabbed Io off of the ground and jumped on.

I weaved around cars and I heard something hit Cirrus and I saw the man clinging onto the underside of the glider, the fluorescent tunnel lights gleaming off of his suit dangerously.

"Shit," I swore, swerving in an attempt to shake him off. Io was barking at him from under me, which really, wasn't helping.

"Sam, we can't shake this guy," Steve said into his earpiece, his eyes fixed on Bucky.

"Gotcha, headed your way," he replied.

Suddenly there was a wall of cars ahead of us and I saw Bucky throwing his arms in a circle as he attempted to stop and I let out a scream. Bucky somehow managed to turn at the last second and jumped over a barrier into the other side of the road.

I swerved between two poles to follow.

"Sorry I screamed," I said loudly, briefly glancing at Steve.

Ahead of us, Bucky had stopped and was reaching toward a man on a motorcycle and somehow managed to snatch it out from under him, swing it around in the air, straddle it, and speed off away from us. Bizarrely I felt myself blush.

We sped into another tunnel and I heard the suit man crawling up the glider and he threw himself ahead of us, but Bucky was ready and he grabbed him by the throat. He scraped him on the side of the tunnel, nearly overturning his bike as he did, and he dropped the man and I had to swerve to avoid hitting him.

My stomach twisted and I saw Sam flying behind us and the suited man leap on him. I was distracted, worrying about Sam, and I heard Steve shout "Stella!".

My eyes darted back to the road to see rock falling from the ceiling and Steve flipped the glider upside down to shield us from the falling debris. Io slid off with a yelp and I heard glass shatter and metal crunch, but my eyes were on the suited man as he flung over us and tackled Bucky off of his motorcycle.

Steve jumped down without staggering and sprinted toward them and just managed to tackle him away from Bucky before he sunk the claws protruding from his fingertips into Bucky's throat.

I skid to a halt next to Bucky and pulled on his arm. I vaguely noticed that claws had left gouges in Steve's shield.

"C'mon," I grunted. "Time to go."

It was too late. GSG9 agents converged on us from all sides and Tony's ally James Rhodes in full Stark armor dropped down next to us.

"Stand down," Rhodes demanded, pointing one of his guns at us.

Steve touched Bucky's arm to warn him to comply. Io tried to sprint away but Rhodes shot her with electricity and she fell over and started twitching but I saw Cirrus shoot off back down the tunnel, dipping to avoid being blasted by Rhodes. At least one of us got away.

The man in the black suit took his helmet off, he was noble looking and handsome and I had no idea who he was.

Rhodes nodded to the man, but he wasn't looking at him. His dark eyes were focused on Bucky as he was wrestled to the ground by the GSG9 agents.

They shoved me to the ground too and my chin scraped the pavement.

"Ow," I mumbled indignantly but I wasn't being paid attention to.

Bucky was thrown into a huge steel truck and I caught Steve's eye before I was thrown into a different one. His expression didn't comfort me at all.

My arms were clamped into a steel contraption that covered my arms up to my elbows and secured them so that I was hugging my stomach. I couldn't stop looking at the guards and their fingers on the triggers of their guns. None of them would meet my eyes and I felt like I was going to pass out or throw up or maybe both.

I seemed to be taking in way too much detail as they hauled me into a large concrete building; the sweat beading on the guards foreheads, a stray leaf on the pavement, a bit of animal hair that had found its way onto my shirt. What I wouldn't do to be back in Isabel's apartment with Bucky sitting next to me and Poppy purring in my lap.

I was steered through a large room with a small glass cube in the middle, which I was startled to see held Bucky inside of, firmly secured to the chair with an unnecessary amount of bindings. He saw me and held my eyes for a moment, regret pulling on his face, before I was led out of the large room into a corridor.

"What's going to happen to him?" I asked one of the guards. He didn't even look at me.

I was led to a concrete cell and pushed inside and the heavy metal door was slammed shut behind me. I glanced at the door and saw a small black camera on the wall. They hadn't taken the shackles off of me.

I sat down against the cell wall, determined not to look at the camera. I was going to be here for a while.

I tried to focus my power, trying to get a sense of something I could bend to my will, but there was nothing. I wondered what they had done with Io and what they were doing right now to Bucky.

I wished they had taken the shackles off so that I could chew on my fingers.

After what felt like an hour or two of dead silence, the power abruptly shut off and I was plunged into complete darkness for a few seconds before dim back-up lights flickered on.

I sat up and stared at the cell door, worried that a guard was going to come in here and haul me somewhere else without Bucky.

Silence for a minute, and then scuttling, like a crab was running down the hallway and I heard something scratch the door.

The door swung open and for a second I didn't think anyone was there until I saw Oswin, dangling off of the door handle and I let out the breath I had been holding. Io peered around the door and snorted.

"Get me out of these!" I hissed and Io darted inside with Oswin riding on her head.

Oswin stuck his little needle-like arms into the lock of the shackles and wiggled them around, but that didn't seem to do much. Io ended up gnawing through them enough that I could wriggle out.

"Did you let Io out, you clever little thing?" I cooed to Oswin as I held him up to my face. He trembled excitedly.

"Bucky," Io said simply and my blood turned to ice.

"Where is he?" I asked her, getting the clawed gauntlets off of her side. "Take me to him."

We sprinted down the hallways, suspiciously not meeting anyone. The elevator was down but thankfully Io only led me down one flight of stairs.

I saw several unconscious men in the concrete hallway and I forced myself to run faster. It was HYDRA, it had to be, and they were here for Bucky.

I threw myself around a corner and ran full speed past Steve and Sam who had stopped to check on an unconscious man.

I skid to a halt and Oswin flew off of my shoulder and rolled down the hallway.

Steve and Sam both looked at me in confusion but they said nothing as I jerked my head for them to follow.

Bucky had an entire room devoted to monitoring him and even more unconscious men littered the floor here. Oswin scampered up my leg and buried himself in my sweatshirt pocket and Io was growling loudly at someone laying inside of Bucky's cell.

I seized Steve's arm, terror that HYDRA had already killed Bucky hitting me like a blow to the stomach, but I heard the body on the floor speak.

"Help me…" he said hoarsely, in a voice that definitely didn't belong to Bucky. Steve marched in and grabbed the man off of the ground and slammed him against the wall.

"Where is he?" Steve demanded in a voice that I was glad he had never used with me.

"I don't know – he attacked me and –" The man stammered and was cut off when Steve shook him violently.

"What do you want?" he repeated venomously.

The man chuckled weakly and lifted his head to give Steve a glare filled with unbridled hatred. "…To see an empire fall," he hissed.

Sam stepped into the cell, looking at the small glass and steel cage that had held Bucky before. It didn't really look like anyone had broken into it… the glass was shattered in a way that suggested that Bucky burst out from the inside.

I heard a hard thwack and Sam was thrown against the cage and someone lunged at Steve from the corner of the room, making him drop the man he was holding.

I was shocked to see that it was Bucky and he kicked Steve out of the room, stalking after him with a long knife gleaming in his hand. I could hear the knife cut through the air as he attempted to slash Steve with it, forcing Steve to retreat back through the room.

I saw the man Steve had grabbed peering out of the cell malevolently, Sam unconscious on the floor behind him.

"Io, help Steve," I shouted over the sounds of Bucky and Steve clashing. I could hear Winter's arm whining in exertion and I was horrified to see that he was doing his best to drive his knife straight through Steve's chest.

I whipped back to glare at the man as he watched them hungrily.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" I demanded, stalking up to him and grabbing him by the throat.

I heard Io scream and I turned back to see that Bucky had ripped Io's head off and crushed it. Somehow I could sense that it had killed her; that the life I had poured into her was gone, and she fell heavily to the floor.

I screamed too which was a mistake; it alerted Bucky that I was there and that I was choking the man and he turned on me. I realized Bucky wasn't there anymore; his eyes were blank and glassy and rage contorted his face as he stalked up to me. I forced the man in front of me but he just tossed him aside, glowering down at me like a tiger that had just had its tail pulled.

"Kill her and escape," the man said, winded, as he rubbed his throat. "NOW!"

The man ran off and I just stared at Bucky. His muscles were twitching and he reached up like he was going to grab my throat.

"James…" I said softly, tears pricking my eyes.

His fingers paused, inches away from my throat, and doubt passed through Bucky's face.

"Оставьте ее , возьмите вертолет на крыше , идти !" The man shouted from behind and Bucky held eye contact with me for a second longer before he turned around and stalked out of the room. I realized that Steve was nowhere to be found.

Sam was stirring behind me and I shook myself and turned to kneel next to him and shake his shoulder.

"Sam, hey, you okay?" I hissed. "Sam, wake up!"

He opened his eyes and sat up, shaking his head.

"What the hell?" he mumbled, dazed.

"That guy, he did something to Bucky," I explained shortly. "Bucky tore Io apart… she…"

Sam looked behind me and shouted "HEY!" and I whipped around to see that stupid man peering down the elevator shaft but he took off at Sam's shouting.

"I'm going after that guy, you gotta get out of here," Sam said, pushing himself to his feet and running after the man.

I just sat there for a minute, stunned, as I stared at Io's crumpled body. She had been ripped in half before, sure… But I could tell that she was gone now, and whatever I had done to give her life wasn't there anymore. Oswin crawled out from under a nearby desk and scuttled up to Io, poking her as if he could wake her up…

Rage coursed through me, but all I could do for now was hope that Sam caught up to him. I had to subdue Bucky.

I got to my feet and scooped up Oswin and started up the stairs.

Bucky was on the ground floor, breaking and throwing anyone that was unfortunate enough to try and stop him. He was fighting Tony Stark when I peered out of the stairwell and I clamped my hand over my mouth when he put his gun up to Tony's forehead and pulled the trigger. Luckily for Tony, he had a small piece of his armor on his hand so it didn't go through that, but the terror in Tony's face was enough to make my stomach turn. Tony managed to get the clip out of Bucky's gun and swiped him across the face with it, but he just kicked Tony out of his way and sent him flying into a wall. Oswin tried to leap off of my shoulder and scurry over to Bucky, but I caught him and held him to my chest.

Agent 13 leapt on him, moving so quickly that I could hardly see her, landing blows on Bucky and attempting to slow him down, but that wasn't enough and he picked her up and broke a table with her and she stayed on her back, completely winded.

Agent Romanoff attacked him next, putting him in a headlock and trying to break his arms as he tried to pull her off of him and he slammed her onto another table and wrapped his metal fingers around her throat. I had to do something.

I tackled him full force, which did little but make him let go of Agent Romanoff and get his attention on me, while it made my vision swim for an instant.

"Enough!" I demanded, standing in between Bucky and Agent Romanoff, who was coughing loudly.

Bucky stared at me, seeming to be at war with himself, recognition passed through his face but his body still twitched like he wanted to break me.

"My name is Stella Martin…" I said slowly and clearly, unable to think of anything else. "Do you know where you are?"

Bucky frowned at me, but his fists unclenched. "I… don't…"

It looked like I was going to be able to talk him down from the control he had been under until the man in the suit came out of nowhere and socked Bucky straight in the jaw and picked him up and threw him several feet away.

I stumbled backward and bumped into Agent Romanoff as Bucky and the man clashed.

"Damn," I mumbled under my breath, running after Bucky as he kicked the man away and started up a flight of stairs.

"WINTER!" I shouted after Bucky, but as he turned to look at me the man landed on him from where he had climbed up the side of the stairs and put him into a hold where it looked like he was trying to break Bucky's metal arm.

All that did was piss Bucky off and I could hear his arm whining as he tried to get out of the hold but it seemed like they were an equal match. The man seemed to realize this too and he stopped trying to break Bucky's arm and sent them both tumbling down the stairs.

I huffed in exasperation and decided not to go down back the stairs again and I saw Bucky fall over the railing of the stairs and I saw him fall two stories, roll to his feet, and sprint to the stairwell I had originally come out of. The man didn't seem to see him and I darted up the rest of the stairs I was standing on, across an empty loft area full of café tables, and into another stairwell.

I was out of breath by the time I got up the stairs but I had caught up with Bucky.

Bucky had climbed into a helicopter and was just lifting off the ground and I saw Steve sprint across the landing pad and jump onto the helicopter railing, throwing it off and slowing it down.

Even with Steve's extra weight, the helicopter just dragged Steve across the landing pad, only stopping with a jolt once Steve latched onto a bar that held a safety net.

I gawked in amazement as Steve, using just his biceps, was managing to keep the helicopter from taking off.

I shouted encouragingly, running across the landing pad. There was no way in hell Bucky was getting away now.

Bucky seemed to realize this just as I did and he suddenly veered the helicopter straight into the landing pad toward Steve. I screamed hoarsely as I saw a helicopter blade cutting through the air straight toward him, reaching out to him and squeezing my eyes shut.

I heard glass break and the metal thwumps as the blades broke on the concrete. I dared to open my eyes to see Steve crouched on the ground under a hunk of metal wrapped in wires that had erupted out of the ground to shield him. I noticed Cirrus had found me and shielded me from the blades.

Steve glanced at me to make sure that I was alright and pushed himself up to run and see if Bucky was okay.

"Bucky!" Steve called, peering into the helicopter. "BU –"

Bucky's metal arm smashed through the window and seized Steve by the throat.

I grabbed his arm, trying to get him to let go of Steve. I heard the metal screech against the landing pad and I realized that the helicopter was going to fall from the building. Cirrus zoomed to try and hold the helicopter up, but it was too heavy.

"WINTER!" I shouted, pulling on his arm. "IT'S SLIPPING –!"

Part of the concrete crumbled away and Steve grabbed Bucky's arm and held me to him with his other arm and the helicopter fell, dragging us three stories down into the canal down below.

The water stung as I fell into it and I opened my eyes to see Steve breaking the window of the helicopter and pulling Bucky out, who was unconscious.

Steve started swimming away with Bucky and he motioned for me to follow him. I realized that I was clutching Oswin in my fist and he was feebly waving his arms around, trying to swim.

We emerged away from the building, me sputtering and coughing and Steve emerging silently and gracefully, and we paddled away from the building as fast as we could.

We couldn't go far as sirens rang out from the building and helicopters took to the air and Sam sighed as he saw Steve hauling Bucky out of the water and throwing him over his shoulder. He wiped the distrusting frown off of his face as he caught my expression and I sniffled and wiped at my eyes with my sleeve, smearing more canal water onto my cheeks.

We took shelter in an abandoned factory nearby and found a piece of a conveyor belt to wedge Bucky's arm into while he was unconscious. I didn't want to do that, but I understood why it was necessary.

I sat against the wall and put my head on my knees.

"I tried to keep up with that dude that we found in Bucky's cell, but he lost me in the chaos outside," Sam said quietly.

I felt Oswin struggling against my fingers and I let go of him and he scurried up to bury himself in my pocket.

"You okay?" Steve said quietly, sinking down to sit next to me. "You cold?"

I sniffled and shrugged.

"We have him now, he'll be okay," Steve said bracingly.

I gave him a weak smile and very nearly believed him.

"He's waking up," Sam said and Steve and I both jerked our heads up.

I was on my feet and I tried to run up to Bucky, but Sam and Steve both grabbed my arms.

"We don't know if he's okay yet," Sam said, watching Bucky as he stirred.

Oswin hopped out of my pocket and scuttled over to Bucky and crawled up the machine to sit by Bucky's head.

Bucky shook himself and looked up at us, trying to get up but falling back down when he realized that he was trapped.

"S-Steve?" Bucky asked hoarsely, jerking his head up.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve said carefully.

Bucky blinked up at Steve. "Your mom's name was Sarah. She used to make meatloaf every Tuesday night and she always saved me some even if I wasn't there."

Steve blinked and his face broke into a relieved, brittle smile.

"Who's mom didn't make meatloaf once a week, just like that we're supposed to be cool?" Sam said quietly and Bucky glanced up at Sam.

"I broke your sunglasses a while back. Those big orangeish ones. I sat on em," Bucky said, a small grin on his face.

Sam pursed his lips and glanced between Steve and Bucky. "Aight, we're definitely leaving him here."

Bucky smirked and Steve chuckled.

The weak smirk fell from Bucky's face.

"What did I do?" Bucky asked quietly.

Steve's face hardened. "Well you… broke out and –"

Bucky sighed and closed his eyes. "Fuck, I knew this would happen, all he had to do was say the damn words and I was gone."

"How is that possible?" Sam asked.

"There's a word that will stop his heart for a short time," I said quietly and they all three looked at me. "Chambers admitted to me that he and some other scientist bastard made that happen, it's not that much of a stretch to be able to control him."

"Was that Chambers that was in the room with Bucky?" Steve asked me. I shook my head.

"I don't know who it was," Bucky said.

I glanced at Steve, deciding it was time to get Bucky's arm out of the conveyor belt, and I walked up to the machine and flipped a switch and it creaked and spit his arm out.

"That's a hell of a lot better than electrocuting yourself," Bucky mumbled to me as I sat down next to him.

"That was one time," I murmured back, wiping the blood off of his face with a cloth I had found.

"Buck whoever that was knocked the power out in half of Berlin and infiltrated the UN just to get ten minutes with you, I'm gonna need you to do better than 'I don't know'," Steve said forcefully.

Bucky licked some of the blood off of his bottom lip. "He kept asking me about… a specific date, uh, December 16, 1991."

My blood turned to ice.

"What happened on that day, Buck?" Steve pressed.

Bucky swallowed and his eyes darted to me. "I was sent on a mission. Sanction and extract. No witnesses. Someone was transporting a super serum, like the one used on you, and I was sent to get it and kill the people moving it.

"I got the serum and took it to Siberia. It didn't work as well as it did on you; it ruined the minds of the subjects they used it on. They screamed a lot when they were injected with it and they screamed even more when they were conditioned with the safe words. But it did what it was supposed to; it made them stronger, smarter, faster. They used me to help train them.

"They were pushing the subjects too fast though; it took years to get me to the point where I would kill for them but they were trying to control the other subjects with only a few months of manipulation. The others turned on the doctors and the captors, killing most of them except one of the officers I got out. They were subdued and placed into cryo until HYDRA could figure out a safer way to control them. HYDRA's efforts were focused onto me and the other subjects were forgotten. Until now."

Steve and Sam exchanged dark glances. "And that guy can control them?"

"Enough," Bucky said gravely. "The others speak 20 languages, they're masters of disguise, they could sneak into any country and topple it overnight, no one would see them coming."

Sam ran a hand over his head and paced to the door. Steve nodded and pursed his lips thoughtfully. He went over to Sam and they started talking in low voices.

"You should tell Steve about… you know," I said, barely above a whisper as I stared at a cut on his forehead.

"I will," Bucky replied, just as quietly. Oswin crawled down from the machine and Bucky smiled at him and watched him dangle from his metal hand. "Where's Io?"

My stomach twisted. "Wh… when you were under that mind control or… whatever it was… Io was trying to drag you around and…"

Bucky blinked. "You can fix her, right?"

I blinked and shook my head, refusing to cry and make Bucky feel worse. "No… whatever I did to make her alive is gone now."

"Fuck," Bucky mumbled, looking suddenly ill.

"It wasn't your fault, I know that," I said quickly. "She was a robot, she couldn't feel –"

"You don't know that," Bucky interrupted. "We don't know how this works, maybe she could."

"You weren't in control of what you were doing," I said gently. "You didn't hurt Io, that crazy guy did."

Bucky put a hand on his forehead. "…I don't deserve to be in this world," He said thickly. "I don't deserve you or Steve or –"

"Buck," Steve said firmly, kneeling down next to me. "Listen to me."

Bucky looked sicker still, but he looked up at Steve.

"Nothing HYDRA has done to you has changed who you are. You are my best friend. You didn't hurt Stella, even under the influence of that guy."

Bucky glanced at me.

"I don't want you to feel like you don't belong in the world because I and so many other people failed you," Steve went on tightly.

Bucky nodded, staring at the ground.

I bit at my fingers and Bucky looked up between Steve and I, the grief in his face lessened somewhat.

"What's the plan?" Sam asked quietly.

"Stark wouldn't believe us even if we did try to talk to him," Steve mused. "It may end up that we'll have to fight him."

"Just us four?" I asked faintly.

"Not just us," Sam said from the door, leaning against the frame. "I think I might know a guy."

"They have Wanda locked up in the compound, but I think we'll be able to get her out," Steve said, standing up. "I'd hate to ask Clint to come out of retirement, but we might have to."

"Any chance Ghost will come back around?" Sam asked me.

I shrugged. "She got shot by one of those GSG9 guys, so I don't know."

"I think she's ok," I said quickly in response to the expression on Steve's face. "She seems to be able to take care of herself, but she's probably going back to Isabel's for now."

"Well, first we're going to have to get our stuff back," Sam said. "If only we had someone working with the UN that would help us out."

Steve gave Sam a small smile. "I'll ask Sharon, I hate to since she's done enough, but we don't have another choice."

"I'll send Redwing to Clint's house," Sam said.

"Tell him to get Wanda; if anyone can convince her to get out of there he can," Steve replied.

"Remember that Antman guy? Scott Lang? He might be willing to help us out."

"Tell Clint to go get him too."

"What's Redwing?" I asked.

Sam smiled. "I haven't had him for very long; he's a drone sort of. I'll introduce you to him once we get our stuff back from the UN."

Bucky got to his feet and helped me up. "We should get going, we don't have a lot of time."