Holy Moly guys, it's the FINAL CHAPTER of this fiction! Finally! I can't thank you enough for being part of it all, and there's still far more to come! I have up to Endgame loosely planned, though I may skip a little through some bits. One thing for sure is that the next story will combine Age of Ultron and the gap between AoU and Civil War, and is called Some Bonds are Made to be Reforged. I hope you join me!

On with the final chapter!

...

October 9th, 2014, Unknown Location

A groan escaped before she could stop it, her head pulsating with every throb of her hear as consciousness crept in.

"I thought for a moment we'd hit you too hard and you would never wake up."

She froze, the German voice one she was sure she didn't recognise, yet at the same time likely belonged to someone from the last place she wanted to be.

"What does HYDRA want with me?" she bit out, groaning from the effort of pushing herself up.

What had they hit her with? Normal tranquilisers barely lasted a few hours in her bloodstream, and it had been a long time since she had last been knocked out with anything that left her feeling this weakened afterwards. Chains holding her arms down only made the experience more uncomfortable, the added weight almost too much for her to struggle against.

"A long time ago, I found a diary by one Arnim Zola. In it, he talked about an agent known as Enigma. He called her his greatest potential and was more than a little enraged to find she had escaped just as he was on the verge of turning her into HYDRAs first asset. Fancy my surprise to find that the agent was non other than you. All these years, and you've been there. I just had to bide my time and wait for the right moment to reclaim you."

Her heart thudded against her chest, an icy grip clamping onto it as she began to comprehend her predicament. She tried not to let her mind flood with panicked 'oh shit, oh shit', but it was hard, especially when her captor strode forward and injected her once more.

"Bastard." She spat, the darkness consuming her faster than she was able to prepare for.

The next time she woke, she flinched from a pain in her head. A brief inspection leading to a painful lump led her to the assumption she'd either been manhandled between sleeps or she'd hit the deck hard after being injected the second time. A survey around the room told her the latter, as she was slumped half on-half off the bed. Apparently, they felt it safer to just leave her wherever she happened to fall than risk her waking mid transit and killing them. She had to admit it was a smart plan. She also had to admit she couldn't wait to tear off the head of the first person who came too close when she was awake.

Sensing nobody was around, she tested the door handle of her cell. The jolt of electricity to her chest had her releasing it with a growl and a swift kick, causing whoever was outside to jump in shock if the small shout was anything to go by. A wolfish smile crossed her face. One guard outside was a silly error. She just had to figure out a way past the trapped door and they would be easy enough to deal with. Knowing that for now she wasn't going anywhere fast, she dropped onto the bed, stretching out the pulled muscles in her back from her less than comfortable sleep. As she went through the routine, her mind began sifting through all the faces she knew, trying to match the name to her captor from earlier. She knew she'd never seen him in person but was certain his image had been shown to her in the past. She wasn't sure how long she sat in silence when it finally hit her.

One of the papers from Bucky's HYDRA file. There was a list of all the handlers and scientists who had used him as a guinea pig for their sick experiments. Fists clenching, she delved deeper, trying for the life of her to remember the name attached to his photo, pushing the thoughts of murdering him out of her mind as far as she could until she had his identification. Those documents had spent weeks on her living room floor as she memorised them. It would be a shame for her efforts to go to waste right as she finally needed them.

"Come on, Beth. Think. Stickler? No, that's not it. Count something? Nope."

Her teeth ground together, the sound of voices drawing nearer threatening to take her from her thoughts.

"Von! Von what though? Stuck…stru...STRUCKER!"

The door swung open on her exclamation and she sprung to her feet, a predatory gaze settling into her eyes as Von Strucker walked in, clapping his hands slowly together.

"I am impressed. Many do not know me, and those who do take far longer to work it out. I have become ever so adept at keeping myself hidden from unwanted eyes."

Head held high; Beth's jaw twitched.

"You really shouldn't have experimented on my fiancé. That's the only reason I was able to place you, you sick fuck."

The word seemed to echo in the room, a deadly silence falling as Von Strucker gave a visible reaction for the fist time. She could see the glint of violence in his eyes, his restraint there, but barely. She wanted to push, get him to snap, but with no idea of her location, she knew it was a stupid move and instead stepped out of her stance just enough for him to relax.

"You have two options ahead of you." He spoke after a moment. "You may either come with us compliantly, or we will simply continue to make you sleep, and I can't promise that it won't eventually kill you."

While the idea of seeing and knowing what they were going to do to her was one that made her stomach tremble, the idea of being unconscious scared her more. She gave a brief nod.

"I'll behave."

"Good. We begin tomorrow."

The door closed shut, a small hum filling the air shortly after that she hadn't heard before but now frustratingly couldn't ignore.

She refused to say the word comply. That was one step too far towards being their pet, and that wasn't happening. All she could do was wait until the morning and start to plan her way out. Sinking onto the bed once more, she tried to think of anything she could use to help her. Mostly, she came up with blanks. When they searched her, they'd done a thorough job, even locating the garrotte wire she had woven into her boot laces (an idea of Clint's she'd found ridiculous until it had actually saved her life in the now-infamous Budapest mission). About ready to give up, Beth blew out a breath and ran a frustrated hand through her hair, frowning when she felt a tiny, almost imperceptible scar at the base of her scalp. The frown quickly turned to a smile; her situation suddenly far less daunting as she remembered the tiny chip she'd agreed to have implanted by Tony Stark back when she first agreed to work with him after the New York incident. Rightly so, he was worried about her always heading into dangerous situations and given her penchant for jobs requiring her to go deep undercover, he'd pleaded for her to have a locator chip implanted. One that was untraceable yet could still be transmitting even if blocked by a metre of steel.

Beth lay back on the bed, allowing herself to drift into a light sleep, with one ear pricked towards the door. It had been a long time since she'd last slept in such a fashion and by the time her captors arrived to move her hours later, she was tired, sore and more than a little hostile. She said nothing as they removed her wrist chains, though the fact her mere presence made them look like they were about to faint helped improve her mood somewhat. Unsurprisingly, they blindfolded her and even with their clear efforts to throw her off guard, she managed to create a map in her mind of the route they'd taken. Not that she wanted to go back to her cell, but knowing anything was better than nothing.

The blindfold was removed, revealing a brightly lit room containing a host of equipment she was familiar with along with a few items she was not so. One in particular stood out as she was ushered forwards and for the first time, she felt herself resist as a cold sweat broke out along her spine.

"No…" she whispered as the machine she knew had tortured both herself and Bucky numerous times loomed over her.

A shove to her back made her teeth grit, her feet digging further into the tile. She was not going there. If it meant her death, she was ready. Another hit, this time accompanied by a sharp voice, and she lost it, her elbow jerking back to slam into the face of the agent. He went down with barely a grunt, and she was gone, sprinting down the hallway. It didn't matter that her hands were tied, in that moment, Beth found herself slipping as easily into the mind of an emotionless assassin as she would do her favourite jacket. She slid across the floor, narrowly avoiding a bullet that instead sailed over her head into the eye of an agent who had the misfortune of turning down the corridor at that moment. Alarms began to blare, momentarily disorienting her as she tried to think over them to an escape.

Doors began to crash around her and she shot forward, bolting into the closest doorway that looked like a viable exit. Thanking any deity listening when it turned out not to be a dead end and instead a series of storage rooms, she made her way to the next door, pausing at a particularly heavy-duty pipe stretching across the room. Strong enough to maybe even withstand her strength. She placed her wrists either side, the chain holding them against the pole and tugged down as hard as she could. The metal groaned, beginning to fold into itself from the pressure, but finally, the chain gave a creak and snapped, freeing her arms. She had no time for triumph, voices yelling from the closed door as the noise clearly attracted their unwanted attention.

The next door opened up into a room with nowhere for her to hide. She had two choices; stay where she was and definitely get herself killed, or risk running forwards where she was likely to get herself killed.

She chose option two.

She bolted, slamming the previous door shut behind her and blocking out the sounds of those in pursuit of her. Save the alarms blaring, it was eerily quiet in this part, though she refused to drop her guard even as she successfully navigated across the unsheltered expanse.

Really, she should have been expecting something on the other side. Instead, she had the smallest lapse in concentration and ran straight into a guard as she pulled the next door open and darted out. His surprised shout ended as quickly as it began, her arm wrapping round his neck and snapping it to with lightning reflexes, but it was too little too late and before she'd even begun to run again, the first bullets ricochet around her. At least two grazed her, not enough to disable her, but enough for her to regret her plan to run before she had a clear layout of the building. One more door in front of her, leading into another room with a platform spreading across to a separate part of the building. It was only a twenty-foot drop if she fell, and she had fallen from higher before. It was then she caught a glimpse of something glowing. A second look and her jaw dropped.

Loki's staff.

Taking a deep breath, Beth braced herself to run across to grab the instrument that had almost wiped out her home city, until the familiar cold steel of a gun barrel pressed against her head.

"Shit." She breathed, trying to still her heart enough to break out of the situation.

From the sounds of footsteps fast approaching, she could only conclude her time was up. Whether she wanted to or not, she was either going to die or end up in the machine meant to wipe her mind and drive her insane. And like hell was option two an option.

"I'm not even remotely sorry for this." She growled to the agent, aware she was about to sign her death warrant.

Twisting, she grabbed his arm and turned to rip it out of its socket when suddenly, blood splattered across her face, a messy hole blasting through his forehead. She didn't think, simply reacted to the fact she was alive and jumped on to the nearest rail to climb up to one of the higher platforms. Two more soldiers appeared as she climbed, meeting the same fate as the one below. With every rung, she grew more confident, a grin breaking out on her face as she finally reached the top and met the arm outstretched towards her, pulling her into the embrace of an extremely pissed off Winter Solider. She would have shivered if she knew the look of death in his eyes as they swept over her injuries wasn't for her and more for the people who'd captured her.

"I take it you know how to get out?" she asked, trying not to think too hard about how he knew where she was to begin with.

"Down there. Steve and a few others are further down looking for you. I managed to avoid them. They used to hold me here; I knew where you'd run to."

She barely resisted the urge to kiss him. Instead, she settled for placing a hand on her hip, the other reaching to push a few wayward strands of hair from her face as she grinned harder at him.

"Well, it's good to know you had enough sense to figure out I'd run."

"As if you'd do anything less than fight. I'm just surprised it took you this long. Now, you need to go."

He turned her towards the exit on the heel of his words, a gentle nudge to her back urging her forward. She hesitated briefly, stunned that for a second, her Bucky had shone through the shell the Winter Soldier had turned him into.

"Come with me."

He shook his head, eyes softening as hurt spread across her features.

"It's too soon. I can't trust myself around certain people yet. Besides, I have business here."

"you know, for a man who doesn't trust himself around certain people, you sure have a knack of bumping into one of them. it's a good job I trust you enough for the both of us."

Shouts from below drew her gaze towards a group of soldiers pointing up at them from the platform beneath them. sensing it was her cue, she gave Bucky one last smile and jogged down the hallway he was now practically shoving her down, clutching the handgun she didn't recall him passing to her. It didn't take long to hear the sound of a fight ahead of her, her bullets joining those of the HYDRA agents with the misfortune to be facing away from her. The stunned faces of Tony and Steve peered back at her as she saluted them.

"Boys, you're getting slower."

…

Leaving both Bucky and Loki's staff behind still didn't sit well with her hours later as she sat on one of the balconies of Stark Tower, nursing a coffee in one hand and an ice pack for her swollen face in the other. Nobody held it against her for choosing to live, but she held it against herself, knowing deep down that nothing good could come from it remaining in HYDRA's care. Both Steve and Tony had told her to forget about it, but she couldn't.

She sighed, taking another gulp from the coffee and gazing at the city lights below. It was the first time she could remember that staring at the city she'd grown up in didn't bring comfort and she liked it about as much as she did not killing Von Strucker.

"If you're thinking of jumping, try to not do it off my building. The maintenance guy might actually quit this time if you did."

She couldn't help but snicker as Tony sank into the chair next to her, his eyes unusually serious despite the way he slouched. A few painful seconds ticked by, Tony staring intensely at Beth, Beth lowering her gaze to run a hand idly over the mug she'd propped on her knee. It wasn't the first time she'd felt like a child in Tony's presence, but it was the first time she'd found herself unable to meet his gaze.

"Cap's pulling the team back together. The Avengers. To take down HYDRA. He won't say it, but I will. We need you."

"Why? Because I'm really good at running away?"

She knew it sounded pathetic. She also knew its why Tony didn't say anything, simply continued peering at her until she felt like she was going to cry.

"You're ruthless and not afraid to do what needs to be done. I've seen you work and you're like a bloodhound. There's no doubt that we would have struggled more back in New York without you and honestly, you hold most of this team together, whether you are aware of it or not."

That made her finally look at him, unable to believe his words. He smirked, the usual playfulness sneaking back into his expression.

"It's true. If you weren't here, Cap and I would fight way more often. Romanoff and Barton would barely tolerate me, and Bruce probably wouldn't have stuck around. From what I've been told, that's just who you are. People are drawn to you, and without realising it, you bring out the best in people. It's infuriatingly hard not to like you, and one day, I'm going to figure out your secret."

This time, Beth laughed. Suddenly lighter, she placed her mug down and stood to clap her godson on the shoulder.

"I'm in."

Leaving the billionaire to his musings, she moved to the door, pausing only to look back at him once more.

"You ever call me a dog again, I'm throwing you off the roof."