The feast finally seemed to be winding down - even Thor would agree that the Amazons knew how to celebrate - and Steve searched the crowd for Diana, hoping to have a few words with her privately before they each went to bed.
She'd been sitting not far from him, but he remembered her rising to - what? Speak to someone else? Visit whatever form of restroom the Amazons had, which he'd need to find for himself soon? Or something else?
Now, though, he couldn't see her at all. Tony was at the same table he'd started at, laughing with the Amazons he sat with. Arthur was at the far end of his own table, arm-wrestling, of all things, with an Amazon whose name Steve didn't know.
Queen Hippolyta was rising to take her leave, so Steve said, "Pardon me, ma'am - do you know where Diana is?"
Hippolyta scanned the room thoroughly before frowning. "I didn't see her leave."
"Well, it's unlikely she'd get into trouble here," Tony said. He'd risen to join them when he saw both Steve and the queen on their feet. "Right?"
"There are … one or two places that are dangerous," Hippolyta admitted. "But she knows of them all and would avoid them."
"There a problem?" Arthur called without looking up from his arm-wrestling match.
"I don't see my daughter," Hippolyta answered.
"I -" the woman Arthur wrestled with grunted with the exertion of speaking while wrestling "- saw her earlier. She -" another grunt "- came to take over my watch."
"Watch?" Tony repeated, even as Steve realized what she meant.
"Bucky. You were watching Bucky."
"We will finish this contest later, I vow." The woman let go of Arthur's hand and stood. "I guarded the prisoner with the metal arm."
"Where?" Steve demanded, his heart stammering a hard beat in his chest. If Bucky had somehow hurt Diana -
No, he couldn't think that now. Now, he had to focus on getting to them, on finding out what was really happening.
"Show me," he said, and was both pleased and humbled that not only was Tony already summoning his armor, but Arthur, too, had seized his weapon. If anyone - if Bucky - were trying to hurt Diana, they were starting a fight they wouldn't expect.
"Lydia, with us," Hippolyta said even as she strode toward the door. Steve fell in half a step behind her, and Tony, Arthur and the woman whose name he now knew was Lydia were barely a step or two behind him.
Hippolyta led them, and a small band of warriors, down into the bowels of the royal residence. It wasn't quite a castle and certainly wasn't a palace, but Steve's mind refused to supply him with a more accurate word, instead focusing on what might await him when they arrived at their destination.
Lydia opened a heavy wooden door, and before it had opened even a crack, he heard screams.
"That's not Diana," Arthur said.
"No," Steve said. "It's Bucky."
Then he was moving, relying as much on his serum-enhanced senses as the uncertain light from flickering torches along the wall to guide his way.
Tony and Arthur kept pace with him, and he heard Hippolyta ordering the others to remain behind but on guard before her and Lydia's pounding footsteps joined theirs.
Steve rounded a corner and came up short just inside a cell - there was no other word that would do - where Diana appeared to have wrestled Bucky to the ground, though she struggled to keep him pinned, as his metal arm kept finding purchase that gave him leverage against her.
"Move." Arthur's command was quiet but no less authoritative, and Steve took a step to one side, allowing the Atlantean to pass.
Steve regretted the decision when Arthur took a position near the two who wrestled, twirling his trident so the business end pointed downward.
For long seconds, Arthur simply watched. Then he struck, slamming his trident downward with all his strength - right at Bucky.
"No!" Steve shouted, only then realizing what he was seeing.
The trident sank deep into the dirt floor, effectively pinning Bucky's cybernetic arm in place.
"Thank you," Diana panted. "If anyone has something that can bind his feet and free arm, I would appreciate it."
"Allow me." Tony's voice, amplified and echoing thanks to the armor, prompted Steve to allow Tony to pass, as well.
Less than a minute later, Iron Man had fired a bola at Bucky's feet, effectively tying them together, and another device that reminded Steve of a grappling hook, only with the hooks turned outward rather than inward, to pin Bucky's flesh arm.
Bucky was effectively pinned, and whether it was the result of the pinning or simply exhaustion, his screams died to whimpers.
"Again, thank you." Diana squirmed free and rose unsteadily to her feet. Arthur, nearest to her, offered a hand to steady her, and she took it with a grateful smile.
Once more, a spike of envy - no, jealousy - stabbed through Steve, and he fought it down, keeping his voice steady through sheer willpower when he asked, "What happened?"
Diana laughed softly, coiling the Lasso almost automatically, he thought. "I had an object lesson in the concept that the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
"What is this hell?" Hippolyta asked, "And how do good intentions get you there?"
Steve floundered, wondering how to explain the concept to someone who had no concept of sin, but Diana spoke before he could find words.
"Think of it as Tartarus, only with far more severe punishments," she said. "The meaning is that however benevolent one's intentions, one's actions can still lead to sin."
Hippolyta considered that for a moment. "What were your intentions, then, and what actions did you take?"
Diana straightened and, to Steve's surprise, turned to face him before she spoke. "I meant only to help a friend and a brother in arms, and by virtue of helping him, also help my Agapitos."
It was only thanks to serum-enhanced senses that Steve noticed - felt more than saw - Hippolyta's flinch at the term Diana used.
But Diana continued, "With Hestia's Lasso wrapped around his flesh hand, I ordered him to remember the truth of who he was, and where, and when. And then he screamed. He fought, and we struggled until you arrived."
Tony's faceplate retracted. "I don't know how that rope of yours works, but if he's been brainwashed and tortured - very likely, given who he was and what he's become - it might not make for a good mix."
"Obviously, it didn't," Diana said, and met Steve's gaze once again. "I am sorry for hurting him."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Steve said as gently as he could. Still, she flinched at his words, and he would have said more, but a raspy voice cut him off.
"Hurt like hell, but it was worth it."
"Bucky." Steve crouched beside his best friend. "You are Bucky, right?"
"More or less," Bucky answered, and Steve hoped he wasn't imagining the hint of humor lacing Bucky's tone. "Mind letting me up?"
Steve glanced at the others in the room, assessing their states of mind as best he could in the circumstance. Tony stood against the far wall with a clear line of sight. Diana had backed up toward the cell entrance, her lasso coiled loosely in her hand, ready for use in a heartbeat. Arthur rested one foot on his trident, apparently to hold it in place, but seemed open to whatever might happen next.
Hippolyta and Lydia frowned at the display, but the Amazon queen met his gaze and gave him the slightest of nods. Steve took that as permission to proceed as he saw fit. He only hoped he wouldn't regret it.
"Go ahead."
If the King of Atlantis thought it strange to be taking orders from a nearly-century-old man, he gave no sign. Instead, he removed first the grappling device that restrained Bucky's flesh arm, then pulled his trident free, stepping away from Bucky as he did.
"If you wouldn't mind," he said to Lydia. She frowned at him, and he sighed. "You're the only one with a blade."
"I can handle this," Bucky replied and, with some effort from his cybernetic hand, managed to snap the cable binding his ankles together.
"Huh." Tony sounded more amused than anything else. "Gonna have to take that back to the drawing board."
Steve kept his attention on Bucky, who simply sat on the dirt floor for long moments, flexing fingers and toes, before climbing to his feet. Steve rose with him, keeping a wary eye on his friend from childhood.
"Bucky?" he asked finally, bracing himself for … he didn't know what.
"Who else would I be, punk?" And there was that grin Steve remembered. He didn't remember the shadows in Bucky's eyes, though.
"Zima soldat," Diana said quietly from behind Bucky, and Steve saw his friend flinch.
"I was that," Bucky said, meeting Steve's gaze. "But not by choice. Never by choice."
"I know, Buck," Steve told him.
Bucky turned to face Diana, and Steve heard the surprise in his tone when he said, "Princess? What are you doing here?"
Diana smiled gently. "This is Themyscira, my home. You were part of Hydra's invasion force."
"I was? I am so sorry," Bucky said. "They have words - words that make me do what they tell me. I didn't have a choice."
Hippolyta took a step forward to rest a hand on Bucky's shoulder - his metal one, Steve noted idly - her expression serious now.
"We do not blame the arrow for the killing strike, rather the archer," Hippolyta said. "Do you know these words, that we may avoid them?"
Bucky shook his head. "No - I don't think so."
"I'll have JARVIS and Stone comb Hydra's records," Tony said. "There's got to be something, somewhere."
Bucky turned to Tony, and Steve saw the frown creasing his forehead. "Do I know you?"
"No, but you knew my father. Tony Stark." Tony offered his armored hand.
"Howard settled down?" Bucky shot a glance at Steve even as he took Tony's hand. "With wh- not with Agent Carter?"
Tony laughed. "Aunt Peggy would've killed him if he'd done more than flirt with her. No, my mom's name was Maria."
"How long have I been -" Bucky broke off. "How long?"
"It's 2012," Arthur said.
Bucky's shoulders slumped, ever so slightly. "I have a lot to catch up on. "
"I'm not caught up yet, myself," Steve said. "We can learn together."
"Sure," Bucky agreed. "As soon as you tell me how you made it to 2012 without looking any different than the last time I saw you."