"Bruce." I smiled softly as he placed a tender kiss to my shoulder and then temple before giving me his attention. Before today he'd only seen a few of the scattered scars my body bore and had since been sure to touch his lips to each as he took in every curve of mine.

"Hm?" He murmured against my skin, his arm coiling around my middle as if he were afraid I'd leave too soon.

I rolled onto my side so that I could face him, resting my hand on the side of his face and gently toying with the ends of his curls with my fingertips, "I'm just – I know I've always been kind of a mess, but I'm glad that I met you."

He stopped, staring at me for a long moment before he replied, "After everything?" There was a sense of disbelief in his voice as he grappled with the idea.

I nodded, though I'd had my own reservations about admitting such. Anything that I remembered about him aligned with what'd I'd known recently, but I couldn't help but wonder if it were the same for him or if he'd been hoping that I'd return to my former self after some time.

"Why are you always so surprised?" I didn't expect an answer as he continued to look at me. Beyond the self-loathing he'd embraced after the accident I suspected the majority of his self-doubt and generally warped view of himself stemmed from much further back. "You know, one day you're going to believe me when I tell you that I care about you." I smiled, filling in the silence before it could settle between us.

He blinked, "And one day you'll stop telling yourself that you are as a mess. Maybe one day you'll see what I do." With a shrug he continued, "We can both hope."

"It's disgusting how you always have something sweet to say." I sat up and he grinned.

"Sorry?" He followed suit and sat up with a sigh, "Can't promise that I'll work on it though."

"Lady Rachel."

"Please, just Rachel."

The demigod nodded, "Rachel, what troubles you?"

"It's just been too quiet." I shrugged my shoulders in a physiological attempt to shake the uneasy feeling, "I don't like giving them this much time to prepare, you know?"

I took a small step forward as his hand came down in a solid clap on the back in a show of camaraderie, "We have been doing the same, have we not? You mustn't allow doubt to cloud your mind. It will cause you to waver in battle."

"Almost two weeks? It would be foolish not to think about what could happen."

"And in that time we have studied and grown." He countered swiftly, undeterred by my expression.

I conceded with a small nod, "I just wonder if it'll be enough. It seems they are never truly gone."

At that he tilted his head as he regarded me, "There are Asgardian creatures that return after many years of lying dormant, but our people have always come together to defeat them when the time comes. Hydra is no different."

I could feel my eyebrows furrow as I regarded him, "And your people don't seek a permanent solution?"

"For most problems we do, though some creatures exist to keep a balance. If they ceased to exist, another would surely take their place. It just happens to overlap with our people at times."

"Hydra serves no purpose. They only serve themselves."

"You are a warrior, are you not?" His eyebrows rose expectantly.

"Only if I need to be." I frowned. I wanted to distance myself from conflict as much as I could, though recently that hadn't been the case. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since I'd been a normal person working my office job across the street. Now, a warrior? At least, that's what Thor seemed to think.

"Mhm." He murmured as much as he could in his booming tone, "Some of the most formidable warriors I have met have become so because they have spent so much time developing strategies for almost any conceivable outcome. Perhaps this is a strength you have yet to refine?"

"I wouldn't call worry a strength."

"At first, perhaps not. Those who develop and refine their foresight, however, are invaluable."

I nodded as I considered his perspective, this time more convinced. Behind his generally cheerful nature and clumsy social skills it was easy to forget that Thor had spent what would be centuries here fighting and growing as a warrior. To him, the majority of Midgard was behind in both technology and ideology.

After a deep breath I smiled, "Thanks, Thor. I do appreciate the way you've interpreted things." I turned and made my way across the kitchen, headed straight for the pantry, "I need some coffee. Should I make an extra pot?" It was too early to think too much on it.

"Of course!" His eyes lit up. Breakfast was his favorite time of the day, "I'll get the pop-tarts."

"Breakfast of champions." My smile widened.

"I swear that's the only reason he came back to earth." Tony shuffled into the room right on time for his morning smoothie.

"They are quite delicious. I think I will try the…wild blueberry flavor today." He retrieved the selected variety from the pantry with a smile and excited glint in his eyes. "Have you tried them, Stark?"

"I think I'm gonna pass this time, Point Break. There's only so much sugar one can ingest for breakfast."

I knew the smile lingered across my face as the aroma of fresh coffee began to permeate the air. Opening the nearest cabinet, I retrieved two coffee mugs, pausing for a moment as Tony passed behind me with an armful of ingredients for his green drink.

"Hey, when you're all done can you come meet me in the lab? I've got something pretty cool to show you."

"Um, sure." He continued to shuffle past me in his pursuit of his morning ritual before I could ask any questions. His tone didn't seem urgent, but it did pique my curiosity.

I followed Tony up to the lab as the others began to congregate in the kitchen. He took a dep breath as the doors to the lab opened as if breathing in the excitement of a new day. Being surrounded by tech and infinite possibilities was the highlight of his day, only surpassed by the love-struck look that you could occasionally see when Pepper turned her back to him.

"Morning, Big Guy." He chimed as he passed a green smoothie to his friend.

"Morning." Bruce nodded, taking a substantial sip of the drink he'd decided to supplement his breakfast—or lack thereof— with. His gaze met mine and he swallowed again, this time slightly apprehensive as he set the glass down and wrung his hands, "Rachel." He acknowledged, a small smile ghosting across his face.

Tony looked between us, rolling his eyes when he noticed Bruce's expression, "Do you trust me?" He asked aloud with an expectant look to the two of us.

"Well that's a loaded question, don't you think?" I smirked and the billionaire scoffed.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you." He quipped, "Seriously though, honest answer."

I raised an eyebrow, "Yes, but why do you ask?"

"Bruce?" He turned on his heel.

"Tony, you know it's not that. It's just—"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes."

"You see, he's concerned." Tony began, answering my first unspoken question as he retrieved a small box from the top drawer of the desk he stood next to. "Try these on for me please." He interjected, interrupting his own train of thought as he opened the box to reveal two silver plated cuffs.

I didn't comment on the disproportionate weight of each cuff as I clipped them around my wrists and listened as he continued. Bruce shifted uncomfortably, but took another sip of his green smoothie as Tony continued.

"Those are especially designed for you. When you touch your thumbs to the inside of the cuffs they'll expand into braces that should provide a bit of protection as well as a little boost whenever you need it." He waited until I did so, nodding in approval as the telescopic cuffs unfurled around my arms, almost down to my elbows and up to my first set of knuckles. Between the small spaces in the plates I could see bands of white light reminiscent of his arc reactor. "They're made of a mildly radioactive isotope of nitinol encased in a normal isotope coupled with extremely small reactors in each."

I flexed my wrists and hands, somewhat surprised by the range of motion the braces allowed. "How long will they last?"

"It would take an incredible amount of energy loss to cause the arc reactors to burn out. If left alone, they would run for twenty years or so." He glanced at Bruce from the corner of his eyes before looking back to me, "It isn't impossible to draw that much energy from them, but it is highly unlikely."

"Rachel, I'm worried about the headaches that you get when there's an abundance of radiation present." Bruce stepped around the table he'd been working at and joined Tony and I where we stood. "I know you can process radiation in a beneficial way, but the headaches might be an early indication that you are taking in energy faster than you can process it and the excess may be causing damage."

"Oh…" I trailed. Even Tony didn't disagree. "Even so, I heal much faster now."

"True, but at a certain point it could become harder to recover from, so you should probably take it easy so that—"

"I will." I cut Tony off before he could finish the thought. I remembered the majority of my stay in the hospital before Hydra. Neither Bruce nor I needed a refresher of what too much radiation would mean.

The uneasy expression remained written across Bruce's face as he eyed the braces warily. He averted his gaze and took a deep breath before looking back to me, eyebrows raised slightly as they waited for my thoughts.

I touched the inside of each wrist with my thumbs and watched the braces collapse back into cuffs, exposing my arms to the chilled air of the lab and raising goosebumps along my forearms. "I like the idea." Nodding, I removed them from my wrists and placed them back into their box. "And it'd be better to keep them with me just in case."

"Good." Tony smiled, placing a hand on Bruce's shoulder to reassure his friend as he murmured in agreement. "Trust me, he'd be much more enthusiastic if it weren't for the situation at hand."

I sighed as my own stomach began to knot uncomfortably, "Did you get to work on the other thing?"

The mood between the three of us shifted, becoming somber and quiet in seconds. Bruce wrung his hands together again, but remined quiet as he excused himself and returned to his work station. Tony exhaled and nodded, "Yeah, I even got some help from Cap testing them out." He withdrew a second box from the nearest desk. "They're a lot like the ones Hydra had in D.C, but they're designed to be drawn to one another by electromagnetic force. Each set will do so independently of the other so it's a pretty seamless process once applied." He opened the box to reveal two sets of much heavier, solid cuffs.

"Thank you."

He hesitated, guiding me to the other side of the room and out of earshot of Bruce, "Look, we admire what you're trying to do, but you've got to put yourself first. You get that, right?"

"I've never had to – " A frown took shape across my lips as I looked down to the boxes I held and back to Tony. My mouth went dry as I swallowed, unable to explain fully. Eric had always been the one to make the hardest decisions when it came to actually killing someone. Sometimes I could have sworn he'd even dialed it back when I was there, though he'd insist that I'd have to toughen up eventually. He'd never admit to shielding me, but he always had some excuse for why he was the better choice to neutralize threats when the time came. He would swear up and down that I'd freeze, which was true, but like so many other hard lessons I'd learned there I knew he could have pushed me if he really wanted to.

A small stretch of silence passed between us before he spoke, softer this time, "He was always the one." He finished my thought and I nodded. "Damn…" He sighed.

"I know he's dangerous. I get that." Frowning, I trailed off, "I just…"

"You don't think he's all bad, I heard." He indicated his friend on the other side of the lab with a minimal gesture of the head, "Despite what he thinks, you're probably right about that."

I could feel my eyebrows knit themselves together as I listened, but I was a bit less defensive after hearing his last statement. I really didn't want to get into the same thing Bruce, Clint, Natasha, and even Steve and I had gotten into over the past few days.

"I don't know the guy and can't say that I really want to, but I have been doing some digging over the last few weeks. It doesn't seem like he was ever really the most inviting character, but something definitely snapped when he was with S.H.I.E.L.D. Ask Jarvis for the file on him if you want to read more, but a good bit is still redacted. My point is, everyone has a story and most people aren't inherently evil, but the actions that we make have consequences." He exhaled, visibly piecing together his thoughts before he continued, obviously out of his element, "Even if there's something left, some humanity – some empathy – or whatever you want to call it; you can't let that get in the way if you run out of options."

Nodding, I sighed. I knew what they were saying was true, but somehow the thought of killing someone – someone I knew – was still an idea that had yet to settle in my mind. "Only if I have to."

"Look, I know that's asking a lot. You may not have been on the best terms, but you still worked with him for some time." He paused as he considered the gravity of his next statement, "You trusted him at one point."

I scoffed, sighing before looking back to Tony, "He betrayed that trust from the start."

He eyed me quizzically, "…But you don't hate him. And you're angry at yourself because you feel that you should."

"It would make everything easier." I admitted, out loud and to myself. After everything, I wanted to hate Eric. I wanted to remember only the hurt that he brought so that I would have undeniable proof that my actions were in the right. And yet, it wasn't that simple. All reason screamed at me to simply act based on the facts, but I was having trouble simplifying the previous few years into two outcomes. Life or death. At least, that is how all options presented themselves to me.

"It would blind you." With a heavy sigh Tony's face softened, "And then you might lose a part of yourself."

"Haven't I already?" I stared out of the nearest window for a moment. The lab overlooked my former workplace. My former life.

"Would you take it all back?" His eyes followed my gaze before studying my expression.

There was a long silence between the two of us before I finally tore my gaze away from the skyline, "…No."

The corners of his mouth turned upward and he made a noise of approval, "Why not?"

"Because I'd have to give up the good that came with the bad, the people I've met and the things I've learned." He crossed his arms and nodded as if waiting for me to continue, an eyebrow raised. I thought for a moment, glancing over to Bruce and then down at the boxes I held, "And because I'm stronger than this. It will be hard, but I'm going to grow from this. Everything that Hydra instilled can't be what I let define me, so I have to make another path for myself."

He smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder, "You'll be fine. We'll make it through this together and then you can take the time to figure out where that path will go."

I mirrored his smile, feeling somewhat lighter than I had when I'd entered the lab. I hadn't been able to be completely honest with myself or the others about why the upcoming confrontation got under my skin the way that it did. Now, having admitted to myself why that was, I was able to navigate my own feelings much easier.

"Judging by the satellite image, we will have two points of entry" Steve pointed to the respective areas as the image zoomed in, "The high ground seems to be the exit where they are most likely to try to escape, so Natasha, Clint, and I will remain undetected for as long as possible and secure as many agents and objects as possible."

We all nodded, taking in the cliffside landscape that the base had been built upon. The steep incline with water to one side along with the remote location discouraged unwelcome visits despite the otherwise gorgeous scenery.

"Hulk and Thor will lead from the main entrance and attract most of the mutated agents. Tony and Rachel will follow them inside and search for Sterns."

Another nod, we'd gone over this before and nothing had changed. It was the last chance to make any revisions or voice any concerns, but by this point everything was just about settled. He looked to each of us before giving a small nod of approval.

"Alright, then it's settled. We leave first thing in the morning so rest up." He concluded, lagging behind to say a few last words to Tony before sighing to himself as the others left to get what sleep they could.

"I'll be there soon." I murmured, hand lingering in Bruce's before he nodded and headed down the hall.

"Everything okay?" Steve's brows furrowed slightly when he realized that I'd stayed behind with him.

"Yeah, it's just that you seem…off." I probed, mirroring his actions and taking a seat on the couch.

He shifted as he thought, "I almost feel like I shouldn't be telling this to you of all people, but I'm nervous about what we will find."

I exhaled with a small huff of laughter, "Don't take this from me, Cap. I'm just glad that I'm not the wreck this time."

"Thanks." His comment came out dryly, but the hint of a smirk turned the corners of his mouth upwards before he grew serious again. "I just don't feel like I'll be prepared to see what they did to him. We were close, closer than some brothers. How could they change that?"

"He's still there, I think. Just under all of that…conditioning." I frowned. He was right, there would be a lot of equipment in that base. I'd never even fully understood what all of it had done let alone seen it all.

He placed a hand on my shoulder and I realized that I must have shivered, "Rachel, are you sure that you-"

I nodded, "I'm positive." It was the closure I needed to finish this chapter of my life, I just knew it. I wanted to see it hollowed out and pulled apart so that no one else could go through the same thing. I wanted to be a part of that. "What about you?" I asked after a moment. This most certainly wasn't the end for him. We both knew Bucky wouldn't be there.

"I'll find him, but for now I'll have to settle for recovering some of the equipment that was used." He stated with finality. "Once Tony and Bruce take a look at it we'll have more information that we can use."

"Steve…" I paused as he looked at me, the confusion and apprehension clear in his expression as he convinced himself that what he'd said was simply how it was going to be. "I don't think having the equipment will help you find him." I continued quickly before the hurt could fully register across his face, "I think the answer is already with you and you just haven't thought of it yet."

"I've looked every chance that I get." He seemed almost exasperated as he waited for me to elaborate.

"When you woke up from the ice, you ran. Where were you going to go?"

"Somewhere safe…somewhere quiet so that I could think about my next move."

"For Bucky, that is anywhere Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have a large presence or influence. So all of the information that we have, that we will get from tomorrow, will tell you where he isn't. You know him better than anyone, it should help you narrow it down and catch up to him."

He thought, smiling when he'd reached the same conclusion that I had. "Vague, but that does narrow the search considerably."

"You should get some rest, Steve." I stood, "You're the one that said four in the morning after all." Smirking, I began to make my way down the hall.

"I did say that, didn't I?" He nodded his thanks and headed in the opposite direction with a considerably brighter expression on his face.

The light bleeding through the small space at the bottom of the door told me that Bruce was still awake before I entered the room. Still, I approached quietly as to not cause any unwanted noise at this time of night. Bruce had changed his clothes, sitting up with a tablet in hand and scrolling down the page as he read. He paused, smiling up at me as I entered the room, "Is Steve okay?"

"Mhm, just sort of nervous." I gathered my own pajamas into my arms as I stopped to give him a quick kiss on my way to the bathroom.

"Rachel – right." He stopped himself from asking. We'd been over this many times. We were all going to go.

I'd changed my clothes, brushed my teeth and washed my face before reentering the room to see him still on the tablet. "Bruce, you're going to be exhausted if you don't get some sleep."

He shook his head, placing the tablet on the nightstand as I crossed the room to turn off the lights before crawling into the bed, "It's not what you think."

I raised a brow, uncertain if he could see my expression as our eyes adjusted to the darkness, relying on the light from the city to illuminate our surroundings. "Do tell. What, outside of your most recent research has managed to capture your attention at such an important time then?" I teased, placing my head on his chest and listening to the beat of his heart as his arm wrapped around with his hand coming to rest on my side.

"I was looking at travel destinations." A pause passed between us and I looked up at him, catching the smile that had settled across his lips. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply and leaving his fingers to trace up and down my side as he mused quietly, "I've decided that it would be less stressful to cross tomorrow's bridge when we get there. It's easier to think about what happens afterwards, after everything is settled and we have time to move on."

I'd been unable to think that far ahead. Hearing it out loud, realizing that I'd confined my thoughts to those of the next day surprised me. We talked, sure, but the time was approaching quickly to where we would have to think of what we would do after Hydra had been taken care of. Somewhere in my mind I hadn't been able to allow that to sink in. I'd felt Hydra would always be there in one way or another.

"Where did you have in mind?" After another moment I spoke, trying to imagine being outside of the tower without a mission.

"Spain, maybe Greece…I hadn't really finished looking, but somewhere neither of us have traveled to."

"So we can get lost and have stories to tell, right?" I smiled.

"Yes, actually." He chuckled, "Somewhere we can afford to not think too much and simply enjoy the moment. I don't particularly mind where that is, to be honest."

"As long as there's water and a view I could wander for days. No destination, just experiences." I agreed with him. Though to be fair, I'd never really had a clear picture of where I was headed to begin with.

His arm tightened around me, drawing me closer as he touched his lips to the top of my head, "Sounds like a plan." He sighed contentedly. We remained that way for a long while, drifting in and out of an uneasy sleep as we tried to prepare for the day that stood between us and our plans.