A/N: Bless you guys for being patient. This is the hardest semester of my life so far… New chapter of The Original Three also coming up really soon! As always, I LOVE reviews. And did you guys see the official Age of Ultron teaser trailer?! Amazing! I seriously can't wait for this movie.


McGuire's men marched Team Beta out of the house at gunpoint. There was a cellar built into the ground a few feet away from the house, the doors extended at an almost-horizontal slant about half a foot off the ground. Bucky's mind didn't stop roving, spinning, calculating. He had been this way as the Winter Soldier as well: he had never thought about human things—had never considered how beautiful the sky looked, had never cared for the welfare of anyone around him—but he'd definitely cared about tactical things. Always thinking about entrance routes, escape routes, weak points in buildings and people's bodies, best ways to extract information. He was doing the same now except his brain was working twice as hard because he did have the human aspect now; the urge to make sure he kept his team safe.

Bucky knew their chances weren't good. They were outnumbered to the point where even if he managed to quickly take out several of McGuire's men, someone on his team would likely be killed. He would never have admitted this out loud but had his team not included Ari, he might have even chanced the death of one of his team members. Death was an ugly but inevitable part of this life. But since Ari was here…he wasn't going to risk it. Ari, Steve, Sam—these were the kinds of people Bucky didn't want to put in danger from his own doing. If they put themselves at risk on their own, there was nothing he could do about that—but he certainly didn't want to be the one to get them killed.

Also, if he was being completely honest, he was darkly curious about what McGuire wanted to talk about. He was sure that it would be psychotic—these HYDRA leaders always were, no matter what their outward appearance belayed—but he still wanted to hear because he wanted the information. He wanted to know all the facts, all the variables that surrounded his life. That way it would be harder for him to be ambushed or tricked. He'd already make a mistake in letting go of the suspicious signs they'd encountered earlier; if he'd just tried to figure things out, then they might not be in this mess…

But they were. So Bucky was going to hear McGuire out while thinking of a way to get them all out of this mess alive.

One of McGuire's men flung open the cellar doors with a loud bang and Team Beta was roughly prodded with guns to get them moving down the stairs. They descended into the cellar, which was cool and smelled thickly of dust and dirt. In fact, Bucky almost tasted dirt and dust in his mouth when he opened it; the air was cottony and thick and stale. It was disgusting but he'd been in worse. He heard a faint yanking noise and then a dim yellow light bulb on the ceiling flickered to life, dully illuminating the cellar. It was quite large and had dusty, faded, and ripped cardboard boxes piled with junk stacked up against the grimy, dirty walls. The floor looked like a mixture of cement and cracked, baked dirt. Seven rusty metal gurneys lay in the middle of the room and something twisted painfully inside Bucky's stomach.

Laying on a cold, hard metal surface… His forehead and whole body felt sticky and hot and cold all at once. He blinked the fogginess and sweat out of his eyes. His mouth was dry and cottony, dried spit on his chin and cheek. He tried to lift his right hand to rub at his face and realized it was locked to his side, the cold of the cuff cutting painfully into his wrist. He could see blurry shapes moving around but the light overhead hurt his eyes and he closed them, tried desperately to lift his right hand. He couldn't manage more than a weak jerk; his whole body felt sore and slow as molasses, as if he had been hit with a battering ram several times over. He tried to life his left arm and—

He couldn't feel anything.

What?

Something was wrong. His head spun and pain washed over his body in throbbing waves but—something else was wrong—

Something cold and hard held his neck to the table he was strapped to but he managed to lift his head an inch and turn to look at his left arm.

It wasn't there.

It—

A hysterical scream built up in his chest as he blinked, mouth open, staring in horror and shock at…the space where his arm was supposed to be. His shoulder was just a stump covered in white gauzy bandages and stained with blood and—

WHERE WAS HIS ARM?

He tried to scream but his voice wasn't strong enough so he began to weakly cry, hoarse and muffled shrieks and sobs, tearing at his chest. Tears mixing with sweat on his face. The fear and pain and confusion—he didn't understand what kind of nightmare he was trapped in—the last thing he remembered was Steve's face screwed up in a silent yell—

Memories didn't hit Bucky now like they used to before he got most of his memories back. They didn't smack into his mind like a snapped rubber band. He could anticipate them, they weren't a massive shock…but they still hurt him. His mind always throbbed after experiencing a particularly clear flashback, especially one that had to do with HYDRA and what they had done to him. He touched his throbbing head for a second as Ari shot him a concerned look and then McGuire said, "On the gurneys, please."

"Are—is this a joke?" Chang demanded. "You can't be serious! This isn't a Saw movie!"

"Shut up!" Tate hissed, his face pale. "Don't give him ideas!"

McGuire's pale silvery eyes rolled slightly, as if he couldn't believe the stupidity of the team before him. Bucky almost couldn't blame him. These guys weren't the most professional agents he'd ever worked with: young, emotional, reckless. Except for Kaplan, who had been silent and stoic so far and was scanning the cellar. His mind was on the same tracks as Bucky's, Bucky could tell; he was looking for an escape. For just a moment Bucky missed Agent Lewinski. She'd been a useful asset in moments of urgency, all professional control and precise movements. "No, this is no joke. Just get on the gurneys, please. This is just a security measure—I'm not planning on torturing you yet."

Everyone went still at the use of the word "yet" and Tate began silently mouthing something to himself. Probably a prayer or something equally useless in this situation. They didn't have a choice, so they all climbed into a gurney and lay down on them. Ari was right next to Bucky, who was at the far right end. McGuire's guards went around strapping them all down. Allowing the man to strap down Ari and then himself without ripping the man's larynx out was one of the most difficult things Bucky was sure he'd ever had to do; his fingers itched and trembled with the urge to violently kill every single person in the room who wasn't a part of Team Beta. He couldn't believe HYDRA had somehow gotten him strapped back to a gurney. A strange burning sensation rose up in his gut. Bile. He had never felt so humiliated in his life, not even when Ari had bathed him. He struggled to control his breathing and focus on the present and not dark memories of the previous times he'd been strapped to a gurney. Luckily this cellar was nothing like HYDRA's state-of-the-art facilities and he was only strapped down with thin black bands. Many of them, sure, but they were nothing he couldn't use brute strength to snap through if he really wanted to. In fact, he could easily have killed any man who even tried to tie him down. He was letting them tie him down…letting them get off their guard.

He just needed to hear McGuire out first before he made his move. And if this was the only way to do it—then so be it. He would pretend to be strapped down and hear McGuire out if it kept his team safe.

One of McGuire's men went around and patted them all down, wresting any remaining hidden weapons from their persons. When McGuire was satisfied that all the members of Team Beta had been strapped down and disarmed, he began to speak.

"Now, you're probably wondering why I'm going to these lengths," he said. "Well, it's simple. I have no dastardly master plan. I just don't want any of you getting any funny ideas and trying to attack me! You might call me 'the bad guy' but I really would like to avoid unnecessary bloodshed."

"You want to avoid bloodshed and yet you're a part of HYDRA," Ari said coldly, staring up at the ceiling, arms pinned to her sides. "What did you think Project Insight was going to do? Cuddle people to death?"

Bucky was suddenly afraid for Ari. When she became impassioned, she could be somewhat reckless. He didn't want her getting herself killed because she was mouthing off but he had no way of warning her without letting on that he cared about her. He knew that was the one thing he had to avoid most: showing any favoritism in front of McGuire. That would be revealing his weakness. Bucky didn't have many weaknesses but the few people he cared about…they were his weaknesses.

McGuire shrugged, thankfully not taking offense at Ari's rude tone. "You're right. Did I personally come up with that plan or particularly agree with it? No. I don't actually really care about world domination. But I do care about winning and staying on top—and HYDRA seems like the winner to me. Then there's also the teeny, tiny matter of HYDRA giving me my eyesight—thus cementing my loyalty to them…for as long as they seem like the winning team. My gratitude doesn't extend to them if they become the losing team."

"Haven't you ever read any stories?" Ari asked. "Good always wins in the end."

"Those are stories, my dear," McGuire said, "not reality. In my experience, good wins—but at great costs. Evil, on the other hand, wins at no cost because…well, we're willing to cross any boundaries." He shrugged again. "So I'll take on the cloak of 'evil' and HYDRA if it means I get to win without losing anything I care about."

"Which is what?" Bucky asked harshly.

"Money," said McGuire.

Silence blanketed the room. Bucky didn't glance over to see how his teammates looked but he could only image they had varying expressions of shock and surprise on their faces. Of course, it was a well-known fact that "bad guys" were often motivated by money…but rarely did any wrongdoer ever actually admit that. It simply made them seem too basic, to use modern day terms. The fact that McGuire had simply admitted what he really wanted instead of dancing around with slippery words and metaphors almost made Bucky respect him.

Almost.

"Are you surprised?" McGuire asked to the room at large, correctly interpreting everyone's silence. "I know. Most 'evildoers' always have some pretty speech about world domination and 'for the greater good', right? I don't. I've already told you: I don't care about those things, personally. I follow HYDRA because HYDRA is powerful and they helped me—and if world domination is what'll get me to my goals, then I accept that."

He's insane, Bucky realized with a start. He's absolutely insane. He's willing to let the world burn just to get what he wants. He doesn't even harbor any delusions about "saving people"—he doesn't even care about pretending to have good intentions.

This man may be more dangerous than Pierce or Hoffman…

"So what do we have to do with that?" Kaplan demanded from the other side of the cellar, his voice tense.

"You?" McGuire asked, sounding surprised. "Nothing. It's only your bad luck that the rest of you stumbled into this. Who I'm interested in is the Winter Soldier."

"We don't call him that," Kaplan said sharply and Bucky felt a momentary pang of gratitude towards Kaplan, a man he wasn't particularly wasn't close to but was defending him nonetheless.

"I know, I know, you can spare me that whole He's a new man speech," said McGuire. He walked over to Bucky's gurney and looked down at him with his eerie blank eyes. Bucky stared up straight into his eyes with as cold and dead eyes as he could muster. And he knew he could look very cold and dead when he wanted to. A part of him would always be frozen and decaying and it only took moments to tap into that part of him. Was there a term for necrosis of the soul? Because if there was, Bucky would have been diagnosed with it.

"I know you're not a new man," McGuire said softly, reaching out tentatively—as if he were afraid Bucky would rip his arm off (which, to be fair, Bucky could easily do if he so chose to) though it was probably because he couldn't see very well—and touching Bucky's shoulder. His human shoulder. McGuire's grip seemed cold and Bucky imagined he could almost feel it through his armor, even though that couldn't be possible. Something about his touch felt cold and prickly, like frost was growing up on Bucky's shoulder and neck, giving him frostbite. "You can sing that song and tell that tale to whoever you want. In fact, you probably even believe it yourself. But we both know, deep down, that's not true. You're just always suppressing it, aren't you?"

Bucky tried his hardest to block out McGuire's words. He tried his hardest to plan out an escape route without getting Team Beta killed. But his mind kept slipping away from him and his brain filled with images of ripping McGuire apart limb from limb. And when the Winter Soldier said "limb from limb", he quite literally meant limb from actual limb, skin and muscle and bones and blood in piles on the floor. His mouth filled with a coppery, electric taste and it felt like his mind was making strange clicking, grinding noises that were amplified and echoed by his cybernetic arm. His mind was a mechanical, dark place and he could feel himself slipping into the Winter Soldier. Accomplishing the mission at all costs. The mission was McGuire.

McGuire was right. He was always suppressing it.

"You might want to be careful," came a voice from behind McGuire. A high-pitched voice, a female's voice…Ari. Ari's voice. Ari's voice jolted Bucky from his temporary slip back into the depths of the Winter Soldier's mind and made him re-focus, blinking. "You seem awfully eager to make Soldier become the Winter Soldier again. But I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into. Do you think he's some sort of pet that can be controlled? The only reason HYDRA could control was him was because they had mind controlling and brain washing techniques."

McGuire let go of Bucky's shoulder and slowly turned around to look down at Ari.

"But you don't have those techniques," Ari said quietly. "Do you think you'd be able to control him? The Winter Soldier minus his brain washing isn't someone you want to encounter."

"You sound like you know from personal experience," McGuire said in a slightly odd tone, a calculating note creeping into his voice.

Shit. She's going to give herself away. While Bucky quickly thought about how to interrupt to stop Ari from letting on that she knew him, she spoke first and said, "I don't. I've done my research, though. When you let a monster lead your team, you want to know what you're up against." Her voice was cold.

Bucky could suddenly hear the pounding of his heart in his ears and the bloody taste in his mouth increased. Monster. A monster. When you let a monster lead your team, you want to know what you're up against. He knew that, somewhere deep inside, the word should have been hurting him. But he didn't feel hurt. Part of it may have been the fact that he knew Ari was purposefully saying cruel things to throw McGuire off the fact that she was friends with him…but a part of it may have been that he agreed with Ari's words. He'd thought he was under control, back when he'd gotten his memories back, but recently with these day terrors and nightmares…well, Bucky wasn't sure if he was fully human yet. He wanted to be but he was becoming frightened with his own behavior.

"Be as that may be," McGuire said carefully, "I need the Winter Soldier. Pierce and Hoffman are gone—and oh yes, I know what happened to Hoffman! Caused quite a scandal within HYDRA, you can imagine; the Winter Soldier turning on his masters and throwing one off the roof!—but there are others out there and they want the Winter Soldier. Whether to retrain as a weapon or with a bounty on his head…I don't know, nor do I care. All I know is that if I show up towing him alongside me, I'll be rewarded and cemented a much higher status in HYDRA. And then I'll get what I want."

His proclamation was met by silence again. McGuire took the opportunity to say, "So, Winter Soldier…you can think it over now. Come with us willingly and I'll let your team go back home scot free. What do I care if they leave? They can't track us down and it'll do SHIELD—or whatever's left of you idiots—good to know that the Winter Soldier has deferred again. But force my hand…and you will still come with me but your team will die in the process." McGuire paused and said, as if this had just occurred to me, "Of course, you may not actually care about your team—after all, I don't think robots can care—and in that case, just give me the signal and we'll kill the team and you can come with us willingly."

And with that, McGuire turned and left, commanding his men to stay in the cellar and watch the team. "I'll be in the house waiting," he said. "Come to me when the Winter Soldier decides. Give him time. I'm in no hurry." The cellar doors opened, letting in a rush of cool desert night air and then they slammed shut again with so much force that the cellar ceiling shook a little, dirt and dust floating down upon them.

And then there was silence for a long time. McGuire's men and Avery leaned against the walls and watched the team, who lay silently, not daring to say anything out loud. McGuire's men were spread out and pointing their guns at the team. Avery, for her part, looked bored now that her moment of glory was over and she stood far away from McGuire's men, who were giving her furtive looks. It was clear they didn't trust her. If Bucky made a move, he didn't think he'd get through every man before shots were fired. His team was strapped down with no access to any weapons and they couldn't even form a plan because McGuire's men would hear every single thing they said.

This was a bad situation.

Bucky didn't know how long they all stayed there in frozen silence but it was long enough that McGuire's men began to yawn and grumble. "Come on," one of them snarled, walking over to Bucky and jabbing him sharply in his ribs. Bucky didn't even wince. It didn't hurt. "Decide already! I want to get out of this goddamn desert. Texas is boring as hell."

"McGuire's nuts," one of the men said darkly. "Why is he giving him a choice? Just shoot the team and get out of here already! Jesus Christ…"

"I can't believe you're the Winter Soldier," said the man who had jabbed Bucky, squinting down at him. "You don't look like the world's most dangerous assassin. Are you sure you're the Winter Soldier?"

"He'll look like the Winter Soldier when he's ripping out your eyeballs," Chang muttered darkly.

"Shut up!" barked one of the man and slammed the butt of his gun down on Chang's head. Chang let out a stifled groan of pain and fell silent. Bucky wondered if Chang had been knocked unconscious and his temper flared bright and hot like the sun. This was his team they were messing with. They were mostly idiots, mostly inexperienced, but they were his inexperienced idiots and he was in charge of keeping them safe. And so far, Kaplan and Chang had both defended him in their own ways. Bucky realized they were still counting on him to get them out of this mess.

They weren't counting on Bucky Barnes. They were counting on the Winter Soldier.

Right then and there Bucky decided he had had enough. He didn't want anyone on his team to die but it was time to take action. The best he could do was hope that Team Beta came through unscathed. Just as he decided to snap through his straps and snap the neck of the HYDRA agent staring down at him, one of the men yawned and said, "I could go for some coffee. I'm tired as shit."

"Yeah, I want coffee too," said another man. "There's some inside the kitchen in the house. Go get some, Johnson."

"Go screw yourself," snapped the man who was presumably named Johnson. "I'm not your bitch. Do your own dirty work."

"Make one of the hostages get the coffee," sniggered one of the men.

What happened next was something Bucky was glad he witnessed because he would take inspiration from it for years to come. It happened by chance, too. He had been staring at the ceiling this whole time and he just happened to glance in Ari's direction—only to stare in shock as Ari began to do something very strange. She had been staring at the ceiling with a glassy expression but as the men spoke about wanting coffee, she suddenly struggled against her straps to turn on her sides and began to loudly sob. Bucky's brows furrowed. Ari was tougher than this…what was going on with her? He watched her closely and noticed something interesting: while she was sobbing loudly, there was no evidence of tears on her face. Her sobs also sounded more girlish than usual. Not that Ari was manly by any means—she was quite feminine. But her sobs sounded positively lady-like and hysterical now and Bucky couldn't for the life of him comprehend what she was doing.

"Shut up, bitch!" one of the men said, walking over and slapping her on the head. This made Ari cry even harder and she sobbed out, "I just w-want to go h-home! Please let me go! I can't do this!"

"She's a SHIELD agent?" Johnson asked, his lip curling downwards in disgust. "I knew SHIELD was full of idiots but damn, their standards have seriously gone down. This is why I always say women can't be in the field. Bunch of soft dolls, the whole lot of them." Bucky glanced at Avery and saw that her face had gone red with rage but she remained silent, possibly because she was outnumbered.

"Even Black Widow?" one of men asked slyly.

"Please," scoffed Johnson in an attempt at macho bravado. "I'd destroy that—" and then he called Natasha a few choice words specifically meant for insulting women.

Bucky would have given his other good arm to see this Johnson try to take on Natasha. Natasha would smoke the remains of this man through a pipe and paint her nails with his blood when she was through with him. Bucky didn't particularly like Natasha in terms of personality—she didn't exactly trust him and he knew she could be dangerous to him—but he respected her fighting skills and talent. There was a reason the Widow was an Avenger.

"Hey, I have an idea!" one of them said excitedly. "Make the girl go get us coffee! She can make us some sandwiches while she's at it." They all chuckled and Bucky could have sworn he saw Ari roll her eyes in between fits of hysterical crying but it happened so quickly that he couldn't be sure.

"I don't know…" said the one standing next to Bucky, uncertainty flitting across his face. "She may be a chick but she's still a SHIELD agent. What if she tries something?"

"Oh, grow some balls, Gomez," scoffed Johnson. "She doesn't have weapons and—look at her. What does she weigh, like a hundred pounds? What the hell is she going to do? Here, I'll escort the little miss inside if that makes you feel better. She can make us our coffee and I'll escort her back. Happy?"

"Fine," Gomez relented, clearly tempted by the offer of coffee.

Bucky watched with narrowed eyes as Johnson untied Ari and roughly hauled her up, shoving her towards the door, gun held loosely in his arm. He clearly didn't see Ari as a threat. Unfortunately, Bucky didn't either. Ari wasn't a half-bad fighter now and she could take down someone near her size but Johnson was enormous and he had a weapon. What was Ari going to do?

The cellar doors slammed open and then shut. Silence fell again and Bucky's mind began racing. Ari was out of the cellar now. She was in the clear (if being escorted by Johnson could be called being in the clear). If he made a move now and gunfire broke out…she would be spared. This was definitely a bonus, since Ari was the one he was most worried about.

But…what guarantee did he have that Johnson wouldn't hear the gunfire and kill Ari on the spot inside the house? No guarantee at all. And if he, Bucky, happened to somehow get shot…then his team would be on their own and McGuire—despite saying that he didn't care for bloodshed—would most certainly slaughter them in a brutal way to get revenge for his precious asset being wasted. Bucky didn't care what McGuire said about not liking violence; McGuire was a psychopath (or was it sociopath? Bucky had no idea what the term was these days) and Bucky didn't trust one word that came out of his mouth.

Focus on the moment, his mind whispered to him. Think. Ari's up to something. She's a smart girl. What is she doing? Figure it out.

He strained his mind and tried to think about the various things Ari could be plotting—but try as he might, he couldn't think of anything. Getting into Ari's head was hard for him sometimes because he never quite knew what she would say or do next. Could she be stupid enough to think she could jump Johnson by herself…?

Nope. He couldn't do it. He couldn't understand what was going on and this frustrated him beyond belief.

Time seemed to tick by in increments as slow as molasses. Bucky felt like he had aged another seventy plus years by the time the cellar door slammed open and Ari descended down the stairs, holding a tray full of a random assortment of mugs and a plate of cookies. The smell of sharp coffee filled the stale, dusty, stifling air. "Sorry, boys," said Johnson, following her and barring the cellar doors again. "Stale cookies were all she found. But it's better than nothing." He shoved Ari towards her gurney and strapped her down again. Then he and the other men crowded around the tray, gulping down the coffee and shoving their face full of cookies. Bucky watched in disgust. They had the table manners of wild animals. Just because someone was evil didn't mean they had to eat rudely. Even Avery drank a cup of coffee, slowly walking over and grabbing a mug, sipping it with more manners than the men. They ignored her completely. Bucky wondered if she regretting falling in with this crowd who would always treat her like a second-class citizen. What lure could HYDRA have held for her?

After they were done, they all leaned against the wall again and began conversing about things Bucky didn't care about, clearly energetic after re-fueling with the sugar and caffeine. But something strange began to happen: instead of getting livelier, as should have happened after drinking black coffee, they began to get quieter. Bucky lifted his head slightly to watch them and saw that their eyes were closing and they were yawning and sliding down the wall to the floor. Johnson only had time to say, "Wawazzindacuffee," before collapsing completely.

And then every single man was down and out. It had taken fifteen minutes. Avery had dropped like a stone as well.

"What," came Tate's voice, "the hell just happened?"

"Ari happened," Bucky said, ripping through his straps ferociously in a second and swinging to his feet, kicking the gurney away from him so hard it crashed into the wall behind him and bent slightly. If he went a thousand years before getting on a gurney again, it would still be too soon. He quickly freed his team and they all got to their feet, wobbling slightly on shaky legs and wincing, rubbing their foreheads. Chang staggered forward and nearly tripped over his feet, slamming into Tate's gurney and catching himself just in time.

"Watch out, guys," Ari said. "You've been laying down straight for a few hours. You're going to have a sudden drop in blood pressure and you'll feel dizzy. Take a few breaths and relax for a few moments."

Bucky didn't feel any dizziness but he knew he wouldn't. His biology was superior to theirs thanks to the twisted serum he had received. He folded his arms and let his team get their bearings for a few minutes. Then he turned to Ari and said, "Explain."

Ari smiled grimly and Bucky stored the image of her dark smile away in his memory to reexamine later when he had time. Whenever Ari did something new and surprising, he tried to commit it to memory. Ari would have said he was just trying to build new memories as Bucky Barnes but he had no idea what motivated him to do this.

"Once they got started talking about coffee, I knew I had a chance," she said. "So I started fake crying like some weakling. I knew they'd think I was stupid and weak I and I guessed—or I hoped—that there was a good chance they'd force me to get some coffee or food or something. And my plan worked like a charm. Can you believe those morons? Johnson led me to the kitchen and he didn't even watch me while I made coffee! Which was why I was able to slip these into the coffee." She fished in her pocket and pulled out a tiny Ziploc bag filled with tiny clear gel pills.

"These are prescription sleeping pills," she said. "They work incredibly fast and they're crazy-strong. Normal people with sleeping issues would never get these; these would be for, like, extreme insomniacs who haven't slept in days and are going delirious from a lack of sleep. Or if you need to knock someone out before a surgery. I guess they're like extra-strength anesthetics, in a way. Yeah, that's a better way of looking at them… But anyway, they knock people out and they do it fast. They also dissolve in liquids. So…there it is. Johnson didn't even see me pour them into their coffee."

"I can't believe those idiots didn't even realize you had those in your pocket," Chang said faintly in awe, staring at the bag in Ari's hand. Bucky noticed that he had a large bloody welt on his forehead.

"Well, I'm just a stupid woman, remember?" Ari asked harshly, smiling in a hard way. "They probably didn't expect I could be capable of this."

"Remind me to never cross a woman," Chang said mildly. "Like, ever."

"Right, so what do we do with these guys?" Kaplan asked, getting them back on track. He kicked one of the men on the floor on the head, probably harder than he needed to, but no one protested.

Bucky rifled through their pile of weapons that had been left by the door and pulled out his handgun. "This," he said, clicking the safety off.

"Or," Ari said sharply, "we could just leave them. They didn't do anything to us that warrants a bullet to the brain."

"They're HYDRA," Bucky snapped.

"So were you, once," she said in a pointed tone. For a moment, she and Bucky glared at each other, stuck at an impasse, while the rest of the team looked on nervously. Bucky knew she was right, deep down; he was a new man and he was best friends with Steve Rogers and Steve Rogers would have shown mercy. After all, these men hadn't really hurt them and they were sleeping. Defenseless. Bucky Barnes did not attack defenseless people.

But the Winter Soldier did. And a part of him realized that this was Ari's natural—and foolish—compassion coming through again. These men would have killed them had they gotten the chance. There was no doubt about that. They were HYDRA. They had doubtless killed numerous other innocent people. They might have been complicit in Bucky's torture and brainwashing. Bucky also didn't like how Ari questioned his authority in front of the team he was leading. A good soldier didn't question his general in front of the entire division.

He would if the general was wrong, a voice inside his head whispered. Steve defied his general and snuck off to save you.

He slowly lowered his gun and began strapping himself up with his weapons, tossing weapons back to his team. "We'll leave them down here," he ordered, "and lock the cellar doors so they can't get out. That way we're not responsible for their deaths. Not directly." Bucky stood back while his team gathered their supplies and he quickly jammed his knife into Avery's throat, making sure she bled out silently. He didn't intend to let anyone from HYDRA leave this room but he also didn't want to condemn Avery to assault and violation during her last hours. Men could become depraved creatures when they realized there was no hope left. None of his team even noticed him quickly and silently kill Avery. They filed out of the cellar and Bucky stood back and watched while Chang and Tate and Ari brought up lengths of heavy chain and began locking the cellar doors as tightly closed shut as they could with an inhibited amount of glee. When they were done, the doors were covered in so many chains that Bucky would be surprised if anyone passing by would be able to tell there were doors underneath them.

"Isn't this kind of cruel?" Tate asked, staring down at the door. "They'll slowly starve to death."

"I hope they eat each other," Chang said maliciously.

"They'll find a way out if they want to," Bucky said grimly, knowing there was no way they would find a way out. Those men were as good as dead. And now it was time to make sure McGuire received the same fate.

"Stay outside," he told his team. "I can handle this." He turned and strode into the house, quietly stepping inside and shutting the door.

"What, back for more coffee?" came McGuire's bored voice from the family room. "Has the Winter Soldier made his decision yet?"

Bucky silently stalked into the family room where McGuire sat reading a book on a sagging armchair, his back to Bucky. Bucky silently stood behind McGuire for a moment, observing the back of McGuire's head. He wondered if it was wrong of him to creep up on a mostly-blind man. Then he decided he didn't really give a damn and said, "He has."

McGuire's head whipped around, his eyes wildly roving to see where Bucky stood. He made a move for a gun on the table beside him but he was no match for Bucky Barnes. Bucky swung his gun the way one would swing a baseball bat and smashed it into McGuire's head. McGuire went flying backwards and hit the floor hard, immediately knocked out cold. Bucky stepped over to him and nudged McGuire's motionless body with his foot. He was well and truly out.

"Soldier?"

Bucky's head snapped up to see Ari standing in the entrance, her gun held in both hands the way soldiers held their guns, a wary expression on her face. "Good, he's knocked out," she said, eyes flicking nervously to McGuire's still form. "Let's go."

"Are you insane?" Bucky asked. He clicked the safety on his gun off and pointed it at McGuire's head. "I may have let the others go but I'm not letting him go. He's a HYDRA leader. I don't care how major or minor—he goes."

"Just leave him!" Ari said, her face taut with tension. "You can't kill a man who's been knocked out! We'll probably never meet him again—"

"God, do you think that matters, Ari?" Bucky asked in frustration, roughly gesturing his gun in McGuire's direction. "Does it matter if we run across him again? You know what he is! He wasn't ashamed of who he is at all! If we let him go, who knows how many people he'll hurt?"

"Or there's a chance he might change!" Ari said desperately. "He might—wake up and realize you had mercy on him and that might be all it takes for him to change. I want to stop HYDRA, I do, Soldier, but killing everyone in our path is only going to eradicate HYDRA for the time being. We've had years of war, don't you think it's time to do something different?"

"We'll do something different another day," Bucky snapped. "Not today."

"Where would you be if Steve hadn't given you a chance?" she asked angrily. "He took mercy on you—no, don't deny it!" she said when Bucky began to shake his head. "He could have beaten you on that helicarrier—you know that! But he didn't, despite all the people you killed as the Winter Soldier!"

"I was brainwashed, in case you forgot," Bucky said, feeling like he had been punched in the gut, staring at Ari. "Are you—are you seriously comparing me to this monster?" He jabbed his gun in McGuire's direction.

"No!" Ari cried. "I'm not! You're nothing like him! It's just—God! Fine!" She clutched her forehead and paced in a circle, looking like she was trapped in a cage. "I just don't want you to keep killing! Steve never kills unless he absolutely has to and even then, he manages to find a way to bring people into the authorities' custody. I want—I want you to be like that! I don't think killing people is good for you! That's what the Winter Soldier did! Shooting people left and right…you're never going to get better like that! You're never going to stop having nightmares if you keep killing so much!"

"How did you know about that?" Bucky whispered, stunned. He hadn't told anyone about his nightmares. He didn't even like to think about them to himself, that's how much they disturbed him.

"I—what?" Ari said confusedly, not noticing his horror. "I just noticed how tired you looked! I'm a nurse, remember? I do that. Assess people. It's a habit. And it's pretty obvious you're not sleeping well, you've got huge shadows under your eyes and you're snappy and jumpy and you're white as a sheet—those sleeping pills I managed to get a hold of were for you! I was going to give you them after the mission." She laughed humorlessly. "Guess I'll have to get some more now, they're not easy to get without a physician's orders but I'll manage…"

"Stop it," Bucky said automatically. "You don't need to do that."

"Yes, I do, because I care," she said. "Which is why I'm telling you to spare McGuire. Please, Soldier. If not for your sake—then for mine. Do it for me. Because I'm worried. I know you have to kill sometimes—but this is not one of those times. McGuire is unconscious. His men are locked up. We can easily take him back to 24 Pryde. I have some more sedatives in my bag, if he magically manages to somehow wake up. What's stopping you from taking him back?!"

Bucky stared at Ari and then down at McGuire. Ari was right…she was always right. His nightmares were all about murdering those who he loved most. Continuously killing left and right wasn't going to do anything to help stop them. And she was right, Steve would bring McGuire in. If Bucky wanted to repent for his sins, he needed to do as Steve did. Hell, even Sam Wilson would have brought McGuire in.

"You can't just kill everyone in your path," Ari said.

Your work has been a gift to mankind.

"Watch me," Bucky snarled and emptied his clip into McGuire's skull, going so far with the overkill that when he was done, McGuire's skull no longer resembled a human head but just a mess of shattered bones, liquid brains, and blood seeping across the floor and staining the bottom of Bucky's boots. He stared down at McGuire, breathing heavily, and when he looked up, the last thing he saw before he blacked out was the look of pure fury blazing in Ari's eyes.