Chapter Seventeen: Captured

"Which is why I let you live to give you a chance to find whatever shred of humanity is buried underneath 500 years of bad behavior."

-Elena Gilbert

"Steve, what the hell are you doing?" Tony demanded, he knew Steve was a super soldier, but come on the Winter Soldier or Bucky or whatever his name wasn't exactly a first timer.

"Stay out of this, Stark." Steve said never taking his eyes off Bucky. He dropped the shield on the ground. "Come at me. Siren failed, it's your mission to kill me. No weapons. Just fists."

"Rogers-"

"Stay out of this Tony."

Bucky ran towards him, his metal fist connecting towards Steve's jaw as he let Bucky pummel him without even lifting his hands. "What are you doing?" he hissed. "At least fight back, I don't like an easy death. You're my mission!"

"Then finish it," Steven wheezed, the blood was now caked around his eyes and it was starting to get hard to see. "Because I'm with you until the end of the line."

A flash of recognition passed through Bucky's eyes, as he stopped. "See," Steve huffed between breaths. "You remember, or at least your heart does. You're Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, but everyone calls you Bucky, we served during the war together. We were-we are friends."

"Friends?" Bucky's voice was hollow. "I can't . . . I don't remember . . . I don't know how you are, but I remember someone say that. . ." he shut his eyes tightly as if trying to remember.

Tony helped Steve up, his eyes never leaving Bucky. "HYDRA fried your brain, that's why you and your little murder buddy can't remember who you are."

"HYDRA?" Bucky question. "You now about HYDRA?"

Steve nodded. "They are bad people, Bucky. They are using you . . . and Siren, we can prove it, please let us take you to Avengers tower, we'll explain it."

Bucky didn't look like he believed him.

"Or the helicarrier." Tony urged. "That's where we took Siren."

"Fine." Bucky said after a while. "Take me to Siren."

"You're work on genetics is really impressive, Dr. Banner," Gwen said as she looked over the computer screen that held most of Bruce's genetic tissue that mostly resulted in work on his own blood. "Did you mostly used yourself?"

Bruce nodded. "There are not a lot of abnormal humans . . . here on earth at least." He trailed off when he saw Steve and Tony entering the helicarrier with the Winter Soldier in tow through another hallway. He turned to Gwen. "Stay here, Gwen."

Gwen nodded.

Bruce approached them and gave him a small smile. "Hello and welcome Mr.-"

"Where's Siren?" Bucky interrupted as he looked around, his eyes narrowed towards Steve. "You said she was here."

"She is here, she is." Bruce assured him quickly. "Now can I take a sample of your blood, it won't hurt."

Bucky offered his arm and Bruce injected a small needle into it drawing up blood. Bucky didn't even flinch, he seemed to be pretty used to the procedure. "Thank you," Bruce said. "We're going to take you into a room so that you can rest. All right?"

Bucky looked at Steve who nodded. "All right, but what about HYDRA?"

"We'll, tell you about HYDRA." Bruce promised. "We'll tell both you and Siren."

Two agents led Bucky to a small room. It had a twin bed, a private bathroom, a small closet, an even smaller window. Bucky touched the fabric on the bed, he had never felt anything so soft.

"Winter Soldier?"

Bucky raised his head and peeked through the small window. It was connected to another room and Bucky saw Katherine peeking back. He saw a patch on her face. "Siren, I'm sorry . . . Charles told me that I had to kill you-"

"I know, I failed." Katherine responded. "I failed the mission."

Bucky raised his head. "Do you trust them?"

"I don't know." Her look hardened. "I don't trust HYDRA."

Steve winced as the cooling alcohol touched his cuts. He was sitting in the helicarrier infirmary and Natasha was taking care of his injuries. "Sorry." Natasha told him as she brushed away some of the blood. "Bucky got you good."

Steve let out a small smile. "Yeah, he was always a good fighter, even when we were kids."

Natasha nodded as she put away the first aid kit. "All done, can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"Funny." Natasha said. "I've been on the same boat before, or rather the roles were reversal with Clint and me, but do you think that Bucky is worth saving? What if he's gone for good? Gone off the deep end?"

"He's not." Steve said firmly. "I know he's not, look Natasha I understand your concern, but you didn't see him, some part of him remember me, he was so confused. HYDRA has been toying with his mind since the forties. Bucky never gave up on me, and I'm not going to give up on him."

Natasha nodded. "That is very noble of you, Rogers."

"Not noble, just trying to be a good friend."

"And what about Siren? Bucky may find his way back to himself because of you, but what about Siren? She has no one."

"I know and to tell you the truth, I feel sorry for her, she truly has no one. She could have killed me, tonight but she didn't." Steve mused. "Which means there's still some humanity left in her."

-End of Chapter Seventeen-

Bucky and Kat will finally get their memories back in the next chapter.