Chapter Twenty Two: Outsmarted

"What is love to you?" (Stefan)

"Never giving up." (Katherine)

-The Vampire Diaries

"Anything?" Natasha asked impatiently towards Peter and Clint who were in the seats behind her, but she knew that the answers would be the same if she couldn't see anything the like hood was that they probably wouldn't either. "Anything at all?"

"Nope." Peter clicked his tongue. "I'm kind of disappointed."

"That makes two of us."

"Are you sure that they got the right place though?" Peter inquired. "I mean their memory did get fried."

"Pretty sure," Natasha said as she started lowering the plane so that they could see well. "Besides their memories started coming back in pieces and Katherine could finally pinpoint an exact location, it's supposed to be here."

After a few second Clint narrowed his eyes. "Wait, Nat lower the plane I think I see something." Natasha did as she was told and once the clouds started disappearing they could see a small, circular building in between two mountains that shield it from view. There was a narrow path where you could enter and exit. "There it is, nice hiding place, in the middle of nowhere."

"It looks empty." Peter said. "Or are all secret science programs supposed to be deserted?"

Natasha frowned. It did look pretty quiet. "I think you're right."

"Steve?" Steve looked up from his drawing pad. He had a lot of his mind lately, HYDRA, SHIELD, Bucky, and now Katherine who didn't seem as bad as he had initially thought. So while they waited for information, Steve started drawing. He loved art and he was a pretty good drawer.

He turned around when he heard that voice speaking to him. He hadn't heard it for a while, not to mention that Bucky had been avoiding him like the plague ever since he got his memory back. He was wearing normal clothes again, though it was still weird seeing him with a metal arm and shaggy brown hair.

"Bucks." He smiled. "Uh, sit down."

"Thanks." The air was thick with tension and Steve hated it, when was the last time that he couldn't have a conversation with his best friend? "What? No patriotic speech, you're good at those, you don't even need cue cards."

Steve turned to him and grin, it was the first time that Bucky had made a joke let alone smiled. "I see that you haven't lost your sense of humor."

"And you're still you." He said. "You kept the body."

"It came with the upgrade." Steve said. "So are you . . . you?"

"I'm me." Bucky's tone darkened. "Or the closest thing I will ever be to being me again. I will never be the person I was before the war."

"Well then." Steve said. "Then I guess I'll just have to get to know the new Bucky."

"What do you mean gone?" Gwen stared at Natasha, Peter, and Clint who looked equally frustrated and disappointment as every member of the group.

"Vanished. Disappeared." Tony echoed, obviously pissed. "And they are sneaky enough not to leave a trail behind."

"Well, Stark is right on that at least." Natasha said as she looked at Fury. "We checked every room, but everything is gone, Director."

Fury snorted. "Well, I didn't expect HYDRA to stick around after we got Katherine and Bucky."

"What about Pierce and Barnes?" Clint raised an eyebrow. "What are we going to do about them?"

"We're not going to do anything." Steve snapped.

"Chill, Rogers."

Fury sighed. "Well, they seem to be harmless for now, we'll keep them try to get them back into the real world."

Bruce paused. "And then?"

"And then we fight."

"Gone?" Bucky looked up dazedly at Katherine, as if he couldn't quite believe her. "HYDRA is gone. Are you sure?"

She nodded as she sat across from him. "Pretty sure, I heard them talking about them."

"Katherine," Bucky sighed. "They are never going to trust us if we keep spying on them."

"Well I have to spy on them because they are not telling me anything." Katherine snapped frustrated. "Besides it doesn't change a thing, Bucky they are gone, we lost. Unless-"

Bucky paused. "Unless what?"

"Unless we join SHIELD." She said, the idea coming into her mind. "It's the only way that we are going to find them and destroy them once and for all."

"You want to join SHIELD, after you two almost killed off half of my team." Fury crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at Bucky and Katherine. "Give me one good reason why I should even considerate it?"

"I'll give you two." Katherine argued. "We want to take HYDRA down as much as you do, even more."

"Besides we're the only ones who actually know HYDRA." Bucky explained. "How they move, how they think if we see something related to them, we'll know it."

Fury didn't say anything for a moment. "All right, gain my trust prove to me that I can trust you. Prove me wrong."

-End of Chapter Twenty Two-