AN: Sorry that it's taken me so long to update, life is pretty hectic at the moment, I've got two female cats in heat that keep me up most of the night, thankfully they are finally getting fixed this week, and we just got a foreclosure notice. Yeah...life's very complicated right now, so I apologize in advance for the sporadic updates.

Chapter Nine: Loki's War

Anna's eyes suddenly close and she starts to collapse, but Steve quickly catches her and kneels on the floor with her in his arms.

"Anna!" Bucky shouts, his concern for his baby sister clear in his voice and on his face as he rushes to kneel on her other side.

"How are you alive? I saw you fall from the train, no one should have survived that fall."

"You never saw me hit the bottom of the ravine did you? That cube did a lot more than Schmidt realized." Bucky informs while looking over his sister before looking back at Steve with his signature poker face and continuing, "My question is what is going on between my best friend and my sister?"

Steve blushes slightly before looking away from Bucky and glancing down at Anna so that he can brush some hair out of her face before looking back at his best friend with a determined facial expression.

"I love her Bucky, I always have, it just took being frozen in ice for almost seventy years for me to realize it. I understand if you're mad, but I can't help it Bucky." He whispers before looking back at Anna's unconscious form in his arms.

"I'm not angry Steve. To be honest, I'm kind of glad that she's with you and not some random jerk, I trust you to treat her right." Bucky states with a small smirk before his face once again grows serious, "But if you hurt her I will hurt you."

Coulson quietly approaches them and stands silently for a moment before clearing his throat to catch their attention, after a nod of approval from Fury. "It would probably be best to take Annabelle to her room to rest. I can wait with her while you go after Loki, if you would like."

"I would prefer to stay and explain everything to her, but I will go on the mission if you need me too sir." Bucky responds while looking from Coulson to Fury.

"That decision is up to Captain Rogers." Fury informs, causing the three men to look at Steve while he stares at Bucky with an indecisive expression.

"I just want what's best for Anna."

"Then I'll stay, I would rather she see me face to face than have someone tell her that I was really here but then I had to leave again." Bucky informs, causing the other men to nod before he and Steve stand and follow Coulson through the many halls to Anna's room, Steve cradling her close to his chest the entire time.

Upon reaching their destination, Coulson opens the door and allows the other two men to enter the room before following and motioning for Steve to lay Anna on the small bed, which he does gently. After making sure that she will be comfortable, Steve turns to his long lost best friend and they seem to have a silent conversation before nodding to each other. Steve then turns back to Anna and gently kisses her forehead.

"I'll be back soon Angel, I promise." He whispers before reluctantly leaving the room to go to the Quinjet.

After Steve leaves, Coulson informs Bucky to inform the team of any change before heading back to the bridge. Once he leaves, Bucky sighs and gently takes Anna's hand in his.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to find you sis, but I was asleep for forty years and when I woke up my memory was full of holes. It took a while but I'm here now, thanks to your friend Natasha. I didn't mean for you to faint Angel, I should have known this would happen, but I didn't have a choice; I had to do what Fury told me, I'm still a soldier after all." Bucky whispers as he rubs the back of her hand with his thumb.

After three or so hours, Bucky begins to worry; knowing that in the past Anna would have woken up in at least an hour. Each passing minute causes his worry to grow until Anna suddenly begins fidgeting before mumbling and then tossing and turning.

"Bells? Come on Annabelle, wake up, it's just a dream." Bucky murmurs while shaking her shoulders.

"Clint, no, stop!" Anna shrieks before shooting up from her bed then falling back against her pillows.

"Clint? You mean the agent that Loki took over?" Bucky demands, only to be ignored as Anna stares at the door while breathing heavily. "Anna, what's wrong?"

Anna slowly calms down before looking over at Bucky and once again staring in shock for a few moments before she is able to speak.

"Bucky? But Steve said you fell, you can't be here, you're not real. Where's Steve? I need to tell Steve." She rambles.

Bucky sighs before putting his hand under her chin and lifting her face so that she can look him in the eye. "I'm right here Bells, I fell through a rift in space-time that was created by HYDRA's use of the cube. Your friend Natasha found me forty years after I fell, in a cave in Russia, she tried to help me and we discovered that I'm also a mutant. I'll explain everything when Steve gets back."

"He can't bring Loki here, that's exactly what he wants. Give me the walkie on the table over there." Anna demands causing Bucky to smirk and shake his head at her attitude before nodding and grabbing it for her.

"Coulson, what's the status on Loki?"

"The Quinjet is landing as we speak." Coulson replies.

"That is not a good thing Coulson, I'm coming to the rest of the team, don't let Fury start interrogating him without me." Anna informs before looking to her brother and continuing, "Let's go Bucky, I'm not sure I can walk on my own."

Bucky nods and helps her to stand up before following her directions to reach the rest of the team, his arm around her waist and her arm around his shoulders so that he can support her.

-When they reach the team-

"Anna, what are you doing here, you should be resting." Steve states worriedly as soon as he sees her and Bucky. They continue to move into the room and Anna moves to stand beside his chair and rest a hand on his shoulder.

"Not now Steve, we need to get Loki off this ship right now, before his team shows up and shoots us out of the sky."

"What do you mean Annabelle?" Thor questions, his brow furrowed.

"Loki is dangerous, you know this Thor, he has a plan and if we don't get him off this ship his team will show up and send this ship crashing to the ground. He has control over Clint and we know how accurate he is with his bow. Are you going to listen to me or aren't you?"

"I'm sorry Ms. Barnes, but until we have the Tesseract Loki is to remain here. Now, I have business to attend to with our prisoner." Fury states before leaving to talk to Loki.

Anna lets out a sigh of frustration while glaring at Fury's back before moving to sit at the table next to Steve while Bucky sits on her other side. As they wait for Fury to reach Loki's prison, Anna pulls it up on her table screen so that Bucky and Steve can watch as well. The first thing they see is Fury walking over to the control panel in the room before turning to look at Loki.

-With Fury-

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape; you so much as scratch that glass. [Fury presses the big red button, opening a huge hole directly below Loki's cell] Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? [He points at Loki] Ant, [Points back to big red button] Boot." Fury states before closing the hole below the cage and shutting the cover for the button while Loki simply chuckles softly, unintimidated.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki states while spreading his arms and walking around in the cage.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury responds, causing Loki to look at him with a smirk.

"Oh, I've heard, [Loki looks to camera in cage] a mindless beast; makes play he's still a man. [he turns back to Fury] How desperate are you? That you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? [Fury approaches the cage] You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill 'cus it's fun. You have made me VERY desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh, it burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what, [he looks up at the camera again] a warm light for all of mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is..." Loki responds mockingly.

"Well let me know if real power wants a magazine or something." Fury responds while he descends the stairs and leaves Loki alone in his prison.

-With the team-

"I have a very bad feeling about this." Anna states calmly as she looks around the room at the rest of the team.

AN: Really hope that I kept Bucky in character; he's difficult for me to write because I'm not as familiar with his character as I am with others. Also really hope I got that dialogue between Loki and Fury right, I do what I can, if it's wrong I'll fix it later. Review or PM me with responses and ideas, I'm not really sure how the next chapter will play out or when I'll be able to update, as stated in the AN at the top. Sorry it's so short.