18.

Anne returned quietly to whence she had come. Entering the building, the men glared at her fearfully. She was a threat, and not just to the Avengers, but to all of them. She walked solemnly down the hallways until she finally reached the closet that they had given her to be her room and sat down on the bed.

She stared into the empty space for some time, and then she proceeded to lay down.

"She is doing very well I see, professor."

"Yes. She obeys only us now. She has no recognition of her past life or of who she was."

"And Barnes?"

The professor that had brainwashed Anne and Bucky smiled at the other man.

"He is now completely ours. Thanks to the genius of Hydra, we were able to perfect the machine and make it more adequate to our needs. He will never remember Steve Rogers again."

"I'm glad to hear it. Some of us were starting to doubt his loyalty."

The man stared at him with such intensity that a cold sweat ran down his forehead.

"I can assure you, sir. Nothing like that will ever happen again."

The man nodded.

"And tell me, professor Deuss, what will happen if the Avengers get their hands on our little friend here?"

The man had started to watch the girl once more. She just sat there. She had no conscience, no mind of her own, only a mission. A mission that they had given her. Anne was just their puppet now, and nothing more. Even the man she loved was only a target to her now. They had done that on purpose to break Steve Rogers confidence once more. First it had been Bucky Barnes, his best friend and now it was the woman he loved. What genius! To take the people he most cared about and turn them against him in such a cruel way that he would never even dare to hurt them.

"Captain Rogers is the Avengers's leader. Break him and their whole system breaks down. Without him their nothing but a fighting group of buffoons."

Deuss nodded, even though he didn't believe that to be true. Rogers was definitely a great strategic weapon, but he was not their leader. Most of them were very aware of his various conflicts with Stark and Banner. He was just and right, but he was also proud. A true soldier.

"Maybe we shouldn't put her on the field much, though. Not until..."

"Nonsense, Deuss! She's ready. Oh, and add the arm too."

And the man gave her a look of pure malice. He had plans for her.

Even if she had no conscience, that did not mean she had no feelings. She felt the excruciating pain as they ripped her left arm off and implanted the mechanical one on.

Why were they doing that to her? Had she not been good enough? Had she not done her best to serve them? Was it because she had left that man alive? Nobody told her that she had to kill him.

She screamed.

"Give her morphine!"

Suddenly, she felt a needle in her arm and the pain of the cut die off. Then, everything went dark.

They searched everywhere, again and again. But nothing. Until they found the Hydra headquarters it would be impossible to track her down.

And Bucky? He was with them too. And Steve felt it his duty to bring both of them back to the light. His best friend and the woman he loved. It seemed that Hydra was after HIM particularly.

The weight on his shoulders that Anne seemed to lighten was piling up again.

"Come on Rogers. If we don't find her, we'll always have the consolation that she might find us."

But that was in no way a comfort to him. If she found them, that would mean she was on a mission.

Anne didn't have a conscience anymore. They had more chances of taking her away without a fight if she didn't have any direct orders.

But the weeks passed and nor Anne nor Bucky were anywhere to be found.

And thus, Thor returned to Asgard, to inquire of Anne to Heimdell.