Chapter Two:

Sophie's POV:

"Get her talking, by any means necessary," Hill told Stark and Natasha. "Cause her pain, make her bleed, I don't care. We need Barnes. We need to put a lid on this resistance before it gets out of control. It's bad enough that Rogers is out there. If he gets to Barnes first, this is going to get much worse."

"You do realize she's barely an adult and she can be a valuable asset to us, Hill, don't you? Torturing her may not be for the best," Natasha said. "If we can flip her, she can go double agent for us, give us the rogues."

"I don't care what you do, get the information on Barnes."

Stark and Natasha nodded at Hill. They came and pulled me out of my cell at that point, taking me to a different room, obviously unaware of the fact that I heard everything they'd just said. Stark lifted me up and put me on an exam table and secured me to it.

"Just tell us where Barnes is, Sophie. Is he worth this?" Stark asked.

I said nothing. Suddenly, there was a sharp, piercing pain in my left thigh.

"Where is he, Holden?" Natasha asked.

"Go fuck yourself," I told her in Russian.

Another sharp, piercing pain, this time in my right thigh.

"You can stop this, Holden. Just tell us what we want to know. You don't have to endure all of this," Natasha tried to convince me.

Still I gave no information. Suddenly, the knife in my left thigh was removed. My skin had started to heal around it, making it more painful to have the sudden removal. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

Every day, for hours on end, Natasha and Stark would take turns interrogating me. They would change how long they would leave the knives in me before pulling them out, to make the pain worse for me, to try to break me. I never gave them any information. Every day that they came back to interrogate me meant that Bucky was still out there.

They would stick the knives all over my body, my stomach, legs, arms, hands, and chest, to see if they could break me. The pain never got to me, I could manage physical pain, especially since I healed as quickly as I did. Stark finally took it one step further.

Stark grabbed my hand one day. I thought he was going to stick another knife in it. Instead, he took my engagement ring and gave it to Natasha.

"If you want that back, you'll tell us what we want to know," he said to me.

I looked at him, really looked at him, which I hadn't done in days during the interrogations. My heart was hurting and I wanted to make him feel pain like I did at that moment.

"You may have me now, Stark. But keep in mind, I will get out of this. Steve isn't going to let me stay in jail for the rest of my life, neither will Bucky or my Dad. And when I get out of here, I am going to make you pay. I will topple your world no matter how long it takes me," I said, my voice rasping. "I will never forgive the two of you for all of this."

"You did this to yourself, Sophie," Natasha said.

A tear slid from my eye and I went back to forcing myself to ignore them.

Stark's POV:

"Nothing's working, Hill. We've tried everything you told us to. Still, she's not talking."

"Maybe you're not cut out for this, Stark."

"Me? I don't do the dirty work on this. Romanoff does. I don't think we should be physically torturing an eighteen year old girl to find out where the Winter Soldier is. She's obviously more loyal to him than anyone else otherwise she would've given him up already."

"Have you threatened her family?" Hill asked.

"We're not doing that," Romanoff said.

"Excuse me?" Hill asked.

"It's one thing for us to go at her, but we are not going to threaten Barton or his other kids because of her. That is where I draw the line. Besides, none of us know where they are anyway. They've been untrackable since after Laura's death. They're completely off the grid," Romanoff said.

"I'm with her. She's barely an adult, but Sophie is an adult. Barton's other kids aren't. We're not using them as tools. It's not gonna happen," I agreed. "And if you want to take on Barton, you have fun with that, Hill. You're on your own."

"You're both going to defy an order?" Hill asked.

"This one? Yes," Romanoff replied.

"Even with Barton turning on you?" Hill pulled a low blow.

"This isn't about him. He can't force information out of her any more than we can. Him and his kids have been through enough this year."

She was right. His wife, their mother, had killed herself a few months ago. The family was still healing. It was part of the reason that both of us would not go after them to get to Sophie.

"Are you forgetting that Sophie killed her twin brother to protect Barton and those kids, Hill?" I spoke up. "I know the plan is to keep her incarcerated for a very long time, but let's be realistic. If she gets out, what do you think she's going to do to us if we go after the people she loves, seeing as she's already threatening us, considering she's already killed her own brother?"

"She's dangerous, I'll give you that. But that's just another reason that she can't get out of custody… Ever," Hill replied.

Romanoff looked at me. I didn't like this, and I didn't think she did either. Sophie had at one point been our student.

Barton's POV:

I didn't know how I felt about keeping Bucky Barnes in my house. He was a fugitive. It was his mistake that landed Sophie in prison. But at the same time, Steve vouched for him and he was Sophie's best friend, the one who took care of her when she had nobody else. Still, part of me couldn't help but wonder what the fuck happened to make him go off-mission and risk Sophie. I got my answer a few nights after he started staying with us.

Bucky was staying in a first floor guest room, away from the kids and Anya. I didn't trust him fully at the moment and didn't want to risk him doing something that would hurt or scare them. It was the middle of the night. I was up looking out the window, thinking about everything going on when I heard the crash downstairs. I ran out of my room, reassuring Anya and the kids to stay upstairs in their room, and with my bow and quiver, went downstairs.

He was throwing things in the guest room. It was like he didn't know where he was. When I saw the look on his face, I knew… Bucky Barnes was suffering severe PTSD. I put my bow and quiver down outside the room, I wasn't stupid. I knew I couldn't take him in a fight. After calling Steve and telling him what was going on, I went into the room.

"Barnes. Barnes, look at me," I said to him.

He looked at me with rage. He wasn't seeing me, but the people who had tortured him for the majority of his life. I felt for the guy and it made me realize, if this was how he had started acting in the field, as much as I wanted to hate him for the situation my daughter was in, I couldn't. Sophie did the only thing she could to try to pacify the situation by getting him out of there. She couldn't have known about the bombs. If she had, she wouldn't have used the portal. Still, if this was even a fraction of what he was starting to act like in the field, her making an emergency extraction was the only course of action. Things may have turned out bad, but this man had been responsible for setting off some of the most major catastrophic events in the last 70 years. Things could have been worse… Much worse.

"James! Sergeant Barnes! Look at me!" I called to him.

Bucky stopped throwing things for a minute and stared at me, confused. I'm guessing that not many people who have called him Sergeant Barnes since World War II have done it in English. I could have spoken to him in Russian, but Steve had already warned me it was Russian agents that set off the PTSD episode in the Sudan. If I spoke Russian to him now he might attack.

"What do you want from me?!" he shouted at me.

Carefully, I moved closer to him, still keeping a distance between us.

"Bucky, do you remember me? I'm Clint Barton. I'm Sophie Holden's father. This is my house. You're safe here. Nobody can find you here and nobody will hurt you here," I said, trying to soothe him.

He looked at me and I could see he was trying to piece together what I said.

"Sophie…" he said, and fell to his knees after a few minutes, in tears finally remembering. "I failed her."

Bucky was miserable. It was clear that he hated himself for his PTSD affecting Sophie's safety. I couldn't hate him. He needed help. We all had issues in our past, he just had more of them.

"Bucky, no. You didn't fail her. You had an issue and she did what she needed to in order to protect you. Now, we need to help you get back on your feet so you can help us get her back. Nobody has the experience that you do with black ops, not even Natasha and me."

"Why don't you hate me, Barton? Your daughter is in prison because of me."

"We all have red in our ledger, Barnes. Rogers included. Sometimes it comes back to bite us in the ass. When that happens, we need to pick ourselves back up and deal with the aftermath."

He looked at me with new respect.

"I'm older than you, but you have more insight."

"I've lived my life, knowing what I was doing whether it was right or wrong. Until less than a year ago, it had been over 70 years since the last time you had to worry about a conscience. It's a lot to have to deal with at once."

"Thank you, Clint. You could hate me for a lot of things, but you're trying to help me."

"You mean the world to Sophie. You are her family so, by default, you're my family. I have to let the rest go. I know you didn't put Sophie in danger on purpose. That's the only thing that matters."

Stark's POV:

I had just gotten back to my office in Stark tower from Sophie's daily interrogation. It didn't go well, as usual. I hated doing it, but she was wrong and we needed her on our side, to do the right thing. That was why she had become an Avenger after all.

"You have a visitor, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. said to me.

"Who is it, Buddy?"

"Peter Parker, Sir."

"Send him in."

I pulled myself together, pouring myself a drink. These interrogations took a lot out of me, but I could only assume Peter was here to talk business with me. I only hoped that, unlike Sophie, he would do the right thing.

"Peter, how are you?" I asked him as he walked into my office.

"I'm good, Tony," he said looking at me. "Are you okay?"

"Sometimes doing what's right doesn't feel good, Peter," I replied. "So what can I do for Spider Man today?"

"I wanted to talk to you about what you asked me to do," he started. "I registered as a superhuman as soon as the act went into law, but then you asked me to unmask myself to the public. It wasn't an easy choice to make because my anonymity has protected not only me, but M.J. and Aunt May…"

"I know it has. And I will respect if you choose not to unmask. You're registered, even if you go public while still masked, it will still go a long way for supporting the registration…"

"Tony, Mary Jane and Aunt May talked it over with me. We all agreed that maybe it is time that Spider Man comes out of the shadows. They're willing to take that risk, but I need to make sure they're safe."

"I promise I'll do whatever I can to help, Peter. You're making a brave choice. Thank you."

"So how do you want to do this?"

"I can set up a press conference. You show up in your mask, say what you need to, and remove your mask."

"I guess we should get that done sooner rather than later," Peter said. "Before I change my mind."

"I'll make it happen."

Steve's POV:

I spent a few days at Barton's house after he called me in the middle of the night about Bucky's PTSD episode. Sam and the other Secret Avengers were at my place. Bucky and I were just coming back into the house from sparring when a special report came onto the news. On the screen was Spider Man and Stark. Clint's kids were in front of the t.v.

"Hey Barton, I think you're gonna want to see this," I called out to him.

Clint came into the living room and sent his kids outside to play when he saw who was on the screen. Anya came into the room and the four of us watched the special report with great interest.

"Hi. Good Morning. Thank you for coming," Spider Man started. "I'm standing here today because… well because… I have an announcement to make."

He took his mask off, giving away his true identity of Peter Parker. I knew this was Stark's idea and suddenly I worried for Peter and his family. He was young and naïve. If he was doing this, it was because Stark convinced him it was the best thing given the political climate. He was using Peter as a pawn to battle the fact that I was publicly against the registration act.

"My name is Peter Parker and I've been Spider Man since I was fifteen years old…"

"Damn it!" Barton exclaimed. "Stark's using that poor kid. He doesn't realize what he's just gotten himself into."

"I know. But there's nothing we can do for him. As long as he's working with Stark, Peter Parker is no longer an ally," I replied.

"Cap, you don't mean," Barton said.

"Yeah, he does, Barton. As long as Peter Parker is working with Tony Stark, he's our enemy," Bucky answered for me. "We can try not to hurt him, since both of you seem so sure of his innocence, but he's no friend of ours. We can't trust him as long as Stark has his hooks in him."

"So you're just going to leave him to the sharks?" Anya asked.

"We don't have any other choice. He made a choice. It may have been based on manipulation by Stark, but it was still his choice. Unless he chooses to walk away from Stark, there's nothing we can do to help him without risking everyone else in the resistance ending up in prison. I won't risk everyone for one person," I replied to her as gently as I could. "If he changes his mind, comes to his senses and wants help, we will help him, Anya. I promise. But until and unless he does, our hands are tied."