Schmidt walked into Maria's room while looking at her files as she turned her head to him weakly. She felt them just draining and draining her and she knew that they were doing this all on purpose. "Hey," She spoke in a hoarse voice. "I think you took me for a reason and you don't want me to die so you should probably get me some water."

Schmidt smiled at her and looked back down at the files. "Looks like you're going to need the water. Not only for yourself, but for your unborn child." Maria glared at him, hating that he knew this about her. If he wanted to, he could use that against her and possibly hurt her unborn child. "Congratulations, Mrs. Barnes. You're pregnant."

"Tell me something I don't know."

He walked over to her with a smile, but all she did was glare at him. "What do you think is going to happen here? You think you're going to escape?"

Maria turned to him with a smile. "Yes." He scoffed and began to walk away from her. "Because my husband and my brother are going to come get me." Schmidt stopped walking when it occurred to him that she had no idea about what had happened to Bucky. "And that is going to be your worst nightmare."

He turned to her with a wicked smile, happy that it was going to be him who told her that she is now a widow. "Your husband?" She nodded cockily, causing his smile to just grow wider. "Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes." Maria nodded slowly with confusion all over her face as Schmidt got closer to her. "Your husband isn't going to come for you."

Maria's eyebrows furrowed at that. Of course Bucky would come for her. She began to think that he was just saying this to get her to lose hope, but there was something about the way that he spoke which was throwing her off. "What are you getting at?"

"You see, Mrs. Barnes," He stopped when he got close enough to her, getting a good look at her face. "Your husband is no longer with us."

Maria began to get really nervous, feeling herself twitch at his sentence. She could feel her muscles begin to tighten at the thought of what he was going to say next. Something just wasn't right. Something hadn't been right for a while. "What do you mean?" She asked as a lump sat in her throat, threatening to grow bigger.

He smiled even wider, putting his hand on the top of her head. For the first time, Maria didn't fight his touch. It didn't even phase her. The only thing she wanted to know about was Bucky. "Your newlywed is dead, my dear."

Those six words were like a punch in the stomach for her. At first, she went through shock. She thought she had heard him wrong. She asked him to repeat it, and once he said those words again, it hurt more than the first time. Those words didn't feel real. She felt like he was making it all up to get to her, but she thought back to how things didn't really feel right. She now knew what it was that didn't feel right. It was Bucky. She could already feel his absence.

Schmidt took one look at her broken face of realization and…smiled. It brought pleasure to him to see her in so much pain. He was actually thriving off of her crumbling face as a tear rolled down it. It made him feel a sick rush of power. He had destroyed her just by the word of tongue. It made him feel powerful. Powerful in every way possible. He backed away from her as she began to think of a life without Bucky with the smile still on his face.

Maria had seen the smile and it was making her sick to the stomach. The fact that he enjoyed her pain and shock was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. In that moment, she wanted him to bleed more than anything. She wanted to avenge her fiancé. She wanted him dead from her own hands. She slowly began to abandon her humanity at the thought of murdering him slowly and painfully.

Steve walked through the town they were in, finding it impossible to go back to where they were staying. Every single thing reminded him of either Bucky or Maria.

It was a ghost town. He could barely remember the name of it, but he knew he was in Germany. Everything in it and around it laid destroyed at his feet from the war. Steve shook his head, trying to remember how this war even got started. Before the war seemed like so long ago. It was just dragging on and on. It caused so much pain and heartbreak, not just for him, but around the world. Cities that once ruled the world laid in shambles because of this war. Woman were widows. Children were fatherless. Parents were left without their children. And for what? When he first began thinking about this, he thought he was just being cynical, but the more he thought about it, the more he knew it was true.

He had found a bar that was barely left standing and went to the back to get the bit of alcohol left. He found a table and began sipping on whisky which was one of Bucky's favorite drinks. He wanted to get so drunk that he wouldn't remember anything that had happened, but it didn't work. That was one of the things he hated about being a super soldier.

Peggy also found herself wondering through the town. Without her best friend, she had to find something else to do with her nights besides having girl talk with Maria. She found herself walking around, thinking about her. She thought about where she was. What she was doing. If she was alive. Peggy had to chew on the insides of her cheeks to keep from crying at the thought of never speaking to her friend again.

As she walked, something caught her eye. She saw the blonde back of Steve Rogers's head. She sighed, knowing he was experiencing it the worst out of everyone. She slowly walked in, being careful where she stepped, making sure she didn't fall. When he heard her steps, he turned his head, not really caring at this point if it was a Hydra soldier coming to destroy him. When he saw it was Peggy, he turned around and reached for his bottle to pour himself another glass as Peggy moved to stand right next to him. "Dr. Erskine said that the serum wouldn't just affect my muscles, but also affect my cells to create a protective system of regeneration and healing which means, I can't get drunk." He turned his ear to her, not really feeling the emotional strength to look at her. "Did you know that?"

She sighed and pulled up a chair right next to him. "Your metabolism if four times faster than the average person." Peggy sighed, thinking of Maria and this conversation they had about her brother's side effects. "We thought it could be one of the side effects." He looked back down at his drink, knowing exactly where she had gotten that information. Peggy picked up on it and leaned forward a little bit to get a better look at his face. "It wasn't your fault."

He didn't even look up at her. "Did you read the report?"

"Yes."

He scoffed and began to twirl his glass around. "Then you know that's not true."

"You did everything you could." She studied him nervously, hoping that what she said would register in his mind and that he would stop blaming himself, but he just continued to look down at his drink.

"And now," He spoke as he began to stand his glass up and twirl it around. "My baby sister, the one person I'm supposed to protect come hell or high water, was taken by Hydra. The one organization that has been torturing and killing people with very twisted science."

Peggy sighed at the way he looked down. She had never seen him this broken. He was always so strong with his emotions. He always had so much hope. So much faith. She had to do something to make him believe again. "Did you believe in your friend?" Steve looked up at that, not understand where this was going. "Did you respect him?" Steve nodded slightly. "Then stop blaming yourself. And that was the dignity of his choice. He damn well must have thought you were worth it."

Steve looked back down at his glass as Peggy continued to look at him. "I'm going after Schmidt." He finally spoke. "I'm not going stop until all of Hydra is dead or captured."

Peggy nodded in supportive agreement as he continued to look down at his glass. "You won't be alone." He looked up at her and gave her a very small smile that left just as quick as it came, but Peggy took it. She put her hand on his, pulling it away from the glass and just sitting there with him, appreciating the comfort of a small hand hold.

Maria was still strapped to her chair, but this time, she had a television up to her, playing Bucky's death over and over again. These people wanted to torture her and they were succeeding.

She had turned away from the television and was reaching for a scalpel that wasn't far from her. She had planned on cutting her wrists once it was in her hand. She knew they wanted something from her. They would have killed her if they didn't. They wanted her to be the winter soldier. She didn't know what that was, but she also didn't plan on finding out.

A part of her felt guilty for planning on killing herself. She felt guilty for the baby growing inside her. She knew one way or another that the baby wasn't going to have a future. She knew Schmidt was going to get rid of her baby one way or another.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of it. Her life wasn't supposed to go like this. She was supposed to continue working on making weapons under Stark Industries until Bucky came back from war. The two of them were supposed to be married after the war was over and they were going to be a family. They were going to move into a nice house in Brooklyn and raise their child together. It wasn't supposed to end with Bucky falling to his death and her cutting her wrists to avoid aiding the Nazi party. They were supposed to grow old together and tell their grandchildren of what life was like in the 1940's, but now Maria knew that life was no longer possible. The Barnes line would end with her and her child.

She was so close to the scalpel when the door opened and she straightened up, pretending like she wasn't doing anything. The masked Hydra soldiers walked into her room and took away the television. She stared at them with a confused face as they walked out and left her alone.

She looked back to the scalpel and knew she needed it now. She had to do it now before Schmidt came back. She worked as hard as she could to move and get it, but the door opened to reveal Schmidt. She stopped what she was doing and looked to him, her glare showing all of her hate for him. "What do you want?"

He moved over to the window, looking out on all his Hydra soldiers with a blank face. Maria couldn't tell what he was thinking at all. "I want to offer you a proposition."

Maria scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "I would never do anything to help you and your crazy little cult following."

He turned to look at her with a slight smile, moving closer to her. "We have something of a super soldier serum."

Maria shook her head. "Bullshit."

"Dr. Erskine made the basis of it when he was a part of Hydra." He told her with a growing smile. "You think we didn't know exactly what was in it?" Maria turned away from him, hating that this was happening to her. All she wanted to know was what she did to deserve this. "We will inject you with it if you say yes and you will become powerful just like your brother."

Maria opened her mouth to refuse with everything she had when something occurred to her. She would be strong. She would be like Steve. She would be stronger than humanly possible. She could possibly be even stronger than Schmidt. She thought back to her want to murder him with her own bare hands. She thought about how all of her fantasies of his death would come true if she said yes to Hydra's super soldier serum. She could even possibly take down all of Hydra. "What do you say?"

She jumped at the sound of Schmidt's voice, being lost in her own thoughts, she forgot about him even being there. She felt like she finally had the upper hand. She wouldn't be able to have the life she always pictured, but she would be able to avenge Bucky. She would be able to avenge the life she always pictured. She would be able to avenge the girl she used to be. She slowly turned to look at Schmidt and nodded slightly. "I'll do it."

He scoffed at her choice, not really expecting it. "I thought you Americans were supposed to be fighters. I thought you were supposed to fight for everything you believe in." He shook his head and began to walk to the door, looking back at her one more time before exiting. "I guess it's just another one of those self-proclaimed things by you arrogant pigs."

Maria continued to glare at the door as he closed it behind him. She thought about how great it would be to kill him. How great it would be to finally shut him up.

They all sat in the operation room in their base, discussing their new plan; Colonel Phillips standing at the front. With Bucky's death and Maria's kidnapping, they all had this extra motivation picking them up in this dark time. It was the motivation to avenge and save. "Johann Schmidt belongs in a bug house. He thinks he's a god and he's willing to blow up half the world to prove it. Starting with the USA."

Howard was tired of standing in the back like the rest of them. He wanted to do something now. Something that would matter. "Schmidt's working with powers beyond our capabilities. He gets across the Atlantic, he'll wipe out the entire eastern seaboard in an hour." He spoke as he moved to sit at the table with the other soldiers.

"How much time we got?" Gabe asked as he looked from Howard to Colonel Phillips.

"According to my new best friend," He spoke, referring to the now captured Dr. Zola. "Within twenty-four hours."

Steve looked up at him, remembering what he had vowed to Peggy. He was going to destroy Hydra no matter what. "Where is he now?" James asked, bringing Steve back into the conversation.

"Hydra's last base is here." He pointed to a picture and put it down on the table for everyone else to see. "In the Alps."

"So," Dum Dum began while looking at each of them individually. "What are we supposed to do?"

"It's not like we can just knock on the front door." Jim spoke as he picked up the picture and began to study it even further.

"Why not?" Steve asked, getting everyone's attention. All Steve wanted was for this to be over and done with. It was something he needed for his own peace of mind. "That's exactly what we're gonna do."

There are only going to be a few more chapters left of the story and I will try my hardest on finishing it by either this week or next week. I hope you enjoyed and please review!