Alone in the corner of that abandoned warehouse, Mazzy sits with her knees curled up to her chest and her hands covering her eyes. Inconsolable.

She's finally able to understand all of the things she's wanted to understand all along, but this is just a thousand times worse than she ever would have expected. She is a monster. A monster. All the lies and the secrets were to keep her innocent. But she was always going to find out. Always. And today just happened to be that day.

A few feet away, Steve and Sam stand talking quietly to each other, trying to figure out a way to calm Mazzy down enough so that she can listen to them. They have tried almost everything. Steve spent almost a full forty-five minutes sitting down next to her, explaining to her that it was never her fault, that she was just a little girl, and that she didn't have control.

But Mazzy wouldn't acknowledge. Wouldn't or couldn't. Steve couldn't tell. He couldn't tell if she was listening to him or if she even could. He had no idea if she was hearing any of the things he was saying. All she did was continue crying.

Sam tried, too. He had crouched down across from her and reminded her that all she was feeling was just proof that she was no monster. All the regret and the hurt and the horror and the anger was just proof that she was whole-heartedly good. She wouldn't reply to him either.

From the other room, Bucky has only been able to listen to her sobs.

It's weird, hearing her cry again. She used to cry all the time. Every time they were sent out. She would cry until the mission was over and he would hold her in his arms in the back of the van as they were taken back to Hydra's base.

The guards wouldn't allow it, at first. Letting the Soldier comfort the girl. It was soft. It was full of warmth and love, and the Soldier didn't deserve that. The Soldier deserved no love at all. But the guards were quick to realize that the girl's crying wouldn't stop unless the Soldier stopped it himself, and the sounds of the sobs were nothing short of irritating. From then on, they allowed it.

Now, though, Bucky doesn't know if it's his place to try and comfort her. He hasn't seen her in years and years, and she is only now able to remember who he is. He's sure Tony has spent ages trying to make her permanently forget that he ever existed.

He can hear Sam and Steve trying again.

"Maz, it isn't your fault. You were just a baby," Sam tries to tell her with a hand on her knee.

Mazzy gives no indication that she even heard him.

Steve crouches down beside Sam. "I know you're sad and I know you're angry, but you have to understand that this isn't your fault, sweetheart."

Still, Mazzy doesn't reply.

Sighing, Steve Sam his eyes. "Do you-" he sighs again, "do you want us to bring you back to your dad?"

"Sam," Steve says. Sam turns to see that Steve's looking at him with pinched eyebrows. "We can't do that."

"The kid's crying her eyes out, man. Kids want their parents when they're crying their eyes out," Sam reasons, like it's obvious.

Steve stands back up and Sam does beside him. Steve cocks his head toward the other room and they leave Mazzy's side for just a moment to have a conversation without her there. "If we bring her back there, Tony's probably going to lock her in a room until he's sure that Buck's either dead or in a high-security prison cell," Steve explains in a quiet voice.

Bucky, who is still sitting off to the side, sighs. "If that's what has to happen, Steve-"

"No," Steve interrupts. "Going back to Tony is bad for everyone. I'm willing to bet that she's still angry with him, and if we try to bring her back there, she'll fight us on it. Besides, we're fugitives, now. The moment we step back in there, we're under arrest."

Sam nods in understanding, but he has his own concerns. "Well, we can't stay here forever and she's not calming down. And we can't exactly just toss her in the backseat of a car and hope she chills out."

"That's seeming like our only option," Steve says with a distraught quality to his normally firm voice.

His heart aching in his chest, Bucky sits himself up a little bit straighter. "Can I talk to her?" he asks, his voice quiet and anxious.

Steve looks at Sam and Sam looks at Steve. Steve seems fine, but Sam looks unsure about the whole thing. He turns to Bucky, eyes narrow. "About what?" he asks in a flat tone.

"I just... I think I can help," Bucky replies.

"Yeah. Go ahead, Buck," Steve decides.

When Bucky stands up, Sam is even less sure than he was before. "Woah, hold on. Hold on," he says, standing in the doorway. He looks at Bucky and then back at Steve. "You really think this is a good idea? 'Cause I'm not so sure."

"I think he gets it better than you or I ever could," Steve answers.

And that makes sense. It's obvious. Only Bucky can know at least part of what Mazzy is feeling right now. The regret for doing something that you didn't do, but you also did do. It's confusing and it's frustrating and there are no clear answers about any of it, no matter how hard or how long you search for them.

With crossed arms, Sam nods and steps out of Bucky's way. "Alright. Alright."

Bucky steps out into the next room over, and there she is. In the corner, hidden and shaking, is Mazzy. The sight of her like that hits Bucky like a punch to the gut. His whole body aches and his face just slightly twitches. He bites down on his tongue and keeps walking. He feels like someone's got their hand wrapped around his heart, and with every step he takes, they squeeze harder and harder and harder.

When he gets to her, he doesn't say a word. He kneels down across from her, watching her for just a few moments to get a full read on her. She looks the same, sort of, just taller. It's weird. It's such a strange, strange feeling. She's so different yet so the same.

She's still crying. It's like she never stopped since the night she escaped, even though Bucky knows that isn't true. Her cries sound different now, though, Bucky thinks. When he last heard her cry, she still seemed like a baby crying. Sad and whiny with a pouted bottom lip and big, shiny eyes.

Now, though, the crying sounds like panic. Not like a baby wailing for its mother, but like a mouse caught in a trap. Shrieking and squeaking like she can't for the life of her catch her breath. Tremoring like she's stuck there in that corner for the rest of her short-lived life.

For all Bucky knows, that could be what she's seeing with her eyes covered, though he doubts it. That, he thinks, is the problem, though. That she's covering her eyes. She can't see what's real now. She can't see that they're there for her and that she's not alone in whatever world or memories she has caught up in her brain. She's not there.

So hesitantly that it's like he thinks his skin is poison, Bucky takes hold of Mazzy's hands and pulls them away from her eyes.

When he tries to pull his hands away so as to not scare her, Mazzy grips onto his hands like they're her only lifeline. He looks at her face and sees her eyes, teary and desperate, locked onto his own. Begging for help.

Her breathing is fast and raspy, repeatedly getting stuck in her throat. It's like she's suffocating. Bucky knows the feeling, though he isn't sure if there's a name for it. It's like drowning outside of water, and it's nearly impossible to stop it sometimes. All he can do now, though, is try. So he holds her hands tight in return.

"You- you're not there anymore, Star. We aren't there. Теперь мы в безопасности," Bucky whispers. We're safe now. He isn't sure if that's what she's panicking about, or if it's just the confusing regret, but he's trying. "It wasn't you. It wasn't me. It was them. And you'll never go back to them again."

"I did it today," Mazzy chokes out in between her desperate gasping for air. Words are a good sign. She can hear him. She's listening. She's there. "They're still-"

"No, no. He was someone else," Bucky tells her. The man was asking for answers about a specific mission. If he was Hydra, he wouldn't be asking those questions. He'd only be taking Mazzy and Bucky back to Hydra, and he wasn't. He was only using them.

"The book."

"We're gonna get the book, so no one can use it again," Bucky promises her. He isn't all the way sure that he can keep the promise, but if it calms her down, it calms her down. "No one."

Mazzy's nails dig into Bucky's skin, but he pays it no mind. She shifts herself so that she's sitting on her knees just like he is. "I remember," she whispers.

"You remember now? You remember me?" Bucky asks her.

Still trembling like a leaf, Mazzy nods slowly.

"Do you remember breathing with me? In the van?" It was a way he could get her to stop crying once the missions were over. Breathing with her to guide her. He thinks that, maybe, it will work again.

Flicking her thumb against her pointer finger, Mazzy signs a little bit.

Though his ASL isn't great, Bucky is able to figure out that she does remember by the slight nodding of her head as she signs. He moves her hand to press against his chest and then takes a deep, steady breath. Mazzy is able to feel it by the rise and fall of his chest against her hand. "Like that," Bucky says softly.

"Like that," Mazzy quietly echoes.

As Bucky continues to take slow and deep breaths, Mazzy feels it and she tries to match it with her own. With each breath, her breathing becomes more and more steady. Every once in a while, it'll get hitched in her throat and she'll have a bit of a setback, but after a few minutes, she doesn't feel like she's suffocating anymore.

✮

In the backseat of a blue Volkswagen Beetle, Mazzy is curled up against the door. Beside her is Bucky. The Winter Soldier.

It is so strange if she thinks about it too much. Because it's normal. Normal in the way that she can now remember sitting beside him countless times before. But it's so strange in the way that just yesterday, she would be absolutely horrified to be stuck in the back seat with this man. It's so strange because he is a stranger, but he's also not a stranger. She just doesn't know how to treat him.

Part of her feels like he's such a stranger to her that she should try her hardest to not even touch him, but she also knows that he held her when she was small and she was holding onto his hands for dear life back in the warehouse. Should she talk to him or be quiet? Does he even know either?

Plus, it's weird because how does she behave after fully freaking out in front of all of them? She's pretty sure it was a panic attack or an anxiety attack or something. She knows her dad gets those sometimes. Maybe it's genetic. Or maybe it's because they've both been through more than their brains can handle gracefully. Either way, Mazzy is feeling very awkward in this Volkswagen Beetle.

Maybe she should just try to be how she would normally be. How would she normally be again?

Mazzy clears her throat quietly and slouches in her seat, so entirely unsure of how to behave.

The car comes to a stop beneath an underpass, where another car is waiting. Steve shifts the gear into park and unbuckles his seatbelt. "Be right back."

When Steve leaves the car, the awkward and tense air becomes even more awkward and tense. Mazzy looks up at Sam. He's staring out the front windshield. She glances at Bucky, very quickly, and he's glaring at the back of Sam's head.

Unsure of what else to do, Mazzy also stares out the front windshield. She watches as Steve walks up to the car and Sharon Carter leads him to the trunk. She opens it up, and even though Mazzy can't see what's inside right now, she already knows what it is because Steve told her. It's his and Sam's suits.

Then, out of nowhere, Bucky finally breaks the silence. "Can you move your seat up?" he asks, his voice deep and pretty annoyed-sounding, in Mazzy's opinion.

Sam doesn't hesitate to reply with a quick and final, "No."

It's a bit funny, but Mazzy doesn't laugh. She just presses her lips together and takes a deep breath, trying to hype herself up into saying what she wants to say. It's weird. She isn't usually a very shy person, but she guesses it's easier to be loud and annoying when you're always around the one and only Tony Stark, who is almost always the most loud and annoying person in the room.

Nevertheless, she manages to work up the courage and taps Bucky on the shoulder. He looks over at her, his glare disappearing. "Um, we could switch... if you want," Mazzy murmurs. It's a bit embarrassing, too, because her voice is slightly hoarse from all the crying and gasping she was doing earlier.

"No, it's okay," Bucky says, shaking his head.

"No, I like the... right side of the car. Swear," Mazzy tells him, her eyebrows raised to try and convey that she is definitely, so totally not lying. "I'm smaller, anyway. Look. I can just-" she grunts as she climbs up into the driver's seat- "go over here and then you can scooch over. See?"

Bucky slides over into the left side of the back seat and Sam rolls his eyes.

Now sat down in the front seat of the car, Mazzy taps her hands against the steering wheel. "I could steal the car right now if I wanted to," she comments.

"And you could go to juvie," Sam tells her.

"My dad would bail me out, probably, even though I'm mad at him currently," Mazzy replies. She still starts her treacherous climb back into the back seat, though. "Lucky for you, I don't really feel like stealing a car right now."

"Right. Phew," Sam says sarcastically.

When Mazzy finally plops down into the right side of the back seat, she adjusts herself and sits up so she can see out the front windshield again. What she sees, she is not so fond of. Her eyebrows shoot up before a sour look makes its way onto her face.

"Oh, gross!" she spits out without meaning to. "Isn't he, like, five-hundred years old? She looks like she's probably thirty or something. Shouldn't he be kissing old grandmas? That'd be gross too, though."

The kiss lasts for way too long, in Mazzy's opinion, so she reaches into the front seat again and honks the horn, making both Steve and Sharon jump. When Steve looks back at the car, Mazzy is staring at him like she's about to throw up, Sam is nodding and smirking suggestively, and Bucky is staring at the roof of the car with a blank look on his face.

"Jeez. I thought he was in love with-" Mazzy slaps her hand over her mouth. "Never mind. I just can't believe he's kissing a girl. Especially right now."

Sam glances at Mazzy in the rearview mirror, and then at Bucky. "Was she this talkative when you knew her?" he asks.

Bucky shakes his head. "No. Not really."

Mazzy lets out a huff and crosses her arms. "Well, sorry. I'll just stop talking, then, and we can sit in silence forever."

"It's just-" Sam sighs and laughs at the same time. "Filter, kid. You gotta learn how to filter."

"Like a Brita filter?"

"Like a thought filter. It's not your fault. Your dad doesn't have one either."

"I have a thought filter," Mazzy insists. "It's just not as active as yours."

"Right."

✮

Mazzy climbs out of the blue Beetle and leans against the hood of the car lazily. Across from the car is a white van, which Mazzy would suspect was a kidnapper van if she didn't know who was inside of it. Clint gets out of the van first, and behind him is Wanda.

"Cap," Clint greets as he approaches Steve.

"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice," Steve says, shaking Clint's hand.

"Hey, man, you're doing me a favor," Clint replies. Mazzy isn't sure what he means by that, but she doesn't ask. Clint nods his head back at Wanda. "Besides, I owe a debt."

Steve looks at Wanda and gives her a soft smile. "Thanks for having my back."

"It was time to get off my ass," Wanda replies.

"How about our other recruit?" Steve asks.

"He's rarin' to go," Clint says, walking over to the van.

Mazzy turns to look up at Bucky, who is leaning against the car beside her. "Do you know who the other recruit is?" she asks him with raised eyebrows.

Bucky scoffs softly. "I don't know who any of these people are," he tells her.

"Oh. Right," Mazzy replies with a nod. She points at Clint. "That's Clint, aka Hawkeye. He can shoot arrows, like, really well. And that," Mazzy explains, pointing at Wanda, "is Wanda. She can move stuff with her mind and also do mind control stuff. She also dresses really cool."

Clint pulls the door to the white van open, revealing a brown-haired man lying down inside, seemingly asleep. He doesn't look like he's rarin' to go, in Mazzy's opinion. "Had to put a little coffee in him, but he should be good," Clint says.

The man jumps awake, startled by the sound of the door being pulled open. Her steps out of the car, squinting his eyes like he can't stand the light. "What time zone is this?" he asks. Then he turns and sees Steve, and his eyes get all wide. Clint gives him a shove and he shakes Steve's hand with great enthusiasm. "Cap- Captain America," he breathes out.

"Mr. Lang," Steve greets in return.

"It's an honor," Mr. Lang says. He looks down at his and Steve's hands, and then back up. "I'm shaking your hand too long. Wow. This is awesome." He turns to look back at Wanda, as if she is going to be just as excited to be seeing Captain America as he is. "Captain America. I know you, too. You're great!"

Wanda smiles at him, grateful to be acknowledged, but also a bit amused.

Mr. Lang apparently can't help but touch Steve's muscles with amazement. "Jeez," he murmurs in disbelief. "Ah, look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people, so... thinks for thanking of me."

Mazzy lets out a giggle and presses the bottom half of her face into her arms.

The man looks at Sam next. "Hey, man!"

"What's up, Tic Tac?" Sam replies.

Tic Tac?

"Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time was an acci-"

"It was a great audition, but it'll never happen again," Sam cuts him off.

"They tell you what we're up against?" Steve asks.

Mr. Lang narrows his eyes slightly, thinking. "Uh, something about some psycho-assassins?" he says.

Mazzy frowns and furrows her eyebrows. She looks over at Bucky again. "Is he talking about us, do you think?" she asks him.

It's weird asking him questions, kind of, because Mazzy feels like she's not supposed to. But she knows she's allowed to. She knows she knows him, but she also knows she didn't know she knew him for a very long time. It's an odd thing to think about, but the only way Mazzy can think to get over it is to just talk to him like she would anyone else, and maybe it'll eventually feel normal again.

"I, uh..." Bucky's pretty sure the answer is yes, but he doesn't necessarily want to tell Mazzy that, so instead he murmurs, "I'm not sure. I don't know." He then looks over at the rest of the group again, desperate for a subject change. "We should get moving," he says loudly.

"We got a chopper lined up," Clint says.

Wanda catches Mazzy's eye and gives her a smile and a wave, which Mazzy instinctively returns. What she doesn't know is that her cheeks her still very red and raw from all that crying, and it sort of just makes Wanda feel very sad for her. She steps closer to Mazzy, leaning against the opposite side of the car.

"How are you feeling, Mighty Mouse?" she asks.

"Trying to feel normal," Mazzy tells her.

Wanda nods in understanding, but before she can say anything, a loud voice begins to talk through the speakers. Mazzy is pretty sure it's German, but she isn't sure what exactly is being said.

Lucky for everyone else there, Bucky knows German and is able to translate for them. "They're evacuating the airport," he tells them all.

"Stark," Sam murmurs, looking at Steve.

"Stark?"

"Suit up," Steve says.

Mazzy's stomach twists with anxiety. She looks over at Steve, and Steve is looking over at her. He walks over to her before bending down beside her to talk to her quietly. "It's your choice; what you want to do. Stay with me or go home with your dad. I just don't want you in the way of all the fighting, so-"

"But I can fight," Mazzy tells him.

"You can. I know you can. But not this time. Not with your dad," Steve says. And though part of Mazzy wants to argue, she doesn't, because she doesn't truly want to fight against her dad. So she nods and Steve squeezes her shoulder. "It's up to you. Whatever you choose is okay, just as long as you're safe with someone."

"'Kay."

"If you want to stay with me, we'll be heading for the helicopter, and you say the word and we'll get you there. If you want to go with your dad, tell me and I'll take you to him. I just don't want you getting hurt."

Mazzy nods. Now all she has left to do is decide.