"Melissa," I repeat, dumbstruck by her appearance. She's still just as short and as curvy as I remember her, but her skin has lost its healthy tan. She looks sick and her eyes are dark. They're not her.

"(Y/N)," She takes a few tentative steps towards me and it takes every ounce of strength I've got left to keep myself from backing away. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah," I manage to choke out, tears forming in my eyes. "It's really me. I'm back."

"Oh, (Y/N), no." She says mournfully, shaking her head in dissent. "No, they can't have gotten you back. You wouldn't have let them."

"No, I wouldn't, and I didn't. I put up a fight, but there was a whole room of people. I couldn't just kill them all." I step forward and reach a hand out to cup her cheek. "I'm gonna get us out of here."

"How?" She whispers.

"Don't know yet, but we'll figure it out."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." I nod and release a shaky breath. "I just have to hope my team is working get me back while I'm working to get us out."

–

Bucky sits on the edge of the bed, hugging (Y/N)'s slate gray cardigan to his chest and bouncing his leg, his nerves getting the best of him. He feels powerless. He feels like the whole ordeal is his fault, and he has no clue how to make any of it better and it's eating him alive.

When the door opens up he barely notices until someone's shadow is thrown over him. He slowly looks up, finding Pietro in the doorway. Not knowing how to respond, he turns his attention back to worrying.

The mattress dips slightly as Pietro takes a seat next to Bucky. He's silent, squeezing his thighs in concentration as he tries to find his words.

"I know what you're about to say," Bucky beats him to it. "So please, do me a favor and just don't. Don't tell me it wasn't my fault, don't tell me there wasn't anything I could do because I know you're wrong. She was there. I could have saved her. I could have kept her safe." Bucky spits out the words as if they're venom.

"You don't know that."

Bucky scoffs. "Don't I?" He still refuses to look at Pietro, regardless of the fact that the silver haired speedsters eyes are trained on him. "They pulled her away from me. They separated us. I could have stopped it. I could have insisted that I stay by her side at all times." He buries his face into the cardigan. "I should have done more."

In a blur of movement, Pietro rises from his seat and punches Bucky straight in the jaw, knocking him to the floor. Bucky, dazed and confused, looks up at him, unsure of how to react. He just stares at Pietro, who's shoulders and chest are moving with his heaving breaths, wide eyed and somewhat scared.

"Quit feeling sorry for yourself." Pietro hisses. "Quit acting like you're the only one who cares about her and quit acting like you did nothing." Pietro forces himself to relax, albeit not much. "Get off your ass and help us find her. If you don't do that, then you truly did nothing."

With that, Pietro turns on his heel and stalks out of the room. Bucky stares after him, mulling over his words. It takes him a full five minutes to haul himself up off the floor and pull himself together. He places (Y/N)'s cardigan on her side of the bed and puts on his leather jacket before leaving the room to join the others.

"Let's fuck them up."

–

"(Y/N)," Someone's shaking me. "(Y/N), you have to wake up, they're coming."

I groan and try to rub the sleep from my eyes. The makeup from the gala is long gone and the skirt of my dress is becoming dirty and tattered. In the few days I've been in this facility I've gained more bruises than I've seen on my body in years and I feel more drained than I've ever been in my life. I don't lay down to sleep, rather sit in the corner and allow my head to loll back against the joined walls when I'm too tired to keep my eyes open.

"How long was I out?"

"Maybe five hours? You got lucky." She sits back on her heels. "How can you sleep in this place? With everything that's going on?"

"I've had a lot of practice." I stretch my arms above my head, earning a few pops from my shoulders and elbows. Hauling myself to my feet I twist my back one way and then the other, cracking my back all the way up and down my spine. I finish with popping my wrists and cracking my knuckles. "I sleep on the quinjet all the time. When there's a little more time, I'll show you something interesting."

"What do you mean?"

Before I can answer her the door bangs open and a group of three armed guards shove through the doorway.

"(Y/N), come forward with your hands up." I do as I'm told and, as soon as I'm close enough, two guards spin me around and yank my hands behind my back and bind my wrists together. I shoot Melissa a wry smile before I'm pushed out of the room and down the hall.

I hear the door slam shut and I try to keep myself calm and my breathing slow. I don't like being away from her for too long. She can't protect herself and her powers can be erratic. It's probably why she's in confinement rather than out in the field. Messing with time can be dangerous, so they keep her alone and in a room with no windows to keep her from knowing what time it is or how much time has passed. What they don't know is, along with her time manipulation powers came an impeccable internal clock. She generally knows what time it is up to the full, half and quarter hours.

I have to keep my hourglass safe, so I allow myself to be dragged to a tiled room. They remove the restraints from my wrists before they close and lock the door behind me, leaving me to stand alone in the much too bright room. I almost lean against the wall when a pair of men in white hazmat walk in with, what look to be, fire hoses. I feel my eyes widen, but that's the only reaction they get out of me.

When they turn on the water they aim the nozzles at me. It hits me with its full force, the greenish liquid soaking me from head to toe almost instantly. I clamp my jaw shut after getting a mouthful of the bitter liquid. The pressure of the hose batters me, nearly pushing me to the floor.

When the men hazmat suits seem satisfied with their work one of them stalks over to me and strips my tattered dress off, leaving me in my bra and underwear. I just stare after them, wide eyed and unsure of how to react. For a moment, I'm worried about how the camouflaging disk on my arm is holding up, but when I look over my right arm, the disk is still there and my arm is still the same shade as the rest of my skin.

I'm not left alone for long as a pair of women take the hazmat men's place. They bring a change of clothes with them. One of them throws what seems to be a body suit at me and it hits me in the chest before I can catch it.

"Put that on and knock on the door when you're done." The other woman says. She sounds scottish.

With that, they both turn on their heels and leave. I don't waste time shimmying into the tight suit. The legs end at my ankles and there aren't any sleeves. Everything about it makes me think of when I was first in Hydra and the thought of it sends a shiver through my body.

I don't want to keep them waiting too long, so I stride over to the door and knock.

–

"We have nothing." Tony throws himself onto the couch and covers his face with his arm. "I'm one of the smartest men in the world and I've found nothing."

"How did it go from we to just you, Stark?" Pietro asks, his tone almost grim. "I thought this was supposed to be a team effort."

"Oh it is, Flash Gordon, but I've been doing most of the work while you and Manchurian candidate over here have been moping around like lost puppies." Tony shoots back. "It just so happens that I've got nothing. Nothing at all."

"When you and Banner were making the cloaking disks for our arms, did you happen to put tracking devices in them?" Bucky asks from his place in the armchair, his voice quiet.

"No, we didn't think of that," Tony props himself up on the arm of the couch before swinging his legs over the side. "But you might be into something."

"I might?" Bucky's eyebrows lift in surprise.

"He might?" Pietro repeats.

"Yes, he might." Tony rolls his eyes, grabs his laptop from the coffee table and opens it. "Both of the disks have a unique radioactive signature. If we can pinpoint her disks signature, we might be able to track her down."

"And if we can't find the signature?" Pietro asks.

"Well, then I'm afraid we're fucked because I'm out of ideas."

"You really should look into more tracking devices." Bucky says, his tone serious. "Put one into a new plate in her arm or a faux circuit board or something."

Tony doesn't even bother to look up from his work, his fingers flying over the keyboard. "I'll keep that in mind when I get to work on her arm after this whole ordeal is over with."

The door bangs open and Steve shuffles in, arms laden with food. No one looks at him, and he looks at the three men, curious.

"Did you find anything?" He asks, setting the bags down on the counter.

"Maybe."

–

I'm lead down another hallway, my bare feet making quiet slapping noises against the concrete floor. I keep my arms folded against my chest and look around warily. The liquid I was doused with earlier was a fire retardant. I found out as much earlier when I was trying to warm myself up. It didn't affect the mechanics of my arm, but everything feels stiff.

The hallway opens up into a large, round room. Machines line the walls and there's a large mat in the middle of the room. Off to one side I notice a barred entryway and, behind it, a small group of people glaring at all of the Hydra operatives in the room. It dawns on me that they want me to test out their new toys. It makes me sick but, I realize I don't have the use of my powers until the retardant dries completely. These people they're going to be sending out at me are enhanced and have orders to try their hardest to kill me.

One of the men who lead me down the hallway shoves me into the middle of the mat with the butt of his gun and I struggle to keep my balance. I straighten my posture and wipe any trace of surprise from my face. Without warning, the door opens and one of the enhanced dashes across the room, taking a leaping dive at me. I immediately drop to my knees and spin so that I can keep an eye on them. They land on the mat in a sprawling heap before springing to their feet and rounding on me, a low growl coming from deep in their chest. I feel my eyes go wide at the sound and even moreso at the sight of their teeth. They're sharp and somewhat jagged, giving them the appearance of a feral cat.

They run at me, teeth gnashing and arms swinging wildly. Without thinking, I knock their hands out and away from their body, grab their biceps and lift their entire body above my head before throwing them back down onto the mat with enough force to knock them out. I stand over them, staring, eyes wide, my breathing heavy.

"Simply marvelous, (Y/N)," A familiar voice sounds close to my ear. The owner of the voice runs their hand down my left arm and pushes their nose into the crook of my neck. They pull away after an excruciating amount of time and move in a small arc before stopping in front of me. When I look up I find James. He's looking at me with a dark glint in his eye and it makes me nauseous. "Remove this one and send in the next."

The unconscious enhanced is dragged from the mat and, as soon as they're gone, the door opens again.

–

"I think I've almost pinpointed the signal." Tony announces. Everyone crowds around the back of the sofa to watch him work. They stand there for a good five minutes before Tony waves them off and all three of them resume their worried pacing.

"Where is she?" Pietro asks, sounding impatient.

"Did you not just hear me say that I thought that I had almost pinpointed the signal?" Tony snaps. "Fuck, gimme at least five more minutes before you bug me, Speedy Gonzales."

Pietro nods and keeps quiet as Tony continues to work.

As promised, it takes five more minutes before the telltale beep of the GPS locking onto the location of the radioactive signature.

"Was that it?" Bucky whispers, practically holding his breath.

"That was it." Tony nods. "It's not too far from the gala location."

Bucky scowls at the screen. "I don't think there's anything on that block aside from abandoned apartment buildings though."

"Maybe that's the point. Hiding in plain sight is cliche, but it works, I mean-"

"Wait, where did she go?"

"What?"

"The signal, Stark, we lost it." Bucky points at the screen, the little green indicator dot now gone.

"Shit." Tony sets back to work, desperately trying to find the signal again. "Something must be blocking it."

Bucky blanches. "They must have found the disk."

"How could they?" Tony turns slightly to look at Bucky. "It was designed so that it would blend in seamlessly with the coloring of the skin projected on your arms."

"Something must have happened," Bucky shakes his head, heard starting to pound. "Something must have gone wrong. Steve, we have to go find her. We have to go check out that apartment complex now."

Steve places a strong hand on his friend's shoulder, trying to calm him down and reassure him. "We have to be logical about this, Bucky. We can't just charge in, guns blazing, and hope for the best result."

"Steve," Tony's voice is uncharacteristically quiet. "Barnes is right. If the disk has been destroyed badly enough to mask the radioactive signature, the damage had to have been pretty drastic. I hate to say it, but guns blazing is the most logical plan we have right now."

Steve sighs as he looks over the three men in front of him. Pietro and Tony look as tired as he feels and Bucky looks like he's been hit by a cement truck. He thinks briefly about the state if the team back in New York and what would happen if they didn't bring (Y/N) home.

He sighs loudly and scrubs a hand over his face. "Fine, but we at least need some sort of plan past breaking and entering."

–

"Well, well, well, my dear sweet (Y/N)," James sneers as he circles me on the mat. In the last match with a pair if enhanced twins with rather sharp claws, one of them had managed to destroy the disk disguising my arm. "Now why would you want to keep something like this hidden?"

"Because I knew you would use it against my family you advantageous prick." I hiss as my arms are pulled harshly behind my back and secured with, at least, seven zipties. "Or, at least, you'd try to."

He looks surprised by my choice of words and his expression darkens when he realizes that the brainwashing never took hold. "So you weren't lying when you said you didn't work like that anymore."

"Of course I wasn't, I'm not a complete idiot. I know what happens when you lie to someone who has that much power over you, I've been with Hydra before." I spit out the words. "What are you going to do with me? Lock me up? Torture me?"

"No."

"No? Too much of a twat to hit a girl?" Evidently he didn't like that all that much because he turns sharply and backhands me across my face. I close my eyes and calm myself before spitting the small amount of blood welling up in my mouth onto the mat. "See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

He glares at me and motions to the guards to bring something forward. I don't take my eyes off of him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of being shocked by whatever it is he's got. He smirks at me as his hand wraps around someone's arm and he pulls them to his side. My eyes go wide and I feel my legs shake under me.

"What shall we do with her, Melissa?" He whispers to the girl beside him.

"Whatever it is you think is necessary, sir." She answers, her voice flat and her eyes glassy and void of any emotion.

I sink to my knees, resigned to whatever my fate may be, not daring to look up at the two people before me.

James chuckles darkly. "Let's get started, shall we?"