★ ★ ★

Marlena sat quietly in her seat beside Sam, chewing on her nails as she normally did when she was anxious or nervous. Steve and Sharon were present in the room as well, though Marlena's attention was anywhere else but them. She was worried, to say the least, as Sharon had informed them several minutes ago they would be beginning Bucky's evaluation shortly. Marlena could see Bucky on a monitor outside of the room where Tony and Natasha were currently stationed, though she couldn't hear anything going on.

She was scared for Bucky; she was scared of what these people would do to him. She and Steve had yet to sign the accords, meaning Tony's offer regarding Bucky being transferred to a psych ward in the United States was moot as of now.

Bucky didn't belong in a prison, however, and Marlena didn't care what argument anyone had to make in order to prove her wrong. He was a victim—he was a victim of brainwash, mutilation, and abuse. Whatever he had done wasn't his fault and it never would be. Marlena wished she was able to talk some sense into the government; she wished she was able to make them feel what he felt as Hydra stripped him of his life so they would understand and leave him to live the life he wanted.

Marlena fixed her gaze on the monitor outside of the room, wishing more than anything she could hear what was going on. She let out a soft sigh and removed her finger from her mouth, looking down at the table in front of her. Sharon noticed her change in demeanor and moved to switch on the monitor in the room, not at all worried about the trouble she could get into doing so. Marlena's head snapped up the moment she heard the monitor beep, as did Steve's. Marlena gave Sharon a thankful smile before turning her attention to the screen, where the camera was currently focused on Bucky.

"Do you know where you are, James?" Marlena heard an accented voice off camera ask him.

Bucky didn't answer, eliciting another string of words from the man off camera.

"I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

Marlena could feel her heart skip a beat as she listened to him speak. She hadn't heard his voice in over a month, though to her it felt like years. Marlena didn't miss the brokenness that lingered in his tone, however, and she wanted nothing more than to hold him and take that brokenness away. If she could do so without getting into trouble, or if she could do so without being seen, she would find her way down to him and do just that. Marlena hated that their lives had taken such a drastic turn, and she hated that there seemed to be no chance in their lives ever going back to normal after this was all said and done.

"Why would the task force release these photos to begin with?" Steve's voice sounded.

Marlena looked away from the screen and at him to see him holding the pictures of Bucky from Vienna in his hands.

"To get the word out and involve as many eyes as we can," Sharon pitched.

"Right," Steve spoke as if he were unconvinced. "It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding—set off a bomb and get your picture taken. We've got seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier."

Marlena pursed her lips as she listened to Steve's words, but she couldn't formulate a response to them. Thanks to Tony's suppressors, she was having a hard time keeping her thoughts gathered. It was hard for her to even understand what he was talking about, but when Sharon spoke next his words seemed to become much clearer.

"So, you're saying someone framed him to find him?"

"Steve, we spent almost three months looking for him before Marlena led us to him, and even then we found nothing," Sam told him.

"We didn't bomb the UN, though," Steve replied. "That kinda thing turns a lot of heads."

Marlena shook her head and sat up in her seat. "That doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would find him. It took Hallie and Dylan physically calling and turning him in for Hydra to find him after the Washington D.C. incident. Even then they still couldn't get to him."

"No, but it guaranteed that whoever framed him made sure we could," Sharon mused.

Sharon averted her attention to the monitor, leaving the three of them to follow her gaze. The four watched Bucky's interrogator with curious, yet suspicious eyes. Marlena wasn't sure about the others' thoughts, but she was beginning to doubt that this man was who he was supposed to be.

Not much else was able to be said before the lights in the facility began flickering. In seconds it was completely dark. The only source of light was that of the red emergency lights flashing throughout the building. Marlena stood up from her seat and looked around before looking at Sharon, Steve and Sam doing the same.

"Sub-level five, east wing," she told them.

Steve simply nodded and quickly made his way out of the room, Sam and Marlena following closely behind him.

The three ran down multiple stairways before finally reaching their destination. They slowed to a cautious walk as trail of unconscious guards met their sight, but they didn't stop.

Marlena trailed into the interrogation room behind Steve, while Sam stayed a few feet behind. A man calling for help caught their attention, and Steve hurried further into the room, pulling Bucky's interrogator off of the floor.

"Marlena, can you read anything?" Steve asked the petite girl, hoping more than anything that Tony's suppressors had worn off at least a little bit.

Marlena focused herself on the man's mind, though she could see and hear absolutely nothing. "I can't, Steve."

Steve let out a grunt and shoved the man into the wall, not bothering to care about whether or not he would harm him. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"To see an empire fall."

Sam walked into the room at that moment, summoning out the soldier hiding in the corner. Marlena turned quickly at the sound of something hitting the wall behind her, and she watched as Bucky grabbed Sam by the throat and threw him towards the small cage in which he had recently been held captive in.

Marlena cursed under her breath as realization regarding the current situation struck her, and she ran towards Bucky, wasting no time at all in trying to fight him off. Fighting Bucky was the last thing Marlena wanted to do, but he had relapsed, that much Marlena could tell. The man that had just thrown Sam away was definitely not Bucky—it was the Winter Soldier.

Marlena kicked Bucky's side as hard as she could, causing him to stumble slightly. She threw multiple punches and kicks at him, landing each one until he grew fed up with her. Bucky grabbed her leg in the air as it attempted to make contact with him and swung her into a wall. He stomped over to her and pulled her up from the ground by the neck, the metal of his arm catching on the chain of her locket. He ignored her gasps for air and shoved her into a wall, tightening his grip around the base of her throat. It wasn't until Steve threw him off of her that she was able to catch her breath, though she was much too weak to keep herself upright.

Marlena sucked in a breath as she lay on the ground. She reached her hand up to rub her sore neck, only to be met with the absence of her locket—her most prized possession. Her eyes flickered back and forth through the room for any sign of the piece of jewelry, but she was met with nothing. She let out a breath and pushed herself off the floor as much as she could. Sam, who had just recovered from his altercation with Bucky, ran over to her as he watched her struggle. Marlena looked up as he leaned down, and she grabbed him by the arm, allowing him to hoist her from the floor.

"Where—where did they go?" she forced out.

"I'm not sure, but they'll be fine," Sam reassured her as he began pulling her out of the room. "We need to find that man."

The two ran back up the stairwell as fast as they could, though they were both exhausted. They pushed their way through the mass of evacuating personnel in an attempt to locate the man that they knew had released the Winter Soldier.

They soon made it outside but had no luck in finding the unknown man. He had disappeared with the crowd, only to leave behind his jacket. Sam cursed under his breath when he realized they had lost him and turned to look at Marlena, studying the redness of her neck and the blood on her knuckles.

"Are you okay, Mar?" he breathed out.

She simply shrugged. "I just. . .we need to find him—we need to find both of them."

"Don't worry. . .we will."