Steve, Bree, Natasha, Tatiana, Ana and Sam were in the back of a Hydra van, handcuffed with reinforced steel, taken to an unaware location. 

Two Hydra Agents were sitting in the back with them.

"It was them," Steve told them. "They looked right at us like they didn't even know us. Bucky was so close to killing Bree. When I said her name, he... he froze. But he still didn't remember. He didn't even remember who he was. I don't think Alec know who he is, either."

"How is that even possible?" Sam asked. "It was, like, 70 years ago."

"Zola," Bree answered. "Bucky and Alec's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on them. Whatever he did helped them survive the fall. They must have found them and..."

"Put them in ice like they did to us," Steve finished.

"None of that's your fault," Tatiana told them.

Bree looked down. "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Natasha was bleeding from her shoulder as if she had been shot.

Ana looked at the agents with them. "We need to get a doctor here. If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

One of the Hydra agents turned on a taser as if to hit Ana with it. Instead, they hit the other Hydra agent with it, making him fall unconscious. They pulled off their helmet, revealing it was really Agent Maria Hill. "Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain." She nodded to Sam. "Who is this guy?"

  ✯  

The Hydra cars pulled over outside a building, inside a tunnel.

Brock and Agent 1 got out of the cars.

"Six holes," Brock told him. "Start digging."

Brock, Agent 1 and several other agents walked toward the back Hydra car with the team and Maria, preparing their guns.

Another agent opened the door, revealing that everyone was gone aside from the unconscious Hydra agent.

  ✯  

Maria's van was pulled over in the middle of the woods by a lake. She and Steve, Bree, Sam and the three Spiders got out of the van, walking toward a door in the bridge over the waterfall, walking inside down a corridor.

Tatiana and Ana were helped Natasha walk, as she was weak from bloodloss.

Maria looked at a few men in the corridor. "GSW. She's lost as least a pint."

"Maybe two," Ana told them.

A man ran closer. "Let me take her."

"They'll want to see him first," Maria told him.

They looked at her in confusion.

  ✯ 

Maria led them to a hospital room where Nick was lying down in a bed.

 Nick looked up to see them. "About damn time."

Tatiana sighed heavily in relief.

  ✯  

The man from the corridor was stitching Natasha up. 

The others were standing nearby Nick.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache," Nick told them.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the man told him.

"Let's not forget that," Nick told them. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha told him. "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B," Nick told them. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Ana asked. "Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Maria answered.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Nick told them. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

  ✯  

At the Hydra headquarters, in a laboratory, Alec was shirtless, sitting in a chair, gazing off, his metal chest and stomach exposed, showing that the metal went up to his shoulders, no higher. 

Two scientists were fixing the metal on Alec's chest and stomach. 

Bucky was nearby, sitting in a chair. He was starting to remember.

  ✯  

Flashback - Star Mistress: Captain America

Chapter "Love and Lost"

Alec and Bucky were outside of the train, clinging on to stay above the cliff.

A blue blast shot against the wall of the train behind Steve and Bree, the wall that Bucky and Alec were clinging onto, disintegrating it.

Bree and Steve gaped, knowing what would happen, in denial, horrified.

"Alec?" Steve called.

"Bucky!" Bree told him, running closer.

Alec and Bucky no longer had anything to hold onto, falling screaming toward the ground below. "No!"

  ✯  

Alec and Bucky were on the ground at the bottom of the cliff, almost dead.

Bucky's arm had been torn off.

Alec's chest and stomach were almost caved in.

Zola: (voice over) "The procedure has already started."

  ✯  

Bucky was in a dark laboratory.

Scientists and doctors were working on putting the metal arm onto his body.

  ✯  

Bucky and Alec were standing in a line in the old Hydra headquarters.

Zola was pacing in front of them. "You are to be the new fists of Hydra." He turned to soldiers. "Put them on ice."

  ✯  

Bucky and Alec were frozen to prolong their lives.

  ✯  

Now

Bucky was overwhelmed with the memories, using his metal arm to backhand punch a Hydra agent standing nearby, making him fall.

Other Hydra agents aimed their guns at Bucky to get him to stop and calm down.

  ✯  

Pierce and Brock walked toward the lab.

"Sir, he--he's unstable," a man told him. "Erratic."

They walked into the lab.

Pierce looked at Alec. "Mission report."

"Mission failed," Alec told him.

"Why did the mission fail?" Pierce asked.

"They weren't alone," Alec answered. "They had more help. They said the names Bucky and Alec."

Bucky looked up. "Who were they?"

Pierce knew that Bucky was starting to remember. "You met them earlier this week on another assignment."

"I knew them," Bucky told them. He looked at Alec. "We knew them."

Alec looked at him in confusion.

Pierce sat down. "Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century. And I need you both to do it one more time. Society's at a tipping point between order and chaos. And tomorrow morning, we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine. And Hydra can't give the world the freedom it deserves."

"But we knew them," Bucky told them. "The man... the man said Bree. I knew her. I couldn't kill her. I need to know why."

Pierce sighed, standing, turning to the doctors. "Prep him."

"He's been out of cryo freeze too long," a doctor told him.

"Then wipe him and start over," Pierce told them.

The doctors walked toward Bucky, pushing him back into his seat.

A doctor put a mouthpiece into his mouth for him to bite down.

Bucky was strapped to the chair mechanically. A head piece came down to his head, electrocuting him, making him scream.

Alec behaved himself because he wasn't starting to remember yet.

  ✯  

In the hidden hideout in the bridge over the waterfall, Nick was in an office, sitting at his desk, looking at a picture of Pierce. "This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize." Maria, Natasha and Tatiana sat at the table with Nick. Steve, Bree, Ana and Sam stood nearby. "He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch," Ana told them.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls any more," Nick told them, opening a briefcase with three server blade cards inside.

"What's that?" Ana asked.

Maria turned a laptop to face them to show them what she was talking about. "Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized."

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Nick told them.

"One or two won't cut it," Maria told them. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra," Nick told them. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left."

"We're not salvaging anything," Steve told him. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D had nothing to do with this," Nick told them.

"You gave me this mission," Bree told him. "This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D's been compromised. You said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Nick asked. "I noticed."

"How many paid the price before you did?" Steve asked.

Nick looked down. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes. I didn't know about Anders."

"Even if you had, would you have told us?" Bree asked. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? S.H.I.E.L.D, Hydra, it all goes."

"They're right," Tatiana told them.

Nick looked at Ana and Natasha.

Ana and Natasha nodded.

Nick looked at Sam.

"Don't look at me," Sam told him. "I do what they do, just slower."

Nick looked between them, sighing. "Well..." He sat back in his seat. "It looks like the Star Mistress and Captain America are giving the orders now."

  ✯  

Bree was standing on the bridge over the waterfall, remembering.

Bucky: (voice over) "We looked for you, after. Alec wanted to give you a ride to the cemetery."

  ✯  

Flashback - 1430s

Bree was standing on a bridge over a lake, wearing funeral clothes.

Bucky walked toward her.

"I know," Bree told him. "I'm sorry. I just kind of wanted to be alone."

"How was it?" Bucky asked.

"It was okay," Bree answered. "She's next to Dad."

Bree looked over the water sadly.

Bucky stood next to her. "I was gonna ask..."

"I know what you're gonna say, Bucky," Bree told him. "I just... I'm okay."

"No, you're not," Bucky told her. "You haven't even spoken that much to Steve since it happened."

Bree had tears in her eyes, trying to push them back, shaking her head. "Because I don't know what to say. I--I know he's older than me by a year, but I just... I want to try and be strong for him."

Bucky took her hand. "The thing is, you don't have to. She was your mother. It's okay to miss her. It's okay to cry."

"I feel like if I start crying, I'll never stop," Bree told him.

"But, if you ever do start to, you'll have me," Bucky told her. "Because I'm with you to the end of the line."

Bree looked at him, letting a few tears fall. "Promise?"

Bucky smiled a small smile, nodding. "Yeah." He pulled Bree into his arms. Bree laid her head on his chest, returning the embrace. "I'm staying with the mistress long after she becomes a star."

Bree smiled a small smile, closing her eyes. She started to cry in Bucky's arms.

    ✯   

Now

Bree was still standing on the bridge over the waterfall. She looked at the engagement ring on her finger, twisting it around.

Steve walked closer. "They're gonna be there, you know."

"I know," Bree told him. 

"Look, whoever they used to be and the guys they are now, they're still Alec and Bucky," Steve told her. "And I know that they don't think that they can be saved. But you and I will fight to the last breath to save your fiance and my best friends."

Bree looked at Steve. "Damn right. Suit up. It's time."

Bree walked away.