The next morning Loki and I stayed in bed. It was our last day together before I became the enemy.

"Are you absolutely sure it has to be you?" Loki asked.

"Ya..." I mumbled and traced patterns onto Loki's stomach.

"How do you plan on getting through to this... soldier?"

"I'm not entirely sure yet. We weren't taught how to reverse the effects of brainwashing in psychology 101." I sighed. "I need to make him relive his past with Steve somehow... I don't know, I'll think of something."

"And for how long will you leave me?" Loki asked, a bite to her otherwise smooth voice.

"Too long..." I said sadly.

"A day is too long. How long?" Loki asked again. I hesitated before answering.

"...fifteen months..." I finally said.

"Fifteen months?" Loki angrily repeated and sat up. "Over a year!"

I sat up with Loki and nodded.

"It's important. Otherwise I wouldn't do it." I explained. "Plus, HYDRA is going to train me. I'll become a lethal killer." I chuckled humorlessly.

"That's not a good thing in my eyes."

"You're the one that wanted me to stop getting hurt. The type of training they'll put me through... I'll be unstoppable." I said and looked to my lap. "You need to make sure Tony makes the device to get the Aether out of me. HYDRA can't get their hands on another infinity stone."

"Another one? They have one already?" Loki asked. I nodded and looked up into her green eyes.

"They have your scepter. No one knows about that yet, and they can't." I emphasized. "That's a whole other movie in itself." I mumbled and looked away, staring at the far wall.

"I don't like it." Loki told me and shook her head. "What if I do it instead?"

"Loki..." I trailed of sadly. "You never knew Bucky. You might be able to pull out old memories from him, but forcing them out might do more harm than good. I know what he was like before and what he's like now. I'm the one who needs to snap him out of this." I put a hand to Loki's cheek and stroked over the smooth skin with my thumb. "You'll know where I am at all times." I said and brought my other hand to my necklace. "I'll call when I need you." I promised. "But you can't just show up because I'm scared, or hurt. You need to stay away until I call you." I explained. "I actually have another job for you." I said hesitantly and put both hands in my lap.

"Will this job help you?" Loki asked.

"Not with Bucky, but it will help us in the future." I told her.

"What is it?"

"I need you to infiltrate HYDRA, too." I said and looked back up into green eyes. "They can't know it's you." I explained. "And you won't be close to me at all. I need you to find Baron Strucker and watch over his experiments with the scepter. Two test subjects in particular, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. They're twins from Sokovia."

"What am I watching for?" Loki asked.

"Make sure they survive the experiments. Get them to trust you, if you can. It will help in the long run." I said. Loki bit her lip and looked down into her lap. "Hey," I said to get her attention. "We're going to be fine. We can survive a year apart." I smiled. "You've survived over a thousand without me, I'm sure a year is nothing."

"It is not nothing, my love." Loki's eyes snapped back to mine. "It might as well be an eternity."

I rolled my eyes playfully at how dramatic Loki was being.

"I'm sure you'll be too busy to even think about me." I chuckled.

"That's a lie, and you know it." Loki smiled and pulled me into her lap. "My every thought is of pleasing you." She smirked. "Making you happy," cool lips met mine in a quick kiss, "keeping you healthy," another kiss, "satisfied," Loki's lips met mine for half a second longer, "and most of all," Loki trailed kisses over my jaw and to my ear, "loved." A small nip was placed under my ear as my eyes fluttered shut. I moaned and arched into her. Loki shifted and laid me back on the bed, continuing to trail kisses down my body.

By the time I finally left our hotel room it was almost dusk. Loki and I never left our bed until I had to leave. I explained the plan more and why getting the Maximoff twins to trust us was important. When I finally said goodbye, I didn't cry. I knew we would both do what had to be done. I didn't know who we'd be by the time our missions were over, but we'd figure it out when the time came. We said goodbye at the hotel just in case I was being watched. I kissed Loki with everything I had before taking a deep breath and walking out the door.

The hotel wasn't far from the Lincoln Memorial. It was only a few blocks away, not that I actually made it to the memorial. Halfway through my walk, a black car pulled up next to me. The tinted window rolled down to show a gun pointed straight at me.

"Get in the car." A deep voice told me. I ducked down to see into the car and saw agent Rumlow was the one holding the gun, and the only one in the car.

"Ah, Rumlow. Good to see ya." I said and opened the passenger side door. "Sorry about the... ya know." I said sarcastically and gestured to his face once I was seated next to him. He had a black eye from where my elbow hit him and a cut over the bridge of his nose from where he hit the elevator wall.

"Shut up." He grumbled and started driving. He rolled the tinted window back up and sped down the streets of D.C.

I sat back in silence for a few minutes before I got bored.

"So, how bad is it going to be?" I asked as I looked out the window. I had my head resting on my fist as I waited for an answer.

"You tell me, you're the one who made the deal." Rumlow murmured.

"Don't bullshit me, Rumlow." I sighed.

"I don't know." Rumlow told me. "I don't have clearance for that kind of information."

"Well, that's just... great..." I grumbled.

Rumlow drove out of the city and into a heavily wooded area. He continued driving until the road seemingly ended. Rumlow took out his phone and dialed a few numbers. When he was done, the ground below the car started lowering. The car peered into darkness until the elevator stopped and lights flicked on to show an underground road. Rumlow started driving again until we pulled up to a base.

"Get out." Rumlow told me quickly.

"As long as I get to get away from your depressing ass, I'll go anywhere." I said under my breath and opened the door. As soon as I shut it behind me, two guards, dressed in black and holding guns, walked up to me.

"Follow me." One of the guards told me.

"Love HYDRA's vocabulary skills so far." I sarcastically rolled my eyes and followed the one who told me to follow him as the other trailed behind me. I was led through the metal bunker until we came to a large room. I was practically shoved through the door before it was shut and locked behind me. The room was pitch black.

A dim red light tuned on and allowed me to see just enough to know that I was alone. I looked around to see shower heads lining the walls.

"Boy with stripped pajamas, anyone?" I said to myself as I continued to look around. I walked to the middle of the room where the light was brightest and stopped.

The shower heads turned on all at once and sprayed me down with freezing cold water. A surprised yelp left my mouth as the cold water hit my skin. I felt like I was drowning for a moment. There was water hitting me from all sides, and then it all stopped. I stood there, half curled in on myself to keep warm, as I started to shiver. A door on the other side of the room from where I entered opened and a woman stood in the doorway.

"Please remove all of your clothing and items on your body." She told me. She had long strawberry blonde hair and stood at maybe five foot two. I tried to stand up straight, but the cold made it difficult. At my hesitation, she added, "I have clean clothes for you here."

I took my clothes off and held them to my shivering body to cover myself a bit. I walked over to her and she handed me a white towel as she took my wet clothes with her other hand.

"You need to remove your necklace too." She told me and pointed at Loki's choker. I had completely forgot about it.

"I can't." I explained. "It doesn't come off." I didn't have a cover story for why it wouldn't come off, or why I had it. "You can try, but it's not going to come off. Not unless you convince the Norse god that put it on to take it off for you." I shrugged as I wrapped myself up in the warm towel. The woman looked me up and down in thought before nodding and moving to allow me into the brightly lit room.

She did a medical exam on me before rewrapping the wounds on my hand and ribs, and giving me the all clear. She gave me a pair of white sweat pants and a white tank top with some undergarments to change into before calling for someone to collect me.

A male guard opened the door a minute later and had me follow him. We walked through the facility and came to a long hallway of metal doors. He walked me down the hallway until we got to a door labeled with the number three.

The guard didn't say a word as he unlocked the door and shoved me into the room. I stumbled, but caught myself and glared back at the guard. Not a word left his mouth as he shut the door.

I didn't hear the door lock, which was smart since I could just teleport out if I wanted too. I looked around the small room to see a cot, a small side table with drawers, a sink with a mirror, and a toilet. There was a lamp on top of the side table that I walked over to and clicked on. I sighed and sat on the hard bed as I got used to my new living quarters.