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Chapter Text

I walked into the laboratory where Doctor Zola was working on one of the prisoners and looked around. He was too busy checking on some vials, mumbling things and scribbling notes, obviously not noticing me standing by the door.

I cleared my throat and waited for him to turn around, my arms crossed. Nothing. My patience quickly fading. "Doctor Zola." I said loud enough for him to hear me over his own whispers, which didn't happen. The person who was lying down on a lab chair turned slightly his head, but couldn't see me from his place. "Zola!" I yelled and the man jolted, two vials full of liquid slipped from his hands and hit the ground, breaking. I spoke to him in German, quite annoyed and with fake anger, because I enjoyed the look of fear he had on his face. "What the hell have you been doing here for so long? Losing your hearing?"

I shook my head, the end of my long brown ponytail wiggling on my back.

His back hit the desk and he started babbling anxiously. "I'm sorry, Miss. How can I help you? You look as beautiful as always."

He readjusted his glasses on his nose, while looking at my slim form, muscles slightly showing through the black fabric of the suit that I was wearing, black heeled boots ticking on the hard ground as I walked towards the desk he was working on, taking a file in my hands. "Tell me about the progression of the experiments." I opened the file and read a few things.

The Doctor smiled excited and started from the beginning. "I've tried the variations of the formula on many subjects, but..." He leaned closer to me, even though he was shorter than me, and whispered. "No one has responded positively to the tests more than this one." He pointed towards the lab chair. I raised my eyes from the file and looked at the man tied tightly by leather straps.

The man looked exhausted, sweat running down his well defined features and a bruise on his left cheek. I walked closer to him to get a better look. His head shot towards me and a look of disgust on his face made me raise and then lower a brow. He had short brown hair and clear blue eyes. A chain around his neck caught my attention and I pulled it from under his dirty blouse. He had a dog tag of the American Army attached on the chain. I read the inscription out aloud. "Sergeant James B. Barnes, 107th Ward."

He flinched the little he could as the straps restrained him. It felt as if he was shaking but tried his hardest not to show it.

"What does the 'B' stand for?" I asked him softly in his language, leaning closer to him. He didn't reply, instead, he shut tightly his lips. I motioned to Doctor Zola to bring me a chair and told him to leave the room, but not before he has cleaned up the mess of the broken vials. I sat by the soldier and smiled. "Don't worry soldier, I won't hurt you."

He chuckled bitterly. "You won't? You're HYDRA, you already hurt me and my comrades." He spat back.

I returned serious and locked my hazel eyes with his blue ones. "Shall we try it again? What does your second name stand for?"

A moment passed in silence, our eyes still on one another's. He sighed relaxing his body and replied. "Buchanan."

"Well, Bucky, the Doctor told me that you are positive to the tests. How do you feel?" I asked him, putting the palm of my right hand on his forehead. He was burning.

"Not to be rude, but I feel like a piece of shit."

"Yeah, I can see that." I stood from the chair and walked back to the desk to read once again the file of before. I leaned against the desk and read silently for a couple of minutes, until the man spoke.

"You know, only my friends call me Bucky." He chuckled. "You sure ain't one. I don't even know your name, doll." Was he flirting? "Also, you don't seem German, neither America, even though your accents are pretty good. Russian maybe?"

"You always talk that much to the women you like or is it just my impression?" I read the last line written in the file in my mind. 'Recreation of the Super Soldier Formula: Successful.' I closed the file and threw it on other papers on the desk and crossed my arms, enjoying the look he was giving me.

"You don't look like a woman, more like a young girl, maybe around sixteen or seventeen." I laughed to his supposition.

"Oh, please, keep going, this is very interesting."

He looked at the ceiling, biting lightly his lower lip while thinking. "You must be someone of importance, because the Doctor was pissing himself when he saw you earlier." He breathed in a long breath and winced when he felt a sting of pain coming from every muscle in his body. "To make it short, you're the most gorgeous gal I saw here, the only one actually."

I laughed lightly and walked closer to him. "Sergeant Barnes, if you're trying to convince me to free you, that won't happen. Yes, I'm someone important in here, but not that much to disobey. And, thanks, you're handsome too."

I liked his voice and character, he was both witty and charming. I would've freed him, but I had my own goals before and for HYDRA.

"Never mind, I've lost count of the days I've been in here." His voice almost broke, as if he didn't keep a promise to someone. "It feels as if my mind is wandering between reality and imagination." He confessed.

"It's the 1st of November of 1943, to be exact. We're both real, though your mind is playing tricks on you. Your body temperature is quite high, which might cause you hallucinations and distortion of reality. It's caused by the formula of Doctor Zola." I explained to him.

"That explains a lot..." He tilted his head to look at me while I was towering above him with my arms crossed. "I'm still waiting for your name, doll."

"I don't really have one." I told him raising my shoulders in a small shrug. In HYDRA they knew me as Lisa, but it came from the Russian word which means Fox, my code name. "You could give me one, if you'd like to."

"Viktoria, the Russian version of the name, because you look like the kind of person that always wins."

"Well, thank you, that's a nice name. By the way, I'm older than I look." I smiled to him when a little smirk appeared on my face.

Suddenly, Zola reappeared in the room with two assistants. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to continue my work."

I made a small nod towards the Doctor and looked one last time at Bucky's eyes, "I will see you again." Then I walked to the exit door. "I'll be sure to tell Schmidt about your good work, Zola." Before leaving, I turned to the small scientist. "Oh, Doctor, don't hurt the patient... That much."

Chapter Text

I strutted in the hallways of HYDRA's facility and all the soldiers stopping to salute "Hail HYDRA!" while I just ignored them keeping my walk to the armory. When I arrived into the enormous hall, I saw many soldier ordering weapons and moving bombs around. They all were preparing them for the new implant of power that came from a godly weapon, the Tesseract. I remember Schmidt asking me to locate the Tesseract many years before the war. It took a damn lot of time to find it, to ask the right people and follow my instinct. Eventually I found it in Tønsberg in Norway, it was hidden in an old church and guarded by a mere priest.

Back in Tønsberg

Schmidt finally held the Tesseract in his hands, his face lit up by the blinding electric blue light coming from the object. He closed the container and turned to the priest, who had warned him that the power of the Tesseract was far much greater for Schmidt to control it, but he took out his gun and shot the man and ordered one of the guards to destroy the village.

"Was it really necessary?" I asked him, annoyed, when a blow was shot from a cannon and it hit the nearby village of Tønsberg. Sure, I was heartless, but killing more innocents than necessary was too much even for me.

The man's face didn't even change a bit, he simply gave me an emotionless look, silent, before leaving with the Tesseract in his hands.

One of the leading guards that directed the soldiers saw me and moved towards me, hailing as the rest always did, speaking in German. "It is a honor to have you here, Lisa." They all knew me by my code name, but it was a taboo to say it.

I raised my left brow up and looked at him from head to toe. "Tell me," I spoke to him also in German, "do you know what's the rule when you refer to me?" He stiffened, intimidated by my authoritarian behavior.

He was obviously confused, not understanding what I was talking about and when he replied, he stuttered. "I really don't know..."

I smirked a little, no fun in it. My right hand reached for his throat in a matter of second and I tightened my grip on his skin, applying small brute force to raise him up, his feet not touching the ground anymore. His hands reached my wrist when he couldn't breathe anymore and he groaned in pain. "I'm sorry..!"

I tilted my head lightly, my brown hair moving softly on my shoulders and my hazel eyes fixed on the man's. "The rule is NEVER-SAY-MY-NAME. In front of anybody." His face had already changed of color, while his body convulsed. I noticed that the people around had stopped working and were all staring at the scene frightened. I let go of the man and he hit the ground with a loud thud. "What are you looking at?! Get back to work, you morons!" All the soldiers jolted and scattered around, focusing on their previous chores.

"My dear, haven't you got anything else to do instead of scaring my soldiers?" A familiar voice came from behind me. I barely looked at him when he appeared near me after the guard I had almost choked flee away.

"Herr Schmidt, I was motivating them." A chuckle escaped my lips. "Anyway, I didn't expect you to come here so soon, so I came by to keep an eye on the work."

"We're close to our success," his voice was almost a whisper while his eyes scanned the weapons in the armory, "soon HYDRA will rule the entire world."

"Oh, you know what else is a success? Zola's experiments." My hazel eyes darted for a brief second on the man next to me." He managed to recreate Erskine's Super Soldier Serum, thought it doesn't follow the same procedure, we had a good response from one of the lab rats he tested the serum on."

He nodded once. "Good. Then all that's left to do is to infuse the Tesseract's power into the weapons that the Doctor developed."

"I shall take my leave, I have more work to do and other HYDRA facilities to visit." I told him, turning around but he stopped me.

"That won't be necessary. I have another task for you." I listened carefully before leaving. "You know Werner Reinhardt, he's one of the members of the Schutzstaffel formed by Hitler. I need you to make him join our cause, we could use some of his knowledge."

"Why? What kind of knowledge does he have?" I asked him curious about his choice, but he just brushed it off. "I have my reasons, Lisa."

Soon after I had left the base, I came to know that the base has been taken down by the experiment of Doctor Erskine. People called him Captain America and this man managed to infiltrate the base, free all the American soldiers that were kept as hostages and destroyed the whole HYDRA facility. Schmidt and Zola escaped preventing their capture.
I kept asking myself what had happened to that man, Bucky, was he freed to? I wanted to see him again, but all I did was follow orders from Red Skull.
More HYDRA facilities were destroyed leaving Red Skull alway a step behind Captain America and his squadron, the Howling Commandos. Many HYDRA operations were sabotaged in a few months.

Eventually, I managed to track their movements and went to the city that they were staying in, which was close to my position. The streets were empty that night and the American soldiers were all gathered together to drink, sitting in an old Festsaal.

I stood outside in the cold, wearing a long grey coat with a tight black dress made of satin, my curvy long hair loose on my back. I heard the laughs coming from inside and smirked as I heard them sing a song of victory, but then a woman dressed in red caught my attention. She was walking down the street towards the party and looked at me, smiling a little and I returned the smile. After a couple of minutes, I reached for a rolled up cigarette in my left pocket and lit it up. The smoke left my lips in a small puff and I felt someone looking at me.

"A gorgeous gal like you shouldn't be smoking, you know?" His voice was friendly and his smile revealed his white teeth. I smirked and kept smoking, not looking at him or saying anything. "Or maybe you don't speak English..." He whispered to himself. He didn't recognize me as I was all dolled up with light makeup on my face. Maybe it was fault of the experiments that Zola made that day...

"I do speak English, actually." His blue eyes met my hazel ones in the dark and we couldn't take them off from each other.

"You look familiar," he furrowed his brow a little, "have we ever met before?"

No, of course he didn't recognize me after all the treatments of Doctor Zola. I brushed it off and played as if that was the first time meeting him. "I'm sorry, but no."

Bucky bit his lower lip nodding softly. "May I know your name, doll?"

I remembered when he had asked my name, back in the HYDRA base and since I didn't really have one, he gave it to me. "Viktoria," in that moment I made up the last name too, "Alkaeva." I threw away the burnt end of the cigarette and turned fully to him.

"Let me guess, Russian." I shrugged with my shoulders, a little smirk tugging at my lips in excitement. "I'm James Barnes, but you can call me Bucky."

A moment of silence passed and we still had nothing to say, we just kept staring at our eyes, but I tried anyway to pull out a little talk. "So, were you having a good time in there?" I asked nodding towards the Festsaal.

"Not much of a party, if you ask me." He replied, closing the distance between us. My eyes finally scanned his appearance. He didn't change much since the first time I saw him, but he sure was a handsome man. He wore a green blouse, black trousers and same color boots, his dog tags hanging on his muscular chest. "How about a drink?" His voice brought me back from my thoughts.

I really didn't know what was happening to me and why I was so attracted to this man, but every time he made a little smile or our eyes met, my insides clenched. "I don't like that much the confusion of parties..."

"I see..." was all he said sadly.

"But," I closed even more the distance between us and our noses were almost touching, "you could have a walk with me or just go back to your friends and continue the party." Before he could answer, I had already moved away from him and started towards the apartment that I was staying in for the night.

He quickly followed me, his hands in the pockets of his trousers, both of us slowly walking side by side in silence for a while. The streets were in a dim light coming from some lamp posts and the air was chilly, thought he didn't seem to feel the cold wearing only his blouse and no jacket.

"So, Viktoria, how much are you staying here?" He asked me after a while of silence.

"Just for the night..." It was true since no one from HYDRA knew where I was, because I usually traveled by myself. But being in the same place as Captain America and his squadron was something no one should know and if Red Skull finds out he'd send an entire army to try to kill me. My feet came to a stop in front of an old small building and I turned to look at him. "Well, this is it."

He nodded looking at the building behind me and then his eyes locked with mine, almost like a habit. "I was hoping to see you tomorrow, but I guess we won't see each other again."

I chuckled. "I think we'll meet again, not sure when though." My hand reached for his left shoulder, drawing him closer to me and I kissed him on his right cheek, leaving a red mark of lipstick. I was pretty sure he had blushed while his eyes had found interesting the concrete of the sidewalk.

What I said to him was a strong feeling coming from my gut. I didn't know when or how it would happen, but I knew we would see each other again.

Chapter Text

Viktoria turned around and walked slowly into the small house, and glanced at me with a little smile before her figure disappeared behind the wooden door. I bit my lower lip and nodded to myself for not reason, then finally walked back to Steve and the guys at the party. I wasn't sure of what had just happened, but that girl made my heart beat as fast as the one of a rabbit.

I couldn't help myself from smiling lightly, not really paying attention at the people around me when I entered the saloon and sat at the bar. They were still singing and drinking, quite drunk.

"Where have you been? Trying to get the ladies attention?" Steve joked seating next to me and signaled at the bartender to bring us some booze.

I tilted my head, a nearly stupid smile on my face and Steve nodded after our eyes met together. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Come on, pal, just tell me." Steve laughed lightly and looked at the bartender who had just served us our drinks, and nodded a thanks.

"Hazel eyes like the ones of a fox and smooth pale skin." I took my glass and swallowed the content in one gulp, clearing my throat afterwards. "I fell in love with a beautiful gal."

Steve raised his brow and looked around looking for a girl that matched my description. "And where is she?" His eyes setting again on mine. "I wouldn't like to doubt your word, but I haven't seen here any girl, unless you made her up after seeing me with Agent Carter." He laughed and took a sip of his drink, then set it down on the counter.

"Ha, ha, very funny, Steve." I looked at the bartender and raised my empty glass and the man came by with another bottle of booze, pouring it into the glass. "Look, you know what kind of man I am, and this... Girl, she just... She has bewitched me!" I exclaimed, still trying to make it sound like a whisper to Steve, but I just couldn't contain myself.

"Okay Buck, I believe you." Steve finally said. "Did you get at least her name?"

The ends of my lips curved upwards and I bit my lower lip, again. "Viktoria... Her name's Viktoria."

Steve took his glass in his hands and nodded to me to do the same, then he made a toast between us. "To Viktoria, who stole my friend's heart..." Our glasses hit lightly. "And I hope she gives it back in proper conditions." Steve whispered to himself before emptying the glass as I already had after the toast.

Chapter Text

The Howling Commandos, as we called ourselves, were on our way to capture Armin Zola. The thought of that man gave me chills and just thinking about what he did to me and who knows how many others, left me with a terrible knot in my throat, but I tried my best not to show it to Steve. Though I didn't really remember what happened during my 'staying' at HYDRA's base.

Looking down a long and steep zip line we'll soon be traveling, I spoke to Steve, warm breath vaporizing with che cold air of the mountains. "Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone on Coney Island?" Snow was falling and the Alps were covered in white.

Steve's brow furrowed, his eyes looking down the cliff. "Yeah, and I threw up?"

I forced down the knot in my throat, nervousness slightly leaving my body. "This isn't payback, is it?"

Rogers grinned and looked around himself. "Now why would I do that?"

Soon after Steve replied, Jim signaled that the train was on the way, so Steve, I and Gabe lined up on the zip line and when the train reached the spot, we rushed down on it, jumping on the roof top of the train. Gabe stayed on the top as Steve and I entered through the side door, making sure to close it.

We steadied our weapons and walked to the next wagon. Suddenly we got separated as two door closed and HYDRA soldiers attacked us. Bullets were shot my way and I dodged them hiding behind some piled cases, I shot a few times with my own gun managing to kill a few of them, but one remained, eventually leaving me without bullets.

I looked back at the door that divided me and Steve and he showed me his gun, through the small window and the both of us nodded as we mentally shared the same plan. It all unfolded in a swift act; Steve pressed a button to open the door, tossed me the weapon, rushed against a pack of cases shoving them against the HYDRA soldier, who moved to the right side to dodge it and I shot him.

I panted while still looking the dead body of the man that I've killed. "I had him on the ropes."

Steve nodded. "I know you did." We were startled as we heard the sound of a weapon getting turned on and Steve turned on the spot, shoving the behind him and raising his shield to protect us both, but the blue light shot from the weapon sent us flying back. The side of the train blew away, leaving a great hole. Steve was too far from his shield, so I reached it and put it in front of me with my gun pointed at the big guy with the deadly weapon. I shot twice, but when the big guy shot back, I was sent again flying backwards, this time ending out the train and grabbing a piece of metal for dear life and holding onto it to not fall off into the void below the cliff, hoping that the railing wouldn't break.

The trained moved fast, too fast and I wasn't sure if the piece of metal would support my weight. My heart raced at an unbearable pace because I could've fallen at any second.

"BUCKY!" Steve yelled and took off his mask. I looked at him with pleading eyes as my friend was leaning towards me extending his arm. "Hang on!" His voice reached me as he was trying to do the same, climbing on the metal on the side of the train. My right hand slipped from the metal railing and I tried to hold onto it even tighter, but I felt as it ripped from the wall and my heart had stopped from the fear that had overwhelmed me. "Grab my hand!"

Steve yelled, but I had stopped thinking, even though my right hand had reached Steve's automatically. It finally happened. The railway detached from the wall and my body fell straight into the void of the winter. "NO!" I kept on screaming but my own voice couldn't reach my ears as my blue eyes were fixed on Steve's from horror until I couldn't see him anymore. My whole life went black.

Cold. It entered my body and chilled my bones.

Wet. My body was soaked in white and stained with red.

Pain. Everything hurt, but my left arm hurt the most.

I was motionless but I kept moving, or someone was moving me?

My eyes cracked open just a bit and I saw blood on my uniform, my body being dragged on the snow, leaving a trail of dark red on its path. They became heavy again and I closed my eyes, heaving my chest, maybe for the last time.

The second time I had opened my eyes, I thought I was dead, as my blue eyes met the hazel of an angel I thought I would never see again. But she was towering above me, lightly stroking my head, her beautiful eyes not leaving mine. They were sad, almost, as if she was watching into my soul and she could see what I've been through.

But no, I wasn't dead and she wasn't an angel.

Her lips went closer to my right ear and she whispered, sweetly. "It's alright now, as long as I'm here by your side, it won't hurt."

What was she talking about? I tried to speak, but all that left my mouth was a low and harsh whisper of her name. "Viktoria..."

But oh was she wrong. It hurt. It hurt when someone cut of my arm and she hand to pin me down to stop me from moving and screaming. It hurt when someone attached a metal arm there where once was my left arm, in flesh and bones.

She wasn't an angel. She was one of the devils.

Chapter Text

Most of the HYDRA bases were destroyed and, if not, they were hunt down by the U.S. Army; nothing was left of Red Skull or Captain America, as they both had died, according to the voices that reached my ears. Those who were left of the forces tried to secretly gather together and keep going on with new plans for HYDRA.

As HYDRA's motto was 'cut off one head and two more shall take its place', there were already candidates to take the lead of HYDRA, though all the soldiers, scientists and other people expected me to take Schmidt's place, which I actually did. As soon as I got word that Schmidt was out of the game, I told the few lieutenants to gather who was left of HYDRA and hide in a temporary base in Switzerland.

It didn't pass much time after Doctor Zola was caught by the U.S. Army that a Soviet soldier contacted me by one of my subordinates.

I strutted down the hallways of the temporary facility holding a file in my hands, reading the names of who was left at our side and what equipment we still managed to retrieve. One lieutenant was following behind me and tried to convince me to meet the Soviet soldier.

"I don't care, right now I'm busy keeping together what's left of HYDRA." I said harshly in German, turning in another hallway finally reaching a room that made as an office for my work.

He replied, in German too. "He says that he has something we might want." The man didn't specify what the fuss was all about.

I threw the file on the table and sat behind a wooden desk, leaning into the seat and placing my elbows onto the armrests. My brows furrowed and I looked at the man deadly serious, burning holes into his skull. "We WANT or MIGHT want, lieutenant? Because if it's something we might want, then we don't want it."

The mans stiffened and gulped, remembering that I wasn't less than Schmidt and that he should fear me the same as he did with Red Skull. "Pardon me, I expressed myself in a wrong way. The man says he found something we want."

I sighed relaxing my tensed jaw and leaned towards the desk, placing my chin on the back of my interlaced fingers. My eyes quickly scanning the papers on the surface of the desk, coming up with a plan to follow. "Lieutenant," he readjusted his posture ready to receive orders, "tell the rest of the men to be ready to leave the base, just in case the Americans find us." My right hand reached for a map inside one of the drawers and shown to him the position of the new base. "Tell them to go here, it's near Arkhangel'sk, in Russia. The base should be set up by a couple of days and for now it's big enough for all the people that are here."

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded.

I took out another map and set it in front of him. "Tell me where the Soviet wants to meet us."

He pointed a place near the border of Switzerland and Italy, between the mountains of the Alps. "He said that he tried to reach us a few days ago, that we have to go and meet him as soon as possible."

I nodded, my arms crossed over my chest. "Prepare a quick transport and take some soldiers with us. I'm not in the mood for unwanted surprises. Make sure they won't get spotted."

"Yes, ma'am. Hail HYDRA!" He yelled throwing up his fists in the air and left the room, closing the door behind him. I hated them shouting it in my face every single time they saw me, but that was still a way to keep them loyal to me.

I wore a long red coat and lifted my brown hair in a ponytail, to avoid the locks flying in my face as strong winds blew between the mountains. The lieutenant took me to the meeting spot and I hopped off the car, my boots stepping onto fresh snow, and I looked at the Soviet soldier standing by his truck.

I walked toward him sensing on the the eyes of my backups from all around the place, thankfully he hadn't noticed. I stopped halfway between our vehicles and put my hands in my pockets. "I heard you have something for me." I said nonchalantly in perfect Russian.

The man nodded, spitting at his left onto the snow. His face was scarred in some places and one of his brows raised up, after eyeing me head to toe. Eventually he tilted his head and shrugged, speaking in his native language. "I found him a few days ago, hoping he's still alive right now."

"Show me." I invited me to proceed and he nodded towards the back of his truck, already moving to it. I glanced back at my lieutenant and he nodded, ready to take out his gun if necessary.

"He's here." The man opened the back doors of the truck and I carefully looked in, spotting someone hidden under many layers of warm covers. I smelled blood and fear, but mostly death. The man hopped into the truck and moved up the covers.

My eyes for a couple of seconds widened in shock of Bucky's body, all bloody and with a missing left limb, the spot was wrapped badly in now red soaked bandages. I strained my ears to hear him breathe or hear his heart beating, then I saw his chest heaving just barely.

"So, you want him or not?" The Soviet urged me and I returned serious not taking off my eyes from the nearly lifeless body in the truck. "I take that pretty face for a yes." He mumbled.

I raised my arm for my lieutenant to move the car closer to the truck and told him to take Bucky's body and put it into the back seat, very carefully.

The Soviet closed the back of his truck and spoke to me once again. "I don't want any rewards, as this was a gift from my leader to your promotion as the new head of HYDRA."

That surely was suspicious. "Who do I have to thank then?"

"Just the leader of the Leviathan." The soldier replied, mentioning a Soviet deep science and espionage agency, which I knew pretty well, actually.

"Well then, bring him my gratitudes."

During the ride back to the base I sat in the backseats next to Bucky, using some of my powers trying to keep him alive as long as possible. My heart kept racing while watching him in that state, but I had to turn down the personal feelings and stay focused on healing him slowly, though my powers weren't strong enough to do it properly.

When we reached the base I gave instructions to the doctors to put him under 24/7 treatment and keep him alive, at least until I found a better way to save him.

Before they took him in, I made sure to take off his dog tags so no one would see that he was a soldier of the U.S. Army and wore them around my neck, hiding the necklace under my shirt.

My plans turned out differently from how I had expected and now what was going to happen?

I went to my room and changed myself into more comfortable clothes and then headed for the medical center, entering into a great hall. One of the doctors handed me a white coat and walked me to the bed where Bucky was lying down.

"His conditions?" It's been a few hours since they've brought him in. He was attached to a respirator and all his wounds treated and bandages changed a couple of times.

"We've managed to stop his bleedings and stabilize him... For now..." One of the doctors said.

My eyes shot up from Bucky's body and I looked sternly at the doctor that spoke. "This man over here is the only successful experiment of Doctor Zola and his serum. You have to keep him alive, you understand what I'm saying?!" I had such an anger in my voice that they all had backed away a little form around the bed, and kept trembling.

"Yes, ma'am." One said.

"Now..." I stopped, thinking for some time and walked around the hall, looking at the equipment that they hadn't moved yet. My hazel eyes caught the sight of something that could keep Bucky alive until I found a way to free Zola from the Americans.

"Doctor," I raised my hand and the main medic came next to me. "What can you tell me about the Cryofreeze? Does it work properly?"

"Yes, ma'am, the machine works quite well although we're not sure how it actually affects a person's body, because there could be some complications..." He looked at me, and saw the left brow raised, so he just proceeded to explain how it worked. "It puts the person in a suspended animation, preserving the body state for long periods of time. The temperature must be kept constantly at the same level, −196 °C, to avoid damage to the organic tissues."

Silence followed for some time and I finally turned to all the doctors. "Prepare the patient for the Cryofreeze. It will give us some time until I get to Doctor Zola."

After a few weeks, Bucky's body was set into the Cryofreeze, his face pale and his blue eyes closed. I looked at him through the small and thick glass that separated us and kept thinking randomly, about many things though not really coming to conclusions. We had moved to the new HYDRA base near Arkhangel'sk in Russia and kept a close eye on him every day. Still, no clues on Doctor Zola status.

"Ma'am." The lead doctor of the base interrupted my train of thoughts and I crossed my arms over my chest, turning around to look at him. He spoke in Russian. "I found some useful information about the patient." He handed me a folder, on top of it some things written in English, from the American Army.

I opened up the folder and found a small black and white picture of Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, along with some informations about him, him physical health and other suff.

My brow furrowed and I looked at the man next to me. "Where di you find this?" I asked him, my voice low and questioning.

He seemed confused by my question and then realized than maybe he shouldn't have done something before asking me. "I needed it for future medical purposes regarding the patient."

"For as much as I know, you Doctor don't speak nor can read English." I closed the folder and looked at Bucky's frozen face into the Cryofreeze.

The doctor looked around and leaned closer to me, making sure no one else heard what he was about to say. "People are getting suspicious and questioning your place here... You spend too much time in here than doing your duty for HYDRA. Though, I'm not judging you because I too know how important this man is."

My eyes widened in surprise then back to normal, though they darkened in anger. "Doctor, take alle the info you need from this folder and open open a new one." Then I turned around to leave the room.

"How shall I call him?" He asked me, stopping me in my tracks.

I breathed out a slow breath and thought for a moment. Bucky survived the winter instead of dying and that made me light a bulb on my head. I looked at the doctor over my shoulder and told him with a grin on my lips: "Call him the Winter Soldier."

Chapter Text

A few years later after the war, Doctor Zola was released from his captivity and started working for the newly formed SHIELD organization. That small man came up with a plan of his own, using SHIELD's resources to continue his experiments... That included Bucky, after I had told him that he was in my custody.

"Science is progression, my dear." Armin told me in English, with that German accent of his making him sound completely dumb.

I scowled at him, my arms crossed. "You know that this is hazardous, right Doctor?" I looked around the laboratory with a quick glance, some of the equipment looked brand new. "What if they find out what you are doing? What WE are doing." Taking advantage of his position to rebuild HYDRA inside SHIELD is a serious risk and should be considered three time, not just twice.

"They won't know, besides, my researches need funds that HYDRA cannot invest right now." He tried to convince me that his plan was going to work, that nothing would interfere with it. "I formed a team with the best doctors to take care of our patient." His head turned around when people entered the laboratory with a barrel, Bucky's body laying flat on it.

They had taken him out of the Cryofreeze and prepared for the operation. He was out of danger, but they needed to get rid of rest of his left arm and attach a new one, that Zola designed a build while we were moving Bucky to America.

"We're going to turn him into our new asset." Zola said with a smirk on his face, my eyes going wide. "Someone who will be invisible to the world." It was just like looking at Red Skull all over again, only that those words came from a small man that didn't look threatening at all.

"Have someone else said it, I wouldn't have believed those words were yours, Doctor." My voice was low and stern, a menacing look that crept form every pore of my young face. I felt for a moment as if I had lost all my powers of authority, that no word of mine would have effect on him.

In the meantime, Bucky was placed on the operating table and all the equipment was prepared for the removal of his left limb. I wore a white coat over my tight black clothes and walked to Bucky body, my eyes growing full of worry and doubts. How could I even let this thing happen? It wasn't supposed to end this way. I stroked lightly his brown hair, moving it out of his peaceful features when I noticed his brows twitching and his eyes shot open, blue irises locking with my hazel ones.

I was standing next to him, still lightly stroking his head. For a moment the light in his eyes lit up, as if he was feeling calm looking into familiar eyes. But that light died down in a matter of seconds and I moved closer to him, to whisper in his right ear.

I tried to be sweet and spoke in a soothing voice. "It's alright now, as long as I'm here by your side, it won't hurt."

His brow furrowed and, when I moved away, a suffocated and sore whisper left his lips. "Viktoria..." He was terrified and I couldn't bear to look at him with my anxiety welling up.

So I had to turn off again the emotions I had buried more than a century ago. I made it my goal to reestablish my authority among HYDRA and not let anyone else bring out the person that I was, who caused me pain in the past, as Bucky did.

Bucky had began waking up again. I was in the corned of the lab, sitting with my arms and lags crossed on a chair, observing as Zola and the other doctors worked. The man's severed arm was gone, replaced with a prosthetic one.

He was soon brought to a new lab, with different equipment and a strange chair connected to electricity. Placed into it and strapped tightly so that he couldn't move, Doctor Zola explained to me what was about to happen.

"Thanks to Red Skull's old acquaintance, Werner Reinhardt kindly agreed to lend us this machine." He moved to a control panel and I followed him behind, watching closely every move. "This will make sure that the Winter Soldier, as you called him, stays loyal to us."

Zola turned on the machine and electric waves surrounded Bucky's head, making him scream in pain. The screams were so loud that some doctors that were in the room had to cover their ears to not listen to him.

Zola turned off the machine and asked him what was his name and he replied slowly, taking in long breathes. "James Buchanan Barnes."

"Again." said Zola, repeating the procedure, and again Bucky's screams were heard until they stopped. "What's your name?" Asked the Doctor, and Bucky repeated his full name. The scene following the same procedure a couple of times, until Bucky didn't know how to answer anymore.

His blue eyes wandered for help, someone who would know his name, but when they met my eyes and didn't move, I spoke up. "You're the Winter Soldier."

"I'm the Winter Soldier..." He repeated after me in a whisper, tasting blood in his mouth and sweat running down his forehead, chest heaving up and down for air. "I'm the Winter Soldier." He repeated more loudly, for Zola's ears.

Chapter Text

Zimniy Soldat.

That's all you needed to know about him.

The Winter Soldier.

A small layer of sweat on his forehead, a calm look in his blue eyes, his features showing just slight tiredness.

His bare chest heaved lightly taking in all the air that he needed. The skin around the conjuncture of the prosthetic arm now completely healed, with rosy scars as a reminder to me of what's he's been through. The only piece of clothes that he wore were a pair of black training pants, his feet bare.

His knees bent just a little with his arms in front of his body, hands closed in tight punches. I could read his every move since I've spent most of the time training him in a HYDRA facility in Russia.

He charged towards me, feet steady on the ground as he charged with his right hand towards my face. Dodging swiftly, I moved to the side and grabbed his wrist with my left hand lowering it down and punched his cheek with all of my strength. He lost balance and fell on the cold floor. There was still reluctance in him using his prosthetic arm.

"You're still very unsure of what you're doing." I told him in Russian.

"Now, am I?" He whispered in English, spitting some blood out of his mouth. Although he didn't know who he was, the sarcastic part of Bucky still persisted.

"Say it in Russian." I told him, circling him while he was on the ground.

He rose to his feet and cleaned his bloody lips with the back of his hand. This time he spoke in Russian, it wasn't perfect but he was getting there quickly after a couple of months. "I wasn't slow, you're just too fast."

"Now, am I?" I quoted him. "Then you have to become faster. Thinking and acting has to be done at the same time. The enemy doesn't leave you time to do it separately." I stopped in front of him and looked at him sternly. "Am I clear?"

"Yes, Uchitelnitsa." He nodded, referring to me as his teacher.

"Again." I ordered, but as we prepared for another session, someone entered the gym and interrupted us with his presence. "What now?!" The words just came out of my mouth menacing and the man flinched a little, almost imperceptibly, the Winter Soldier noticing right away.

"It's time." The doctor simply said, referring to the process that Bucky would go through every week.

To ensure that he stayed loyal to and only HYDRA, they wiped him out every week. At first, they used to wipe him out every two to three days because he had sudden outbursts of anger and misbehaved, but calmed down since then.

He slowly lost all of his memories, forgetting the person he used to be.

He's gone all quiet, he didn't even nod to the doctor. The soldier exchanged a quick glance with me and left the room, but stopped when I called him.

"Zimniy Soldat." I picked up from the ground the sweater that he had previously taken off and threw it to him, him catching it in midair. "Don't be late next time."

He exited the room, following someone that has been waiting for him outside. The doctor still in the gym with me. "There won't be a next time if you get too attached to the Asset."

The Asset. I hated when they called him like that. He wasn't an object.

My brow furrowed and I gritted my teeth. "Too attached? You must be mocking me."

There was a grin on his old face, something I would rip off pretty soon if I only wanted. "Our superior thinks otherwise."

I chuckled, a subtle anger boiling in my veins. "How long have you been working for HYDRA, doctor?" I paced to the center of the room and crossed my arms over my chest.

The man seemed rather confused by my question but answered anyway. "A few years."

"How. Many." I put emphasis in each word.

"Three." He stuttered.

I signaled for him to come closer to me and when he was close enough, my right hand flew to his throat and I raised him from the ground. He was chocking, the color on his face going for shades of purple.

"I've been here since the very creation of HYDRA." My grip around his neck tightened. "You foolish people have no right to disrespect me. I'm here and I'm doing my job, as I've always done. I've had enough of your antics." When he almost stopped breathing, I threw him away and he fell hard on his back, his lungs trying to get as mush oxygen as possible. "Go to your superior and tell him that his worries have no foundations. I won't get attached to that man neither if the skies fell on earth... Your Asset." I spat the last word with so much disgust he believed that I despised the Winter Soldier and not the meaning itself.

A few years later, after his training was completed, HYDRA gave him various missions, but this time he was meant to go on his own. A mission just for the Winter Soldier with no back ups.

"He's perfectly capable of working alone. He'll be more efficient." The superiors said.

He has been wiped out so many times I, myself, forgot what it really meant to have a life, to be an individual. All he knew now was how to perfectly follow orders. A master assassin.

His eyes showed no emotion but a cold gaze. His posture was rigid and austere, his movements fluid while handling the rifle in his hands. He controlled the weight and loaded the bullets, then checked the weapon's stability. He could assemble it even with closed eyes.

I stood by the door of the weaponry and watched him in silence, the only sounds coming from his metal arm against the plastic of his rifle. He wore a new black leather suit, so tight around his body I asked myself if he could even breathe. Heavy layers of fabric on him, with straps around his torso and legs to hold various of his weapons. I looked at his hair, which had grown and reached his back, a little under his shoulders. It would be a pleasure of mine to cut it short...

Drawn out of my endless thoughts, I realized he was struggling to unclasp a strap because it hasn't been closed properly and was turned on itself, but it kept slipping out of his metal grip. The prosthetic arm was functional, but had some flaws.

I moved towards him, his back was turned my way, something told me that he still wasn't able to sense my presence. "Here," his blue eyes shot towards me in a second, for a moment going defensive but relaxing as soon as he saw my hands gently reaching up for the clasps, "let me help you with that." I unclasped the straps and straightened the turned one, attaching them again. "Should be better now..." My voice has gone all quite when I met his confused look.

He nodded, his brow lightly furrowed as if me helping him was out of the ordinary, considering the many times that I had beat him up during trainings. But did he remember that? He sure didn't. Instead, he gazed my form and saw my long pale legs coming under a black dress, with a lot of buttons in the front. A pair of comfortable black boots on my feet.

"Thank you." He whispered, saying a word after so much time he had stopped talking. He actually had stopped talking after his first mission.

It was somewhere in the cold Lands of Siberia, storms of snow making it impossible for the human eye to see. All he did was track a Russian convoy of the military till he shot a single bullet from his rifle and killed the driver. The other two men guardian the vehicle were killed a few minutes later in hand to hand combat by me.

Bucky had misbehaved after the first shot, asking me why did he do that and told me that I was a monster because I haven't stopped him.

The sting in my chest was bearable since I had turned off my emotions, his harsh words not affecting me. I called back ups and had him taken back to the base, to wipe him out. They left me to finish the mission.

After that they started calling me Arkticheskaya Lisa, the Arctic Fox.

"Are you coming with me?" He asked me in fluent Russian, grabbing a pair of knives from a nearby table and holstering them on his hips.

"No." I replied watching closely his reaction, but he had none. Of course I was going, just no one had to know.

He exhaled slowly and looked at the stuff spread on the table. He grabbed a black mask and a pair of googles that were designed uniquely for his features, wearing them to hide his face. He then picked up the rifle and turned to his right, where I was standing, and looked at me one last time, then left without a word.

That's when I saw a symbol imprinted on his prosthetic arm, a red star of the communism. They didn't just consider him their toy, but also marked him to prove it.

Soon after he left for the mission, I went from the weaponry to the higher floors of the facility and sneaked past some HYDRA soldiers into the main office of one of the chiefs. Fortunately, there was no one around and I could search the place for any clues about the Winter Soldier's mission. Since I wasn't part of it, they had no duty on briefing me about the details.

The desk was neat, not a single paper on it. The drawers had nothing useful in them and the only info was about expansion plans of some facilities and a list of supplies. Useless.

I heard someone speaking outside the door of the office and looked around myself for a place to hide, but there was none. As I saw the handle moving, I straightened the skirt of my dress and sat leg-crossed on the desk, unbuttoning two buttons at the top to show a little of my pale neckline.

I heard the men outside salute each other and the chief entered the office, remaining stunned for a short moment hanging by the door frame. He then smirked and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

"You never visit." He simply said, eyeing my legs while circling the desk and sitting in his chair. The look he gave me was absolutely disgusting. If it weren't for the purpose to get out of the facility without suspicion, I wouldn't be doing this. I somehow started missing the feeling of my authority when Red Skull wanted to take over the world; I could kill anyone for pure fun, and nobody would say a word.

"That's because I never have a reason to come here." I replied flirting.

"Then tell me your reason, Arkticheskaya Lisa." He leaned forward in his chair and placed his elbows on the wooden desk, his fingers entwined and eyes slipping from my jawline to my chest.

I sighed, playing with the hem of my skirt. "Well, now that Zimniy Soldat is away on a mission of his, I would like to take some days off, just too relax, and maybe kill some peasants." I chuckled shaking lightly my head. "I haven't killed for pleasure in a very long time and I fear someone in this place will die soon if I stay."

The man tilted his head and thought for a moment. "And what do I get for your absence?" He licked his lips behind his hands and I wished I could rip his head off.

"Well, first of all, I leave and nobody gets killed." I moved a strand of hair behind my ear and batted my eyes, the tone of my voice lowering menacingly. "Second, if you keep on planning to pin me against this desk and fuck me I'll rip your balls and give them to the wolves."

His eyes widened and for a moment he looked really scared, a thought crossing his mind that I should not be played with. "Very well, you go and have your days off."

"Fantastic." My lips twitched upwards and I jumped off the desk, going for the door, but he stopped me.

"I don't know very much about ancient folklore, but there's this Japanese tale about Goddess Foxes that take the form of beautiful women to lure men into horrible tricks and I think you're one of them."

My heart skipped a beat and I turned slowly around, my hazel eyes connecting with his. "That's just a variation of the tale."

His back relaxed against the chair and he made a gesture for me to continue. "Please, enlighten me."

"Assuming that the legend is true, there are two types of these women-foxes. The first are kind and benevolent creatures, that will bring fortune to the ones that praise them and they are called Kitsune. The second are mischievous, even malicious if I must say. They call them Nogitsune." I wasn't much surprised that he knew about the tale as much as he had addressed me as one.

"Thanks for the clarification, Nogitsune."

With his last words I left the room and went to look somewhere else for informations about the Winter Soldier's mission. A bitter feeling in my belly.

Chapter Text

Viktoria Alkaeva's POV

"Is it ready?" I walked into a laboratory where Mikhail, the lieutenant that had helped me a few years ago take Bucky to HYDRA, was working on a new piece of armor for me.

Though he aged a bit, he was still working for HYDRA, well, mostly he was loyal to me, the only one that still believed in me and my leadership skills.

The man turned around and gave me a faint smile, before making sure that I had closed the door behind me when I walked in. He nodded and went to a cupboard door and opened it, revealing a mannequin that had my new armor on it. Mikhail took it out of the cupboard and showed it to me.

"I've been working on it for a while." He told me, a hint of pride in his voice. He moved aside and let me take a closer look. It was stunning and my mouth fell agape. "You told me you just wanted something to keep your identity hidden but didn't specify what you wanted exactly, so I just went on with a style worth of the Arctic Fox."

"It's... Beautiful." I blinked a few times, the armor was truly beautiful. I could have never imagined it turning out like this. "How long have you been working on it?"

"Doesn't matter, it's ready now." He smiled widely seeing the excitement on my face.

This set of armor had a hood with a face guard shaped in the face of a fox. Attached to its side was a layer of white fur. The shoulders were fairly rounded and moderate in size, allowing movements more easily. They're decorated with a small fox's head on each side. The upper arms were protected by a thin layer of white fabric going down till the wrists. The lower arms were covered by vambraces which had a skull without the lower jaw attached on the outer sides, representing HYDRA, though it had gained a different meaning to us... The breastplate was made from many v-shaped layers of leather and fur, all white. It covered the entire front and back side, but the attachment straps, very thin, left the sides under the arms exposed. The upper legs were covered by a skirt of diagonal layers of leather and fur reaching below the groin. The lower legs were protected by leather greaves which had an intricately crafted sigil, inspired by the tails of foxes, embroidered on each outer side. Thick leather pants were worn beneath this all.

"There's also a black and red version of this outfit." He said, after a while of me gazing at the armor.

"What?!" My hazel eyes shot from the mannequin to his brown ones and I arched my brows.

"It's still a work in progress but it will come out, maybe, better than this one."

I nodded, smirking as I placed my right hand onto the white fur of the armor. "It's time to put it on."

Mikhail nodded and walked around the lab to open another set of drawers, all containing weapons of different kind. "When you're ready, here are all the weapons you can take, although I think you might prefer this one..." He reached into a large drawer and took out a Japanese sword, a katana, and placed it onto a nearby table. "I remembered you once speaking of this one so I asked a friend of mine from Japan if he could, let's just say 'borrow' it, though we both know he stole it." We chuckled.

The katana was sheathed in a hard red sheath and when I drawn the sword out of it, I saw that the extremely sharp blade was made of black folded steel. I held it in my right hand and then twirled it around to hear the double whistling sound of a well balanced weapon. The handle was made of black and red leather, granting a good grip.

"In all the years that you've been by my side you've never let me down." I confessed to him my gratitude and he nodded, his eyes almost watering.

I've never seen him that sentimental. "It's because if ever had a daughter, I wish she'd be just like you, Lisa..." He murmured and after a moment of silence, he cleared his throat and went towards the door. "I need to make sure that your ride is ready. Take your time preparing, I'll call you when it's time."

The man left and I started putting on the armor, which fit perfectly, then chose to just stick with just the katana instead of taking any other weapons.

The engine of the small plane sounded deafening while soaring in the night sky. Mikhail was flying the plane towards the Winter Soldier's position since it was the fastest way to travel and I've been behind him of a couple of hours. Definitely not suspicious to take a HYDRA's plane and fly to a secret position. Mikhail told the chief he had some work to do and they just let him take it, since they had other stuff to take care of.

The man made a sign with his hand and caught my attention. "We're above the Białowieża Forest now, the mission should take place somewhere near the borderline between Belarus and Poland. The targets are..."

"I know, some douche politicians that want all the power to themselves. Every mission includes them. HYDRA doesn't like these kind of guys and me neither, they just make a lot of fuss." I replied to him, but all the situation just didn't feel right. These kind of missions required a solid plan, with also a plan B, rarely plan C if everything went as it should go.

How was he supposed to do it? Walk right through their door and kill them? With all the guards surrounding the place? Hell no, not on my watch. The Winter Soldier was my responsibility.

"Just brief me about the important details." I stood up from the place I was seated in and put on my back a parachute, securing the straps on my chest.

Mikhail in the meantime was telling me about the mission. How he got the information was beyond my knowledge, but if it weren't for him, I would be struggling to reach the Winter Soldier, to reach Bucky.

"The meeting will be on the move, the two targets in a military vehicle. There's a chance that at the end of the meeting the two will split up and to do so, one of them has to change the ride." He said, preparing to take the plane just a little under the clouds so I could jump out.

"Protection?" I grabbed my mask that was laying where I was seated before.

"Fifteen guards per guy." He finished.

"Well, that's not much." I said more to myself than to him.

"They're highly trained soldiers, their élite, must I say." The plane was now just below the clouds and I had to jump.

"Élite or not, these guys are already dead." Before putting on the mask, I spoke to him one last time. "Turn around and go back, flying on isn't safe around here. Also, thanks for the help, Mikhail."

"Anytime!" He shouted before I opened the sliding door to the side of the plane and jumped out. As soon as I was distant, the plane disappeared into the clouds, only the faint sound of a roaring engine.

Below me nothing but the darkness of an enormous forest, wind caressing my falling body.

The Winter Soldier's POV

I was walking through the tall trees in the Białowieża Forest, very quiet at night, except for the crickets, and the owls, and the wolves howling at the moon, and the light wind. Not that quiet actually.

It was cold and there was light snow covering the ground, but not that much. The gear I had on had me well covered from the coldness of this environment. The only company I had was the sound of my breathing though my mask; I took the googles off to see better the path in front of me and kept walking towards my destination.

The only thoughts in my head were the one about the mission and I couldn't think of anything else, except for... Her. "She should've been here with me, as she always did... Wait, did she? Was she always with me on missions?" I furrowed my brow since I couldn't remember and kept on walking, when a cracking sound in front of me made me snap my eyes towards the source of it, staying on alert.

As soon as I saw a deer munching on some grass, I exhaled a breath I almost didn't realize I was holding. What made me so anxious? The fact that she wasn't here with me? No, maybe not. "Remember, the mission is all you need to focus on."

I gripped tightly the bag with the rifle and the ammunitions in it and changed path, to not scare the animal that was eating peacefully. There were left a couple of miles before my destination when another sound caught my ears. It came from the sky, but I couldn't see anything because of the tall trees and its leaves. It must've been a plane, because it didn't last much.

At dawn I reached a road that crossed the forest, between the Polish and Belorussian borderline ad set the rifle on a higher peak above the road and between the trees, to not be spotted and looked around myself before deciding that it was the bast spot to be hidden, then waited for the targets to reach the ambush point. I made sure to load the rifle and the two guns strapped to my belt, then took my combat knife and sharpened it against a rock.

There was this strange feeling in my guts, as if I was being watched by someone, but every time my eyes scanned the place around me, there was no one. It wasn't really unpleasant, just somehow a familiar feeling.

I finally heard the sound of vehicles moving in my direction and looked through the rifle sight. Four vans, two in front and two in the back, one car in the middle. My tactical skills kicking in. That meant that there were two guards in the car in the middle and the rest spread in the other ones.

I put on my protective googles and focused on the mission. "Take out the driver of the first van and shoot one wheel of each car to slow them down." I thought. "If they try to escape or find me out, then engage in hand-to-hand combat." Which was more likely to happen.

They weren't driving very fast, so it was much easier to hit them. I pulled the trigger when I was ready for action and first killed the driver of the van in the front, then shoot again and made a hole in the wheel on the left. The van stopped abruptly hitting a tree on the right and I proceeded to shoot the next ones. It all happened quickly and they didn't have time to cover the the car with the targets with the vans. From each van jumped about the guards, ready to shoot with their guns, but they didn't know from where the bullets came and I took my time to count them.

Thirty guards and two targets, who were still hiding in the car. I was calm and my finger steady on the trigger, as I took in a deep breath then let it out as I started shooting again, reloading after every round. "Seven men down. Twenty-five left."

They all hid behind the vehicles and I had to leave the rifle and engage in a direct fight. "They're too many." I went against my own thoughts and stealthy moved from my spot and went staring to the vans, my pacing steady, and I took one of my guns in my right hand and gripped the combat knife with my prosthetic hand.

The first guy that crossed my path ended on the dirty ground with a sliced throat while other four were shot straight in the head by my gun. They screamed in pain as they were dying, but none of those voices reached my ears as I kept going on with my mission. My bullets finished and I let the gun fall to the ground and before I could grab the other one that was on my belt, I saw a guy pointing his shotgun towards my face and I froze for a moment.

Suddenly a shot echoed in the distance and I saw the guy fall backwards, hitting hard the soil, dead. I took the opportunity to take ahold of the other gun and walked towards car where the two main targets were hiding. Other guards pointed their weapons to my head but all of them ended up dead as a mysterious shooter aimed at them.

I reached the car and pulled the trigger, the bullets breaking through the glass and the two guys inside of it exhaled their last breaths. No one left alive.

Mission complete.

Holding my bag with the weapons in it but the blade, that was still on my waist in its sheath, I walked through the trees again. When I got back to my rifle there was no one but clearly, the bullets had been used as I saw empty shell casings next to the weapon, scattered through the grass.

My mysterious helper was following me, for sure, because I could feel a pair of eyes on the back of my skull. I slowed down my walk till a full stop. I pretended to take a break and snatched my knife in my prosthetic hand, throwing it behind me with great speed. It hit the trunk of a tree and I swiftly moved in action, leaving my bag to hit the soil; although there seemed to be no one, I could smell the same fresh fragrance that was imprinted all over my rifle.

Everything went quiet for a moment, even the animals in the forest. I took by surprise the person that was hiding behind a tree when the cold of my metal palm reached for their throat, pressing it hard against the rough bark of the trunk. My blue eyes behind my goggles met a familiar hazel color, her color, peeking through two holes of a fox shaped mask.

My flesh hand reached up and removed her mask, slowly letting it fall down while also loosening my grip on her delicate skin. There was a look of confusion on her features, her lips slightly parted. She was wearing a white armor covered by fur and leather, something different from her usual outfit.

Her hands removed my goggles and my mask, letting them both fall down by our sides and she delicately cupped my cheeks, just like I did with hers.

"Viktoria." Her name left my lips like a whisper. "What are you doing here?" I asked her. Even though I didn't show it, I was happy to see her and knowing that she was the one to save my ass back there, made my heart race a bit, something I didn't know I was able to feel.

"I've always got your back, James." She replied softly, before realizing that that name had slipped out of her mouth; I flinched, body tensing up for a brief moment while her eyes widened.

It didn't matter with what name she called me, even if that wasn't mine, I'd still do anything to have her in my arms, just like now. I closed my eyes and leaned in to kiss her, but she shoved me to he right and unsheathed the sword that hung from her waist, slicing through the chest of a man, one of the guards that survived the ambush.

Her breathing had picked up pace and was now slowing down when the guy fell on his knees, blood flowing from the deep gash and from his mouth, she then decapitated him with a swift movement of her sword.

"Damn it, I missed one." I thought, blaming myself for the mistake.

It was as if she heard my thought and then sighed, almost tiredly. "I missed one too, don't you dare blame yourself." She waited until I gave a small nod. "We've been walking for a while now, it's getting dark."

I looked up to see less light coming through the branches and the leaves of the trees. "There's a hideout somewhere nearby. I was going there before they come and pick me up tomorrow."

"Let's go." Viktoria cleaned the blood from the sharp black blade with a cloth then threw it on the ground next to the corpse, sheathing the weapon.

Chapter Text

Viktoria Alkaeva's POV

He was silent, we didn't speak after I killed one of the guards that, apparently, survived the ambush, but not for long. We kept on walking through the forest, the sky had already darkened and as he stopped, I knew that we had arrived.

"That?" I asked him, gesturing to a small wooden house, well, more like a tool shed.

He silently nodded and went for the small door. The door creaked a little and our noses met the strong smell of dust. Apparently, nobody set foot in this place in years. It was pitch black inside, with a small window that didn't give much light, considering that it was dusted too.

I raised my right hand and he looked at me in the darkness, questioning whether I was admiring my palm or waiting for him to put his hand in mine. Though his silly doubt was cleared when a small electric blue flame appeared, illuminating the room.

I saw a stone hearth and guided the flame to the shards of wood in it, till it was set on fire, the color changing from blue to shades of red and orange.

"That's something new." The Winter Soldier sighed, then looked at me with tired eyes.

I chuckled, removing the layer of leather and fur that kept my chest warm, leaving on a sash that was wrapped around my breasts. "I don't go exactly around showing off what I'm capable of."

There was a bed in a corner of the room, covered with a cotton sheet, I grabbed the hem of it and shook it a little to remove the dust, then placed it back on the bed.

"You should rest. I'll keep watch." I told him, putting into the fire other shreds of wood that were next to the fireplace.

He didn't say anything, just looked around and his eyes fell on my back, while I've been feeding the fire. His hands went for the straps on his chest and tried to take them off, again failing like back to the base. He couldn't do it and the thought of asking me to help him was out of his mind. He never asked for anything.

I turned around when I heard him groan and saw him struggling because the fingers of his prosthetic arm were a little too big. "You need help with those?"

He stopped when finally one of the locks opened and his blue irises met my hazel ones, almost as if at loss of words. But again, he didn't speak that much. "Hm." The sound left his lips and I took it as a 'yes'.

I walked to him and removed the last two straps. "Maybe the next time I'll design something that doesn't include these damn things." I muttered and he took them off, his chest taking in more air than before. "What..?" My brow furrowed as my eyes met again his. It's been awhile since he was brainwashed, who knows what was happening in his head.

His right hand cupped my cheek while his metal one gripped lightly my hip, drawing my body closer to his. My brain stopped functioning properly for a moment and his lips found mine.

His breath was shaky against my skin but soon enough his kisses became more needy and feverish. When our lips parted, our foreheads met and he took in my scent while his left arm snaked behind my back. His eyes looked at mine and asked for a silent permission to continue his actions, while I kissed him again in reply.

He turned slightly my body and guided me to the bed, the back of my legs hitting the edge of it. I laid down and my breaths became more shallow, while he removed his heavy leather clothes and boots. I slid off my boots and then got rid of my pants, staying just in underwear as he did too.

I never knew how much I needed him till something kicked me in the back of my mind. I was never able to turn off my feelings because I never knew what it felt like to love someone, I merely ignored them, even the first time that they brainwashed him. I was able to watch him scream in pain because I couldn't understand the concept of love.

He laid on top of me, between my legs and resumed kissing me passionately, his flesh hand roaming my curves, the other one used for leverage next to my head.

Goosebumps spread on my skin as excitement build up in my veins, heat radiating through my body.

Bucky undid the sash around my chest and my nipples hardened when fresh air caressed them. He left a trail of kisses from my lips to my chest, leaving love-bites that, unfortunately, would fade away pretty soon. He was hard, his body emanating heat that burned my skin with desire. Both of us were holding each other as if we feared that something could tear us apart.

He gently removed my underwear breaking the kiss and then remover his too. James leaned closer to my bent knees and gave soft kisses to my inner thighs, which became small bites as he got closer to my core. My body squirmed under his touch, while sweet moans escaped my lips. I wanted him. I needed him.

My hands traveled to his brown locks, tugging lightly and making him groan. Our dilated pupils met and it was enough for him to attack my lips with a deep kiss, while guiding himself to my entrance. He pushed in me painfully slow and I whimpered, never breaking eye contact. After a moment to me adjusting to his size, he began moving, again, slowly, but soon enough he reached a steady pace and kept it. My arms snaked around his shoulders and I moved him closer, him resting his head in the crook of my neck and our moans vibrated in the small room, the only sounds besides ours were the crackling fire and the creaking of the bed.

The fire burned the wood in the fireplace providing enough light to illuminate the small room. James was sleeping peacefully with his head on my chest, my fingers tangled in his hair, playing with his lock. I was happy, but at the same time there was a frown on my face.

What should I do? I can't let HYDRA bring him back, he didn't deserve all this torture because of me. It was my fault he fell in their hands. I wanted to enjoy the only moment of peace I ever had but instead my mind was running with hundreds of doubts and terrible thoughts, all I could do was sigh.

"What's troubling you, Viktoria?" James woke up blinking his eyes. he tilted his head to look at me and frowned when I turned my head the opposite way. "Hey..." He propped himself up on his left arm and with his right hand under my chin, he gently turned me to face him.

"I can't let them take you back, you deserve so much more..." My eyes watered, tears threatening to spill at any moment.

He didn't reply, instead, he laid back down with his arms under his head and thought for a long moment. "What if..." I looked at him, how his jaw tensed up and then relaxed. "What if we run?" He asked me, shocking me quite a bit.

My breath caught in my throat, before I released it shakily. "Would you?"

"Yes... You?"

"Yes."

The next morning both of us dressed up silently, his eyes though, wouldn't leave my back, as I pulled up my pants, I turned around to look at him. We shared a short gaze, breaking into a smile. I haven't seen him smile in a damn long time.

I finished tying the strings of my upper armor and looked around the room to see if I didn't forget anything, till my eyes stopped on the dusty window. It was pretty early in the morning and the daylight hours slowly approached, but my sharp sight noticed some commotion outside.

"We're trapped." I stated and James turned to look outside the window on alert. As soon as he saw what he hoped wasn't there, his head turned toward me, a panicked look in his eyes.

He gulped, sealing his lips, but then spoke bitterly, almost angry and disappointed with himself. "We should have left sooner." After a while of silence and examining options, he grabbed his bag with the weapons and made a move towards the door.

I put my hands on his chest and stopped him. "What are you doing?"

He sighed heavily. "I'm going back to the base." He deadpanned.

I lowered my voice because I could feel that The HYDRA soldiers outside were getting closer each step towards the hideout. "Yeah, I can see that, but why? We could take them out. I'm more powerful than you think." He didn't blink nor reply. "Don't look at me like that." I told him shaking my head. "You have any idea what they're going to do to you? I can't stand them to do this to you anymore and it's my fault..."

His left hand went to the back of my neck, pulling me suddenly toward him in a kiss to shut my up. We parted when we heard someone yelling in Russian outside, for the Winter Soldier to come out. "Even if we ran," he started explaining, "they found a way to trigger me."

"What..? How?" I asked him. "Does this mean that they have complete control over you?"

He nodded. "And if we run and they find us, there's a chance they could turn me against you, even right now if we step out of that door together." His voice sounded pleading, trying to stop me from turning against HYDRA.

"Zimniy Soldat!" Called again the voice from outside, warning that if he didn't come out they'd busted the door open.

I shook my head, pleading him to not go, but my vision was clouded with my tears. He gently pressed his forehead against mine, then kissed it. "They're going to wipe me out again, so I will ask just for a small promise..." His blue orbs looked directly into my hazel ones and I nodded, gripping tightly his hips. "Promise me that you'll never forget our time together, that someday, when the right time comes, you'll tell me everything."

"I will... I'll always love you, okay?” I kissed him one last time and then pulled away, hiding myself in the darkest corner of the room. "Go..."

He opened the wooden door and went outside, where a bunch of soldiers were waiting for him, fully armed. He almost took it as a joke.

Bucky's POV

My heart tore up when I saw her cry, I really wanted to follow our silly plan. Escape and never come back, but the risks were too high. When I exited the wooden house, my eyes started scanning my surroundings, counting the guards. They were too many, even for a simple escort mission.

I spoke in Russian to one of the guys that stood up when I came out. "Is this a joke? You could've done my mission on your own." Some of them laughed making my grip tightly the handle of the bag.

The man replied. "Not my business. Now, come, before we decide to move you with force."

I thought that as soon as we got going, Viktoria would be safe, but I was thinking too fast. As soon as we started walking, the man leading the group stopped abruptly and gave an order.

"Oh, yeah, burn down the safe-house, we won't need it anymore."

My heart raced against my chest, she was still inside, with no way out. One of the soldiers moved out of the group, hand in one pocket, taking out a matchbox. That's all I saw, before they nudged me to move again, the wooden house out of my sight. My fists clenched tightly hoping that she'd make it out alive without being seen.

Chapter Text

The base was silent, only few people walking around doing their jobs. Viktoria wasn't back yet, but Mikhail wasn't worried about her, something more troublesome hid in these cold hallways.

He was in his laboratory when one of the Chiefs came by with two henchmen, asking questions about his job at Hydra, if he knew well enough the Artic Fox, what kind of information did she share with him. To most of those questions he just replied 'no' and 'I don't know'.

"If you have some business regarding the Arctic Fox, you should ask her. I couldn't care less about her." He was sitting at his desk in the middle of the room, some papers in front of him.

The chief chuckled, hands casually in the pockets of his pants. "Are you sure? Because one of my men said she passed by your laboratory before taking off to somewhere... Oh, and you left at the same time."

Mikhail wasn't feeling nervous at all, in the end, he's been trained since a very young age to be efficient and a liar. "That must be a coincidence, Sir. I went to grab some supplies, as you can see," he pointed behind him where new vials and liquids were piled up on a table, "I had planned the flight a while ago, which you also agreed with."

Silence filled the room, though not for long. "And what about her visit here?" The man asked with a ushered tone.

"She needed a new uniform." He relplid shrugging his shoulders.

"You know, for some reason I do believe you, but there's this small part of me that still doesn't." The chief said, shaking his head with a devious smirk.

The door to the laboratory was one and I was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed on my chest. "If you need to know something about me," the men in the room flinched except for Mikhail, who had already noticed me. They turned around to look at me with surprised eyes, "you have to ask me, not other people." I hoped from the door frame and walked past them, sitting on Mikhail's desk, facing the chief. "What's this fuss all about?" Before coming to his lab, I walked to my room and changed in some black clothes, hiding the armor in the wardrobe.

"You have to understand, dear Lisa, that you work for me, and you can't play the game as you like." His posture straightened, voice low and menacing.

"And you have to understand that I've been here longer than you have." I crossed my legs and gave him a death glare. "Don't threaten me with useless words. You'll be dead before you can even regret it."

The man nodded, not caring a little bit about my words. "If that's how you want to put it..." He gave a slight look at the men behind him and they both took out their guns, shooting me.

One bullet hit me in the belly and the other in the chest next to the heart, I feel on the ground not moving. Mikhail was shocked, almost not believing his eyes. "What..?" A whisper escaped the old man's mouth.

The chief shook his head. "No one threatens me. Clean the mess."

The henchmen holstered their guns and walked closer to me, crouching down, when suddenly I inhaled a sharp breath, coughing blood on the cold floor. The two stood up immediately confused, not knowing how did I survive.

I spat blood out and cleaned my mouth with the back of my hand, sitting up. The holes in my shirt were darkened by warm blood, that slowly stopped pouring out of the wounds which healed before everyone's eyes. A metallic taste on my tongue made me spit again, but along with the blood were two bullets.

I stood up from the ground and looked at my body, the wounds completely healed. "You really thought that was gonna stop me?" I asked raising my head, locking eyes with the chief. "You were wrong."

His eyes opened wide and when he tried to run out of the room, I made a small gesture with my right hand and the door to the lab shut with a loud bang. He desperately tried to move the handle but it wasn't working, neither trying to bust it open with his henchmen. He turned around to look at me, fear in his eyes.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? All Hydra will be after you!" He yelled terrified.

"Not if I say that you were spies."

The three bodies were lying on the floor, lifeless. Mikhail sat in his chair behind the desk, thinking, while I washed my hands in the small bathroom next to the lab. Whe. I came back, Mikhail's gave me a quick look.

"It's dangerous to keep working for them." He simply said, looking at his desk.

"I didn't have a purpose when I joined Red Skull on his crazy world domination journey. I just wanted to be powerful, making sure that everyone feared me, but that's not what I want now..." I grabbed a chair from another desk and put it in front of Mikhail's. "It's people who define an organization, without people the organization is harmless."

"What are you planning to do?" He asked arching one eyebrow.

"I want you to recruit as many people as possible, the ones who want to change the world while working in the shadows. People who we can trust and who will trust us." I explained to him.

He nodded in agreement. "First of all we need a base. And a name."

"We've got one;" I looked around, "last time I was in the chief's office he had some papers about expansion plans, which means they planned all along to transfer into another facility. If we succeed in making them believe that the base is no longer useful, they'll never come back."

"I can do that." He nodded. "I only have one question..." A sigh left his lips while he leaned on the desk with his elbows. "What are you going to do with the Winter Soldier?"

I gasped lightly. "That's the problem, he's being closely watched, even under Cryogenic Hibernation."

"He's been moved." He deadpanned. "To another facility. I don't know where, but it happened on the way back here. The guards received order to change path and they did."

Damn it. My fists clenched when I remembered the last time I saw him in the forest, before they burned down the place I was hiding in, with me still inside. "You're going to lead the knew organization." I simply said it.

He furrowed his brow, but he already knew what was going through my mind. "For you, I will. But you be careful, something like this should never happen again." He spoke about the bodies behind me. The less people knew about me, the more chances I had at not using my powers.

Mikhail recruited new agents and some old ones after I left; I knew he was going to do a good job as long as I kept working for Hydra and sending them Intel. Finding James was harder than I thought, to each base that I've been to, there was no trace of the Winter Soldier. I kept doing my job for years, even after I came to know that Doctor Zola died.

Occasionally, there were some news on newspapers and radios that politicians have been killed by a ghost story, or other strange deaths of diplomats and scientists. Most people didn't even believe that it was the same killer, as all these deaths occurred all over the world.

Meanwhile, I was still young, my features didn't change a bit. I still looked like an eighteen year old girl, always doing the same thing until almost fifty years later I was given an important role in the upcoming events. They didn't know how long would it take, but they needed me to get inside of Shield, to reach the top and stay there for as long as I could, but first, I had to meet someone.

Technology had improved quite a lot in the last decades; televisions, mobile phones, computers, the Internet... All that technology was well used to share information and find people more easily, but in the wrong hands, it was a powerful weapon.

I took a flight to New Jersey, where a Hydra agent was waiting for me at the airport. The man then drove me to an old World War II military training base. The sign read Camp Lehigh and from the outside it looked pretty deserted.

"What am I doing here, exactly?" I asked him in English. He didn't say a word so I took the freedom to search his pockets. "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division... S.H.I.E.L.D. as abbreviation." His head turned abruptly when he heard me read his badge.

"When did you take that?!" He questioned.

"Back at the airport, you were too busy looking around... Wait, so you're a Hydra agent working undercover for Shield."

He sighed. "Anything that you want to ask, you'll ask it to the thing."

We got out of the car and walked through the fence, he had the keys of the place and before entering a small building, he unlocked a chain blocking the main entrance. It was daytime so there was enough light to see inside. There were pictures on the walls, of generals and officials. A picture of a woman caught my attention, someone I saw somewhere a long time ago, but could not really remember. "Who's that?" I asked.

"That's Agent Peggy Carter, the founder of Shield." He said, then moved to look for something.

I looked closely at the picture, squinting my eyes, before finally remembering. The lady in the red dress.

The agent called for me when he had opened a secret door to an elevator, so I followed him. We ended up in a big room, full of old computers. The man then gave me a USB, pointing at a modern USB slot on a table. I stepped closer to the computer and plugged the small key. The computers turned up immediately, a voice speaking to me.

"We meet again, my dear." The voice said, and I recognized it as Doctor Zola's.

"I thought you were dead and gone." I commented.

"My body was dying and my mind was transferred into the computers."

"I didn't think that was possible, but knowing you, 'impossible' is not in your dictionary." I crossed my arms on my chest, chuckling. "Well then, now that I'm here, please tell me the plan."

"I have no plan, but Hydra has."

"Then tell me about the Winter Soldier." I insisted.

"We made him better through the years, the perfect asset that worked in the shadows better than anyone else, someone we can control."

Control.

"You're here because we need more agents. Yes, we have been into shield for many years, and there will be more to come." Even if his voice came through a speaker, it felt real, the tone gave meaning to the words. He gave me a final order. "Many of ours infiltrated in almost all of SHIELD bases, but you have to get to its heart. Become one of their best and most trusted agents. From this point on, you are alone. Everything you choose to do, do it in the name of HYDRA. Heil HYDRA!"

The computers turned off and the room was filled with silence. I turned around to look at the other agent and he said nothing.

"Heil Hydra." I said in a low voice, and he repeated it.