The room was full of fine dining, good music, cigar smoke - despite the ban.

Adolphus Corsas thought this little soiree was going well. The knives had not yet been drawn. His company would greatly benefit from HYDRA affiliations, it would open many doors for him. Doors that were spilling out with wealth.

He tucked one hand into his suit trousers, the other was wrapped around a fine Cuban cigar. This was a celebration after all - a victory of sorts. With HYDRA backing, his company would never go bankrupt, never be the source of scandal, would be the very top of the list.

Oh sure, there'd be a few things they ask for. A shipment of "Don't know" to "Where?" or perhaps an unnecessary transaction from one shell company to another - but that was the price you pay for security.

There were also plenty of rumours about the shadowy organization - they had a human weapon fer Christ's sake - but Adolphus had never been one to believe in rumour. He should know - he's made up one or two to discredit his better competitors.

Something caught his eye - a wrongness about the dancefloor.

His eyes scanned consciously for the thing that his subconscious had picked up. Plenty of black, plenty of jewellery on display. What had he seen that was so wrong?

Between the dancing and chit-chat, there was a small little red-headed girl in a pink dress.

Was she one of the guests offspring? He thought he'd made it clear that this was an adult only affair.

The cigar shifted in his mouth as he took the decision to ask her who her parents were so he may reprimand them properly.

'Hello...Little girl.'

Adolphus was always uncomfortable about small children. Particularly the ones that parents tended to dote on. The ones more likely to be complete and utter little shits.

She looked up at him coolly, appraising him for trustworthiness and clutched her overly large teddy - she had a fucking teddy bear? - closer. If he wasn't one hundred percent against drugs, he would swear he was on some right now.

Two hazel brown eyes looked up at him from over the scruffy toy. 'Hi.' She murmured shyly.

'Where are your parents?' He asked without preamble. The less time he spent talking to this monster, the better.

The little girl's eyes widened ever so slightly, looked left, then right and murmured 'Dunno.'

He made an irritated little noise in the back of his throat. Could feel a headache coming on. Maybe it was the cigar. Rich cigars tended to bring out the worst in him. Still, he had to do something about the child. Leaving her to mingle with his very select guest list was not an option.

'Would you like some sweeties, child?' What did one offer children? It had been some time since he considered himself one. What candy did he enjoy? 'A ...lollipop? Perhaps?'

Her eyes widened and lit up as though he'd offered her the world. The teddy bear was smushed against her chest as she nodded excitedly.

'All you have to do for the lollipop is help me find your parents.'

'How?' She mumbled.

How indeed? He glanced up at the covert cameras he had around the ballroom and frowned. 'Why don't you come with me, hmm?'

She nodded, a little less sure now, and reached out to take his hand.

Adolphus waved her through his many security guards and right into his office. He could hardly claim to be at threat from a girl who still thought pink was the be-all and end-all of fashion. He'd barely sat down to bring up the security feeds when he felt that wrongness again. She was standing at the doorway, looking round the office critically. As though analysing the room - but that was just silly. A girl of her age could barely tie her own shoelaces. Never mind put her mind to doing any real harm. Especially with the best in personal security outside his office.

'Where's your big security man?' She frowned at him.

Adolphus pursed his lips. 'My big security man is outside.' He replied curtly. 'I do not like him being in here breathing down my neck while I work.'

'Oh,' She murmured quietly and rocked back onto her heels in thought.

'What do you parents look like?'

'Oh mommy's very pretty and daddy's so tall.' She sighed. 'Hey mister...?'

'What?!' He demanded angrily. Pretty and tall would not help him narrow his search. At this rate, perhaps he should announce an auction of the little girl and see who gives the largest outraged cry. That would be surely an easier way to go about this.

But these were very select people in attendance. People he did not want as enemies - that much was obvious.

The little girl looked to the ceiling for a few seconds and asked 'What's the door made of? It looks really heavy,'

'It's plated with titanium.' Adolphus replied. 'And I shall need better descriptions than pretty and tall.' After a few seconds of silence, he looked up and frowned to find her very gently turning the lock of the door. 'Child, what are you doing?'

She looked up at him with an expression he'd never seen on the pudgy face of a child before. It was one of intense calculation and one he'd seen on the face of his "big security man" after Adolphus had told him to silence someone.

He shouldn't have been scared of a six year old little girl, but something in his hindbrain was warning him to be terrified of her.

Deliberately, she gripped the fluffy teddy bear around the throat - and here, Adolphus noticed the cut at the neck of the bear - and pulled it wide. Stuffing flew everywhere as she fished out a deadly little combat knife.

Now, now he knew he should be terrified of this little six year old girl in ribbons. The man - easily twice her size, stood and stumbled back as she barred the door with her small body and sneered 'Oh don't try to run. Running in this dress is ridiculous.'

'Why are you doing this?!' He demanded.

She snorted and put on an innocent face. ' 'Cause you're a bad man. But mister? I'm an even worse kid.'

She leapt onto the roof fifteen minutes later, as the first of the people spilled out onto the street in wave after panicked wave.

The man hunched on the edge didn't seem to notice her presence at first, however as she grew closer to him - and she was sure she was silent about it - he turned to appraise her and grunted 'Mission report?' before returning to his binoculars.

'Target dead, no other casualties, unless you count my wounded pride at having been seen in this dress.'

He snorted and glanced down appreciatively at the crowd milling in the road.

She watched them scatter like ants. The operation - while usefully severing HYDRA's connection to another company they could exploit - would hopefully draw out a high ranking HYDRA member meant to be here, tonight. So far, it looked as though their quality intelligence had fallen through.

He did not look happy, the sniper rifle remained untouched.

She fiddled for a moment, waiting and then asked hopefully 'Well? Is he there?'

'No.' The moonlight caught the metal of his arm - it would never be quite covered by jackets and gloves - as he turned. 'We're leaving.'

'...Winter Soldier?'

He paused briefly, unaccustomed to being quite so formally spoken to and then turned down to the little red-headed girl looking somewhat nervous. 'What, Preying Mantis?'

'What is my evaluation?' She asked quietly and shifted in conspicuousness when he turned his intense gaze on her.

'...Adequate.' He grunted at last before walking away.

The girl - Preying Mantis - smiled briefly and hurried to catch up.

Onto the next mission - the next HYDRA base. The next bad man.

But please, God, no more dresses with ribbons. She was going to burn the one she was currently wearing - it was covered in too much blood.

A/N: Welcome to Fatherland where the question of 'What happens if we give a highly unstable former weapon/assassin a child?' is finally answered! With hilarity and lots of poor parenting. There will be one or two story arcs within here, but essentially - the chapters will be whatever my twisted mind can come up with.

And WinterWidow. Did I mention the WinterWidow? There will be WinterWidow.