Authors note: It's a long one so bear with me. I loved the winter soldier, but it was a totally different tone from all the other marvel movies. It was very dark, and in this story I wanted to not only take it back to the humourous side, but expand on that. I wanted to create a female character that can answer some of the questions. What did Erskine mean when he said "power of the Gods." Was it literal or figurative? I also wanted that female to not only be Steve's match in power and strength of character, but the COMPLETE opposite of him. I wanted her to frustrate, and confound him and drive him bat shit crazy. So I was sitting here thinking who could be that person. I could totally make someone up, or I could grab a historical figure. Then I thought about Hydra. Where does that name come from? Greek mythology, so why not grab a mythical Greek Goddess and throw her into the mix. It would be a perfect fit. A goddess can't die, so why couldn't she have been mixed into Steve's timeline all along and never have aged a day. Why couldn't she have been a catalist back then to what's happening now? Great, but which goddess? Well, Steve's a champion against injustice. He hates bullies and fights for humanity. He's a champion. So who was the greek goddess of champions...now I had my character. If you're still with me after that, then please, read on and let me know what you think of this story with your reviews.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of any of these characters, this is just a fantasy that my fingers decided to type out on their own.

Collateral Damages

Chapter 1

He sneaked quietly down the corridor. When he came to the t section he paused. He used his heightened hearing to listen around the corner for any sound of movement before he poked his head around. All clear. According to the map of the comlex he had memorized, the door to the room he needed was straight ahead on his right. He paused again, pressed his ear to the door and listened. He shorted out the the keypad lock and manually slid the door open. He slid it back and turned to survey the dimly lit room.

The room was comprised of a long conference table with chairs surrounding it. One wall was a giant piece of glass that made up the computer monitor. He spied the control panel in the center of the conference table and made his way towards it.

"Well, well, well. WHOM do we have here?" Purred a woman's voice from the shadows.

Steve whirled around and assumed a defensive posture as the sound of heels clicked slowly towards him.

"I was wondering when you'd pop up. Granted, I didn't figure that we'd meet here, but, fate works in mysterious ways doesn't it."

He eyed the brunette as she pulled out a chair and sat in it; folding her hands on the table in front of her. He had to get rid of her. Neutralize her so that he could get the information that he needed and get the hell out of there before he was detected.

"At ease, Captain, I know why you're here and I know what you're after. In fact, what you want is yours for the taking, all you need to do is ask me nicely." She leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's good to see you again, Rogers. I had to admit I've been a little worried about you since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Steve frowned, sure this was a trap. Sure that she was delaying him until a capture team came for him, and he was positive he had never seen this woman before in his life.

As if reading his mind she smiled again and said "But of course you don't recognize me like this. When you saw me last, I looked more like..." she raised a hand above her head and snapped her fingers. "This!"

Instantly the brunette in the black pinstripe suit was gone. In her place was sat a shorter woman, with blond curls to her shoulders, big blue eyes and a 40's era WAC uniform.

Steve's jaw dropped in astonishment. "Lorraine?" he asked incredulously.

"Ta da" she cried softly with a flourish of her hands.

"You hauled me behind a bookcase and kissed me, the last time we met."

She smiled and stood. As she walked toward him she changed back to the statuesque brunette with the deep brown eyes and the pinstripe suit.

"I've kissed a lot of men in my time, Captain. Don't worry, you're safe from me." She stopped less than a foot away from him and gave him the once over with her eyes. "For now, besides," she said, looking around the room and gesturing. "No bookcases."

"Who are you...really?"

"Now there's the million dollar question! By now you've seen things that other men would believe to be myths...fairytales..." She walked around him and he turned wearily, still unsure if this was a delaying tactic on her part. "Just know that Thor and Loki are not the only Gods to walk this earth. As I said Captain, I have the information that you want," she reached behind her and pulled out a file folder out from the rear waistband of her skirt. She slapped it down on the table. She gestured towards a chair in front of it. Steve ignored the chair and reached for the file instead. As his hand closed around the folder, her hand slammed down on it and Steve whipped his head around, his eyes narrowing as he met her stealy brown eyes. "BUT..." she said, keeping her hand on the folder; "it goes much deeper and farther back than you can imagine."

Steve said nothing, his hand still clutching one corner of the file. She let her hand up off of it, and pulled out a chair to sit again; she rested her elbows on the arms of the chair and folded her hands across her midsection.

He stood there staring silently at her, his ears listening intently for some movement, some sound to alert him this was a trap, but he heard nothing.

"Who are you?" he asked her again.

She sighed. "Where I come from, names..." she paused, "TRUE names," she corrected herself. "Have power. The power to summon, the power to control. The few that know my name dare not speak it. However," she continued, "In this incarnation, the name I use is Holly St. John."

"Holly?" Steve asked his eyebrows raising.

She smiled again, "I like Christmas." She shrugged her shoulders. "There a problem with that?"

Steve decided to let her challenge pass. By now he had released his hold on the file and was standing over her with his hands on his belt. "What did you mean, this," he gestured towards the folder on the table, "goes deeper than I can imagine."

She used her foot to angle the chair next to her away from the table and roll it towards him. He caught it with his right hand but remained standing. She sighed again, closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the chair. "Sibling rivalry is a real bitch, Rogers." Her voice had lost the soft playful edge. Now it sounded tired and hollow to Steve's ears. "Cain and Abel, Thor and Loki...and my brother and I. Every single one of us cause major problems for the human race whenever we get a stick up our asses against one another."

Steve finally sat in the seat that he had been holding and rolled it closer to the table. At the sound she opened her eyes, but kept her head back against the seat. The eyes had lost the mischevious glint and now look tired. Dark circles that hadn't been there before were now visible. She looked like she aged 10 years in a matter of seconds.

"Hydra is not the beginning, Rogers. It's the end. The end of milleneas of bad blood between my brother and I. Both of us named Gods of War. Both of us facing off again and again with massive armies at our backs, each of us fighting for what we believe is best for humanity. Until now, I though I had been winning. I thought perhaps, it was finally over. " She closed her eyes again. "I should have known better, because it appears I was wrong."

Steve frowned down towards his lap. Running what she said through his mind again. "Gods of war," he repeated to himself softly. He looked up, understanding now who and what she was.

"You're Greek?"

And wan smiled appeared on her lips. "Originally, yes. Although the Romans seemed awful fond of me for a thousand years or so."

"So your real name is..."

She moved too fast for Steve. Before he could even react she had shot forward in her chair and her left arm was snaking towards him. As he started to bring his right arm up to counter her he realized that she wasn't attacking him. Her left had was covering his mouth and her right index finger was inches away from his face. Her eyes were burning in her face as she glared at him.

"What did I say!" She hissed. "True names have power! NEVER...EVER... say my real name! Do you understand! Only Gods dare to call out my name!"

Steve had never seen anyone move too fast for him since he took the serum. But his mind pulled together quickly. Anyone that could move that fast could make quick work of him, if they chose to. Her eyes were boring holes into him and the anger was radiating off her body, and yet the only thing she did was to clamp her hand over his mouth. Realizing that she wasn't out to hurt him, he tried to force down the rush of adrenalin in his body that her action had conjured. He nodded once under her hand.

She released the hold and stood, kicking the chair away from her. She crossed hers arms over her chest and took a few steps away from him, her back towards him. She took a deep breath, then another.

"I have certain suspiscions that my brother," she half turned her head and spat the next few words back to him, "Who shall also go UNNAMED, is the true head of Hydra."

"And what makes you think that."

"Think about it... HYDRA! Think that name was pulled out of someone's ass?"

"The nine headed serpent from Greek mythology."

"Also one of the tasks that Heracles completed with MY help. I was the one who told him how to keep new heads from sprouting. I suspect that the name Hydra was purposefully chosen as a challenge to me. To bait me."

"That's speculation. Do you have proof?"

"Yes and no." She turned back to him and reached into her suit jacket. She pulled out a USB drive and tossed it to him. A few months ago intel came to me about an arms manufacturer by the name of LANCE SPEAR." she said the last words with emphasis. She shook her head as Steve turned the USB over in his hands. "Ari..."she stopped, took a breath and tried again. "My BROTHER always thought himself so clever. The problem is, he's not half as smart as a retarded lizard. That name stuck out like he had a neon arrow pointed directly at him."

"This LANCE SPEAR," she continued, "seems to have had an unfortunate amount of arms shipments highjacked within the last few years. Weapons that are turning up the hands of dickless despots anxious to mark out their territory. So I dug further. I found ties to other companies. Going back generations. Most of them dummy corporations, until one certain company popped up."

She reached into the other side of her jacket and brought out a sheaf of papers, that were yellowed with time. She tossed them in front of Steve for him to see. "It's a biomedical company that seemed to sprout up in the 30's. And there were two names that particularly caught my attention."

Steve took the papers and quickly scanned the first few pages. It looked like an order manifest. Then he saw it. The names she was referring to. The order had been placed by Johann Schmidt, to be delivered to...

"Zola." Steve said aloud.

"Bingo".

"So where do you come in on all of this?"

"Where I always come in. Pitted against Ar..." she halted and pressed her lips together pausing a moment before correcting herself. "Lance...and as it seems increasingly apparent... Hydra. Right now Captain, we have a common goal. We both want to crush Hydra once and for all. My reasons vary from yours, of course; but I could help you acheive the other thing you want."

"Which is?" he asked wearily.

She reached over and dragged the file over to her. She flipped open the flap and pulled out an old black and white picture of James Buchanan Barnes and slid it towards him. "I can help him."

He picked it up and stared at the smiling face that had been haunting his nightmares lately. "How?"

"They thought they could wipe his mind clean. Make him into an ultimate killing machine. A man without a past and without a conscience. But they didn't understand that it's impossible. The mind is too resilient. Most minds," she correct quickly. "They may have locked his memories away, not wiped them out. I believe he's still in there."

He placed the picture back on the table and watched as she pulled the chair back and sat down. She stared at the table top, lips pressed together. "But there's a catch, right?"

Holly took a deep breath and continued, "They've been shunting him in and out of cryo for years. Probably trying to wipe his memory every time. The memories could be fractured, displaced, some possibly gone forever. I've been able to repair damage before. Amnesia, brainwashing... I go in, help them pull their mind back together and get out. This... is different."

She glanced down at the picture before looking back up and meeting Steve's guarded face. "Damage to the mind on this scale is...troubling. If he's regained any memories they'd be jumbled. It would cause him deep frustration, possibly rage. He'd be trying to figure out who he is and what happened to him, and the missing pieces could drive him to insanity. It'd be an ardous process, and if he fights me there could be...complications."

"Have you had complications before?"

She darted her eyes away to the left. "Once".

A growing unease spread through his abdomen. "What happened?"

Her knuckles were now white from how hard she was grasping her hands in her lap. She cut her eyes back to him and replied."Cult brainwashing. Convinced this girl she was something she wasn't. I went in and no matter what I showed her or how hard I tried to convince her of the lies she had been fed, she refused to believe the truth. Refused to hear that she was anything other than who the cult told her she was. In the end it was too much for her. She fractured permantly. Totally insane. Catatonic. No hope."

"You can hunt him down, try to help him. Try to convince him of who he is, who he was," she shook her head. "But I honestly think it would do more harm then good."

"And the price of your help?"

"A favor."

"What type of favor?" Steve's eyes narrowed, he was on the defesive again.

She leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table. She closed her eyes and started massaging her temples. "I don't know," she replied tiredly. "This...ALL this..." she flicked a hand towards the USB, papers and file laying on the table next to her before returning her hand to her head. "Is too new. I've been blindsided. I had thought it was over. I had honestly thought..." her voice trailed off and she sat there silently for a few seconds. She suddenly straightened and turned her chair towards him.

"When I get this sorted, and figure out my plan of action and what I need from you, I'll cash in the favor. Any time, any place, I ask and you do. No questions asked."

"That's kind of a one sided deal, isn't it?"

"Is it really, Captain? I'm giving you a chance to get your friend back, to save him, for the price of owing me a favor. Tell me Rogers, how much would you give up for him?"

"Everything," Steve replied without hesitation.

"Then do we have an agreement?" She asked, leaning forward slightly.

Steve sighed. "What do I need to do, sign a contract in blood?"

Holly tsked, "No need for dramatics Rogers, I'm not the devil! A handshake will do fine." She extended her hand to him but yanked it away quickly when he started to reach for it. "Glove off, Captain."

Steve silently withdrew his hand and yanked off the glove, re-offering her his hand. She slid her fingers across his palm. Her thumb nestled between his thumb and index finger but the pads of her fingers pressed against his wrist. He felt a heat between their hands before it slid backwards to encircle his wrist. She withdrew her hand and he looked at his still extended arm. He felt a warmth, like a band of energy, around his right wrist but couldn't see anything there.

"What did you do?" he asked worriedly, frowning up at her.

"It's a bond. You fulfill the agreement and it goes away. Poof" she snapped her fingers.

"And if I don't?"

"Then that little band of energy travels up your arm, across your chest, and will pop your heart like a zit."

His eyes widened in shock and she reached over to pat his cheek. "Nothing to worry about, just hold up your end of the bargain and you'll be fine." She stood up and tugged the suit jacket down as she cast a glance over her shoulder at the door behind her.

"We should probably get going right about now." She started walking briskly towards the other end of the table.

"Why?" Steve asked as he stood and started collecting everything on the table.

"Here's the thing," she replied pulling a chair away from the table. "This isn't really my office, this isn't even my building," she said as she kneeled on the table facing him.

"WHAT!" exclaimed Steve as he hurried down the table to where she was.

"Yeah," she said with a sheepish smile, "See I broke in here, like, 20 minutes before you did, and managed to grab a hold of that file you've got there. I was on my way out when you stumbled in here. There's a security team on the other side of that door that's been trying to get in here for the past 10 minutes. I was holding them back just fine, but when you almost said my name, I lost my concentration. They're pretty close to getting in, so we should beat it the hell out of here. She was standing on the table pulling off the cover for the ventilation shaft. "You have great timing by the way. You saved me a bunch of time trying to track you down."

Steve's face started to turn red. He couldn't believe this. "You lied to me!" He spat out, incredulously.

She looked down at him, a look of shock on her face which was quickly replaced with indignation as she crounched down to meet him at eye level. "I NEVER lied to you!" She exclaimed hotly. "Tell me how I lied to you!" She challenged, "tell me when I said this was MY office, MY file. Tell me when I said I had anything to do with any of THIS!" She flung her arm out to gesture to their surroundings.

Steve opened his mouth to argue but realized she was right. She hadn't lied. She hadn't said any of those things. He had just assumed. And when you assume... he thought silently. "Well then you tricked me!"

Her expression turned dark. "I have every intention of upholding my end of our deal CAPTAIN. I didn't force you to make a deal with me. I didn't grab your hand against your will and bond you. YOU made that decision on your own. And for the record, calling a goddess a liar and a cheat doesn't bode well for a human's life span."

She was right again. He had made the bargain willingly. Technically she hadn't done any of the things that he had just accused her of, but somehow he felt deceived...and duped; and taking in the hurt expression on her face at his accusations he suddenly felt like a gigantic ass.

"I'm sorry."

She narrowed her eyes. "You SHOULD be!"

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Both their heads whirled towards the door. The battering ram that the security team was using was causing the metal door to buckle. In one fluid move Steve was on the table. As Holly straightened up, Steve grabbed her around the thighs.

"Hey!" she protested. "I don't need your help!"

"Just go!" he grunted as he thrust her up into the shaft. He bent to grab the ventilation cover and as he stood again he found himself face to upside down face with Holly.

"Just so you know," she grinned. "You should get used to this kind of shit from me, it's kind of a common occurance."

Steve's eyes narrowed again. "You sure you're not the devil?"

BANG. BANG. The metal was groaning now as the door started to cave. Holly reached down and grabbed the back of Steve's belt.

"Time to go!" she exclaimed as she yanked him upwards toward her.

CRASH!

The door flew inwards. As the securtiy team swarmed into the room, the metal shaft cover slid silently in place. The men swept the room as Holly and Steve held their breath in the shaft, waiting.

"Clear." called out one voice.

"The building is on lock down. No one couldn't have gotten out." claimed a second voice. "Sweep the building."

The men filed out and Steve and Holly simultaneously let out the breaths they had been holding.

"You know the way out of here?" he whispered.

"Of course. I got in, didn't I?" She whispered back. "We follow this to the roof."

"and do you have a plan to get us off the roof ?"

She pursed her lips for a second darting her eyes to the left. "No. But I'm great at improvising."

"Great," he grumbled as she started to crawl down the shaft. "Our getting off a 40 story building hinges on your ability to improvise."

"You have a better plan?" she shot over her shoulder.

"I DID. But someone kept me talking in a room until a security team ended up trapping me in a ventilation shaft."

"For the record I broke in without alerting security. That was all you, on that front." She stopped at a t section and flipped onto her back. "I hope you're good in tight spaces," she said as she wriggled her body into an upwards shaft.

"Can you make a little more noise? I don't think they heard you on the 15th floor."

"Shut up and climb," came the muffled reply.

Steve flipped onto his back as well as was about to crawl up after her when he realized he was looking right up her skirt. He snapped his head back down to look down the shaft they had just come from. She shifted her position and looked down at him. He was just laying there, looking from the direction they came.

"What's wrong?" she asked urgently.

"Nothing."

"Then what the hell are you doing?" she hissed at him.

"Waiting." He mumbled, his face starting to turn red.

"For what? A bus?"

"You're wearing a skirt."

"SO?"

He didn't reply, his gaze was averted, jaw clenched.

Then it finally dawned on her. "Oh for Christs' sake Rogers, you think you're the first guy to see up my skirt. We don't have time for modesty. Just get the fuck up here!"

He ground his teeth and finally pulled himself up into the shaft, but he didn't lift his gaze higher than eye level as he quickly followed her. When Holly reached the roof she kicked out the shaft cover and swung herself out. By the time Steve had crawled out, she was standing at the edge of the roof. When he joined her she spoke.

"No fire escape, building are too far off to make a jump to them, and there's no window washer cart. I don't have any ropes so we can't repel down."

"How'd YOU get up here?"

"I didn't. I walked in there during business hours." She gestured with her hand down her torso. "Hence the suit."

"So what's your great improvised plan?" He asked sarcastically, cross his arms and staring down at her.

"We jump."

"You just said the other buildings are too far."

"They are. We're jumping to the ground."

Steve's mouth dropped in shock. "We're 50 stories up and that's pavement down there!"

"Yeah, what's your point?" She was squinting, looking straight down. Her head moving in first one direction, then the other. She finally stuck a finger in her mouth and extended it into the air. Her eyes closed but lips moving silently.

"You're certifiable," he stated. "You are 100 percent insane, you know that. I just made a deal with a crazy person," he said; shaking his head.

She snapped her eyes open. As she turned to look at him they were illuminated with a wierd, almost manic light in them. "Do you trust me?" she asked.

"Hell no, I don't trust you," he stated, backing up a step.

"Perfect," she said as a smile lit up her face. Before he could react her arm shot out and grabbed a handful of the front of his shirt. "Bombs away!" she shouted as she pulled them over the side.