"So, the question is, who at S.H.I.E.L.D. could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked.
"Pierce." Steve answered, his mind flickering to Raven and what she had said to him the years before, and he had let the man just take her away. He wondered if she was even still alive now.
"Who happens to be sitting on the most secure building in the world." The woman brought him back into the moment while Sam made toast.
"But he's not working alone." Steve said but before he could finish, he was cut off by a knife flying past his face.
"No, he's not." Raven said charging at him.
Steve flew up from his chair taking the full force of her attack, ramming his back into the counter. He knocked her back from him as he said, "Raven! Stop! You were right."
"Yeah, and you were wrong." She muttered going back in for another hit, striking him across the face, kicking back Natasha as she ran towards her. Raven muttered to him, "I asked you to kill me and you didn't."
"Because I thought..." He didn't know how to respond, what he had thought was wrong, and god knows what they'd been doing to her, "You can help us now, take HYDRA down."
"No. I can't." She said back as he threw her across the kitchen, Sam grabbing her around the waist, and she butted her head into his nose. "Two years is a long time Captain, a long time for them to do a lot of things."
"What did they do to you?" Steve asked as she clawed her way out of Sams grasp and back to him.
She kicked him and he grabbed her leg pulling her closer to him, "They made it to where all I can do is follow orders. Their orders."
"How do we stop it?" He asked her as she tried punching him in the face again but he grabbed her arm, wrapping it around herself, forcing her try and be stronger than him as he turned her, pressing her back to his chest as he tried to contain her.
"Kill me." She said and looked up seeing Natasha with a gun on her now. Raven locked eyes with the woman, "Do it! Kill me please!"
"No! Don't!" Steve yelled, he wanted to help her, none of this was her fault. She was just a victim of HYDRA, none of it was her fault, not even what she did after they killed her brother.
She struggled against Steve trying to get free, and he noticed something, "Shoot me Romanoff! End it!"
"Steve." Natasha said, she wasn't sure what to do, the girl clearly wanted it, but she didn't know why.
"They gave me an order to kill you." Raven told him, "I can't disobey it, the only way to make me stop is to kill me."
"How are you telling us all of this then?" Natasha asked.
"It's my actions they control, they couldn't break my mind. Not after Loki." She told the woman, "They found a way to control the part of my brain that controls my actions. I don't have a choice in anything I do, I just watch myself do it."
"Yeah, well, that's gunna change." Steve said spinning her around and knocking her head on the counter, making her lose consciousness.
"That didn't kill her?" Sam asked, watching Steve as he picked up the girls limp body now.
"No, not people like her and me." He said, carrying her over to the chair at the table. Setting her down, he bent her over to where her head was lying against the wood. Moving her hair from behind her neck he asked Natasha as he pointed to a scar, "You ever see anything like this before?"
"What? A scar? Lots of people have them." Natasha answered.
"Not people who have had the super soldier serum." Steve then pointed to Ravens head, "She should have scars on her face from New York, but she doesn't, so why does she have one here?"
"It's been cut into multiple times." Natasha thought about it then pressed on the back of the unconscious girl's neck around the area of the mark, "There's something in there."
Steve felt around in the exact same spot and felt it too, a little square underneath her skin. He turned, taking the knife that she had originally thrown at him and carefully put the blade against her skin.
"Woah, are you sure that's a good idea?" Sam asked.
"Yeah." Steve said as he started to cut down the scar line.
Natasha looked at Sam, "Do you have a pair of tweezers or something?"
He nodded, heading off to the bathroom, muttering, "This is not how I expected this day to go."
When he came back. he gave the tweezers to Natasha and she told Steve to move once he was done cutting, "Here I have smaller, steadier hands then you."
Steve moved out of the way and she began sliding the tweezers under Ravens skin. Sam flinched away at the sight of this, but Natasha kept her hands steady. She grabbed onto the square and slid it from the slit in the back of the girl's neck. "It's a control chip."
"You mean like a behavioral thing?" Steve asked.
"I think so, last I heard this project had been scrapped." Natasha looked at it before dropping it on the ground and smashing it with her foot.
"No, it just looks like they've used her as a test subject for something else." Steve couldn't help but feel guilty. She'd told him exactly what would happen to her and he didn't believe her, he didn't even try to find out the truth. He'd always been told she didn't want to see him when he would try to visit her, now he knew why. He looked to Sam, "Can she borrow a bed?"
"Yeah, can we cover that though first?" Sam pointed at the cut leaking blood.
Steve nodded and they put a bandage on her neck, before he picked her up and took her to the spare room, lying her down on the bed. At least this time she wasn't as pale, but the dark circles under her eyes were the same. He patted her hand, telling her, "Don't worry, I'm going to make this up to you."
"Make what up?" Natasha asked from the door.
"She told me right after New York what S.H.I.E.L.D. was." He looked back at her, "What they would do to her and I didn't listen."
"You couldn't have known." She told him.
Steve looked back at Raven, "I knew they were hiding things from me…I should have looked into her story more before I let them take her. What they did to her they did because of me, she's my responsibility."
"Steve." Natasha's voice was soft.
"C'mon, we've got work to do." Steve said turning away from Raven and heading towards the door.
Raven woke with a slight headache and when she tried to sit up, she felt something on the back of her neck. Reaching back, she touched a bandage and wondered what the hell had happened, and more importantly, where was she? Looking around she remembered being at a house, attacking Captain America. She gasped, wondering if she had before she remembered him knocking her out and her chest unclenched. She almost killed the only person that could help her.
Help her.
Why was she able to think that? She hadn't been able to for years. The farthest her thoughts would go is that she still needed him alive. Sitting up all the way she noticed a note on the side table with her name on it. Picking it up she read:
You had a control chip in you. We took it out. We're taking down HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. If you're good to go, then you're more than welcome to join us.
-Rogers
Moving out into the living room she found the remote for the TV, turning it to the news, if they had already done it then it would be there. Instead she saw a different kind of broadcast.
"Captain America has been apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. after a fire fight on the freeway. He is being taken in for treason, the details of which we are still waiting to hear more on." The news anchor said.
"What's the point of hiring people to do things quietly if they end up destroying a whole city block?" She muttered before turning off the TV and heading out the door. She didn't know if they were going to make it to S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore, but she had to go back there anyways. She needed her medicine, and to kill Pierce.
By the time she made it there it was dark, Pierce would be home, she knew the Heli-carriers would be launching the next morning, but she didn't know what exactly they were for, she wasn't allowed to know that much, but she would have to wait until then to kill him. Right now, the important thing was to get inside and get to her medicine.
Using a below ground entrance she made her way though the halls unseen. She knew even if she was seen it wouldn't be that big of a deal, people were used to seeing her down there now. Once she got to the main building it was mostly empty, people all at home for the night. Making her way up to the lab she knocked out and hid anybody that tried to stop her and once she was where she needed to be she grabbed a backpack and started putting cases of her medicine in them, making sure they were secure and wouldn't break.
Taking one out she put the needle in her arm, injecting the full serum into her and she went lightheaded for a moment. Pierce hadn't been giving her full doses. She needed to sit down, she wasn't used to getting that much, her body needed to catch up. Looking around the room she saw a closet she could go into until morning, or her body recovered, which ever happened first.
A/N: Sorry, I know this one is shorter, but it's been a busy day haha. Let me know what you guys think of it so far :)
