Steve stood in a dark room with Dr. Erskine. He had finished his basic training and was elated to be told that he had been selected to receive the serum created by Erskine. He would be the first of the super soldiers. He was just a skinny asthmatic from Brooklyn, he didn't understand why he would be chosen for this experiment. "Can I ask you a question?" He said quietly to the doctor. The doctor looked at Steve in surprise.

"Just one?" He questioned back. Steve smiled at his response. Normally Steve would have about a million questions and if Alex was there she would have hit him for not being able to control himself. The thought of Bucky hitting him made him restrain himself.

"Why me? There are others out there that would be way better super soldiers than me." Steve said softly to the doctor. But Erskine only smiled bitterly.

"I suppose that is the only question that matters," he then replied to Steve, "So many people forget that the first country that the Nazi's invaded was their own. You know, after the last war...my people struggled. They...they felt weak. They felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags and the… and the…," He motioned with his hand, "And he...he hears of me, my work and he finds me. And he says, you… he says you will make us strong. Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of Hydra, his research division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he is ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for a cult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power in the earth, left there by the Gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. Schmidt must become the superior man." He finished.

Steve looked at the doctor. "Did it make him stronger?" Steve asked. The story had captured Steve's interest. Especially since it seemed to trouble Dr. Erskine so much that he was drunk. Erskine looked at the little man before answering.

"Yeah. But, there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion." Erskine said looking at Steve.

Steve looked down and thought for a minute. "Thanks. I think." He watched as Erskine filled two glasses with alcohol. He handed a glass to Steve and kept one for himself.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man." Erskine said to Steve. Steve raised his glass in a toast. He would only stay who he was because of Bucky. She would kick his ass if he even had a thought about changing himself. He knew that she wouldn't agree with him going through with this experiment. But he had to do it. It was the only way to see his best friend again. He didn't want to risk not ever seeing her again. He couldn't imagine life without Bucky.

"To the little guys." Steve said raising his glass to drink from it, but he was stopped by the doctor. Dr. Erskine took the glass from Steve's hands and poured the alcohol into his own glass.

"No! No! Wait! Wait! What am I doing? No! You have a procedure tomorrow. No fluids." The doctor said, before drinking from that glass.

"Alright. We'll drink it after." Steve said, not completely put off by the lack of alcohol.

Dr. Erskine laughed and said, "No! I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after! Drink it now!" Steve smiled. A drunken Erskine reminded him of a drunk Bucky. She always held her alcohol better than him, but she was a funny drunk. It reminded Steve of a simpler time before the war. How he wished they could go back to that time.

Steve laid down on his bed. He was anxious for his procedure tomorrow. It would forever change his life. He would no longer be the skinny kid from Brooklyn. He would be an American hero. He would no longer be the kid that was bullied. He would no longer need Bucky to protect him. He frowned. Would the relationship he had with her change? He didn't want to lose her because he had changed himself. But at the same time he wanted their relationship to change. He and Alex always said that they loved each other. Could he be feeling a deeper kind of love for his best friend? If he did, he needed to act on it before one of them was killed.

Alex pov:

Alex couldn't believe it. She and her men had been captured by Hydra. At least some of them got away. Their plan was infallible. The only way to have been caught was to have someone fuck it up. That was exactly what had happened. One of the men had accidentally shot one of the lower level Hydra guards. That shot had alerted the base to their presence and ultimately led to their capture. She sat in a cell surrounded by the other soldiers. Every now and then a soldier would take a few men and those men would never return. Alex wasn't exactly sure what happened to those men, but she believed they were being experimented on. It made sense. That's why they weren't being brought back. The experiments were killing them.

They hadn't come for anyone in a while. There were guards around where they were being held that would leer at her and antagonize the men. She stood up and walked over to where James Morita sat. He was a part of the 107th but was often left out because many believed him to be fighting for imperial Japan. He was one of her friends in the 107th. She befriended him because he reminded her of Steve. He was fighting against all odds. She sat down beside him and smiled. "Sergeant Barnes, how are you?" He asked. Alex smiled and said, "It's just Alex. And I'm doing fine for being trapped in this hellhole." He laughed and went to say something but was cut off by one of the guards. "Hey sweetheart, you should come over here and we'll let you go. But you gotta do something first. A nice fuck oughta do. Don'tcha think?" He said hanging by the bars. Alex lost her smile and stood back up. She walked over to the guard. "Fuck off, you asshole." She said slowly, enunciating every word. The guard smirked and turned to the guys that always came and took soldiers. "Take her this time. The doctor will love her." He said to the two men. They nodded and opened the cell and pulled her out.

Alex tried to pull away from the men holding her but one yanked her back by her hair. She laughed through the pain. "You guys really know how to treat a woman. It's a miracle if you've ever actually fucked a woman. Or do you just gratify each other?" She said. The second guard pulled his hand back and punched her in the face, busting open her lip. The blood ran into her mouth and stained her teeth, she smiled anyway. The men behind her, still in the prison were threatening to kill the guards for touching her in such a way. The guards started taking her back into what seemed to be a lab. To Alex's surprise it was semi-sterile. The two men holding her forced her to lay on a table and they strapped her down to it. They made sure she couldn't move, as it would affect the experiment.

"Fraulein, it is unfortunate that we must meet in these circumstances but you seem to be the best candidate for our little experiment. I am Dr. Zola. Before we begin, I would like to know your name. It will only be better if you tell me, then I won't have to go searching for those pesky tags you soldiers wear." A short man, now known as Dr. Zola, said coming out of a corner in the laboratory. Alex debated with herself. Would she rather tell him her name or have him pull her tags out of her shirt? She made her decision. And it was the fastest decision she had ever made.

"My name is Alexandra Barnes. And what kind of experiment do you mean?" She said semi-nervously. The doctor gave a small smirk and moved to her right side and searched her hand for a vein. Once he found one, he took a syringe filled with a bright blue liquid and injected it into her.

"You do not need to know Fraulein Barnes. But I do apologize, for this will burn immensely if it works right. If not, you will die immediately." Dr. Zola told while moving around to a better position to view the liquid's effect on her body. She felt panic rising in her and she began to feel the liquid burn as it circulated through her body. It began to intensify and it became unbearable. Alex began to scream as the pain overtook her body and the liquid mixed with her blood. Dr. Zola smirked as she screamed.

"Do not worry Fraulein, the experiment is already beginning to work. I am going to make you the greatest woman in the world. And greatness cannot be achieved without a little pain." Zola stated, although Alex could not hear him over her own screaming. Alex was longing for Steve. She remembered how Steve said that he had been accepted. Now she hoped he would come for her and be her hero. Steve gave her the strength to hold on. She only hoped that he came to her soon. She could only hold on for so long. She knew that when she saw him next that she had to tell him how she felt. She had fallen in love with her best friend. Being experimented on made her realize that she needed to tell him, even if he didn't feel the same way. She only hoped she was rescued before she died and didn't get to tell Steve. She needed her hero to come.

A/N I think I have made my decision and hopefully it will play out well. On a side note unrelated to this story, I stayed outside too long and burned the fuck out of myself. So it's become increasingly uncomfortable to do anything. So I would expect more chapters to come up this week until it goes away. ~Jess