Disclaimer: I Own Nothing

July 1943

Bucky fell forward just past the beach and crawled his way to a ruined building. Dugan had just led them into the city of Gela on the island of Sicily from a beach that was being peppered by machine gun fire. They reached the building and dove inside and Dugan looked out the window. "Who do we got left?" asked Dugan having lost track of the full team during the push to reach the city.

Bucky looked "We lost Jacobs" he said seeing that many of their squad had managed to make it up the beach. There squads objective was to get to the center of the city and link up with the rest of the division as it pushed into the city.

"Gabe see if you can find a way around this bridge up ahead looks like it's loaded with armor" ordered Dugan getting low hoping that the Italians and Germans didn't notice his squad take shelter in the building. Gabriel Jones was second in rank in the squad and was the one of the few people that Dugan trusted with anything, he was an athletic black man from New York like Bucky was which immediately bonded the two of them. "Barnes head upstairs and see what you can see" he ordered. Bucky walked past the younger men that had been put into the squad after North Africa where they lost a good chunk of the squad from basic training. He found some stairs and he slowly went up and found some cover on the second floor where he set up and looked over the street that they had just taken cover from. Bucky was a sniper by trade and he looked through his scope and could see troops from both sides running around looking for positions to set up a defense. He looked out another window and could see Gela laid out before him. Gabe came back and told Dugan about a side door that led down a small alley that had what appeared to be a church that could prove a good place to get their bearings. "Let's head out" ordered Dugan leading the squad outside and down the alley to the church.

Johann looked over the maps given to him by Zola and pointed his men towards the church where the artifact was being stored. It was close to where the allies were pushing into the Gela and Schmitt cursed Hitler for keeping Hydra deployed in the Soviet Union for so long. That front was lost and with the Americans pushing into Italy now it was only a matter of time before the Third Reich would fall. What happened to Nazi Germany was of no concern for Schmitt it would not matter once he had the artifact, the power he would attain through the artifact would make him the most powerful man on Earth. He directed his men towards the church as his unit ignoring the calls for aid from their compatriots in the regular army.

The church was an average sized building and it lacked the proper gathering room that most churches possessed. It was three floor with the third floor being the steeple and what appeared to be living quarters on the second floor. The first floor was very simple with murals painting one wall and religious items and pictures hanging on the others. There were windows on each floor with some furniture thrown all over the living quarters on the second floor. Bucky and his fellow squad mates cleared the building quickly and started scouting the area from the second and third floors of the church. He had taken up a position on the second floor using his scope to pick out where there objective was. "Barnes get down here" called Dugan from the first floor. Bucky headed down and found Dugan and Jones looking at some kind of mural. The mural was obviously ornate back before all hell broke loose with cracks and dirt forming and covering the picture. It showed storm clouds over a group of people and a large figure with a beard sending some kind of cube down too them. "What kind of church is this?" asked Dugan.

"We got incomi" came the voice of one of the privates from upstairs but he was cut off by a bullet striking and killing him.

"Take cover" ordered Dugan as he lunged and pulled Barnes and Jones down next to him next to a window. Bullets peppered the building as the men upstairs fired back only to be struck down by the next barrage. Jones fired his Thompson through the window without looking as Bucky moved to peek upstairs and see if anyone was left.

Bucky only found bodies "Everyone else is down" he called out returning to the window and blindly firing out the window in hopes of keeping the hostiles back. "Where the hell did they come from?" asked Bucky.

"Jones, check and see if we can flank them using one of the side buildings" ordered Dugan shooting out the window providing covering fire for Gabe to look for a strategic spot.

Bucky looked out and saw completely black uniforms "Who wears all black?" asked Barnes noting that he had never seen uniforms like that before.

"Must be some kind of special unit" said Dugan.

Gabe rounded a corner and found that they were being flanked by a squad that was coming in from behind the church. He moved to back up knowing that they were trapped when a large soldier blasted through the side wall and tackled him into another wall. Jones fought back at first but soldier smacked Gabe's head into the wall knocking him out.

"Where is Jones?" wondered Bucky knowing that he should have been back by now. The enemy was nearing closer "We need to get out of here" said Bucky knowing that the situation was not good.

Dugan looked out and nodded "Move towards the back hopefully Gabe found a way out for us" he said backing up low to the ground. They backed up towards the door but were knocked back when Gabe was thrown through it and knocked them both to the ground. They moved to get up but were surrounded by the soldiers who had just taken them down. Their weapons were scooped up and put out of reach.

Schmitt walked with purpose into the building and noted the three American survivors and his Hydra troops standing over them waiting for the kill order. Zola followed him in and spotted the three men and Schmitt looked at him. Zola moved forward and looked the men over and nodded "They will do" he said moving to look over the rest of the room searching for clues.

"Tie them up, we are taking them with us" said Schmitt as his men quickly tied up Bucky, Dugan and the knocked out Gabe. Schmitt turned his attention to the room as well and looked things over. Zola appeared to be looking for some kind of switch or something. Schmitt looked at the mural that Dugan had noticed earlier, he had never been closer to the artifact than he was right now. He reached out and touched the drawing of the artifact which shot inside the wall and a bell in the steeple began to ring. He nearly sprinted up the stairs to see what the secret the bell held. He scanned the steeple and couldn't find anything, Zola joined him but simply muttered various things to himself in hopes of evading Schmitt's wrath. The bell continued to ring almost mocking him, his frustration hit its boiling point causing him to grab the ringer inside the bell stopping the disruptive noise. When he did he heard something click inside the bell, the ringer lowered down by what sounded like gears, a blue light began to shine from inside the bell as the ringer lowered until it hit the floor. The artifact was a cube, perfectly crafted with blue light pouring from it. "It's perfect" muttered Schmitt reaching out and picking it up. Zola pulled up metal case and opened it allowing Schmitt to put the cube inside.

Bucky was watching the Hydra soldiers, they were highly trained and very disciplined, they hadn't taken their eyes off of Dugan, Gabe, or himself since the leader went upstairs to look at the bell. The leader returned with the scientist who was holding some kind of metal case, he was clutching it with everything that he had. Bucky only had one idea on how to get out of the situation. Bucky leapt quickly managed to yank the case from Zola, but as he turned he was quickly overwhelmed by Schmitt. Before Bucky could even blink Schmitt had put him on the ground and left him lying in a pool of his blood. Bucky struggled to breath as Schmitt stood over him, Bucky was pretty sure his ribs were broken and he was in shock at the speed that Schmitt had moved, he couldn't even comprehend how Schmitt had taken him down. Schmitt knealt down and looked into Bucky's eyes "I look forward to watching Zola's experiments destroy you." Bucky felt something hit the back of his head and blacked out.