Natasha and Sam were posing as a new couple interested in opening an account together. The main reason it was Sam that we chose to be Nat's partner was that Steve was a bit well known by now, so we figured it would be smarter to send Sam in first to try to pull the attention away from Steve. They went in first, Nat in a blonde wig and heels, a mini skirt and cute top, almost like the stereotypical cool-girl ditz from high school, only in her early thirties. Sam wore a typical hoodie and jeans, though he didn't seem too comfortable with the idea of taking part in something that edged closer to being spy work.

"I'm a soldier, not a spy," He objected, yet again, as they got ready, "There's no way this is going to work."

"It will if you just listen to me and go with it." Natasha told him, helping him to get ready. I half smiled, laughing quietly to myself. They really didn't look like they'd work as a couple, not like this. But I knew that Natasha would get Sam ready for this quick enough. I always trusted Nat with stuff like this. It was what she'd trained her whole life for, after all.

Steve and Bucky would go into the building once we were certain all the attention of the people manning the counters was on Sam and Nat, or at least most of it. I worried more about their part in all of this than the Sam-Nat partnership. Steve and Bucky were two of the most well-known people out there at the moment. The main thing we had going for us in their case was that no one would expect Captain America and the Winter Soldier to be walking into a bank in the middle of the day, let alone be walking in together.

"I don't see why we have to act like we're a couple." Bucky grumbled, Steve looking just as unimpressed, but in a slightly more long-suffering way. Nat and I smirked at them.

"Coz we love Stucky." I said, shrugging.

"Yeah, totally ship it." Nat added. Both Steve and Bucky looked confused.

"Stucky?" Bucky asked, and I couldn't hold it anymore. I fully grinned.

"It's amazing what you find online. All the fanfics!" I laughed, then added, "Some of them are really well written, by the way. Remind me to show you later." Bucky and Steve shared looks, still confused.

"People write storied where you two are… you know…" Nat tried explaining, still trying to get Sam to look like he could be her fiancé.

"Together." He put forward. Bucky and Steve looked uncomfortable, sharing looks then looking at us.

"No. Just… no." Bucky said, walking away.

"There are a lot more than Stucky," I started explaining, "There's also Romanogers, Buny, Soviet Spouses…"

"Wait, stop, back up," Bucky held up a hand to shut me up, looking more alarmed than ever, "Who the hell is Buny?"

"Bucky and Tony." For a moment he just stood there, looking at me like I was crazy, then turned his back on me.

"I don't want to hear any more of this. Nope."

"There's also Tucky." Nat put forward, and I spun around to glare at her. Bucky frowned, now looking at her. Even Steve was looking amused at this point, though a little reluctantly.

"Another me and Tony thing?" He asked, a long-suffering tone in his voice.

"Nope. You and Tyra."

"Also gets called Bones in some places."

"I hate that name," I objected, "Tucky is much better than Bones," Bucky looked at me like I just grew a second head, "Not that I like either of them." I added, rather hurriedly.

"At least neither of them are Buny."

"Kinda like the Buny, actually. After that spider stunt, I can totally see it." That brought a smile back to his face, just the memory of me being so terrified of a robotic spider. Everyone else looked a bit confused, but I shook my head, turning back to Steve and Bucky.

"Anyway, you two better get used to being Stucky for a bit. Soon as we're in you can drop the act. If you can. By now I'm not entirely certain that Steve does have a thing for blonde-agent-chick. The number of times he's dropped everything to run after dearest, darlingest Bucky." Steve gave me one of his 'you know what' looks and I smirked, turning away from all of them. I had to get ready for my part of the plan.

Everything went smoothly, Sam and Natasha walking into the bank, Sam's arm flung lazily around Nat's shoulders, Nat with her arm around his waist. They looked kinda cute together, actually. They went straight into the relatively short line, happily chatting away. Well, probably flirting actually. Both of them were the type of people to do that.

"So, what's their ship name?" Bucky asked over comms. I scoffed, casually leaning against a streetlamp.

"Samtasha."

"Why is it that you can remember this stuff, but not important things like where you parked that quinjet you stole?" Steve asked.

"Borrowed, Steve. I borrowed it," I objected, "And uh… yeah, then I forgot where I put it and it became more like stole. For all I know it's crashed at the bottom of the ocean. Or parked in the Grand Canyon or something."

"How long ago was this?" Bucky asked, and I pulled a face as I thought about it.

"Uh… not long after I got the tech out of my head. I needed space so went for a fly and ended up calling Tony for a lift back. He rubbed that in my face for months after."

"You might want to stop talking about this stuff," PARROT chirped up, "You're starting to annoy Samtasha." I chuckled to myself.

"Good to have you with us, PARROT."

"That's a sentence I never thought I'd hear."

"Shut it, Rogers. You're up, anyway. Make sure to put your hand in Bucky's pocket. Couples always do that kinda stuff."

"Like you would know. You've never had a date."

"Uh, actually, had one more recently than you, Barnes."

"You have?"

"Yeah. I've had one date. A week before I was kidnapped by Hydra. Now keep on mission. Game faces, Dinosaurs." Bucky threw me a dry look from across the street before heading into the bank, hands in his hoodie pockets. I sobered, pulling my hair up into a ponytail, running my hands through my hair to make sure it was reasonably neatly done, feeling the scar hidden on my scalp, reminding me of everything Hydra had put me through. Of everything I needed to stop them from doing to Oxana. All humour was gone from the situation. I had to get her back.

I waited another couple of minutes before I crossed the road, checking to make sure that there were no vehicles at that moment, safely making it to the other side of the road. Bucky and Steve were looking over pamphlets, pretending to discuss different banks that they'd visited, Bucky leading the conversation. He was more used to being under cover than Steve. Nat and Sam were by now talking to one of the people at the counter.

"PARROT, are the cameras ready to go out?" I muttered, carefully not looking up at them.

"As soon as you want them to go out, they'll go."

"Soon as I get into the room, jam them."

"Right." I walked up to the counter, a nice-looking youngish woman with chestnut hair and dimples sitting on the other side.

"Hi, can I help you?" She asked, smiling kindly.

"Yes, actually," I smiled, "My name is Tyra Jones, and I'd like to see Mr. Kuznetsov." She frowned.

"He has a full schedule today, I'm afraid."

"Just let him know I'm here. I'm sure he'll be willing to see me. Tyra Jones. Make sure to tell him that."

"We were told not to disturb him unless it was absolutely necessary. Is there something that I could help you with, instead?"

"Yeah, you can help me by going into your boss' office and telling him that I'm here. Trust me on this, he'll want to know about it."

"I –"

"Now, please. It's urgent." I felt like I was channelling my inner Karen, and I didn't entirely like it, felt a bit guilty for the way I was treating this woman. Steve darted a look at me, other customers also watching the fuss that I was making. The woman looked uncomfortable, if not a bit upset. I got the impression she was new.

"Just… give me a moment." She mumbled, scurrying off to one of the back rooms.

"Steve, Bucky, you might want to start getting people out of here. Sam, Nat, do me a favour and keep the security guard busy for a bit. I don't want him to try intervening with this. No nut kicks just yet, though. I want to try keep this as quiet as possible for as long as we can."

"Yeah, that goes for you too, Ty," Nat told me, "Don't do anything stupid to Kuznetsov until we get everyone out of here. We don't know how many people here are working with him and who's innocent." I didn't bother replying, the woman coming back with a confused look on her face.

"He said he'll see you now." She told me. I smiled, an extremely false smile.

"Thank you. I'll see myself in. You might want to take the rest of the day off."

"I…" I didn't wait to hear her answer, moving around and over to Kuznetsov's office, a deadly look in my eyes. Already the rage was starting to build in my veins, and I hadn't even laid eyes on him yet.

"We don't know how many people here are working with him and who's innocent." Nat's words rung through my head, giving me something to hold onto, something to try and calm me enough to keep Kuznetsov busy for a few minutes, give the others time to get everyone out of here. It was going to be difficult, I knew that. My emotions had a high chance of getting the best of me. But I was chosen for this because I was the one that Kuznetsov was most likely to be willing to see, what with our history. The guy had recruited me, for God's sake. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, we were connected.

I opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind me, not taking my eyes off Kuznetsov. I had to hand it to the guy, he had a nice office. Big desk, fancy computer, two screens, large windows, large bookshelf utterly laden with books. Dark blue carpet, white and dark wood walls with landscape paintings decorating them. A photo of a woman and a young girl sitting on his desk. My eyes darted to the picture briefly and I frowned.

"So, who are they?" I asked, nodding to the photo before going back to watch him. Kuznetsov smiled slightly, reaching out and picking up the photo, turning it so he could look at it.

"The woman is Katya," He said, "She was my wife, for a time. Divorced about three years ago, soon after she found out about what I was involved in. Hid my daughter from my for as long as she could. Then she got sick, and my little Oxana had nowhere to go except for back to her papa." He turned his smile to me, getting up and handing the photo to me to look at. I didn't want to believe him that Oxana was his daughter, glaring at him for a moment, not moving. He held the photo closer to me.

"Take it," He said, "See for yourself." I slowly accepted the photo, still not taking my eyes off him. Only once the photo was securely in my hands did I actually look at it.

The woman was beautiful. Blonde hair and blue eyes. Extremely blue eyes. I knew those eyes. I frowned slightly, looking from the woman to the toddler that she was holding. She was maybe two years old, thumb securely in her mouth, crystal blue eyes opened wide, not aware of what was going on. Little yellow shirt, brown hair tied back in pig tails. I had to admit it, Oxana was a really cute toddler. I looked back at Kuznetsov, silently handing back the photo.

"Then explain something to me," I said as he accepted it, lazily putting it face down on the desk, "Why would you do this to your own daughter?"

"No one else is signing up to be experimented on, these days," He answered, leaning against his desk, "And Oxana had no choice in the matter. I am her legal guardian. Her papa. She had to do what I said."

"You disgust me," I spat, feeling that same rage boiling up inside me, "What did you even do to her?"

"We're not Hydra anymore," He said, almost conversationally, "But that doesn't mean we don't want what we always did want. And many of us simply want to figure how far science can take us." He pushed away from his desk, moving around behind it again, motioning for me to take the seat opposite him. As if we actually had an appointment. I didn't move, just stood there watching him. He shrugged, taking his seat again. A typical 'I've been expecting you' chair.

"A while ago we found a sample of DNA that didn't match anything from this world. One of our scientists wanted to try moulding it to human DNA, mix it. Tried it on a few adults, but it didn't take. Ended up killing them, actually. But children… children are still growing. He hypothesised that their bodies wouldn't reject the grafting."

"So even though it had a high chance of killing her, you volunteered your own daughter?"

"Naturally," Kuznetsov smiled, as if he were proud of the fact, "And it worked. Oxana is no longer human. She is mostly human, but part of her is alien," His face fell slightly, "Unfortunately, the grafting didn't fully take. Leaving her as this… creature."

"You did this to her," My voice was even, quiet, disgusted, "And she's not a creature. She's a child." He shrugged.

"Same thing, aren't they?" My hands clenched into fists.

"Please tell me you've managed to get everyone out?" I asked, Kuznetsov leaning his head to the side, but knowing full well that I wasn't talking to him. I got no reply, a small frown slipping onto my face.

"Having trouble contacting someone?" He asked, too sweetly.

"So, you knocked out radio signals," I shrugged, "That does you so much good."

"Oh, no," He said, "No, I didn't knock them out. A mutual friend of ours is jamming the signals."

"You wanna tell me who it is?" I asked, "Is it Hauer? Is he lurking around here, too?"

"Unfortunately, my friend was one of the first in the trials to have his DNA mixed with an alien's. There was a bit of a… what's the word I want? A coup d'état, I do believe. Hauer didn't win. No, our mutual friend is someone of your own creation, actually." I could feel the colour drain from my face.

"PARROT?"

"Sorry, Miss. I didn't see any other way."

"You fucking bitch," I muttered, "I made you."

"Yes. And you belittled me right from the start. You treated me like shit. Acted like I meant nothing to you." I didn't know how I was meant to reply to that, feeling like shit. I physically felt like I was going to be sick. Kuznetsov smirked.

"What's wrong, Schönheit? Nothing to say?"

"You were my friend, PARROT, believe it or not. I trusted you. I needed you."

"No. I was an experiment, something to just see if you could."

"So, you decided to turn on me. Okay, I can respect that. But turning on Steve?" That gave her reason to pause. Kuznetsov frowned slightly, confused.

"There was no way that was ever going to work," PARROT said after a moment, "I'm a computer. He's a physical human being."

"Feeling betrayed yet, little one?" Kuznetsov stood up, moving around to me, "Good. I was trying to tear your life apart. Bit by bit." I just stood there, nails digging into my palm. There was a thought slipping into the back of my mind, tugging, pulling.

"What are you doing to my friends?" I whispered, now refusing to look at him.

"They're being taken care of." He sounded too smug. I couldn't take it anymore. I lashed out, taking him off guard and slamming him against the wall. He recovered pretty quickly, punching me in the gut, then pushing me away. I stumbled back, doubling over, winded, clutching my side, glaring up at him as he approached me, shoulders back.

"I'm going to enjoy this, Schönheit." He kneed me in the face, sending me sprawling backwards, already readying to stomp down on my right wrist. Which would have hurt like a bitch. I had problems with that hand, anyway. I rolled out of the way, smoothly getting to my feet, ignoring my stinging lungs, eyes fading to green as everything started being thrown around the room by the wind. Except for in one place. Right around Kuznetsov. He started clutching at his throat, scratching at it.

"You're not going to enjoy anything," I spat, calmly walking towards him, pulling my sleeves up to reveal my armbands, the ones Thor had given me, "You made me this. You should be prepared for the consequences." I let the air flood back into his lungs when he collapsed to his knees, now breathing heavily, his lungs aching, heart thumping. He looked up at me with defiance. Not what I was wanting. I pulled my knee up, feeling it collide with his nose.

He fell backwards, blood streaming down his face. When he looked around at me again, there was still none of the fear that I wanted in his eyes. Just hatred. I held my hand out, a stream of water appearing from the air and forming a ball in my hand.

"Open wide." I ordered, Kuznetsov scrambling backwards. Not that it would do him any good. As soon as I deemed the water in my hand enough, I held my hand towards him. It started streaming towards him, tendrils of it going up his nostrils. Then came the spluttering, the coughing, the struggling. And there it was. That hint of fear I so wanted to see from him. I half smiled, stepping closer to him and grabbing the collar of his shirt in one hand.

"Now you're starting to get an idea of what they felt." I hissed to him. He struggled to say something, but just ended up spluttering and coughing, clutching at my wrist, nails digging into my flesh. I barely batted an eye at him. I don't know how much further I would have gone if the door hadn't opened at that moment.

"Tyra! Tyra, stop!" I looked around, Bucky now standing in the doorway.

"Why should I?"

"Because this is exactly what he wants!"

"He wants to die, does he? Well, I'll happily help him with that."

"He wants to make you a monster," I paused, eyes fading from the clear blue they'd become upon releasing control of the air, "Think about Oxana. She wouldn't want you to do this." I looked around at Kuznetsov, not saying anything, then let go of his shirt, standing up, pulling the water from his lungs, my eyes fading back to their natural colour.

"You're lucky he showed up when he did," I told him, "I was going to force fire into your lungs next." Something inside me sang when I saw the pure terror in his eyes at that, even if I did have to look behind the pure hatred to find it.

"Thank you, Soldat." I saw Bucky tense. I wasn't surprised at what happened next, at Bucky kicking out and catching Kuznetsov in the mouth, knocking out a few of his front teeth.

"Don't call me that," He said, "Now how do we get to the rest of your base?" He asked. Kuznetsov held a hand to his mouth, moaning quietly in pain. I scoffed.

"Don't bother with him," I said, "Come on. I can find the entrance easy enough. Hell, I won't be surprised if it's the cliché behind the bookcase." My eyes were once again turning green when Steve, Nat, and Sam came into the room, taking one look at the scene before us. Steve looked from Kuznetsov, to me, to Bucky.

"I thought I told you to stop her doing anything stupid." He said.

"The teeth was Barnes." I told him, Steve glancing at me, then giving Bucky a dry look.

"Seriously?" Bucky shrugged.

"At least I stopped her from killing him." He muttered, hands back in his pockets. Nat pulled a 'yeah, okay' face and Sam just shook his head.

"So what are we all waiting around for?" He asked.

"I'm finding the way in, so shush while I concentrate." I close my eyes, feeling the air currents for a moment. There was the door to the outside. The aircon. The vents. A few unconscious bodies. And…

"Found it." I stepped out of the office, walking down a short hall to what looked like a dead end. Steve was the last to follow me, quickly zip tying Kuznetsov's hands together and pulling him to his feet, shoving him down the hall after us. Part of me hated that Kuznetsov was coming with us. Part of me knew that it was probably going to come in handy. I frowned, looking at the wall.

"You say you found it, then you lead us to a dead end," Bucky said, raising an eyebrow, "You sure your powers are all they're cracked up to be?" I glared at him.

"You saw me crush thirty odd soldiers, right? You were there, weren't you?" He paused a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah, okay, good point."

"Just because I can find the door doesn't mean I can find how to open it," I mutter, "And it's not like I can ask PARROT for help."

"Why not?" Nat asked, "She could probably get it opened for us easy."

"Because she's working with them."

"What?" Everyone asked, giving me incredulous looks.

"You made her, Tyra, how is this even possible?"

"I guess I'm more like Tony that I thought. Right down to the making a murder-bot," I sigh, "Can we have a go at me later? Figure this out first, then have a go at me?" Nat pointed at a painting on the wall.

"Check behind that," She suggested, "Bad guys love hiding stuff behind paintings." I lifted the painting to find a plain old wall. I shrugged, letting the painting fall to the ground.

"Welp. Looks like these guys have half a brain," I thought for a moment, then pulled a face, "I've used my powers to get us this far." I muttered, eyes turning green again as I reached out with my mind, this time feeling all the mechanisms within the door, solidifying it in places to open all the locks, press all the buttons, pull all the levers, and then…

The wall swung inwards.

I turned to look at Kuznetsov, who looked downright pissed.

"You proud of me yet?" I asked, "Coz you should be. You made me into this." He just glared at me, not saying anything. It'd probably be a bit painful to talk, what with his now missing his front teeth. But I didn't care. Not about him. I turned away and stepped into the base, shedding my coat to reveal the uniform that Tony had made for me, the tech's visor closing over my eyes. Everyone else wasn't that far behind me. Nothing was going to stop me from getting Oxana back.

Nothing.