Disclaimer: I do not own Captain America (the comics, movies, etc.) or any of the characters; I only own my OC Art.

14. Weibliche Krieger

The wind was cold that morning; and knowing they were to venture back towards the mountains made the Howling Commandos feel even colder. They stood outside of Phillips' tent, checking ammunition and guns, shrugging on packs, and strapping on gloves. None of them really spoke other than to ask if someone had an extra round or if they had everything in check. They had received a tip off that a small town––more of a village, really––had been taking under HYDRA command, and the ever heroic soldiers decided it was their job to liberate the townsfolk. Honestly, they'd all singularly thought what Bucky might have suggested they do… and that would be to go save whoever they out of his tent, the Colonel crossed his arms and watched them with a concerned crease between his brows.

"Are you sure you all want to embark on this mission so soon after…" Phillips trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence in order for the Commandos to understand. So soon after Bucky died.

"Yes, sir," they all murmured at different times, creating a wave of sound. Phillips raised an eyebrow and looked at them all quizzically. They were all somber, even Dugan who was usually gung-ho about charging into the line of fire.

"You're sure that won't be a distraction to you all––"
"With all due respect, sir, we've discussed our course of action and have agreed we are all stable enough to continue on," Steve said with a forced calm, the death of his best friend still causing him distress. He and Phillips locked eyes for a long moment before the colonel nodded. As they began to move out he called,

"Lieutenant." Art paused and looked over her shoulder, faltering at the sound of the new rank. She tugged at the scarf that was wound tightly around her neck and kept her face stoically composed.

"Yes, sir?"

"Make sure Rogers doesn't do anything rash."

"Of course, sir."

OOOO

The Commandos snuck towards the little Alpine village, their feet crunching in the foot or so of snow blanketing the ground in soft layers. Their guns were drawn and held at the ready, and the silence was deafening. Steve led the way, taking a few quickened steps so he might check if the coast was clear. He checked every direction––up, down, left, right––and then gestured for the rest of them to follow. Art lagged at the back, consciously ignoring the empty space she felt to her right where someone should be. They stepped onto the snow and ice laden road and began to go through the motions they used when infiltrating a base. Everyone checked corners and kept attentive, not letting a single thing slip past them.

The silence, still deafening, also became increasingly eerie. There were no patrols on the streets, as they might have expected and no citizens were in sight. The doors to the buildings were tightly shut, but the snow left evidence of them having been opened at as late as early that morning.

"I don't like this…" Dugan said as snowflakes began to twirl down from the sky, tickling at his skin. Art, who had the sights of her gun aimed towards the ground, quickly lifted it as they passed a building, ready to shoot if necessary. When it proved to be all clear, she kept the sights low, but not fully down. Snow clung to her hair as she moved, leaving dots of white against the brown locks.

"Just keep moving, men," Steve urged, slipping his shield off his back to its place on his forearm. "Keep a close eye on––"

BOOM.

The ground shook and the Commandos fell, the grenade that had exploded having knocked them off their feet.

"Ambush!" Jim shouted, scrambling up to his feet, sliding a bit on the ice. HYDRA soldiers swept out from the trees, from the houses, and moved towards them, readying to open fire. They were grossly outnumbered. There were only seven of them. There were dozens of Schmidt's men. Shots were fired, explosions were peppering the area, and the Commandos were being broken up.

Art backed up as she kept the butt of her Lanchester submachine gun tucked under her shoulder to lessen the kick-back of the weapon, aiming and firing as quickly as possible. She was backing up as the shots jolted her body, eyes narrowed against the cold wind and the snow. Eventually her ammunition ran out and only a series of clicks sounded. Swearing violently, she swung the now useless gun around and clocked a HYDRA agent on the back of the head, promptly knocking off his helmet and sending him to the ground. Panting and running to take cover around the corner of a small shack, she tugged her pistol from her thigh holster and began to shove rounds in it, regretting having not loaded it earlier.

"Hello, Lieutenant," hissed a heavily accented voice. Spinning round, she came face-to-face with a sneering man. She gaped at him in shock, hands going immediately numb. The voice belonged to Johann Schmidt, but the face was vastly different from the last time she had seem him. She supposed that his flaming crimson colored skin and the skull-like structure of his face was the reason that he was called the Red Skull.

Then rage bloomed inside her chest. It was Schmidt. The man who had chosen to move Zola by train and not by truck or armoured vehicle. The man who prompted their first mission into the Alps and caused Bucky's death. Before Art could do anything, such as shoot her gun, throw a punch, or shout an unbelievably long strand of curses, a fist connected with her jaw. She was thrown sideways with a spinning head; blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, her tooth having sliced into the inside of her lip. Then, the same fist that tossed her sideways flew into her stomach, causing her to blanch, groan, and feel horribly nauseous. Her pistol fell from her hand and she dizzily began to slump forward, feeling the world blacken around the edges.

Schmidt picked her up as she fell forward into unconsciousness, slinging her over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. With a smug smirk on his face, he strode back into the middle of the battle, casually avoiding thrown grenades and volleys of bullets. Steve spun around, following through a punch that knocked a HYDRA soldier out cold. Looking up, he locked eyes with the Red Skull, and suddenly, his blood ran cold. Schmidt stood silhouetted by the black smoke of an explosion with a very familiar woman stretched over his shoulders. The world seemed to switch into slow motion as Schmidt began to saunter away; explosions moved slower, men fell at half-speed, sounds were elongated… and then something occurred to Steve. It had been a set up. A set up. All to get to Art.

"Art!"

"Zurückgreifen!" Schmidt called out. The HYDRA soldiers immediately fell back, leaving the Commandos reeling and confused. As Steve rushed forward to follow, a massive explosion erupted in the middle of the street, sending him falling to the ground with ringing ears and a dazed head. His head covering had been jostled off, his muscles ached, and yet the only thought in his head was Art. He was unsure how long he lay there sprawled across the ground, but it seemed like an agonizing eternity.

"Steve!"

"Steve!"

"Steve, buddy, are you alright?"

Several hands dragged him upwards, pulling him into a seated position. Jim and Gabe were staring at him with worry, watching as their blond captain was unable to let his eyes focus on anything.

"They took her…" he muttered, trying to push himself to his feet. He only successfully managed to fall onto his hands and knees, staring through the thick veil of smoke that clung in the air. They were all gone. Gone. The HYDRA soldiers, Schmidt… Art… "They took Art!"

"What?" Dugan demanded, looking around and noticing that the statement had been the truth. Panting heavily, tears streaking through the soot on his cheeks, Steve shook his head and collapsed forward, forehead pressing into the snow. He had felt his heart break when Bucky died, and now it was cracking again, remembering the way that Art had been gracelessly sling across Schmidt's shoulders, the bruising on her cheek, and the blood dotting the corner of her mouth.

"We have to get her back… we have to get her back…"

OOOO

"Johann Schmidt belongs in a bug house. He thinks he's a god, and he's willing to blow up half the world to prove it; starting with the USA," Phillips said to the congregated mass of soldiers and agents who grouped in the London bunker no more than a day after the mission that went to hell. He gestured to the wall of maps, drawing everyone's attention to where the Red Skull planned to attack.

"He's working with powers way beyond our capabilities," Stark said, striding through the crowd to sit down beside Falsworth. "He gets across the Atlantic, he will wipe out the entire eastern seaboard in an hour." There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone took in what Howard had said, an uneasy chill rolling down many a spine.

"How much time we got?" Gabe asked.

"According to my new best friend, under twenty-four hours," Phillips said in reference to Zola.

"Where is he now?" Jaques inquired.

"HYDRA's last base is here." The Colonel held up a photograph of a mountain, his finger placed in the center of it. "In the Alps. Five-hundred feet below the surface." Tossing the photographs down, Jim scooped them up and stared at them with a despondent look on his face.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" he asked tiredly, the previous week weighing heavily on his mind. "I mean, it's not like we can just knock on the front door."

"Why not?" Steve asked sharply, confidently. Everyone simultaneously turned to look at him. There was a crease between his brows and a downturn to his lips. "That's exactly what we're going to do."

"Steve…" Howard began to say, nervously tugging at his dapper looking white suit-jacket. "Don't you think that's a bit… bold?" A mighty glare was turned on the inventor, and he watched as Steve's hand clench into a fist.

"They killed Bucky and now they've taken Art. I think we can risk being bold if we want to save her. A look of horror smoothed out the features on Howard's face as he glanced around the room.

"What? What do you mean that they've taken her?" he demanded. There was a heavy silence that followed; that silence was broken when Stark's palm was slammed onto the tabletop impatiently. "Someone answer me, dammit!"

"The mission we went on yesterday… It was a set up. We were supposed to show up," Steve announced grimly. "They wanted to take Art. That was the sole purpose of that ambush… to kidnap Art." As the conversation topic switched, so did the mood. Everything became heavy and personal. Nearly everyone had interacted with Art at least once or had at least heard of her before. Steve's jaw was clenched and he fidgeted with his hands, fighting of the stinging feeling he felt in his nose that signaled him he might start to cry.

"But why?" Phillips demanded, not ready to lose another good soldier. "You've told me this before but you never explained why

"Hostage situation," Falsworth suggested. "They have one of ours, perhaps they think we will cooperate if they have a hostage."

"Cooperate?" scoffed Dugan. "Cooperate? If anything, I wanna blast 'em to holy hell."

"We won't cooperate," Steve said firmly with a dangerously blank look on his face. "They killed Bucky and now they have Art. We're gonna get her back, cooperation be damned. What we need to do is make a plan. If that base in the Alps is the one last place Schmidt could have gone, then Art's probably with him. We go there, we find her, we stop Schmidt. And we'll do all of that just by walking through the front door."

For the next hour, a plan was decided on and preparations began to take place. Everyone was working quick so they could leave as soon as humanly possible. Steve and the Commandos were heading back to the camp to get ready, grim, determined expressions on their faces. Howard grabbed hold of Steve's arm as he began to pass, causing the taller man to pause. Howard was stern faced, a look that was not often worn by the inventor. He looked down at his shoes for a moment before looking back up with a firm look in his eyes.

"You get her back," he said. "You bring Art back to us. For all of our sakes." Howard and Steve locked gazes for a moment, understanding passing between them. The last thing anyone needed was to loose another comrade. Another friend. The blond man nodded shortly as though answering a command. "We need her… you need her. Get her back."

"That's a promise I can make."

OOOO

Art stirred from a state of unconsciousness that made her feel uneasy. Her head was pounding, her muscles were achy, and her eyelids felt heavy. There was a dulled sense of quiet that surrounded her and felt so still that she had the urge to shift and move just to disturb it. With a quiet groan, she tried to shift her arm so she might raise it and touch her throbbing jaw, but there was a click and her movement was halted. Her head lolled to the side in confusion as she tugged again. Again, her arm was stopped. Art tried her other arm… the same occurrence.

Forcing her eyes open, she was blinded by a bright, white light that made her hiss and jolt her head back. Her skull was jarred against something cold and metallic, and that was when Art realized she was stretched out across a freezing, metal table. Whipping her head to the left, she saw that her wrists were bound in a set of restraints that held her to the medical style table. As panic began to rise up in her throat, she tried to move her legs, only to find they, too, were restrained. She began yanking and pulling as her heart rate picked up and pounded inside her chest. Her jacket and scarf had been stripped off, leaving her in a standard white t-shirt with goose-bump ridden arms exposed. The room was grey and the only bright light was the surgical one that was angled down at her body. A table or two lined the walls and there was a mirror set into the stone, most likely a one-way set up for the option to have observers on the other side.

"Ah, so you are awake," drawled the uncomfortably familiar voice of Schmidt. Freezing with one leg bent and straining, and both of her arms pulling in towards her sides, Art craned her head around to see said man standing in the doorway. A self satisfied smirk was plastered across his face as he shut the door and clasped his hands behind his back. Panting with eyes widening in fear, Art stared at him as her chest rose and fell heavily. Stepping up to her side, he watched as his very presence caused her to try and recoil. "You have tricked us all, have you not? A woman in the ranks of men…" Horror crossed Art's face and she dropped back against the table in shock.

"What…? How…" Art murmured, voice barely escaping her lips.

"Amazing how unreliable the mail service is in this country," he replied snarkily. "And how confidential files tend to… disappear." Art's eyes fell shut against the blazing sterile light above her.

"Shit…" she hissed.

"I am quite impressed that you have not started panicking yet, Lieutenant."

"Inside I ain't as calm and dandy as I look on the outside, you bastard."

Schmidt chuckled and shook his head, turning around so he faced one of the wheeled tables. He reached into a small box and withdrew something. Turning back around, he smirked down at her and held up a small vial about the length of his thumb, letting the unnaturally blue liquid slosh around inside it. An uneasy quiver ran down Art's spine at the sight of it, already knowing it didn't bode well for her.

"This is what has been called the 'super soldier serum,' the substance that made your dear friend Captain America so strong. We have managed to uncover its formula and have recreated it. Unfortunately, when we tested this serum's predecessors the results were… unhelpful at best. Our subject seemed to have… run away." Schmidt turned to a sterile metal table, where rows of medical instruments were lined up; his fingers teasingly glanced over each one, as though pondering which one he would like to use.

"Bucky…" she whispered, the name ripping painfully through her mind while remembering what Steve had told her. When he'd saved Bucky, he had been strapped to a table… shaken and unable to remember what had happened. Schmidt smirked again.

"Yes, your other little friend. If I remember correctly you were next in line to be tested. That was prior to your escape, of course… and before we knew of your little secret…" He leaned down and hissed, "You have caused me much grief and dozens of resources. You have meddled too much. Now look how lucky I am to have gained my test subject back. Now we shall observe and record what effects the serum has on a member of the female gender…" He raised a syringe filled with the blue serum, flicked the side to rid it of air bubbles and smirked. "And then we will see what happens when you're given a highly concentrated dose. I wonder… will it kill you?"

Before she had time to say anything at all, before she could even resort to pleading, the needle was jabbed unceremoniously into the crook of her elbow and, hopefully, into a vein. Had Zola been present, he would have yelled out in protest at the carelessness of the action, but luckily for Schmidt, he wasn't present. The Red Skull was bent on revenge and was going to do anything to get it, knowing that death wasn't the worst thing she would truly suffer. Said man watched as a pained gasp left her lips at the entrance of the needle; he pushed the plunger of the syringe down slowly, waiting to watch her writhe in pain.

It felt as though her veins were being filled with kerosene before someone had injected fire into her bloodstream, igniting a flurry of pain through her arm. She shouted out loudly and painfully, her hand clenching, muscles flexing. The serum slowly infected the veins of her left arm, infiltrating the flow of her blood. She began to pant and clench her jaw, eyes clamped shut. The burning slowly inched up her arm and she was restraining tears.

"It appears another dose is in order." Schmidt smirked devilishly, snatching up another syringe before leaning over her, a cruel look once again appearing on his face. "I believe that to get the serum through the whole of your body, it must first go to your heart."

The needle was gracelessly pushed into the junction between her shoulder and neck; her heart jolted in utter horror. Only a single cry had left Art's throat previously, the pain having rendered her soundless, but as she felt the serum burn up the veins her neck, across her collarbone, and down towards her chest, she screamed. It was a pain she had never experienced before, not even when she burned half the flesh off her hand. It felt as though her heart felt as though it had been mercilessly riddled with dozens of bullets fired from a machine gun. Art's life was suddenly nothing but pain; it was, at that moment, all she knew. Her wrists and ankles thrashed against the restraints as her body shook and writhed.

Schmidt simply watched as the American woman twitched, groaned, and yelled as the serum began its work. Her back arched off the table and her muscles went tense; her breaths came in rapid pants, leaving her head spinning as she tried to comprehend what was happening. The veins in her arm and neck were more visible to the eye, Schmidt observed, standing out underneath her pale skin. Sweat dotted her forehead and listened on her throat. Art's heartrate was so erratic and rapid that, if she were lucid, she would have worried she might be going into cardiac arrest. Then, feeling as though all oxygen had left her body, Art slumped unconscious against the table, blood beginning to trickle from her neck and arm in thin ribbons.

Her body still trembled in her unconscious state, but with her having gone completely out cold, it gave Schmidt time to call in his medical advisors to take note on her current state. Smirking down at her with a tilt of his head, he reached out and nudged her head so it lolled to the right, leaving the bloody entry point on her neck exposed to the light.

"You shall be my weibliche krieger," he told her in a hushed voice, "and you will not disappoint me."

German Translations (according to google translate):

Zurückgreifen––fall back

Weibliche krieger––female warrior

Afterword: Well, there is yet another very emotional chapter, and I'm sorry to say that the emotions will continue to run high next time. I also have the next… two or so chapters practically written, so those'll be up soon. By the end of next chapter, this story should wrap-up with the movie plot and then it'll be on to the sequel… Well, I'll have an epilogue, of course, but then it'll be on to the sequel. I'm so exciteddddd!

REVIEW REPLIES!

Sky65: What happened was more emotions, eh? I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again!

Alice Gone Madd: And so we see a vague glimpse at what Schmidt wanted with her… kinda. Might not find out his true intentions for a while, unless you all already have guessed it :) I hope you enjoy the chapter! Thanks again!

Nik1804: I hope you enjoyed the chapter, we got to see our dear Artie at the HYDRA base; now we gotta find out what happens to her next. I'm super glad you're enjoying the story! Thanks again!

Shnitzel: HYDRA hasn't been too kind to her, as could be expected. And Howard will certainly tell Tony stories about Art, just like he will about Steve––and when they meet it shall be glorious! I hope you keep on reading! Thanks again!

shadowhuntingdauntlessdemigod: I'm super glad that you've been enjoying the story! It means a lot to know you've been enjoying Art and the way that I'm writing the canon characters believably. And thank you for saying that the letters seemed believable as well, I was worried they'd be too out of character. We will definitely see more flashbacks in the sequel and such, 'cause I can't bring myself to stop writing Bucky because he's such a big influence on Art… and he's fun to write. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as the others! Thanks again!

dany1114: I take pride in writing cliffhangers, even though I know the pain of being left hanging and waiting what'll happen next. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! And we'll see what happens to Art next quite soon… :) Thanks again!
Kat7CA: I'm glad that you've picked up on Schmidt wanting to use her, 'cause that's exactly what he wants; but we'll have to see what Art thinks about that next chapter ;) And I'm sorry that I've made this story suddenly stressful, but it's kinda fun, isn't it? (Oh, god, I'm so evil…) Thanks again! (and Agent Carter is just… ahhhh! I love it too much. Jarvis is the BEST)

MarvelAngel: I'm glad you've been enjoying the story! And Agent Carter is such a fantastic show and I love Peggy to bits! Ah, she's so great. Thanks again!

PiratePrincess16: I hope you enjoyed the chapter; super happy to hear you think Art and Steve are perfect for each other. Hope you stick 'round to read more! Thanks again!

Jo: Glad you've been loving it! And you're awesome too, my friend! Utterly awesome! Thanks again! :)

kmblack: I'm sorry the letters made you cry; if it's any consolation, they were hard to write without tearing up. And we'll see more of Bucky (flashbacks and, of course, Winter Soldier). He's one of my favorite characters. Thanks again!

Knighthawk993: I'm glad you're interested to see how it ends. It took me months to figure out how to end it, but when I finally got hold of how it was going to happen, I knew I was gonna end up torturing everyone into wondering how it would happen. It's not very original, but I'm having fun with it. Hope you keep on reading! Thanks again!

hidansgirl1234: This story is like crack for me to write; I've got other stories I need to update but this one just keeps calling me back every time I get on the computer! Sorry about making you cry… and I'm sorry that I will continue to make you cry… And I'm looking forward to writing the sequel because I'm super excited to get Art interacting with our other favorite superheroes (especially Tony. Oh, god, that'll be GLORIOUS). Thanks again!

And thank you to those who have added this to favorites/follows! Means a lot to me!

Anyway, guys, that's it for this chapter! The next one should be up soon, though I am trying to get my Doctor Who fic updated too; this damn story just keeps wanting me to write it! XD I love it too much.

Also, I just want to take a moment and REALLY thank all of you; I looked at the number of follows/faves/and reviews today and I didn't think I'd ever get this much support for this story! It means so, so, SO much to know you're all enjoying the story and the support you all give is beyond amazing! Thank you all once again!

To anyone on the East Coast who's getting hammered with snow like I currently am (the damn stuff is, like, up to my stomach!) stay warm and safe! Thank you all, again!

~Mary