A/N: If you don't like the plot or pairings, then don't read.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Captain America: The Winter Soldier only my character/s

WORD COUNT: 2, 279

Chapter 21

Sitwell, Brandt and Barnes

After figuring out about Zola's algorithm, Steve and Nat needed to lay low. HYDRA/SHIELD knew that they were getting closer, they couldn't be seen out in the open, they couldn't even chance it with a disguise. Both the Captain and Black Widow had tried to come up with good places to lay low, but there was only one condition on Steve's part: "we do not involve Persephone and that goes double for Joseph." Natasha agreed, but even she could see that it was a stupid condition.

Instead, they hid at Sam Wilson's house, a virtual stranger that Steve trusted. He took them in and gave them food and even a way to get to Sitwell.

'Yeah," Nat thought, 'Seph is going to be beyond livid with him.'

It was then that their plan was in motion.

(..)

Steve pushed Sitwell through the door to the roof of the building and the man rolled across the rooftop. "Tell me about Zola's algorithm." He ordered, Nat flanking behind on the left.

"Never heard of it." Sitwell scrambled up, backing away from a raging Steve as he fixed his glasses, lying through his teeth.

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Steve questioned, never faltering in his stride.

"I was throwing up, I get seasick." Sitwell lied once again, backing away toward the edge of the rooftop just as Steve grabbed him by the lapels of his suit tightly, before he fell completely, towering over the smaller man.

"Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're going to throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers." Sitwell was smug, he knew that Steve wouldn't throw someone off the roof, especially if he needed crucial information from them.

"You're right. It's not." Steve let go of Sitwell, stepping back, "it's hers." He inclined his head to Nat, who took that as her cue and kicked Sitwell in the chest, pushing him right off the edge.

"How are you gonna make all this up to Seph?" Nat questioned casually.

"Flowers would seem insincere and dinner a bit too pretentious and I'm terrible at cooking but she's too nice to tell me." Steve floundered before shrugging his shoulders, the panicked screams of Jasper Sitwell fading.

"Maybe you should just tell her what you told me. Tell her your promise to her and maybe buy her a nice ring." Nat grinned cheekily.

"Is that you're not so subtle way of telling me to propose to make it up to her?"

"I think it's time. You've been together for two years. I want little Seph and Steve's running around, named after me." Nat joked.

Steve chuckled, "I'll think about it."

"You better."

A gust of wind blew by just as Sam rocketed upwards, dropping Sitwell on the rooftop again, before he landed smoothly as Steve and Nat approached Sitwell once more, who scurried away from them. "Z-Zola's algorithm is a program!" He stuttered, his hand raised, palm up to stop them from coming closer, "for choosing Insight's targets." He panted.

"What targets?" Steve grounded out.

"You!" Sitwell threw his arm out in the general direction of Steve, "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defence, a high-school valedictorian in Iowa city." He gestured wildly, obviously shocked and scared to the core, "Bruce Banner, Steven Strange, Persephone Brandt, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA. Now or in the future."

"Seph?!" Steve snarled, making a move to grab Sitwell by the throat but Natasha stopped him.

"In the future? How could it know?" Nat asked, trying to calm Steve from popping Sitwell's head off like a pop-top.

Sitwell laughed humorlessly, "how could it not?!" The HYDRA agent shakily got to his feet, looking directly into Steve's piercing blue eyes, "The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it." Sitwell looked around at the clueless faces of those around him, "your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores!" He listed only a few of the things that Zola's algorithm could do. "Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past, to predict their future."

"And what then?" Steve growled, watching as Sitwell murmured about Pierce, "what then?!" Steve roared, grabbing Sitwell by the lapels, hearing the faint rip of the material but he couldn't care less.

Sitwell stared into Steve's eyes before speaking, "then the Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time." He revealed HYDRA's plan.

Steve couldn't think of anybody else but Seph.

She was a target.

Seph was on the list.

(..)

Seph sighed, watching the news, her hair damp from the shower with dark circles underneath her eyes. She hadn't slept at all and instead, trained as hard as she could. She saw her face pop up again, the anchor stating that 'Miss America' had yet to be found and if this was the end for America's Sweetheart. The pyrokinetic mutant scoffed before rolling her eyes, she had bigger things to worry about other than her status. She picked up the remote, about to shut the TV off, before she saw a breaking news report and saw the massive accidents all over the Washington DC freeway, with the terrified reporter saying that Captain America and unidentified men were battling in the middle of the Washington freeway.

Seph threw the remote and jumped up, running to Charles. "They're at the freeway, I need to go to them!"

Charles knew he couldn't stop her, but he could help her. "Alright, Persephone, but before you go, you should probably see what we have done for you. We took the liberty of making something for you, so you won't ruin the clothes you have when you fully transform." Charles led her to where the X-Men kept their suits and he opened one of the compartments. Seph's eyes widened as she looked at the leather suit with orange trim. It didn't have the X logo on it but then she wasn't part of the team. "It's a specially designed suit to withstand your pyrokinesis, just as Bobby's can hold his cryokinesis."

"T-this is for me?" Seph asked, eyes watering as her fingers glided along the specially designed leather.

"Yes. Joseph tells us how much money you spend on new clothes, so we thought this would cut your spending down by half at least." Charles smiled gently. "You must go to Steve and help him. Now, Hell Hound. Go quickly."

Seph nodded, her back straightening with the sound of her codename but not before she hugged him gently. Charles rolled away to give her space and she grabbed the suit off the mannequin it was displayed on.

"Let's rock." She whispered to herself, before she suit up.

(..)

The Soldier jumped on the car, ready to eliminate the injured Nat.

Nat's eyes snapped the flash of purple behind him just as Seph, clad in the leather suit, flew out of it, her boots implanting themselves in the Winter Soldier's back, shunting him forward and he dropped the automatic weapon. Steve ran forward, only to be stopped by the Soldier's metal fist to the shield. The loud metal on metal gong-like sound reverberated through Seph's body.

Steve was stunned and the Soldier used that to his advantage, pushing the shield violently to the left and he kicked Steve in the chest, making him fall. "Seph, what the hell are you doing here?" He yelled, hiding behind his shield as the Soldier used his machine pistol to shoot at both him and Seph.

Projecting her flames through her hand, she swiped her hand quickly to deflect the bullets and they splattered on the road in small puddles of steel. "Helping!" She called back, deftly avoiding one of the Soldier's agents that tried to slash her with their tactical blade.

"Seph!" Steve called, trying to protect her, but he was quickly blocked by the Winter Soldier himself.

"Baby, focus on your own battle. I got this." Seph said, turning her full attention on the agent.

He lunged for her and she avoided his swings and slashes with calm movements, pushing his hand away when he got too close. The agent roared in anger, smacking his chest before he lunged again, his movements now sloppy, filled with rage.

Seph could use that to her advantage now.

Blocking his knife, she touched his wrist, her fingers wrapping around the bare skin and she heightened his anger with one touch to the point where he passed out from the overwhelming emotion, just as more agents came barreling toward her.

Seph grinned, "let's put this suit to the test." Closing her eyes in concentration, she lifted her arms outward, palms out. Using her own body temperature and the heat from the fire around, even the air, she called it forth, her hair lifting in the breeze, the fire-engine red poured down from the roots of her hair, to the tips of the ends. Her eyes snapped open to reveal their blaze and roaring in exertion, she slammed her hands together, creating a scalding heat-wave that threw the approaching enemies back into the abandoned cars with visible force, as the cars crumpled in on themselves around the agents.

She turned and saw Nat on the ground, clutching at her right shoulder. Running toward the Russian assassin, Seph fell to her knees and held Nat as she slumped into Seph's body. "Hey, hey, Nat?" The pyrokinetic, raised Natasha's head and saw her eyes were a little filmy, her eyelids heavy and her skin was clammy. Blazing orange eyes darted down to the bullet wound.

"It's bleeding too much." Nat commented, trying to fight through the lethargic haze that settled in her mind.

"Listen, I'm going to do something and it's gonna hurt like a bitch. You trust me?" Seph said, pressing her palms to either side of the wound, blood staining her hands.

"What are you going to do?" Nat slurred.

"Cauterize the wound and wake you up a bit. On the count of three." Seph took a deep breath and Nat tensed, bracing for the countdown, "one-" as soon as the number was uttered from her lips, Seph's hands glowed with imbued power and Nat screamed in pain as the fire-wielding woman made quick work of cauterizing the wound and bringing Nat back to her alert state.

"What happened to two and three?" Nat growled as Seph pulled away, blood caking her hands.

"It would have been more painful if you were expecting it." She countered, before peeking over the rim of the car, to see Steve gaining the upper hand on the Soldier. Steve jammed his shield in the middle of the gears of the Soldier's robotic arm, rendering him helpless. In rapid succession, he quickly pulled the shield out, smashing the rim of it into the Winter Soldier's face before whirling around to use his free hand to grab the Soldier by the face and threw him over his shoulder with sheer strength.

As the Winter Soldier flipped over Steve and landed hard on the ground before rolling to his feet. In the process, his mask had come loose and fell to the ground. The Soldier turned, revealing his once-hidden facial features.

"Oh my God. ." Seph whispered, her eyes wide with disbelief as she walked forward, out of the cover of the car as she stared at him with wide eyes.

"Bucky?" She heard Steve's shocked voice, but she couldn't take her eyes off the man who had supposedly died on the train mission to capture Zola.

James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" Barnes asked and raised his handgun to fire.

Seph didn't have time to react before Sam literally fly-kicked Bucky away from Steve.

Getting up, Bucky raised the handgun again just as Nat fired a bazooka over her shoulder and the missile launched straight for Steve's best friend, but he was gone before it impacted.

Seph stumbled her way to Steve, but not before she was shoved to the ground heavily, with people screaming in her ears for her to stay down. A part of her wanted to scream back that they had already done it for her. She started to focus her power. "Hey, the mutant's getting feisty!" It was then she felt it.

The cold, glacial feeling that warped her entire body.

Seph couldn't help it as a blood-curdling roar ripped its way out of her throat, her lips blue and her eyes emulating an icy-white as Steve roared at them. Seph's tears froze in their descent against her skin as she tried to reach for Steve, before they lifted her up roughly, dragging her to one of the vans as Steve, Sam and Nat were dragged to the other.

"NO! Leave her alone! Let her go! Please, just let Seph go!" Steve implored, but nobody was listening to him as they shut her in the back of the van.

"Transport her to the bank with the Asset."