Savage

by awalkerlifeforme

She was everything people feared. She wanted to defend the world but also wanted revenge on those who wrecked hers. The ones who forced her to leave Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Now she's back and while Steve attempts to get back the woman he's always considered his sister, Bucky hopes to thaw the ice that has formed around her heart. A heart that he had always believed was his.

20. Chapter 20

It wasn't like I'd even made it ten feet before being called off elsewhere. I couldn't really understand why I'd even bothered to try and walk off. As 'useless' as women were, I knew that I was going to be a wanted figure today. And that meant that I wouldn't have a moment of peace. Although I supposed that could be a good thing, too. It kept my mind off of what was about to happen to Steve, and everything that could have been happening to Bucky.

"Fraulein!" Abraham's voice echoed through the empty room. I turned back and smiled at the man. He was wearing a lab coat and looking very professional. "For a moment," he added, motioning me over to him.

I waved off Chester and Abraham, letting them know that I'd be right back. I turned off and followed Steve over to the platform with the Vita-Ray Chamber. "Morning," I chirped, falling into line with Abraham. "How are you?" I asked.

The nerves were coming off of him in waves. "Ready to proceed. And you?" he asked.

"Ready to proceed," I teasingly parroted.

Abraham was grinning at me as Steve slowly came up behind me. "Good morning," Abraham said as he moved forward to shake hands with Steve. A man standing off to the side flashed a camera to take a picture. I cringed at the sudden, bright, light. Abraham glanced over and scowled. "Please, not now," he said. The cameraman scowled and walked away, muttering under his breath. "You ready?" Steve nodded. "Good. Take off your shirt your tie and your hat," he said.

Steve began taking off what Abraham had ordered him to remove. As he took off his hat - Peggy taking it from him - he began unbuttoning his shirt. He gave me a quick glance and I smiled. I had a feeling that the nerves were starting to slip into him. Actually, I could feel how nervous he was. I knew that he was looking at me as if to ask that this was right to do. So I smiled and nodded at him.

"Go ahead, I'll be right back," I promised.

Steve nodded at me. "Okay," he said.

For a moment I watched as he took off his shirt. Immediately I cringed. There was nothing but skin and bones on him. He really needed some muscle. And we were about to give it to him. I could see his spine and the bones of his rib cage. Slowly I made my way over to the booth where the men and women that weren't directly involved would be watching. Chester was already upstairs, glancing around. He glanced over at me and nodded with something as close to a smile as he could make. I rolled my eyes and walked over to him, taking a seat in the currently empty one next to him.

"Morning, old man," I chirped.

I knew that he was nervous about this whole thing. Not for Steve, but for his own standing, and mine. We were risking a lot by doing this. "I can't believe that I let you talk me into doing this," Chester snarled, looking over to Steve.

Rolling my eyes at him, I whopped him on the shoulder, sick of him harassing me about picking Steve to go into the chamber. "Oh, stop, you'll be fine," I told him.

Standing slowly, I offered my hand over to Chester. He didn't take it, but did rise. He was sixty-six, he was getting older. The average life expectancy was barely sixty for white men. It was surprising that he was even this old. It sent a painful surge through me, knowing that in a few years, he might be gone. I just had to enjoy the time with him while I had him. It was the same way that I had to think about everyone else. Peggy, Howard, Steve, Bucky... They'd all be gone one day, and I would have to move on. It would be that way for all eternity.

The thought was rather depressing. I didn't want to live forever. But I had no choice now. "You ready to suck up to all of the men around here?" I asked, trying to shake off the thoughts.

Chester glanced over at me and sent me a sharp glare. "Do you know me at all?" he asked.

Laughing softly, I threw an arm over his shoulder. It looked a little strange. A woman standing and laughing with a high-ranking Colonel. Something that was not accepted. Chester was a normally very stoic man that was strong in every way, shape, and form. It was nice to see that he could let that appearance drop around me. Although everyone else thought that it was so strange to see him like this. That was probably the reason that the others were all staring at me like I'd lost my mind. Maybe I had. Or perhaps it showed just how little I cared for tradition.

Tugging on his shoulder gently, I led him towards where August was waiting for us. "Come on, I'll go with you. Make it a little easier," I said, giving a glance back at Steve as we walked.

He was standing near the chamber, watching as everyone walked back and forth with purpose. I could feel that he felt lost in this world. I almost felt bad for him. Even after all of this happened to him, he would still be the odd man out. He would be the science experiment that everyone would be watching closely. I knew how he felt. I really did. But my intention was to keep him close to me. They would never treat him anything near the way that I was treated. I could see that Peggy was watching him as closely as I was.

It was obvious that Chester still didn't like that we had brought Steve here. "Worried for the little guy?" Chester asked, catching where my eyes were.

"Would you knock it off?" I snapped, glancing back over at Chester. "He might just prove you wrong. I'm going to prove you wrong the second that he comes out of that chamber," I hissed.

Men were glancing over at us, as we were some of the few that were speaking somewhat loudly, but one glare from Chester sent them back to their work. "We'll see," he told me.

"You have no faith in me?" I asked, holding my hands on my hips.

Chester stopped moving and looked over at me. I knew that look. Love. It had been so long that I didn't know what that look was. But now I knew. The way that Howard and I would laugh like maniacs and smile at each other. The constant teasing that Peggy and I harassed each other with. Every time that Steve and I told each other that we were proud of the other, and the little looks that were exchanged. And Bucky... Every time that he looked at me and laughed at me. There was always love. I'd never thought that I would see it so much from so many people. I dropped my hands from my hips and smiled sadly as Chester placed a hand on my cheek.

There was a man standing close to us that was watching. Slipping into his mind, I forced him to walk away from us. "I have all the faith in the world in you," Chester muttered under his breath, trying not to draw attention to us.

Gently, I pushed his hand away from me and kicked my booted feet against the stone floor. "Thank you, old man," I said softly, feeling a little embarrassed at the emotional moment.

"Anytime, brat," Chester said.

I smiled brightly, appreciating the moment of lightheartedness. The two of us were the same kind of people. Stone-cold on the outside, but once you got to know us, we opened up. It was a good way to keep ourselves from getting hurt by anyone that walked into our lives. There were very few people that I would ever let hurt me. And only two, willingly. Steve and Bucky... Always. In the meantime, August slowly walked up to us and I smiled through my teeth at him. He was not my favorite person in the world. Chester narrowed his eyes. It took me a moment to remember that Chester had never met him before.

"Victoria," August greeted.

His hand reached out for mine and I handed it over, expecting him to shake it. Of course I should have remembered that men never just shook a woman's hand. That was impolite. Still, it surprised me when he turned it over and kissed it. I was more than a little tempted to shock him. I did not want his lips anywhere near me. I managed to merely smile tersely.

"Hello, August. How have you been?" I asked, trying to keep my manners intact.

Even as he spoke, I could hear his thoughts. He didn't think that this would work. He was planning on laughing about this with his friends tonight. I'd like to laugh as I flung you through the window. "I've been wonderful. I think we're all ready to see just how good you are. If you're really as good as you claim to be," August told me. I grinned. I'm so much better. "It should be quite something."

Before I could say anything nasty to him, Chester spoke. "I assure you, she is," he snarled.

His arm was tightening around me. I assumed that it would have hurt someone normal. I tapped his hand gently to get him to relax. "Take your seat, I'd be more than happy to prove to you just how good I am," I told August.

His thoughts about me proving myself to him were nothing pleasant. I was very tempted to use the Vita-Ray Chamber to crush him. He had a wife and children. He did not need to be thinking the way that he was. "With pleasure," August told me. I narrowed my eyes into slits. I'm sure. "Best of luck," he added, walking towards his seat.

"I don't need it," I told him. He turned back to me and gave me a long look before nodding and walking off. Chester glared at me to get me to say something nice. "But thank you," I called.

Once August had walked off and taken his seat in the back of the room, Chester looked over at me. I could see the irritation in his eyes, plain and clear. "The hell is he?" Chester asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I walked back up towards the windows that overlooked the procedure. "August something-or-another. He's one of the Admissions Officers at Harvard. Abraham invited him here today. If this project goes well, he'll be the one that hands me over that diploma," I told him.

"You've got nothing to worry about," Chester told me.

Raising my brows at him, I gave a little smile. "I thought that you didn't have faith in me?" I asked him.

He turned to glare at me. "I don't have faith in your choice. I have plenty of faith that this will work," Chester told me. I smiled at him. He would learn to have faith in Steve. He had a great heart already. We were about to give him a great physicality. An older man walked over to us and I glanced over at him. "Senator Brandt, glad you could make it. This is my daughter, Victoria," Chester said.

Brandt gave me a tight-lipped smile. "Pleasure," he said, inclining his head towards me. "How do you do?"

Before I answered Brandt, I gave him a good once-over. He had dark hair that was combed back properly. I merely stared at him, hearing his thoughts. He didn't seem to be the type of person to hold back what he thought. I could tell that he didn't want to be here and that he felt like this was a waste of his time. He appeared to be around Chester's age. He was staring at me with wide eyes, and I really had to force myself to keep from flashing the red in my eyes. Yellow eyes was nothing compared to what I could do that would really freak him out.

"I'll be better the moment that I know that the radiation works properly. It's of my own design," I told him.

Brandt now seemed to be interested. He turned towards me with wide eyes. I grit my teeth, knowing that he didn't believe me. "Your design?" he repeated questioningly.

"Yes, Senator," I said quickly.

Chester obviously knew that I was very bothered as he stepped in between the two of us and spoke up before I could. "You'll find that my daughter is one of the best scientists around," he said.

The three of us stared at each other before Brandt nodded. "We'll see about that," he said. I could hear the little laugh in his voice. I grit my teeth together and had to repress the urge to smash his head in against the glass windows. "Why exactly am I in Brooklyn?" Brandt asked as he turned to Chester with an irritated glance.

Exchanging an angered look with Chester, I watched as he barked back at Brandt. "We needed access to the cities power grid," Chester told him, the snapping tone showing his irritation. "Of course if you had given me a generalized requisition -"

"A lot of people are asking for funds..." Brandt spoke over him. Before Chester got the chance to say anything back to him, another man came to stand with us. "Oh, this is Clem - Uh..." he stopped speaking.

I rolled my eyes. It was his own man and he didn't even know his name. Showed just how much Brandt really cared about his people. "Gregg Clemson, State Department," he said.

He shook hands with Chester and gave me a friendly smile. He seemed much nicer than Brandt. I glanced back at Steve as I started to hear the project downstairs taking effect. I sent Gregg Clemson a smile before quickly glancing down at Steve. He was just standing there, looking very awkward. I glanced back over at Gregg Clemson. He had dark hair that was brushed backwards over his head and glasses that were pushed over his eyes. He was wearing a light gray suit. He was rather handsome and reminded me slightly of Bucky.

Turning back to Brandt, I narrowed my eyes at him. "Polite of you not to know your own man's name," I said.

Brandt turned a nasty glare on me, but before he could say anything, Clemson spoke. "No bother, honestly. Lots of names," he said, waving his hand around his head flippantly.

"You're more forgiving than I would be," I said.

Clemson smiled at me before turning back to Chester. "If this project of yours comes through, we'd like to see that it doesn't get into the headlines," he told Chester.

"It's not an 'if.' It'll work," I cut in.

Before anyone could say anything else, Brandt spoke. I noticed that he was turned towards the bay windows. "Jesus. Somebody get that kid a sandwich," he said, staring down at Steve.

Gritting my teeth together, I forced a smile onto my face, and turned to the others. "Would you excuse me, gentlemen? I'm going to do a few last-minute checks," I said, turning to leave the viewing box.

"Don't mess this up," Chester warned me.

Glaring at him, I yanked my arm away from him roughly. "I won't, you big pain in the ass," I snapped.

Without bothering to say anything else I turned to leave the box. More men were filing into the room and I could hear them all thinking about how the project wasn't going to work. There were also some rude thoughts about what Steve looked like. So I hopped down the stairs before I could do anything to them. I had a feeling that Chester and Abraham wouldn't be too happy with me if I killed one of the members of Congress. I arrived back into the center of the room as Steve climbed into the Vita-Ray Chamber.

Walking up to the side of it, I smiled brightly at Steve. His heart was beating rapidly. I could hear the blood pounding through his veins. He was nervous. He had every right to be nervous. Particularly because this was probably going to hurt pretty badly. Not that I wanted to tell him that. I'd already warned him once. That meant that I'd done my job. As Steve's eyes quickly scanned the room he seemed to have finally noticed that I was back. A small smile fell over his face and his heart rate slowed slightly.

Grinning at him, I came to stand at his side. I laid a hand on his shoulder, cringing when I felt just how bony he was. "Told you that I'd be back," I told him.

Steve reached up and grabbed my hand. "Do me a favor and don't leave," he said softly.

Smiling at him, I gave it a gentle squeeze. I'd have to let go of his hand once the procedure started, but I'd be right here the whole time. "Never," I said fiercely, meaning it completely and wholeheartedly.

As we stood together, another man walked up to our side. I glanced over and smiled. Abraham was walking over to us, checking to make sure that everything was okay. "Comfortable?" he asked Steve, looking over me.

"It's a little big," Steve admitted. The three of us all laughed. I had a feeling that in a few minutes, Steve would be bursting out of the chamber. "You save me any of that Schnapps?" Steve asked after a beat of silence.

Abraham looked a little guilty as he shrugged his shoulders. "Not as much as I should have. Sorry, next time," he said. Steve nodded at him as Abraham turned back to where Howard was standing on the lower level, reading over the machines, ensuring that we were ready to start. "Mr. Stark. How are your levels?" Abraham called out.

Howard glanced back at us. "Levels at one hundred percent," he said. Abraham nodded as Howard placed a pair of glasses down on the machine before walking up to where we were standing. He came to stand at my side, exactly as I had been expecting. He threw an arm over my shoulder, earning me a strange look from Steve. I was sure that Bucky would hear about this at some point. "Good morning, darling," Howard teased, nudging me gently.

"Don't you start with me until this thing is over," I snapped at him.

"Good," Abraham said absentmindedly, about the levels standing strong at one hundred percent.

It was right then that I noticed that Steve was giving Howard a terrified glance. His thoughts confirmed why he was terrified. He was remembering the time that the flying car had collapsed on the stage at the Modern Marvels of Tomorrow Exhibition. I smiled at him. "I promise that this will work better than the flying car," I told Steve.

Steve looked very surprised to realize that I knew what he was thinking. If only you knew that I always know what you're thinking. "I'll hold you up on that," Steve teased me.

Howard rolled his eyes at me. "The flying car drops one -"

"Two," I interrupted.

"- time, and I'll never hear the end of it."

Glancing up at him, I nodded. As long as he kept making mistakes, he would never hear the end of them. Especially because he thought so highly of himself. He had to be knocked down by someone. "No. You won't," I told him brightly.

Howard seemed to have finally gotten over his desire to harass me. He then turned to Steve and gave him a good once-over. "We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn. But we are ready. Ready as we'll ever be," he corrected himself.

The momentary calm air that had settled over Steve became nervous once more. "Was that so necessary?" I snapped at Howard.

"It was honest," Howard told me.

I shoved him away from me as I saw the look that Steve was giving me. "Shut up. Go be useful," I hissed at Howard. He grinned at me and nodded, walking back to his work station.

In the meantime, the nurses were starting to strap Steve into the Vita-Ray Chamber. We had to keep him still so that he didn't thrash around too much. "I'll be okay," Steve said through the arm of a nurse.

Smiling at him, I gave a nervous nod. "I know. I designed this thing. Of course you're going to be okay," I told him, wringing my hands together. He'd be fine... We'd ensured that he would be fine...

"How long before you believe that?" Steve asked me.

He glanced over at me and I smiled at him. He knew that I didn't want him in there. I just wanted him to be okay. I wanted him to become the super soldier without having to risk his safety in the chamber. It was dangerous. We all knew that. "Once you get out of there, safe and sound," I told him with a little smile.

While we had been talking, I realized that Peggy had been standing off to the side. I knew that she'd come to care for Steve's well-being lately. "Agent Carter, don't you think you would be more comfortable in the booth?" Abraham half-asked and half-ordered her.

She started, suddenly remembering that she wasn't supposed to be down here. "Oh yes, ah, sorry," Peggy said, turning to leave. Before she could, she turned back to me. "It's gonna be okay, yeah?"

I smiled at her. "Yeah. I'll be fine. He's going to be fine. See you in a few minutes," I said.

Peggy gave me a bright smile. "Good luck, love," she told me.

The two of us waved each other off before Peggy started to head upstairs. She stopped about halfway up and exchanged a small glance with Steve before turning and heading up into the booth. I smiled softly. Then I turned back to Abraham and motioned towards Howard. "I'll be back up here in a minute," I said.

"Okay," Abraham said. I walked over to Howard and stood down in his work station as Abraham grabbed a microphone and began flicking it. A piercing echo went through the speakers upstairs. They all turned to glare at him. "Can you hear me, is this on?" Everyone in the booth was staring at him as Abraham looked up. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Today we take not another step towards annihilation. But the first step towards the path to peace." The pads were closed over Steve's chest by a nurse as the serum was brought into the room. "We begin with a series of micro injections, into the subjects major muscles. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change." A nurse began loading the serum vials into the chamber. "Then, to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita Rays."

Abraham placed the microphone down and walked over to Steve. A nurse was giving him an injection. He cringed in pain until the nurse took the needle out. "That wasn't so bad," Steve said.

"That was penicillin," Abraham pointed out.

Steve looked over at Abraham in shock as Abraham shrugged his shoulders. My heart nearly stopped. "Oh my God, he's going to die," I moaned, shoving my head into Howard's shoulder.

Howard raised my head back up. "He'll be fine. Stop it," he told me.

My head snapped up quickly. I could hear the doubt echoing through his mind. "Don't you lie to me. I know when you're lying," I snapped. Howard merely coughed awkwardly and turned back. "Steve. You okay?" I called out.

"Remember when we were kids and I broke my leg and you told me to suck it up, because you didn't want those kids to see me crying?" Steve asked me.

"Yes," I said slowly.

We had been right on the edge of the basketball court in our apartment complex. He had taken a bad fall and had broken his leg. Bucky and I had been comforting him as the other kids had laughed, teasing Steve when they thought that he was going to cry. So I had snapped at Steve to suck it up and pretend that it wasn't bothering him that bad. Bucky had carried him all the way back to his house so that we could bring him to the hospital. I'd had to pretend to be shocked and scared for Steve, when I had known the whole time that he would be fine.

"Can you do that again?" Steve asked me.

I smiled at the thought and laughed. "Suck it up," I called across the room. I could hear a few people laughing. I even saw a little smile fall over Abraham and Peggy's faces.

"Serum infusion," Abraham called. Everyone suddenly moved into their places. "Beginning in, five... four... three..." Abraham continued counting as the spiked pads fell over Steve's biceps, "two..." Abraham laid a hand on Steve's shoulder, "one."

A man in the far corner of the room threw the switch at Abraham's nod. I watched as the serum that was plugged into the Vita-Ray Chamber immediately began to drain. It reminded me of the Adamantium procedure that I had gone through. I could see the muscles in Steve's arms already beginning to twitch. This was what we needed. An instant transfusion. Steve closed his eyes as the machine began to whir. I knew that he was in a lot of pain already. And once the radiation began, it would only become even more painful. His eyes shot open and his neck began to strain with a suppressed scream.

Abraham glanced over to where Howard and I were standing. "Now, Mr. Stark," he said calmly.

"You'll be okay, Steve," I called, knowing that it would be the last thing that I could say to him until the end of the procedure.

Giving me one last glance, I nodded at Howard, letting him know that I was ready for all of this to happen. We needed to do it now, before things got too late. Howard threw the switch and I watched as it closed. The chamber began to rise, Steve being strapped down so that he couldn't move, as the front of the chamber walls closed, effectively blocking off our view of Steve. There was a window at the very top of it, but Steve was too short to be seen through it. Once the chamber had gotten into position a man walked forward and locked the tubes that powered the chamber in place.

Howard glanced over at me. "Still ready to go through with it?" he asked.

I would never be ready for this to happen, but we had come too far to stop. "He'd be beside himself if I stopped the process. He wants to do this. I want him to do it too," I told Howard softly.

Abraham walked up to stand on the platform where the chamber was raised. He knocked on the wall of the chamber to get Steve's attention. "Steven. Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?" Steve called out.

Everyone laughed at that. The man that was standing behind the chamber nodded to Abraham to let him know that the chamber was ready. Abraham nodded back and turned to us. "We will proceed," he said.

"It's gonna be alright," Howard told me.

"I know. Hit it," I said.

Howard nodded and turned back. He grabbed the dial and cranked it all the way up. I glanced up and watched the Vita-Ray Chamber. Howard walked back over to the crank and placed a pair of big goggles over his head. He slowly began to turn it. We had to get up to one hundred percent. The light from the Vita Rays began shining out of the chamber brightly, so much that to a normal person it was nearly blinding. "That's ten percent. Twenty percent. Thirty. That's forty percent," Howard read out as he continued to turn.

"All signs are normal," a man that was watching Steve's vitals read out.

Howard continued to turn the crank. "That's fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy," Howard continued to read.

People began to look away as the lights brightened. I was the only one that watched normally. But it was at that moment that Steve began to scream in pain, echoing throughout the room. That was all that it took. I launched myself forward, grabbed the rail that separated the raised platform that the Vita-Ray Chamber was on from the lowered portion where Howard was standing, and launched myself over it. I was glad that everyone was too busy staring at the Chamber to notice the lift that should have been nearly impossible without taking a few steps over the railing. Abraham had run forward, too.

"Steven, Steven," Abraham yelled as he began to pound on the Chamber.

"Shut it down!" Peggy yelled, standing on the edge of the overhang.

"Don't!" I shouted.

We had worked so hard for this. I wasn't going to call it off until I was sure that Steve couldn't handle it. "Steven!" Abraham yelled again.

There was still no response from Steve. "Shut it down," Peggy repeated.

Abraham glanced back at me. We had to make a choice soon, we couldn't leave him in there for an extended period of time. It would kill him. The two of us exchanged a sad look before I shook my head. "We can't risk him. Stop the procedure," I said sadly.

Abraham nodded at me before jumping back off of the platform. "Kill the reactor, Mr. Stark!" Abraham yelled, pointing at Howard. Howard released his grip on the crank and ran back to the dial. "Turn it off kill it, kill the reactor!"

"No!" Steve yelled, halting everyone's movements. "Don't! I can do this."

Howard, Abraham, and I exchanged a long look with each other. Abraham looked at me and I nodded. Howard walked back towards the crank, but kept his hands off as he looked at me. I nodded to him. "Proceed," I said.

"Eighty... Ninety. That's one hundred percent!" Howard yelled as he finally stopped cranking.

It had hit as far as he could possibly go. The machine was to the point that the light was blinding. Everyone was looking away from it, except for me. I took a deep breath and slipped into Steve's mind. He was in a lot of pain and his systems were going into overdrive, but his body wasn't rejecting the reaction yet. The Chamber started making a loud whirring noise at the strain being placed on it. Fuses began to blow and I turned back, using a force field to shove Howard away from the panel and out of danger. It was very sudden that the Chamber stopped whirring and the light died. A few fuses were still shorting around room. Everyone came to a stand to see what had happened.

The room had gone deathly quiet, as everyone leaned forward to see whether or not we had been successful. I didn't even turn back to speak. "Howard. Open it," I ordered.

"Mr. Stark!" Abraham added, turning back.

That seemed to shock him into order. He pressed a button and the Chamber opened on command. It gave a soft hiss as some smoke billowed out. My horrified expression quickly turned into a mad grin as I began to laugh. Bucky's never gonna believe this. Steve was huge. He now came up to the very top of the Chamber. As I had been expecting, he was almost too tall to fit into the Chamber. Every muscle on his body was now built to perfection. And the pants that had almost been too short for him before, now came down to just below his knees. I smiled at the sight of him. He was our super soldier.

Everyone started moving around to come downstairs and see how Steve was doing. He was panting very heavily and looked extremely dazed. We had been expecting that. It would take a lot out of him, going through all of that. It would also take him a while to learn how to move with the new body. I ran over to him as Abraham grabbed one arm and helped Steve out of the Chamber. Howard was also helping Steve out of the Chamber, their hands resting on his abdomen to help keep him upright. His arms were laid over their shoulders as he awkwardly took one step at a time. He hadn't seem to realize what had just happened.

"Son of a bitch did it," I heard Chester say from the viewing booth.

I told you, I hissed into his mind.

"I did it," Steve said, still staring at the ground.

"Yes, yes. I think we did it," Abraham said, smirking up at Steve, very proud of his work.

"You actually did it," Howard breathed out, staring at Steve curiously, and definitely shocked.

Gently nudging the two men out of the way, I smiled up at Steve. Holy shit he's tall now. That was going to take a lot of getting used to. "Looking good, Steve," I said, giving him a once-over.

Steve smiled at me. "Thanks, Vic." He was trying to look for me. He didn't seem to have realized that he'd grown quite a bit over the past few minutes. He finally glanced all the way down to me - nearly thirteen inches - before raising his eyebrows. "Have you always been that short?" he asked me curiously.

My gaze narrowed. Now I was very tempted to show him that just because he was bigger than me now did not mean that he was stronger. "Watch what you say to me. I'll still kill you," I snapped at him.

Steve gave me a teasing grin as Peggy ran up in between us. She was looking Steve over quite a bit and I smirked. Steve was certainly a looker now. "How do you feel?" she finally managed to ask him.

Now Steve was looking around. He was still breathing heavily as everyone began to chat back and forth excitedly about the project. "Taller," Steve answered her. Pathetic answer. Peggy reached out to touch him but retracted her hand from his chest at the last second. I snorted loudly at the sight.

Not bad now, huh?

Shut up.

Oh no, it's payback time.

Peggy turned to glare at me quickly. She awkwardly smiled at Steve as she grabbed a white shirt and handed it to him. "You look taller," she finally managed to spit out.

Of course someone had to interrupt all of the celebrations. "How do we know that it actually worked?" Brandt called. I turned back and saw that he was motioning to Steve. "Sure, he's bigger."

Deciding that I could finally hit Steve without worrying about hurting him, I stepped past Peggy. "I'll show you," I said.

He watched curiously as I reared back and punched Steve straight in the stomach. It wasn't as hard as I could - that would have sent him flying back into the wall and probably through it - but he did stumble back and lean over, gasping for air. He was definitely shocked, but otherwise unharmed. People were genuinely curious about the hit. I could hear what they were thinking. It looked painful, but was it really? I was just a woman, after all. But I didn't care.

That would have put a normal man out of fighting for weeks. Steve just needed a second to recover. "That should have broken his third and fourth true ribs. But he remains intact," I explained.

"Thanks, Vic," Steve said, struggling for breath.

"Anytime."

August moved forward through the throng of people with a wide smile on his face. I could feel the excitement oozing out of him. "Victoria, I think that we can have a chat about that degree," he told me.

Steve and I exchanged an excited smile. "Thank you, August," I told him.

In the background I could see Chester walking by a very stunned Brandt. It was obvious that Chester was now impressed. "How do we look now, Senator?" he asked sarcastically.

"I guess the folks in Berlin are about to get very nervous," Brandt said excitedly.

On the other end of the room a man was shaking hands with Abraham. "Congratulations," he said.

"Thank you, sir," Abraham said.

That was when I realized that Abraham was not looking at the people that were congratulating him. Instead he was looking towards the overhang near the viewing booth. I followed his gaze and saw that he was staring at Gregg Clemson. The man in question was holding a lighter open. I saw the whole thing a second too late. He flicked the lighter and the viewing booth exploded, going up into flames. People were thrown back from the force as everyone ducked down. Reminding myself to act like a normal person, I faked a scream and ducked down as well. Screams were echoing all around the large room as everyone crowded together, glass showering everyone.

Abraham and I were the first ones to stand. I spotted Clemson leaning over to grab the last remaining super soldier serum vial and I brought up my hands to stop him. But Howard grabbed me around the waist and pulled me backwards. "Don't!" he told me.

"What are you doing?" I asked hysterically.

We had to stop him. He couldn't get away with this. "Stop him like a normal person would do. You'll thank me for this later," Howard whispered into my ear before releasing me.

In the meantime, Clemson ran over and grabbed the last serum. "Stop him!" Abraham yelled. To my horror, Clemson used his spare hand to wrench out a gun and shoot Abraham twice in the chest, turning and running off a second later.

As everyone dropped down, screaming at the sound of the gunshots, Steve and I jumped up. "No! No!" I shouted.

That didn't' have to happen. If Howard hadn't stopped me, I could have saved his life. I would have given away what I was, but I could have saved him. If I had been paying attention when I'd met Clemson, if I'd read his mind, I could have stopped this. Steve and I sprinted over to Abraham and leaned over him as he lay dying. I could hear more gunshots going off, but my focus was on Abraham. My friend... He tapped Steve in the chest, unable to speak. I leaned over him and brushed the hair back off of his forehead. I was desperate to do something. Anything. But I was powerless. I could bring myself back, but not someone else.

In his last moments, Abraham's thoughts called out to me. Do not let them make you something that you aren't. Be proud of yourself. Take care of each other, he told me.

I'd take care of Steve forever. "I'm so sorry," I whispered to him.

And he knew why. Because I felt that this was my fault. I should have known what would happen. Abraham's eyes drooped closed and I felt the blood stop flowing and his heart still. He was dead. And that was when it hit me. I was not letting his death go uncalled for. My legs acted faster than my brain and I stood upright, furious with what had just happened. That was my friend. He was one of the few people that had ever genuinely understood me. And now he had been taken from me. Just like everything else.

As I turned to run, Steve stepped in front of me and pushed me back. "Stay here," he told me.

"Over my dead body," I snapped.

"He'll shoot you."

It was very hard to not tell Steve that shooting me would do nothing other than irritate me. Just as Chester had once said. "I'll shoot you if you don't move out of my way!" I shouted. Not that I had a gun on me.

"Please, Vic, stay here and take care of everyone," Steve begged.

The desperation was obvious in his voice. He didn't want to risk me. But he wouldn't. He never would. "Absolutely not. You're wasting time. Go!" I shouted, shoving him.

Steve knew that this was a losing fight, so he nodded and pushed me behind him. "Stay back," he warned.

It didn't take Steve and I long to stand and sprint back up the stairs. There was a little splatter of blood on the wall. Peggy must have managed to hit him. As we dashed through the halls I brought my mind out to Clemson. I could see him shoot the woman that was guarding the shop, stealing the gun, and leave. He dashed outside of the store and shove a man out of the way as he got towards his getaway driver. Two agents managed to gun down one of the men, but Clemson and the other driver managed to get away. Clemson jumped into the car and shot down the two agents that were trying to stop him.

As they drove off, Peggy jumped out into the street. She was shooting at the car as Clemson grabbed his arm. She had managed to clip him, after all. As Peggy aimed to shoot at Clemson, he blew up a car behind her that she was standing dangerously close to. It didn't matter. She turned back and aimed. Let go of your arm. I'll do it. Peggy loosened her grip on her arm as I aimed it towards the driver. Fire. She squeezed the trigger and it went straight through his forehead, killing him. Clemson's car swerved and smashed into another one. A taxi driver that had been roaring by had jumped out to see what was going on. Clemson climbed out of his own getaway car, leaving his partner, got into the taxi, and sped off towards Peggy.

My mind slammed back into my own body. She was not going to die, too. We sprinted through the store, spotting the dead woman, out into the street where the two cars were blown to hell, and dashed over the two bodies. Peggy was still out in the street, shooting at Clemson. She was coming close but not catching him. I wasn't sure if I wanted him dead or not. I could use him alive. The only thing that I knew was that I wanted her alive. So I brought up a force field that Steve couldn't see and slammed it down on the brakes in Clemson's car, just as Steve tackled her out of the way. I immediately let up on the brakes and sprinted over to Peggy and Steve.

"I had him!" Peggy shouted at Steve.

She might have managed, but I didn't want her to be killed just to stop him. "Stay back!" I shouted at Peggy as we sprinted off.

"Sorry," Steve called back to her.

Steve stumbled back to his feet and sprinted off with me. I knew that it would be wise to slow down to the speed of an average person, but I couldn't. Not with Abraham's death lingering on my mind. I'd kill Clemson for what he did. Steve looked stunned that I was managing to keep up with him, but said nothing. Clemson must have spotted us coming after him because he took a wide turn at the end of the street. Steve and I cut through a back alleyway to see if we could cut Clemson off up the road somewhere.

As we continued to run through the back alleyway I could see the taxi that Clemson had stolen driving off the other way. My heart skipped a beat. We had to stop him before he got away. And I had to act like somewhat of a human being. I couldn't destroy the car and force Clemson to choke on his own blood in front of the public eye. Steve and I dashed back out into the main street that Clemson was driving on and I shoved him through traffic, forcing a few of the brakes down on some of the cars. Getting hit by a car was not something that I wanted to happen. Thankfully all of the cars managed to miss us.

Just as we were running, though, Steve was unable to right himself. He wasn't used to being able to run so fast. And his body was heavier, so that meant that it was harder to straighten up when running at an angle. He went running so quickly back into the sidewalk that he went flying through the window of a wedding dress shop. The glass shattered all around him and I rolled my eyes as people began to scream at the sight of him. A man ducked into the store to check and see if Steve was alright.

"Steve get up!" I shouted at him, continuing to run.

Steve bounced up quickly as he jumped from the store window. "I'm sorry," he called back to them as he managed to knock over yet another mannequin on the way out.

Thankfully he was able to catch up with me quickly. Mostly because I wasn't running as fast as I could. Or flying. We bounded down another back alleyway and I saw that there was a fence. I was about to stop and tell Steve to turn back, but our serum had worked better than I thought that it had. He continued sprinting towards it making a bounding leap over the nine-foot-tall fence. I grinned, genuinely impressed at his actions. I made it to the fence a second later, jumping, catching the top of the fence, and throwing myself over, dropping into a tuck and roll on the other side. Just ahead of me, Steve was very nearly getting hit by cars as he tried to cross to the other side.

Slamming the force fields down on their brakes, I saw Steve holding up his hand as we chased through the street. "Whoa, whoa," Steve yelled, panicked.

"Watch out, you idiot!" I shouted at him.

We continued to give chase to Clemson and I saw that his car was just about thirty feet ahead of us. We could catch him. I knew that we would be able to catch him. Steve and I were running through the lanes of traffic as Clemson swerved the taxi back and forth. I saw Steve go too far to the side and barely manage to jump up onto the hood of a car speeding towards him, startling the man that was driving it. He continued to hop from one car to the next as I sprinted towards the sidewalk, running alongside Clemson's taxi. Steve hopped onto a large truck before finally managing to land on Clemson's taxi. He was very awkwardly hanging on.

Even as Clemson swerved back and forth, Steve was managing to hang on. I followed them down through one alleyway and another, shoving everyone out of the way. It didn't take me long before starting to yell to everyone else that was in the area to get out of the way. Of course, that only made them more curious. Clemson raised his gun to the roof, attempting to shoot Steve through it, but I was faster. Desperate to keep my friend out of harm's way, I forced Clemson to rip the wheel to the side. He did, and the car made a massive lurch. As Steve was thrown onto the side of the car, the taxi began to roll, unable to keep itself steady.

My heart skipped a beat as I prayed that Steve would manage to keep himself safe. The taxi went into a roll almost immediately as it hit the truck that Clemson was driving past. To my absolute pleasure, Steve had been thrown off. He slid across the rough ground and I ran after Steve, leaning down to check that he was alright. He was fine. Clemson might not be. As one of the doors was torn off of the taxi, the taxi itself began to roll again and again before coming to land on the wheels once more. Clemson - somehow still alive - threw his door open and weakly fell out of the car, the gun still in his hand.

He was staggering around as he turned back to Steve and I, standing right behind where the door had landed. Clemson attempted to shoot at Steve and me, but Steve threw me behind him. I shoved Steve away from me as I caught sight of Clemson showing the pistol to a large group of onlookers. They began to scream and try to run off. Steve ran forward and I watched as he grabbed the door to use as a shield. He grabbed me and pulled me along with him, keeping us out of sight as we advanced on Clemson, who was still firing at us, the door protecting us from the free-flying bullets.

He only fired two shots before stopping. I gasped as I leaned around the door and saw that Clemson had turned away from us, gun still in hand, and now wrestling a small child away from his mother. My heart was pounding in my chest as Steve and I advanced on Clemson. He had already killed Abraham, I didn't need a little kid on my conscience, too.

"No! No, darling no! Tommy no! Don't hurt him," the mother yelled, trying to grab her son.

Steve dropped the door, the two of us sprinting towards Clemson. A man was keeping the mother still as Clemson grabbed the kid and raised his body in front of his own. "Go on," Clemson ordered.

"Let me go," the kid barked.

"No, don't hurt him!" the mother yelled again.

As Steve and I advanced, watching Clemson disappear around the corner, I looked over to Steve. "Get Clemson, I got the kid," I told him.

He nodded at me. Clemson was still carrying the kid as we rounded the corner. But we had barely made it to the corner when Clemson spotted us. He let off a shot, very narrowly missing Steve and I. We ducked back around the corner as Clemson turned and ran off with the kid. Steve and I slowly advanced on him, hiding behind a large metal container. Just as Clemson rounded another corner, he let off a shot towards Steve and I, as we barely managed to avoid it. We quickly followed him down the alley and very slowly peeked around the corner. As I had been expecting, Clemson was waiting for us. He immediately put the gun up to the kid's head.

Steve reacted before I could say that the gun was out of bullets. I'd been keeping count. "Wait don't. Don't," Steve said. I stepped out at the same time and watched as Clemson moved the gun towards Steve and pulled the trigger. Everyone cringed, even me, at the fear that maybe I'd counted wrong. But I hadn't. The gun clicked at the empty chamber. "No, don't," Steve tried again as Clemson shifted to the side and threw the kid into the water below.

He ran off a second later as both Steve and I dashed to the water. "Get him! I got the boy!" I shouted at Steve.

He didn't need any more warning than that before turning to chase down Clemson. As I leaned over the edge of the path to grab the kid, I realized that he was floating. "Go get him, I can swim," the boy called up to me.

Giving the boy a thankful smile, I dashed after Steve and Clemson. Steve was just a bit behind him as I saw Clemson pull out the lighter once more. My brain was whirring as I tried to figure out where he had hidden another explosive, but it wasn't an explosion. Instead, a huge black submarine surfaced from the water. The top raised as Clemson began to climb in. I sped up to try and reach the submarine before Clemson could get off. I was about to dive into the water when Steve held out a hand to stop me. I was about ready to rip his hand off. He couldn't keep protecting me.

"Stay up here. I'll throw him to you. Just stay. Please!" Steve yelled.

Knowing that we were wasting time, I nodded my consent. But I was extremely antsy as Steve dove into the water to get him. What if he failed? I should have been the one to go in. I brought up my Hydrokinesis and pushed back against the submarine, slowing it down as much as I possibly could. It was enough to do the trick. Steve caught the periscope on the back and leaned towards Clemson's window, smashing it and yanking him out of the seat. A second later Clemson had been thrown up onto the rock, panicking to get away.

But I was not letting him get away from me. I ran over to him and leaned over his torso, grabbing the lapels on his jacket and bringing his face close to mine. "Clemson, huh?" I snarled at him.

"Victoria Davies," he said.

My eyebrows knitted. Who the hell was this guy? There were so few people that genuinely knew who I was. "Who are you?" I snapped at him.

His eyes twinkled, despite knowing that he was caught. "You know how to find out," he said.

That was when I realized that he knew exactly who I was. My breath caught in my throat and Steve climbed back up the ladder. My grip loosened on Clemson just long enough for Clemson to get away from me. He backed up and aimed a punch at my head. I backed away, just barely missing his hit. In the meantime, Steve stepped forward, barely missing a punch to his abdomen, and kicked Clemson in the chest, knocking him backwards. Clemson fell to the ground once more, dropping the last vial of super soldier serum, which shattered against the ground. I couldn't bring myself to care at the moment.

Steve leaned over Clemson just the way that I had done before and grabbed him by the jacket. "Who the hell are you?" he snarled.

"The first of many," Clemson said. He had now adopted a very thick German accent. He was a Hydra member. "Cut off its head. Two more shall take its place." He popped out one of his teeth and chomped down on it. "Hail Hydra."

Gasping softly, I didn't care. I knew what he was doing. "No! Spit it out! Now!" I shouted.

Unable to control his own actions, Clemson did. He leaned over and began coughing it up. Steve was watching on, completely confused. It was a cyanide capsule, disguised as a tooth, designed to kill him so that he couldn't be interrogated if caught. Knowing that Clemson had already swallowed some of it, I reared back and sent a roundhouse kick into his back, cracking two vertebrae. He coughed in pain and leaned over, vomiting up everything in his system. I saw some foam get coughed up, too; the remnants of the cyanide pill. We watched him for a moment, until he had cleared everything in his system, before I reared back and punched him in the head. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

Both Steve and I stared at his unconscious form for a few moments. "Just knocked out, he's not dead. I'll hook him up to an IV, just to be sure," I told Steve. I had questions that only he could answer. "Can you grab him?" I asked.

I had a feeling that seeing me carrying a man twice my size would be a little bit too much for people in one day. "Yeah." Steve picked Clemson up and threw him over his shoulders. "Are you alright?" he asked me.

"Better than Abraham. Come on," I said.

Now was not the time to talk about anything. "Vic?" Steve asked me.

"We'll talk later. Not now."

It ended the conversation. This was the wrong time to talk about anything like that. Together we carried Gregg Clemson back to the headquarters that were still tucked underground. I knew that it wasn't his name, but I hadn't bothered to read his mind yet. We made our way back into the Army shelter and I saw a few bodies being taken away; they were of the two agents, Clemson's getaway men, the woman that fronted the store, and Abraham. I motioned for the men to take care with his body. Many of the remaining people froze in fear when they saw that Steve and I were returning with Gregg Clemson on Steve's shoulders.

The first person to come back to me was Chester. "Are you alright?" he asked quickly.

"Fine. We chased him down," I said, motioning back to Clemson's limp body.

Chester glanced at Clemson for a moment before looking back at me. "Let me take a guess and say that he had a cyanide capsule disguised as a tooth?" he asked. I nodded. "He broke it and said 'Hail Hydra' right?" I nodded again. "He's dead?"

"No."

"What happened?" Chester asked.

"I stopped him," I answered.

"Stopped him?"

Slowly I nodded at him. I didn't need to say it out loud. I saw a dew men take Clemson's limp body from Steve. "Yes. You know how. Got him to spit it out. He cracked it and swallowed some. I kicked him in the back, forcing him to throw it up. He should live but I'd hook him up to an IV, just to be sure," I told the men that were standing around us.

Chester nodded at me. "Take him to a cell! Get an IV in him until he wakes up," Chester ordered.

That was all that it took. The men saluted Chester before turning to get Clemson locked up. Then I turned back to Steve and Chester. "Get Steve somewhere safe," I told him. He nodded at me. I turned back to Steve. "Go. I'll see you soon. There are things to be done."

"Are you okay?" Steve asked me, as two men motioned for him.

I nodded at him and gently motioned Steve to go with them. "I'll be fine. Go with them. We meant to keep you a secret. Now you're sort of in the public eye. Head back there and just... wait it out, alright?" I said, feeling the exhaustion hit. How could we have missed all of this? We had missed Hydra inside of our building. "I'll be back there soon."

Steve placed a hand on my shoulder. "Take it easy," he told me.

"You, too." I turned back to Chester, who was watching me with a close gaze. "That vial of the super-soldier serum that he stole... We broke it. I'm sorry. It's all gone," I admitted guiltily.

Chester shook his head and placed a hand on the side of my face. I smiled weakly at him. "Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you're safe," he told me. I smiled at Chester and nodded. I should have been able to save it. "I'm sorry about Erskine, I know that the two of you were close."

"Yes. We were," I said. As I had been trained to do, when I was hurting, I forced myself to shut down. Abraham is dead. There's nothing that you can do for him. Fix this mess. "How is everyone back here?" I asked, looking around me.

"Trying to understand what happened," Chester said.

I nodded numbly. Get working, Victoria. You messed up. Fix this. "Get him awake and talking. I'd like to have a chat with him," I said, a cold blankness settling over my voice.

Chester looked concerned for me, but said nothing. He was smart enough to know that I didn't want the pity. "They're getting him taken care of as we speak," Chester told me, motioning back to where Clemson had been taken.

"How the hell did a Hydra agent manage to infiltrate an office of the government?" I asked.

It was the burning question that we all wanted to know the answer to. "Hydra must be wider spread than anyone initially thought. There's damage control to do. There's no way that we're keeping this out of the press now. Not with Rogers running around or Clemson getting out..." Chester groaned.

I knew that I wasn't the only person that had damage control to work on. "We'll figure something out with damage control. Go speak to the press. Try to reassure them and get them calmed down. Make sure that everyone is taking care of the women," I told him.

"Rogers is waiting to speak with you," Chester pointed out.

I could see the men trying to take Steve away, but he was refusing, still trying to speak with me. "I know," I said.

Turning away, I made to leave the small area and check on Clemson. But before I could get too far, Howard stepped in front of me, looking very concerned. "Victoria, are you alright?" he asked me.

"I'm fine. Are you?" I asked.

"Yes. Startled, but I'm alright."

Glancing around me, I could see that many of the women were crying and panicking. My jaws ground together. Weak. Pathetic. He should have shot one of you. I tried very hard to push those thoughts away. "Good. Can you take care of the women? Get them out of here, reassure them that they're safe?" I asked Howard.

He gave me a long look, nodding at me. "Anything to help. What are you going to do?" he asked concernedly.

Shrugging my shoulder, I motioned back to where Clemson was being held. "Wait for Gregg Clemson - or whatever the hell his name is - to wake up so I can go and speak to him. In the meantime, try to make sense of everything that happened," I said.

"Where's Rogers?" Howard asked.

"Safe. He's over there," I said, motioning back to where Steve was standing. "We lost all of the super-soldier serum. Everyone only knew bits and pieces of it. Abraham was the only person that knew the entire thing. And now..." I trailed off, shoving the emotion that was threatening to bubble to the surface back down. "He's gone."

Howard moved forward, probably debating on hugging me, but thinking better of it. He merely backed off and gave me a guilty look. "I'm sorry. I know that you were close to him," Howard said simply.

It was better to hear something like that rather than letting someone sob and cry over me. I hadn't lost anything. It was all Abraham. "He'd want us to move on and figure out who did this. He'd want Steve to prove Chester wrong. So that's what we're going to do. Our jobs," I told Howard. He nodded and I glanced over his head, spotting August moving to leave. Howard still looked very much spaced out. "I need to go. Be careful, please," I told Howard, squeezing his arm as I moved past.

"You, too," he called after me.

I dashed over towards August and cut him off just steps before he reached the hallway. "August. May I speak with you for a moment?" I asked him. He looked beside himself. "I'd like to formally -"

"I don't know what you all think that you're playing at," he cut me off angrily.

I was stunned. I took a step backwards and raised my brows. Very few people ever dared say anything like that to me. Not for a long time. "Come again?" I asked him dumbly.

August was waving to the room around us. "This... This Scientific Strategic Reserve, whatever you call yourselves!" he snapped at me. Once more I raised a brow at him. Where was he going with this? "This is dangerous. You've let a German assassin into your midst and allowed him to murder one of the brightest scientific minds in existence."

My jaws set. Was he really daring to say something like that? We hadn't done a damn thing. "I'll have you know that Gregg Clemson was under the State Department. He was brought here by Senator Brandt. Not by the Strategic Scientific Reserve," I hissed at him. He still looked unimpressed. "And Abraham Erskine did not die in vain. It will be avenged. By destroying Hydra. And we will do that in time. This man - Gregg Clemson - was captured. I intend to gain some knowledge," I continued.

This hadn't all happened for naught. There was a reason that I hadn't allowed Gregg Clemson to kill himself. If anyone was going to kill him, it would be me. "What could a woman possibly do?" August asked haughtily.

"More than you think," I snarled at him.

Dismember you, force you to kill your entire family, burn your house to the ground; the list goes on and on. "I am not interested in this. Harvard University is not interested in giving its name in accordance with a science experiment gone wrong!" August howled. No. He couldn't be backing out of the Harvard deal. He couldn't... "What you've done here is unnatural."

"You knew what we were planning to do. This shouldn't have been a surprise," I argued.

August shook his head at me. "It wasn't. But Hydra, the Red Skull, Johann Schmidt - it's all a fairy tale and not something that I'd like to be involved with, Victoria. Neither would Harvard. This is not what we signed up for," he pointed out.

"In case it escaped your notice, this is presumably not what Abraham Erskine signed up for either," I said.

August did not appreciate my comment. He merely glared at me and took a step towards me, probably thinking that I was going to back off. I didn't. "You are in over your head Miss Phillips. This is no place for a woman," August told me.

My eyes narrowed into little slits. It was thinking like that that was exactly the reason that women had only been allowed to vote for twenty years. "My place is with the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Wherever they go is where I belong. My position is not because I'm a woman, it's because I was qualified," I told him, a snarl threatening to surface.

Out of either one of us, I was the one that knew much more than he did. "You are no more qualified than a child," August told me. I ought to stop your heart. "I do hope that this works out for you."

"Pardon?" I asked him. "The deal was -"

"My deal - Harvard's - was made to Abraham Erskine. And, with his unfortunate demise, the deal does not need to be honored. Harvard appreciates men of science. Not women of dreams," August told me. My heart sank. It was dreams that got people to where they were right now. "Think smaller, Miss Phillips. Perhaps you'll get somewhere."

With that, August strode off, up the staircase. "It's Sergeant Phillips," I called after him, forcing the electricity to stay under my skin.

My brain was pounding in my skull. I groaned and rubbed my hand over my face. People were moving all around me as I thought about where to go now. But it wasn't that long that I was standing by myself. "Oh, Victoria, thank God you're alright!" Peggy called. She ran forward and hugged me. I didn't make a move to hug her back. I merely stood still. She seemed to know that my heart wasn't in it, so she backed away from me, giving me a weak smile. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," I answered shortly. After a moment, I glanced back at Peggy. My eyes narrowed as I remembered what she had done earlier. "Don't stand in front of a car, you idiot."

Peggy rolled her eyes. "I had him," she argued.

Glaring at him, I shook my head. "Considering that I went after him, it was no big deal. I had him just fine," I argued with her. She smiled weakly at me. We stood together for a moment and I glanced back towards the area that they had taken Clemson. "They're trying to wake him up right now. I want to know who he is and why he came to kill Abraham."

Peggy nodded at me. "The serum?" she asked.

There was no doubt in my mind that he had been sent here to get the serum, but I wanted to know how he had managed it. "Oh I know that's why he was here. But how did he manage to infiltrate a government office?" I asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I wish that I knew," she told me.

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face once more. "This isn't how I wanted today to go," I said.

She nodded at me. I knew that as close as I was to Abraham, Peggy was close to him, too. And so was Steve. We had all lost someone. "I know, it isn't how I wanted things to go either. How's Steve?" Peggy asked me after a moment.

Once more, I shrugged my shoulders at her. He would be fine. He just needed a little while to recover from everything that had happened. He hadn't had time to adjust to super soldier life. He had been thrown in. "Probably a little shaken up. He came here to become the world's first super soldier, and instead he became part of an assassination plot. He'll be alright though," I told her.

"What happened with August?" Peggy asked.

I assumed that she had spotted him storming off a few moments ago. "Backed out of the Harvard deal. Says that he only made the deal to Abraham Erskine, and with him dead, no deal to honor," I told her.

Peggy's face turned downwards. "Oh, Victoria, I'm so sorry," she said softly.

Shrugging my shoulders at her, I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm alive, so I've got nothing to be sad about. I saw it coming, Peggy. Men still think that women are worthless. They might always think that way. I don't know. I intend to change that one day. But as for now... One step forward, two steps back," I told her.

Peggy placed a hand on my shoulder. "It'll all work out," she told me.

Things had to work out. I believed that they would. But that didn't mean that I wasn't upset about everything that had happened. "Yeah. Look, I'm going to go see to it that Steve's alright. I'll see you soon," I told her.

"Be careful," Peggy called out to me.

Nodding at her, I turned back and walked over to Steve. He was standing in the corner and looking all around, probably trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. "You look very out of place," I said to him.

Steve whipped back around to look at me. His face was stressed. "What do we do, Vic?" he asked me.

Staring him down, I shook my head. "We do nothing. You are going to keep yourself out of trouble for the time being. Any chance of replicating the formula is in your blood. But my priority is not the super soldier serum. My priority is keeping you safe, like I promised Bucky," I told him fiercely.

Steve gave me a sad smile. "I don't think that you need to protect me anymore," he said, motioning to himself.

"You're still an idiot, that trip into the Vita-Ray Chamber didn't change that," I snapped at him. Steve seemed very confused as to why I was calling him an idiot this time. "People will find out about this, Steve, and they will come after you. We intended for you to be kept a secret as we made an army of super soldiers. You were supposed to be a secret weapon. Hydra will know about you within the hour. We keep you protected. That's my priority," I told him.

Steve continued to smile. He grabbed my arm and pulled me a little bit closer to him. It was almost like he was a completely different person. "Bucky would be proud of you. He will be proud of you when he gets back home," Steve said.

Shaking my head, I nudged against his abdomen. There wasn't an ounce of fat on him. His entire body was rock hard. "I didn't do anything. It was all you. You're the one that went into that chamber. You're the one that caught him," I told him.

But that was clearly the wrong thing to say. His eyebrows knitted together and he gave me a very stern look. "We need to talk," he said sharply.

"About?" I asked.

"You."

"Me?"

But I knew what he wanted to talk about. He wanted to know how I had managed to do all of this. I had done things that were now nothing to Steve, but they were still a huge feat for someone that should have been normal. "Yes. Vic, I've known you for almost all of my life. You've always been strange," he told me. My eyebrows narrowed at him. He knew that he had made a mistake. "And that's a good thing. I love how different you are. So does Bucky."

The comment that would have normally made me blush now just made my eyebrows narrow a little more. I wanted him to say whatever he wanted to say. "Where are you going with this?" I hissed at him.

Steve sighed and motioned towards the door. "What happened out there?" I shrugged my shoulders at him. "You kept pace with me without a problem. I've got the super soldier serum in my blood. That man was about to swallow the cyanide pill. You just told him to stop and he stopped. You hit him so hard that he threw up the cyanide pill. You hit me so hard that you would have broken my ribs before."

"So?"

"How did you do all of that?" Steve asked me.

This was the wrong time to have this discussion. I would tell him and Bucky together. And not in a public area. "I didn't do anything that I've never been able to do before. Drop it, Steve," I told him sharply.

Steve moved towards me. I could hear his thoughts flitting through his head. He was wondering what would be the right thing to say. "Vic. Just talk to me. If something is wrong with you -"

"If something is wrong with me?" I asked, speaking over Steve. His eyes widened. I was very good with manipulating emotions and conversations. I knew how to get him to drop the conversation. "Go on. Do you think the same things that everyone else always thought? There's Victoria. There's Yellow Eyes. The little freak that walked around the school," I continued.

Despite the fact that I hadn't wanted to hurt Steve or make him feel guilty, I knew that this was the one way to get him to stop asking me about myself. "You know that I've never thought anything like that about you," Steve said softly.

"Yes. I do," I said sharply.

"But the things that happened out there -"

"Drop it!" I shouted, unwilling to talk about it anymore. Steve cringed and backed away from me slightly. I forced myself to calm down. Steve was concerned. "Abraham is dead. This is the wrong time to be questioning me," I said, softer this time.

"I'm sorry."

Shaking my head at him, I moved forward and grabbed his hand. "It's alright. You sit here and you wait for me. Without Abraham around, you're my responsibility now. Understand?" I asked.

Steve nodded at me. "Of course. You've always been in charge," he teased.

Despite knowing that I should have smiled, I couldn't bring myself to do that. I merely shook my head and motioned around us. "I never wanted to be in charge of this," I told him.

It looked like Steve was about to say something, but before he could, another man walked up to our sides. "Sergeant Phillips?" a uniformed soldier called to me. I turned back and nodded. "Gregg Clemson is awake and responding. He's in a holding cell. Would you care to speak to him?" he asked me.

I nodded at him. "Yes. Come with me," I told Steve. He nodded at me. "Is he bound?" I asked the man.

"Yes, Sergeant."

"Untie him," I ordered.

"Yes, Sergeant."

The three of us walked back through one of the halls in the area. There were very few people back here. Only Chester, Howard, and Peggy were here that I knew. There were a few other high-ranking officials that were looking in. We were using one of the rooms that was normally a medical bay. The door was closed and bolted. Gregg Clemson was sitting at a chair. The man that had grabbed me walked inside of the little medical bay and untied Clemson. He merely stayed where he was, an even look on his face.

Motioning for Steve to walk with me, I motioned for him to stay with the others. "Wait out here. I'm going to speak to him," I told Steve. A moment later I turned to Chester. "Do you still have the gun?"

"Yes."

"Give it to me," I told him.

Chester reached onto a table that was sitting behind him and grabbed the gun. The same gun that had killed Abraham Erskine a mere hour ago. Motioning for the other high-ranking officials to walk away, they glared at me for a moment, before a sharp nod from Chester chased them away. It left only Chester, Peggy, Howard, and Steve watching me. It didn't matter. I wasn't planning on speaking English and the only other person that could speak German was dead. I walked into the room and stared at Gregg Clemson. He was grinning up at me, not saying a word. His hands were folded on the desk.

There was a chair across from him, on the other side of the table. "May I sit?" I asked him in perfect German.

Through the window, I could see the strange looks that the others were giving me. Clemson gave me a slightly surprised stare. "You speak German just as well as you do English," he said.

Leaning back in the chair, I crossed my legs and forced a bored look on my face. "You seem to know enough about me. I'd be surprised if you didn't know that I could speak fluent German," I told him simply.

This time he smiled at me and leaned forward. "Will you play good cop or bad?" he asked me.

There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he wanted me to play the bad cop. I slipped into his mind and found his name. "Heinz Kruger. That's your name, isn't it?" I asked him.

Kruger nodded at me. "You already know." He gave me a once-over that I recoiled at. I merely stared at him. He was a terrible man that acted on blind faith. I did not want him looking at me the way that he was. "Pretty woman you are. Shame that God had to make you the way that he did," he said, clicking his tongue reproachfully.

My eyebrows knitted. That wasn't what I had been expecting. "A man that works for Johann Schmidt that believes in God?" I asked him curiously.

He seemed to appreciate that I had asked him that. "The God that is here is only one of many that existed before him. They exist in times," he told me. I nodded at him. I knew that there were other gods. There would never be one all-powerful one. "There is a great power in the Earth. One that no man should know how to use. It was placed here by an earlier God."

"Yet you work for a man that wants to control it?" I asked him.

"He is no normal man."

I couldn't help myself. I snorted softly at that comment. We all knew that Johann Schmidt was not a normal man. "Yes, I've gathered that." We sat in silence for a moment before I asked, "What is this power?"

"I know not. No one does," Kruger told me.

Despite the fact that I had a feeling that he was being honest, and really didn't know, I wanted to know everything. "Schmidt does?" I asked him.

"He has men that will tell him what it is. We are not worthy to know. We merely follow," Kruger said.

My gaze narrowed at him once more. Schmidt treated his men like they were dogs, and that wasn't fair. They honestly believed in him. "Follow him right up to the moment that you commit suicide in his name? Sounds like a raw deal to me," I said.

"There is no cause that means you would give your life for?"

"Sure there is. But if you know me, you know that giving my life isn't really an option," I said.

Kruger smiled at me. "Smart girl," he said.

This wasn't working. I needed to do something else. I needed to get him to admit everything that he knew out loud. Not just because I read his mind. "I'm not the only one who's smart. Take some credit where credit is due. Cyanide pill. Clever. Nearly untraceable and unnoticeable," I said, motioning to the spot where he was now missing a tooth.

That comment caught Kruger's attention. "Some of it should have seeped into my bloodstream. Enough to kill me. What happened?" he asked me.

"An answer for an answer," I offered. To my genuine surprise, he nodded. "You've been hooked up to an IV. Washing all remnants out of your system. Might feel weak and sluggish for a while. You're the first Hydra agent that we've been able to capture before taking one of those pills," I explained to him.

"If you weren't what you are, I would have swallowed it first."

So somehow Schmidt did know about me. But how? And what did I mean to him? Probably nothing. There was no reason that he would have anything to do with me. "Then I saved your life. You're welcome," I told him.

It seemed that Kruger wanted to get down to business. He leaned forward towards me. I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. "What do you plan to do to me, Miss Davies? You have to get me to admit it out loud. You can't use your little oddities. And I intend to tell you nothing," Kruger said, not surprising me in the slightest.

"I highly doubt that you know much of importance to me," I said nonchalantly.

To my genuine pleasure, that threw Kruger off. "Come again?" he asked me.

"You're a grunt. Correct?" I asked him.

Kruger's eyes narrowed into little slits. I had found his weakness. He wanted to be more than he was. But he would never tell Kruger that. He just wanted others to believe it. "You think you're clever," he sneered at me.

"I do," I said honestly.

"I'll tell you nothing," he hissed.

Like I had said before, there was nothing that he knew that was of any importance to me. I just wanted my revenge. "You forget who I am. I can see it. You don't know anything. Not that really matters to me. You're useless. The only reason that I took you in here was because if your life is anyone's to take, it is not your own," I said lowly, my eyes flashing dangerously.

Kruger smiled, pleased. He glanced down to the gun that was on the table. "Will you do it?" he asked me. I shrugged my shoulders. "I care not what you are. You are still a woman. And you have the weak heart of one."

No matter who the man was, he always thought that because I was a woman, I was weak. No matter everything that I could do. "I could take a guess on who you are. Would you like to hear my conclusion of you?" I asked him.

Kruger merely motioned to me, leaning back in his own chair. "Go ahead," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. He was bothered, but he didn't want to show me. It didn't matter. I knew it.

"You're clearly a top assassin of Hydra. I couldn't imagine that Schmidt would send someone that might screw up the mission. Clearly they somehow found out that Abraham Erskine was here and nearing completion of the super-soldier serum. Now he sent you here to assassinate him. Perhaps it was just to carry out a vendetta. Perhaps it was because he didn't want anyone else coming near getting the serum correct. I don't care. But you were to destroy the serum and take one - only one. Schmidt could use it, destroy it, or duplicate it. You blindly follow him and you take that pill if you're caught. How am I doing?"

His heart rate and blood pressure had spiked. He was furious with me. He was furious that I knew everything about him, without ever even having to ask a question. "As smart as they say that you are," he finally managed.

"Smarter," I said.

If he wanted to get a rise out of me, he wouldn't get it. "I repeat my question to you, Miss Davies, what do you intend to do with me?" he asked me.

"Do you know what this is?" I asked, turning the gun over in my hand. I didn't give him a chance to answer. "It's the gun that you used to kill Abraham Erskine."

"An intimidation tactic. There are no bullets in that gun."

"Would you be willing to risk your life?"

He didn't want to risk his life. He wanted to die on his own terms. I knew that. So he went for another tactic, trying to dig in the knife that had always affected me in childhood. "They call you a monster," Kruger said.

"Words are just words," I said.

"But they aren't for you. They aren't. They mean the entire truth," he told me. Once more, I shrugged. Maybe they were the entire truth about me, but there were people that had known the truth and still loved me. I had faith that Steve and Bucky would still love me when I told them the truth. "The Red Skull believes that. He searches for you. He will find you," Kruger added.

It was very hard to pretend that I wasn't desperately curious to know why Schmidt wanted me. "Why does he want me?" I asked.

"I don't know," Kruger said. A quick search of his mind told me that he was telling me the truth. "But he orders you to come to him."

"I've never taken orders well," I pointed out.

"Then he'll find something to draw you in."

"Like what?"

That was when I realized that he'd been so desperate to get to this point. He'd led me right into the trap that he had been setting since the beginning. "You are a woman, aren't you?" I scoffed at him. I was the last time that I had checked. "Creature that you are, or not, you have someone out there that you love. A man. He must be out there. I overheard you speaking about him. Bucky, was it?"

My heart gave a loud thump. But I managed to keep myself calm. The one thing that I needed to do was keep calm and not let him know that saying Bucky's name had affected me. "A friend. And if Schmidt wants me, he can come get me himself," I said, trying to change the course of the conversation.

But Kruger knew that he had gotten to me. And now he wasn't going to let go of one of the last straws that he could grasp at. "He'll search for that man until he finds him. And he'll kill him," Kruger said, leaning into me and smiling.

"And you will be alive to see none of it," I snapped at him.

It was too late to fix my moment of weakness. As I had said before, there were very few people that made me weak. Bucky happened to be one of them. "Your justice system is weak. You'll put me through a trial and I'll get to see your fall," Kruger told me.

The grin fell back over my face. That was the moment that I realized that I actually was going to win this. "Funny thing about this. There is no record of Gregg Clemson. No record of Heinz Kruger either. No one to put through the justice system. Trust me what I say that the State Department doesn't care about you. Your life is ours," I told him.

Kruger's eyes had flashed when he realized that he wasn't going to beat me. But he wasn't just going to give it to me. "Will you watch?" he asked me, leaning forward. Now I slipped into Chester's mind for my confirmation.

Can I kill him?

Has he told you anything?

No. And he knows nothing.

Do it.

It was obvious that Kruger didn't understand that my silence was not because I couldn't bring myself to do it. My silence was because I was just waiting for my moment. "Trouble?" Kruger asked.

A sharp pang of remembrance shot through me. That was the same thing that Joshua had asked me when I'd stayed silent for too long, trying to read his mind. "No. I'll do it myself," I said, grabbing the gun and laying my finger on the trigger. "Any last words?"

"Hail Hydra."

His gaze was challenging, as if he still didn't believe that I was going to force myself to do it. But it wasn't an option. I was not going to let him live. Not for what he did for Abraham Erskine and not for the moment that he had threatened Bucky. If Schmidt wanted me to come to him, he would have to get me himself. Not bring someone to do it. I grabbed the gun and raised it to, snapping the trigger and shooting Kruger in the forehead. His eyes immediately deadened and he slumped back into the chair, dead. And it was all for Abraham. He deserved everything that had come to him. I just wished that I could have prolonged the suffering.

I placed the gun down on the table and stared at his corpse. "The weak heart of a woman, indeed. For Abraham Erskine," I told him. Maybe he'd hear me in Hell.

Ensuring that I had taken care of him, I checked his pulse before nodding to the others. He was dead. Turning back, I left the room and saw that Chester was nodding at me. He ordered two other men to take the body away. There were men standing at the end of the room that were clearly waiting to speak with him. Peggy was watching with dead eyes, as was Howard. They had both been rather fond of Abraham. Steve was the only one that looked concerned. Of course. He had just watched me murder someone. If only he knew the half of it.

Before Chester could walk away, I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me. "Where is the 107th deployed right now?" I asked him softly, so that the others couldn't hear.

Chester's brows furrowed. "Somewhere in England. Why?" he asked me.

The only thing that mattered was that Bucky stayed out of Italy and Germany. Those were the places that the Red Skull had been known to frequent. "Because the Red Skull is looking for me. And he'll use any means necessary to draw me in," I said, a sick feeling settling over me.

He didn't even have to ask. He knew what I meant. "He doesn't know what Sergeant Barnes even looks like. Kruger was just saying that to try and get to you," he told me.

"It worked," I muttered.

It was obvious that Chester didn't want to leave me, but he was called away by the men that were trying to do damage control. I nodded him off, letting him leave. Peggy and Howard both smiled at me as they moved off. I thought that I might be left alone, but Steve almost immediately came up to my side.

His hand was very softly laid on my shoulder. "Can we talk?" he asked me.

"They need to take some blood samples," I said tonelessly.

"I need to talk to you," Steve said.

Shaking my head softly, I went to move, but I found myself unable to move. "We'll talk afterwards. They need you for the blood samples. Please. Later. We can talk about everything later. Just not now," I told him softly.

Steve sighed, giving me a scrutinizing look. "Come here," Steve told me.

There was nothing that I could say. There wasn't really anything to say. Not after everything that had happened today. Not after everything that we wouldn't be able to change. Steve walked towards me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a nearly bone-crushing hug. I managed to stifle a sob into his chest, glad that no one was around. I didn't want anyone to see me being as weak as I was. It was strange being in a hug with Steve where he was the stronger one. At least the way that he felt. His arms felt so strange. They were so much bigger. He was so different. I tightened my arms around his large waist.

Without actually letting him go, I leaned backwards and smiled up at him. "You're so much bigger," I said, laughing softly.

Steve smiled down softly at me. "Thanks to you," he said, gently tucking the underside of my chin.

"And Abraham," I added softly.

Steve nodded at me. We both had Abraham to thank for quite a few things. "Of course. And Abraham. I'll always be grateful to him," Steve told me, his voice sounding exhausted.

Smiling at him, I let go of his waist, but stayed close to him. "Just remember what he said. He always wants you to be a good man. Not a great soldier. Just remember that. He was already so proud of you. I imagine that you're going to make him even more so, soon," I told him honestly.

There was no better man in the world than Steve. There never would be. Steve sighed and glanced over where everyone was chattering away with each other. "They're going to want you to go with them, and they're going to want to keep me in the labs," he said.

"Presumably."

"Victoria! Rogers! With me," Chester called out.

Steve looked back down to me. "So I guess this is another goodbye?" he asked sadly.

Not this time... I'd said goodbye to him once before. Not again. "We don't know that yet. And I said goodbye to you once. Actually, I didn't even say goodbye. I'm not going to walk away from you, Steve. We're in this together. Abraham made sure of that," I said.

Despite the fact that Steve looked so proud of me, he was still shaking his head. "I don't think that I need you babysitting me anymore," he said.

Laughing softly, I shook my head at him. "You'll always need me to babysit you," I told him. He smiled at me and nodded. I placed my hand on his back and gently nudged him with me. "Come on. There's work to be done." Together, the two of us set off towards the labs. The plan had just changed, but we would manage. We always did.

A/N: Rest in peace, Abraham Erskine. Shame on Harvard, right? So, the next few chapters will be about Steve becoming Captain America - the time during which he's helping sell bonds. There will be a lot of time covered in those next few chapters, about a year. A lot of it will be original content, so enjoy! I've been majorly slacking on this story, so I'm sorry about that! Thanks for your patience as I've been updating other stories. Thanks for the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

Moniquita2: Glad that you like the long chapters! Hope that you enjoyed this one!

xWintra: Glad that you like the story and that the long or wordy chapters and paragraphs don't bore you! I love the Steve/Victoria friendship, too. When the time comes that Victoria joins the fight, she's actually going to be fighting. No way that she's going to let the boys have all of the fun!

Mia: Nope! I'm thinking that in each of the next few chapters - maybe not the next one - they will be sectioned off. Like each chapter will span a few months of the tour.

kuppcake: I know! I ended it right before the good part and then I left you guys hanging forever. I love the Steve/Victoria friendship, they're both so much fun to write together. Hope you liked this one!

.2017: Thanks for all of your reviews! I really appreciate that. I hope that you like this chapter just as much as you've liked the other ones!

Tumblr-0-Trash: Gotta love those cliffhangers! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter. There will be a few more Bucky P.O.V.'s until his recovery from the Hydra facility, but I'll never spend a full chapter on his. Hope you liked this one!

Guest: I'm happy you found my story, too! Hope you like this one!