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.

26. Chapter 26

The air was ice cold as I wrapped myself a little tighter into the coat that I was wearing. There was no sun out and I sighed. Italy was not quite as happy and bright as I had thought that it would be. Of course, I should have been expecting that, considering that we were only about five miles from the war front. It was the middle of November, too. That didn't help with the cold weather. Steve and I were making our way out towards the stage where Steve was supposed to be making his appearance in a few minutes. I narrowed my eyes as I glanced out towards the audience, made up mostly of soldiers. The troops looked exhausted.

This still seemed extremely inappropriate to me. It felt insensitive. But I was in no position to be arguing with Brandt. I glanced over at Steve. He looked the most nervous that I had seen in a long time. "You ready for this?" I asked him.

"Still think that the troops aren't going to react well to me?" he asked.

"Honestly?" Steve nodded at me. "No, I don't. Look at them, Steve. They've been through hell. They don't want to watch some guy prance around in a spandex suit talking to them about freedom. They know. They've been fighting for it," I said.

Steve started to shake his head at me. I noticed that he was wringing his hands together. "I don't think that I've ever been this nervous for a show," he said, fighting back a laugh.

"Don't worry about it. Get on and off of the stage and then we can go," I said.

Steve raised his brows. "Go?" he repeated.

Smiling at him, I folded my arms over my chest. I had already checked where Chester would be. I had a plan in mind. He was going to take Steve. There would be no more of this stupidity. "The S.S.R. tents aren't far from here. We're going to speak with Chester. He's taking you into the battlefield, one way or another," I said determinedly.

Steve smiled and wrapped an arm over my shoulder. "Thanks, Vic," he said.

"No problem."

The electricity in my veins began to spark again. I'd found that it was something that happened when I was nervous. "You can ask him to check where Bucky is. If anyone will know where he is, it'll be Colonel Phillips," Steve offered, knowing that it was the thing that kept bothering me. The fact that I still hadn't heard from him.

"I'm not sure that I want to know," I muttered.

"Think he's out in the audience?" Steve asked.

For a moment I hesitated. But I quickly shook my head. "Not a chance. Look at those posters," I said, pointing to the ones that had Steve mimicking Uncle Sam. "Anyone that knows you would know that you're Captain America. And we would have heard both of our names very angrily shouted by now."

Steve laughed at me. We both knew that it was the truth. "I suppose that's very true. We'll have quite the time explaining this one to him," he said, motioning to his own body.

"We?" I asked, shaking my head. "Oh, no. This was all you. I'm telling him that I tried to talk you out of this."

"Useless," Steve muttered.

"What was that?"

He merely grinned at me. I rolled my eyes at him. He was going to pay for that comment. I launched after Steve, who was unable to stop the assault. I used his shoulders to pull myself up and over him. My legs wrapped around his neck and I brought him down to the ground, laying over him. My legs continued to constrict around his throat. He was trying to wiggle out of my grip as the two of us rolled into the mud. He was obviously unable to get out of the vice grip.

"Come on! Tap out! Tap out!" I shouted, tightening the grip with my thighs.

His face was slowly turning blue as he tried to fight away from me. "Show time!" I could hear Brandt yell in the background. He gasped when he saw us. "What the hell are the two of you doing?"

Letting my legs drop around from Steve's neck, I rolled backwards and back into a stand. Steve hopped up from the ground, rubbing at his throat. "Just fooling around," I told Brandt, smiling softly.

Brandt rolled his eyes and glanced over at Steve. "You shouldn't patronize her by letting her win," he said.

"Excuse you?" I hissed.

Steve stepped in before I could say anything too nasty. "She could beat my ass, yours, and anyone else's. I'm not patronizing her," Steve snapped. I smiled at his defense.

But this really wasn't the best time for us to be fighting. I pressed my hands on their chests and gently pushed them away from each other. "Claws away, boys." I turned to Steve and grabbed him. "Come on. Let's get the Star Spangled Man up on stage," I teased.

As we walked off, I noticed that Steve was extremely tense. "How do you deal with that?" he asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I gently kicked my feet against the dirt. "Years of practice. And the knowledge that I'm better. Knowing that one day Brandt will know just how much better I am than him. It's patience, Steve. Something that everyone has to learn," I told him.

Steve smiled at me. "I'm proud of you," he said.

"Goes both ways." We stayed together for a moment until the song began to play. "Now march," I said, shoving him onto the stage.

Steve ran up the stairs and I watched from the far corner to see what was happening. It was the same kind of song and dance routine that it normally was. But this time there were no fireworks and the song wasn't that loud. I had a feeling that they didn't want to give away where the base was. The men were whistling and cheering for the girls, but any time that Steve came on, I noticed that they suddenly looked infuriated and bored. Just as I'd been expecting. The girls finally finished their part of the show and came backstage. Steve moved on to the next part of the show, looking as nervous as he was before the first one.

"So how many of you are ready to help me sock ole' Adolf on the jaw?" he said into the microphone. I cringed as no one responded. The men simply sat and watched. "Okay. I need a volunteer," Steve continued.

"We already volunteered, how do you think I got here?" one man shouted.

The men that were standing on the tanks started to laugh. Steve looked very nervous. I shook my head and sighed. "Bring back the girls," a second man shouted.

The soft laughter turned into loud cheers as the men began cheering and pumping their fists into the air. Steve turned back to me and I shrugged my shoulders, unsure of what he was supposed to do. "I think they only know the one song. But, um... Let me... I'll see what I can do," Steve said, coming to walk backstage.

"You do that, sweetheart," someone shouted.

"Nice boots, Tinkerbell," another man added. I glanced out into the audience and realized that it was Hodge. I rolled my eyes and ground my teeth together. Idiot.

"Come on guys. We're all on the same team here," Steve tried.

"Hey, Captain," a fifth man shouted. He stood up over the seated audience and turned so that he was facing away from Steve. "Sign this." The man dropped his pants as the audience roared with laughter.

Groaning softly, I turned backwards, not wanting to see that. But my attention was called back to the stage when I realized what was happening. One man immediately stood up and threw a tomato straight at Steve. I gasped as he raised the shield, barely managing to avoid the tomato. Another man threw a second tomato, Steve once more managing to deflect it. The men were all cheering happily as Steve turned back and marched off of the stage. The girls began to sprint back up to the stage at Brandt's insistence that we had to do something to keep the audience happy. I rolled my eyes at him, darting over to Steve.

"You alright?" I asked him.

Steve nodded at me, pulling off the cap. "I'm fine," he said.

Martin was waiting around the back of the stage and pat Steve on the back as we walked past him. "Don't worry about it, pal, they'll warm up to you. Don't worry," Martin tried to insist.

We had just walked away from the stage where the women were waving and blowing kisses to the men on stage. I rolled my eyes. Simplistic minds. "I'll be back in a minute, okay?" I told Steve, grabbing his arm.

"Okay," Steve muttered.

The two of us split off. I had a feeling that Steve was going to try and find some place to hide. It was definitely embarrassing with everything that had happened up on the stage. I turned off in the direction of the tents that belonged to both the workers and the soldiers. I had a feeling that Chester would be around somewhere. Nowhere near wherever Steve was, though. He'd probably be at work. It would probably get to the point that I would have to ask someone where he was. I'd been walking around for a few minutes before someone came up to my side. I turned back, wondering what they wanted.

"Victoria?" the man asked.

I stared at him for a moment before recognition dawned. It was one of the recruits that had been in Bucky's class. "Oh. Jeremy! Good to see you," I chirped. I ran up to him and caught him in a tight hug. We hadn't started off on the best terms, but we had come to respect each other by the end. "How are you?"

We separated and I realized that he looked very defeated. "Had better days," Jeremy said. It started to rain, but neither one of us made a move to leave. "How are you?"

"Moving along, day by day. The war might not be over today, but it'll be over soon enough," I said, shrugging at him.

Jeremy pushed back his wet hair. He had bruising underneath his eyes. "I'm sorry about everything, Victoria. I really am," he said.

"Excuse me?"

My heart rate began to speed up. I froze, wondering what he meant. I'd never seen Jeremy look quite so serious. "When's the last time that you spoke to your father?" he asked me curiously.

"Last week. Why?" I asked.

Jeremy swallowed a lump in his throat. He shifted nervously on his feet, looking unnerved at my piercing stare. "You might want to ask him about the audience that you were just performing for," he told me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. Jeremy merely shook his head at me. "Jeremy. Please," I begged.

Jeremy merely continued to shake his head. My heart was pounding in his chest. I knew that look. "I'm the wrong person to tell you about all of this. I'm sorry, Victoria," he said before moving off.

Rain continued to pour down onto me. It had turned from a gentle drizzle into a full downpour. The rain was barely hitting my skin before coming to a sizzle. The fire in my veins was threatening to come to the surface. My heart was pounding so loudly that I was sure that everyone could hear it. I stormed off through the camp, hell-bent on finding Chester. I knew why I hadn't gotten a letter from Bucky in months. He was dead. And Chester had known. That was why he had seemed so out of it during our last conversation that we had had before we'd come over to Italy. I marched into Chester's tent the moment that I had found it.

Two men were walking around in the background of the tent. Chester barely looked up at me. "I was wondering if I'd have to send out a search party to bring you here," he quipped at me.

Normally I would have smiled. But not right now. "Get out. Now," I snarled at the men.

They looked affronted that I had dared to say something like that to them. They glanced up at me, looking in between frightened and annoyed. Chester looked up at me. His teasing grin fell. "You heard the woman. Out," he said.

Giving Chester a quick salute, they walked out of the tent and into the rain. Chester sat behind the wooden desk as I marched up to him. "How long have you known?" I growled at him.

"Come again."

"Don't you bullshit me," I snapped angrily, my voice a little louder than I had meant for it to be. "How long have you known?"

Chester sighed and placed down the papers that he was writing on. "A few weeks," he said.

He had the decency to look ashamed that he hadn't told me what had happened. "What happened?" I asked, blinking back tears. Chester didn't speak. "Tell me what happened!"

If he was bothered by the way that I was speaking, he didn't show it. "A battle at Azzano. Over two hundred men were deployed to fight back against German troops. Schmidt sent a division of Hydra troops to kill everyone. German and Allied. Fifty men came back. The 107th was one of the Infantries that were deployed to that battle. He is on the list of casualties. I'm sorry," he told me softly.

The blow was horrible. I stumbled backwards. He couldn't be dead... He couldn't... "You spoke to me on the telephone just last week. And more before that. You never thought that this was something that you should have told me?" I asked him, my voice cracking.

"I'm no fool, Victoria. I know what you would have done," Chester said.

"More than you."

I could have done something. I could have stopped this. And now... Bucky was dead. Chester sighed and looked up at me. "You think your words will change anything - they won't," he said.

Shaking my head, I tried to stop myself from breaking the desk that he sat at. "I don't know why I'm asking you, but are you planning a rescue mission?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Chester shook his head at me. My only hope that Bucky might still be alive and we could save him had deflated. "The survivors are thirty miles behind enemy lines. We can't just cross over. I'd lose more soldiers than I already have. I love you, but I can't risk that many men. Not even for you," he told me.

And I understood that. "Then I'll go," I said, turning to leave.

"You will not," Chester barked.

"Try and stop me," I warned.

Turning backwards, I made to leave again. But I didn't make it very far before Chester's voice called me back. "Victoria. Get back here," he said, sounding very serious.

Whipping back around to him, I allowed my eyes to light up a brilliant red. "If you try to stop me, I'll kill you myself," I snarled, not really meaning it. "It's not just him. There are a hundred and fifty good men, soldiers, with families, out there. You want to continue signing those letters, or are you going to do something about it?"

Chester did not seem to appreciate that comment. "I am doing something about it. I'm ending the war. You might be a fighter but you are not a soldier. You don't know how these things work. They're delicate," he snapped back at me.

I laughed a humorless laugh. "You're a coward. You're going to let a hundred and fifty men die," I said.

We had squabbled before. But it had never been quite like this. "Would you care this much if Barnes wasn't one of the men?" Chester asked me.

That question floored me. Would I have cared if Bucky wasn't one of the men? No. "Colonel Phillips," Steve called.

He marched into the tent with Peggy at his heels. He looked as concerned as I felt. He must have found out. "Well if it isn't the Star Spangled Man with the plan. What is your plan today?" Chester asked, adopting his usual careless attitude.

"I need the causality list from Azzano," Steve said.

"You don't get to give me orders, son," Chester barked.

"I just need one name," Steve said. He turned to me quickly. "Vic?"

I knew that he was asking if I knew about what had happened. I nodded at him. "I know," I muttered.

"Sergeant James Barnes from the 107th," Steve said.

Chester glanced up and looked over at Peggy. She gave me a very guilty look. "You and I are going to have a conversation later that you won't enjoy," Chester told her, pointing his pen at her.

"Please tell me he's alive, sir. B-A-R -"

"I can spell," Chester interrupted. Chester stood up and started to place down the letters that he was writing. Steve, Peggy, and I followed him. "I've signed more of these condolence letters today than I would care to count. But... The name does sound familiar. I'm sorry," he said, looking genuinely sorry.

But that didn't matter to me. Steve looked heartbroken but I merely glared at Chester. "Who were you sending it to? Me? You didn't even have the decency to tell me," I hissed at him.

"Like I said. You wouldn't have listened to reason," Chester said.

"That's not in my nature."

"What about the others? Are you planning a rescue mission?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, it's called winning the war."

"But if you know where they are, why not -?"

"They're thirty miles behind the lines. Through some of the most heavily fortified territory in Europe. We'd lose more men than we'd save," Chester said, effectively ending the argument. My eyes narrowed at him. He really wasn't going to do anything, even knowing how much this meant to me. "I don't expect you to understand that, because you're a chorus girl."

A fury shot through me. He had always underestimated Steve, despite showing more than once that he was perfectly capable of being a soldier. "He's stronger than you are," I snapped.

"I think I understand just fine," Steve said.

Chester took a seat at his desk. "Well then understand it somewhere else. If I read the posters correctly, you've got someplace to be in thirty minutes," Chester said carelessly.

I'd almost forgotten that we were supposed to do another show. "Yes, sir. I do," Steve said.

And I didn't need to read his mind to know what he was doing. He was going to go after him. I turned back to leave with Steve and Peggy when Chester's voice rang out. "Don't you dare go out there," Chester warned.

"You don't get to give me orders."

And I marched off, easily meeting pace with Peggy and Steve. Peggy turned back around to me and gave me a heartbroken stare. "Victoria, I -"

"Did you know?" I interrupted her.

She looked taken aback. I could see the horrified look in her eyes as she nodded at me. "He told me that he wanted to be the one to tell you when the time was right," she told me, her voice very quiet and ashamed. "I'm sorry. I never wanted to keep it from you. I've only known for a few days."

Nodding at her, I tried to push back the anger. I knew that she would have told me had she actually been able to. "I believe you. Next time... Tell me," I warned her.

She nodded at me. Steve and I both moved off into a march. "What are you doing?" Peggy asked, following us.

"Going after him," I said, earning a long look from both Steve and Peggy. I gave Steve a scrutinizing look. "You wanted to be a soldier? Time to prove yourself."

Steve stared at me for a moment before nodding. He looked a little sick at the thought, but we both knew that we weren't leaving all of those men there. "Let's go," Steve said, walking the both of us out of the main area of the camp. "If you have something to say, right now is the perfect time to keep it to yourself," he told Peggy.

She was practically running to keep up with us. "What do you two plan to do, walk to Austria?" she asked us.

"I'll fly," I said.

"If that's what it takes," Steve added.

Either one of us would do absolutely anything for Bucky. That was the way that we had always been. "You heard the Colonel, your friend is most likely dead," Peggy said. I whipped back to her, flames licking at the end of my hair. She jumped backwards. "I'm sorry Victoria, but Hydra aren't exactly known for being kind. You can't risk your own lives to go after him."

Shaking my head at her, I made to move towards the edge of the camp again. Peggy grabbed my hand gently. "I'm going, Peggy. Even if he's dead, I'm bringing back his body," I told her, feeling sick at the thought.

"You don't know that he's dead," Steve put in.

Peggy continued to shake her head. I could tell that she wanted to help, but also didn't want us to risk ourselves. "Even so, he's devising a strategy, it takes time," she argued.

"By the time he's done that, it could be too late," Steve said.

She still looked horrified at the thought that she couldn't stop us. "I can't die out there, Peggy. You're not risking any soldiers. It makes no difference to me. He would do this for us," I told her, turning to leave.

"Victoria. Steve."

We both turned back to her. Before I could say anything, Steve spoke. "You told me you thought I was meant for more than this. Did you mean that?" he asked her.

They must have spoken while I was with Chester. "Every word," she said.

"Then you gotta let us go," Steve said.

Peggy stood for a moment before nodding. "I can do more than that," she said, seemingly realizing something.

It was a second later that I came to the same conclusion. "Howard..." I muttered. Peggy nodded quickly at me. "Get ready to go. I'll find him. Where is he?" I asked, already backing away.

"Far side of camp. He's normally by the air field," she called.

"Does he know?" I asked her.

She nodded at me. I was very surprised that he hadn't told me anyways. "We didn't tell him until you two had already left New York. Colonel Phillips knew that he would tell you," Peggy explained.

So that explained why Howard hadn't told me. I nodded at her. "Smart man. I'll meet you both on the air field in half an hour," I said.

They both nodded at me before turning to speak with each other. They would only be able to chat for so long before they would have to separate and get ready to go. Steve and I would go in while Peggy and Howard would keep the plane in the air. I went darting through camp, ignoring the strange looks that I was getting and the slippery ground. I sprinted into the air field, running back and forth, desperate to find Howard. It took me almost two minutes before finding Howard off in the distance. He was working on a plane engine.

"Howard!" I shouted.

He glanced back at me and smiled. He quickly hopped down from the plane, dropping everything that he had been doing. "Victoria!" he called excitedly. The two of us sprinted towards each other, slamming into an almost painful hug. We stood together for a moment before backing off. "Victoria. I need to tell you -"

"I know. I know."

Peggy was right. Howard was going to tell me everything the second that he saw me. I grinned. He certainly was my best friend. "What do we do?" Howard asked me.

"We?" I asked, thrown off.

Howard placed a hand on my shoulder. "You're my best friend, Victoria," Howard said, making me smile slightly. He was certainly the one person that was willing to do anything for me, other than Bucky and Steve. "And it's more than Barnes out there. There are over a hundred good men trapped behind the enemy lines. You are my family. I'm willing to help you save yours."

"Thank you," I said softly.

"So what are the plans?" Howard asked.

He had been explicitly ordered to not do anything in regards to the men that were trapped behind enemy lines. I knew the extent of what I was asking. "I'm asking you to commit treason," I admitted.

Howard shrugged his shoulders, as if I was telling him that we were just sneaking out of our house at night. "I'm rich. I'm the Army's biggest benefactor. I design the airplanes and bombers. They can't touch me," he said.

Even with everything that was happening, I laughed softly. "Can you get a plane out of here in the next twenty minutes?" I asked. Howard nodded at me. "Not too large. Enough for four people. Big enough so that we can bring back anyone that desperately needs medical attention. Small enough to go undetected and unnoticed by Hydra."

"Already got one in mind," Howard told me.

I wanted to make sure that he knew what he was doing. This wasn't just a little come and go mission. Someone could very well die if we weren't careful. "You know that I'm asking you to fly right into Hydra territory?" I asked him.

We wanted to get as close as possible. That meant that we were going to have to fly right into the middle of Hydra air space. "Victoria, I know what you're asking me to do. And I'm telling you that I'll do it," Howard said.

"Thank you," I repeated.

"It's out there. See that plane all the way out in the distance?" Howard asked me.

He was pointing to a large silver plane off in the distance. Mostly unmarked. It might be able to pass as a German airplane. That was a good thing. We might actually manage this. "Yes."

"We're taking that one," Howard said.

If he said that he knew how to operate the plane, I believed him. He was probably a better pilot than I was. "Good. I'm going to go see if I can steal a tactical jacket or something. I'll meet you back here in fifteen minutes with Steve and Peggy," I said.

These clothes weren't enough. I needed something a little more durable. "Wait! Wait!" Howard stopped me before I could actually walk off. I turned back to him curiously. "My tent is off to the far right side of camp. It's the only black tent. Inside it is a black duffel bag. It's underneath the bed. Grab it."

My eyebrow raised. "Do you need something from it?" I asked.

Howard shook his head. "No. You do," he said. I stared at him, unsure of what he meant. I didn't need a weapon. That would come in time. "Remember that uniform we discussed?" I nodded at him. "I get bored out here. Had to do something to amuse myself. Take this." He handed me the oversized coat that he was wearing. "Wear it over the uniform."

Tossing it over my arms, I gave Howard a long stare. He had promised me that it wouldn't be that strange-looking. "It look that strange?" I asked him, slipping on the coat.

Howard smirked at me. "It's got a Stark flair on it," he said.

"Awesome. It better not have any pink on it," I said.

Howard grinned at me. "I'll get the plane ready."

We both turned away from each other. I saw Howard dash over to the plane out of the corner of my eyes. No one was walking around in the air field so I knew that we would get out of here without a problem. We just had to get everything together. I ran over to Howard's tent quickly. Thankfully no one stopped me. Just as Howard had said, he was the only person with a black tent. I darted into it and closed the flap, slipping off the coat. I ducked under Howard's bed and grabbed the black duffel bag.

Yanking it open, I stared down at the suit. It looked like it was made of some type of flexible Kevlar. I pulled all of my clothes off quickly before pulling the new uniform out of the bag. There were a pair of black pants that clung to my legs. It made them almost impossible to pull on. But they were flexible, moving with me. It wasn't like the normal beige pants that I would wear. I could move in these, without worrying that they would tear or get caught on something. I pulled on the shirt afterwards. It was the same material, also skintight. It was like a normal scoop neck, t-shirt. Just like the pants, it was black. It was made of the same Kevlar material. It fell slightly short on my stomach, showing off the very bottom of my muscular abdomen.

Scoffing at the sight, I rolled my eyes. There's the Stark flair. I pulled my hair out of the hold that it had been in previously, allowing it to fall over my shoulders. I pulled my black boots back on, tucking the pants into them. I stared down at the uniform and realized that there was a little symbol of a circular shield. I smiled. There were two green lines down the back of the legs, probably where the stitching was held together. I should have known that Howard couldn't keep the entire thing black. It didn't matter. It would be easy to blend into the darkness. There was a thigh holster that I used to slip in a Colt M1911 that Howard had left in the bag. Just in case. I slipped the coat back on and turned from the tent.

Without taking a moment to hesitate, I darted back towards the others. Howard, Peggy, and Steve were already waiting for me. "Ready to go?" Howard asked me as I slipped off the coat.

"Yes."

The four of us got into the plane. Howard took a seat behind the front, as Peggy, Steve, and I remained in the back of the airplane. Steve seemed to have finally noticed what I was wearing. "What the hell are you wearing?" Steve asked.

"Ask Howard," I said.

Howard turned back. He was clicking away at all of the different buttons, getting the plane ready for takeoff. "It's flame retardant, so don't worry about that," Howard called back to us.

Grinning broadly, I found myself becoming quickly accustomed to the uniform. "I like it," I admitted.

Howard was wearing an 'I-told-you-so' kind of look. Steve gave the costume a scrutinizing stare. He didn't seem to like that part of my stomach was bared. Peggy was giving me an appreciative glance. "You definitely look like a real soldier," she said. I smiled at her, letting her know that I wasn't angry for keeping Bucky's predicament from me.

Howard and Peggy were wearing mostly civilian clothes, with a few Army emblems on them, to make it clear that they belonged on the base. Steve was still wearing his Captain America suit, but he had donned a brown leather jacket, one of the blue helmets with a white 'A' that the Star Spangled Singers wore, and normal brown boots. The plane gave a sudden lurch as it roared to life and I sat back against the seats on the wall of the plane. Steve was on my right and Peggy was across from us. I took a deep breath, preparing for entering the facility. It wouldn't take us long to get into Hydra air space.

My head gently fell back against the edge of the plane. I'd never felt as sick as I did right now. I knew that I should have tried to search for Bucky's thoughts. I knew that it would have made things easier. I could either know one way or another if he was dead or alive. But I couldn't bring myself to learn. I would have rather gotten there and found out. The only thing that I knew was that I needed him to be alive. He had sworn to me that he would be back. He couldn't have died... He had to still be alive. Maybe he was just being held as a prisoner. There was a chance that he, and all of the rest of the captured men, were still alive.

Peggy came to sit across from Steve and me, leaning forward to show us a small map that she had managed to swipe. "The Hydra camp is in Krossberg. It's up between these two mountain ranges. It's a factory of some kind," she said.

Steve and I were leaning over the map, staring at it. "Weapons," I muttered.

"What?" Peggy asked.

"It's a weapons facility. That's the only reason that it would be that far behind enemy lines. They put it in one of the hardest places to infiltrate," I told her.

She nodded at me, looking rather impressed. Howard turned back and shouted back to us. "We should be able to drop you two around the doorstep," he called over the roar of the engine.

"Just get us as close as you can," Steve called back to him. He then turned to me. It was the first time that anyone had spoken to me since getting on the plane. I knew that neither one of us wanted to irritate the other at a tense moment like this. "You know you don't have to come. I can do this," he told me gently.

My head snapped up to him. There was no way that he was going in there without me. "If you try and stop me... You'll see just how easy I was taking it on you during our training sessions," I warned him.

Steve's face drained of color slightly. "Right then. Just stay behind me," he muttered.

"You are aware that I can't die?"

"Doesn't mean I want to watch something happen to you," he snapped at me. He then turned back to Peggy. "You know you two are going to be in a lot of trouble when you land."

"And you won't?" she retorted.

"Where I'm going if anybody yells at me, I can just shoot them," Steve said.

"And they will undoubtedly shoot back," Peggy pointed out.

Steve merely sighed. She was trying to talk him out of what he was going to do, but it wasn't going to work. "Well let's hope this is good for something," Steve said, gently tapping the shield that was sitting next to him.

Peggy then turned towards me. I knew what she was doing, and it wasn't going to work out. "I'm not concerned about them shooting me. They should be concerned what I do to them," I snarled.

"You're quite frightening when you're angry," Peggy said.

A small snarl fell over my face as I cracked at my knuckles. "I'm nowhere near angry yet," I hissed.

No one knew what to say back to that. It was probably for the best. The air was tense and extremely thick. "Agent Carter," Howard called back. Everyone turned back to see what he was talking about. "If you're not in too much of a hurry I thought we could stop off in Lucerne for a late night fondue," he called back.

I rolled my eyes at him, realizing that Peggy looked extremely uncomfortable. "You're choosing now to flirt?" I hissed at him.

"Just trying to lift the mood," Howard said.

Once more, I rolled my eyes. Peggy awkwardly glanced down at the floor of the plane. It was also rather amusing that she hadn't replied to him. Because she definitely had eyes for Howard. "Stark is the best civilian pilot I've ever seen. He's mad enough to brave this air space. We're lucky to have him," she told Steve, before nodding over to me. "And he'll do anything for Victoria."

Smiling softly at her, I nodded. "How about you, Victoria?" Howard called back.

I whipped around and snarled at him. "This is seriously the wrong time," I snapped.

"So you two?" Steve asked, motioning between them. "Do you?" He trailed off again and I rolled my eyes. Peggy simply stared at him, wondering what he meant. "Fondue?" he finally managed to spit out.

"You're pathetic," I said.

Steve glanced over at me with an irritated glance. "Thanks," he barked.

The plane went silent once more as Peggy leaned forward, pulling out something that looked a little bit like a radio. "This is your transponder, active it when you're ready. And the signal will lead us straight to you two," Peggy said.

Steve took it from her. "Are you sure this thing works?" he asked Howard.

"It's been tested more than you, pal," Howard called back.

Shrugging my shoulders at Steve, I realized that Howard was right. Even if the transponder had been tested once, it would have been tested more than Steve. And I had a feeling that Peggy would never give us something that she would think might not actually work. There was a flash of light out of one of the windows and I glanced up. A second later the explosives began to fire straight at us. Hydra knew that we were in their air space. The plane was shaking from the impact of the blasts. We were lucky that it was such a dark night. They couldn't see well enough to actually hit us. Steve and I jumped to our feet.

"We need to go now! The plane won't make it all the way to the base!" I shouted at Steve.

He nodded as we ran over to the emergency door that was against the back of the plane. "Get back here, we're taking you two all the way in!" Peggy shouted, following us.

Steve wrenched open the door and sat on the edge of the plane, a parachute on his back. I hadn't bothered getting one. I didn't need one. "We're jumping from this plane. As soon as we're clear you turn this thing around and get the hell out of here," Steve said.

He was sitting, about ready to jump, as I stood behind him. Peggy was standing at my side, leaning over Steve. "You can't give me orders," Peggy yelled at him.

"The hell I can't. I'm a Captain," Steve said.

And, without warning, he jumped. I turned back to Peggy and grabbed her hand. "He might not be able to give you orders, but I can. I'm a Sergeant. Go back to the camp! We'll meet you there!" I shouted at her.

Without giving her a chance to say anything else, I ran forward and dove out of the plane. The ground was rapidly approaching as I dove like a bullet straight towards the woods. I could see the plane turn back and I nodded as the bombs ceased, Hydra thinking that their potential attackers had turned around. I passed Steve on the way to the ground and waited until I was about one hundred feet from the ground before bringing up columns of wind to slow down the descent. I hovered for a moment before dropping, waiting for a few minutes for Steve to fly down with the parachute.

He finally landed next to me and detached the parachute, nodding at me that he was ready to go. The two of us slowly slunk through the woods. It was a dark and quiet night. Fog was settled over the ground and air, making it a little hard to see. It didn't take us long to make our way out to the road that led to the Hydra facility. Steve and I stopped dead in our tracks. It was huge. It could take us hours to find the prisoners. Not to mention that there were guards and spotlights everywhere. We couldn't just walk in. We needed to find a way to sneak in. There were too many people for me to risk controlling them all, too. What if I missed someone that raised the alarm?

We were going to have to do this the old fashioned way. "We can't raise the alarm. We could risk the life of every soldier in there," I whispered to Steve, who also seemed to be looking for a way in.

"What do we do? They've got search lights," he said.

The two of us ducked down as an engine began to roar further down the road. I glanced up and saw that it was a convoy of four trucks. "The trucks," I whispered, motioning for Steve to follow me.

We crouched down as close as we could to the road without being seen by any of the drivers. Thankfully they were open air trucks that had material covers draped over them. They would bring us right through the gates. We waited for the four trucks to pass before I nodded at Steve. We ran out of the cover of the woods and followed the last truck. Thankfully they weren't moving too fast. Steve jumped up first, rolling into the truck. I followed a moment later, grabbing the back of the truck, yanking myself over, and landing on all fours on the inside of the truck.

I was about to glance over and see if Steve was alright, but I quickly realized that we weren't alone. Two Hydra soldiers were sitting on the back of the truck wall. All four of us stared at each other. "Fellas," Steve said.

It didn't take much more than that for everyone to jump into action. One soldier ran after me as the other one ran after Steve. I ducked forward and swept out the feet of one of the soldiers. He hit the floor of the truck and I rolled forward, punching him in the face once, cracking the helmet that he was wearing. Steve and I both picked up the respective soldiers before ramming them into each other, effectively knocking them unconscious. Once I was sure that they wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, I kicked them out of the truck, dumping them onto the road. The cars began to drive through the gate as Steve and I ducked down.

"Well done," I whispered.

Steve smiled at me and patted my leg. "Learned from the best," he said.

"They'll be there to check on the trucks. Hit him with the shield," I said.

Steve nodded at me and we shifted around. He held up the shield to the opening of the flap, hiding himself behind it. I stood back behind him, ready to pounce if it didn't work. I felt the truck slow as it was turned to the side. A second later it began to back into what I assumed would be the loading bay. The engine stopped and Steve and I waited, tense, for someone to come and check. Just as I thought that, the flap opened. I tapped Steve on the back and watched as he slammed the shield into the face of the soldier. He went flying back at the impact and the two of us hopped out of the truck, running down the side of the facility.

We were very nearly caught by two of the guards that were walking back and forth, but we managed to turn around the corner before they could spot us. The two of us ran off through the outdoor weapons storage facility. We were weaving in between the tanks that were all lined up, large Hydra emblems stamped on the side of them. I could see searchlights blaring back and forth and some alarms going off. But they seemed to be warning for the incoming shipments, not an emergency. They hadn't been alerted to our presence yet.

Steve was just ahead of me as we ran. At his insistence, he had wanted to go first. Despite everything that I was, he always wanted to be the man and protect the woman. We slipped by a moving truck and soldier before darting through an open path, barely stepping out of the way of two guards. Thankfully the masks that they wore blocked their view of us. We quickly crossed to a tank that was parked outside of one of the buildings that led to the main part of the compound. I nodded at Steve. If they were going to be anywhere, it was there. He hopped up onto the tank and I followed, jumping onto the roof of the building and sprinting down it.

The two of us had to be extremely careful as we ran into the building. There were guards everywhere. But they didn't seem to actually be standing guard anywhere. They moved back and forth, making it very easy for the two of us to stop and wait before running again. We finally arrived at a bolted door. The guard on the other side seemed to be watching over a manufacturing floor. Steve knocked on the door and the two of us stepped out of the window. The guard turned back to check what had made the noise. He opened the door and looked in. Idiot. Steve slammed the door closed on his head before opening the door back up. He punched the soldier in the head before dragging him away.

Once we were sure that he was out of sight of anyone that might be walking back and forth, checking on the security of the building, the two of us darted out onto the factory floor. We waited to make sure that everyone was looking away from us before darting past the runway and behind a few tanks of what I assumed was propane. Steve was holding out his gun as we slowly slipped through the place. But as we passed the propane tanks, we both spotted something sitting on a table, glowing blue. I froze before making my way over to it. This was the thing that Schmidt was so determined to use.

"What is this?" Steve asked, picking it up.

I grabbed another small disk, unsure of what it was. There was only one thing that I knew. "This is the power that Kruger was talking about. It powered his submarine," I whispered.

"Do you know what it is?" he asked me.

I shook my head at him. "No." Looking through it, I quickly realized that this wasn't made up of any element that I could detect. "But I do know one thing... It's not from Earth," I said.

That unnerved us both. "Come on," Steve said.

He pocketed the little weapon that he had picked up as I put back the disc that I had been holding. As much as I wanted to stop and figure out what this was, I knew that we had come here for something else. To free the prisoners and get Bucky back. The two of us ran to the back of the facility and that was when I spotted it. The open air cells were almost directly below us. There were two guards that were pacing back and forth above them, each holding their own glowing weapons. Even from here I could see how many prisoners were sitting in the cells below.

Chester would have let all of them die... They were here and alive. Maybe not healthy, but they were here. Steve and I exchanged a look. I motioned for him to take the close one and I would take the far one. Steve ran after the one guard and easily knocked him unconscious on top of one of the cells. The other guard turned back, and before he got the chance to yell, I ran after him. The men in the cells were chattering softly as I launched myself onto the torso of the second guard. I placed one hand over his throat before shoving him backwards. As we hit the ground I gave a sharp tug, snapping his neck, before rolling off of him.

Steve gave me a long look as he grabbed the keys from his guard. I knew that he was asking me if I had to kill him. I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn't like he was innocent. "Who are you supposed to be?" a black man asked Steve.

The men were all getting to their feet, staring at us. "Um... Captain America," Steve answered.

"I beg your pardon?" a French man asked.

Moving over to Steve, I yanked on his arm, letting him know that we couldn't just stand here. We had to move. "We'll come down to you," I called to the men.

"You're a woman," a British man said, sounding shocked.

I could see the looks on their faces. They were very surprised to see a woman here, and even more surprised to see that I had just killed a man without hesitance or difficulty. "Well spotted," I deadpanned.

The man looked like he might have apologized to me, but I didn't give him a chance. Instead, I grabbed Steve's arm and tugged him with me. The stairs were only about fifty feet from us and we sprinted over to them, nearly throwing ourselves down the stairs. Thankfully no one was standing guard on the lower levels. We dashed into the cell block and started opening all of the cells. It didn't take us long to get to the back of the room, opening us the last of the cells. The men all began crowding around Steve and I. My eyes were darting back and forth, desperate to find Bucky. But he wasn't here.

It felt like I was about to cry. He couldn't be dead. Not when we had just come to rescue him. "What are we taking, everybody?" a red-headed man asked as a Japanese man stepped out of the cell.

"I'm from Fresno, ace," the man said in a typical American accent, holding up his dog tags.

"There anybody else?" Steve asked, stepping past the arguing men. "I'm looking for a Sergeant James Barnes."

Our large group began walking. If they hadn't spotted us yet, they were about to. "Victoria..." the red-headed man said, stepping up to my other side.

My head snapped over to him. Did I know him? "Excuse me?" I asked.

"You're Victoria, right? Sergeant Victoria Phillips."

"Yes. That's me," I said. That was when I realized that I did know him. And the black man that had spoken to us when we had knocked out the guards. I knew them both. They were here... Where was Bucky? "Dum Dum Dugan. Gabe Jones. Bucky sent me a picture of you two."

Dum Dum nodded as Gabe stepped up to his other side. Steve was watching us closely. Dum Dum gave me a long look. "That's us. Holy shit... He said that you were quite something. Breaking into a Hydra facility?" he asked me.

In any other circumstances, I would have smiled. "Where is he?" I asked.

This time it was the British man that spoke. "There's an isolation ward in the factory. No one's ever come back from it," he said.

Steve and I exchanged a terrified look. "All right," Steve said.

"When was he taken?" I asked.

Dum Dum exchanged a look with some of the other men. "A week or two ago." Steve and I nodded before moving off to find him. "Hang on!" Dum Dum said, calling us back. "He had pneumonia. That's why he was taken. He gave me this before he left. Told me if I ever saw you to tell you that he loves you. And to give it back to you," he said.

He pulled out the locket that held my pictures. My heart jumped into my throat. He had known that he was going to die. I reached out to Dum Dum's hand and closed his fingers back around the locket. "Hold onto it for me. Please," I said.

He nodded at me, tucking it back into his pocket. "The tree line is northwest, it's eighty yards past the gate. Get out fast, and give them hell. We'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else we find," Steve said.

Steve and I made a move to leave when Dum Dum spoke again. "Wait. You know what you're doing?" he asked.

"Yeah. I knocked out Adolph Hitler over two hundred times," Steve said, much to the confusion of the prisoners.

We both made another move to leave when we were called back by Dum Dum again. "Hang on. Victoria, you should come with us," he said, motioning to the rest of them.

Always trying to protect the women... "Not until I find him. Trust me, I can manage," I said.

And without letting the prisoners call us back again, Steve and I ran off. Even as we bounded out of the cell block and back into the main are of the facility, I could hear Dum Dum's voice. "Where did Bucky find her?" he asked.

A little grin fell over my face as Steve and I sprinted into the factory. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before Hydra knew that their prisoners were making a break for it. If nothing else, they would draw the guards away from us. It would make our task of finding Bucky a lot easier. Steve and I made our way into the lower levels at my insistence. If there was an isolation ward, it would be underground. They always were. That was where Stryker had kept me. It didn't take us long to start hearing the gunfire and explosions. The men had made their way to the outside of the facility. Only seconds later, an alarm began to blare.

Steve was in front of me and I watched as he took down soldier after soldier. He would merely hit them over the head. These men didn't seem to be overly trained. The moment that they were hit, they went toppling to the ground. He was also hitting them with his shield. I slid underneath one of the guards legs as Steve knocked them out with his shield. We quickly made our way back up to the catwalk and glanced down. Men were running everywhere, trying to get outside. Steve and I dashed down the catwalk, trying to find the lower levels.

They knew that we were here. But I wasn't stopping. Bucky was here. It might just be his body, but I wasn't leaving him here. Two guards came sprinting up the stairs that we were running down to try and stop the attacks. Steve made a move to go after them but I was faster. I jumped the last ten stairs and caught both men around their throats. I reached my legs up around the man on the right's neck and wrapped my arm around the other man's neck. Using their weight against them, I wrenched them backwards and toppling down the staircase. We went falling backwards and I gave a sharp twist, breaking their necks as I landed in a tuck and roll.

Steve simply stared at me for a second. "You gonna stand there and stare at me or are you going to help?" I asked.

That got him back into action as three more guards came sprinting towards us. Steve ran towards one of them as I took the other two. I dove past them before dropping to my knees, sliding past them. I yanked the leg of one of the men out. He hit the ground as the other man ran towards me. I ducked out of the way of a punch thrown towards my head. As his arm was still out, I grabbed it and yanked myself onto him. My legs wrapped around his throat as I swung over him, ripping him off of his feet, and threw him across the floor, landing on my feet, ducking down slightly. The guard was thrown into the man that Steve was fighting. They both collapsed to the floor, knocked out.

The third man that I had knocked to the ground a moment beforehand had managed to get back to his feet, only to have me rear back and send a kick into his head, crushing the helmet. The man collapsed to the floor, attempting to get up. Staring at him for a moment, I raised my booted foot and jammed it down into his face. His nose broke under the force as he was knocked out.

Steve was staring at me like I had lost my mind. "So... You really were taking it easy on me before?" he asked weakly.

"You tell me," I said, motioning to the three men.

We made a move to leave before I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a faint ticking off in the distance. Steve stopped walking and turned back to me. "What's the problem?" Steve asked me.

"There's a timer going," I said.

"For what?" Steve asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I glanced around us. There was nothing visible. "Presumably explosive charges that are buried in the building. Come on. We don't have time for this," I said, yanking Steve with me.

The two of us continued to sprint down the stairs until we were down in the sub-levels. I imagined that most people were attempting to evacuate the building at this point as we ran past no more soldiers. We were in something that looked like underground tunnels. There were offices that were pushed back into the walls so we slowed down, gradually checking through them. We were running down the hall when we spotted a small man walking out of a room. I immediately recognized him as the man, Dr. Zola, from my dreams. We broke into a run after him when I reached out to stop Steve.

As much as I would have loved to kill him, he wasn't the person that we were looking for. And we only had a limited amount of time. "He's not who we came for. We're running out of time," I told Steve.

He nodded at me as we wandered into the room that he had just come from. My heart immediately jumped into my throat. There he was, on the table. Bucky was alive. He was strapped down and staring up at the roof. Steve and I exchanged a horrified look as we sprinted over to him. I nearly let out a tear. He was alive. We weren't too late.

"Sergeant... James Barnes... 3-2-5-5-7-0-3-8," he muttered.

He hadn't even noticed that we were here. "What's he doing?" Steve asked me.

That was when I realized that something terrible must have happened to him. My heart gave a painful twinge. "It's what soldiers are trained to do under torture," I whispered softly.

"Bucky," Steve said as we ran over towards him. Bucky glanced up but still didn't seem to realize who we were. "Oh my God." Steve moved down to the straps on Bucky's feet and yanked them off as I tore the one at his chest. Bucky finally turned towards Steve. "It's me, it's Steve," Steve said, laying his hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"Steve," Bucky said, smiling.

He was back. As I stood at his other side, I laughed breathlessly. "Oh, thank God," I muttered.

Surprise clearly written across his face, Bucky turned back to me and smiled. "Vika..."

He must have thought that this was still a dream. "It's me, Bucky. We're here," I said, pushing the hair off of his forehead.

"Come on," Steve said, shaking Bucky's shoulder.

"Steve," Bucky repeated as Steve yanked him off of the table and brought him back to his feet. Bucky was very unsteady. I could tell that he was slowly starting to realize that this wasn't just a dream. It was real. And that was when his head snapped back to me. "You brought her here?" Bucky asked Steve, his voice adopting an accusing tone.

Steve shrugged his shoulders. "She didn't exactly give me a choice," he said.

"Wrong time, boys. We'll chat later. Let's go," I said, motioning for them to walk.

Steve gently patted Bucky on the side of the face. I could see the pain in his eyes. We had all thought that Bucky was dead. "I thought you were dead," Steve said, panting slightly.

Bucky's eyes were wide as he stared at Steve. "I thought you were smaller," he said.

Steve and I smiled at Bucky as something exploded in the distance. We exchanged a look. That couldn't be good. As I turned back to Bucky, I realized that there was a map on the far corner. Steve was staring at it, too. We looked very closely at it, committing it to memory. We were about to destroy Hydra, once and for all. It was the map of where all of the other Hydra bases were.

Once I was sure that I knew it, I nodded at Steve. "Come on," Steve said, putting Bucky between the two of us. He obviously hadn't stood in a while as we were practically dragging him along.

"What happened to you?" Bucky asked, barely managing to hang onto us.

I didn't bother stopping to check over him. We would have time for that later. "I joined the Army," Steve said as we wandered back into the hallway.

"I told you that we were working on a secret project. Operation Rebirth. Meet the world's first super-soldier," I told Bucky.

At least this was a good time to tell Bucky. He was still a little too out of it to chew either one of us out. "That's impressive," Bucky muttered. We had released him as we walked. He was managing to stay upright, but he was staggering. "Did it hurt?" he asked Steve.

"A little," Steve said.

"Is it permanent?"

"So far."

I bristled at the thought that this might not be permanent. This had been Abraham's last move. It had damn well better not reverse itself. "It better be," I snapped angrily.

The three of us made our way out of the lower levels. I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to leave from the front of the gates. It seemed like everything downstairs was blowing up. It might make things a little tough to get out of the factory. It didn't take long for us to make our way out of the sub-levels. We headed upstairs back towards the catwalk and I could already hear all of the fire roaring. There was no way that we were going to be able to make our way out of the front gates. We'd have to find another way out. Explosions began to rock the building and I staggered, knowing that the charges had just been set off.

"What's happening?" Bucky asked, staggering back and forth.

"Hydra knows that they've been infiltrated. These buildings have explosive charges in them so that everything will be destroyed upon discovery. They're blowing everything up, probably hoping that we'll be caught in the cross fire," I said.

We turned another corner and I was very surprised to see two guards running towards us. They must have been some of the last guards in the building. Bucky and Steve froze. "Wait here," I warned them.

"Vika! Don't!" Bucky yelled in horror.

But I wasn't going to wait for Bucky and Steve to take care of this. Bucky was too weak and I needed Steve keeping an eye on him. I could manage two men. I ran after the man on the left, reaching for his shoulders and pulling myself up onto him. I threw one foot out, catching the man on the right in the side of the head, before spinning around on the man's shoulders, keeping one leg on either side of his shoulder. I leaned down and grabbed the other man under the shoulder and yanked downwards. Both men were flung over themselves - their necks snapping free from their spines - as they hit the ground, allowing me to roll backwards, back to my feet.

The men were out cold as I looked back to the boys. Steve looked impressed while Bucky looked like he had never seen me before. "Relax. I got it handled," I said, walking back to the boys.

Bucky and Steve followed me, both looking shocked. "Remind me not to get in a fight with you," Bucky said.

Turning back to him, I winked. He merely smiled at me. I'd never felt so good to have him back in my life. The three of us made our way back out to the catwalk. Steve and I hit the catwalk first, Bucky following us. I glanced down in horror. Everything was blowing up downstairs. We wouldn't be able to get through there without me giving away my secret. Another explosion came very close to us and we backed off, turning and running upstairs. It was our only chance to get out of the area. The moment that we got upstairs, I realized that there was a platform that we could cross to an elevator on the other side.

"Captain America," a thick German accent called out. The three of us turned back. On the other side of the platform I saw that Johann Schmidt was handing a briefcase off to Dr. Zola. "How exciting. I am a great fan of your films." Steve and Schmidt both walked up onto the platform. I stayed with Bucky on the side. "So Doctor Erskine managed it after all. Not exactly an improvement, but, still. Impressive."

The men met in the middle when Steve threw out a punch, making Schmidt stumble back. I grinned, knowing that I had been the one to teach him to punch like that. "You've got no idea," Steve snarled.

Schmidt looked back up to him. I could see something red underneath his eye. "Haven't I?" Schmidt asked.

Without warning, Schmidt reared back. I gasped as Steve raised the shield in front of him at the last second. Bucky held onto my hip, keeping me stationary next to him. The shield dented from the hard impact of Schmidt's punch. Steve glanced down at the shield before reaching for his gun. Schmidt knew what he was doing as he punched Steve across the face, knocking Steve to the ground, losing his grip on the gun. Kick him backwards, I thought to Steve. Schmidt walked up to Steve, who leaned back and kicked Schmidt so hard that he went flying back on the platform. Zola pulled a level on their side, separating the platform between the two men.

Schmidt managed to pull himself back to his feet. "No matter what lies Erskine told you. You see I was his greatest success." Schmidt then turned to look at me. My stomach turned as Bucky's grip on me tightened. "I would count you, my dear, but you are not one of his. Look at you! Pretending so hard to fit into their lives. We are above them, you and I," Schmidt said.

Bucky and Steve exchanged a look with each other as they glanced back at Schmidt. "You don't know me," I snarled at him.

The dreams weren't just dreams. Somehow he did know me. "No, you see, I do know you. You are a monstrosity. You are not natural," Schmidt yelled. I pulled myself out of Bucky's grip and gently pushed Steve behind me as I walked to stand across from Schmidt. "But you can control it. Yet you sink down to their level. You are above humanity."

"No one is above humanity," I said.

"I would have thought that William Stryker would have taught you differently," Schmidt said.

It felt like my heart had stopped. Did Stryker know Schmidt? How? They weren't even on the same continent. Schmidt grinned, knowing that he had gotten to me. "How do you know him?" I asked furiously.

"William had good ideas. He knew to use people like you. But he was so small-minded. You've wondered how I know you, Miss Davies. I've known you since you were fourteen! I've been excited to meet you. Someone as strong as you are should not bow down and lie with creatures so much less than yourself," he said, motioning to Bucky.

"The only person here that I deem as less than myself is you," I snarled.

Schmidt laughed at me, shaking his head. I found myself shaking, the fire threatening to rise to the surface. Had Schmidt been the one to tell Stryker about me? Was he the reason that I had been taken? "You do not see your true potential. You've deluded yourself. You should ask your friend what he went through to protect you while he was here. He protects you as if he knows you!" Schmidt shouted, motioning back to Bucky. What had he gone through to protect me? Bucky gave me a long stare as I turned back to him. "Why don't you tell him the truth? Tell him how your parents died, tell him why you vanished, and tell him why we're having this conversation."

This was the wrong time to have that conversation. I would tell him everything. I knew that I would tell him everything. But on my own terms. Not like this. Not when I couldn't explain. "What did William Stryker tell you about me?" I asked.

"Tell me?" Schmidt repeated, grinning. "Everything, Miss Davies. Recognize this?" He reached into his pocket and grabbed a vial of green liquid. My heart dropped. It was Chronicle. From me. "Why do you think that he constantly took your... What do you call this, again?" I stayed silent, not willing to admit what it was. "William used your oddities against you. Everything in this building? It's thanks to you."

Staring down at the flames below us, my heart began to pound. All of this couldn't have been from me... That couldn't have been why I'd been taken. "Is that why Stryker took me?" I asked.

Schmidt smiled once more. "To learn about you. All of you. And to assist us," he said. His face turned to look at Steve and Bucky, both of whom were lost. Even though Steve knew, he didn't know everything. "Look at the men who stand with you. They do not know what they have befriended. They know not of the danger that you pose. You are above them. They should fear you."

And they should have feared me. It was the same thing that I had been thinking for my entire life. I would have never blamed anyone for being afraid of me. But I couldn't just continue to live my life, terrified that everyone would find out what I was. No one had run from me. Only Stryker and his men had run. Peggy, Howard, Chester, Abraham, and Steve had all taken it well enough. And I couldn't just rely on their thoughts about me to control me. I wasn't hiding it anymore. If Schmidt wanted me to show him just how powerful I was, I would. This had all gone on long enough.

"I can't control their fear... I can only control my own," I said lowly.

Schmidt was watching me curiously. I glanced down at the flames before darting my eyes back up to Schmidt's face. He was smiling once more, as they faded from yellow to a vicious red. I reared back, bringing the flames to my hand, before throwing a fireball straight at Schmidt's face. It hit him straight in the cheek as he dropped to the ground, screaming in pain. Zola shouted as he ran after his master, helping to peel off the mask. It almost immediately revealed the true Red Skull underneath it.

"Oh my God..." Bucky muttered. I turned back to him, letting the red eyes glow. No point in hiding it now. Bucky took a step backwards. He was terrified of me. "V - Vika?" Bucky breathed out.

But I had already started this. And now I was going to finish it. I brought up a gust of wind and shot over to where Schmidt was standing. Zola immediately backed away in fear. Schmidt had managed to get over the pain from the fire as he stared at me. He threw a punch at me that I ducked from, responding with one of my own. It hit directly in his face and he stumbled backwards. The two of us were locked together as I grabbed his hand. My foot jammed down into his knee and he groaned, falling to his knees. I brought up a current of electricity and shot it straight across Schmidt's face.

There was a good chance that I had just blinded him in one eye. He howled in pain as the black char marks ran over the side of his face. He wasted no time in punching me in the chest, making me stagger back towards his briefcase. There were two pages of notes that were sticking out of the top. I wrenched them out of the case and folded them up, stuffing them into the back of the pants that I was wearing. I moved back to rip out Schmidt's throat when I heard Steve call out to me.

"Vic! Let him go! We've got to go!" Steve shouted.

Torn in between leaving Schmidt to finish him off later or stay and risk the building collapsing and killing the boys, I hesitated for a moment. That moment was all that it took for Zola to grab a gun and fire it straight at my chest. I could hear Bucky screaming in horror, only caught by Steve to keep from trying to get to me. My head slowly turned to face Zola, who looked petrified as the bullet kicked out of my chest. My eyes darkened to turn completely black. I let the blood in his chest come to a boil and watched as he hit his knees.

But it didn't last long. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Schmidt move to raise one of Hydra's strange guns at Steve and Bucky. The two boys ducked behind Steve's shield as I gasped, leaving Zola. I shot back over to the boys as Schmidt pulled the trigger, bringing up a force field, very nearly missing them. The blast from the weapon was so tough that I was knocked out of the air, hitting the platform in between them.

Bucky and Steve ran over to me, helping me back to my feet. I noticed that Bucky didn't keep his hands on me for long. "Vika... You two don't have one of those, do you?" Bucky asked.

"Not one of those," I said.

"Thank you, for your assistance, Savage," Schmidt told me, obviously pleased with the turn of events. "You are deluded, Captain. You pretend to be a simple soldier. But in reality you are just afraid to admit, that we have left humanity behind." He turned to leave the building. "All of us. Unlike you, I embrace it proudly. No fear."

"Then how come you're running?" Steve called after the two.

The two men got into the elevator and I watched as it closed. The doors sealed and we stared at them for a moment. But it wasn't long before another explosion came very close to where we were standing. We'd wasted too much time. We had to leave before the building collapsed. I glanced up and saw a door at the top of the building. It was on the other side, but about two floors above us was a beam that Steve and Bucky would be able to cross over. I could manage to fly over it.

"Come on, let's go. Let's go. Up," Steve said, pulling us to the stairs.

"Vika -" Bucky tried.

"Later. We're getting out of here first," I interrupted.

I knew that there was a lot that we had to talk about, but this was the wrong time. We had to get out of here. The three of us made our way up to the floor with the beam and over to where it was situated. It was extremely precariously perched. Steve looked over at me and I nodded to Bucky. "Let's go. One at a time," Steve said.

Bucky gave us a long look at I nodded at him. "I can hold it. Go," I said.

Bucky very slowly climbed over the railing, keeping a tight hold. We had to be very careful to ensure that he wouldn't fall. Steve and I kept our hands on his arms as he managed to straighten himself out. We held him for as long as possible as he began to cross the beam, finally getting out of our grasp. I had a grip on the beam, keeping it in place, but it was beginning to slip from the other side. It gave a huge drop on the other side but Bucky managed to hold himself. As he got halfway over the beam, it began to shake from all of the explosions, very nearly knocking him off. He ran the last half of the beam, just barely able to keep himself upright as the beam gave way.

He jumped onto the bars on the other side as I released my end of the beam, letting it fall. I let out a breath. At least Bucky was safe. He pulled himself onto the other side and stared back at us. "There's gotta be a rope or something," Bucky said.

"Just go, get out of here!" Steve yelled.

"Go!" I added.

Bucky smacked the bars. "No, not without you two!" he yelled.

Steve and I exchanged a look. I did a quick look at the gap. We could make it. I knew that Steve could make it. "Do you trust me?" I asked Steve.

He nodded. "Always."

"Jump."

Steve stared at me for a moment before nodding. We stepped backwards and I watched as Steve bent one of the bars so that we could make the jump, unobstructed. We moved all the way back from the platform as Bucky watched. Giving each other a quick look, I nodded. Steve and I immediately started into a sprint, jumping off of the end of the platform. We were up in the air, my hand in Steve's in the event that I needed to fly, as flames erupted all around us. It was a very near miss as we hit the railings on the other side. Bucky grabbed onto our arms, just barely able to pull us over and onto the other side.

Checking to make sure that Steve was okay, I nodded for the boys to head to the door. We sprinted towards the door as the building began to collapse. I could see the escaped prisoners down below, trying to kill the rest of the guards. Many were able to escape, but it seemed like a few of them were captured, unable to fight back without risking being killed themselves. The men must have managed to kill most of the soldiers. The three of us sprinted down the stairs, narrowly missing a few shots from the remaining Hydra soldiers.

We quickly made our way downstairs and I stared at the seven remaining soldiers. Two had flamethrowers while the others were being protected by the men with flamethrowers. The escaped prisoners were trying to figure out what to do. "Move!" I shouted.

The men turned back to me and did move. Steve and Bucky hesitated. I saw Bucky try to move after me, but Steve grabbed him, keeping him still. The two men with flamethrowers aimed them straight at me, but it did nothing. The prisoners were screaming as the flames shot up around me, but I continued to march towards the soldiers. They eventually realized that the flames were doing nothing. The brought the flamethrowers back down and merely shot at me with their pistols. The bullets hit my shoulders and chest, pushing them back, but I continued to advance on them. The men stopped screaming, simply watching me in horror.

I grabbed the throat of one of the men with the flamethrowers as the flames continued to lick over my hands and hair. I easily melted the mask off of his face, watching as it dissolved into his face. The other man ran after me but I was easily able to burn through his esophagus, letting his body drop. And that left the five soldiers that had been protected by the men with flamethrowers. They all stepped forward towards me and my eyes faded back to black. Schmidt wanted to see a monster... He would get one.

Running up and off of the edge of the tank that sat near the soldiers, I jumped off of it and onto the shoulders of the first soldier. Shoving him downwards, his head smashed into the concrete, knocking him out. I tucked into a roll as I jumped back upwards. A second man ran towards me and I slid under his knees, yanking his leg out so that he collapsed onto his hands and knees. I used his back to jump forward to another approaching soldier, swinging over myself and wrapping my legs around his throat. Using him to swing myself around, I ripped him off of his feet and back to the ground. He fell to the ground as I turned backwards and swung out my leg, crushing the side of his skull.

The second man jumped back up to his feet as I ducked down, swept out his legs, flipped over myself, and jammed my foot into his face, shoving the cartilage in his nose up into his brain, effectively killing him. And then there were two... One of the men ran up to me and threw out his fist, which I was easily able to catch. I wrenched his arm backwards, forcing him to drop the gun. He cried out as the bone snapped and I ducked down, kicking him in the stomach. He flew backwards and smashed into the building fifty feet away. The last of the men ran from behind me and grabbed my torso. I let off a burst of flames, burning him, but to his credit, he didn't let go. I grabbed underneath one of his arms, and wrapped my spare hand around the back of his neck. Jumping upwards, I used all of my weight to fling back down to the ground. He was thrown forward as I hit on my back, throwing myself back to my feet.

The man was attempting to get back to his feet as I motioned for one of the prisoners to toss me a baton that he must have stolen from the guards. With wide eyes, he tossed it to me. I turned back to the Hydra guard that was attempting to get back to his feet unsteadily. Grabbing the baton I swung it backwards, cracking it over his head. The guard fell backwards as brain matter and blood splattered. I breathed out heavily, flipping my hair out of my eyes, and tossed the baton back to the man.

As I turned back to the prisoners, I realized that two hundred eyes were deadlocked onto me. They had all been watching me like it was a movie. Even the men that had been in the tanks had popped out to watch. Calming myself down, I let my eyes fade back to yellow. Steve and Bucky were staring at me like I had lost my mind. Which I probably had. Some of the men looked like they were debating on shooting me, others looked like they wanted to scream, and there were even a few that looked like they might either laugh or cheer. But one thing was for sure; everyone was staring at me in shock.

Another loud bang alerted me back to the collapsing building. We were too close. "Move!" I shouted, my voice echoing.

"Get down!" Steve yelled.

We were too late to get out of the area. Shoving a few men out of the way, I placed myself in front of the building, just barely fifty feet away. I could hear Bucky shouting for me to get away, but I knew what I was doing. I brought up the largest force field that I had ever done, knowing that it was going to save the life of every man that we had just rescued. The force field wrapped around the building just as it began to implode on itself. Bangs and explosions rattled the earth, but the force field stayed strong as the building finally exploded. Huge chunks of metal hit the force field as my feet dug back into the dirt. Each blow was only pushing me back further and further, but I wasn't going to let the shield drop.

The building took nearly two minutes before it finally caved in on itself, hitting the ground and shaking it. I waited for the metal to stop breaking free of the building before dropping the force field, knowing that we were out of immediate danger. The explosions had ceased. Now - with the exception of the crackling of the flames - the air was silent. The building was destroyed, the Hydra agents were dead, and the men were safe. But I had done it with great cost to myself.

Turning back to the men, I brushed my hair off of my face, staring back at them. "Bucky?" Dum Dum called, drawing all attention to him. "I like your girlfriend."

Somehow that was all that it took. The men began to laugh and cheer. I smiled at them before turning and heading towards the men that we had brought from the cells. Steve and Bucky were watching me closely. "Is anyone hurt?" I asked.

"There are quite a few injuries. No one that's in immediate danger though," Gabe said.

I nodded at him, turning to Steve. "The transponder?" I asked.

"Broken," he said. He showed me the transponder and I nodded. There was a large chunk taken out of it from one of the blasts and the wire was bent.

"I'm not going to call them back. Chances are that they're already back at the base," I told Steve, referring to Howard and Peggy. "We march back. There's about thirty miles to the base. Bring everything that wasn't destroyed in the collapse. Howard can take a look at it all. We march now and we'll be back by midday tomorrow. I'll explain everything when we're back."

The men all nodded. "You heard the woman. Let's move!" Dum Dum called.

The men turned back and began the march back to the base. They were taking all of the weapons and vehicles that hadn't been destroyed in the fight. Steve, Bucky, and I took the lead, speeding up slightly so that no one else could hear us. I turned to them guiltily. "I promised you both that when the time was right, I would share everything with you. I think it's about time," I muttered.

Bucky laughed, running his hands through his hair. "Yeah... I think that's a good idea," he said.

It wasn't just telling them everything. If I wanted to share everything with them, I would have to show them. I found myself walking in between Bucky and Steve. "If you let me touch you, I can share memories with you. You'll be watching them, almost like a movie. Don't worry. I'll make sure that you don't walk into anything," I teased.

Turned out that they still appreciated the joke. Bucky smiled at me and nodded. "Okay," he said.

"Do it," Steve added. Taking a deep breath, I raised my hands and gently pressed against their temples. Their eyes mimicked the way that mine went, white with black swirls, as I showed them everything.

Bucky's P.O.V.

It felt like getting sucked through a drain. It was almost impossible to breathe until Bucky found himself and Steve thrown into something that must have been one of her memories. Bucky spotted a woman lying in a hospital bed with a baby in her arms. A man stood over her, smiling down at the baby. Bucky turned back and saw the date on the clock. October 21st, 1920. It was the day that she was born. These were her parents. They looked nothing like her. Her mother had brown eyes and hair while her father had red hair and green eyes.

Everything flew by. But he felt like he was in her mind for days, just watching everything happen. He watched her parents wondering about her as an infant. They were wondering about her white hair and curious if her yellow eyes meant that she was blind. He watched as men burst into the room, murdering the doctors, explaining to her parents that she was not human. They told them that they had brought a monster into the world, not a human being. He watched as the men shot an infant Vika in the chest, her parents screaming in horror as the bullet was pushed out of her chest and she came back to life. Never once had she cried. Her parents were horrified as the men offered to help raise her.

Time passed as they saw the next memory. She was begging her parents to let her go to school as she'd been kept in the house for her entire life, never allowed outside or to speak to anyone. He cringed as her parents called her an it and shouted at her to go back to her room. He heard her parents shouting that no one would ever love her. All he could remember was the day that he had deployed, telling her that he loved her. This was why she had had such a hard time saying it back. Because she'd been told that it would never happen.

The scene shifted again and he saw her down in the basement. He saw her strapped down to a table, fear evident in her eyes. He saw her parents offer to sell her corpse to the scientists. He saw them try to execute her. He watched as she wrenched herself free of the restraint, burning everything in her terror. He watched as she burned her house to the ground, accidentally killing her parents and the doctor. She had killed her parents. But it had been an accident. And they had deserved it. He watched as she ran from the sirens... Straight into his life.

There was another large skip through time. He saw Johnathan Harper with her out in the hallway just a day before she vanished. He heard Johnathan call her a Curve and felt his hands bunch together. But it was just a memory. He was just here to watch. Nothing could be changed. He watched Johnathan taunt her over her parents. He was not surprised to see her attack Johnathan, tearing his knee from the socket.

Then came the day that she had vanished. Both he and Steve straightened up to watch her storm from the school and into the alley. He watched as Johnathan and three of his friends had attacked her. He watched her attack them without any injury to herself. She had done that to them. He saw the way that she had stumbled back in fear when she'd thought that she'd killed them. He saw an older man come to her rescue and beg her to come with him. He saw her hesitation as the man explained to her who he was and why she should come with him. He knew how hard it had been. He'd even heard her mental promise to come back to them.

He watched as the man named William Stryker explained to her what she was. A mutant. He could just remember her talking about mutation to him. She was one... He heard the classification of mutants. He watched as she met people like herself, looking amazed. He even heard her ask about himself and Steve. He watched as she explained her powers and showed some of them. He cringed in horror as she was betrayed by Stryker. This was what had happened to her for all of those years.

He watched all of the terrible things that had happened to her over the years. He watched as she was brutally beaten and starved. He saw her be treated like an animal. It made everything that had happened to him in the Hydra facility look like a joke. He watched her attempt an escape, having to look away when he saw what had happened to her. He saw how nothing worked. She was constantly beaten but never died. He knew that she wanted to die. He saw it in her eyes. He watched as she slowly looked less and less human.

It got to the point that he saw everything that she was forced to do. All of the brutal ways that she had been trained by all of the men that took out their anger on her. He watched bashfully as she was forced to sleep without clothes on the metal floor and had ice cold water poured on her. He watched as she was shot for refusing to kill another mutant, only to be killed anyways. He watched everything that had happened to her in that building. He watched the horrible food that she was fed and heard her warning to her trainer.

They both watched closely as she stumbled into the wrong room and met a man named Logan. He watched their tense exchange before the scene shifted to the next day in the hydro-chamber. He knew that they both felt awkward watching her without clothes, but Bucky tried to brush it off. He watched her go through the fusion of the Adamantium skeleton. He watched Logan go through the same thing and smiled at their daring escape. He saw the radiation blast that she let off, killing the guards. He heard Stryker call her an Omega, the strongest known mutant. He watched as they escaped the facility and dropped from the waterfall.

Her panic was obvious as she hunted for Logan and her relief when she found him. Bucky watched as they pulled each other up onto the land. He felt a little roil in his stomach as he watched their exchange. He hated that someone had looked at her like that. But at least he had saved he did smile when he realized that even Logan had picked up that she was in love with him. He watched as the separated with the promise that they would see each other again one day.

With a horrible feeling of guilt - and exchanging a pained look with Steve - they watched as she returned to the apartment, hope in her eyes. He saw the hope die when she questioned the old woman on where he and Steve had gone. He watched as she left and wandered right onto Colonel Phillips's property. He watched him take her in and give her a real home.

She even showed them the process that Steve had gone through. Bucky saw everything from the USO Tour - that had made him laugh - their little training sessions - which had also made him laugh - and the assassination that Heinz Kruger had gone through with. He even saw some of the conversation where Steve had been told what she was. She even showed them the moment that she had found one of her old trainers and very nearly beaten them to death. Bucky watched as Steve begged her to let him live. He saw as they were brought overseas and he watched the tense exchange between her and Colonel Phillips as she left to free him.

And suddenly it felt like they were being squeezed back through a pipe about ten times too small for them. Bucky and Steve stumbled back as it felt like they were thrown into their bodies once more. Bucky realized that they had been marching the entire time. It was now daylight. He saw Vika's eyes were white with a little black swirl through them. She blinked once and they faded back to yellow. She had her hands knitted behind her back, giving them both a very nervous look.

"Well... The two of you deserved to know the truth. There it is. All of it," Vika said. Bucky could hear her voice breaking. As he stared at her, he realized that she suddenly looked very different. She looked like someone that had been through everything that he'd seen and so much more. Vika took their silence the wrong way. "I'll go now."

She turned to leave as Bucky and Steve both took a step towards her. "Hang on," Bucky said.

"Come back," Steve added.

She turned back to them with a stunned look on her face. Bucky was hyper-aware of the other men watching them. "You can't seriously still want to be anywhere near me?" she asked.

It felt like she had slapped him. He was stunned. He had just found out a hell of a lot about her life that he had never known, things that might have made other people run, but he was in love with her. He would never leave her. "Are you that stupid?" Bucky asked.

She looked floored that he had dared speak to her like that. "Are you? Did you gather nothing from that?" she snapped back at him.

Steve stepped forward, trying to diffuse the tension between the two of them. "Don't be an idiot, Vic. We told you years ago that we were always going to be there for you. I told you a year and a half ago that I wasn't going to leave you. No one is leaving you," he said.

They would need time to understand everything, but they weren't going to leave her. "I'm not leaving you," Bucky promised. "You are -"

"Not human, Bucky," she interrupted.

His eyes narrowed at her and she shook her head. She had never made him angry before, but he was angry now. He wasn't going to walk away from her, no matter what she thought. He would always be here. "Really?" he asked her. He stepped towards her as she watched. His hand gently pressed against her upper chest. He felt her heart beating steadily underneath his hand. "Because I feel your heart beating. I've heard you laugh. I've seen you smile."

"I'm dangerous," she said.

"Maybe to them. Never to me," he pointed out.

"You're scared of me."

Bucky laughed at her. "Yes, Vika. I have always been afraid of you. I used to just think that you were different. You've given me a real reason to be scared of you now. But I'm not walking away from you. Not after everything," he said, grabbing her hand.

She felt warmer than she used to. "You don't know what you're walking into," she whispered.

Bucky shook his head at her again. "I do. You don't get it. Vika... You spent so long being terrified of everyone finding out your secret that you never let anyone come close to you. You've forgotten what it's like to actually have someone that loves you. You're so terrified of yourself that you refuse to think that someone else might not be afraid to be around you," he said.

He could see the realization dawn in her eyes. "There are so many reasons that you shouldn't," she said, sounding less convinced now.

"Name them. Come on," Bucky prompted.

"Your life will be like the blink of eye to mine."

And that was the truth. She would never age. He could tell that it bothered her. But he didn't care. He wanted to spend every moment with her that he could, before he no longer could. "Then let me spend mine with you. Because I might just be a part of yours. But you'll be all of mine," he told her.

Her eyes briefly flashed a deep blue before returning to their normal yellow. "There's no future with me," she whispered.

But there was a future with her. He had always known that there was a future with her. She had always been his only future. "Yes there is. I've always known that there was a future with you," he told her.

Her eyes hardened. "I murdered my own parents," she said.

Bucky shook his head. He had seen them. They were not her parents. They were horrible. "They were not your family. We are. You, me, Howard Stark, Agent Carter, Colonel Phillips, and Steve... Family," he told her.

"I could kill you."

Bucky laughed at her. "I've always known that," he said.

The corners of her lips turned up. "You really don't care?" she asked quietly.

Bucky sighed and shook his head. He cared. But he didn't care enough to leave her because of it. "Well... It's a lot to take in at one time. I think I'll have questions for the rest of my life. Yes, I am terrified of you," he told her. She merely smiled at him. "But I'm not going to leave you. Never."

"You're insane."

"Wonder where I got that from?" he teased her.

She smiled at him as he wrapped an arm over her shoulder. "Thank you," she said.

He pressed a kiss into her hair. He was dirty and probably didn't smell very good, but she didn't seem to mind. One of her hands traveled over to his stomach. "So you've always been like this?" Bucky asked.

"Always."

"And there's no undoing it?"

"Not that I know of."

Bucky glanced down at her and saw a few holes in the shirt that she was wearing. There were two in the shoulders and three in the chest. He was reasonably sure that there was one in her stomach, too. "You took a bullet to the chest and kept going..." he trailed off.

She shrugged her shoulders at him, as if being shot was no big deal. Maybe, to her, it wasn't. "Like you heard, I can't die. I'll never age. No pain receptors. Dismemberment is effective but I can grow back limbs, too," she said. He cringed at the thought. "Essentially you could do just about anything to me and I'll keep coming after you."

"I never wanted to get into a fight with you before. Now I really don't want to get in a fight with you," Bucky said.

"Trust me when I say that you would lose," she warned.

After watching her attack the soldiers inside and outside of the Hydra facility, Bucky knew that she would win any fight that he ever picked with her. So he settled on never picking a fight with her. "So you've always taken it easy on us?" Bucky asked her.

She laughed and nodded. "So easy," she said.

All of the rest of the men laughed, too. They were watching as the three of them walked ahead of everyone else. Bucky still had his arm over her shoulders as she looked up at him. She turned towards him as he leaned down and pressed a kiss against her mouth. His stomach gave a little jump. It had been too long since he'd kissed her. The men all hooted and howled as they stayed together for a few minutes. She finally pulled away from him and pressed one more, small kiss, against his mouth.

Bucky caught Steve smiling at them from their other side. "Nice to meet you... Savage," Bucky said slowly.

She smiled at him and nodded. Steve finally walked back up to them, knowing that the tense discussion had passed. He looped his other arm over Vika's shoulders. "No more secrets," Steve said.

She shook her head at them. "No more." They continued to walk as Vika let out a soft breath. "I think that this is the best that I've felt since I was born," she said, tucking herself in between the two of them. Right where she belonged.

Victoria's P.O.V.

It felt like someone had lifted an anvil off of my chest. I'd never felt so good as to have the two boys know the entire truth about me. And it wasn't even that they knew that I was a mutant. It was the fact that they knew everything. And that was what I'd always needed. I'd needed them to know everything about me. This wasn't exactly the way that I'd wanted to tell them, but at least it was out in the open. It was nice to find myself once more in between Steve and Bucky as we walked back to the base.

The British man that had pointed out that I was a woman down in the cells walked up to me. "James Montgomery Falsworth. Just James. Well done, Miss," he said.

I shook his hand and smiled. "Just Victoria. Thank you."

Dum Dum walked back up to us and gave me a hug. "And officially, Dum Dum Dugan. Just Dum Dum. I believe this is yours," Dum Dum said, handing Bucky back the locket. Bucky took it with a thanks and slid it back over his neck. "Hell of a girl you've got there, Bucky."

"Thank you," I said.

"That I do," Bucky said, pressing a kiss into my hair.

"Gabe Jones."

"Nice to meet you."

"Jim Morita," the Japanese-American soldier introduced himself.

"Hello."

A French man stepped forward after he had cleared out of the way. "Jacques Dernier. Good to meet you," he said.

"You as well."

The five of them stepped off so that they were walking behind Steve, Bucky, and I. Bucky turned towards me and motioned back to the men. "They helped us out in the Hydra camp," he explained to me.

Turning back to the five men, and all of the other soldiers, I called out to them. "When we get back we need you all to tell us everything that you know about Hydra," I said.

"We can do that," Dum Dum said.

Thanking the men, I turned back to walk with Steve and Bucky. His arm was wrapped over my shoulder and I had a feeling that it wouldn't be removing itself at any point soon. "What are you smiling at?" Bucky asked me.

"You," I said.

Bucky smiled down and pressed another kiss to my forehead. "I love you," he said softly.

Smiling at him, I gently tapped against the scruff on his chin. "I know," I teased.

The men laughed as we continued walking. "I do have a question," Bucky said.

"Just one?" I asked.

Bucky laughed at me. I knew that his questions would last for the rest of his life. "Lots. But I think that I need time to gather them all," he told me. I nodded in understanding. "Do you read my mind?"

Turning towards him, I shook my head. "No. Out of respect for my friends, I never read their minds," I said. He looked very relieved to know that. I thought about just letting it go, but I knew that I couldn't just say nothing. "Just know that sometimes your thoughts are so loud that I don't need to read your mind. So, yes, I have heard some of the things that you've thought about me."

Bucky's face turned a bright red as the men standing near us began to laugh. "I - Uh - I..." Bucky trailed off.

"Am not angry," I picked up. He smiled at me, still trying to brush off the comment. "I actually appreciate it."

The men once more hooted and howled as they patted me on the back. I smiled. I really could get used to this. Bucky glanced down at me, seemingly finally noticing what I was wearing. "What are you wearing?" he asked me.

I would have pulled the suit away from me, but it was too tight. "Howard designed it. It's flame retardant. Mostly Kevlar. He demanded that I wasn't allowed to run around in the rags that I normally wear. So he made this suit," I said.

Bucky raised his brows and nodded. "I like it," he said. I rolled my eyes at him. He only liked it because some of my midriff was showing and it was lower cut than most of the other things that I wore. "And look at you!" Bucky tapped Steve on the chest.

"Thank, Vic. And Abraham Erskine," Steve said.

"So now you're the little guy," I said, nudging Bucky.

Bucky smiled at me. I knew that he was going to say something that I didn't like. "That's okay. We're both still taller than you," Bucky said.

Grinning sideways, I pulled my foot up and yanked Bucky's knee out. He stumbled as I grabbed his back, rolling the two of us forward. Bucky went splaying to the ground as I flipped over myself, continuing to walk. The men all howled with laughter. "I'll live longer. And I'm not the one in spandex," I pointed out as Bucky got back to his feet.

Both Steve and Bucky glared at me. They had to know that now that they knew what I was, I was never going to let them forget it. "Think you can ask Stark to make me one of those?" Steve asked me.

We all laughed once more as we continued the march. I could see the base coming up in the distance. I patted Steve on the back. "I think that you look rather spiffy," I teased him.

Bucky smiled at us. "I think we all look rather spiffy," he said.

And I nodded at him. We were quite the little trio, but we worked well enough. Dum Dum came up to our side and stood by me. I looked over to him and smiled. "Hey. No one's ever gonna be scared of mutants after this. You don't have to hide, Victoria. We've got your back. As long as you've got ours," he told me.

"Always," I said, meaning it.

Our large group marched on the camp and I smiled as we passed through the gates. The men looked stunned as they ran to greet us. There was already a large crowd waiting for us. They moved off to both sides as we walked through the gates and onto the base. I heard everyone whispering about a woman being with them. It didn't take long for those watching to start clapping and cheering. Of course, these were their friends. I was in the front of the line with Steve. Bucky was off to our left. The three of us exchanged a smile as Steve patted both Bucky and I on the back. We all made our way through the camp as we met up with Chester; Peggy was standing right behind him. Steve saluted Chester.

Men surrounded us on every side. The ones from the base were pointing at the rescued prisoners. "Some of these men need medical attention. I'd like to surrender myself for disciplinary action," Steve said.

The men were all laughing and hugging each other. Chester turned over to me. Bucky was watching from behind us. "I'm not surrendering for shit. But I will apologize for everything that I said to you before. It was uncalled for," I admitted.

Chester nodded at me. "I should've listened to you," he told me. I smiled at him and nodded. We would be fine. Kids and parents fought all the time. He then looked at Steve. "That won't be necessary."

I could have sworn that Chester almost smiled. "Yes, Sir," Steve said.

"Do they know?" Chester asked me.

Heads slowly began to turn to me. "They know," I said.

Chester nodded before passing both Steve and I to stand in front of Bucky, who saluted the Colonel. Chester merely stared at him for a moment. "You hurt my girl... She's the least of your worries," he warned.

"Yes, Sir," Bucky said.

Chester turned back and passed by Peggy. "Faith, huh?" he asked her.

She almost immediately stormed up to me. She launched herself into my arms so hard that I did take a step backwards. "There you are! Why didn't you just call out to me?" she hissed.

"We had things to talk about," I said, looking back at Bucky.

"They know?" she asked.

"They know."

Peggy smiled and gave Bucky a little nod. They exchanged a brief smile. I could feel her guilt at having thought that he was dead. "I told you that he wouldn't leave you," Peggy said. And she was right. We grinned at each other before I allowed her to move off and stand in front of Steve. "You're late."

Steve held up the broken transponder. "Couldn't call my ride," he told her.

She glanced down and smiled at the transponder. Before either one of them could speak again, Bucky shouted out for everyone to listen. "Hey! Let's hear it for Captain America!" he yelled. "And Savage!" he added.

The men all moved forward and began to clap and cheer. Steve and I exchanged a bright smile. Here we were... After everything, we were finally real soldiers. I gave Steve a little nudge and received one in response. Bucky raised his eyebrows at us as if to tell us that this was everything that we had always deserved. The men continued to cheer for us as I felt myself being patted on the back. It wasn't long before Howard broke through the crowd, marching up to me.

He gave me a sweet smile that I responded to. He almost immediately glanced down at the suit and narrowed his eyes at me. "You've already put a bullet hole in it," he sighed at me.

"It's war, you moron. Make a bulletproof suit next time," I snapped.

"Don't need one. I've got a bulletproof soldier. And it's a god thing I made five," he added.

I laughed and pressed a kiss to his cheek as he turned back to allow us to celebrate. I turned back to Bucky and smiled at him. "Hey. Thanks for coming back," I said softly.

"Thanks for coming to get me. And thank you for not breaking my nose," he said.

I laughed softly and shook my head. "Not until you break that promise," I told him. I stared at the cheering men around us and smiled. "You ready to go home?"

Bucky's arm wrapped around my back. "I am home," he said.

As the men around us continued to clap and cheer, Steve and Peggy watching us with a smile, Bucky pulled me into him. I threw my arms around his neck as his arms constricted around my waist. His hand was on the back of my head, pulling me into a rough kiss. I could hear Peggy squealing, practically see Steve smiling, hear Howard planning our wedding, and hear Chester's thoughts about how Bucky needed to keep his hands off of me. But I didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that Bucky was back. He lifted me from the ground and I laughed as the men began to let out wolf whistles and catcalls. It still didn't matter. The only that matter was that, for the first time in a long time, everything was right.

A/N: Isn't that sweet? Bucky is back into the picture, everyone knows that Victoria is a mutant, and Steve is now the soldier that he's always wanted to be! The chapter was already getting long, so most of the next one will focus on the men getting used to Victoria as a mutant, getting to know the rest of the Commando's, and the aftermath of the rescue. Thanks so much for all of the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

rebelforcauses: Thank you! I hope that you liked this one! I definitely had a lot of fun writing it.

Visenyas: Thank you! Well look at that, Bucky knows now and everyone is back together! Hope this didn't take too long!

Ebrithme: Hope that you like this one!

kuppcake: I laughed when I wrote about her hitting him with the door and throwing the bricks, too, lol. Thank you! I hope that you're still enjoying the story!

.2017: Thank you!