A/N: Thank you nightmarehunter676 for the review! Enjoy the chapter!
REVISED 11.25.2017
Steve Rogers was more than confused.
Over twenty hours had passed since the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan arranged an impromptu rescue for his best friend and the survivors of the 107th regiment with the help of Peggy Carter and Howard Stark.
The plan was simple.
Get in the HYDRA base, find the 107th infantry, and get out of there.
But he should have known nothing was ever that simple. When Bucky hadn't been in the cells with the rest of the men, Steve panicked. He had run through the hallways, checking each room, only to find his best friend unconscious on a gurney. The dark haired man was incoherent at first and wasn't capable of walking on his own to walk on his own. So many questions flooded Steve's mind, but one thing was for certain. They had to get out of here.
And, once again, things didn't seem to go as planned.
Trying to find an exit for them to escape, the two friends hurried along one of the many steel walkways only to be stopped by one Johann Schmidt. The man had called out to him, immediately stopping Steve in his tracks. Their physical scuffle was short-lived as the man began to talk about a powerful being he had discovered, which led to Schmidt mention of the woman.
Steve's eyes had immediately settled on the unconscious body in the Nazi soldier's arms. Her brown skin was a similar color to the milk chocolate that he and Bucky use to eat as children with her black curly hair bunched up on the top of her head in a hairstyle he's never seen a woman wear. His eyes glanced over her body, bearing witness to the oddest clothes he had ever seen. She looked so young and innocent in the arms of danger.
And Schmidt had called her a god among men; advanced in nature even in comparison to the two of them.
He didn't know what exactly to make about that statement, since there was only one god to him. Though one thing was certain as he now stood by her cot back on base.
The young woman was beautiful.
His eyes were on her face, remembering when he saw her eyes first open back at the HYDRA base. The way she sprung to action was so quick and sudden as if she were awake the entire time, waiting to strike. And to his surprise, she was able to render the man holding her unconscious with a single punch.
Steve had not missed the shock on Schmidt's face before the man left them stranded in the burning building, and heard Bucky swear in awe at the woman defending herself against the HYDRA scientist. Steve was in awe himself, and stunned when she had picked up the lanky soldier onto her shoulder, jumping the rest of the way to them.
And that was when he got a good an even better look at the young woman. If they weren't trying to escape a burning building, he knew he would have blushed profusely and stumbled over his words. Luckily, he was able to avoid an embarrassing encounter.
Standing before her now while she laid unconscious, Steve couldn't help a slight flush creep to his face. She looked so different from all the dames he had seen during his life in New York. The ash from the fires nestled in her black hair, the dark frizzy curls reaching just past her shoulders. Her full lips parted slightly as she slept, complementing her golden brown skin.
Colored people were never around the areas he acquainted since segregation was rampant. It was a shame too, considering the few that he had come across happened to be the kindest people compared to the folks that shared the same skin color as him. And he didn't doubt this woman was the same. Kind enough to rescue someone she saw as a threat as well as grabbing Bucky before he fell.
His eyes wandered to the area on her body that was a cause for concern. Dots of crimson sporadically lined the side of her face where a deep wound had cut into her skin because of her trying to save Bucky from falling. The same wound that the nurse was going to patch up in several minutes.
Except it was no longer there, with dried blood as the only evidence that it even existed.
"She was held captive for months."
The familiar soft voice came from his left and he glanced over to see Peggy. Her face seemed solemn as she kept her eyes on the young woman in the cot. The woman made a move to tenderly pull the sheets further up the woman's body, when she paused suddenly.
It wasn't a second later when the agent's brown eyes frantically looked up at him, widened with shock. It was a pretty sight, her dark eyes standing out against her smooth porcelain skin. A slight blush crept into his face as he noticed how close the woman was to him, but his mind flashed to the moment before he jumped from the plan to rescue the 107th. The moment he caught between her and Stark and that one word that had repeated in his mind.
Fondue.
"Steve, her wound…"
Steve nodded his head tersely at her remark. He didn't know exactly how to approach her about her time with Stark, and the woman lying unconscious was of more importance at the moment.
"That means there must be some truth to what Schmidt reported in his logs. In Carrington's debriefing, he mentioned she fell from some sort of portal in the middle of the laboratory and that Schmidt believed she's not from this world," the woman spoke quietly, referring to the HYDRA soldier the unconscious young woman carried on her back.
Steve had been suspicious at first, but once it was cleared that the HYDRA soldier was actually British intelligence that infiltrated HYDRA's ranks, Steve had let it go. Carrington was lucky the strange young woman was compassionate or he would've been left in that facility to die.
His mind quickly reeled back to what Peggy had just said.
A portal.
And the very human looking woman laying before him was possibly not human?
That had to be the craziest thing he ever heard.
The young woman looked as human as himself and Peggy. Even if her cut healed quickly, she had the same colored blood and for all they know, she could have been experimented on by Schmidt. Which would explain how she knocked out Carrington and was able to remove Schmidt's hold on her.
But there was an odd feeling deep in the pit of Steve's stomach that Carrington's debrief may just hold some semblance of truth.
The agent's red stained lips opened again to speak but she was interrupted by Colonel Philips, Howard Stark, and Henry Carrington filing into the tent. Steve noted the expression on Howard's face was one of awe and cautiousness as his eyes lingered on the lady in the cot, causing Steve to unconsciously step forward in a protective stance.
Steve's eyes dropped down on the item in the dark haired genius's hand.
"Did you find out what that is?" Steve asked, nodding his head at said item. From what Steve gathered from Carrington, it belonged to the unconscious woman. The agent was able to secure the item from HYDRA, but he mentioned to Steve that the woman's other belongings in a bag were confiscated before he could see the contents.
Howard looked at Steve with a look of fascination as he held it up for the soldier to get good a look. To Steve it just looked like a piece of glass held together with thin pieces of metal at the ends, but he knew it must mean so much more if the genius was mesmerized.
"I'll have to do some testing in my lab," the man said, rather excitedly. His finger ran over a metal end, where a strange blue light appeared on the glass screen. The circular symbol glowed bright, rotating in place. Steve had never seen anything like it, and he had a feeling no one in the room had either. "I'm not quite sure what this is but this is advanced."
The group of four stood in silence as they watched the small screen and the projection that spun within it. The grumbling of a cleared throat brought everyone to attention, courtesy of Colonel Phillips, all eyes no longer on the screen but on the Colonel. "For a precaution, we'll have to put restraints on her."
"No."
Steve stepped his foot down immediately. The woman didn't seem like a threat in anyway, otherwise there would have been more issues trying to escape the HYDRA base. She did confront Johann Schmidt and saved a man's life that she saw as a threat after all.
"Rogers, you may have saved those men's lives but you don't have a say in the operations of how we run this facility," Colonel Phillips replied. "Agent Carrington's debriefing has led us to believe this woman may be dangerous."
"Schmidt held her captive for months and she saved Agent Carrington, who she also saw as a threat," Steve said slowly, his voice lowering as he stood at full height. She posed no danger to him and Bucky. In fact, she helped them escape the building all while carrying a full grown man on her back. And for her to wake up restrained would not only bring unnecessary tension but wasn't fair in the slightest.
The old man gave out an indignant huff after a moment of silence, shaking his head.
"Watch her and don't let her out of this tent until I say so," Colonel Phillips ordered briefly. "If the girl so much as leaves this tent, you'll be worse than reprimanded. Her affiliation and origins are unknown. We have to be on high alert."
Another beat didn't pass between the two men as the super soldier nodded. Steve wasn't going to leave the tent anyway. For one, his best friend was in the cot next to the young woman.
"Does she have a name?" Steve asked, eyes now on Carrington.
"The name's Semira. That's my phone. And since this nightmare isn't ending, I'll tell you everything I know for some steak, a salad, and a bottle of vodka."