Meet them at the front door. That's what Steve's plan was for the HYDRA main base. Ada had merely tightened her lips into a scowl at his suggestion, but she didn't fight it. She merely crossed her arms over her chest and asked him how they were going to do it.

And now, facing down Johann Schmidt, he really wished he had listened to his wife.

"Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait, but I must say, you do it better than anyone," Red Skull boomed as he entered the room and stopped in front of Steve. "But there are limits to what even you can do, Captain. Or did Erskine tell you otherwise?"

"He told me you were insane." Mouthing off to school yard bullies taught him a thing or two about getting under a man's skin. As far as Steve was concerned, Schmidt was nothing more than a bully.

And a murderer.

"Ah...he resented my genius and tried to deny me what was rightfully mine. Him and that little blonde girl you are so fond of. But he gave you everything. So, what made you so special?"

Steve scoffed. "Nothing. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Schmidt knocked him to his knees with three hits. Super serum against super serum. Steve coughed against the pressure in his diaphragm and raised his head to face the scarlet skinned tyrant.

"I can do this all day."

"Of course you can, of course," Schmidt mocked as he drew his pistol and pointed it at Steve's head. "But unfortunately I am on a tight schedule. Now tell me, where is Spitfire?"

"Right here."

Ada's steely cold voice broke the oppressive silence of the room. The vent above their heads opened and the blonde landed on the floor in a neat crouch. Before anyone could move, three bodies crashed through the glass wall on the side of the room.

Bullets and blasts of energy rained through the room, creating a cacophony of cracks and screams. Red Skull took that as his chance to flee.

"Steve!" Ada shouted. She tossed his shield to him and he caught it easily. "Let's go."

The couple sprinted for the door and emerged into a hall, looking left and right in the hopes of seeing what direction Schmidt went.

"Right," Ada ordered.

Explosions rocked the building and debris rained over their heads as they ran down the hall. It was strange seeing Ada without her mask on in a raid. He could see the way her eyes darted back and forth rapidly as she took in every single piece of information around her and made decisions in seconds. Her blonde curls were pinned away from her face in some victory rolls that made her look like one of those damn pinup models even in the middle of a war.

They turned down the hall, hot on the heels of Schmidt. Red Skull fired a blast at the couple and Steve deflected it into the wall. He launched his shield down the hall, hearing a satisfying thud of it preventing the doors from shutting.

Before he and Ada could take another step, two HYDRA gunmen appeared around the corner. Flames filled the hallway, intertwining with the shots from the second HYDRA gunman. He pointed his gun directly at them and Ada knew.

She had always known.

The blonde ducked her shoulder and slammed her body into Steve's, shoving him up against the wall behind a door frame. She fished a gun out of her thigh holster and paused. Heat tickled her cheeks and caused wind to whip tendrils of her blonde hair around her pale face. She raised her head to look up at him, her green eyes tracing over every inch of his exposed skin under the mask and then landing on his blue eyes. Ada reached up with her free hand and pulled him down to meet her lips in a searing kiss.

But just as quickly as it started, Ada pulled away from him with tears shining in her eyes.

"I love you," she whispered. "So much. I need you to understand that this was always supposed to happen. I was designed to die in this war. You were always so good to me, Steven Grant Rogers, and I have been honored to be your wife. I'm holding you to that dance."

And then she stepped back into the flames.

He could only watch in horror as she raised her arm and fired off three quick shots just as a gun fired. His throat was raw from screaming as her body jerked from the shot that hit her chest. The fire faded and Steve shoved off of the wall to kneel at her side.

Half of her beautiful face was burned from the fire. Blood trickled from the corner of her lip. Yet he still desperately checked her pulse for some kind of hope. Her heartbeat was thready and slowing every second.

"No, no. Please. I can't lose you too," he begged. "Please. C'mon, eyes on me. Eyes on me!"

Her lips moved faintly before stilling as her body fell limp in his arms. Blood coated the front of her suit jacket and his hands and Steve felt sick at the sight of it. He cradled her close to him and pushed some of her stray hair out of her face.

"Steve!" Peggy shouted. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Ada but he heard the footsteps behind him. The SSR agent gasped at the sight of the supposed immortal Spitfire.

"Schmidt's getting away!" someone shouted down the hall.

Steve Rogers saw red. In twenty-four hours, he had lost his best friend and his lover all because of this egomaniacal fuck. He gently laid Ada down onto the cold metal tile and slid her eyelids shut. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he whispered one last farewell and then stood.

"I'm going to kill him," he snarled. "And I'm going to make it hurt."