Shield Headquarters
Location: Washington D.C.
2014
Steve Rogers was still reeling from the long night he had. The image of Nick Fury's death still circulated in his mind as well as the man with the silver arm who killed Fury. There was so much that had happened that he couldn't even comprehend. Why was Fury killed? Why did Fury give him that flash drive? Why did he tell him not to trust anyone? All those questions continued to bug the Captain as he sincerely wished some of his team was here.
He had Natasha but Steve still wasn't sure if he could completely trust her half the time. Barton was who knows where on some classified mission. Thor had returned back to earth, or so he had heard, but was much more content staying with his astrophysicist girlfriend than hanging around any of them. Stark and Banner were locked up inside Stark tower, or as it was now called Avenger's tower, and continued to do their little science projects together. None of them were here but Steve wasn't so sure that they could help him.
Not with this anyways.
Steve exited the elevator on one of the top floors. It was very strange how insistent Rumlow was about him getting to Alexander Pierce's office. He knew that it was necessary but Rumlow had been adamant and impatient about it. The Captain briskly walked towards Pierce's office just as a certain nurse was leaving it. Steve narrowed his eyes at the woman he had previously known as Kate, the nurse/neighbor, but who was actually Agent 13.
"Captain Rogers." She greeted as they passed each other and Steve gave her a curt nod.
"Neighbor." He retorted and the woman blushed, looking down at the ground as she walked away. Steve knew that she was probably only doing her job but he was kind of hurt by her lie. They would occasionally flirt whenever they bumped into each other in the hallway and Steve thought that she might've even liked him. He wasn't as smooth as he thought apparently since it was all for show. Steve stopped in front of Pierce's door; the much older yet truthfully younger man was standing just outside his office.
"Oh, Captain." Pierce greeted with a kind smile. "I'm Alexander Pierce."
"Sir, it's an honor." Steve greeted formally before they shook hands firmly.
"The honor's mine, Captain." Pierce replied. "My father served in the 101st. Come on in."
Steve observed Pierce's office with a small bit of interest as he looked around. It was large and spacious, everything someone as powerful as Pierce would have in an office. Steve had heard a lot about Pierce in the past. He was a good man that had done a lot of good for both his country and the world. A well liked and well respected man who had accomplished so much in his lifetime.
It was difficult to find someone that held little respect for the older looking man. From what it sounded like, Fury had also greatly respected this man. Pierce sounded like a mentor to the recently deceased Shield director. Steve noticed a couple of pictures lying on top of a table and gently picked them up out of curiosity. The first picture was of a much younger Nick Fury looking to be sworn into duty by a younger looking Alexander Pierce.
"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was at state department in Bogota." Pierce explained as Steve quietly observed the picture. "E.L.N. rebels took the embassy and security got me out but the rebels took hostages."
"Nick was Deputy Chief at the Shield station there and he comes to me with a plan." Pierce continued as he began to walk towards Steve from across the room. "He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate."
"It turned out the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they sent out a kill order. They stormed the basement and what do they find?" Pierce asked rhetorically as he stood in front of Steve before sitting down in one of the chairs. Steve copied his movement and sat down in a chair as well. "They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil and saved the lives of a dozen political officers as well as my daughter."
"So you gave him a promotion?" Steve inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"I never had any cause to regret it." Pierce replied. Steve didn't say anything as he looked away, returning his attention back to the photos. He flipped through the one of Fury and Pierce before he caught sight of a much different picture. It was a picture that he had seen before. Only the picture he had was of the whole family.
The photo Steve possessed showed a beautiful redheaded woman with emerald green eyes next to an older looking man… a man with hair as blonde as Steve's own hair as well as eyes that were the same exact shade of blue. His son. In their arms had been a baby that could've only been a few months old. The family looked incredibly happy and it killed him to know that he would never get to meet any of them. They had all died around six years before Steve had been pulled from the ice.
The photo Steve was now looking at didn't contain the same man he was used to seeing. No, he didn't see the familiar blonde man anywhere in the picture. Instead, he saw the same beautiful redheaded woman with a small looking toddler in her arms. The redhead had a delighted look on her face as she held the tiny looking blonde girl that also had hair as blonde as Steve's and eyes just as blue. Steve felt his throat grow thick with emotion as he stared at the happy little girl with blonde pigtails. She couldn't have been more than two or three in the picture.
"I see you've found the picture of Margot and Emma." Pierce stated as he watched the captain stare at the photo longingly. "It was tragic what happened to them…the house fire."
"Why do you have this?" Steve asked quietly.
"I guess they didn't tell you but Margot was my daughter, Captain." Steve looked up at him in surprise but Pierce just smiled. Pierce's daughter was Margot? Margot Rogers? Did that make Margot the same daughter that Pierce had previously mentioned Fury saving? "I guess that would make us in-laws, wouldn't it?"
"I didn't know." Steve admitted.
"Yes, Margot was a sweet girl and I hadn't been exactly thrilled when she told me she was going to marry Steven, with the age difference and all, but when she got something in her head she never let anyone talk her out of it." Pierce chuckled at the memory. "She was headstrong that way."
"What were they like?" Steve asked curiously. He didn't know much about them other than what Peggy or Fury had told him.
"Well, like I said before, Margot was very headstrong but sweet. She was an amazing mother just like her own mother before her. Steven was a good man. He was honest and trust worthy…a lot like you I gather." Pierce told him, a small smile on his face. "Emma was a cute kid. She adored both her parents and she was pretty hyper but she was good. I didn't know her very well. You see, I didn't visit very often because I was always busy with work but not a day goes by where I don't regret not spending more time with them."
"They sound amazing. I would've liked to have met them or…gotten the chance at least." Steve told Pierce honestly. Pierce nodded with a faraway look in his eyes and Steve suddenly found it odd. He found it odd how he was connected to this man through their children…though their grandchild. Steve looked back down at the picture of Margot and Emma, feeling incredibly saddened by the fact that he never got to know them. The cute face of Emma Rogers looked back at him with such happiness that it tugged on Steve's heartstrings that the poor little girl had died so young. Why did this always happen to him? He woke up and everyone he knew and loved were already dead except for Peggy, of course. But now…his family that he never had the chance to even know, but who he still loved, was already dead.
"Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" Pierce asked Steve, immediately changing the subject. Steve glanced back up at him, setting the pictures back down on the table as he looked at Pierce. He shook his head.
"I don't know." He replied.
"Did you know it was bugged?" Pierce questioned further.
"I did because Nick told me."
"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Steve just stared at Pierce, not liking the way his tone sounded when it was directed at him. This was starting to sound more like an interrogation than anything. Steve briefly wondered if Pierce only showed him those photos to try and get something out of him. Probably. Fury had said not to trust anyone, after all.
"I want you to see something." Pierce told him as he turned his attention to the screen that was on the wall in back of Steve. It was video of Batroc being interrogated by Shield. Steve curiously watched the video as the interrogator asked Batroc who had hired him to hijack the ship.
"Is that live?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, they picked him up last night at a not-so-safe house in Algiers."
"Are you saying he's a suspect?" Steve inquired. "Assassination…it's Batroc's line."
"No, no. It's more complicated than that." Pierce stated as they continued to watch the interrogation. "Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts. The last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."
"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Steve questioned as Pierce handed him the file.
"Not likely. Veech died six years ago." Pierce told him as Steve flipped through the file, skimming the pages for any information. "His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437."
"Are you saying that Fury hired the pirates?" Steve asked, giving Pierce a look of disbelief. "Why?"
"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death." Steve looked down at the file in silence as he listened to what Pierce was saying. Something wasn't right here. While, yes, Steve didn't exactly agree with what a lot of what Fury said or did, he also knew that Fury wasn't the type of man to jeopardize his own agency in such a way. Especially not in a way where a lot of people could get harmed or killed.
"If you really know Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true." Steve told him firmly.
"Why do you think we're talking?" Pierce got up from his chair and then proceeded to walk towards the window.
"You see, I took a seat on the council not because I wanted to but because Nick asked me to because we were both realists." Pierce told him, staring out the window upon the city of Washington D.C.
"We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric…to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. The people you love and hold most dear having to make sacrifices for that better world as well." Pierce said as he glanced back at Steve with a hardened expression on his face. Steve had since stood up from his seat, staring at Pierce with an unreadable look on his face. "And that makes enemies."
"Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today…makes me really, really angry." Pierce spoke and Steve got the distinct feeling that he wasn't talking about everyone in general. No, he got the feeling that Pierce was talking about a very specific person from the emotion in his eyes.
"Captain, you were the last one to see Nick alive." Pierce said, changing the subject again. "I don't think that's an accident and I don't think you do, either. So…I'm going to ask again. Why was he there?"
"He told me not to trust anyone." Steve told him after giving Pierce a long stare. Something in Steve told him that Fury's advice also included Pierce. Even though Steve and Pierce shared this connection through their children, Steve got a gut feeling that told him that he couldn't trust this man and Steve always trusted his gut.
"I wonder if that included him." Pierce remarked. Steve didn't say anything in regards to Pierce's remark but just feigned an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry…but those were his last words. Excuse me." Steve said before excusing himself from the room. He grabbed his shield off the chair, putting it onto his back, and then proceeded to exit the office.
"Captain," Pierce called out to him from his desk. Steve turned to look at him, wanting more and more to get out of that office with every second he spent in there. Pierce was starting to give him a very bad feeling. "Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone."
"Understood." Steve said as he gave Pierce a curt nod. Steve then turned back around and left the room, feeling Pierce's eyes on him the whole way out. Something wasn't right about any of this. This was a lot bigger than Fury's death.
That was something that Steve knew for sure.
"I know who killed Fury." Natasha said with wide eyes as Steve glared down at her. Steve searched her eyes to see if she was telling the truth but that was an impossible action given just who Natasha was. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe they exist. The ones that do call them the Winter Soldier and the Viper Assassin. They're both credited with over two dozen assassinations each. In the last fifty years for the Winter Soldier…the last five years for the Viper Assassin. I guess you can say that she's a newer recruit."
"So they're a ghost story?" Steve questioned. Natasha, however, ignored Steve and went on with her story.
"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the Viper Assassin and the Winter Soldier were there." She told him as she recounted the memory that still haunted her. The small blonde girl whose face couldn't even be seen from under the goggles and mask.
"I was covering my engineer so the Winter Soldier shot him straight through me." Natasha then lifted up her shirt to show the wound. "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."
"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve retorted sarcastically.
"My point is that the Viper Assassin was supposed to take the shot but she didn't for whatever reason. In fact…she saved my life." Steve furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"If she's a deadly assassin then why did she not take the shot? Why did she save you?" Natasha shrugged.
"I don't really know. I looked at reports following the other assassinations after the incident in Iran and from what I could tell she didn't spare any of them. I couldn't tell you why…I doubt that even she could tell you why." Natasha said, lost in thought as her mind went back to that small girl. She'd be lying if she said she didn't have nightmares about that little girl most nights. The regret ate her alive and fed into the guilt she had from everything she did while working for the KGB. "Going after them is a dead end. I know, I've tried."
"Like you said…they're a ghost story." Natasha told Steve, holding up the flash drive. Steve took the flash drive from her.
"Well, let's find out what the ghosts want." Natasha bit her lip as she stared up at Steve. She really wasn't even sure if she should tell him this. Natasha wasn't even sure if the Viper Assassin was a part of Fury's assassination since Steve had only seen the Winter Soldier and not the infamous blonde hanging around.
"There's another thing, Steve." Natasha announced and Steve gave her a curious look. "The Viper Assassin isn't a woman…she's a girl."
"What?" Steve asked in surprise.
"She's just a girl. She couldn't have been older than seven or eight when I met her. She's got to be older by now. Probably in her early teens."
"Why would a girl that young be an assassin?" Steve asked, disgusted by the idea of a little girl running around killing people. Children weren't meant to be killers. It just wasn't done.
"Because she looks innocent." Natasha admitted. "That's why anyone would make a little girl into a weapon. Children look innocent. They don't look capable of being cold blooded killers."
"I tried to get her to come with me, you know." She confessed and Steve just stared at her. "I think that she wanted to come with me too but she said that she couldn't." Natasha looked down at her hands as she remembered the girl.
"She reminded me a lot of myself and I wanted to help her but…she was probably too far gone. Brainwashed maybe." Steve shook his head.
"No one's that far gone and she's just a little girl." Steve didn't want to believe a child could be a cold blooded killer. How could that even be possible? He knew there were child soldiers in other war torn countries but the idea of there being an abused child out there hurting when Steve could fo something about it…well, Steve couldn't just sit there and do nothing.
"A little girl that most certainly isn't a little girl mentally. She's a trained killer, Steve. She's dangerous. Killing is most likely all she knows." Steve's expression hardened as he looked at her.
"No child should have to live like that…not if there's anything I can do about it."
"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient." Natasha said as both her and Steve looked around the hidden underground room. All the computers looked like they came out of the early 60s so how could this be the data point? Natasha smirked as she glanced at the old technology but the smirk immediately fell off her face when she saw the USB ports. She took the flash drive out of her pocket and plugged it into the USB port with some hesitation. Natasha and Steven looked around the room as everything began lighting up and the computers began to work.
"Initiate system?" An electronic voice said from the computer. Steve and Natasha stared at the green words on the screen for a moment before Natasha moved towards the old computer.
"Y-E-S spells yes." Natasha spoke as she began typing. The redhead then smirked as a certain movie came to mind. "Shall we play a game? It's from a movie that was really-"
"I know…I saw it." Steve said as he cut off Natasha's teasing. Honestly, it was like everyone still expected him to be that far behind on the times. He had been out of ice for nearly three years now so that gave him plenty of time to catch up on things. There was still a lot he was missing but he was getting there. Steve wasn't completely helpless.
"Rogers, Steven Grant." A familiar voice said as a blurry face appeared on the screen. Steve narrowed his eyes at the familiar voice. "Born 1918." The camera then pointed itself towards Natasha who looked up when it said her name.
"Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna." The voice said with a certain eeriness to it. "Born 1984."
"It's some kind of recording." Natasha rationalized.
"I am not a recording, Fraulein." It replied which drew surprised looks from both Steve and Natasha. It was some kind of artificial intelligence…a pre-Jarvis kind of AI system. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am." Steve's eyes widened in surprise as a picture of a familiar doctor flashed on screen. Natasha turned to look at Steve, her face contorted in confusion.
"You know this thing?" She questioned.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve explained as he investigated the room, looking to see if anyone else was down there with them…someone trying to play tricks on them.
"First correction, I am Swiss." Zola said. "Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving…on 200,000 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."
"How did you get here?" Steve inquired as he went back to stand next to Natasha, his shield ready.
"Invited." Zola answered with a smug tone if that was possible for an AI system.
"It was Operation Paperclip. After World War II Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha explained.
"They thought I could help their cause." Zola confirmed her recount of Shield's history. "I also helped my own."
"Hydra died with the Red Skull." Steve told the computer, dismissing Zola's insinuation.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." A picture of the familiar symbol then appeared on screen. Steve narrowed his eyes at the sight of it.
"Prove it." Steve demanded.
"Accessing archives." Zola said as more pictures started flashing up on the screen. Steve clenched his jaw when he saw the picture of Red Skull on the computer screen. "Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom."
"What we did not realize that if you try to take that freedom, they resist." Old archive footage of Captain America was then presented on screen. "The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly."
"After the war, Shield was founded and I was recruited." Another picture flashed on screen but this time of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Colonel Phillip. The original founders of Shield. "The new Hydra grew. A beautiful parasite inside Shield."
"For seventy years, Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate…history was changed." Pictures of the Winter Soldier popped up on screen with his familiar metal arm that had the bright red star stamped across it. More recent looking photos of the Viper Assassin also started popping up on the screen. Steve noticed that Natasha had been right about the lethal assassin. The Viper Assassin looked to be a little girl with golden blonde colored hair and porcelain skin. Her eyes couldn't be seen behind her green lensed goggles and the lower part of her face couldn't be seen from underneath the small black mask that covered the lower part of her face. Steve felt sick at the thought that this little girl could not just be an assassin but an assassin for Hydra of all organizations. Hydra that was supposed to be long dead.
"That's impossible." Natasha said, her tone slightly faltering. "Shield would have stopped you."
"Accidents will happen." Zola said gravely as Natasha and Steve were left to watch the screen in complete and utter shock. The faces of Howard and Maria Stark flashed before their eyes as it began to be confirmed that their deaths weren't accidental but instead direct hits from Hydra. Fury's face also flashed before their eyes but that wasn't what took them by surprise. The faces of Steven and Margot Rogers are what caught them by the most surprise. Articles, that indicated that they had perished in a fire along with their four year old daughter, flashed on screen before pictures of the real, unburned bodies of Steven and Margot Rogers were shown.
It was a picture of Steven Rogers lying face down on the ground with his brains splattered across the wall in front of him. Another photo showed Margot Rogers lying on the floor with her eyes wide open in horror, her throat was slit and blood looked to be pooling around her. The photos were both gruesome and devastating all at once because it changed everything Steve thought he knew. Steve's blue eyes flooded with unshed tears as he looked at the pictures of his dead family who, as it turned out, were brutally murdered. There was nothing accidental about it.
"Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom…to gain its security. Once a purification process is complete, Hydra's new world order will arise." Steve watched in defeat as pictures of a new weapon appeared to be shown on the computer screen, the photos of his dead family long gone.
"We won, Captain, your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum." Zola bragged and Steve gritted his teeth, punching the screen with as much force as he could muster. The screen then went dark from the impact of his punch.
"As I was saying…" Zola's face then appeared on another screen.
"What's on this drive?" Steve demanded as looked at the screen.
"Project Insight requires insight. So, I wrote an algorithm."
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha quickly asked.
"The answer to your question is fascinating." He answered. "Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." The doors to the elevator then began to close, capturing Steve and Natasha's attention. Steve quickly threw his shield at the closing doors but it was already too late. His shield hit the closed doors before it bounced back.
"Steve, we got a bogey." Natasha announced as she looked at her phone. "Short range ballistic. Thirty seconds tops."
"Who fired it?" Steve asked.
"Shield." She replied quietly, her answer proving that Zola was right.
"I am afraid that I have been stalling, Captain." Zola said as Natasha took the flash drive out of the USB port and stuffed it inside her pocket. "Admit it. It's better this way. We are, both of us, out of time."
Steve rushed towards a metal floorboard in the floor before he proceeded to rip it out. Steve tossed the floorboard to the side as he ushered Natasha down below the floor before jumping in behind her. He covered both her and himself with his shield as the bogey hit the facility, trying to avoid any debris falling on either one of them. Even as the explosion hit the facility, Steve's mind was still locked onto the grisly images of his murdered family.
Here, he thought that they had tragically died in a fire. That was probably what Peggy thought too and Steve hoped to God that she would never find out the truth. Peggy was suffering enough as it was. Steve was only relieved that they didn't show photos of Emma Rogers, his granddaughter, being murdered. He didn't know if he would be able to see that and still be the same person. An image of a happy, giggling little blonde girl with pigtails flooded his mind as he held up his shield with all his might. The granddaughter that he had never gotten to know and the granddaughter that he should've been around to protect.
"Want some milk?" Pierce asked the Winter Soldier after his maid Renata had finally left. The Winter Soldier was seated at Pierce's dining table, the darkness covering his face. The assassin just watched Pierce in silence as the older man poured a glass of milk for himself. "Timetable has moved. Our window is limited."
"Two targets, level six." Pierce continued as he walked over to the dining table, taking a seat across from the Winter Soldier. "They already cost me Zola. I want confirmed death in ten hours." The Winter Soldier said nothing as Pierce told him this.
"I would call in the Viper Assassin for assistance but this is too close to her. I can't risk one of the targets finding out who she is. She's too big of an asset for me to lose." Pierce said as he thought of the familiar blonde. After Pierce had threatened the Winter Soldier's life, the stupid girl devoted herself to Hydra. Like they would actually kill the Winter Soldier when he already served a purpose to them. They couldn't afford to lose the Winter Soldier. Pierce couldn't complain though. The girl had turned out to be a great assassin, never again failing them in any way. He had the distinct feeling that she would go beyond even what the Winter Soldier could do.
"No, I think she's better off staying at the base in Argentina until the targets are eliminated." Pierce said although it was more to himself than it was to the Winter Solder. Pierce was taken away from his thoughts when his maid reentered the room.
"Sorry, Mr. Pierce, I…" She paused as she noticed a strange looking man under the cover of darkness. A man with a metal arm and who gave her a chilling feeling as he watched her in silence. "I forgot my…phone."
"Oh, Renata, I wish you would have knocked." Pierce said, regretfully. He grabbed the Winter Soldier's gun before he pointed it at Renata, firing at the maid without hesitation. She screamed in horror as he shot her not once but twice. Pierce coldly looked away from the dead maid before resting his eyes on the Winter Soldier once more.
"Just make sure you eliminate both targets. If the Viper Assassin tries to contact you, ignore her."
"You know me." Steve told the Winter Soldier after he lifted the debris off of him. They were on one of the helicarriers and it was slowly falling down from the sky. There wouldn't be much time before they would crash into the Potomac River. The Winter Soldier gritted his teeth and snarled in anger as he punched Captain America.
"No, I don't!" He yelled out in frustration. He was frustrated because he did know the man yet for the life of him he couldn't figure out how he knew him. There was something about those eyes…They were a deep blue, the color of the ocean but he didn't know how he knew that. Maybe it was because had seen those exact same eyes but somewhere else…on someone else.
"Bucky." Steve said as he got up from the ground. Both Steve and the Winter Soldier were panting for breath, struggling to catch up even though they were both super soldiers. "You've known me your whole life."
This only caused the Winter Soldier to grow angrier. His frustration infuriated him because he knew deep down who that man was but with all his hardest effort, he just couldn't remember his name. The Winter Soldier growled and punched Steve once more, both of them falling down as the helicarrier crashed into another helicarrier.
"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes." Steve told him fearlessly, not willing to back down from him or shrink back in fear like most others did. Most others except for one individual in the world. A certain small blonde girl who had looked at him in fear once when they first met but had since looked at him in admiration and love…something he knew that he wasn't deserving of.
"Shut up!" The Winter Soldier yelled, knowing that Steve was right but not wanting to hear it. He came at the captain again, punching him once more and knocking Steve down. Steve took off his mask, revealing his face to the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier stared at him silently as Captain America dropped his shield, the shield falling down through the open floor of the helicarrier.
"I'm not going to fight you." Steve said. "You're my friend." The Winter Soldier roared with anger as he pushed Steve to the ground roughly.
"You're my mission." The Winter Soldier told him before pulling his fist back and punching Steve in the face with as much force as he could. The Winter Soldier repeatedly punched Steve in the face with all the anger he felt running through his veins. Anger at all the memories he had lost…the memories that he knew were back there but had been stolen from him long ago. Steve only laid there and let his friend beat him to a bloody pulp.
"Then finish it." Steve told him tiredly. "Because I'm with you 'til the end of the line." The Winter Soldier froze as Steve uttered those words.
Steve.
The Winter Soldier stared in horror at the beaten form of Steve Rogers. He remembered a smaller version of the man in front of him. Someone who was very weak and small yet always started fights that he would have to get him out of. Steve who had always been there for him through thick and thin. Steve who had been allergic to almost everything in the world. Steve who was always shy around the ladies. Steve who was a kind, honest, and an all-around good guy that fearlessly risked his life to stand up for anything he deemed morally right.
It was then that Viper's face flashed before his eyes. He had always found something so familiar about the small blonde girl…something that drew him to her. She always asked him why he helped her…why he cared. The Winter Soldier never had a good answer for her because he wasn't quite sure himself. There was always something so familiar about her eyes and every time he looked into those ocean blue eyes he knew there was something there. He had desperately searched those eyes for something that might tell him the truth and just when he was on the verge of knowing, he was left empty handed. But now he knew. Viper, or her real name which was Emma Rogers, was related to Steve…She was the man's granddaughter. There had always been a connection between himself and Viper but that connection turned out to be Steve. His best friend and Viper's grandfather.
The helicarrier then impacted the other one more harshly, causing Steve and Bucky to be pushed out. Steve, being the one closer to the bottom, fell from the floor and was dropped through the air as he started to fall down towards the river. The Winter Soldier held on tightly to the edge of the helicarrier as he watched Steve fall, fear flooding his eyes.
"Emma." He whispered softly before jumping off the helicarrier, diving into the water beneath him to save his best friend. Emma's grandfather. The Winter Soldier didn't feel the coldness of the river as he dove in after Steve. He just knew that he had to save him…just like before. He swam into the depths of the river, spotting the unconscious hero sinking towards the bottom. The Winter Soldier quickly grabbed him from under the captain's arms. He then proceeded to swim upwards, swimming towards the shore.
The Winter Soldier set him down along the shore before he gave the captain a long look. He looked a lot like Emma when he slept, The Winter Soldier observed. They even had the same jawline. The Winter Soldier looked over the destroyed helicarriers which also meant the destruction of Hydra. Although it wasn't the complete destruction of Hydra, since if you cut off one head two more shall grow in its place. No, Hydra wasn't finished but he was. This might be good. Maybe not for him but it would be good for Emma…The Viper. She was now thirteen and had since faded from the hopeful, positive little girl she once was. Maybe that could change but not with him around. The Winter Soldier stared at Steve with a more determined look on his face.
"You two need each other."