Tuckerjnp, you saw right through my second ploy! Hope you find more answers in this chapter!
Karina, here you go, my friend! Hope you'll enjoy this one as well.
MommaWolf, thank you for your review. You'll find the answers you seek in this chapter, I promise!
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They stormed through the compound, all three of them making for a terrifying force.
HYDRA personnel were slowly realising that something was afoot: rumors began to fly that the entire computer system was crumbling, and communication was slowly dwindling between the various areas as they went offline. People were scrambling, trying to find a way out, and realising that the elevators and emergency exits, both serviced by the compound's mainframe, were unresponsive. The Sparrow and her two shadows passed a few such people, who avoided them very carefully, sticking to the wall in hopes of going unnoticed. The trained killer paid them no mind, deeming them unworthy of what little time she had left.
The organisation's remaining military had sprung into action as well, determined to bring the situation under control. When the trio rounded one corner to access the stairs that would lead them up, they were accosted by seven armored and armed men, who shamelessly pointed their automatic weapons their way.
"Sparrow! Halt!" The one closest to them cried out from behind his mask, raising a powerful hand.
The young woman did not skip a single beat, swinging her gun around with ludicrous speed and dexterity, before either Bucky or Steve had time to react. Seven shots resounded like thunder in the confined space, filling their ears with the sound of buzzing bees, and seven armed men dropped dead, each from a bullet between the eyes. Steve froze unwittingly at this sudden turn of events, having barely registered the speed and efficiency at which the woman had moved. He stared, jaw lax, at the carnage which had appeared before them in the blink of an eye.
She glanced back at him with a face that showed she was unsurprised at his reaction.
"Come on. We have to hurry."
Her words, dimmed by the ringing in his ears, served nonetheless to snap him out of his shock. He followed them both. Growing unease twisted at him as they entered the staircase and made their way up two steps at a time.
What had he walked himself into?
They emerged a few floors higher into an identical corridor. They turned right and followed the linear path, which was somehow completely devoid of activity. The eerie quiet was putting Steve on edge, who half-expected the doors along the passage to suddenly burst open and let out a stream of enraged HYDRA agents.
No such thing happened, but then they turned a final corner, they found themselves in a long stretch of white corridor, in the centre of which two stoic soldiers stood guard before a door.
As they slowed and neared the pair, they drew their attention.
Steve recognized them as two of the four Winter Soldiers that had been on the plane with them when they'd left Wakanda. He did not quite remember their names, but one of them was the only woman of the group and the other, the hard-headed man that had expressed open disobedience towards the Sparrow. They slowly moved away from their post next to the large doors and faced the group, their hard faces oddly void of emotion.
Steve recognized that look… it was the same look Bucky had worn when he'd been activated by Zemo.
"Deva. James." The Sparrow sighed lengthily as she too slowed and stopped a few yards from the pair. Bucky walked up next to her, his stormy eyes trained upon the two other soldiers, and Steve joined his side carefully. "It seems that someone actually did suspect what I'd do today… or he would not have stationed you here. Unfortunately for him, I brought help."
"What are you…" Steve started, but she threw him a hard glance.
"Stay back if you will, but if they kill us, they'll go after you, too."
Steve found he had no desire to stay back. It was not just because his own friend, controlled or not, was putting his life on the line by facing the soldiers… he realised that he had no desire to abandon the young woman he'd once known as Lianka. His hands curled into fists and he stared at the pair before them, both of which were beginning to glow slightly, heat rolling off their forms and stifling the passage.
The Sparrow raised her fists, lava-like heat rolling from her clenching fingers.
Bucky slid one foot back cautiously, lowering his body in anticipation.
It was James who moved first.
His lips pulled over his teeth in a murderous snarl, but he remained soundless. Beside him, quick as lightening, Deva leapt forth and charged without hesitation at Steve. James was just behind her, clashing with the Sparrow with renewed rage,
She blocked his first blow, but did not manage to move quickly enough out of the way of the second one. His fist connected with astounding force with the side of her face and sent her reeling back.
Bucky stepped in, his vibranium arm connecting perfectly with the other soldier's punch as he turned to face him. Metal met with augmented flesh and sent the latter splintering, shattering the soldier's arm in seven different places. James reeled back with a howl of fury, which gave the Sparrow the time she needed to regain her footing.
Driven with purpose, she slipped past the howling soldier and kicked his knee. The satisfying crunch she heard told her she had struck true. Beside her, Steve barely managed to avoid Deva's fiery fists as she threatened to sear the flesh from his arms.
James' arm and leg were glowing unearthly, healing him with unprecedented speed. He was already rising and deviating Buck's ferocious blow. The Sparrow kicked at him anew and landed a weak blow, but she had to use her momentum to spin around Steve and smack Deva hard across the face to push her back, saving the blonde captain in the nick of time.
She faced the deadly, fiery woman and allowed her own hands to flare up menacingly. Deva said nothing and her eyes remained void… it was with a pang of sadness that the Sparrow realised this woman, who she'd come to appreciate over the years, was going to die a complete stranger to her. HYDRA had erased her for the last time, doing a particularly good job of it, this time around.
Yet she did not hesitate. Behind her, Bucky and Steve were somehow handling James.
She focused her attention on Deva as she launched herself forth.
The smaller woman was a bit faster, and rained blows with incalculable fury. The Sparrow dodged and blocked everything sent her way, in no manner bothered by the volcanic heat of the fists that hit her flesh. Her own body was flaring up, healing her without delay as she snarled at her opponent, dancing around the vicious blows.
Deva snapped her fist at the side of her face, but she blocked it. A retaliating blow caught her weakly in the flank, but the Sparrow managed to reach out an unyielding hand, grabbing Deva's burning forearm and yanking her forward. The Sparrow's knee jumped up and caught the other woman right in the fold of her stomach, crushing the air from her lungs with a hollow, thick sound. Her palm had already curled upward and snagged Deva squarely in the nose, breaking it with a wet crack. The wounded soldier reeled as she spit out blood, momentarily off balance, her face flaring red as she tried to heal her wound.
The Sparrow slipped one foot behind Deva's heel and pushed into the stumbling fighter, effectively forcing her to completely lose her footing. They went sailing backward and the Sparrow seized Deva's forehead with a single hand, using their momentum to carry her effortlessly into the cement wall behind them.
She howled as she slammed Deva's head against the concrete, her body's weight riding into the blow. The other fighter let out a muffled, chocked gasp and tried to free herself clumsily, but the Sparrow had already pulled her head forward and was slamming it into the wall a second time, wincing internally at the wet, crunching sound Deva's skull made on impact.
The third time the soldier's head connected with the concrete, her eyes seemed to become strangely unfocused. They fell upon the Sparrow who loomed over her with a mask of agonizing determination painted onto her face. For just the briefest, loneliest second, Deva's eyes seemed to light up in sudden recognition, as a thousand emotions flashed within their depths.
But then, the Sparrow was guiding her head back against the wall with renewed energy, and upon the fourth impact, Deva's eyes lost their sheen as they glazed over in death.
No amount of the AIM gene could heal the splattered brain she left behind her on the white wall as she slid to the ground gracelessly.
Fighting against a feeling not unlike revulsion, the Sparrow immediately turned her attention back to James and her two soldiers.
Steve had sustained a burn trying to hold James in place, and Bucky was reeling back his vibranium fists to rain another blow at the augmented soldier's face, which was already severely abused. He was glowing red, trying to heal, but the metal that collected with his features was causing too much destruction.
The Sparrow's eyes widened in sudden realisation as she saw James' very core start slowly reddening, the flesh around his joints glowing with increasing vehemence. Steve was too focused to notice a thing, holding James in a headlock, and Bucky could not take his eyes away from the soldier's face as he carefully timed his punches.
She understood that she had but seconds to act.
Feeling power rush to her arms as she launched herself forward, she caught Steve's eye.
"Move!"
Her voice left no room for negotiation. The soldier obeyed her without thought, coming to the sudden realisation that he still trusted her… even after all that had happened… he was ready to listen to her without thinking… Steve jumped towards the large door that the two Winter Soldiers had been guarding, pulling Bucky along with him.
As he did, the Sparrow reached them. Howling, she thrust both her blazing hands forward, barely aware of what she was doing, acting on nothing more than instinct. James' butchered face showed but the shadow of panic… she ignored it altogether and plunged her blazing arms, palms open, against his chest with every inch of strength she could muster.
The blow was colossal, and the power of it saved their lives. Impacted, James went flying back like a rag doll, crossing nearly a dozen yards before tumbling onward through the corridor, steadily glowing more and more red as he went.
Finally catching on, Bucky ripped open the door they all stood before and pulled Steve along into the room, as Steve grabbed the Sparrow by an arm. She barely managed to pull close the door behind them that the walls shook from the astounding explosion that resulted from James' condition. Dust rained from the ceiling and around them, the light flickered as, somewhere in the distance, alarms were going off.
The Sparrow picked herself off the floor slowly, coughing, a renewed ringing sound filling her ears. Smoke and heat were creeping in through the cracks around the door they'd shut seconds ago. Kneeling beside her, Steve glanced her way. He made no move to help her up, but watched her carefully as she rose alongside him.
Bucky, visibly undamaged, stood as well, carefully taking in his surroundings.
Steve finally broke eye contact with the young woman, a bit alarmed by the emotion he could find in her sky-blue irises… alarmed, too, at the emotions that awoke in his own chest as she stared at him.
They were in a large, white room not unlike the infirmary he'd occupied these past few days. There was a bed against the far wall and though he initially thought it was empty, he could barely make out a small, frail form lost amidst the heavy blankets. A variety of machines seemed to be linked to that form, sending tubes and wiring to vanish beneath the covers. A slightly uneven beeping revealed to him that whomever lay in the bed was still alive… and increasingly agitated.
He heard the Sparrow sigh.
"Wait here." She whispered gently as she strode forward towards the bed.
Steve glanced at Bucky, who did not return the gesture, staring instead coolly at whomever lay beneath those blankets.
The Sparrow reached the bedside, her mouth twisting into a tiny, disgusted grimace. Her own glacier stare found that of the tiny, frail man bundled beneath the covers. His eyes, unsullied by the unforgiving hands of time, showed a complex mix of fury, betrayal and contempt. She stared at this being for a moment, before seizing the blankets atop him and ripping them right off the bed, exposing the Supreme Hydra to the cool room's air.
Steve found himself gazing at this knotted, barely living shell of a human, who possessed not even the strength to curl upon himself to avoid the sudden discomfort of being exposed. He wore a mask that allowed him to breath, keeping him alive but preventing him to utter a single word.
"You saw through me. Bravo, I guess. Though, if anyone ever knew me well enough to do that, I suppose it was you." The Sparrow said in a low, careful tone that was just so slightly laced with sadness. "You didn't see far enough though, did you? You thought your soldiers could stop me. You forgot I wasn't alone." She glanced at Steve as the man in the bed shivered and grumbled into his throat.
"Steve, this is the Supreme Hydra. The leader of Hydra. He's the last head." She explained softly. Steve glanced from Bucky, to her, to the tiny, ageless man. "He and I go way back. Back to your time, actually. He was the one who recruited me into Hydra, into Sparrow school, when my parents died…"
Her hard gaze fell upon the man with unspoken fury. "Or, I should say… when he had my parents killed. Like he did to countless children, all with the goal to recruit them and turn them into soldiers for the Motherland." She sneered. "You thought I wouldn't find out, did you, you lying meshok der'ma… but I did. I found out about how you had all those children made into orphans… because what could be a better soldier than a babe raised into ruthlessness and death? Yet they all died… all of them but me."
Her eyes returned to Steve and Bucky.
"I blame no one for who I am. I make no one responsible for my actions other than myself. But I was made into a weapon without a choice. I was not broken and rebuilt, shattered and constructed as the Winter Soldiers were… no, I was molded. Day by day, night after night. I was formed into the Black Sparrow. But my life…" She hissed those words out like an angry cat. "My life was taken from me. My choices were robbed from me. I was made a killer. Then, I was pumped full of a serum against my will, all in the name of making me stronger, faster… in truth, all the serum did was extend my life so I could be a slave even longer."
She ran a hard, menacing hand over one of the machines that was keeping the Supreme alive. The tiny man followed her gestured with wide eyes, terror finally shining bright within them.
"Then, the AIM gene. The messed up, exploding AIM gene. I had no possibility of escaping. I was a ticking time bomb. After that, there was no more hope. No more anything for me. Until… until, after ages spent wasting away in cryosleep, rumor surfaced that the gene could be stabilized thanks to technology from a very well-hidden country…"
Steve understood. This made things clearer for him… he still felt conflicted about everything that had happened, but the Sparrow's explanation shed some much needed light on what had transpired these last few weeks. He glanced to Bucky, but his friend was, of course, still bound by codes that held him stoic and without emotion.
She was watching Bucky too, her eyes almost… tender.
"I'd met Bucky before… you don't know that, and he probably doesn't remember, but he and I worked together some sixty years ago. Back then, when the Supreme was still just a lackey with over-achieving dreams and ambitions, and I was his right hand, he had a secret set of codes worked into Bucky. It was a contingency plan. In case he and I found ourselves in the line of sight of the other ambitions lackeys that vied for the position of leader.
"As such… only two people in the world know the activation and deactivation codes that can subdue the Winter Soldier."
The Sparrow turned her unforgiving eyes down to the Supreme, who seemed to shrink into the mattress. He read the cold, hard fury and hatred that shone in her gaze and found that he had no doubt about her immediate actions.
Before Steve could so much as raise an eyebrow, she seized the facial mask that was pumping the frail man's air into his withered lungs and yanked it harshly away, ripping it free. Steve bit down on his own tongue, forcing himself to stay put. Besides, what would he have done? Saved the terrible organisations' leader's life? He found felt as much contempt for the man as she did…
The Sparrow watched the whimpering, trembling Hydra leader die without uttering a single sound. She watched him shake and struggle to breath, his face growing steadier into a deep blue shade as spit and dribble flew from his lax, soft mouth, trickling down his leathery features.
Within two minutes that seemed to last a lifetime, the ancient thing that had clung to life amidst those white sheets passed from this world, a final, heavy sigh escaping it like the flutter of a bird's wings.
She looked up.
"A single person in the world knows the activation and deactivation codes that can subdue the Winter Soldier." The Sparrow said, her voice somehow both hard and soft. She stared at Steve pointedly, watching Bucky too. "I am going to leave this room, then this compound, one way or another. There are two Winter Soldiers out there and they must be stopped. I will find them and eliminate them myself. By now, the compound's computer system had been completely destroyed. The people still in here are trapped for the time being, and they will face judgment in time. If I'm not mistaken, your friend from Wakanda must be minutes away by now."
This, at last, surprised Steve, who frowned carefully.
She nodded. "I sent out a timed beacon to them, giving them this location. I'll let them decide what they want to do with the remaining Hydra employees. Now…" She faced both men and squared her shoulders. "You can either let me pass, or fight me. If you elect to fight me, I will be honest with you: I won't hold back. I did not just spend years scheming and planning to regain the life that has been taken from me, just to lay down and comply. Chances are that some of us won't leave this room alive."
With that, she turned her face to Bucky.
"I hope you can one day forgive me for what I have done. Chernyy vorobey bol'she ne mozhet letat' ryadom so svoim krasnym volkom."
The air rushed out of Bucky's lungs with a whoosh as he crumbled, emotion returning to his face all at once. Steve jumped sideways, alarmed, and managed to seize his friend around the waist quickly enough to steady him. The burly soldier took a moment to breath, leaning on his friend, his stormy eyes fixed upon the young woman, who was watching them both carefully.
When she saw that Bucky could at last stand on his own two feet, the vertigo of regaining control finally washing off of him, and that Steve was slowly facing her again, she took a tentative step forward.
Both men watched her come with some apprehension and she found her gaze flying from one to the other, discovering a myriad of great emotions in both stormy and icy gaze, few of which she was sure she understood. There was only a few feet of space between both hulking soldiers, but the Sparrow made for it in small, unsure steps, swallowing imperceptibly as she reached them.
Bucky's hands twitched as he fought the urge to grab her as she passed between them. Steve's jaw clenched as he too struggled with a similar desire. Neither knew what they would do if they did seize her, but them both knew that they wanted to… no matter what had happened, what she'd done… they somehow did not want her to leave. Perhaps they could never look at her as they had when she was Lianka, but both felt that they wanted to get to know this new, not-Lianka as much as they'd gotten to know the old one…
"Wait…" Bucky growled, his voice rough from lack of use. His words froze her at the door and he cleared his throat as she glanced back at them. They were pleasantly surprised to find a similar sort of complicit conflict painted upon her face. "You… what is your name? Since you're not Lianka… and you're not the Black Sparrow anymore…"
She glanced down and smiled sadly. "I don't know." Steve wondered if it was really wetness he could see shining in her eyes, or if it was a trick of the light. "I was taken by Hydra when I was three. I was never told my name and I was never given one." She shrugged as if it didn't bother her.
"Well…" Steve gave her a tiny, soft smile. "Maybe next time we see you, you'll have picked one out for yourself."
She returned the smile, coy and amused.
"Maybe."
With that and nothing else, the young woman opened the door leading to the corridor and was gone into the dusty smoke beyond.
Steve and Bucky waited patiently in the room with the Supreme Hydra's slowly cooling body. They listened carefully for the impeding sound of Wakanda's arrival. It was not long before they patience was rewarded: beyond the ajar door, Wakandan soldiers came storming, led by none other than the king himself, decked out in his menacing Black Panther attire.
Steve and Bucky had not said a single thing as they waited. Both knew that there would be plenty to talk about for the remainder of the day, as they filled in T'challa about everything that had transpired these past few days, about who this tiny, withered man in the bed beside them was, about Hydra's terrible plans…
And about how the Black Sparrow had vanished without a trace, escaping their grasp, leaving the organisation in shambles.
Likewise, they would learn from the king that the area was secured, that the remaining Hydra personnel would be dealt with accordingly, and that the entire computer system, housing Wakanda's stolen data and Hydra's research, had been irrevocably destroyed.
Also, they would learn about how the Black Sparrow was neither spotted nor captured, and that a worldwide alert would be delivered to exterior agents to have them on high alert in case the young woman decided to strike at Wakandan spies once again.
Yet, Steve and Bucky were not worried.
They knew she had other goals to pursue.
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Well, here we are my friends! The end. I hope the story and intrigue was to your liking.
As always, leave a review to tell me what you think. I check them very often and read every single one!
I don't know yet if I'll undertake another story soon, or if I'll take a little break to focus on other things. I guess that inspiration will be the judge, jury and executioner on that one!
Thank you for riding along with me on this crazy adventure. It's always a pleasure to complete something, though it is bittersweet when you reach the end.
I hope to see you all again soon!