Shield base
Washington D.C.
2015

Bucky clenched his metal fist as he watched the man who was currently seated at the table staring down at his hands that were placed in his lap. His shoulders shaking nervously and he would occasionally reach up to push his glasses up his nose before returning to idly twiddling his thumbs.

"Hello," said Natasha as she came to sit on the other end of the table with the case file and Steve's report in her hands. She grabbed the pitcher of water that had been previously untouched and poured two glasses of water, one for herself and one for him.

"Water?" she asked sliding the glass over to him.
He looked between the glass and her, and cautiously reached out and grabbed the glass from her and taking a small sip before setting it down on the table.

"Shall we get down to business, Mr. Levine?" she said opening the case file and glancing through it.
"First of all, do you know why you're here today?"

He visibly pondered over the question carefully before giving a hesitant nod.
"Is this about my work for Hydra?" he asked, not even bothering to try and lie to them. There was no point in lying at this point in time.

"Yes, most specifically your work on the Little Winter Project," she said sliding the file across to him so he could get a good look.
He looked down at the picture with an unreadable look before returning his gaze to the redhead, his leg visibly twitching in irritation.

"What would you like to know about it?" he asked agitated.
"Everything, if you don't mind," said Natasha folding her hands across the table in front of her.
He sighed as he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, "It all started in 1997 when Hydra almost lost the Asset during a mission. After that they decided that they needed a backup in case they ever lost him, they wanted a 'just in case' plan. That's when Pierce approached me and asked me to lead a scientific research program to recreate the serum that was given to the Asset."

"And you said yes?"
"I was young and foolish then, I didn't know the mess I would be getting myself into when I accepted his offer."

"What happened next?"

"I used the notes that Zola had left behind, his research into the possibility of cloning the Asset to obtain the serum. But it didn't work. The test subject was a failure and it forced me to look beyond Zola's idea of a clone."
"And that's how you came up with the plan to breed the soldier?" asked Natasha with a dour expression gracing her face.

"Yes," he nodded, "I thought if I couldn't make his clone, then I would simply make a child from half of his DNA. I thought it was a good idea, Pierce thought it was a good idea, we thought for sure it would work."
"But it didn't," Natasha said grimly.

"No," he said shifting his eyes downward, "the serum mutated the Assets DNA, but it had no effect on his germ cells, which are-."

"I know what germ cells are," said Natasha interrupting him before he could continue.

"Right," said Levine nervously as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "in Biology, we call a mutation that is not heritable to future offspring somatic. Yelena, the girl, was born without her biological father's serum because the serum is not germline."

"What happened after you found out she wasn't enhanced?"
"My team was disbanded and my research locked up. I and a few other co-workers were forced to resign, others were not so lucky."

"You mean like Julian Bernotus and Natalia Andreyev?" she said as she pointed to their names on the file.

He sighed and leaned forward on the table, "Julian did resign, but when Hydra found out he was conversing with an American scientist about the prospect of recreating the super soldier serum, he was taken care of."

"And what about Natalia?" asked Natasha leaning forward.
"Natalia was the one volunteered her DNA and her body for the project."
"So she was the mother?"

"Yes, but she became too emotionally attached to it. I warned her not to, but she didn't listen to me of course. She tried to fight us when we took the child from her arms, as I suppose any mother would. About a month after the child was born she tried to defect, made it all the way to New York before Hydra caught up with her," he said shaking his head, "foolish girl."

Bucky's eyes darkened at the Scientists words, his mind reeling from the discovery that Natalia was the girl's mother. He had been forced to cover up the secrets he didn't even know he had, forced to participate in the covering up of the mistake that was his child. Her mother was dead because of him, he had killed her because she had tried to leave the very organization that had taken her child away.

He didn't even know her and already he felt guilty about what had happened to her.

"It's okay Buck," said Steve gently resting his hand against his shoulder. Steve had been so quiet through the interrogation and Bucky had been so engrossed that he had forgotten that he was even there at all.

"Steve I-," he stumbled over his words, not quite knowing how to convey his thoughts to his friend, "what am I supposed to do? How do I go on living after what they've done to me or what they've taken from me?"

Usually he wasn't one to talk about his emotions, it was something that he just didn't do. He had been trained not to show weakness and to perform his abilities as best he could. But he was no longer that person, and he was showing weakness. He was showing Steve his need for comfort for the first time in almost seventy years, he was actually talking to him about how he felt.

"This is Hydra's doing, not yours Buck. You can't blame yourself for what you didn't know."
Bucky didn't reply because he didn't know how. He knew Steve was right, but he still felt guilty and that would never go away.

"Where was the child taken after she was born?" asked Natasha as she continued on with the interrogation.
"If I remember correctly, she was taken to a Hydra base here in D.C.," he said as he rubbed the corner of his eye, "after that I don't know."

Bucky and Steve both glanced at each other, their brows knotted in confusion as they racked their brain for anything that would point to her ever having been there.

"The bank?" asked Natasha with incredulity, "we cleared that one out, there was nothing on her there."

"Ms. Romanoff," began Levine as he glanced around the room cautiously, "Hydra likes to take precautions, especially in the capitol of what some may consider to be the greatest nation on Earth. Every major city across the world has at least one or more base."

"One or more base," said Natasha repeating his words, "are you saying there's another base here?"

"It's not exactly would you would call a base," began Levine, "it's more of a storage facility, but in emergencies it could serve as a base."

Bucky didn't know what had come over him but he found himself marching into the room and pound his metal fist into the table in threatening manner as he glared at the man before him.

"Where is it?" he asked in a dangerously calm voice, his posture rigid and his gaze unwavering.

Levine glanced nervously at the shiny metal, his pulse quickening at the sight of it, "it's under the airport."

"Which one?" asked Bucky as drew his arm back to his side.

"Ronald Reagan National Airport," said Levine quietly.

With that Bucky turned and strode out of the room stopping at the doorway and turning back towards the scientist, "if I find out that you lied to me, I'll kill you."

And with that he strode out the room; he had acquired a new mission and he was ready to complete it.
"You wouldn't actually let him kill me, right?" he asked Natasha with worrisome look on his face.
"If the Winter Soldier wanted you dead, you already would be," she said dragging him out of the chair and cuffing him.

AN: Have any of you heard about the underground Bunker supposedly beneath the Denver International Airport? It's been a center of controversy for some time now, especially to Conspiracy theorists. Some believe that there's government testing going on under there and what not. I heard about it and It made me think of the possibility of Hydra doing something similar. I hope you liked my idea as much as I do.