Washington D.C.
2015
Hydra base

"You seeing this Cap?" asked Sam over the com.
"Yeah, looks like the entrance is in the east hangar," he said looking through the binoculars.

After finding out that there was an underground Hydra base at Ronald Reagan International Airport, Shield had put a lot of work into getting Intel and surveying the area as best they could without alerting Hydra to their presence.

It was key in this situation to make sure they didn't know Shield was onto them. If they knew they had been discovered then all the information and experiments might as well be lost, maybe even the girl, and that was most certainly not an option.

"You sure we can do this?" asked Natasha from over the com, "There's no way of telling whose Hydra and whose not, there could be civilian casualties."

"We know," said Steve meeting Bucky's eyes, "but there's nothing we can do about that. We can't evacuate because then Hydra will know we're onto them and we can't risk that. Besides, it's not like there's a lot of people in there, and I doubt there's going to be civilians inside the actual compound."

"If we do this fast and efficiently we should be able to get the job done without hurting any civilians," said Barton over the com.

Natasha had called him in a few days earlier and explained the situation to him and he had agreed to come and help out, especially when he found it was to rescue his friend's kid. Steve guessed it had to with the fact that he himself was a father, and he knew there was nothing he wouldn't do for his kids.

"So we're actually going through with this?" asked Sam.
"Looks that way," said Steve.

"The Strike Team's waiting for your orders," said Natasha, "all arriving flights have been rerouted to land at the other airports and all departing flights have been delayed."

"Then it won't be long before they figure out we're here," said Sam, "meaning we're going to have to work fast."

Steve looked to his right at Bucky, who looked dangerously like the Winter Soldier as he surveyed the tarmac before him. Steve breathed in sharply as the memory of the cold and calculated assassin flashed across his mind, but pushed it out of his mind as he looked back down at the tarmac.

He had a mission to fulfill and now was not the time to be thinking about that the day on the bridge.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" he asked over the com before reaching to grab his shield, which was hanging off his back, and jumped as quietly as he could off the small ledge; coming to stand gracefully on his feet before moving out. He could sense Bucky behind him, his gun raised ready to cover him if anything tried to come at him.

The two of them made a formidable pair as they silently made their way across the tarmac in the dark, hiding in the shadows and minimizing their exposure until they reached one of the smaller hangars.

Steve was about to turn around the corner but quickly stepped back and motioned to Bucky to stay quiet before turning to look at the two men that were standing there, one was talking on his cell phone while the other sat picking lint off his work clothes.

Steve was about to pull Bucky back when he spotted a .22 Caliber tucked neatly in one man's cargo pants, the black of the gun peeking out from behind the bright yellow vest.

"You think the airport gives those to all their employees?" whispered Steve as he nodded over to the poorly hidden gun.

"No," replied Bucky shaking his head, "but Hydra does."

They waited for a few seconds before Bucky jumped out and grabbed one of the men around the neck with his metal arm, holding him in a strong choke hold for a few seconds before Steve jumped out from his hiding place, effectively scaring the other man. He dropped his cell phone and reached for the gun, but he had barely grabbed it before Bucky shot him in the chest with a well-aimed shot, killing him almost instantly.

Steve didn't even have the chance to comment before two more men ran out of the warehouse with their guns drawn and raised at them. They hadn't even had the opportunity to fire before Steve threw his shield at the both of them; rendering them both unconscious from the sheer force of the vibranium.

"This way," said Bucky as he ran over the empty tarmac toward the east hangar.

They entered into the hangar and hung back to observe the group of men sitting around lazily and conversing with one another, unaware of the present danger. Hydra hadn't yet figured out that they were being infiltrated.

"Natasha," said Steve fast under his breath, "where are you?"
"We're on our way towards the hangar right now. Where are you?" she said out of breath.
"We're in the hangar waiting for you."

"Be there in 2," she said before ending their conversation, the sound of a quick yelp and bang was what Steve heard before the line went dead.
"They okay?" whispered Bucky.
Steve nodded, "they're on their way."
"We could take them now," whispered Bucky as he stared at the group, his metal arm whirring in preparation.

Steve didn't doubt that they could, but he didn't want to continue without the rest of them at this point. There was no room for missteps or accidents in this mission, he could afford to make no mistakes when it involved an innocent child.

"We need you here Natasha," said Steve into his earpiece impatiently. He was about to say something else when he was interrupted by the whizzing of one of Barton's arrows as it hit one of the men in the back. Confusion barely had time to spread amongst the men before a streak of red and black jumped out and attacked in a flurry of calculated and well executed offensive movements. Barton came out of his hiding place and continued to hit the men methodically, taking short breathers to notch arrows.

Steve and Bucky had barely registered what was happening before they too joined into the flurry of the fight. Steve used his shield on the offense, knocking men out right and left while Bucky did the same with his metal arm.

It was relatively easy considering the fact that they had the element of surprise as well as the fact that these men were not fully trained operatives. These people had been given the menial task of maintaining equipment and supplies, and judging from their poor fighting skills it was more than plausible that most had never seen combat before. It didn't take long at all to subdue the group of men, their unconscious forms strewn across the concrete floor.

"Hey," said Sam behind him, "did we miss the party?" he said walking in with a few other agents with him.
"Where the hell were you guys?" asked Barton out of breath.
"We figured that since Hydra probably knows were already here that we might as well go ahead and evacuate," said Sam.
"Are they all out?" asked Steve.

Sam nodded before surveying the bodies that littered the floor, "so, you guys having fun?"
"Loads," said Bucky sarcastically as he glared over at the other man.
"Well, I'm sorry I'm late then," said Sam smirking.

"So where do you think the entrance to this base is?" said one of the agents as he stared around the room.

"Good question," said Steve as he too stared quizzically around the hangar, his eyes searching for anything that could serve as an entrance.

"Wait a minute," said Sam as he backed up and looked down at the floor, his eyes tracing something invisible.

"What is it?" asked Bucky as he looked down at the floor, trying to find whatever Sam had found.

"It's a big elevator," said Sam as he used his finger to point out the lines in the floor.

"Like on aircraft carriers," said Natasha as her eyes found the lines tracing along the floor as well.

"So then there should be a lever somewhere around here," said Bucky as his eyes traveled to the far wall.

"Like that?" said one of the other agents as he pointed to a lever on the far wall.

"I think that's it," said Bucky as he walked over and carefully pulled the lever down. As soon as he did, the sectioned out floor beneath them started to slowly lower down into the lower levels of the base.

It was obvious that the underground section of the hangar had been built with the intention of storing large airplane parts, but Hydra had found a more creative use of the underground storage facility. Not to mention the fact that Hydra had managed to keep this facility a complete secret from Shield for quite some time after the file leak, and that it was right under such a commercial place such as an airport.

"Bucky and I will secure the file room, the rest of you know what to do, Sam you're with us," said Steve raising his shield and stepping off the platform.

"Are you sure that's a wise idea, Cap?" asked Barton.
"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," said Steve over his shoulder.

"Do we even know where the file room is?" asked Sam as he jogged to catch up with the two of them.
"Oh I'm sure it's around here somewhere."
"Be careful!" called Natasha over her shoulder as the rest of their group set off in the other direction.
"Will do!" Steve said as they walked around the corner.

The next ten minutes were spent slowly making their way to the file room, or to the general direction of where the file room should be. Once they were there they would recover the files and leave the rest to Shield and continue their search for the girl. Although there wasn't definite guarantee that she had ever been here, it was the best they had to go on. And what could Dr. Levine possibly gain from lying to them? It made all of them positive that they would find information on her here.

"Steve!" came Bucky from around the corner that they were currently covering, "I think I found it!"
"There's only one way to know," said Steve coming to stand in front of the door to what they hoped was the room.
With one swift kick the door fell back off its hinges and they entered in with their guns raised to find that it was indeed the file room and it was empty.
"Guard the door," Steve said the Sam, "Bucky and I will look for the files."

Steve plopped himself on the ground next to Bucky and began to pull the files out of the cabinet one by one, looking for key words that were alphabetized. He sat like that for five minutes, looking through the L's before he finally found it tucked at the back, almost forgotten from the rest of them.

"I found it," he sighed out, his eyes traveling the cover with relief that they had finally found something.
"What does it say?" asked Bucky anxiously as he came to sit down next to him.

Steve flipped the cover open and started reading through the file looking for anything that could tell them where she was.
"She was moved," breathed Steve leaning back against the file cabinet, "to a base in New Mexico."
"What part?" asked Bucky grabbing the file from Steve, reading over the words himself.

"They moved her to Los Alamos to begin her training," Bucky stated, his voice straining over the words. Steve knew that this whole situation was taking its toll on his friend, and he guessed that news like this would only make it worse. But at least they knew where she was and now they could plan her rescue.

It was one thing getting Bucky to break his programming because at least he had memories to retrieve, memories of a better life while this girl had nothing. She had been with them since the beginning, she had known no other life than what they had provided her.

Steve had to wonder what kind of person that they were saving and whether or not she would be able to overcome it like Bucky had, or was this something that she would never recover from? Steve didn't even want to think about the possibility of that, it was too heartbreaking to think about.

"This is good Buck," he said clasping his shoulder, "this means we can get her," said Steve with as much assurance in his voice as possible.

Bucky only nodded tensely before standing up off the floor, his eyes failing to meet Steve's.

"Good news Cap, we finished clearing the base," said Natasha over the com, "you find the files?"
"We're in the file room, and yes we found the files," he said observing Bucky's tense face.
"What does it say?"
"It says we're going to New Mexico," he said pushing himself up off the cabinet, "you in?"
There was a long pause over the com before she said, "Barton and I are in, when we leave?"

"First thing tomorrow," he said before cutting off the conversation and glancing at Bucky who was currently staring down at the file in his hand, his expression still unreadable.
"We should probably get back and prepare," said Bucky handing the file over to Steve, "I'm sure Shield can take care of this," he said glancing at the file cabinets.

"You okay?" Steve could tell something wasn't quite right with him, he looked absent from everything that was taking place.
"I'm fine, Rogers," he snapped, "God sometimes you can be such a sap," he said walking out of the room in short angry steps leaving Steve to wonder what he did wrong.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much," said Sam from the door, "he's still trying to recover from what's been done to him and then this-"he said shaking his head, "it can't possibly be easy."

"No, he's hurting," said Steve shaking his head, "I can tell."
"He'll pull through eventually, just give it time."

Steve heaved a sigh before clipping his shield onto his back, "you should get some sleep, we leave at dawn tomorrow," he said before walking out of the room, heading off to find Bucky.

AN: I've literally been editing this over and over again because for some reason I'm not really happy with how this chapter turned out. I guess it's cause I'm not the best at writing combat scenes, but oh well. Next chapter is almost done, so more to come soon. Thank you to everyone who has Favourited, alerted, and read this story. Special thanks to those who have also commented, it mean the world to me. :)