July 1947

Nimes, France

"Sir, I swear, I have no idea what you're talking about!" Lucy said frantically as she strained against the ropes around her wrists, holding her to the chair. "Please just let me go!"

"Shut up." The man standing over her said angrily, his French accent thick. "Your little show isn't fooling anyone, just give it up." Lifting the gun in his hand he struck her across the head, the blunt metal tearing into her skin. Lucy let out a squeak of shock, but said no more. The man sighed in satisfaction, glad he had finally gotten her to shut up. "Maudeaux will be here soon. Then he can deal with you and I won't have to listen to your whining anymore." He said with a huff.

Her head rang with the force from the impact and she blinked several times to try and make the feeling pass. She watched through pieces of hair that had fallen into her face as the man turned to converse with the other two men who were with him. She felt a small trickle of blood seeping from her hairline and down her forehead, but it didn't worry her. Silently she resumed picking at her restraints behind the back of the chair.

The man paced slowly back and forth across the room, and Lucy thought he looked incredibly impatient. After a few minutes he finally stopped, and retrieved a cigarette from the breast pocket of his suit. After getting a light from one of his accomplices, he drew a long breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out. The smoke curled in the air in front of his face a second before drifting up slowly towards the ceiling.

The warehouse had grown hot in the sweltering summer sun and Lucy felt small beads of sweat starting to break out across her chest. The men, however, seemed to be doing worse than she was. The one standing by the door shifted his stance and dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief. The man with the gun still in his hand was growing increasingly agitated and was angrily pulling off his suit jacket in an attempt to cool off. Lucy couldn't help herself and smiled slightly.

"You think this is fun don't you?" He barked, stepping within a few inches of her. She breathed in sharply and produced the most convincing nervous and startled expression she could muster. "Enjoy it while you can." He said with a smirk. He took another long puff of the cigarette and leaned over until his face was only a few inches from hers. "Because boss likes to have fun of his own and it doesn't usually involve your smile." He said, letting the smoke billow around her face, the smell invading her nostrils.

She turned away, willing herself not to give him the satisfaction of coughing. After a moment she looked up again, glaring at him, not saying a word. "Maybe I should get things started early, yes?" He said eyeing the cigarette in his hand. "This is for making me chase you." He said seconds before jamming the burning end into the side of her exposed arm.

Instinctively she tried to pull away, but the chair left her attempts in vain. "Defiant are we?" He asked with a chuckle when she didn't scream out in agony, but rather simply gritted her teeth tightly, glaring at him the entire time.

"What on earth are you doing?" A voice shouted from the doorway. Another man in a finely pressed suit entered, smoking cigarette in hand. Lucy watched as four more armed men filed in silently behind him. Eight, she mentally counted in her head. It was quite a few, but she wasn't nervous yet.

"Claude, I asked you a question." He said, strolling closer. The man standing over her quickly dropped the cigarette in his hand and let it fall to the floor. Standing back up he stammered a reply, "I—I uh, was just getting things started for you, Maudeaux." He finished with a nervous laugh.

"Did I ask you to do this?" He asked glancing to the burn marks on Lucy's arm that would soon become a blister. Claude swallowed hard and shook his head. "What did I ask you to do?" He asked, as though further proving his point. He lifted his cigarette calmly to his lips as Claude hung his head and backed up several steps.

"Please sir!" She pleaded to this new man entering. "I promise I don't know anything, I was just looking for my friend and got lost, honest!"

"Hm, a Deutscher?" The man named Maudeaux muttered thoughtfully to himself upon hearing her accent. "So what's a young girl like yourself doing in these parts all alone?" He asked smoothly, directing his question towards her.

"I—I'm visiting my cousins for the summer." She said feigning a frightened exterior. She even surprised herself by producing a few tears. "I left with Marie to go to the docks and I stopped to pet one of the kittens on the street and when I looked up she was already gone! I looked all over for her but I guess she hadn't realized I wasn't with her. She does that sometimes, she starts talking and just keeps going and going and doesn't realize no one's actually listening. Well anyway, I was trying to find her when I wound up in here. I wasn't trying to steal anything I promise!" Between the speed of her explanation and the sputtering of her hyperventilated tears, her words were nearly unintelligible. Maudeaux closed his eyes and rested his chin on his hand until she finished.

"She's lying!" Claude bellowed from where he stood. "She's making it all up, she's nothing but a little scamp!" Lucy wished she could laugh out loud as Claude danced around in his outrage.

"Claude, you make a downright fool of yourself, sit down." Maudeax said, his back to her. Lucy had to bite her lip to keep from making a noise. Claude's face turned several shades redder and she found it quite amusing. However, when Maudeaux spun back around to face her she quickly snapped back into character.

"So tell me, darling, do you know who I am?" Maudeaux asked, his voice rich with the same suave confidence that shone in his demeanor.

"I—uh, no sir." She replied, looking up at him with large, round eyes. "Am I supposed to?"

Maudeaux chuckled, "No not at all." Leaning in closer her continued, "You see, I'm afraid my men here can be a bit on the paranoid side sometimes." Waving one of his men over, Maudeaux directed him to untie the restraints from her feet. "I apologize for all this, I really should teach them some manners; this is no way to treat a lady."

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and stretched her ankles one at a time as each were unbound. "But sir, you can't possibly—" Claude exclaimed incredulously.

Maudeaux closed his eyes with a sigh before cutting him off. "She's just a child." He said, his exasperation beginning to show. "Hardly a teenager. You really think she's part of an elite thieving ring? How many fifteen year olds do you know who are into seventeenth century art?"

Claude opened his mouth to protest, "But—"

"No, I'm done listening to you and your nonsense. Look at her, she's harmless." Maudeaux interjected.

Claude's shoulders dropped. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but was debating himself whether or not to keep quiet. "So you're just going to let her go?" He asked before Maudeaux had a chance to get back to Lucy. His self-restraint, it seemed, had not succeeded. "You can't possibly think you can just let her go like this!"

"Who exactly is in charge here?" Maudeaux asked. Lucy admired the way he never raised his voice or snapped at Claude. Somehow he always managed to remain calm and collected. "Oh that's right, I am." He finally said, answering his own question when Claude didn't. "And that means I get to make the decisions, and you get to follow them."

"But you didn't see the way she ran when she found out we saw her!" Claude pleaded. Maudeaux seemed amazed at Claude's persistence, but nonetheless annoyed. Turning towards the pleading Frenchman, Maudeaux crossed him arms, his expression one of disapproval. "And look!" He continued, motioning towards Lucy's arm. "You saw with your own eyes that was burned a minute ago!"

The man who had untied her feet was now working on her wrists, but at Claude's words he paused. Lines formed on Maudeaux's forehead and he turned quickly to see what Claude was referring to. "Well I'll be—" He muttered, as he saw that the marks were in fact gone. Nothing remained, but the black of the cigarette ash, not even a scar.

Lucy scanned quickly around the room and saw the familiar figure she was searching for, waiting at one of the large, grimy windows, standing on the roof outside. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards, and she carefully slipped her hands from the remaining restraints around her wrists, but kept them in place behind the chair. Maudeaux was now glancing up to her forehead, the cut from where Claude had hit her with the gun had now smoothed over as though nothing had happened. Maudeaux opened his mouth to say something, but Lucy had already taken the moment for herself.

Before Maudeaux could get a word through his lips, she had swung her arms around from behind her and had clasped them on either side of his face. A look of shock spread across his face, a contrast from the calm demeanor that was usually present. A shot rang out through the warehouse, and she watched through her peripheral vision as one of the guards fell, then two more. The rest of the men, including Claude, drew their weapons and looked around frantically to find where the shots had come from.

Lucy continued to hold the man's face in her hands as he stared back at her wide eyed. Maudeaux's arms and legs felt paralyzed and his brain struggled to comprehend what was happening. "You should've trusted Claude." She said with a smile, her head cocked to the side. He tried to reply, but all that came out were breathless gasps for air. After a few moments of trembling, Maudeaux's face finally went slack and Lucy released her grip, letting his body slump to the floor, lifeless.

She looked up to see Claude watching horrified as his boss collapsed in a heap before him. "Y-y-you're—" Claude stammered, trying to form words.

"Better watch your back." Lucy said with a smirk, and seconds later his eyes widened as a blade slid sickeningly into his back. Standing behind him, Bucky nodded to Lucy before retrieving the knife and handing it to Lucy. Once she had it securely in her hand, he turned wordlessly to take on two of the remaining men who were standing together, bolstering up the courage they had left.

Lucy stepped over towards Claude who was kneeling and holding his abdomen where he had been stabbed. "Guess you should've picked a better boss. Perhaps one who actually believes you." She said, peering down at him, drops of blood still dripping off the blade in her hand. Claude looked up tentatively, fear in his eyes. "No, please—" He breathed as she reached her hand towards him. Lucy ignored his pleas and calmly laid her hand on the exposed area of his neck and watched with pleasure as his sputtering slowed and his eyes fell shut. Lucy closed her own eyes, feeling the surge of energy flowing through her.

Within a few moments the feeling passed and she opened her eyes again to see Bucky nearly finished with the two men he was currently occupied with. Flipping the knife a few times in her hand a few times she took aim at one of the remaining men and let it fly from her fingertips. The weapon quickly found its target and the man let out a groan before falling, his hand flying to his thigh where the blade had landed.

To her left she saw another charging at her, his hand gun raised. Nonchalantly she turned towards him and waited for him to take his shot. When he was only a few steps away he finally let the bullet fly from his gun. Lucy merely sighed as it tore into her chest. Stunned by her seeming indifference to the bullet, the man hurriedly tried to backpedal, but the redhead was already upon him, her hand gripping his jaw.

"Please, I have a family!" He said in a last plea for his life. Un-persuaded by his cries she continued, feeling the flow of energy from the man's body into her own. With eyes full of horror the man watched as the bullet hole slowly disappeared from Lucy's chest, and then groaned in agony as it reappeared on his own. Blood soon seeped through the man's shirt and he fell away from Lucy's hand onto the floor. Putting her hands on her hips she took a deep breath and spun on her heel to see Bucky just finishing off the man with the knife in his thigh.

Lucy waited as he crossed the room to where she was standing, pausing to retrieve an object from Maudeaux's jacket. Lucy held out her hand as Bucky approached her and he wordlessly dropped the object into her outstretched palm. It was a light of some kind and it had a switch on the back. She turned it around in her fingers then commented, "Bit of a pain. All of that just to get Maudeaux here for this."

Bucky just shrugged, and together they headed for the doorway that lead to the vault. Both blinked as they stepped inside the dimly lit room and Lucy felt along the wall until she found the switch. The lights above whirred as they came to life, bathing the room in light. "We've got about an hour before the next round of guards come through to check on things, so we better work fast." She said, but Bucky was already aware of the fact.

Before them stood rows and rows of shelves, all covered with paintings and artwork. Clicking on the handheld light, Lucy went to work waving its purple tinted rays over the back of each frame searching for the one she had been sent to retrieve. Bucky stood by the door, keeping an eye out for any movement.

"What does HYDRA want with some old painting anyway?" She asked after a few minutes.

"They don't send us to ask questions, Fox." Bucky said gruffly from where he stood. "They send us to kill."

Hello everyone again! We've just passed the halfway mark, and I actually just finished up writing the last chapter today so breath a sigh of relief, this story is guaranteed to be complete! *cheers* That being said, don't hesitate to let me know what you think, reviews will definitely get quicker updates!