Chapter 6

Zaria had always known that her adrenaline made her faster, stronger, better than the average human, so killing those men during that time when they had been stunned by what she did was easy, but what surprised her was that even as she felt her adrenaline cooling in her system she still felt faster than the guards she was fighting.

Vengeance did that, or at least that's what she was telling herself. She noticed a group of people and, feeling jacked up on the idea that she was permanently better than the killers for hire, she grabbed a bar overhead, propelling her body as she had done for many years in gymnastics. When she felt she had enough speed she release the bar and flipped through the air, landing in the middle of the group. They were too shocked to react as she pulled the Beretta and shot them all.

She felt invincible.

One of the men wasn't dead yet so she reached down and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close to her face.

"Where is he?" She snapped. "Tell me where your leader is!"

"You're going to die bitch." He coughed as he pressed a button on his suit setting off an alarm through the whole building.

Zaria swore violently as she put a round through his head and snagged one of the automatics. Men began to file out from rooms down the branches from the hall she was in. Quickly she bent down and looted the corpses before her. Snagging a vest for herself she took a bag and loaded it with as many extra clips for her gun as she could comfortably carry.

"This will be fun." She muttered as the first group of men noticed her. Then it was war.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Pepper wasn't sure how long she had sat there listening to the sounds of guns and sirens when a loud crackle was heard and a male's voice broke out over the sounds outside.

"Don't kill her damn it! I need her alive! She's useless to me dead! Capture her!"

"Tony, did you hear that?" Pepper whispered into the phone.

"Yeah," Tony said with a sigh.

"They're going to hurt her. She's just a child Tony."

"She's not a child Pepper, she's Twenty Two."

"She's still a child in my book. She's barely over eighteen. Wait, how did you know how old she was?"

Tony made a noise. "The Cap finally admitted to knowing her; gave us her name. Trust me, she's not a kid. She's had a long history on the wrong side of the law until pretty recently."

Pepper paused at that. "Did he know that about her?"

"No..." Tony finally said. "He was pretty shocked by that."

"I still think we should give her the benefit of the doubt." Jane said, finally speaking up. "She's risked her own life for strangers. She didn't want us to see her killing those people. I think it really upset her."

Pepper couldn't agree more.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Zaria was bleeding. She was only vaguely aware of it, and she wasn't really sure where it was coming from. Her left arm was useless, it had been in extreme amounts of pain earlier but she didn't feel it anymore. She was also pretty sure that was a bad thing but couldn't summon up enough emotion to care. She had once been trained to be this way, lack of emotions or pain responses. She had hoped she had forgotten, but when it came right down to it, it was like riding a bike; she had never really forgotten how to do it at all.

She leaned against a wall, breathing heavily, as she remembered the man who had trained her. He had claimed he was part of Jimmy's gang, but he was a killer, bred through and through. She knew he wasn't from Jimmy's gang because no one else knew how to fight like him and he never took the time to train anyone else but her. Because "she was special", or that's what he always told her.

Oh how she had wanted to forget it all and just be able to play the hostage, sitting there quietly as her, Jane and Pepper waited to be rescued, but part of her knew she could never do that, and when she felt that knife hit the resistance of that man's skin and slide through as if it were nothing, she knew she had never truly forgotten how to be a killer.

"If only they would just kill me." She groaned as she pushed herself off the wall, more men were coming in to try and capture her like the voice had wanted. "At least then I wouldn't have to answer for what I'm doing later."

They swarmed in on her and she raised the gun, pulling the trigger only to get the sad sound of an empty cartridge. She groaned as she dropped the gun and grabbed a knife and readied herself to be captured, again.

They didn't get close enough for her to hit them with her knife, but instead two barbs flew at her from the end of a police issued Taser, digging deeply and painfully into her skin before the electric current seized all her muscles up. She cried out involuntarily as her body fell to the ground, knife sliding away from her. They had rendered her completely defenseless.

"I don't understand why we have to keep her alive." The man holding the Taser grumbled.

"Boss's orders." Another responded as he came over to her. "Keep your finger on that button. I don't need her trying to kill me while I tie her up."

The first man squeezed the trigger causing Zaria to convulse on the floor, seething with hatred as the men laughed.

She was bound quickly and efficiently as a bag went over her head and she was carried off down some hallway that she couldn't see to a room she had no idea about to see a man she only wanted to kill slowly and painfully.

Zaria felt the sting of the cold metal chair she was unceremoniously dumped in before she could see it. The fabric bag over her head cut out all lines of sight after they closed it off at the bottom. She also felt the presence of the man she knew she had been brought to see as soon as he walked into the room she was kept it.

"Well she's more or less alive, I see." He said. "You could have at least removed the Taser barbs and the bag when you brought her in here."

"We were concerned she would try to run again."

"In the state she's in? Really? Get rid of them all, now." He snapped angrily.

They hastily removed the barbs, causing more pain than necessary, but she bit her tongue to keep from making noise, then the bag was removed and the blind speared into her brain giving her an instant headache.

"Get lost." The boss said.

"But -" Someone started.

"I said get lost!" He barked angrily. "Go wait for our new intruders or something; I don't want you in here!"

The men left quickly at the orders of their boss. In the silence that followed Zaria squinted at the bright light pointed at her chair as she tried to see the man who had issued the orders.

"So you're the one that made the mess of my men." He said as he stepped into the light. It shadowed him and haloed him at the same time; she hated it. "They were trained soldiers."

"They sucked." She grunted as she tested the restraints on her wrists.

"Or you're just that good." He surmised as he lowered the light that was still blinding here. He stepped aside, letting the light full illuminate him. It was almost as if he wanted to see what he looked like.

He was tall, not as tall as Steve, he seemed a hair shy of six feet, or maybe just on it though it was hard to tell as she was sitting down. He was lean, not skinny, he was certainly muscular, but it wasn't as broad as Steve's; who seemed to be her only real comparison, or at least the one that kept popping up. His dark brown hair was wavy but tamed into a neat style and his blue eyes, visible through the black eye mask he has on, were as cold as ice. Clad in dark pants, a skin tight long sleeve shirt, a Kevlar vest, and weaponry he all but screamed authority. This was a man one didn't mess with if they knew what was good for them and she was about to go poking at him with a stick.

"I'm assuming you're trying to scare me." Zaria said as she twisted her wrists back and forth, loosening the restraints slowly. She needed him talking long enough for her to get loose.

"Far from it. I'd like you to join us." He answered, his arms crossing over his chest, feet apart. An aggressive stance. He was testing her, pushing to see if she would give ground, if she would stand down; she knew this game.

She raised her chin, set her jaw square; giving as good as she got in the state that she was in. "Why would I do that? You kidnapped me, used me as bait for who knows what reason, tried to kill me, then captured me again just to bring me into your presence. Why not just do that from the beginning?"

"I had to test you. See if you were really who I thought you were."

"And who do you think I am?"

"Exactly what your blood makes you."

Zaria stilled and looked at him again, harder this time, not just the assessing glance at his persona, at the person under it. The realization she came to stole her breath and steeled her heart. She knew she would meet him, she knew she wouldn't escape forever, but she hadn't thought he would come for her so quickly. She wasn't ready as she wanted to be, but as the blood in her body ran cold with hatred she knew she had just been given the one she had wanted since she found out the truth of it all. A chance at revenge.

"My blood does not make me a monster like you." She seethed.

The man laughed. "Is that what you think I am? A monster? Tell me, what makes you think that." He smirked, his hands on his hips, just above his guns.

"I know what you are. I know what you've done, and for who and what. I know who you you're looking for but can't find so you're stuck with me." Zaria's vision blurred as all the emotions, the hatred, anger, betrayal, bubbled to the front. "I probably should have started this whole conversation with "hi, it's so nice to meet you, I'm Zaria Barnes", although you already knew that because you know everything about me. Isn't that right... Grandfather...?"

The smirk on the man's face faded as he studied her with extreme interest. "I'm not old enough to be your grandfather. They must have hit you harder than I thought."

Zaria laughed, it was a harsh sound. "Not unless you're the Winter Soldier; which, of course, you are. I've seen the paperwork. Did you really think my grandmother, Dima, defected to the states without something important? Your picture is all over those documents. It wasn't hard to put it all together when I saw the only photo of you that my grandmother had. You know the one, that grainy colored one when you first found out she was pregnant with my dad, your son. It really all made sense after that. What I want to know is why."

"Why what?"

"Why meet her? Why get her pregnant? Why have a child at all? Why her? Was she special too? Why didn't you marry her? Why not tell her the truth? Why not come looking for her? Did you know that she never married? She raised her son and her granddaughter all alone. Did you know she loved you until she died? You knew she died right? Of cancer. It was really slow, really painful. Did you know that she hated me at the end because I look just like you?" Tears stung Zaria's eyes as she laid it all out there, even the harsh truth about her grandmother hating her; something she had never told anyone else. "It's all your fault you know. That she had to live the way she did, that my dad died thinking he could be some hero because he was "better" than the average person. That I'm this freak of nature."

The Winter Soldier just looked at her, his eyes dead and cold. "If you would join me no one would ever call you a freak."

Zaria was teeming with the need to hurt him, to make him pay for everything. She had dreamt about it when she had finally learned the truth. She had been so sure he would come looking for anyone alive that was related to him and she had been right. The restraints on her wrists were almost to the breaking point, just a little more time and she would be free to do exactly what she wanted. "All I ever wanted was to be normal. I work hard to make ends meet, to pay the bills that were left behind. I met a great guy who I really like."

The Winter Soldier's eyes hardened. "You know nothing about that man."

"Oh I know plenty about him. You see, I have this ability to remember anything and everything I come across, my "super power" thanks to you. I know about him just like I know about you. But unlike you, he's actually nice. Of course he doesn't know what I know, but that's okay. He doesn't need to. And, after tonight he won't ever have to find out the truth."

"What makes you think he won't find out?"

"Because Bucky... One of us is going to die." The restraints broke from Zaria's wrists and she leapt from the chair to attack.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Tony, Steve, Clint, and Natasha made their through the bunker, following the signal from the satellite phone. There weren't as many guards as they had expected there to be, and they finally realized why as they stumbled upon the corpses.

"She did this by herself?" Clint asked as he surveyed the piles of bodies. It appeared that many of them had been dragged to one side or the other of the hallway.

"They wanted her alive. Or that's what the little speaker-man said." Tony said as he scanned the area. "The signal is coming from further down the hall."

Steve was silent as he looked over all the death done by one person. He was familiar with death as he fought in the World War, but this much death done by one person, one female person. He thought about Zaria, how she seemed so innocent, and yet had been able to kill all these men without batting an eye at it. Maybe she really was working for the enemy. Maybe she was supposed to get close to him, get his defenses down before striking. But then why the note with the picture of her in a trunk? Was that just to throw him off his game?

"Come on Cap, stop daydreaming." Tony said from further down the hallway. "You can get even with little miss not so innocent after we find Pepper."

Steve shook himself; he wasn't here to think about Zaria, he was here to find Pepper and Jane. He moved down the hall to catch up to the rest of the team. As he passed an offshoot something caught his attention. Stopping, he turned to look down the hall, trying to figure out what had caught his attention when light flickered as if a body had passed in front of it. For a moment he wondered what it was. Was it Zaria? Was it one of the men that were part of this kidnapping group? Had they moved Pepper and Jane to throw them off the trail?

Steve turned to call after the group but a noise stopped him. A moan of pain hit his ears from the room with the light. It was feminine; it could have been any of the girls they were here for, so, without much hesitation, Steve ran down the hall and smashed his way through the door. The scene before him stunned him. Zaria leaned heavily against one of the tables in the room wielding a knife that was probably as long as her forearm. Blood coated nearly every inch of her body, her left arm hung limp at her side. She was staring at him, stunned at his appearance in the room.

"Steve..." She whispered. She swallowed, the hand holding the knife trembled.

So, she knew who he was. It hurt him, thinking she had been lying to him the whole time. It was a brutal feeling.

"Steve!" She cried, her voice hoarse, as she lunged towards, using the table as leverage to give her forward momentum.

She was going to attack him, or that's what he thought until he realized there had been another body in the room. One he had missed because he had been so stunned by Zaria's appearance. Pivoting he lifted his shield and blocked the strike of a blade wielded by an unknown male attacker. He used the shield to push the man back and readied himself for another attack when Zaria jumped in front of him.

"Leave him out of this!" She cried as she took up a defensive stance.

"Well, well, well... Captain America, or should I say Steve Rogers, very nice of you to join us. I wondered when you would come looking for the girl." The unknown man taunted as he ignored Zaria's protest.

"How do you know my name?" Steve questioned. Had Zaria told him? She had said his name when he burst in.

"Oh I know all of your names. It wasn't hard to find out the rest of the team, but you, Steve, were a little more difficult. It was only when you came around Zaria that we finally figured it out."

Steve was stunned, he looked to Zaria to see if she would deny it, but she didn't say anything, just pinched her lips in a thin line as blood trickled down over her lips from a cut under her eye.

The other man laughed. "I'm sure you're thinking she's been in on this, but I'll be honest, she wasn't. I had her followed because I wanted her in on it and you were just an unsuspecting victim, isn't that right my little bunny."

"Go to hell." Zaria spat. "Get out of here Steve. Go help your team and don't look back."

Before he could respond she launched herself at the other man much faster than Steve expected with how much blood she must have lost. Metal clashed against metal as their knives hit. Zaria swung out with her foot to the side of the man's head but he was faster, catching her foot and propelling her backwards.

"You really won't join me? We could be great together. I could make it so you're better than you already are."

"I would rather die first."

"Suit yourself." He ducked forward, bringing his knife up to slip under her ribs and up to her heart, just like she had down to the first assailant.

A shield smashed into his wrist before the knife could puncture any skin. Both Zaria and the soldier turned to see that Steve had not actually left.

He caught his shield again and slid it back onto his arm as he stared at the man. "I can't let you do that. I can't let you hurt her anymore. If you need to fight someone you will have to fight me."

"That is exactly what I would like to do." The Soldier said as he turned to face Steve. They moved to their unique fighting stances, each of them sizing the other up. The Soldier rotated Steve away from the door as he circled around.

In the silence Zaria could almost feel the tension pulsating off of the two men who faced each other. She was so enthralled by the fight that brewed just at the surface that she didn't notice how much closer the Soldier had gotten to her.

"But, I think it will have to wait." The Soldier scoffed. "Now, Captain, you're going to have to make a choice. Me or the girl?"

"What?" Steve questioned.

"What?" Zaria echoed. Suddenly pain blossomed just under her ribs and a heavy hand held her shoulder tightly. Astonished she looked down to see a small knife was stuck into her stomach.

"You were right my little Bunny." The Soldier hissed in her ear. "One of us was going to die tonight." With that he shoved the knife in deeper before he pulled it out and disappeared through the door.

Zaria stood there, stunned as warm blood seeped through the wound. Numbly she put her working hand to the gash to stem the blood flow. Her knees gave out but instead of crashing to the ground warm arms caught her and lowered her gently.

"Steve..." She gasped but she couldn't get more out as she felt her lung filling with blood. It was a fatal wound without immediate response.

Steve looked torn. The enemy was escaping and it was his duty to go after him but he couldn't make himself leave her. It was obvious even to him that she was dying and he couldn't tear himself away from her.

"Get... him..." Zaria choked out.

"I can't let you die. It would be my fault." He answered.

"Cap!" Tony's voice echoed from the hallways.

"Here!" He answered. He looked down at Zaria and after a moment's hesitation he lifted her gingerly from the floor and carried her out to the others.

"Jesus." It was Tony, or so she thought but she couldn't be certain.

"We need to get her to the helecarrier as soon as possible." Steve commanded, "She's dying."

There was silence and a crackle of radio as a voice she wasn't familiar with called in for an evac then a redhead moved into Zaria's line of sight with a look of contempt.

"You're not allowed to die Zaria Barnes. You still have questions to answer."

If only it were that simple.