A/N: OH MY GOSH I'M GOING TO SEE CIVIL WAR TOMORROW! I am so excited I can't even put it into words. Eek! Okay... Fangirl moment over.. Also there is a moment in this chapter. You'll know it when you get there ;)

Big thanks to: Tumblingintowonderland, beckychelle, Shinigamidemidragonslayer99, finish-her and Don'tPanic-NotYet for favouriting/following :)

Review Response(s):

NESSAANCALIME6913: Haha, yeah, I guess so. Still, I'm glad you're enjoying it :)

Eryniel Alasse: I'm glad you still like her. Admittedly, I think Mary Sues have a habit of being so unbelievable that I had a miniature panic moment. I'm glad it's not bad, though. *phew*

2000Aerobars: Haha, I'm glad you agree ;)

9 - Target: Fury, Nicholas J.

Over the next three decades I killed eighteen people on my own, and nine more with the Winter Soldier by my side. Whenever I woke up, after remembering the Winter Soldier (of course), the first thing that would go through my mind was the faces of all the people I'd killed. Most of them were nameless faces. A few I'd known the names of. That just made the guilt worse. I was a monster, and I knew it, but I also knew there was nothing I could do about it. Not if I wanted the Soldier to remain unharmed.

The Winter Soldier and I had woken after a wipe just a few hours ago. We were waiting in silence for our orders. Technology had massively developed over time, and while it seemed to make the Winter Soldier uneasy, I thought it was slightly... Well, I recognised some of it. Instinctually, I knew what it was, or how to use it. It was as if I'd known this stuff existed in a past life. But... Well, that was impossible. In the end I just pinned it down to a good, innate knowledge of how to work out new technology.

Both the Winter Soldier and I stood to attention when our superior walked in. Alexander Pierce. The name never ceased to ring alarm bells in my head, but I couldn't remember why. It was frustrating, to say the least.

"You have a new target," he said, passing us a folder. Oh yes, that had changed, too. Instead of being given only a little photo, we were given a folder. It had the same information as before - a face and a level difficulty (we were given a time limit by Pierce himself) but also listed any frequent associates (again, only faces), and where they were expected to be. "You've got two days."

Also, our time limits tended to get shorter the more we did Hydra's bidding. Clearly they were expecting us to be infinitely better with all the flashy new tech.

We both scanned quickly through the folder, which told us our target had a lot of associates and was a Level 6 - the highest level there was. He was currently in D.C., however he moved around so much it was impossible to know where he'd be before he was there, so that part of the thin folder was blank. His face rang a dim bell in my mind, one I had now come to associate with a past version of my self recognising the face in front of me. I honestly didn't know if I wanted to remember the identity of the man I was being sent to kill.

We were given control of a team for this task, who were quickly instructed to dress as police officers and 'borrow' a few genuine Metropolitan Police Department cars. They were given the task of either killing the man themselves - both the Winter Soldier and I doubted they'd be able to do that - or forcing the man down the road where we would be waiting.

While the Winter Soldier armed himself with an advanced RPG, a machine gun, his dagger, and a pistol or two, I picked out four daggers, my customary twenty throwing knives, my twin blades, a pistol that I strapped to my thigh, and a bow with a set of arrows with different purposes. The green-tipped arrows were laced with poison. The red-tipped arrows were explosive. The blue-tipped ones had an electrical trigger attached to them. And the black-tipped arrows were your bog-standard arrow.

The Winter Soldier and I made our way out into the road, both wearing our full armour. The Winter Soldier was also wearing a face mask and a pair of bullet-proof goggles. My face was not hidden by anything. Despite the fact we were in the middle of the road, no one dared to blare their horns at us. Perhaps the rather obvious show of weapons dissuaded them, but I was glad for it.

"I remember," I said.

"What?"

Neither of us moved our eyes from the road ahead while we talked. "The man we're supposed to be killing. I'd seen his face before. I remember who he is."

"Who is he?"

I sighed. "Nicholas J. Fury. He's the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" he asked, with obvious amusement.

I chuckled. "No, I suppose not." I frowned. "Do you remember... Oh, God, what was her name? Um... Carter? No, that wasn't it."

"Cartwright," he filled in. "I killed her brother."

"Oh, that's right," I said, nodding. "Well, I told her to go to S.H.I.E.L.D. so she could be protected. They're basically Hydra's main opposition."

"So... they're the good guys."

I snorted. "You know, I think I used that exact term when I was describing them to Miss Cartwright."

"And why did you tell me this?"

I smirked at him, finally taking my eyes off the road. "Didn't you once say you were proactive? That you liked to know where you are, when you are, and who you're killing...?"

He huffed, though I could hear his laughter. "Touché."

We lapsed into silence again, listening intently to the sound of gunshots and sirens. It was only a few seconds later that a black SUV, clearly riddled with bullets, turned a corner, heading straight towards us.

I smirked and moved slightly to the right. "I'll let you have this one."

Though I couldn't see it, I could imagine him rolling his eyes behind those goggles of his. He lifted his strange RPG and fired, a black disc shooting from the end of the barrel. I watched with keen eyes as it skimmed the ground, before sticking to the underside of the car. I waited a beat, and then the disc exploded, throwing the back end of the car up over the front. The Winter Soldier calmly stepped back to let the car go past, before turning to me.

"I think it's your turn now," he said dryly.

I chuckled, before walking casually towards the car. Once I got there, I grasped hold of the door and pulled on it with all my strength, ripping the door off its hinges. I ducked down, expecting to see myself facing the bloodied body of Nick Fury, but instead I saw a large hole in both the side of the car and the road.

I chuckled, leaning back. "Something tells me S.H.I.E.L.D. have managed to out-do Hydra in terms of how advanced their technology is," I said as the Winter Soldier came to a stop beside me. "He dug a hole in several inch thick asphalt in seconds."

"That just means we'll have to try again."

"Want to split up?"

He looked at me, and raised an eyebrow. "Why would we do that?"

"Well, clearly that hole doesn't lead to nowhere. One of us could go down there and follow him, while the other could go and find intel that will give us a hint as to where he might go next just in case he manages to escape."

He chuckled. "Alright," he agreed. "But I don't think I'm going to be the one going down there; I'm not convinced I'll fit." He pointed at the hole.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I said, before reaching up and pulling his goggles off his eyes, revealing the black marks they'd left. "But I'm borrowing these. You're not the one who's under threat of being shot, and I'm wearing literally nothing bullet-proof."

He rolled his eyes, and then looked seriously at me. "Be careful."

I shook my head. "More than fifty years working as my partner and still you worry for me. I'll be fine. Now get going, and we'll meet at the rendezvous point by nightfall to swap stories. Agreed?"

The Winter Soldier nodded, squeezed my shoulder gently, then walked away. I watched him until he disappeared from view, before putting on the goggles, wriggling into the car, and dropping down the hole. I was in some kind of tunnel, and thankfully it wasn't a sewage tunnel. I didn't want to go back to meet with the Winter Soldier literally smelling like shit. The darkness of the area prompted me to grab a glowing stick of some kind and turn it on, lighting up my surroundings. Unfortunately the tunnel went two ways, so I had to scour the ground first for any clue as to which way the man had gone. The evidence came in the form of bloody footprints, which led me down the path to my right.

I pulled my pistol out of its strap and turned off the safety, holding it securely in front of me with both hands. As I walked, I ran through everything I'd remembered in my head - that Nick Fury, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., was ultimately a good guy. And that, thanks to him (and a few key others), Hydra would be ended. Mostly. Which meant that the Winter Soldier and I would finally be free of them.

I didn't want to shoot Nick Fury - the pistol was just a precaution in case he had hostile company.

Around the next corner, I saw the injured man leaning against a wall. It was a dead end. He had nowhere to run.

He looked at me, blinked, then frowned. "Well, well," he said slowly. "I know you." He huffed. "Every piece of evidence we've got on Silverthorn says she works alone. But it wasn't you who killed my car."

"The Winter Soldier and I have been working with each other since the beginning," I told him, flicking on the safety of my gun and placing it back in its place at my thigh.

Fury frowned. "You're not going to kill me."

I shook my head. "I may work with the Winter Soldier, and I may have the same mission as him, but I know things that he doesn't. And you need to be alive." I crouched down next to him and gave him a once over. His injuries weren't too bad. I sighed, then looked at him seriously. "A failed attempt on your life means we have no choice but to try again," I said. "If you get shot, you're going to need something that'll help you survive."

He frowned. "Like what?"

I smirked. "I believe you're familiar with tetrodotoxin B, yes? Making sure you get your hands on some of that is the next thing you should do. You're going to need it."

I stood up and was about to walk away, but then my wrist was caught in a strong grip. I looked down at the man. "You said I need to be alive," he grunted. "Why?"

"You're a key player in the events that will set the Winter Soldier and I free of Hydra's grasp. It's a selfish reason, but after half a century being forced to kill innocent people, I think we both deserve it."

"Then why do it at all? Why fight for Hydra?"

"Hydra have a way to take away our memories. Admittedly, prolonged exposure to the machine that does it means you start to develop a resistance to it, but having no memory of who you are means you have no memory of how to tell the difference between right and wrong. Hydra used that to aid them. We're monsters, and we both know it. It wasn't a life we chose - it was forced upon us. The only people we know we can trust is each other. I don't care about myself. But he's been through worse than me, and he never deserved it. I'm doing it for him. Problem is, I know he'd never leave without me, and I'd certainly never leave without him. That's why we have to leave together, at the same time." I shook my head, then said, "I can't promise the next time we meet I won't put a bullet in your back." I grinned. "So be careful." Then I walked away for good, leaving the injured man to find his own way.

The sun was just about to sink below the horizon when I reached our rendezvous point. The Winter Soldier wasn't there yet, so I had a few minutes to think about what I'd done. Ultimately, I didn't regret it. Not one bit.

"You're early."

I lifted my head and smirked. "Actually," I challenged, "you're late. Rendezvous point by nightfall, that was our agreement. Night fell six minutes ago."

He rolled his eyes. "Any luck?"

I shook my head. "You?"

He nodded. "I know where he'll go next."

"Where?"

"A safe house. Come on."

I followed him back the way he'd come, walking along four streets until we faced an apartment block. He grabbed hold of a wall-mounted ladder and started to climb to the top of a building, with me following behind. He pointed above us. "That's the apartment he's most likely to go to," he said, before digging around in a pocket I didn't even know he had. He pulled out a hand-held device and switched it on. A green light flashed. "And I managed to bug the apartment. Anything said in the main room will be picked up on this."

I nodded, and the two of us sat quietly for a while. Then, a voice sounded through the speaker of the device in the Winter Soldier's hand. "I don't remember giving you a key." My mind immediately put a name to the voice: Steve Rogers.

"You really think I'd need one?" That was Fury. "My wife kicked me out."

"Didn't know you were married."

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." I lifted my head as a light flicked on in the apartment the Winter Soldier pointed out to me, but then a moment later it was turned off. A silence fell over us all. In that time, the Soldier passed me the listening device and pulled a gun off his back, pulling out a clip of ammo and jamming it into the gun. "I'm sorry to have do this, but I had no place else to crash," Fury said after a moment, voice crackling slightly as the device in my hand struggled to maintain its connection with the bug in the apartment.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Rogers asked.

"Just... my friends," Fury said after a moment.

"Is that what we are?"

The Winter Soldier lifted the gun and aimed carefully at the apartment, his gun twitching towards the trigger just as Fury spoke again. "That's up to you." The Winter Soldier fired. Three shots went through the window and into Fury's back. We watched as Captain Rogers dragged him out of the way. It was a moment before Fury choked out, "Don't... trust... anyone."

There was a series of bangs, and the sound of a door being kicked open. "Captain Rogers?" There was a pause, then, "Captain, I'm Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Special Service."

"Kate?"

"I was assigned to protect you."

"On whose order?"

There was another pause. "His," Agent 13 said quietly. There was a buzz on the device, and a few incomprehensible words filtered through the speaker.

Then, something understandable came through. "Tell them I'm in pursuit."

"I think that's our cue," I said, grabbing the Winter Soldier's hand and sprinting along the roof at full speed. The Winter Soldier kept up easily, keeping hold of my hand whilst strapping his gun to his back. We ran for no more than a few seconds before we pitched ourselves over the edge of the roof, rolling onto the next roof down in order to absorb the impact. We continued running, ignoring the sound of smashing glass behind us. We both came to a stop at the edge of the building, and the Winter Soldier caught me slightly off guard when he suddenly spun around to catch the shield the captain had thrown at us. He gave Steve Rogers a stony look, before throwing the shield back. He then grabbed onto me and we jumped off the building, immediately moving to the side and hiding in an alleyway below.

Both of us were breathing heavier than usual, but we were far from winded. We waited a few minutes, and then I turned to the Soldier. "Did the shield damage your hand?" I asked. The Winter Soldier showed his metal hand, revealing not even the slightest scratch. I rolled my eyes. "Show off," I muttered.

The Winter Soldier chuckled, and, as usual, took my hand in his. He'd stopped wearing long sleeve shirts a long time ago - now we did this out of habit and comfort. Being close to each other and being in contact with each other calmed us both down. We walked leisurely out of the alleyway, not looking back up at the roof to assure that Captain Rogers was gone. I knew he would be.

"Do you think they're going to put us back in cryo after this?" the Winter Soldier asked as we crossed the road.

I shook my head. "No. This is the turning point for Hydra - Project Insight is the final puzzle piece. They won't want to waste time freezing and wiping us, especially as any opposition will want to be quelled. We'll be kept in our room, I suspect, and brought in only when necessary. Once all this is over, then we'll be put back in cryo-freeze."

The Winter Soldier sighed, pulling us to a stop. I sent him a confused look, but he said nothing. He looked down at our joined hands, idly playing with my fingers, before pulling me into a tight hug. I blinked in surprise, but then returned the embrace.

"I'm tired of this, Silver," he murmured. "I don't want to be frozen again. I don't want to kill anymore."

"We don't have a choice," I reminded him. I pulled away and placed my hands on his cheeks, pulling his head down so his forehead was pressed against mine. "If this works, we both know we'll continue to be used like puppets for Hydra for the rest of our lives. But at the same time we'll be safe in the knowledge that we'll always be needed, and we'll be somewhere that is familiar. But if this fails - if S.H.I.E.L.D. wins, we have a chance to go free. We could escape. Start anew."

The Soldier smiled sadly. "Hydra won't lose," he said despondently. "They never lose."

"There's a first time for everything."

He sighed through his nose, closing his eyes. "Don't move," he whispered. "Just... stay here. I don't want to go back yet."

I gently stroked his stubbled chin with my thumb. "You know we could always leave," I said quietly. "Run away. I'm sure they couldn't win against us both - they trained us too well."

He laughed without humour. "Oh, I wish we could," he said, mirroring my position and gently caressing my cheeks. "But when did things ever go our way?"

"We have to stand up for ourselves at some point, Shadow. We might be murderers but we're still human, and humans weren't made to be ruled." I closed my eyes. "I would do it," I whispered.

"What?" he murmured back.

"I would fight them. I would fight the whole world for you." I opened my eyes and smiled, but there was a serious glint to my eyes. "You're all I have, Shadow."

He winced slightly, but nodded. "I know," he croaked. "I know because I'd do the same. You're all I've got and I'd do anything for you. But, Silver, this can't be done. I wish it were different, but how can we go back to how we were before Hydra made us monsters?"

"In order to undo the bad things we did we'd have to do twice as many good things. That's a good start."

"But how?" he said, furrowing his brow. "We'd never get the chance to do anything good because people would automatically assume the worst."

"We find someone who'll give us another chance."

The Winter Soldier sighed. "I'm not sure we deserve another chance."

"Everyone deserves another chance," I said strongly. I smiled when he looked at me, still frowning, but I could see a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Okay?"

He sighed. "Okay, but not now."

I frowned. "Why wait?"

"I... I'm not sure," he admitted. "There's something about this that seems... I don't know. That's the thing. For the first time, I'm uncertain."

"You'll figure it out," I promised.

The Winter Soldier smiled. "What would I be without you?"

I groaned dramatically. "I dread to think," I said.

The Soldier chuckled, rubbing his thumbs across my cheeks. His eyes darted down to my lips, and he started to lean in. I felt my breath catch. "If you want me to stop, just say," he murmured, lips hovering less than an inch from mine.

"If you stop, I'll stab you," I muttered, eyes already threatening to flutter closed.

He chuckled. "Best not, then." And without hesitation his lips slammed down on mine. My eyes slid closed and I wrapped my arms around his neck, concentrating on the sensation of his warm, soft lips moving in sync with mine. Every point where my skin touched his became alight with electricity, and my heart beat became so fast I thought it was trying to break out of my ribs. We broke apart only to draw breath before our lips met again, this time replacing the sweetness with passion and fire. I dug my fingers into the silky locks of his hair, relishing in the slight scratch of his stubble while his arms tugged me against him, making it so there was no space between us at any point.

I knew this was just a dream. I knew Hydra would never allow this. But dammit, while his lips were on mine and while his arms were wrapped around me, I couldn't find it in me to care.