Summary: Bucky is recaptured by Hydra where their scientists conduct more experiments on him. There he meets an unlikely ally, an innocent looking young woman who is hiding a much darker side. Meanwhile Steve has tracked his best friend and discovered his location and is preparing to mount a rescue mission with the help of some of his fellow Avengers. Can they save Bucky before it's too late? And who is this mystery woman? Co – Written with Dixon – Vixen 13. Bucky/OC, Steve/Sharon, Clint/Natasha, Tony/Pepper. Rated M for graphic violence, language and eventual sexual scenes.
Soldiers And Spies
Chapter 9
"You're my warrior." Bucky said quietly and held her tightly as they both started drifting off to sleep.
Bucky woke up to see Eva still sound asleep, her long blonde hair had fallen over his chest and he nuzzled her face tenderly with his. There was a small smile on her lips as she slept soundly. She really loved him.
"I love you, doll." Bucky whispered quietly and kissed her softly as he watched her sleep for a little while and held her close. As his eyes roamed over her exposed body he noticed there were slight bruises on her hips. He'd been a bit rough with her after their first time but she hadn't minded. She had liked him being a bit feral and primal with her. She said he was her wolf.
When Eva stirred and began to wake she found herself curled tightly against Bucky's strong muscular chest, and she had never felt more at home. Wrapped up in his arms is where she wanted to stay forever, but she knew they had some work to do before they would finally get their happy ever after and live the life they wanted.
"Morning baby." She whispered to him as he was lazily drawing circles on the skin of her back with his fingertips.
"Morning." He replied as he kissed her forehead. "How are you feeling?"
"A little sore and tired to be honest." She chuckled. "But otherwise... better than I have felt in years." she said with a sweet smile.
"Me too sweetheart, me too." He smiled.
After a quick shower, they made their way down to the kitchen for breakfast and they walked in hand in hand. When they got there, they found Steve and Sharon sitting at the counter sharing a plate of toast. Steve saw the couple's hands linked together and gave his best friend a questioning kind of look. Bucky replied with a small smile and a silent nod as if to say 'yup, we're a thing now,' and Steve just smiled in reply.
Bucky fixed the two of them some cereal, while Eva made coffees and they all sat down together and ate their breakfast in a comfortable silence. That is until Tony strolled in announcing that Hill had sent him some new intel for their next mission in Elsterberg.
"Apparently HYDRA have been experimenting some more on young women from the Red Room Program. They've been given unknown powers and Fury gave me their records." Tony informed them. "It might pay to read up on these, we don't know who we will come across in Elsterberg." He said a Natasha wandered into the kitchen.
Eva and Natasha scanned the files, trying to see if they could recognise any of them. Natasha stopped on a page when she recognised a dark haired young girl that had haunted her for years.
Marina Blumenfeld.
"I recognise her, she was in the same year as me and trained with me in the Red Room." Natasha said quietly. "We were rivals I guess you could say."
"I know the blonde woman, that's Yelena Belkova...she was the year above me and a psychotic bitch." Eva said bitterly as she read on the file of her enemy. She had killed a lot of diplomats, chemical engineers and a prominent anti-communist who had been of Ukraine nationality as she kept reading that was when she saw Yelena's file got bloodier.
The woman had killed a family of five during the early 2000's in Cuba, the only survivors were two twins, a boy and a little girl who were then raised by their grandparents in a wealthy neighbourhood of Columbia.
That had HYDRA written all over it. Had she been working for them even back then?
"Ok so we are going to be dealing with a whole lot of new stuff on this one." Steve said grimly. "Everyone is gonna need to bring their A game. And Eva, I know it's not going to be easy thing for you to do, fighting against people you once knew, but we are really going to need you on this one. How are you going with your powers?"
"James and I have been working together on them. I have discovered a lot more things I can do, and I have a complete control now. I'm ready for this." She told him.
"Good. We leave first thing tomorrow. Everyone make sure you rest up, we all need to be at 100% for this. Who knows what we are going to be up against."
The team dispersed, the majority of them prepping for their mission tomorrow. Natasha and Clint were down in the armoury, stripping and cleaning their weapons, while Tony was in his lab tinkering with his suit. Steve and Bucky were going over the map of the facility, figuring out what their plan of attack would be from a military point of view, while Eva and Sharon talked together in the living room. The two had become close since meeting and were now checking to see if there were any clues in any of the videos they had gathered that detailed what had happened exactly in the Red Room.
Eva could remember a little, but some of her memories were still foggy in places so Natasha was a big help. They were looking through the files, when Sharon came across something familiar.
'Project Psyche.'
"This is dated during the days of the Soviet Union, they tested and experimented on young orphaned girls who showed potential after watching them fight at the academy." Sharon read disgusted. "They were in the planning stages of this project even way back then." She said both worried and astounded.
"There's a small S.H.I.E.L.D file on the Red Room too. A young agent, Peggy Carter encountered an agent by the name of Dottie Underwood who underwent training at the Red Room." Eva said alarmed.
Sharon looked up at the mention of her Aunt.
"My Aunt Peggy was there?"
"Your Aunt is Peggy Carter?... THE Peggy Carter?" Eva questioned.
"Yes... why?"
"Oh nothing, just something Bucky had mentioned to me about Peggy being Steve's love back in the 1940's. Wow! This just got super awkward." Eva chuckled little. "Does Steve know?" She asked.
"He does." Sharon confirmed. "We uhhh, we went on a date the other day." She said blushing a little. "We talked a lot, and got to know each other more. He told me about his time in the army and the subject of my Aunt came up. I knew from his file that they had a thing, but it turns out Steve didn't click that she and I were related. But it's not a big deal, he's had to let go of her, and he is just happy that she got the chance to live a full and happy life while he was gone." Sharon told her.
"Aww that's sweet. He's such a gentleman. So you two are together now?" Eva asked excitedly.
"I guess so." She replied with a smile. "You and Bucky? You guys looked pretty cosy when you came down for breakfast." She laughed.
"James and I had been through a lot together, I think it's been a long time coming, He and I."
"I'm glad you two are happy. You both deserve it."
"Thanks Sharon." She smiled. "I'm glad Steve finally asked you on a date. Bucky said he's been chickening out for weeks!" Eva laughed.
"He gets so shy, bless him." Sharon giggled.
It felt good to have some girl talk. It had been a very long time since Eva had any real friends. But the Avengers team weren't just her friends. They were becoming like a family to her. Eva didn't have any other family than her parents who had died so long ago, so having the Avengers was comforting and she cared about them very much. She just hoped none of them got hurt on this mission.
Getting ready for the mission, the whole team was pretty anxious and on edge as they had no idea of what they might see in the underground bunker. Clint and Natasha flew the jet as the team sat in the back. Eva looked at her hands which she was making glow a dark violet purple colour.
They carefully landed the jet in stealth mode nearby and got out making their way to the base. As they neared they saw the base was guarded by two men on watch and there were a couple more in guard towers.
"Maybe we should take them out with a sniper rifle?" Clint suggested and Steve nodded as Bucky moved into the forest with his rifle and they saw the two men in the guard towers go down silently a minute later, while Clint fired a couple of arrows at the other two men by the gate, killing them instantly and quietly.
Bucky came back then and they quickly dragged the bodies behind a truck. Eva and Natasha looked through their pockets and found key cards along with a letter addressed to each man.
Eva opened one of the letters and began to read it aloud so the whole team could hear. "Congratulations, you have been chosen for the very important task of securing the Weapons Base 'Indigo Hammer,'. You are to guard the perimeter and under no circumstances are you to enter the facility. If the perimeter is breached sound the alarm and commence the evacuation and self-destruct sequence. Heil HYDRA. Signed Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker." She read.
"Did you say Indigo Hammer?" Steve asked concerned.
"Yeah." Eva replied as she handed him the letter so he could see for himself. "Why?"
"Back in world war two the British used what they called Rainbow Codes, to disguise the nature of top secret military projects." He told the team.
"So what does Indigo Hammer mean?" Clint asked concerned.
"It means nuclear weapons." Steve said grimly.
"They're keeping nukes here?" Clint asked, sounding a little worried.
"It's probably more like they are building nukes here." Tony chimed in.
"Right, so we know that they have weapons of mass destruction, and we all know HYDRA well enough to know that they will have no problems in detonating them. We need to move as quickly and as quietly as possible, we don't want anyone to start the self-destruct sequence, and we definitely don't want any Nukes going off." Steve said. "If or when we get made, we need to take anyone left out quickly. Who knows what other weapons they have so we go in teams, make sure we have each other's backs. "Clint, Natasha you take the left hand side. Bucky and Eva, you take the right. Sharon, Tony and I will go through the middle. Let's go!" He told them and they took their positions at the three entrances beyond the gates.
Clint and Natasha cautiously walked through the hallway, keeping an eye out for anyone. Clint had his bow pointed ahead of them, while Nat covered his back. They checked each and every room they passed only to find they were virtually empty. When they came to a locked door, Natasha picked it and they entered. They saw a storage container near the back of the room, and shelves with smaller crates either side. They cautiously proceeded.
Natasha opened the large storage container and saw that it had something big inside of it, but it was long. They heard footsteps approach from the door and Clint took out a man with an arrow through the eye.
"Anything?" Clint asked quietly as he helped Natasha look through the boxes.
"Nothing. There's nothing here, it's all empty." She said as she looked around then and saw two guards coming down the hallway. She threw a Widow's Bite at one of them, shocking him while Clint dispatched the other one with an electric arrow.
When they made sure no more soldiers were coming they continued to search the crates. In the smaller crates they found various guns and rocket launchers, all with special types of ammunition, each housing a different coloured liquid. Natasha pocketed some of the ammunition and Clint grabbed a few of the rockets to give to Tony for analysing. But the larger crates were all empty. Whatever was in them had been removed.
"Clear this side Steve." Clint spoke through his comms. "Heading your way now."
"Copy that."
Bucky and Eva made their way through right side of the building, taking out any HYDRA soldiers that got in their way. They came to an armoury, where the walls were lined with weapons some of the likes they had never seen before.
"I'm guessing a lot of these are experimental." Bucky said as he picked up a rifle and checked it out.
"Well, we both know HYDRA's all about experimenting." Eva said darkly.
There was a large crate at the far end and Eva went to check it out while Bucky inspected more of the weapons. She opened the lid to find it empty. "Whatever was in here was pretty big!" She called out to Bucky. When he didn't answer her, she spun around immediately to see two HYDRA soldiers restraining him while a third had a gun pointed at his head. Two more standing behind them with guns pointed at her.
"Put down your weapon!" One of them called out to her, gesturing to her colt.
"Don't do it Eva!" Bucky yelled urgently.
"Shut up!" One of the soldiers shouted as he kicked the back of Bucky's knee causing him to buckle to the ground.
"Don't hurt him!" Eva screamed.
"You're not in the position to be making demands, now put down your weapon." The soldier said as he pushed the muzzle of his gun hard against Bucky's temple.
"Eva..." He warned, not wanting her to give up her weapon.
However she ignored Bucky's warning and knelt down to place her colt python on the ground and kicked it toward the soldiers. As she stood back up she began to slowly put her hands behind her head in surrender. Bucky was about to scold her for giving up her weapon, but as he watched her put her hands behind her head he saw them begin to glow purple, he knew she had other plans. As one of the soldiers approached her, Eva took a deep breath and focused all her energy. When he was just a few feet away her whole body radiated purple and she let out an almighty cry as a huge surge of energy was released from her body. The blast wave made its way across the room virtually disintegrating the HYDRA soldiers to piles of ash and leaving Bucky unharmed.
"Thank you Eva." He whispered as he pulled her into a quick hug. "Your control over your powers has grown so strong. I'm proud of you babe."
"I had something special to fight for, it helps me focus." She said with a smile.
"C'mon, let's finish clearing this area and meet up with the others."
Tony, Sharon and Steve had finished cleared their part of the area and had met the rest of the team at the rendezvous point.
"Any luck on finding the nukes?" Steve asked and they all shook their heads.
"Nothing. They must have moved them before we got here." Tony said grimly. "Either they knew we were coming, or they have something big planned and they cleared out."
"I don't like the sound of either one of those scenarios." Clint said uneasily.
"There weren't any nuclear weapons here, Strucker must have moved them after what happened in the Red Room." Natasha said grimly.
That was when they heard an alarm go off from Tony's suit and all of them stilled then.
"Sir, someone has fired a missile at us." Jarvis said concerned, causing everyone to stare.
"I had Jarvis hack into a satellite, make sure we had no nasty surprises." Tony spoke up.
"Who the hell fired a missile at us?!" Clint asked alarmed.
Tony looked down and swallowed as Jarvis put up the information on a small screen inside the wrist panel of his suit.
"The US Army did under the orders of Home Secretary Thaddeus Ross just five minutes ago."
"Everybody clear out NOW!" Steve ordered and the team began to sprint for the exit.
As they made it out of the building Clint yelled. "Get to the jet!" as Tony picked him up and flew him there faster so that he could start it up before the team got there. As soon as everyone was on board, Clint got them up in the air just in time to see the bunker below them become engulfed in flames. A shockwave rattled the quinjet and Clint and Nat did their best to keep it steady before switching to stealth mode and getting out of there as fast as they could.
"What the hell was that?" Steve asked, enraged. "Why is the US army attacking us!?"
"Well in all fairness, we are kind of under the radar here. They probably had no idea we were even in there." Tony told him.
"Who is Thaddeus Ross?" Eva asked curiously.
"He's the bastard who helped turn our good friend Bruce Banner into the enormous green rage monster you may have seen on the news." Tony replied.
"So he's not on our side?" Bucky questioned.
"Kinda... maybe... no not really." Tony said rather indecisively. "Who knows? To be honest I don't trust anyone outside of this team, government or otherwise. Especially government."
"I'll contact Fury, get him and Hill to look into it and find out what's going on. If it wasn't for Jarvis, we could all be dead right now... Thanks Jarvis." Steve said gratefully.
"You're very welcome Captain." Jarvis spoke through Tony's suit.
"So we shouldn't trust Thaddeus Ross?" Eva questioned.
"Honest answer? No, we shouldn't trust Ross or anyone who works with him to be frank. He doesn't really like people who are enhanced." Sharon said bitterly.
Eva wasn't surprised by that information, she had figured that this Thaddeus Ross sounded like an arrogant military man who believed that he was right and everyone else was wrong. She had a special word she used for men like him.
Asshole.
"So all we know is that HYDRA had nuclear weapons along with biological weapons and can use them on any country or city...and we have no way of knowing what is going on." Natasha said grimly and everyone sighed.
"You don't think that they're trying to make another war, do you?" Bucky asked quietly.
"I sure hope not." Steve replied grimly. "Or it will be a war like we have never seen before."
"Judging by some of the weapons we saw, our military wouldn't stand a chance." Bucky said grimly.
"There was some pretty experimental looking stuff in there, I don't think I have even seen stuff at that level in SHIELD." Clint added from up the front of the jet.
"Whatever happens, we will deal with it as a team. That's what we do." Tony told everyone, surprising them all by abandoning his usually self-centred, egotistical ways. "I've collected up some samples of their ammunition, as did Barton and Romanoff, for testing, so we can see what these bastards are packing. With any luck I might be able to create something to counter act them, at least that way they won't have the upper hand anymore."
"Good thinking Tony." Steve said as he clapped him on the back.
While Clint and Natasha flew the quinjet back to the Avengers Tower the team rested up. All except for Steve who was having a rather head phone conversation with Nick Fury about the US military and Thaddeus Ross.
When the team had arrived back, once they had sat through a debriefing, they went off to clean up and relax a bit before planning their next attack on the third HYDRA base. After a quick shower Tony went straight to his lab and began testing the samples he had collected, hoping to go he could find out what exactly they were, as well as a way to render them useless.