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 22

After the take down of both Thaddeus Ross and Brock Rumlow, as well as the death of Yelena Belkova things were very quiet on the HYDRA front. The team had received no news from Fury in over three weeks about any HYDRA activity, but that didn't mean that they weren't all on high alert. They knew that Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker was still out there somewhere, no doubt trying to regroup and rebuild his army. They were certain now that he was the head of HYDRA, and to get rid of HYDRA once and for all they were going to have to take him out.

The team had taken some time over the past few weeks to get some much needed rest now that they were back at the tower. After the battle that they had been through over the last few months they were all pretty worn out. They also took the opportunity to get some training in, focusing especially on working as a team. Bucky was helping Eva to find ways to best utilize her powers in ways that would aid her team mates. She had mastered levitating people to where she wanted them and she had also been working on launching Bucky and Steve through the air at targets, maximizing their attacks. Sam worked on his aerial attacks, figuring out how to inflict the most damage as he swooped in with his wings.

Tony had been tinkering with his suit, as well as Pepper and Rhodey's ones, making adjustments and enhancements so that they were more efficient. He took extra time adding in things he thought would come in handy when fighting enhanced soldiers, as well as equipping them all with the reversal serum he and Dr Banner had created that Tony used on Ross... just in case that wasn't the last they would see of that serum.

Sharon was currently checking Clint's shoulder. The wound had healed nicely but his movement was limited. Both she and Natasha had been helping him with various physiotherapy exercises to help regain some of his strength and mobility. Just as Sharon was finishing up Natasha wandered in. "How's he doing?" she asked.

"Great." Sharon replied. "The wound is great, it will definitely leave a decent sized scar but it has healed very nicely. His strength and movement are both increasing day by day. He'll be good as new in no time." Sharon smiled.

"Thanks Sharon." Clint said with a small smile as she left in search of Steve. "Wanna go do some training?" he asked Natasha.

"You sure you're up to it?" she questioned, eyeing his shoulder.

"C'mon babe, I'm going crazy here... I need to do something."

"Alright... but I'm going easy on you." She smiled.

"Deal." He grinned.

Down the training room the pair began some light sparring. Natasha was very careful not to hit Clint's shoulder or pin him in a way that would hurt it. They spent a good hour fighting together before they decided that was enough and headed to the weapons room to use the firing range. Natasha got herself set up with a pair of glocks and began emptying the magazines into the target down range. When she was done she brought it forward to see that she had hit every shot center mass.

"Nice babe!" Clint grinned at her. He always found her proficiency with weapons extremely hot. He finished putting on his arm guard and finger tabs before grabbing his bow. As he went to line up his shot he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He let his bow down and tried to shake it off before lining up again only to feel the same pain but even sharper. "Ahhhh Fuck!" He yelled in pain and frustration.

Natasha was watching on quietly, worried he might be pushing himself too much. "It's ok Clint... maybe you just need a little more time." She said softly.

"What fucking good am I to the team if I can't even fire my god damned bow." He sighed.

"You had a very serious injury babe... you nearly died, well technically you did for a few minutes. You just need some more physio is all. I'll help you. I'm with you every step of the way." she said as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Thanks Nat." he sighed.

Just then Tony wandered in to try out some new tech he had been working on. "Oh... am I interrupting a thing?" he asked.

"Nah it's ok man... I'm done here." Clint replied as he tossed his bow on the table and walked out.

"Everything ok there?" Tony asked Natasha, looking a little worried.

"He's just struggling with his injury." she informed him. "He can't fire his bow and he just feeling really frustrated."

"I'm sure he just needs more time to heal." Tony said.

"That's what I told him... but you know Clint. He's not the most patient man, and he feels like if he's not ready when it's time to fight he's going to be letting the whole team down." Natasha sighed. "I'm gonna go make sure he's okay" she said as she gave Tony a small smile and went to look for her boyfriend.

As Tony watched her leave he thought about what she had said about Clint's injury and not being able to use his bow and he had a sudden fantastic idea and abandoned what he was doing and rushed off to his lab.

When Tony found Clint again he was sitting on one of the couches in the living room. He seemed quite down and was staring out the window at what seemed like nothing, but who knew with his Hawkeye vision. Natasha was nearby in the kitchen making something to eat, Tony gave her a quick little smug smile almost as if to say 'you're gonna love me for this' as he placed a strange looking metal thing on the counter along with Clint's bow.

He wandered over to his teammate and pulling him out of his little trance he said. "Hey Legolas, I got something for ya."

"Tony, if it's another one of your three guys walked into a bar jokes... I'm really not in the mood." Clint sighed in response.

"It's not a joke, I promise. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. C'mon get up." Tony encouraged him as he gave him a soft clap on the back. "You're gonna love this."

"Alright Stark... what is it" Clint said finally turning around to look at his friend as he stood up from the couch. Tony held in his hand what looked like a shirt, only it had all sorts of straps attached to it. "What is this... a new uniform? Coz I gotta admit Stark, your design skills are slipping." he chuckled.

"This my friend." he began as he held the shirt up for Clint to get a better look, "Is a specially designed shirt to help aid the recovery of your shoulder as well as prove you with extra strength until you regain yours" Tony explained. "Right now take your shirt off... wow, not something I thought I would ever say to a guy." Tony laughed.

"Trying to get my man into bed Stark?" Natasha joked from the kitchen.

Clint was a little confused, but he trusted Stark so he removed his shirt and replaced it with the one that stark had made for him. "Now this shirt is made out of the same material that Jarvis and I made Natasha's knee brace out of. These straps will help support your shoulder" he said as he tightened one around Clint's arm then another one that went around his chest and connected to one that went over his shoulder. "Move your arm around and see how that feels" he instructed.

He did as he was told and moved his arm around and was surprised at how much better he felt. There was still pain but it was a lot duller and his shoulder felt really supported. "Wow Stark. This really makes a difference" he said with a grin and he looked over at Natasha who was beaming at him from the kitchen, happy to see him smiling again.

"Percentage wise where would you say your mobility is at?" Tony asked.

"Hmmm..." Clint thought for a moment as he moved his arm around. "Maybe 70 percent." he replied, but Tony looked a little disappointed. "But hey, that's a big improvement on before, I was at more like 40 percent of my normal strength. Thanks Tony." he grinned.

"Hold on there Robin Hood." he said as he looked at Natasha and nodded at Clint's bow. Getting the hint she tossed it to him. "Try aim your bow." he said as he handed it to him with an arrow.

Clint set the arrow in place and attempted to pull back the string. The pain in his shoulder was a lot less than earlier but the further he tried to pull back the bow string the more his shoulder hurt, even with the shirt tony had made him. "I can't do it." Clint sighed as he set the bow down. "I still can't pull it all the way. Thanks for trying thought Tony, the shirt really does make a big difference to the pain, and I'm sure it will help me heal faster."

"Don't mention it buddy." Tony grinned. "But I'm still not done yet." He looked back at Natasha and she tossed him the other strange metal thing he had placed on the counter. "This will get your back to 100 percent." Tony smiled in confidence "Maybe even more."

"What is it?" Clint asked confused as he eyed up the tiny metal package.

"Basically it the same kind of thing that is on the inside of my suit that aids my movement and gives me extra strength and power" Tony stated. He pressed a button on the metal object and two little arms came out. He pressed it against Clint's upper arm and the two metal pieces wrapped around his arm and joined together. Tony then pressed another button and from the small object began to unfold lots more metal pieces each wrapping around various parts of Clint's upper arm and shoulder and attaching itself to points on the shirt he was wearing.

"Give that a whirl and see what you think." Tony grinned.

Once again Clint began to move his arm around, this time with absolute ease and with next to no pain at all. "Holy shit Tony, this is amazing!" Clint laughed. "I feel almost good as new."

"One more test." Tony said as he pointed to Clint's bow.

Clint picked up his bow and began to line up a shot. Carefully he pulled the string back, waiting to feel the stabbing pain in his shoulder but there was nothing. He pulled a little further and his shoulder felt great. Finally he pulled it all the way back and he could feel the robotic brace on his arm and shoulder kick in and provide him with the extra strength he needed. Clint looked at Tony and grinned from ear to ear. He then looked at Natasha who was smiling back at him. "Let it fly" she said to him with complete trust.

He aimed the arrow off to the side of her, trusting in her abilities as well as his own he let the arrow loose. It soared through the air towards Natasha and with lightning speed she caught it mid-air right next to her.

"Wow... you two are one scary badass couple!" Tony laughed.

"Tony, I can't thank you enough" Clint said as he pulled his friend into a quick hug.

"No thanks necessary, this is what I do" he smiled as he turned and left the room, very satisfied with what he had accomplished.

Clint and Natasha exchanged looks, both grinning wildly at one another. Nothing made them happier than seeing the other happy.

As Eva and Bucky hadn't had much time lately to get into movies, so the team had decided to watch a horror film called Paranormal Activity. Everyone was starting to get nervous as the film progressed and Eva couldn't help but feel like this film might be telling the truth as the film got even more frightening. Liho the cat, hissed at the TV screen and jumped up on Natasha's lap, she stroked him gently as they all stared at the TV screen nervously and Bucky could feel Eva gripping his hand tightly when suddenly everything went dark.

"No need to panic, I'll get the power back on." Tony said reassuringly and everyone looked nervous. Eva couldn't help but feel on edge.

Tony turned on a torch and checked to see that everyone was alright, when they heard noise upstairs. "What was that?" Eva asked nervously as her hands glowed with dark purple energy then.

"Probably just a storm and it caused the power to go out." Bucky said reassuringly as everyone tried their phones then and saw that none of them had any signal.

Eva saw that her phone had a text and curiously opened it, only for it to be a voice recording and opened it.

"No survivors" The voice said eerily.

She flinched and backed away from the phone and she realised the others were now gone and swallowed. "Hello?" Eva called out nervously and she started looking around for them, when she heard laughing and swallowed before grabbing the star of David that had belonged to her mother, she felt very afraid now.

Then Yelena appeared in front of her, her face burned and showing fragments of vibranium. "You're not real, you're dead. You're dead!" Eva said desperately as Yelena raised the knife that she had used to kill Malia, eight years ago.

"See you in hell, Evangeline."

Eva screamed in absolute terror as Yelena's face was changed into Natasha's and she lunged at her with the knife….

"Eva, wake up, you're safe now." A voice said comfortingly.

"What happened?" she asked groggily.

"She looked like she was fending off an attack."

"Evie, open your eyes please."

"I can't see." Eva said fearfully as she tried to open her eyes then but couldn't. All she could see before her was Yelena's smirking face in the darkness.

"Why won't you leave me alone?"

"Bucky, what's going on?" she heard a voice ask.

Bucky was there? He would protect her. He would save her. She tried to call out to him but no sound came out. "Oh... don't bother yelled for your precious Bucky." Yelena cackled. "He will soon be dead, just like you!"

"Get away from me!" Eva screamed as she tried to blast Yelena with her powers.

"Eva!" Bucky screamed as he frantically tried to wake her in fear that in her nightmare state she might unknowingly unleash her powers on her friends.

"What's happening to her?" Natasha asked worriedly.

"I... I don't know. It's like she's stuck in a nightmare. I can't wake her." Bucky said in a panic as he looked around at the team who were all watching on worriedly.

"Eva if you can hear me you are safe. Please I need you to wake up." he told her.

"Eva, its Natasha... come back to us." Her cousin spoke gently.

She could hear her friends talking to her but she couldn't see them. It had to be a dream. Yelena was dead. That crazy bitch couldn't hurt her or her friends anymore. But there she was sprinting towards her with a knife and it all felt so real, Eva was terrified and she began to scream.

"Eva... c'mon my love." Bucky whispered as he shook her gently.

"Eva let out a blood curdling scream as she jolted awake. She felt someone's hands around her wrists and she frantically tried to escape their clutches. As she came to and looked around she saw it was Bucky who was holding her and the rest of her friends were all looking at her scared and worried.

"Yelena..." Eva whispered breathlessly. "She... I tried..."

"It's ok baby. She's gone, your safe I promise" Bucky said as he pulled her into a tight hug.

"Wow! We are never ever watching horror movies with her again" Tony said still in shock.

"It's not Eva's fault Tony, I can't stand horror films that are gore for the sake of gore or just to scare the living hell out of you. I couldn't sleep for two hours after the film finished, I left the bedside lamp on." Pepper said protectively.

Tony didn't say anything to that but it was clear that he was going to do some research in the fact that if Eva powers were from Loki's sceptre, then maybe one of her powers was causing her nightmares and making her think they were actually real.

Eva had never felt so embarrassed and humiliated as she avoided the others the next morning at breakfast, she had cooked it but left before anyone had woken up and was now taking a shower, the hot water comforting her.

She was scared that her powers were somehow slowly and gradually making her mentally and emotionally unstable, why couldn't she just be happy with Bucky and the others?

"Eva, you alright?" Bucky asked quietly and Eva sniffled then before finishing washing her hair and rinsed it off before turning the shower off and wrapped a towel around her body before coming out and looked to see Bucky sitting on the bed.

"Not really, everyone must think I'm a crazy person." Eva said ashamed and Bucky took her hand then before she started getting dressed and sniffled.

"What if my powers are driving me insane, James?" She asked fearfully, confessing one of her darkest fears and Bucky pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.

"That's not happening Eva, and you're not crazy." Bucky said reassuringly and held her as he realised she had fallen asleep from pure exhaustion.

Later that day Fury stopped by with some intel for the team. They had some confirmed sightings of Von Strucker. Somehow he had made it into the US and they believed he was in the possession of Loki's Staff. "We need to take down this nut job as soon as possible." Fury told them. "Who knows what kind of havoc he could conjure up with that thing."

"If he can use it the same way Loki could... I don't even want to know." Clint shuddered.

"He used that thing to experiment on me, I think that is what gave me my powers." Eva told them all.

"Then you might be our best chance at locating it, and Von Strucker." Natasha piped up.

"Romanoff is right, if the staff is what gave you your powers then you might have some sort of connection with it. Maybe you can use that to try an find it" Tony told her.

"It's worth a shot. Do you think you can do it babe?" Bucky asked as he looked at her softly. He knew she was worried about the staff, and about her powers affecting her mental state. But he trusted her more than anyone and he believed in her.

"I can try." Eva said.

"Ok... do you need anything?" Steve asked her.

"No, I just need everyone quiet for a moment so I can focus." Eva told them. She figured it would be similar to the way she could look into people's minds or talk to them inside their heads. She was just trying to focus on something that could be much further away. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She remembered back to when Von Strucker was experimenting on her, she focused on the staff, what it looked like, what it felt like when he touched it to her skin. The surge of energy that embraced her body. She focused on that energy and embraced it with all her power and it was like her mind was sent elsewhere. She had a vision of Von Strucker with a handful of men, he had the staff in his hand using it like a walking stick. They were walking towards a very large building that she felt like she had seen somewhere before. He was talking to the man next to him about a 'plan'. "Everything is on schedule, Ellis won't know what hit him." The man told Von Strucker.

'Oh god!' Eva thought to herself and she quickly let go of her vision and was brought back to her friends. She looked around at them with worry.

"Eva what is it?" Bucky asked.

"He's going after The President." She told everyone.

"Are you sure?" Steve said in shock.

"I saw it. He was walking with some men, towards a familiar looking building. They were talking about a plan. The man said 'Ellis won't know what hit him.'" she relayed.

"Do you know where he is?" Natasha asked.

"No... I couldn't tell. It looked familiar but I just don't know where I've seen it before."

"Can you describe the building?" Tony asked.

"Uhhh, it was large, mostly white. Huge pillars at the front and it had a dome on the top in the middle... I'm sorry that's all I can remember."

Tony tapped furiously on his tablet. "This?" he asked as he threw a picture up onto the big screen.

"That's it! That's the building!" Eva exclaimed.

"Oh shit." Fury cursed as he quickly dialled The President.

"What is it?" Eva asked.

"That is the U.S Capitol Building." Tony told her.

Enjoy and review :)