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 23
"Oh god, if Von Strucker sends someone in who has links to the Red Room then we'd be dealing with an international incident." Natasha said horrified.
"Suit up." Steve instructed everyone and they went to do as instructed by their team leader.
When the team was ready Clint flew the Quinjet to Washington and when the team got off the jet, they saw the area had been evacuated before they arrived and wondered where the man they were hunting was. That was when they heard a voice come across the loud speakers.
"Did you honestly believe HYDRA would give up so easily, Avengers?" The voice of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker spoke.
"Hardly." Clint said dryly as they saw his enhanced army come out from the shadows and begin running towards them. They team did their best to fight them off while trying to find Von Strucker.
Eva conjured up her powers and began causing their weapons to rust and rot away, before completely disintegrating the enhanced soldiers. She used her telepathy to keep in contact with the rest of the team and make sure that they were all as safe as they could be.
She watched over James as he took down two enhanced while fighting by her side, she pulled out her collapsible Bo staff and began fighting off the ones who were too close to use her powers on as one of the enhanced made to kick her. Eva hit her with her Bo staff, then punched her in the face and knocked her out as Bucky took down two enhanced by tapping into the fury of the Winter Soldier. That was when he saw one of the enhanced Red Room operatives turning orange and he recognised it as the volatile and unstable extremis serum.
"Get down!" He yelled to the team and everyone dove for cover, only Natasha didn't get clear of the building fast enough and she was literally buried alive as the abandoned building crumbled around her and began to flood from the burst water pipes. Despite Eva throwing up an energy shield, it hadn't extended far enough to cover Natasha.
When bomb the enhanced soldiers extremis serum had combusted, Steve had thrown himself over Sharon, using the shield to cover them both as a large purple reddish shield appeared over them, forming a protective barrier as the buildings near by collapsed.
"You alright?" Steve asked worriedly as he checked over her and Sharon nodded as they cautiously stepped out and saw the others were fine as they emerged from Eva's shield. Everyone aside from Clint and Eva who were frantically searching for Natasha.
"Natasha?!" Clint called out desperately and tried to find her, she had been right by his side just before the blast. Eva tried to reach out for the telepathy bond link that she and Natasha had formed. She sensed a weak life pulse coming from the worst blown up part of the building, she raced over and screamed when she saw Natasha's hand sticking out from the water and panicked when she realised that the water was creeping higher and higher and Natasha was almost fully submerged.
"Someone help… get help please!" She begged as she started to move some of the debris frantically, only for the building to shake more violently, clearly unstable, as the firemen and rescue teams arrived.
"Miss please we need to get you out of here." A fireman implored gently and Eva shook her head.
"My cousin's buried alive under here and drowning! I can't leave her here to rot!" Eva said desperately as the others arrived and Bucky raced over. He paled at seeing how much water had leaked in and Natasha's left hand showed through some debris.
Clint ran over and fell to his knees then. "No, oh god… please no." With a strength he didn't even know he possessed Clint began lifting huge pieces of the building away from where Natasha's limp body was buried. Steve, Bucky and Tony all rushed over to help. Sharon instructed them to be careful lifting certain pieces so they didn't cause any further damage. When they finally uncovered her they found her completely submerged in water.
"Tasha!" Clint screamed as he pulled her out. Quickly dragging her away from the debris he lay her down and began performing CPR. It took a few moments but eventually she coughed up the water in her lungs and began breathing again, but she was still unconscious.
"Get her back to the Jet now. You need to assess her injuries." Steve said to Clint and Sharon. They both looked uneasy about leaving the fight, but they knew that making sure Natasha was ok was more important.
"Don't worry, we will handle Von Strucker." Steve told them as he and the rest of the team continued their search for him among the chaos.
Clint quickly carried Natasha to the Quinjet where he lay her down on the medical bed Tony had installed. It had all the latest technology, including x-ray machines. Sharon fired it up and began scanning Natasha's entire body, revealing many fractures and a few breaks as well. Multiple to her chest area which was very concerning.
"What have we got Jarvis?" Sharon asked the AI.
"Miss Romanov has multiple fractures to both arms as well as her left leg. She has four broken ribs and two minor fractures. She has multiple fractures in her left hand and a large contusion to the back of her head." Jarvis told them.
"Oh my god." Clint said worriedly. "What do we do?"
"Miss Carter... Mr Barton... it seems that Miss Romanoff is healing at an alarmingly accelerated rate?" Jarvis said a little confused.
"Part of her Red Room experiments. She heals fast" Clint said.
"As we speak the minor fractures are almost fully healed" Jarvis said astounded.
"Clint, roll her to her side and I will check her head wound" Sharon told him. She cleaned away the blood and put in half a dozen stitches, as well as administering some pain killers so when she woke up she wasn't in agony.
"Jarvis can you estimate how long before she is fully healed?" Clint asked.
"By my calculations, no more than an hour."
"What the hell?" Clint said confused. "She has never healed this quick before. Somethings wrong."
Shortly after the rest of the team arrived back at the Quinjet too, in all the chaos Von Strucker had escaped. The whole team felt deflated. They hadn't achieved anything and Natasha had been seriously hurt. The mission hadn't gone at all like they hoped.
By the time they had arrived at the Tower, it had become very clear something was seriously wrong with Natasha. Her injuries healing so quickly was a cause for concern, and it definitely wasn't normal, not even for her. But even with her fast healing she hadn't regained consciousness yet.
Tony swallowed and gripped the file he was holding, he braced himself and went to tell the rest of the team what he had discovered in Natasha's blood results.
Natasha's condition had worsened, she was very ill but no one could exactly explain why. Eva sat numbly outside, she had a feeling that Clint blamed her for what had happened and it was her fault, her shield hadn't been strong enough to protect her cousin from being hurt.
The door opened and she saw Clint come out then, she swallowed and looked at him quietly. "I know you hate me, and I am so sorry Clint, it should be me in that room and not Natasha. I am so sorry, and I wish I could do something to help." Eva said, pain and regret clear in her voice. Clint looked at her and was about to speak when he was interrupted by a couple of SHIELD agents followed by the rest of the team and they seemed to be arguing intensely.
"Agent Bobbi Morse and Alphonso Mackenzie." the woman introduced themselves as. "Miss Nikolayev and Miss Romanoff are to come with us." She told them.
"What!? Why?" Eva asked confused.
"You and Natasha Romanoff are suspected of aiding HYDRA." The blonde haired woman said coldly and placed her in cuffs before anyone knew what was going on.
"Where is Agent Romanoff?" The woman asked bluntly.
"In there, on her god damned death bed and I'll be damned if you are touching her!" Clint growled in anger.
"We'll be back for her." Agent Morse replied coldly before her and Agent Mackenzie dragged Eva away kicking and screaming. Tony was on the phone to Fury immediately while Steve had to hold Bucky back. The last thing they needed was a brawl between SHIELD agents.
This day was getting worse.
Bucky felt like killing something and it wasn't often he felt like that, his girlfriend was arrested and now imprisoned. Natasha was getting worse. Clint was on the war path and Tony was now showing them all the information he had gathered earlier, he looked like he wanted to be sick and swallowed.
"I think the Red Room and HYDRA were planning on using a new Red Room serum on the young girls. Natasha and Eva are on the list and were approved… even though they are no longer with the Red Room. The serums affects include accelerated healing, heightened strength, heightened senses and more, but they hadn't finished testing it to make sure it was safe and effective. Also I think the power from the sceptre is driving Eva slowly insane by using the fear manipulation." Tony explained. "Von Strucker experimented on her with it, and now she seems somehow linked to it, but it is messing with her mind."
"How do we stop it?" Bucky asked worriedly.
"We need to get our hands on the sceptre and try and reverse its effects on her, if not, we destroy it." Tony told him. "I hacked SHIELDS system, Eva's in a specially made underwater prison for enhanced and here's a video." Tony said grimly, the video showed Eva in a straight jacket with an electric shock collar that was digging into the skin, she looked ill and there were bruises on her face from where the guards had clearly beaten her.
Bucky suddenly grabbed his motorcycle keys and headed for the door.
"I gotta get her out of there."
"Bucky wait…" Steve said. "We do this as a team, Eva is family." He told his friend.
While Steve and the others planned a rescue for Eva, Clint, Tony and Sharon were taking care of Natasha. Sharon was busy administering drugs to keep her heartrate in check, while Clint sat by holding his girlfriend's hand tightly.
Tony was off to the side studying all the notes he had managed to dig up on HYDRA's Red Room serum, trying to find a way to reverse or neutralize it. Natasha was clearly receiving some of the intended side effects of the serum, but it was slowly killing her as well. Sharon had informed him that her body was starting to shut down. Her organs were beginning to fail and even though her body was healing itself, it was self-destructing faster. Her mind would be soon to follow and they needed to act quickly. She had 48 hours at the most.
Clint watched on as Tony babbled away to Jarvis, the two of them analysing the compounds within the serum, coming up with ways to counteract them. He was worried that at any moment SHIELD would burst through the door and take her away. He knew that she would stand no chance if that happened, this serum would kill her.
"Any luck Tony?" he asked hopefully.
"I think I almost have something here" he told him as he swirled something in a test tube before filling a syringe.
"Are you sure about this?" Sharon asked as she prepared to inject Natasha with Tony's freshly made concoction.
"Only one way to find out" he replied, a little unsure.
Sharon administered the drug and they all watched on in hope. Natasha's heart rate suddenly spiked and she began to have a seizure. Sharon quickly moved her to the recovery position and after a few moments she went still. Her heart rate dropped before it flat lined.
"What's going on!?" Clint yelled.
"I don't know!" Sharon said as she began chest compressions. After a brief moment Natasha gasped in a breath and sat bolt upright and looked around the room at her team mates.
"What the hell happened to me?" Natasha asked confused.
"Long story babe... thank god you're ok." Clint said as he pulled her into a hug.
"I certainly don't feel ok." She replied groggily.
Fury had just arrived and was deep in conversation with Steve. Between the two of them they were trying to figure out what was going on and why exactly Eva had been imprisoned. As director of SHIELD Fury had not even been informed and that had everything worried. The whole thing reeked of HYDRA.
What was worrying was that one further investigation they had found that Bobbi Morse had allied with HYDRA and had arrested Eva at their command. Everyone knew they needed to find Eva soon before something horrible happened to her. They could only imagine what HYDRA had planned for her.
Natasha who was now recovering, had completely lost it when she had found out what Bobbi Morse had done and that Eva was now arrested and being held at what they called The Raft.
"But why would they arrest Eva? She hasn't done anything wrong since joining us. In fact she has saved so many people?" Natasha asked quietly while Bucky stayed silent but everyone could tell he was on edge, he was worried about what they might be doing to Eva.
"I'm guessing it's because of her powers in a way, they are unique as they are linked to her emotions and that can make her dangerous. That is why SHIELD is going along with it, what they don't know is they are being played by HYDRA. I guess HYDRA didn't want to lose their specially created assassin, so they sent Morse after her so that they could get her back. With Morse being SHIELD they figured we would have no choice but to let her be taken into custody if we all wanted to continue working for SHIELD." Tony said quietly and Bucky closed his eyes then, wishing it all to be a bad dream.
'James?' Eva's voice asked telepathically and he swallowed quickly, wondering if he was imagining things.
'Eva, are you alright?' He asked quickly and Eva was silent for a moment before she spoke up then, using her telepathy.
'I'm fine James, are you alright? What about the others? Is Natasha alright?' Eva asked worriedly.
'We're fine doll, are you alright?' Bucky asked quietly, worried about Eva's safety in the Raft.
'Well I'm...doing ok, nothing bad happening.' Eva tried to reassure him but he sensed her fear through the telepathic link.
'We're going to get you out of there Eva, I promise.' Bucky said fiercely.
'I love you.' She said quietly.
'I love you too, Eva, so fucking much.' Bucky said quietly as he felt the connection break then and let out a deep sigh.
"They're doing something to her, I have to find her." He said to the others.
It seemed like days, but in reality it was only hours since Eva had been imprisoned in the Raft. She was happy that Bucky and the others were safe and that Natasha was recovering.
She closed her eyes for a minute and hummed a lullaby in Russian that her mother would sing to her, when one of the guards used a remote control to electrocute her and she cried out in pain before the door to her cell was open. Two guards entered then and checked on her before leaving again and she tried not to cry. Once again, she was alone. She wondered if she would see Bucky, Natasha, Clint, Tony, Sharon, Steve, Sam, and Pepper again. What did these people want with her? Why would SHIELD be doing this?
"Ah Miss Nikolayev, we meet again." A familiar voice said calmly and she looked up to see it was none other than Von Strucker.
"Strucker." she growled.
"So very nice to see you again Evangeline." He said all too politely. "How wonderful of you to drop by." He laughed.
"Go to hell!" Eva yelled at the mad man.
"Oh come now my dear... that's not very nice now is it?" Von Strucker asked as he pressed a button on the remote in his hand causing a large jolt of electricity to course through Eva's body. Her head dropped down as he released the button and she panted heavily. "Are we going to play nice now?" He asked.
"Bite me!" Eva growled and he began to shock her once more.
"Just you wait Miss Nikolayev... you will wish that all I did to you was bite you..." He said ominously as he sauntered from the room slamming the door and locking it behind him. Eva hoped that her friends found her soon. She wasn't sure how much more torture she could endure and she dreaded to think what Von Strucker had planned for her.
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