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 26

"I know, it's just...hard going to sleep." Eva admitted and Bucky held her in his arms as she curled up into him, burying her face into his neck and he rubbed her back soothingly. Eva began to drift off as Bucky held her tight, he'd turned the lamp on so it wouldn't be so dark in the bedroom. It took Eva a while to fall into a deep sleep but she felt safe with Bucky's arms wrapped around her protectively. It ended up being the first peaceful sleep she'd had since Katrina had revealed what Josef had done to her in the Red Room. Bucky loved her and she loved him.

Steve and the others let Bucky and Eva sleep in while they tried to find a location for Josef and Katrina. Since HYDRA had fallen, many loyal S.H.I.E.L.D agents were trying to get the organisation running and defend people again. Natasha had contacted a few old acquaintances and they had sent her a file on Josef, much like Bucky's file, it contained a photo of him and one of him in cryostasis.

The man had been born in 1982 and was a member of HYDRA's most elite death squad with more kills than anyone in HYDRA, including Bucky during his Winter Soldier years, and that was before the HYDRA scientists had injected him with their version of the serum that Howard Stark had created.

"So the Red Room pretty much allowed the male soldiers to rape and beat the women if they acted out of line? Because, Malia Alikaev died when she and Eva were fifteen years old and after this, Eva started rebelling against the Red Room and that's when the whole Josef thing happened. There's a few photos of Eva but not a lot of Josef." Tony said surprised as he searched through the red room files.

"If he's still alive and knows that Eva's with Bucky, he might be pretty pissed off as he sees Eva as his property." Natasha said darkly.

"Here we go, Josef Andropov was placed in the Winter Soldier Program in 1991. There's four others who were put in the program with him, two more men and a woman." Tony said disgusted and Steve looked at Sharon then.

"Would Josef go to prison if the court finds him guilty of assaulting Eva?" Steve asked concerned, he hated seeing one of his friends so depressed.

Sharon shook her head sadly. "It's not that simple, firstly we would need evidence to prove what he did and secondly if we did bring it to court...the jury would think it was a he said, she said case." She explained disgusted.

Steve shook his head in anger.

"What if Eva doesn't want to press charges?" Pepper asked concerned and it was Tony who spoke up.

"We'll support Eva whatever her decision, she's family and so is Bucky." Tony said firmly and they all nodded as they turned on the news and saw Christine Everhart speak.

"Breaking news has just reached us, a source has revealed that the notorious Red Room Program that was run by the KGB and also HYDRA, has revealed that the academy sanctioned and condoned rape to its female students. We have also learnt that among the victims were the two female Avengers, Natasha Romanoff and Eva Nikolayev who recently discovered that they were cousins through their fathers, the late scientists Mikhail and Yuri Nikolayev." Christine said gravely.

"How the hell did she find this out?" Natasha asked shocked and worried about how Eva would feel when she heard this.

Eva woke up feeling refreshed for the first time in days, and saw that Bucky must have already gotten up when she heard him running a shower. He came out, shirtless and his face softened at seeing her as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, she leaned into him and he kissed her softly on the lips. She didn't flinch away, she melted into it and almost cried when he pulled away but that was only to turn off the tap at the sink and he came back quickly.

"I'm going to take you on a holiday through America and we're gonna go to France too." Bucky said seriously and Eva smiled at him, he had missed that smile on her face. He had been so horrible to her and he felt awful about it.

Bucky and Eva made their way out to the living room where the others were already gathered, only to see that the situation had only gotten worse. Katrina and the others had given Red Room information about Natasha and Eva to the press, and now they were broadcasting the women's personal baggage across the country.

Steve was on the phone to Fury straight away to see if there was anything he could do to shut the news down. "Oh my god... soon the whole world is going to know." Sobbed Eva as she buried her face into Bucky's chest.

"It's ok my love, we'll fix this." he reassured her.

Natasha stared at the screen angrily. She was beyond mad, that information was extremely private. Since becoming an Avenger, and releasing all of SHIELDS files on the internet she had become somewhat accustomed to the world knowing all about her dirty laundry but this... this was different.

"You ok babe?" Clint asked as he held onto Natasha's hand. "This is all Lukin." She growled angrily. "Only he would have all this information. We have to take that son of a bitch down!"

"I got your back." Clint told her.

"We're with you too girl." Sam said, and the others all nodded in agreement.

"Gotcha you bastard!" Tony yelled out all of a sudden causing everyone to stare in confusion. He looked up at his teammates, "Oh, as soon as this happened I hacked the news station at tracked the source of their information. Files were sent to them in an email, and I traced the location from where the email was sent... here." He told them all.

"Here... as in America?" Eva asked.

"Here as in New York." Tony replied.

"Oh god... First Katrina, then Josef... and now Lukin. What do we do James?" Eva asked worriedly. She felt like her past was coming back to haunt her.

"What we always do. We fight, and we take down the bad guys."

"Fury is working on shutting down the news channel. He's having Hill go down there right now and seize all their files." Steve said as he put his phone back in his pocket. "Suit up everyone... let's go find these guys and put an end to this."

They landed the Quinjet outside an abandoned building in lower New York and had alerted the government and police officers of the situation. They all looked at the building and cautiously began to approach as armed men began shooting at them, the team took them out by working together.

Eva wondered if she should use a new trick she had learnt with her powers. She looked towards Bucky for his opinion as she spoke to him with her mind.

'Go for it, doll.' Bucky said telepathically and she nodded at him before conjuring up a little mini twister from the gas inside the building, allowing the team to take the soldiers. Red mist shimmered in the air before fading away and Eva's blue eyes had turned slightly red as a side effect of using her powers, Bucky smiled at her proudly and held her hand tightly as they ventured inside the building.

Eva couldn't detect anyone's thoughts, and alerted the team that they were alone. Just then a TV that had been in the room turned on and a video began to play they saw the date was 1998. Five years after Yuri and Mikhail had supposedly died in tragic accidents according to the Russian Soviet Government at the time before, the government had been disbanded.

As the video played, Bucky saw himself strapped down onto the table as Mikhail and Yuri worked on his arm, they were surprisingly talking in English to Bucky.

"So you don't know where your daughters are?" Bucky asked finally and Mikhail looked up at him quietly from where he had been fixing up Bucky's new cybernetic metal arm.

"No, the last I heard was that my Natasha was...being hunted by a SHIELD agent by the name of Hawkeye." Mikhail explained quietly as Lukin and another man that Bucky recognised as Vasily Karpov entered the room.

"I see you have upgraded his arm." Lukin noted while Karpov remained silent but intrigued by what he was seeing.

"Where are our daughters, Lukin? You promised that we would be allowed to see our daughters?" Yuri asked quietly as he stood up and cleaned his glasses, Eva remembered that her father wore glasses and how he had explained to her how he was short sighted.

"After you wipe the Soldier's memories, I have a new mission for him and it concerns Josef." Lukin explained calmly.

"Wipe him? You mean brainwash him, he spent the last twenty years fighting your brainwashing. This won't work on him." Mikhail warned and Lukin smiled as he gestured towards the Memory Suppressant Machine.

Even from where he stood next to Eva, Bucky flinched slightly at the sight of the machine that had caused him such agony and pain for the last fifty years whenever he tried to fight back or completed a mission. Then it hit him. Mikhail and Yuri had both stated that he had fought against the HYDRA brainwashing for twenty years...so he had tried to fight back against them.

"His mind has already showed significant damage due to the electric shock from the memory machine, his mind can't handle it anymore!" Yuri protested heavily.

Lukin's face darkened.

"Are you two refusing to cooperate?" He asked menacingly and the two brothers exchanged a look and nodded.

"We are, you've already taken our wives from us and we know that even if we do what you say our daughters will never be safe from you people...you'll have to kill us!" Mikhail declared defiantly.

Lukin looked indifferent.

"Very well then, Josef take care of these traitors!" He ordered and Josef mercilessly opened fire on the two men.

Natasha was horrified as she saw her father being brought down in a hail of bullets, blood spraying on the wall behind him as his body was riddled with bullet holes.

Mikhail was dead before he even hit the floor. Yuri had been critically wounded but had cried out in Yiddish at the sight of his older brother lying lifelessly on the ground of the lab, blood seeping out of his wounds. Josef stalked towards Yuri and began strangling him, when the man tried to put up a fight by using a scalpel on him, Josef promptly beat him viciously with his fists. Yuri's face was unrecognisable afterwards.

"Oddly enough this reminds me of Howard and Maria Stark." Lukin said casually, causing Josef to smirk as another man entered.

"Ah, Dr Vanko I am glad you are here."

Natasha let out a sob at what she had just witnessed and buried her face into Clint's chest as he held her tightly. Tears streamed down Eva's face as she stared intently at the screen, Bucky's arms wrapped protectively around her. Shock and sadness was written on the face of the rest of the team as they tried to comprehend the fact that they had just seen Natasha and Eva's fathers maliciously murdered.

Tony looked shocked at the mention of his parent's names. Had HYDRA been responsible for their deaths? Of course they had. HYDRA were responsible for almost everything bad in this world he thought to himself. He was determined to find out who killed them, and get payback. Too many good people had died at the hands of HYDRA, what did seem a little ironic was that the descendants of those very people HYDRA had killed were now part of The Avengers, and would ultimately be responsible for putting an end to HYDRA once and for all.

The team continued to watch the footage as Dr Vanko began to do for HYDRA what the Nikolayev brothers had refused to do. Bucky felt a chill down his spine as he watched himself be electrocuted, his mind wiped of all memory. Everyone felt sick watching it. Thankfully it ended there and they were met with static.

"Are you ok my love?" Bucky asked as he held Eva tight.

"I'm... shocked. And I feel sick, but I will be ok. Are you?" she questioned.

"I'll be ok when we put an end to these bastards." Bucky growled angrily.

Just then the screen came back on and Josef appeared. "Hello Avengers... Hello Evangeline my darling." He said with a smirk, which made her blood run cold. "Of course I am not stupid enough to meet you all in person" he continued. "I hope you liked my little gift. It's time you knew that your fathers were nothing but filthy Jewish traitors!" he spat.

Everyone stared angrily back at the screen, wanting nothing but to smash it. "Oh... nothing to say?" Josef laughed.

"Our fathers were not traitors!" Natasha yelled angrily. "They were good men! Trying to do the right thing and protect their families... and you murdered them you son of a bitch!"

"Now, now Miss Romanoff... temper, temper." he laughed.

"I'll show you a temper when I rip your god damned head off!" she shouted.

"Had your fathers done what they were told, we would not be in this mess." Josef stated.

"They would never bow down to scum like you!" Eva growled.

"Ouch my darling." he smiled. "Scum? That hurts... I thought we had something special." He sneered.

"You are nothing but a coward and a murderer." Eva told him. I will kill you for what you did to our fathers... for what you did to me. You will burn in hell!"

"I'm already there zhena, too bad you can't divorce me otherwise you'd of married this, Romanian and Irish filth." Josef said sarcastically and Bucky glared at him as Josef turned to face Tony who was glaring at him with hatred on his face.

"And to answer your unspoken question, Mr Stark, Bucky Barnes was sent to kill your parents although I do admit that he did try to put up a fight." Josef said sadistically and showed another video of Bucky coming off a black motorcycle after crashing into a car that hit a tree. He calmly got off and stepped over to the car as Howard Stark staggered out, he looked startled at seeing Bucky.

"Sergeant Barnes?" Howards asked shocked, and Bucky waivered slightly.

Someone was mind controlling Bucky.

Before anyone knew what was happening, Josef had arrived at the scene on another motorcycle and glared at Bucky as if he was stupid and turned to face Howard.

"You're such a fucking weakling! I'll do it if you don't have the balls...or better yet, I'll make you do it without any control over yourself." Josef said smugly.

"No." Bucky growled defiantly and pushed a bleeding Howard Stark behind him trying to shield the man from Josef, the older man staring at what was happening in disbelief and fear. A blonde haired woman appeared and said something in Russian from a red book, causing Bucky to howl in agony as he clutched his head in severe agony.

Everyone looked horrified at what they witnessing, Eva wrapped her arms around Bucky who had turned a sickly shade of white while Tony glared at Josef. He had used Bucky as a weapon to kill his parents.

The woman laughed and Eva froze, she knew who that was as she stared up at the screen in shock.

Yelena.

"Kill him and the woman, show no mercy." Josef ordered and Bucky showed no emotion as he beat Howard to death and then strangled a terrified and crying Maria Stark, her cries turning into choking, gurgling sounds as the screen went blank.

Tears of regret and disgust poured down Bucky's face as he buried his face in Eva's embrace.

"If you think any of you will ever have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." Josef declared smugly as Eva glared at him and snapped.

She shot at the TV screen, causing it to break as Josef's face appeared on another screen in front of them.

"Now, now Eva. Don't get angry, keep your emotions in check, although you hardly did anything when I fucked you." Josef chided.

Bucky saw red. The Winter Soldier in him wanted to break free. He knew that Josef was watching them, there was a camera somewhere because he was asking questions and responding to what they were saying. Feeding off of their anger and grief. He was one sick bastard. Bucky lost it. He charged at the TV screen, effortlessly lifting it into the air before slamming it into the concrete floor.

"I don't want to hear another word from your god damn filthy HYDRA mouth, you son of a bitch!" Bucky yelled at the camera.

"Oh don't worry... I'm leaving you all to digest what I have showed you... but I will see you all again soon." Josef laughed, his voice echoing from speakers around the room.

Tony and Bucky were still both deeply in shock, and the rest of the team were feeling their pain and grief.

"Let's get the hell out of here." Steve told everyone, and they all made their way to the Quinjet.

Tony sat quietly next to Pepper in the back. Bucky eyed him wearily. He knew how the man must be feeling. He couldn't remember doing it, but he had killed Tony's parents. He couldn't help but think he must hate him for what he had done.

"Tony I..." he began, only to be cut off.

"Save it Barnes." Tony said, and Bucky flinched, waiting for Tony to get angry and yell at him, but he didn't. "I know that the man in that video... he wasn't you. You weren't in control, whatever HYDRA did to you, you were their slave. You had no choice. I want you to know... I don't blame you. Not one bit. You were only a pawn in their sick little game, you have been for a very long time. You're different now. You are the man you were always meant to be. And I know that if you had the choice, you never would have done that. Deep down, behind that Winter Soldier façade HYDRA created, you are and always have been a good man." Tony told him with tears in his eyes.

"Thank you Tony." Bucky replied as he held Eva's hand tightly. "That means a lot. I know that I have done some horrible... unforgivable things. And I am trying every day to make up for that."

"Since joining the Avengers, you have saved countless lives." Steve told his friend. "Tony's right, you're a good man Buck."

"Thank you, all of you." Bucky said quietly but there was gratitude in his voice as he looked at Eva who smiled and held his hand tightly, he held it back and felt her wrap her arms around him, holding him close.

When they got back to the tower, Rhodey, Fury and Maria Hill knew that immediately something was wrong, Tony looked like he had been crying, Pepper looked distraught. Natasha and Eva's faces were both stained with tears. Bucky's face was painted with a mixture of emotions and the whole team seemed defeated.

"Report, agents." Fury said calmly but his tone was surprisingly gentle and Steve began explaining what they had discovered, and his voice got quieter as he explained the harrowing video they had watched on the TV that Josef had played.

Fury looked grim and Maria looked concerned, Fury sighed and nodded at the Avengers.

"Have time off, you've all just gotten a shock about what actually happened to your parents." Fury instructed and Steve along with the rest of the team nodded.

Eva stood in the gym as she looked at the gymnastic equipment, ever since she had been two years old, she had loved performing gymnastics. Her mother had taken her to the local gymnastics club in Moscow, Russia and she had loved every second of it and her eyes glanced towards the uneven bars, the balancing beam and the vault, along with the floor.

"Screw it, if I fall over then at least no one is watching." Eva decided and put on some classical ballet music as she began a few simple handstands and cartwheels on the floor.

She then started running towards the vault and did a cartwheel, before landing on the mat, feeling something inside her that she thought she had lost the day her parents had died, when she had been eleven years old.

Eva jumped and gripped onto the uneven bars, she lifted her legs up in the air and managed to do a backflip handstand and a wolf turn, and got prepared to dismount.

She lept off, only to land slightly unsteady and cursed.

Damnit.

Natasha stood out on the balcony watching the busy and somewhat chaotic city beneath her. She had stolen Clint's thinking space, and decided that it was rather relaxing. Seeing her Father and her Uncle brutally murdered had really taken its toll on her. She spent her whole life thinking that both of her parents were dead, and that she was completely alone in this world. Then she found out that her and Eva were cousins, and that her Father wasn't killed but actually captured by HYDRA, along with her Uncle.

It was all so much to take in, and she found herself secretly hoping that by some miracle her father was still out there somewhere. She hoped that he had escaped, or even that he was still being held prisoner, that way she could at least rescue him. She couldn't believe how foolish that was. Actually believing for a moment that he might still be alive. And then Josef, that bastard had to go and show them that video, and all hope was lost in an instant. That feeling was instead replaced by pain, anger and disgust.

As upset as she was about the whole thing, she was also proud. Proud that her Father and Uncle stood up to HYDRA. When they realized that nothing they were doing was going to keep their daughters safe, and that The Red Room and HYDRA already had their hooks into them, they refused to help them anymore. And for that they paid with their lives.

Silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked out into the distance, the lights of the city bright beneath the night sky. She heard footsteps approaching and she knew straight away, just by the sound that it was Clint.

"You stole my spot." He stated.

"More like borrowing." She replied.

"It's ok Babe... I'll share it with you." he said as he sat behind her, his legs either side of her body and wrapped his arms protectively around her. "You ok?" he asked.

"Not really, but I will be eventually."

"Shit of a day huh?" he said.

"Sure was. But whenever I'm in your arms, I know that everything is going to be ok." she smiled.

"So when are we gonna start planning our wedding?" Clint asked.

"The girls and I have already started looking through magazines and I have a few ideas in mind" Natasha told him with a smile.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I think you'll like them."

"Oh, I know I will. You know me well enough to know what I do and don't like. I trust your judgement. But just so you know, I'm totally gonna be one of those hands on husbands to be. I'll come with you to check out venues, to pick out invitations and I will definitely come along to cake tastings!" Clint chuckled.

"Perfect. We can start organizing things, and once we get rid of HYDRA for good, we can finally set a date".

"I love the sound of that." Clint smiled. "Hey ummm, will you, I mean do you wanna..." Clint fumbled around trying to find the right words.

"Yeah?" Natasha asked a little confused.

"Would you take my name? When we get married?"

"Do you want me to?" she asked.

"Only if it's what you want too, babe."

"Hmmm... Natasha Barton... I think I like the sound of that." she giggled.

"Me too." Clint replied as he kissed her on the cheek.

Eva was curious when Natasha had wanted to speak to her alone and they sat down in the kitchen as Eva was cooking dinner for everyone tonight, Natasha looked nervous.

"Eva I was wondering if...if you would like to be my maid of honour for the wedding?" Natasha asked shyly and Eva stared at her in surprise before smiling and hugging her.

"I'd be honoured, Natasha." Eva said touched and Natasha hugged her tightly, the two cousins hugged for a while, they were more like sisters than cousins in some ways.

"Thank you, Eva." Natasha whispered emotionally and the two women went to meet up with the other girls to go dress shopping as they said goodbye to the men.

After getting her wedding dress fitted and made, Natasha and the girls all had a glass of wine as Eva revealed she and Bucky were going to visit an OB/GYN to see if she could have children. Natasha knew she could as she had visited the SHIELD medical doctor but she knew how nervous Eva was about any lasting damage the experiments with Loki's sceptre had done to her.

"Are you and Tony thinking of having children?" Natasha asked softly as she looked at Pepper who blushed and looked thoughtful, before nodding.

"When the fight with HYDRA's over, we're going to try. I had my eggs frozen when I found out there was a high risk of me getting breast cancer as my mother died of it." Pepper said quietly.

"Pepper, I'm sorry." Natasha said upset and Pepper shook her head reassuringly, she and Tony were happy and they were looking forward to having children after the battle with HYDRA.

Natasha looked at Sharon then.

"What about you and Steve?" She asked. Sharon smiled at the thought of having a baby with Steve.

Bucky knew he and Eva hadn't spent a lot of time together, so he was arranging a date again for them at the Italian restaurant that they had gone to before. He hoped she liked it as he looked at himself in the mirror, he was wearing black jeans and a black shirt along with black shoes, he saw Eva come over then and his breath caught.

Wearing a dark red dress that just fell below the knee, Eva looked beautiful and her hair was pulled up half down and up as she smiled at him shyly.

Bucky didn't stop himself, he kissed her and rested his forehead against hers tenderly.

"I love you." He said quietly.

Enjoy and review :)