36.

Czechoslovakia

February 22nd, 1944

Isabel waits quietly, hidden beneath the thick trunk of a fallen tree like a tent to protect her from the rain that falls around her. She's freezing, buried deep in a thick coat. She's shaking, but not only from the rain that seems to soak her all the way to the bone – she's all alone in the forest, waiting for the Commandos to return from their latest raid.

Waiting on the outskirts in case she was needed in an emergency had seemed like a good idea in theory. When Phillips had proposed it to her, she'd been thrilled and said yes right away. What she hadn't accounted for was the fact that Peggy would not always be able to attend missions and being alone in a war zone was absolutely terrifying. At every noise, every flutter of a bird's wings or snap of a twig and rustle of a leaf, Isabel was raising her pistol into the forest, prepared to take down an enemy soldier. There never was anyone there, only ever a bird or a small rodent, but her heart would race nonetheless, and she'd bury further into the tree trunk's protection, waiting restlessly for someone return. Even if one of the Commandos came and got her because they needed medical attention inside the factory, it would be a welcome relief because she wouldn't be alone.

When Peggy had been with her last time, it hadn't been nearly as terrifying. Even when they hadn't been speaking, she could hear Peggy's steady breathing and see Peggy beside her. Peggy could nod to her to reassure her or tell her what to do when something went wrong. Now, all the decisions are up to her. Isabel is alone and her choices in an emergency could quite literally decide whether she lives or not.

Isabel gulps. She hears a rustle beside her, louder than all the others, and looks to her right, squinting to see through the thick vines and shrubbery of the forest. She doesn't see anything, but the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and a sick feeling settles in her stomach. She'd get up and look to put her mind at rest, but if she did find an enemy soldier, would she even know what to do? Would she attack, or just pretend she hadn't seen them and creep back into the trees' protection? Could she shoot another person? Could she make herself do that again? Could she make the tally two rather than one? A jumble of questions tumble through her mind, and by the time she contemplates an answer to all of them, the rustling stops and her heart rate calms.

Besides, Steve had left her here under this exact tree. She needs to stay in case one of the Commandos come to fetch her. She needs to stay. She needs to just keep her head down and wait. So that's what she does, ignoring the near-silent rustles that seem to continue to her right.

After a dreadfully long time, Isabel's stomach is in knots and she feels a little nauseous. She feels even sicker again when Steve emerges from the main entrance of the factory alone, holding the shield in front of him. He runs into the tree line at full speed, an unnatural speed for a human person to be able to run at, and less than a minute later, Isabel hears his light footfalls approach her. She still raises her pistol in the direction just to be sure, and Steve emerges from the trees with his hands raised. Isabel immediately drops her weapon to her side, her movements awkward and unpractised.

"Good to see you're on guard," Steve says quietly with a proud smile. "Come on, we need you."

Isabel scrambles up from under the trunk and takes Steve's offered hand, running as fast as she can to keep up with Steve's increased stamina. After only a few seconds of running she trips over a risen tree root and nearly face plants, just managing to grab Steve's arm to steady herself.

"Slow down," she pants. "Not everyone's enhanced."

"Sorry," Steve says, slowing his pace considerably. "Still forget."

They reach the part of the tree line Steve darted into when he came to fetch Isabel and Steve halts, looking out at the field with a critical eye.

"Who's injured?" Isabel asks quietly.

"Morita, again. Hydra goon got the jump on us, shot both him and Falsworth in the back."

Isabel nods. After a few more seconds, Steve raises the shield and darts out of the trees, dragging Isabel along. They get through the front doors of the factory and Steve closes them again, hiding the commotion inside.

Isabel stays behind Steve as directed, pressed up against his back to hide herself from whatever lies ahead. She can't see anything around Steve or the shield, and she feels like she's walking blind. Still, she trusts Steve's eyes and his sure footfalls and allows him to lead her into the unknown. A bullet or two bounces off the metal shield from ahead of them, making Isabel shout out in surprise, and Steve immediately shoots back, the men falling to the ground. They carefully step around the bodies as they continue through the hallways. There's only a handful of soldiers around, which surprises Isabel.

"Where are all the Hydra soldiers?" Isabel whispers, Steve's footsteps almost silent as he creeps her through the factory.

"We took most of them out already. Dernier attached a bomb to one of the explosive devices they were storing on the factory floor, took out a pretty big chunk of them. Bucky, Jones and Dugan practically herded the rest of them away from the injured to another part of the factory floor. They're in a shoot off right now, but when I left we had the upper hand. We'll bypass that area and I'll get you to Morita and Falsworth before I go and help."

"Okay," Isabel says, her mind whirring as it processes the information.

She follows Steve through the dark and damp factory, unable to help herself from looking around at what they've already passed, since she can't see ahead. She's never been inside such a building, the factory seemingly looming high into the air above them. Bombs and other machinery sit around the factory floor in the distance. The hallways are narrow and long, winding around with lots of turns and hundreds of doors that would confuse anyone. Steve seems to know the way though, and eventually he stops at a closed door. He knocks on the wood, a specific pattern, and they hear a mumble from within.

Steve opens the door, revealing Morita and Falsworth sitting on the ground in two pools of blood. Dernier sits behind Morita, who must be the most injured, holding a dirty piece of material up to the wound of Morita's back. Steve pushes Isabel inside the room, looking warily at the hallway he stands in.

"Stay here with the door closed. If it opens before there's a knock, it isn't one of us. Don't hesitate to shoot," Steve reminds them, before he escapes through the door again, closing it behind him.

In the distance, they can just hear the sound of shooting, followed by a grenade explosion or two that echo through the hallways and shake the building's walls. Isabel ignores it and hurries over to Morita and Falsworth, putting her pistol on the ground beside her and Jim's medical kits.

Isabel takes the cloth from Dernier's hands. She passes a clean one to him and mimes for him to push it to Falsworth's wound, nowhere near as bad as Morita's as the bullet has only just grazed the top of his shoulder. Dernier does as instructed, nodding to her. She then mimes for him to listen out for approaching footsteps, pointing to the door and holding up her weapon, pretending to shoot at the door. Dernier nods and holds his weapon in his other hand, his eyes flicking determinedly between the door and Falsworth's shoulder.

"Heard they got the jump on you boys?" Isabel asks.

"Sure did, miss," Morita says, his voice a little slurred.

"They couldn't have hit the Captain," Falsworth says sourly. "He's enhanced, it wouldn't have even stopped him. Us though, we went down like a sack of spuds."

"You sure aren't having a good time, Jim," Isabel notes. "You only just got clearance to go into the field from your other wound."

"That I am not," he agrees, wincing when Isabel pushes forcefully on the wound to stem the bleeding.

With the blood cleared a little, Isabel inspects the wound. It's not overly deep, luckily. What's unlucky is that the bullet is lodged somewhere between two of Morita's ribs, and Isabel suspects they're probably broken, or at least cracked, from the force of the bullet.

"There's no exit wound," Isabel tells him. "I'm going to have to dig the bullet out and any shrapnel. The wound looks pretty clean, but I won't know until I get in there. Hopefully the bullet will slide out smoothly."

Isabel gives Morita a syrette of morphine, waiting a few minutes for the medicine to take effect. She then has him lean forward, ignoring the pain, and with a pair of tweezer-like tongs, carefully reaches inside the wound and feels around for the small metal bullet. She grasps it and pulls it out carefully, revealing the bullet mostly intact. She searches around a little longer, pointing a small flashlight into the bloody mess, and discovers the last pieces of metal, removing them.

"Only a little shrapnel, thank God," she mutters.

Morita puts his hand out and she dutifully drops the bloody bullet into his palm. He looks at it a second before putting it safely in his pocket. Isabel shakes her head at him.

"Alright, just gotta stitch it," Isabel says, mainly to herself considering Morita is dozing in and out of consciousness and the other two men are fixated on the door.

Isabel gets to work, sewing up any internal damage she can identify before working on closing the wound. The round wound comes together easily, and with only eight stitches it's closed, the blood flow stopped. She puts some disinfectant on the wound, making Morita hiss, and then bandages it, wrapping the bandage right around his torso tightly.

"It should heal nicely, but you'll have a scar. I want to keep an eye on you though. When we get back to base, you're going to the infirmary for a few days," she tells Jim, and he nods his understanding before allowing himself to slump sideways against the wall.

Monty's wound is much easier. It doesn't require any stitches, just a clean and a bandage, and it takes her not even five minutes to clean it up.

"Looks worse than it is," she reassures him, hiding the blood beneath the white bandages.

The four of them wait then, eagerly anticipating the Commandos to come and fetch them so they can leave the base.

"Did you find anything here?" Isabel asks Falsworth, the only one who is coherent enough to reply and speaks English.

"Not much that I know of, just some of Doctor Zola's notes and a bit about the Red Skull. It's just another weapon's factory. They haven't got any prisoners at this one. We're wondering whether the factory they held the one-oh-seventh in was just a one off. Perhaps they saw their opportunity to have others build their weaponry for them and took it."

"Maybe, but it seems unlikely. Zola and Schmidt are somewhat attempting to recreate the super-soldier serum, not just build their Tesseract-powered weapons. I find it hard to believe that they aren't experimenting on others."

Isabel's eyes widen at what she's accidentally let slip, a piece of information neither she nor Bucky had revealed. Before Falsworth can ask Isabel what she means about them experimenting on people, they hear the sequenced knock at the door, which makes them all jump.

Steve pokes his head inside, looking dirty with a deep red gash on his forehead. "Time to go! Factory's gonna blow!"

Dernier helps Falsworth off the ground and they head to the exit, but Morita stays put, his brow furrowed in pain.

"Wait, Steve!" Isabel calls. "Jim's injured bad, he can't just walk out of here."

"I'll carry him," Bucky offers.

Bucky steps into the room quickly. He grunts as he picks Morita up over his shoulders in a fireman's life, the man hanging limply off him. Bucky hurries out of the room with slightly lagging footsteps under Morita's weight, following the Commandos as they escape the factory.

"Baby Barnes, get in the middle next to your brother where it's safer," Dugan orders, standing on Isabel's left with his rifle raised.

"This ain't a photo shoot, Dugan," Bucky retorts, a little puffed.

"I think a photo shoot would be easier than this shit," Gabe says from behind them.

They make their way down the corridor, a mass of bodies, Steve at the front with the shield raised protectively. Isabel's heart pounds in her chest and her eyes dart around, her own pistol in her hands. They wind back through the never-ending maze of hallways to where Steve brought her in, the door in close proximity to the woods so that they can escape into its protection. Isabel feels some relief when she spots the familiar exit, only a few hundred meters away at the end of the corridor.

Steve picks up his pace and so do the others, Bucky looking like he's struggling a little with Morita's dead weight over his shoulder.

Suddenly from the door beside Dugan, a group of Hydra agents burst out. They knock into Dugan, who in turn knocks into Isabel, who takes down Bucky and Morita, the four of them landing in a heap on the hard floor like a line of dominoes. Morita lets out a scream of pain as he lands hard on his injured back, Bucky practically on top of him. Isabel feels her wrist give a painful tweak as she lands on it, Dugan falling heavily onto her, his bowler hat flying off.

Dugan and Bucky immediately recover and shoot up at the men from the floor, one of their bullets hitting a man between the eyes, the other hitting one in the chest. Steve's shield flies through the group, sending another three to the ground in a heap with a metallic clang. Bucky scrambles to his feet, picking up Morita again and throwing him back over his shoulder, ready to run. Isabel and Dugan stand as well, Dugan putting Isabel behind him protectively.

The last agent standing has managed to dodge both the shield and the bullets, stopping a few meters away from the group in front of their escape route. Everyone looks at the person for a long moment, expecting them to attack. The agent stares back, both lifeless and somehow full of emotion through their plain mask. Eventually, Dernier grunts and shoots at the figure, who easily moves to the side and evades the bullet as though it were nothing. Steve's eyebrows rise at the figure's swift, almost unhuman-like movements. Perhaps, he wonders, she's enhanced?

Even with the mask on the figure seems irritated, and when they reach up to remove their mask, they reveal themselves to be not a man as the Commandos expected, but a woman with a dirty scowl on her face.

Everyone's jaws drop as they stare at the woman, who's scowl quickly transitions into a smug smirk. She holds a cat-like elegance along with her slender, dark figure. She has shoulder length, straight black hair that frames her pale face. She's wearing a modified version of the traditional Hydra agent uniform with added panels of bright green across the front and a much tighter fit that accentuates her womanly figure.

Unfortunately, she's standing between them and the exit, holding one of Hydra's modified guns toward the Commandos.

"Hello, Captain and Commandos," she greets in German-accented English. "You made a mistake bringing your little girlfriend in here, Captain."

"Who the hell are you?" Steve snarls.

"You can call me Madame Hydra," she allows. "And if any of you make it out of here alive, you'll be seeing quite a bit more of me. The best of luck to all of you, and let the games begin."

With that, she sticks an explosive to the wall beside her and throws the doors at the end of the hall open, climbing into a car that awaits her at the exit and disappearing quickly from sight.

"Run!" Steve bellows, turning the Commandos away from the explosive on the wall. It makes a few beeping sounds, quickly getting faster, before it explodes within seconds. None of them are far enough away and the force sends the group to the ground again, the fire roaring over their heads. Isabel feels something hard covering her head, Steve having propped up his shield to hide the Commandos from the brunt of the fire.

Above them the roof starts coming down in chunks. Steve's up before anyone, using the shield to deflect larger chunks that would easily render the others unconscious. But much more terrifying and pressing is the thick green smoke that wafts toward them from the explosive device, filling the narrow hallway. They all quickly scramble to their feet and run down the hallway, Bucky with Morita over his shoulders once again, the smoke licking at their heels. They've no idea what the smoke is made of or its effect and have no intentions to stay and find out. Isabel runs as fast as her legs can carry her to keep up with the other Commandos, the adrenaline and fear coursing through her propelling her forward, her footsteps matching in time with the others'. The rest of the factory is also up in flames, since Steve and the others rigged it to blow before they collected their injured.

"We need another exit!" Steve yells over the noise of the fire, running to the front of the group to lead them through the winding hallways.

They don't come across any more Hydra agents, all of them escaping the crumbling building. They also come across no exits to the outside of the factory, and with every second the panic on their faces grow, despite the fact that the smoke dissipates behind them. Clearly, "Madame Hydra" had hoped to stall the Commandos with her introductions, corner them in a deserted part of the factory and block off their exits, causing them to be trapped inside and to succumb to the smoke, which they assume is poisonous gas.

Luckily for the Commandos, however, Steve is too stubborn to give up and within a few minutes of frantic running, he finds them another exit from the factory a long ways from where they'd begun. Steve goes through the door first with his shield raised, surprised when a string of bullets bounces off the metal with a loud ping. Steve looks around carefully, spotting a sniper in the tree line not far from where Isabel had been waiting for them.

Steve slips back inside. "Sniper in the tree line, two o'clock."

Bucky peers through the gap in the door, glaring up at the waiting sniper. "That's not far from where we left Is."

"I know."

"I heard a noise, I just thought it was another animal or bird," Isabel cries. She'd been only a few yards away from a Hydra sniper. If only she'd faced her fears and approached, maybe she could have taken him down.

"Doesn't matter. I'm gonna rush him," Steve decides.

"No, Steve. It's too far up there, you could get hit. He may not be the only one," Bucky argues.

"I'll be okay," Steve reassures.

Before anyone else can protest, Steve bursts through the doors with the shield raised and runs full-pelt up the hill, the thick grass almost as tall as Steve himself and providing some protection. There's more than one set of bullets flying at him, the snipers scattered around the trees. Within seconds, Steve's upon the first sniper and he brings the shield down on the sniper's back before the man can even move, ripping the rifle from his grasp. The sniper goes still, slumped over on the ground.

Steve quickly scours the tree line for any other waiting snipers. His eyes land on one, who seems to be attempting to hide in the bushes from the star-spangled figure. Steve uses the borrowed sniper rifle to take him out, the single, accurate shot ringing out through the trees. Then, he rushes the final sniper who has abandoned his post and sprints away through the trees. The Commandos watch Steve disappear into the dense trees and hear another faint gunshot.

A few minutes later, Steve reappears at the clearing's edge. He raises a hand to the others to signal for them to come, and they oblige, keeping Bucky, Morita and Isabel in the middle as they struggle through the thick grass into the tree line.

Once they get into the trees' protection, they take a second to look back and watch the factory crumple to the ground, but they don't allow themselves to relax. They can't relax until they're at the safety of the rendezvous point and back in London. Even then, London is no longer safe. Hydra truly is an infestation and it could be anywhere at any time.

The Hydra factory in Czechoslovakia goes up in a final firework spectacular of flames and crumbles to the ground, sending billows of smoke and concrete up into the air. Only a few more minutes and they all would have been toast. Still, the Commandos can rest assured that no one in the base and none of its contents will survive the blast to be used elsewhere.

At Steve's final nod, they turn and walk further into the trees, all of them with a million questions in their minds about the mysterious woman of Hydra.

After hours of walking and the occasional stop to tend to Morita's major injury and the others' minor ones, the Commandos stay the night in an abandoned barn, still with a two-mile trek to go until they reach the rendezvous point. The barn is old, painted a faded red colour, and the machinery inside is entirely wrecked by rust. None of it's been used in a long while. The men set up their sleeping bags in the stale hay on the upper loft of the barn, leaving them with a perfect view of the surrounding forest through the open frames where windows may have once been.

Amongst the hay, which provides warmth despite causing most of them to develop the sniffles, the Commandos sit around in a circle. They huddle together for warmth since they are unable to start a bonfire in case it sets fire to the entire barn or draws attention to their position. Morita lays down to rest his wound, sticking close. Isabel administers Morita another syrette of morphine so he's rather content to sit and listen to the others talk, the pain numbed away by the medicine.

"Who was that woman? That Madame Hydra?" Isabel eventually asks into the silence of the barn.

"Dunno, we haven't seen her before," Jones says.

"She said we'll be seeing her around. She must be a higher-up, probably works alongside Schmidt," Bucky reasons.

"We can get Agent Carter to look into it when we get back to base. Surely, she can find us some intel or do a background check or something. If we're facing another enhanced person like Schmidt, we need to know about it," Steve says.

"What makes you think she's enhanced?" Falsworth asks, holding his injured shoulder and taking a long swig from his flask to numb the pain.

"Didn't you see the way she dodged the shield and those bullets?" Steve asks, incredulous. "One of those shots went right for her head and she just moved to the side like it was nothing. And the way she wielded that bulky Hydra gun. If she isn't enhanced, she's been thoroughly trained in fighting and weaponry. She'll be a pain to take out."

The Commandos all nod at that, recalling the stealth and cat-like movements of the agent who'd revealed themselves to be a woman. It had been a shock to say the least.

"Well there's no use making assumptions until we know more about her," Jones decides. "If Agent Carter can get us more information, then we'll know what we're looking at. We need the bigger picture. Right now, we only have the snapshot."

"Agreed," Steve says.

After that, the Commandos' minds thankfully pull away from thoughts about their last mission. They resort to their usual tactic for forgetting the horrors they've seen – sharing stories of home, drinking from their hidden flasks and passing a cigarette around the group. Isabel snaps a picture of Bucky with her camera that she still insists on using to document their adventures. The photograph is unsuspecting, candid, as she'd liked the way the puff of smoke clouded in front of Bucky's face as he blew it out of his lungs. She takes a picture of Steve, too, just because she can, and captures his innocent smirk, one side of his mouth raised slightly higher than the other.

Eventually, the cigarette stick gets to Isabel and she looks at it doubtfully, taking it in her thumb and forefinger. She's never smoked a cigarette before, usually passing it on to the next person.

"Go on, it won't kill you," Dugan pushes.

"That you know of," Isabel responds. "Do you know the chemicals they put in these things? And you breathe that right into your lungs–"

"Don't have to get all medical and smart on us. It's fine if you don't want to live your life on the edge like the rest of us," Dugan laughs.

He leans over to take the smoke from Isabel's hands since she doesn't plan on using it. She moves away from him, holding it out of his reach. Glaring determinedly at him, she brings it up to her puckered lips, taking a small drag of the smoke. It immediately makes her lungs burn and she erupts into a coughing fit, covering her mouth as the smoke comes billowing out again. The Howling Commandos laugh at her, Steve plucking the smoke from her hands before she can accidentally burn herself.

"You'll get used to it, lass," Dugan tells her, stealing the smoke from Steve and taking a long drag. He puckers his lips and blows the smoke out in puffed rings that climb up into the air and dissipate slowly, making the men clap quietly. "Just one of my many tricks," he says, fake bowing to his audience. "I'll teach you my ways one day, Barnes Junior."

"That's okay," Isabel says, her voice rough from coughing. "I think I'll pass on that opportunity."

"Suit yourself," Dugan laughs, stealing another drag before passing the shrinking cigarette to Bucky.

"How about we sing a song, fellas? Boost morale. Anyone got any suggestions?" Morita asks with a dopey smile, the morphine affecting him heavily.

"If you're so keen, why don't you start?" Falsworth tells him.

"Monty, please. I'm injured and Isabel drugged me. I almost feel good enough that I could run a marathon, but I have the feeling Nurse Barnes would put a stop to that. Plus, every time I move any part of my body I just want to scream. It's probably best I leave the singing to you fellas."

"Yeah, let's leave Morita out of this. He sounds like a dying cat when he sings. I would know, I heard him singing in the showers at boot camp," Dugan informs them.

"That's not very nice," Isabel protests through her laughter.

"It's true," Morita says, not even embarrassed. "If you asked any of my past girlfriends, they'd all attest to that."

"Here, I've got one," Falsworth says. Everyone looks at him in surprise, not expecting the straight-laced Brit to be the singing type. "Unlike Jim over here, my wife says I have a rather lovely voice and I think you Yanks are going to just love it. Especially when I sing this…" He clears his throat and takes a deep breath.

"Land of soap and water,

Hitler's having a bath.

Churchill's looking through the keyhole,

Having a jolly good laugh.

Cos Hitler has only got one ball,

Göring has got two but they're small.

Himmler has something sim'lar,

But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.

The Howling Commandos laugh and cheer, starting up a rhythmic clap to keep Falsworth in time. Falsworth takes the time to get up, adding an odd sort of jig to his dance and moving his way around the room, his singing getting louder. Steve tries to hush him and tell them to be quieter, but they don't listen, the alcohol they've drunken taking full effect.

Hitler has only got one ball,

The other is in Albert Hall.

His mother, the dirty bugger,

Cut it off when he was small.

"Oh shit, I forgot the last verse," Falsworth cries with a laugh.

"She threw it into the apple tree…" Bucky prompts, smiling up at Falsworth.

"Ah, good on you, Sergeant Barnes… She threw it into the apple tree,

It fell into the deep blue sea.

The fishes got out their dishes,

And had scallops and bollocks for tea!"

Falsworth drops back into his spot, looking puffed, smiling with heated cheeks. He immediately picks up his flask and takes a long sip.

"What a classic," Dugan laughs, holding his stomach that aches from laughter.

"Your wife is right, you're a real crooner, Monty," Isabel praises.

"Why thank you, darl. Say, wouldn't it be a shame if we were paratroopers? We'd have to sing that god awful long song, "Blood Upon the Risers" or whatever it's called," Falsworth notes. "I don't have enough energy for that many verses."

"I don't think any of us have the brain capacity to remember that many verses, either," Dugan laughs in agreement.

The Commandos practically collapse into their sleeping bags, exhausted from the raid and the march. Morita starts snoring right away, the morphine taking its hold when he could no longer keep his eyes open, and Dugan takes a moment to hold his nose and make the sleeping man gasp for breath. Isabel bats Dugan away from the injured man, berating him, but Dugan pays her no mind, instead snickering away at his prank.

Bucky takes the first watch, claiming he isn't tired. He sits himself in the frame of the open pane of the barn, holding his own knife and carving into the wooden handle with the knife he's borrowed from Dugan. A few of the Commandos set themselves up in the stables for privacy, closing the doors to keep the heat in. Isabel sets her sleeping bag up in a stable, leaving the door open, and falls asleep immediately amidst the smell of the hay.

Her sleep is anything but soundless, filled with images of war and fighting, blood and gore. The world of her dreams transitions into a large open field, the ground churned up into a muddy mess by artillery fire. She sits on the outskirts of the field, away from the fight as per the conditions of her joining the Commandos. The Commandos themselves are fighting further out into the field, their weapons raised, a mass of bullets flying through the air between them and the advancing Hydra soldiers like tiny flies buzzing through the sky.

The bullets eventually find their way into the bodies of the Commandos, sending them sprawling into the mud, choking on blood and closing their eyes.

Isabel's legs propel her across the field despite promising to wait in the tree line. Her feet sink in the mud, slowing her run and making her trip, but she eventually makes it to Dugan's body. He's still beneath her hands, his eyes staring straight up to the clouds above. He's got a mass of bullets lodged in his chest, blood soaking the front of his uniform.

Dernier is similar, taking his final shaky breath as Isabel crawls over to him, the photograph of his wife and child clutched tightly in his still-warm hand. Isabel isn't even aware of the flurry of bullets flying just above her head. As she still leans over Dernier, her hand flittering over his still face, Falsworth runs past her. She doesn't think much of it until suddenly, Isabel and Dernier get covered in a spray of oddly warm liquid. Isabel looks down at her uniform, seeing the spray is blood and brains. Falsworth falls to the ground right in front of her, still. A bullet to his head is the critical blow, half of the back of his skull blown away with the force, leaving an open, gaping, bleeding hole. Isabel fights back a scream.

"Isabel, what are you doing out here?" Bucky suddenly cries, appearing over her. He kneels beside her and roughly wipes the blood from her face with his sleeve as she clutches to his arms.

"God, why did I come out here, why didn't I wait? Why didn't I wait on the sidelines?" She thinks but doesn't realise she's saying it aloud.

"I'm gonna get you out," Bucky promises. He grabs her arm and lifts her up, running quickly across the field and dodging bullets to lead her away from the fight back to where she was hiding before. Miraculously none of them get hit, they make it unscathed. "You know you aren't supposed to come in without Steve escorting yo–"

Bucky cuts off as their luck runs out, a string of bullets hitting him in the back and sending him to the ground. Isabel somehow escapes unharmed. Bucky lands face down, screaming in pain. Isabel drops beside him, eyes widening as she takes in the littering of bullet holes across his back, the blood soaking his uniform and turning it from olive to crimson. She rolls him over carefully, his face contorted with pain. Bucky looks up at her, grey eyes widened in terror and pain, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Bucky?" She asks through her tears, cupping his cheek when his eyes flutter shut. "Bucky, stay with me!" She pleads.

She looks down, finding some of the bullets have flown out the other side, leaving holes in his chest and stomach as well. Bucky's blood pools into the mud below him. He coughs and then chokes, blood spilling from the side of his mouth, and he tries to tell her something but before he can rasp the words out, his eyes roll back in his head and he's still in Isabel's arms. "No!"

Isabel looks up from Bucky's body, her cheeks tear-stained and her eyes blind with tears, just in time to see the Red Skull approach Steve, Madame Hydra stood smugly behind her leader. The blonde kneels on the ground in the middle of the field, clutching his bullet-riddled chest but still living, still breathing, thanks to the serum. Schmidt strolls up to Steve, taking Steve's chin in his red hand and forcing him to look up.

"Say goodbye to your little friends," Isabel hears Schmidt say in a deep and menacing tone before he raises one of Hydra's disintegrating guns to Steve's chest. He pulls the trigger, the blue energy engulfing Steve's body in an unnatural light, before Steve fades away into thin air right before her eyes–

Isabel awakens from the nightmare screaming, her eyes filled with tears, her hands searching around for Bucky's body that she'd only just been clutching to her chest. She screams and screams, unable to work out reality from her terrifying realistic dream.

Beside her, Steve jolts awake at the sound of Isabel's terrified wails, immediately searching the barn for danger. He finds none though, only Bucky jumping to his feet worriedly from where he'd been keeping watch and peering into the stable. Steve slams his hand over Isabel's mouth to silence her, not wanting the noise to attract any enemies that may be in the dense forests nearby. She stiffens at his touch, struggling to break free of his grasp, but he holds her strongly against him, one hand over her mouth getting soaked with tears, the other petting her hair.

"Shh, Belle. It's okay, you're okay," he whispers over and over.

She quickly calms once she realises who's holding her, her muffled scream turning to a wretched sobbing. She turns in his arms and buries her face in his chest. Steve nods to Bucky, letting him know everything is safe. Bucky looks extremely worried, but he nods back wordlessly and disappears from sight.

The other Commandos also awaken at the noise, and Steve hears Bucky telling them it was Isabel having a nightmare. He hears the mumble of talking, hears Dugan say, "I hope she's okay, poor doll doesn't deserve that kind of torture", but blocks it out, instead concentrating on Isabel.

Steve lays back with her, holding her close, hushing her and patting her hair and letting her cry it out. The spot below her face on his uniform gets soaked quickly. Eventually the tears peter off and she sniffles, wiping at her face with the sleeve of her jacket. When she finally looks up at him, her eyes are red and raw, her cheeks still wet, and her nose stuffed up.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, trying to move away.

"Uh uh," Steve whispers back, holding her tightly so she can't move away. "Don't you ever apologise," he tells her, wiping away the wetness on her face.

"I probably woke everyone up," she says, her voice breaking as though she may start weeping again.

"They won't mind, Belle," Steve promises. He watches her a moment. "Nightmare?" He guesses. Isabel nods, her bottom lip trembling. "I had a nightmare, too, just then," Steve admits, holding Isabel a little bit closer.

"What was it about?" She asks quietly, voice shaky, looking up at him with wide-eyes.

"Everyone I knew was dead. You, Buck, the Commandos, my Mom, your family. I've had the dream a few times. I walk into a Hydra factory and down this long, dark corridor. When I get to the end, there's just this pile of bodies, everyone I've ever known killed by bullets or stabbed, real painful deaths. All of them piled up in this mass of blood."

"That's horrible," Isabel whispers.

"I have nightmares almost every night, the same dreams usually," Steve confides, a darkness to his features that was never there before the war. "Do you want to talk about yours?"

"No," Isabel whispers, burying her face into Steve's chest again.

"Honey, if you don't get it off your chest, you'll never be able to breathe," Steve tells her, coaxing her to lift her head up again.

Isabel sighs, eventually meeting his eyes. "I dreamt we were in this muddy field, that you were all fighting this group of Hydra soldiers and I was just watching from the edge like I'm supposed to, but it was so hard to watch like that and not help. Dugan and Dernier went down and I ran to them to help them, but they were already dead. I saw Falsworth fall in front of me, half of his head was missing." The tears start to fall again, and Steve cups her cheek. "Bucky spotted me out there unprotected and tried to get me out, but they shot him right in front of me and it was so bad, I couldn't even start to help him. There was nothing I could do. He died in my arms. When I looked up, the Red Skull shot you with the Tesseract-powered guns and you disintegrated right in front of my eyes." She looks up then, meets his eyes, and clutches the front of his uniform. "It felt so real, like it was actually happening."

"I know, Belle. That's why they're so terrifying, because they feel real. And because they're possible. All those things you saw aren't far-fetched or science fiction. They could actually happen." Steve swallows, realising what he's saying may not be helping Isabel's frazzled nerves. "I'm sorry you dreamt this stuff," he mutters, guilt lacing his tone.

"No, Steve, it's not your fault. It's just my stupid mind playing on my worst fears," Isabel reassures, pressing her hands against her eyes.

"But if I hadn't–"

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself," Isabel begs.

Steve gulps and nods. "So, we have nightmares at the same time," Steve notes, his hand moving to Isabel's head and running through her hair. "What do you think that says about us?"

"That we're both fighting a crucial battle in a world war and we're both experiencing some rather horrifying events?" Isabel asks.

"I was going more for something a little more romantic, as weird as that is," Steve laughs.

"I think I know what you're talking about. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. Everything he suffers, I suffer…" Isabel quotes, smirking up at Steve.

"Your favourite book," Steve notes. "Yeah, that was what I was thinking. Would a kiss make you feel better?"

"Probably. As long as Bucky isn't still watching me worriedly," Isabel laughs.

Steve looks out, seeing Bucky facing away from them again, eyes searching the forest around them. "We're all good," Steve promises.

He leans in slowly to take Isabel's lips with his own. Immediately, she feels more relaxed, letting herself melt into Steve, allowing him to take away the fear and the sadness. It's almost like her soul is attaching to his, like they've joined together to become one. But they've always been like that, haven't they? They've always been family, always been together. They melt away each other's tensions, take each other's fears and replace them with hopes and dreams and love.

Isabel realises in that moment that Steve feels like home. Steve is home, and maybe he always has been. Even when she's miles away, on the other side of the planet, she's still home.

London, United Kingdom

February 24th, 1944

"Ophelia Sarkissian," Peggy says bluntly over the blare of the music in the Stork Club, dropping a file on the middle of the round table in front of the Commandos.

Most of them jump at the sudden movement, looking up from their alcoholic beverages at the beige file on the table and then up to Agent Carter, still dressed in her neatly-pressed uniform.

"What's that?" Dugan asks, reaching for the dossier.

Steve snatches it up first and flips it open. Isabel peers over at the pages, and they're met with the sinister mugshot-like photo of Madame Hydra.

"It's a who," Peggy corrects calmly, pulling up an empty chair from an adjacent table and settling herself between Bucky and Isabel. "The woman you encountered in the Hydra factory, Madame Hydra? This is her. Her name is Ophelia Sarkissian. It took a lot of digging, but we finally found her identity."

Steve flips the page over, but there's only a singular page of information on her. "This is it?" Steve asks quietly, but not accusingly.

"Unfortunately, for now," Peggy sighs. "Nearly everything else about her is wiped. Hydra covers their tracks well. There's no trace of bank loans, social security numbers, birth certificates, travel history. Nothing. If it wasn't for Hydra's records on her that we managed to uncover, she practically wouldn't exist."

"So, who is she? Is she enhanced?" Jones asks.

"Doesn't say," Steve answers with a frown, skimming the rather brief knowledge on the mysterious woman. "She's Hydra's highest-ranking lieutenant. She commands the detention areas in Hydra's facilities. She's the Red Skull's second or third in charge."

"Where does moniker Madame Hydra come from, then?" Bucky asks, looking mainly to Peggy for answers.

"That was something we already knew. Hydra has a tradition of naming their highest-ranking female officer 'Madame Hydra'. Generally, they are well-respected and ruthless fighters. Zola chose her as a female officer for her brutality and her expertise in poisons, torture and interrogation."

"But not enhanced?" Jones clarifies.

"Likely not. Just very skilled. You may still have your hands full," Peggy warns.

"So, Zola's her superior officer?"

"Technically, but I feel she may hold more control over him than he has over her," Peggy says.

Isabel leans over further, reading over Steve's arm. "Sarkissian utilises an arsenal of deadly poisons, many of which were tested and perfected on the vast number of allied prisoners of war in the dungeons of Hydra's facilities," Isabel reads quietly. Her eyes flick up slowly to meet Bucky's. Bucky slowly nods his head. He remembers very vividly the poison they'd dropped on his skin and shoved down his throat, watching how well the serum cured the side-effects. Isabel swallows down the lump in her throat.

"Not only that," Steve continues, eyes flicking carefully between Isabel and Bucky. He clears his throat. "She's been working with Zola on inventing weapons for her personal use. Apparently, they used… the reality-warping powers of the Tesseract to shrink fully-automatic rifles into pistol-sized handhelds."

"They'd be devastating," Bucky notes, a worried frown settling across his features. "The power of a machine gun in a pistol. Machine pistols. No one else has anything close."

"Exactly," Steve says. "And the process would have been way too costly for mass-production. It's only Ophelia's skill and lethality that make using them effective. They're one of a kind. We just need more arsenal to match."

"I'll get Howard on it," Peggy promises.

"That's all we have," Steve sighs, shutting the file again. "It's not much, but it's a start. Great work, Agent Carter."

Peggy smiles slightly, taking back the file for safe-keeping and tucking it back into a handbag by her feet. She stands easily, flattening down her skirt and pushing back a stray hair from her face. "Well, I really must go," she says, taking a step towards the door.

"Not going to stay, Carter? I'm sure Barnes'll buy you a drink," Dugan smirks, raising his eyebrows at her. Bucky only glares slightly, but then he looks up at Peggy and nods with a small smile.

"Unfortunately not, boys and lady. I've got a lot more digging to do on our mysterious Madame Hydra. I've got a team continuing the investigation back at base. I should get back to them. I just wanted to check in."

"Then I'll walk you back," Bucky offers quickly, standing and shrugging on his jacket in preparation of the cooler air outside.

"It's hardly necessary, Sergeant Barnes," Peggy says, almost automatically, though it's in a tone that insinuates she has no protest to the company.

"I insist," Bucky replies with a smirk, as though it's a conversation they've had many times already.

They gather their possessions. Bucky downs the rest of his whiskey quickly, putting the glass up at the bar for the bartender to clear. He turns then and waits for Peggy, but she hesitates, standing behind Jones and Dernier.

"One more thing," she says, eyebrows frowned. "It wasn't in the file as it's just a rumour."

"What is it?" Steve asks.

"Apparently Ophelia is… very close to the Red Skull…" Peggy trails off.

"In rank?" Morita asks.

"In… proximity," Peggy rephrases, but some of the men still look confused. Peggy sighs. "Reports say she may be a… lover of the Red Skull."

Everyone's eyebrows rise at that, and then many faces turn into one of disgust.

"The Skull. Really? Surely she could do better," Dugan asks, his moustache downturned with his mouth. "I mean, c'mon. We all saw what she was wearing and what she squeezed into it–" Dugan cuts off when Morita smacks him upside the head.

"It's leverage if we need it," Steve reasons, frowning disapprovingly at Dugan. "Even if there's nothing between them but the physical – no emotion or attachment – its leverage. We could use it, if we needed to."

A/N: Madame Hydra will be a supporting character in this story working for Hydra. I understand that in the canon for the MCU in Agents of Shield, Madame Hydra has a rather complicated backstory as Aida as a type of artificial intelligence working for Hydra in the twenty-first century. However, in the comics Madame Hydra is a character who evolves and pops up multiple times for Captain America to fight and takes on many different personas. She also appears in the video game Captain America: Super Soldier as one of the antagonists. Therefore, I thought she would be interesting to include in the story. I feel that Hydra only having one major villain made them slightly one dimensional in Captain America: The First Avenger. In the comics there are multiple characters Cap fights during World War II, and I feel that adding Madame Hydra reflects this better and also reflects the complexity of World War II itself. It was difficult to know who was the enemy and from what angle they would attack. I just hope I do the character justice as I don't know all that much about her.

The song that Falsworth sings is "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball", a British propaganda song that mocks the Nazi leader using blue comedy in reference to his privates. Multiple variants of the lyrics exist for different political and military leaders of the time. It was used with immense popularity by Allied troops as a means of ridiculing the Nazis by demeaning the sexual faculties of the enemy leaders, a popular wartime convention. However, this mockery also symbolised their courage, nerve and fortitude, characteristics that were described since the 1920s as "ballsy", or for someone to have "balls". In this sense, their defective privates rendered the Nazis defective soldiers.

Also, the book that Isabel references toward the end is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte from 1847. It is one of my personal favourite books. It's a gothic romance novel but it deals with topics such as religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender equality. If you haven't read it, I would recommend it as it is a classic. Honestly, though there have been multiple film adaptions, not many of them are great. If you're to watch them (as I did), don't let it persuade you from reading the novel. It also inspired the 1978 song by Kate Bush of the same name.