54.
Bavaria, Germany
October 25th, 1944
Steve and Dugan find their way across the grounds to a large building across from them. A large transmitter and antenna stick up from the roof of the building, indicating there's a long-range radio inside.
The building is damp and cold like the rest, the walls and floors entirely concrete. Steve's not entirely sure what it's used for, though there are a few cell-like rooms and metal cages extending from the ceiling. He thinks, perhaps, it may be a hangar of some sort. They find their way up to an upper level and eventually locate the radio. It looks damaged and unused, a thick layer of dust covering it. Steve hopes it hasn't been abandoned because it doesn't work.
He tunes it into the right channel and speaks into the device, Dugan waiting beside him with the plasma gun raised in preparation for any attacks.
"Rogers to base. Come in… do you copy?"
There's a long crackle of static and white noise, and Steve is about to abandon the radio and find another, when the static breaks into silence. "This is Peggy," the British voice finally says, sounding relieved. "We read you. What's your status?"
"The Red Skull is on his way, if he's not here already. Any idea where he might arrive?"
"Recon shows an air-dock on the eastern side of the complex," Howard informs Steve. "The Skull's known to travel by Zeppelin."
"Dugan and I are on the eastern edge now. We need to find a better vantage point," Steve decides.
"Their rail system runs fully east to west through the complex. The eastern rail bridge should give you a clear view of the air-docks. Find your way down to the rail line and you should be set," Howard continues.
"But be careful, both of you. We still don't know the Skull's full capabilities, and both Falsworth and Isabel are still prisoners," Peggy warns.
"I know," Steve sighs. "And I'm still not sure where. But if I capture the Skull, I can force them to free Falsworth and Isabel and every other prisoner in this place if we haven't found them yet. I've got to try, it's my only choice. Rogers, out," Steve adds before either can protest further.
"You ready to get your girl back, Cap?" Dugan asks, noticeably attempting to rev Steve up for continuing the fight, not that Steve needed the assistance. Steve's never needed more motivation in his life, and he's never had so much to fight for.
"Yeah, Dugan. I was born ready."
Steve and Dugan emerge into the rail line not long later, confronted with a large locomotive right in front of them. There are no Hydra guards in sight, only the workers who have proven particularly easy to defeat.
Steve throws the shield, the metal disc bouncing off each of the workers and the train. Most of them are taken down in one swing, lying motionless on the floor. Dugan polishes off the rest with his gun, leaving the rail station silent.
The station opens up onto a platform that extends out from the edge of the mountain, giving them views either way, and then to a second bridge that crosses the river to the mountain and forests on the other side. Only a few hundred yards to their left, Steve can see the bridge that they had destroyed after Bucky and the last train made it to safety. Steve knows this may be one of the last opportunities for Dugan to meet up with Bucky and the others, not knowing what the rest of the fight will hold. As helpful as Dugan has been, the man looks a little worse for wear, sporting multiple cuts and bruises, his wrist that he'd broken all those months ago giving him trouble and cradled against his chest.
"Dugan, get across the bridge and link up with the others. Bucky and the men should be somewhere across the river. I'll be there soon," Steve instructs, leaving no room for argument.
"You sure, Cap? I can go with you the rest of the way?" Dugan offers, but his body language and injuries speak differently.
"I'm sure," Steve promises.
"Well, it's been fun, Cap. As usual. Here, keep this," Dugan says, handing Steve the plasma gun. "You'll have more use for it than me. I'll fill Barnes in on all the action when I get there."
With that, Dugan starts across the bridge, hurrying along and awfully aware of how out in the open he is. The river gushes along below him. Steve waits until he reaches the other side and successfully hides himself in the trees, his own receiver up to his ear as he contacts Bucky for his coordinates.
Just before Steve moves off back into the train station, he hears the putter of a motor. Looking up, he sees a large silver Zeppelin flying through the sky, appearing from behind the mountain in front of him. Steve quickly ducks away from the edge of the station, hiding by the concrete door frame.
The Zeppelin sinks lower toward the ground as it passes him, lining up with the air-dock extending from the side of the mountain over the river a few hundred metres to Steve's right. In the distance, Steve can just make out the long catwalk of the air-dock and a mass of figures waiting on it. A shorter figure in a white outfit runs toward the end to meet the Red Skull as he disembarks the Zeppelin, and Steve quickly realises it's Doctor Zola, who's been suspiciously absent since Steve broke free from his cell in the panopticon.
The door to the Zeppelin's carriage opens and a red-skinned, black-clad figure steps out, walking straight past the loyal doctor with a purpose-filled stride. In his hand he holds a square metal casing which Steve deduces holds the Tesseract. The group heads inside the building after a rather long conversation that Steve has no hope of making out.
Steve knows he's only got one chance to reach the Red Skull in time, and that's only if he can find a train that heads in the right direction, since he's the only Commando left on the castle's island other than Falsworth and Isabel, who are still in containment. Steve hurries past the parked locomotive into a tunnel system, attempting to find his way to the docking intersection of all the train lines.
He runs through the winding corridors, finding himself at a dead end. A Hydra worker stands by a large door in front of a keypad system, typing in a code. Steve waits for him to input the code and the door to open before knocking the shield into the back of his head and running through the opened door. He emerges into a control hub, computers lining the walls. Steve throws the shield, bouncing it between the Hydra workers, their yellow-uniformed bodies hitting the floor with heavy thuds. Once they're all taken down and a few of the machines are also damaged, Steve runs to the map on the wall that shows the train lines that run beneath the castle and then out into the rest of Europe, studying them.
The map is an interactive one, and a small blinking light shows trains that are currently moving through the tunnels. Only one train moves, travelling up a tunnel toward the northern side of the castle, the only area Steve hasn't ventured yet. Steve watches it a moment, moving impossibly fast, and then the movement stops and the light blinks in one spot for a good few minutes.
"Jackpot," Steve mutters to himself. "If I can just find a train running north…" he runs a finger over the map, pointing at the train that will take him north through the castle from his own position, "…I can hitch a ride straight to the Skull," he finishes, his tone triumphant.
Before Steve leaves the room, he throws the shield into the computers to disable them, the room filling with smoke from the fire. Steve leaves the control hub and emerges onto a platform with rickety metal stairs that lead to a large, domed, hexagonal-shaped room. There are doors at each of the six edges of the room which are used as the six lines that run beneath the castle, closed with the large metal doors. A single turntable runs along the middle of the room, pointing from one door to another that allows the lines to continue through the hub and be connected to other lines so that trains can move throughout the castle and Europe. The turntable sits suspended from the ground, ready to spin the track toward the appropriate doors. Steve finds the controls and turns the track, the rails and turntable spinning on its axis to align with the northern track.
Steve runs to the door that has opened with a stream of smoke, revealing a train awaiting use. It sits in its docking station, the steam already emerging from its engine. Steve gets onto the train and finds his way to the engine room. He's confronted with a wall of controls, a small window at the front showing him the outside of the front of the train. The engine is just visible underneath the metal grate he stands on, and it glows blue. Steve wonders whether the train is powered by the Tesseract. It would certainly explain how fast they can move.
Steve carefully reads the German words on the control buttons, quickly working out how to get the train moving. The train jolts forward with immense power, smoke spurting out from the wheels. Steve stumbles backward with the force but manages to right himself. The train picks up speed at a dizzying rate, flying across the track of the turntable with a roar from the engine. It passes into the tunnel, picking up speed, the concrete walls whooshing past loudly.
When he looks out the window, he squints to see down the tunnel in the direction he's moving, and notices that a large metal door is at the other end of the track, still securely closed, having not opened when Steve had opened the first door. It's only a dot in the distance, it's so far away, but it's quickly getting larger and closer. Steve frowns, unable to find a way to open it. If he can get the train moving fast enough, though, the door won't be a problem. Steve pulls on the lever, the train accelerating faster.
Steve climbs up out of the engine room onto the roof, the wind whipping at him violently. He skirts the top of the train and climbs down onto the front beside the headlight. He holds on tight and waits, the door growing closer at a frightening speed. When the train gets close enough, Steve throws himself off the front of the train to the side, grabbing hold of the side of the tunnel and clinging on to dear life as the rest of the train whizzes past him, skimming the shield on his back. The train flies past and smashes into the metal door at the end with immense force, pushing it from its frame. The door flies through the station, taking out some of the controls and agents and smashing into the far wall, causing the bricks to crumble. The train derails, skidding along the tunnel on an angle and causing sparks to fly. The Hydra soldiers waiting on the train line who dodged the door are taken out by the out of control locomotive, which then proceeds to catch alight in a burst of flames. Steve jumps up onto the platform and stares down at the flaming train with a smug smirk before escaping the platform.
As he makes his way up toward the ground levels, he pulls out the transmitter. "Bucky? It's Steve. Did Dugan get to you?"
"Yes, he's here," Bucky confirms. "You any closer to finding Belle and Falsworth?"
"I'm heading for the Red Skull now. I'm close, I can feel it."
"Good luck, Steve… Be careful," Bucky pleads.
Steve finds the Red Skull relatively quickly. He manoeuvres his way into another set of laboratories, these ones much less modern than the last. They look as though they're temporary or emergency set ups, most likely since Steve and Dugan blew the last to the ground. Steve moves to walk around the corner but hurries back behind the door when he spots the Red Skull and Zola standing by the other end of the rooms, the large robot that had taken Steve down earlier waiting obediently beside them. Steve strains his ears to listen to their conversation, watching with a pinched expression as they converse.
"I have come a long way, Zola. My day had been much better before I found my castle under attack. Therefore, my mood is not at its best. Waste my time at your own peril," Red Skull warns, eyeing Zola menacingly.
The smaller man gulps, a bead of sweat on his forehead, before he turns and snaps his fingers. A Hydra scientist hurries over to him, holding a metal canister in his hands. Zola turns the handle at the top, a stream of mist sneaking out of the seal for the lid before he lifts the lid from the canister. From inside, Zola pulls out a small glass vial of blue liquid, holding it in his hands as though it were as delicate as a flower. Zola turns back to Schmidt, holding the vial out to him.
"Herr Skull, may I present with my compliments, the perfected super soldier serum."
"At last," Skull says. "How do you know it is successful? Of your previous attempts, only one has been proven to have worked, and yet you cannot hold on to the subject."
"Sergeant Barnes was a successful candidate, and he did not suffer from any side effects of the serum," Zola agrees. "But the changes to his physique have not been proven to be as efficient as the Captain's. He is not nearly as strong, durable, efficient, tactical. Slightly so, but not to the same extent. This is the perfected serum," Zola reassures.
"But how do you know?"
"Whilst Captain Rogers was in our detainment, we took samples of his blood and used it to complete the serum. It is a completed version, and it matches that of Captain Rogers'. A small amount, to be sure," Zola continues, handing the vial to Schmidt. "But from this we can synthesise enough to create–"
Steve throws his shield, the disc rushing through the air between the two Hydra menaces and shattering the glass vial that is being passed between their two hands. The two men fly apart from each other, Schmidt stumbling and Zola falling to the ground, a small notebook falling from the pocket of his lab coat.
Schmidt immediately turns toward Steve, raising a fist at him threateningly. "You!"
Zola sits up from the floor, his face pained. "The serum!" He cries, trying desperately to scoop up the blue liquid that spreads across the floor.
"You made it from his blood, I'll give you more," Schmidt promises, glaring at Steve. "From his corpse!" Zola runs from the scene, clutching a wounded elbow but, unfortunately for him, leaving the notebook behind. Schmidt turns to the robotic machine stood beside him. "Iron Cross! This time, you may kill him! Painfully."
The robot, which Steve learns is named Iron Cross, roars to life before a large beam of Tesseract energy bursts from the cannon on its shoulder, hitting the shield just as Steve raises it in protection. Steve skids back a few steps from the force. When he looks up, the Red Skull is making his escape through the other end of the room, Iron Cross blocking Steve's path.
Iron Cross storms toward Steve with thundering footsteps, and if it had a face, Steve is sure it would have been lethal in expression.
"Auf weidersehen (Goodbye)," the robot says, before shooting again.
Whilst Steve avoids the blasts from the cannon on its shoulder, Steve tries to decipher exactly what the robot is. For a while, he'd thought it wasn't man-controlled, though its ability to speak has proven that theory wrong. Steve can only describe the massive mechanical suit as a form of a battle tank that has the ability to walk. The suit shoots the Tesseract energy from the massive sonic cannon mounted on its shoulder.
The beam hits Steve at one point, stunning him. It sends a wave through his mind that makes his brain blur, his ears bleed, and he squeezes his eyes shut against the pain. In the moment he's stunned, the suit closes in on him, using its ballistics shield to attempt to crush Steve. The super soldier hears it's approaching footsteps and turns, catching the shield, and throws the robotic suit away from him, the suit hitting the wall and cracking the concrete.
Whilst it's incapacitated, struggling to stand due to its clunky body, Steve runs at it, jumping in the air and slamming the shield into the front of it. While he's close, he gets in a few kicks and punches, denting the metal of the body. He keeps agile, jumping around and flipping away as the machine gets closer, making sure he doesn't stay in one spot and allow Iron Cross to lock onto him again with the sonic beam.
Iron Cross raises its fist and slams it down onto the ground where Steve had been not a second before, just missing Steve's ankle as he rolls away. Steve comes up behind the machine. He runs up its back and attempts to pull the metal plating off of its neck, exposing the wiring. Before Steve can grab a handful of the wiring, Iron Cross throws him off to the side, Steve slamming into the laboratories experimenting table and rolling onto the floor. He stands up quickly as Iron Cross aims another sonic beam at him, and Steve manages to deflect it with the shield, sending the beam back at Iron Cross as he did with Madame Hydra's bullets. The beam hits the robot square in the chest and sends it backward, the man inside screaming out as he's hit with his own dose of sonic energy.
Steve uses the momentary weakness to his advantage, slamming the shield into the top of the suit's head. It smashes through the metal and leaves a split, which Steve can just see the top of a man's head through. Steve is thrown off by the hard metal hand, swatted away like an annoying fly.
Steve tries again, running at the bot just as it sends another blast. He deflects it back, the energy beam hitting the robot. Steve slams the shield into the same crack in the metal, managing to split open the metal of its helmet like a shell, revealing the man's face inside. He doesn't recognise the man, and not only due to the bruised bloody mess that's staring back at him. The man looks at Steve for a moment, eyes wide, as Steve brings the shield down on his head one last time. The man gargles as he takes his last breath, and seconds later, the suit powers down with a whirr, falling to the side and slumping in on itself.
Steve steps back from the metal machine, looking around. The Red Skull is long gone, most likely fled the castle by now. Zola has probably returned to the protection of Madame Hydra. Hopefully, they still have Falsworth and Isabel alive. Steve couldn't live with himself if they'd disposed of the two, especially considering how long it's taking Steve to find them.
Steve picks up the well-used, dog-eared notebook and flicks through it. It has a lot of Zola's research in it; some of his notes on Bucky's experimentation, comparing the effects on Bucky to Schmidt's capabilities, and by extension, Steve's. It has part of his plan for the super soldier serum that Steve just destroyed. Steve pockets the notebook. If Zola never gets his hands on it again, hopefully it will either end his research for Hydra, or postpone it long enough for the SSR to take Hydra out altogether.
Steve searches the laboratories, eventually finding a large pin-board set up in the corner with large maps and notes pinned to it. Steve reads it all, examining the map closely. He spots a part of the map that shows that an experimental chamber has been set up in the town's northern chapel; an odd place for it, but no doubt that was the point. Steve never would have expected them to experiment in a chapel rather than laboratories. He's passed the chapel before already and he hadn't bothered to look inside. He has a feeling that will be where Isabel and Falsworth are being held.
Steve pulls out his radio, holding it to his mouth. "Bucky, do you read? The Skull got away, again," Steve says with frustration. "But I found some blueprints and they show power being diverted to an experiment in the northern chapel. I think that's where they're holding Isabel and Falsworth."
Bucky comes through a moment later. "Copy. I want in on this, Steve. I'm sick of waiting around. No arguments."
"You won't get any from me, not this time," Steve promises. He can't help but wonder if the Skull wouldn't have gotten away had he not been alone. "They could be in bad shape. I'll need your help getting them out. I sent Dugan back because he looked a little worse for wear, but I could have used a hand just now. Can you get back inside?"
"Hell yes. I'll gear up and be on my way," Bucky promises.
"Thanks, Buck. See you at the chapel."
Steve accidentally finds himself in the sewers. At first, he recoils from the smell and the sight, turns to exit again, but then pauses. The sewers, while disgusting and unsanitary, could work in his favour. Steve can walk through the castle beneath the action, undetected. It'll be much safer than the rail line, which the remaining Hydra agents know Steve is attempting to utilise since he's taken a train twice now, blowing the last to smithereens. The sewers are deserted, of course, so he won't encounter anyone else. He can move around much faster and safer than above ground.
That's the deciding factor, and Steve starts off through the sewers. They're wet and smell horrible, water dripping continually from cracks in the concrete ceiling. Steve has to wade through a watery waste sitting along the bottom that comes up to his knees, but he makes quick work of it, his powerful legs cutting through the water with minimum effort. Rats run away from him as he passes through, scurrying up onto the ledge along the edging of the walls, making a loud ruckus of squeaks at the approach of the intruder to their dirty sanctuary.
As Steve moves through, he passes multiple exits that lead toward the surface. He hurries up them to ensure he isn't near the chapel, but heads back into the sewers undetected to continue in the right direction.
Eventually, Steve emerges from the sewers into the tank path, the last exit from the sewers before it all dumps into the river that circles the castle's island. The tank path, as he'd seen on the map, leads up toward a small section of the town, and then to the chapel that sits on the edge of the castle.
Night has settled entirely over the castle, plunging it into a gloomy darkness. It must be past two, maybe even three in the morning. Steve's lost all awareness of time and day; he's been within the walls for so many hours.
The tank path is between two major buildings, a grass and gravel section that leads from the motor pool behind him toward the town and chapel in the far distance. The area is filled with a scattering of tanks, cars and motorbikes that Steve can duck behind should he be attacked.
Above the ground, platforms protrude from the buildings on either side, and Steve spots snipers waiting above him, their guns trained toward the motor pool. Clearly, they hadn't expected Steve to come through the sewers. Steve raises his pistol, shooting at one sniper. The body slips from its platform and lands on the ground beside Steve. He then throws the shield, taking out the second whilst he shoots at the third. A second body slumps over its gun whilst the third also falls to the ground, landing with a loud metallic thump on top of one of the abandoned cars.
Steve looks up at the platforms, spotting another coordinate receiver pointing toward the chapel. He has no idea why these coordinate receivers are scattered randomly around the castle, but he supposes Hydra intended to use them for their own purposes, rather than Steve hijacking them. Steve scales the scaffolding and platforms toward the receiver, flinging himself from poles and platforms and jumping the gaps until he reaches the machine.
He points it toward the beginning of the town's buildings where a group of soldiers are awaiting Steve, since he'll have to travel past there to reach the chapel inside the town. Steve locks the target on, sending the coordinates to Morita waiting on the outside of the castle.
"Mortia, coordinates are locked on. Fire, fire, fire," Steve says hurriedly into his radio, praying that Morita was sitting prepared after the last time Steve had asked them to send explosives.
There's a few moments delay before Steve hears the whizzing of the rocket as Morita sends it toward the town. It hits the ground in between two of the buildings in the town and explodes, landing right on a group of Hydra soldiers awaiting Steve's arrival. The blast sends them all spiralling in each direction, wounded by the explosion, and takes out a tank they had waiting, the metal hunks flying into the air.
Steve hurries back down the scaffolding to the ground. He sprints up the gravelled tank path toward the chapel, entering an alleyway between the towns buildings. He's met by a few soldiers who escaped the explosion, but the majority of their firepower has been taken out. Steve easily renders them unconscious with the shield, flinging it ahead of him. He runs through the carnage of the missile strike, finding the dead bodies of many soldiers, as well as three exo-suits.
He emerges onto the paved paths of the town's streets, running through the narrow lane ways in search of the chapel. He passed it earlier in the day, but the entire castle looks entirely different at night, and he feels like he's seeing it all for the first time. Steve turns one corner and stops, spotting the chapel across the street, a large courtyard in front of it. It's well fortified, a clear sign that Falsworth and Isabel are inside. Sitting outside the chapel are two more tanks, pointed right at the narrow streets Steve will approach from. There's no other way for Steve to come, and so he has to come at them straight on.
Steve hurries across the courtyard to the other side where the building provides a form of protection. The tanks spot him easily and shoot at him as he goes. The blasts of Tesseract energy hit the wall of the building behind him, sending the building collapsing over the top of him. Steve jumps out of the way, rolling out of the crushing power of the brick and debris. He hurries along the outside of the building, sticking in the shadows so that the men inside the tank can't see him. Instead, they shoot randomly at the crumbling building, already weak due to its age and from neglect, sending it almost to the ground by the time Steve manages to get close to the first tank.
Steve darts out of the shadows, shield raised, and sprints up the side of the tank before it can shoot him. He opens the hatch at the top, revealing four of five men sitting inside the cramped space. Steve throws one of the grenades from his belt inside, slamming the hatch lid shut again. He jumps off just as the grenade explodes, killing the men inside and damaging the tanks' computing systems. The cannon shuts down, the light at the end of its barrel slowly powering down.
From the streets of the town, Steve hears a ruckus. He looks around where he'd come and sees a wave of Hydra soldiers approaching through the narrow lane ways, exo-suits in tow, all of them holding the Tesseract and plasma guns. Steve knows there's no way he can take on that many at once.
Steve dives toward the second tank, opening the hatch. He reaches inside and pulls out one of the men inside, throwing him across the courtyard like he weighs nothing. He pulls out the next one, freeing some space for him to get inside. Steve drops down into the tank, surprising the men. Within the small space, he throws his arm out, knocking into the side of one's head. The man's head whacks into the head of the man next to him, and they both slump over each other. The final man looks at Steve with wide eyes, frozen with fear. Steve punches him square in the jaw and he falls backward into the control panel, managing to fire the cannon with his unconscious body. Steve picks him up and chucks him out the top, closing the hatch to protect himself inside.
Steve takes control of the panel, firing the cannon at the approaching wave of soldiers. The blue Tesseract energy fires out of the barrel in bursts that rattle the tank, perfectly aimed at the men. The soldiers vanish into thin air in front of Steve's eyes just as the beam hits them. He's still in awe of what Hydra's weaponry can do, and the extent of damage it can inflict. Within minutes, the entirety of the approaching army, exo-suits included, are disintegrated, no sign of their presence remaining. Steve stares for a moment in awe before he climbs back out of the tank, the path into the chapel now entirely clear.
"How'd we do, Cap?" Morita's voice comes over the comms.
"Aces back to back," Steve informs the man. "Hydra's defences have been taken down and the route to the chapel is clear."
"Great news. Serge is en route to your location, should be just about there. Get them out of there!"
"I just pray I'm not too late," Steve mutters to himself.
Steve jumps down onto the ground beside the tank, looking up at the gothic chapel. The beautiful structure sits on the peak of one of the hills, right on the edge of the castle's island. It's slightly detached from the main island due to being perched on the edge and a bridge connects it to the main paths. It looks as though it's suspended above the river below. A fog has settled around the bottom of the hill and the bridge, giving it a gloomy atmosphere that sends a chill down Steve's spine. The stain glass windows of the chapel are lit up from the inside, and in the bell tower at the top of one of the towers, a small light burns inside. Steve hurries over the bridge to the chapel's entrance, throwing the double doors open without much care as to what he might find inside.
The interior of the chapel has a medieval vibe. Large columns with intricate carvings of biblical stories line the edges of the hallway, banners with the Hydra logo hanging from the ceiling along with candle-lit chandeliers. Steve runs along the marble floor, feeling incredible small beneath the towering arched ceilings of the hallway. It's been a while since he felt this small, but he pushes the thought away.
At the end of the hallway, the room opens up into a circular shaped stage area, a church altar in the middle. Behind the altar is a large contraption, a metal cylinder with a glass casing on the upper side. Falsworth lies in the chamber, eyes closed, looking worse for wear. Steve looks around but doesn't see Isabel anywhere, and a sinking feeling settles in his stomach.
"Falsworth!" Steve calls, running toward the chamber to free him.
He freezes, however, when he hears the double doors open behind him. Expecting it to be Bucky, he turns, but is surprised to see another robotic figure step inside, walking down the marble hall toward him with pounding metallic footsteps. A small compartment on the front of the figure opens, revealing a small screen that glows green, like a tiny cinema screen. Steve doesn't even know if there is anyone inside this suit, or if it is entirely a robot, being controlled externally. As it gets closer, Steve notices there is no glass panel for anyone inside to look out of as there had been on Iron Cross, but there is a face on the green screen, and Steve recognises its pug-like face immediately.
"Zola," Steve sneers, taking a defensive stance, shield in his hands.
"It is me, yes… In a way. I am not really here, you see, but I am in control of this suit. A true robot," Zola says, his voice hollow and tinny sounded through a small speaker beside the screen. "I thought it best that you could see who you were fighting."
"So what? You control it from somewhere else? You film your face as you make me fight the robot so that I think you're actually here, that I've actually killed you?"
"No, Captain, you misunderstand. This suit, it puts me in a position between life and death, transcending the flesh. As I speak to you now, I am not a recording. I have found a way to put my consciousness into this suit. It is a copy of me, of my morals and my thoughts. I can exist in a form that is not my own. And I can watch this version of myself from afar."
Steve doesn't reply, confused by what Zola is saying, and instead watching intently the way the robot moves. Its movements are much more precise than Iron Cross' had been, more fluid. Steve searches for weak points, a way to take down the bot before it can even begin the fight.
"You have inspired me, Captain. Your colourful symbolism. The way your inferiors worship you, follow you like sheep. After I have killed you, I shall drain your blood to re-create the super soldier serum and use it on your friends as I catch them, just as I promised last time we were in acquaintance in Greece. I will transform them into a symbol just like you, only they will embody Hydra. Lieutenant Falsworth will be first, he is already in the chamber ready to be transformed. And when poor Sergeant Barnes comes to help you, I shall capture him too and continue my previous experiments. They will be my puppets… the perfect assassins."
"All this to impress the Red Skull?" Steve mocks, glaring at Zola. "Seems you're the one who follows someone like a sheep, not the one to lead."
"It is not to impress, Captain. That is where you are wrong."
"Sure seems like it. And I'm not the one who's wrong," Steve argues. "I know Falsworth, and the Commandos, and I know Bucky. They'd rather die than fight for you, and I'll die before I let you lay another hand on either of them."
"How nice," the Zola-bot says. "We both want the same thing."
"And what of Isabel?" Steve asks, stalling the bot. "What do you want with her?"
"She could be helpful to the Hydra cause, and not just as a brainwashed soldier. But I do not owe you an explanation, Captain. I did not come for talking to you. I came to kill you."
With that, Zola takes off running toward Steve, pounding against the ground with his metal feet. Steve can stall no longer. He runs toward Zola-bot, meeting it in the middle. They both jump into the air, clashing together in a tangle of limbs and bodies. Steve lands a punch to the side of the Zola-bot's head and the robot slams to the side, using its arm to stop itself from falling completely. Steve lands on his feet and slams the shield into the main body, just missing the glass screen that Zola's face is printed on.
"Stay away from him, Zola!" Steve threatens, keeping the Zola-bot well away from Falsworth in the chamber.
Steve brings the shield down again to give a crippling blow. Zola stops the shield with his fist, grabbing Steve's wrist. He crushes with strong metallic fingers and there's a painful crack, the bones in Steve's wrist popping out of place with a cringe worthy noise. Steve yells out, jumping away from Zola. He feels the bones starting to rearrange themselves back into position, painfully, the muscles wiggling as they push the bones back into place.
"Your fear is understandable," Zola-bot says, walking toward Steve again, who ignores the pain to size him up. "The more super soldiers I create, the more irrelevant you become."
"That isn't why I'm worried. There's nothing special about me, nothing that separates me from any other man fighting in this war," Steve protests.
"You are correct in one respect, Captain. The only way you are the same as them is that you all will die."
"Someday," Steve agrees. "Maybe even today. But not right now, and not before you!"
Steve ducks as Zola aims another hit at him, dodging below his arm to position himself behind the bot. He gets his hands on both sides of the bot's head and puts his foot into its back, pulling with all his might to attempt to decapitate the bot.
The Zola-bot breaks out of Steve's grasp, the metal slick under his gloved hands. Steve jumps in the air as the bot turns, landing a powerful kick to its head. It stumbles backward and Steve jumps on it, straddling it and punching repeatedly into its body and leaving deep, fist-sized dents in its armour.
The bot raises both fists on either side of Steve and brings them down before Steve can dodge away, hitting him square in the back. Steve's arms give and he hits the metal of the Zola-bot hard, his face slamming into its head. He hears a large crack and his jaw bursts with an intense pain as it hits the metal. Steve doesn't have time to contemplate it.
The Zola bot grabs him around the waist and lifts him up, throwing Steve off and smacking Steve repeatedly into the ground with enough force to put a Steve-sized dent in the marble. Steve cries out again, despite the fact his mouth doesn't seem to be opening properly and every time he tries it hurts unbearably. He just manages to see the puddle of blood he's leaving on the ground before he smashes into the marble again. The Zola-bot pushes on his back and forces him into the marble hard enough that Steve's ribs pop painfully and Steve shouts, his eyes watering. He even thinks his spine might snap.
Steve wriggles to get free despite the pain, reaching around and grabbing the bot's arm. He pulls as hard as he can, and with a mighty roar, pulls the bot's lower arm off. It comes free in his hand and Steve throws it away, the bot letting him go. Steve scrambles up, clutching his ribs and his jaw, which feels a little wonky beneath his fingers, that crawling feeling beneath his skin again. Steve pushes on the side of his face and his jaw slides back into place with another sickening crack, and the pain instantly dissipates. That tingling feeling continues as the bones and muscles fix themselves.
With only one arm left, the Zola-bot comes at Steve with its full force and an angry snarl. It hits repeatedly at Steve, and Steve blocks the punches with the shield, the metal on metal making a massive clang that echoes through the stone walls of the chapel.
Steve manages to get close enough and slams the shield into the front of the Zola-bot, upward toward its head. The bot flies backward, stumbling on its feet but managing to stay upright. Steve grabs onto the covering that protects the screen that shows Zola's face and pries it open with his bare hands, revealing the green screen and Zola's rather terrified expression. Steve grabs his shield and slams it into the glass of the monitor, glass shards going everywhere and a large slit forming in the glass. The green screen immediately goes black. Steve pushes on the screen and the bot falls backward as though it were drunk, falling on its back on the ground with a thud. It doesn't move again, no sound coming from inside. To make sure it's down, Steve rips off the metal plating to expose the wiring and rips it all out, the wires sparking dangerously. He throws them onto the ground far away, before stumbling away from the bot, glaring down at it.
Steve takes a second to breathe, holding his ribs which he can feel mending as he stands there. He cups his jaw and his nose, blood pouring out onto his face at an alarming rate. He feels his nose, but it doesn't feel broken, just bleeding. His jaw is quite tender, and he pokes it carefully. He's sure it will bruise before fading just as quickly.
"Hold on, Falsworth! I'm coming!" Steve yells to his friend once he eventually regains his breath, running through the chapel away from the destroyed bot.
Steve ascends the small stars to the altar, the chamber taking up most of the space. Large wires ascend from the roof, most likely providing the power to run the machine. Steve goes to the control panel in front of the machine and fiddles with the buttons, attempting to read the German and unlock Falsworth from his captivity. He eventually finds the right button and the glass casing on the chamber unlocks with a click, opening up. Falsworth's limp body falls out of the chamber, and Steve catches him just as he falls toward the ground.
Monty moans in pain as Steve lies him down on the ground. "Easy, you were drugged. I think," Steve adds, looking down worriedly at his British friend.
"Thank you, for saving me," Falsworth pants. "He… he was going to…"
"I know," Steve promises. "It wouldn't have worked, and he lost his chance."
Falsworth regains his breath and strength and tries to stand, Steve helping him. He's a little stumbly, leaning on Steve noticeably, but eventually finds his footing.
The doors to the chapel open and Steve immediately goes on guard, but calms when he sees it's Bucky sneaking inside, one of Hydra's plasma ray guns in his hands. "Monty! Steve!" Bucky calls, running through the chapel toward them. He looks extremely relieved, smiling at his friends in one piece.
"Ah, Serge. I thought you were well rid of me," Monty says with a hint of a smile.
Bucky pauses when he passes the destroyed Zola-bot, his brows furrowing in confusion. "What…?"
"You missed a hell of a lot," Steve tells his friend.
"Wouldn't have missed it if you hadn't sent me off," Bucky retorts. "Is someone in there?"
"No, Zola was controlling it from somewhere else, I think... I'm not really sure what he meant," Steve explains. "He tried to take me down, but he was still unsuccessful."
"Well, I suppose anything is an improvement if you're as ugly as Zola is," Bucky ponders with a chuckle, giving the bot a kick for good measure. "Wish I'd been here to put him down myself."
"Your ignorance is exceeded only by your arrogance," Zola's voice suddenly sounds through the loudspeaker on the wall, making all three of them jump. "None of you could "put me down", as you say. I am so far beyond anything you can conceive of. You thought yourself the next step in human evolution, Captain? No. Once I work out how to incorporate my own mind into the Zola-bot, I'm afraid you won't be. I will. And it is the duty of the Cro-Magnon to cleanse the Earth of the Neanderthal."
"And it's my duty to shut you up," Bucky retorts, raising his pistol. He shoots at the speaker, cutting off whatever Zola had been about to say. Bucky seems to look around then, noticing they're still missing one person. "Where's Isabel?" Bucky asks, his voice climbing a few notches with hysteria.
"I still haven't found her," Steve admits, his own voice betraying the defeat he's feeling. "She has to be here somewhere."
"Then we'll find her," Falsworth says, attempting to take a step forward only to lose his balance, saved by Bucky, who catches him before he hits the ground.
""We" nothing," Bucky tells Falsworth, wrapping his arm over his shoulder. "You're going outside where the POWs are waiting. The rest–"
"No," Steve interrupts Bucky. "You're both going."
Bucky turns around, glaring at his Captain. "Steve, if you think you're putting me on the bench again–"
"I'm not. We need everyone on the field," Steve promises.
"This is my sister we're talking about," Bucky argues, his voice threatening.
"I know, Buck. I don't want to see anything happen to her either. I… I love her, too," Steve admits, stumbling over the words as his throat chokes up a bit. Bucky's expression softens at that. "I promise I'll bring her back. I'll find her and get her out, even if that means that I don't make it out myself. I need you on the outside to be there in case I don't make it. She needs at least one person waiting for her, just in case."
"Don't be ridic–"
"No, Buck. I'm not. This is Hydra we're talking about. I'm not sure I can stop it, or that any of us can. Not entirely. Getting out of here isn't going to be easy. They know we'll be the only two left in the castle, and anyone they've got left, they'll send out to stop us. I'm going to need firepower, long-range support. I'll need you both manning the mortars."
"Falsworth and Dugan and all the others can do that," Bucky argues.
"Or you, boy," Falsworth argues with Bucky, siding with Steve. "What makes you so special?"
"Enough, listen to me," Steve says abruptly, his Captain America voice replacing Steve Rogers' tone. "None of us are special. If we win against Hydra, that'll be why. Because Zola and Skull think they're some master race, and we know that we and they aren't. We know no man is more valuable than any other. We know it'll take all of us to stop this evil from spreading. All of us standing together, doing our part," Steve continues, putting a hand on Bucky's shoulder.
"And my part is waiting for my sister," Bucky nods in agreement. "Waiting for you to come back with her. Making sure you can get out."
"Exactly. I'm best equipped to find her and get her out, relay back to you how I'm going. But if it all gets more than I can handle, and it will because I can't send this entire castle to the ground myself, it means it's up to all of you to stop them for good, to take this base down. With mortars, airstrikes, whatever it takes. We either win together, or we die together."
"Win, please," Bucky asks of Steve, his eyes pleading. "Bring her out. I'll be waiting for you on the other side."
"Agreed. Bring Isabel out safely and we'll be able to carry out our duty, Captain. Have no fear of that," Falsworth promises, shaking Steve's hand with a loyal nod.
"Give 'em a boot in the head for me if you find them," Bucky says once Steve turns to him, referring to Red Skull, Madame Hydra and Zola. "See you soon."
"When the evacuation plane comes, you be there to meet Howard. Wait til you have Belle with you, but go with or without me," Steve commands as he walks away.
"Your efforts are futile, Captain. I am everywhere," Red Skull's voice comes over the speaker as Steve runs through the town's streets on his way back to the main centre of Hydra's facility. "You should have escaped with the rest of your friends, Steven, should have left the girl. Truly, what is she other than a damsel in distress? You put your heart before your mind, Captain, and now I have no choice but to destroy you."
"Consider yourself lucky, Steven. Being amidst Hydra, you are bearing witness to the birth of a new world order. Call your flies, Captain. Their buzzing and bombing are a futile annoyance. You only bring them to their demise that much quicker."
Steve doesn't even give the Red Skull the courtesy of a reply, doesn't even acknowledge that he is being spoken to. He just runs through the halls with tunnel vision, fixated on one thing: saving Isabel. He'll save Isabel, and then he'll worry about getting them out.
"Come and join me in the courtyard. I have saved you a front seat," a voice says, but it's Zola, not the Red Skull. Steve has a feeling the Skull just wanted to get his final two cents in before escaping the factory.
Steve emerges into the ruins of the courtyard, face to face with a second Zola-bot. He sighs inwardly at the sight, walking toward the robot. The last robot had done a number on him, broken some bones and caused some major bruising. He knows how to take them down now, knows what its weakness is, but he's tired and in pain and just so beyond exhausted, he could lie down right there and sleep. He's just about had it with Zola and Red Skull and the lot of them. He just wants to find Isabel and get her out of there so that they can send the castle to the ground.
"The castle's in ruins. Your work's buried. It's over, Zola!" Steve yells to the Zola-bot, walking up to him with an animalistic range burning inside his chest.
"How wrong you are, Captain. My victory and the victory of Hydra is only beginning."
"All those people you kill, torture, change into uncontrollable monsters… and for what?" Steve asks, trying to provoke the bot.
"For what? For this! For the serum. For change. One learns as much from failure as from success. My goal should never have been improving flesh, but rather, leaving it behind. You had your body altered, improved. Now, I have improved on you and will continue to improve my invention until I am it, and it is me. You are but a footnote on the evolutionary path, one that will soon be extinct."
Steve has a lightbulb moment, understand what Zola had meant. He's transferred his consciousness to the robot, somehow, so that it is able to think and move for itself according to the personality that Zola ascribed it. Steve doesn't know how. But apparently, it hasn't worked entirely for Zola. Perhaps he still needs to be a living being to somewhat control the bot? His goal, ultimately, is clearly to be a mind within a machine, rather than a mind within a man.
"If this is your idea of a body," Steve breathes, looking the Zola-bot up and down, "then you're sicker than I thought."
"How small minded you are. A body is but a casing. The true power lies in the mind. But you have got my attention. Speaking of bodies…"
The Zola-bot turns, its feet thumping the ground. Steve looks past him, spotting a familiar female body lying on the ground in the middle of the courtyard. Isabel isn't moving, her body limp. Her dark hair is fanned out around her paler than usual face. Her skin is almost white in the moonlight, her dark khaki clothes blending into the dark ground below her. Her eyes are closed, her lips slightly parted.
"No," Steve whispers, mouth falling open at the sight. "What have you done to her?" Steve demands.
Steve moves to run to her, but the Zola-bot throws its arm out, sending Steve flying backward and skidding along the paved ground. The bot stands over Steve, looming with the white moonlight behind its head. "I'm sorry, Captain. She couldn't be saved," it says, and it even has the audacity to sound sympathetic.
"What?" Steve breathes. He feels his eyes well with tears before he can stop it. "No! NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Steve yells, his voice growing hysterical. Steve gets up, glaring at the bot, his shock and sadness quickly morphing into a blind rage he feels he'll have no control over. He grits his teeth, hands clutching the strap of the shield hard enough that it snaps in his hands. "You'll pay for this," Steve grits out. "You'll die for this."
"Only a form of me, will, Captain. I'm afraid you'll never get the revenge you wis–"
The bot cuts off when Steve attacks it, his blind rage sending him into a frenzy. He punches and kicks and smashes his shield into its metal body, the bot unable to move away from Steve quick enough, let alone land a hit of his own. Steve leaves massive dents in the robot, changing the shape of its body entirely. He gets it down on the ground, pinning it. Raising the shield above his head, Steve brings it down on the head of the bot repeatedly, screaming with an uncontrollable rage, only seeing red. Red red red, it's all he sees, covering his vision, drenching him in its heat, swallowing him whole.
He finally stops when the bot begins to splutter out words, its speaker broken by the shield's impact. The screen is cracked, the light flickering on and off, Zola's face fading in and out.
"…you cannot–" The bot says, its words cutting out as though the broadcast had been interrupted.
"What the fuck did you say?" Steve growls, lifting the bot by the side of its head to look straight at Zola's digitalised face. "What could you possibly say to right what you've done? What you've been doing?"
"No-ing, Captain. And I will not, ever. I do n-t need to justify mys-lf. But if I c-cannot win…you cannot eith-her," Zola-bot manages to get out, the speaker sparking and cutting out.
The screen powers down, the green forming a thin line before snapping into a dot in the centre, and then the screen goes black.
Steve lets go of the bot and it falls backward with a metallic thud, still. He slowly climbs off the body and stands over it for a moment, looking down at the second he's killed for the day. The second version of Zola he's killed today. It's just a shame he couldn't kill the man in the flesh and put a stop to this chaos.
Steve closes his eyes, puts his head in his hands. The urge to not turn around is overwhelming. He doesn't know if he can bare to see her like that, the woman he loves lying on the cold ground – unmoving, unblinking, maybe even cold herself. He's not sure he could live if he saw her like that, the guilt weighing heavily on his consciousness already. The urge to just walk out of the castle and leave her is so strong–
But he can't, he can't leave her. Not here, not like this. He promised himself he'd get her out and get her home. He promised George and Winifred that he'd get her home.
Steve turns around gradually, eyes still closed. He forces them open with strained effort, his brain screaming for him to stop. His eyes lock onto her body. She still hasn't moved, the slight wind ruffling her hair and clothes. Steve steps up to her slowly, seemingly taking forever to cross to the middle of the courtyard. A statue of an angel stands right beside Isabel, overlooking her as though it had come down from the Heavens to take Isabel with her to safety. Steve can only hope for that.
Steve kneels down beside her carefully, putting his shield down on the ground. He looks at Isabel, searching for any signs of life. He touches two fingers to her delicate neck to feel for a pulse, but it comes back negative. Her neck is littered with black bruises, some in the shapes of fingertips, others an entire hand, and Steve cringes at the black marks against the porcelain skin. Her chest doesn't move with breath, her eyelids don't flutter. The stillness seems unnatural, despite Steve knowing death is as natural as life itself. He'd hoped to shield her from the horrors of life and death, but it had snuck up behind him in his distraction and taken her from him before he could turn around.
Steve's hands flutter over Isabel's face for a moment, unsure whether he wants to touch her, whether his touch will damage her delicate skin. He carefully wipes a stray piece of hair from her bruised forehead. His tears fall freely from his cheeks, dripping down onto her clothes. Steve struggles, trying to hold in his sobs, trying to hold himself together until once they've both gotten out of the castle, but he just can't anymore. He breaks down with a sudden, pained wail that escapes his mouth, his body wracking with uncontrollable sobs.
He grabs Isabel's limp body and pulls her up to his chest, holding her tight against him, one hand tangling in the hair at the back of her head. He cries into her hair and neck, holding her close. She's still warm, even, can't have been gone for very long. He only just missed her, he was only just too late, and he'll never let himself forget it. He never could forget it anyway. He knows it will eat at him every day for the rest of his life. He knows she'll haunt him forever in his memory, though he also knows she would tell him it wasn't his fault. But he doesn't really mind if she does haunt him, wouldn't mind if he saw her every moment in his dreams and when he was awake, because at least he'd still see her. Even once she's descended into her final resting place six feet below, she'll still be with him.
But it still wouldn't be the same as her actually being with him, being present in the moment to laugh and live and love.
It's at that moment that Steve realises his life isn't really worth living anymore, anyway.
"Steve? Steve, it's Bucky!" A voice comes over the comms, but Steve barely hears it, right on the very edge of his consciousness.
Steve allows himself to cry for a few moments. His nose runs and his eyes burn from the tears. He sniffles, wipes his eyes.
"STEVE!" Bucky yells into the comms, having been prompting for a response for minutes without an answer. "I swear to God above; you'd better be okay–"
"Buck," Steve replies, finally, his voice small and vulnerable.
"Steve, we're detecting something massive from inside the mountain. It's heat and it's getting hotter. You need to get out of there, now! It might be self-destructing."
Steve pauses. If I cannot win, you cannot either, Zola had said.
Suddenly, a loud siren sets off, echoing through the empty walls of the castle and its buildings. It's loud and wailing, almost enough to pierce Steve's eardrums and rattle his brain. It sounds an awful lot like an air raid warning siren, and it doesn't sit well in Steve's stomach.
Bucky, Falsworth and all the other Commandos are standing by the help him escape the castle, and to send it to the ground with their explsoives. If it's rigged to explode on its own, their job will be relatively easy.
But Steve has to get them out, now.
Steve clips the shield to his back and then gathers Isabel up in his arms and stands. He'd felt exhausted before, terrified and tired, but he's having an adrenaline rush, an extra burst of energy, his body giving him the strength he needs to fulfil his promises and get Isabel out.
Steve begins to run through the castle, hurrying across the courtyard as fast as his legs can carry them both, attempting to get back to the bridge on the eastern train line, the only one he hasn't blown up and the only exit he knows across the river. He just needs to cross the bridge and he'll be back with the others.
Steve takes the sewers again so that he can go undetected should he encounter anyone, though he doubts anyone would still be here should they know what the siren means. He knows he'd never let another soul touch Isabel, but it would be hard to fend off an attack whilst holding her. He can't have his hands free, so he must keep his path free.
Steve feels a horrible guilt within him for taking Isabel through such revolting ruins and human waste in the sewers. He can't think of anything more demoralising and disrespectful, but if he wants to get them out, he's running out of options. The castle could explode at any second, and the only person who knows how long they have is whoever set it to self-destruct, likely Zola.
He tries to hold her higher above the water, but the sewer water splashes up anyway as he runs and wets them both. Steve feels the urge to break down again, watching her lifeless body soak through with sewer water.
When the tunnels shake violently, bits of stone come lose and fall into the water. Steve hurriedly ducks against the wall, covering Isabel's head. The water splashes them and drenches them both again from head to toe. Steve very nearly falls over from the force of the shaking, just managing to keep his balance. It grows increasingly hotter until Steve breaks a sweat. The entire sewer system shakes, the concrete of the ceiling cracking under the pressure. Steve isn't sure if the structure will last long enough to take them to the rail line.
He hurries on, still covering her head. At the next exit, with the ground still rumbling pugnaciously, Steve hurries up out of the underground into the fresh air, emerging in the motor pool where he'd been earlier in the day. He looks back over the rooftops toward the courtyard where they had been, seeing a large pillar of black smoke flitting up into the sky, seemingly coming from underground in the massive mine in the middle of the courtyard. It's thick and hot, and Steve can feel the heat of the fire below from where he is. He can feel it radiating from the ground below them, as though there were a fire brewing right beneath their feet.
The entire mountain, and the castle that sits above it, is being blown up from the inside, and Steve suspects the castle and mountain will erupt sooner rather than later before he can get out, so he abandons the idea of running across the bridge. He doesn't think he'll have the time to get there on foot, even if he is enhanced.
Steve hurriedly lays Isabel on the bench seat of one of the Hydra army trucks before getting in the driver's seat and hot wiring it to start. It's one of the only ones he didn't destroy, and he doesn't remember seeing it earlier, so they must have driven it in since he whirled through.
The ground rumbles more, worryingly, the entire car shaking in its stationary spot. Steve quickly throws the car into gear and speeds out of the motor pool, racing through the painfully long garage, dodging and swerving around the parked cars and machinery toward the exit at the other end of the garage. The door is closed and Steve skids to a sudden stop, slams the car into park and gets out to find the panel to open the door. The roller door opens painfully slow as Steve jumps back into the driver's seat, watching impatiently with his hand tapping on the steering wheel as the outside world and mountain ranges slowly reveal themselves, lit by the moonlight above. As soon as there's enough room, Steve slams on the gas and speeds across the bridge, passing over the rushing river below. He gets all the way across the bridge when a massive boom from behind him makes him slam on the brakes in surprise. The truck skids on the wet muddy terrain on the solid ground.
From the middle of the castle where the courtyards are situated, emerges a massive explosion of green light and fire, debris climbing into the air and raining down on the castle and surrounding areas. The green light is almost blindingly bright and Steve shields his eyes against it in the rear-view mirror. The sound is deafening, and Steve covers his ears instinctively. It seems to go on for eternity, the green lighting up the entire black sky above like strange fireworks in the sky. A blast of fire fills the motorpool garage and blows out the other side like fire from a dragon's mouth, blasting across the bridge, shaking it, and causing the stone structure to crumble into the roaring river below. The explosion is fiery and close enough to them that Steve ducks away from the heat, even inside the truck's cabin.
Steve watches from his new vantage point as the entire castle is demolished by this massive explosion of energy. He's so relieved he took one of the cars, as if he'd walked the rest of the way, they still would have been in the motorpool when it exploded, and they wouldn't have had a bridge to cross.
Suddenly, Steve hears a hiccuped breath from beside him and then a gasping breath. Startled, he spins around on the bench seat, looking wide-eyed at Isabel who's own grey eyes open with a rapid blinking.
"Belle?" Steve breathes, in utter disbelief, watching as his dead girlfriend sits up on one elbow on the bench seat. Steve leans over, taking her face in his hands and leaning over her. "Isabel? Baby?"
Isabel's eyes flit around rapidly, blinking, her eyebrows furrowed. Finally, her eyes land on Steve's worried and relieved blue ones, and recognition and relief flood her features. "Stevie?"
"Oh, thank God!" Steve sighs. He grabs her up again and holds her against him, patting her hair down with his hand behind her head. Isabel manages to weakly hug his back, arms winding around his back and squeezing lightly.
A massive wave of relief washes through his entire body, and he feels everything in him relax, calm, go silent. He's just there in the moment, the two of them, feeling her steadying breath making her chest move against his own.
Steve pulls away a bit to look at her face. She's got massive bruises littering her entire body, including her face and neck, a bit of a black eye and a split lip, but she's alive and breathing and that's all that matters to Steve.
Before he can ask what happened, Isabel beats him to it. She frowns, staring at his jaw. "What happened to your face?"
Steve laughs lightly, his jaw aching with the movement. "You don't invade a Hydra factory without some injury. My jaw got broken, and a few ribs, I think. Doesn't matter. What happened to you?" He asks, tucking a small strand of hair back from her eyes. "I thought you were dead. You didn't have a heart rate, you weren't breathing," Steve cries with relief and confusion, a few more tears escaping.
"You really need to brush up on some medical training," Isabel grits out, a small smile on her cracked lips. She frowns then, thinking about what happened. "I wasn't co-operating with them. I was so scared, I kept crying and insisting you'd come for me rather than telling them what they wanted to know. Madame Hydra is ruthless."
"I know," Steve grits out, gently running his thumb over her bruised forehead.
"At first, they wanted me to tell them what I knew about your serum, but I feigned innocence, said that I knew nothing of it since I wasn't a scientist. I'd assisted on the experiment and that was it. Obviously, I'm not a great liar or trained in surviving interrogation, so I wasn't very convincing. I think what I told them helped Zola make the serum, along with your blood samples. He made me watch him make it, and then he took it to Zola, and then it was just… chaos. They moved Falsworth and I so fast, our heads were spinning."
In the background, the explosions slowly die down to a constant simmer, the buildings of the castle crumbling in on themselves, the mountain flattening toward the rivers below.
"But then… when they knew I w-was one of the last left for you to find, I-I think they were holding me as bait to get to you. T-they drugged me; g-gave me something that slowed my heart rate and breathing right down. They w-wanted you to think I was d-dead. They thought that you'd give up fighting if you thought I was gone, that they could win. Once they'd captured you and everyone else again, they were gonna turn us into soldiers, like they tried last time."
"I know, Belle. I'm sorry for what they did to you," Steve whispers.
"It isn't your fault, it's okay," Isabel promises quickly. "I wasn't going to give them what they wanted."
"And I'd never give up," Steve promises quickly.
"I know, I never doubted you. You can thank Madame Hydra for that, she didn't think you could do it," Isabel mutters.
Steve just looks at her a moment before he breathes out a laugh. "I thought I lost you," he whispers, his voice wavering again.
"'Course not. I told you before I wasn't going anywhere, and I'm not now, either. Now, you gonna kiss me or what, soldier?"
Steve laughs again, properly this time. His eyes are soft and relieved as he looks down at her before complying. He gently presses his lips to hers, warm to cool, and she kisses back rather weakly. He pulls away after a moment, running a hand over her cheek. "Always."
Bucky and Falsworth found their way back to Dugan, Morita and Jones rather quickly, escaping the castle undetected. There, they wait for the call from Steve to send the castle to the ground. Therefore, they're rather surprised when their equipment detects the intense heat coming from inside the castle, and Bucky warns Steve, and Steve promises he'll get out. But then not long later, not even five minutes later, the castle destroys itself, a massive pillow of green smoke and fire erupting from its middle. Caught up in the moment, they whoop and cheer, watching the castle burn and all of Hydra inside of it. They freeze, however, when the exterior rooms' lookout towers also go up in fiery flames, the entirety of the castle exploding at once in a way that no one, not even Steve, could survive.
They duck when the part of the castle closest to them explodes, the flames reaching out across the canyon and attempting to lick them. The fire is scolding and hot, immediately removing the oxygen from the air and replacing it with a thick smoke that makes them cough. The darkness of night is replaced by an orange glow of fire and a green glow of whatever Hydra used to set off the explosives.
Slowly, all of them stand again, the cheer gone from their demeanour.
"If they were still in there…" Falsworth says vaguely, voicing everyone's concern.
"They got out," Bucky says determinedly.
"Buck," Dugan begins, his tone sympathetic and quiet as he uses Bucky's name rather than his rank or last name to address him as he usually did. "That explosion took out the whole of the castle and the mountain. You should prepare yourself for the possibility that–"
"They got out!" Bucky snaps with finality, turning to glare at Dugan. The man with the bowler hat looks away with a sad nod, whilst Bucky turns back to stare wide-eyed at the burning mountain.
They're all silent, watching the mountain burn, the cloud of black smoke filtering over the mountains to their right. The time passes painfully slowly as they wait, searching for a sign of any movement, any at all.
Suddenly, Bucky spots something. "There!" He yells, pointing to their right.
They all turn, just spotting the head of a figure that is ascending the grassy crest of the hill. Steve slowly comes into sight, his star-spangled uniform contrasting greatly with the dark tones of their environment. In his arms, bridal style, is a battered Isabel. She's awake, her arms wrapped around his neck, and she's looking at them all in relief and anticipation.
There's a mass of shouts and cheers and claps as the two get closer. Bucky hurries over to them in a sprint while Steve puts Isabel down on the ground gently. Bucky scoops her up in a tight hug of relief. She lets out a cry of pain and he slackens his grip, but she hugs back just as tightly, a few tears escaping and landing on Bucky's shoulder.
"I thought we lost you again," Bucky whispers. "Don't do that to me again."
"Don't take it up with me, it's Madame Hydra who needs to answer to you. I-I thought I was a goner, too," Isabel admits.
"I'm just glad I didn't have to explain it to Mama," Bucky laughs.
"We don't speak a word of this," Isabel threatens.
Bucky lets her go with a nod of agreement, threading her arm over his shoulder to support her weight. She leans on him heavily, clutching her stomach in pain. Madame Hydra had given her a good kick to the ribs at one point, enough to knock the breath from her lungs for a few minutes, and she was sure they would be heavily bruised. They watch as Steve walks up to his men, all of them standing in a circle.
"Well done, Rogers. Well done," Falsworth offers, clapping his Captain.
"Never doubted you for a second," Dugan adds, though he clearly had.
"You did it, Steve," Bucky tells him, slapping his shoulder with his free hand.
"How'd you get out?" Dugan asks.
"Hot-wired a car in the motorpool," Steve says. "Drove it as far as we could until we reached the edge there," he explains, motioning to the slight cliff face beside them. "Hill's too rocky, I walked us up instead." Steve looks around then, surveys his men. "The POWs?"
"In the forest," Bucky reassures. "We got 'em all out."
"You did it, Cap," Falsworth says with a smile. "Saved us all."
"No, you did it," Steve tells them. "You got those men out. You saved all their lives. And every one of them is the key to winning this war. They're just like you – they were here for months. They saw Zola's experiments, worked as slave labour on his assembly lines, heard the details of Hydra's plans. Hydra didn't bother keeping secrets from them because they weren't supposed to survive. Each man we bring back is an intelligence goldmine. Thanks to them, thanks to you, we'll be ready for whatever Hydra throws at us. We're that much closer to finding the rat holes they hide in. We did it. We all did it."
The men all nod at Steve's words of encouragement.
"Two speeches in one day," Bucky notes. "You're on a roll."
"Guess I am," Steve says with a smug smile. "Now come on," Steve continues, walking past the group toward the forest. He turns back to them. "Let's get these men, and woman," he adds, nodding to Isabel, "home."
Zola stands over the remains of his Zola-bot in the destroyed wreckage of the castle. He fiddles with the controls of the remote control, attempting to get the machine to move, stand, even just to turn on. The light on top of it flickers momentarily but fades out again.
He hears footsteps behind him and turns to see the Red Skull emerging from the shadows. "I trust you have had your fun, Zola. Now stop wasting time on failed projects and get back to work," Schmidt demands, his tone leaving no room for argument. "We will be seeing him again soon enough."