Back to a decent length chapter.

Thanks to SebEk for following :)

Enjoy

xo

Chapter 5

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In a huge, abandoned warehouse, Alexia sat on a work bench, a first aid kit resting in her lap as she administered first aid to herself.

"Are you sure you don't want some help with that?" Sam asked, looking slightly disturbed, as he and Steve watched her pull glass out of her bleeding arm. It was torn up in places, but she hardly seemed fazed by it.

"Where's the fun in that? It's kind of like that kids game that came out in the 90s, Operation. Lots of fun."

Steve saw Sam's eyes widen and his jaw fall open slightly.

"So, Alexia, you're a Black Widow?" Steve asked curiously.

Alexia winced slightly, although he couldn't tell if that was because she had just pulled another piece of glass out of her fist, or if it was something he said.

"Lex is fine. The only people who called me Alexia were THEM." She put down the tweezers she had been using and pulled some bandages and gauze out of the first aid kit. "No, I was SUPPOSED to be a Black Widow, until I made the mistake of being the best. Then they wanted me to be something else." She nodded her head towards Bucky.

"You were supposed to be the Winter Soldier?" Sam asked.

"Right. But being that I was the first subject, they made the mistake of giving me the serum before making me complicit, they also underestimated the will of a sixteen year old."

He found it hard to believe, but she sounded almost proud of herself. He also struggled with the fact that at sixteen she had taken the life of another and seemed pleased with herself. "So, you've been hiding out all this time?" Steve asked, folding his arms.

She narrowed her eyes at him for a split second, a calculating look appearing on her face. "You say that like it's a bad thing, Captain?" She began placing gauze along her hand and wrist.

"Well, that is a long time, you couldn't find something more to do than hide?" Steve replied pointedly. In that time there had been many wars, dictators had come and gone and major crimes had been committed across the world. The thought of someone sitting back and hiding when they could have been helping didn't exactly sit well with him.

Her top lip curled slightly as she looked through her lashes at him. "Well, if you call hunting down those responsible for what happened to me hiding, sure." She grinned malevolently, before trying to wrap bandages around her wrist. The way she spoke, the way she smiled, it all made Steve incredibly uneasy.

"So how old are you, exactly?" Sam finally asked. Steve knew it had been bothering Sam since he had heard her say Bucky took her place.

She looked at him with narrowed eyes, her eyes appearing nearly black. "Didn't your mother ever tell you never to ask a lady her age?"

Sam gaped at her slightly before looking at Steve. "I'm gonna go check on sleeping beauty."

Steve continued to silently watch Lex for a few minutes, as she worked to wrap her wrist. Finally, he stood and walked over to her, taking the bandages from her. She furrowed her brow at him, but he ignored her, wrapping her bloodied wrist up carefully. "So you befriended Bucky in Bucharest, just because he was your neighbour?"

Lex screwed up her nose. "Yeah, I don't know why I did it, either. I'd never bothered before. Just something about him had me... curious." She sighed. "It was like, he was this big, mean looking guy, but something about the look in his eyes had me confused."

"What do you mean? Steve asked, tying off the bandages.

"Well, here's was this big, burly guy, giving off this appearance of being broody and scary, but I saw fear in his eyes. And not normal fear." She pursed her lips into a thin line. "It was a familiar feeling, I guess."

Steve raised his eyebrows in surprise, before giving her a small smile. It warmed his heart to think that Bucky hadn't been completely alone, even if it was only a small interaction. Up closer to her, he could see Lex carried a few scar in places, a couple of her face, a few on her arms. She was battle scarred. Yet, she seemed to have this overly optimistic outlook, even after everything she had been through. It was admirable.

He heard a chopper flying over head as he leaned against workbench Lex was sat atop of, leaning forward to peer through a hole in the roof.

"We're not going to be able to stay here much longer," Lex warned.

Steve nodded, he knew she was right, he just wasn't sure what options they had left.

Bucky came to, finding his titanium arm clamped in a huge industrial vice. He tried to move it, but it was stuck fast. His head felt cloudy, everything after meeting with the doctor was hazy. His head ached painfully, he groaned and shook his head in an attempt to clear the haze.

"Hey, Cap!" Bucky looked up to see a familiar face. It was Steve's friend, the one who flew with wings. Sam.

Steve appeared through a doorway, walking to stand next to Sam. They stared at him for a moment.

"Steve." He recognised the look Steve gave him. Caution.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?"

Bucky was thoughtful for a moment, as some memories from before the war started to make their way through the haze. "Your mom's name was Sarah. You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

Steve smirked and uncrossed his arms, instead placing his hands on his hips. "Can't read that in a museum."

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asked in exasperation, glancing sideways at Steve.

Bucky considered his position, and it dawned on him. He had been triggered. "What did I do?"

"Enough." Steve looked grim.

"Oh, God, I knew this would happen." Bucky let his head fall forward sombrely. He could imagine what he had done. "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words." He was thoughtful for a moment, before looking back up at Steve and Sam. "What happened to Lex? Do they have her? Is she hurt?"

"You really like to underestimate a girl, Bucky," came his neighbour's confident and teasing voice. Steve and Sam looked behind them as she entered the room. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her shirt barely covering her body anymore, and her long blonde hair was falling from its elastic band. She moved to stand beside Steve. "I was busy, saving the day."

Bucky's eyes drifted over her. If there was one thing for him to be grateful for at that moment, it was seeing her standing there. He noticed her wrist was bandaged and immediately felt a massive pit of guilt in his stomach. "Did I do that?"

She looked confused for a moment, before looking at her wrist. "Oh," she laughed loudly. "God no, well, I guess you could say kind of, but not really. I did this trying to save his ass." She motioned to Steve with her thumb. Bucky was very confused by her answer, but either way, he was just glad to see she was okay. "You know, you almost make me wish I had stuck around. You were bad ass!"

"Really?" Sam exclaimed in exasperation, looking at her in disgust. "Is psychotic tendencies a prerequisite where you come from?"

She winked at Sam, before folding her arms across her chest. "Don't mind me." She smiled warmly at Bucky, he knew she was trying to cheer him up, but he was slightly confused as to what she wished she'd stuck around for.

Steve looked seriously at Bucky. "Who was he?"

"I don't know."

"People are dead," Steve pressed. "The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know'."

Bucky racked his memory, trying to remember anything from when he had gone under. It was all quite hazy, but small details began to appear. "He wanted to know about Siberia, where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he need to know that?" Steve asked in confusion.

Bucky looked up at Steve darkly. "Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier."

"Why does that not surprise me," Lex said with a sigh and a shake of her head. She moved towards Bucky, but Sam grabbed her by the arm.

"Whoa, little lady, I don't think that's a good idea."

She looked down at his hand that held onto her arm. "Neither is that, yet you still did it. And 'little'? Really?" she replied coldly, narrowing her eyes as she looked back to his face. He was quick to release her, and she continued to Bucky, quickly and easily releasing the vice grip on Bucky's arm.

He felt the immediate relief on his shoulder, the hydraulics on his titanium arm kicking in and moving his arm with a quiet hum.

"Thanks," he murmured, not meeting her gaze as she looked down at him.

"I guess this was my fault in a way," Lex said with a sigh, leaning against the vice. Bucky furrowed his brow and looked back up at the woman, from his position kneeling on the floor, her height really showed. "I might have gone after the wrong people, after all."

Steve shook his head. "Not important right now, tell us about them, Buck."

Bucky looked up at Lex in confusion. He had clearly missed a major discussion at some point and couldn't understand how Lex appeared so nonplussed by her current situation. He would think that usually, the general population would come to be in awe of Steve and fearful of him, but she appeared to be affected by neither.

Who was this woman?

Bucky explained to them, in detail, how he had been used to assist in the making of a squad of Winter Soldiers, just like him, by securing a newly developed serum, similar to the serum created by Dr Erskine and used on Steve.

There were five others out there, just like Bucky, waiting in stasis to be used to do someone's bidding.

"Who were they?" Steve asked, crossing his arms and staring at Bucky as he spoke.

"Their most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history. And that was before the serum." Bucky leaned against the wall, looking weary as he recalled the memory.

"They all turn out like you?" Sam asked curiously.

"Worse."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this squad were willing participants?" Lex asked from her position leaning against the vice. Bucky nodded. She glanced back to Steve. "That immediately makes them far more dangerous than Bucky could ever be. They believed in the cause."

Steve considered Lex for a moment, she was right. There was nothing more dangerous than someone who believed they were fighting for the righteous cause. He looked back to Bucky. "The doctor, could he control them?"

"Enough."

Steve sighed and placed his hands on hips as he considered what the doctor had said to him at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. He looked to Sam. "Said he wanted to see an empire fall."

"With these guys he could do it. They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night. You'd never see them coming," Bucky replied, he looked at Steve and he could make out the look of concern in Bucky's eyes.

Sam moved to look at Steve, his back facing Bucky and Lex. "This would have been a lot easier a week ago."

Steve knew what he meant. They were now fugitives, anything they said would be disregarded as lies. He considered their options "If we call Tony..."

"No, he won't believe us," Sam scoffed, shaking his head.

"Even if he did..."

"Who knows if the Accords would let him help," Sam finished off Steve's thought.

"We're on our own," Steve said finally, sighing deeply.

Sam pulled a face and pursed his lips before speaking again. "Maybe not. I know a guy."

Steve raised an eyebrow and Sam shrugged, but didn't say anything else. Steve nodded. "I'll see how retirement is treating Clint. Maybe he can get Wanda out of there."

"Against Vision?"

"He's a clever guy."

"Alright. And what about..." Sam didn't finish, instead turning to look over his shoulder towards Lex. She was watching them with a calm expression on her face, although Steve wondered if her thoughts were as calm as she looked.

Steve knew what he was asking. She wasn't one of them, brought into the fight by accident, if anything, and she also didn't seem to be quite on anyone's side either, preferring to fight for herself. "And what about you?"

"Hmm?" Lex asked, raising her eyebrows expectantly with her arms still folded and looking bored. "What about me?"

"She's got nothing to do with this," Bucky spoke up defensively, moving to stand up.

"Well... actually..." Steve began slowly, looking meaningfully at Lex. Bucky stood straight, looking from Lex to Steve in concern.

"You're up, crazy lady," Sam said, nodding towards her.

Bucky looked from Sam and Steve to Lex in confusion. He was still trying to regather his thoughts, trying to figure out why she was even there. He was also trying to figure out why Sam, in particular, seemed very wary of her.

She rolled her eyes at Sam's jab at her and stood up straight, looking straight at Bucky. "My name is Alexia Nikulkin, and I was supposed to be the first Winter Soldier," she said in perfect Russian.

Bucky froze, staring at Lex. She cocked her head to one side, looking sympathetically at him. "What?" He sought confirmation, looking to Steve, who gave a small nod, confirming what she had just said. "How?"

"I was the initial test subject for Project WINTER. However, as all first tests, they had a few... teething issues," she said, Bucky noticing a malevolent smirk gracing her lips as she spoke. "I killed my escort and escaped, went back to have a little revenge over The Red Room, but have been lying low ever since."

"Alexia here, was originally a Black Widow, like Romanoff," Steve added, trying to help him put together the pieces. Bucky looked at Steve, blinking a few times. His head was beginning to hurt, but not because of his previous condition.

He looked back to Lex. "You're like me?"

"Kind of... Like you, I wasn't a willing participant, even going through the Red Room. While I was the best they had, I had made sure to remind myself I was only doing enough to survive until I could get out of there. At least, until HYDRA showed up to ruin my plans." She pulled a face as Bucky saw a flash of anger pass over her eyes. He had never seen anything like it on her face before. Her usual chirpy nature seemed a lot darker than he remembered. "Anyway, Sorry."

He blinked. He was struggling to comprehend everything she had just told him, and now suddenly, she was apologising. "What?"

"Sorry. For, you know, this." She gestured towards him in general.

"You just motioned to all of me."

"Yeah, I know."

He looked from her to Steve In confusion, and found he looked like he was trying to suppress a laugh.

"Man, you guys make a great couple and all, but I think we got shit to do," Sam piped up suddenly, interrupting their conversation. Bucky couldn't help but feel mildly glad too. He didn't know what to think about his current situation.

"I'm going to make some phone calls," Steve said pointedly at Sam.

"I'll join you, we can get Clint to pick up my guy," Sam replied, joining Steve as they went into another area of the warehouse to make the encrypted phone call.

Bucky looked at the ground as he tried to piece together all the information he had just been given. "So, you're enhanced too?"

"Yep, although, perhaps they refined the serum after me, I couldn't tell you," she replied, yawning. He looked back up to try and look into her eyes, but he felt like she was avoiding looking at him, as she glanced to the other room of the warehouse where they could now hear Sam and Steve.

He couldn't get by how nonchalant she seemed by all of this. Then a thought struck him. "Did you know about me in Bucharest? About who I was?" He felt like his stomach tightened as he considered the possibility that she had known, and this had all been an elaborate set up on her behalf for some reason.

She finally looked at him again, a severe expression on her face. "I've been hiding for over a hundred years, Bucky. Do you really think that I would have risked my freedom like that, if I had known you were one of THEM?" That hurt. Categorising him with HYDRA. And it must have shown. "Sorry. That didn't come out right." She bit her lip and looked apologetic.

He looked at her thoughtfully, recalling another moment in Bucharest. "So when I helped you in the alley?"

She gave a light laugh, her face lighting up jovially again, like he remembered. "Yeah, I didn't actually need your help. I was rather enjoying the opportunity for a workout and then you went and had to take the fun out of it. Do you know how hard it is to play a victim?"

Bucky also gave a slight laugh at the face she pulled. As it sunk in further that she was like him, he had to admit, it was nice to have someone who could relate to him, even if it was only in some small way.

Steve appeared at the doorway, eyebrows raised as he took in the pair. Bucky hadn't noticed that he'd drifted closer to her as they had spoken, and quickly turned away from Lex to look at Steve. "We've got to get going."

Okay...yes... I used a line out of How to Train your dragon. Hahaha...I got kids man, that line is one of my favourite things about that movie because it is absolutely something I would say hahahaha

xo

Krayzee