The Winter Witch (A Hawkeye/Avengers fanfic)

Chapter 2

The team left Tony and Bruce to continue to try and stabilize the girl. She was in bad shape, and it was going to take a while for them to fully heal her. The lacerations on her back were worse than what they expected. Steve went to go find Bucky to figure out what exactly was going on. It was clear that this girl was from his time as the Winter Soldier, but he could tell there was something else going on. He eventually found him in his room, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. Steve gently knocked on the door to let Bucky know he was there. Bucky didn't bother looking up, knowing fully well who would be bothering him right now.

"Bucky?" Steve hesitated. He wasn't sure what state of mind his friend was in at the moment.

"I never should have left her," came Bucky's reply.

"What do you mean?" asked Steve as he slowly made his way into the room.

Bucky sighed. "I never should have let them take me away from her. I should have fought harder. I knew what they were doing to her, but I never thought they would do that," he said through clenched teeth.

Before Steve could respond, JARVIS' voice came through in Bucky's room. "I apologize for the interruption sirs, but Ms. Romanoff has requested that you come to the conference room."

Steve sighed, "Both of us?" he asked.

"Yes sir," replied JARVIS.

********

Bucky and Steve made their way into the conference room where they found everyone except for Bruce sitting around the table. Steve noticed Thor and Loki were also sitting there. Steve walked up to Thor.

"Thor," he said as he shook the god's hand. "When did you two get back?"

"Just a few minutes ago. As soon as we stepped out of the Bifrost, Lady Natasha ushered us here."

Steve turned to Natasha who had a concerned look on her face. "Well?" he asked.

Natasha and Sam side eyed each other, and she took a deep breath. "Sam and I have been going through the intel we collected at the Hydra facility where we found her. Let's just say, we got more than we bargained for." She clicked on a tablet and a large screen popped above the conference table. It showed videos of the girl they found using what appeared to be powers against SHIELD agents while Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, appeared to be protecting her.

Everyone but Loki looked at Bucky, only to find him sitting in the corner of the room with his head down. Loki was still watching the footage. There was something about this girl that felt familiar. She reminded him of someone, but he just couldn't place his finger on it.

"She has powers?" he asked.

"Apparently, but it's hard to tell exactly what her powers are. She's too fast," replied Natasha.

"Perhaps the Winter Soldier would like to enlighten us," Tony snarked while staring at Bucky.

"Tony," Steve began to protest, but Tony cut him off.

"He apparently knows more than what he is letting on. Look at the two of them," he said while pointing at the screen, "they look awfully friendly with each other if you ask me."

"I trained her," Bucky said just above a whisper.

"I'm sorry," Tony snipped back, "I didn't catch that."

Bucky stood up suddenly and looked at Tony with fury in his eyes. "I SAID I TRAINED HER," he yelled.

Tony slightly flinched at Bucky's reaction but stood his ground, "You want to elaborate on that for us?"

Steve wanted to interject but like Tony, he was curious about what exactly had happened between Bucky and this girl. Bucky took a deep breath and began pacing as he told the team what he could remember.

"I got assigned to train her when she was around sixteen. Hand to hand combat, weapons knowledge, you know, the usual stuff. She already had her powers by the time I met her then."

"What are her powers?" Loki interrupted.

Bucky glanced towards the god, "Telepathy and healing. Plus, she's really good at knowing what her opponent is going to do before they do"

Loki leaned back in his chair, the wheels in his head began turning. Bucky continued his story.

"Hydra wanted her to become the ultimate weapon. And she was, with my help. I took her on her first mission a year after I started training her. We took out an entire royal family together in under ten minutes. They never saw what hit them. My job was not to just train her but to protect her. Protect her from getting taken but ultimately protecting her from going rogue. Her powers were often unpredictable and chaotic. She had trouble controlling them, especially when her emotions where involved. Over time, she and I had created a bond that I knew if Hydra were to find out, they would separate us or terminate us. She was like my little sister. I would do anything to protect her."

Everyone sat in silence as they listened to Bucky talk. Steve's heart broke as he imagined his friend trying to take care of girl who was thrust into the world of Hydra. Bucky sat down at the conference table.

"Hydra decided that the powers Winter had weren't good enough."

"Winter?" asked Natasha.

"They never gave her a real name except for the Winter Witch. I just always called her Winter." Bucky replied. "Hydra began doing more experiments on her, injecting her with strange concoctions. It was about six years ago when all hell broke loose. It was my job to monitor her and ensure that she didn't lash out at the scientists. They had her strapped to a chair and brought out one of their new injection cocktails. As soon as the liquid hit her blood stream..."

Bucky hesitated; clearly upset at the memory he was having to relive. "I had never heard her scream that loud. It echoed off the walls. Something in me snapped and I couldn't take it anymore. They were hurting the only family I had, and I wasn't going to stand by and allow it anymore. Before they realized what happened, I broke the two scientists' necks and the guards quickly tried pinning me down. I managed to shoot them both and unhooked Winter from the chair. She was burning up and convulsing."

The whole team sat in silence, stunned at what Bucky had just told them. Sam, Natasha, and Steve all sat just staring at Bucky in horror of what he just said. Clint felt his heart break. For once, Tony had nothing to say. What do you say after hearing how a kid was tortured? Thor and Loki looked at each other, as if they were having their own conversation.

"What happened after they injected her with the serum?" Loki asked.

Bucky blinked, clearly taken away from the awful memory playing out in his head. He cleared his throat. "After I snapped and they saw how close we had become, they separated us. That was when they programed me to go after Steve. I didn't see her again until we found her."

Before anyone could say anything, a video of Bruce popped up on the screen. "Uh... hey guys... uh... sorry to interrupt but she's awake."

"You ok there bud?" Tony asked, noticing the panic in Bruce's voice.

"Um...well...she doesn't exactly seem thrilled to be here at the moment but... um... did you guys know she can make fire with her hands?" Bruce finally stammered out.

"WHAT?" everyone yelled at the same time.