| KIDNAPPED |
The Phantom Fox had no idea where that van was being taken, but she never questioned anything. She complied, even if it wasn't Pierce giving her the order directly. The order came from Pierce and the Strike members were above her. So she had to do what he said.
The ride was silent, no one spoke a word. The only person doing something was the redhead assassin, she was tapping into the minds of her targets. She was ordered not to kill them. Well just yet. But that didn't mean she couldn't read their minds, right?
The first person she did was the dark-haired man, who she realised was called Sam Wilson. He was a veteran, had a sister and lived in DC. All the thoughts going through his mind was
'What the hell is happening here?'
'Who is this woman beside Steve?'
'I can't believe my car is destroyed.'
The next was the redhead in front of the assassin. Her name is Natasha Romanoff or Natalia Alianovna Romanova. She grew up in The Red Room, her code name, Black Widow. Her thoughts were more on the serious side.
'If I can manage to get my hands free, I could take down the two guards. But How would I take out the woman in front?'
'Who is she anyways?'
'She has some sort of enhanced abilities like Loki. She can make illusions.'
'Is she projecting any illusions now?'
Last was the blond beside her, he was more emotional than the other two. Steve Rogers, she found out his name was. But the name slightly sounded familiar to her for some reason. But she pushed it aside and continued poking at his brain. He got the name Captain America when he was in the second world war. But like his mind, the questions going through his mind were also emotional.
'Hydra must have found Buck when he fell off the train.'
'Why would he work for Hydra?'
'Better again, why doesn't he know me?
'Could Cassie be with Hydra? No, of course not. She was with me on the plane.'
'But the plane was empty when Fury found me.'
'Could Hydra of found her as well?'
'No. No. Stop thing about that. That's not true.'
"It was him." Steve was first to break the long silence. His hands were cuffed together in a big piece of metal while he looked down at the ground with a downhearted expression. "He looked right at me. He didn't even know me."
"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago." Sam replied,
"Zola, Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43 and Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did must of help Bucky survive the fall." Steve sighed "Cassie was right, he did survive the fall." He muttered under his breath.
"They must have found him and-" Steve eventually looked up,
"None of that is your fault steve." Natasha cut him off,
Steve again sighed and looked down. He didn't know what to think. He knew it wasn't his fault that Bucky fell off the train. But he also knew that it wasn't Cassies. But the thing was if he- or even Howard or Peggy- anyone believed Cassie back in 1945. Bucky might actually be alive. Cassie refused to believe Bucky died, she claimed that if he did have the super-soldier serum, he would've survived the fall. But no one could prove that she was telling the truth. So they all just pushed her aside and told her she was stretching it too far with thinking he's alive.
"Even when I had nothing I had Bucky." Steve admitted, "I should've believed her, god she was always right about this sort of thing."
"Who?" Sam looked at the blond confused.
"Cassie, her and Bucky were engaged when he fell off the train. She was in the Howling Commandos with us. Everyone claimed she was crazy for know that she could tell if someone was dying."
"She knew people were going to die?" Sam looked at Steve like he was crazy,
"She thought it was something stupid. But she knew that my mother died before she found out the news, she knew that her mother in the circus was dead before she found out. Even when we were going on our mission where Bucky fell off the train, she knew something was up." He paused
"She said it wasn't the same feeling she usually got when someone died, but it was similar. It also came before our last mission together." Steve looked down at the 24" aluminium ball chain around his neck, that was under his shirt.
The Phantom Fox listens in detail about the conversation going on. She still kept her face forward, blank and emotionless like always. The names used were familiar to her though, the name 'Bucky,' and 'Cassie,' they just couldn't put her finger on it.
The Strike member noticed her face slightly cringe, and he knew exactly what was happening. The redhead was gaining a memory. He didn't want to die a painful death of her black mist, so he did what Pierce had told all the Strike members to do.
"We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's going to bleed out here-" Sam looked over at the Strike member beside him after looking at Natasha's shoulder. But he was cut off by both of the guards turning on their electric batons.
The Strike member looked over at the void soldier, everyone else was confused at what he was doing, even the one beside him looked at him confused. Even if you couldn't see the face under the tight helmet.
He reached forward to the soldier and hit her on the back of the neck. She wasn't even making a move to stop him, she just let him knock her out. She realized being knocked out with a shock would probably be less painful than a memory.
An inaudible groan came from her before his body lay limp on the seat. But when the guard pulled back, he was hit with an electric baton and kicked in the head. "Ah, this thing was squeezing my brain." Maria Hil told after taking off the helmet,
"Who's this guy?"
*****
The Phantom Fox came back to reality, the first thing she realized was that her hands were tied behind her back, she was sitting on a stone-ground with how cold it was. And her ankles were also tied.
She would've scoffed at whoever tried to 'Kidnap' her. With her super soldier strength, she could rip out of the rope with ease. But she didn't open her eyes, she didn't know if anyone was looking at her. So she used her other scenes to identify where she was.
The only things she could hear was the sound of water dripping every five seconds and the muffled sound a beeping noise. She didn't know what it was from, but she guessed it was from an IV Machine Pump. There was muffled talking, she quickly realized it was her targets voice.
Did her targets kidnap her?
But why?
She guessed from the muffled voices she was in a different room than the others. Not a cell with bars. A basement cell maybe. Maybe a heavy stainless steel door. She eventually let her eyes flutter open, blinking a few times to get used to the light.
It was the same size as her cell back in Hydra, with a dirty stone wall as well as a rusty trussbilt hollow metal door. The cell was much brighter than her own, it has a flickering light above her. Just as she was looking around her realized that her mask wasn't on her face.
Her target had taken off her mask.
Steve and Sam stood outside the stone room they had put The Phantom Fox in. Steve was in shock, not only did he see Bucky years later. But he also says Cassie, she tried to kill him only a few hours ago.
"She's awake, Steve," Sam announced as he looked through the tinted glass window.
"Okay." Steve sighed, he couldn't believe this was happening to him.
"I can go in instead if you want." Sam looked back at the blond man,
"No. I should be the one to talk to her." Steve walked up to the door. But before he walked in her looked through the small glass window in the door. He saw that she'd managed to get her hands untied and was working on her ankles.
"Steve, wait." Sam placed a hand on Steve's shoulder, "The doctor gave me this. Said she was malnourished, she could use them for." He handed steve a small energy bar and a bottle of water.
"Thanks, Sam." Steve patted the man on the back.
Just as Steve walked into the room, the redhead shot her head up. Her eyes darkened as she stood up to try to kill the man. But soon discovered that she was changed to the wall. So she stood in her stop staring coldly at the man.
"Hey..." His voice trailed off before he gestured to the food in his hand "I brought you some food, the doctor said you could use it." He gently placed the food in front of her, while she watched his every move like a hawk.
She slightly tensed at the word 'Doctor,' which of course didn't go noticed by Steve. His face softened as he sat down on the ground, just out of reaching distance from his old best friend.
Slowly she followed suit, sitting on the ground, just waiting for something to happen. "Do you remember me?" Steve hopefully questioned.
The Phantom Fox had no idea who the man was, but she understood that if she pretended that if she knew the man, she might be able to get out and back to Hydra. She remembered that his name was Steve, so she slowly nodded at him.
"Your Steve." She replied, her voice was raspy because of not using it much. Steve had a small smile on his face when the redhead spoke.
"But, you're going to have to tell me more than just that." He hesitantly spoke, so the redhead searched his mind.
"We were best friends when we were younger. I used to live with you." That was all she could find in his mind with the small amount of time she was given. But the blond believed her, Steve thought she actually knew him.
"What are you doing with Hydra?" Steve leaned slightly forward,
"I- What's that?" She was going to make up a random lie but her trained eyes caught the glips of something shiny around his neck.
Steve sighed, pulling the chain from around his neck. It looked exactly like the chain that was used in the second world war for the soldiers dog tags. But there were dog tags on it, there was a plain silver ring with an inky black diamond on the top. He held the ring in his hand as he looked down at it.
"It's your engagement ring. After when we crashed the plain Howard kept it, he gave it to his son Tony. Who gave it to me two years ago." Steve looked up at the redhead who had a fake but believable start of a smile on her face.
"I know." She sighed, pretending that this was another mission. An undercover mission. But the difference was about this was, she had to pretend to know that man in front of her. He knew everything about her. But she knew nothing about him.
"You should eat. Doctor- He's good, don't worry. But he said you're malnourished." Steve pointed to the energy bar and water on the ground in front of her.
She slightly shook her head, not knowing if it was a trick. She didn't know what punishment she would receive if she ate.
"Why not?" Steve was confused when she shook her head, he didn't know why should turn down food. The Cassie he remembered loved food, she probably wouldn't have even waited for him to tell her. She would've just taken it.
The Phantom Fox noticed his suspicions, "Hydra feeds me liquidised vitamin supplements. Well, it's more pumped into me. I can't eat food without throwing it up." She admitted, she wasn't lying. She couldn't eat anything without throwing it up after, his stomach just couldn't handle it.
She noticed how Steve's face went from shocked to angry in seconds. Steve was furious, he never got mad about many things. But when it came to his friends- No Cassie was his sister. When things like this happen that's when he got mad.
"What about the water?" He questioned, holding back his anger.
"No, not really either." She shook her head, but she wasn't really sure about that part. She wasn't sure if she could drink the water, seeing that she hasn't digested something in a long time.
"Okay." Steve sighed before he lifted the chain over his head and placed it on the ground in front of his best friend. But it was just out of reaching distance of her, so it was annoying the shit out of her.
She didn't know why she was so connected to the ring, it was just a ring. But on the other hand, it was her ring. Her engagement ring. She didn't even know what was happening, all of this information, it was so confusing to her. She didn't remember one second of any of the memories.
But she didn't care, if Steve believed it, he might let her free. Then she can kill them and complete her mission and return to Hydra. She just wished she could contact Pierce in some way- Wait, those idiots still didn't take her earpiece.
She understood there was an extremely high chance that the signal was too far away. But then again it's Hydra tech. What else can you expect? She just needed to let pierce know she was going to be returning to the base soon.
When Steve finally left the room, she projected a hallucination of herself just sitting on the ground. Not doing a thing, just sitting. So while that was going on, she reached her hand up and pressed her earpiece.
"Кто-нибудь копирует меня?" She made sure to block out her voice when she spoke. So the only notice anyone could hear was the dripping noise in her cell.
(Does anyone copy me?)
Within second a voice replied, "Где ты, солдат?" Pierces voice was in her ear. She could tell he was mad at her.
(Where are you, Soldier?)
"Мишени похитили меня. Но я притворяюсь, что на их стороне." When she told Pierce he smiled, this was why she was his favourite.
(The targets kidnapped me. But I'm pretending to be on their side.)
"Хорошо, но я не хочу, чтобы вы убивали их. Я хочу, чтобы вы пошли с ними в трискелион. Когда вы там, Рамлоу встретит вас сзади, где находятся все Куинджеты. Он покажет вам, куда идти после этого." He ordered through the earpiece,
(Good, but I don't want you to kill them. I want you to go to the triskelion with them. When you are there Rumlow will meet you by the back where all the Quinjets are. He'll show you where to go after that.)
She was confused when he ordered her not to kill them, but like always she didn't question, only comply.
"Да, сэр."
(Yes, sir.)