➸ 2014
📍WASHINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Washington, D.C.
╰─────────╯
GALINA AND Steve watched behind the glass as the surgery unfolded — Natasha rushing in seconds later.
"Is he gonna make it?" she questioned. Though her demeanor was calm, it was clear she was frenzied.
Steve swallowed thickly, Adam's apple in throat bopping. "I don't know." he croaked.
"Tell me about the shooter." she demands.
"He's fast — strong. Had a metal arm."
"Ballistics?"
Maria took a couple of steps to be beside them and spoke — not taking her eyes off of the surgery. "Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable."
Natasha's eyes widened a centimeter, inhaling sharply. "Soviet-made." she mutters.
"Yeah."
Galina then felt another weird sensation going through her body for the second time in the last 24 hours.
She turned her head to look over her shoulder, finding Rumlow and Sitwell silently whispering to one another.
As soon as they spotted Galina spying on them, they halted their whispers — eyes looking at the girl before straightening up and diverting their vision.
"He's in V-tach. Crash cart coming in." the monitors beeped. Doctors rushed around.
"Nurse, help me with the drape."
"BP's dropping."
"Defibrillator! I want you to charge him at 100."
Natasha felt her heart breaking. "Don't do this to me, Nick." she murmured in despair, a hand coming up to the glass anxiously.
"Oh my god..." the younger girl said under her breath — a wave of fear rushing through her.
"Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear."
"Pulse?"
"No pulse."
"Okay, 200, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!"
"Get me epinephrine!"
"Pulse?"
"Negative."
"Don't do this to me, Nick." her fingers patted against the glass desperately once more. "Don't do this to me."
The doctors gave up. "What's the time?"
"1:03, Doctor."
"Time of death, 1:03 a.m."
Galina's eyes narrowed at the sight in front of her — surgeons giving up and taking off their gloves....but why can she still feel a small mind wave coming from the director?
In other words, Rumlow and Sitwell left right then and there when they called it — looking completely fine...not in the slightest upset.
When the sound of the door opened, she darted her head to look over at them — ever the more further suspicioned.
Without hesitation, she found her feet walking out directly after them.
"Hey." she called out when she was behind them in the hall.
The two turned around — Rumlow looking far more collected than Sitwell whom was sweating bricks.
"Hey, kid." Rumlow greeted, a solemn smile on his face. "You're gonna have to come to SHIELD just so you know..since you were there when it happened."
"I know that. I'm not stupid." she lightly snapped, giving them a once over. "How are you two holding up?"
"Fine." Sitwell squeaks out before quickly clearing his throat — his mind was racing.
"I'm hanging in there, you know? It's a shame that this happened. Really sucks. I know that you two were close." Rumlow says, giving a more complexed statement.
Talking too much and talking too little can both equal hidden truth...something that she learned in the Red Room.
"Mm." she hums, nodding. "Thank you." her eyes narrowed onto Sitwell and her head tilted to the side. "You look a little sweaty, Jasper. Feeling ill?"
Before Sitwell could respond, his partner in crime took over.
"Once the rest of the agents get here, we're taking you to SHIELD." he then walked off with Sitwell scurrying behind him.
—
Later That Morning
Fury's body was ready to be viewed.
Natasha stood over his corpse as the sunrise beamed onto them, angry tears rolling down her cheeks as she caressed the top of his head.
"I need to take him." Hill said, emotional herself.
"Natasha." Steve came up from behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder
She looked at Fury one last time before marching out of the room in a rush — the door slamming shut after Steve followed after her.
Galina stood behind for a moment, taking a few steps to stand right beside Fury's body — inspecting him.
Maybe she's in disbelief, maybe she's in the denial part of grief but no way is this man dead.
She glanced at Hill, with the corner of her eye, who was eyeing her like a hawk before raising a hand up to hover on top of his head, power triggering—
"You should get going."
Galina pulled her hand away, turning her head to look at a very solemn and upset Maria Hill before backing away hesitantly. "Yeah.." she trailed.
Once out in the hallway, she found Natasha and Steve in a heated argument in which she put herself in.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha questioned.
Steve shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he diverted his eyes as he responded. "I don't know."
"Cap," Rumlow called, a little bit down the hall from them. "...they want you and Agent Kuznetsov back at S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Yeah, give me a second—"
"They want you now." he urged.
"Okay." he responded, brows scrunched up in exasperation.
"You're a terrible liar." the redhead spoke venomously. She gave the younger girl a small glance before marching down the hall — booted heels clicking with each step.
Galina swallowed the lump in her throat before looking towards Steve. "What are we gonna do about..it?" she asked, referring to the flash drive.
Steve didn't respond instead he looked over at the open vending machine, an idea brewing in his mind.
—
📌 SHIELD HEADQUARTERS
Now clad in their suits, they walked down the hallway to the secretary's office — some Pierce guy that Galina has never even heard of.
As they walked in unison down the hall, Kate or Agent 13 from Steve's apartment complex was just leaving the office.
"Captain Rogers." the blonde nods curtly at them. "Agent Kuznetsov."
"Neighbor." Steve responded, not even sparing her a glance while Galina made it her business to glare at her.
She kept her eyes trained on the blonde childishly all the way till the made it to the door.
"Captain, I'm Alexander Pierce."
Galina's blood ran cold.
Like, completely froze in her veins at the voice — the familiar voice at that.
"Sir, it's an honor." Steve said professionally, shaking the secretary's hand.
Galina's face paled as she looked at the gray haired man — the man that she recognized all those years ago....at HYDRA.
"Galina! Nice to see you. How's the training going with Winter?" Pierce questioned, his beady eyes focused on her.
"Really great." she said with a thick accent.
Pierce tsked. "Have you been working on your American accent? We don't want a repeat of that mission a couple of months back, now do we?"
By that he means the mission where her Russian accent seeped through momentarily while she was undercover.
"No sir." she replied in the Americanized accent.
He chuckles before sliding the file over. Galina picked it up and looked through it. It's simple.
"The Assassination of Nick Fury will give HYDRA the freedom that it needs." he remarked.
She looked up from the file and nodded sternly. "Hail HYDRA."
Oh my god, this is so much worse than she thought.
"The honor's mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st — come on in!"
"Um, Steve." Galina grabbed onto the super-soldier's forearm, eyes frantic as ever even though she tried to school her expression. The blonde looked down at her in confusion.
"You okay?" he questioned in a hushed tone, deliberately turning his back towards Pierce so that there would be more privacy in their convo. "What's wrong?"
"I—uh." her jaw clenched, eyes looking over his shoulder at Pierce who made direct eye contact with her — a wicked smirk on his face. "Yeah...Yeah...i'm fine." she breathed out, taking a step back from the Captain and tightly smiling.
"Are you...sure?"
"Yeah! Yeah! Sorry! I'll uh...i'll wait for you out here." she says, gesturing her arms out to the space.
"Alright..." he trailed off, worry evident in his features before he hesitantly stepped inside the office — closing the door shut behind him.
The minute the door closed, she found herself pacing up and down the hall with her fingers tangled in her scalp.
This is crazy...this is actually crazy — HYDRA is deeper entwined into SHIELD that she thought.
When Fury told her cut off one head and two more shall take its place, she just thought he was suspicious of SHIELD but no! It's reality.
If Pierce is here...and he was the main orchestrator of HYDRA merely four years back, he must've been planning Fury's demise for a while now — her mission was to kill him...
...and then he sent the soldier to finish the job.
Where is the soldier?
The doors to the office door opened with Steve marching out stoically, just as she was about to grab his hand—
"Agent Kuznetsov?"
Her eyes were wide — she looked like a child almost, lightly trembling. "Yes?" she responds, voice hoarse.
"Can I speak with you, please?"
Galina let out a deep breath, heart hammering violently in her chest — so hard that she thought she was gonna have a heart attack.
"I'll be right here." Steve murmured softly to her, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze, thinking that she was so offput was because she was about to speak to a high official of SHIELD.
Her jaw tightens before she took slower steps into the office, Pierce shutting the door behind her.
Galina took in her surroundings, eyes evaluating every nook and cranny for anything that could be used as a weapon.
"Want a drink?"
His voice snapped her out of her thoughts as he stood by his desk pouring two glasses of whiskey.
"Are you offering alcohol to an underaged nineteen year old?" she questions stiffly, sarcasm in her tone as he took steps towards her with the glasses. "That's pretty illegal."
"I'm pretty sure me offering you half a glass of whiskey is far less illegal than what you've done." he retorted back, standing directly in front of her and holding out the glass with a chilling smile. "Call it a drink, with an old friend."
"Is that what you call us?" she says as she took the glass with a harsh glare set on him, accent beginning to slip. "Friends?"
"What did I tell you about concealing the accent?" he groaned in almost annoyance but it was clear he wasn't being serious as he sauntered over to his couch, taking a seat. "You've been hanging around Americans for the past four years yet your accent still peaks."
"What the hell do you want?" she questioned, grip tightening around the glass.
"Come back home." he chided. "Your family misses you."
Galina scoffed wholeheartedly at this, anger building. "You were never my family — HYDRA was never my family."
"Ah, right, the Red Room was." he waved his hand around as if he were dismissing his point before taking a sip from his glass. "My mistake."
"You know that whatever the hell you're planning will fail, right?" she rhetorically questioned, taking steps towards him. "I know now what's going on. It's over — you lose, I win."
"Ah, sweetheart, you don't even know the tip of the iceberg." he places his drink on the coffee table in front of him before venturing around the opposing couch to stand in front of her. "You're not gonna say anything."
"Oh yeah?" she took an intimidating step closer. "Watch me." she said threateningly, eyes flashing pink for a moment.
"You're not gonna say anything because you know where home is." he continued. "When are you gonna learn that you're nothing but a stone cold killer? Not this traumatized little girl, not a heroic figure for other little girls to look up to — you're nothing, the only worth you bring is killing...the minute you tell Steve or whoever about me, they'll realize that too."
Galina falters at his words for a moment.
If she were to accuse Pierce of being apart of HYDRA, who says people will believe her knowing her assassin past?
Nonetheless, HYDRA supposed to have died with the Red Skull.
"Yeah..." he chuckles at her silence, pointing a grimy finger at her paled face before grabbing onto her chin harshly. "You see, this is where you belong. You belong with HYDRA, you belong with me — you'll be spared as long as you join us again."
"Where's the soldat?" she found herself questioning.
Pierce pouted at her, letting go of her chin to saunter backwards. "Aww, i've always known you had a thing for the soldier, could see it every time you looked at him...like a little lost puppy — how sick and twisted do you have to be to adore a killer like him if you aren't one yourself?"
Galina's brows scrunched together at this, scoffing. "He isn't a killer." she defended, remembering what Steve told her about him. "He's a good man who you turned into HYDRA's fucking puppet!"
"Oh, please, don't act like him being a killer is such a bad thing." he says, nonchalantly leaning down to grab the glass off of the table to take another sip. "You'd know where your little soldier was if you'd join us, just saying. And better yet, you're old enough now to pursue a relationship with him — blow off some steam. My other men wouldn't have to do it for yo—"
The minute those words left his mouth, she found herself dropping the glass in her hand to the floor and flinging her energy filled hand up, fingers scrunched together.
Pierce's eyes widened as he dropped his own glass and began to claw at his pink surrounded neck — lungs being unable to inhale air.
She took threatening steps towards the crumpling man with a look that could kill if the telekinesis suffocating him doesn't.
She looks down at the kneeling man when she stopped right in front of him, squeezing her hand together tighter.
"I'm not scared of you anymore. I'm not scared of any of you anymore." she gritted out. "I can kill you if I want to...with just a flick of my wrist, I think you know by now my capabilities."
She then crouched down to the suffering man who was beginning to turn blue — making direct deadly eye contact.
"If you even think about executing whatever schemes, I will find you...and I will wholeheartedly kill you."
For a couple of more seconds she stared glaringly into his eyes before removing her powers from his neck.
He falls to the ground in a heap, clawing at his neck and squirming around.
Galina gave him one last glance before strutting towards the door.
"You're...You're gonna regret that." she croaked out hoarsely.
She paid him not mind as she pushed open the door.
She quickly turned out of the room and grabbed Steve's wrist, pulling him along. "We need to get out of here."
"Are you alright?"
"No i'm far from it but we have to go." she urgently said as she banged on the button to call up the elevator. "I'll explain everything to you later, I promise."
They stepped into the elevator and right before it closed, Rumlow and his strike team entered.
"Cap." he greeted as the rest of his men filed in.
"Rumlow." Steve replied.
"Evidence Response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac team ready?"
"No, let's wait and see what it is first." he said, clear suspicion in his voice.
| He's gripping his gun for dear life, Steve. Something is about to happen
Galina said into his head.
| Yeah, I know
"Right."
The elevator doors opened once more and a load full of people filed in, much to Galina's dismay.
"Administrations level." one of them said to the AI.
"Confirmed."
"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury. It's messed up, what happened to him." Rumlow says to Steve.
"Thank you."
Steve's head slowly turned to look at the man standing right beside his friend — sweat rolling down the agent's head.
He discreetly nudged her arm, causing for her to look up at him before she looked at the man beside her, viewing the sweat.
The elevator doors opened again....more men.
"Records."
"Confirmed."
Galina rose a discreet hand to her forehead, channeling into the others minds. She could feel the nerves and could hear the faint scheming going on in their heads.
This is a setup, it was clear as day as they tried to shift around the two so that they were surrounded.
Steve knew this too. "Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?" he queried as casually as possible.
That's when all hell broke loose within seconds.
One of the agents put Steve into a headlock and brought him to one side of the elevator while the other did the same to Galina.
It seems as if they have a different approach for the two because one side pulled out magnetic cuffs for Steve while the other had a needle with some form of fluid within it for Lina.
One of the agents were trying to inject it into her as soon as possible while she was restrained but she quickly escaped. Galina hooked both of her legs behind the assailant's knees which caused them to buckle and release their grip.
She fell onto the ground and rolled out of the way to dodge the assailant failing directly onto her.
Yet of course, they tried to attack her once more.
But before she defended herself, her right palm full of mist reached forwards. The syringe turned into a pinked color before it burst, leaving the contents and mini shards of glass in the agents grasp.
That was until electricity shot through her neck and she was completely grounded again. She fell onto her stomach but quickly got up on her right knee and used her left to kick behind her.
She planted her left foot onto the ground and got up, pivoting as she kicked once again with her roundhoused right leg.
While that leg was still up in the air, an agent threw himself at her almost in a football like way. Her back crashed into the glass and one of her legs was up on his shoulder.
Galina grabbed onto the railing behind her and pushed herself upwards, letting her hips follow the movement. Her opposite leg swung up onto his other shoulder and she pushed aggressively forwards, bringing him onto his back and herself onto her knees.
She rolls forward and turns around to punch him in the face, directly making him unconscious.
Galina rose back up onto her feet and realized that it was just her and Steve vs Rumlow who was holding one of the electrical devices.
"Whoa.." Rumlow held out his hands, chuckling nervously. "I just want you to know, guys, this isn't personal—"
He's cut off by Galina throwing a wisp of energy at him which caused for him to hit the wall and fall. Once he was down, she kicked him in the face before there was any further attack.
"It kind of feels personal." Galina retorted.
Steve kicked up his shield and broke the magnetic device on his wrist. "Would you like to explain to me what's going on now?" he clicked off the emergency stop button for the elevator.
She shook her head. "It's all too much."
They were immediately greeted by several armed guards aiming their guns at them.
"Drop the shield and put your hands in the air"
He wrapped an arm around Galina's waist and spun around to cut the elevator wire with his shield — the containment falling rapidly.
"JESUS CHRIST ROGERS!" she shouted when the elevator stopped its descended — as they were crouched on the ground.
Steve got back up and opened the elevator doors with his sheer strength only to close it right back when more guards sprinted down the hall.
"Give it up! Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!" the guard banged on the door.
"Steve?!" she said urgently. "What are we gonna do."
The Captain looked out of the window for a second. "Do you trust me?"
"Somewhat."
Steve grabbed her waist tightly again. "Wrap your legs around me."
"Pardon?"
"Do it!" he began to shout.
And so, Galina indeed wrapped her legs around his torso and that's when he jumped out of the window.
"SHIT." she yelled and put her arms around his neck as well as hid her face.
As they got closer to impact, she unhid her head and quickly stuck her right hand out to create a barrier with her powers.
They landed far softer than expected and quickly rose to their feet, sprinting to the parking garage.
"What's the plan, Steve?!"
"Just come on!"
He started up one of the bikes that were in there, Galina has no clue if it was his or if he's stealing but she chose to just go along with it.
She hopped onto the back of the motorcycle and held on to his abdomen. They managed to escape from the garage just as it was closing.
That's when a small fighter jet soared in front of them and unsheathed multiple weapons.
"Stand down, Captain Rogers, Agent Kuznetsov. Stand down. Repeat, stand down."
When they didn't stand down, the pilot began to shoot at them. Steve swerved the motorcycle repeatedly and managed to dodge the shots.
And then an idea popped into her head.
"Do you trust me?" she reversed the question.
"I do."
"Then keep the bike in one line."
"Do you want to get shot?!" he said, appalled.
"Just do it!"
So Steve in fact kept the motorcycle in one straight line. Galina carefully stood onto her feet on the back of the bike, balancing.
Before anymore bullets could be fired, her left hand was being lifted into the air. The ship began to be under her control wrapped in energy.
She brought her opposite hand up and cradled it with her left. The two hands moved into herself before she darted them back forwards, sending the aircraft broken and soaring through the sky into the Potomac.
As Galina sat back down she could feel her powers sizzling...reacting more.
And then she remembered...
She hasn't taken her suppressors in two days...