...♔...
......
"Can we stop? I have to pee," Vera asked Steve, the blonde man sighed. This was the third time in two hours she had asked to go to the restroom and if she asked again he was prepared to strangle the girl.
"We're almost there," Steve told her, "can you hold it?"
"No," Vera simply answered.
Natasha chuckled as the soldier deadpanned over at her, "too bad," Steve said, pressing his foot down more on the gas to get to their destination quicker.
"About damn time you go the speed limit," Natasha joked, Steve gave her another emotionless glance and a sarcastic laugh which only made the two females laugh at him.
They pulled up to a small suburban looking house, Steve turning the truck off and unlocking the doors so he could help the red head out, Vera could do it herself.
"Where are we?" the blonde girl asked, having no remorse to the truck and slamming the door shut as hard as she could.
Steve picked Natasha out of the seat and gently set her feet on the ground, wrapping his arm around her waist to help her walk, "if she asks another question someone is going to have to hold me back," he quietly told her.
"She's a kid, Rogers," Natasha reminded him, "calm down."
Steve shrugged, "I'm just saying."
He lead the two up to a sliding door, knocking on the window of it. The blinds were drawn up and the door slid open to reveal a dark skinned man. Vera quickly analyzed him, realizing he most likely wasn't a threat and that he just came back from a run, being sweaty and slightly out of breath.
She thought he seemed nice.
"Hey man," he greeted them, looking mostly at Steve.
"I'm sorry about this," Steve started, "we need a place to lay low."
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Natasha quickly added on to what Steve said.
The man looked between Steve and Natasha, not realizing there was a third in their group, before he stepped aside, "not everyone."
Vera popped her head out from behind the two older adults, "can I use your bathroom?"
...
Stella Rogers sat in her cell, cold and alone as she waited for Bucky to get back. She had been pulled out of the ice a few days ago and had only seen the man a handful of times for only about twenty minutes each. Every time it was just to calm him down.
He had snuck to her cell before leaving to ask about Vera, letting her know what was going on and that he would be back soon with an update on their daughter.
She was expecting him to be the one to come to her cell when he got back, maybe a little bit after, but it was a doctor who lead her to his room. Stella followed him, letting the man open the door for her before she ran into Buckys cell, pulling him into a hug.
The doctor was amazed that the soldier let anyone touch him, let alone give him a hug. But this woman was the saving grace after all, she was an angel among HYDRA, so he guessed it made sense. He closed the door after a few seconds, shutting them in the cell together.
"What happened? Where is she?" Stella asked, pulling away from the hug.
Bucky didn't respond right away, instead checking the blonde woman over for any possible injuries. It only took him a minute before he realized she was fine and responded to her questions, "no one was found at Leighi, she just disappeared," he told her, "she's done this before and she turned out to be perfectly fine, she'll be the same this time 'round."
Stella nodded but still worried for her daughter, "what if something happens this time though?" she asked.
"Then I'll kill whoever hurts her," he reassured the woman. Stella nodded again, looking into his eyes and pulling him down into a soft kiss.
"I love you soldier," Stella told him.
"I love you too Grace."
...
Vera stepped out of the bathroom, patting Steve's shoulder as he walked past her to clean himself up, "please tell me you washed your hands," Steve asked the girl.
"I was raised in HYDRA, not in a pig pen," Vera responded, rolling her eyes at the blonde man as she laid down next to where Natasha sat on the bed.
The redhead looked down at the girl, finally taking notice of how much she resembled Steve. All except her eyes, those were a cool blue instead of a soft ocean blue, "so who is Vera?" Natasha curiously asked the girl.
"What do you mean?" Vera asked, propping herself up on her arms.
"Like who are you?" Natasha asked, "we know you are apart of HYDRA, but we know nothing else about you. Tell me."
Vera thought about the question for a moment. She really had no personality other than being a weapon, being raised to be one since she could pick up a knife or gun. She didn't even really know herself, how do you explain that to someone.
"Well, my father is the winter soldier, mom is the saving grace. I didn't know them until I was about sixteen, at least I think I was sixteen," she took a second to shrug, "I finally ran away for the first time in twenty-ten, taken and brain washed by Loki, that was fun, ran away from him after a little bit, then I was found by HYDRA again a few months ago," she told her.
Natasha chewed on the information for a little bit, not knowing how to respond, "you were born in HYDRA then?"
Vera nodded, "parents had an affair on a mission where mom got pregnant and had me in the facility. She went under after a while and I didn't. I was raised to be a weapon all my life."
"So was I," Natasha told her, "I was raised in the red room, never knew my birth parents."
"I'm sorry," Vera said, "sucks doesn't it?"
Natasha chuckled and nodded, "oh yeah," she said, "but I escaped and joined shield where eventually I met my best friend."
"Olivia, right?" Vera asked. Natasha looked at her skeptically, "yeah, I had to study her for a mission. She's cool, was just in Boston at MIT, I let her go when Rum-slow wanted to take her in."
"That was you?" Natasha asked, "you're the nice blonde girl?"
Vera smiled, "is that what she said about me?" she asked, "in that case, she's the nice one, very pretty and pregnant too."
"She is isn't she," Natasha laughed and Vera nodded.
A few moments went by and the blonde stood up, "I'm gonna go see if our host has any food he would like to spare for the poor."
"Have fun."
Vera walked into the kitchen, taking a deep inhale of bacon scented air, "ooh bacon," she hummed, swiping a piece from the plate Sam had just placed the greasy meat onto.
"We haven't properly met," Sam said, watching the blonde with curious eyes, "I'm Sam," he introduced himself, sticking his hand out for her to shake.
"Vera," she said through a mouthful of bacon and shaking his hand, "how do you know Stefon?" she asked, purposefully saying his name wrong for shits and giggles.
"He was showing off at the Lincoln Memorial Reflection pool," Sam answered, "kept passing me and making sure I knew it."
"Seems like something snow cone would do," Vera nodded to herself, making Sam laugh, "do you need any help, I'm kind of bad in the kitchen, somehow managing to set a salad on fire one time, but I can pour juice like a pro," she offered, smiling brightly at him.
Sam looked at her quizzically, "how do you, nevermind," he cut himself off, Vera shrugging his comment away, "I think I have it all covered if you just wanna go get the others."
Vera nodded, pushing away from the counter top she had been leaning on and taking another piece of bacon as she went to get Steve and Natasha, "Sam made breakfast if you guys ever eat, I don't know what superhero's do. I was raised in HYDRA," she told them with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders before turning on the balls of her heels and slipping back out towards the kitchen.
"So, the question is," Natasha started, walking out of the room and leaning against the counter near where Vera sat, "who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?"
Vera scoffed at that, gaining everyone's attention, "what?" she asked, "you guys not know that Pierce is the big bad HYDRA boss?"
Steve looked over to Natasha, silently cursing the blonde out. The red head softly chuckled, "we assumed," she told the younger girl, "it just sucks because he happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world."
"But he's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star," Steve pointed out. Vera stayed quiet with that point, she had absolutely no idea what Zola's algorithm or the Lemurian Star was.
"So was Jasper Sitwell," Natasha realized.
"Oh Shitwell," Vera commented fondly, "he's actually so dumb, like my dad."
Steve ignored her comment, he was getting used to the unnecessary commentary, "so, the real question is, how do the two most wanted people in Washington and an escapee kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"
Sam walked up to the table, "the answer is you don't," he said, dropping a file in front of Steve.
"What's this?" Steve asked, reaching for the folder.
"Call it a resume," Sam said. Natasha and Vera walked over behind Steve, the red head picking up a photo of Sam with his para-rescue team.
"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you," Natasha said which made Vera shrink back at the mention of the mission, thankfully no one noticed, "you didn't say he was a para-rescue," she said, looking at the photo of Sam with his colleague.
"Is this Riley?" Steve asked knowingly.
"Yeah."
"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use, a stealth chute?" Natasha asked.
"No. These," Sam answered as he handed Steve the file, the super soldier opening and reading it.
Vera almost felt sick, continuing to look between the pictures of the man stood in front of her and his wingman. She hadn't known that anyone survived, but she was thankful Sam did. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy.
"I thought you said you were a pilot," Steve noted.
Sam chuckled, "I never said pilot."
Steve shook his head, "I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason," he declined the offer.
"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in," Sam insisted.
Steve sighed, looking at the file once again before back up at the other man, "where can we get our hands on one of these things?"
"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall," Sam informed, Vera could tell he was silently celebrating in his head. Steve looked at Natasha who shrugged her shoulders in response.
"Shouldn't be a problem."
...
"Soldier," Stella called to the leather clad man gearing up. It was one of those rare occasions when she was allowed out of both cyrofreeze and her cell, letting her stretch her legs.
HYDRA agents were rushing around the base, seemingly preparing for a war and making it difficult for the blonde to reach the man. But when hearing the name he was given by his saving grace he turned his head and silently pushed the agents aside.
"What's going on?" Stella asked, gripping his forearms so she would quit being pushed around.
"Sitwell was taken," he informed the woman, "I'm being sent out, I wasn't told much more."
Stella nodded her head, pulling him closer and wrapping her arms around his neck, "be careful, Soldier," she whispered so quiet that had her words been spoken directly into his ear he wouldn't have heard them.
Bucky nodded, tugging her tighter around the waist and pressing a kiss to her temple, "I'll try my best Grace."
Stella sighed, just wanting to feel his touch and bask in his comfort for a few seconds more but that was apparently too much to ask as Rumlow came up from behind her, stopping a few feet away, "it's time soldier."
Bucky didn't like the word coming from his mouth. It sounded so condescending in comparison to when his saving grace spoke it with love, with tenderness. She should be the only one ever calling him that.
But despite his hatred to everyone else in the compound, save the woman in his arms, he nodded. Placing a light kiss on her forehead, he slowly unwrapped himself from the blonde and walked towards the agent, being sure to ram his shoulder into the slightly shorter man's.
Rumlow looked at Stella, leaning slightly towards her as he prepared to leave, "be ready when we get back. He'll need you."
...
Steve sat next to Sam up in the front seat of the pararescue's car, the girls and Jasper Sitwell in the back as they weaved in and out of traffic. Vera was glaring daggers into the side of Sitwell's head, the man reluctantly looking over at her before looking back up front.
"HYDRA doesn't like leaks," the HYDRA agent told the four against his better judgement and breaking the tense silence.
"Then why don't you try sticking a cork in it," Sam sassed, looking into the rear view mirror at the short man.
"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here," Natasha told the boys, leaning forward in her seat to sick her head between the two.
Steve sighed, "I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly," he informed his wife's best friend.
"What?! Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea," Sitwell began to say only for an arm to crash through his window and throw him out of the car into oncoming traffic.
Vera's eyes widen, having recognized the metal arm that was only in the car for a few short seconds. Bullets started flying through the roof and the blonde froze. She had never been on this end of her fathers wrath, only having felt the love and comfort he somehow managed to silently translate to her on their missions together. This was terrifying.
The Winter Soldier once again broke through a window, this time the windshield as he grabbed and ripped out the steering wheel. The Killer Queen, Vera's self proclaimed title, screamed when the glass shattered and they swerved into the other lane.
Steve pulled the emergency brake, making the car come to a dead stop on the over pass and fling the assassin onto the road in front of them.
Vera watched as her father caught himself, using his metal arm to dig into the road and slow his roll. She moved over to what was once Sitwells seat, pulling half her body out the now gone window. Distracted by the sight of her father, the low rumble of the HYDRA van went unnoticed until it slammed into the back of the already totaled car.
Vera flew out of the window, rolling on the other side of the road as Natasha, Steve, and Sam did the same. Once she was back up she jumped off the overpass, landing on a car and sitting down on the top, letting it drive her away from the scene of HYDRA.
Olivia Rogers (neé Stark) and long distance driving were never the best of friends, to put it lightly. Having gotten her powers and with them the voices at the age of eleven, peacefully driving was just not in the cards for the woman.
She had a naturally quick temper when it came to small inconvenient things and it only multiplied with the voices present. So with the circumstances in the current time, driving home from Boston wasn't the most ideal thing for Olivia Rogers.
She was about twenty minutes away from DC and stuck in traffic with a full bladder, "I didn't even drink anything why do I have to pee!" she yelled to no one in particular, "and why are we stopped? We're on the free way!"
It was like her screams were magic as once she calmed, the movement of cars increased and finally allowed her to pass the accident her husband had been in. But like everyone, she didn't know who had been in the car when it was totaled, gawking at it before driving off.
She was at peace again as she drove into town, but it didn't last long as she soon saw the familiar head of velvet red hair running the opposite direction and telling others to run as well.
Olivia veered off the road and came to an abrupt stop, rushing to turn the Audi off and unbuckle herself, "Natty!" she called for her best friend, sprinting as fast as she could with her baby bump.
Natasha's ears picked up the sound of her best friend yelling for her, somehow over all the commotion going on around. Her eyes widened, stopping and pulling Olivia behind a car once she was in her reach, "I'm so happy to see you alive and well, but you need to get yourself and my future godbaby out of here."
"I'm not leaving you!" Olivia denied Natasha's pleads. The agent sighed, knowing the Rogers wouldn't listen to her and began setting a decoy recording.
Natasha then grabbed the woman's wrist, surveying the surroundings before getting away from the car and keeping low to the ground so they weren't spotted.
The redhead watched from behind another car as the Winter Soldier slowly approached the one they were just behind, rolling what she assumed was a small grenade. She waited the few extra seconds before the grenade went off and she ran up, jumping onto his shoulders and tried to choke him out.
Olivia watched with wide eyes, not having realized the severity of the situation until she saw the arm. The metal arm with the red painted star belonging to the man from Odessa.
The man who almost killed her.
____________
AN:
so it's been a while but i hope this slightly longer chapter makes up for it
i am in love with vera
she's loosely based on what i imagine liv would have been like had she not been in her accident
also, i love her and steve bc they're both so clueless as to their relationship and it's so funny
current life update bc it's been months since i've posted and a lot has happened: so i applied to colleges (i'm a senior this year, idk if y'all know that or not) and i got accepted to all three for their teaching programs, i committed to the one closest to my home, i was looking at housing for it and apparently they have an aviation program?!?
like being a pilot has literally been an unrealistic dream of mine ever since i watched top gun for the first time years ago but i never thought i would be able to do it bc i didn't know how to go ab getting into a strictly piloting career in the navy until now
so i'm debating on switching my major to that, bc 4 years in college for aviation and (i think it's) 1-1.5 years in the academy would leave me coming out as an officer in the navy without doing as much work as others so like idk
in other news: i'm thinking ab publishing an iceman/rooster/hangman trilogy where it's 3 different oc's and you don't have to read them in order nor all together but idk if anyone would read it so lmk if you would pls pls pls
bc i don't wanna publish them and have no one read them bc that really gets me down on my writing and it just makes me not wanna write anything
anyways, sorry for the rambling, i hope y'all liked this chapter and i'll see you in the next, whenever that is...;)