The Girl with Wings and a Metal Arm || Avengers Fan Fic

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ambulances pulled to the site of Steve and Cosima soon after they fell. They were both immediately rushed to hospital, both kept under heavy guard for very different reasons. 

Steve had ... a lot wrong with him. Broken bones. Snapped ligaments. The list went on, but he'd make a full recovery. He always did. The super serum helped a lot.

As for Cosima, she had lost consciousness as soon as she hit the ground. She had a fourteen hour surgery to try and remove the piece of debris in her stomach. It was successful, but had punctured a lot in her stomach. Her left lung, large intestine and a little bit of her left kidney. She was lucky it hadn't it her heart. Doctor Strange from uptown New York hospital was called in to try and patch up everything punctured in her stomach in a second operation. It went successfully, as per usual for him. She was restrained in a room guarded by CIA of the highest rank. Her wings were untouched from everything and were also restrained.

It took her three weeks to wake up finally. She was in a state of panic for the first couple of minutes, but once she had been told what happened, she calmed down a little. She was uneasy, unstable and unwilling to give anything away to people who came to see her. But the one thing she was was scared.

Until three, familiar faces entered her room. Her eyes were transfixed on the TV, but her thoughts were elsewhere. When the door to her room closed, she snapped alert.

"It's okay," Steve said. He pointed to three seats. "Can we sit." Cosima gave a little nod. She didn't speak. She was still fearful of everyone around her. But the one threat she knew would appear soon was Hydra. She had remembered enough to know they couldn't afford to lose her. They would come back for her. It was as sure as breathing.

"Thanks for letting Fury and I leave up in the office," Natasha said. 

"It was nothing." 

"It was something," Steve said. Cosima looked at him. He looked rough. Maybe he'd had a time in this place as well. "It was courageous."

Cosima smiled and then quickly took it off her face. She would have been told off if she was still at Hydra. They had definitely left their mark on her, which all three visitors had realised. "We've come to talk about Hydra," Sam said. Cosima flinched a little at the topic.

"We don't have to talk about it," Steve said, seeing the girl's reaction.

"It's fine," she said. Her voice was croaky, but it felt right to talk. "What do you want to know?"

"Where you were kept."

"They'll have cleared it away by now. Stripped it bare."

"We'd still like to know."

"Under a bank somewhere close to New York. It had a back entrance. A keypad that opened a different door." Cosima turned away and struggled a little in her restraints trying to get her wings comfortable. 

"What about Bucky?" Steve threw a file down on her bed. It opened at a picture of Bucky, or the Winter Soldier, sleeping in some kind of ice.

"So that's cyro freeze," she said.

"What's cyro freeze?" Sam asked. 

"They said ... it was where Soldier was kept. I thought it was a cell like me, but..." she trailed off.

"Anything else about him. Where you think he might have gone?"

"He survived? I didn't know." She thought for a moment. "He'd go away from any Hydra bases he'd know of."

"Where are the Hydra bases."

Cosima tried to shrug. "I've only been in one." Her eyes teared over slightly. "I don't know of any others. Some safe-houses though. They're always twenty minutes away from any big Hydra base."

There was a knock on the door which caused Cosima to shiver. 

"Would Bucky have stayed in the country?"

"No. There's too many bases here."

Natasha closed the file much to Steve's dislike. "Why are you helping us? What will this gain you?"

Cosima shifted uncomfortably. "They took me away from me." Tears started pricking at the surface. "I have no idea who I was or anything about me." Fresh drops poured down her face. "I have nothing. But I know there's people like me in every Hydra base. The exact same as me. If you could save them, before it's too late like me ... I'm helping because ... I don't know."

"Because it's the right thing to do," Steve said. He smiled at Cosima who smiled back at him.

"We'll talk again," Natasha said.

"If you need us again, speak to someone here," Sam said.

They were all about to leave when Cosima spoke up again. "Don't let Hydra take me away again."

"There's guards on the door. They'll stop-"

"You know as well as I do that won't stop them. Do people know I'm here?"

"It was leaked two weeks ago," Natasha said, "but we'll put extra protect on until the threat has died down." Cosima smiled a big, genuine smile. The one Morgana Stocking would have smiled many years ago. Only the three Avengers did not see Morgana Stocking, but rather a scared girl who they all knew needed to help. They left and said they'd come back again in two weeks.

---

Cosima couldn't sleep. She had been tossing and turning as much as her restraints let her. A little light from a floodlight poured into her window. Today, the extra protection had stopped as they thought the threat of Hydra had gone. Cosima was still uneasy. Tomorrow Sam, Natasha and Steve would be coming to speak to her again. She needed to get a good night's sleep to try and remember as much about Hydra as she possibly could.

But something woke her. It was like the sound of a gunshot, only quieter. She took it as something from her nightmares that visited almost every night now.

She heard another one. Then a steady stream. A scream. A shriek. More gunshots.

They were coming. They were here. Panic spread across her. She tried to tear herself from the restraints. She could not. A scream. Bullets. Gunshot. Snap. A restraint was off. She tried to take another off but the door to her room opened. People streamed in, their guns on her and the door. Someone stuck a needle into her arm and her eyesight started to fail her. She felt weak.

A man walked in. Cosima couldn't see him properly. He was tall and was the obvious leader. "Hello Cosima. I'm Stryker. We're going to have a lot of fun together."

She felt people take her restraints off. She didn't need to question these men on who they were. They were Hydra. They had found her. They had drugged her. There was nothing she could do now except to expect the worst.