LIGHTNING STORM |b. barnes| [2]

CHAPTER 13

ANANYA KNEW THE DRILL.

She was one of the only ones who was informed of Operation Underground.

She knew that Nick Fury would fake his death and go underground. While he was in surgery, Ana was taken into another room to get her wounds looked at.

Once she was cleared, she sat in the waiting room. A nurse came out an hour later, informing her that Nicholas Fury didn't make it.

Her head was lowered and Ana heard heavy footsteps walk past her. She looked up and saw Steve walking towards the exit, "Steve!" He ignored her and left the hospital.

This situation didn't help. He was already getting over the loss of Jacqueline Braden, but now he as this to deal with.

The man out of ice couldn't catch a break.

Ana headed back to her DC apartment to shower and change. She got the message that Steve was now a SHIELD fugitive and rushed to finish. She pulled on a pair of skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, and a leather jacket before pulling on her boots. She placed a gun in her waistband before making her way back to the hospital.

She wandered around, looking around for Natasha or Steve when she spotted her in a dark room with the door open. In front of the redhead was Steve, "What's on it?" he growled at her,

"I don't know." She answered,

"Stop lying!" Steve exclaimed,

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers." Natasha responded,

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve accused,

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you." Natasha replied,

"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve said and Ana took a step into the room,

"I know who killed Fury." She stated and they both turned to her, "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years." Ana had repeated what she told Steve a few years ago after the Battle in New York,

"The ghost." Steve stated and Ana nodded,

"Five years ago, Ana and I were escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot at our tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." Natasha pulled her shirt up to reveal a scar near her hip, "A Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."

"That's why you went to Russia." Steve stated, looking at Ana,

"He also had a red star on his metal arm. A sign that it was Russian made," Ana informed him, "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried."

Natasha held up the flash drive that Ana saw Fury give to Steve, "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Steve grabbed the drive, "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."

Natasha and Steve went into the mall, needing to plug the drive into a computer. They knew they were going to be tracked, hence why they went to a public place.

Ana put on a black baseball cap, trying to conceal her identity. Now that she had partnered up with Steve and Nat, she was on SHIELD's radar, too.

She walked around the parking lot, looking for a getaway car. She found a four-door truck and smirked. Once she got the text from Natasha, she approached the car. The owner made the mistake of not locking the car and Ana got in before hotwiring the truck.

She pulled up to the entrance of the mall and got into the back as Steve took the driver's seat and Nat sat in the passenger's.

"Where are we going?" Ana asked as Steve pulled out of the parking lot,

"New Jersey."