DIVINE RETRIBUTION │barnes ²

twenty three

Hours later, Evgenia is still slightly... damp, from the river. 

Steve had pulled Bucky from the bottom of the water and then stood in the shadow of a building, trying to formulate a plan as quick as possible. In the end, Zhenya had been peer pressured by Sam and Steve to cross into the building's car park and steal a car while they dragged her unconscious father into the backseat.

They drove for what seemed like hours, Zhenya half asleep in the backseat, her feet tapping lightly against Sam's chair. In the poorer neighbourhoods, Uncle Steve spotted an abandoned warehouse and steered the four fugitives into it.

The three of them towed her father out of the car and restrained him against a machine. And now Evgenia paces along the window, her hands refusing to stop fidgeting as she keeps lookout. Occasionally, a car zooms past the warehouse and Evgenia is instantly by the window, eyes sharp as she tracks the car heading down the road and away from the but apart from that, the silence is deafening and leaves her to the mercy of her worries and the overwhelming guilt that threatens to swallow her whole.

She paces past the window again but takes several steps back when her ears pick up the porpoise grey of helicopter blades.

'Hey Zhen!'

The urgency of Sam's voice interrupts the flow of porpoise and Zhenya jogs past him and into what once was an auto repair room. 

Bucky's arm is pinned behind several pieces of metal and strands of matted hair frame his face. His eyes lock onto Evgenia's first. She's a little scared to step forward, unsure if the effect of the trigger words have faded so she settles on standing close enough to grip onto his flesh hand but far enough to run or fight if the Winter Soldier appears again.

'Zhenochka,' he groans. And then he turns towards Cap. 'Steve.'

'Which Bucky am I talking to?'

'Your mum's name was Sarah. You used to wear newspaper in your shoes.' There's a chuckle and Zhenya feels her posture relax. 

'Can't read that in a museum.'

'Just like that we're supposed to be cool?'

She stares at him pointedly as she moves to free her father's arm. 'Uncle Sam.'

'What?' Sam defends. 'He beat me up.'

Her stomach turns and she tightens her grasp on Bucky's hand as he tilts his head up. 'What else did I do?'

'Enough,' Steve answers.

'Oh God, I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words.'

'You were the only one programmed with words?' The former pararescue asks.

Evgenia pulls the last bit of metal off Bucky's arm. 'They didn't need trigger words for a Red Room trainee with a damn chip in her skull.'

Steve pressed on. 'Who was he?'

The man rests his arms onto his knees and leans forward. 'I don't know.' 

He sounds irritated as he speaks. 'People are dead. The bombing, the setup, the doctor did all that to spend ten minutes with you and left the other former HYDRA asset alone. I need you to do better than that.'

'He wanted to know about Siberia,' Bucky stammers as if trying to remember. 'Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly when.'

'Why you? Why not have Evgenia sealed into a box and hammer her with questions?'

This time she speaks up. 'Hardly likely to obey. Unless he somehow had gotten hold of the chip HYDRA shoved into my skull.'

'And why would he need to know.'

A sudden coldness washes over her body as he opens his mouth to utter the next few words - 'Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier,' and all of a sudden Evgenia feels smaller than she has ever felt.

It was 1991. Evgenia was biologically eighteen although if she ever told anyone that, they would laugh in her face. It was just past midnight when a young soldier hauled both her out of her cell. She knew what the problem was before they even got to the destination.

She wasn't stupid.

'Who were they?'

Eight Winter Soldiers. Volunteers, she believed. She didn't know their names. Why would she?

'Their most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history. And that was before the serum. Evgenia was stronger than them before, but after, she was no match.'

They ran into the training room, the man leading her past the multiple gates and into the innermost cage. Three or four men lay face-first on the concrete floor and the conscious ones were left fighting a useless battle against the Soldiers. 

Her papa brushed past her, his eyes filled with an unfamiliar emotion as he shielded a cowering man out of the gate.

'Stop them,' said the soldier who had led her.  

She closed her eyes and focused on the growing tug in her stomach, and when she opened her glowing eyes again, all the Winter Soldiers lay paralysed on the floor, eyes wide with panic and fingers twitching slightly.

Sam nods at Bucky. 'They all turn out like you?'

'Worse.'

'The doctor, could he control them?'

Bucky looks away from the two men and glances at his daughter. 'Enough.'

'Said he wanted to see an empire fall.'

'With these guys, he could do it. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight. Infiltrate, assassinate and uh,' Zhenya pauses struggling to find the word in English. 'Destabilizirovat.'

'Destabilise,' Bucky translates. 'They could take the whole country down in one night and you'd never see them coming.'

Sam gives Bucky another hard stare before pushing off the doorframe and walking over to whisper in Steve's ears. 

Zhenya turns to her father, having noticed the cut on the side of his head. She pulls the length of her sleeve over her fist and wipes at the cut.

'You have a cut,' she says, stating the obvious.

'It's ok., doesn't hurt.' He wraps an arm around her small torso and pulls her onto his lap, bouncing one knee as if she were a toddler. 'Are you ok? Did I hurt you?'

'No Papa, don't be silly, I'm stronger than you.' Zhenya wraps her arm around the back of his neck and rests her head against his chest. She lifts her left leg up and pulls up the pant. 'Did I tell you? Uncle Tony, Iron Man, he made me this. They had to cut off my leg because I got an infection so I asked if I could have a metal leg just like your arm.' 

Despite his weary eyes, Bucky smiles at her. He opens his mouth to ask a question when Sam steps away from Steve.

'I know someone who can help us. But we better go now.'

═══════════════════════

lemme know if you guys want a faceclaim for zhenya, it might be a bit hard to find a half black half white girl around the same age with roughly the same features but i can try. i know that some people don't like them because it can ruin the character for them and i honestly agree because there's nothing like reading sth good and finding out that the faceclaim is barbara fucking palvin (noah fence to her she's gorgeous im just sick of her)

also updates might be once every fortnight starting from now because if im writing every week, i can't keep up with my schoolwork