The Blood Phoenix 6: A Captain America: The Winter Soldier Fanfiction

Chapter 8: The HYDRA Files

Steve and I were on the run from SHIELD. They were trying to kill us now: I had no idea why. I had thought that after New York, they would stop treating us like freaks. Especially me. Because I was a mutant and closely associated with Nick Fury's death, I was on the run just as much as Steve was. We went first to the hospital where Fury died in order to retrieve the file that I had hid in the bubblegum row of the vending machine.

I stared at the machine in horror. Steve was with me and he in the reflection of the mirror looked angry. I couldn't believe that the file was taken. That was important. I didn't know what the hell was on it, but I knew that it must be so important that Nick Fury would protect it to his last breath. Just then Natasha appeared. I hadn't seen her since Fury's death. She was chewing and popping a stick of bubblegum, almost as if to catch our attention. I reacted first. I slammed her into the wall, my arm against her throat. She strained and I realised I was putting too much pressure on her throat.

'Adelaide, let her go,' Steve spoke. I took the pressure off of her throat and she was gasping for air.

'Where is it?'

'Safe,' she replied matter-of-factly.

'Do better,' Steve snapped at her. She looked from him to me and back again, her eyes flickering nervously.

'Where did you get it, Lehnsherr?'

'Why would we tell you?'

'Fury gave it to you two: why?'

'What's on it?' I snapped.

'I don't know.'

'Stop lying,' Steve gritted out.

'I only act like I know everything, Rogers.'

'I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?' I asked, grinding my teeth in impatience. I had had enough.

'Makes sense... The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you.'

'I'm not gonna ask you again,' I growled.

'Settle down, Lehnsherr,' she said, looking directly into my eyes from where I had her pinned against the wall.

'Don't patronise me, Romanoff. SHIELD has been hunting Steve and I. We're dead meat if we go anywhere near or get caught be SHIELD. I have lost all trust, so I'm sorry if I don't have patience left in my mind to deal with the lying.'

'I'm not lying. I don't know what's on the file. But I know who killed Fury. The intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do, call him the Winter Soldier.' In an instant, I released Natasha and stepped back.

'I know that name,' I spoke, just loud enough so that both Steve and Natasha could hear me.

'What?'

'I know that name,' I repeated.

'How do you know it?' Steve asked.

'I... I... I need a minute...' I walked away from Steve and Nat. I couldn't process my thoughts about this. I had heard that name multiple times during my four years, five months and twenty-six days at HYDRA. And I knew the man behind the mask of the Winter Soldier. As I stood with my back turned to the two former agents of SHIELD, I heard Natasha speak.

'He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years.'

'So he's a ghost story,' Steve replied.

'Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Someone shot out my 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.' She pulled up her shirt to show Steve and I the scar. 'Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis.'

'Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.'

'Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried. Like you said, he's a ghost story.' She offered the file to Steve.

'Well, let's find out what the ghost wants,' I spoke, turning to them.