"Alright, ready?"

No. Angie wasn't ready.

The duo were crouched down around the border of Azzano's base, hiding behind a cluster of bushes and an old metal fence as the sun was slowly sinking behind the giant building that could only be the experimental facility. The red, white, and black Nazi flag blew in the breeze not too far from their hiding place and a patrol of German soldiers passed by the entrance once every few minutes, checking the scenery for any suspicious activity they could shoot at.

Her hands- well, her left hand was shaking. Her right would've been just as spastic if it hadn't been melted off more than a week ago. She could feel her heartbeat ringing in her ears like a siren, constantly begging to be given attention, begging for help that would never come. Sweat was beginning to form on her brow and her mouth had lost all of its moisture.

This was their first solo mission without the rest of the 107th right on their tail, so no, she most definitely wasn't ready to sneak into a German establishment with only her revolver and Bucky's rifle as weaponry. But there was no turning back now, not when this may be her only chance to prove that she was still capable of being a help to the army instead of a burdening cripple. This was her shot, and she would've been stupid to turn it down.

And Bucky was with her; the fact that she was riding shotgun to his gig lifted an enormous weight from her shoulders. Not that she couldn't have gone through with this herself, it was just nice to have his support, to know that he had her back and that she had his.

"Yeah," she grabbed her revolver from its holster and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."

They'd barely made it into the front door when their mission went to hell.

**********

The Germans must have known ahead of time that they were going to be infiltrated; someone had to have ratted out Evangeline and Bucky's plans in order to give their enemies the advantage of surprise. Because not even a minute had passed when Angie and Buck were surrounded by enemy troops, all armed to the teeth with weapons that could kill a man in an instant.

"Gib uns deine waffen."

Neither one of the Americans could speak German, though they kind of got the general gist of what their captors wanted them to do- they slowly set their guns on the ground and put their hands on their heads. Once the enemy was sure they weren't a threat anymore, one of the soldiers walked over, picked up the weapons, and walked back to join the ring of men who had circled Angie and Buck.

"Wow, that was fast," The woman muttered under her breath.

"Schweigen, du schwein!" Barked one of the multiple angry men holding them at gunpoint, his finger on the trigger and ready to pull if aggravated too much. "Halt die klappe!"

"Listen, buddy, we don't speak German," Bucky began with a slight smirk. He may have seemed calm, cool, and collected on the outside. But on the inside, Evangeline knew he was just as scared about this as she was. After shooting down and blowing up a countless number of their German men, there was no telling what their enemies would do to them. If the two were lucky, they'd get a quick bullet to the head. If they weren't, they knew they were going to be stuck in this experimental hell for the rest of their lives, however long that was going to be.

"It is good I know both languages then."

Like Moses and the Red sea, the German troops began to part, to make a path from the back of their huddling positions to the front of the action. The man who walked down that path looked important, like an official of some kind. He was a skinny man, wearing the drab green attire of someone who had higher authority of the men around them. His skin was thin and wrinkled on his face, too loose to be natural, and his thin hair was barely covering most of his head. With eyes of steel and yellowed teeth, an evil smirk spread across his lips.

"My name is Johann Schmidt. I am the official officer of this establishment."

"That's great, now we know who to complain to if the service here sucks." Buck's reply was instant, as if sarcasm was his natural instinctive reaction when in fear. His face was a cocky grin, and something told Angie that Schmidt was the kind of person who wanted to wipe the smile from any face he didn't like.

"How charming," Schmidt commented with a small nod. "What might your name be, sir?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

"Right, right," The way Schmidt was playing into Bucky's smart-ass attitude was putting Evangeline on edge. She knew something was going to happen, shit was going to hit the fan and they were going to be covered in it by the end of the hour. The German officer stepped towards the American sergeant 'til he was less than a foot away from his prisoner. "I admire your sense of humor, Mister..." Schmidt wrapped his hand around Bucky's dog tags and ripped the metal chain from around his neck. The sergeant flinched slightly, but didn't show any other indication of any emotions stirring inside his mind. "...Barnes. James Buchanan Barnes."

"And you," Schmidt continued with a complex gleam in his eye, like a scientist analyzing one of his experiments. Evangeline did her best to avoid eye contact with the man, though she answered his questions when he'd ask her basic things. "Your name is...?"

"Evangeline," She cleared her throat. "Evangeline Harris. My men call me Angie." Schmidt's eyes widened and he slid Buck's dog tags into the official's pocket. She felt her face grow red as the pieces in the German man's mind began to fall into place and he tapped his chin with his finger.

"Angie...you don't happen to be a nurse, do you?"

Angie nodded.

"So you're the American Angel I've been hearing about," the older man laughed gleefully at the sight of her confirmation. "Oh, how my men used to fear you."

"If they're smart, they still do," Bucky snapped. He didn't care if he was being held at gun point, the sergeant didn't like where his captor's questions were going and he didn't like the way the creepy older man looked at his girl, as if she were some prize instead of a human being.

"And what do we have here?" Schmidt questioned when his eyes fell to the stump where her hand was missing. Immediately, the woman followed the direction his eyes were pointed at and tensed up. "Did someone have an incident with something sharp? Maybe something toxic? That couldn't have been very enjoyable, was it?"

Although she still refused to look him in the face, Angie shook her head.

"Although this situation may seem somewhat gloomy for the both of you, the loss of your limb may have just saved your lives," Before either Buck or Evangeline could ask about that strange sentence, the German official snapped his fingers and the soldiers surrounding them pounced. In an instant, a sea of bodies had enveloped the two American soldiers and grabbed them by their hands, cuffing them behind their backs before a pair of men began to drag the individuals in opposite directions. A red light in Angie's mind went up and her eyes searched the mass of bodies for her boyfriend.

"Bucky!" Evangeline yelled out into the pluthera of men. Two of them had grabbed her shoulders and started shoving her one way, while two others had latched onto Buck and began hustling him the other way. If she thought her heart had been racing earlier, that was nothing compared to the panic taking over her body in that moment. "Bucky!" She tried to fight back against her captors, but it was a fruitless effort.

"Angie!" She heard him yell, but could never see him in the mix of moving men. "Angie, I'll get you out of here! Hang in there!"

"Just stay alive!" The woman yelled back on the verge of tears as the two soldiers decided to hook their arms with hers and physically drag her squirming body across the ground. "Please, just stay alive! I love you!"

The sound of a gun being fired rang out and Angie's heart stopped.