A year ago, Steve would've never guessed he'd be anywhere besides New York with his best friends. A year ago, though his hopes to get into the army in his fragile state were high, he knew that the odds of him going anywhere besides Brooklyn were slim. If someone told him that he'd be jumping out of a plane in the middle of a war zone to rescue Evangeline Harris and Bucky Barnes, along with a group of other soldiers as well, he would've never believed them. Though it would've been a nice thought, Steve had to think realistically as well.

But he did it; he jumped out of a plain without any training, landed without getting his parachute snagged on trees, and sneaked his way through the woods to the very edge of Azzano's experimental base.

It was the middle of the night when Steve's recuse plan finally went from waiting on other people to relying on himself to get his friends out alive. As he crouched there, hiding in the brush a few yards away from the base's entrance, the soldier scanned the area to see just what he'd be going up against, what stood between him and his best friends.

The huge, intimidating base consisted of a large cluster of dark, dreary metal buildings with windows only on the top few floors, surrounded by tall wire fences to unstable to climb, guard-towers that would undoubtedly see him if he stepped out of the treeline, light poles and patrol officers on duty carrying automatic rifles at their sides, staying alert to any sort of suspicious activity that could possibly catch their attention. On all accounts, it was one of the most guarded German establishments in Europe. 

In all honesty, Steve didn't think he'd get as far as he did. Back when he was falling from Howard Stark's plane, dodging bullets from the enemy who knew they were up to nothing good, a moment of doubt flashed through his mind. Yes, he'd been given super-human abilities, but no one could survive a bullet the size of someone's fist being shot at you from a German turret. Though the odds were most definitely not in his favor in this situation, it didn't take much effort to knock the doubt from his mind and replace it with determination. His odds may have sucked, but if he didn't get his people out, they'd die. If he went down, they'd have no choice but to go down with him. 

Evangeline would die without him.

With that fact fresh in his mind, Steve quickly began to brainstorm different ways he could possibly enter the base without being seen. It didn't take long; he knew exactly what he wanted to do when the sound of engines filled the air and a parade of German trucks began to drive down the road, heading directly for the experimental facility. It didn't take much effort to chase after the last truck, grab onto the tailgate, and vault himself up and over, into the back of the vehicle, hidden from the outside by the truck's strange metal covering. It took even less effort to knock out the two German soldiers seated a foot or two away, sitting uncomfortably on wooden crates with strange gas masks on their faces.

After that, getting inside was a piece of cake. When the last truck pulled into the loading depot of the facility, Steve didn't hesitate to knock out the first soldier he saw in order to keep his presence a secret, then made a run for cover in the hoard of vehicles across the yard along the wall of another depressingly dark building. A look up at the building's height showed promise- it was shorter than all the others, short enough for a man to climb one of the nearby tanks and leap onto the roof, then sneak in through an open window after that.

Heart-pounding and nerves running through his body, he took a deep breath, thought of the people he cared about being held within the prison walls, and climbed into the belly of the beast.

**********

Evangeline never noticed the sounds of the sirens going off throughout the base. She never noticed the shouting and gunfire and explosions erupting only a few feet outside the laboratory wall, where men once caged were wild and trigger-happy as they reclaimed their freedom and stormed the rest of the camp, causing whatever damage they could possibly make. She didn't realize that her enslavement was going to finally come to an end.

The damaged woman sat there in the corner of her metal enclosure, curled up in a little ball with her arms wrapped around her legs and her forehead resting on her knees. The shifting temperature in her body had finally decided to calm down to where she could stay in one position without sweating and her thirst for water was gone. Though tired circles still hung under her eyes, she couldn't sleep as her thoughts ran wild.

For the first time in days, she could finally think about something besides the hellish torture exploding within her veins and take a deep breath.

Bucky.

Where was Bucky?

It was then that she recalled the last time she'd seen him, the last words they'd said to each other, the promises they couldn't keep as they were torn apart from each other like a piece of paper being ripped in half.

Angie! I'll get you out of here! Hang in there!

Just stay alive! Please, just stay alive! I love you!

Looks like neither one of those requests would be met. Not when she'd been locked away forever like a dog in a kennel while he bled to death on the floor, forever out of sight and forever out of reach. Looks like they both were pretty big disappointments.

For the first time in hours, the woman slowly lifted her head and stared at her hand, her hand that she'd lost ages ago and suddenly regrew, now covered in glowing orange and red veins like cracks in a volcano. She was thankful that her cage didn't have a mirror; she didn't want to even think about what her face must look like.

It was strange, the sensation that now ran through her skin with every beat from her heart. Angie didn't know what exactly they'd injected into her body, what poison they used to destroy her from the inside out, but it was the source of this new feeling she felt with every breath she took, the glowing she saw beneath her eyelids every time she closed her eyes. She'd overheard a scientist say something about a type of chemical used in explosions, and she didn't doubt that that was the reason the woman felt as if she were going to explode in a fiery ball of pain and torment. 

Oh Bucky, she thought to herself as the tears began to well up in her eyes. If you could see me now, the creature I've become.

When the sound of the laboratory door opening echoed through the room, Evangeline quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks and held her legs even tighter to her chest, squeezing herself as much as she could into the corner to try and make herself a smaller target. Not the needles, she prayed as the fear of another string of painful injections entered her mind and pressed her forehead to her kneecaps once again. Anything but the needles, anything but the damned needles.

The footsteps were silent at first, cautious, as if the person approaching didn't want to be discovered. Despite their subtle want for secrecy, Evangeline didn't feel any less scared. As the steps grew even closer, her shoulders began to shake and she clutched her legs 'til her knuckles turned white. No...no...please, leave me alone...please...please...

"Evangeline?"

She didn't move.

"Evangeline?"

Still, she remained motionless. She had to have been imagining the sound of his voice, the sound of her best friend waiting for her back home. There was no other explanation; they had taken her sanity as well as her old body. It dawned on the woman that these men, these animals who did their horrid jobs for the sake of science, held nothing sacred whatsoever. Nothing, not even the control of ones own mind.

It was only when the metal door was suddenly ripped off its hinges that she gasped and looked up from her crumpled position...that she looked up and saw the face of the little boy from Brooklyn. But as she scanned him up and down, she noticed that he wasn't so little anymore.

"Steve?" she murmured under her breath; her throat was still in agony from screaming for three days straight. Tears of sorrow turned into tears of relief as the now-giant man squeezed himself into the small space and wrapped his strong arms around her. "Steve..." Evangeline whispered and wrapped her own arms around him as well, pressing her face against his chest as he cradled her like a scared child. "Steve...Steve..." The damaged woman continued to murmur, as if she were trying to convince herself that this was all real. 

"Yeah, it's me," He whispered back and pressed his lips against her forehead. "I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere."

Quickly, he noticed that the woman was hardly covered and removed his coat to wrap around her shoulders. In an instant, he'd picked her up bridal-style and carried her out of her cage and through the lab, not once looking back as he continued to whisper softly to the tortured woman in his care that everything was going to be okay, that she was safe now and no one could hurt her anymore.

For the first time in three days, she felt protected enough to fall asleep in the arms of the boy she used to give piggy-back rides to, the boy she played chess with after school and watched the stars on their roof as day turned to night and night turned to day. For the first time in an eternity, she felt like she was home.