They stood still for five minutes before she finally showed herself.

Chimera had taken off her hoodie, but her muzzle was still on and her hair was still tied up.  She flipped a few knives around her fingers.  She yelled something in Russian that seemed to be a greeting.

Bucky hissed something in reply.

"English maybe?" Steve asked, wishing for not the first time that he were bilingual.

"Good day, Captain America."

"Hello, Project X."  He prepared his shield.

She pulled out a gun and shot at him twice.  He deflected both bullets.

"Why do you want to kill us?"

"My orders are to kill both of you."

"Okay, not really an explanation, but I'll take it.  If you surrender, we can keep you safe, maybe even get you a safe house in Antarctica or something," Steve held up his shield in defense as she began to walk forward.

"You seem quite the honorable man, Captain, I hate to kill you," Chimera said.

"I get that reference," Steve said.  When both Bucky and Chimera looked at him with confusion, he continued, "The Princess Bride, right?  'You seem an honorable man, I hate to kill you,' 'You seem an honorable man, I hate to die?'  No?"

"Steve.  Enough," Bucky said.  "Project X.  We have some conditions.  We will not call the Avengers if you will not use the trigger words."

"You will not call the Avengers at all."

"The area is evacuated.  Nobody would get hurt," Steve told her.

"There are no conditions in war."

And with that, she disappeared from their sight.  They knew she hadn't actually disappeared, but that she was somewhere around them.

"Keep an eye out," Steve said, turning slowly.

There was a clang of metal as Bucky blocked a knife with his metal arm.  Steve whirled around and flung his shield at her head.  He missed, and it hit her shoulder.  She dropped the knife and rolled out of the way.

Chimera flung out her arms and shoved Steve backwards.  While he was recovering, she got back to her feet and lunged at Bucky with her knife, which she'd grabbed during her roll.  He blocked it with his arm and pushed her backwards.

Steve came up beside him.

"Remember Sokovia?" he asked.   "Against Tony?"

Bucky nodded and they went to opposite sides.  Unfortunately, the tactic didn't work, since she pulled out two guns and fired at both of them.  Bucky used his vibranium arm to repel them, and Steve his shield.

Her gun clicked and Steve threw the shield at her hand.  She dropped one gun and grabbed the shield, kneeling on it as she fired at him.

The bullet hit him in the thigh and he collapsed, biting back an agonized yell.

This seemed to give Bucky new strength, as he grabbed the gun from Chimera's hand and shoved her off of the shield.  He picked it up and hid behind it as she fired off a round at him.  He shuffled around to stand in front of Steve, dropping a knife towards him to dig out the bullet.

Bucky fired at Chimera, who darted out of the way.  He heard a groan from behind him and turned to see Steve and Chimera staring each other down.

The bullet that had been in his thigh fell to the grass with a neatly inaudible thump and the knife in his hand flew towards Chimera.

She stopped it and moved it so it hovered a centimeter from Steve's Adam's apple.

Chimera took a step forward.  Bucky cocked his gun.

"You shoot me," she said, walking forward.  "He dies."

Bucky slowly lowered his gun.

"Drop it," she ordered.

He did.

"And the shield."

"No."

The knife touched his neck.  Steve refused to swallow, lest he nick himself on the blade.

The shield thudded to the ground behind him.

"If either of you move, Captain America dies," she said, stepping forward so she was right in front of Bucky.  "How ironic.  America's icon for decades, dying at the head of the country."

She was much shorter than he, but reached up and manipulated his mind anyway, showing him his worst nightmares.  He stepped back a few paces, stared at something, and yelled at it.

Since the Winter Soldier was engaged in another activity, she grabbed the knife and shoved it into the sheath on her belt.  Then she did the same to Steve, and stepped back.

The night she'd slept in the alley, she'd witnessed a cat stalking a mouse.  The cat caught the noise, and proceeded to release and catch the mouse, playing with it.  That was how she felt.  She had the Winter Soldier and Captain America at her mercy, but she decided to watch them for a bit before she killed them.

They wandered around aimlessly.  She took a peek inside the Captain's head.  He wandered around a ballroom with a girl, nodding to men and women in old fashioned clothing.  Suddenly, he was the only one left. He looked around.

Nothing more to see there.

She looked inside the Winter Soldier's mind next.

He was sitting in a metal chair.  A man approached with a mouthguard that he put in rather forcefully.  The Winter Soldier was strapped down firmly and began to wrench himself about as they shocked him.  A man slowly circled, with a red book, adorned with a black star.

"Zhelaniye.  Rzhavyy."

She got out of his head as quickly as possible.  She'd created the illusion, but she didn't know whether or not it would have an effect on her.

Chimera found a bench to sit on and watched the two men, slightly amused.

Steve leaned against a wall for a moment, and she decided to play again with him.  She waved a hand idly and he straightened, shaking his head once or twice as though to shake off her command.

Then he limped towards Bucky.

She waved her hand in his direction to, and he marched towards Steve.

They met in the middle.  Bucky threw two punches, one with each hand, and Steve caught them firmly, throwing him to the ground in one strong motion.

Bucky rolled over as he fell, pulling Steve down and under him.  He wrapped his metal arm around the blond's neck.

Chimera had to smile.  He had some of the most ridiculous expressions while fighting that she had ever seen.

He choked something out, then threw Bucky over, so that the arm was pinned down with a knee and a hand.

They stayed like this for a long time, frozen.

Eventually, Chimera walked over and circled them.  As she passed Steve on his left, he struck out, hitting her in the gut.

She darted away, cursing herself in Russian for her own stupidity.

Steve helped Bucky stand and they retrieved his shield.

Chimera stood on one side of the clearing and the two World War II veterans stood on the other.

She pulled something out of her pocket.  "This is the detonator.  I have planted bombs in various places where your friends are while you were fighting.  Surrender or I'll press the button."