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The cold weather in which (Y/N) woke up in would've given any other person hypothermia, but she was experienced and trained enough to know what to do in situations like this and had huddled close to Peggy throughout the whole night to remain warm. They were even lucky to have slept with the campfire on all night, even though they knew it was a risk. The entire team woke up during early hours of the morning and quickly wrapped up the small camping site before moving forward with their mission.

It had been a long walk, but they eventually found what they were looking for. A fenced facility, two or more buildings inside, completely filled with windows and chimneys that kept releasing out smoke into the fresh air. Thompson had been the one inspecting the place from a hideout behind the tree, using his binoculars to see further than he could see by his own.

He removed the binoculars from his hands and turned back to the group waiting for him. "Looks like we beat the bad guys here."

"So we could have slept for another hour?" Dugan questioned with a frown.

"Well, then, we wouldn't have the advantage of surprise, would we, Timothy?" Peggy asked hypothetically, patting him in the arm.

"So, we infiltrate in three teams of two and one of three," Thompson announced, counting over everyone in front of him and realizing it was an odd number. "You, you, you, us."

Peggy exchanged a glance with (Y/N) after realizing they'd been paired off with Li, and (Y/N) understood why she was having second thoughts. Although neither of them had anything against Li, they shared a different idea from the one Thompson was suggesting.

"No weapons discharge unless absolutely necessary," Thompson ordered. "Meet on the ground floor in 30. Clear?"

Sawyer's eyes landed on the women. "Dewitt? Carter?"

(Y/N) pressed her lips in a thin line and her hands to her hips. "Agent Thompson is the leader." Her tone not being one laced with pettiness, but one that clearly stated that she couldn't argue because she wasn't the one in charge.

"You got a better idea?" Thompson whirled on his heel to look at her. "Let's hear it."

"Smaller teams are faster. But three teams of three are safer." (Y/N) stated, eyes meeting Thompson's.

Peggy took a step forward. "Discretion seems to be the order of the day, is it not? We don't know what we're walking into."

"Okay. You three." Thompson pointed at Juniper, (Y/N) and Peggy. "You three." Then at Dugan, Li, and Sawyer, and then moving onto the ones who were left. "And, Pinkerton, Ramirez, you're with me. Good?"

He glanced back at (Y/N) and Peggy to receive only a nod in response.

"Aces."

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The inside of the facility wasn't what (Y/N) expected at all. She was expecting it to be completely filled with cobwebs, piled up dust on windshields and a disgusting smell that would burn her nostrils, but it seemed to be in pristine conditions. It was abandoned, though. At least, the section in which her group of three had been assigned to search in. Her, Juniper, and Peggy walked down a flight of stairs with cautions, weapons in hand in case they came across an attacker.

(Y/N) was in the back while Peggy took the lead, young Juniper being squeezed between them to watch the sides. Peggy had no trouble moving forward and opened a door that led to an ominous hallway. Juniper and (Y/N) trailed after her, turning a corner before walking into a room which Peggy had opened the door to.

She and Juniper quickly moved inside with guns raised, but then lowered them when they saw that there was no one in the room. At that moment, (Y/N) took notice of her surroundings and found herself in what seemed to be a regular classroom — lines of desks small enough for children to sit down in, white and blackboards on both sides of the room, and maps glued to the walls. But what made her frown in confusion was the American influence of it all; from the red, white and blue flag being placed in the corner, the historical figures she herself had learned all about when she was young, and posters on the wall written in English.

"Does anybody else feel a chill going up their knickers?" Peggy questioned.

"I would if I wore knickers," Juniper muttered under his breath, walking down the room to see it from up close.

(Y/N) couldn't help but wonder why a classroom would be here, out of all places. Then, she noticed that the projection screen was down, as if somebody had forgotten to roll it back up. Her eyes followed up from the screen and noticed the set up projector in the far side of the room. In a quick movement, she made her way to it and turned it on, the moving pictures of a cartoon being displayed in the screen, nothing out of the ordinary for the common eye. But (Y/N) saw it — even if it had been for a second — but she saw it.

"Shouldn't you turn that off?" Juniper asked nervously, since the cartoon was too loud.

"No, wait," Peggy must've seen it too.

She reached (Y/N)'s side and turned the projector off. She grabbed onto its spool and turned it backwards, going picture by picture. There, in between the regular pictures from the cartoon, were words written in Russian, hidden perfectly well so nobody would be able to catch them.

"'Instill. . ." (Y/N) read out. Peggy turned the spool backwards once more to find the next word, which the latter read too. "'fear'."

"Really regretting a lack of knickers right now," Juniper let out a nervous laugh.

The silence between the group was interrupted by a faint, but still audible cry. (Y/N) wasn't able to distinguish whether or not it had been from upstairs or any other room in this floor, but it was there. A chill ran down her spine at the thought. In cautious steps, Juniper, Peggy and (Y/N) walked out of the room with weapons at the ready, pushing every door possible open to find the source of the sound.

When they were about to give up on this floor and go up the other, they heard loud footsteps coming their way. The trio exchanged a nod before moving toward the sound of the footsteps, preparing themselves to be any type of attacker, only to be met up with familiar voices.

"Jesus, people, calm down!" Dugan exclaimed with one hand on his weapon and the other raised in surrender.

(Y/N) found herself raising her gun at Dugan, Sawyer and Li, who were on the same red alert as her group was. They immediately dropped their defensive stances once they realized who they were, frowns written on their faces as to why they had come across one another.

(Y/N) moved on to explain. "We thought you were somebody else."

"Who?" Dugan frowned. "There's nobody else here."

"We heard the sound of a crying child," Peggy told him with a serious tone.

"You heard it too?" Li stepped forward. "What's a little kid doing in this place?"

"We're about to find out," (Y/N) said and lifted her head to the ceiling, already declaring that the sound must be coming from above them.

Both groups of three remained together as they climbed up the steps to the next floor, moving from room to room in search of the missing child. The first one of the group, in this case Peggy, held up her gun for precaution while others had them in their hands but not drawn, not wanting to scare whatever child was up here.

There was no sign of the child at all, that (Y/N) was starting to think she might've imagined it, until the group walked into what seemed to be a dormitory. There were various cots, small enough for children to sleep in them, displayed all over the room, separated a couple inches from one another as they were supposed to be. (Y/N) thought this wasn't odd, and it gave her a sense of remembrance from her childhood. But then, she saw the handcuffs on the beds and immediately felt a knot tighten in her stomach.

"Little-kid beds?" Li asked.

"It's a boarding school," Peggy concluded.

"Why are there shackles on the beds?"

Juniper shot Li a look. "It's Russia, man."

They kept walking forward, until the sound of the crying returned — this time in the farthest corner of the room. (Y/N) took several steps closer to the noise and instantly saw a little girl sat with her back to the bed, her knees up to her chest and her face buried in her arms.

"(Y/N)," Dugan whispered to her. He walked close to the girl, but still kept his distance in case she didn't want anyone near her. "Hey, there."

The girl didn't lift her head from between her arms. Her dark, blonde hair was styled into two braids, and she wore a typical school uniform.

"You okay?"

(Y/N) watched from afar, the girl not making a single movement to show that she was hearing Dugan or that she could understand him at all.

"It's all right," Dugan placed his gun back into its holster to not scare her. "We're here to help."

The girl finally raised her head, her eyes lifting up to stare at Dugan like any other curious child would do so. She kept her hands on her knees, and (Y/N) saw the bruises from the shackles on the girl's wrists.

"It's all right. We're not here to hurt you."

Dugan moved to kneel in front of her, and she looked up at him while also letting out a quiet whimper. She lifted her arm from her side and reached out to touch the tip of Dugan's hat out of curiosity, before retrieving her hand back.

"Oh, my hat?" he asked. "You like my hat?"

She nodded.

"It's called a bowler hat," he jumped to explain softly. "The reason they call it that is because. . .Why do they call it a bowler, Peggy?"

Peggy opened her mouth to explain, but everything fell apart when the girl pulled a knife from her sleeve and stabbed Dugan in the chest with it. While he let out a groan of pain, the girl didn't waste no time in grabbing the smaller gun from the holster and firing the first shot at the person who came across her line of sight, which was unfortunately Juniper. (Y/N) knew she had to do something to stop her but the back of her mind reminded her that she was a little girl, so she opted for the best solution for this situation and used her right hand to throw a punch directly in her face.

This made the girl fall back into one of the cots and then proceeded to roll out of it into the next one, as if it was some sort of gymnastics trick. (Y/N) followed her with her eyes as she swiftly rolled from the last cot onto the ground to get away from them and then disappeared inside a vent.

"Dugan, she's just a little girl," Peggy yelled out when she saw him moving toward the vent.

"She's anything but that."

(Y/N) saw him pull out a hand grenade from his pocket and urged to stop him. "Dugan, wait!"

He froze near the vent, clasping the grenade in between his fingers, luckily still with the safety on. She saw him pant to catch his breath, obviously still overwhelmed from the attack that just took place.

"You all right?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "The best took the brunt of it."

There was a sound of shuffling behind them, which alerted them of any other attacker or the little girl again, but (Y/N) turned around just in time to see Thompson and his team walking in with guns raised.

Once he realized it was them, Thompson dropped his guard down. "What happened?"

"There's a good chance Leviathan has been alerted to our presence," Peggy answered his question.

"We've come too far to turn back now," he said, his eyes trailing down to Juniper's figure on the floor.

(Y/N) saw where he was staring and she immediately felt sick in her stomach. "Then, we have to move quickly."

She and Dugan moved toward the spot where Juniper's unconscious figure laid, his body turned around. The latter held his breath as he turned him back, only to be received by Juniper's closed eyes and the pool of blood already spilled on the tiled floor. (Y/N) could already feel the bile rising up her throat, but she fought it back down. Dugan, on the other hand, ripped the dog tags out of Juniper's neck and held them in his hands.

He lifted up his head to lock eyes with her. "We're gonna need an exit out the back."

"We can't leave until we know who's setting Stark up," she tried to reason. She found Peggy's eyes and gave her a nod.

This made the brunette clasp her hands together to grab everyone's attention. "Dugan, Pinky, Ramirez, find a back way out of here. The rest, come with me."

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A soldier rested against a hall in one of the many dark hallways the building had to offer, completely relaxed, as if nothing eventful would ever happen during his shift, until Sawyer stepped into his line of sight. The soldier barely had enough time to react before Sawyer shot him down, giving the signal to the rest of the team to move forward. Thompson was on the lead, his weapon in hand, just like every other person behind him.

"Sawyer, stay here. Keep an eye out," Thompson instructed. "Rest of you are with me."

(Y/N), Peggy and Li walked behind him through the hallway, watching as Thompson lightly kicked onto the unconscious body of the guard before muttering, "Clear."

Thompson placed his back against the wall when he spotted a barred room, resembling a cell, near him. (Y/N), Peggy and Li copied his actions, bracing themselves for whomever or whatever that could be inside that cell, before advancing. They walked into the line of sight of the cell and (Y/N) could make up the silhouette of two men inside it, hidden behind the bunk bed. The dim light that dangled on the room wasn't enough light for her to see the rest of the room, but it was enough to distinguish the captured men's faces.

"You are not Leviathan," the man with a shaved head spoke in an accent. "Who are you?"

"We're the good guys," Peggy told him with a smile.

(Y/N) flickered her eyes between the two completely different men inside the cell. "Why is Leviathan holding you prisoner?"

"They acquired some schemata in the black market," the man from earlier answered again. "A weapon they don't know how to build. They want us to build it for them."

"So you're engineers?" Peggy asked.

"He is the engineer," the man pointed to the one behind him. "I serve as Nikola's terapevt. Psychiatrist."

"So the Reds locked up a head doctor and a man scientist to build a bomb." Thompson repeated everything said to him out loud. "Sure, why not?"

"He is not mad. He is burdened. Look, he sees things in dimensions that we can only imagine. You look at a field of grass, you see pretty picture. He sees biology, phytochemistry. Keeping his gifts from overwhelming him. . .This requires disciple, stability. Since Leviathan took his family, stability does not come easy. I provide the discipline he needs."

"This weapon Leviathan wants you to build," Peggy diverted the subject. "What is it?"

"Oh, it's beautiful," the man, known as Nikola, answered this time. He moved away from his hiding spot behind the bed and reached out to grab a blueprint from the desk, moving up to the bars to show it off. "It's a photonic amplifier. Okay, you understand light is both particles and waves?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Mr. Stark has found a way of altering the behavior of the waves."

Thompson tensed on his spot. "Stark."

"Yeah." Nikola pointed toward the logo on the bottom of the blueprints, which read out, 'Stark Industries'. "Of course. It's his design right here."

"Is Howard Stark here?" (Y/N) asked, already fearing the answer.

"No, of course not! They stole the schemata!" Nikola argued like it was common sense. "I mean, if he was here, the Leviathan would have no need for me. If he was here, I would be in Kiev with my wife!"

"Kolya. Kolya," the psychiatrist tried to calm him down. "You thought you would find Howard Stark here? That's why you came? I have heard no mention of Stark himself from our captors. Only the work."

"Incoming!" Sawyer's voice cried out.

There were gunshots in the distance, which immediately made the prisoners' faces transform into expressions of pure fear.

"Please! Please!"

"Back away!" Peggy ordered before firing repeatedly at the lock of the cell, breaking it off.

Sawyer was already running toward them, which encouraged Peggy, (Y/N) and Li to do the same. Thompson was the one who stayed back to open the cell door for the prisoners and watched them run out before following after them.

(Y/N)'s eardrums rang at the sound of bullets being fired in the air, being way too loud for her liking. She kept running with the team beside her as they tried to get away from the bullets, but there were too many guards to count. They fired back in every direction the bullets came from every now and then, their top priority being the one of getting out of the facility before it was too late.

She fired back at the soldiers and ran behind the others as they entered a darkened room in the lower levels of the building, finding a place to hide immediately.

"Dugan, we're in the boiler room," Peggy called on the radio. "We need an exit."

There was indistinguishable yells from across the room, the soldiers yelling at each other as (Y/N) focused her attention on the ones near her before firing. The sound of the bullets flying out of the submachine's barrel were loud enough to leave her ears ringing, and she was sure that would be a discomfort she would have once again.

(Y/N) reloaded her gun and turned back to the two prisoners shielding themselves from the bullets on the floor. "Gentlemen, if you know the way out of this facility, now's the time to share it."

"Yeah, use your big brain and get us — "

Li's words were interrupted by a loud gunshot behind him, hitting him perfectly in the back of the head. He dropped unconscious on the ground with a thud and (Y/N) turned around toward the source of the sound to see the girl from before making her way out of the vent.

"Li!" Thompson cried out.

"Above you!" Peggy yelled at the same time, just as a rain of bullets were fired where she had indicated.

(Y/N) kept focusing on the guards in front of her, some hiding behind their own hiding spots before moving back out to shoot. She was lucky enough to shoot one guy in the hand, making him drop the gun with a yell of pain.

"Clear!" Sawyer cried out, firing from his own weapon.

"I know what to do," Nikola muttered to himself behind them. "I know what to do."

He grabbed a gun and placed it on Sawyer's neck, using to coerce him into following him. Nikola held onto Sawyer like a human shield, yelling out a series of words in Russian toward the guards, who held their fire to hear him out. (Y/N)'s gun wasn't pointing at the guards anymore, but at Nikola, just like the rest of the team.

"What is he saying? Is it bad?" Sawyer asked out loud, the barrel of Nikola's gun pressing against the back of his neck. The silence was enough to give him an answer. "It's bad, isn't it?"

One of the guards gave a response to Nikola.

"Doctor, this is not the answer," Peggy reasoned.

Nikola ignored her words and continued to yell out to the guards, his head moving from the people hiding behind the machines to the guards.

"We will not be your leverage," Peggy continued. "We will die before we are captured."

A guard answered back to Nikola's demand, much calmer than the tone he had used before.

"Nikola, listen to me," the psychiatrist spoke up for the first time, lying on the ground. "I want you to focus on the sound of my voice. Are you listening, Nikola?"

Nikola yelled out once more in Russian, his hand not wavering from pointing the gun at Sawyer.

"Then listen to me!" (Y/N) yelled out after hearing his last words. "You've the chance of getting out here alive, and it's because of us! If you kill our friend, I'll put a bullet through your head before you even have the chance to put your own gun down! So, you have until I count to three to drop your weapon and fall to your knees!"

"One!"

A shot interrupted her count, the bullet piercing through Nikola's chest instantly. (Y/N)'s eyes fell onto the psychiatrist on the floor, the gun dropping from his hands.

"I am sorry, Nikola!"

The guards resumed their attack, firing even more than they were doing so before.

"Dugan, where the hell is my exit?" Peggy called out to him one more time through the radio.

"I'm out of ammo!" Sawyer yelled from his position.

(Y/N) fired at the guards before turning to her colleague. "Thompson, Li's ammo pack. Thompson!"

The sight in front of her was completely different from the Thompson she saw every day at the office. He had his back against the machine, slid all the way down to the floor, his eyes flickering from the bullets that Peggy was firing, as if he was completely focused on the noise they made. At that very moment, she understood that feeling of confusion; that feeling in which you can't move even though your body's screaming at you to do so.

"Lieutenant!"

Thompson's eyes fell on her for a brief second before staring off into the distance again. Peggy instead threw her gun at Sawyer and reached out for the spare gun in her bag.

"Dugan, I'm about to get very cross with you!"

A deafening blast boomed behind (Y/N), who turned around in time to see how someone had made a hole into the wall of the boiler room. In between the dust and the rain of bullets, she recognized Dugan's figure along with the rest of the team as he walked in with a victorious smile on his face.

"Wah-hoo!" he yelled out.

"Stop 'wah-hooing' and help," Peggy scolded.

"Look at this mess. We were gone five minutes."

Pinkerton and Ramirez started firing at the guards as Dugan moved to stand between Peggy and (Y/N), hiding behind the boiler machine.

"Everybody out!" (Y/N) cried out, loud enough so everyone could hear her through the noise.

"Go, go, go!" Dugan encouraged as he saw Sawyer guiding the psychiatrist through the man-made hole.

"You too, Peg," (Y/N) touched her friend on the shoulder. "I need you out, now!"

Peggy's face hardened at the serious look behind (Y/N)'s eyes, knowing she wasn't in the mood for arguments. She kept firing as she walked backwards into the hole with everyone else, hesitant about leaving her and Dugan behind.

(Y/N) stopped shooting when she realized that one person hadn't moved an inch from the spot. "Thompson, move your ass! I said everybody!"

He looked up at her, but didn't move.

"Thompson!"

She looked back at Dugan and he nodded before she pushed herself off the hiding spot and quickly made her way to Thompson's spot. Dugan wouldn't be able to hold the guards on his own for long, so she needed to get Thompson out as soon as possible.

"Hey," she called out quietly, but firm enough for him to know that this was serious. "Snap out of it, okay? Come on. I need you in one shape, Thompson."

"I'm up," Thompson grunted. "I'm up."

He was able to get up to his full height and run out with everybody else like instructed, leaving only (Y/N) and Dugan with the guards. She fired without missing a beat, the sound still as loud as it had been when the fight started.

"(Y/N), go, go!" Dugan cried out.

"You go!" She argued. "I can handle it!"

"What would Cap say if I left his best girl behind?"

"He would say, 'Nobody argues with (Y/N)'."

Dugan knew he couldn't fight with those words. He fired the last of his ammo on the guards approaching the room before running off, leaving (Y/N) completely alone. She didn't lose her concentration as she examined the soldiers running towards her with their weapons raised, taking in a deep breath before shooting like she was taught to do. The guards, who were running to her, dropped on the ground like flies, piling up with the rest of the men she and the team had taken down.

The beat of silence was enough to let (Y/N) make her escape, running through the hole and finding everyone else inside the truck a few feet away.

"Run, (Y/N), run!" Dugan exclaimed as he took out his gun and fired at the guns coming out of the hole after her. "Don't look behind!"

The truck was starting to move as (Y/N) made her way towards it, running as quick as she could. Sawyer and Pinkerton were still shooting on either sides of Dugan as he reached out a hand for her and helped her up into the truck.

"Go, go, go!"

She grunted as her body hit the floor of the truck, collapsing with exhaustion after finally getting to rest. She wetted her lips after feeling them too dry because of the cold, and she found herself staring at the faces of almost every man inside the truck, looking at her with amusement.

"Not bad. . .for a girl," the psychiatrist said.

"I don't find it funny," she breathed out after watching them smile at her antics, a ghost of a laugh waving through her lips.

had a breakdown on how i was going to change dialogue since the number of people in the team change to an odd number with y/n in it, completely forgetting how to divide. i'm so stupid lmaoo

- see you soon, bex <3