Two hours later

Winter Shadow's POV

My head was throbbing as I squint at the sudden ray of sunlight shining through my eyelids.

"Wha.. what happened." I say groggily.

"So you're awake." A familiar voice spoke.

Winter Soldier was sitting to my left, leaning up against a tree while twirling a knife around his fingers.

My hair was damp, along with my clothes from falling into the river. I tried to stand myself up when suddenly a jolt of pain waved through my arm.

"Hey be careful. You shouldn't be so rough with it. It'll heal, but it clearly hasn't yet." He said helping me stand up. I've never seen this soft side of him before. We were both free from HYDRA's mind control, so that could be the reason for us to be acting more calm and collected with each other, but it was definitely something I wasn't used to yet.

"Yeah, thanks." I say wincing at the pain. "How long was I out?"

"A couple of hours. No big deal." He said. "But we should get going soon, we're not going back to HYDRA, at least I'm not."

I gape at him. "We're not?"

"Look what they did to us Shadow. We're wanted serial killers."

"No I mean I agree, but I just didn't know if you would want to."

His words had hit me hard. I stare down at my hands and think of the amount of lives that had been cut short because of them.

"Glad we're on the same page." He gave a hint of a smile.

I think back to what had happened back on the helicarrier. When I first woke up I thought that maybe it was another one of my dreams I'd have, but it was all real this time. Those names, those familiar faces, they weren't just some dream that HYDRA could wipe away anymore. I needed answers.

"Didn't they refer to him as Captain America?" I ask.

"I think they did. He sounds like he'd be pretty famous." He said.

If we could search him up on a computer, we could find something. The only problem is that we had no computers or technology anywhere near us. We were hiding in a relatively small forest on the edge of downtown. Our next moves needed to be planned out quick and carefully.

"Wait what about our trackers. They could come find us at any minute-" He cut me off by digging two very broken trackers out of his pocket. "Done." He said simply.

"Well let's leave them here just in case." I say. "We can't take any chances."

"Good point." He tosses them beside the tree.

I ravage around my pockets and shoes for anything I had on me at the moment. "Empty out everything you have. Let's see what could be useful for us."

He nods and did the same. All we had on us were two small handguns, a few grenades, my dagger, a wire and a small amount of ammunition. Not to mention our soaking wet combat suits that made us stand out amongst everyone.

We look at each other and nod. "Disguises." We say at the same time.

The question was, where would we get these disguises from. Our faces are probably being plastered everywhere, and we had no money on us whatsoever.

An idea popped into my head, but I knew Winter Soldier wasn't going to like it.

He raised an eyebrow as I looked at him warily. "What... what do you have in mind?"

I wring my hands. "Well, you're not gonna like it."

"Anything is fine at this point." He sighs.

"Well, where have we always gotten our disguises and money from..?"

His face drops just as it slipped out of my mouth. "Shadow no.. we're not going back there."

"What other choice do we have? It's not like HYDRA can file a missing person's report on us and get us arrested. Up until today, people around the world didn't even know they were still operating."

He rubs his temples with his fingers. "Okay fine. But what if we don't escape?"

"We will, because this time we're not under their control, but we can pretend that we are for the time being, until we make our grand escape." I smirk.

He shook his head. "Whatever you say Miss Shadow."

We ventured deeper into the forest in case the FBI were on the lookout in the area. During that time, we came up with a plan. We'd sneak into the base, hopefully undetected, and grab what we needed. Of course there was a good chance we would be punished for not killing Captain America and stopping him from revealing HYDRA's secrets, but that was why we were going in heavily armed. If we're successful in getting in without being spotted, we'll then go into the prep room and take all the extra clothing and money we need.

"What if they release the other Winter Soldiers on us." He looked at me with a worried expression.

"Then we'll just have to beat the hell out of each and every one of them." I say. Winter Soldier was starting to get skeptical, I only hoped that we could both get through this.

"You say that like it's easy. They're the ones who trained us this way. Do you really believe that it's all that simple? What if we get captured again and they wipe us like they always have. This is our one moment in time when we can finally be free from them. Why should we jeopardize that?"

"I'm getting desperate!" I burst.

He looks at me with sad eyes. I clap my hand to my mouth, regretting my sudden outburst.

"I'm sorry, I just.. I want to find myself again. Who I really am." I say softly.

He steps towards me and stood only a few inches away from me. His heartbeat could be heard right from where he was standing. I swallow hard and look up into his icy blue eyes.

"I do as much as you do. We'll find out together." He said in a low, soothing voice.

I blush and nod. "Yeah, we will."

A few hours later

We ended up stealing an SUV from the parking lot of a nearby convenience store. We would have to park the vehicle a good two miles away from the base perimeter to avoid drawing unwanted attention. The drive was mainly filled with an awkward silence. We had never had this much freedom, both mentally and physically from HYDRA. Part of me was wondering if maybe they expected us to escape and are on the lookout.

Being restricted from wipings for a while was starting to bring back certain memories. For starters, I remember the mission we were sent on before this one. We'd seen Captain America there, as well as that redheaded girl. I lean my elbow against the window and watched as the emergency crews and police were speeding down the highway to the Triskelion.

We caused that. We did.

I shake my head and turn away from the window, ignoring the sounds of the wailing sirens in the background.

"Where do we go after this?" I say abruptly.

He keeps his eyes on the road. "Well we can speak over thirty languages so any country would be fine."

"No, I mean where do we go. What happens to us?"

He glances at me confused on what I meant.

"Are we gonna hide in the shadows forever. Is that what our life has to be from now on?"

He kept his focus on the road, making me think that maybe he didn't hear what I said, before blurting out, "I think we have to take everything one step at a time. Let's get what we need, and get the hell away from HYDRA."

"Yeah." I say quietly.

Not long later we were walking the two miles from the car to the HYDRA base deep inside the DC sewers. I tried to ignore the unbearable stench seeping from the walls and the contaminated water, and tried to focus on the plan.

Everything we needed was located on the two lower floors, so our plan was to enter through the basement where the prep room was, and then head up to the second floor to grab the keys to another vehicle. The thing about the vehicles owned by HYDRA is that they can never be tracked by any government because of the barriers placed on them. Because of this, the best thing to do was to ditch the one we had and steal one from here.

HYDRA had taught me a good amount of computer science, so I'd be the one to disable the tracking devices to HYDRA. Keep the barriers, get rid of the trackers.

About half an hour later we arrived. Directly above us was the base disguised as a bank. From down here, we could get into the basement.

"This is it." I say quietly. I point to a vent in the wall big enough to fit a person.

"Do you know where it leads to exactly?" He asked warily.

"We'll just have to wait and find out."

He approaches the vent and grips both sides firmly to yank it off.

"No wait!" I whisper-yell. "We need to stay as quiet as possible." I began unscrewing the screws with my bare fingers.

"Oh right, sorry." He said softly.

I gently place the cover on the damp ground of the sewer and peer inside. It definitely led somewhere inside the base. It's a wonder why they never thought to secure it.

"I can go first." He says. I give him an "Are you sure?" look before he assured that he was fine going first. I followed close behind him.

We occasionally came across an opening below us that went into another room. We were definitely in the basement of the facility. I could recognize the training rooms, the cells, the soldier offices, and finally, the prep room.

"Here." He points. I raise my hand to tell him to wait. There was an agent sorting through the world currencies in a series of metal drawers.

"We need to wait." I mouth to him. He nods and watched carefully at what the agent was doing.

After about five minutes, he'd left.

"Ready?" He whispers.

"As I'll ever be."

We as quietly as possible, pop the vent cover off and slide into the room one at a time. Winter Soldier goes first. Once he reaches the bottom, he grabs a hold of a large backpack and begins to stuff it with everything he could find.

I carefully lower myself into the room and land with a light thud on the concrete floor.

He tosses a backpack my way and I start to grab everything at random. Gloves, glasses, masks, weapons, currency from ten different countries. I didn't care if the bag was overflowing with supplies, we needed to grab everything we could.

"Hey over here." He waved me to his direction. "Here are the disguises we came for."

There were two separate drawers, each labeled W. Soldier and W. Shadow.

I grabbed a burgundy pull-over hoodie and a grey bomber jacket that I knew would keep me covered.

"Oh shit... you've got to be kidding me.." I mumble as I desperately try and make room in my bag. I managed to fit them in, along with a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt, but that's all that would fit.

"We can buy some more later. As long as we have something casual for the time being, we should be okay for a week or so." He assured.

"You're right." I sigh. "Let's get a move on."

Once we step out of this room, there's a very good chance we could be attacked and taken again if we didn't make the first move. We needed to catch them by surprise, maybe get some sweet revenge on the people who stole our lives from us.

"Grab the strongest weapon you see here." I order.

"Already got it." He said lifting his metal arm.

I roll my eyes. He however didn't even crack a grin. He was being dead serious, that arm was definitely not to be taken lightly.

I clear my throat awkwardly and grab a few smoke screen grenades and of course my trusty dagger.

He pressed his ear against the door leading to the corridor. "We're in the clear, I don't hear anybody."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." He affirms. "Remember, if we do run into them, pretend you're still brainwashed."

I nod, keeping one hand on my dagger, ready for anything that awaited us on the other side.

He slowly pulled down on the door handle, cautious of any circumstance. I nudge him to the side so I could peak through the opening.

Nothing.

"Let's go." I whisper.

We opened the door wide enough to fit us both and entered the familiar, dungeon-like hallway.

As much as I wanted to get our much deserved revenge, it would be best to not run into anyone and risk our freedom. This is our only shot.

"Something doesn't feel right." Winter Soldier said as he started picking up the pace.

"Yeah, it's too quiet. I think they know we're here." I say lowly.

Usually there'd be scientists and agents scattered all over the facility. Whether they were working, training or just monitoring, they were always keeping watch of everything.

"Keep your weapons close." He says.

I pull out my dagger and hold it closely to my chest. We persistently wandered further down the hallway until we reached the staircase that would lead us up to the second floor. Every step we took was as careful and silent as possible. Once we were on the second floor, the atmosphere remained just as sinister as it was on the first floor. Eventually, we were standing in front of the door of the garage. I wouldn't exactly call it a garage, more like a hall, that was lined up with all sorts of undercover cars and vans that agents would constantly use for missions.

"You ready?" I look over to Winter Soldier.

"As much as I need to be." He grumbles.

I let out a quiet chuckle and pushed open the door.

The lights oddly flickered on one by one and emitted a faint humming sound that only made me question more how old this place really was. Not a single person except for us stood in this room.

"Guess we better grab one and go." I shrug.

"Over there. There's a cupboard where they store the keys." He points.

I hurry over to it and wrenched it open to reveal a whole collection of keys to different vehicles.

"We don't want one that'll strike suspicion upon anyone, let's grab a simple, white Honda." I state.

"You don't think we should take a bigger one? Maybe one with higher horsepower." He suggests.

"No, it's better to take one that uses less gas, but maybe you're right about taking a bigger one. We can save the gas stops if we take one with a larger tank."

He nods and selects the keys to a white SUV. "I think this one's in the back."

"How do you know that?" I laugh. "There's got to be over a hundred different vehicles in here."

"Don't even worry about it." He smirked.

He leads me to the back to where a whole row of different SUV's were lined up side by side. With our backs turned to the entrance and our minds focused on getting the car unlocked, we almost didn't notice a gun click behind us.

"Where do you think you're going?"

We spun around on our heels and faced the high ranking HYDRA agent pointing a gun to our heads. The best thing to do at this point was to keep my mouth shut. Behind him stood about a dozen other agents heavily armed.

"I don't recall giving either of you another mission. Not to mention discussing how you managed to fail us."

I clench my jaw. We needed to get out of here, and fast. The only thing now was to beat the living shit out of all of them.

"Now be the good soldiers you are, and come along with us."

I glance over to Winter Soldier who looks at me. He nods, reading my thoughts clearly. It's now or never, and there's no going back.

"Go to hell." I mutter.

"What was that?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I said... GO TO HELL!!!" I holler at the top of my lungs as I lunge forward and land a hard kick to his genitals.

The other agents began rapidly firing at us. Winter Soldier uses his metal arm to defect the bullets and charges at all of them at full force.

Two agents came towards me from both sides. I kick one of them and throw him into the other, both collapsing onto the floor, groaning.
I knocked another straight in the teeth and pushed him to the ground.

Winter Soldier was busy dealing with two other agents. He'd already taken out a number of them.

I turn my attention to the head agent who was slowly attempting to stand himself up.

I shove his face into the concrete with my boot. "How's it feel to be the one on the ground." I smirk.

"We made you everything you are. Is this how you thank us?" He grunts.

I angrily flip him over by the shoulders and glare at him in the eyes. "Thank you? For turning us into monsters? For taking away our goddamn lives?!" My voice breaks.

"Look at you now. When Zola first found you, you were a puny, weak girl. You've become a diamond in a pile of stones." He sneered.

I shake my head and laugh to myself. "Give me one good fucking reason I shouldn't kill you right now." I run the blade of my dagger along his neckline.

"That depends on where you see yourself after this. HYDRA is the only place now that would ever accept you. Who else do you have?"

I look up, my eyes making contact with Winter Soldier. He gives me a worried look. "I.. I have him." I say.

"Him? Do you even know who he is? What his real name is?" He questions.

"I blame you for that." I snarl. "If you hadn't fried our brains every week then maybe I would know."

"Too bad nobody will want you. To the rest of the world, you're both just a couple of ruthless monsters. They would never, and will never, try to understand you."

I grit my teeth and grip my dagger tightly in my hand. I should just kill him. He's put me through unimaginable pain and suffering. I was broken, and it was all because of him and the rest of these insane people.

I raise my arm and aim for his neck. Here we go...

I take a deep breath and bite my lip. "Any last words, as if you deserve any."

He narrowed his eyes before grunting a quiet "Hail HYDRA."

3...

2...

1.....

"Shadow!"

I pause on the spot and whip my head in Winter Soldier's direction.

"Don't do it. We've killed enough people, so let's move on." He says quietly.

I give one last angry glare to the agent. "Open the garage, let's get out of here." I mutter.

Winter Soldier nods and hurries over to the button on the wall. He jammed it down with his fist, causing the garage to creak open and reveal the outside world.

I stand up and watch as the agent gasped in relief of being spared. I ram my heel into his nose and feel a crack from underneath.

I start walking away before pulling my dagger back out of my pocket and throwing it to the side. "You can keep that, it's done more than enough damage to the world while being in my hands."

Winter Soldier and I step into the car and start the engine. I take one last look at the place I knew I wouldn't miss, before he stepped on the gas and sped right out of there.

The building grew further, and further away until I could no longer see it.

I sigh and sink in my seat. "We're free."

"More than ever before." He gave a small smile. "So where to now?"

"I guess it doesn't really matter. As long as it's far away from here."

"Well, there was actually one place we should stop at before we leave." He says.

"Oh yeah? Where's that?" I sit up.

"The past." He smiles.

Author's Note

Gaahhh thank you guys for all the views!! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.