Somewhere else in the city, Sam was currently returning to his 2 up-2 down house after going on his morning run. He is just minutes within the door when he hears knocking. He opens the door to see Steve and Natasha both standing there, soot and dust clinging to their skin, scratches littering their bodies and their minds on edge.
"Hey, man." Sam says slowly, trying to act calm at the sudden appearance of the two.
"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve apologises and Sam's eyes drift over to Natasha in confusion.
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha explains plainly and Sam pauses in shock, trying to process what she was saying for a moment.
Sam pauses a moment before replying. "Not everyone." He replies, breaking through the silence. He then moves to the side, opening his door fully and letting them both enter.
Steve and Natasha make their way towards the bathroom and bedroom, cleaning themselves up as best as they can. Steve exits out of the bathroom, watching as Natasha drys her vibrant red hair with a towel. Steve tilts his head, noticing that Natasha looks sad and thoughtful, her eyes drifting off slightly. "You okay?" Steve asks, Natasha's focus coming back to the present.
"Yeah." Natasha lies, placing the towel down.
"What's going on?" Steve asks.
"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight." She answers, sitting back slightly, looking up at him. "But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but...I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."
"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Steve replies and it makes Natasha smile faintly.
"I owe you." Natasha admits.
"It's okay." Steve tells her.
"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?" Natasha questions.
"I would now. And I'm always honest." Steve replies.
"Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing." Natasha forces a chuckle.
"Well, I guess I just like to know who I'm fighting." Steve admits.
Suddenly, Sam's head pops around the door. "I made breakfast. If you guys...eat that sort of thing." He sounds hesitant, his hand on the door frame before disappearing, Steve and Natasha following the man into the kitchen, sitting down.
"So, the question is: who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Nastasha ponders.
"Pierce." Steve answers.
"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." She says dryly, looking him in the eyes.
"But he's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve reminds her.
"So was Jasper Sitwell." Her eyes widened slightly. "And his Russian, but not really Russian, assistant."
"So, the real question is: how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?" He wonders, when suddenly Sam drops a file on the table.
"The answer is: you don't." Sam tells him, leaning against the back of one of the chairs, looking at the two of them.
"What's this?" Steve asks.
"Call it a resume." Sam gives a small smile as he watches Natasha pick up a photo of Sam with his pararescue team. The sky behind them is bright and the land barren and vast.
"Is this Bakhmala?" Natasha questions. "The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you." She looks over at Steve. "You didn't say he was a pararescue." She then looks back down at the photo of Sam with his colleagues.
Sam points to the photo. "Is this Riley?" He asks, glancing up at the black man.
"Yeah." Sam confirms.
"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use, a stealth chute?" Natasha wonders.
"No." Sam admits before he hands Steve a file. "These."
"I thought you said you were a pilot." Steve looks confused, looking up at Sam's beaming face.
Sam laughs a bit. "I never said pilot." He reminds him, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason." Steve replies, trying to sound reassuring, friendly.
"Dude, Captain America needs my help." Sam replies, sounding almost like a fanboy. "There's no better reason to get back in."
"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Steve asks him, his body still leaning over the file but his eyes drifting up to look at Sam.
"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall." Sam explains. Steve looks at Natasha who just shrugs her shoulders, not saying a word.
"Shouldn't be a problem." Steve answers before throwing down the file on the table and we see that it's a classified military project called Falcon.
Later on, Sitwell is walking out of a large brick building. He's wearing a smart tan suit with a small pin on the collar. Sasha is standing a few steps behind him, wearing a dark blue suit with red trims. Four guards in black suits and sunglasses are standing in a square around him, forcing others to walk around them. Senator Stern is standing beside them, the same pin on the collar of his own jacket. "Listen, I gotta fly home tonight, cause uh…" He hesitates for a second. "I got some constituency problems, and I gotta press the flesh."
"Any constituent in particular, Mr. Senator?" Sitwell asks.
"Uh...no, not really." Stern answers. "Twenty-three, kind of hot. Real hot. You know, wants to be a reporter, I think. I don't know, who listens at that point?"
"Doesn't sound much of a problem to me." Sitwell gives a slight knowing smile.
"Really?" Stern gives his own smile in return. "Cause she's killing my back. Look, this isn't the place to talk about it." He looks away and then back at him, touching the pin on Sitwell's jacket. It's black with a red octopus. "This is a nice pin." He says.
"Thank you." Sitwell answers.
"Come here." Stern says softly and they embrace. Stern leans his mouth near Sitwells ear. "Hail, HYDRA." He whispers quietly before stepping away, touching his back. "See, it's right there…"
"I just saw that, yeah." Sitwell answers.
"Should I get it checked?" Stern asks.
"I think you should." Sitwell replies. Stern nods slightly in reply and walks away from the group, leaving Sitwell with his guards and Sasha. His phone starts to ring in his pocket and he picks it back up, looking at the screen. His eyes widen when he sees Pierce's name on the caller ID. He looks over at the men in black clothing. "I need a minute. Bring the car around." They all start to walk away but Sitwell grabs Sasha's arm, showing her the screen and she stays beside him. He waits a second before picking it up, placing the phone to his ear. "Yes, sir?"
"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch?" A voice comes through the phone that isn't Pierce's, it's softer. "I hear the crab cakes here are delicious.
"Who is this?" Sitwell asks suspiciously.
"The good looking guy in the sunglasses, you're ten o'clock." The voice answers. Sitwell looks around the large area but can't spot him. "Your other ten o'clock." He tells him. Sitwell turns around again and Sasha points him out, showing him where Sam Wilson is sitting in a cafe, a pair of sunglasses over his eyes and a baseball cap on his head. "There you go."
"What do you want?" Sitwell asks.
"You're gonna go around the corner, to your right. There's a grey car, two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride." Sam tells him, a few seconds past.
"And why would I do that?" Sitwell asks.
"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up." Sam answers, the sound of a laugh almost shown in his voice. Sitwell looks down at his tie and sees a small red light from the gun being pointed at him and he gulps slightly.
Minutes later, Steve throws Sitwell across a rooftop, Natasha follows behind him after having cuffed Sasha to a pole near the door. "Tell me about Zola's algorithm." Steve orders, watching as Sitwell tries to push himself back, his eyes filled with fear.
"Never heard of it." Sitwell lies, his voice quivering.
"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Steve asks him.
"I was throwing up, I got seasick." Sitwell answers but Steve doesn't look convinced. He picks him up by his collar and forces him to the edge of the rooftop, Sitwell's feet brushing against the ledge and his eyes widened. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers." He tries to sound brave.
"You're right. It's not." Steve backs away slightly and Sitwell relaxes slightly. "It's hers." He steps to the side and before Sitwell can say anything more, Natasha kicks Sitwell off of the roof. The man was screaming on his way down.
Natasha looks over at Steve like nothing has happened. "Oh, wait." Natasha says. "What about that girl from accounting, Laura...?" Natasha wonders, looking over at him.
"Lillian. Lip piercing, right?" Steve replies, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, she's cute." Natasha smiles.
"Yeah, I'm not ready for that." Steve admits.
He goes to say something more but then, Sam, in his Falcon jet-pack suit with wings, flies up holding a shaking like a leaf Sitwell and throws him down on the roof, letting him roll, his eyes drifting up to Steve and Natasha, gulping. He holds his hands up weakly, surrendering. "Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing Insight's targets!" He says quickly.
"What targets?" Steve asks firmly.
"You!" Sitwell answers. "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."
"The Future? How could it know?" Steve asks, confused.
Sitwell just laughs slightly. "How could it not?" He smirks. "The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it." Natasha and Steve look over at each other in confusion. "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."
"And what then?" Steve questions.
"Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me." Sitwell looks scared. "He'll get me killed."
"What then?!" Steve repeats, sounding more forceful.
"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time." He sounds scared, his voice shaking slightly, his eyes filled with fear. They quickly get some and get in a car, making their way to the Triskelion. "HYDRA doesn't like leaks." He warns.
"So why don't you try sticking a cork in it." Sam retorts.
"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here." Natasha reminds them.
"I know." Steve replies. "We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly."
"What?!" Sitwell sounds panicked, his eyes glancing as Sasha reaches for something under her hip. "Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea-" His voice is cut off when the Winter Soldier lands on the roof of the car and rips the door off of the car. Sasha forces Sitwell out of the door and into oncoming traffic, killing him instantly before nodding slightly at the assassin.
He quickly brings out his gun and starts shooting at them without a second thought, trying to get them through the roof of the car. Nobody notices how he deliberately misses Sasha the whole time, and they don't have time to ask when Steve pulls the brake handle, forcing the car to stop suddenly, making the Winter Soldier drop down onto the street, rolling off of the car and tumbling into traffic. Another car smashes into the trio's car and pushes them along, allowing the Winter Soldier to jump back onto their car, smashing through the windscreen and pulling out the steering wheel.
"Shit!" Sam shouted, trying to stay in control of the car. He watches as Natasha starts shooting at him but the Winter Soldier jumps onto the vehicle behind them, dodging the bullets. The trio's car is being pulled off the road Steve holds on to the car door.
"Hang on!" Steve orders before he breaks open the door, holding onto Natasha and Sam, they slide on the car door through the streets. [the Winter Soldier is joined by HYDRA agents and they start shooting at them, the trio scatter and run off in different directions with the Winter Soldier shooting at Natasha but she manages to shoot him in his eye goggle mask and run off.
"Она у меня. Найди его. (Russian: She's mine. Find him)" The Winter Soldier orders the agents before quickly going in pursuit of Natasha.
The Winter Soldier goes in pursuit of Natasha as the Hydra agents go after Steve and Sam who both manage to fend them off as they shoot at them, Steve then notices the Winter Soldier in pursuit of Natasha. He goes to run over to help her when he's barged past by Sasha sprinting fast that he believes she should be able to. He shakes his head, but in the momentary hesitation, the Winter Soldier has already closed in on where he believes Natasha is hiding,
"Go, I got this!" Sam reassures her. The Winter Soldier thinks he's found Natasha hiding behind a car as he can hear her voice.
"I make an LZ, twenty-three hundred block of Virginia Avenue." Natasha informs someone. "Rendezvous two minutes. Taking fire above and below expressway. Civilians threatened. Repeat, civilians threatened." The Winter Soldier walks over and bends down slightly, his hand going to the back of his utility belt and rolling a small bomb over to the car where the sound is coming from. The bomb rolls under the car and hits against the curb of the road, just beside an audio recording of Natasha that is playing on the device. "I make an LZ, twenty-three hundred block at Virginia Avenue. Rendezvous two minutes."
The bomb explodes and in the few seconds of distraction, Natasha jumps onto the Winter Soldier's back and tries to strangle him, her legs twisting around his neck tightly. The Asset quickly throws her off of him and when she lands he attempts to shoot at her, only for a disk to be thrown at him and latching onto his metal arm, short-circuiting it and causing it to hang at his side. After a few seconds of distraction she runs away from him. He groans before forcing the device off and recalibrating his arm.
Natasha runs quickly down the road, pushing Sasha who had been with Sam away from the area as she in[to the civilians as she tries to get away from the Winter Soldier. "GET OUT OF THE WAY! STAY OUT OF THE WAY!" She shouts, her voice loud and commanding. She suddenly gets shot in the shoulder and falls down. She looks around her, only for the Winter Soldier to come up from behind, ready to shoot her again.
Steve jumps in and blocks a punch from the latter with his shield before he kicks him away, followed by him blocking a few bullets from the Winter Soldier's weapon. The Winter Soldier briefly takes Steve's shield, and throws it at him, but Steve manages to avoid being hit. He raises a pocket knife and tries to strike Steve with it, only for Steve to dodge it before they fiercely battle it out.
Eventually, Steve manages to stop the Winter Soldier's arm after exchanging a few blows between them, and throws him away, the latter's mask falling off in the process as he hits the ground. He rolls across the asphalt and stands back up, his mask no longer covering the lower half of his face. Steve stops moving, looking at the Winter Soldier in shock, his mouth hanging open as he takes in the other man's facial features. "Bucky...?" He says, his voice quiet, confused.
The Winter Soldier looks at him in confusion, his face betraying no emotion but his eyes look away for a second, almost having to think on it before drawing back to Steve's face. "Who the hell is Bucky?" He says, his voice sounding American, rather than the Russian Steve was undoubtedly expecting from the infamous assassin. As he aims his pistol at Steve, Sam flies in and kicks the soldier aside. Bucky has a brief look of realisation as he gets back up, but he quickly brushes it aside, and takes aim again, but before he can shoot Natasha uses the grenade launcher he dropped against him. He quickly vanishes in the smoke of the explosion.
As the others look around, trying to find where he had gone they hear cars coming closer to them, guns cocking in formation. They turn around to find the STRIKE unit behind them, their guns raised. "Drop the shield, Cap!" Rumlow orders, multiple guns pointed on the group of them, their fingers on the trigger and more than willingly to fire said weapons. "On your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!" Steve glances at him, putting his hands up. "Get on your knees! Down!" He kicks the back of Steve's knee, causing him to drop onto his knees. "Don't move."
Rumlow looks up at the helicopter flying above them, circling the area before looking over at Rollin who is currently holding Steve at gunpoint, the barrel nearly touching Steve's head. "Put the gun down." Rumlow orders. "Not here." He looks at Rollin who doesn't move. "Not here!" He repeats with urgency. Rollins lowers his gun, the HYDRA agents then swiftly take the other's into custody.
They are all quickly put into a van. Steve is on one side, heavily strapped against the side of the van with thick cuffs over his chest, ankles and wrists. "It was him." Steve said. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."
"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago." Sam reminds him.
"Zola." Steve replies, remembering how he had found Bucky ages ago, back before the nap in the ice. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and…" He looks up at Sasha, his brows tightening together in thought, looking at her suspiciously. He goes to say something to her, to question who she actually is when he's interrupted.
"None of that's your fault, Steve." Natasha buts in, cutting off Steve's train of thought. He looks over at her.
"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky." Steve argues, his voice soft and down, distraught.
Sam notices Natasha is bleeding from her shoulder and looks at the guards. "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." Sam says worryingly, trying to get them to help.
Suddenly one of the guards pulls out an electric rod and neutralises the other guard and knocks him out, the guard is revealed to be Hill as she takes off her helmet. "Ah." Hill groans, rubbing her head slightly. "That thing was squeezing my brain." Sam looks over at Hill in confusion and Hill raises an eyebrow, looking over at Steve. "Who's this guy?"
Behind them, Rumlow's crew jump out of their vehicles, their guns cocked and ready. They make their way over to the van the others were in, throwing the backdoor open only to be met with emptiness, the remaining guard completely knocked out. "Three holes. Start digging." Rumlow orders as he looks at the massive hole burned into the floor of the van.