Topic: Battle Plans

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:00 EST

Despite the long hours everyone had put in on their first successful raid on a known Hydra facility, the inhabitants of the Avengers Mansion were up late into the night. Adrenaline was partially to blame, but it was mostly because of the sheer amount of data that they needed to get through. Time was of the essence - the longer it took them to analyze what they had stolen, the less likely it was to be accurate information when they acted on it. Even with Jarvis downloaded and syncing with the analysis program, it still needed human eyes to scan through and pick out the patterns. And, of course, there was their unexpected guest to keep an eye on.

Steve had taken over from Natasha in the early hours, keeping vigil over Alyona's sleeping form as the redhead went to join Richards and Stark as the last two men standing when it came to the data. It was unlikely that Nat was going to sleep until she felt there was time to do it in, so she might as well turn her hands to something useful.

As the night turned to morning, slowly Alyona began to stir, her expression turning to a faint grimace of pain before she suddenly sat upright, looking around herself in open panic. "What is this?" she demanded in a shrill tone. "I am where?"

Steve had drifted off for a bit while Alyona had been sleeping, but of everyone currently present and accounted for at the mansion, he was the one who required the least amount of sleep, due to the serum that had enhanced his constitution, as well as his abilities. "Easy," he urged her, leaning forward and extending a hand, but not daring to touch her. "We're just outside of New York City. You're safe. No one is going to hurt you here," he assured her in English, though he could just as easily have done so in her native Sokovian.

"N-New York?" she repeated, shock overtaking the panic in her eyes as she recognized the man with her, at the very least. "I am in your America?" A faint frown appeared on her face, deepening as fresh panic made itself known. "What have you done to me" I can't ....I can't read you!"

"America, yes," he replied. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, or so he'd always believed, though sometimes he had his doubts about how true that really was. "Easy, Alyona. It's Alyona, right' I'm Steve, remember" No one has done anything to you. This room has a damping field in effect to prevent you from doing anything that might cause you or anyone else harm," he explained as gently and patiently as he could, remembering how it felt when he'd awoken from the Deep Sleep, scared and disoriented.

She watched him warily, absorbing what he had to say. "Alyona, yes," she confirmed her name for him. "You think I will attack you? That I am some agent of Hydra" I am not. They wanted to make me a soldier, but they failed. I should never have gone back."

"No, I don't think you will, but I'm not the only one making the decisions, and we have to be sure," he explained further, the hint of a guilty frown on his face. Well, at least, he was honest. There was that. "You hungry' I'm not sure if it's what you're accustomed to eating for breakfast, but it will make you feel better."

She fidgeted, glancing at the walls and ceiling, the cage keeping her in. "My head hurts," she told him almost plaintively, pointing out the one flaw in Reed's hastily conceived plan to contain her. "I do not like the silence." The offer of food, however, seemed too brighten her disposition. "I ....thank you, Captain Rogers. I have eat nothing for some days."

"Steve," he corrected again, as he got up to fetch breakfast from where it was being kept warm in some gadget or other of Tony's making. "There's coffee, too, unless you prefer tea." He had turned his back on her, if only momentarily, trusting her not to be stupid enough to attack him. "I'm sorry about this. Really," he apologized for the damping field and the headache and the silence. "It's the best I could do, I'm afraid."

She inched to sit on the edge of the bed, rubbing her knuckles in a nervous display of tension. "It....it is better than Hydra," she told him. For some strange reason, she wanted to reassure this man that her discomfort here was nothing compared with what she had been through for the past few days. "You do not mean to hurt me. You saved me."

"Not single-handedly," Steve replied as returned with a breakfast tray that featured eggs and bacon and toast and her choice of coffee or tea. "I'm part of a team. We call ourselves the Avengers," he told her, though they were admittedly considering changing their name.

"What are you avenging?" Alyona asked, more curious than accusatory, doing her best not to be too eager for the food he was bringing closer. Hydra had not fed her more than thin gruel while she had been their prisoner, and her lifestyle before that circumstance came about had not been anywhere near comfortable.

"That's the question, isn't it?" he replied with a small frown as he set the tray on the bedside table. "Injustice, I guess. Tyranny. Evil. I didn't come up with the name." He'd been invited to join the Avengers Initiative when he'd awoke from the Deep Sleep and had agreed more out of a sense of duty than necessity. The name had never really resonated with him very well, but he hadn't felt right about challenging it. Things had changed since then.

"But you are guardians," the girl said quietly. "Sentinels. Watchmen. You do not seek out the dangers that come to us." She might not be able to peek inside his mind right now, but she'd had a good look in Sokovia. "Hydra think of themselves the same way. They think humanity can be saved through enslavement." As soon as the food was within reach, however, she attacked it enthusiastically, ignoring the instant stomachache in favor of shoveling as much into her mouth as she possibly could. It was a sad testament to the untold story of her life, that even a meal as simple as this one was treasure to her.

"Slavery isn't the answer," Steve replied, almost bristling at the mention of Hydra and their warped ideals. "I don't do what I do because I've been brain-washed into believing that Hydra has humanity's best interests in mind. I do it because it's what?s right." He shrugged his shoulder and reclaimed his chair. "I guess I'm a little old-fashioned, but I still believe in liberty and equality. I've spent most of my life fighting against tyranny and oppression. I'd like to think there's still more good than evil in the world. That's there's still hope for humanity."

The girl in front of him had no answer to give, greedily filling her mouth with food and drink, displaying a basic knowledge of table manners not much beyond those of a six year old child. The food was gone within minutes, the tea drunk, and she curled up once again, this time holding her aching stomach as her haunted blue eyes found Steve's face. "What will you do with me?"

He smiled and shut up, allowing her to eat in peace, looking a little amused at the way she inhaled that breakfast. There was more where that came from, but he didn't want her making herself sick with too much food all at once. Everything in moderation. "That depends on you."

She held his gaze, a hint of fear in her eyes that would, outside this room, paint her gaze red as the emotion made itself known. "I am not a creature of Hydra," she said softly. "I am not with S.H.I.E.L.D. I am on no one's side, because no one is on my side. I stand alone, and I do not know who I am."

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:01 EST

"You don't have to stand alone, Alyona. And you don't have to stand with Hydra or S.H.I.E.L.D. either. But for now, how about you just worry about telling me how you ended up with Hydra" Don't think of me as judge and jury. Think of me as a friend," he told her. The truth was, he and Nat and Clint were probably her best allies at the moment, and her best chance for survival. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to protect you."

"It is a long story," she said in her quiet way, hugging her knees to her chest. "You will not like it. Only Hydra like it." She rubbed her nose, scratching at her eyebrow for a moment before wrapping her arm about her legs once again. "Hydra made me. They did something to my mother, and when I was born, I-I have this power." She gestured with one hand, an almost balletic movement that echoed the way she had moved in Sokovia to pin both him and Natasha in place. "And this." Her fingers brushed her temple.

Oh, he knew very well he wasn't going to like it, but she wasn't the first victim of Hydra he'd ever run into, and she likely wouldn't be the last. "You're a telepath," he confirmed with a nod of his head, but that wasn't all she was.

She shook her head. "No, I ....I read thoughts, on the top, and I can touch memories, bring them forward," she tried to explain. "I-I can't put my voice into someone's mind, or control them, or anything like that. I can touch and show, but I have no influence on a mind. And I can move things with my mind, like red mist at my fingers."

"You got inside my head back there, didn't you?" he asked, more curious than concerned. He didn't have much to hide, at least, not from her. She might as well know him. That was one way of winning her trust.

She bit her lip, guilt flooding her expression as she looked down at her knees. "I ....I can't stop it," she apologized quietly, her grip on her own legs tightening until her knuckles turned white. "I look into eyes, and I see. It is like hearing someone speak from beside you."

"So you need to learn how to shield yourself from other people's thoughts," he suggested. If she could learn how to hear people's thoughts, she could theoretically learn how to turn it on and off, like a radio receiver.

"I do not know." She said it so simply, a child who still was not sure of what she could and could not do. "They trained me," she offered. "When I was small. I remember the lessons with moving things, and the dancing, and how to fight. I can do lots with my red mist. I do not think they knew about my mind."

"The dancing," Steve echoed thoughtfully, calling to mind something about Nat's past. He knew dancers were athletes in their own right, trained to have perfect control of their bodies. It wasn't a bad way to start training your body to be in peak physical condition. He'd used boxing the same way. "Why did you go back?" he asked, needing to know what her motivations were, not just her talents.

"I ....I wanted to know," she said uncertainly. "About me. About why they did what they did to me, and what they wanted from me. I wanted to know who my parents are, where I came from. I do not know any of this."

"They didn't tell you, did they?" he asked, making an assumption from what she had already told him. "We might be able to help you with that," he added. "Nat ....the woman with the red hair ....she's going over the files we downloaded from the Hydra base. There's bound to be something in there about you." He paused a moment as if considering something else before he went on. "Are you sure you really want to know?"

She nodded slowly. "I think I have to," she confessed quietly, her fingers gently rubbing at her temple to allay the ache from the damping field around the room. "I was not always with Hydra, but I was with them long enough. I do not know what I did, but when I was six years old, they stopped being kind to me. There were no more toys and no more laughter. And the captain who played with me, he was sent away after he stopped one of them from hurting me. I do not know why they started to hurt me. I need to know."

Steve could have made his own guesses about that, given all he knew of Hydra and what they'd done in the past, especially what they'd witnessed in the Arctic. "They don't care about you, Alyona. They're just using you. They're bent on world domination, and they have a history of using people, torturing them, brain-washing them until there's nothing left but what Hydra indoctrinates them with. I think that's what they were doing with you. They wanted to use you as a weapon to achieve their own warped objectives. There's no gray area here. They're evil, and they'll stop at nothing until the world bows to them."

He could have told her more than that. He could have told her what he'd witnessed in the Arctic, what he'd witnessed all his life, but he thought that was enough for now. "Look, I know S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't much better. Not anymore. And I know you have some choices to make. Not today, maybe not even tomorrow. I chose to become what I am. You didn't, but now that you have these abilities, you have to decide for yourself how you want to use them. No one here will decide for you."

"You ....you say they would use me for a weapon, but is that not what you are asking me to do for you?" she asked, the uncertain tone in her voice deepening. "You put me in a cage and say I have a choice, but you take that choice from me simply by the act of putting me in the cage. How are you different from Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Not for me," Steve pointed out, not really surprised by her question. If he'd been in her place, he'd have asked the same thing. "I'm not asking you to do anything, but eventually you're gonna have to make a choice, Alyona. Hydra isn't gonna stop. They'll keep looking for you, and when they find you, they'll pick up right where they left off until there's nothing left of your mind and your memories except what they put there. I'm not telling you to work for Hydra or for S.H.I.E.L.D. Hell, I'm not sure I know the difference anymore either. What I'm telling you is that you're the only one who can decide where you go from here. You wanna walk out that door" I won't stop you. All I'm asking is you think long and hard about what you wanna do with your life, with your abilities, and remember that Hydra won't stop until they find you." He wasn't ready to ask her to join them yet. She had to decide for herself what path her life would take and she would likely have to wait until she had some answers. "For now, we're offering you protection and maybe some answers." He paused a moment again, his gaze never leaving hers. "Jarvis, you there?"

"I am always here, Captain Rogers."

As the computer's disembodied voice made itself known, Alyona jumped violently, looking around in shock. She had never come across anything like this before.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:01 EST

"How may I be of assistance?"

"Easy," Steve told Alyona gently, reaching out to lay a hand against her arm. "Jarvis, I want you to switch off the damping field and unlock the door." He didn't bother to ask if Tony had given the orders or whether he needed to override them, hoping Jarvis would recognize his authority without asking for Tony's permission.

"I feel obliged to warn you of the inherent risk in such an action, Captain Rogers," Jarvis replied, but it was a stock answer. Whenever Tony asked him to do something that carried a risk, he always stated a warning and needed confirmation before he would do it.

"I'm willing to take responsibility, Jarvis, thank you," Steve replied, his eyes never leaving Alyona's. He reached for her hand, as if to reassure her or give her courage. This was a show of trust on his part, and he was taking a big risk in doing it.

"Very well, Captain Rogers. Powering down Mr. Richard's damping force field and removing fingerprint lock and voice command for suite 7." There was a whirring sound as the field was turned off, accompanied by the inevitable mechanical complaints from inside the walls.

But Alyona relaxed as the ache in her head faded, a flicker of red in her eyes and at her fingertips betraying her need to make sure everything was as it had been. She eyed the hand reaching toward her for a moment, hesitantly laying her fingers over Steve's palm. "Thank you."

"Just remember, everything from here on out is up to you, Alyona," he reminded her, knowing this wasn't going to sit well with at least one member of their group, maybe more. But if she wanted to prove she was trustworthy and that she wouldn't cause them any harm, this was her chance. "I suggest you stay here for the time being, until I have a chance to explain to the others," he told her, though again, that choice was hers. "If there's anything you need, just ask Jarvis. I'll be back to check on you in a little while," he promised as he got to his feet.

Though she was now basically free to go as she pleased, Steve was asking her to stay put for her own safety, until he was able to explain to Tony why he'd freed her. He made his way toward the door, knowing it would only be a matter of a few minutes before his brother-in-law barged in, and he didn't want Alyona to witness the argument that would likely ensue.

As he turned toward the door, there was a knock on it, and Natasha leaned inside, an amused smirk on her tired face. "Stark's blowing a fuse downstairs," she informed Steve with misplaced cheer, looking beyond him to where Alyona was studying her with that crimson sheen to her gaze once again. "Hey."

Alyona nodded back to the redhead. "Hey," she echoed.

Nat's smirk softened. "I left you some clean clothes in the dresser," she told the girl. "The showers in this place are great, you should enjoy them."

"I ..." Alyona's eyes flickered toward the bathroom door, deeply tempted by hot water and plenty of it. "Thank you, I will."

"Of course, he is," Steve replied, having expected as much. "I'll talk to him," he promised further, quite possibly the only one of the bunch who might have a chance of reasoning with the man. He looked from Nat to Alyona a moment, before turning back. "You two should have a chat, when you get a chance. I think you might have some things in common." And heaven knew, the two women could both use a friend.

Alyona blinked, glancing sharply from Steve to Nat in what seemed to be shock and surprise.

Nat rolled her eyes. "Subtle, Steve, real subtle," she told him. "C'mon, you need to deal with shellhead. Stay put until someone you recognize comes up to get you, Alyona. Tempers are fraying down there."

Steve shrugged, a half-smile on his face. "I've been accused of worse." He didn't bother to repeat Nat's warning, after everything he'd already said to the girl. Everything she needed for the moment was right there in that room, and if she needed anything else, all she had to do was ask Jarvis. So long as she stayed put until tempers calmed, she'd be fine.

For the time being, at least, Alyona was going to stay put. She was in a strange place, with enhanced people, and given the way Steve and Nat were talking, those enhanced people were going to be arguing. It wasn't a situation anyone with sense would put themselves into. Besides, she had been given permission to wash and change her clothes, and that could take a while.

Smiling her sardonic smile, Nat backed out into the corridor to let Steve follow her. "Told you she'd respond best to you."

"I don't know about that," Steve countered, thinking Nat might have been able to get through to her just as well as he could, but he appreciated the vote of confidence. "She's not our prisoner, Nat. That makes us no better than Hydra," he told her, though he knew she understood that already. It was Tony who needed to hear this and understand it.

"Yeah." Nat shook her head as she smirked, clearly looking forward to watching Steve and Tony go at it again. No one ever got hurt, but it could take hours for a certain someone to drop his ego and listen sometimes. Barton had been known to make popcorn. "Hydra kept records on her. We've got them. Makes for interesting reading."

"I promised we'd share that with her. She's got a right to know," Steve replied, knowing he didn't have to make his case with Nat. If anyone was in his corner, it was her. They really thought a little too much alike at times, though their histories were very different.

"She's got the right, sure. Doesn't mean she's going to like it," the redhead predicted as they jogged down the stairs toward Tony's favorite laboratory space in the mansion.

As they approached, they could hear Ironman working. "Jarvis, can you run a backup line to that field and power it up" Last thing we need is a witch running around turning everything into cotton candy."

Steve might have agreed to Nat's remark, if he hadn't overheard Tony trying to start the damping field back up and he rushed toward the lab to stop him before he undid the trust Steve had just earned. "Belay that order, Jarvis," he said, hoping Jarvis would hesitate before doing what Tony ordered and that Tony would give Steve a chance to explain. "She's not a witch, Tony, and the damping field is causing her pain."

"Whoa, whoa, did the Capsicle just try to tell me that keeping our visitor under wraps isn't allowed?" Tony shot back. In his defense, he had been awake all night, and it showed in the dark rings under his eyes as he turned to look at Steve. "Seriously' She's an unknown quantity, we just got confirmation on her T.K. from the files, and you want to let her go squirreling around the mansion like Chucky in a dress?"

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:02 EST

"She's not our prisoner, Tony," Steve pointed out, ignoring the insult. He'd become accustomed to Tony's barbs, though that didn't mean he had to like them, nor would he stoop to exchanging them with the man. "She's just a kid. She's scared and hungry and hurting. We keep her prisoner, and she's gonna think we're no better than Hydra. You want to make an ally or enemy of her?"

"And what if she was a plant?" Tony countered. Despite his weariness, he had a point. "You know what your problem is" Your problem is that you want to trust everyone and you think they'll just roll over and let you pet their belly like a good puppy because you do. Letting her loose could be like petting a cat's belly. All sweet for about ten seconds before she sinks her teeth into your wrist and rips all your arteries open, and still manages to look cute doing it."

"And your problem is that you want to trust no one. The only one you have any real faith in is yourself. Or maybe you don't. Not everyone has an ulterior motive, Tony. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut. Sometimes you have to make a leap of faith, and let the chips fall where they may. If you go through life suspecting everyone, you'll never make any allies and forget about friends. You ever hear the saying, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" Steve argued. "Hydra is the enemy, Tony, and that girl is a victim of Hydra. If I'm wrong, then you can blame me, but I don't think I am. All I'm asking is that you give her a chance."

Tony paused, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Look, cap, I get it," he said wearily. "She's little and hurt, and you wanna protect her, and that's fine. That's what you do. But Hydra's got a file on her a mile long, and that - that's what gets me. Why keep files for duration of someone's lifetime if you don't have your hooks in deep?"

"You know, one of my friends was kidnapped by Hydra once. They tortured him and tried brainwashing him, tried turning him into some kind of monster. But he was my friend, and even if they'd have succeeded, he'd have still been my friend. You know why, Tony' Because he didn't ask for what happened to him, anymore than she did. Anymore than Nat did. You've got a couple of choices here. You can either take a leap of faith and let her go or kill her. There are no other choices."

"Wait, what?" Tony stared at him, his gaze sliding to Natasha.

The redhead was unmoved. "He's right, Stark," she told him. "You're the one making this a life or death decision. So you have to pull the trigger."

Tony look horrified. It was one thing to play the devil's advocate, but to have someone's life put directly in your hands ....that was quite another thing. "There's always another choice," he shook his head. "She's just a kid, I'm not gonna ....No one is gonna kill her. That's just ....that's all kinds of wrong."

Steve didn't like what he was saying, but in Steve's world, there were no gray areas - it was all black and white. Good or evil. Alive or dead. There were, in fact, other choices they could make, but they'd all lead to the same thing in the end. "Then why not try helping her instead?"

"Help her. Okay, help her." Tony nodded as he started to pace. It was rare to see Tony Stark shaken, but apparently being told that the only surefire way to be safe was to kill a young woman himself was enough to rattle his ego out of its socket for a short while. "Help her how" You want me to make her a suit, or take her golfing" What do we have that could possibly help this kid?"

"We have her file," Steve replied with a frown that was more concerned now than angry. "She just wants to know who she is and why Hydra did this to her. I think once she knows that, she'll make the right decision." And if Steve's gut feeling was right, once she read the information in that file, she'd want to end Hydra as much as they did.

"Okay. Okay, fine, it's your call." There wasn't much grace in it, but Tony had conceded. "First rule - she does not leave this compound at least until we've pulled a few strings and got her a passport."

Behind Steve, Nat snorted with laughter, impressed with how quickly Captain America had short-circuited Ironman out of seeing a problem and into making life easier.

"Agreed," Steve said, glad Tony was finally seeing things clearly. He hadn't wanted to shock him into it, but his words had had the desired effect. He agreed with Tony on that point, anyway. It wouldn't be good for Alyona to be wandering around a strange city on her own without knowing where she was going or what she was going to do. Small steps, and they'd just taken the first one. "She's had breakfast. Ate like she was starving to death," Steve added with a frown, more to himself than anyone else. "She's showering and getting dressed now. And then, I think she'll be ready to talk." He turned to Nat. "I think you should be there for that."

Natasha nodded. "That, I can do," she agreed. "I should change, myself. Tony, you need to sleep. You can't do anything right now, and we're gonna need all faculties when we debrief."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, in a minute," Tony nodded, waving his hand at her absently as he turned back to his work.

"Mr. Stark, may I remind you that you told me to call Miss. Potts, should you fail to take the advice of your teammates?" Jarvis interjected.

Tony scowled. "Seriously?"

Even Steve had to chuckle at that. "Can't argue with yourself, Tony," he remarked, amusement obvious in his voice. He clapped the man on the shoulder. They had their definite differences, but in the end, they eventually seemed to see eye to eye. "Get some rest. Your research will still be here when you wake up," he assured the other man. Steve could go at least another few days without sleep, if need be, and he wanted a chance to take a look at that file before Alyona did.

Tony sighed exaggeratedly. "Fine. Jarvis, keeping running that data stream analysis, and wake me up in a couple of hours," he said eventually, not even acknowledging the computer's agreement. "Look, I'm going. I am going to bed. My lonely, cold, unloving bed."

"Stark."

"Yes, Agent Romanoff?"

"Shut up." Nat laughed, shaking her head at him as he smirked and headed off to his own bedroom. She turned her attention to Steve. "Let me run you through that file before you head back upstairs," she suggested. "It's not good reading, but you want to know, don't you?"

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:02 EST

"Yeah, I do. I need to know what we're dealing with here," he replied, once Tony had left him alone with Nat. He was pretty confident Alyona would stay put for now, so long as they didn't leave her alone for too long. It was still pretty early, and everyone else was still sleeping. They had at least a few hours before they assembled for a briefing.

"C'mon." She jerked her head, stepping out of the lab to lead him to one of the more comfortable rooms on this level.

The mansion was immense - quite why Howard had thought he needed this much space was up for debate, but it had worked out well for them. Natasha lead him into one of the sunrooms, where the view looked out over acres of garden, and gestured for him to look at the file she offered him.

"Alyona Evchenko," she began. "Born December 17, 1994. The only successful result of experimentation involving the injection of something called Serum X-13 into expectant mothers during their first trimester, and the exposure of that mother to both gamma and vita radiation during the course of their pregnancy."

Steve took the file from her, thumbing it open to take a brief look before jerking his head back toward her at something she'd said. "Evchenko," Steve echoed, that name getting his attention. "Gamma rays" The hell were they thinking," he murmured, looking back at her file to skim what was there. Another friend of theirs by the name of Bruce Banner had tinkered with a serum or his own making, along with gamma rays, with disastrous results, though that was a matter of opinion. What the hell was Hydra doing with gamma rays" Steve knew Dr. Erskine had used vita rays, not gamma rays. Were they trying to recreate the effects of the serum or improve upon it"

"The mother, whose name has been redacted and is impossible to trace, displayed signs of telekinesis during the final trimester of her pregnancy," Nat went on. She had virtually memorized the contents of the folder, horrified and fascinated. "She stopped showing any kind of ability after giving birth, and was allowed to nurse her child only until the kid was old enough to wean. Then she was disappears from the files. The kid was transferred to a different facility under the nominal guardianship of her father, Stefanos Evchenko - at that time, a captain within Hydra's elite forces."

Some of the things Alyona had told him were making more sense now, as the Hydra file filled in the blanks of the girl's past. "She said he was sent away when she was six. She didn't know why or what happened to him. She said they had started hurting her, and he had tried to stop them. If he's her father, maybe he was trying to protect her. Makes you wonder what he'd do if he knew she was still alive, doesn't it?"

"He was more than sent away," Nat told him, leaning against the windowsill. "He was demoted, stripped of his awards, and sent to Siberia for re-training. Gotta assume that meant the machine. They updated him on his daughter's progress, purely to keep him loyal."

"But he's never tried to find her?" Steve asked further as he thumbed through the pages, his enhanced mental capacity able to skim the file for important information far faster than a normal human. "What kind of people torture a six year old?" Steve mused aloud, already knowing the answer to that. He'd witnessed it at the Arctic facility first hand, so this was nothing new.

"People whose mind control and mental conditioning techniques are not working," she told him. "They enrolled her in a training program that sounds a lot like the Red Room when she was two years old, shortly after she first started to display signs of telekinesis. I've told you about the Red Room and how that works - it looks as though she didn't respond to any of those techniques, and they kept at it for four years. In 2000, the project leaders decided to ditch the conditioning and work on negative reinforcement - basically, they hurt her every time she did something wrong, or expressed a thought that wasn't in line with what they wanted to hear. They don't seem to have realized that she has more than just T.K. at her fingertips. Tony thinks that she may have a form of neural interfacing ability, and possibly even mental manipulation, and it's those that made her resistant to their mental conditioning."

Steve closed the file and turned to Nat. He didn't need to read anymore. She had already read the file and was telling him everything he needed to know, and the more she told him the angrier he got. The only hint of his anger, the clenching of his jaw and the whitening of his knuckles on the file. "That's also what makes her dangerous," Steve remarked, understanding Tony's concern. If they were right, Alyona possessed more power than even she was aware of. He couldn't help but wonder if Alex possessed some similar abilities, though to a lesser degree. "So, what now?" he asked, honestly wanting to know what Nat thought. Of all of his friends, he valued her opinion the most.

"That's not all that's there," she said quietly. "In 2006, S.H.I.E.L.D. launched a raid on the facility. Somewhere in the midst of all the fighting, they lost her. This eleven-year-old kid got out of the facility, and disappeared. They searched for her, didn't give up their search for six years. And then on November 13th, they caught her trying to get back in. It took seventy of them to take her down, and they kept her contained with a combination of restraints, electric shocks, and heavy sedation. They assigned her for intensive neural scrambling. Steve, she was in the machine for three days before we got there, because they noted that she was proving resistant to it. They weren't trying to brainwash her. They were trying to break her."

Steve sighed, realizing he'd jumped the gun on the information Nat had been giving him, but maybe he'd already guessed the rest; maybe some part of him didn't want to know anymore. He set the file down and moved over to the window beside Nat to gaze at the idyllic scenery that surrounded the mansion. It looked peaceful out there, safe even, but those inside knew it was anything but - not so long as Hydra survived. "I swore I wouldn't rest until Hydra was destroyed," he told her, though this wasn't the first time she was hearing this. "Every last one of them. I'm starting to wonder if that's even possible. It's like a never-ending battle, Nat. I feel like all we're doing is staying one step ahead of them. It feels like everything I've worked so hard for, everything we all worked so hard for didn't matter a damn. What have we accomplished, except to slow them down?"

"You slowed them down," she repeated, glancing up at him. "Without you, who knows where they would be now" They'd still have the Tesseract, they'd still be making weapons based on its technology. Hell, the world would not look like this if you hadn't done what you did back then. And yes, they're pushing the limits today. But we're pushing back, and we're motivated to do it. The fight never ends, Steve. But I'd rather win battles than win the war. The people who win wars seem to turn into the people they defeated to get there."

"I'm never gonna be like them, Nat. I'd rather die first. Thing is, it never ends, does it' What am I supposed to do' My family is in ..." He trailed off as he realized something, his face turning even paler than usual. If Alyona could get into his head, she'd know where to find his family. He turned on a heel without a word, and started toward the door. He had to find out for sure whether his trust had been misplaced or not.

"Steve?" Nat hurried to catch up to him. "What is it, what?s wrong?" She frowned in concern, unused to seeing him quite that openly worried about anything. Of course, she didn't come to the same conclusions as he did. It was conjecture, what Alyona could do, to everyone but Steve, who had asked her directly and been given the answer.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:02 EST

"If she can do what she says she can, she knows about Lucy and the kids," Steve replied, his heart frozen with terror. Had Tony been right for once" Was Steve too trusting, too willing to think the best of everyone" Had he just put his own family in danger because he was worried about the well-being of one messed up kid" He hoped not, but he had to know for sure. He didn't pause or slow down, his long stride taking him right back to Alyona's chambers, hoping to hell she was still there and that his gut instincts hadn't been wrong.

"Shit." That was a succinct summation of the circumstances, in Nat's view. She didn't bother knocking, opening the door to step inside just ahead of Steve.

Alyona jumped, startled by their sudden entrance, her eyes wide and touched with that red glint that warned them she was ready if they planned to attack her. She had showered and changed, her hair still wet as the towel fell from her hands.

Steve followed, right at Nat's heels, knowing they had to go gently or they'd only frighten her, and there was no telling what she might do if she was frightened. He didn't think the girl was a plant, and he didn't think she wanted to hurt anyone, but he had to be sure. "Alyona," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, despite his deepest fears, his face pale, his expression worried. "We're not gonna hurt you," he told her, hands facing upwards in a gesture of non-aggression. "But I need you to know that this isn't just about you or about us. There are innocent lives at stake here. People I care about. People who Hydra would try to hurt, just like they hurt you."

The girl backed up, pressing trembling fingers to her stomach in a motion that seemed practiced, and Nat realized she was preventing herself from attacking them in a manner she must have taught herself. What kind of life had she lived outside Hydra to have learned how to suppress what came most naturally"

As Steve spoke, Alyona looked into his eyes, and after all they had spoken about, he must have known what she was seeing. She gasped, sudden shock appearing on her face as she drew from his mind what had been done to his children by Hydra, and what he had done to save them. "You are afraid for your family," she said, her voice shaking. "That I will betray you to Hydra. I would not do this. No child should live as I did with them. They are so small ..." Her gaze dropped from his, tearful as she considered what his children had been through, how close they had come to being transferred to Sokovia and treated as she had been. "I will not," she promised, frightened now that Steve and his team would throw her away, leave her for Hydra to scoop up and hurt once again. "I will not go to them. Please, do not send me back to them, please."

Steve looked from Alyona to Nat, some unspoken understanding seeming to pass between them, before he turned back to Alyona. "I promised you're safe here and that we'll protect you. We're not gonna send you back to Hydra. You have my word. But I need you to know what?s at stake here and that I will do everything in my power to keep my family safe from Hydra. Everything," he reiterated. It wasn't so much a threat as a promise. There was nothing he hated more than Hydra, and he'd sooner die than put his family in danger again.

Reassured, Nat nodded, backing out of the room to let Steve handle the emotional girl. She needed to put out the call and schedule the briefing, anyway.

"I can help," Alyona offered hopefully. "I can hurt them. They make me, they think I will hurt for them, but I did not. I know things. Before they put the sleep in my blood, I saw things in them. I can show on a map where they have places."

Steve relaxed a little as Nat left them alone, the frown on his face not only worried but remorseful. He hadn't come here to frighten her. It was him who'd been afraid, and he didn't much like the way it felt. "I don't want to force you to help us, Alyona. I meant what I said before. Everyone has choices." His expression softened, an almost sad frown on his face, hating himself for having scared her, but he'd been honest about this being bigger than she was, bigger than all of them. "Please, sit. I swear I'm not here to hurt you."

She sat down abruptly on the edge of the bed, one hand gesturing almost absentmindedly. What she had termed her "red mist" coiled out from her fingers to gather up the towel she had dropped and bring it back to her grasp, to allow her to continue drying her hair as she looked at Steve worriedly. "I know you do not wish to hurt me," she assured him. "I am afraid, but not of you. I have been afraid for almost all my life. I am tired of it."

He reclaimed the chair he'd been sitting in before and turned it to face her, not wanting to loom over her and seem like he was trying to intimidate her. "We can help you. We can help each other, but it won't be easy, and it will be dangerous. I can promise you our protection, our resources. We can teach you how to defend yourself, how to hone your abilities. Whether you choose to help us or not, Hydra won't stop looking for you. As far as they're concerned, they created you and you belong to them. It's up to you to choose what you want to do with your life, Alyona. You can run away and hide and be afraid for the rest of your life, or you can choose to stand and fight for what you believe in. Fight to stop them from hurting others the way they hurt you. The choice is yours. You're the only one who can make it."

She held his gaze as he spoke, squeezing the water from her hair automatically. "I did choose," she said quietly. "I thought that, in going to find out who my parents are, I was taking control of me and fighting back against Hydra. My family did not want me to go, they ....they do not want anything to do with me because I decided to go. They do not want to be in danger, and I agree with them. But they let me keep their name." She almost smiled before resuming her worried expression. "Hydra hurt me. They frighten people that I love. I want to hurt them. I want them to stop, and I want the people who are afraid of them to be safe. Can I do that, here?"

"You can ....eventually. For starters, you can tell us everything you know about Hydra. Where their bases are, who they're connected to; but for now, you should just worry about getting better." He paused a moment, realizing Nat had thought to bring the file along, his gaze drifting to where she'd left it on a table. "You might want to take a look at that, but you won't like what you read there. You don't have to decide anything today. Wait until you've read through the file. Then we'll talk about it again." As far as her family was concerned, they were right to be afraid, but maybe they could help with that, too.

She followed his gaze to the file, wincing a little as she picked up on what he had thought when he had skimmed through it. But then, she had known it would not be pretty. "Thank you," she nodded to him, grateful for his reassurances. "I will tell you everything I know. Everything I think was real from what I saw in their heads." She glanced toward the window, vague hope rising on her face. "This is America, you said. New York. I would ....I would like to see it. You have a stately empire house here, yes?"

Steve actually chuckled at the question. Apparently, she didn't know everything about him or hadn't dug that deeply when she'd touched his mind. "No, this place isn't mine. It belongs to Tony Stark. You might know him as Ironman. Silly, isn't it' All the aliases. Everyone knows who he is, and he still hides behind an alias." He didn't say anything about showing her around, not yet, but it would come in time.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:03 EST

"Nu, ah ....no, I mean ..." She shook her head, a little embarrassed by her fumbling with the language. "This is a nice house, but the stately empire ....it has spike, yes" Like big finger in the sky?" She pointed helpfully. "In movies. Is it real?"

"Oh, you mean Stark Tower," he said, unsure just how much he should tell her, but these were all things that were easily learned without his help. All she had to do was turn on the television or pick up a newspaper. "Would you prefer another language?" he asked, noting the slight difficulty she was having with English. "My Sokovian isn't very good, but I'm pretty fluent in Russian."

She shook her head and, for the first time, smiled a little shyly, still struggling a little with making herself clear. "No, I not see Stark Tower in movies. You know" In all the old movies, the big tower that is ....Ah! Empire State!" She looked triumphant at having finally got it right.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, laughing at his own misunderstanding. Enhanced or not, he was not infallible. "The Empire State Building, yeah. It has a nice view, but I think you might like the Statue of Liberty better. Or at least, what it stands for," he suggested, visibly relaxing now that they weren't talking about Hydra or any threat to either of their families. "Maybe I'll take you sightseeing sometime," he suggested further, but that sometime wouldn't be now. Not yet, not until he could be sure it was safe enough to do that, for both of them.

"I-I would like that," she nodded, her eyes hopeful as she looked at him. "I see all these things in movies and now I am here. I would like to see them for myself. But I will do my job, too. First."

An uncomfortable pause settled between them for a moment before Steve had another thought. "You like pizza?" he asked, unsure if she'd ever had any before. "People here in the States seem to prefer either New York or Chicago style. I gotta say I'm partial to New York style myself. You wanna give it a try later?"

There was a pause as she considered this, trying her best not to pick the information out of his mind but to respond naturally. "What is pizza?" she asked curiously. "It looks like, in your mind, it looks like l"ngos, but not l"ngos. Is it good?"

"No," he replied with another chuckle. "It's not l"ngos. It just looks like l"ngos. And you should try to stay out of my head," he teased, waggling a finger at her, but not looking at all angry - almost amused, if anything. "It's pizza dough, topped with tomato sauce and ....You'll just have to try it."

"I am sorry." She dropped her gaze guiltily. "I do not know how not to look. And it is rude not to look in people's eyes so ....I do not know. I am sorry, I will try not to do it again." She bit her lip, the towel dropping from her hand into her lap as she seemed to fold in on herself, still very much a child in some ways.

"It's okay, Alyona. I'm not angry. It's who you are, and I understand how hard it must be for you not to do something that's become like second nature to you. It would be like asking me to ..." He trailed off as a thought came to him. "Would you mind if I tried something?" he asked tentatively.

She didn't look up, ashamed of herself for looking into his mind without his permission. "I-I do not mind," she nodded, wanting to be agreeable, not wanting to disappoint anyone or upset them. She could see she was going to have a lot of trouble with that here.

He knew what he had in mind wouldn't be practical really, but he wanted to see what would happen. "Close your eyes," he told her. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything to you. I just want to see what happens when you can't see me."

Obediently, she closed her eyes, drawing her knees up to her chin once again to wrap her arms about her legs. It seemed to be the position she felt safest in, curled in and over on herself, as though she had the most control when she could barely move. "I do not know what you mean, when I cannot see you?"

"I'm gonna think of something and I want to see if you can see it in my head, without opening your eyes. Without looking at me. Okay?" he asked her. It wasn't an experiment exactly, but he'd noticed how she tended to look into his eyes before she read his mind, and it made him curious.

She nodded. "I understand." For good measure, she lowered her face into the cradle made by her knees against her chest, shutting vision down completely. Even if she opened her eyes, she wouldn't be able to look at him without moving her head.

He waved a hand in front of her to make sure she wasn't peeking, before closing his own eyes to concentrate on a visual of something in his mind. He wanted it to be something they'd both be familiar with and that she'd recognized easily so he picked a type of fruit - a bunch of cherries. "Okay, I'm thinking of something. See if you can see it in my head."

There was a pause. When she spoke, she sounded almost panicked. "I can't ....I can't see you! Your mind is gone!" Wild eyed, she looked up, seeking out his face to make sure that she hadn't lost her ability entirely just because he tried something with her.

He smiled as he opened his eyes, reaching over to take hold of her hands. "It's okay, Alyona. I'm still here. Just testing a theory. It seems you have to look at someone to read their thoughts. That opens up two possibilities ....Either we figure out a way to block you from reading people's thoughts when you don't want to, or we teach you to control it. I'm leaning toward the latter, but that will take time. Maybe Tony can rig something up for now that will shield you from others. People don't generally take very kindly to other people getting inside their heads without permission," he explained.

She clung to his hands, her haunted eyes searching his to reassure herself. At least he could be sure that what she read in his mind did not go any further unless he asked her about it, and she had been very open about her ability in the first place. "I know this," she assured him sincerely. "I-I do not speak of what I see. But you asked me a question, and I did not have an answer, and ....I said something I should not have. I will not do it again."

"What did you say that you shouldn't have?" he asked, arching a blond brow in curiousity. So far, she hadn't said anything he'd taken any offense to, though it had scared the hell out of him when he'd realized she had to know about Lucy and the kids. How deep she'd read those thoughts, he wasn't sure, but at least, she'd assured him she'd never hurt them, and so long as she stayed away from Hydra, he believed her.

"I-I said that ....that I had seen it in your mind, and if I had not, you would not be angry with me now," she explained sadly, drawing her hands back from his. "I will not make that mistake again."

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:03 EST

"What makes you think I'm angry' I'm not," he replied, wondering just how much she could read. She was obviously not an empath, as it seemed she could not read his feelings, only what he was thinking.

"You do not want me in your mind, you said you do not want me there, and I cannot stop myself, so you must be angry with me." And despite knowing that he would not hurt her, she was still braced, however subtly, for the punishment that some part of her expected for her wrongdoing.

"Alyona, I am not angry with you. I understand that for you this is normal. It's instinct. It's what you've been taught and trained to do. That's why you need to learn how to control it, or to block it when you don't need to use it." He paused a moment and sighed, as he leaned back in his chair. "Tell me what happens when you are with your family. Can you control it or does it happen all by itself" Is it like ....like hearing thoughts that aren't your own?"

"I ..." She stopped herself, seeming confused by the question. It was something she had never been asked. Her adopted family had simply accepted it as a part of her, never asking how it worked or whether she could control it. She needed a moment to find the words. "When I look into someone's eyes, I see pictures," she tried to explain. "Thoughts, they are not in words often. They do not use language. When you came here, afraid for your family, I could see them in your mind. The picture was ....colored, with your love and your fear. That is how I read what I see. Sometimes there are words, names usually, names that are connected with a face or a place. I cannot feel emotion from someone else, but I see it as colors in the pictures. I know when someone is lying to me - when someone tells a lie, they must concentrate on what they don't want you to know, but I can see it in my own mind." She sighed, shaking her head. "It is difficult to explain. It has always happened, even since I was small. I thought everyone could do it, until I left Hydra."

Steve listened, quietly considering her words for a moment before replying. "I could be wrong, but it's possible you already possessed latent telepathic abilities, which Hydra then developed and expanded on. That's the theory anyway. Like myself, I was already born with a desire to ....to do the right thing ....and when I was given the serum, it not only increased that desire, but the mental and physical capacity to achieve that desire. It's hard to explain, too," he added with a small frown. "But I don't think Hydra made you a telepath; they only enhanced the abilities you already possessed, if that makes sense."

"But I will never know that," she pointed out with a gentle shrug. "The captain, the kind one ....he told me that I could move things with my mind because my mother let them give her something when she was pregnant with me. They made me, Captain Rogers. But they do not own me."

"The captain," Steve echoed thoughtfully. He knew something she didn't regarding that man. It was all in the file he'd handed her, but should he warn her ahead of time or let her find out on her own" "No, they don't own you," he agreed, realizing the same was true for himself. The SSR might have created him, but that didn't mean S.H.I.E.L.D. owned him. He'd paid that debt a long time ago. "You haven't figured it out yet, have you?" he asked gently.

She raised her eyes to his, a sad smile touching her lips. "I do not need to," she said quietly. She didn't add anything further, but her meaning was clear - she had seen the truth about the one good man in her early childhood in his thoughts, but obedient to Steve's wish for her not to be so obvious about it, she hadn't said a word. A troubled look washed over her features. "Sir ....am, am I strange" Am I ....am I too different to everyone else?"

Steve smiled reassuringly at her question, wondering if she had any idea how ironic it was for her to be asking him that, here at Avengers Mansion, where everyone who walked through the door was different, in one way or another. "No stranger than me or my kids. Mind if I tell you a story?"

She shook her head gently, resting her chin on her knees. "I like to hear you speak," she confessed in a soft voice. "You have a gentleness in your voice, a calmness that makes me feel safe. Your wife, your children ....they are very lucky to have you in their lives, captain."

His smile deepened and warmed with a faint, slightly embarrassed blush to his cheeks. "I'm the lucky one to have them, Alyona," he pointed out. He was sure that if it hadn't been for Lucy, he'd have still been alone. His family was what made everything worthwhile, what gave his life meaning. "Two of my kids are adopted. They're special, like you are. We found them when we raided a Hydra facility in the Arctic, and ..." He shrugged. "They had no parents, no family, so we asked if they'd like to be part of our family. Our children by choice. I never thought I'd be a father. I never even considered it before. But they're everything to me. It doesn't matter if they're different. Maybe I love them more because they're different. I don't know. All I know is I can't stand by and do nothing while Hydra hurts people. You're one of those people, Alyona. That's why you're here."

She listened as he spoke, sensing that perhaps he needed to say it all aloud almost more than he needed her to hear him say it at all. She knew he was sincere, that he truly believed in what he was saying, and that, in turn, gave her courage to offer something a little more concrete than the vague assurances she had given him thus far. "There is a another, like me," she said softly. "Not like me, but someone Hydra has hurt. I saw him, in their minds. They wanted to break my will, so that they could use me to restrain him. I do not know exactly where he is, but the name ....Petrov ....was there, in their minds. He is ....frozen."

Steve arched a brow. While he knew there were likely others like Alyona out there somewhere, they didn't have much intel on where yet. Maybe that was something she could help them with. "Petrov," he echoed, mulling the name over. He hadn't heard that name mentioned yet. It might be one to check with his contacts at the CIA. "You said something before about knowing where some of their bases are." This wasn't an interrogation, but he wasn't about to waste an opportunity to glean further information about Hydra.

She nodded. "If I see a map, I can show you," she promised. "I do not know the names. I saw the map in their thoughts, nothing more." One hand gripped her damp hair as she frowned, knowing it was not much help, on the whole. "Siberia was a name that scared them. I saw it in their minds, it was where they wanted to send me. Petrov ....if he is anywhere in the places I can find, he will be there."

"You think he's in Siberia?" Steve asked, not quite following her train of thought. "Alyona, have you ever tried to use your abilities the other way around" I mean, have you ever tried to put your own thoughts in someone else's head?"

She looked shocked by that suggestion. "Nu ....no, never," she said vehemently. "It is bad enough that I see someone's thoughts without their permission. Would it not be terrible if I could influence their minds as well?"

"Not influence so much as share ....with their permission. I'm wondering, Alyona, if you could show me what you know about Hydra. Maybe I can make some sense of it." He knew it was taking a chance, but he had a gut feeling about Alyona. She was little more than a kid herself, scared and alone, and he was hoping not only to gain her trust, but learn more about Hydra.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:04 EST

"I ....I have never tried," she said uncertainly. But he was asking her to try, and that was very different from the orders she had been given by the people he wanted to stop. "I ....May I touch you?" She offered him her hand tentatively, a worried frown on her face.

"I trust you, Alyona," Steve assured her, offering her a hand. In his mind, the only difference between her and his children was the fact that she was a few years older - and he truly wanted to help her if he could.

Her fingers brushed over his, somehow needing that contact as she looked into his eyes with a strange intensity. Very slowly, the crimson color that identified her power being used made itself known in the blue of her irises, even as her eyes narrowed, every bit of her concentration exerted on this one thing. And briefly, in spurts and stops, images entered Steve's mind. Of ballet shoes that hurt. Of stern faces giving lessons. Of hands raised to strike, and the fear that came with them. Alyona let out an explosive breath, the crimson fading as she blinked in confusion. "Did it ....it work?"

Thankfully, these were images Steve saw, but didn't feel. It was almost like watching a film, watching as bits and pieces of her life played out before him. His expression was one of compassion and concern, but not pity. He knew better than to pity her, though he could certainly sympathize, knowing some of what his own children had suffered though. "Yes," he replied quietly as the images faded, his heart aching for what she had suffered at Hydra's hands, more determined than ever to keep people safe from their influence. "Can you show me what you know about Hydra?" he prompted further, though he knew this might take longer than a single session.

"I-I can try." She bit her lip, taking a firmer hold on his hand, and scowled fiercely, devoting her entire consciousness to doing as he had asked. It was surprisingly difficult to project into his mind, far more difficult than anything she had done before. Slowly, though, in dribs and drabs, the image of a map was built up in his mind, some parts of it hazy and others bright. What appeared to be bases were signified by red marks - few and far between, and the one that was clearest was obviously in Siberia. It was also the smallest, but that did not necessarily signify anything.

It wasn't difficult for Steve to memorize that map once he'd seen it and studied it for a few minutes. He'd draw up a duplicate when he had a chance later, but for now, no one needed to know that the information was as safe in his head as it was in Alyona's. Safer, since it couldn't be lost or stolen or shared in any way, without someone else trying to get into his head. "Good," he murmured his encouragement, before opening his eyes and gently breaking contact. "Very good, Alyona," he praised her with another smile. So, she was capable of more than just reading thoughts; she could share them, too, both receptor and transmitter. "That's enough for today. You should get some rest. I'll introduce you to the team later, and you can tell me what you think of pizza."

Allowed to release the image, she gasped for breath, raising her hands to her head as she panted. Though it was purely mental effort, it seemed to take as much out of her as physical exertion would. "It hurts," she admitted reluctantly, pressing her palms to her temples as she frowned. "Did I help" I-I did something right?"

"I'm sorry," Steve said with a concerned frown. Tony had accused him of caring too much, of wanting to adopt every stray that needed taking care of. Maybe he was right, but Alyona wasn't a stray. She was a human being who'd been lost and alone for too long, and Steve knew a little of what that felt like. Besides, she had a father of her own who just might be interested to know what had become of his daughter. "I didn't mean to hurt you, but yes, you did. You helped a lot."

"Good." She managed a tiny smile, but it was obvious that she had pushed herself a little too far trying to be as useful to him as she could be. It would take time and practise before she would be able to project her thoughts into someone else's mind without giving herself a migraine.

"Is there anything I can get you before I let you get some sleep" There should be some aspirin in the bathroom," he told her, though it was unclear how he knew she had a headache coming on. Perhaps it was just her body language, or perhaps he'd sensed it when she'd connected with him.

"What is azz-prin?" she asked, her frown deepening as confusion added to the growing ache in her head. She knew he was trying to help, but she did not have the first idea what he was talking about.

There was that frown again, surprised that she had no idea as to something as basic as aspirin. "Stay here. I'll get it for you," he said, getting up from the chair and going to the bathroom. "It's a pain reliever. Completely safe. It won't make you drowsy or anything. It will just help with the headache," he explained from there as he checked the medicine cabinet for aspirin.

She knew relatively little about the things he took for granted. Perhaps one day she would tell him about the strange, nomadic existence she had lead after her break from Hydra, and perhaps not. The past had lead her back to Hydra, and through them, to this place, where people were kind and did not expect more of her than she could give. A future here could be better than any other she might have hoped for. "It is medicine, yes" Like willow bark?"

"Yeah, well ..." He chuckled a little to himself. "I'm not too sure about willow bark, but yeah. It's medicine." He came back out of the bathroom with a glass of water and two little white pills in his hand. "Do you trust me, Alyona?" he asked her, knowing she might not trust his intentions or what he was giving her, but she had been in his head and he had been in hers. He knew some of what she'd suffered, and she knew he wanted to help.

She opened her eyes, meeting his gaze honestly, despite her aching head and her natural wariness of the entire situation. "I trust you," she nodded carefully. "I have no reason not to trust you." She looked down at the pills on his hand curiously. "Do I chew them?"

"No," he replied, a hint of amusement at her question, perhaps even fondness. She was like a child, in a lot of ways, and he was ever patient. "You can, but I wouldn't recommend it. They taste terrible. Just put one on your tongue and swallow it whole with a sip of water."

Tentatively, she picked up one of the pills, doing as he told her to swallow it whole, before repeating the process with the other one. She grimaced at the strange feeling of a tablet working its way down to her stomach. "That is ....strange."

"It's a hell of a lot better than having a headache," he told her, with a bit of a chuckle. "You're safe here. Get some rest. I'll be back later, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded very carefully once again, letting her boots drop to the floor as she laid down on the bed, curled up tightly once more. A moment later, she raised her head and threw one of the pillows out from under herself, settling down more comfortably to close her eyes. If that wasn't a measure of trust, then nothing was.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:04 EST

To his credit, he drew the blanket up over her, like he might do to one of his own children, but he didn't kiss her on the cheek or offer any words of affection. In time, if he got to know her better, he might, but not yet. She had a father of her own, and he had his own children. She was, in all actuality, not much younger than he was, if you didn't count the years he'd been in the deep freeze. Well, he'd never really had a little sister, unless you counted Liv. "Jarvis," he was heard saying as he stepped toward the door, his voice not much more than a whisper. "Make sure no one disturbs her sleep, will you?" he asked, knowing that request would likely go back to Tony, but he didn't really care. The girl needed rest, not interrogation.

As though mimicking that desire not to disturb the young woman, Jarvis' response was muted. "Certainly, Captain Rogers. Mr. Stark is sleeping, also. Ms. Romanoff is in the library, and Agents Wilson and Barton are in the kitchen. I understand Mr. Storm intends to return for the night before making a decision on his next destination."

"Thanks, Jarvis," Steve replied politely, as though he was talking to an actual person and not an artificial intelligence or whatever Jarvis was exactly. He sometimes wished he'd actually met the man upon whom Tony had based his creation. "Could you let Wilson and Barton know pizza is on the menu for dinner" I'll be joining Romanoff in the library." "As you wish, Captain Rogers. I will alert you when Mr. Stark wakes." And in that sentence was proof positive that Jarvis knew his creator better than anyone. Tony was likely to wake up and go straight to Alyona's room, to make his mind up for himself in the hope that no one would stop him. For now, however, he was asleep, and that left Steve to navigate the male banter in the kitchen before getting to the library to join Natasha. She had commandeered the screen on the wall to show the data she was working on, the large desk cleared and covered with a map of Russia and the Balkans as she attempted to tie the two together into some kind of coherent pattern.

"I'd offer you coffee, tea, or me, but I'm already taken," Steve as he joined Nat in the library, juggling a tray with coffee and tea fixings, as well as some sandwiches Barton had insisted on tossing together for them. Who would have thought that the man known as Hawkeye was so good in the kitchen" But then, few knew him as the family man that he secretly was. Steve set the tray on a table, so as not to disturb whatever Nat was working on. "How's Siberia this time of year?" he asked, as nonchalantly as he could.

Nat snorted with laughter at his entrance, looking up from her fierce study of the map in front of her. She'd finally changed her clothes, and it looked as though she'd showered as well, back to her usual persona after the stress of the past twenty-four hours. "I like my men under a hundred, old man," she informed him in amusement, setting her pen down to turn and help herself from the tray. Coffee was definitely necessary today. His nonchalant question made her look up at him sharply. "Cold," was her succinct answer. "Why, what did you do?"

Unlike Steve, who'd yet to change or shower. At least, he was no longer in full uniform anymore, and the shield had been put away for safe keeping. No longer clad in star-spangled colors, but in a muted shade of blue. Even so, he looked like he'd even hardly broken a sweat since the previous night. "Just barely, actually." He didn't bother to point out that he was technically still in his twenties, or had been when he'd been frozen. He didn't really think the nearly seventy years spent on ice should count, considering he hadn't experience them, but he never bothered to argue the fact. "Barton tells me that's your favorite sandwich, whatever it is," he informed her as he picked up one for himself and took a peek at what was hiding between the two slices of bread. "Had a conversation with Alyona," he replied coolly.

The redhead smirked at the mention of her favorite sandwich, hoping Clint had spared Steve's version the decidedly odd combination of flavors he only knew about because he'd been privileged to witness her making a meal while drunk once. She sipped her coffee, leaning one hip against the table as she considered Steve. "Must have been some conversation," she mused, raising one brow curiously over her cup.

"Oh, it was," Steve replied, deciding the sandwich was at least edible, even if it wasn't entirely recognizable to him and taking a bite. After a moment during which he determined the sandwich was tasty, as well, he continued. "Seems she's got a map of Hydra locations in her head, and she learned there's another enhanced being kept on ice somewhere in Siberia." He searched the map a moment before pointing to a spot inside Russia where Alyona seemed to believe the Hydra base was located. "Right about there. Can we pull that up on satellite?"

"Huh." Natasha was already moving, tapping commands into a tablet laid near her hand. "Satellite is moving, should be pulling up pictures in about five minutes," she told him, taking up her own sandwich to take a healthy bite. "How do you know where this base is, Steve" You didn't take a map up there with you, and you didn't bring one down."

"Promise you won't blow a gasket?" he asked, needing her reassurance where that was concerned. He had a feeling she'd understand what he'd done and why, but the other team members might not, especially Mr. Stark.

"You worried I'm gonna go for you like I did on the jet?" she countered in amusement. She knew better than him that sometimes the situation called for unorthodox methods, but she couldn't help being slightly pleased that he was worried she might not approve of what she suspected he had done. "C'mon, what?s the worst I'll do' Tell on you to Jarvis?"

"I'm not sure I'd win that fight," he admitted with a smirk. "And I'm pretty sure Jarvis already knows," he added, though that didn't mean he'd blab to Tony, unless Tony asked him to. "I saw it in her head," he explained simply, before finishing off one half of the sandwich.

"Okay." She studied him for a moment, wiping her lower lip clean with her little finger rather than put the sandwich down as she chewed. "Gonna expand on that, or am I guessing?" She was going to make him say it; after all, if he managed to say it to her, he'd be in a better position to defend that action from Tony.

"She saw into my mind, Nat. I just asked to see if she could do the reverse and let me see into hers," he explained, as simply and bluntly as before without going into too much detail. It had been his choice to make and his risk to take, and it had been a calculated one. His mind was stronger than most; it would have taken a lot more than Alyona's abilities to break him.

"Wow, you're breaking all the rules today, huh?" was Natasha's sardonic response to his simple explanation. She didn't disapprove, though. "So she's got the potential to be a true telepath, then. What did she show you?"

"It was all kind of jumbled," he replied, recalling what he'd seen of Alyona's life with a sympathetic frown. "Bits and pieces of things. You know more than I do what Hydra's capable of, what they did to her. What they don't know is that while they were trying to indoctrinate her, they inadvertently revealed some of their secrets. Names, places. The base in Siberia isn't the only one she knows of." He paused a moment, the frown turning worried. "Do me a favor and keep this between us for now" I'll tell the others in my own time, but I don't want anyone jumping to conclusions." And he wanted to be sure the information was good and not something Hydra had purposely planted in Alyona's mind in case she fell into the wrong hands.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:05 EST

"Secret's safe with me, Steve, you know that." Licking her fingers clean, Nat glanced up at the screen. "Let's take a look at this location - satellite in range in three, two, one ..." The screen flickered, showing an aerial view of the snow-blasted plains of Siberia. No trees to protect anyone or anything, and at first sight, nothing that needed to be protected. But something caught Nat's eye. "Magnifying," she said thoughtfully, tapping the command into the tablet, and a moment later, the picture zoomed in on what might have been a natural outcrop of rock. Except ...."Does that look like a surface to air defense cannon to you?"

"Sure as hell doesn't look like anything natural. Not in that location," Steve replied, leaning over Nat's shoulder to take a look for himself. "Can we get a drone out there to take a closer look?" he ventured, not wanting to take a chance at Hydra knowing they were poking around at any possible locations. If they were lucky, Hydra would think Alyona had been killed when they blew up the facility she was being kept in. It was another reason they had to keep her under wraps for now.

"You really want to take that risk?" Nat asked him warily. "If that base is active, they'll have radar and ladar at the very least. The second Hydra thinks this base is under scrutiny, they'll start dismantling and moving on."

"We need to get a better look, Nat. We need to be sure," Steve reasoned, though there were other ways of accomplishing that. He'd come to her first because he trusted her and he trusted her judgment. He also needed an ally in case anyone disagreed with him on this.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Let me call in a favor," she suggested. "Give me a few minutes. If it's possible, we shouldn't get noticed at all." She pulled her cell from her pocket, dialing a number too fast to follow, and proceeded to hold a conversation in quick Russian as she considered the aerial view on the screen. "Da, da ....Ya budu zhdat'. Spasibo." Hanging up, she turned back to Steve with a slightly shifty look on her face. "Give it a couple of minutes."

He knew enough Russian to have followed her conversation a little, but it had been too fast for him to catch it all. "Do I wanna know?" he asked, a small smirk on his face, knowing she had some connections that even he couldn't touch. In the meantime, while she'd been on the phone, he'd finished off the rest of his sandwich and washed it down with a cup of straight black coffee.

"Well, if he can swing it, we're about to get a look inside that base," the redhead told him, without even a glimmer of smugness on her face. She'd only tell him how it was done if he asked. Protecting her sources and her contacts was something Natasha Romanoff did extremely well.

"I won't ask," Steve said, trusting Natasha enough that he didn't need to know where or how she obtained her information, so long as it was used for the right reasons, and he hoped this was one of them.

The screen flashed above them, drawing their attention back to the view of the base from above, which abruptly changed to a multiple split screen showing several laboratories and computer rooms. "Impressive," Nat murmured, moving closer to get a better look. "That looks pretty active to me. We're only going to have this view for a few minutes before he gets thrown out of the system."

"See if he can find someone called Petrov. He'd be an enhanced, like Alyona, but possibly kept on ice." It was probably a little like looking for a needle in a haystack, but they had to start somewhere. "Also, ways in and ways out." Steve knew it was a lot to ask, but they needed to make the most of the few minutes they had.

"Steve, this is internal surveillance, he can't pinpoint people - did you say Petrov?" Nat's head snapped around to look at him. "Nicholai Petrov" He's in this place?" She resumed her examination of the screen, and reached up, pointing to the middle right hand shot. "Cryo-suite. Under guard. Why the hell would they have guards inside a cryo-suite?"

"I didn't get a first name. You know him?" Steve asked, brows arching upwards. It hadn't occurred to him that she might know the man Alyona claimed was being kept on ice, but nothing really surprised him anymore, especially where Nat was concerned. "Because they either don't want certain people getting in or getting out," Steve replied, stating the obvious.

"Or they don't have confidence in their cryo-technology," she added thoughtfully. "Or ....No, that would make sense." She glanced at Steve. "Nicholai Petrov was a legend in the K.G.B. when I was training. More successful ops than I had during his tenure. Rumor had it that he was put on ice when the threat level was lowered, but there were suggestions that he was unstable. If that's him on ice, then it might not be a good idea to wake him up."

"I think maybe the question you should be asking yourself is if that is a Hydra facility, why is he there" What do they want with him' And why are they keeping him on ice?" he countered. "How long ago did he disappear?" Steve asked further. Once they were done with their illicit tour of the Siberian facility, they could dig a little further into the case file of Nicholai Petrov, but first things first.

"Mid-60's," she shrugged, her eyes scanning the other rooms that were shown on the screen. "Threat level was low enough by then not to need a specialized operative like him. There ....doesn't that look like a laboratory manufacturing something like a serum?" She pointed again, and again. "And there ....that's an animal testing lab. I'd say we're looking at the main serum development base."

"Mid-60s?" Steve echoed. "He's gonna have a lot of catching up to do." But not quite as much as he'd had to do when he'd been found in the Arctic and thawed out. Steve's gaze followed her finger, taking in what they were both seeing and reaching the same conclusion. They'd seen enough of them, after all. "I'd say we're looking at our next target."

She nodded, her eyes drawn back to the cryo-suite in the moments before the screen flickered back to the live aerial feed from the satellite. Turning green eyes to Steve, she raised a brow. "We need to know more about that base. We need to tap Evchenko."

"Nat, Evchenko is Alyona's father," Steve said, though Nat already knew that from the file she'd shared with him and that he'd left for Alyona. The web was slowly becoming more tangled. "We're gonna have to bring the CIA into this."

"And with Alyona around, the CIA have the leverage to get his attention," she pointed out, moving back to the desk. "We need to take our time over the recon on this. It's a major hub. We need to know the layout, and we need all the help we can get."

"Agreed," Steve replied as he refilled his coffee. He didn't really need the caffeine to stay awake and alert; he just liked the taste of it. "So, what?s our next step?" he asked, wondering if they were on the same page. He knew they needed to de-brief the rest of the team and maybe even decide who was going to be a part of this going forward.

Steve Rogers · Date: 2016-11-22 21:06 EST

"We can't do anything until we have better information," Nat said thoughtfully. "I think the CIA and MI6 - those we have - are going to have to go digging for us. They can't tap Evchenko too soon and risk him reporting back, and if we hold him anywhere, Hydra won't trust him when he goes back to them. Dammit, we could really use S.H.I.E.L.D.'s contacts right about now."

"I was thinking the same thing, but we do have a few contacts inside S.H.I.E.L.D. we can trust," he pointed out. Agent Croft, for one. Possibly Maria Hill. Maybe even Director Fury, so long as he didn't blab to the Council. If there was anyone Steve didn't trust, it was the Council.

She sighed, rubbing a hand through her short hair. "All right, so we go to the people we trust, and trust them to get it right," she said, putting things together aloud. "If we're lucky, they'll be able to get everything we need, and Evchenko can be our confirmation. We should get Stark and Richards working on a way to shut down all electronics in that base and wipe all data in the same moment. We can't risk any of it getting out of there. And I know you don't like it, but we can't risk any of the personnel getting out, either. This team needs to be ready to kill."

"Scientists don't generally share their secrets with grunts, Nat," Steve reminded her, though he knew she had a point. "We've already wiped out two of their bases. They have to know we're onto them. If they're smart, they'll increase security, which will only make it harder for us." But this was war, and casualties were inevitable. "How close is that base to any civilian populations?"

"It's Siberia, Steve," she pointed out. "It's the most isolated place on the planet, pretty much." She frowned, considering him. "Are you thinking air strike?"

"No, our relations with the Russians are tenuous, as it is. If we order an air strike inside their air space, for whatever reason, that could be interpreted as a declaration of war," he reasoned. "No, this has to be completely covert. Make it look like a terrorist attack maybe."

"Stealth tech and infiltration, then," she said, considering things for a moment. "We'd need an extraction team standing by. Can't risk a quick response discovering Flameboy when he's weakened." She flashed Steve a sardonic smirk. "I assume that's your plan, seeing as the kid is a walking nuke when he wants to be."

Steve frowned, despite Nat's grin. The whole thing was risky, and the truth was he was starting to wonder if it was worth risking the people he cared about to stop an old enemy that seemed impossible to destroy for good. "I don't really like using him that way," Steve admitted. He'd leave it up to Johnny to decide, but he had a feeling he already knew what his answer would be.

Natasha crossed her arms, looking him dead in the eye. "Steve, if you had a choice, you wouldn't let any of us come with you on any mission," she told him firmly. "But we're as invested in this as you are. The kids that Hydra hurt, they're Johnny's kids, too. He has as much reason as you do to want to see them ended."

"I know that, Nat. That's just it. If anything happens to Johnny, I gotta live with that." Did he really have to explain to her how many friends he'd lost already? How he'd failed to save Bucky during a similar mission all those years ago.

"And if Hydra save their data and relocate, because we went in guns blazing and tipped them off to the danger?" she countered. "We all know what we're signed up for here, Steve. You can't protect all of us. At some point, you're going to have to trust that we can look after ourselves and have your back, too."

"It would be easier just to nuke the place, you know, but we can't have it looking like an act of war," he said. "We also have to be sure they don't catch wind of us coming and transfer the data elsewhere. We need someone on the inside."

"Which brings us back to Evchenko," she reminded him. "We have time to think all this over, while the intel is gathered. I can brief Hill and Croft, they'll pass on what?s necessary." She glanced at the screen behind her, where the data had returned to fill the monitor. "I wonder ..." She raised the tablet, and her search showed up on the screen. Petrov, Nicholai. And there it was ....the man's file, there to be read by anyone. Nat's lips quirked slightly. "You might wanna read that."

Steve glanced to the name on the screen and quirked a curious brow at her. "You read it yet?" he asked, wondering if she knew something he didn't.

She shook her head. "I didn't even know he might be in the data before you mentioned his name," she pointed out. "I'll definitely read it, though. One thing, Steve." She turned to face him. "I have to know. I was trained by the KGB, like he was. I ran missions for them, killed people, like he did. So why am I a victim in your eyes, but he isn't?"

Steve furrowed his brows, not expecting that question. His knee-jerk reaction was to point out that she was his friend, but she hadn't always been his friend. In fact, they'd only known each other a few years. Who was he to condemn a perfect stranger to death when he didn't know the first thing about him' "I'll read the file," he told her, making no promises either way, though he got her point.

"That's all I'm asking," she assured him, glad he was at least thinking about certain things now. "I'll go brief the intelligence crew. We can get the sleepers up in a couple of hours, make sure no one ends up turned around unnecessarily. Try to rest a bit, okay' Even Captain America gets ratty when he misses his zz's."

"Nat ..." he said, needing to ask her something before she left him alone with his research and his own thoughts. "I've always seen everything as black and white. Good and evil. No shades of gray. I've always tried to do the right thing. I don't want to put my friends' lives at risk for someone who might prove a liability, but I can't in good conscience condemn someone to death who might be a victim of Hydra either."

She paused, looking him in the eye. "Then maybe it's time you noticed that not all of us are black and white," she said gently. "I've never been anything but shades of gray. I was a shadow, and shadows don't happen unless something is hidden from the light. But you never condemned me for what I've done, and it's not because I need protecting. Maybe you do see the gray. You just don't notice it."

"Maybe," he admitted, claiming a seat at the desk to look over the file awaiting him on the tablet. Things seemed a lot simpler in his own day. Things were more black and white then, more cut and dry. Decisions were easier. Hydra was the enemy and anyone opposed to or a victim of Hydra was an ally. Maybe that hadn't changed so much, after all. "Thanks, Nat. You're a good friend. Shadow or not," he offered a smile, knowing she'd walk through fire for him if he asked her to, and he'd do the same for her. It wasn't anything they'd ever talked about; it was just something he knew.

She patted his shoulder. "You're getting there, old man," she smiled. "Say hi to your family for me." He hadn't said as much, but she knew he would be itching to speak to his wife very soon. With luck, he'd be in a better position to think once he'd cleared his head with some family time. For now, though, she had her orders, and she was going to pass them on. And then ....they were just going to have to wait for those orders to bear fruit.

"Thirty-one," he said, correcting her for the first time ever regarding his age. "I'm thirty-one going on ninety-eight," he muttered to himself, suddenly feeling a lot older than those thirty-one years.

The world was a different place than it had been when he'd gone to sleep. If they rescued Petrov, it would be a different place for him, too. Was it a better place" He wasn't sure, but he couldn't deny he was happier. Not just because of his friends and team mates but because of his family, because of Lucy and the kids and his extended family on Rhy'Din. Despite his confusion and his weariness, he had to smile at that. Wasn't that what all this was about' Keeping the world safe so that people could live their lives in peace? What was the point of all this, if not that' Didn't Petrov deserve that chance, too'

As Nat made her way from the room, Steve picked up the tablet in front of him and started to read.

Topic: Battle Plans

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers