The Lost Princess

Chapter 1

The Winter Soldier is in his room, more like cell, in Siberia when he hears the cries of a young girl echoing down the hallway. He looks out the small window on his door and sees a flash of dark red hair as a young girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen, struggles against the guards holding onto her arms and dragging her down the hall.

"Otpusti menya!" She yells, her Russian flawless. (Let me go!)

The girl is dragged past the Soldier's room and he hears the heavy door to the room down the hall closing. Moments later, his door is opened and a guard walks in, escorting the metal armed man to the same room. He walks in and sees the young girl strapped to the chair, the panels being lowered over her head.

The Winter Soldier watches as the girl begins screaming, pulling at her restraints. Sweat forms on her body and her screams intensify, the mouthguard protecting her teeth doing nothing to muffle the sounds. The head scientist begins shouting over her screams, circling the chair slowly like a predator.

"Sem'ya. Zabytyy. Semnadstat'. Polnoch'. Pech'. Pyaht. Poteryannyy. Sirota. Odin. Kazn'." He snaps the book in his hands shut and stands in front of the girl. "Otstupnik?" (Family. Forgotten. Seventeen. Midnight. Furnace. Five. Lost. Orphan. One. Execution. Renegade?)

"Gotov podchinit'sya." She replies, her voice sounding oddly sweet despite the cold, unattached tone. (Ready to comply.)

"You will begin your training with the Winter Soldier." He states. "At the end of the week, he will take you on your first mission." The girl nods once, silently, and the Soldier steps forward.

The two silently walk to the training room and immediately begin sparring. The only sounds to be heard in the room are the grunts of the two and the sounds of their blows as the two fight like their lives depended on it.

"You have twenty-three days to complete your mission." A man tells the two four days later as the assassins pack a bag of weapons. "Take out the targets. No witnesses." The two silently nod and sling their bags over their shoulders before walking to the garage, getting on their motorcycles.

They arrive in the city of St. Petersburg after eleven days of driving and sleeping for a few hours at a time on the side of the road, far enough in the woods to be out of sight of any traffic. The Renegade looks around, her brow furrowed at the familiarity of the city as the two find the nearest abandoned building to the home of their targets.

"What?" The soldier asks gruffly as the two set up their sniper rifles at the window. The girl shakes her head.

"I don't know." She says, her Russian accent thick. "This place. It's...familiar."

"How?" He asks after a moment. She shakes her head again.

"I don't know."

"We have twenty-four hours to eliminate the targets." He reminds her. "Don't get distracted."

"I am never distracted." She tells him. The two get in position in front of their rifles, staring through their scopes at the open window of the large house. A woman with blonde hair moves into the girl's sights and her finger hovers over the trigger. "I have eyes on Natalia."

"I see Bartoc." The soldier tells her. Simultaneously, the two pull their triggers, the bullets silently making their way out of the guns and through the air, each of them finding their places in the targets heads, killing them instantly.

Immediately, the girl sees images of a man holding tightly to a woman. There are screams all around her, of children, and of herself. A boy grabs onto her and she hides his face in her abdomen. She tries to hold onto him as he's ripped away, joining three other girls, all of them being killed, her screams and cries of protests going ignored as she tries to free herself of the grip on her arms.