HYDRA knew their dirty secrets wouldn't stay secret forever. They knew that someone would break into their base, steal their Super Soldiers.
So they created failsafes.
Helmut Zemo killed the five Super Soldiers in their capsules that day. A bullet...
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THIRTEEN
The old mountain road is just how she remembers it, but Siberia's not quite as cold. Still freezing, with a thin layer of snow coating the stiff peaks, yet not to the level of ice covering the roads, the same ice that caused their tires to skid and their car to crash straight into the tree.
"It's alright, мой маленький кролик. We're almost there."
That car was one of the only things they had. It was an old family car from the more wealthy days, and their only tie to what once was. Growing up, Evelyn never knew wealth. Everything went with the Great Depression, her parents told her. Everything except that damn car.
"Mama. I'm scared. I want to go home."
It was old, the tires were bound to give up some day. Yet she kept it, used it when she could. They spent their last money on getting a ticket to come to Russia, Adelina having to say goodbye to the only home she ever knew. Evelyn was American, but Alexei was Russian, and that's where his camp was based.
"America is too far away, мой маленький кролик. We'll just have to make our way back to the hotel."
Perhaps, if only they moved, they could've seen him more. He'd be sent home rather than them keeping him on because they couldn't afford to send him back to America to be with his family.
"Still in Siberia?"
Life was always unfair, and the memories all jumble in Evelyn's head, a cascading waterfall of emotion overcoming her by force, to the point her legs falter.
"I'm afraid so."
The tree's right there. Just meters away, standing tall and proud, as if it has any right to boast after cursing two lives.
After everything, after all Adelina's suffering, after her missing her father to the point she cried at night for him, all Evelyn wanted was for her to be happy. She wanted to take her to see the mountains, the beautiful mountains. The place where Alexei proposed, the place Evelyn wanted to share with her daughter.
But the storm came so suddenly that winter, far too early, and there was no chance of them getting out. She should have known that, but she was far too desperate to go.
Then James Buchanan Barnes standing in the middle of the road. The car crashing. Him dragging a screaming Adelina out.
It was only then that he realised Evelyn was still breathing in the driver's seat. Barely breathing, barely holding on, but still breathing. Her will to survive, for her daughter not to see her pass, was far too strong, and he brought them both back to the base. He brought them both back to hell.
The screaming was the first thing to reach her ears. It was like chalk screeching against a blackboard, digging straight into her aching skull. She couldn't feel anything, completely numb, but then it hit her like a train.
