Humans have always been storytellers. From the day they were able to write, humans have recoded stories and shared grand tales of creatures larger than life. Myths and legends explaining how the world was created, how humans came into existence or w...
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There was no overexaggerating just exactly how cold the Swiss Alps were, especially without proper protective gear.
Despite all the chilled New York winters Steve had ever lived through in Brooklyn, there was nothing compared to the blustery, below-freezing winds running through the mountains that day. He felt lucky to have such a quickened metabolism, the excess body heat acting as the winter jacket he didn't have as the small group stood on the ledge exposed to the frozen air. Steve's fellow Commandos, however, were shivering and continually blowing warm air into their clasped hands as they attempted to keep warm while they waited for their target to appear.
The last few months had been an absolute blur.
The months following Bucky and the 107th's rescue, Steve had felt as if the ground had opened up beneath his very feet. He tried to keep his mind occupied with his work alongside the Howling Commandos; A small team he and Bucky had pulled together with Colonel Phillps' permission. In their short time together, the group of men had already become a larger thorn in Schmidt's side than the S.S.R had been in recent years. Taking down numerous HYDRA bases and nearly clearing the board, there was no Doubt Schmidt was feeling the pain of his losses, retreating further and further East as the allied forces pushed forward.
But despite all their success, Steve still struggled to keep his mind off the brunette who'd stolen his heart years ago. Every base they cleared he searched high and low for her, clearing every room of every building to make sure he missed nothing, but to no avail.
Steve and the Commandos would arrive to a base to find the science division always abandoned and Jules nowhere to be found. Schmidt kept her constantly moving, transporting her between active bases on a schedule neither Steve nor the S.S.R had managed to crack yet. She was always just beyond his grasp, Schmidt taunting him with the remains of horrific scenes at every base they took.
Once it was similar to the scene Steve had seen at the main weapons factory, a room filled with bloody entrails and human remains. It nearly turned his stomach inside out not knowing what was going on to cause those graphic collages, but the worst was when Steve had cleared a recent base, running into the science wing to find it not only abandoned, but littered with bloody surgery equipment and a rusted iron cage shoved into the corner. Seeing the reddened clamps and scissors, however, didn't compare to the note secured to the surgical chair with a bloody scalpel stabbed through the paper that red in scratchy handwriting;
She called out for you, Captain. Where were you?
Steve had lost his footing, Bucky only just managing to stabilize his friend before he too crumbled upon reading the note. It was purposefully left as a taunt, a brutal reminder that Steve was always just two steps behind, all the while Jules was being tortured and used as Zola's personal plaything.
