The White Queen (S.Rogers)

chapter 7

In the five months since vowing to find his childhood friend, Steve Rogers had figured one thing out. His friend truly had learned to be a ghost. With the exception of a few stills from ATM and street cams and one video from the Smithsonian, Bucky Barnes had vanished, as if he had never existed. The file that Natasha had been able to get for him, was little to no help in the search. It had stated some of the experiments done to Bucky, annotated by Arnim Zola, much to Steve's disgust. The photos also were disturbing. The large black and white, of Bucky in cryo never failed to make him clench his jaw and seek out a punching bag. But it was the third one, that had caused Steve the most issues.
The three-by-five color photo contained two subjects, dressed similarly. Both their faces held a blank stony gaze at the camera. One was Bucky, his stance rigid, hair shorter than it was when they fought in DC, but still drifting into his face. The other was female, much younger, her hair pulled back from her face, a shadow of a bruise under one eye. Bucky's right hand held her left hand.

On the back, written in spidery black ink, was simply Winter Soldier and White Queen.

Almost immediately, Steve had become obsessed with the photo, going over every inch of it, trying to figure out who the woman was. In all the files released after HYDRA was taken down, there was nothing about anyone referenced to as the White Queen. Even Bucky's files were problematic. It hadn't taken Sam and him long to figure out they were not complete. There were holes, even accounting for the time his friend had spent in cryo. There had been a few references to Assets, numbered, but no real mention of who or what those assets were. Progress reports of training, and possible missions, but nothing really concrete that they could use to help find Bucky.

She was clearly connected to HYDRA and based on his hand on hers, connected to Bucky. But was she simply a fellow asset, or someone who had been more? Had her mind and memories been wiped, like Bucky's? Was she even alive, was the next question. The photo was more than a couple of years old, and there was a real possibility she had been dead for most of those years.

With the Avengers being asked by the government to hunt down missing SHIELD tech, in fear that remaining HYDRA cells might have possession of them, pulled him away from the search for Bucky, he had left it all in the capable hands of Sam, who was more than happy to take up the slack. But for the most part, the trail had gone cold after DC.

So, it was a moment of excitement and hope, when Sam had stumbled on the webpage asking about the Winter Soldier. Simply asking, 'Have you seen him?', a picture, and an email address, it had been the only hint they had gotten that someone else might be looking for Bucky. After a bit of discussion, Sam had sent a query to the email address, and they had waited. While waiting, Sam had done some computer stuff that Steve still didn't understand, to find out that the page had been put up using a computer at a club in the Bronx. As much as Steve had wanted to go there, immediately, and start demanding answers, Sam had cautioned restraint, simply pointing out that they weren't sure if it was a HYDRA trap, or simply a conspiracy nut. That they should just wait to see if they received a message back. Instead of a reply, however, the webpage was suddenly taken down.

At that point, HYDRA trap or not, Steve figured the only thing to do was to go to the club and scope it out.

Sam had agreed and done a quick background check on the place. They had found out that the club was owned by Antonio Marino, who was rumored to be the head of the New York Italian mafia. With fingers in a lot of dirty pies, he had a lot of properties, but Tassels, as the club was named, seemed to be one of the fully legitimate ones. So it was on that same night, they went to the Bronx, and entered the club of a suspected criminal.

It hadn't taken Steve more than thirty seconds in the club to realize what type of entertainment they provided.

On a stage studded with poles, lights flashing in time to the throbbing bass of the music, danced a half-naked woman, while drunken men waved cash in her direction. THIS is where the webpage had originated?