IVANOV ~ yelena belova

𝟎𝟏𝟖

The police cars were ready to go, as everyone waited for Pierce's signal. Whilst he waited for Nick Fury to meet him in his office, the man in question was holding a meeting with the World Security Council.

Karina and Bucky waited in the back of a black truck, inconspicuously off to the side of a backend alley. Karina nervously tapped her fingers on her knee whenever she heard a car drive by. This was one of her first missions in Washington, and the fact that she was thousands of miles away from her home country, Russia, increased her nerves tenfold.

Pierce usually assigned her to missions far from Washington, New York, and Natasha Romanoff. But now he wants her dead, and who better to do it than the girl who was like a sister to her?

"Stop bouncing your knee, it's getting on my nerves, Karina," Bucky muttered quietly to the girl sitting next to him, who continued to tap her fingers anxiously. But, at Bucky's request, she stopped bouncing her knee and huffed as she crossed her arms.

"I just have a bad feeling Pierce isn't telling us something," she said, picking her nails, a habit she had developed while in Hydra.

"Pierce never tells us anything," he said, rolling his eyes. Karina shot him an annoyed look in response, but he ignored it, preferring to focus on the mission ahead of them.

The crackle of the radio pierced the silence between them. Bucky grabbed it quickly, pressing the button to hear the staticky voice come through it. "We need you in position now."

Bucky promptly took his black mask and goggles from the duffel bag beside him and put them on. Karina also grabbed her black mask, which obscured half of her face, opting out of the goggles.

Large buildings and skyscrapers on the other side of the block obstructed Karina's view of Nicky Fury's car being slammed by police cars. However, the sound of sirens and tyres screeching told her that they weren't far away.

They got out of the car and walked over to the black SUV that was driving towards them. It was strewn with billet holes and shattered glass, but the man inside, who Karina assumed was Nick Fury, looked much worse, with blood dripping down his face from the wound on his head.

Bucky held a grenade launcher in the middle of the road, while Karina stood to the side of the approaching vehicle. As the car passed her, Fury quickly whipped his head around, sidetracked by the figure dressed entirely in black, distracting him from seeing Bucky firing the grenade launcher.

With a click, the bomb attached itself to Fury's vehicle. As the bomb detonated, Karina and Bucky stood next to each other. The car flipped over and slid past them before coming to a stop upside down.

The glass crunched under Karina's boots as she made her way to the car. She crouched down, expecting to see Fury's body, but all she saw was a hole where she assumed he had escaped.

"Shit."

ⴵ

"This isn't good; what are we supposed to tell Pierce?" Karina whispered frantically as she looked at Bucky. They were sat in the back of the truck, returning to the Hydra facility. But they didn't have time to plan anything to say because the truck was approaching the base.

They entered Pierce's office and he looked at them expectantly. But the expressions on their faces said it all. They failed. He stood up furiously, and his chair tipped backwards as a result of the force. He slammed his hand down on his desk as he leant forward menacingly.

"You will go back out there and kill him, am I understood? You're dead if you come back here without his blood on your hands," he spat while pointing his finger at them.

Karina and Bucky nodded as they exited the room and walked back to the truck they had just left. The agitated expressions on the super soldiers' faces were enough to make the guards move out of the way in the corridors.

ⴵ

The sun had set a while ago and the night sky was aglow with bright city lights. Moments like this, when she felt free looking up at the blanket of stars, made her wonder if Yelena was watching them with her. It reminded her of the times they pretended to star gaze in their small cell, their hands entwined as they gazed up at the concrete ceiling.

Even if the stars they were looking at weren't real, she discovered happiness and freedom with Yelena in a dark place. Karina's head rested on her hand as she blinked her tears away.

Bucky stopped the car outside of an old apartment complex but neither of them moved. Bucky sighed as he noticed Karina's sniffles. "I promise I'll get us out of here, Karina," he said softly, encasing her warm hand in his cold metal one.

Karina nodded and rubbed her eyes, deciding it was best to get the mission over with as soon as possible. Pierce provided them with Fury's location, which led them to a small apartment in the middle of Washington.

They climbed the fire escape of the building opposite until they reached the roof. Karina crouched down, gravel digging into her knees as she looked through her sniper's eye piece. She was able to get a clear shot at Fury, but she would have to shoot through a wall.

She looked at Bucky questioningly, and he nodded, "take the shot." She silently pulled the trigger and watched as the bullets pierced the wall. It was quiet until they heard a body being dragged into another room.

Karina exhaled a sigh of relief and stood up, ready to leave. She spun around as she heard the sound of a window being smashed. She turned in time to see Captain America burst through the glass into the office beneath them.

Karina and Bucky began to run as they heard objects being shattered below them. When they got to the end of the roof, they didn't hesitate to jump down onto the building below. They were right on the edge of the roof, on the verge of escaping, when they heard footsteps behind them.

Bucky turned around just in time to catch the shield with his metal hand while pushing Karina behind him. He then spun around and threw back the shield, knocking the breath out of the man.

Karina and Bucky slipped silently off the roof and into the night.