Frail heart

Pursuit

Chapter five

T'Challa was hesitant when he initially heard what Steve was asking of him, but anyone could see the desperation in Steve's eyes as he promised he'd call it all off if anything went wrong, so after gathering some of shield's best agents to escort the soldier, he was handed over with the hope that he would emerge as a different man when the time came. Bucky had decided to stay in Wakanda and aid in his recovery and Steve didn't object because if anyone was going to know what they were doing regarding the subject, it would be Bucky.

It took a lot of strength to ignore the raging voices in your head and let the people of Wakanda help you, you had allowed them to weaken your abilities because you didn't want to ruin the one chance you had at any semblance of freedom. You had been hesitant when a woman called Shuri explained what she was going to do to start the process, but Bucky was beside you telling you that it was okay. You didn't like all the eyes on you, and a part of you was angry about it, the flames of rage igniting within you every time you caught someone's stare, but you remembered that these people weren't the Avengers so even if you they weren't trying to help you, you had no reason to hurt them. Shuri had briefly mentioned something about resurfacing old memories in order to overpower Hydra's but, in all honesty, you were somewhat fearful. You didn't have the first idea what they'd find and quite frankly, you don't think you want them to find anything at all, it'd only serve as a reminder of what you'd missed out on. What you left behind after all these years.

Avengers Tower, New York

The team were happy to hear that you were in safe hands, and they wanted to prolong the happiness for as long as they could, but they had another issue to face. They were aware, now that you were gone, that Hydra would be looking for you and wouldn't stop until they found you. It was pretty obvious where they'd search first, and the team knew that they had eyes everywhere and probably already knew that the Avengers had something to do with your disappearance. There wasn't much they could actually do until somebody attacked, other than keep their eyes peeled, which frustrated Steve to no end, he didn't want to sit around and wait for Hydra to make the first move, he wanted to forestall, but Fury insisted they wait. So that's what he did, he spent his days in the training room or formulating plans in his head about every possible approach Hydra could have and his team were concerned, he was putting way too much stress on himself, but they trusted him to go to them if he needed help. Natasha, however, wasn't going to watch Steve get so worked up and not do anything about it, so she went to him late one night and made a proposition. If Fury wasn't going to do anything about Hydra, she would.

"What does Fury think about this?"

"Fury doesn't have to know."

Steve was surprised that Natasha was willing to go against Fury's orders and as she explained her plan, he couldn't help but be happy that someone had the same idea as him. He was sceptical as to how they'd execute the plan though, Fury knew what was happening before it even happened and there was no way they'd get this past him, but it seemed as if Natasha had already planned it all out.

"Maria is just as concerned as we are, so when I told her about my plan, she didn't oppose."

Steve chuckled, raising his brows, "How'd you manage that?"

"I have no clue, but she's in, so whatever we want to do, as long as she agrees, we're in the clear."

The two Avengers didn't exactly know how to go about this, but they knew that they'd have to start by finding one of Hydra's goons if they wanted any answers.

A few days later

As the sun rose that morning, Steve met Natasha outside her room, both dressed in their suits, and Steve told Jarvis to notify the team that they had gone for a run if asked of their whereabouts. The few days after their talk, Steve and Natasha had discussed the most likely places to run into one of Hydra's agents and they had both decided that the abandoned warehouses and factories Maria had mention would be a good place to look. So they located as many as they could in New York and made their way to each one, they would have taken the Quinjet, but it would have been pretty suspicious considering they wouldn't need it if they were actually going for a run, so they walked instead, being careful to avoid busy streets or points of interest. For the first hour or so, they weren't having much luck and they were on their way to their next location when Natasha heard the crackle of static somewhere in the distance, which she recognised only came from an earpiece. She looked around the area, trying to find where it came from and when she shot into the darkness of the far corner of the warehouse, she heard someone yelp in pain and smirked.