Winters War Phase 3: Some Kind of Monster

Part 21

Sam and Wanda were walking through the hallways of HYDRA's facility, after they had been separated from their team. Sam pointed his weapon into every doorway while Wanda was walking behind him, searching for Julia in her own way.

"I can feel Julia's and Pepper's presence," Wanda announced.

"That's good," Sam replied, feeling relieved.

"But Julia isn't in her own mind."

He mumbled a curse as he pointed his weapon into a lab. He pulled back when he didn't see anybody in there.

"This place is just like Austria. Too quiet," Sam acknowledged.

They arrived at a T-junction, which annoyed Sam, since it wasn't the first they'd bumped into.

"Damn, it's like a labyrinth in here." He looked at Wanda. "Can you feel where they are?"

The Scarlet Witch shook her head no as she gazed worriedly at him.

"Then we have to split up again," Sam sighed, bothered. "I'll go left."

"Okay. I'll let you know over the comms when I've found her," Wanda agreed.

They split up with Sam going left and Wanda going right. Slowly, he walked through the other hallway, pointing his weapon into yet another unknown area. It turned out to be one of the testing labs, where an unconscious Julia was strapped to the memory-suppressing machine.

"Oh no," he muttered, as he quickly made his way to her. He laid a finger on the comm. "Guys, I've found Julia," he reported.

"Good work, Sam. Bring her to the Quinjet as fast as you can," he heard Steve. "As soon as we have found Pepper, we leave."

He unstrapped her from the chair and laid her carefully on the concrete floor. He noticed the inhibitor collar around her neck and knew she was rendered powerless by that.

"Julia," he called her with a soft voice while he shook at her shoulder, in an attempt to wake her up. "Wake up, Julia."

She remained unconscious and it did upset Sam a lot. It reminded him of finding her severely wounded in HYDRA's facility in Austria. He wanted to check her pulse but the collar, a different and bigger version than she previously wore, covered her whole neck. He tried to pull at it to create some space, when all of a sudden an electronic shock shook the bodies of both Julia and Sam.

He collapsed to the floor when the shock was over and panted in pain while he tried to get up. Out of the blue, she grabbed his throat, threw him down and arm-locked him.

"Julia? It's me. Sam," he gasped.

She kept quiet and held him tighter. He knew for sure she wasn't herself and it broke his heart. Because of the collar he couldn't touch her and wake her up from the evil state.

"I'm not going to fight you, Julia. You're our friend," he tried to change her mind.

Julia tightened her arm more around his neck and started to choke him. Gasping for air, he had no choice but to hurt her. With a trembling hand, he took his gun and shot Julia in the leg. The bullet grazed her hip and the brainwashed teen screamed out her pain while she let him go. Quickly he stood up and looked guilty at the hurting girl.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

With a scream, she lashed out at him in anger and pinned him to the ground. She then mercilessly punched him repeatedly across the face. Somehow, he managed to grab her wrist and held it firmly. He saw her green-gray eyes filled with hate, another proof that she was brainwashed.

"Stop it, Julia. This isn't you," he begged her.

With his free hand he reached out and cupped her cheek. She flinched and her eyes went bigger as she looked at him when he touched her face.

"Remember me? It's me. Sam."

"Shut up!" she yelled and tore his left hand off her cheek.

She held his left wrist firmly enough until bones were grinding. He gritted his teeth as pain went through his hand.

"The Avengers are your friends, Julia. We give you love, protection and support," he said, still trying to break through the brainwashing.

She looked at him side-eyed as if she was startled to remember those words. Not said by him, but by somebody else.

"We can promise you that. Not HYDRA," he reassured the teen.

Then he noticed her green-gray eyes starting to blaze red. She let his hand go, squeezed her eyes shut and grasped her head. He wondered what was going on inside of her. Then she dropped her head on his chest and cried out her misery.

"Julia? Are you... you?" Sam wondered.

She looked up at him with green, teary eyes. He exhaled relieved when he finally saw the original color of her eyes. Right then, Wanda came up running.

"I came as fast as I could," she said while panting. "But I had trouble on my way. Soldiers of HYDRA are active now."

"Thank you for the warning," hereacted while they got back on their feet.

He turned to Julia and grabbed her by the shoulders while Wanda closed the grazed wound on Julia's leg with her powers.

"You have to fight HYDRA. They'll come for you as well."

"No, no I can't. I can't fight."

"Yes you can, Julia. Listen carefully to me. You are an Avenger."

"No, Sam, I'm not," the teen panicked while shaking her head no.

He held her firmly by the shoulders.

"Yes you are. It doesn't matter what you did or what you were."

The teen started to fight against her tears and gazed into his eyes. She did her best to listen to his words.

"Also, if they tell you to move, you look them in the eye and say; No, you move," he kept on telling her in a stern voice. "And when they bring you down, you always stand up and fight. Is that clear?"

Julia nodded at him as she tried to calm herself down with deep breaths.

"Come on. Let's go," he said as he took her hand and they started running.

They ran as fast as they could through the empty hallways. Gunshots were heard somewhere else in the building.

"Wanda, can you feel Pepper's presence?" Sam asked while running.

"Yes I can and she's with somebody else."

"Who's Pepper?" Julia wondered.

"Tony's girlfriend."

Suddenly the teen stopped in her tracks, remembering a redhead being tied up and mentioning Tony's name. She also recalled Whitehall being with her, saying some kind of poem to her. Her eyes widened in fear and Sam noticed it.

"This isn't the time for an anxiety attack, Julia. We need to bring you to the QuinJet," he said with panic lacing his voice.

"The Sir," Julia whispered. "He's brainwashing her." She looked into his dark eyes. "I need to save her and I have to do this alone."

"What are you talking about? Why do you want to go alone?" Sam asked her, confused.

"To show Mister Stark I'm not a bad person and only I can convince The Sir that he's doing something wrong."

Right then, an explosion somewhere else in the building startled them.

"Those are not bombs. I can feel somebody is creating these explosions. We have to go," Wanda warned.

But before they could move on, Julia screamed out in pain and sank to the floor. Sam was able to catch her before she hit the concrete floor. He got confused when he felt a warm wetness coming from her back and looked at his fingers. Blood.

Wanda looked into the other side of the hallway and saw a scientist, holding a gun with a silencer. With her powers she lifted him up from the floor and strangled him. Slowly and with caution, she went closer to him, giving him the angriest look she could muster.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!" the scientist saluted and started to foam at his mouth.

Wanda hoovered him down on the floor before releasing him from her powers. The man fell unconscious and slowly, his skin went pale. Heaving a defeated sigh, she went back to Julia and Sam.

"He's dead."

"I swear, Bucky will get mad if I announce she's been shot," Sam lamented while he finally succeeded in stopping the bleeding of Julia's injury.

"Bucky?" Julia stuttered in a painful moan. "He's here?"

Sam nodded at her. He gathered all his courage by taking deep breaths and placed a finger on the comms.

"Update, Julia has been shot."

"Bring her to the QuinJet as fast as you can," he heard from Jemma. "Doctor Banner and I will set things up for surgery immediately."

"Roger that," he confirmed.

Wanda knelt down next to the young victim, but turned to Sam.

"I'll remove the bullet from the wound. Let her sit up straight."

Sam did what she asked, and helped the wounded teen sit up. Julia wrapped her arms around his neck and steadied herself that way. Once more, Wanda's hand began to glow red, and she held it over the wound, while Sam kept Julia calm by stroking her upper arms. The teen could feel the tingle of the hex bolts, but it didn't bother her.

"It's out," Wanda announced when the bullet came out of the teenager's body and dropped it on the floor.

"The control device. It's still in me," the teen reminded them. "You need to get it out with your powers."

Wanda looked in concern at Sam and so did he. Both were scared of losing her again.

"But Bruce said..." Sam said but got interrupted.

"Wanda, please do it or else they'll keep controlling me," Julia begged.

The two adults looked at each other again. Finally, he nodded. Reluctantly, she placed her glowing hand over the wound again and started to use her powers. Once again, the teenager felt the hex bolts tingling around the injury. After a few seconds there was no movement.

"Use more power," Julia advised and the Scarlet Witch did what she wanted.

It started to hurt, but Julia had learned from her training to hide her pain. Sam got worried as he noticed it, though, knowing very well that she was hiding her agony.

"I can't get it out. It's too stuck," Wanda panicked.

"Give it everything you've got!"

"But..."

"Do it! It's our only chance!" the teen demanded.

Wanda now used both of her hands and gave everything she had to take out the control device from Julia's spine. In the distance, Julia suddenly heard footsteps of a group of boots approaching. She looked up and saw shadows of people at the end of the hallway, coming up behind Wanda. She grabbed Sam's attention and he glanced into the same direction she was looking at.

"Incoming!" Sam announced when he saw the soldiers coming around the corner and tapped the notepad on the sleeve of his suit.

From the back of his suit, a small drone, named Redwing, launched and flew towards the incoming soldiers, shooting them down one by one. Afterwards, the small technical sidekick dropped an electrical charged net on the wounded men, electrocuting them

Over Sam's shoulders, Julia saw another group of soldiers coming in. With a trembled hand she grabbed a gun from Sam's holster and shot at them, until an unbearable pain came from her back and took over her whole body. Gritting her teeth, she moaned loudly and dropped the gun. Right then, Sam spread out his wings to block gunfire from the enemies, while tapping another command into the notepad of his sleeve. Seconds later, a small missile came flying towards this group of soldiers, blowing them away.

Julia felt her spine cracking while intolerable pain took over her body.

"Don't stop, Wanda!" she cried out in agony. "It's working!"

Seconds later, a thin plastic wire emerged from her injury and dropped into Wanda's hand. With a grunt, the teen slumped down into Sam's arms, panting in pain. Sam laid her on the floor gently.

The Scarlet Witch handed the wire to Sam, who began to investigate it, and turned back to Julia. "I'll close up your wound."

And so, for the second time in short succession, Wanda held her hands over the teen's gunshot wound, using her magic to knit the skin and the tissue back together.

In the meantime, Sam was still investigating the bloody wire in his hand. Amazed that such a small thing could take control over an entire body, he placed it in a tiny plastic bag then in the pocket of his suit.

"I'll show it to Jemma, once we're back at the jet. Maybe they will know what else it can do," he said.

Turning his attention back to Julia, Sam couldn't help but worry when he saw that the youngster was barely conscious due to the pain. He crouched down next to her and put a hand on her cheek, which caused Julia to open her eyes slowly.

"You're almost free from their control," he reassured her with a smile.

Another explosion occurred in the building.

"It's the same person," Wanda said.

"We have to go. Come on, you need to get up," Sam said while trying to help Julia get back on her feet.

"I can't, Sam."

"Why not?"

Julia looked down at her legs and tried to move them. Wanda felt what was wrong and fear began to spread on her face.

"I can't feel or move my legs," Julia mumbled.

Sam looked at her with wide eyes. Then he noticed the terror on Wanda's face as tears welled up in her eyes. He placed his arms underneath Julia's legs and shoulders, ready to lift her up.

"I'll carry you."

"No. Please. Listen to me," Julia whispered, her voice a mix of urgence and desperation.

Sam stopped what he was doing and gave the hurting teen an equally desperate look.

"There are Terrigen Crystals nearby. I can be cured by them," Julia explained. "After that I will go to The Sir and Pepper."

"Then let me take you to these crystals," Sam offered, to which Julia agreed.

With some effort and even more carefulness, Sam was able to lift her up in bridal style. Luckily she could move her arms and wrapped them around his neck.

"Which way?" he asked.

"The crystals are down the hall," Julia directed him.

The Avengers went into the given direction. They arrived at a door with a yellow-black electrical shock hazard sign, which had a coded security lock. With a blast of her power, Wanda was able to break the lock and cause the door to open, if only slightly. Stepping into the doorway, Sam opened the door further with a gentle kick. Seeing all the powerful crystals, which gave the room a cool blue glow, the two Avengers only stare at it in amazement.

"Wow," Sam whispered wide-eyed.

He had never seen these Crystals before, except on the video of Tony and was amazed by the amount he saw now. Wanda, on the other hand, got a bad tingle racing up her spine by only looking at them.

"Leave me here. It isn't safe for you to go in the room and to stay here," Julia recommended.

"She's right. I can feel so much power in this room," Wanda acknowledged.

Sam gently laid Julia in the doorway and removed the comms from his ear.

"Promise me you'll call us when you have found Pepper?" he asked as he placed his comms in Julia's ear.

The teen smiled and held out her pinkie.

"I promise."

Sam smiled and wrapped his little finger around hers.

"Now please go and help the others," the teen nearly begged.

Sam leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"Be careful," he said quietly and stood up, ready to leave.

His words and actions confused Julia, causing a sick feeling, compared with anxiety, spreading in her guts. Is this love? Wanda noticed her troubled thoughts and knelt down in front of her.

"He means well, Julia. No harm," she tried to calm her down.

Deep inside of her, Julia knew she was right. Wanda slightly squeezed Julia's shoulder to calm her and gave her a soothing smile, before she got up on her feet. Then they went off.

When the two Avengers were out of her view, Julia crawled towards a glassed fridge filled with the Terrigen Crystals. Arriving there, she managed to open the door before starting to pull herself up using the sides of the fridge. With sheer willpower, the teen got her paralyzed legs to work enough to let her reach out for one of the crystals. But right that moment, her other hand slipped on the glass, causing her to slide back to the floor. She then did the only logical thing - she grabbed the rack with the crystals and pulled it down with her. Some of the crystals broke apart when they crashed to the floor, causing the whole room to fill with a gray mist. In the distance, she heard gunshots, but all of Julia's attention was on her legs. Watching the Terrigen mist covering them, she willed it to work, to give her her legs back.

Then her world went black.