For you, I'll risk it all

XV

2 years later

"Ah, this is delightfully chaotic, I must admit," Loki declared, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Loki, you little shit, get your ass over here and give me a hand instead of..." Thor's words were abruptly cut off as he grunted, the wind knocked out of him by a blow from a Hydra agent who was suspiciously stronger than he looked. Loki nonchalantly grabbed him by his shirt and tossed him aside onto the ground.

"Instead of what, dear brother?" Loki retorted "Observing just how pathetically these Midgardians fight?" He let out a chuckle "Remind me again, why are we helping?"

"Because the bill of your little vacation to New York isn't going to pay itself," Stark shot back. He had just landed on the ground, his metallic suit making a loud noise as he aimed a punch at one of the last agents.

Loki merely rolled his eyes at the remark, wielding his sceptre to eliminate the last jet that had made a landing on the field an hour ago.

"Is everyone okay?" Steve emerged into view, a few spots of blood on his otherwise clean face, with Bucky at his side.

"Those were not your average agents, man," Sam Wilson landed near them, his tone heavy with concern.

A silent moment passed as they all exchanged glances, an unspoken acknowledgement of their shared worry. Their fears had been confirmed.

"Those were supersoldiers," Bucky finally whispered, his voice barely audible.

"We need to head back to the compound" Tony said, his voice laced with a sense of urgency.

Back at the compound, the team gathered in the conference room. Natasha, Wanda, and Bruce, who had missed the action, were already waiting.

"We ran into some unexpected resistance," Tony began, his voice serious. "These weren't your run-of-the-mill Hydra agents."

Bruce frowned "What do you mean?"

Bucky, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, finally looked up. "They were supersoldiers,"

The room fell silent as the gravity of the situation sunk in.

Natasha, her face etched with worry, was the first to break the silence. "How is that even possible?" she questioned aloud. "Were they like, from the 40s or what? I just don't get it."

Bruce spoke up next. "Someone recreated the serum," he said, his voice echoing in the room "Hydra was able to recreate the serum once again."

Wanda, her voice barely above a whisper "But I don't understand, why now? I mean, not to be rude but like, they recreated it with The Winter Soldier, why wait to use it again?"

Bucky remained silent, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts. He didn't want to talk about it, but he knew they needed to know. Steve, who was standing close to him, put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Buck, you don't have to.." he began but was cut short by Bucky's response. "No, I have to, we need to know everything to stop them."

He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "When they took me in, they had already started to recreate the serum. The trials were all unsuccessful. The men couldn't even bear the first dose of serum," he sighed. "I don't know exactly how long it took for them to succeed with me. It could have been two years or ten, I don't know. But it took a lot" Bucky paused again, glancing at Steve who gave him a reassuring nod. "They stopped the trials when Commander Karpov died. He was so full of himself, that he didn't let any information about the serum outside of the base camp in Siberia. So when the base was bombarded, the serum died with him."