Chapter 1 - Washington DC

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Reader's POV

You let out an annoyed groan as you say to the pilot, "Turn around, they want me back at headquarters."

"Yes ma'am,"

You walk back to the hanger bay and threw yourself down into one of the empty seats and tossing your head back against the cool metal of the jets insides you squint your eyes closed. Even with being so far away from her you knew Viper hated you and hated even more the fact that she was your S.O. you had tried on multiple occasions to keep your powers from invading her memories and her mind but it seemed hopeless. You powers were becoming a rather pain to have, especially when they were on the fritz making you read every mind in a five mile radius.

Baron Von Strucker wanted to see you personally and that always made you a little uneasy even though after the death of your family he took you in raised and trained you, you didn't like how his mind was off limits to you. Even when you tried to read it you couldn't it was like something was preventing you from reading it. You let out another sigh as you reach up and pinch the bridge of your nose to quiet the voices of other minds as they tried to invade yours. You rode the rest of the way in silence as you tried to quiet your mind. When you arrived at Hydra's secret headquarters you took a deep breath and headed toward Strucker's office.

Nexus was the codename he had given you once he learned you could not only read minds but connect to multiple minds at one time. You hated the name, you only liked your name ______ Romanoff. It was the name your older sister had given you before she along with the rest of your family died. Your head starts to swim as a picture of her smiling face flashes through your mind making you stumble slightly before you immediately catch yourself.

You quickly shake the memory from your head as you climb into the elevator that lead to Strucker's office. As you reach his office you take a deep breath and knock on the door. "Come in," Strucker says his thick German accent coming out clear in his words. Opening the door you walk in and quickly closing the door behind you say, "You wanted to see me sir?" He turns toward you and a slight smile crosses his lips as he says, "______, I have a very important mission for you and it entails someone you might remember," He tosses a file down on his desk and motions for you to pick it up as he continues, "After our abdication from SHIELD a certain assassin of ours has gone rouge."


You open the flap to see the none too familiar picture of the Winter Soldier and your blood freezes as you say, "With all due respect sir, I'm the last person he wants to see coming after him."

"None the less, you are to track him down and bring him back here by any means necessary."

You open your mouth to argue but instead take a deep breath and say, "What was his last known location?"

"DC, when the helicarriers were destroyed."

You let out a sigh as you say, "Dead or alive sir?"

He smiles as he says, "Just improvise, isn't that what you're good at?"

You nod as you say, "Yes sir, I'll have him back before you know it."

He stands and doing a double fisted salute says, "Hail Hydra!"

You grit your teeth as you mimic his double fisted salute and looking past him to the wall say, "Hail Hydra." With a brief nod you put the file under your arm and taking a quick turn start to leave the office when you hear him say, "Oh and ______, be careful." You sigh as you say without looking back, "I always am."

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The ride to DC was long and boring but one thing that kept you company was the Winter Soldier's file. It had more information about him then you had learned from your last meeting. The two of you had been on a few missions together and even though he was cold and dismissive you had found something of a friend in him that was until you witnessed the wiping of his brain making all of his memories of you disappear. You had learned later that it was because he saw something in you that made his past start to creep back into his mind, and for Hydra that was bad. Ever since then the two of you made it your own personal private missions to avoid each other. You couldn't be the reason they kept wiping his mind and if you were to try to be around him that is exactly what would happen.

As you look out the window of the greyhound you were taking you let out a sigh as you contemplated letting him go. Letting him be free of Hydra something you would never be. You let out another sigh and in doing so let your mind open to hear the people around you. "Dude that chick is totally hot, we should go over to her and introduce ourselves." You hear a male about four seats up say to his buddies.

You let out a groan as you try not to make him jump out the window just for thinking what he was at that moment. Looking forward you realize that other than you and the small group of men just a few seats ahead of you and the driver there were no other people on the bus and that was never good for a woman traveling alone. As you thought more about it, it seemed perfectly normal that since DC was were the Helicarriers went down people would be put off from visiting at the moment. You reach into your bag and after placing the file inside you pull out your IPod and sticking the headphones in your ears leave it turned off just in case your deterrent for the male group coming to talk to you failed; and just as you thought it did. You soon feel your bag being moved from next to you and your eyes shoot open.

"What do you think you're doing?" You say with as much irritation in your voice as you could muster. You look up at the one who moved your bag to see it was none other than the young man who just seconds ago was having lewd visions of you in his head. His dull brown eyes eyed you up and down before he says, "Where you from sexy?" You roll your eyes as you reach for your bag that was now in one of his friend's hands. "Just a second there sweet cheeks, how about we get a little payment before we return your bag?" You narrow your (E/C) as you say, "Either you give me back my bag or I'll make you give it back."


You could tell he was taken aback by your words but he quickly put on a face as he says, "Oh really and what are you going to do sweetheart?" You smirk as in an instant you have him by the throat dangling him in the air as his friends stare at you in shock and fear. As you tighten your grip on his throat you turn to the friend holding your bag and hold out your free hand as you say, "My bag, or would you like me to snap his neck?"

The friend quickly tosses your bag onto the floor by your feet and you smile sweetly as you set his friend down and say, "Thank you, now how about you think twice when you see a girl traveling alone, or the next time we meet I will kill you. Understood?" The group of men all nods their heads before grabbing their now unconscious friend and retreating to the front of the bus. You let out a sigh as you pick up your bag off the bus floor right as it comes to a stop making you almost fall on your face.

"Jesus!" You cry out as you quickly find your footing. Turning back toward the front of the bus you see the group of men quickly exiting while the driver sits there like a statue facing the road. You tilt your head as you look past him to see the familiar bus depot and sigh. You were thankful that the ride was over but now came the hard part; you had to somehow locate the Winter Soldier in what was left of DC. You quickly pull a New York Mets ball cap out of your bag and after placing it on your head you pull it down far enough that it would cover you face from any on looking CCS cameras.

You close your eyes and taking a deep breath go back to what you had read about the Winter Soldier in his file. You think long and hard as to where he would have gone and the only thing you could come up with was The Smithsonian. You had read that he had been an acquaintance of Captain America before his accident and anyone who was anyone knew about the exhibit dedicated to him and his men. You had never been but you had always been intrigued once you found out that Captain America was still alive.

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