AVENGERS CIVIL WAR

Chapter 5

Hi lovelies! Sorry this is late! I actually broke my ankle on Sunday and couldnt get to any writing. Here is the late chapter! Xx

Natasha walked the cold steel hallway, her gaze focused and ahead. Several Hydra agents in passing looked at her curiously, but Natasha exercised one of the most important agent tools; act like you are one of them.

She kept her head down as she followed the young agent down a swirling staircase into the basement. With each step, Natasha's heart sunk. She vaguely remembered this place as a child, she hadn't been older than five. She remembered a tight hand on her arm as she was lead down these stairs, a sharp voice telling her to be silent.

The boy unlocked a heavy lead door and swung it open. It was a small room, with a cluster of agents huddled in, watching a computer monitor. Natasha tucked into the back of the crowd.

One of the agents briskly said in Russian to all the agents, "The Soldier is rouge again. Put him back down."

"Where did he escape to?" One asked.

"He's still down here. Defend yourselves but try to avoid being lethal. He's our most precious weapon."

Natasha tried to soothe the anger bubbling inside of herself. They spoke of James as a weapon, not even a human. At the same time, she was not surprised; they had always treated herself as such. She swallowed back her disgust.

The agents split up. Natasha was relieved that the agents were allowed to go solo. She couldn't be hindered with another agent becide her.

It was quiet as she crept around. The basement was massive, spanning the entire mansion, full of pipes, ducts, and hidden exits. Natasha knew she had to find the Winter Soldier before the others. She closed her eyes and focused.

Winter Soldier was unlike any other agent she'd ever seen or fought. He was so different from James Barnes, Natasha always thought of them as separate humans. James Barnes was the man she had fallen in love with years ago, an innocent man who was manipulated and used. Winter Soldier was a brainwashed Hydra agent; he couldn't think for himself, he was programmed to do one thing: kill.

Winter Soldier was as light on his feet as Natasha was, as lethal as a loaded gun. Natasha crouched next to an air conditioner pipe and listened to it hum as she tried to think where he would go. He was still under control by the brainwashing so he wouldn't be trying to leave, so much as he would be trying to fight someone. Natasha's agent instinct was alert. She could feel herself being watched. One thing she had been taught as a child was that an agent's instincts were far better than any weapon. Natasha felt on her stomach that the Winter Soldier was nearby.

Natasha needed to draw him out. He was hiding, more than likely, waiting for someone to pounce on. What would get his attention? The brainwashing would have blotted out most of his memories; his friendship with Steve, his intimacy with her, his war days. Surely there was one thing that slipped through the cracks of the brainwashing, a tucked away memory that would get him curious but not immediately attack.

Natasha suddenly began to hum.

----

"Hi Tony," Pepper Potts said, her smile strained.

Tony looked up from his computer, where he had been religiously working on some new program. "Hi honey. How was the speech in Norway?"