The Blood Phoenix 6: A Captain America: The Winter Soldier Fanfiction

Chapter 10: Laying Low

Letting the warm water run down my back, I thought about the hectic day that had come by us. We were hunted by SHIELD, found an old file which led us to the camp that Steve was trained at and turned into a super soldier in 1945, had a creepy encounter with a computer hologram of Dr. Arnim Zola and had a whole building dropped on us. Thankfully, there was a place to crash. Sam Wilson, Steve's running buddy from Washington D.C., gave us an on-short-notice place to crash and that was his place. I had had to double up with Steve, which there were times which I was not so fond about, but I managed to cope with it. I turned the shower off and pulled the towel off of the door. Wrapping it around my chest and torso, I stepped out of the shower. I came into the room that Steve and I were sharing to get my clothes, but then I saw Steve. He was wearing a white shirt that did little to hide the massive muscles beneath.

'If this is a bad time, Adelaide... I can leave.'

'No... no, it's okay. It's okay. You can stay. I'll just get dressed in the bathroom.'

'No. You can stay.'

'I'm not very comfortable getting dressed in front of someone, especially a guy. Not that you're creepy, or anything. I just don't like getting dressed in front of someone.' I took my clothes and went into the bathroom to get dressed. When I came out, wearing new skin-tight leggings and my sports bra, Steve was still there. 'Are you okay, Steve?' He turned to me.

'Can I ask you a question?'

'Yes.'

'Is that your real name? What Zola called you? Is that your real name? And you're not too comfortable with anything that involves men. Why is that?' I swallowed and put on a shirt that was short and exposed a little bit of my stomach, but not too much. Placing on a leather jacket, I sat down on a rocking chair, looking at him. Clearing my throat and raking back my slightly damp hair, I spoke.

'Yes, Adelaida is my real name. It's Adelaida Ruby Lehnsherr. My father's name was Erik Lehnsherr and my mother's name was Amelia Pearson. That's my real name. Before I was born, my father left my mother. They were young and in love and before he knew it, my mother was pregnant with me. Two months before I was born, he met with my mother and made a agreement: One: that I was not to be given up for adoption, two: that he would disappear from my life forever, three: that my mother was to raise me as normal and four: that my name would be changed. Instead of them getting married and raising me together, my father would leave to keep the two of us safe and furthermore, my name would be changed. Instead of my name being Adelaida Ruby Lehnsherr, which was my Polish name, it would be Adelaide Ruby Pearson. That's how I was raised, without any knowledge whatsoever that I was Polish or anything of that sort.'

'Did your father ever call you that?'

'No. He always called me Adelaide.'

'Can you tell me something?'

'Yes.'

'What happened with HYDRA? Your years there? How long?'

'Four years, five months and twenty-six days.'

'I don't mean... to pry, or anything, but what did they do to you?'

'When I was with HYDRA, they forced me to do so many things. So many horrible things. They forced me to kill, beat me, tortured me, brainwashed, threatened me with worse beatings and even rape if I didn't comply. So I did everything they told me. When it came to killing, I killed. Sometimes unwillingly. But I did it to survive. My mantra for being there was to 'just survive.' Don't care, don't form a relationship you'll regret, just survive. Kill to survive. It was kill or be killed. But the Winter Soldier and I formed a relationship. There were times that we didn't recognise each other and were forced to fight each other. But there was always something in us that snapped and we just couldn't go through with killing each other. The fact was that if we couldn't kill each other, they would get us to work with each other. They sent me to the Red Room for more training and eventually I would graduate with the Red Room and come back to work with the Winter Soldier. We would be paired as a team in service of HYDRA. Puppets on a string, quite literally. But then I was rescued and recruited by SHIELD and my life changed forever.'