Project Alpha

Ch. 5 - Planning

**A/N: I should mention that Peter had green eyes in this, like his mother. He also has a metal arm like Bucky, more info on that later. Also, Nose Fury.

Peter drummed his metal finger against the blank cell wall behind him. He was tapping out random letters of Morse code, another thing that Bucky had taught him all those years ago.

Bucky...

Peter hadn't seen his old friend in a long time. Days had gone by, then weeks, and eventually a few months. Bucky wasn't on a mission anymore either. The boy had overheard a conversation talking about how the Winter Soldier was a traitor.

Bucky must have not remembered Peter when he left. Who knows where he was now. Peter only knew one thing at the moment, and that was that he needed to reunite with his friend.

What if Peter could escape and find Bucky out there in the real world? He knew he had to plan something, but what? Peter could try and defect during a mission, but would somehow need to remove the tracker on his ear. (A/N: imagine those white clip like things on clothes at stores that prevent stealing but smaller and on his ear.)

There must be a way to solve to the puzzle, and Peter was determined to find it. "Whatever it takes..." He whispered to himself while the gears in his head turned and turned, trying desperately to come up with something.

Meanwhile, Natasha still sat in her room on the floor. Her back was to the bed as she stared out the window into the city. Thoughts were pouring in and out of her head from the past. The past, something she wanted to and had almost forgot. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Nat?" She heard Clint call her name with a worried tone. He had never seen his best friend like this before, he knew there was something she knew that they didn't. When she had left the meeting room, it only confirmed it and he got up to follow her. The rest of team was left speculating about the project, but waited for the two to return before reading into it.

"Nat, are you okay? Can I come in?" Clint was met with a reply of quite sobs. "FRIDAY, override the door lock," he said nervously.

He spotted Natasha against the bed and came and sat next to her. He embraced the silence for a minute before asking, "You want to talk about it?"

More silence followed before Natasha said with an unwavering voice, "Sure," she took a shaky breath, "In the Red Room, I was apart of that project, Project Alpha. The goal was to genetically alter a baby in order to make a powerful weapon.

"Step one was pregnancy."

"Let me guess... You and Bucky?" Clint inquired softly, resting a supportive hand on Natasha's shoulder. She nodded.

"Step two was to deliver the child after my nine months of isolation were up. My baby- Peter... didn't survive more than a few hours. The only child I could ever have, dead.

"Step three would've been to wait a year or two, then inject spider DNA. They didn't know if he would survive or not, but what use would it have been, to a dead child."

She started crying again and Clint rubbed comforting circles around her back. "Wait, when was this exactly?"

Natasha paused and thought for a moment before saying, "About fifteen years ago, why?"

Clint suddenly stood up and gasped. Natasha also got to her feet and tried to read her friend's face for any information. "If Peter didn't- didn't make it... Why was Project Alpha listed as a success?"

***

The rest of team was told by Bucky what had happened in Project Alpha. Then when Natasha and Clint returned to the room, even more details were provided.

Based on the very vague amount of data on the "destroyed" files, they could tell that Peter had never been dead. He had been alive for about the past fifteen years.

There was no picture or description of what the child looked like, other than a bit of Russian text that was impossible to make out. The only part that was fully legible read something along the lines of "brown hair". That was still better than nothing though.

Other than that, the other bubble of text read, Natalia Alianovna Romanova, also known as the Projects main participant.

The information had apparently been leaked by some person within Hydra's ranks. That person was now probably dead because of this. Then, another member of their organization was sent to erase the data, failing miserably at that task. They too were most likely dead, that is, if Hydra had found this yet.

While they were deciphering the information was when it hit Bucky. There was a small boy with brown hair in the cell next to him at Hydra. Who else could he be, except for Peter.

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