Chapter Text
23-F had no life before HYDRA. None that she could remember, at least. No name. No birthdate. It was all part of her training. She knew nothing, so she could give nothing away if she was captured. Her life was not structured in days, but in missions, training sessions, and doctors speaking in hushed voices where she could not see them. She had learned early on that it was better to go with it. Over the years, it had become natural. Sleep when told to. Eat when told to. Kill when told to. It was all part of her training. She had been human once. They had all been, a hundred kids like her, chosen by HYDRA to become a new generation of Winter Soldiers, and entire army of them, learning and training, enhanced, engineered to be better than any previous attempt. Over the years, those who had not been good enough had been eliminated from the program. She was the only one left.
Nothing in her life had remained constant for long. After years of pain caused by the constant training, one day she had discovered she could not feel it anymore. A doctor had written that down in his notebook and smiled, like it was a good thing. They had been trying to find her pain threshold ever since. The same had happened to fear, and cold, and all of her emotions. It had all been erased, ripped from her, and she had been left as a shell, a robot pretending to be a person.
There had also been the Soldier. The man with a metal arm and no name who had trained her for almost half of her life. He, too, had been taken away, when the handlers noticed that he treated her with too much humanity. In the training facility, humanity had been erased long ago. And therefore, so had he.
23-F was ready to comply, holding a rifle in her hands, as she had always been, when the Soldier returned.
Bucky knew she was there. He could barely remember her, but he knew she was real. She had to be. He did not remember much from his time as the Winter Soldier, but he knew there had been a girl, a little kid, among all the lab coats and rifles. When the Avengers had received a tip about a HYDRA cell in Germany preparing a major attack, they had set their differences aside and decided to take care of it. And the tip had mentioned the Winter Soldier program, so he had asked to join in. That was why he was in a Quinjet with six other people who trusted him in varying degrees, most of them uncomfortably low, with Steve and Tony quietly arguing in a corner (again). He regretted so many of the choices he had made over the previous week.
Sitting behind Sam, fidgeting with a Rubik's Cube he could not solve, Bucky was getting more nervous the closer they got to the place where the facility allegedly stood. He watched the rest of the Avengers (His teammates? Steve said they were, but he was the only one who though so. Natasha had only nodded out of pity, and Sam had looked away) as they prepared to land, checking their gear and weapons. He had done that a thousand times already, which was the reason why Tony had tossed him the cube and told him to sit down in the first place.
The Quinjet landed in the woods, somewhere in the Bavarian Alps, near the Austrian border, and the sound of leaves and mud under his boots brought his mind back to the mission. Steve stepped forward, prepared to lead them into the battle.
"Remember, we're here to shut this place down and, hopefully, find the girl. We don't know what she looks like, or how dangerous she is, so be prepared."
Tony made a comment, something about the girl being too young to be a threat, and Natasha answered something, but Bucky was not listening. He could hear gunshots not too far away, and he was not sure whether that was good or bad.
The HYDRA facility was a fortress, tucked away deep in the woods, and the Avengers approached it slowly, divided to cover more angles. The main entrance was on the south side, which they avoided. Instead, they blew up the wall on the other three sides of the building.
Bucky went with Sam and Steve. Natasha was with Tony, and Wanda had teamed up with Vision. At the exact same time, all three groups detonated their explosives and the walls caved in. Bucky heard a man shout something in German, a command, and the sound of fast steps on dry leaves, before the smoke cleared and the dust settled. And only then did he see her.
The scientists were restless that morning. As 23-F practiced outside, she kept hearing them whisper. The voices did not distract her, and neither did the sound of a jet flying in stealth mode overhead, uncomfortably close to the base. She did not worry, however. She was ready to face a new mission. One of the men gave an order, and she left the rifle aside and attempted to use her new powers for the first time. Failure was not a possibility. She had to get it right. Anything less than perfect would mean punishment, and she could not afford a mistake so close to her next mission. Just when she almost had it, the explosion threw her off balance and she fell to the ground. She recovered quickly, stood up and waited for an order. Upon receiving it, she immediately picked the rifle back up. Retreat.
23-F stood between the scientists and the assailants, shielding the former, aiming at the latter, waiting for the dust to dissipate so she could open fire. She recognized Steve Rogers, in full Captain America gear; he had been one of her targets for most of her life. The second man was Samuel Wilson, the Falcon, added to the list more recently; HYDRA would be proud of her this time if she could take down two of the Avengers at the same time. The third man, however, was different. She recognized him, but not from the many hours spent studying her targets. She felt something strange, a sense of familiarity that she could not remember having ever felt before. She also felt a gap in her memory, something she had learned to recognize without questioning; there were things she should not remember. Part of her training. But that man... Cold blue eyes, a metal arm... A steady hand on her shoulder teaching her to use a sniper rifle... She knew that man. 23-F did not know how to react. She had received an order, yes, but she hesitated for a fraction of a second, unsure, all her instincts screaming to go against her training, to wait, to find out what was so special about that man.
In that fraction of a second, Bucky recognized in those green eyes the little girl he had seen for the first time nine years earlier, when she was still afraid of the dark and the loud noise of a gun. It was not exactly a memory as much as it was a feeling, that the blur he remembered was the same girl that now aimed a rifle at Steve while looking into his eyes, searching for answers.
After two seconds of both sides standing still, weapons drawn and ready, prepared to fight or fly, the girl finally reacted, and the concealed confusion in her eyes disappeared again as she ushered the doctors towards the building, replaced by an expressionless stare. Before they could lock the door, however, someone inside pushed them back out, and behind them emerged Wanda and Vision, their presence alone being threatening enough to make the doctors retreat. Now surrounded by the enemy, and hearing Iron-Man and the Black Widow clear the building, the scientists surrendered, and ordered 23-F to do the same.
Back in the Quinjet, on the way to the Avengers headquarters, Natasha could not shake the feeling that it had been easy. Too easy. That was the place where HYDRA had hidden their best weapon, and they had just gone in and walked out with it. With her. Something was wrong. It was true that a vehicle had made it out, probably carrying the rest of the personnel and all the information they had not been able to find, but still. They had the girl. She was there, on one of the seats, handcuffed and staring down at the floor. She had not said a single word or moved an inch since takeoff three hours earlier, and neither had the two men who had been taken along with her. It would still be a bit under an hour before they landed, and Natasha took her eyes off of the screen where she had been trying to access the information about the girl (it was encrypted, and harder than any HYDRA file she had ever encountered before), to look around at her friends. To think that just three months earlier they had almost killed each other over a piece of paper... No, she did not want her mind to go there. They had fixed it, like they always did. They had survived once more. As she was shaking those thoughts away, pushing them back to the dark corner where they belonged, Bucky approached her, still trying to figure out the Rubik's Cube. She smiled, and decided to tease him a little.
"Still haven't figured it out? I thought you were smarter."
From her few conversations with him since his return from Wakanda, she had learned that, when relaxed, he actually had a nice sense of humor. On that particular occasion, however, he just sighed in response, frustrated.
"I can't stop thinking about her." From his hushed tone, she knew he did not want to be heard, and invited him to sit next to her, which he did, before continuing to talk. "She's just sitting there, waiting. Stark told her to sit still and wait, and she is. And, I don't know, it's just too easy. Something feels off. And I can't solve this damn thing if I keep thinking about everything at the same time."
Her smile faded and she became serious. "So you have noticed it too, right?" She chose to imitate him and whisper; it was better to go unheard for the time being. "I feel like this is a trap. But Stark won't believe either of us, he's still bitter about the Accords."
The Accords, of course. That document that was too long for anyone in their right mind to read. That absurd piece of paper that they had fought over, and debated, and amended, and finally signed. The reason why they would fight together but could not trust each other. Those Accords.
Natasha pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Before you crush that thing out of frustration, why don't you give it to the girl? You might learn something about her. Maybe she likes puzzles and you can get some answers out of her."
"She won't talk to me. I trained her, I'm her superior. If she does say anything, it will be 'Yes, sir' and I'm not ready to hear that."
"Fine, then I'll do it." Before he could object, Natasha stood up and gave him the laptop, while at the same time taking the toy from him and walking over to the girl. He could not hear what she said, but the teen accepted the cube and turned it in her hands for a few seconds, moving the pieces and learning what they did. Natasha returned to her seat and joined him in watching.
23-F had seen Rubik's cubes before, but never actually held one. The brightly colored toy made a strange contrast against her dark gray uniform, and for a few seconds, she was mesmerized by it. Slowly, she started turning the pieces, matching the colors, solving the puzzle. It took just under two minutes, which was remarkably fast for someone who had never tried it before, and the doctors seemed impressed. Once she was done with it, she set it down on the floor and went back to waiting.
Natasha picked it back up and quietly returned to her seat. Everyone on board was now staring at the girl with a certain amazement, but Natasha had what she wanted. That girl was smart, and that was the first and only thing they had learned about her. It was a small win, but a win nonetheless. She noticed Bucky's disapproving glance on her and asked what was wrong.
"You've turned her into a show for everyone to watch."
"And now we know something about her that we didn't before, you're welcome."
"You know better than anyone what it's like to be in her situation."
"So what? Listen, Barnes, until Stark and I can figure out how to access this information, we need to be creative. We need to learn about her. And if this is what it takes, then I'm willing to do it. It's not like she was going unnoticed before anyway."
"I thought you were different." He answered, and he seemed upset, like she had done something terrible. Natasha wondered if she had. After all that had happened, it had become hard to tell right from wrong.
From the pilot's seat, Stark called for everyone to sit down and prepare to land. The sun was setting on the horizon when the Avengers disembarked. At the compound, a SHIELD transport arrived to take the HYDRA prisoners away, and the heroes turned in for the night.
And even though she pretended to be fine, Natasha could not forget how betrayed Bucky had looked. Did he really trust her that much? If he did, she told herself that she should warn him against it. It was just not a good idea. On the other hand... She trusted him. She had trusted him to remember her, after all. Far from her, in a different room on a different floor, Bucky kept thinking about everything. About what had happened with the girl in the Quinjet. About the girl herself. Too many questions, and no answers. It seemed like he would not get much sleep that night. In the lounge on the ground floor, Steve and Tony finally agreed on something, for the first time in months. That mission had not been just a mission. It had been too easy. Something was off, and they needed to figure it out quickly. HYDRA did not play like that, they did not get so confident that they left their best weapon unprotected. Did they?
The next morning, Tony gathered a team to question the prisoners about the girl, comprised of Sam, Bucky and Natasha, and sent the encrypted files to T'Challa, who assured him he knew someone who could crack them in just a few hours. However, once they arrived at the SHIELD bunker where the prisoners were being held, they found out something unexpected. Both doctors were dead, in what seemed like a suicide pact of some sort. They had so much less information to work with. The girl would not talk, and the only people who knew anything about her were in body bags in a fridge. In a last-ditch attempt to get something, Sam had an idea that might just work, except it needed Bucky to carry it out, and he was not happy with the prospect.
"So, let me get this straight, you are telling me to go in there, with a girl who could probably kill me if I say the wrong thing, and use her training, which is not her fault, against her. That's so many levels of wrong."
"It is." Natasha seemed to take his side, until she added: "But it's also the only idea we have right now. She will do whatever you say. You said it, you are her superior. She cannot hide anything from you."
"Come on Barnes. I never thought I would say this, but you are the only one who can do it." Tony's face was expressive enough to show that he did not like the idea either, but his words only added to the feeling.
"What if she doesn't say anything? What if she just doesn't know?"
"Then" Natasha answered "we will just wait until we get those files back and see if they can give us any answers."
23-F was used to sitting still and waiting. She had done it for years inside her cell in the HYDRA base, after all. So she did just that, for hours, from the moment she got up in the morning. After a while, two SHIELD agents entered the cell, handcuffed her and took her to an interrogation room, where she waited again, until the door opened, and the Soldier came in. She stood up immediately, saluted with a "Good morning, Soldier. Ready to comply." And then she waited for an order. Bucky knew he was going to hate every second of that interview. He also knew that his teammates were right; he was the only one who stood a chance.
"Sit down." He took a deep breath, looked down at the script they had prepared, with all the questions that needed answers, and took the pen from the folder to start gathering them.
They had known before going in that the girl would not know much, but they had not anticipated that she would know so little. The interview took exactly twelve minutes, during which most of her answers were "I do not know, Soldier." Her expression remained unchanged, making it impossible to guess any more information, as she sat straight on the chair, relaxed, like she had done that a thousand times before. Once the questions were over, the team gathered again to plan what to do next.
"We still don't have a name, age, place of birth, family, anything to tell us who she is." Sam stated.
"So plan b. What do we know about Winter Soldiers?" Tony asked, turning towards Bucky.
"If she is anything like the others, she is deadly. Fluent in thirty languages, skilled in hand to hand combat, trained markswoman, physically enhanced with a variant of the Super Soldier serum, a perfect spy."
"And her intelligence seems to be above average, at least", Natasha added, "judging by how fast she solved the cube."
"But she's not like the others." Bucky said. "Other attempts at recreating the Winter Soldier program were terminated because the serum made them too aggressive, but she is completely in control. It might be because she is younger, but she's different."
"So we're back to square one. We've no idea what to expect." Tony concluded.
The group agreed to return to the compound and discuss the situation with the rest of the Avengers. Once there, Steve updated them on the news.
"We've just received the report about the doctors' deaths." They crossed the foyer as he explained. "It seemed like a suicide, and it made sense, but they've done the autopsies, and they could not have killed themselves."
"If they've been murdered, that means there's a HYDRA spy in that prison." Wanda joined the conversation, following them into the living room, where the rest of the Avengers were already sitting around the bigger table.
"One that is not the girl in a cell with four guards and several cameras watching her every move." Steve added. "We should get her out of there before someone else does."
Tony rolled his eyes as he replied: "And take her where? This is not a normal teenager we're dealing with, this is a literal assassin."
"You don't know that. She's been used by HYDRA, but we don't know enough to accuse her of anything yet." Bucky retorted.
"Why do you care about her so much, Barnes? You don't even know her!"
Bucky was about to say something, but he realized Tony was right, and opted to stay silent. Sam spoke instead:
"Steve is right. If the girl stays where she is, someone will wind up dead. We need to find a place that's secure enough to prevent that."
"The Raft should—" Natasha started, before Wanda interrupted her.
"She's not going there. Assassin or not, she is a kid. Try to send her there, and I will do things I will regret."
"I'm just saying, it's a safe place, secluded, where she can't hurt anyone and no one can hurt her. And it would only be temporary, until we figure something out."
"But then the UN would not let us talk to her ever again, and all of this would have been for nothing." Sam replied.
"Alright, enough. Let's try to reach an agreement here before it's too late." Steve cut the argument, not wanting it to escalate further. "We can send the girl to the Raft and risk never seeing her again; leave her where she is and risk more people dying, or..." He trailed off, not sure about how to phrase it.
"Or what, Rogers?" Tony pressed.
"Or bring her here, where we can keep her in check."
He expected everyone to start arguing again, but no one did. The idea was insane, given how little they knew about the girl, but it made sense. Keeping her close would mean being ready for an attack, and being ready would give them higher odds of survival. In any other situation, Steve would have tried to find a middle ground where everyone could get their way. However, much like with the Accords, there was no win-win situation on the matter. Everyone would have to lose a little in order to not lose everything. So they voted, and the decision was made. Two hours later, the SHIELD transport arrived with the prisoner.
23-F had studied the Avengers Facility for a few years, but seeing it in real life was an entirely different experience; it was a lot bigger than the pictures had made it seem. She did not have much time to take in all the details, however, as the SHIELD agents left her under the Avengers' supervision and she was immediately taken inside the building. She could sense everyone's tension filling the air as she followed Steve through the building. Behind her, Bucky made sure to watch every step she took, attentive to her body language, knowing that she was taking note of the building's layout. Next to him, Wanda joined the group, just in case her abilities were needed. After some back and forth, the team had agreed that giving the girl a room close to everyone else's was an unnecessary risk, and that a detention cell would make them as bad as HYDRA in her eyes, which they wanted to avoid: she already saw them as the enemy, and it did not need to get any worse; therefore, it would be better to bring her to the guest area, where she would still be near enough to be closely monitored, while far enough to give them time to get ready to defend themselves if it was necessary. In order to get there, they had to cross through the building and go up to the second floor, which they did by using the elevator rather than the stairs, to keep her from seeing too much of the facility. That way, it would be more complicated for her to plan an escape.
Once they got to what would be her room until they had a better plan, Steve finally removed her handcuffs and allowed her to enter, before Bucky handed her a list of instructions and explained them. Those had originally been, basically, that she was free to move around the building as long as she was always in direct sight of at least one other person. However, Natasha had pointed out that telling her that would confuse her, as she was used to the rigid structures and schedules that regulated her life in the HYDRA facility. After that, Natasha, Bucky and Wanda, all three of them more aware of what life was like in such structures than any of their teammates, had carefully planned a list of rules and a schedule for meals, sleep and training that would allow for the girl to always coincide with someone else, no matter where she went. They had added a list of forbidden areas where she was not allowed to be, knowing that she would conform to their rules as long as it was Bucky who commanded her to. All those rules were not really in place to make her comfortable, but rather to ensure that they could anticipate her every move and keep watch over her. Before leaving the girl in her room, Wanda discreetly pointed out that no one had given her a name yet. They had suggested a few before she had arrived, and had almost started arguing again, until Sam had walked over to the shelf, picked a book at random and read the author's name. And with that, they had chosen Olivia. Steve suggested it to the girl, who seemed confused about being asked her opinion, but recovered quickly and accepted it. Once she was alone inside the room, 23-F tested out her new name, getting used to it and preparing to respond to it when called.
A few hours later, after dinner, Olivia went into the bathroom attached to her room, the only place she was allowed to be in that had no cameras, and pulled the small radio that the HYDRA spy had hidden in her pocket while bringing her to the Facility. She needed to contact her superiors and update them. She was ready to take on her mission, the one she had trained for every day since she could remember, and make HYDRA proud of the weapon they had created. She was going to kill the Avengers.