I woke up to the sound of a load motor and the feeling of something pressin against my back. I slowly opened my eyes, blinking blearily as sharp pain shot straight through my skull. I groaned weakly and tried to raise my head, only for my vision to blur and spin around me.

"Don't move." A gruff voice came from behind me and fear immediately bolted through me.

I lurched to the side, realising last second that we were on a motorbike. I disrupted the balance and the bike crashed to the side, crushing my left leg underneath. The man behind me grabbed me and pulled me against him as we slid around the road, the bike flipping and crashing through the glass window of a shop nearby. The man held me tightly against his chest, his tall body underneath me protecting me from the road.

As soon as we stopped sliding, the man pulled me up from the road and dragged me to an alleyway next to the building with the now shattered window. I tried to pull out of the man's grip, but he was quite strong. As he dragged me through the darkness, I managed to catch a glipse of his face and I saw that it was a slightly familiar man with longish hair.

"I told you not to move." He growled, pressing me against the side wall of the alleyway as an alarm began to sound in the builing with the smashed window.

"Why the hell were you so close to me?" I panted, wincing as the adrenaline died off a little and I began to feel the pain from scrapes all along my leg from sliding against the road.

"You were unconsious." He snapped, quickly looking to the entry to the alleyway to check for anyone. "How else was I meant to hold you without you falling off?"

"I don't know, you could have used a car or something else." I said softly, trying t o wipe the blood off the palm of my clothes. "Why were we even on a bike in the first place? And why are we out in the middle of the night? Who the hell are you?"

He sighed and swore softly before looking back up at me, causing fear to lock up my body.

"подними мое пламя"

I blinked and looked around us, wrinkling my nose at the smell of the trash littering the alleyway.

"Where are we?" I demanded, looking up at the Soldier. "Where are our targets? Why am I bleeding?"

"We need to get out of here." The Soldier hissed and grabbed my bruised shoulder, pulling me out of the alleyway. He found a parked car and pulled something out of his utility belt, crouching down in front of the door handle. A couple of seconds later, there was a click and he opened up the door. I jumped into the passenger side and looked out for other people as he pulled of the dash board, pulling out a handful of wires and beginning to try and start the car.

"What happened after I got knocked out?" I asked, pulling open the glovebox and finding a packet of unopened jelly beans. "I remember the red-head with the weird red magic doing something to my head, but that's it."

"She began to try and scramble your thoughts of something." He replied, the wires crackling slightly. "I got free of Rogers and managed to break you out of the chains. We were badly outnumbered.

"Did you at least kill Rogers?" I asked and the Soldier paused his fiddling with the wires before shaking his head.

"Strucker is going to kill us." I sighed as I wiped blood from a cut on my forehead.

The Soldier didn't say anything and a couple of seconds later, the car roared to life. He shoved the wires back and put the cover back over the top of them, slamming his door shut. I quickly put on my seatbelt just as he put his foot on the accelerator, causing us both to be pushed back into the seats. We sped through traffic lights and around corners, though no one was around at this time of night.

"You need to learn how to drive." I muttered as the Soldier sped around yet another corner, causing me to crash into the door of the car.

"I can drive." He muttered, his face tight with either anger or fear for Strucker's reaction when he was told we failed a rather high stakes mission.

When we arrived back at the HYDRA facility, dread was worming its way through my stomach, but I tried to keep my face blank and void of any emotion that could be taken advantage of. When we reached the silver door with the tag 'Office #3', the Soldier raised his fist and knocked on the door. It opened a couple seconds later to reveal Strucker. For the briefest second, he looked a little confused to see us, but stepped to the side and let us in.

"How did you mission go?" He asked, sitting down at his desk. The Soldier and I remained standing. "Who were your targets?"

"Steven Rogers and Natasha Romanoff." The Soldier spoke up when I stayed silent, focusing my face on the massive HYDRA symbol on the back wall.

"Ah yes, quite familiar with those too." Strucker chuckled as he began to filter through files on his desk. I savored his good mood while it lasted. "I hope their deaths were brutal."

The silence in the air was killing me. The Soldier seemed to be staring at the HYDRA symbol too, both of us unmoving. Strucker noticed the silence and slowly looked up at us.

"Are they dead?" His voice was low and warning.

"We encountered a slight barrier." The Soldier's voice was quieter than normal.

"Were there any witnesses?" Strucker slowly stood up, putting down his files. It took all of my effort to not back away from him. This time, the Soldier chose to stay silent. Stucker slammed his fist down on the desk and this time I did flinch.

"Answer me." He snarled and I swallowed, speaking up. I didn't want the Soldier to take the whole blame.

"The rest of the Avengers found us." I tried ot keep my voice from trembling. "We had to get out before they killed us."

"I would have preferred they killed you." Strucker snarled and stepped around his desk to approach me. He grabbed my chin and jerked my head towards him.

"Do I need to make your nights any worse?" He whispered into my ear harshly and I forced back all of the memories of the men in my room.

"No Sir." My voice was a whisper. He smirked slightly at my wording.

"That's what I thought." His breath tickled my neck and I fought back nausea. He shoved my face ot the side and I stumbled slightly, the Soldier steadying me as I crashed into him.

"I might just bring in the Soldier one time." Stucker chuckled, though there was no humour behind it as he walked back to his desk. I must have turned pale or looked like I wanted ot throw up before he smirked and sat back down.

"You're both dismissed." He turned his attention back to the files on his desk. The Soldier stepped out first, holding the door open for me.

"I'll see you at training tomorrow." He said before turning around the walking the opposite way of the dorms. I nodded at his turned back and slowly walked towards my room.