↱UNKNOWN↲

The light of dawn cut through the shadows, where she normally kept. The frost had chilled her bones, her arms and legs aching as she slowly regained consciousness. The alleyway wasn't abandoned, no, the tired woman was sure she had seen other homeless people shuffle up and down the street. However, as she slowly cracked open her opalescent eyes, she was alone.

Her lips were dry. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. Slowly, carefully, she flicked her tongue out and licked them. They were cold, and tasted like ice. The nameless woman preferred that over the taste of blood. She didn't know how she knew what blood tasted like. She didn't know a great deal of things, for she couldn't remember them. The woman knew the alphabet, though, she knew how to count to 400.

"A, b, c, d, e, f, g," she whispered, stammering as her body was flooded with cold. She thought movement would help, but it seemed the opposite. Her dark hair was stiff with frost. "H, i, j, k..." The woman fumbled as she grabbed a small, near empty bag with swollen fingers. After it fell, she uncurled her right one to do it, wincing at the mechanical whir. "L, m, n, o, p.." She walked with a limp, from a wound she couldn't remember. Staggering down the alleyway, she squinted in the light. "Q, r, s.." The woman whipped her head around, trying to figure out where to go. She was hungry, but she knew she didn't have any money. "T, u, v.."

Exhaling sharply, she watched with a childlike interest as her breath billowed out white, like a cloud. She hadn't seen clouds in a while.

Resuming her journey, she hummed the rest of the alphabet to herself.

   ↱T'CHALLA↲

"Tell me you brought some damn coffee, Victoria."

"Clint, I've known you for more than 3 days. I know how much you love coffee."

The man watched with an exasperated smile as Victoria handed Barton a cup of coffee. He held his hand to his chest, eyes watering. "Is this what love feels like? I love you, Victoria."

"Watch it, Clint. Bucky here's a little territorial," Sam teased, referring to that one time that Bucky had stared a boy down after having been caught staring at the winged woman. Clint sniggered, causing Victoria to huff and snatch the cup of coffee out of his hands. "Victoria, don't you dare-"

She drank it all.

"I'll kill you," he whispered. Bucky raised a threatening eyebrow, signaling for Clint to glare back with the most comical expression of the century. They held it for a long while, Bucky's face not even twitching. The rest of them sat in silence, T'Challa staring with an exasperated yet happy expression. Sometimes, they acted like children, but he wouldn't blame them for none in the room truly ever got a childhood. Eventually, the archer caved, releasing a wheezy laugh as he poured himself another cup of coffee. Both Bucky and Victoria smiled, to which T'Challa smiled as the two didn't do so often. He was 90% sure Victoria willed her muscles to twist in a smile, but they just politely declined the request.

In truth, they all knew the training the 3 - if one would include the Black Widow - would never shake their training. For better or for worse, it seemed. All 3 of them had, on multiple occasions, held staff at gun, knife, or random-object point, as they had been startled from their sleep and had seemingly forgotten to turn off the switch. However, it seemed to ensure the immortality of the three, as an assassin couldn't kill you in your sleep if you weren't wholly sleeping.

Exhaling through his nose, the King closed his eyes. He had been told, multiple times, that he was a soul made for thinking, not for talking. But he had done plenty of speeches, coaxing words, although he hadn't used the latter very much as Wakanda, his country, was not often a country that needed assistance. They knew the cure to cancer, 97.7% of people lived to late elder ages (80+) and crime was at a bare minimal.

The man shook his head slightly, refocusing on his team. Victoria, Bucky, and Ms. Romanov (he didn't, for some reason, feel comfortable calling her Natasha, or Natalia) lead the team, a change for once, that the Captain had seemingly been happy about. Clint and Sam had automatically tagged along, despite not knowing what the mission even was.

"If it's for Victoria, I'm in," Sam had responded, firmly. Clint, on the other hand, had just groaned the entire length of his gathering clothes and toiletries, moving to the door way before finally ending the interminable noise. He held a black and purple coffee mug in his hand, before grumbling, "Victoria asked for me to do this, right?"

T'Challa was pleasantly warmed by the two's dedication. After all the frequent wing-whippings, Sam had been on board immediately. Clint was Clint, and just went because there had been food and ass-kickery promised to him. T'Challa supposed he could relate to both of them, after all.

They were on the jet now, briefing quickly as the flight from Wakanda to Monaco was painstakingly short. The Knight didn't seem to be paying a great deal of attention, T'Challa noticed, for his eyes involuntarily flickered over to look at the woman every other 5 seconds. She noticed, definitely, but didn't say anything.

Ms. Romanov had, expectedly, prepared thoroughly, laying out maps and possible places where the 6th Soldier could be, what to expect, and how to deal with her. "She'll be confused, most likely - she hasn't been programmed yet, so she'll be somewhere near how she was when you last saw her. Don't approach harshly, because she'll still rip your throat out with her bare.." The brunet paused in thought, grey eyes reflective yet thoughtful as she glanced at Victoria. "Hand."

"You all are just back - up, for the record," Victoria announced. Jack looked offended, then shrugged, and leaned back on the makeshift bed. "She hates you, Bucky, maybe not Talia, and I..." She trailed off, her light hearted words fading into a pained expression. "She might not know who I even am. But I know who she is, and I have to get her," Victoria resumed, finishing her miniature speech as strong as the Captain would've. Speaking of Steve, he hadn't much spoken, only staring at his feminine best friend with a glint of unmistakable admiration in his eyes.

"Toria, what if she does remember you? The good, the dirty, and the bad?" Sam reasoned.

A small, mischievous grin placed on the woman's face. "Depends on what you mean by dirty, Wilson."

Sam exaggeratedly rolled his eyes, faking a gag as Ms. Romanov smirked, Bucky raised an eyebrow that no one had noticed dropped, Steve began to look uncomfortable, Clint sniggered along with Victoria, Jack laughed (a very pleasing sound) and T'Challa exhaled with a happy expression. After they all recovered from Victoria's uncanny ability to insinuate sexuality into anything and everything possible, the seriousness settled in the room, putting out the chatter like a finger on the flame of a match.

"It has to be me," Victoria murmured. "I have to get her."

"Why you, Vic, why risk yourself?" Bucky whispered, blue eyes thoughtful as he gazed across the seat to the woman. She smiled, a sad smile.

"I'm the one least likely to die trying."

A/N
so excited so excited so excited someone stop me so excited so excited so excited so excited

and, yes, the person mentioned "unknown" does have a mechanical body part, similar to bucky's. However, i'll tell you now, it isn't an entire arm.

god bless victoria and sam like they're the biggest brotp e v e r