𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗛𝗘

𝘙𝘌𝘋 𝘈𝘓𝘌𝘙𝘛

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It's been almost two weeks since Arielle got injured. She was visited by a doctor on a daily basis, who took out her bullet and monitored her wound until it no longer showed signs of risk. After she received confirmation that she could start moving again, she ignored the latter recommendation to start an easy training until she completely healed and she chose to leave her apartment again.

During the ten days she spent at home, Arielle did her best to find out another lead, but there wasn't much she could do from home. She had to return to that lab and see if she could find something there.

She also ignored that James said he was going to come and find her.

It didn't slip out of her mind, but she wasn't going to wait for him to show up. She didn't like him sticking his nose in her business. This had nothing to do with him or with HYDRA. She was only after Valentin Kamenev, he was the only one who knew what happened to her and to her parents. The only one that could feel the hole in her memories.

She was feeling better now. She couldn't move as swiftly as she did before, the injured area was still sore, but it was better than nothing. And she didn't plan to fight anyone today, she just wanted to observe and collect some information. She wasn't out of her mind, she knew she wasn't ready to fight yet. She lost to Kamenev way too many times before, she wasn't foolish to add one more defeat because of her impatience.

Arielle used a taser to take down a scientist, then she dragged him to the storage and tied him up, stealing his clothes and his badge. She put the white coat on and used his ID card to unlock some doors, quietly making her way to the main lab.

She wanted to find out what exactly were these people researching here. What could Kamenev be up to now? It's been a few years since Project 13 has been turned off for good, so what was the evil mastermind working on now?

Remembering what Khan told her, she suspected he might be looking for a way to make his legs work properly again. She didn't know about his accident until Khan told her. After she left the Knight Bay, she lost touch with everything that concerned Project 13. Arielle sneaked into the file room and she starts going through all the papers she could find.

Useless, boring, unrelated, not very helpful. These papers weren't telling her anything. She put them back in their places, then tried to open the second drawer. Locked. Bingo.For a research lab, this place didn't protect its data very well. She broke the safety lock and cut a hole in the drawer using a pocket knife, then took out the files from the there and quickly examined them.

A frown appeared on her face. She read one file after another, not believing her eyes. Valentin Kamenev was not only working on a remedy for his legs, he also tried to recreate and improve the former Project 13. No, she couldn't let that happen.

"Did I make you curious, Little Arielle?" A loud voice boomed through the speakers. Her gaze shifted to her surroundings, realizing that he had his eyes on her.

When she found the security camera, she dropped the files she was reading and rose to her feet, then walked closer to it and looked straight at the recording device.

Kamenev, who was sitting in his office far away from here, smiled when he saw her image clearly on the screen. So she was indeed alive and she was just as feisty as he remembered. "You should have died thirteen years ago," he spoke again, a hint of teasing in his voice. "You really were my best experiment, now weren't you?"

He watched her as she growled instinctively, her fists curling up into balls at the same time.

"Well, I'm sorry, Little Arielle, but I doubt you'd want to come help me, so I have to get rid of you. But don't worry, you'll see your parents soon."

At the mention of her parents, Arielle felt like going feral. Adrenaline was building up in her bloodstream at the same speed as her anger, but she could still control herself. She wasn't going to give him satisfaction by letting him know he got to her.

Then, the lights in the building turned red and they started to flicker, followed by the sound of alarms. Shit. She had to get out of here fast.

Jumping out of the window again wasn't a choice, she was already injured and this was almost the top floor. There's no way she could make it to the ground floor alive, not even with her abilities.

She started to run, rushing down the emergency staircase as quickly as she could. Now, she did regret not waiting a little more before getting out of bed. Her wound didn't let her move around as fast as she wanted and her life was in danger. She didn't know why Kamenev turned the emergency switch on, but she didn't intend to stand by this place long enough to find out.

One level after another, she reached the fifth floor when the ground started to shake and she was forced to stop. This wasn't an earthquake, Kamenev was probably trying to blow off the entire building. She looked down and cursed loudly when she saw she still had a long way down. She couldn't fall from this height, not in this condition.

She had to run to cover. She pressed the doorknob and tried to open the door that led back to the building, but it was locked. She tried to open it by using the ID badge she stole, but that didn't work either.

Her only choice was to take the stairs again.

She clenched her jaw and started to run down the staircase once again, but she didn't get too far. She only managed to descend to the fourth floor when the explosion occurred.

At first, it was just a high pitched noise in her ears. Then, the explosion came. The ground under her feet started to shake even worse. When she looked up, she saw it igniting above her and soon enough, the staircase crumbled. The force of the explosion violently pushed her to the main floor, knocking her out as soon as her body touched the ground.

The rest of the building started to collapse, breaking into a million pieces that started to fall one by one. One small boulder landed on her stomach, followed by other two similar sized ones that hit her legs. In less than a minute, she was going to be buried under whatever would be left of these labs.

"Over there!" A strong voice shouted, followed by a hand pointing out in the direction of Arielle's unconscious body.

"Watch out!" Steve screamed back, using his shield to cover both his and Bucky's heads. They both rushed to her and Steve lifted his shield even higher to protect his friend while he lifted the blonde woman off the ground.

Bucky threw the boulders away and placed one of his hands behind her knees and the other one on the back of her head and picked her up in his arms, pulling her close to his chest.

"Let's go! This building is going to collapse completely!" Steve urged Bucky to move, both of them starting to run towards the exit. While Steve watched their backs, Bucky speed up a little and used his metal arm to dodge all the falling pieces from above.

They barely made it to the parking lot when the rest of the building crumbled to the ground.

Bucky held her in his arms as he carried her upstairs, then carefully placed her on his bed. Then, he walked to the window and slowly peeked through the curtains, scanning the surroundings.

Everything looked clear. He saw Steve outside of the house, who was also checking to see if anyone followed them. He didn't look alarmed, which meant he didn't see any signs of suspicious activity either.

He turned around to look at the unconscious woman lying in his bed, furrowing his eyebrows. He told her to stay put until he came to find her. Was it that hard to follow his advice? No, she had to act headstrong and go after Kamenev before her body recovered completely. If only she waited for one more week, maybe she wouldn't have ended up here.

Now that he thought about it, Valentin Kamenev really wanted her dead. He succeeded to lure her into a trap and he didn't hesitate before he blew up the building. It could have been worse, though. He could have used more explosive. Maybe he wanted to give her a chance to survive. Or maybe he just wanted her to die a slow, painful death.

The explosion wasn't meant to kill her, but he did try to bury her alive under the ruins of the building. He probably didn't expect anyone to show up and take her out of there. If his theory was right, then it meant Kamenev would change his strategy now. If he didn't know Steve and Bucky were involved at first, he surely knew now, and he couldn't be thrilled to find out two of SHIELD's assets were sticking their noses into his business. And this wasn't good for her, Arielle was going to be in even greater danger.

He thought about the last thing she asked him before she left her apartment. Should he really try to stop her? It would be such an unfair thing to do. What she had against Kamenev was none of his business. And if everything he knew about Project 13 was true, then she had a very good reason to go after him. But Valentin Kamenev was a dangerous man, she couldn't take him down alone. Kamenev was dangerous enough to get on SHIELD's radar, actually. So even if Arielle liked this or not, he had to get involved.

Bucky took a seat on the bed and placed a hand over the area of her gunshot wound. He had to check and see if the boulders that fell on her today didn't cause her wound to bleed again. But as he pressed his fingers there, he didn't feel anything wet or sticky, which was a good sign. She got lucky.

"What are you doing there?" Steve asked, stopping in the doorway and crossing his arms against his chest. From where he stood, he could clearly see what Bucky was doing, but he needed his verbal confirmation. He was checking something.

"Making sure her wound didn't open back up," he admitted, rising from his seat.

"And you know she's wounded there because..?"

"Because I patched her up."

Steve sighed. "And when did that happen?"

"When you were searching for her at one of the addresses we got from Philip Khan."

It was an understatement to say he was disappointed Bucky didn't tell him about this. He expected it, but it didn't mean it bothered him any less. He didn't trust Steve wouldn't report her to SHIELD. And if he was honest, Steve wasn't sure if he was willing to stay silent on this matter either.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Steve commented before he stepped back and out of the room. He closed the door, allowing them to have some privacy.

Bucky watched him as he left, then sighed. He then looked at Arielle's face, muttering underneath his breath: "I hope so too."

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guys, it's up to you to decide a ship name ! i loved ur suggestions but we all know how undecided i am, so i'll let you choose !

anyway, here's another update 👀 hope you'll like it and i hope you'll give it some love, votes and comments ! it keeps me motivated to keep going !

today was wattpad's maintenance and i did not back up my stories bc i'm dumb but luckily for me, nothing disappeared 😂 let's hope the app will run smoothly from now on