Relentless

Zara groaned inwardly as her eyes fluttered open, only to have to shut them again. It was too bright in there, she had been in darkness for longer than she cared to think about. Days had blurred into weeks and weeks into months which there were only snippets of in her memory. Her muscles were weak from lack of use, she tried to lift her head but simply did not have the strength.
She was sure she'd cry if she could feel anything, but all there was was the cold. Intense cold and she couldn't even hug her body to keep it warm.
"Check her vitals..."
A pair of cold fingers were pressed hard up under her throat, changing position a few times. Zara jammed her eyes shut, the man cursing at her as she did.
"Did it work?"
"I don't think so, she is weak."
Her face was beaded with sweat and her teeth chattered. Someone pulled an eyelid open and shone a light into it. It hurt like hell but she wasn't able to fight them, she was barely able to lift her arm.
"Eyes are responsive. We need a medic to get her back up again"
"That fucking doctor got away"
"We will slit his throat when we find him. We need another, NOW!"
"Right away sir"



Bucky paced back and fourth in front of Thomas' cell while he was checked from top to bottom. Despite themselves, they had injected him with the truth serem and his story hadn't changed. Banner had spent a couple of hours thoroughly going over him, checking for tracers, chips, bugs... Anything he could think of.
Bucky had voiced his opinion aggressively more than once that while this was going on, they could be out there looking for her. Tony, Steve and Bruce insisted on checking Thomas, they had been double crossed several times, and while Hydra we at a disadvantage with a lack of facilities and tech, they were master manipulators. Nobody wanted to take a chance.
Thomas came up clean, and after a hot shower and a good meal he was more than willing to go over anything that he knew.

"Okay. So I was lured out of the hospital when I was called to treat an emergency patient who needed to be assessed before being taken from the ambulance. This happens sometimes, so I thought nothing of it. I climbed into the back, and next thing I know the doors were slammed shut and it sped off. The guy they had on the gurney sat up and pointed a gun at me. Scariest moment of my life" He said.
"Get to the point" Bucky said impatiently.
"Sorry... So I was knocked out and blindfolded and woke up a few days later in some underground bunker. Pitch black under there, save for the odd overhead light. I was shown to Zara and told to 'fix her'. So I did my best"
"Why did she need fixing?" Bucky demanded.
"Because..." Thomas choked on his words as his eyes glazed over. "They beat the living shit out of her" He said, his voice barely a whisper.

Bucky let out a breath, turning away and running both hands through his hair. Steve shot a sympathetic glance over to him. Bucky was hurting, but there was no way he'd cry in front of anyone...

"Go on, Thomas" Steve prompted, sympathy in his voice.
"It took me weeks to wake her up, and even then things were shaky. She had no idea who she was, or where she'd come from, she was very thin and weak. Her muscles had wasted away, she was malnourished and dehydrated. We started building her back up again, got her strength up, and she was sent out do do missions for them. Mostly assassinations and thefts from what I understand. This went on for a while, she stayed under my care, I was to patch her wounds, and during this time we became friends. One day they came into the cell and tied her down in the chair... They had a serum they wanted to inject her with." He said, looking around the room into four sets of heartbroken eyes...
"It was supposed to be like what they gave the Asset, but they didn't have both components of the chemical." He said, looking over at Bucky. "I believe you were given an experimental dose back in the 1940's, before the dose you received when you were operated on?"
"That's right" Bucky nodded.
"Well the first lot is an immunity booster. You won't get sick, you won't freeze, and you can withstand injuries. The second dose is a cellular re-generator. That's the one that makes you faster, stronger and heightens your senses, but it's got some pretty serious stuff in there... When they lost their main bases, they lost the last remaining doses of that first chemical, and with most of their scientists dead, this was all they had. So they injected her with it, hoping to create a new super-soldier and it almost killed her" Thomas explained.
"How?" Steve asked.
"Well, in layman's terms, you can't build it up, without tearing it down first. It breaks down your cellular makeup and builds you a new, super one. She didn't have the immunity she needed against the second chemical because she wasn't given the initial immunity booster first. The chemical went in and started destroying her cells from the inside, like it is designed to do. Then it had nothing left to build upon, so the chemical was metabolized, and all they were left with was a very sick girl with no immune system. The body reacts similarly to how it does when given things like chemotherapy. It's a wonder she survived at all, but somehow she did... She's a fighter."
"How long ago was this? Did she recover!?" Bucky asked.
"I don't know exactly, but not long ago. It took me a few days to get here from there... She had started to respond to my treatments, and thankfully they didn't have anymore chemical to test on her. That was the last of it. They took blood from her, a lot of blood, but there weren't enough trace elements to recreate it. They just don't have the facilities... So the super soldier idea is on the back-burner for now, and when she's well enough she will go back out as a 'human asset'. She's got the skills for it, although she won't be able to take a hit like you were" he said, looking over at Bucky.
"They're doing a lot of shady things to get the funding to build themselves back up, to recruit new members, robbing laboratories... They just don't have the researchers they had, and that's their downfall at the moment. They can take doctors and scientists, but it's easy to make out that you don't know the answers. Nobody in their right mind will give out the compositions of these chemicals to help these guys get ahead, no matter if they know them or not. I was lucky in not having family, but it's only a matter of time before they take someone and start killing off their wives or husbands, children, parents... They are truly evil" He said.
"It's also only a matter of time before they use her as bait to capture you. If they can draw your blood, they can screen it to help recreate the chemicals you were given" He said, looking at both Steve and Bucky, who nodded in agreeance.
"I was lucky to get out of there. It was a mistake on their part, they got sloppy with their security during a mission, and I slipped straight out. I heard them talking about her, and Shield was mentioned so I kept it in the back of my mind. That's what bought me here, I figured whether or not she was from here, Shield are good people, they would want to help her..."
"So what are we waiting for?" Bucky said straightening up from his place leaning on the wall.
"Well, that's the tricky part... She's wired  up on a life support system and there's NO way she can be moved until she's stronger" Thomas said regretfully.
"Picked a good time to ditch then, didn't you" Bucky snarled at him sarcastically.
"It was my only chance. The system is automated, I wouldn't be surprised if they already had a new medical adviser down there for her already. The point is, we will have to wait. Those bases have tunnels that go for miles and miles, when she gets stronger there's no telling if they'll move her then. Either way she's the best fighter they've got, and she's their only chance of getting to you. They won't let her die, she's too important."
"So essentially they're using her as bait to bait us. But we're using her as bait to bait them. makes sense" Tony quipped thoughtfully.
"That's my best plan, I'm sorry I've got nothing better. Her survival rate is going to be much higher if she is left to heal for a while before we go in. I know for a fact there is no more chemical there for her, at least until they have you." Thomas said.
"You're right. They'll get our attention when she is ready. Only we'll be ready for them" Steve said.
Bucky wasn't happy having to wait, yet again. But it was as good a plan as any.
"What if she doesn't know us?" He suddenly said, worried.
"Oh that's a given, unfortunately. The one piece of equipment they had left was an electric-shock neuro transmitter..." He said, trailing off when he saw the painful look in Bucky's eyes.
"It was one of the first things they did to her..." He said, keeping his voice low. "I'm sorry to say it was another thing that went wrong, the last person to sit in that chair was you, Bucky. I don't know what they were thinking, strapping a 5'3, 115lb girl to it and pulling the switch. All I know is she was dragged from it, mid session and had to be revived. Like I said, she had no idea who she was when I spoke to her. She accepted her name was Zara, but I was monitored with her and wasn't permitted to ask her any questions or hint at her past. The only thing she seemed to have retained is her fighting ability." Thomas said.
"She was a very defensive girl, very anxious, skittish, always looking over her shoulder. They didn't dare risk wiping her again, so she got to know me, got to realize I wasn't going to hurt her. She seemed relaxed when I was around. She rarely ever spoke, but I got a smile from her once, and she squeezed my hand when she first woke from the reaction to the serum..." he said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
"I'm so sorry, she obviously means a lot to you all" He said sympathetically, looking around the room. Bucky had his forehead painfully creased between the thumb and fingers of one hand, head down, Steve's arm was on his shoulder.
"Yeah, Zeejay's a good kid. She's done a lot for us around here... We got plenty of time to fill you in while we wait, I guess" Tony said, running a hand through his hair, a stressed expression on his face.
"Thanks for coming to us, Thomas" Steve said.



Zara was hauled to her feet by two guards, and she was steadied when she wobbled. She felt so weak, but at least the sweats were gone and she could move her arms and legs a little. The needles were pulled from her arms, and suction cups removed from her temples and body. She was dragged up a long hallway, an armed guard at either side of her, holding her roughly by her upper arms. They would bruise her for sure, but she didn't care. She couldn't remember ever caring.
She was stripped naked and pushed into the corner of a concrete room with a drain in the floor. She was hit with icy cold water from a hose that had far too much pressure. She felt like her skin was going to tear like wet paper, but she grit her teeth and said nothing, keeping her eyes shut. A guard held her against the wall while another took great pleasure in soaping her up from head to toe, letting his hands linger on her. She didn't have the energy to be disgusted. The cold hose came again and her hair was brushed out by soap-man. They had chopped her long locks off with a single knife blade when she first came in. It had grown out a little since then, resting just above her shoulders now.
She was dragged back down the hallway still wet and naked by the same two guards, but they didn't touch her this time. She was grateful for that, she didn't have the strength to fight them off this time.
She was toweled off and dressed, before being thrown into a small, dark concrete cell with a cot in the corner. She walked a lap of the room, stretching her sore muscles before laying on the cot to rest.
To her relief, it was much better than the steel table she had been on, or even the dentist chair. She let out a breath of relief and rolled over, staring at the swirls in the concrete on the roof.
Something resembling a bowl of slop was bought in for her, it was cold and bland, but she ate it eagerly. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was until she'd started eating.




As the weeks passed, Bucky grew impatient.
"Surely she'd be back in action by now" He snapped at a wide-eyed Thomas.
"I would assume she'd be back out again soon. Anything could have happened in that bunker to set them back" He said, raising his hands.
"Not what I wanna hear" Bucky snarled at him, balling his hands into fists and walking off.
"He always like that?" Thomas asked, turning to Bruce, who just smiled politely, not wanting to give his opinion.
"Okay peeps, we have some activity at the co-ordinates Thomas gave us. Sending a jet out to investigate" Tony announced. Bucky stopped in his tracks.
"I'm coming" He said.
"No can do Barnes, scouts have already been deployed and will watch from a safe distance. There will be drills and conditioning before they send her out." Tony said, putting a hand up.
"God-damn it, Stark, this is the perfect opportunity to infiltrate them and bring her home" Bucky snapped.
"And what do you think is gonna happen? You're gonna pop the door open, pat the seat and say 'come on sweetheart'? You think she's gonna come running to you? Well it's time for a reality check, Barnes" He said, raising his voice.
"You have no fucking idea, Stark, I can't sit around another second while she's out there. She needs us, now! She needed us 6 fucking months ago!" He yelled, balling his hands into a fist, his arm emitting a low, robotic hum.
"Do yourself a favor, and go watch the security tapes of when you came to Shield. This is a capture mission, not a rescue mission. We need to take them out, and capture her, she's not going to come quietly. This isn't going to be pretty, whichever way it goes." He said. "Word will be back in a couple of hours and we can move once we have a plan. Until then, sit tight and chill."
"Chill? Fuck you, Stark."
"No, fuck you, Barnes" Tony smiled.



News came back from the jets that soldiers had begun to emerge from the bunker in the woods. They'd been snowed in and had to dig their way out, but there they were. There had been what appeared to be training exercises going on down there, and Zara had in fact emerged, if only for a few minutes before being sent back down into the tunnel. Tony was happy to deliver the news to the team, walking into the common room, placing a thumb and finger in his mouth and letting out a loud whistle.

"Suit up, people"