Finding Her
Only a few of them were actually trying to find this mysterious woman. Steve and Natasha were going through all of the printed files while Tony looked through the encrypted ones online. Clint went on a house call to get Thor in on this while Bruce remained in the labs working since his forte was more in the science department than espionage.
The Maximoff twins were keeping their hands clean from this too, but their reason was more on the line of refusing to search for the Angel of Darkness. Unlike his sister though, Pietro would pop into the conference room every now and then to see if they found anything.
Bucky was helping in the only way he could; trying to remember something. He sat farther down the conference table, pen at hand, trying to come up with anything. The page in his notebook was still blank from last night. All Bucky could do was just stare at the page blankly trying to remember something that didn't want to be remembered.
They have been researching for hours now and had yet to find anything concrete. Hydra really wanted to keep this woman hidden from anyone and everything. Steve almost started to doubt Bucky's memory when Wanda suddenly bursts in, red wisps flashing around them. She doesn't say a word, but her expression said enough. Wanda throws a Us Weekly magazine in the middle of the table and stands there in grim silence, arms crossed glaring at the strewn magazine.
"I didn't want to be a part of your search mission but I found your girl." Wanda grits out in her heavy accent. "You'll find her on the cover and then a complete article on page 32."
Steve didn't really understand what she was talking about until he grabbed the magazine and flipped it over. On the cover was the big eye-grabbing title of Sexiest Couple Alive? and below was a picture of a man holding the waist of a beautiful woman.
The couple fit together very well, their contrasting features seeming to somehow compliment each other. He was clearly sharp and ruthless, while the woman beside him was soft and gentle looking. Knowing that this was the woman that Pietro described so horribly seemed to make this woman more dangerous than he originally thought.
Steve flips to the article of the magazine and starts to read it out loud. He really didn't want to believe the gossip people put on these kind of things but it was the only source of information he's gotten all day.
"Newly elected Senator Alec Bane of New York makes a startling debut with... newly engaged fiancee Angelique Porter." Steve reads out before putting down the magazine, a complex expression on his face. "I'm clearly missing something here."
"Not really," Natasha states as she picks up the magazine and leafs through it. "It's one of the most effective ways to protect yourself."
"What could you possibly mean by that?" Steve asks her confused.
"Come on, it's not that hard of a concept to understand." Natasha tells him. Her eyes look up to him and she realizes that the Captain was being as naive as always. She throws the magazine aside before sitting up in her chair, ready to explain. "If I wanted to prevent myself from being hunted down and killed, bagging a smart, rich, and powerful icon would be my way to do it."
"I'm still lost here." Steve comments.
Natasha sighs at this but tries again.
"She's obviously trying to pull a JFK and Jacky couple mirage." Natasha tells him. "Having the public love her makes it harder for anyone to get a hit on her. If someone killed her then the world would be on the hunt for her murderer."
"So we can't kill her?" Wanda asks.
"Not unless we want the public to think we're the villains." Natasha tells her.
Steve was still confused by this.
"Wait," he states. "Who's JFK and Jacky again?"
"Why do I even bother..." Natasha groans out before getting up from her seat and walking out of the room, Wanda following after her. Steve turns to Bucky who just sighed at him.
"JFK was our president in the 60's. He was assassinated." Bucky tells him. "Jacky was his wife and everyone was in love with the presidential couple."
"How do you know all of this?" Steve asks him.
"I've been doing some light reading..." Bucky answers as he finally picks up the magazine and looks at the image in the cover. He became completely still, his body and mind frozen in shock. The face on the magazine was exactly the one he remembered. She was smiling here, a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Her grasp on the Senator's arm was tight and her eyes seemed to beg for help. Bucky didn't know how long he was looking at the picture before Steve was right in front of him, looking at him in concern.
"Buck, are you alright?" Steve asks him.
"We have to help her, Steve." Bucky tells him, his hold on the magazine tightening. "We have to."
"From what Natasha said, she doesn't seem to be in need of saving." Steve tells him, patting his shoulder reassuringly.
"She's not the one using him for protecting, he's using her." Bucky grits out.
"What?"
"He's Hydra, Steve." Bucky states, slamming the magazine on the table, his finger pointing to the man's face. "Bane used to be one of our handlers."
Steve's eyes widen as he said this and alarm flashed over his face.
"We have to call a meeting... now."
She was standing out on the balcony, watching the city below. They were in a room high enough that no one could see her. She let her wings extend and flapped them slowly. It's been a while since she's felt the breeze through her feathers, and it's been a while longer that she's been able to fly on her own. Ever since Shield collapsed, bringing Hydra down with them, she hadn't had as much freedom as she used to.
The freedom to fly had been the first thing they took away from her. When and where she could expose her wings was another. Any lingering touches on any person was reprimanded due to the information she could accidentally receive if she delved deeper. She was encaged in her small apartment with a large security detail keeping an eye on her. Any privacy she had was in the solitude of her room.
There was one advantage though. Ever since she had been rushed out of cryo and out into the real world, she hadn't been wiped. Over the past months away from this, she's been gaining pieces of her memory. They were all jigsaw pieces, and put together, none of it made sense. So she waited, in the loneliness of her room, to hear back from her handler.
"Put those ugly things away."
She was startled by her handler's sudden appearance, but without a word, quickly brought her wings in.
"You know you're not supposed to have those monstrosities out." Alec tells her. "Especially out in the open like this."
"I'm sorry," she apologizes to him. "I should have known better."
Alec just rolls his eyes at her. Her obedience had been swaying the past couple of days and her mind seemed to be somewhere else. Last night was evident that she wasn't all there and this concerned him. His plan for Hydra would fail if she wasn't by his side.
"We're on the cover, darling." she calls out to him, pointing at the glossy magazine. "They say quite a few things about us."
Alec doesn't respond and lights a cigarette instead.
"They say my name is Angelique Porter." she states. "Is that true?"
"You know full well that isn't true." Alec answers her. "Things like you don't get names, you get branded instead."
"Branded?" she asked confused.
"Yes, sweetheart, branded." Alec tells her, letting out a puff of smoke. "You remember, don't you? Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? Winter Soldier? Angel of Darkness..."
She remained silent and Alec took that as a true obedient answer for yes. He puts out his cigarette on the cover of the magazine, burning her face completely off.
"You shouldn't read these kinds of things, sweetheart." Alec says pressing an uncaring kiss on her cheek. "It's all full of lies and gossip."
Alec leaves without waiting for her response. Not that it would have a made a difference. She remained once again alone in the balcony, something that she was now learning to enjoy. She preferred to be alone with her thoughts than accompanied with the presence of her handler.
"зимний солдат..." she whispers to herself. A vague memory of a handsome man, too weak to stand on his own, makes it's way into her mind. "Winter Soldier."
"The war isn't over as we thought it was," Steve starts off once everyone had made it into the conference room. Everyone was seated except for Steve, who was at the front leading the debriefing. Unlike him, Bucky remained hidden in the corner of the room, watching. "It has come to our attention that Senator Alec Bane is an undercover Hydra agent. Bucky remembers him being let go after some time which is why his name isn't anywhere on the files. Knowing this, and Alec being in the position that he is, makes it harder for us to take down."
"If he was "let go", how come he isn't dead?" Sam asks. "I thought that was how Hydra fired people?"
"It is," Steve answers. "Obviously, Bane found a way out with his head on his shoulders and we need to find out how. All we've found on Alec is on gossip magazines and newspaper articles. We need to dig deeper and we need to do it fast."
"Say no more, Cap." Tony states as he pulls up search engines. "I'll dig some dirt on your guy."
"As for legal and publicity wise, I think it'll be best if Clint and I start calling up some favors." Natasha pipes in. "Maybe even Rhodey can help bring down this Senator Alec Bane?"
"Sounds good." Steve comments. "Now does anyone have a suggestion on how we'll extract Angelique safely?"
"How about we don't?" Wanda exclaims. "That woman is more trouble than she's worth. She'll kill us all."
"Wanda..." Pietro says, trying to calm his sister down.
"But it's the truth, Pietro!" Wanda shouts. "She tormented you."
"Wanda..." Pietro calls out to her again, concerned now.
"You trusted her, and she made you relive your darkest memory." Wanda states. "You were unresponsive for weeks!"
The room turns silent as she said this. Everyone's eyes were on Pietro who had now closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.
"Something tells me this go further than a simple betrayal..." Steve voices out.
"I fell in love with her..." Pietro confesses to them. Everyone was alarmed to hear this and Pietro quickly starts to explain to them. "It's not what you think. It wasn't what you people call Stockholm syndrome. It was... it was genuine and real."
"Pietro, please." Wanda sighs out, trying to snap her brother out from the fantasy he had over the Angel.
"Wanda never believes me when I tell her," Pietro laughs out sadly. "But one day... one day, she seemed to have snapped out of the haze Hydra had her in. She realized what she was doing to us, what Hydra had made her do, and she... she started to cry. The Angel was weeping in front of me and whatever heart I had left at that time, I selflessly gave it to her."
There was a small pause as Pietro gathered his thoughts.
"She didn't love me back, of course, but she did care for me and my sister." Pietro states. "She promised to help us find a way out, but I didn't hear from her for the next few days. When she did return, all emotion she once regained was gone. I was punished by interfering with their asset and I was in a coma for weeks, relieving the death of my parents and the entrapment my sister and I endured shortly after."
The room fell back into a silence. The heavy news impacting them all. Everyone was now learning more about this Angel of Darkness and seem to find redeeming and demeaning qualities within her. It was hard to decide whether she was worth saving or not. They couldn't kill her, that was obvious now, but she couldn't be set free either.
"Knowing what you've been through with this woman, I'll understand if you can't answer these questions." Bruce says, breaking the silence in the room. "But Angelique's powers, how do they manifest? How does she use them?"
"With touch," Pietro answers softly. "She placed her hand on the nape of my neck and her eyes turned white. That's all I remember... I was in too much pain by her intrusion to mind to remember much else."
"I'm not interested in having my mind infiltrated again," Clint states through the speakerphone. "I'm sorry, but I'm out."
"I never wanted to be in this mission from the first place," Wanda seconds.
"There's still someone in need of help in there," Pietro tells them. "I saw her, a vulnerable creature, in need of saving. We must do everything we can to rescue her."
"I agree," Bucky pipes in from his lonely corner. "She's clearly being manipulated by Hydra the same way I was. We need to get her out."
"There's a charity ball coming up later on this weekend," Tony says pulling up the event onto the projection screen. "The Senator has RSVP'd that he's attending."
"Perfect," Bucky says pushing off from the wall. "We'll infiltrate the event, take out Alec, and save Angelique."
"Wow there, Bucky." Steve says as he blocked Bucky from leaving the room. "That's a rushed plan and we can't simply take out Alec without interrogating him about further Hydra cells. Besides, we're still not sure if Angelique is with Hydra or not."
"She's not with them."
"How do you know?" Steve asks Bucky seriously. Bucky attempts to leave again, a scowl set on his face, but Steve grabs onto his arm and forces him to stay. "What's wrong, Buck? We used to tell each other everything."
"Yeah, we used to." Bucky replies, pulling his arm back from Steve and walking out of the room.
Steve stared off after him, shocked as to what happened. He was ready to go after his friend before Sam stopped him from doing so.
"I think he wants to be alone," Sam tells Steve, not knowing what else to say to him. "He's not the same person, Steve. Give him time."