Pairing: Bucky Barnes/ winter-soldier X OFC/ reader AU
Summary: meet the winter-soldier, one of Hydraās most skilled and deadliest assets, and the enormous fire-breathing creature that has always been by his side.
Authorās note: I like watching avengers movies, and I like watching Sebastian stan as the winter-soldier even more ;), but Iām no marvel expert and so there may be some canon mistakes. Also, these writings are based on the movies, I havenāt read the comicsā¦
Furthermore, English is not my first language so grammar and spelling mistakes are sure to follow! Sorry ābout that.
This is my first fanfiction, so please give it some love!! Iām always open for constructive criticism and feedback and when this piece is received well, I will continue writing next chapters :)!
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It was cold outside, when an elderly man walked out of the small block hut that was perched on one of the plateaus of the Yablonovy mountains. The quiet night, which was only disturbed by the occasional whistling of the cold night-time wind, gave the nuclear engineer a sense of calmness and serenity. As he made his way down the small path that led down the mountain, the man could only think off the staples of money that he would be presented with, when he would hand over these new drafts to his client. The contents of these papers, which he had only just finished drawing last evening, have the power to change everything change everything; they could redefine modern warfare and potentially make things we once considered impossible, possible. Just thinking about all the fame and acknowledgement his ideas would bring him, made the men want to reach his awaiting vehicle as fast as possible, so he increased his walking speed, practically skipping down the mountain trail.
Too caught up in his own haste and excitement, he was oblivious to the pair of eyes following his every move.
Another man was crouched between the few bushes and trees that were scattered on the surface of the mountain, waiting, assessing, watching. He was silently following his target from a safe distance, when a sudden sound behind him caused him to whip around, bionic arm raised and holding his gun, pointing at whoever had been able to sneak up on him. However, when emerald glowing eyes met steel blue ones, the offending weapon was lowered and the winter-soldier gestured for his partner to follow him.
They followed a more direct route, swiftly moving over the more uneven and slipperier rocks of the mountain. Arriving at a ledge that gave them the perfect view of the squad team that had been appointed to pick up their target, they waited until it was their time to strike. As they stood there, next to each other, the eyes of the winter soldier were drawn to his companion.
She wore her stealth suit, a pitch-black and form fitting catsuit, with a belt that hung low on her hips. Some smaller, but nonetheless lethal, knifes were attached to the belt, but she rarely used them. She didnāt fight a lot. He followed the zipper that went from her lower back to the base of her neck where the tips of her hair just barely touched her skin. She had her hair up in a ponytail, however, a few stubborn strands still hung loosely around her face, caressing her the top of her cheeks. She had very sharp features, only further highlighted by the light of the moon that shone upon them. He had a feeling she would have had more rounded facial features, if she would have been more well-fed. Now she only just got enough scraps of food to prevent malnourishment. He looked at her face; starting by her lips, he followed the arch of her nose bridge up to her her eyes.
Emerald eyes that were looking right at him.
His eyes widened and the he turned his head away quickly, feeling strangely discomposed after having been caught staring. After a few minutes of looking down the ledge without really seeing anything, he dared to let his gaze wander once again.
She was still looking at him, but her eyes seemed to soften when their gazes met. They always seemed to do that. Always when he met her eyes, he was greeted by a welcoming gaze. Never a smile, but always kind eyes.
She suddenly opened her mouth, as if to say something, but she never got the chance as at that exact moment the engineer arrived at the clearing below. The soldier swiftly removed his sniper riffle from his back just as his partner silently looked through her scope and they work together to get everything in the right position.
He looked through his own scope, inhaled, exhaled and pulled the trigger.
It should have been an easy mission, follow the target without being noticed, silently set up the equipment, shoot, get the papers and disappear. Itās what theyāve always done and this time shouldnāt have been any different.
And yet is was. he missed his shot.
How he could have missed, would always be a mystery to him. Whether it were her lips that had distracted him when they had set up their shot or if had been the small whiff of her smell which he had caught right before he pulled the trigger, he would never know. All that mattered now, was that he had to kill that engineer and get the documents.
He jumped of the cliff, and fought his way to the target. His partner stayed up the cliff. She wasnāt as skilled as he was in combat and was more of a means to disappear. He hit the first agent that dared to approach him squarely in the face, ducked the fists of another one before punching him in the stomach making the person double over. He hit one on the head with the barrel one of his smaller guns and then shot two others that immediately fell to the ground.
Withing a matter of seconds he had reached the now screaming and trembling engineer. The old man started to slowly walk backwards, arms outstretched as one would do when approached by a dangerous animal, but he fell to the ground after having stumbled on a small rock that stuck out of the ground.
The soldier was about to jump on him and crush his windpipe with his metal hand, but instead his path was blocked by an agent who went to stand in front of the engineer, covering him. Her eyes reminded him of someone from his past, someone he had met before, however he didnāt have time to ponder and search his memory. He raised his gun, and shot right through the abdomen of the agent and into the chest of the man still lying on the ground behind her. With his metal arm he threw the shot agent to the side and crouched beside the dead body of the engineer. He snatched the briefcase from his cold grasp and without sparing either of them a second glance he looked up again and briefly scanned his surroundings. There were still a few agents left and he knew he could easily take them all on. The only thing stopping him from killing all witnesses, was that in a few moments their back-up would probably arrive, and seeing that as little people as possible should be aware of his existence, he chose to run instead.
However, he did not run back up the mountain. Instead he sprinted in the opposite direction, to the edge of the clearing which was around 900 meters above ground level. Though their current whereabouts werenāt as high as their starting point near the block hut, a fall from this altitude would undoubtedly end his life.
The feeling of falling would always feel weird to the soldier. Even though he was speeding towards the ground at incredible speed, it felt as if he was flying. Falling felt free, as if for once he could close his eyes and just think. He could think about who he had been before all this misery had started and consider who he was now. There had to be something before he was forced to take orders from other people and had to kill in order not to be killed himself. Hydra is all he can remember, but he also remembers that he had been around this age when he had woken up and sent out on missions with his brand new metal arm. Despite the fact that their organization had many scientist amongst them, he was positive they had not yet found a way to create life, meaning he wasnāt born within Hydra. He must have had parents and perhaps even brothers or sisters, maybe even friends. He never really had time to ponder about his past in between the mission reports, cryofreezing and missions themselves, so he relished the moments where he was free to just think.
A sudden rush of air and a loud roar suddenly halted his train of thought. He slowly opened his eyes and turned whilst still falling through the sky so that his stomach was now facing the rapidly approaching ground. He slowly inhaled and exhaled, far too calm for someone who was so close to smashing to the earth from such height. His body was just about the hit ground, an impact that would surely result in his immediate death, when a large black creature swooped beneath him. he curled his arms around its large neck and as it started to fly up again, he pulled his body to that of the beast, curling his legs around its torso.
As fast as he had fallen from the cliff, he was now rising again and in a blink of an eye they flew over the cliff again. At first the beast just hovered above the clearing looking at the frozen agents below them, when suddenly it released another loud roar and engulfed the clearing in flames, before flying away back to their headquarters.
They soared through the dark night sky and just before the soldier would once again succumb to the freeing feeling of flying, the creature looked back at him and its emerald eyes seemed to slightly soften at the sight of him.
Shield agent Natasha Romanoff fell to the ground, hand covering her abdomen, as she watched the winter soldier, one of the most deadly and skilled assassins she had ever encountered, run away. In his metal hand he held the briefcase that had been in the possession of the engineer just moments ago.
She had been appointed to protect him, the engineer that is, and the valuable information that he had carried with him, but when she had seen the soldier walk towards her, gun raised and firmly held in between the metal fingers of his metal arm, adorned with the red star that would forever be carved into her memory, she knew that the old man would never stand a chance.
Still, she tried to shield him, because that was what a hero would do. That was at least what she was trying to be now anyways: a hero. One of the good guys for once. Knowing that what she did was what she had to, made her feel a little better about the hole that was shot in her abdomen. Moreover, she had had worse wounds in the past and considering her profession, she would most likely get worse in the future. This was nothing she couldnāt handle.
She looked up just in time to see the winter soldier jump off the edge of the cliff. From what she recalled, he had not had a parachute bag on him and he hadnāt worn a wingsuit or anything of the like either. There was of course the possibility that some sort of aircraft would be awaiting him down Ā the cliff and catch him from the sky, but flying so near a mountain is dangerous. Even a highly skilled pilot would face tremendous difficulty were that to be true. Furthermore, they had a lot of backup and other squad teams covering the ground and perimeter. Landing or flying amidst all that would be unadvisable, even for a super-soldier such as the winter soldier.
Other agents seemed to realize this too, and they all started to rush over in order to peer over the edge of the cliff whilst whispering and murmuring amongst Themselves. A few medics that had just arrived moved over to her and gave her something to apply pressure to her wound before moving on to the other injured agents after she said she could handle it on her own. Whilst still applying pressure to her abdomen, she tried to move over to the vehicle that was meant to take the engineer away. She had just reached the car and was leaning against it, when a fast movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention.
A young woman, perhaps a few years younger than herself, had appeared out of nowhere and was now sprinting to the edge of the cliff as well. The agents that were looking over the edge of the cliff hadnāt noticed her yet and yelled in surprise when they were forcefully pushed aside by the stranger. They were taken by even more surprise when she jumped right after the super soldier.
The redhead started to really wonder why hydra would tell their assets to commit suicide, when the agents on the clearing screamed yet again, but this time in horror. A large black blur had surged upwards from the depths of the mountain and was now hovering over the clearing. She wouldnāt have been able to identify the creature at all if it werenāt for the dark outline of its form. The beastās skin seemed even darker than the night sky, so pitch-black, that you could make out its silhouette against the black that was the color of the sky.
It opened its mouth and led out a bloodcurdling roar, before breathing fire in their general direction.
The agents on the cliff all searched for cover as huge flames spread across the clearing. The people that had stood by the edge had all been unfortunate enough to either have been burned alive or to have been hit by its strong tail and thrown of the cliff. As the few last remaining agents ran down the mountain, the flames spread further, and the creature rose once again. Natasha could see the beast more clearly now it had the white background of the moon behind it instead of the dark sky.
It looked like a dragon similar to those that appeared in childrenās stories. It was huge, with midnight black scales adorning its body. It had a muscular chest, and the strong muscles seemed to contract and relax as it batted its bat-like wings. These wings were so strong that even she, from her place below on the mountain, could feel the enormous windblows it created. Attached to it its body was the long tail that had just moments before pushed at least 4 agents from the edge of the cliff and she could faintly make out the shining of razor sharp claws that were on either of its pentadactyl hands and feet. Evenly sharp were the rows of teeth that were displayed when the creature let out another thundering roar.
The deafening sound pulled her from the trance she had been in. She pulled her own fire weapon, raised her arm, whilst still applying pressure to her wound, and shot.
She saw how her bullet just barely grazed its target as the beast flew up again and away from the mountain range. Right before it disappeared again in the darkness of the night, her eyes caught the shimmer of metal that reflected the moonlight.
The next day, all people talked about the metal armed man that had ambushed them, jumped off a cliff and flew away on the back of a monster. A creature that had risen straight out of the depths of hell. An animal that was a creation of the devil himself. A creature of the darkness.