Blurred Bloodlines

Steve's radio went off and the rather annoyed voice of Sam cut through the air, "Cap, we're in town, now can you please come get us? I don't know how much more of Luis's story-telling I can take..."

Dr. Pym shook his head and turned back to his computer with a snort of laughter.

Hope on the other hand threw her head back and laughed loudly. "Of course he'd take you to Luis the two are practically inseparable!"

The radio crackled to life again, "Hey is that Hope? Where have you been?"

"Around."

"Around? Wait, you can't give me that kind of answer!"

She snorted in derision, "I'm sending you coordinates to meet us at, please try to get there on time."

"Hey, if its about our date-"

The radio cut out as she quickly pressed the mute button. She avoided her father's eyes and busied herself with typing in the coordinates they had agreed to meet at.

"You have something to tell me, Hope?"

"Nothing at the moment."

"Really?" He crossed his arms and stared at her amusedly. "I've already caught you two kissing. I kind of figured you two would start dating at some point."

Her eyes whipped towards her father, "I-it was a stupid idea and he didn't show up."

"Why is that?"

"Luis just had to talk to him. Said it was urgent. And the next day he was flying off to Vienna."

Steve winced, "That may have been my fault, Ms. Pym. Sam said he knew someone that could help so I had him bring them in."

She shrugged, "Apology accepted, now lets go."

"Wait, do we even know where Rebecca is right now?" Syrena questioned.

Steve stepped up beside her, "She's being taken to the south side of the city. That's where she told them we would be, but we don't have long before Viper finds out that she's just pretending-"

"-And gives the order for her to be terminated. I know how it goes with Hydra, Cap." Syrena finished for him.

He nodded gravely, "That's why we've gotta move now to secure Becky before that even happens then we can take the fight to Viper once and for all."

The alarm on Dr. Pym's computer decided at that moment to go off and when he checked it, his face paled.

"Umm, Captain, we have a problem."

"What is it, Hank?"

My computers are tied into the police scanners and we just got a hit. Double homicide on the south side, both victims were wearing military style uniforms. The uniforms had pins on them. Skulls with tentacles."

Bucky growled, "Hydra."

Hank nodded, "It seems your daughter's impatient to strike back at Viper and given her history with the woman, I wouldn't blame her."

Pietro shook his head, "She's going to get herself killed."

"I trained her. Its not likely."

Syrena looked at Bucky with horror in her eyes, "You trained her? When?"

"A year ago. Its when I was working for a man named Pierce. I didn't even recognize her, Sy."

She shook her head, "I can't believe they would do that. And they had to have known who she was."

"Oh they did. Pierce told me that I was going to be training the 'next generation' of Hydra soldier. That bastard."

The Cap shook his head, "Can we table this discussion for another time? We need to find Rebecca before the police or worse before Viper does."

He turned to Bucky and raised an eyebrow, "Do you think you can manage?"

"Hell yeah. Let's go get my daughter."

Syrena laid a hand on his metal arm, "You mean OUR daughter."

Bucky nodded, a soft smile on his lips as he traced a finger down her cheek. "Our daughter."

/ ~ / ~ / ~ /

The scientist swallowed hard as his hand raised to knock on the door in front of him. He didn't want to do this, but if he kept it from her, he would still die but much more painfully.

His hand paused, shaking at the thought of his impending death. Why was he the one chosen for this? I guess being the intern really doesn't help your chances in situations like this. He began to chuckle but stifled it quickly lest he become hysterical. That would not be helpful.

He squared his shoulders and took a shaky breath. If there was one thing his family was known for it was bravery in the face of doom.

'Well, here goes.'

His knuckles rapped on the door twice in quick succession.

"Come in!"

He opened the door and immediately a chill ran down his spine at the wide smile Viper gave him.

"Ahh! The test results correct?"

He could only nod to which she laughed half-heartedly.

"Now, now, no need to be shy, Mr?"

"Doctor Malvern, ma'am."

She snapped her fingers and held out her hand for the files he was holding. "Well, Dr. Malvern, don't keep me waiting, how did my girl do?"

"Preliminary results were very promising of course...."

Her eyes narrowed and he gulped. 'Here goes.'

"I have a feeling there's a 'but' in there somewhere. Am I correct in my assumption?"

He nodded and quickly cowered back a few steps when she surged to her feet, annoyance written plainly on her face. "What went wrong?"

"We had that device implanted as a failsafe, in case the conditioning broke of course."

"Of course and it worked beautifully."

He winced and she stepped around her desk and stood right in front of him. His whole body shook as she smiled sickeningly sweet at him.

"What happened?"

"W-well, w-when those orange ants of Dr. Pym's shocked the asset....I-it....w-well, they kind of broke the device."

Her smile fell. "What?"

"The device isn't active. She's not currently under Hydra control."

She stepped closer to him and raised a hand to his face, he flinched and she shushed him.

"Oh, there's no need for that. Nothings going to happen. Now what else can you tell me from the results?"

He gulped loudly, "Well, it seems the device was never active to begin with. We also received reports that a Hydra base in Washington has been attacked."

Her lips thinned and her eyes flashed with fire, "Which base?"

"Sector 16, quadrant C. The one holding Syr-" His words turned to a strangled gasp as she gripped his face in both hands and leaned close to him, pressing her lips to his.

His eyes widened for a moment when she pulled back and he gave a small smile. 'Well, that was unexpected.'

Then he realized she wasn't smiling back and the color drained from his face.

"Goodbye, Dr. Malvern. It was ever so nice while it lasted. Don't worry, your family will be well taken care of in your absence."

The poison flooded his veins, wracking his body with debilitating agonizing pain and when he felt at the wetness on his face, his hand pulled away covered in blood. He crumpled to his hands and knees and vomited blood all over the carpet below him.

His only thought was of his wife, 'Oh god, please not my Tess.' Then his eyes clouded over as he was consumed by darkness and he slumped over dead.

Viper stood there watching the whole thing eerily bored at the sight.

She sighed before his previous words threw her back into a rage.

'The device was never active to begin with.'

How? How could it not be active? She herself saw as her pet crumbled under its control...unless...

She smirked, "Oh my dear girl, apparently your father trained you too well. Well, this will certainly make things more interesting."

Her thoughts then turned to Syrena and she gripped the edge of her desk tightly. 'So the unworthy bitch is awake.'

"Well, you won't be able to enjoy your freedom for long, she-wolf because I am going to make you suffer for taking him from me. Starting with your little bastard child."

She leaned over and pressed the intercom button on her phone.

The other side picked up after only one ring, "Yes, Mistress Hydra?"

She sighed deeply, "I need a cleanup crew in here. There's an unsightly mess on my carpet that needs to be taken care of."

"Yes, Mistress."

Viper turned to the monitor the right of her and looked at it thoughtfully for a minute before grabbing the remote and pressing play.

She grinned at the video and shook her head laughing.

It was a recording of a little dark haired toddler playing with blocks. He was silent except for the squeal he would let out whenever the blocks fell over softly crashing to the floor.

"My dear, dear little one, whatever are we going to do with your parents? They just don't realize that I'm holding quite the ace up my sleeve, don't they, moya malen'kiy vikhr'."

He looked up at the camera just then but his eyes were pure silver and the air around him seemed to crackle with blue electricity.

"Oh, yes, quite the ace."

Notes