Winter's Oath

All characters belong to Marvel Comics

I own nothing

+ Prologue +

Saint Petersburg, Санкт-Петербург, Russia

Winter's light fell against the glass planes of the frosted window; steady and tranquil. A faint glow of amber from dimming candlelight flickered against the wall; pieces of plaster had scattered across hardwood, and dark puddles of maroon had collected underneath vacant shadows of the dining room. Encroaching smells of death hung over every corner; echoes of rapid gun fire consumed the deary silence as obscured shaped loomed in the white abyss around her had become phantoms, merciless and carrying the ambiance of terror.

Hidden in the sables of darkness, with heaving breaths of panic was the only survivor from the invasive attack. A observer pulled in the thralls of brutality and devastation which had pure into her household. There was no warning. Her father was first target, and then her mother and sister. They had been stolen from her, unfairly by snipers hidden in darkness of the outside world. The child seem to had imaged that she would be starring into the void of had curled her trembling body underneath the furnished table; with one shaky hand gripping the wooden leg, and the other hand cradled over the gaping bullet wound which had compromised her tensed and bruised stomach.

The girl felt the sniper slug and glass shards beginning to dig further into pierced layers of her muscle. Each fragment felt like it was puncturing her internal organs; until she had become a victim of the coldness searing into her rattled bones. She felt the numbness and the weaving the blood pulsing in her veins.

She never cried.

It was almost like her emotions had become frozen. Her caramel eyes darkened from shafts of light, and delicate pink shaded lips grew into a still expression. Her traumatized mind conceived illusions of dark wraiths lurking outside the borders of her home;, daring her to move outside. Instead, she kept a frightened gaze locked on the tarnished silver locket before her quivering frame. Smears of blood of her mother's blood had stained over the chained necklace. The girl knew it now belonged to her. She had become the new heir of her family's heirloom when her mother pulled it off her neck before the sniper bullet had sliced through her heart.

Panting out a heavy, strained breath, the child reached for the locket, forcing the muscles in her arms to twist as she grasped the necklace. Without any hesitation, she bolted out the back kitchen door, never looking back at the lifeless bodies of her family.

Wincing in thralls of relentless pain, she moved aimlessly against the sables of thick darkness. She ignored the freezer burns on the soles of her bare feet while she wrapped her arms over her chest. Stumbling to keep balanced, she dragged her small body in staggered footing over the mounts of thick snow. She dared a glance of what was ahead of her as her wobbling legs pushed through the sheets of white. Violent slashes of wind cut through her skin, giving her only the sensation of numbness as warm blood trickled over her temple. She had been given the proper motivation to carry on, she struggled against the dead weight dragging her further into the deep snow. She had to run, find a shelter against the harsh storm encasing over her shivering body.

It felt like death was hesitating as the flakes landed in her disheveled long brown strands of hair, but she kept on pushing herself, avoiding the areas of the fresh tire tracks etched in the snow. The biting gusts of the moaning wind lashed rushes of ice over her pale blemished skin of her cheeks. Her lips chilled, and her voice felt like it was locked away as she tried to call out for help. Listening over a response to her desperate cries, the child halted in her tracks and listened to the ear-splitting sound of terror knelling in the snowy air. She wondered if a monster lurked in the pitch of darkness, waiting to devour her weakened form. The silent emptiness was all that dulled in her ears.

"I told you everything I know..." A shuttering, and breathless voice hollered like a haunting whisper in the thick obscurity of the over barren estate grounds. A thumping of boots sloshing over puddles of slush against the muffled silence. With his elusive steps a pungent stench of metal and gunpowder wavered from him. Cautious, he advanced closer to his prey.

A man dressed in black frantically glance over his shoulder, daring himself to stare at the towering figure impending in the shrouds of darkness. He was starring into the unblinking pale blue eyes of a wolfish creature. The face of the male was covered by a graphite mask, only his piercing gaze ripped through the curtains of mussed hair. With a struggling plea of mercy, a loud and abrasive growl followed.

"Stay away from me," he yelled out, and then scrambled onto his feet, crashing into a pile of trash cans and landing flat on his face.

He lifted his scraped chin, shivering as he stared with bewilderment at the dark, imposing figure stalked closer with slow and calculating strides.

Blinking the pain out of his eyes as he felt the blood in his veins turned cold and air rushed through his lungs. Sweat chilled against his pallid skin as he lay on the frozen ground dazed and laden. A vulnerable lump of flesh -defenseless for the attack.

"I gave you the window to engage. I followed your orders." he shrieked, heart pounding with every jolt of fear that spiked in his blood. The world spun world around, vision swam into a crimson haze. He blinked the tears out of his eyes and dared himself once again to stare up at the nightmare mirroring his gaze.

"Why is he doing this? I followed my orders. I kept my mouth shut." he managed to wheeze out, maroon leaking from his swollen mouth.

The attacker said nothing, just glared down at him with murderous glacial blue embers of molten dread. A flash of headlights reflected over the white ground, revealing the ghostly visage of a man garbed fully in Kevlar combat gear towered over the target like a wolf to a cornered rabbit-he was barely visible to the darkness. He had brown shoulder length that was draped over his jaw. He wore a mask that covered a portion of his face, and his vibrant, soulless and unnerved blue eyes were glimmering with intensity of a lurid hunter.

His metal hand screeched with inorganic, and mechanical noises as it clamped over sub machine gun when he brushed his gloved hand over the breech of his weapon, and lowered the muzzle suppressor over the man's pulsing throat. "You're time is running out." he snarled against the mask, his eyes changeless with no sense of empathy. Just pure malice and automaton precision. "All targets are destroyed. You're services are no longer required. Goodbye comrade."

Spiting up a gob of blood, the man protested against the threat. "I know who you are...The Winter Soldier." He choked as powerful hands clasped over his thinned neck, and squeezed bone shifting pressure against his thorax. The smell of chilled metal tainted the air, and he fought against the restricting hold, clawing at the chrome arm, and yanked a strip of leather off. He tried to free himself from the unbidden clutches of merciless Russian assassin.

He squeezed hard on metal, digging his finger nails into serrated edges of the plates, but the Winter Soldier was relentless and pressed his leather glove hard over his mouth, smothering the breath out of him. During those last moments of his struggle, he fell into a trance, gazing into icy blue eyes, watching the expression grew vicious, inhumane and cold. The masked man ripped his shirt with one swipe of a knife, and then fired the machine gun. Within seconds and the caliber bullet exploded in the man's chest.

Agony erupted through every fiber of his body; the man's head smacked backwards, his teeth stained with blood.

Mustering up his strength, he fought to stay alert, unable to move. Breath was betraying him. Panic invaded his racing heart, blood churned in his veins. "When day HYDRA's reign of terror will end!" he roared, his voice fading, and eyes fluttering to the back of his skull. Another clap of thunder escaped the gun, and the man became limp as a cold fish. His body flopped slightly against the snow before he released a faint breath.

The deaden eyes of the predator trained over a heap of snow, locking on the blood trail, each drop leading to a cluster of ice encased evergreens.

"Directive has been successful. Target has been extracted." the Winter Soldier said in a low voice, as he pressed his comlink. "Hail, HYDRA."

An emotionless smirk stifled over his chilled lips, and one eye looked through the scope of the weapon-aiming the red marker on a small child trudging frantically through the snow. His finger hesitated over the trigger. He couldn't fire a killing shot. Instead, he he lowered the weapon, pointing the muzzle to the ground, and then he stared intently at the spatters of blood that had painted over the snow.

Then, he saw something that made his frozen heart shudder against his armor. A body of the child was laying on the ground, her dark locks fanned across slush and a macabre of blood. Her chest was heaving out labored exhales of forced breath.

Sucking in a deep breath, the Winter Soldier reluctantly approached the wounded girl cautiously, his heavy boots crunched in the snow, and feral blue eyes narrowed on her pale face. Silently, he lowered his weapon to his side, and tentatively crouched down next to her laden body. Lifting his head, he trained his eyes on the distant glow of firelight from an explosion. He fell into a trance, gaping at the smoke rising from the blown out windows of a building, and acutely listened to the echoes of straits from sirens.

This was his world.

Feeling, a brush of sentiment creep over his rugged skin, he gently dragged his metal knuckles across the snow, and lightly caressed her cheek. He constantly scanned his intense gaze over the area; searching for another agent to aid him. He had been created not to feel-not to show compassion, but looking down at the innocent life struggling for her survival caused him to breakout the void of his programming and become human again. He felt the urge to save her.

Mutely, he bowed his head, his ratty locks of dark hair draped over his frozen cheeks, and he removed his mask, tossing it aside and listening to clang when it hit the ground. Instinctively, he brushed a soothing motion of his lips over her forehead, allowing a wet heat to penetrate over her pale skin, and he kissed her, giving her his warmth. It felt natural to him.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you," he spoke in broken Russian, sliding his hand over the shard of glass sticking out of her right side. He painfully yanked it out of her while keeping his mouth latched onto her skin. The child snapped her brown eyes open, and let out a painful scream of anguish. Tears solidified over her cheeks, and blood dripped from the corner of her full red lips. She gasped, and thrashed in panic, but he kept her stable when she lifted her gaze up, studying him with bewildered, watery eyes.

His hair was thick and rich, disheveled chestnut cascading off the planes of his shoulders and off his face-displaying the youthful, chiseled lines of his youthful, rugged face. The warm glow enhanced the details of his gentle pale azure eyes as clear as a December sky and his well-defined jaw line smooth from a shave. His beautifully curved, full lips held the faint essence of a human smile, and metal hand cupped the side of her delicate face. "Are you ..." she managed to say in broken voice, rubbing her shaky fingers over his mouth. "Going to kill me?"

He grabbed her thin wrist, gently, and pulled her hand back. "No." he answered with a sullen voice, and wrapped his broad arms over her small frame, lifting her carefully up from the ground, and cradling her securely against the armor of his broad chest. He watched her eyes close, and her lips pressed over his heart. She felt safe with him. "Your hurt and medical attention." he exclaimed, settling his irked blue eyes over the area. Instinctively, he turned his head and looked intensely over his rigid shoulder—two men garbed in leather stood before a black van with automatic rifles slung over the broad span of their shoulders.

He swallowed thickly, steadying his breath—knowing that it was almost time for him to return to the ice and wait in a silent coffin until the he becomes needed again.

He nodded responsibly at their barking voices, and he advanced closer to the vehicle with methodical steps.

The Winter Soldier kept on looking down at the child nuzzled safe in his strong arms, and he knew that he would never lay his eyes on her ever- again.

He was never a chance to have contact with humanity beyond the barriers of HYDRA. He was a weapon created for a purpose to destroy life and not to shield it with his own mortality. Feeling, her shiver against the Kevlar armor encased over his chest, made the bones of his rib cage cramped up with sickening and harrowing tension as he vanished into the falling snow.

The locket gripped her hands, dangled off her limp fingers as it threatened to fall, but he caught the necklace with his bionic hand and placed it securely over her chest.

The good man who had dwelled deep inside of the layers of the hardened assassin, he wanted to tell her everything would be alright, but his lips sealed against the coldness, and his heart frozen as well. He placed her laden body carefully into the red stained hands of HYDRA.

He climbed into the back of the van and sat in the seat as silence cloaked over his menacing semblance.

Instinctively, as the assassin kept his trained his ghostly eyes locked on little girl's face resting flat on the seat before him, a part of him felt the iciness of a wave of uncertainty lap over him.

He looked down at his 9 mm silencer pistol strapped to his right thigh hostler, and then he took a deep breath as his metal fingers clutched the weapon and within seconds of pulling the trigger. The compromised driver's head smashed against the steering wheel and the vehicle loss its traction as tires swerved until the front of van collided with a tree. Seizing his moment, he climbed over the seat and wrapped his arms around her.

Narrowing his blue eyes down at her angelic, paled face, the Winter Soldier gave his oath to the child in a gentle cadence in his raspy and deep voice, "I will protect you." he declared out his mission in a muffled voice and held her close as his arms shielded her with his empowering thermal heat against the winter storm.

He knew this task wouldn't be easy, but she needed him, and for once the programmed soldier obeyed the one thing he thought he'd seem to feel again...His heart.