Red scars barely healed covered her entire body like a giant red spiderweb, clinging to her skin and turning what was once pure into a canvas for death. Her eyes were blood-shot and a rim of golden yellow had formed on her pupils, making her already beautiful blue eyes highlighted in a deep lustrous yellow. Her long blonde hair was tied back behind her head in a ratty bun and that only articles of clothing on her body was a black wrap tightly around her chest and a pair of small black shorts that hugged her waist and thighs. Despite this being the first time Bucky had ever seen Evangeline half-naked, there was no embarrassment or bashfulness here. Just rage and despair at the sight of her damaged self.

"See, Sergeant Barnes," Schmidt spoke over the muffled, infuriated shouts from Bucky's covered mouth. "Although she seems to be in bad shape at this moment, you can obviously notice that she now has both hands, along with an enhanced ability to control the rest of the serum we've been injecting into her cardiovascular system. We've only just began the process of replacing her blood with what we like to call 'super-human magma', a creation of our own that can influence the amount of foreign chemicals that a human body can develop at one time."

Bucky was only half-listening to the German scientist, he was too preoccupied staring at what remained of his old friend. Dark circles ran beneath her changed eyes, her teeth rattled in her mouth as if she were suffering from a fever, and she lacked the ability to stand on her own two feet, needing the other individuals in the lab to drag her body across the floor.

"Within a few days, your friend will have officially made history as the most powerful human on the planet. We still have much yet to do; make sure she's capable of handling the serum to the fullest extent, create the proper clothing she can wear that won't light on fire every time her heart rate increases in speed, and so on and so forth."

She was breathing heavily by the time the two laboratory assistants had gotten her to the edge of the pool. A thermometer attached to the side of it showed just how cold the liquid inside truly was- hardly one degree away from freezing.

"I'll warn you now, Sergeant," Schmidt began again with that same evil smile he'd had on his face when he and his men had come to escort Bucky into the lab. The scientists began to lift Angie's motionless body into the air. "Making sure that the body is capable of controlling such a dangerously explosive chemical in an extremely delicate process. In order to make sure the test subject can survive outside of the lab in other conditions and climates, we must expose her as much as possible to what she could probably encounter outside these walls. With her being so used to normal temperatures already, it is now time to change her surroundings."

As if the men were tossing a sack of potatoes, the two scientists carelessly threw Evangeline's glowing body over the edge of the pool. Immediately after making contact with the clear, cold liquid, the water began to steam and boil. The splash sent scalding waves over the edge of the large liquid container and the two men standing nearest to the show screamed as the liquid landed directly on them, burning their hands and faces.

Air bubbles floated to the surface and popped violently; these weren't from the boiling water. Angie was shrieking in agony beneath the churning waves.

"Halten sie es unter!" Schmidt yelled to another pair of lab assistants. They nodded and quickly ran to the wall a few yards away, where two long poles leaned against the metal surface. Just as Bucky saw a glowing hand reach up from beneath the water, the two assistants quickly slid the metal poles down and held them in place right on top of their lab experiment.

They were pinning Evangeline to the bottom of the pool. 

"Warten sie, bis die kampfe aufhoren!"

No! Bucky wanted to yell as he struggled to escape from the clutches of the soldiers surrounding himself. He thrashed violently back and forth, knocking a few of his captors to their knees before they were immediately replaced by two other men just waiting for the fight they knew would come at this horrible sight. Let her go! She can't breathe! You're suffocating her! Let her go you bastards!

"Nehmen sie ihn weg," Schmidt nodded to his men with a displeased expression on his face after noticing just how badly Buck wanted to raise hell in the middle of his lab. "I'm sorry that you have failed to realize just how far this development could push humans in an evolutionary manner. I'd tell you not to take it personally, but I'm not an idiot. Americans take everything personally." Schmidt turned from Bucky to the man holding the sergeant in place. "Bringe ihn nicht wieder in den kafig. Nimm ihn zu Professor Zola."

As Buck was being dragged away for the second time since he was taken prisoner, he caught a fleeting glance of Angie's body finally come up from the bottom of the water, floating lifelessly on her stomach with her face down while the men dressed in white continued to scream and writhe on the floor with their hands covering their scarred faces.

**********

Hey, guys! I'm sorry this chapter was so short, but I figured that was okay since my last one was 500 more words than I usually write, so that kind of evens it out a bit. I just wanted to thank you guys for reading since I know this isn't a popular fanfic. I really appreciate you for voting when you guys do, it really motivates me to not give up on this story. 

I'd also like to announce that yes, 'Before the Frost' is the first book in a series that I've been recently putting together. Most of the books are going to be loosely based on a Marvel movie, like this one is based on Captain America: The First Avenger, though I have two exceptions- one book being mostly about Angie's adventures with Black Widow and the other mostly revolving around another OC and Wade Wilson (possibly a Loki book in there, too, depending on my future thoughts on the Thor and first Avengers movie plots). Here are the titles and the characters (besides Evangeline) that will hopefully show up within the next year or two.

Before the Frost: Book One- Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes (Captain America: The First Avenger)

After the Thaw: Book Two- Natasha Romanoff/Nick Fury/Tony Stark? (original work)

During the Storm: Book Three- Thor/Loki/Avengers (Thor, The Avengers)

Following the Outbreak: Book Four- Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Among the Thunder: Book Five- Wanda Maximoff/Pietro Maximoff/Avengers (The Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Prior to the Wildfire: Book Six- Wade Wilson/Peter Parker (original work)

Throughout the Downpour: Book Seven- Peter Parker/Wade Wilson/Avengers (Spider-Man: Homecoming)

Within the Downfall: Book Eight- Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark/Avengers(including Peter Parker and Wade Wilson) (Captain America:Civil War)

I've got a lot of plans for this series and I really hope you guys enjoy what I have in store. Since this is a fanfiction series, though, just warning you now that I won't be sticking exactly to the Marvel story lines (in case people haven't noticed yet). Which means Pietro could survive, Steve could die, Hawkeye could die, Nick Fury could die for real, Black Widow could die. I think you get the point. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you've liked the story so far! I know its been kind of depressing, but we're only half way through! It'll get better, I promise! :D

~Madness