Tandem missions are something the Soldier looks forward to without being able to put "why" into words. They don't always happen and when he comes back from solo ops, there's a hollowness yawning inside, aching; when he told his handler about it she frowned. You didn't want that, a handler frowning. That usually meant more trials with the chair, feeling your brain liquefying as they calibrate the machine. Listening to them argue about power couplings or swapping out the neural relay as you quietly drool on yourself.
Memory is just a gray smear held together by training and vague impressions of places, people, but the Winter Soldier has learned this new survival technique: whatever he feels toward the Captain, he keeps it to himself short of a direct order to spill his guts. He'd rather be out on ops than more calibrations.
The Winter Soldier falls into place. They can almost-not-really argue about kit but the Captain’s approach is sound. If it was just the tower and the perimeter guards, they'd only need one asset. In all likelihood, they would've just sent him: the Captain's usually saved for absolute priority missions, someone who can completely blend into the populace without a steel arm in the way. The Winter Soldier, on the other hand, is for your accidents that aren’t accidents, the direct kills that don’t require long term deep cover. That’s fine. He’s good at it. Respectable kill count. He has his place, the Captain has his, and everything is as it should be. They’re all extensions of HYDRA.
The target they’re after isn’t. Not yet. Intel indicated the target’s an SSR agent – valuable enough to warrant the touch of two assets instead of one. The real army’s inside, surrounding the target as if that will make a difference.
“On it.”
The Winter Soldier brings his mask over his face, spraypainted white instead of the usual matte-black. They don’t exchange hail HYDRA or even the good luck, see you at the end of the line, when they were different men. There’s just a silent understanding, a kind of simplicity to it all as the Captain disappears into the forest, so quiet that even he loses track of him after a few long seconds. He gives him half a minute to be generous before he sights down his first target, the unlucky man on the tower taking a smoke break. It’s routine:
Sight. Depress trigger. Watch the puff of a red cloud that had been someone’s head through the scope. Move onto the next one. Sight again and again.
The tower is an easy clear. The problem is the last man doesn’t crumple like the others – his body pitches over the side and two hundred pounds of dead meat falling on a roof is hard to miss, snow or no snow.
Brows furrowed, the Winter Soldier packs up, rolling the rifle into its weatherproofed case and stashing it under the tree they agreed on. He doesn’t give himself time to analyze where he went wrong, how he must’ve mistimed the shot. He heads down, circling in the opposite direction he saw the Captain go. The compound’s alerted to their presence – they don’t know how many there are, but it’s hard to explain a dead man with a good chunk of his head missing. The perimeter guards fan out. Some of them make the mistake going into the trees, toward where he believes the other asset went. Those he doesn’t worry about. They’re as good as dead.
The Winter Soldier moves low but fast, his knife flashing out as he runs into the first sentry on his side. Rush him, crush his windpipe with his left hand. Thrust blade into chest with the right. Move on. By now he’s worked his way to ground level, winding around trees dusted with the recent snowfall, keeping an ear out for the Captain and the almost inaudible wet grunts of the men he’s killing in the distance. Hoping, in the back of his mind somehow still capable of it, that this isn’t the op where the other asset gets killed because someone got lucky.
Working with the Winter Soldier is always something that gets the Captain’s blood running just a little hotter. When they’re both on a mission, it means it’s top priority, higher than high, and while that honestly means very little to the Captain, because it’s nothing he needs to concern himself with, what it does mean to him is a challenge. And there’s something in him that craves a challenge, that feels disappointed when missions aren’t challenging, and while he’s never said it - he thinks his handler knows - knew? - it, too. There was something in the way he’d look at the Captain, when he’d present himself for debriefing and cryosleep after a quiet solo mission, that wasn’t the same look as when the Captain would come back buzzing from a mission with the Winter Soldier. He remembers that look, even if it blends together with so many wipes, and he remembers the thrill of excitement he gets, in the quiet moments just before he and the Winter Soldier spring into action. It’s something he… likes. He knows he shouldn’t have likes or dislikes, not when they’re not mission-relevant - but he likes it, all the same.
That was his old handler, at least - he thinks. The face now seems different, he thinks - newer. Younger. He thinks the name is different, too - not that it matters. If his handler does his job, and the Captain does his, it doesn’t matter. They’re still achieving the same goal. But he knows better than to mention that like he has, that preference for challenge over order, to his handler. The looks he gets are already wary and calculating enough. This doesn’t affect his mission capability, and so he doesn’t report it as an error or malfunction, nor does he want them to wipe it away, exactly.
When he leaves the Soldier behind, it’s with the absolute knowledge that the men on the tower will die, and the Soldier will catch up with him once they have. Neither of them expect the fourth body to fall; the Captain is in the process of slitting a man’s throat from behind when it happens, the warm blood spraying out over the snow as the body gurgles and dies, when there’s a dull but distinct thud that echoes in the distance. It’s unexpected - but the assets are adaptable. Missions rarely go according to plan, and that preference for challenge starts rising up again in him - missions according to plan are boring. Those that don’t go quite as planned are always more fun.
It’s an errant thought, and one that is dismissed quickly - there’s still a job to be done, and he’s the best HYDRA has to offer. He works through the remaining guards quickly, silently, despite the fact that their suspicions have been raised - it distracts them more than focuses them, and he’s still silent, and fast, and deadly. He likes killing with his hands, up close and personal, snapping necks and slitting throats, both of which are quick and quiet. When he closes ranks with the Winter Soldier, he’s barely breathing hard, flashing something that’s almost, almost a satisfied smile from beneath the half-mask of his helmet. “You miscalculated,” he says - in a solid, straightforward tone, but yet one that for an asset, means something almost dangerously close to teasing, as he brushes by the Soldier’s shoulder and begins pulling the small directional explosives from his belt. There’s a side entrance - going in the main door would be too flashy, and it’s not the assets’ purpose to be flashy - that will give them access to the compound’s interior, let them work their way through it via the maps they’ve both memorized to the fortified interior, where the agent is believed to be holed up. There may be heavy resistance - and the Captain finds himself thinking he won’t mind if there is. He hasn’t had a chance to use the metal shield at his back for a while, now - that he can remember. He almost aches for it, if this strange, wanting feeling is an ache.
The Winter Soldier gives his partner a flat stare over his mask.
"I'm aware. It won't happen again."
They're too far gone to tease like the good old days. To the uninitiated it might look like a fairly standard conversation, only sparse words between two soldiers who aren’t that chatty anyway and that's it. Nothing to see here. Maybe when he first met the Captain it was like that: just another face, cold blue eyes that hold his attention but the main thing is he was looking for a hint of weakness. Any sign that this other asset wasn’t up to snuff.
These days he actually recognizes the man even after the wipes and coming out of cryofreeze. It happened before this mission, on the way to his briefing. The Captain was taking a break from training a recruit, oblivious to the reek of the newbie’s blood in the air. He’d stepped aside as they hauled the other asset past, boots dragging against the floor, his legs still boneless from cryo, head hanging down because he can’t summon the energy to lift it. Even then, his eyes had darted up from the floor to fix for a stolen few seconds on the Captain, eyes glittering through tangled hair. They made eye contact and he knew him, he knew, then, that today was going to be a good day. They couldn’t take that from him even as the chair restraints snapped into place.
The Winter Soldier isn’t sure if they’re friends, if he even remembers what friends are. Before there was the mission and the low, animal dread of cryo. Now there’s touches here and there, shoulders grazing, knees bumping into each other when they sit side by side in a van with blacked out windows. He can't place a finger on how he can tell, how he can look at the other asset and understand there's another layer to certain things he says. It isn’t just tone of voice. It’s how his shoulders square a certain way if he's not happy with something to that shift in his eyes when he's...amused. The Captain right now has one of those almost-smiles that his mask and the blood smudged across his face doesn’t hide.
They assume positions. The Captain blows the door. It’s a small burst, neat, nothing flashy like blowing the whole thing off its hinges. It’s instinct to go first: pistol drawn, finger resting on the trigger guard, and while the Captain could probably do this on his own, he has his standing orders. The other asset never goes first into a building. Never takes point if they’re working together. He’s too valuable.
The Winter Soldier picks off a few of the men who think they’re going to be hero instead of hiding. Stepping over their bodies, the two assets go deeper and deeper. Resistance grows. He has to stop and reload and then do it again and eventually he runs out of ammunition, has to stoop and raid one of the corpses for more. The Captain’s knee deep in it, coming alive as he first covers with the shield, sparking as gunfire ricochets off, and then throws it, bouncing it off the wall and hitting a man’s face with the satisfying crack of his orbital socket caving in on itself. He drops. The radio at the dead man’s hip crackles.
“Reinforcements,” the Winter Soldier’s head cocks to the side. He’s actually breathing a little hard now, his mask uncomfortable, humid. “Better armed and trained from the sound of it.”
They’re both good – better than good, they’re HYDRA’s very best – but even they have their limits. They need to get to that SSR agent and get out and that’s when the shutters come down, trapping them in the room. The hissing from the vents is odorless but he can hear it, he’s heard the same thing back at base when they want to sedate from a distance. The Soldier’s eyebrows knit as he exchanges looks with his partner.
It’s a trap. This isn’t about an SSR agent with new intel, it’s something else. Something that they had time to outfit the base for, reinforce the walls, build in airtight shutters and retrofit a gas release system into that the building schematics didn’t cover.
The Winter Soldier immediately calls it in. His handler’s voice comes in garbled, laced with panic that hadn’t been there before the feed turns to static and now they’re on their own, cut off from HYDRA for the first time in years.
It feels uncannily like the Winter Soldier is a strange sort of constant; like his handler, the Captain simply assumes that the scientists choose not to erase the eyes or the hair or the gravelly, low voice, even when they take other things away. It’s a strange sort of existence, knowing you knew things, knowing they have been taken away, but it’s also the only existence he knows - has ever known? - and it’s the way HYDRA ensures that he can continue to carry out his missions. His missions are vital, world-changing, important, and he is doing HYDRA’s very best work. This certainty, they’ve never taken away either - in fact, if anything, he feels that they constantly remind him, even though they know he already knows.
The door blows, and they enter the building. There is a part of him, deep down, that feels something almost like annoyance, every time the Winter Soldier takes point. It’s not really annoyance, because the reasoning is sound - both assets know their worth to HYDRA, and where that worth begins and ends to within inches. It makes things simple, makes everything clear. And yet - and yet, there is something about watching the Winter Soldier infiltrate the compound ahead of him that, as always, sets his teeth on edge, makes his fists clench tighter, and he’s not sure why, but he would rather it be him.
That’s another thing he’s kept to himself, another non-mission-imperative opinion. He chooses to let it augment his vigilance, rather than detract from it, making sure every sense is on high alert, fingers grasping the worn leather of the shield as he pulls it from his back and they meet the first resistance inside the corridor. It isn’t long before they’re working in perfect tandem, the Captain deflecting bullets while the Winter Soldier fires, leaping seamlessly into the fray for close-range combat while the other asset sights or reloads. He never once worries that he will be accidentally hit by friendly fire - the Winter Soldier is too good, and the Captain always, somehow, mentally divides their opponents, seeks out those he is best suited to kill, just as the Winter Soldier does the same. In this, they always agree.
The resistance is steady - and, he notes, steadily increasing. When the last man in the most recent wave goes down with a crushed skull, the Captain’s already preparing to move forward, reaching down to pluck a pistol from a dead man’s grip when the shutters come down and the vents hiss on. For a moment, the Captain thinks it won’t be a problem - they’re both enhanced, both resistant to biological agents, difficult to sedate or drug. Despite this fact, he’s still concerned - a lack of concern would be a tactical oversight, and oversights are not acceptable - and he frowns, brows knitting as a small, subtle crease forms between them and he stalks to the nearest sealed door, the arm with the shield raised, ready to bring it down hard against the metal, even as he wonders about the result. If they’re trapped, it means they were expected. It means this whole thing was planned, and that reeks of preparedness on the SSR’s part. That gets something small, subtle, twisting in the pit of his stomach - it’s not really an emotion, not really fear of the same kind that HYDRA can induce, with their tasers and their chairs and their cryostasis tubes. There is no fear greater than that, it’s a fear that comes from a place deep down inside of him, a fear that is so constant, but so subtle, that it’s simply a part of who he is. HYDRA was made to instill fear; it’s only right that even its greatest assets understand enough to fear it. But still, this is wrong, this is more than just a mission gone unexpectedly upside-down.
He knows the Soldier is calling it in - he speaks into his own comm to confirm, and only static comes back. His heart beats, once, twice, three times, but only static. They’ve been cut off, their signals jammed. It’s this strange sort of disconcerting, this sudden void that the handlers have always filled, but the assets are adaptable, they are smart, they are resourceful. He glances as the Soldier, then to the shuttered exit, and tenses to strike at it -
Later, he won’t be able to report whether the blow followed through. All he knows is, he must have succumbed to the gas, it must have been dosed properly, or maybe just dosed exceedingly high to ensure a result, because he is suddenly awake, staring up at a grey concrete ceiling, secured to a gurney in a way that clearly says it was not originally meant to hold him. The cuffs are secure but obviously jury-rigged, as though they were meant to hold a slightly-enhanced man of his stature, but not one augmented to the same degree. His head is pounding, possibly an aftereffect of the gas, possibly an injury he sustained following his incapacitation, and his helmet and mask have been removed. He feels a clenching sense of wrong without them, even as his eyes dart around the room, his arms and legs flex, testing the restraints, and his ears pick up voices, think with distance, but if he’s quiet, slows his breathing, he can just make out the words.
But the words… don’t quite make sense.
“-ieve it’s them, do you know who we’re dealing with here? They’ve been dead for twenty years, and now we’re supposed to call the directors and - ”
“Are you really sure it’s them?”
“Of course I’m sure! Look at the goddamned video feed! Go in there and look for yourself! It’s Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes, I swear on my grandmother’s grave, it’s them. If looks aren’t enough for you, I’ll take their goddamned fingerprints and dental impressions, and you can explain - ”
The voices trail off, as though the speakers are walking away, but the words… The words seem to sit, to settle in the Captain’s mind, sticky like glue, and he can’t just dismiss them. Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes. Is that who they think they’ve captured? Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes. The names have this strange mental aftertaste, they reek of familiarity, almost the way the Winter Soldier and the Captain’s handler do in his mind, but… he doesn’t know why.
He isn’t given more time to draw a conclusion, though, because a man wearing glasses, with hair slightly askew - a scientist, or a doctor, he has that look about him, the same look as the men that strap the Captain into the chair, that attach the IV line, that push the drugs he needs through his system before a wipe - comes in, looking nervous. He’s flanked on either side by two men obviously meant to be his security, and he approaches the gurney cautiously, now that he sees the Captain is awake. “Hello, Captain,” he says, his voice sounding rough, a little higher-pitched with fear. Good - he should be afraid. He has captured HYDRA’s most valuable, most deadly asset, and he stares down at the figure on the gurney with trepidation. The Captain doesn’t answer, doesn’t say a thing, only watches, impassively, so the man speaks again.
“Hello, Captain,” he tries again. “Captain Rogers, sir. I’m - I’m here to help you. First, I just need a little blood - ”
The Winter Soldier was the first one to succumb to the gas. In the process he proves the theory that he was the weaker of the two assets is true. They’re treated as a combo of dangerous – exceedingly dangerous – men and as scientific finds between his advanced arm and the way that the Captain has lifted and thrown men double his size, no problem. Even if they don’t plan to keep two of HYDRA’s assets alive at the end of the day, the SSR plans to take what they can while they can. Even unconscious, they don’t take chances – once they’re sure the two men are unconscious and not faking it, the retrieval team scurries in. First thing they do is slap restraints on. His arm gets disabled by a localized EMP tag, a clunky strap that locks around his forearm, effectively turning him into an amputee again. They’re both outfitted with masks that continue to feed in sedative before they’re loaded up and shipped out.
They wake him up first. There’s the usual barrage of questions. Head swimming, faces snapping in and out of focus, the Winter Soldier just stares mutely at them with his face an expressionless mask, eyes immediately scanning the room for signs of the Captain. Technically his superior but he’d always felt in his gut they were equals, complementary. His eyes fall on a temporary partition, wheels visible beneath it. Probably where they’re keeping the Captain. His eyes slide back to the man trying to grill him and he debates trying to head butt his way out. Considering his system is still struggling with whatever they dosed him with, he realizes he might not actually kill the man with the first strike: he’ll need to wait, bide his time. Learn about these people, what they want. Their mission is now his mission to dismantle. The most reaction they get is he drops his eyes as if he's ashamed, ducks his head so his hair falls forward. After that his interrogator takes a break after giving him a long stare, almost as if there’s something clicking in place, and then he leaves without another word. He walks fast, too fast, and it sinks in that maybe he recognized his face.
Weird. Most people who know his face are either dead or they’re part of HYDRA’s network of cells.
He can hear the conversation even if he isn’t a part of it. For a moment, so brief it barely has a chance to connect, he thinks he does recognize the names. Must’ve seen them in papers or maybe it was a deep cover alias – what he does know is for a grand total of one second he likes the name of “Barnes” and then the next? Conditioning takes over. He reminds himself that he isn’t a name, he’s a tool. Hold onto that when you can’t remember much of anything else. It’s weirdly...comforting. While the Captain dwells on the names, turns them over in his head, the Winter Soldier instead retreats from them. Rejects out of instinct. When in doubt, remember that HYDRA has the good of the world on its plate, the long-term survival that no one else is considering. There’s acceptable sacrifice to be made for the mission.
From the sound of it, his partner is awake enough for his own interrogation. While they’re talking to him, the Winter Soldier pretends to be mute. The hiss from the mask humid against his face says they're sedating him and (he hopes) they probably haven’t dosed it high enough because they think he’s locked down. Secured. As the drug works its way through his system, his eyes flutter, start to roll up into his skull, and he goes limp even as he fights to keep listening. Ordering himself to bide his time even if his body temporarily shuts down on him
That was the SSR’s first mistake, putting both assets within spitting distance. Not realizing that each was their own individual with their own levels of programming – what works on one won’t necessarily work on the other.
The scientist in front of the man once known as Steve Rogers also makes that mistake. He doesn’t think about the ticking time bomb on the other side of the partition because his eyes are on one of the greatest war heroes of the century who, apparently, hasn’t aged a day.
“It’s been twenty years since you fought with the US,” he says, and inches forward closer with the needle. The good news is Rogers is a super soldier but it isn’t as if his skin is unbreakable: the needle will go through just fine. “We can help you, if you let us. We can transition both Barnes and you to an actual life, outside of what HYDRA’s done to you.”
He doesn’t promise they can turn around and take the fight to HYDRA. Not after what they’ve been through. No one in their right mind would trust them to turn on HYDRA.
Whatever doubts the man has, he bucks up and gets over it and finally gets within arm’s reach. He rolls up Roger’s sleeve with almost too much care, as if he’s aware of the icon, kill count, the way that he’s killed during and after the war. Supposedly Captain America was so fast that he could outrun a damn car.
“Easy,” the needle pricks into Steve’s skin just as the comm unit crackles. A tinny voice, the voice of his handler, pipes in and a few minutes later, that’s about when shit hits the fan.
The Captain has been interrogated before - never by hostiles, of course, because he is excellent at his job. But HYDRA takes no chances, especially not with an asset of his caliber, and so he has been through round after round of interrogation, questioning, deprivation, torture, all designed specifically to ensure he will not crack. He knows, too, that he is only given the details of each mission that he needs to know, because a good asset should trust in his handler, trust in HYDRA, and trust that he knows exactly what he needs to know, and no more. A good asset cannot be turned against HYDRA if it cannot be broken, and even a broken asset cannot be turned against HYDRA if it has nothing valuable to give to HYDRA’s enemies.
Still, the SSR doesn’t know that, but the Captain can’t help but think it’s strange, their lead-in - the clumsy little scientist isn’t meant to intimidate, the name they call him doesn’t truly mean anything to him (Rogers, Rogers, it’s just a collection of syllables, why does it keep ringing in his head?), and the lie about working for the US is just that - a lie, a clumsy lie, a pointless statement that makes him feel nothing.
If anything, the words that make him feel something are the last - he recoils internally at what the man says, at his ridiculous, unsavory suggestion - the notion of a normal life, the implied yet clear concept of taking him out of the fight. That means something to the asset, and it is unpleasant, to say the least. When he is taken out of the fight, it’s because he will be dead - or, if he hasn’t been killed in action, he’s sure he will be disposed of by his handlers, shortly after. He won’t be left to die of old age, won't be cast out to live a mundane, meaningless life, or even a life filled with joy and love. Those things aren’t for assets. Those things are for people. Maybe those things were for whoever this Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes are, but they are not for the Captain, nor are they for the Winter Soldier. That's how it should be. He doesn't want to live a normal life. He doesn't want a life outside of HYDRA. He doesn't know anything else.
The needle slides into his skin and he doesn’t react, other than to pay attention to the number of vials the man takes, watches him begin to label each with a permanent marker. The asset’s blood could be turned into a weapon against HYDRA, and when it comes time to leave, he will have to make sure these samples are destroyed.
But it’s just as the first vial is placed into the holder for collection that the tiny comm in his ear crackles. The Captain doesn’t smile, doesn’t even twitch his lips beneath the mask, his expression doesn't change at all but he feels a sense of calm satisfaction wash through him at the sound. The first vial fills, and is replaced by a second - but it’s only a quarter of the way full when his handler’s voice comes in over the connection, and the Captain needs only a few brief words of instruction, followed by the unique mission passcode to confirm his handler’s authenticity, to act.
The SSR has misjudged the dosage of sedatives required to keep the Captain truly docile enough to pose no threat - an honest mistake, really, given HYDRA’s difficulties and the lack of previous information and trials, before their extensive research had begun. The misjudgment is, admittedly, small, but it’s enough. Coupled with the fact that the SSR has also misjudged his peak strength capacity over short bursts given the right mental focus, the Captain needs only to gather his strength for a few short seconds before he tenses, flexes, and in one short, sharp motion, breaks the makeshift bonds holding his arms in place. The motion knocks the scientist away, and with him, his vials of blood. The Captain’s eyes need only to track the motion for a fraction of a second before his ears confirm what his eyes see - the scientist sprawls backward onto the floor and both vials break with a tinkling sound of glass. The blood, still bright red, begins to pool on the floor, but the Captain is already working to free his feet before either of the two guards can raise their weapons high enough to sight. The Captain doesn’t think they’ll shoot him - they think he’s valuable, they think he’s this Rogers, they want him alive - and he’s not wrong, because just as he gets his feet free, the guard on the left shouts, “Stop! Captain Rogers, stand down!” and maybe they would have ended up pulling those triggers, in the right situation, but none of them will ever know. The Captain dispatches the first with a piece of the now broken restraints, wielding the leather and metal like a whip in a twisting turn that’s almost graceful - and ends with the twisted, broken metal at the end of the strap embedded into the man’s skull. That gives him time to reach the second man and deliver a roundhouse kick that knocks him to the floor while he’s taking the precious time needed to flick the safety off of his weapon - Careless, the Captain thinks - and in the seconds that follow, he takes the weapon from the first guard and shoots all three of the men in the room with him in the head. (The first was likely dead or dying, but he’s not about to make careless mistakes now.)
He tears off the sedative mask and lets it clatter to the floor. The room he’s in has three walls - the fourth is formed by a temporary partition, and he hears noise on the other side of it, prompted by the noise on his. He raises his new weapon just as an alarm begins to wail, but he pays it no mind. The instructions in his earpiece were clear. Find the Winter Soldier and, if the other asset is still alive, escape via any means of egress possible while the handlers and their team create a distraction. It’s a clumsy plan, one he doesn’t particularly like for a number of reasons, given the unknowns, given the way it leaves the original objective unfulfilled, but it is his handler’s plan, and the passcode was correct. It’s now his duty to follow it, even if, he thinks, he’s going to be as efficient about it as possible.
A man comes around the partition - he’s another guard, and he’s not fast enough on the draw, not when faced with the Captain. He goes down with a bullet wound blooming on his forehead, and so does his partner, a moment later. The interrogator doesn’t come around the partition, but he doesn’t have long to wait, because the Captain slips around the fixture, assesses the scene before him, and the interrogator never completes the motion he’s making to draw a weapon before he, too, goes down with a bullet in the head. It’s not as neat a shot as the guards, but it’ll do. Then he’s left facing a groggy Winter Soldier with a disabled left arm, and the soft, almost inaudible snort he gives isn’t mockery, isn’t laughter, isn’t relief, but it might not be far from some combination of all three.
The sedative mask goes first, then the restraints. The Captain places a hand on the Soldier’s right shoulder - almost gentle, but firm and immovable - to hold the other asset in place, let him get a few breaths of clean, clear air into his lungs, while he inspects the device around his left arm. Once he deems that it’s not permanently attached and will likely cause no permanent damage, he crushes it in one hand and lets go of the Soldier’s shoulder to undo the strap, then steps back. He nods to the other asset, eyes asking the question before he opens his mouth to confirm. “Did you receive the transmission?” If yes - they can move. If no - he’ll explain while they move. The Soldier will follow his lead, he knows.
Just then, an explosion that feels distant just shakes the walls - and he knows the handlers and their team have arrived.
The Winter Soldier's only partially out, the room blurring into a haze even as he instinctively trains his ears on the activity on the other side of the partition.
His eyes flutter open when he hears the comforting sound of gunfire and the heavy thuds of the Captain increasing his body count. It drags him away from that drug-induced cloud that feels deceptively pleasant, slow and languid and nothing like cryo, eyes opened to glittering slits by the time his partner rounds the partition. He heard everything, sorted it, filed it away from the names to the way the men here tried to talk to them and it's different than anyone else has ever talked to them in the past. Personal. Inappropriately personal considering their ranks, their purpose. When the mask comes off, he coughs and hacks and sucks in several desperate breaths of fresh air with the comforting pressure of the Captain’s hand against his shoulder. For a second he makes eye contact. Sees something that could’ve been next time I’ll hold your hair for you in another life, under different circumstances when they had names and history.
After a few seconds the Winter Soldier forces himself to his feet, arm still limp as it buzzes from the inside, clicking away with its reboot. He isn’t proud to say he sways (slightly, for the record) before he steadies himself on the gurney’s edge with his good hand. It's a point to brace his shoulders and straighten.
“I heard,” he says. “We need - “
The explosion is large but it’s far, with enough concrete and steel in the way that all that happens is the room trembles and a bit of debris snows down. The Winter Soldier exchanges looks with his partner. They don’t need words. They might've been captured – unacceptable, worthy of reconditioning – but their immediate objective is the same. Acquire weapons. Acquire their kit, especially the vibranium shield and the little pouch of vials the Winter Soldier carries on every op he goes on with the other asset. Even on short ops, it’s on him. It’s now his first priority, decades of programming slipping neatly into place. It crowds out whatever doubts he had, the uncomfortable flicker at hearing “Rogers” and “Barnes”. Even if their handlers are breaching protocol to mount an extraction, he doesn’t assume they’ll get to them.
His arm’s back online as they comb the interrogation room. Off to the side he finds a large locker, reinforced but it’s still not enough. His arm hums as it cranks up the compressors. The lock crumples in the Winter Soldier’s hand, the lid opens to reveal first the familiar shield and then the rest of their gear, neatly labeled and bagged. The first thing he does is hand the shield to his partner. Next he confirms his hip pack is intact (it is) and he counts the vials. One’s missing. Probably taken for testing. With the second explosion shaking the room and the sound of gunfire, they might not have time to search for it, a call that the Winter Soldier is prepared to take flak for once they’re back at base. It’s that or they risk getting recaptured again the longer they stick around and provide the SSR with more intel about their abilities. Their limits.
Zipping the pack shut, he clips it to his hip, arms himself with his knife and rifle and pistol. The earpiece crackles with the reports of gunfire, his handler’s voice tinny on the other side. She’s heady with adrenaline, probably her first time out in the field in years and -
“ - south is clear, Roberts isn’t responding to his comm - ”
There’s more. The Winter Soldier parses out that one of the junior handlers is either dead or captured (he hopes he’s dead) and that if they’re going to get out, south is their best bet. He falls into the lead again even though he’s still shaking off the sedative, his vision blurring every now and then, the Soldier trying not to instinctively shake his head like it’ll help clear it. Not in front of his partner.
They encounter some resistance on the way down. It’s light enough that between the two of them, they don’t stand a chance. There’s still enough that he missteps here, moves a little too slowly there, and he can’t hide that from the Captain. He tries to make up for it as they find what looks like a makeshift armory, a file room. The cabinets hang open like whoever was there left in a hurry, some smashed into the floor with bloody foot prints: others torn or burned. Past that they find more halls and more soldiers and these men are prepared, trying to make a stand and do their jobs instead of fighting like they’re cornered animals. Somehow in the process the Captain takes a bullet to the shoulder – it shouldn’t have happened but it does and he can see that slight flinch, the bloom of red against his uniform, his side, and the Winter Soldier knows that he should’ve killed that man earlier. It seems to take longer than it should until they reach the access tunnels. Basic structure, no-nonsense. It’s around then that they lose the rest of the feed with their handlers.
Then it’s just the two of them. The Winter Solider still in the lead, imagining he can hear his partner bleeding as he jogs behind him with his shield in his hand, breathing a little labored in a way he hasn’t heard often. Not outside of training. Not outside the drug and interrogation trials, when this time he was the observer and the Captain was the subject strapped down. The first glimpse of light outside says it’s afternoon approaching dusk. He only stops once they duck behind what looks like temporary quarters and they're relatively clear. None of that matters when he glances down and sees the Captain leaving a trail of blood.
“Better take care of that first,” he says, voice tight in a way he isn’t used to, unfamiliar with feeling worry these days. Holstering his pistol, he unzips a pouch and pulls out a roll of gauze, enough that he should stem the bleeding at least, buy them some time, some distance. He’ll have to redress it later. “I lost contact with my team.”
He drops his eyes from the Captain’s face as he focuses on his task, stepping close so he can wind the gauze tight around the other asset’s torso.
Something like annoyance flares as the explosion hits - their handlers are well trained and they’re the superior officers on this - and every - op, giving the Captain and the Winter Soldier the slack on their leashes the super soldiers need to carry out their instructions, but maintaining control, asserting HYDRA’s will, reeling the weapons back in when the job is finished. They’re the superior officers, but their actions aren’t strategic - of course, the Solider and the Captain are too valuable to give up into SSR hands, but this rescue operation isn’t protocol, it’s sloppy, and - he’s going to be reconditioned anyway, he knows, so he thinks it - it’s stupid.
The Captain’s expression is displeased, but he cannot control the handlers. He can only work with what they give him, and with what his programming tells him to do. The Winter Soldier, at least, moves like an extension of himself, the two of them have always worked so perfectly together for this reason, like two halves of a whole, because they both understand their roles, and understand protocol, and follow it. It’s protocol, now, to prevent their kit from falling into enemy hands, and when the Solider is on his feet again, unsteady but not unstable, they move as one to the locker, the only logical place for the SSR to have stored their gear, and the Winter Soldier makes quick work of it while the Captain stands guard with his stolen weapon. Their kit is inside; silently, as a team, they gear up again, the Captain taking his shield, then his belt, the pouch at his front right still stocked with the vials he carries as well, with the medication he needs and doesn’t know why, just knows he is to take like clockwork. But in this case, there are two missing - along with two of his favored flash grenades, and two of the ration packs he carries to offset his high metabolism on long or cold ops. If their handlers hadn’t rushed in blind, there might have been time to retrieve them. But their handlers have rushed in, and it’s up to the Captain and the Soldier to make what use they can of the opening they’ve gotten, and get out.
It’s clear, as the Soldier takes point, that he’s not operating at peak capacity, that the sedatives were either stronger or more effective, because there’s something just a little off in his steps, a little too jerky and mistimed about his movements. Behind him, the Captain frowns, a tense, unhappy feeling settling in his gut that makes him want to insist on taking point, but that isn’t protocol, either. Part of him’s thinking, To hell with protocol, but it’s gotten them this far, and as they track their way toward the south end of the compound, he still has to have faith that it will get them out.
It does, in the end - just not as well as he would have liked. The high-caliber bullet bites into his shoulder with the force of a heavy punch; the Captain is too heavy, himself, too well-muscled for it to bowl him over, but he feels the impact nonetheless. It’s a lucky shot - well, the fact that the shot connected at all is luck, he can tell the man behind the rifle is skilled, but if the Winter Soldier weren’t still working the sedatives out of his system, the SSR agent never would have had a chance to pull the trigger.
So the shot connects, and that’s lucky, but the skill behind it means it hits in exactly the right place to do the maximum amount of damage, tearing through muscle and ligament and lodging in the bones of the shoulder joint of his left shoulder in an attempt to render his shield arm useless.
It’s a near thing - the Captain has felt more pain than this, but while pain is relative, it is still pain. Still, he has been conditioned to fight through pain, and he does, even as the lightning-sharp fire of it shoots down his arm like a plant putting out roots, weakens his grip on his shield, and reduces the impact of the attacks on that side. But he ignores it, and when he can’t ignore it, he deals with it, following the Winter Soldier down the concrete hallways until the resistance comes to an end and the light appears in the distance. It isn’t until they stop, though, that the Captain realizes how heavily he’s breathing, how limply the arm is hanging at his side, even with the shield still clutched in his hand, and how soaked through the side of his suit is with the metallic-smelling heat of his blood.
Even so, when they stop, it’s on the tip of his tongue - I’m fine - he wants to say, but the Soldier is already pulling the gauze out of his pack, and the Captain glances behind them to see the trail he’s left. He switches the shield to his right hand, the grips slick with his blood, and tilts his body to angle his right side and the shield back toward the hall, covering them in case trouble comes following that trail, while he holds still and lets the Soldier tend to the wound. It won’t be more than a field dressing, but it should at least stop them from leaving a convenient trail of red. That would be sloppy, and the assets are never sloppy.
“I lost contact, too,” he admits, eyes flicking to the Soldier, then back down the hallway. The chatter-and-static combination that had started up just before the explosion has ceased, and the Captain believes he knows why. The Soldier steps close, working methodically, calmly, and the Captain does his best to get his breathing under control, to hold his arms in a way that will let the Soldier work quickly, to mask the pain he’s feeling because pain is one of the things that you never, ever show in HYDRA. Pain, fear, uncertainty - these things have been flushed from the assets, pushed so deep that a part of him thinks he is incapable of showing it, truly, anymore. He can feel it, naturally. But he cannot show it.
Still, he is showing signs of distress, signs the Soldier is sure to pick up on, as sure as he picked up on the Soldier’s sedative-jumbled reflexes. Pale, clammy skin, rapid heartbeat, defensive stance. Finally, when he feels the Soldier finishing up, he glances back at the other asset. “I think we should assume they’re dead or captured. Our mission is to avoid the same.”
If their handlers are dead or captured, they are in that state because they knew the assets must go free. It’s not the assets’ duty to go back for them, now - it’s the assets’ duty to complete the task, to evade recapture, to report back to HYDRA. They were both shown extensive maps of the area before the mission as part of their briefing; he calls up the mental picture now, overlays it with the compound’s location and the fact that they’re at the south end. “There should be shelter if we keep heading south.” There was a small town about ten kicks southeast of the compound - a ‘tourist town,’ they’d called it, all but abandoned in what passes for summer and fall in this region of the world, with only a few full-time residents. It’s the best place he can think of to rest and regroup, and the two assets can cover that ground much more quickly than normal men, even injured and unsteady as they are.
feel free to godmode the Winter Soldier with the vial
He doesn't miss Roberts or the other handlers, doesn't stop and think he should be thankful they threw their lives away to make sure his could continue. It's expected. He might take their orders but in the end, they're replaceable. New ones will be assigned once they report the mission's failure, the changed objective, and that's all fine except for the part where he looks at the Captain and he's...worried.
Maybe "worried" is too strong a word. The Winter Soldier opts for "tactically concerned".
He nods in a brief confirmation. Just like that, his handlers are just names and numbers as their predecessors, irrelevant if they're not able to serve HYDRA with every breath. His focus narrows down to preserving themselves – preserving the primary asset, the man one of the SSR agents called “Rogers” - and then they regroup and reassess. Best he can do in the short term as his head clears, his body returns to him and he tries not to feel the alien emotion of guilt that he wasn't quick enough to step in front of the bullet before it hit his partner. Pushing it to the side, the Winter Soldier leads them out of the compound. Resistance at this point is minimal even with one asset wounded. Minimal enough that the last man he sees he crushes his trachea, arm humming, and he's already jogging past the fence as the man hits the ground. After that they head deeper into the wilderness, far enough away that he isn't sure where their supply cache is. Not without getting to higher ground and even then, it might be tricky. The fresh snow crunches under their boots, the trees close in on them until it's silent, just two assets breathing in the chilled air, one slightly more labored than the other.
They put a few miles under their belt until it's too dark even for a pair of super soldiers to see. At that point the Winter Soldier stops, picking out a small outcropping of rock with an overhang, large enough that it might provide them some shelter. They should both managed to survive a night out in the cold, especially with their combined body heat, but even he'll admit he doesn't want to make a habit of it. It might not look, feel or smell anything like cryo but all the same, he'd rather not be out here longer than necessary.
At this point the Captain is noticeably lagging, swaying slightly and he doesn't bat away his hand when he offers to help him down into the overhang. The treads of his boots grip against rock slick with a thin layer of snow, the progress slow, steady, until they're both jammed into the crevasse, hidden by a wall of trees and the silence interrupted by his own heavy breaths. At this point the Winter Soldier makes the executive decision to risk some light, activating the glow stick from his pack. It casts the Captain's face in a sickly green light, highlighting the stress lines he hadn't noticed between his eyebrows, wrinkling slightly as he grimaces almost imperceptibly. To anyone else he'd look like he wasn't fazed by the bullet wound – the Winter Soldier knows better, knows the Captain's face better than he knows his own.
“We have two options,” the Winter Soldier says quietly. In an inverse of his partner slipping and faltering, he's only grown stronger as the sedatives wore off. “Stay the night here or I could do a quick sweep of the area, see if I can find better shelter. Either way, I don't think we should push through the night.”
Because you could collapse is the thought on his mind and in his dead blue eyes. It's been awhile since he glanced back and noticed blood seeping through the field dressing, a dark patch blooming against the Captain's torso. At this point they need to regroup, he needs to concern himself about food and water if they can't get out of here tomorrow and above that, he needs to make sure he has his scheduled injection. Exchanging a look with the Captain, he reaches into his belt and removes one of the vials, pulling off the cap to reveal the one-use needle.
“Arm or neck?” It doesn't matter where. The Winter Soldier still finds himself asking, hardly seeming to blink as he keeps the glow rod shielded with his knee.
Once the Captain’s shoulder is bound, the two assets set off, leaving the base behind without a second thought for their handlers or the agents they’ve killed. As they walk, the Soldier taking point, the Captain puts the shield at their backs, keeps a pistol in his hand and the safety off. His shoulder throbs, but with a task at hand, it’s easy to put the pain out of his head, to focus on keeping his footfalls silent, his breathing even.
Or, at least, it’s easy to put it out of his head at first. The pain is persistent, insidious, and with the bullet lodged the way it is, his body trying to heal around it is painful and inefficient. He tries to move his arm every so often, roll the shoulder, and he’s greeted by a white-hot burst of pain that makes him clench his teeth and wish for the rubber bite guard, sucking in a sharp inhale of breath. But the arm still moves, albeit painfully - no nerve damage, and it will heal around the bullet. When they’re retrieved, he imagines there will be surgery to find the bullet, remove it, make sure the shoulder socket heals properly. Until then, it’s going to heal as best it can, with no heed for the comfort level of the Captain in the meantime.
Except it’s healing slowly, given the constant motion of walking; he does his best to hold his arm and shoulder still, but it’s impossible to really immobilize it when he needs it for balance in the slippery, unfamiliar landscape. Somewhere during their hike, it begins to bleed again, a second slow, warm blossom of blood that he feels soaking into the uniform, the bandages, doesn’t need to look down to confirm visually. Still, the Captain makes no sound but the harsh panting of his breaths, and he doesn’t complain, doesn’t pull them to a halt, simply walks on, though he’s several more feet behind the Winter Soldier than he’d started out when the other asset spots an outcropping and calls a stop to their march. The Captain wants to push on, knows they should keep going, but he can also admit that it’s not tactically sound. It’s a moonless night, too dark for even HYDRA’s most advanced weapons to see well, and slipping and breaking their necks won’t get the information they need to take back to HYDRA.
Together, they climb carefully down into the natural, if cold, shelter provided by the rocks, wedged side by side with their backs to frozen stone as the green of the glow stick flares to life. The Captain considers the two options briefly, but shakes his head almost immediately. “We stay here. Together. This is fine.” It’s the best place to stop that they’ve passed; the village is still several miles away, and he doesn’t imagine they’ll find another shelter quite like this nearby. With the rock at his back and the Winter Soldier against his side and the small, if sickly glow of the glow stick between them, it feels like a good place to spend the night, for all that it’s less than ideal. “We’ll start walking again at first light.”
His left arm throbs, and the way they’re positioned, his uninjured right side to the Soldier’s left, he’s pressed up against the metal prosthesis and he can feel the cold of it seeping through his uniform and into his skin. Unconsciously, the Captain shifts closer, as if trying to share his body heat with it rather than recoiling, even as the Soldier pulls out a familiar vial, uncaps it; again, the Captain considers only a moment before he simply tilts his head to the side, like an obedient dog, and says, simply, “Neck.”
Once the pinprick and hiss of the injection has passed, the Captain simply tilts his head back against the unforgiving rock and closes his eyes. They don’t stay closed long, though, because now that they’ve stopped moving, there is nothing like putting one foot in front of the other to distract him from the pain - nothing except the memory of the scene he woke up to in the compound, that niggling feeling that has been sitting low in his gut since he opened his eyes and that small, scared little man called him “Captain Rogers.” The scene comes flooding back to him now, and he’d rather concentrate on it, turn it over and over in his head and ask his companion his thoughts on it, than focus on the pain. Pain is irrelevant, and it is counterproductive. But the memory of being called by a name… that is still intriguing in a way he can’t describe. And there’s a part of him that needs to know if the Winter Soldier feels the same way, can put a name to the thing the Captain feels about the letters that, when put together, spell out the name “Rogers.”
Because - They are assets, but they are men. Or - no, not exactly, but they might have been men once. Men with names. Names like Rogers and Barnes.
It’s not something the Captain wants now, and it’s not something he’s capable of missing, because you have to know something, remember it, to miss it, and he doesn’t. He doesn’t remember a time before he was the Captain, before he was HYDRA’s asset, and it doesn’t bother him. But the idea - realization? - that there was a time before he was HYDRA’s asset, when he might have had a name and some clumsy sense of self-direction, is at once terrifying and intriguing. It’s like staring in a mirror, and seeing your reflection distorted ever so slightly, something just a hair off, only you can’t tell what it is, what’s changed, where the mirror is flawed.
So he turns his head toward his companion, expression still pinched, but something in it is both curious and derisive at once as he says, simply, “The scientist that woke me in the compound thought I had a name. He thought we both had names.”
If he were a real man, he’d probably say something like, What a load of bullshit, hey, buddy? Instead, the sentiment just hangs flatly in the cold air between them.
Once the drugs in the vial work through his system, he’ll lose interest, most likely, But for all that he metabolizes everything at quadruple speed, he’s still just curious, just hung up enough right now to speak up.
He isn't expecting the Captain to bring up the conversation back at the SSR facility. It happened, they both noted the relevant details for their debriefings and that was it. It's over. It's that easy and to the Winter Soldier, more pliable and easier to control than his partner, it's a non-issue. Whatever he felt back there for a split second he chalks up to a momentary weakness caused by whatever sedatives they pumped him with. That's it, end of story.
The look he shoots the Captain is still blank-faced, mask-like, but there's also the barest hint of surprise fluttering across.
His eyebrows knit. A faint stress line furrows between them to betray his unease.
"I heard," the Winter Soldier says after a split second to register he's been caught off guard more times than he considers acceptable in one day. "Could be an old alias we used that's in their records."
Sloppy of them, but plausible. Hard to tell with the wipe sessions. The Asset has been conditioned not to wonder too much about them, only to feel animal relief when the arc stops humming and he can sag gasping against the chair. Of course there are gaps. Missions he participated in that he can't remember names of operative he worked with, those he sanctioned; not even the year. Sometimes he gets flashes of the penny tang of blood or a hiss of a steel blade against the leather of a knife sheath. Never names. All he has is the gut instinct that both "Barnes" and "Rogers" had sounded familiar. He shifts his head then, hair falling limply across his face in a curtain as he tucks the spent needle into his belt. No point leaving it here where a potential search party could find it.
One look at the Captain and he can see that he wants to talk. Conversations between them have always been borderline monosyllabic - businesslike, to the point. No chit-chat or wasted breath he observed between HYDRA's other operatives or their handlers.
The Asset makes a small sound under his breath, a mix between an almost inaudible grunt and a sigh. Unlike his partner, he doesn't seem as entertained at the idea of them and names being in spitting distance of each other. If the Captain is looking at that mirror head-on and thinking about possibilities, the Winter Soldier flinches away, buries his head ostrich-style and decides he would feel way more comfortable back at HQ getting prepped for the suppression arc. His conditioning has been more than thorough.
His head cocks a fraction, mouth pursed, lips numb from the cold. "He must've been wrong, anyway. The SSR would say anything to get their hands on us."
Intel hasn't pointed to any assets of their own on the field. Easier to acquire HYDRA's best and try to reprogram them instead of starting from scratch.
It's then the Soldier realizes the man next to him is shivering. It's small, but he can feel it even through his left arm. They're super human but unfortunately, they're still human: even they can get hungry, tired, and cold. Without asking, he reaches over and loops his arm around his partner, bringing the man close and shifting his body to give him the maximum amount of body heat he can manage in this position. There's just enough space that they can stretch out if needed. Sleeping will need to happen in shifts this close to the SSR base but he's already decided that he'll take the first one and let the Captain get priority. The green glowstick gets moved to the side, along the edge of the rock wall, still shielded with their bodies. His combat boot scrapes against granite as he shifts his position and he's both watching the trees for signs of human movement and also watching the Captain's face, a ghostly green shadow against the rocky overhang.
Waiting for that moment where slackness sets in, his eyes dim, and he knows for sure that the injection is taking hold. Things will be better once that happens and they can both focus on what's really important.
"Get some rest. Tomorrow we can get to that village and resupply."
The Captain has been trained - as best HYDRA could - to shy away from curiosity, to expect (if not welcome) the clarity of orders, the comfort of obedience that the conditioning sessions in the chair bring. When he has no worries, no past, nothing but the mission, he is most effective, most focused, most efficient. But HYDRA’s grasp on his mind is more tenuous than their hold on the Soldier; it's perhaps part of why they work best as a pair, complementing each other, the Soldier's profound and utter dedication to their organization more easily reflected in the Captain, despite the handlers they give him.
"Could be," the Captain replies, in a tone that betrays the slightest hint of doubt. He knows he's been on past missions, but he doesn't know how many, and rarely remember the details; when he does, it's usually in flashes or disjointed scenes, like a half-forgotten dream. But tools, weapons, don't dream - HYDRA found a way to remove that weakness, to make him stronger. Weapons don't dream because they have no need for dreams. Weapons don't have names, because they have no need for names.
The Captain and the Soldier don't often talk, no - idle banter is useless, a waste of breath at best and a distraction from the mission at worst. But this feels important, somehow. The Captain is intrigued and disturbed all at once, and some part of him craves the opinion of his companion. Neither of them have the answer to the puzzle, but somehow, some sort of agreement, some sort of mutual curiosity, would make him feel... satisfied. But the Soldier is agitated - the Captain can tell in the look on his face, the sound he makes as he exhales that would almost be too soft to hear, for a baseline human. The Captain hears the frustration, as clearly as if the Soldier had voiced it. He's observant, and he knows his companion's moods, such as they are, better than he knows almost anything else. To most people, the Soldier doesn't even have moods, isn't ever fazed or frustrated or amused. But the Captain knows better, knows the moods that escape others' notice, even when he thinks the Soldier doesn't even notice what he's feeling, himself. Maybe the Soldier knows him just as well. He wouldn't be surprised.
Now, the idea of the Soldier's displeasure is... jarring. The Captain's brow furrows and he wonders if he might be wrong - damaged, broken, failing, to be feeling curiosity at the idea of a name. He knows it's likely a side effect of the duration of the mission - they've lost time during their capture and he doesn't know how much, how long it's been since he last sat in the chair, underwent HYDRA's conditioning. He suddenly feels agitated, himself, wanting the aid of the drugs he knows will take effect soon. He knows he needs them, and suddenly, he wonders if he's gone through this before - this withdrawal, after too long out of the chair, and he simply doesn't remember it. He finds himself disliking the idea, disliking the distraction it causes, and the agitation it elicits in his fellow asset. He wants to be good, to be compliant, not for HYDRA, but for his partner. To preserve the partnership that means more to him than he’s ever cared to explore, and more than he’s ever, ever let on, to anyone. He is obedient. He is not stupid.
But the idea of the SSR lying to sway the assets to their side is plausible - more than plausible, and they both know it. And now, the drugs are starting to work their way through his system, the elevated heart rate associated with the adrenaline spike of injury and healing speeding an already speedy process. "Must've been," he finally agrees, after a few moments of silence that might have been mistaken for the end of the conversation, during which his eyes have started to go dull as the niggling importance of those names starts to lose its luster and fades into the background. Something in the Captain almost visibly relaxes, in those few moments of silence, as the concern starts to simply slide away, and the matter at hand, the mission and its priorities, reassert their importance.
After those few moments, he feels... calm. Focused. Satisfied, and with it comes a sense of relief. He isn't too broken to finish the mission, and his technicians will recondition him once they've reported back and received their retrieval orders.
It only makes sense for the Soldier to take the first watch. The Captain would have suggested it if the Soldier hadn't said it first; he simply nods, eyes that have now gone their familiar shade of dull, glazed blue still flicking around the clearing in an ingrained need to check for potential threats, before he closes his eyes and simply says, "Wake me in four hours and I'll take watch until dawn." Then he drops off into sleep easily and almost imperceptibly, head tilted back and pillowed against the hard rock serving as their shelter, while his body stays pressed up against the Soldier’s warmth, as though seeking that warmth even while trying to share his own.
The Captain is the strongest man on the planet - with the Red Skull long gone, it is unarguably the truth. Stronger than the Winter Soldier, even, although the metal prosthesis levels the playing field somewhat, and the differences in their fighting styles would surely make things interesting, if they truly went toe to toe. For all that there’s plenty of interest in seeing that, HYDRA has never pitted the two assets genuinely against each other, for several reasons that included the possibility of permanently damaging one of them, as well as the possibility of disrupting whatever strange rapport exists between them. While there’s no trace of the friendship shared by the two men that have been alternately buried and erased by years of conditioning, mind wipes, and drug therapy, there’s something in the way that the two assets can function like clockwork that HYDRA hasn’t wanted to touch. It’s too valuable, so long as it’s monitored and regulated, and pitting the two men against each other in a genuine battle would be counterproductive.
Regardless, the Captain is not a vulnerable man, nor does he act like one - no, he acts the part he is meant to play, the weapon, the asset, the tool best suited to many of HYDRA’s best-laid plans to insinuate just a little more order into the world, because its residents can’t be trusted to do it themselves. And yet… there are times when the Captain acts - unintentionally, unaware - vulnerable. Times that the handlers have noted he spends long transport flights huddled up asleep against the Winter Soldier, as though trying to burrow back into the shape and size of a smaller man, as though trying to fit himself beside the other asset in a way that will complement him, rather than overpower him. It’s how he sleeps now, and for all the pain and the cold and the hunger, he sleeps well until he’s woken for his watch and takes over without complaint while his partner gets some rest for himself.
The morning dawns bright and crisp and clear; the Captain’s shoulder throbs in time with his heart, stiff but no longer bleeding, a sign that the wound has started to close up, but it's questionable whether it's a benefit or a drawback. With the bullet still lodged against muscle and bone that began to knit overnight, his arm is less mobile and more painful in the morning. Still, he says nothing, only holds it as still as he can as he keeps watch, calculating how he'll need to adjust his movement and balance and strategies to compensate if they're attacked. He can fight one-armed - has fought one-armed, during training sessions and evaluation scenarios, both planned and unplanned - and he refuses to let the injury slow their progress further. They have a goal: reach the village, find a way to contact HYDRA, and remain invisible until extraction. They only have a few days' worth of injections and emergency rations, and further delay is unacceptable.
They set off in the early morning light; now the Captain is hindered only by pain, and not bleeding, and they make better time because of it. The village turns out to be relatively quiet, and the assets choose a ski lodge on the outskirts of town with a large "CLOSED FOR THE SEASON" sign across the doors. There’s a fine layer of dust on the surfaces inside, but a pantry stocked with nonperishable goods, running water, and electricity.
Until the storm hits.
It’s mid-afternoon when the light outside the lodge’s big windows begin to fade. The assets have eaten a full meal (admittedly, of beans and soup, but neither complains, because both know that nutrition outweighs palatability, and the emergency rations should remain for emergencies) and the Captain has fashioned a sling for his aching, stiff arm from strips of bedsheets. They’ve developed a plan to steal down into the village proper after dusk, to break into one of the buildings and send out a signal, because the lodge may have electricity, but its communications - telephone - are dead. Someone apparently forgot to pay the bill. Or perhaps the service was switched off for the season. Either way, it makes the Captain antsy.
But dusk starts falling too soon - and then the assets discover it’s not dusk, but the big, boiling, dark clouds of a snowstorm that’s blocked out the sun and begun sending pelting pellets of ice and snow against the glass of the windows. They're standing several feet away from the windows - both know better than to approach the glass, where a sniper might reach them - when the lights flicker. The wind picks up, the icy sheets assailing the windows intensify, and everything electronic in the lodge goes quiet and dark at once. The assets look at each other and they know - this is going to complicate a complicated mission even further.
Never before has the Winter Soldier felt relief at seeing the suppressant take effect. There hadn't been any reason to.
They move out not long after dawn and it's business as usual, at least on the surface. He takes point – as always – and they travel more or less in single file through the forest, spaced out far enough that they minimize the damage from any traps the SSR might've set out here, but not far enough away that each asset can't come to the other's aid. Breaths come out in little puffs of white fog, the chill slowly trying to sneak through his clothes. While they move, he multi-tasks. Assesses the areas for threats – wildlife, terrain, agents, traps – and the whole time he's running a mental tally of what little supplies they have. Physical and mental stressors aren't new but the idea that the Captain might run out of injections? That's a new one his training hadn't prepared him for. The Winter Soldier wonders as they hit the outskirts of the village if there are contingencies in place. Maybe his partner will go comatose if he doesn't receive the injections to level him out. Maybe he'll go with the worst case scenario and...take himself out of the equation. It's not feasible considering how valuable he is, how unique but still. It's possible. Better dead than wandering lost, torn from HYDRA doctrine.
He's almost glad when the storm darkens the sky. It's an immediate issue, one that distracts the Soldier from the uncharacteristic thoughts of “what if”.
“We should fortify,” the Winter Soldier says, his voice sounding hollow and strange in the dark as if it belongs to another man. “Give it a day.”
Clearly they aren't going anywhere soon. They might be molded to be the best, better, even, but he knows his limits, knows that in the end he's human and going out in a storm like that is suicide even though he knows they haven't bought enough time or distance from the SSR. The Winter Soldier's eyes flick up to the dead lights, wondering about that shed in the back he's fairly sure has a generator. Maybe he hasn't been in this specific lodge but he's been in a few – once, he thinks, for deep cover, before they decided to assign the Captain with his whole body that won't raise questions the way his does. He remembers snow and bumping his back against something metal and plastic and someone (the little fish leading to the big fish, most likely) hugging him and unaware of the knife in the dark. Mostly he remembers disabling the generator to kill the lights and some security grid. This place might have a generator that he'll take a look at once he finds warmer clothes, hopefully a flashlight. It doesn't cross his mind that the Captain should go in his place. Not with his injuries. And maybe it's something more, something he doesn't have words for. Doesn't want the words for.
The lodge is cleared. With the snowstorm, even he has to admit it's unlikely they'll have company for a few hours.
It's then that Soldier steps away from edge of the darkening window, reaching up to shutter the blinds in the unlikely probability there's a sniper out there who could do what two of HYDRA's very best couldn't. He reaches up and undoes the clasp with one hand, the fur-lining of his collar pulling away as he moves from clasp to clasp. He begins to peel off the first layer of his clothes, glancing back at the Captain. He can't help it: he automatically sizes him up, searching for any sign of more questions, more uncharacteristic wondering of “what if”.
“Let's get situated. Clean our kit while we can,” case in point; the fur-lined jacket coated with blood. Most of it isn't his, but he's been taught to respect cleanliness standards when he can, “ - and then assess.”
Assessment usually means finding out where they are on weapons, food, other supplies...and to be honest, that was one of the first things they did. Habit, basically. He falls back on doing it again (he'll call it “thorough” even if it's an excuse) because it's safer than that alien idea of downtime. No handlers. No possibility of trigger words bringing him to heel if he doesn't perform. The Winter Soldier doesn't understand fear in the conventional sense, but he does know when he underperforms. He knows that the Captain hasn't underperformed before and he doesn't want to be there to witness a possible first. So he focuses on what's on front of him, on the living, breathing asset with a sling that could use work, and he shoves the questions about Rogers and Barnes to the back of his mind.
He retreats away from the windows to the bar, folding his jacket and leaving it against the counter before facing the Captain. Old, familiar scar tissue peeps out from under the sleeve of his tank-top – more familiar, even, than his partner, angry red, waxy raised skin from where his metal arm meets his shoulder. He doesn't remember how he got it. But in the last forty eight hours, it's the most predictable thing in the room. When he turns toward the Captain, there's the barest of frowns on his face. Ability to fight isn't the only thing he's assessing his partner for as he asks:
The Captain turns away from the ice and snow pattering against the window as the other asset speaks. The Soldier is right, of course - going out into a storm like this would be pointless. Even with their enhanced senses and stamina, they could easily become turned around, lost, confused. They’ll do HYDRA no good dead, or worse, recaptured by the SSR. As the blinds close out the quickly-darkening sky, the Captain takes a breath, and then a step back from the window. He nods, all that’s needed to show he agrees, and follows his partner away from the glass and back into the interior of the lodge’s main floor.
As the Soldier shucks his coat, the Captain gives what’s become their current safehouse another look. He catalogued everything about their surroundings as they came in, but now, he looks again. It’s unlikely that he missed anything - missing something is not acceptable, so it’s simply been trained and programmed out of him - but now he considers their surroundings as something that will need to support them for more than just a few hours. Possibly more than a day, though that thought sits sour in his gut. His eyes fall on the lodge's large, central fireplace - this village might be small, but this lodge must be successful, because the interior is dusty but modern (which is a funny term, given that he doesn't know what he's comparing it to, can't remember what buildings looked like in the past, only knows that his eyes follow the clean lines, the open spaces, and think, "contemporary." He doesn't know where he learned the term, but it's there in his head nonetheless). The fireplace is huge, and there's even a stack of (similarly dusty) wood beside it, but then his eyes track up to the large stone chimney and he can visualize without trying the plume of smoke a fire would create.
In a snowstorm, the smoke could be lost. But the SSR is likely watching this village as a potential escape route. His eyes flick back to the covered windows, as though he can see the snow and ice he can still hear faintly tap-tapping against the glass from the outside, and - no. A fire would give away the fact that this lodge is occupied when it shouldn't be. They'll camp cold tonight.
The question incites a reaction almost like the Captain has been startled out of his thoughts; his eyes refocus on his companion, noting the frown on his face, the way he’s stripped down to his tank-top already. The Captain assesses his arm, pulls away the makeshift sling, and starts to unzip his own uniform jacket, one-handed. When he tries to slide the fabric off his shoulders, it sticks to the injured arm with the distinct slick pull of tacky blood, even though the shoulder’s been field-dressed. The injury hurts, but he’s been trained to disregard pain, withstand torture, so he grits his teeth and pulls the jacket all the way off, letting it drop to the ground. He flexes the fingers of his injured hand, curls them into a fist - and the motion sends hot stabs of pain through his arm, his fingers moving jerkily, as stiffly as if they were machines, like the Soldier’s, in need of repair.
“It’s fine,” he says, shortly - before he even realizes what he’s saying, or why he’s saying it. It’s not fine, and the assets have been trained into honesty, into complete and utter full disclosure, because an asset hiding a hurt or holding on to information is not an asset, but a liability.
He blinks, shakes his head a little, and this time, he says, “It’s not healing properly. The bullet is preventing the joint from repairing itself.”
The technicians will have to remove it. The technicians should remove it. But this operation is quickly going more FUBAR in each minute than it was the last, and the Captain’s eyes drop down to the Soldier’s steady metal fingers, imagining them gripped around the hilt of a knife. It's not an ideal situation. Digging around in his shoulder joint with a knife could damage it extensively - joints can obviously be replaced, but both the Captain and the Soldier know that one of them is whole, and the other is not. Two assets with metal prostheses is not what HYDRA wants. So he swallows any suggestion he might have made, knowing that although the wound won't heal until the bullet is removed, it will heal cleanly once it is. The pain he'll suffer in the meantime is nothing when compared to his dedication, his importance to HYDRA.
His thoughts settle back on tonight. It’s as the Soldier said - they’ll get situated, clean their kit. Wait a day. Then they’ll reassess. Food and water aren’t a problem - water, least of all, with a snowstorm raging outside - but now the Captain’s eyes drop to the pouch the Soldier is always kitted out with, and his mouth forms the words before he can even really think them. “I need another injection”
There aren’t many left. He should be afraid of what will happen, if they run out. If the mission goes on long enough, they will. He knows he should fear it, just as HYDRA taught him to fear so much else, but - he doesn’t. There’s something strange curling in his gut, at the possibility, and it’s the same strange, foreign feeling associated with those names - Rogers and Barnes. Not fear, not revulsion, but an almost sort of detached curiosity.
Technically it's fine but there's a little voiceless part of the Soldier looking at his partner and thinking to himself that doesn't look fine.
He makes a small sound under his breath, an almost grunt.
The injection is delivered as usual with no questions asked. There is a hint of silent hesitation, however, from the Winter Soldier that is entirely due to the fact that it's too soon. That injection should be good for a few hours more - the fact that his partner looks him in the face and after a honest assessment, says he needs it sooner is...alarming. Maybe it doesn't have enough weight behind the word but it's the closest he has to describe what he's feeling. Enough that he breaks protocol to reach out and steady the other asset, steel hand cold against his shoulder as he places the spent injector on the counter with more care than is necessary. It's deliberate. His handler might have even called it for what it was: stalling for time, unnecessary dragging of his feet because he doesn't know what to say, how to approach this particular scenario.
"If we're out here too long, we'll need to start doing partial doses," the Winter Soldier says.
Even his flat-lined voice can't exactly hide the dread. It's less than ideal but it's better than running out and his partner suddenly going cold turkey. Side effects of partial doses: unknown. It might stretch them out a few more days at best, assuming they have fresh handlers on the way. If not...it's going to be rough. Usually when he looks at the Captain, he sees security, safety. Pure trust, going both ways. He doesn't fear him the way he does the handlers, the techs and their files in the steelbound folders. But that was before, knowing his partner was compliant the way he should be. Now that's gone.
Now he's suddenly reminded about the differences between them, both in their compliance-training and physically.
The Winter Soldier curls his metal fist around the empty injector, crushing it into a useless ball before he lets it drop down the sink's garbage disposal.
"What should we do with our...spare time?" From the faint distaste in his voice, the Soldier isn't a fan of this concept. He finds it threatening in the same way the idea of them having names is: inherently wrong, the kind of thing that leaves a film on the roof of his mouth and his tongue. "We've fortified and assessed. There isn't much we can do but wait."
And he's wired right now, wide-awake, and it's a toss-up of it being the adrenaline and worry about his partner's degrading state. So far he's mostly fine. But the doses losing their potency means the Captain has a constantly ticking timing above him and no data on what happens when it hits zero. If push comes to shove, he has his orders for "asset denial - another term for murdering his partner. The problem is the Winter Soldier has no idea if he can actually carry that order out. It doesn't help that he's sure the other asset knows about the order, or at least must suspect.
The concept of "awkward" doesn't yet exist for the Soldier but it's slowly coming back, this uneasy little twist in his gut that he has no name for. It intensifies as he realizes the silence isn't comfortable anymore and for a moment, he starts experiencing the shades of regret.
The Captain stands quietly while his partner delivers the injection; something in his blood is starting to feel a little wild, and he knows it’s too soon, but he craves the quiet of the medication almost as much as some small, hidden, shunned part of him fears it. He knows it’s for his own good, knows that the quietness that washes over him allows him to do HYDRA’s good work, that he will grow wild and unpredictable, he will break without it.
There’s something in him, as he watches the Soldier silently uncap the needle and inject the contents of the small plastic vial into his neck, that fears for the other asset, if the Captain were to go wild. He can’t remember, exactly, whether he’s ever suffered from withdrawal in the past, although it makes sense to him that HYDRA would have tested it, and tested it extensively. It must be why they’ve warned him so meticulously against it - he does have memories, vague, repetitious, of lab-coated men and women standing in front of him as he’s released from the chair, holding out an injector and explaining he is to use it at regular intervals, that his partner and handlers will carry spares on every mission. It is of vital importance that he stay medicated, but if he’s not…
If he’s not, something terrible must happen. It’s almost enough to push the lingering curiosity about Barnes and Rogers from his mind - or maybe that’s just the injection starting to take effect. He takes a deep breath.
He watches the Soldier crumple the injector like paper in his metal hand, and knows that fearing for the other asset is… a waste of time. Pointless. The Soldier may or may not be as physically strong as the Captain, but he has his own strengths. He is cunning. He can survive on his own.
The Soldier is an asset of HYDRA. He is valuable, but all assets are ultimately expendable.
The Captain has to repeat this to himself, more than once, before it settles, clear in his gut. Now, perhaps, finally, the medication is taking effect. His eyes, duller, flick back up to his partner’s face at the words, and he nods, once - agreement. Partial doses are wiser than the alternative. “I’ll set up a new schedule,” he says, because like the Soldier, the Captain doesn’t like anything approaching free time. His time is always structured, always purposed, and even when he sleeps during transport, it serves the greater purpose of ensuring he is refreshed and clear-headed and ready to further HYDRA’s goals.
But the Soldier is right, too - they’ve done all there is to do here. The Captain considers; then, “We should rest, refuel, and compare our intel,” he decides. “Ensure we both have a clear picture of the base, the personnel who handled us.” Those personnel are dead, of course, but who they were and what they said will be valuable to HYDRA. Writing this intel down would be a mistake, but the assets both have excellent memories. Still, they had different experiences, and what the Captain is really doing is saying, subtly, that if only one of them returns to HYDRA, then both of them should have a full briefing prepared.
Because he knows that the Soldier must have instructions on how to handle him, what to do if the Captain’s medication is unavailable and he becomes a danger to the mission. He holds his partner’s eyes, and perhaps doesn’t really improve on the awkward silence when he asks, in all seriousness, “Are you authorized to tell me your orders regarding my medication withdrawal?”
They both know there are orders. The Captain understands that those orders might be confidential, need-to-know, and he might not need to know.
But it would be - a comfort, to know there is a plan in place to handle him.
For a second he pauses, taken aback, and the next moment it occurs to him that his hesitation is unacceptable. The Winter Soldier's mouth presses into a line before he tilts his head, reaching up to tuck his hair behind his ear. The stare he gives his partner is this side of judging, as if he's wondering why he's asking.
Still. Racking his standing orders, what he read, what was implanted through the chair and through screaming his lungs hoarse, he can't come up with a reason why he can't. Apparently no one thought this would happen - he knows he was one of those.
"SOP," the Asset says after a pregnant, uncomfortable silence where for a split second, his eyes flicker away from his partner's. "If you run out of suppressants and you're...unmanageable, you're to be removed from rotation."
It's a clinical way of saying he'll be killed the second the Winter Soldier has an opening.
Hearing it aloud, though, is different. The words feel wrong in his mouth even though it's the right thing to do, the correct thing. Rolling it over in his mind, the Soldier realizes he doesn't want to talk about SOP anymore than he wants to talk about the SHIELD agents they ran into only a few hours ago. Things had been easier when it was the mission, when his sole goal was to sight down his scope and depress the trigger and confirm the red blossom of his target's skull evaporating. Oddly enough...he misses that. It's another sign that he's starting to become unstable himself, the very thought sending a shudder up his back.
As if to hide it, the asset reluctantly returns to the first order of business: the SHIELD encounter.
"I'm concerned about what they said," he starts. He leans against the counter, arms crossed over his chest, a chrome finger unconsciously tapping. "Those names. We don't know if they're old covers or something else." (He doesn't want to know what that "something else" could be). "If they have these kinds of details, they might have other classified information they're sitting on."
The Winter Soldier dances around the real meat of the problem, instead choosing to focus on HYDRA first, the men who they used to be never. He searches his partner for signs that he's just as worried. There's a part of him dimly aware the Captain is...attractive. It makes sense he would be, considering his undercover work, how close he needs to get to people. He's good looking but there aren't any specific identifying markers like scars, nothing to really pick him out of a line-up. Ideally people will find him attractive and trustworthy and they couldn't put their finger on why. Sometimes, where he's been away from the suppression chair for long periods of time, the Soldier wonders if that's one of the reasons why he's always felt close to the other asset. Maybe he isn't immune to that either.
He hopes it won't impact his ability to carry out his orders.
"Too bad we couldn't get one of them alive. I would've liked to carry out an interrogation."
The Soldier balks, just for a second - it’s maybe the most human behavior the Captain’s ever observed in him, but he’s not really in a place to acknowledge it at the moment. If this were a normal mission, if the Captain were feeling like himself, the cold, focused precision weapon that he is, he would have noted the expression, the way the Soldier hides his hesitation with a small, seemingly innocuous motion. But the assets waste no motion, and they don’t hesitate when they’re asked questions.
Not unless they’ve been compromised - like the Captain is now, so he doesn’t file that information away, instead simply waiting for the answer.
When it comes, he’s not surprised - of course he’s not, of course that’s exactly what would happen. It’s what should happen. The functional asset should be the one to return to HYDRA, they have no use for a broken tool. He knows his own return is to be prioritized, it’s clear in every mission operating procedure, when the Soldier takes point, clears buildings, provides cover. But if it’s just the two of them, and there is information that HYDRA needs… the more reliable source should survive.
He nods, nothing deceptive in his gaze or his voice when he says, “I understand. Good.” It is good. He can’t say why, but… it is good. There’s no guarantee the Soldier will find an opening, and the Captain can’t guarantee that he’ll give him one. But it’s a plan to follow, and it’s enough. That, he does file away, tries to shrug it on like he shrugs on all his other missions, but it’s not like the fluid ease of stepping out of the chair and knowing what needs to be done. It’s less efficient, it’s less sure, but it’s still a plan, and he can try to follow it.
That plan having been established, the Soldier moves on to the Captain’s suggestion, though in a roundabout way. Still, “I’m concerned, too,” the Captain admits, though there’s little concern in his voice; it’s more detached interest. “If SHIELD has knowledge of past missions, they could decipher a pattern.” And he’s not stupid enough to think that all the files would have been destroyed with the base. There would have been backups, on paper or computer, elsewhere. “But that won’t be a mission for us,” he adds, because while they excel in stealth, they are weapons, first and foremost. Even when they need to infiltrate, blend in, deceive, it’s always with a death as the end goal. This will be a mission for another department - and while thinking that soothes him, in a way, as he feels the utter perfection of HYDRA’s smooth workings, the way the departments and pieces fit together to create a stronger whole, there’s still part of him that does, in fact, feel distressed at the thought of leaving that information in the hands of someone else, while he is taken to a chair and those names, Rogers and Barnes, are wiped from his mind forever.
The Soldier goes on, and the Captain’s lips twitch; one corner lifts, in a small, dry expression that some might call the barest hint of a sardonic smile, as he shifts where he’s standing, trying to ease the ache in his shoulder, which has become a constant white-hot spike in the back of his mind. “It would have given us something to do. Idle hands - “
He stops, frowning. Idle hands… idle hands, what? He doesn’t know why those words came from his mouth, and he doesn’t know what comes after them. But something comes after them. It’s… it’s a phrase, he thinks. (He doesn’t have the context to consider it an idiom.) Did he hear a handler utter the phrase? It must have been on this mission, he doesn’t recall past missions clearly enough, only with a vague sense that actions have been completed, that HYDRA has been satisfied.
He shakes his head slightly, as if to clear the words away. “We’ll just have to report fully on what we saw and heard.” And hope it will be enough that they won’t be punished for it; he’s been punished for incomplete reports, for steps missed, for sketchy intel before. He knows that, deep in his bones, just like he knows he doesn’t want it to happen again. “If our handlers hadn’t - ”
He stops himself again; questioning their handlers is not allowed. It’s not their place. Handlers have been punished before, but never on the words of an asset. The tool has no right to judge the actions of the hand that holds it; even so, the Captain glances at the Soldier, wondering if he feels the same way. If he knows just how… how lame-brained the actions their handlers took were.
The Captain blinks. He’s starting to feel fatigued. He’s starting to feel like he’s fighting an uphill battle, just to think straight. He’s starting to feel, in the pit of his stomach, worried.
The Winter Soldier normally would enjoy that little change in expression, how it just barely tugs at the corner of his mouth, so subtle a handler would miss it. Not another fellow asset. Not him. Somehow it used to feel like he was the only one meant to see it.
This time, though, he doesn't feel any closer to his partner. Now it's starting to feel like a sign of the weakness poisoning him.
"They used poor judgment," he finishes for the Captain. "If they aren't dead, they will be once we report their failures."
It's merely culling out the undesirable, the weakest holding the others back. And, and this is something he isn't sure the Captain feels too but he suspects he does, the Winter Soldier might even derive a small amount of pleasure at his old handlers being liquidated. It won't stop the suppression or the chair or the cryofreeze. He might not even remember what happened to them after this, if he's even alive himself. But for now, in this very moment, he dares to indulge himself for all of two seconds. They failed HYDRA, they failed their assets, and
The hesitation from the Captain doesn't go unnoticed. The whole time he stares at his partner, mentally stripping him for other signs of imperfections like he's a faulty rifle, blue eyes flicking across his face, his body.
It's a few hours later after further observation that the Winter Soldier decides to accelerate his plans. The degradation is happening even faster despite the injection and if he wants even a chance to deliver his partner to HYDRA alive, he needs to move fast. Incapacitate him and then, if it continues, he can process him out of rotation and still have a fresh body to deliver. The idea still sits wrong, festers and curdles, and the Soldier is disturbed to admit he almost debates backing out when he glances at his partner, asleep on the couch facing the boarded up windows. It doesn't stop him from slipping out just before dawn to search the ski lodge again, this time it isn't for weapons or for food, water.
He needs something that can sedate an asset.
There isn't much. He can probably poison the Asset long enough to get him restrained but after that, it's touch and go. The man has a higher metabolism than he does, a stronger immune system. If he doesn't hit him hard and fast, there's a strong chance that this won't be as one-sided as he wants it to be, even with the Captain's injuries.
It's the hesitation that costs the Winter Soldier. He collects some bleach to force-feed his partner, some rope to tie him down, but he...stops. Stands there looking down at the man who he's carried out countless missions with. When he's asleep, he looks a little younger, a little relaxed, and it's almost like looking at someone else, someone better. Someone he, for less than a second, feels almost regret for. That moment passes as the Winter Soldier takes in a slow, measured breath, and throws himself at his partner. He sees the other asset's eyes fly open at the last second, too late to pull back.
He commits.
The Winter Soldier plants himself so he can sit on the Captain, straddling his torso even as he snaps a punch at his face and then goes for trying to grip him by the throat, the other hand coming around with the bottle of bleach.
o7 please feel free to fill in anything or let me know if something needs to be changed!
The Captain manages to fight off the fatigue for several hours more but eventually, he’s got to admit that he needs to rest. Even for just a little while, because the pain in his arm is wearing, and the waves crashing against the barriers HYDRA has erected in his mind is wearing, and, although he wouldn’t have been able to put it into words, had he been asked, the way the Winter Soldier is watching him, like an evaluator searching for the chinks in the armor, the cracks in the facade, is most wearing of all.
He can feel, under his skin, that the world is waiting for him to crack. He refuses - HYDRA built him stronger than that - but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t notice.
He announces he’s going to sleep for a few hours; couches it in terms of the Soldier taking the next sleeping shift, and the Captain standing guard after that. He doesn’t have long to think about whether it’s safe to sleep or not, because it doesn’t take long after he slumps onto the dusty couch that he’s out like a light.
And he stays out, until the Soldier makes his move.
His eyes fly open only seconds before the other asset is on him; the Captain has the ability to snap from sleep to wakefulness in an instant, but the Soldier is fast and in that instant, he's had enough time to land his body on the Captain's, to slam his head back with a punch, to put a hand to his throat and bring up a bottle of -
The smell hits him full in the face. It's bleach, and the Captain's mind works lightning-fast, still at a disadvantage but it doesn't take long to catch up. Bleach won't kill him, but it will incapacitate him, subdue him long enough for the Soldier to neutralize him. Part of the Captain's impressed, maybe even a little proud, in a way that's welling up, so telling of the way the suppression is crumbling inside of him that he feels it at all, at the ingenuity of his partner. It's not a bad idea, pal, but you know I'm not gonna go down easy.
But it's that hesitation on his own part that means he gets a faceful of the stuff. His teeth are clenched, so the amount he ingests is minimal, but the rest of it splashes across his face and into his eyes, burning white-hot before the world starts to fuzz out at the edges, even as the Captain brings up his injured arm in a swinging block that shoots pain through him like a lance, but sends the bottle flying out of the Soldier's grip, somewhere behind the couch. He hears it clatter to the ground, its contents gurgling out over the floor, but it's the least of his worries now. He's still face to face with the other asset, and no matter how fast he blinks, the pain in his eyes only gets worse, and the gauze-like curtain that’s descending on his vision grows thicker.
It'll likely clear up on its own, as the serum in his veins sloughs off the damaged corneal cells, regrows new ones. But it will probably get worse before it gets better, and healing will take time - likely hours - and he doesn't have time right now. He has an asset that will put him down if he doesn't turn the tables first.
His programming says he should go for the kill. His instincts, if that's what they are, balk, and what happens isn't what he's been trained for. If he acted on programming, on training, the Soldier's neck would have been snapped in seconds, the limp, lifeless body pushed to the ground and let cool. There would be a full report made, once he's re-established contact with HYDRA, an explanation, a mission briefing, and complete and utter submission to the chair for reconditioning -
Reconditioning, he must need reconditioning, he must be breaking down, but he's not broken; there's something else coming up through the cracks, and that something else fights like a cornered animal, but an animal that only strikes as much and as far as is needed, and no further. An animal capable of feeling... sympathy ? Remorse? Mercy?
The way it should have gone down, one asset truly against the other, should have left the lodge with only one asset still breathing.
The way it does go down, at the end of it, has the Soldier face-down on the ground, cheek pressed hard into the thin carpet with the Captain pinning him down with his sheer bulk and no small amount of will, panting hard, battered on two fronts now by pain that's starting to scream louder than he has the capacity to tune it out. His injured shoulder feels like it's made of liquid fire, the arm hanging loosely, uselessly at his side almost like it's a prosthetic, like the Winter Soldier might look after a nasty EMP blast took out the metal that replaced flesh on one side. His eyes feel like spikes driving into his skull, his vision largely gone (and a decent swath of his face reddened and burning, making him look like a burn victim) as he twists the Soldier's left arm behind him at an angle that's almost certainly unnatural, in a grip as hard as steel locked around the metal wrist with his one good hand, and his elbow dug dangerously into the Soldier's back at the place where his spine curves up from shoulder to neck, a vulnerable spot that the right amount of pressure, applied in the right way with the force of a super soldier behind it could snap the vertebrae, and paralyze, if not kill.
it's cool! We might need a slight timeksip if you want to knock out Bucky though
The mistake is less than a second but it costs him in the end.
The Captain's cornered and that's when he's most dangerous - the fact he's able to operate like this even when he has a faceful of bleach, his eyes a reddened, ruined mess, says all it needs to about the thoroughness of his training. How their similarities end and he's the inferior model, the expendable one who can't compete against the original. That same training ends up with the Winter Soldier pinned in the worst position possible, his partner's full weight sitting on him as he squirms and struggles and grunts almost angrily under the other man, boots scrapping against the carpet as he tries to find purchase and can't. Not when the other asset's sitting at the perfect location to keep him from bucking him off.
The sound that drags out of the Winter Soldier isn't a whine - it's angrier, desperate; he can't carry out his objective and he knows exactly what that elbow means. He's been on the opposite end before. He might as well be dead. Even if he can somehow shove it off, the Captain's in the perfect position to hook his arm around his throat and roll over, crocodile style, controlling his body with his legs, and apply the right pressure against the carotid arteries. It wouldn't take him long to incapacitate or kill, even hurt as he is. He's superior to any other man but he still needs to breathe, still needs blood to deliver oxygen through his brain. The fact that his partner hasn't committed to either route somehow feels...wrong.
It takes a Soldier a tortured moment to realize this is what frustration must feel like.
His teeth grit against the floor. Carpet fibers dig into his cheek. "Do it or don't!"
For once his voice actually has a shred of emotion as it spikes past the usual monotone they both share. Used to share.
His metal hand twitches against the Captain's grip, the tiny internal pistons inside the chassis groaning in protest as he tries to force himself free. It wasn't built for the force. It shows as tiny sparks flare blue within the seams and his finger spasm as he starts losing control of them, joints dancing before he go limp. The Winter Soldier's face sets in a snarl as he continues to struggle even though self-preservation should've told him to stop, to cool it, to save this fight for another day.
They might not have another day. Not if his partner's already this far gone, despite the injection.
The thought of the Captain running around, free of HYDRA, turns his blood cold. It's wrong. Impossible. The concept of sinful doesn't exist in his world but he still has a deep, curdling sensation of disgust and unbridled fear forming in his gut, knotting, uncurling like a snake about to strike. It takes hold of him, hammers at the cold logical walls of his own conditioning and instead of lying obediently still so he can get another chance, another day, the Winter Soldier instead increases his struggling. At the rate he's going, he might get lucky, might get in the right position so that elbow slips and he can turn the tables.
So much for going down easy.
welp have a knocked-out bucky and a ridiculously long tag
Do it or don’t, the Winter Soldier snarls, and there’s something about the barely-there frustration in his voice that hits the Captain like a punch to the gut. His body flinches - doesn’t let go, doesn’t waver, but still flinches, even as the Soldier’s metal fingers twist in his grip and he grits his own teeth, squeezing the wrist harder, hearing and feeling the give in the metal and mechanics, feeling the instant the mechanism gives out.
He won’t do it. He knows that - he’s known it from the second he got the Soldier in this position, down on the floor under him. He isn’t going to kill the other asset, not even in self-defense, not even when he knows, deep down in this sour knot in his gut, that the Soldier is following orders, the same way he should be. He’s slipping; he can feel it, terrified, shaking, knowing that when HYDRA comes, when they find him, the recalibration will only hurt worse. The pain and the punishment will only last longer for an asset that’s losing its ability to carry out its only function.
And yet, deeper down, past that shaking, desperate thing that wants to know why the injections aren’t working, why his programming is breaking down… there’s something else. There’s something still trying to fight its way to the surface, and that thing… That thing has…
“Mission,” he whispers, almost more to himself, almost for a second as though he’s forgetting the Soldier is there, pinned down and struggling beneath him. “I have a mission,” he says, he promises himself and the Soldier, and he might have said more, might not, but it doesn’t matter, because just then, the body under his jerks and starts struggling, harder than before.
The Captain grits his teeth, and he doesn’t have a choice - lightning-fast, he drops the metal arm and grabs the Soldier by the back of the neck, hand almost a blur. He raises the body under his, and slams it back down onto the floor. He does it again, and then a third time, just to make sure that when the body of the Winter Soldier goes limp, it’s not because he’s faking it.
Even so, he stays where he is for a long, long minute, his own heart pounding and breath coming ragged. There’s the pain, flaring up in his arm, his eyes, his head, and there’s the body under his, now just dead weight, but it won’t stay there for long. And there’s… there’s the mission, this thing he can feel bubbling up from his gut, the parameters foggy, hidden, but they’re there. They’re coming. Like his ruined vision, they’re not something he can grasp right now. But they’ll get there. They’ll slide into focus.
He thinks he saw rope, in the Winter Soldier’s hands, just before he jumped. He has to crawl around like a blind man on the floor, holding his injured arm close and balancing his weight between thighs and abs, but he finds it. He grits his teeth through the pain as he turns the Winter Soldier over by feel, binds his hands and feet, and props him up against the base of the couch.
Then the Captain scoots around and sits, shoulder to shoulder, with the Soldier’s unconscious body. The weight of the Soldier, slumped against his own uninjured shoulder, feels… good. It feels calming, it lets him focus on something other than the burning, white-hot pain from the bullet that won’t let the bones of his shoulder heal around it and the bleach still burning its way through his eyes. Eventually, he can start to see light, shadows, blurred edges. He thinks he can feel his eyes healing, cell by cell, slow going, but doggedly moving forward, rebuilding.
He wonders if that’s what’s happening to his mind, too. He wonders if it’s been damaged, if it’s trying to rebuild. It feels like… like a long-buried, rusty and damaged protocol is surfacing, as the suppression of the drugs and the too-long-ago session in the chair start losing their grip on him. Without the suppression of the drugs keeping it where it belongs -
For a moment, he's terrified - he thinks that he must be broken, that HYDRA had suppressed him for good reason, had kept him on this strict regimen of drugs for a reason, and that this baseline protocol must somehow be so terrible and so strong that it couldn't be wiped, only held at bay, and now it's rearing its ugly head -
Rearing its ugly head, like a hydra. Like a monster that needs to be put down. Like -
"Fuck," he says, his head drooping, back bowing until his forehead's nearly touching the his knees as he draws his legs up, feet flat on the floor. They tried to burn something out of his mind, but they couldn’t. So they tried to bury it, and now it’s awake. “There’s something I have to… do.” He’s not sure what, but he knows, now, that there’s some task left unfinished, some aspect of his original protocols that wasn’t fulfilled. Did he fail, is that why HYDRA wipes him again and again, to eliminate his failure, erase it from existence? Or is it something else? “I’m compromised,” he says - admits, really, to the quiet air around them, to the sleeping - unconscious - Winder Soldier. “But I still have a mission.”
He doesn’t know how long they sit like that, with those words, I still have a mission, echoing over and over again through his head.
you say it like it's a surprise :P also with the right account
The first blow doesn't knock him out. It dazes the Soldier, renders his head ringing and his vision sparking. His teeth split his lip where he cuts against them, but he's still awake long enough to strain his neck for a moment as if that would be enough to stop the Captain from finishing the job.
The second one does him in.
After that the Winter Soldier's unconscious. It's a state that he fears in the lizard part of his brain that that he's never mentioned to anyone, a nothingness that howls with silence just like cryo. It isn't like the moments where he catches some sleep here and there, where sometimes he dreams; categorizes; reports to his handlers. It's pure nothing, unaccountable, and he can't tell exactly when he was restrained or when he started slumping toward his partner, head sagging, close enough that the handlers would've wondered if they remembered how to fraternize and maybe that would've made it into both their files.
He starts to revive after an hour or so, his head thundering and nausea rising, the Soldier automatically forcing down the bile by swallowing. Isn't the first time he's been unconscious. Isn't even the first time he's been knocked out by the Captain, either, because he remembers bits and pieces of their training sessions together, how sometimes he'd end up on the floor and there's be a gap before he wakes up getting dragged down a hall and the first thing he sees is his boots, wobbling, limp, and then he registers the taste of blood hanging metallic in his mouth. The Winter Soldier hadn't been pissed. Mostly he pretended to play dead and he'd enjoyed the sensation, the idea, that the Captain left a piece of him behind. It's that weakness that probably got him where he is now.
The Winter Soldier revives with a shudder and a grunt.
Normally when he wakes it's slow, quiet enough to pretend to be still out so he can access the situation and come up with some escape routes, some ambush points. This time it's uncoordinated like a normal man, losing whatever element of surprise he might've had. His eyes drift open reluctantly. Head hurts. Everything hurts, his arm isn't working - stupid of him to keep trying, in retrospect - and he can't spread his legs. Ankles tied. Arms too. Unacceptable.
His head lifts, the Winter Soldier's dark hair hanging in a tangled curtain in his face. The blood trailing from his nose and mouth has had time to dry into a dark crust he can feel as he scrunches face and wrinkles his nose and asks:
"...Mission?"
It comes out hoarse, a shade of suspicious. What mission? He gets that his partner has turned into the worst kind of liability seeing as the injections aren't holding, but the word "mission" rings a bell inside him. Hits him in the core of his own conditioning. He doubts the Captain's been assigned higher clearance for a mission he isn't part of - not with success record - but it isn't impossible. His ankles shift and bump against his partner as he tests the rope. Good knots. HYDRA good. Not surprising.
"You're compromised. Turn yourself in and HYDRA can help you," the Winter Soldier says quietly, his voice hoarse, his head ringing even as conditioning demands he trot out HYDRA's bottom line like it's from a pamphlet. "Do the right thing, Captain."
Even with his vision swimming he can see his partner isn't at his peak.
It's disturbing. Body language betrays him. The Winter Soldier isn't much for conversation unless he's been conditioned for it, but he can read the physical tells just fine. Everything about his partner sends up red flags: he's biting his lip, staring forward at nothing instead of a target, a point of interest like supplies or a weapon. His posture is in a weakened position, head bowed to rest against his knees instead of held up high.
The body next to him shudders, and the Captain feels both on edge and more relaxed, all at once. He lets the asset next to him claw his way back up into consciousness, taking as long as he likes, even though right now it feels like their time is limited, running thin. The storm outside is still raging, and likely will for hours to come. It could even be days before the snow and the wind abate; he remembers the briefing, the regional weather reports it had included, the instructions on what they and their handlers would do if weather compromised the mission timetable.
But those handlers are dead, and now it’s just him and the Winter Soldier - and his new (old?) mission, still slowly forming, nebulous and murky but growing sharper, clearly, piece by piece inside his head.
The mission that he isn’t sure how to explain, even as the Soldier lifts his head beside him. The Captain’s eyes are still healing, his vision murky but he can see just enough to imagine the rest of the picture, the blood crusting the Soldier’s nostrils, the way it’s scabbed along the top of his mouth, as he asks that simple question. Of course he’s asking - it’s the thing that has turned the Captain against him, in his mind, only what the Soldier doesn’t understand is that the Captain doesn’t want to stand against him. He never has, he knows that now. Every training session, every time he’d knocked the other asset to the ground, beat him into unconsciousness, was like a thorn twisting in his brain, a voice clamoring out of synch with the rest of the chorus telling him to comply. Telling him to follow HYDRA’s path.
HYDRA’s path… there’s something wrong with it. There’s some reason he’s supposed to sidestep off of it. And it has something to do with the Soldier. After an hour alone with his churning, half-buried thoughts, the Captain knows that much for sure, if not a whole lot else. It’s what makes him grit his teeth and shake his head when the Winter Soldier gives him the party line, the words at once hollow and whole, something the Soldier believes in just as much as the Captain no longer can.
HYDRA can’t help him, he thinks, and it’s like a revelation. It’s like that first spark that sets fire to the tinder, ignites what will soon enough become a blaze. It’s what makes him sit up, shoulder sliding against the other asset’s, looking him in the face, even if his gaze is just a little off, like a blind man trying to look you in the eye, only it’s a couple of inches off. He can see the other asset’s face, but it’s like a pale, shining oval set against the darker hair, the can vaguely see the outlines of features, the blue eyes, the blood-encrusted nose and mouth, in the dim light. The blinds are still closed, the sky still dark with the storm outside.
“I am doing the right thing,” he says, slow but sure, quiet but profound. His voice is plain, flat, clear, but there’s a quality underneath it that wasn’t there before. It’s subtle, but it’s steady. “I don’t know why, but I know that I am.”
He knows that won’t be enough to convince the Soldier. Of course it won’t - it’s vague, it’s unclear, it doesn’t comply. He is no longer compliant, and compliance is the foundation from which the assets were built. It’s why this deviation is the source of so much strife.
So he does something that he has learned never, ever to do in front of a handler. He does something that only the Winter Soldier could ever (has ever, maybe, has this happened before? He doesn’t know, can’t remember, and that frightens him, suddenly) bring him to do. He speaks his mind, he lets out a little of the secret he can feel, buried deep inside: “There’s a different protocol. I don’t think it’s HYDRA’s. I don’t think they can help me understand.”
There’s a pause; when he speaks, that thing coloring his voice has gotten stronger. “I want to understand what it is.”
He wants to know what this thing is they’ve buried, and to do that, they both know what needs to happen. He needs time. He needs to not go back in the chair. He can’t comply, or it will be covered up again, hidden from the light, and maybe he’ll never find it again. Or maybe he’s already found it a hundred times before. Maybe he's forgotten it a hundred times more.
The Winter Soldier listens and absorbs. What he picks up from his partner's tone of voice, the brief, still too long pauses? It isn't exactly instilling him with confidence.
"How do you know there's another protocol?" The Soldier's voice softens at the edges even as he stares at his partner like he's trying to bore right into his skull. "Maybe I can help you, if you let me.
Next order of business: if you can't immediately incapacitate a target, try to work your way into his/her good graces until you can. Whatever has contaminated the Captain's programming thankfully hasn't hit his: he's clear-headed, getting more so by the second as the ringing stops and his vision resolves. Parameters snap back into focus. Whatever pain he feels is shoved aside as a distraction, an indulgence that HYDRA won't allow and, therefore, he won't allow. The Winter Soldier's chin lifts as he swallows, jaw working, eyes closing for a second with what looks like a normal man's moment of weakness. The barest hint of blue peeks out as he stares at his partner. His face is ruined, inflamed and swelling and red...but even now he can see the signs that his advanced healing factor is kicking in, doing an even better job than his own. Bleach to the face would've taken him a day to recover from, at the minimum. At his estimate, it's probably been a few hours at most and the Captain's already got his eyes open.
For the first time in his memory, the Soldier experiences regret. If anyone should've gone off the reservation and gone rogue, it should've been him - he would've been easier to remove from rotation, would've been the easier loss for HYDRA to take. They could always make another like him. His partner, though. He's one of a kind, and right now he wishes he wasn't so...unique.
"We could do this together, just me and you," the Soldier adds. To the casual outsider, his voice is flat-lined, a borderline monotone as if he hadn't tried to kill a man who turned things around and introduced his face to the floor, the up-close and personal way. "You don't have to go at this alone."
For now he means it, because his mission requires it and because the naked truth is, he doesn't want to kill the other asset if there's another way. For one thing, the Captain's far more valuable than he is. And - and this is the private part, the one that he would immediately get strapped into the suppression chair for - he wants to keep working with him. Wants to clear rooms, wants to train with him back on base. The word "friend" doesn't exist in their world. If it did, it would've just been a liability. But examining where he failed today, the Winter Soldier comes to the slow, startling conclusion that this is a liability he would've wanted to risk.
He shifts from where he's propped up against his partner, drawing his legs up with a pained hiss, the thick heels of his boots dragging against the floor. He's strong, sure, but the Captain knows his limitations just like he does and naturally he made sure to tie his arms and his ankles together so he can't just snap free. Might be able to saw through if he can rub the rope against the chassis of his arm, but that would still take time. Best he can do is keep his partner talking as he tries to figure out another approach.
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Memory is just a gray smear held together by training and vague impressions of places, people, but the Winter Soldier has learned this new survival technique: whatever he feels toward the Captain, he keeps it to himself short of a direct order to spill his guts. He'd rather be out on ops than more calibrations.
The Winter Soldier falls into place. They can almost-not-really argue about kit but the Captain’s approach is sound. If it was just the tower and the perimeter guards, they'd only need one asset. In all likelihood, they would've just sent him: the Captain's usually saved for absolute priority missions, someone who can completely blend into the populace without a steel arm in the way. The Winter Soldier, on the other hand, is for your accidents that aren’t accidents, the direct kills that don’t require long term deep cover. That’s fine. He’s good at it. Respectable kill count. He has his place, the Captain has his, and everything is as it should be. They’re all extensions of HYDRA.
The target they’re after isn’t. Not yet. Intel indicated the target’s an SSR agent – valuable enough to warrant the touch of two assets instead of one. The real army’s inside, surrounding the target as if that will make a difference.
“On it.”
The Winter Soldier brings his mask over his face, spraypainted white instead of the usual matte-black. They don’t exchange hail HYDRA or even the good luck, see you at the end of the line, when they were different men. There’s just a silent understanding, a kind of simplicity to it all as the Captain disappears into the forest, so quiet that even he loses track of him after a few long seconds. He gives him half a minute to be generous before he sights down his first target, the unlucky man on the tower taking a smoke break. It’s routine:
Sight. Depress trigger. Watch the puff of a red cloud that had been someone’s head through the scope. Move onto the next one. Sight again and again.
The tower is an easy clear. The problem is the last man doesn’t crumple like the others – his body pitches over the side and two hundred pounds of dead meat falling on a roof is hard to miss, snow or no snow.
Brows furrowed, the Winter Soldier packs up, rolling the rifle into its weatherproofed case and stashing it under the tree they agreed on. He doesn’t give himself time to analyze where he went wrong, how he must’ve mistimed the shot. He heads down, circling in the opposite direction he saw the Captain go. The compound’s alerted to their presence – they don’t know how many there are, but it’s hard to explain a dead man with a good chunk of his head missing. The perimeter guards fan out. Some of them make the mistake going into the trees, toward where he believes the other asset went. Those he doesn’t worry about. They’re as good as dead.
The Winter Soldier moves low but fast, his knife flashing out as he runs into the first sentry on his side. Rush him, crush his windpipe with his left hand. Thrust blade into chest with the right. Move on. By now he’s worked his way to ground level, winding around trees dusted with the recent snowfall, keeping an ear out for the Captain and the almost inaudible wet grunts of the men he’s killing in the distance. Hoping, in the back of his mind somehow still capable of it, that this isn’t the op where the other asset gets killed because someone got lucky.
no subject
That was his old handler, at least - he thinks. The face now seems different, he thinks - newer. Younger. He thinks the name is different, too - not that it matters. If his handler does his job, and the Captain does his, it doesn’t matter. They’re still achieving the same goal. But he knows better than to mention that like he has, that preference for challenge over order, to his handler. The looks he gets are already wary and calculating enough. This doesn’t affect his mission capability, and so he doesn’t report it as an error or malfunction, nor does he want them to wipe it away, exactly.
When he leaves the Soldier behind, it’s with the absolute knowledge that the men on the tower will die, and the Soldier will catch up with him once they have. Neither of them expect the fourth body to fall; the Captain is in the process of slitting a man’s throat from behind when it happens, the warm blood spraying out over the snow as the body gurgles and dies, when there’s a dull but distinct thud that echoes in the distance. It’s unexpected - but the assets are adaptable. Missions rarely go according to plan, and that preference for challenge starts rising up again in him - missions according to plan are boring. Those that don’t go quite as planned are always more fun.
It’s an errant thought, and one that is dismissed quickly - there’s still a job to be done, and he’s the best HYDRA has to offer. He works through the remaining guards quickly, silently, despite the fact that their suspicions have been raised - it distracts them more than focuses them, and he’s still silent, and fast, and deadly. He likes killing with his hands, up close and personal, snapping necks and slitting throats, both of which are quick and quiet. When he closes ranks with the Winter Soldier, he’s barely breathing hard, flashing something that’s almost, almost a satisfied smile from beneath the half-mask of his helmet. “You miscalculated,” he says - in a solid, straightforward tone, but yet one that for an asset, means something almost dangerously close to teasing, as he brushes by the Soldier’s shoulder and begins pulling the small directional explosives from his belt. There’s a side entrance - going in the main door would be too flashy, and it’s not the assets’ purpose to be flashy - that will give them access to the compound’s interior, let them work their way through it via the maps they’ve both memorized to the fortified interior, where the agent is believed to be holed up. There may be heavy resistance - and the Captain finds himself thinking he won’t mind if there is. He hasn’t had a chance to use the metal shield at his back for a while, now - that he can remember. He almost aches for it, if this strange, wanting feeling is an ache.
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"I'm aware. It won't happen again."
They're too far gone to tease like the good old days. To the uninitiated it might look like a fairly standard conversation, only sparse words between two soldiers who aren’t that chatty anyway and that's it. Nothing to see here. Maybe when he first met the Captain it was like that: just another face, cold blue eyes that hold his attention but the main thing is he was looking for a hint of weakness. Any sign that this other asset wasn’t up to snuff.
These days he actually recognizes the man even after the wipes and coming out of cryofreeze. It happened before this mission, on the way to his briefing. The Captain was taking a break from training a recruit, oblivious to the reek of the newbie’s blood in the air. He’d stepped aside as they hauled the other asset past, boots dragging against the floor, his legs still boneless from cryo, head hanging down because he can’t summon the energy to lift it. Even then, his eyes had darted up from the floor to fix for a stolen few seconds on the Captain, eyes glittering through tangled hair. They made eye contact and he knew him, he knew, then, that today was going to be a good day. They couldn’t take that from him even as the chair restraints snapped into place.
The Winter Soldier isn’t sure if they’re friends, if he even remembers what friends are. Before there was the mission and the low, animal dread of cryo. Now there’s touches here and there, shoulders grazing, knees bumping into each other when they sit side by side in a van with blacked out windows. He can't place a finger on how he can tell, how he can look at the other asset and understand there's another layer to certain things he says. It isn’t just tone of voice. It’s how his shoulders square a certain way if he's not happy with something to that shift in his eyes when he's...amused. The Captain right now has one of those almost-smiles that his mask and the blood smudged across his face doesn’t hide.
They assume positions. The Captain blows the door. It’s a small burst, neat, nothing flashy like blowing the whole thing off its hinges. It’s instinct to go first: pistol drawn, finger resting on the trigger guard, and while the Captain could probably do this on his own, he has his standing orders. The other asset never goes first into a building. Never takes point if they’re working together. He’s too valuable.
The Winter Soldier picks off a few of the men who think they’re going to be hero instead of hiding. Stepping over their bodies, the two assets go deeper and deeper. Resistance grows. He has to stop and reload and then do it again and eventually he runs out of ammunition, has to stoop and raid one of the corpses for more. The Captain’s knee deep in it, coming alive as he first covers with the shield, sparking as gunfire ricochets off, and then throws it, bouncing it off the wall and hitting a man’s face with the satisfying crack of his orbital socket caving in on itself. He drops. The radio at the dead man’s hip crackles.
“Reinforcements,” the Winter Soldier’s head cocks to the side. He’s actually breathing a little hard now, his mask uncomfortable, humid. “Better armed and trained from the sound of it.”
They’re both good – better than good, they’re HYDRA’s very best – but even they have their limits. They need to get to that SSR agent and get out and that’s when the shutters come down, trapping them in the room. The hissing from the vents is odorless but he can hear it, he’s heard the same thing back at base when they want to sedate from a distance. The Soldier’s eyebrows knit as he exchanges looks with his partner.
It’s a trap. This isn’t about an SSR agent with new intel, it’s something else. Something that they had time to outfit the base for, reinforce the walls, build in airtight shutters and retrofit a gas release system into that the building schematics didn’t cover.
The Winter Soldier immediately calls it in. His handler’s voice comes in garbled, laced with panic that hadn’t been there before the feed turns to static and now they’re on their own, cut off from HYDRA for the first time in years.
no subject
The door blows, and they enter the building. There is a part of him, deep down, that feels something almost like annoyance, every time the Winter Soldier takes point. It’s not really annoyance, because the reasoning is sound - both assets know their worth to HYDRA, and where that worth begins and ends to within inches. It makes things simple, makes everything clear. And yet - and yet, there is something about watching the Winter Soldier infiltrate the compound ahead of him that, as always, sets his teeth on edge, makes his fists clench tighter, and he’s not sure why, but he would rather it be him.
That’s another thing he’s kept to himself, another non-mission-imperative opinion. He chooses to let it augment his vigilance, rather than detract from it, making sure every sense is on high alert, fingers grasping the worn leather of the shield as he pulls it from his back and they meet the first resistance inside the corridor. It isn’t long before they’re working in perfect tandem, the Captain deflecting bullets while the Winter Soldier fires, leaping seamlessly into the fray for close-range combat while the other asset sights or reloads. He never once worries that he will be accidentally hit by friendly fire - the Winter Soldier is too good, and the Captain always, somehow, mentally divides their opponents, seeks out those he is best suited to kill, just as the Winter Soldier does the same. In this, they always agree.
The resistance is steady - and, he notes, steadily increasing. When the last man in the most recent wave goes down with a crushed skull, the Captain’s already preparing to move forward, reaching down to pluck a pistol from a dead man’s grip when the shutters come down and the vents hiss on. For a moment, the Captain thinks it won’t be a problem - they’re both enhanced, both resistant to biological agents, difficult to sedate or drug. Despite this fact, he’s still concerned - a lack of concern would be a tactical oversight, and oversights are not acceptable - and he frowns, brows knitting as a small, subtle crease forms between them and he stalks to the nearest sealed door, the arm with the shield raised, ready to bring it down hard against the metal, even as he wonders about the result. If they’re trapped, it means they were expected. It means this whole thing was planned, and that reeks of preparedness on the SSR’s part. That gets something small, subtle, twisting in the pit of his stomach - it’s not really an emotion, not really fear of the same kind that HYDRA can induce, with their tasers and their chairs and their cryostasis tubes. There is no fear greater than that, it’s a fear that comes from a place deep down inside of him, a fear that is so constant, but so subtle, that it’s simply a part of who he is. HYDRA was made to instill fear; it’s only right that even its greatest assets understand enough to fear it. But still, this is wrong, this is more than just a mission gone unexpectedly upside-down.
He knows the Soldier is calling it in - he speaks into his own comm to confirm, and only static comes back. His heart beats, once, twice, three times, but only static. They’ve been cut off, their signals jammed. It’s this strange sort of disconcerting, this sudden void that the handlers have always filled, but the assets are adaptable, they are smart, they are resourceful. He glances as the Soldier, then to the shuttered exit, and tenses to strike at it -
Later, he won’t be able to report whether the blow followed through. All he knows is, he must have succumbed to the gas, it must have been dosed properly, or maybe just dosed exceedingly high to ensure a result, because he is suddenly awake, staring up at a grey concrete ceiling, secured to a gurney in a way that clearly says it was not originally meant to hold him. The cuffs are secure but obviously jury-rigged, as though they were meant to hold a slightly-enhanced man of his stature, but not one augmented to the same degree. His head is pounding, possibly an aftereffect of the gas, possibly an injury he sustained following his incapacitation, and his helmet and mask have been removed. He feels a clenching sense of wrong without them, even as his eyes dart around the room, his arms and legs flex, testing the restraints, and his ears pick up voices, think with distance, but if he’s quiet, slows his breathing, he can just make out the words.
But the words… don’t quite make sense.
“-ieve it’s them, do you know who we’re dealing with here? They’ve been dead for twenty years, and now we’re supposed to call the directors and - ”
“Are you really sure it’s them?”
“Of course I’m sure! Look at the goddamned video feed! Go in there and look for yourself! It’s Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes, I swear on my grandmother’s grave, it’s them. If looks aren’t enough for you, I’ll take their goddamned fingerprints and dental impressions, and you can explain - ”
The voices trail off, as though the speakers are walking away, but the words… The words seem to sit, to settle in the Captain’s mind, sticky like glue, and he can’t just dismiss them. Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes. Is that who they think they’ve captured? Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes. The names have this strange mental aftertaste, they reek of familiarity, almost the way the Winter Soldier and the Captain’s handler do in his mind, but… he doesn’t know why.
He isn’t given more time to draw a conclusion, though, because a man wearing glasses, with hair slightly askew - a scientist, or a doctor, he has that look about him, the same look as the men that strap the Captain into the chair, that attach the IV line, that push the drugs he needs through his system before a wipe - comes in, looking nervous. He’s flanked on either side by two men obviously meant to be his security, and he approaches the gurney cautiously, now that he sees the Captain is awake. “Hello, Captain,” he says, his voice sounding rough, a little higher-pitched with fear. Good - he should be afraid. He has captured HYDRA’s most valuable, most deadly asset, and he stares down at the figure on the gurney with trepidation. The Captain doesn’t answer, doesn’t say a thing, only watches, impassively, so the man speaks again.
“Hello, Captain,” he tries again. “Captain Rogers, sir. I’m - I’m here to help you. First, I just need a little blood - ”
no subject
They wake him up first. There’s the usual barrage of questions. Head swimming, faces snapping in and out of focus, the Winter Soldier just stares mutely at them with his face an expressionless mask, eyes immediately scanning the room for signs of the Captain. Technically his superior but he’d always felt in his gut they were equals, complementary. His eyes fall on a temporary partition, wheels visible beneath it. Probably where they’re keeping the Captain. His eyes slide back to the man trying to grill him and he debates trying to head butt his way out. Considering his system is still struggling with whatever they dosed him with, he realizes he might not actually kill the man with the first strike: he’ll need to wait, bide his time. Learn about these people, what they want. Their mission is now his mission to dismantle. The most reaction they get is he drops his eyes as if he's ashamed, ducks his head so his hair falls forward. After that his interrogator takes a break after giving him a long stare, almost as if there’s something clicking in place, and then he leaves without another word. He walks fast, too fast, and it sinks in that maybe he recognized his face.
Weird. Most people who know his face are either dead or they’re part of HYDRA’s network of cells.
He can hear the conversation even if he isn’t a part of it. For a moment, so brief it barely has a chance to connect, he thinks he does recognize the names. Must’ve seen them in papers or maybe it was a deep cover alias – what he does know is for a grand total of one second he likes the name of “Barnes” and then the next? Conditioning takes over. He reminds himself that he isn’t a name, he’s a tool. Hold onto that when you can’t remember much of anything else. It’s weirdly...comforting. While the Captain dwells on the names, turns them over in his head, the Winter Soldier instead retreats from them. Rejects out of instinct. When in doubt, remember that HYDRA has the good of the world on its plate, the long-term survival that no one else is considering. There’s acceptable sacrifice to be made for the mission.
From the sound of it, his partner is awake enough for his own interrogation. While they’re talking to him, the Winter Soldier pretends to be mute. The hiss from the mask humid against his face says they're sedating him and (he hopes) they probably haven’t dosed it high enough because they think he’s locked down. Secured. As the drug works its way through his system, his eyes flutter, start to roll up into his skull, and he goes limp even as he fights to keep listening. Ordering himself to bide his time even if his body temporarily shuts down on him
That was the SSR’s first mistake, putting both assets within spitting distance. Not realizing that each was their own individual with their own levels of programming – what works on one won’t necessarily work on the other.
The scientist in front of the man once known as Steve Rogers also makes that mistake. He doesn’t think about the ticking time bomb on the other side of the partition because his eyes are on one of the greatest war heroes of the century who, apparently, hasn’t aged a day.
“It’s been twenty years since you fought with the US,” he says, and inches forward closer with the needle. The good news is Rogers is a super soldier but it isn’t as if his skin is unbreakable: the needle will go through just fine. “We can help you, if you let us. We can transition both Barnes and you to an actual life, outside of what HYDRA’s done to you.”
He doesn’t promise they can turn around and take the fight to HYDRA. Not after what they’ve been through. No one in their right mind would trust them to turn on HYDRA.
Whatever doubts the man has, he bucks up and gets over it and finally gets within arm’s reach. He rolls up Roger’s sleeve with almost too much care, as if he’s aware of the icon, kill count, the way that he’s killed during and after the war. Supposedly Captain America was so fast that he could outrun a damn car.
“Easy,” the needle pricks into Steve’s skin just as the comm unit crackles. A tinny voice, the voice of his handler, pipes in and a few minutes later, that’s about when shit hits the fan.
no subject
Still, the SSR doesn’t know that, but the Captain can’t help but think it’s strange, their lead-in - the clumsy little scientist isn’t meant to intimidate, the name they call him doesn’t truly mean anything to him (Rogers, Rogers, it’s just a collection of syllables, why does it keep ringing in his head?), and the lie about working for the US is just that - a lie, a clumsy lie, a pointless statement that makes him feel nothing.
If anything, the words that make him feel something are the last - he recoils internally at what the man says, at his ridiculous, unsavory suggestion - the notion of a normal life, the implied yet clear concept of taking him out of the fight. That means something to the asset, and it is unpleasant, to say the least. When he is taken out of the fight, it’s because he will be dead - or, if he hasn’t been killed in action, he’s sure he will be disposed of by his handlers, shortly after. He won’t be left to die of old age, won't be cast out to live a mundane, meaningless life, or even a life filled with joy and love. Those things aren’t for assets. Those things are for people. Maybe those things were for whoever this Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes are, but they are not for the Captain, nor are they for the Winter Soldier. That's how it should be. He doesn't want to live a normal life. He doesn't want a life outside of HYDRA. He doesn't know anything else.
The needle slides into his skin and he doesn’t react, other than to pay attention to the number of vials the man takes, watches him begin to label each with a permanent marker. The asset’s blood could be turned into a weapon against HYDRA, and when it comes time to leave, he will have to make sure these samples are destroyed.
But it’s just as the first vial is placed into the holder for collection that the tiny comm in his ear crackles. The Captain doesn’t smile, doesn’t even twitch his lips beneath the mask, his expression doesn't change at all but he feels a sense of calm satisfaction wash through him at the sound. The first vial fills, and is replaced by a second - but it’s only a quarter of the way full when his handler’s voice comes in over the connection, and the Captain needs only a few brief words of instruction, followed by the unique mission passcode to confirm his handler’s authenticity, to act.
The SSR has misjudged the dosage of sedatives required to keep the Captain truly docile enough to pose no threat - an honest mistake, really, given HYDRA’s difficulties and the lack of previous information and trials, before their extensive research had begun. The misjudgment is, admittedly, small, but it’s enough. Coupled with the fact that the SSR has also misjudged his peak strength capacity over short bursts given the right mental focus, the Captain needs only to gather his strength for a few short seconds before he tenses, flexes, and in one short, sharp motion, breaks the makeshift bonds holding his arms in place. The motion knocks the scientist away, and with him, his vials of blood. The Captain’s eyes need only to track the motion for a fraction of a second before his ears confirm what his eyes see - the scientist sprawls backward onto the floor and both vials break with a tinkling sound of glass. The blood, still bright red, begins to pool on the floor, but the Captain is already working to free his feet before either of the two guards can raise their weapons high enough to sight. The Captain doesn’t think they’ll shoot him - they think he’s valuable, they think he’s this Rogers, they want him alive - and he’s not wrong, because just as he gets his feet free, the guard on the left shouts, “Stop! Captain Rogers, stand down!” and maybe they would have ended up pulling those triggers, in the right situation, but none of them will ever know. The Captain dispatches the first with a piece of the now broken restraints, wielding the leather and metal like a whip in a twisting turn that’s almost graceful - and ends with the twisted, broken metal at the end of the strap embedded into the man’s skull. That gives him time to reach the second man and deliver a roundhouse kick that knocks him to the floor while he’s taking the precious time needed to flick the safety off of his weapon - Careless, the Captain thinks - and in the seconds that follow, he takes the weapon from the first guard and shoots all three of the men in the room with him in the head. (The first was likely dead or dying, but he’s not about to make careless mistakes now.)
He tears off the sedative mask and lets it clatter to the floor. The room he’s in has three walls - the fourth is formed by a temporary partition, and he hears noise on the other side of it, prompted by the noise on his. He raises his new weapon just as an alarm begins to wail, but he pays it no mind. The instructions in his earpiece were clear. Find the Winter Soldier and, if the other asset is still alive, escape via any means of egress possible while the handlers and their team create a distraction. It’s a clumsy plan, one he doesn’t particularly like for a number of reasons, given the unknowns, given the way it leaves the original objective unfulfilled, but it is his handler’s plan, and the passcode was correct. It’s now his duty to follow it, even if, he thinks, he’s going to be as efficient about it as possible.
A man comes around the partition - he’s another guard, and he’s not fast enough on the draw, not when faced with the Captain. He goes down with a bullet wound blooming on his forehead, and so does his partner, a moment later. The interrogator doesn’t come around the partition, but he doesn’t have long to wait, because the Captain slips around the fixture, assesses the scene before him, and the interrogator never completes the motion he’s making to draw a weapon before he, too, goes down with a bullet in the head. It’s not as neat a shot as the guards, but it’ll do. Then he’s left facing a groggy Winter Soldier with a disabled left arm, and the soft, almost inaudible snort he gives isn’t mockery, isn’t laughter, isn’t relief, but it might not be far from some combination of all three.
The sedative mask goes first, then the restraints. The Captain places a hand on the Soldier’s right shoulder - almost gentle, but firm and immovable - to hold the other asset in place, let him get a few breaths of clean, clear air into his lungs, while he inspects the device around his left arm. Once he deems that it’s not permanently attached and will likely cause no permanent damage, he crushes it in one hand and lets go of the Soldier’s shoulder to undo the strap, then steps back. He nods to the other asset, eyes asking the question before he opens his mouth to confirm. “Did you receive the transmission?” If yes - they can move. If no - he’ll explain while they move. The Soldier will follow his lead, he knows.
Just then, an explosion that feels distant just shakes the walls - and he knows the handlers and their team have arrived.
no subject
His eyes flutter open when he hears the comforting sound of gunfire and the heavy thuds of the Captain increasing his body count. It drags him away from that drug-induced cloud that feels deceptively pleasant, slow and languid and nothing like cryo, eyes opened to glittering slits by the time his partner rounds the partition. He heard everything, sorted it, filed it away from the names to the way the men here tried to talk to them and it's different than anyone else has ever talked to them in the past. Personal. Inappropriately personal considering their ranks, their purpose. When the mask comes off, he coughs and hacks and sucks in several desperate breaths of fresh air with the comforting pressure of the Captain’s hand against his shoulder. For a second he makes eye contact. Sees something that could’ve been next time I’ll hold your hair for you in another life, under different circumstances when they had names and history.
After a few seconds the Winter Soldier forces himself to his feet, arm still limp as it buzzes from the inside, clicking away with its reboot. He isn’t proud to say he sways (slightly, for the record) before he steadies himself on the gurney’s edge with his good hand. It's a point to brace his shoulders and straighten.
“I heard,” he says. “We need - “
The explosion is large but it’s far, with enough concrete and steel in the way that all that happens is the room trembles and a bit of debris snows down. The Winter Soldier exchanges looks with his partner. They don’t need words. They might've been captured – unacceptable, worthy of reconditioning – but their immediate objective is the same. Acquire weapons. Acquire their kit, especially the vibranium shield and the little pouch of vials the Winter Soldier carries on every op he goes on with the other asset. Even on short ops, it’s on him. It’s now his first priority, decades of programming slipping neatly into place. It crowds out whatever doubts he had, the uncomfortable flicker at hearing “Rogers” and “Barnes”. Even if their handlers are breaching protocol to mount an extraction, he doesn’t assume they’ll get to them.
His arm’s back online as they comb the interrogation room. Off to the side he finds a large locker, reinforced but it’s still not enough. His arm hums as it cranks up the compressors. The lock crumples in the Winter Soldier’s hand, the lid opens to reveal first the familiar shield and then the rest of their gear, neatly labeled and bagged. The first thing he does is hand the shield to his partner. Next he confirms his hip pack is intact (it is) and he counts the vials. One’s missing. Probably taken for testing. With the second explosion shaking the room and the sound of gunfire, they might not have time to search for it, a call that the Winter Soldier is prepared to take flak for once they’re back at base. It’s that or they risk getting recaptured again the longer they stick around and provide the SSR with more intel about their abilities. Their limits.
Zipping the pack shut, he clips it to his hip, arms himself with his knife and rifle and pistol. The earpiece crackles with the reports of gunfire, his handler’s voice tinny on the other side. She’s heady with adrenaline, probably her first time out in the field in years and -
“ - south is clear, Roberts isn’t responding to his comm - ”
There’s more. The Winter Soldier parses out that one of the junior handlers is either dead or captured (he hopes he’s dead) and that if they’re going to get out, south is their best bet. He falls into the lead again even though he’s still shaking off the sedative, his vision blurring every now and then, the Soldier trying not to instinctively shake his head like it’ll help clear it. Not in front of his partner.
They encounter some resistance on the way down. It’s light enough that between the two of them, they don’t stand a chance. There’s still enough that he missteps here, moves a little too slowly there, and he can’t hide that from the Captain. He tries to make up for it as they find what looks like a makeshift armory, a file room. The cabinets hang open like whoever was there left in a hurry, some smashed into the floor with bloody foot prints: others torn or burned. Past that they find more halls and more soldiers and these men are prepared, trying to make a stand and do their jobs instead of fighting like they’re cornered animals. Somehow in the process the Captain takes a bullet to the shoulder – it shouldn’t have happened but it does and he can see that slight flinch, the bloom of red against his uniform, his side, and the Winter Soldier knows that he should’ve killed that man earlier. It seems to take longer than it should until they reach the access tunnels. Basic structure, no-nonsense. It’s around then that they lose the rest of the feed with their handlers.
Then it’s just the two of them. The Winter Solider still in the lead, imagining he can hear his partner bleeding as he jogs behind him with his shield in his hand, breathing a little labored in a way he hasn’t heard often. Not outside of training. Not outside the drug and interrogation trials, when this time he was the observer and the Captain was the subject strapped down. The first glimpse of light outside says it’s afternoon approaching dusk. He only stops once they duck behind what looks like temporary quarters and they're relatively clear. None of that matters when he glances down and sees the Captain leaving a trail of blood.
“Better take care of that first,” he says, voice tight in a way he isn’t used to, unfamiliar with feeling worry these days. Holstering his pistol, he unzips a pouch and pulls out a roll of gauze, enough that he should stem the bleeding at least, buy them some time, some distance. He’ll have to redress it later. “I lost contact with my team.”
He drops his eyes from the Captain’s face as he focuses on his task, stepping close so he can wind the gauze tight around the other asset’s torso.
no subject
The Captain’s expression is displeased, but he cannot control the handlers. He can only work with what they give him, and with what his programming tells him to do. The Winter Soldier, at least, moves like an extension of himself, the two of them have always worked so perfectly together for this reason, like two halves of a whole, because they both understand their roles, and understand protocol, and follow it. It’s protocol, now, to prevent their kit from falling into enemy hands, and when the Solider is on his feet again, unsteady but not unstable, they move as one to the locker, the only logical place for the SSR to have stored their gear, and the Winter Soldier makes quick work of it while the Captain stands guard with his stolen weapon. Their kit is inside; silently, as a team, they gear up again, the Captain taking his shield, then his belt, the pouch at his front right still stocked with the vials he carries as well, with the medication he needs and doesn’t know why, just knows he is to take like clockwork. But in this case, there are two missing - along with two of his favored flash grenades, and two of the ration packs he carries to offset his high metabolism on long or cold ops. If their handlers hadn’t rushed in blind, there might have been time to retrieve them. But their handlers have rushed in, and it’s up to the Captain and the Soldier to make what use they can of the opening they’ve gotten, and get out.
It’s clear, as the Soldier takes point, that he’s not operating at peak capacity, that the sedatives were either stronger or more effective, because there’s something just a little off in his steps, a little too jerky and mistimed about his movements. Behind him, the Captain frowns, a tense, unhappy feeling settling in his gut that makes him want to insist on taking point, but that isn’t protocol, either. Part of him’s thinking, To hell with protocol, but it’s gotten them this far, and as they track their way toward the south end of the compound, he still has to have faith that it will get them out.
It does, in the end - just not as well as he would have liked. The high-caliber bullet bites into his shoulder with the force of a heavy punch; the Captain is too heavy, himself, too well-muscled for it to bowl him over, but he feels the impact nonetheless. It’s a lucky shot - well, the fact that the shot connected at all is luck, he can tell the man behind the rifle is skilled, but if the Winter Soldier weren’t still working the sedatives out of his system, the SSR agent never would have had a chance to pull the trigger.
So the shot connects, and that’s lucky, but the skill behind it means it hits in exactly the right place to do the maximum amount of damage, tearing through muscle and ligament and lodging in the bones of the shoulder joint of his left shoulder in an attempt to render his shield arm useless.
It’s a near thing - the Captain has felt more pain than this, but while pain is relative, it is still pain. Still, he has been conditioned to fight through pain, and he does, even as the lightning-sharp fire of it shoots down his arm like a plant putting out roots, weakens his grip on his shield, and reduces the impact of the attacks on that side. But he ignores it, and when he can’t ignore it, he deals with it, following the Winter Soldier down the concrete hallways until the resistance comes to an end and the light appears in the distance. It isn’t until they stop, though, that the Captain realizes how heavily he’s breathing, how limply the arm is hanging at his side, even with the shield still clutched in his hand, and how soaked through the side of his suit is with the metallic-smelling heat of his blood.
Even so, when they stop, it’s on the tip of his tongue - I’m fine - he wants to say, but the Soldier is already pulling the gauze out of his pack, and the Captain glances behind them to see the trail he’s left. He switches the shield to his right hand, the grips slick with his blood, and tilts his body to angle his right side and the shield back toward the hall, covering them in case trouble comes following that trail, while he holds still and lets the Soldier tend to the wound. It won’t be more than a field dressing, but it should at least stop them from leaving a convenient trail of red. That would be sloppy, and the assets are never sloppy.
“I lost contact, too,” he admits, eyes flicking to the Soldier, then back down the hallway. The chatter-and-static combination that had started up just before the explosion has ceased, and the Captain believes he knows why. The Soldier steps close, working methodically, calmly, and the Captain does his best to get his breathing under control, to hold his arms in a way that will let the Soldier work quickly, to mask the pain he’s feeling because pain is one of the things that you never, ever show in HYDRA. Pain, fear, uncertainty - these things have been flushed from the assets, pushed so deep that a part of him thinks he is incapable of showing it, truly, anymore. He can feel it, naturally. But he cannot show it.
Still, he is showing signs of distress, signs the Soldier is sure to pick up on, as sure as he picked up on the Soldier’s sedative-jumbled reflexes. Pale, clammy skin, rapid heartbeat, defensive stance. Finally, when he feels the Soldier finishing up, he glances back at the other asset. “I think we should assume they’re dead or captured. Our mission is to avoid the same.”
If their handlers are dead or captured, they are in that state because they knew the assets must go free. It’s not the assets’ duty to go back for them, now - it’s the assets’ duty to complete the task, to evade recapture, to report back to HYDRA. They were both shown extensive maps of the area before the mission as part of their briefing; he calls up the mental picture now, overlays it with the compound’s location and the fact that they’re at the south end. “There should be shelter if we keep heading south.” There was a small town about ten kicks southeast of the compound - a ‘tourist town,’ they’d called it, all but abandoned in what passes for summer and fall in this region of the world, with only a few full-time residents. It’s the best place he can think of to rest and regroup, and the two assets can cover that ground much more quickly than normal men, even injured and unsteady as they are.
feel free to godmode the Winter Soldier with the vial
Maybe "worried" is too strong a word. The Winter Soldier opts for "tactically concerned".
He nods in a brief confirmation. Just like that, his handlers are just names and numbers as their predecessors, irrelevant if they're not able to serve HYDRA with every breath. His focus narrows down to preserving themselves – preserving the primary asset, the man one of the SSR agents called “Rogers” - and then they regroup and reassess. Best he can do in the short term as his head clears, his body returns to him and he tries not to feel the alien emotion of guilt that he wasn't quick enough to step in front of the bullet before it hit his partner. Pushing it to the side, the Winter Soldier leads them out of the compound. Resistance at this point is minimal even with one asset wounded. Minimal enough that the last man he sees he crushes his trachea, arm humming, and he's already jogging past the fence as the man hits the ground. After that they head deeper into the wilderness, far enough away that he isn't sure where their supply cache is. Not without getting to higher ground and even then, it might be tricky. The fresh snow crunches under their boots, the trees close in on them until it's silent, just two assets breathing in the chilled air, one slightly more labored than the other.
They put a few miles under their belt until it's too dark even for a pair of super soldiers to see. At that point the Winter Soldier stops, picking out a small outcropping of rock with an overhang, large enough that it might provide them some shelter. They should both managed to survive a night out in the cold, especially with their combined body heat, but even he'll admit he doesn't want to make a habit of it. It might not look, feel or smell anything like cryo but all the same, he'd rather not be out here longer than necessary.
At this point the Captain is noticeably lagging, swaying slightly and he doesn't bat away his hand when he offers to help him down into the overhang. The treads of his boots grip against rock slick with a thin layer of snow, the progress slow, steady, until they're both jammed into the crevasse, hidden by a wall of trees and the silence interrupted by his own heavy breaths. At this point the Winter Soldier makes the executive decision to risk some light, activating the glow stick from his pack. It casts the Captain's face in a sickly green light, highlighting the stress lines he hadn't noticed between his eyebrows, wrinkling slightly as he grimaces almost imperceptibly. To anyone else he'd look like he wasn't fazed by the bullet wound – the Winter Soldier knows better, knows the Captain's face better than he knows his own.
“We have two options,” the Winter Soldier says quietly. In an inverse of his partner slipping and faltering, he's only grown stronger as the sedatives wore off. “Stay the night here or I could do a quick sweep of the area, see if I can find better shelter. Either way, I don't think we should push through the night.”
Because you could collapse is the thought on his mind and in his dead blue eyes. It's been awhile since he glanced back and noticed blood seeping through the field dressing, a dark patch blooming against the Captain's torso. At this point they need to regroup, he needs to concern himself about food and water if they can't get out of here tomorrow and above that, he needs to make sure he has his scheduled injection. Exchanging a look with the Captain, he reaches into his belt and removes one of the vials, pulling off the cap to reveal the one-use needle.
“Arm or neck?” It doesn't matter where. The Winter Soldier still finds himself asking, hardly seeming to blink as he keeps the glow rod shielded with his knee.
o7
Or, at least, it’s easy to put it out of his head at first. The pain is persistent, insidious, and with the bullet lodged the way it is, his body trying to heal around it is painful and inefficient. He tries to move his arm every so often, roll the shoulder, and he’s greeted by a white-hot burst of pain that makes him clench his teeth and wish for the rubber bite guard, sucking in a sharp inhale of breath. But the arm still moves, albeit painfully - no nerve damage, and it will heal around the bullet. When they’re retrieved, he imagines there will be surgery to find the bullet, remove it, make sure the shoulder socket heals properly. Until then, it’s going to heal as best it can, with no heed for the comfort level of the Captain in the meantime.
Except it’s healing slowly, given the constant motion of walking; he does his best to hold his arm and shoulder still, but it’s impossible to really immobilize it when he needs it for balance in the slippery, unfamiliar landscape. Somewhere during their hike, it begins to bleed again, a second slow, warm blossom of blood that he feels soaking into the uniform, the bandages, doesn’t need to look down to confirm visually. Still, the Captain makes no sound but the harsh panting of his breaths, and he doesn’t complain, doesn’t pull them to a halt, simply walks on, though he’s several more feet behind the Winter Soldier than he’d started out when the other asset spots an outcropping and calls a stop to their march. The Captain wants to push on, knows they should keep going, but he can also admit that it’s not tactically sound. It’s a moonless night, too dark for even HYDRA’s most advanced weapons to see well, and slipping and breaking their necks won’t get the information they need to take back to HYDRA.
Together, they climb carefully down into the natural, if cold, shelter provided by the rocks, wedged side by side with their backs to frozen stone as the green of the glow stick flares to life. The Captain considers the two options briefly, but shakes his head almost immediately. “We stay here. Together. This is fine.” It’s the best place to stop that they’ve passed; the village is still several miles away, and he doesn’t imagine they’ll find another shelter quite like this nearby. With the rock at his back and the Winter Soldier against his side and the small, if sickly glow of the glow stick between them, it feels like a good place to spend the night, for all that it’s less than ideal. “We’ll start walking again at first light.”
His left arm throbs, and the way they’re positioned, his uninjured right side to the Soldier’s left, he’s pressed up against the metal prosthesis and he can feel the cold of it seeping through his uniform and into his skin. Unconsciously, the Captain shifts closer, as if trying to share his body heat with it rather than recoiling, even as the Soldier pulls out a familiar vial, uncaps it; again, the Captain considers only a moment before he simply tilts his head to the side, like an obedient dog, and says, simply, “Neck.”
Once the pinprick and hiss of the injection has passed, the Captain simply tilts his head back against the unforgiving rock and closes his eyes. They don’t stay closed long, though, because now that they’ve stopped moving, there is nothing like putting one foot in front of the other to distract him from the pain - nothing except the memory of the scene he woke up to in the compound, that niggling feeling that has been sitting low in his gut since he opened his eyes and that small, scared little man called him “Captain Rogers.” The scene comes flooding back to him now, and he’d rather concentrate on it, turn it over and over in his head and ask his companion his thoughts on it, than focus on the pain. Pain is irrelevant, and it is counterproductive. But the memory of being called by a name… that is still intriguing in a way he can’t describe. And there’s a part of him that needs to know if the Winter Soldier feels the same way, can put a name to the thing the Captain feels about the letters that, when put together, spell out the name “Rogers.”
Because - They are assets, but they are men. Or - no, not exactly, but they might have been men once. Men with names. Names like Rogers and Barnes.
It’s not something the Captain wants now, and it’s not something he’s capable of missing, because you have to know something, remember it, to miss it, and he doesn’t. He doesn’t remember a time before he was the Captain, before he was HYDRA’s asset, and it doesn’t bother him. But the idea - realization? - that there was a time before he was HYDRA’s asset, when he might have had a name and some clumsy sense of self-direction, is at once terrifying and intriguing. It’s like staring in a mirror, and seeing your reflection distorted ever so slightly, something just a hair off, only you can’t tell what it is, what’s changed, where the mirror is flawed.
So he turns his head toward his companion, expression still pinched, but something in it is both curious and derisive at once as he says, simply, “The scientist that woke me in the compound thought I had a name. He thought we both had names.”
If he were a real man, he’d probably say something like, What a load of bullshit, hey, buddy? Instead, the sentiment just hangs flatly in the cold air between them.
Once the drugs in the vial work through his system, he’ll lose interest, most likely, But for all that he metabolizes everything at quadruple speed, he’s still just curious, just hung up enough right now to speak up.
no subject
The look he shoots the Captain is still blank-faced, mask-like, but there's also the barest hint of surprise fluttering across.
His eyebrows knit. A faint stress line furrows between them to betray his unease.
"I heard," the Winter Soldier says after a split second to register he's been caught off guard more times than he considers acceptable in one day. "Could be an old alias we used that's in their records."
Sloppy of them, but plausible. Hard to tell with the wipe sessions. The Asset has been conditioned not to wonder too much about them, only to feel animal relief when the arc stops humming and he can sag gasping against the chair. Of course there are gaps. Missions he participated in that he can't remember names of operative he worked with, those he sanctioned; not even the year. Sometimes he gets flashes of the penny tang of blood or a hiss of a steel blade against the leather of a knife sheath. Never names. All he has is the gut instinct that both "Barnes" and "Rogers" had sounded familiar. He shifts his head then, hair falling limply across his face in a curtain as he tucks the spent needle into his belt. No point leaving it here where a potential search party could find it.
One look at the Captain and he can see that he wants to talk. Conversations between them have always been borderline monosyllabic - businesslike, to the point. No chit-chat or wasted breath he observed between HYDRA's other operatives or their handlers.
The Asset makes a small sound under his breath, a mix between an almost inaudible grunt and a sigh. Unlike his partner, he doesn't seem as entertained at the idea of them and names being in spitting distance of each other. If the Captain is looking at that mirror head-on and thinking about possibilities, the Winter Soldier flinches away, buries his head ostrich-style and decides he would feel way more comfortable back at HQ getting prepped for the suppression arc. His conditioning has been more than thorough.
His head cocks a fraction, mouth pursed, lips numb from the cold. "He must've been wrong, anyway. The SSR would say anything to get their hands on us."
Intel hasn't pointed to any assets of their own on the field. Easier to acquire HYDRA's best and try to reprogram them instead of starting from scratch.
It's then the Soldier realizes the man next to him is shivering. It's small, but he can feel it even through his left arm. They're super human but unfortunately, they're still human: even they can get hungry, tired, and cold. Without asking, he reaches over and loops his arm around his partner, bringing the man close and shifting his body to give him the maximum amount of body heat he can manage in this position. There's just enough space that they can stretch out if needed. Sleeping will need to happen in shifts this close to the SSR base but he's already decided that he'll take the first one and let the Captain get priority. The green glowstick gets moved to the side, along the edge of the rock wall, still shielded with their bodies. His combat boot scrapes against granite as he shifts his position and he's both watching the trees for signs of human movement and also watching the Captain's face, a ghostly green shadow against the rocky overhang.
Waiting for that moment where slackness sets in, his eyes dim, and he knows for sure that the injection is taking hold. Things will be better once that happens and they can both focus on what's really important.
"Get some rest. Tomorrow we can get to that village and resupply."
no subject
"Could be," the Captain replies, in a tone that betrays the slightest hint of doubt. He knows he's been on past missions, but he doesn't know how many, and rarely remember the details; when he does, it's usually in flashes or disjointed scenes, like a half-forgotten dream. But tools, weapons, don't dream - HYDRA found a way to remove that weakness, to make him stronger. Weapons don't dream because they have no need for dreams. Weapons don't have names, because they have no need for names.
The Captain and the Soldier don't often talk, no - idle banter is useless, a waste of breath at best and a distraction from the mission at worst. But this feels important, somehow. The Captain is intrigued and disturbed all at once, and some part of him craves the opinion of his companion. Neither of them have the answer to the puzzle, but somehow, some sort of agreement, some sort of mutual curiosity, would make him feel... satisfied. But the Soldier is agitated - the Captain can tell in the look on his face, the sound he makes as he exhales that would almost be too soft to hear, for a baseline human. The Captain hears the frustration, as clearly as if the Soldier had voiced it. He's observant, and he knows his companion's moods, such as they are, better than he knows almost anything else. To most people, the Soldier doesn't even have moods, isn't ever fazed or frustrated or amused. But the Captain knows better, knows the moods that escape others' notice, even when he thinks the Soldier doesn't even notice what he's feeling, himself. Maybe the Soldier knows him just as well. He wouldn't be surprised.
Now, the idea of the Soldier's displeasure is... jarring. The Captain's brow furrows and he wonders if he might be wrong - damaged, broken, failing, to be feeling curiosity at the idea of a name. He knows it's likely a side effect of the duration of the mission - they've lost time during their capture and he doesn't know how much, how long it's been since he last sat in the chair, underwent HYDRA's conditioning. He suddenly feels agitated, himself, wanting the aid of the drugs he knows will take effect soon. He knows he needs them, and suddenly, he wonders if he's gone through this before - this withdrawal, after too long out of the chair, and he simply doesn't remember it. He finds himself disliking the idea, disliking the distraction it causes, and the agitation it elicits in his fellow asset. He wants to be good, to be compliant, not for HYDRA, but for his partner. To preserve the partnership that means more to him than he’s ever cared to explore, and more than he’s ever, ever let on, to anyone. He is obedient. He is not stupid.
But the idea of the SSR lying to sway the assets to their side is plausible - more than plausible, and they both know it. And now, the drugs are starting to work their way through his system, the elevated heart rate associated with the adrenaline spike of injury and healing speeding an already speedy process. "Must've been," he finally agrees, after a few moments of silence that might have been mistaken for the end of the conversation, during which his eyes have started to go dull as the niggling importance of those names starts to lose its luster and fades into the background. Something in the Captain almost visibly relaxes, in those few moments of silence, as the concern starts to simply slide away, and the matter at hand, the mission and its priorities, reassert their importance.
After those few moments, he feels... calm. Focused. Satisfied, and with it comes a sense of relief. He isn't too broken to finish the mission, and his technicians will recondition him once they've reported back and received their retrieval orders.
It only makes sense for the Soldier to take the first watch. The Captain would have suggested it if the Soldier hadn't said it first; he simply nods, eyes that have now gone their familiar shade of dull, glazed blue still flicking around the clearing in an ingrained need to check for potential threats, before he closes his eyes and simply says, "Wake me in four hours and I'll take watch until dawn." Then he drops off into sleep easily and almost imperceptibly, head tilted back and pillowed against the hard rock serving as their shelter, while his body stays pressed up against the Soldier’s warmth, as though seeking that warmth even while trying to share his own.
The Captain is the strongest man on the planet - with the Red Skull long gone, it is unarguably the truth. Stronger than the Winter Soldier, even, although the metal prosthesis levels the playing field somewhat, and the differences in their fighting styles would surely make things interesting, if they truly went toe to toe. For all that there’s plenty of interest in seeing that, HYDRA has never pitted the two assets genuinely against each other, for several reasons that included the possibility of permanently damaging one of them, as well as the possibility of disrupting whatever strange rapport exists between them. While there’s no trace of the friendship shared by the two men that have been alternately buried and erased by years of conditioning, mind wipes, and drug therapy, there’s something in the way that the two assets can function like clockwork that HYDRA hasn’t wanted to touch. It’s too valuable, so long as it’s monitored and regulated, and pitting the two men against each other in a genuine battle would be counterproductive.
Regardless, the Captain is not a vulnerable man, nor does he act like one - no, he acts the part he is meant to play, the weapon, the asset, the tool best suited to many of HYDRA’s best-laid plans to insinuate just a little more order into the world, because its residents can’t be trusted to do it themselves. And yet… there are times when the Captain acts - unintentionally, unaware - vulnerable. Times that the handlers have noted he spends long transport flights huddled up asleep against the Winter Soldier, as though trying to burrow back into the shape and size of a smaller man, as though trying to fit himself beside the other asset in a way that will complement him, rather than overpower him. It’s how he sleeps now, and for all the pain and the cold and the hunger, he sleeps well until he’s woken for his watch and takes over without complaint while his partner gets some rest for himself.
The morning dawns bright and crisp and clear; the Captain’s shoulder throbs in time with his heart, stiff but no longer bleeding, a sign that the wound has started to close up, but it's questionable whether it's a benefit or a drawback. With the bullet still lodged against muscle and bone that began to knit overnight, his arm is less mobile and more painful in the morning. Still, he says nothing, only holds it as still as he can as he keeps watch, calculating how he'll need to adjust his movement and balance and strategies to compensate if they're attacked. He can fight one-armed - has fought one-armed, during training sessions and evaluation scenarios, both planned and unplanned - and he refuses to let the injury slow their progress further. They have a goal: reach the village, find a way to contact HYDRA, and remain invisible until extraction. They only have a few days' worth of injections and emergency rations, and further delay is unacceptable.
They set off in the early morning light; now the Captain is hindered only by pain, and not bleeding, and they make better time because of it. The village turns out to be relatively quiet, and the assets choose a ski lodge on the outskirts of town with a large "CLOSED FOR THE SEASON" sign across the doors. There’s a fine layer of dust on the surfaces inside, but a pantry stocked with nonperishable goods, running water, and electricity.
Until the storm hits.
It’s mid-afternoon when the light outside the lodge’s big windows begin to fade. The assets have eaten a full meal (admittedly, of beans and soup, but neither complains, because both know that nutrition outweighs palatability, and the emergency rations should remain for emergencies) and the Captain has fashioned a sling for his aching, stiff arm from strips of bedsheets. They’ve developed a plan to steal down into the village proper after dusk, to break into one of the buildings and send out a signal, because the lodge may have electricity, but its communications - telephone - are dead. Someone apparently forgot to pay the bill. Or perhaps the service was switched off for the season. Either way, it makes the Captain antsy.
But dusk starts falling too soon - and then the assets discover it’s not dusk, but the big, boiling, dark clouds of a snowstorm that’s blocked out the sun and begun sending pelting pellets of ice and snow against the glass of the windows. They're standing several feet away from the windows - both know better than to approach the glass, where a sniper might reach them - when the lights flicker. The wind picks up, the icy sheets assailing the windows intensify, and everything electronic in the lodge goes quiet and dark at once. The assets look at each other and they know - this is going to complicate a complicated mission even further.
no subject
They move out not long after dawn and it's business as usual, at least on the surface. He takes point – as always – and they travel more or less in single file through the forest, spaced out far enough that they minimize the damage from any traps the SSR might've set out here, but not far enough away that each asset can't come to the other's aid. Breaths come out in little puffs of white fog, the chill slowly trying to sneak through his clothes. While they move, he multi-tasks. Assesses the areas for threats – wildlife, terrain, agents, traps – and the whole time he's running a mental tally of what little supplies they have. Physical and mental stressors aren't new but the idea that the Captain might run out of injections? That's a new one his training hadn't prepared him for. The Winter Soldier wonders as they hit the outskirts of the village if there are contingencies in place. Maybe his partner will go comatose if he doesn't receive the injections to level him out. Maybe he'll go with the worst case scenario and...take himself out of the equation. It's not feasible considering how valuable he is, how unique but still. It's possible. Better dead than wandering lost, torn from HYDRA doctrine.
He's almost glad when the storm darkens the sky. It's an immediate issue, one that distracts the Soldier from the uncharacteristic thoughts of “what if”.
“We should fortify,” the Winter Soldier says, his voice sounding hollow and strange in the dark as if it belongs to another man. “Give it a day.”
Clearly they aren't going anywhere soon. They might be molded to be the best, better, even, but he knows his limits, knows that in the end he's human and going out in a storm like that is suicide even though he knows they haven't bought enough time or distance from the SSR. The Winter Soldier's eyes flick up to the dead lights, wondering about that shed in the back he's fairly sure has a generator. Maybe he hasn't been in this specific lodge but he's been in a few – once, he thinks, for deep cover, before they decided to assign the Captain with his whole body that won't raise questions the way his does. He remembers snow and bumping his back against something metal and plastic and someone (the little fish leading to the big fish, most likely) hugging him and unaware of the knife in the dark. Mostly he remembers disabling the generator to kill the lights and some security grid. This place might have a generator that he'll take a look at once he finds warmer clothes, hopefully a flashlight. It doesn't cross his mind that the Captain should go in his place. Not with his injuries. And maybe it's something more, something he doesn't have words for. Doesn't want the words for.
The lodge is cleared. With the snowstorm, even he has to admit it's unlikely they'll have company for a few hours.
It's then that Soldier steps away from edge of the darkening window, reaching up to shutter the blinds in the unlikely probability there's a sniper out there who could do what two of HYDRA's very best couldn't. He reaches up and undoes the clasp with one hand, the fur-lining of his collar pulling away as he moves from clasp to clasp. He begins to peel off the first layer of his clothes, glancing back at the Captain. He can't help it: he automatically sizes him up, searching for any sign of more questions, more uncharacteristic wondering of “what if”.
“Let's get situated. Clean our kit while we can,” case in point; the fur-lined jacket coated with blood. Most of it isn't his, but he's been taught to respect cleanliness standards when he can, “ - and then assess.”
Assessment usually means finding out where they are on weapons, food, other supplies...and to be honest, that was one of the first things they did. Habit, basically. He falls back on doing it again (he'll call it “thorough” even if it's an excuse) because it's safer than that alien idea of downtime. No handlers. No possibility of trigger words bringing him to heel if he doesn't perform. The Winter Soldier doesn't understand fear in the conventional sense, but he does know when he underperforms. He knows that the Captain hasn't underperformed before and he doesn't want to be there to witness a possible first. So he focuses on what's on front of him, on the living, breathing asset with a sling that could use work, and he shoves the questions about Rogers and Barnes to the back of his mind.
He retreats away from the windows to the bar, folding his jacket and leaving it against the counter before facing the Captain. Old, familiar scar tissue peeps out from under the sleeve of his tank-top – more familiar, even, than his partner, angry red, waxy raised skin from where his metal arm meets his shoulder. He doesn't remember how he got it. But in the last forty eight hours, it's the most predictable thing in the room. When he turns toward the Captain, there's the barest of frowns on his face. Ability to fight isn't the only thing he's assessing his partner for as he asks:
“How's the injury?”
no subject
As the Soldier shucks his coat, the Captain gives what’s become their current safehouse another look. He catalogued everything about their surroundings as they came in, but now, he looks again. It’s unlikely that he missed anything - missing something is not acceptable, so it’s simply been trained and programmed out of him - but now he considers their surroundings as something that will need to support them for more than just a few hours. Possibly more than a day, though that thought sits sour in his gut. His eyes fall on the lodge's large, central fireplace - this village might be small, but this lodge must be successful, because the interior is dusty but modern (which is a funny term, given that he doesn't know what he's comparing it to, can't remember what buildings looked like in the past, only knows that his eyes follow the clean lines, the open spaces, and think, "contemporary." He doesn't know where he learned the term, but it's there in his head nonetheless). The fireplace is huge, and there's even a stack of (similarly dusty) wood beside it, but then his eyes track up to the large stone chimney and he can visualize without trying the plume of smoke a fire would create.
In a snowstorm, the smoke could be lost. But the SSR is likely watching this village as a potential escape route. His eyes flick back to the covered windows, as though he can see the snow and ice he can still hear faintly tap-tapping against the glass from the outside, and - no. A fire would give away the fact that this lodge is occupied when it shouldn't be. They'll camp cold tonight.
The question incites a reaction almost like the Captain has been startled out of his thoughts; his eyes refocus on his companion, noting the frown on his face, the way he’s stripped down to his tank-top already. The Captain assesses his arm, pulls away the makeshift sling, and starts to unzip his own uniform jacket, one-handed. When he tries to slide the fabric off his shoulders, it sticks to the injured arm with the distinct slick pull of tacky blood, even though the shoulder’s been field-dressed. The injury hurts, but he’s been trained to disregard pain, withstand torture, so he grits his teeth and pulls the jacket all the way off, letting it drop to the ground. He flexes the fingers of his injured hand, curls them into a fist - and the motion sends hot stabs of pain through his arm, his fingers moving jerkily, as stiffly as if they were machines, like the Soldier’s, in need of repair.
“It’s fine,” he says, shortly - before he even realizes what he’s saying, or why he’s saying it. It’s not fine, and the assets have been trained into honesty, into complete and utter full disclosure, because an asset hiding a hurt or holding on to information is not an asset, but a liability.
He blinks, shakes his head a little, and this time, he says, “It’s not healing properly. The bullet is preventing the joint from repairing itself.”
The technicians will have to remove it. The technicians should remove it. But this operation is quickly going more FUBAR in each minute than it was the last, and the Captain’s eyes drop down to the Soldier’s steady metal fingers, imagining them gripped around the hilt of a knife. It's not an ideal situation. Digging around in his shoulder joint with a knife could damage it extensively - joints can obviously be replaced, but both the Captain and the Soldier know that one of them is whole, and the other is not. Two assets with metal prostheses is not what HYDRA wants. So he swallows any suggestion he might have made, knowing that although the wound won't heal until the bullet is removed, it will heal cleanly once it is. The pain he'll suffer in the meantime is nothing when compared to his dedication, his importance to HYDRA.
His thoughts settle back on tonight. It’s as the Soldier said - they’ll get situated, clean their kit. Wait a day. Then they’ll reassess. Food and water aren’t a problem - water, least of all, with a snowstorm raging outside - but now the Captain’s eyes drop to the pouch the Soldier is always kitted out with, and his mouth forms the words before he can even really think them. “I need another injection”
There aren’t many left. He should be afraid of what will happen, if they run out. If the mission goes on long enough, they will. He knows he should fear it, just as HYDRA taught him to fear so much else, but - he doesn’t. There’s something strange curling in his gut, at the possibility, and it’s the same strange, foreign feeling associated with those names - Rogers and Barnes. Not fear, not revulsion, but an almost sort of detached curiosity.
no subject
He makes a small sound under his breath, an almost grunt.
The injection is delivered as usual with no questions asked. There is a hint of silent hesitation, however, from the Winter Soldier that is entirely due to the fact that it's too soon. That injection should be good for a few hours more - the fact that his partner looks him in the face and after a honest assessment, says he needs it sooner is...alarming. Maybe it doesn't have enough weight behind the word but it's the closest he has to describe what he's feeling. Enough that he breaks protocol to reach out and steady the other asset, steel hand cold against his shoulder as he places the spent injector on the counter with more care than is necessary. It's deliberate. His handler might have even called it for what it was: stalling for time, unnecessary dragging of his feet because he doesn't know what to say, how to approach this particular scenario.
"If we're out here too long, we'll need to start doing partial doses," the Winter Soldier says.
Even his flat-lined voice can't exactly hide the dread. It's less than ideal but it's better than running out and his partner suddenly going cold turkey. Side effects of partial doses: unknown. It might stretch them out a few more days at best, assuming they have fresh handlers on the way. If not...it's going to be rough. Usually when he looks at the Captain, he sees security, safety. Pure trust, going both ways. He doesn't fear him the way he does the handlers, the techs and their files in the steelbound folders. But that was before, knowing his partner was compliant the way he should be. Now that's gone.
Now he's suddenly reminded about the differences between them, both in their compliance-training and physically.
The Winter Soldier curls his metal fist around the empty injector, crushing it into a useless ball before he lets it drop down the sink's garbage disposal.
"What should we do with our...spare time?" From the faint distaste in his voice, the Soldier isn't a fan of this concept. He finds it threatening in the same way the idea of them having names is: inherently wrong, the kind of thing that leaves a film on the roof of his mouth and his tongue. "We've fortified and assessed. There isn't much we can do but wait."
And he's wired right now, wide-awake, and it's a toss-up of it being the adrenaline and worry about his partner's degrading state. So far he's mostly fine. But the doses losing their potency means the Captain has a constantly ticking timing above him and no data on what happens when it hits zero. If push comes to shove, he has his orders for "asset denial - another term for murdering his partner. The problem is the Winter Soldier has no idea if he can actually carry that order out. It doesn't help that he's sure the other asset knows about the order, or at least must suspect.
The concept of "awkward" doesn't yet exist for the Soldier but it's slowly coming back, this uneasy little twist in his gut that he has no name for. It intensifies as he realizes the silence isn't comfortable anymore and for a moment, he starts experiencing the shades of regret.
no subject
There’s something in him, as he watches the Soldier silently uncap the needle and inject the contents of the small plastic vial into his neck, that fears for the other asset, if the Captain were to go wild. He can’t remember, exactly, whether he’s ever suffered from withdrawal in the past, although it makes sense to him that HYDRA would have tested it, and tested it extensively. It must be why they’ve warned him so meticulously against it - he does have memories, vague, repetitious, of lab-coated men and women standing in front of him as he’s released from the chair, holding out an injector and explaining he is to use it at regular intervals, that his partner and handlers will carry spares on every mission. It is of vital importance that he stay medicated, but if he’s not…
If he’s not, something terrible must happen. It’s almost enough to push the lingering curiosity about Barnes and Rogers from his mind - or maybe that’s just the injection starting to take effect. He takes a deep breath.
He watches the Soldier crumple the injector like paper in his metal hand, and knows that fearing for the other asset is… a waste of time. Pointless. The Soldier may or may not be as physically strong as the Captain, but he has his own strengths. He is cunning. He can survive on his own.
The Soldier is an asset of HYDRA. He is valuable, but all assets are ultimately expendable.
The Captain has to repeat this to himself, more than once, before it settles, clear in his gut. Now, perhaps, finally, the medication is taking effect. His eyes, duller, flick back up to his partner’s face at the words, and he nods, once - agreement. Partial doses are wiser than the alternative. “I’ll set up a new schedule,” he says, because like the Soldier, the Captain doesn’t like anything approaching free time. His time is always structured, always purposed, and even when he sleeps during transport, it serves the greater purpose of ensuring he is refreshed and clear-headed and ready to further HYDRA’s goals.
But the Soldier is right, too - they’ve done all there is to do here. The Captain considers; then, “We should rest, refuel, and compare our intel,” he decides. “Ensure we both have a clear picture of the base, the personnel who handled us.” Those personnel are dead, of course, but who they were and what they said will be valuable to HYDRA. Writing this intel down would be a mistake, but the assets both have excellent memories. Still, they had different experiences, and what the Captain is really doing is saying, subtly, that if only one of them returns to HYDRA, then both of them should have a full briefing prepared.
Because he knows that the Soldier must have instructions on how to handle him, what to do if the Captain’s medication is unavailable and he becomes a danger to the mission. He holds his partner’s eyes, and perhaps doesn’t really improve on the awkward silence when he asks, in all seriousness, “Are you authorized to tell me your orders regarding my medication withdrawal?”
They both know there are orders. The Captain understands that those orders might be confidential, need-to-know, and he might not need to know.
But it would be - a comfort, to know there is a plan in place to handle him.
no subject
Still. Racking his standing orders, what he read, what was implanted through the chair and through screaming his lungs hoarse, he can't come up with a reason why he can't. Apparently no one thought this would happen - he knows he was one of those.
"SOP," the Asset says after a pregnant, uncomfortable silence where for a split second, his eyes flicker away from his partner's. "If you run out of suppressants and you're...unmanageable, you're to be removed from rotation."
It's a clinical way of saying he'll be killed the second the Winter Soldier has an opening.
Hearing it aloud, though, is different. The words feel wrong in his mouth even though it's the right thing to do, the correct thing. Rolling it over in his mind, the Soldier realizes he doesn't want to talk about SOP anymore than he wants to talk about the SHIELD agents they ran into only a few hours ago. Things had been easier when it was the mission, when his sole goal was to sight down his scope and depress the trigger and confirm the red blossom of his target's skull evaporating. Oddly enough...he misses that. It's another sign that he's starting to become unstable himself, the very thought sending a shudder up his back.
As if to hide it, the asset reluctantly returns to the first order of business: the SHIELD encounter.
"I'm concerned about what they said," he starts. He leans against the counter, arms crossed over his chest, a chrome finger unconsciously tapping. "Those names. We don't know if they're old covers or something else." (He doesn't want to know what that "something else" could be). "If they have these kinds of details, they might have other classified information they're sitting on."
The Winter Soldier dances around the real meat of the problem, instead choosing to focus on HYDRA first, the men who they used to be never. He searches his partner for signs that he's just as worried. There's a part of him dimly aware the Captain is...attractive. It makes sense he would be, considering his undercover work, how close he needs to get to people. He's good looking but there aren't any specific identifying markers like scars, nothing to really pick him out of a line-up. Ideally people will find him attractive and trustworthy and they couldn't put their finger on why. Sometimes, where he's been away from the suppression chair for long periods of time, the Soldier wonders if that's one of the reasons why he's always felt close to the other asset. Maybe he isn't immune to that either.
He hopes it won't impact his ability to carry out his orders.
"Too bad we couldn't get one of them alive. I would've liked to carry out an interrogation."
no subject
Not unless they’ve been compromised - like the Captain is now, so he doesn’t file that information away, instead simply waiting for the answer.
When it comes, he’s not surprised - of course he’s not, of course that’s exactly what would happen. It’s what should happen. The functional asset should be the one to return to HYDRA, they have no use for a broken tool. He knows his own return is to be prioritized, it’s clear in every mission operating procedure, when the Soldier takes point, clears buildings, provides cover. But if it’s just the two of them, and there is information that HYDRA needs… the more reliable source should survive.
He nods, nothing deceptive in his gaze or his voice when he says, “I understand. Good.” It is good. He can’t say why, but… it is good. There’s no guarantee the Soldier will find an opening, and the Captain can’t guarantee that he’ll give him one. But it’s a plan to follow, and it’s enough. That, he does file away, tries to shrug it on like he shrugs on all his other missions, but it’s not like the fluid ease of stepping out of the chair and knowing what needs to be done. It’s less efficient, it’s less sure, but it’s still a plan, and he can try to follow it.
That plan having been established, the Soldier moves on to the Captain’s suggestion, though in a roundabout way. Still, “I’m concerned, too,” the Captain admits, though there’s little concern in his voice; it’s more detached interest. “If SHIELD has knowledge of past missions, they could decipher a pattern.” And he’s not stupid enough to think that all the files would have been destroyed with the base. There would have been backups, on paper or computer, elsewhere. “But that won’t be a mission for us,” he adds, because while they excel in stealth, they are weapons, first and foremost. Even when they need to infiltrate, blend in, deceive, it’s always with a death as the end goal. This will be a mission for another department - and while thinking that soothes him, in a way, as he feels the utter perfection of HYDRA’s smooth workings, the way the departments and pieces fit together to create a stronger whole, there’s still part of him that does, in fact, feel distressed at the thought of leaving that information in the hands of someone else, while he is taken to a chair and those names, Rogers and Barnes, are wiped from his mind forever.
The Soldier goes on, and the Captain’s lips twitch; one corner lifts, in a small, dry expression that some might call the barest hint of a sardonic smile, as he shifts where he’s standing, trying to ease the ache in his shoulder, which has become a constant white-hot spike in the back of his mind. “It would have given us something to do. Idle hands - “
He stops, frowning. Idle hands… idle hands, what? He doesn’t know why those words came from his mouth, and he doesn’t know what comes after them. But something comes after them. It’s… it’s a phrase, he thinks. (He doesn’t have the context to consider it an idiom.) Did he hear a handler utter the phrase? It must have been on this mission, he doesn’t recall past missions clearly enough, only with a vague sense that actions have been completed, that HYDRA has been satisfied.
He shakes his head slightly, as if to clear the words away. “We’ll just have to report fully on what we saw and heard.” And hope it will be enough that they won’t be punished for it; he’s been punished for incomplete reports, for steps missed, for sketchy intel before. He knows that, deep in his bones, just like he knows he doesn’t want it to happen again. “If our handlers hadn’t - ”
He stops himself again; questioning their handlers is not allowed. It’s not their place. Handlers have been punished before, but never on the words of an asset. The tool has no right to judge the actions of the hand that holds it; even so, the Captain glances at the Soldier, wondering if he feels the same way. If he knows just how… how lame-brained the actions their handlers took were.
The Captain blinks. He’s starting to feel fatigued. He’s starting to feel like he’s fighting an uphill battle, just to think straight. He’s starting to feel, in the pit of his stomach, worried.
go ahead and godmode him failing at his attempt!
This time, though, he doesn't feel any closer to his partner. Now it's starting to feel like a sign of the weakness poisoning him.
"They used poor judgment," he finishes for the Captain. "If they aren't dead, they will be once we report their failures."
It's merely culling out the undesirable, the weakest holding the others back. And, and this is something he isn't sure the Captain feels too but he suspects he does, the Winter Soldier might even derive a small amount of pleasure at his old handlers being liquidated. It won't stop the suppression or the chair or the cryofreeze. He might not even remember what happened to them after this, if he's even alive himself. But for now, in this very moment, he dares to indulge himself for all of two seconds. They failed HYDRA, they failed their assets, and
The hesitation from the Captain doesn't go unnoticed. The whole time he stares at his partner, mentally stripping him for other signs of imperfections like he's a faulty rifle, blue eyes flicking across his face, his body.
It's a few hours later after further observation that the Winter Soldier decides to accelerate his plans. The degradation is happening even faster despite the injection and if he wants even a chance to deliver his partner to HYDRA alive, he needs to move fast. Incapacitate him and then, if it continues, he can process him out of rotation and still have a fresh body to deliver. The idea still sits wrong, festers and curdles, and the Soldier is disturbed to admit he almost debates backing out when he glances at his partner, asleep on the couch facing the boarded up windows. It doesn't stop him from slipping out just before dawn to search the ski lodge again, this time it isn't for weapons or for food, water.
He needs something that can sedate an asset.
There isn't much. He can probably poison the Asset long enough to get him restrained but after that, it's touch and go. The man has a higher metabolism than he does, a stronger immune system. If he doesn't hit him hard and fast, there's a strong chance that this won't be as one-sided as he wants it to be, even with the Captain's injuries.
It's the hesitation that costs the Winter Soldier. He collects some bleach to force-feed his partner, some rope to tie him down, but he...stops. Stands there looking down at the man who he's carried out countless missions with. When he's asleep, he looks a little younger, a little relaxed, and it's almost like looking at someone else, someone better. Someone he, for less than a second, feels almost regret for. That moment passes as the Winter Soldier takes in a slow, measured breath, and throws himself at his partner. He sees the other asset's eyes fly open at the last second, too late to pull back.
He commits.
The Winter Soldier plants himself so he can sit on the Captain, straddling his torso even as he snaps a punch at his face and then goes for trying to grip him by the throat, the other hand coming around with the bottle of bleach.
o7 please feel free to fill in anything or let me know if something needs to be changed!
He can feel, under his skin, that the world is waiting for him to crack. He refuses - HYDRA built him stronger than that - but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t notice.
He announces he’s going to sleep for a few hours; couches it in terms of the Soldier taking the next sleeping shift, and the Captain standing guard after that. He doesn’t have long to think about whether it’s safe to sleep or not, because it doesn’t take long after he slumps onto the dusty couch that he’s out like a light.
And he stays out, until the Soldier makes his move.
His eyes fly open only seconds before the other asset is on him; the Captain has the ability to snap from sleep to wakefulness in an instant, but the Soldier is fast and in that instant, he's had enough time to land his body on the Captain's, to slam his head back with a punch, to put a hand to his throat and bring up a bottle of -
The smell hits him full in the face. It's bleach, and the Captain's mind works lightning-fast, still at a disadvantage but it doesn't take long to catch up. Bleach won't kill him, but it will incapacitate him, subdue him long enough for the Soldier to neutralize him. Part of the Captain's impressed, maybe even a little proud, in a way that's welling up, so telling of the way the suppression is crumbling inside of him that he feels it at all, at the ingenuity of his partner. It's not a bad idea, pal, but you know I'm not gonna go down easy.
But it's that hesitation on his own part that means he gets a faceful of the stuff. His teeth are clenched, so the amount he ingests is minimal, but the rest of it splashes across his face and into his eyes, burning white-hot before the world starts to fuzz out at the edges, even as the Captain brings up his injured arm in a swinging block that shoots pain through him like a lance, but sends the bottle flying out of the Soldier's grip, somewhere behind the couch. He hears it clatter to the ground, its contents gurgling out over the floor, but it's the least of his worries now. He's still face to face with the other asset, and no matter how fast he blinks, the pain in his eyes only gets worse, and the gauze-like curtain that’s descending on his vision grows thicker.
It'll likely clear up on its own, as the serum in his veins sloughs off the damaged corneal cells, regrows new ones. But it will probably get worse before it gets better, and healing will take time - likely hours - and he doesn't have time right now. He has an asset that will put him down if he doesn't turn the tables first.
His programming says he should go for the kill. His instincts, if that's what they are, balk, and what happens isn't what he's been trained for. If he acted on programming, on training, the Soldier's neck would have been snapped in seconds, the limp, lifeless body pushed to the ground and let cool. There would be a full report made, once he's re-established contact with HYDRA, an explanation, a mission briefing, and complete and utter submission to the chair for reconditioning -
Reconditioning, he must need reconditioning, he must be breaking down, but he's not broken; there's something else coming up through the cracks, and that something else fights like a cornered animal, but an animal that only strikes as much and as far as is needed, and no further. An animal capable of feeling... sympathy ? Remorse? Mercy?
The way it should have gone down, one asset truly against the other, should have left the lodge with only one asset still breathing.
The way it does go down, at the end of it, has the Soldier face-down on the ground, cheek pressed hard into the thin carpet with the Captain pinning him down with his sheer bulk and no small amount of will, panting hard, battered on two fronts now by pain that's starting to scream louder than he has the capacity to tune it out. His injured shoulder feels like it's made of liquid fire, the arm hanging loosely, uselessly at his side almost like it's a prosthetic, like the Winter Soldier might look after a nasty EMP blast took out the metal that replaced flesh on one side. His eyes feel like spikes driving into his skull, his vision largely gone (and a decent swath of his face reddened and burning, making him look like a burn victim) as he twists the Soldier's left arm behind him at an angle that's almost certainly unnatural, in a grip as hard as steel locked around the metal wrist with his one good hand, and his elbow dug dangerously into the Soldier's back at the place where his spine curves up from shoulder to neck, a vulnerable spot that the right amount of pressure, applied in the right way with the force of a super soldier behind it could snap the vertebrae, and paralyze, if not kill.
it's cool! We might need a slight timeksip if you want to knock out Bucky though
The Captain's cornered and that's when he's most dangerous - the fact he's able to operate like this even when he has a faceful of bleach, his eyes a reddened, ruined mess, says all it needs to about the thoroughness of his training. How their similarities end and he's the inferior model, the expendable one who can't compete against the original. That same training ends up with the Winter Soldier pinned in the worst position possible, his partner's full weight sitting on him as he squirms and struggles and grunts almost angrily under the other man, boots scrapping against the carpet as he tries to find purchase and can't. Not when the other asset's sitting at the perfect location to keep him from bucking him off.
The sound that drags out of the Winter Soldier isn't a whine - it's angrier, desperate; he can't carry out his objective and he knows exactly what that elbow means. He's been on the opposite end before. He might as well be dead. Even if he can somehow shove it off, the Captain's in the perfect position to hook his arm around his throat and roll over, crocodile style, controlling his body with his legs, and apply the right pressure against the carotid arteries. It wouldn't take him long to incapacitate or kill, even hurt as he is. He's superior to any other man but he still needs to breathe, still needs blood to deliver oxygen through his brain. The fact that his partner hasn't committed to either route somehow feels...wrong.
It takes a Soldier a tortured moment to realize this is what frustration must feel like.
His teeth grit against the floor. Carpet fibers dig into his cheek. "Do it or don't!"
For once his voice actually has a shred of emotion as it spikes past the usual monotone they both share. Used to share.
His metal hand twitches against the Captain's grip, the tiny internal pistons inside the chassis groaning in protest as he tries to force himself free. It wasn't built for the force. It shows as tiny sparks flare blue within the seams and his finger spasm as he starts losing control of them, joints dancing before he go limp. The Winter Soldier's face sets in a snarl as he continues to struggle even though self-preservation should've told him to stop, to cool it, to save this fight for another day.
They might not have another day. Not if his partner's already this far gone, despite the injection.
The thought of the Captain running around, free of HYDRA, turns his blood cold. It's wrong. Impossible. The concept of sinful doesn't exist in his world but he still has a deep, curdling sensation of disgust and unbridled fear forming in his gut, knotting, uncurling like a snake about to strike. It takes hold of him, hammers at the cold logical walls of his own conditioning and instead of lying obediently still so he can get another chance, another day, the Winter Soldier instead increases his struggling. At the rate he's going, he might get lucky, might get in the right position so that elbow slips and he can turn the tables.
So much for going down easy.
welp have a knocked-out bucky and a ridiculously long tag
He won’t do it. He knows that - he’s known it from the second he got the Soldier in this position, down on the floor under him. He isn’t going to kill the other asset, not even in self-defense, not even when he knows, deep down in this sour knot in his gut, that the Soldier is following orders, the same way he should be. He’s slipping; he can feel it, terrified, shaking, knowing that when HYDRA comes, when they find him, the recalibration will only hurt worse. The pain and the punishment will only last longer for an asset that’s losing its ability to carry out its only function.
And yet, deeper down, past that shaking, desperate thing that wants to know why the injections aren’t working, why his programming is breaking down… there’s something else. There’s something still trying to fight its way to the surface, and that thing… That thing has…
“Mission,” he whispers, almost more to himself, almost for a second as though he’s forgetting the Soldier is there, pinned down and struggling beneath him. “I have a mission,” he says, he promises himself and the Soldier, and he might have said more, might not, but it doesn’t matter, because just then, the body under his jerks and starts struggling, harder than before.
The Captain grits his teeth, and he doesn’t have a choice - lightning-fast, he drops the metal arm and grabs the Soldier by the back of the neck, hand almost a blur. He raises the body under his, and slams it back down onto the floor. He does it again, and then a third time, just to make sure that when the body of the Winter Soldier goes limp, it’s not because he’s faking it.
Even so, he stays where he is for a long, long minute, his own heart pounding and breath coming ragged. There’s the pain, flaring up in his arm, his eyes, his head, and there’s the body under his, now just dead weight, but it won’t stay there for long. And there’s… there’s the mission, this thing he can feel bubbling up from his gut, the parameters foggy, hidden, but they’re there. They’re coming. Like his ruined vision, they’re not something he can grasp right now. But they’ll get there. They’ll slide into focus.
He thinks he saw rope, in the Winter Soldier’s hands, just before he jumped. He has to crawl around like a blind man on the floor, holding his injured arm close and balancing his weight between thighs and abs, but he finds it. He grits his teeth through the pain as he turns the Winter Soldier over by feel, binds his hands and feet, and props him up against the base of the couch.
Then the Captain scoots around and sits, shoulder to shoulder, with the Soldier’s unconscious body. The weight of the Soldier, slumped against his own uninjured shoulder, feels… good. It feels calming, it lets him focus on something other than the burning, white-hot pain from the bullet that won’t let the bones of his shoulder heal around it and the bleach still burning its way through his eyes. Eventually, he can start to see light, shadows, blurred edges. He thinks he can feel his eyes healing, cell by cell, slow going, but doggedly moving forward, rebuilding.
He wonders if that’s what’s happening to his mind, too. He wonders if it’s been damaged, if it’s trying to rebuild. It feels like… like a long-buried, rusty and damaged protocol is surfacing, as the suppression of the drugs and the too-long-ago session in the chair start losing their grip on him. Without the suppression of the drugs keeping it where it belongs -
For a moment, he's terrified - he thinks that he must be broken, that HYDRA had suppressed him for good reason, had kept him on this strict regimen of drugs for a reason, and that this baseline protocol must somehow be so terrible and so strong that it couldn't be wiped, only held at bay, and now it's rearing its ugly head -
Rearing its ugly head, like a hydra. Like a monster that needs to be put down. Like -
"Fuck," he says, his head drooping, back bowing until his forehead's nearly touching the his knees as he draws his legs up, feet flat on the floor. They tried to burn something out of his mind, but they couldn’t. So they tried to bury it, and now it’s awake. “There’s something I have to… do.” He’s not sure what, but he knows, now, that there’s some task left unfinished, some aspect of his original protocols that wasn’t fulfilled. Did he fail, is that why HYDRA wipes him again and again, to eliminate his failure, erase it from existence? Or is it something else? “I’m compromised,” he says - admits, really, to the quiet air around them, to the sleeping - unconscious - Winder Soldier. “But I still have a mission.”
He doesn’t know how long they sit like that, with those words, I still have a mission, echoing over and over again through his head.
you say it like it's a surprise :P also with the right account
The second one does him in.
After that the Winter Soldier's unconscious. It's a state that he fears in the lizard part of his brain that that he's never mentioned to anyone, a nothingness that howls with silence just like cryo. It isn't like the moments where he catches some sleep here and there, where sometimes he dreams; categorizes; reports to his handlers. It's pure nothing, unaccountable, and he can't tell exactly when he was restrained or when he started slumping toward his partner, head sagging, close enough that the handlers would've wondered if they remembered how to fraternize and maybe that would've made it into both their files.
He starts to revive after an hour or so, his head thundering and nausea rising, the Soldier automatically forcing down the bile by swallowing. Isn't the first time he's been unconscious. Isn't even the first time he's been knocked out by the Captain, either, because he remembers bits and pieces of their training sessions together, how sometimes he'd end up on the floor and there's be a gap before he wakes up getting dragged down a hall and the first thing he sees is his boots, wobbling, limp, and then he registers the taste of blood hanging metallic in his mouth. The Winter Soldier hadn't been pissed. Mostly he pretended to play dead and he'd enjoyed the sensation, the idea, that the Captain left a piece of him behind. It's that weakness that probably got him where he is now.
The Winter Soldier revives with a shudder and a grunt.
Normally when he wakes it's slow, quiet enough to pretend to be still out so he can access the situation and come up with some escape routes, some ambush points. This time it's uncoordinated like a normal man, losing whatever element of surprise he might've had. His eyes drift open reluctantly. Head hurts. Everything hurts, his arm isn't working - stupid of him to keep trying, in retrospect - and he can't spread his legs. Ankles tied. Arms too. Unacceptable.
His head lifts, the Winter Soldier's dark hair hanging in a tangled curtain in his face. The blood trailing from his nose and mouth has had time to dry into a dark crust he can feel as he scrunches face and wrinkles his nose and asks:
"...Mission?"
It comes out hoarse, a shade of suspicious. What mission? He gets that his partner has turned into the worst kind of liability seeing as the injections aren't holding, but the word "mission" rings a bell inside him. Hits him in the core of his own conditioning. He doubts the Captain's been assigned higher clearance for a mission he isn't part of - not with success record - but it isn't impossible. His ankles shift and bump against his partner as he tests the rope. Good knots. HYDRA good. Not surprising.
"You're compromised. Turn yourself in and HYDRA can help you," the Winter Soldier says quietly, his voice hoarse, his head ringing even as conditioning demands he trot out HYDRA's bottom line like it's from a pamphlet. "Do the right thing, Captain."
Even with his vision swimming he can see his partner isn't at his peak.
It's disturbing. Body language betrays him. The Winter Soldier isn't much for conversation unless he's been conditioned for it, but he can read the physical tells just fine. Everything about his partner sends up red flags: he's biting his lip, staring forward at nothing instead of a target, a point of interest like supplies or a weapon. His posture is in a weakened position, head bowed to rest against his knees instead of held up high.
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But those handlers are dead, and now it’s just him and the Winter Soldier - and his new (old?) mission, still slowly forming, nebulous and murky but growing sharper, clearly, piece by piece inside his head.
The mission that he isn’t sure how to explain, even as the Soldier lifts his head beside him. The Captain’s eyes are still healing, his vision murky but he can see just enough to imagine the rest of the picture, the blood crusting the Soldier’s nostrils, the way it’s scabbed along the top of his mouth, as he asks that simple question. Of course he’s asking - it’s the thing that has turned the Captain against him, in his mind, only what the Soldier doesn’t understand is that the Captain doesn’t want to stand against him. He never has, he knows that now. Every training session, every time he’d knocked the other asset to the ground, beat him into unconsciousness, was like a thorn twisting in his brain, a voice clamoring out of synch with the rest of the chorus telling him to comply. Telling him to follow HYDRA’s path.
HYDRA’s path… there’s something wrong with it. There’s some reason he’s supposed to sidestep off of it. And it has something to do with the Soldier. After an hour alone with his churning, half-buried thoughts, the Captain knows that much for sure, if not a whole lot else. It’s what makes him grit his teeth and shake his head when the Winter Soldier gives him the party line, the words at once hollow and whole, something the Soldier believes in just as much as the Captain no longer can.
HYDRA can’t help him, he thinks, and it’s like a revelation. It’s like that first spark that sets fire to the tinder, ignites what will soon enough become a blaze. It’s what makes him sit up, shoulder sliding against the other asset’s, looking him in the face, even if his gaze is just a little off, like a blind man trying to look you in the eye, only it’s a couple of inches off. He can see the other asset’s face, but it’s like a pale, shining oval set against the darker hair, the can vaguely see the outlines of features, the blue eyes, the blood-encrusted nose and mouth, in the dim light. The blinds are still closed, the sky still dark with the storm outside.
“I am doing the right thing,” he says, slow but sure, quiet but profound. His voice is plain, flat, clear, but there’s a quality underneath it that wasn’t there before. It’s subtle, but it’s steady. “I don’t know why, but I know that I am.”
He knows that won’t be enough to convince the Soldier. Of course it won’t - it’s vague, it’s unclear, it doesn’t comply. He is no longer compliant, and compliance is the foundation from which the assets were built. It’s why this deviation is the source of so much strife.
So he does something that he has learned never, ever to do in front of a handler. He does something that only the Winter Soldier could ever (has ever, maybe, has this happened before? He doesn’t know, can’t remember, and that frightens him, suddenly) bring him to do. He speaks his mind, he lets out a little of the secret he can feel, buried deep inside: “There’s a different protocol. I don’t think it’s HYDRA’s. I don’t think they can help me understand.”
There’s a pause; when he speaks, that thing coloring his voice has gotten stronger. “I want to understand what it is.”
He wants to know what this thing is they’ve buried, and to do that, they both know what needs to happen. He needs time. He needs to not go back in the chair. He can’t comply, or it will be covered up again, hidden from the light, and maybe he’ll never find it again. Or maybe he’s already found it a hundred times before. Maybe he's forgotten it a hundred times more.
no subject
"How do you know there's another protocol?" The Soldier's voice softens at the edges even as he stares at his partner like he's trying to bore right into his skull. "Maybe I can help you, if you let me.
Next order of business: if you can't immediately incapacitate a target, try to work your way into his/her good graces until you can. Whatever has contaminated the Captain's programming thankfully hasn't hit his: he's clear-headed, getting more so by the second as the ringing stops and his vision resolves. Parameters snap back into focus. Whatever pain he feels is shoved aside as a distraction, an indulgence that HYDRA won't allow and, therefore, he won't allow. The Winter Soldier's chin lifts as he swallows, jaw working, eyes closing for a second with what looks like a normal man's moment of weakness. The barest hint of blue peeks out as he stares at his partner. His face is ruined, inflamed and swelling and red...but even now he can see the signs that his advanced healing factor is kicking in, doing an even better job than his own. Bleach to the face would've taken him a day to recover from, at the minimum. At his estimate, it's probably been a few hours at most and the Captain's already got his eyes open.
For the first time in his memory, the Soldier experiences regret. If anyone should've gone off the reservation and gone rogue, it should've been him - he would've been easier to remove from rotation, would've been the easier loss for HYDRA to take. They could always make another like him. His partner, though. He's one of a kind, and right now he wishes he wasn't so...unique.
"We could do this together, just me and you," the Soldier adds. To the casual outsider, his voice is flat-lined, a borderline monotone as if he hadn't tried to kill a man who turned things around and introduced his face to the floor, the up-close and personal way. "You don't have to go at this alone."
For now he means it, because his mission requires it and because the naked truth is, he doesn't want to kill the other asset if there's another way. For one thing, the Captain's far more valuable than he is. And - and this is the private part, the one that he would immediately get strapped into the suppression chair for - he wants to keep working with him. Wants to clear rooms, wants to train with him back on base. The word "friend" doesn't exist in their world. If it did, it would've just been a liability. But examining where he failed today, the Winter Soldier comes to the slow, startling conclusion that this is a liability he would've wanted to risk.
He shifts from where he's propped up against his partner, drawing his legs up with a pained hiss, the thick heels of his boots dragging against the floor. He's strong, sure, but the Captain knows his limitations just like he does and naturally he made sure to tie his arms and his ankles together so he can't just snap free. Might be able to saw through if he can rub the rope against the chassis of his arm, but that would still take time. Best he can do is keep his partner talking as he tries to figure out another approach.
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maybe timeskip a little to the next day or so?
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had some slight godmoding, lemme know if I should change anything
THE LATEST TAG holy crap /o\
maybe I matched you in late tags - had trouble with Bucky's writing voice
No worries at alllll
apologies, shorter post
Not at all!
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I figure we can skip ahead over the next tag or two if needed?
light timeskip
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let me know if finding a body doesn't work for you and I can change that!
all cool! I'm game if Bucky keeps side-eyeing Steve.
o7 I figure they can get to the infirmary shortly
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Lemme know if any of this isn't okay!
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