Chapter 2
Natasha read the file, out of habit, not in any stretch because she wanted to.
The dossier held the same amount of information as what she gave Steve, only, without the truth.
Or mercy.
The parts of his torture were excluded, as well as his POW status in HYDRA and the Soviets.
Hell, if she reall wanted to be nitpicky (as whoever put this together should have damn well had), his service in the SSR was dumbed down, leaving him "Low-grade member of The Howling Commados; sniper. Presumed KIA in mission."
She wasn't as big a fan of Captain America as say Coulson was, but she knew the man behind the title. the one that blinded, and shimmered, like the real America he so wanted to do right by.
She knew Barnes. That his rescue by Steve was essential. That Col. Phillips wouldn't have gone after the other HYDRA bases without the commandos. Who, at the time, were all locked away in the Austrian base he liberated them from. & rescued whatever was left of Bucky Barnes.
Sighed as she tried to drink something, the liquid tasting foul in her mouth. A mirror of what she was reading.
The masked lie that Bucky was killed "on a mission".
Not stating it to be the apprehension & capture of Arnim Zola. And that Barnes died protecting Rogers (a report she dredged up during the Avengers initial formation. Broke her heart then. Breaks it again now.)
She fought the urge to throw the damn thing in the garbage, manila colors only further decimating her hope.
Fought the sick feeling that she may have once again, chosen the wrong side.
Breathed in deeply.
The initial Accords were right, Rogers protest of it, both obvious and expected.
In her head.... It only ever made sense. Too much destruction, lives that couldn't be saved. There needed to be a price for them.
Her heart... It was always a different thing.
Her heart knew one truth, and one truth alone. One nailed in even more with this failure of a file written by Ross, and might as well have been, arguably, written by Director Pierce.
If tables were turned, and she was captured now, under the Accords; if she was in that, even by SHIELD standard, inhumane cell, and her crimes included, while her mercies, left out... She would be killed.
Held the dossier in her left hand.
And though she didn't know Barnes (the scar on her stomach protesting, while her memories showed her crimes under the Red Room just as worse), she couldn't shake the feeling that he would let it happen.
....Couldn't shake the feeling Rogers would either.
She threw the file into the shredding pile, as she walked toward the cell.
There are revelations in Short straws. And for once, since this mess started, she actually Thanked General Ross.