Chapter 2

Time: 14:10 - 2:10 PM

Location: Restricted Sub-Level Cage, S.H.I.E.L.D HQ

Perspective: Zero

He was different, looked at me differently, I couldn't place how but he just was. I've lost track of time in the cage, prodded and poked every day makes time feel like a myth, and reality was distorted. But he? The Zimni Soldat? Had a look in his eye, unlike the others who looked at me in horror or shock he looked at me like he knew exactly what was going on inside my mind.  I stared at him, unlike the others whose faces were blurred and unrelated to me. I knew him. 

I remembered everything they did to him, all the procedures, mind-wipes, the ice, December 19th - I remembered it all, for I was there after all, giving them the orders just like J wanted me to.  I think that's why he stayed when the others left, his eyes never leaving mine as if he looked away the next second he’d be dead, bleeding out, a sad potential wasted.

“Buck, you coming?” asked the worlds golden boy,

“Nah steve in a minute” said soldat.

Golden boy simply nodded before joining the widow and they both walked out, shoulders brushing as they talked in hushed voices,

‘You think he knows her?’ spoke Widow

‘I don't know Nat, but one thing i do know is that she knows him’ replied Golden Boy

The voice grew distant and muted and I refocused on the Soldat who had stepped closer to my glass coffin. The four Glass walls symmetrically locked me in as if the high tech cuffs on my neck and wrists weren’t enough.

“Do you know me? Zero?” Soldat asked,

My throat closed up and my jaw tensed as I wanted to answer, but the reality that i couldn't crashed down on me so i simply tilted my head, eyes narrowing.

“Are you going to answer then?” he asked, his blue eyes searching mine as if i was evidence in a murder case, that every crook and tensed muscle would reveal the answer. 

I wanted to speak, I really did, tell him, scream at him, but nothing would come out, my breathing grew shallow instead, slow yet empty. He didn’t remember. The realisation dawned on me, bathing me in its cold and harsh truth. Soldat didn’t remember me.

I don’t know why i felt sad or wistful, he was just another soldier then and now, staring at me for answers i did not have, HYDRA wiped his memory and my gut clenched at that, he was cursed with memory loss and i cursed with remembrance, or was his curse a gift? A gift to not remember the horrors they did and ordered, the same horrors I had a hand in dealing?

Slowly I raised my hand, just like the old days, and signed. It was ASL, he knew it, he had to-

‘I know you’ 

Relief etched his face like spiderwebs, 

“What do you know?” he asked, his metal hand flexing slightly,

‘Everything and Nothing’

He let out a deep breath, frustration clearly starting to eat at him, but he remained calm for now.

“Why do you sign?” he asked, the question was different but yet it still felt interrogative.

‘Why do you speak?’ I signed back.

He raised a hand to his head now clearly not amused, so i continued,

‘To communicate like people do by speaking’ i finished,

His attention was back fully at that, eyebrows furrowed,

“Do you always speak in riddles, Mimic?” he provoked,

‘And do you always call people by the name they used to serve with Winter Soldier?’

“Why are you being so damn difficult?” he growled,

‘And why are you getting so angry over facts’

That took him, the frustration leaching out of him in a flash leaving the changed man and the ghost of the Winter Soldier only now, realisation now seeped into him, his pupils dilating ever slightly, breathing now shallowed, metal hand clenched.

“Shit, sorry kid” he muttered,

Kid. No-one called me kid only he did and the man standing in front of my cage wasn’t him. The smell of metal faintly filled the air, I looked down to see blood starting to drip from a scab I had picked unconsciously, the pain was numb and little, I barely paid attention to it. 

He was back to staring at me, his eyes searching me like I was a piece in a jumbled jigsaw puzzle, his eyes dropped to my hands, the blood pouring slowly like syrup as it normally did. Where most people's blood spilled fast and crimson mine spilled slow and black, like oil. Like poison.

“What did you do?” he asked, the tone wasn't accusatory but by judging his stance and body language, shoulders tense, pupils dilated, he was curious and resented the curiosity he had,

The blood now started to drip onto the floor in small splats. Splat. Splat. It dripped a solemn tune and I looked up, to see his eyes now wide and taken aback, like the doctors. Like the rest of them-

“Zero What. Did. You. Do” he stated,

‘I don’t know’ i signed, it was a shit excuse but it was the truth.

“Bullshit” he muttered,  his arms now crossed over his chest as he stared.

‘Why are you here?’ i asked, 

He froze at that, like a deer in headlights.

“Maybe because I believe you shouldn't be in that cage and that you know way more than you let on,” he said, locking gaze with me.

I let out a huff, I couldn't laugh, no, I was too broken for that, just like i couldn't speak, they stitched me for that part.

‘Then you're a stupid man Soldat’  I signed.

He was tooken aback by that, 

“What?” he whispered, voice hoarse and dry.

‘Their safer with me in here and they know it’ I sign, letting that sink in.