Chapter 2
It was pitch black when I woke up. I hadn’t been activated in so long and my head hurt from the memory loss. I could hear soft voices emanating from around me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes with my palms. Once I was up, I walked around the dark area and found myself in some kind of cell. I was surrounded by a thick, cool material that I assumed to be glass. The voices ceased suddenly, and bright white lights flashed on, momentarily blinding me. Once my eyes adjusted I was met with a man. He had a stone-cold expression on his face and an eye patch over one eye. He was sitting in a short metal chair with his arms crossed. I stayed completely silent, my eyes not leaving his, waiting for him to make the first move.
“Well Y/N, we finally found you. The last unauthorized super soldier.”
I didn’t react. I hadn’t moved or blinked since catching his stare. He was certainly no threat to me, but being in this cell is. If I could get out, I could run and escape pretty quickly. The man had no weapons on him, and wouldn’t be able to beat me hand-to-hand.
“You are currently in a top-secret SHIELD building.” He stood up without breaking eye contact. “You’re also in a cell in said building, of course.”
That comment made me scowl, but it caused a smile to form on his face. He began to circle me, and I turned with him. I hadn’t noticed before, but other people were surrounding the cell. Less important, and far weaker people that I could push through with ease. The man kept his eye on me, and his smile remained.
“I am Nick Fury, but you may call me Fury. I am the head of SHIELD.”
HYDRA officials used to talk about this guy a lot. He had caused a lot of trouble for them. This whole operation had been causing issues since the war.
“We’ve been trying to track you down for quite some time now.”
I let out a laugh without moving my expression.
“I’m glad I hid well.”
“So she does speak!” Fury let out a sarcastic gasp. “We caught wind of you a year back after an incident. I suppose you know what incident I am referring to?” He stopped back where the chair was.
Said ‘incident’ made the news that weekend, but I thought I had done a good job at covering myself up. There was a small gang on the streets that had been harassing people for weeks, and they had decided to go after me next. That was when I killed them one by one. It was labeled as a ‘very gruesome scene’ due to my methods of torture. I couldn’t help myself. It brought me a great amount of joy to watch them writhe in pain.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes.” He interrupted my thoughts. “When I saw the footage I thought to myself, ‘How could a single person take down that many people and make an escape like that?’ So I did some deep diving and found myself upon the name of Y/N L/N.”
Fury waved down one of the others in the room and whispered something to him. The smaller man quickly went into another room.
“The funny thing is that there’s a huge gap in your file. I’m hoping you could fill that for me and my friends who will be joining us shortly.”
That seemed to be the cue for two others to enter. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Two more people I did not want to have to interact with. They seemed to analyze everything about me with only a glance. Especially Stark. Rogers seemed to look at me expectantly.
“So, Miss L/N, tell us what a super soldier such as yourself is doing free in society.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything. I could leave right now and you wouldn’t even be able to stop me.” My words fell out venomously.
“It’s a damn good thing I have people who can stop you then.”
I snorted out a laugh. “You could try, but it wouldn’t be the first time and I would certainly succeed again.”
Rogers broke his silence to speak up. “Please tell us, Y/N. We just want to help you. Especially if you are what we think you are.”
I stared at the man, knowing exactly what he was thinking of me. Of course he knew that I was a Winter Soldier. His little friend definitely would have told him about the others.
“You aren’t getting out of here unless you give us something to work with. Until then, you’re stuck in here.” Fury spoke out again.
I furrowed my brows at him. “And where would I go once I’m out of here? Like you said, I am an ‘unauthorized super soldier.’”
“We’ll discuss that later, sweetheart. For now, tell us who you are.” Stark sassed me.
“How much do you know?” I looked back to Fury.
“We know that you were an American spy who made a grand disappearance in 1942.”
“Hm well, that’s pretty much it, there you go.”
“Speak.” Fury raised his voice.
“And then you’ll leave me alone?” I cocked my head to one side.
“We will discuss that later. Speak first.”
I didn’t know that much about my time before escaping. I’ve had three years to think about everything, and I’ve still been left with almost nothing. I blame that on the programming.
“I was stationed in Germany as a ‘performer’ there.” I added air quotes. “I would sing for the Axis soldiers, which got me in places I wouldn’t normally have been allowed in. A lot of the time I got the drunk ones, they were always ready and willing to speak without a filter. Anything I overheard or was told I would send back home.”
“That sounds like a very dangerous job.” Rogers interrupted. “Why’d they put you there?”
I glared in his direction. “I knew how to play pretend, I suppose. And yes, it was dangerous, but no one else would have been able to keep it up. I did it for a while before I was caught. They put me in a cell and tried to get any and all information out of me, but I wouldn’t budge. After that, they kept up the torture and eventually saw me for other uses.”
“Is that when they injected you with the serum?” Stark questioned.
“I’m assuming so. The only reason I remember any of my time as a spy is because I’ve had the time to remember. I’m not like your little friend who has been completely wiped of the program.”
“Is that why the activation words worked? Because your mind is still in control?” Rogers looked at me softly.
“If that’s how you want to phrase it, then yes. I’ve been fine though. Things have been decent since everything happened.”
“That does lead me into my next question. Why are you in society, and not with HYDRA?” Fury looked up from his lap.
I went to speak, but couldn’t get any words out. It occurred to me that the experience was not one I had thought about in a long time.
“Our camp in Siberia was infiltrated. A man was trying to kill us, and I escaped. I’ve kept a low profile since then.”
I opted for the shortest response. I won’t have to stay here if I give them the information, and I need to go back and stay hidden. Now that SHIELD has me on their radar I’m sure that man will too.
“The man’s name is Zemo.” Nick Fury said. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore, though. He’s been put in jail.”
He’s gone? The man is gone. Even if SHIELD does know about me, nothing bad can happen. I’ll be able to go back, no one else will ever know that I’m a super soldier.
“Can I go now?” They looked at me with furrowed brows. “That’s all I know. Everything else is, to put it simply, repressed.”
Tony Stark sighed and I looked at him questioningly. He rubbed his eyes with his hand and let it rest on his chin.
“You’re an unauthorized super soldier, kid. Like we said. That means you can’t go back without proper supervision and papers.”
“Excuse me?” My eyes narrowed in on all three of them and I stepped forward in the cell. “I will not be doing any of that.”
“We’ve dealt with a Winter Soldier before, it won’t be hard to deal with you. Especially since you aren’t under orders now, and haven’t had a mission in three years.”
I felt a surge of anger in my body. I drew back my arm and threw it to the glass as hard as I possibly could. The noise from the impact reverberated through the cell and the lights flickered. The other agents around the cell looked up from their computers. I walked backward slowly to run towards the glass. I pushed my shoulder in front of my body so that I could put my whole body weight into the hit. The glass began to crack, and that’s when Rogers came up to the glass as well.
I looked him in the eyes as I raised my leg and kicked as hard as I could. My leg broke through the glass and as I was getting ready to run, the captain grabbed the back of my shirt. I turned towards him and pushed his hand away.
“Please come with us. We won’t harm you, we just want to help you.”
“I don’t need help! I need control, and this is so far out of my control. I’m not afraid to kill people, Rogers. I’m still a soldier.”
He reached his hand out, hoping for me to listen.
“You don’t have to kill people.” He gave me an innocent stare. “You’re hurt and I can see that, and there are ways to get the soldier out of you.”
That was a tempting offer. Completely removing the soldier would leave me as a normal person. Well, as normal as I can get. I could even get some memories back.
“Cap is right.” Stark moved to stand next to him. “We know how to help you. We’ve done it before.”
“With the Asset?” I stood up straighter, still ready to run if needed.
“You mean Bucky?” Rogers turned his head with the question.
“Is that what he goes by these days? They always called him the Asset, but I’m guessing we’re talking about the same person.”
I looked over to Nick Fury who got up to move in front of the two.
“You’ll have to stay here until we get you some papers. Then you’ll stay with the Avengers who will remove the Winter Soldier program from you.” He paused to lower his head. “Do you agree to these terms?”
My eyes released their tension at the assertive tone he used.
“Is this a mission?”
Rogers attempted to respond, but Fury beat him to it.
“Yes, it is, soldier.”
That title made my face go blank. I haven’t had a mission in a long time. My whole life was one mission after another and I might finally be getting a new one. Rogers gave Fury a death stare and Stark looked at me, but I would not leave Fury’s eye. This man has given me a mission.
“Speak, soldier.” Fury stepped forward.
Rogers looked at me, expecting the title to faze me. I took a step back from them, stepped my legs together, and placed my arms by my sides. It was the perfect form.
“Ready to comply, sir.”