Benign
As absurd as it was in her current situation, Ren felt a small bit of satisfaction. She’d been right about the warehouse. The ground level did seem somewhat like a factory. But the basement housed a state of the art lab… and torture chamber. Though the second bit looked like it had only been set up recently. Barnes was already strapped in. It seemed she would be getting a front row seat to whatever it is they were gonna do to him.
His blue eyes were panicked as they found her gray ones. Hands cuffed behind her back and currently being stripped of her weapons she obviously wasn’t Hydra. He focused on her mask as they removed it. It dawned on her that it looked similar to his, to the one he had worn as the winter soldier.
“Are we sure this will work?” Asked a woman in a lab coat.
She sounded American, odd.
“No,” Replied an agent, “Without Pierce he doesn’t have a handler, and wiping him might be too dangerous,” He positioned himself directly in front of Barnes.
“Why don’t you let me go then,” Bucky spat.
The agent responded by slapping him. Something in his eyes retreated at that. He glared at the man but didn’t speak again. His hand was shaking.
Their eyes met again. His weren’t pleading for help, it was a look of commiseration. Whatever Hydra planned to do with the both of them wouldn’t be pretty. She still had two agents restraining her as well as the hand cuffs. There were at least ten others in the room. Even with her abilities she knew she couldn’t fight her way out on her own, and her only ally was strapped down.
After a few more minutes of terse conversation between those who weren’t prisoners, someone new finally entered the room. She struggled in vain when the door opened. There was nothing remarkable about the man who entered, but he carried an interesting looking book. From the way Barnes reacted it was clear he knew what was in it. And he did not like it.
But he didn’t try to talk again.
The man didn’t bother with formalities. He simply opened the book. The other agents tensed. She could feel the ones holding her grip tighter. The ones closest to Barnes put their hands over their guns. This couldn’t be good.
The man began.
“Сильное желание”
Bucky twitched.
“Проржавевший”
He ground his teeth.
“Семнадцать”
“ Stop,” His voice was strained.
“Рассвет”
His head was thrown back as his whole body tensed.
“Печь”
“NO!”
“Девять”
He started to scream.
“Доброкачественная”
His voice broke.
“Возвращение домой”
She could hear the bands on his metal arm straining.
“Один”
The screaming stopped.
“Грузовой автомобиль”
His ragged breathing was the only noise in the room.
Whoever sat in that chair was not Bucky Barnes.
Whoever sat in that chair scared the shit out of her. Because there was absolutely nothing in his eyes.
The man spoke again, “ солдат? ”
That word she knew, soldier. Ren shivered for the first time in a year and half.
His voice was low and cold when he responded, “ Готов соблюдать ”
“It worked?” The woman in the lab coat asked.
The man with the book ignored her question, “Let him out,”
The agent the woman had spoken too earlier glanced at her. She nodded. At the press of a button the metal bands released. The Winter Soldier stood.
The man with the book addressed the agent, “Give me your gun,”
“What?”
“Your gun. Now,”
Giving The Soldier a wide berth the agent walked over to the man and handed over his gun. The man handed it to The Soldier. “Shoot her,” He said, and pointed directly toward Ren.
Her heart stopped. Cold eyes settled on her own and he raised the gun. She didn’t think as Nat’s training kicked into place again. As his finger squeezed the trigger she turned and dropped, arms heating in the process. Her momentum carried one of the agents in front of her. The woman screamed as the bullet meant for Ren hit her ribs.
The other agent dropped her now burning arm. Maybe this suit wasn’t so impractical after all. She craned her left hand and wrapped her fingers around the chain of the cuffs. With a sharp pull the hot metal snapped.
“Again,” The man demanded.
She hooked her arm around the remaining agent's knee. She shoved him forward and dove behind him as he fell. The Soldier’s second shot caught him in the head.
Two agents down, not bad. If she could just get Barnes to get rid of the rest she might just survive. That is, if the rest of them didn’t shoot her first. Three guns were currently aimed at her, all held by Hydra agents. The nearest one looked a little nervous. She smirked. He should be.
“No!” The man yelled, “The Asset will take care of her,”
He held his hand out and The Winter Soldier placed his gun in it.
“Do it with your hands,”
Jesus, this guy was a psychopath. But she wasn’t about to let a don’t shoot order go to waste. Ren lunged for the nearest agent. He hadn’t lowered his gun yet. Perfect. She grabbed the barrel with her right hand, pushing it away. Her left hand went for the throat at the same time her knee met his groin. The shock was enough for her to get the gun away from him.
Ren spun and aimed it at the biggest threat in the room. She pulled the trigger. The man with the book collapsed to the floor with a neat little bullet hole in his head. Huh, maybe she didn’t need firearm training. There was no time for satisfaction when she was thrown backward into the wall. The Winter Soldier stood over her. She could hear the others in the room panicking, but her focus had narrowed onto the assassin before her.
Her legs wouldn’t move. Whether from shock or fear she didn’t know. His metal hand wrapped around her throat and raised her to eye level. He squeezed. She tried to burn his arm, but he either couldn’t feel it or didn’t care. She tried to hit the inside of his elbow, tried to break his hold.
He was going to kill her.
The agent she had attacked a moment ago groaned, rolling over onto his knees. The man grabbed his gun from where Ren had dropped it and stood.
“Stand down,” He ordered, “The bitch is mine,”
The Soldier didn’t even look at him. She might’ve laughed if there was any air in her lungs. This was becoming an uncomfortably familiar sensation.
“Stand down!” The agent yelled again.
He then made the mistake of pointing a gun at The Winter Soldier. Ren fell to the floor again. She took approximately two seconds to gulp down some air while the agent had his ass kicked. Shoving off the wall onto her shaky legs she almost tripped on her feet as she stumbled away. A shot rang off The Soldier’s metal arm. She made it to the massive chair Barnes had been strapped into when she heard the man scream. She looked back in time to see his neck snap. That had almost been her.
Most of the others had already fled the room. His undiluted focus fell back onto her. But he took his time walking back over. She used those precious seconds to make a hail mary. She grabbed the red book, there was a black star on the cover, twin to the one on his arm. The arm that would snap her neck pretty soon. Throwing the book open she discovered the man had been nice enough to leave a bookmark.
Whatever deity had been watching over her must be working overtime. She couldn’t understand the words on the page before her but she knew just enough Russian to read them. He was almost to her. She walked backwards as she read.
“ Sil'noe zhelaniye ”
His eye twitched.
“ Prorzhavevshiy ”
He kept coming.
“ Semnadtsat’ ”
His step faltered.
“Rassvét”
Her voice was shaking.
“ Pech’ ”
“ Devyat’ ”
“ Dobrokachestvennaya ”
He winced.
“ Vozvraschenie domoy ”
She almost dropped the book when she ran into the far wall.
“ Odin ”
For a heartbeat his eyes.. Changed.
“ Gruzovoy avtomobil’ ”
He stopped. Finally. Standing close enough that she could feel his breath. Those empty eyes stared into hers.
That low voice came again, “ Gotov podchinit'sya ”
“Shit,” She laughed.
It had actually worked. She couldn’t believe it worked.
“Please tell me you speak English,”