Is This... Bonding?
Somehow she was more frightened of this man now than she had been thirty minutes ago. He had been terrifying on the news, petrifying in person, but watching him tear through that warehouse had been something else entirely.
…
“Yes,”
“What,”
“Yes, I speak English,”
“Oh, yeah, good, great,” She exhaled a heavy breath, “Can you go back to being, you, again?”
He just looked confused. Not surprising, she doubted Hydra had given the Winter Soldier an off switch. As much as she didn’t want to use Barnes like this, she couldn’t see any other way out. The warehouse was full of agents. More than she could handle on her own, having seen him fight before she knew they could make it out together. So she forced herself to shove her morals aside, just long enough to get them out.
“Alright, you do what I say. Right?”
His facial expression didn’t change, “What are your orders,”
Ren steeled herself, “Get us out of here,”
He turned to the door before glancing back at her, she moved to follow him. Directly outside of the room there were five lingering agents. He moved before she had time to react. One of the unoccupied agents pulled his weapon on her. She grabbed his hands and held them to the gun whilst burning them. Twisting his arms she kicked the side of his knee. His legs gave out and she smacked him in the face with her hands still around his own.
She ripped the gun from his hands as he collapsed. Three others had already been taken out. The last agent pistol whipped Ren as she turned to face him. Stumbling to the side she blinked to clear her vision. In the time it took to steady herself The Soldier had put the remaining agent down. He grabbed her arm to right her.
“I’m all right,” She assured him, “Let’s go,”
This time he held an arm in front of her as they marched through the warehouse. From the basement to the front doors her own fighting was minimal. The Winter Soldier was brutally efficient. There was only a skeleton crew of Hydra agents, given how rushed this mission must’ve been, and most were either dead or incapacitated before they knew what was happening. Not that fighting back made much of a difference, they were handled just as swiftly.
Her respect for Steve grew as she saw how deadly his friend was. To survive a fight with him, let alone hold his own, was no small thing.
After what felt like a lifetime - really only a few minutes - they reached the front doors. His arm still guiding her from the front. The door slid open and they exited into the fresh air. The sun was just starting to set. It seemed unbelievable that they’d only been in the Hydra base for an hour or so.
Relief was an emotion her body needed to discard, because the second it crept up something went wrong again. A pair of gloved hands yanked her back. One on her shoulder, the other arm went to wrap around her neck. Her eyes caught on the glint of his knife. It struck her neck… and bounced off.
It’d hit the high collar of her suit and the stiff material deflected the blade. The final agent was ripped off her and slammed into the exterior wall. The Soldier grabbed the hand holding the knife, Ren looked away quickly, but still heard a crunch as he stabbed him.
He was watching her again. Waiting for new orders she realized, now that they were out. The SUV’s that had brought them in were still parked nearby. How convenient that a set of keys lay by the door. They’d fallen out of the pocket of the agent who’d just attacked them.
“You get shotgun,”
…
She’d been tempted to stop by Barnes’ jeep, he probably had some kind of luggage in there. But there could be agents still at the wreck. Instead she pulled a map from the glove box and tried to find an alternate route. Turns out, The Winter Soldier was also an excellent navigator.
It took half an hour to get back to her hotel, they went up the backstairs to avoid any unwanted attention. Her suit was rather conspicuous, and his Henley and jeans were now coated in blood. The sleeve covering his metal arm was shredded from the number of times he used it as a shield. He followed her silently into the small room. Ren dumped the red book onto the counter. She’d dropped it a few times during the fight but had refused to leave it behind. It was way too valuable.
Now that they were safe she finally checked her phone. There were over a dozen messages from Nat, Clint, and Tony. It was too late for their help though, and despite the encryption on the phone she didn’t want to risk giving too much away. So she simply assured them she was alright.
What worried her was the fact that neither Steve nor Sam had responded. They must’ve been right about Hydra watching them and she hoped they were all right. There was nothing she could do for them right now. But she might be able to help Barnes.
…
Asking questions proved fruitless, he knew nothing about his programming. Not surprising, but it did make things more difficult. As did the fact that the red book was written in Russian.
“You can read this right?” She asked, holding the book up.
They were sitting at the small table by the window. Blinds closed. “No,” Was the gruff response.
Her brow furrowed, “But you can speak Russian, I assumed you could read it too,”
“I can,”
“Then why can’t you read the book?”
He just looked at her, seemingly unaware of how strange he sounded, “Because I can’t read the book,”
What? She stared back at him. How could he read Russian but not this book? Was it written in code or something? No, because she’d been able to read the trigger words. Then why… oh.
He wasn’t allowed to read the book. The wave of pity she felt for the man before her was nearly overwhelming. But for now there was nothing she could do to help. She’d read it another way then. Using her phone Ren snapped a few pictures of the pages and ran it through her translation app. It took a few minutes before it gave her the English version.
Skimming the pages her fears were confirmed. There was no way to undo it. At least there were no commands for it. Hydra hadn’t exactly been concerned with putting Barnes back to normal. But the book also said he needed to be wiped, triggered, or frozen regularly or he could become ‘unstable’. She really hoped that meant he had free will again.
Another interesting section caught her attention. The Winter Soldiers base programming; Obedience of course, his training, and one more thing. If his handler was present, without orders, his priority was to protect them. No wonder he had done that weird escort thing in the warehouse. It’d been useful then, but she really didn’t want him taking a bullet for her.
...
Ren asked him to stay put while she jumped in the shower. She stripped her gore soaked suit off and stepped under the hot water. As tempting as it was to enjoy the hot water she made the shower as quick as possible. She dried off and put on some fresh clothes before throwing her hair up and leaving the bathroom. The Soldier was in desperate need of a shower too. Though it felt weird to order him to do it. Plus, there was the issue of his clothes. They were even worse than her suit and she didn’t have anything that would fit him.
It was just after 7, and his clothes were dark enough to mostly hide the stains. It would be easier to go shopping without him, but the thought of leaving him alone made her anxious. So she threw him a washcloth to clean off his face and hands. From her luggage she pulled out an oversized cargo jacket that she’d stolen from a long ago ex boyfriend. The material strained over his shoulders, but at least covered most of his metal arm. As a last minute precaution she also handed him a baseball cap.
The two of them were mostly presentable as they left the hotel, as long as you didn’t look too closely. There was a little outlet store a couple blocks away.
“What do you think of this?” She asked, holding up a plain black shirt.
He nodded, “Functional,”
She rolled her eyes, “I meant, do you like it?”
He just shrugged. The movement felt a little insolent for the Winter Soldier, it gave her hope. “Well if you won’t give me your opinion then I get to be your stylist,”
She kept the black shirt and grabbed a pair of dark jeans. His boots were still in good condition but she grabbed him a couple sets of socks. Off the rack she grabbed a few more plain shirts - long sleeved. On a whim she grabbed a leather jacket as well. It was cold outside and the cargo jacket wasn’t cutting it. Ren dumped it all on the counter and paid the tired looking cashier. The girl looked like a teenager and didn’t speak any English, but paid the two of them no mind.
On their way out of the store she handed the bag to the man beside her. “I don’t have a ton of cash on me, so this’ll have to do for now. Once we get back to New York we can get you a whole new wardrobe, if you want,”
“New York?”
His eyes still looked empty, but there was a flicker of awareness. That had to be a good sign. “Yeah, once we meet up with Steve,” She paused to garner his reaction at the name, there wasn’t one, “We’ll be heading back there,”
He nodded silently. They made one more stop for food on the way back. Her hands were full when someone jostled her as they pushed past. “Hey!” She yelled at the kid.
He looked back while she noticed what was in his hand, her wallet, “Hey!” She yelled again.
The kid tried to run but The Soldier already had him by the neck. “Oh god, no! Barnes!” No reaction, “Soldier!” He looked at her, “Let. Him. Go.”
He immediately released his grip. The shaking kid dropped her wallet and ran off. This programming was going to be a pain in her ass.