Save Him
The Asset cannot die. That’s not quite right. The Asset can die. The Asset can be brought back. The Asset is not allowed to self terminate. The Asset has no control over whether it lives or dies. The Asset can only control the deaths of others. This is what it does. But now the question is - can it die off mission? When the mission is no longer a mission that it is pulling out of the river? It has failed this mission. It has failed and it will be punished and maybe it will be decomissioned and that is just a sanitized word for the final loss of control that it will experience. It will be killed and it will not question it.
It - he? - the Asset stands on the banks of a river that it knows is the Potomac in the way that it always knows the streets and landmarks of a city. Details were shoveled into its brain and they will be wiped away as its handlers desire. It holds onto the shirt of a man that it once knew as the mission - designation: Captain America. That hurts. Designations do not usually hurt. Words besides the ones used to hurt do not usually hurt. But it is only pain, and there is nothing wrong with that. It sees a flash in its head, every time it thinks of the designation. So it should not. Order through pain. It is meant to avoid that.
There is no mission clawing in its mind. Something got broken when it pulled the mission out of the river. That’s not right. Something broke earlier. Something broken on the bridge and they tried to fix it, but it broke again when the mission spoke those words. It should not remember the bridge, but the bridge is there in its mind. It does not know what to do with that. It could not complete its mission. It does know this. It also knows that it must report back to base for punishment. It drops the mission’s shirt, drops the mission.
From the trees, it watches the city burn. It does not return to base. It feels small cuts knit back together as it walks, avoiding the police cars with their flashing lights. It knows to avoid all officials. It must not be seen. That is easy. People are panicking and they do not look at him. They look skyward, they look and they cry. The Asset agrees that there was too much collateral damage. Tactically, it gave away too much. HYDRA is on the streets too, and those patrols, it takes more care to avoid. It should turn itself in. It throws up in an alley because its head hurts so much. Order through pain. But it resists the pull when it sees a trio of operatives. They are unmissable for it, because it was trained to see them. But the people around it do not notice.
It loses time. The wipe is not holding well, it notes. This is a malfunction. Root cause: “till the end of the line”. It should return to base. It vomits again, though there isn’t even river water left in its stomach. It is dark outside now. The Asset will not need to sleep for another 24 hours at least. Given that it was used today, at least. 36-48 would be allowable, but less optimal for mission readiness.
The Asset has no mission to be ready for. Its head screams at it. It needs a mission. A weapon is nothing without a target and it hurts hurts hurts hurts. He blinks. It will need to find adequate cover for the night. It is not operating optimally, and cover will allow it to regroup and consider stopping this madness that is running from HYDRA. One head and - a siren cuts into the Asset’s thoughts.
It takes some time, but even Washington DC has its abandoned buildings. Gilt, his brain supplies. The Asset is unaware of the history of the city. It would not know what suffering has existed here. But it takes advantage of a crumbling structure all the same. The Asset considers once more that it must return to base. Once more, it declines to do so. The Asset decides that it has a new mission. That new mission is to find out why the designation hurts, why the mission hurts. The answers to questions it is not allowed to ask.