Archangel or Guardian Angel

Finding Hope

Riley groaned as she woke up slowly, feeling a slight pain in her throat like she hadn't had a drink in days. Trying to move to sit up she found that she was tied with rope to the head of a bed. Flashes of what happened before she passed out came back to her memory. She started to panic.

'This wasn't how this was meant to go,' she thought. The stranger was definitely hostile, he could even still be with Hydra. 'What if he takes me back there, what if they find a new reason to experiment on me now that they realise that some of my abilities have strengthened'. All these thoughts were flying through her head she nearly didn't notice that said stranger was sat from across from her on an old wooden chair with her red book on the table next to him.

"Did Hydra send you? Did they send you to bring me back in?" The guy in the chair finally asked after watching her struggle and realise where she was.

Riley cleared her throat before trying to speak. "N-no, I'm n-not with Hydra. I j-just wanted to help. Take the pain away." Her voice came out rough and shaken

"If you're not with Hydra why do you have this" he accused holding up her red book with the clear and obvious black skull with six tentacles sprouting from the mouth stamped in the middle of the book.

"It's not what it looks like. Have you read it?" Riley said calming her voice as he opened the book, 'go to the last entry, it's 1991. That's when I got out. When my mum took me to a better life." She almost whispered the last bit her eyes started to water as she looked away.

"I'm sorry," the man in front of her said "your last experiments were because of me. The pain you had to go through at such a young age… were because of me."

Riley looked back over to him and tilted her head in confusion. 'Why would it be his fault' then it clicked, she'd read through her book of experiments multiple times, knew every little detail of what they did to her and where everything had come from. She knew what lead to her being the way she was. She remembered what it was like to be in that lab. She didn't forget anything that she ever experienced her mind was like a filing cabinet that held every detail of her life. If this guy was claiming to be the reason for her last experiments and was apologising for it then that could only mean one thing.

"You were the Winter Soldier" she exclaimed in revelation.

"Were?" He questioned back in shock that she didn't seem afraid of him now that she definitely knew who he was.

"Yes, were," she said brushing off his statement with a wave of her still tied up arms, "it all makes so much sense now. It explains why I could always feel the brainwashing pain and the shoulder pain. The shoulder pain," she motioned to his left side shifting to her side to take a better look, "is there wiring loose? Can I have a look? I could probably fix it I've seen the blueprints so I get the mechanics of it all." Riley rambled on. She looked up to the ex-assassin realising that he looked flabbergasted by her outburst and slightly confused.

"How do you-" James started.

"Know about your shoulder pain," Riley cut in, James nodded.

"I can feel it. I could feel the pain you feel ever since I could remember… can you untie me… it's not very comfortable" she said sheepishly presenting her wrists towards him.

He walked towards her and flicked open a pen knife that he pulled out of his pocket. She didn't flinch back in fear as he came towards her with a potentially life-threatening weapon which struck him as odd. He assumed that anyone that knew he was the formidable Winter Soldier would be shrinking back in fear. However, this woman seemed to have a confidence that outstood many.

In one swift movement, the knife had cut between her wrists making them free. She took the time to loosen up her shoulders and arms whilst he backed away giving her space.

"Do you mind if I stretch out my wings?" Riley requested quirking up her lips in amusement when Bucky nodded and looked at her wings in awe as her glossy wings filled the length of the room.

"Right then," she announced after sufficiently stretched, "first order of business. Let's get that arm fixed so that I can stop feeling like my arm is going to be electrocuted off." She said with a grin.

If James Barnes were to be told in the 40's that he would have been bossed around by a 20 some year old woman that had wings then he would have told them that they were off their rocker. Not that he didn't believe that he could be bossed around, no he had no doubt that some dame would be able to wrap him around his finger. He just didn't believe that there was the possibility of a beautiful angel like being in his life come to relieve him of pain.

He definitely didn't believe that he would deserve such a person to aid him with all the dreadful things that he did to the lives of many, the assassinations and the surrounding lives that were affected in correlation to them.

Riley had been searching through her backpack that was at the end of the bed for the tools she had brought in case she needed to adjust her compressor.

She turned around tools in hand, "I don't know if I have all the right tools I'll have to get a proper look to be able to…" she paused looking up seeing that he was still stood where she had last seen him, "oh, are you going to sit down, you can trust me I couldn't hurt you. Besides, that would be counterproductive because hurting you would be hurting myself. I'm not a masochist."

With that, he sat down not fully trusting her yet but in the back of his mind, something was telling Sargent James Buchanan Barnes that he should.