'Hail Hydra' I murmur under my breath, and open my jaw slightly to get enough force to crack the shell, but before I'm able to finish my movement a solid cold palm holds my jaw in a bone breaking hold. I swallow deeply and look up again, only to see the soldier staring directly in my eyes, inches away. His eyes are filled with anger and sorrow, why sorrow? I was about to rid you of the only reason you're so afraid and you dare look at me with sorrow?
'Tony!' the soldier shouted towards the door, eyes never leaving mine and grip unfaltering despite my best efforts. Seconds later the door burst open and a much more casually dressed Tony Stark walks into the room, about to make some snarky remark I'm sure, but that gets cut off by the soldiers voice.
'I pry her mouth open you remove the pill.'
'Sure thing Robocop, sure you don't want to replace that pill with something else?' Blue eyes roll and Tony kneels in front of me, one hand on my thigh and one at my mouth. The soldier attempts to force my mouth open, but I use all my energy to counter his assault, to some extend successfully. However the longer I force my cheek muscles to contract this unusually, they start burning and burning, and soon that burning turns into an inferno. Tears roll down my cheeks as I slowly come to the realisation that I'm fighting a lost battle. I have failed you, Hydra. I have failed in my mission, I have failed in my removal, I have failed. Defeated I let my mouth hang loose, Tony swiftly recovering the pill and placing it in a little plastic bag.
'Why?' the soldier asks me again and again, but I'm too defeated to react. I have lost. First I lost my family, then I lost my country, now I lost my second family. By now I know that even if I get out of here, Hydra will hunt me down and kill me. Is there even a point in fighting?
'Winter soldier.' I hear my voice say, yes, that's a plan alright. 'You are merely a dog. One day hydra will find you, and they will do the same things to you they always did. And I will stand there and watch, an amused smile on my face as I always have when they make you suffer. They will take everything from you one by one, and you won't be able to defend them. You never were able to defend them, Soldier. Because now you have grown weak. Just like Widow.' I want to anger him, make him lose control like I know he does when he isn't in cyro for a while. Based on his stiff stature and his shivering hands I take it as a success, so I lean forward as much as my restrains allow me, let a knowing smirk play on my face. Make them think you know more than they do. 'I will hunt them all down, Soldier. One by one. Who should I start with? Mr. Blond and buff maybe? No, I'll leave him for last, see him squirm under me before I cut his throat open and lavish in the sound of his gurgled groans as he succumbs to drowning in his own blood. Nothing quite like dyeing with a pretty woman on top of you, is there?' I barely manage to finish my sentence as my head gets propelled to the left, my cheek burning up again, the muscles underneath already tired from the previous excursion. I let my head loll there as I attempt to regain some vision through rapid blinking, while hear the soldiers breathing through one ear, shallow and quick, intermittent with some deep inhales as he attempts to calm himself. I expected the slap to be stronger. He truly has grown weak.
I turn my head back to him, smirk still in place as I feel a light thick drop roll down my chin. 'Weak' I say.
I hear the door open again and blondie walks in, places a hand on the soldiers shoulder and whispers something to him. Normally I would be able to hear them, but my right ear was ringing an unbearably high pitch in my ear and I couldn't concentrate. The soldiers' eyes drifted to me once more, then he nodded and stepped out, leaving only Amerykaniec and myself in the room. He placed a significantly thicker file on the table. I tilt my head, attempting to look curious.
'I only now realised I never quite introduced myself, I'm Steve Rogers. You probably know me as Captain America, but I have a real name, I am Steve Rogers.'
'Amerykaniec' I'm honestly unsure what he is attempting to play at, trying to make me feel more comfortable by making me think he's human? Is that it?
'Is that what they taught you?' He shook his head. 'Call me Steve please.' I nod, no point in attempting to argue with this man. 'You have a real name too, do you want to tell me?'
'Niet', and again the Captain sighs.
'When were you born?'
'Niet'
'Where are you from?'
'Niet'
Do those people not learn? I won't give them any answers. If I die keeping my secret, I'm ok with that. They have the winter soldier. He trusts them. I do not. The only person I trust is my handler, and he is nowhere to be seen, he sent me on this mission to fail. So do I truly trust this man? I'm not sure. Do I have a choice? No.
'Guess I'll have to resort to this then...' he sighs again, opening the file. A picture flies out, and I recognise it as soon as my eyes fall on the smiling brunettes features, even if the picture is a black and white representation of a bright eyed teenage girl. It was the picture my mother took by the patch of green, before I got myself into this mess. Back when times were so much simpler. Blondie notices my eyes lingering on the picture and goes to reach for it, immediately my eyes snap to his. Shit. I fully expect him to take the picture away, hide it back into the file. But he just puts two fingers on the edge, careful not to touch the glossy surface, and turns it around so it's fully turned towards me. 'Recognise her?' I'm trying really hard not to make some snarky remark. No, idiot, I don't bloody recognise myself from a picture that my own freaking mother took of me in a patch of green that represented her hopes and prayers for a peaceful future.
'Da'
'I'll ask you again, what's your name? If you answer me truthfully this will go a lot easier, believe me.' He smiles at me with that bright American smile that I saw on propaganda posters when I grew up. The same bright smile I was conditioned to remove off his stupid American face. But even despite all my hatred towards the man in front of me, I know that maybe if I cooperate they'll be easier to me, maybe even let me out one day. If I play my part right I might even shorten the amount of time I have to look at that stupid face. Now that's a thought.
'Fox' it's not untruthful, that is my name in Hydra. I haven't heard my real name since my mother called out to me, to stop me from going. Of course I hadn't listened, what 17 year old ever listens to their mother? Especially when given the opportunity to serve the motherland, to honour my country.
'No, that's not your real name. Do you remember it?' Yes, I remember my name. But it hasn't been my name since decades.
'Fox' I repeat. 'Just call me Fox.' I'm well aware that my Slavic accent is heavy, I haven't spoken English in a very long time, having mainly operated in Eastern Europe and Germany.
'But do you remember your real name?'
'Yes.'
'Ok' he looks at my file again, reading on, his eyes widening at one part in particular and I can't help but wonder what he read. Maybe my kill count. 'You were here during the world war?' What kind of question is that?
'No' He narrows his eyes at me, he thinks I'm lying.
'Says here you were'
'Then it's wrong.'
'Initiative: Fox was signed off by Agent Carter, after Project: Rebirth was successful. You were here, to have it signed off.'
'No, I was at a Nazi training camp about to be recruited for a secret initiative Captain. Your files are wrong.' Lesson number one, never tell the interrogator the full truth, but lace the lie with just enough truth to make it appear truthful. I was in a Nazi camp, but not for training.
'So who was the candidate?'
'Do you think they'd tell me? All I know is she's dead. Initiative: Fox was a failure for Shield'
'How are you here then? You are Initiative: Fox'
'No'
'No? Says so right here.' He kept his eyes narrowed the entire conversation, mistrusting whatever I was telling him. Though this time I'm not lying. I'm not Initiative: Fox, that was Shields idea, and Erskine created the formula. A special concoction to create a female super soldier. The serums were meant for Hydra, whom Dr. Erskine was working for at the time, ordered to test the formulas on American soldiers rather than hydra's able bodies. However Erskine's loyalties became apparent when Rebirth was a success. He destroyed all formulas and the extra serum in an effort to keep it away from Hydra, but failed to remember the female formula. Needless to say it ended up in Hydras hands, however, it was incomplete.
'As I said, those files are wrong. I am not Initiative: Fox. If I was, I wouldn't be here.'
'Where would you be?'
'Dead'
