He woke up in a cell, chained up by his wrists (again), standing in the middle with his arms above his head. This was made extremely uncomfortable by the fact that his shoulder was still out of place and already tingly and numb. It was also very cold, because he was left there in only his boxers. There was somebody behind him.
"Mission report."
"No," he said indignantly. He had made it his purpose to make life harder for Phantom agents. Of course, this usually made life harder for him as well, but oh well. At least he was making it harder on Phantom. He really didn't want to be the Blazer.
A taser buzzed and then shot out at him, the leads burying themselves near the bullet wound-wait what?-and the electricity ripping through him. He jerked and convulsed with the shock, biting his tongue so he wouldn't scream and make the punishment worse.
The shock stopped. "Mission report."
He grinned and spit blood at the man's feet. He had bitten through his tongue, and it was bleeding now. "I don't remember."
He hung his head as the trigger words were read again. There was no one he could kill now, except the Phantom agent, and he honestly didn't care as much as he should.
"Mission report."
The Asset looked up and slightly to the left of its superior's eyes. It was in a vulnerable position, but if needed it could still fight. It did not try to tug on the chains to gauge their strength.
"Mission: Assassinate Natalie Roman and parents. Mission successful. Male and female parents killed from a crushed windpipe. Child killed from a gunshot to the head."
"Actually no, Asset, mission unsuccessful. And for that, and for lying to us, you will be punished. Guards!"
Two more people came in the cell. They walked around front, carrying a whip.
It closed its eyes, previously convinced it had successfully completed its mission and rocked upon finding out it didn't.
"What did it do wrong?" it said in a gravelly voice.
"What did you do wrong? Seriously?" He chuckled. "I'll tell you when we're done here."
The only emotion it was allowed to feel was shame for when the mission was not completed. It felt nothing. Something was preventing it from feeling ashamed. The voice in the back of his head laughed joyfully, and it didn't know why.
The whip cracked down on its bare skin, and it refused to show pain. Pain is weakness. Weakness is not permitted to be shown by the Asset. It is the Asset. It cannot respond to pain.
It stood still.
It counted the whip strikes. 20.
It listened when the handlers told it what it did wrong.
"You didn't kill the girl. That's what you did wrong."
It hung there, unashamed.
"Cap. There's someone you need to meet," Fury said, striding into the briefing room.
Steve almost snapped to attention, but resisted. "Who is it, sir?"
"She's currently in the hospital. Natalie Roman. Survived a gunshot to the chest at 6 years old. Her family saved Barnes after he got shot but the girl got shot by the Winter Soldier."
"And she's still alive?" he near-whispered, eyes wide with shock. "Did she see where he went or who took him?"
Fury held up a child's drawing of a five-point flame. "The soldiers' uniforms had this symbol on them. We believe their organization to be Phantom, a neo-Nazi radical group just formed in the last few years. We had no idea that they had the tech power to be able to steal the cryochamber or keep Barnes for this long, or we would have looked into them earlier, while we still had a chance."
"You mean...you have no way of tracking them now?"
"The higher-ups barely knew they existed, since nobody decided to report them to us. So we don't know where they originated or where they are stationed now, because there are several facilities that have the power to run a cryochamber. However, we can go to Wakanda and see if King T'Challa has ever seen anybody with this symbol on them, either as a tattoo or as an extra uniform. Agents Coulson and Hill have high hopes for this strategy."
"And you?" Steve asked warily.
"I've never gotten my hopes up for anything in several years."
He nodded briskly. "That's reasonable. Okay. I'm choosing to hope for the best. When are we leaving?"
"Plane heads out to Wakanda in one hour."
"I'm going to talk to Roman first. See if she has any other information that might help, or if she's even awake."
"Good luck, Cap."
