Chapter Ten
Runt
The heavy thudding of boots echoed down the skeletal halls of Hydra. Their source coming from the otherwise silent man that stalked toward his destination. His body surged with confidence and purpose but failed to reveal the true chaos that wreaked havoc on his mind. There were too many twisting threads that crisscrossed and knotted within, creating a complicated web that had no pattern and was completely illegible. He felt like a spider trapped within his own spindles of silk. This array of confusion was not his home, and it hadn't been for a while. The foreign thoughts that flowed through were indecipherable and he couldn't tell which were actually his own or planted by the superiors that ruled his every action. Sometimes he felt like ripping his hair out and screaming, just to feel something of control. Mostly he trained, a mindless activity that numbed this feeling of helplessness.
He tried to meditate on nothingness. To allow the abyss to consume him whole and quiet the noise, but a small part of him refused to be buried, consistently prodding. For the first time in a long time, he felt out of place within his own mind. Sure, the superiors dictated where he was and when but he commanded the way it was to be done. Planning every small detail of a mission to the finest of points, and relishing in the heat of battle. He told the men where to go. He set the plan. He was the leader. That was something even the people who ordered the mission couldn't dictate.
Now, the dynamics of Hydra were changing. Valkyrie was in shambles and missions were in a standstill. He had waiting, collecting dust, in the compound for close to a month and a half now, and could feel the complacency. What's worse was the feeling of solitude. All members of Hydra were preparing, on the cusp of war. The compound was hollow and desolate, leaving the Winter Soldier to feel loneliness. He had felt this before. Actually reveled in it before someone had interrupted it for the better. Her image floated in his mind before he quickly swatted it away. She was no longer with him, to fill his time with trivial conversation and infinitesimal questions concerning the universe. Her laugh no longer filled the spacious gym or traveled down the halls. Mara had become what he was. Cold, vacant. A soldier ready to die for Hydra with undeniable servitude. A slave to the leader's will. A husk. A ghost.
Her memory still haunted him. Sometimes he would feel her presence when he trained, as though she sat on the mats watching him like she had before. Stopping to always check, to see if she had snapped to her senses and come back to him. As always, disappointment echoed in the emptiness. Hopelessness tried to grasp his heart in a steely hold, but the Winter Soldier remained determined. Hydra, the leaders included, was in a tizzy preparing for the oncoming war. The excitement around the organization nearly bubbled over the edge. They were consumed by planning and tweaking, overlooking his activities making him able to do whatever he pleased. It wasn't as if they expected him to get himself in trouble and disobey orders.
Hacking the database was hardly a chore. The system in place was based off the same model implemented before his last freeze. Kr0n0s was a highly specialized central system based on the needs of Hydra. Created by Demetri Belov, a soviet engineer bribed by Hydra in the seventies, it was the most advanced of the decade using biometric readers for the first time. As the years continued, even after he was cryo'd again, the system was upgraded but they left his DNA in the hard drive. He had never had a reason to use it before, but now the occasion arose. Entering one of the many database rooms, he used one of the large touch desks and searched for answers.
The Winter Soldier honestly didn't know what he would find or if he wanted to know, but the tiny voice that had been causing trouble lately prompted him to. It goaded him with curiosity. Silently scouring the files, he found her name and enlarged the files within. Expecting just papers with mission reports, he was surprised with the exorbitant amount of videos and photos that pulled up. The first, a picture when she first arrived. Her round face bright and observant, a smile playing shyly across her face. Caramel eyes, her most striking feature, were practically glowing with life and excitement. He stared almost wistfully at the snapshot. This was the woman he knew, the one that consumed his mind.
He broke his gaze and continued through the photos. They were chronological starting from the first day at Hydra. Her haunting smile graced each until a candid appeared from right after their Serbian adventure. That was the last of her smiling face. Suddenly, there were videos and photos of her bound in ropes and savagely screaming at anyone near. Her eyes sharp as a caged animal. Her face contorted in wrath. He picked up the pace, quickly riffling through the pictures. Pulling up the mission report, he quickly scanned the footnotes of the classified page.
Agent Mara dismissed from mission due to insubordination and failure to follow Hydra rules. Punishment determined by Grand Leader Pierce. She is confined to lower basement level Shadow Prison until further notice. Phobic treatment starting imminently.
Phobic treatment? He had never heard of anything of the sort before and hurriedly proceeded. What he saw next shouldn't have shocked him, but it did. A blindingly white room appeared and within sat a dejected Mara. Her hair already starting to tangle with oils and her body frail from starvation. If he had to guess, she was probably a week in. A soldier walked on screen and approached her. She didn't move nor flinch when the man began fingering around her ears. He seemed to be adjusting something, but as he drew his hand away, the Winter Soldier saw something metallic and then blood. The soldier continued to the other ear and repeated his action. He laid the two metal pieces on the floor in front of her and left.
She sat noiselessly for a minute or two, slowly rocking back and forth, before the door opened once more. This time the leader appeared. One hand was tucked into his pocket whilst the other cradled something to his chest. His nonchalant pace made ample time for her to look up. Nervousness saturated her face as she glanced between the leader's face and the object in his arm. With the leader's back to the camera, the Winter Soldier could not see what caused her anxiety. Only when the older man bent down to place it on the ground did he realize what it was. Upon unsure legs was a solid black pup, wobbling dangerously between standing and sitting.
"A stray whelped pups by my guest house a few weeks back." the leader's strong voice filled the room. " Three strong brown males, and this little black runt female. She was the last to open her eyes."
Mara's body language was guarded, distrusting. She glimpsed at the pup as it drew nearer to her. Its clumsy walk to her crossed legs. Her face naturally softened as it pawed her foot curiously. Taking her big toe in its mouth, it gnawed playfully. Mara shot an anxious look to the man in the room, and he inclined his head, as if giving permission. She laid a hesitant hand on the young pup's back and smoothed down the unruly coat. The little female rolled upon it's back and allowed Mara to scratch her round belly. Pierce began to circle the two, watching like a hawk.
"This pup reminds me of you." Mara looked upward to the well-dressed gentleman. Her eyebrows furrow lightly. "So small and fragile, much like when you arrived. You should have died out there in the cold but instead you overcame your disadvantages and became something great. This pup should not have survived birth. Being a runt is a very dangerous thing in the animal world and yet it has overcome the odds as well." The leader stopped firmly in front of the two. "Unfortunately, like you, it has become unruly with her brothers, becoming an annoyance. She continually bites their ears and picks battles she cannot win, and yet, continues to instigate them. When her brothers grow older they will not tolerate it, she will be put in her place or she will die."
Mara grasped the puppy's small body and placed it in her lap, a motherly instinct to protect it. The black pup nestled between the space between her legs and placed her head above to stare quizzically at the strange man. The raven-haired woman continued to stroke its back and look to her superior. She could see where this was going and her mind was working furiously to plan an alternate route, a different ending.
The leader stepped closer, and imposing shadow covering her body. "You need to be put in your place or you will die. You follow our rules and my every command. I saved you. I clothed you. Fed you. Trained you. Everything you are is because I made it so. You are to follow my every whim to the absolute end, no questions. I would have thought pairing you with Winter Soldier would have taught you that."
Mara's head whipped to his as the words left his mouth, a hard glare overcoming her face. Her hands stopped petting the small pup. Sitting impossibly still, she waited for him to continue, to insult her mentor, but the leader saw something she didn't anticipate. His eyebrows soared to his hairline.
"Ah. So you've taken a liking to your mentor. Big and strong isn't he." The leader knelt down in her face as she continuously stared levelly. "He's mine. Mentally and physically he follows my orders. He's programmed to do so. If I wanted, I could send him down here to separate your pretty head from your body. He would do it." Mara silently contradicted with a fierce look. The Winter Soldier saw an adoration fill her eyes as her trust of him flowed through her body. She doubted the leader with ever fiber of her being. She believed she knew Hydra's greatest agent better than the one who had control over him. "You glare so convincingly, and yet, where is he now?"
Mara was caught off hand by the comment.
"If you were important, wouldn't he wonder where you have been for two weeks? He's returned from his mission three days ago. He has access to your missions. You don't have anything listed, it's as if you disappeared. Where is he, Mara?"
She looked to her lap. The wheels turning in her head and hesitance began to seep slowly into her features. Her eyes closed as she began to rack her brain for a reason. Surely, he would have noticed her absence. They were partners. Didn't he care? Actually, where was anyone? Hadn't Rumlow or anyone recognized that she was gone? It had been two weeks. Sitting in solitary confinement for fourteen days, and not one person on her team had come to save her. Doubt suddenly took over.
Watching, the Winter Soldier became angry at his own laziness. He had known something was wrong and had decided to ignore it. A gut instinct telling him that she was in trouble, and yet he had not questioned anything or anyone. He had kept his head low and trained, assuming she was gone. Self-hatred surged freely through his veins. Stupid, stupid choice.
"Now you see." The leader's strong voice vibrated through the room. "You're only as important as your usefulness. Follow my orders, and you can enter the ranks again. You can come back to the family." Mara was grinding her teeth out of frustration and confliction. She didn't know what to do. "Mara." She looked uncertainly at the older man. "I need you to kill the runt. You do this and you're a daughter of Hydra again."
Her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. She glanced at the sleeping puppy, and spoke for the first time. "No." her raspy voice cracked with disuse, a rebellious look in her eyes.
The leader gave her a hard look and raised his voice. "Kill the runt."
She gritted her teeth. "No."
The leader stood and towered over her. "Mara. Kill the runt." He practically screamed the command.
She let the order echo around the room. Her body rigid in conviction and her stare hardening.
"No."
The leader sighed and swiped a tired hand over his eyes. "Is that your choice?" She didn't answer and relentlessly gave a determined look. The leader gave her a last look. "So be it. Dr. York, if you please."
The superior left as a middle-aged doctor entered with three guards. Armed with taser sticks, they circled her. She entered a crouch, protecting the pup underneath her. Baring her teeth, she challenged each guard. The one on her left leapt at her, taser stick ready. She quickly grabbed his arm and took him down. Her knee slammed into his chest as she held him firmly on the ground. Unfortunately, there were two others that promptly tased her when she wasn't looking. Dazed by the shock, she fell to her back and tried not to convulse in pain as her fingers and toes felt like they were on fire. Electricity flowed through her muscles, temporarily paralyzing her.
This was all the young guards needed as they pinned her down. She came to, bucking viciously and thrashing wildly. The doctor stepped closer, hypodermic needle in hand.
"Now, now miss. This will only hurt a pinch." His nasally voice countering her screeching yells. "It's only a nice hallucinogen that will make you think twice about defying Hydra." He placed the point into her elbow without finding the vein or sanitizing. Jamming the liquid into her body, she began to slacken as the drug took hold. The black points of her caramel eyes dilated to dangerous lengths, the soft brown no longer visible. The doctor pulled out the needle and the guards let her go. The one guard that she had taken to the ground picked up the little black pup that had scampered away as the fight occurred. Slowly her face contorted to horror as she began seeing what did not exist.
"Good." The doctor stood over her and checked vitals and eyes. "The drug has taken hold quite quickly. It seems she's very susceptible to it." He stood to walk out the room. "Take her back. Only nightmares will befriend her."
The video cut off and the Winter Soldier found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the touch screen. He was angry with himself for letting this happen, and just as they had come to a truce. There was no reason for her to suffer this much. Whatever her crime may be did not deserve this kind of punishment. This was guerrilla tactics. Reluctantly, he continued only to find more videos of her in the cell. Many of her screaming as she pulled at her hair and ears. Blood seeped through her fingers as she convulsed for hours with no end. It appeared to be two days until the drug wore off and she seemed to finally calm. Her chest heaved with exhaustion.
Again, she was taken into the white room and given the pup. Again, the leader gave the kill order. Again, she said no. Back to the cell she went with screams of agony and haunted eyes. There she would wait until the next visit, and the next, and the next…
The Winter Soldier began to worry she never gave up her morality. Her broken body so frail and weak with fever. He almost wanted her to give up, just to give in and end the torture. Time after time she said no, each time a little weaker than the last. Finally, after another week she seemed completely broken. Her neck seemed to be unable to stabilize her head. It lobbed to the side useless, her eyes as vacant as the day he fought her.
The leader appeared with the same pup. He placed it on the floor and it galloped to the girl. The little runt leaped into her lap, covering her face in wet kisses. Mara didn't flinch nor move. The older gentleman approached the broken woman.
"Mara. Kill the runt."
Suddenly, a movement and a yelp. Moments later, she tossed the small body in front of the leader and it lifelessly crumpled into a pile. Mara's face remained hidden as a slow smile enveloped the leader's face.
"Very good, my child." He waved to the door and it opened abruptly. In came trays piled with food and drinks. Tokens of reward. "You have finally learned your lesson, but this is not the end, you have much to learn and a little upgrade as well."
The trays that swelled with food were laid in front of her but she did not reach for it. There she waited for the order, the command. Anything that told her what to do to avoid going back. The leader once again smirked in victory. This had gone exactly the way he had wanted. Every detail calculated for weeks and it had come through. He now had two very skilled and completely obedient warriors in this dogfight. There was no way Hydra could fail.
"Eat."
She reached for a piece of bread and ate it forcefully. Savoring her reward.
The Winter Soldier closed the folder, he had seen enough. Stealthily he exited the room and stalked to the gym. He destroyed four punching bags that day.
Now, as he walked toward the briefing room, he dreaded to see her there, standing behind him like he once did. A mindless soldier acting as a lap dog to the superiors. He hated to see her like this. Vacant and cold as the winter's ice. He honestly didn't know what to do having never faced this situation before. How do you bring back someone so gone that every attempt seems futile? How did she do it? Mara was the one to bring reality to his life and almost unwittingly. Everyday, a little piece of sanity found its way back to him through her. He knew he should return the favor but he had no idea how.
Shaking his head, he stepped into the briefing room. The lights were cast dramatically low as the leader sat back with his hands touching lightly in front of him. Around him were the other superiors. Senators, congressmen, C.E.O's. All men joined for one cause of global domination. Idiotic greedy men. The Winter Soldier stood adjacent to the panel of superiors ready for the mission. The leader, a man already infiltrated deep into S.H.E.I.L.D, their greatest nemesis at the moment, leaned forward and pushed a large manila folder to the mercenary. Opening it, the Winter Soldier found a picture of a dark man with a missing eye. Quickly skimming, he memorized all the details of his target.
Director of S.H.E.I.L.D.
Creator of Avengers Initiative.
Biggest thorn in Hydra's side.
Not exactly surprised he waited for the specifics. The leader leaned back and grasped his glasses. Setting them on the table he looked to his best operative.
"Nick Fury. As you can probably see, he's our biggest threat. He is also the only other person I can't control and has no regard for following commands. Not only that, but he also has access to Insight." Leaning back the leader sighed. "I didn't want it to come to this but he has become wary that something is wrong and it could only be hours before he realizes it's Hydra." Giving the assassin a hard look he continued. "Terminate him."
The Winter Soldier nodded and collected the folder.
"Your objective is to stay out of sight with Mara. You two are the most important pieces of this plan. If it's not necessary, do not become involved. I need you to direct the two strike groups decoying as police. They have the necessary supplies to disable the armored car and kill Fury. If this fails, then get involved and finish the job." The leader stood with the rest of superiors. "Prepare your teams. You ship out in three hours."
The leader headed towards the door, Mara following closely behind. Rage threatened to fill him to the brim
"Winter Soldier." The leader called behind him. "Fury's a friend of mine. Make it quick."
A.N. Hello everyone! I'm so sorry its been so long and its so short but the next one will be long and is officially the start of CA2WS. Jeez it took awhile to get there but alas we have made it. I would love to thank all the WONDERFUL people who reviewed. I seriously could not have done any of this without you. Thank you thank you thank you! To all who favorited and followed, you too get a gold star! Thank you all and I should be back in a week :)