Author's Note: ARFORGEN is short for "The Army Force Generation" model, which wasn't a thing until 2004/2006, and the Army deployment cycle really does include a "Reset phase" after deployments or when units come out of "Ready" status. We also have a "Reset program" the Logistics fellas run to extend the life of Army equipment.
Chapter 11.
The silence in the room is deafening. His eardrums buzz with it, like static over a radio. Sam Wilson is looking at him from around the captain, brows furrowed with concern. The captain's expression is smoothing out into something blank, guarded and unfamiliar. It looks wrong. The asset doesn't think he remembers the captain ever looking at him like this before, but it hurts and he is afraid to look too deeply for memories of the captain punishing him. It hurts more than the memories of his other handlers.
(Stevie always knew how to hurt him best)
"Reset?" Miss Potts repeats, confused. "He's mentioned it before. What is he talking about?" She's still by the door. Sam Wilson quickly steps in to misdirect, though the asset isn't quite sure why it's necessary. Then again, maybe Command level officers are not supposed to be bothered with the banalities of asset maintenance. He really isn't sure. The asset can't remember meeting any other members of Hydra Command before.
"It's an Army thing, don't worry, Miss Pepper," Sam Wilson says with another smile. "Part of the deployment cycle."
"We didn't have Arforgen in 1945." He's not sure who the captain is speaking to. Sam Wilson shrugs and moves from his position behind the captain to stand beside him in front of the asset. Miss Potts is also approaching. The asset feels nervous. He's got three superiors watching him and no idea what any of them expect. There's gotta be something in the code that can get him out of this mess that his big mouth got him into. He doesn't know what 'arforgen' is, but Sam Wilson mentioned the Army and he knows -
(standing in line with spit on his face, and he never did like being screamed at when they demand he be stronger better faster kill kill kill)
- that the Army had basic protocols that he was supposed to abide by. Some of them he remembers. There are -
(customs courtesies ceremony order discipline bullshit bravado bleeding out crying 'I wanna go home' but it doesn't seem like there's anything except the mud and cold of the trenches)
- things that he is supposed to say in certain situations, actions to counter other actions, correct ways to position his body and move his limbs. Somewhere, there are regulations for this, manuals he thinks he has seen before in the hazy soup of his past, but doesn't quite remember.
The asset closes his eyes and takes a deep breath through his nose. He shifts into a position of attention once more. He needs to focus, needs to figure out his next move, needs to get a fucking grip, Jesus. They were in the Army before, so he knows that he has this programming somewhere. He just has to find it amid all the other pieces of his past. The asset estimates that he has thirty seconds to come up with something before Sam Wilson starts talking again, because they have already been silent for a minute and a half and he doesn't think that the staff sergeant will let them stay quiet for too long with both the captain and Miss Potts in the room.
He doesn't need to understand to follow orders. The asset knows this like he knows how to fire a gun, how to calculate trajectories and account for wind speed when taking a shot. But his brain keeps trying to make connections and offering possibilities and it is distracting.
There are some things that he knows as facts: he was transferred to Hydra's Army division in the '40s after he failed Steve Rogers. They made him a sniper and gave him an upgrade before he was assigned to Captain America. He was put on a train and taken back to the laboratories for further improvements when he failed the captain in 1945. Captain America has always been a commander under the Army division. Hydra Command has transferred him back to Captain America, and therefore, this new team must fall under the Army.
He wants to ask Miss Potts why he was sent to kill Captain America and the Black Widow, if they are both Hydra, but thinks better of it. Commander Pierce had not liked it when he asked questions, and the asset doesn't want to press his luck. He is not lucky. In the briefing, he remembers that he was told that they both worked for the target Nicholas Fury, and Nicholas Fury had been the director of SHIELD. He thinks that a director is a lot like a colonel.
SHIELD is not the Army. SHIELD is the enemy of Hydra. Why would his captain be working for the enemy?
The captain had said something earlier that implied he had been tricked, duped. Both the captain and Tony Stark had mentioned the Nazis. It starts clicking into place, making sense out of the twisting threads he's stumbled upon over the last few days. The asset knows what Nazis are because they had been mentioned in the Smithsonian. The exhibit told him that Captain America had been fighting the Third Reich during World War II. He had read about how the Howling Commandos had decimated Nazi units and compromised their supply routes.
The captain must not have known that SHIELD had been infiltrated by the Nazis. Hydra Command must have thought the captain betrayed them, resulting in the asset's mission to eliminate the captain and his support personnel. But the asset knows that the captain would never willingly do that. Nazis are bullies. Captain America doesn't like bullies anymore than Steve Rogers did.
Had SHIELD been another division of Hydra, like the Army was? Possible. Hydra was everywhere.
"You still with us, James?" Sam Wilson asks. The asset opens his eyes. He has run out of time. He has no idea how long he has been thinking. "And is it okay if I call you 'James?'"
"Yes, Sergeant."
"You can call me 'Sam,' okay?" The asset looks at him flatly. It's a trap and they both know it. Informalities go down the chains of responsibility and command, not up. He doesn't say anything and the staff sergeant continues. "Mission's over. That's why we're here, we're all kind of in reset. It might be a little different than what you're used to, but we all want to make sure that you feel safe and that you're okay. We're gonna make sure you're taken care of, all right? Nobody here is going to hurt you. Do you understand?"
They're all in reset? The asset startles at this announcement, looking to the captain with concern. Do officers get reset? He hadn't thought they could; resets are part of asset maintenance. They are painful. The asset doesn't want his captain to be strapped into the chair and wiped.
"Miss Potts, the captain doesn't need to be reset," the asset says, his voice taking on a pleading tone. He tries to smile at her, his mouth pulling up on one side, his gaze hopeful. If he can convince Miss Potts, then the captain will be safe. "He heals real fast, ma'am."
Miss Potts looks between the captain and Sam Wilson, her expression unreadable. She crosses one arm over her stomach and brings the other up to press her manicured fingers against her cheek. "Yes, yes, he does, James."
"James?" Sam Wilson draws the asset's attention back to him. "I asked you a question. Do you understand what I've been saying?"
"Yes, Sergeant, I understand."
"Okay. When you don't understand something, I need you to say so. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes, Sergeant," the asset answers. He likes that a clear standard has been set; Sam Wilson and the captain want him to understand things, even though he is not supposed to. The asset is not designed to understand complexities. He is built to destroy. It is what he excels at. He swallows hard. Perhaps they are allowing him room to ask questions because they do not have the reset equipment here at this base. Maybe he will have to dredge up the old protocols and behaviors himself, relying on past triggers. He might even have to learn new ones.
The thought startles the asset, makes him jump and twitch, looking over at the gleaming metal of his empty shoulder port. That can't be right. Rifles don't learn.