Rewritten 2018

Make You Feel My Love ~Book II~

Disclaimer: I do not own The Winter Soldier movie! All rights go to Marvel. All I own is my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 14~
Target B

The elevator took her down two levels. As the doors slid open, she was met with one, long hallway that led towards the room holding several prison cells. SHIELD's headquarters was not where prisoners were held. Instead SHIELD had several prisoners built all around the world meant for both 'normal' criminals and 'enhanced' criminals. Some of these prisons were built as vaults, as far as Maria knew, where SHIELD stored dangerous weapons as well. Though information about these prisons were scarce if one did not have the correct level in their ranking. And Maria didn't.

Artur and his men were in those particular cells, awaiting their transfer to one of SHIELD's prisons.

Everything was very sterile down there; no decorations and walls painted a simple grey colour. The only thing standing out was a lonely plant standing in a brown pot in a corner of that very room. It looked out of place there, causing Maria to stare at it for a while.

The sound of her boots hitting the floor echoed against the walls and she knew that she was alerting the prisoners of her presence. Though she didn't care about that.

The walls of the prison cells were made out of glass that Maria knew no one could break if they weren't a Norse God. Basically, each cell was shaped as a glass cube, giving the prisoners no privacy. As a sort of path leading between the cells for visitors to walk on, were grates. As she walked on them a metallic sound echoed through the room. Beneath the grated path there seemed to be some kind of void room, big enough for someone to crawl there. She wondered what that was doing there.

The prisoners all stared at her as she walked through the room, her eyes darting from one cubic cell to the other, looking for something… and finally finding it. She paused briefly, wondering if this truly was such a good idea… then again, it might be the only lead they had so far. Artur knew of most bad things going on in the world. He just had those connections. He always had had those connections. Asking him about what was happening with SHIELD might give Maria and Steve another lead, and bring them a step closer to the truth.

It was worth the strange, guttural feeling inside of her chest. It was worth the fear.

Artur had seen her enter the room and had stood up from the lonely chair that was placed in his cell. She stopped and turned towards him as she arrived at his cell. He inspected her for a while before calmly staring straight into her eyes. His hands were placed behind his back and he didn't look as defeated as Maria had hoped for. In fact, he didn't look defeated at all and there was something else in his eyes that Maria couldn't quite explain.

"Come to gloat?" asked Artur, breaking the silence in the room.

It was true that Maria had considered doing just that a couple days ago, but that was not why she was there now. Therefore, she shook her head.

"It's nice to see you there, in a cell, Artur. But no, I'm not here for that," replied Maria, locking her hands behind her back, unconsciously mimicking Artur just like she always had done. "Fury's dead."

Artur chuckled, looking away from Maria as he did; "Good."

Ignoring the pang of pain in her heart at his words and the anger that seeped into her body, she bit her lip and continued speaking, "What do you know?"

Artur furrowed his brow, looking at Maria again and cocking his head to the side.

"About what?"

"About Fury's death. About why he died and who killed him," said Maria. "And… about who's infiltrated SHIELD."

"You're asking dangerous questions," he said, grinning. "Still as naïve as before, I see. Good."

"Do you know anything?" she pressed, gritting her teeth together.

Artur simply stayed quiet, grinning at her and doing nothing more. His eyes showed hatred and she knew he wasn't going to say anything. Perhaps she had been wrong in thinking he knew something. At least, she had been wrong in thinking that she could make him talk.

"Fine," she said, turning around and starting to walk back again.

"I don't know anything about Fury's death," said Artur suddenly, his voice booming through the room.

Maria stopped in her tracks, turning back around and slowly making her way over to him once more.

"But I know about the infiltration," said Artur, smiling at her with a cocky smile. "You have five minutes." He pointed a finger towards something above her head, and she turned around, widening her eyes as she realized that she hadn't paid enough attention to her surroundings to notice a security camera in the room. SHIELD was watching her talk to Artur. Soon they'd be done to ask her about it. "What do you want to know?"

"Who?" she asked quickly, her heart starting to beat faster.

"I can't tell," he said with a shrug.

She clenched her jaw before hitting her fist against the glass, the stress taking over her rational mind and causing the reaction she had wanted from Artur. She knew him well enough to know that he wasn't going to tell her anything unless he felt like he could get something out of it.

"You're in here, meaning you don't work for them," she said, her face close to the glass. "So, whatever is hindering you from telling me the truth, whether it is threats or promises, know that I will do ten times the harm that they will do to you if you don't tell me. After all, you taught me everything about how to make people talk."

It was out of character for her, she knew that, and it felt wrong. But at the same time, it also felt amazingly good to be able to bring forth that side of her again; that threatening, dark side. Adrenaline rushed through her veins and a feeling that she had missed appeared in her chest. A feeling of freedom and strangely enough, joy.

"Haven't lost your touch, I see," said Artur with a smirk. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

"Give me a name," breathed Maria silently.

Artur rolled his eyes, taking a step forwards; "Two minutes."

"A name!" exclaimed Maria.

"Did you really think that SHIELD was a good thing for you? Did you really think that you'd finally started to make the right decisions in life? Let me tell you a little something… the people I work for, are nothing compared to the people that they work for. You were safe with me. Had you stayed, had you simply used your brain," he said, "then none of this would've happened and you would've never had to feel the betrayal that you're about to feel."

Maria furrowed her brow, not understand what he was talking about.

"You want a name," he continued; "Hydra."

The name rang through her head. Well, at first she thought it did. But then she realized that the other men in the cells were chanting the name, not her own mind.

"Hail Hydra! Hail Hydra!"

It wasn't until Artur raised a hand that the other men stopped, silence taking over the room again.

"You're in danger," breathed Artur, his whole demeanour changing within seconds. "It was stupid of you to come here. They're planning something big. We're planning something big and you're not a part of it. Not being a part of it, means only one thing."

"Death," whispered Maria.

Footsteps were heard out in the hallway and both Artur and Maria turned their heads towards the doorway.

"Leave," said Artur, a new tone having taken over his voice which caused Maria to look at him with confusion written on her face. "LEAVE!"

A moment of clarity washed over her. Artur knew these people. He worked for these people. Which meant she had worked for these people. These people were Hydra, the ones Steve fought in the war. They had infiltrated SHIELD and watched her talk to the people they had imprisoned. Which meant Artur didn't work for Hydra anymore, which meant they didn't want her to talk to the traitor who would give her the answers.

Whoever was running down that hallway was coming for her, and not to ask her what she was doing…

But to hurt her. Maybe even imprison her.

Worry took over though she stayed focused. Running out into the hallway would mean she'd be captured. Though there was no other way for her to take. At least, that was what she first thought until she realized what she was standing on.

The grated path running through the room towards the hallway. She could squeeze in…

Quickly she climbed down, pressing herself into the cramped space beneath the floor and silently crawling towards the doorway where the second opening was. If she was lucky, she'd not be noticed by the agents that were running down the hallway.

Once the men entered the room, she was shocked to find that they had only sent three people and although they were armed and still dangerous, Maria couldn't help but feel a little insulted by the fact that they thought three agents was enough to get to Maria.

Then again, it confirmed what she already believed; She was nothing compared to the other Avengers. She had a sword… a sword. No powers. No strength. Wow, she could herself. But she couldn't heal anybody else. She was nothing.

Pushing her insecurities aside, she focused on getting back to Steve with this new information.

She recognized one of the men and her heart dropped into her stomach as she did. Miller was standing there, looking around the room with his finger on the trigger, ready to kill her. He was one of them. One of the corrupted. Closing her eyes, she wondered how long Hydra had been a part of SHIELD and how long they had been growing in silence, pretending to be fighting with them when in fact they had been planning this all along. Just a few days ago, she and Miller had been working together…

Realizing the men weren't going to walk away, she knew she'd have to fight her way out of the building. Grabbing her dagger which she had dipped in poison as well, she crawled towards the second opening, grabbing it and posing herself so that she was ready to jump out and attack the three men. Next to the opening, the plant stood and she quickly made up a plan as she saw Miller part from the other two men slightly. This was when all her SHIELD training with Barton would come handy…

This was it.

Jumping out of the grate, she grabbed the plant and threw it at the two other men, making them fall backwards and drop their guns. As Miller aimed his gun at her, she quickly threw her dagger at his leg, making him fall over in pain. The poison would enter his bloodstream quickly, hurting and paralyzing Miller.

Miller fell unconscious seconds later, and during that time Maria watched the other men stumble back to their feet. Without hesitating, Maria ran over to the other two men, kicking one of them in the head so that he fell unconscious as well before grabbing the second man's arm, turning him around before twisting his arm and breaking it in multiple places. The agent screamed out in pain, though Maria simply kicked away the guns from the two men's reach, ignoring his scream and instead feeling a rush of nostalgic joy rush through her.

Calmly she took her dagger from Miller's leg before jogging out of the room.

She placed the bloody dagger in her hoodie's pocket before entering the elevator, making sure that she didn't look flushed or in any other way like she had just been in a fight, before exiting the elevator again. With calm steps, she made her way towards the exit of the building, the adrenaline keeping her tense and alert of her surroundings. Right before walking through the doors, however, she made sure to flip off the security camera that was following her every move, knowing they were watching her through it.

Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD and she needed to tell Steve. With quick steps, she walked towards the rendezvous point that Steve and Maria had agreed on. However, she never managed to reach it as Steve suddenly fell down in front of her, having fallen from a very high altitude and with a high velocity as he made a dent in the cement ground.

She placed her hands over her mouth as she jumped backwards, seeing him sit up with a grunt. He had landed on his shield and thanks to the serum, he wouldn't even have broken anything, though it looked as though it still had hurt him. When she looked up at the building, she saw the broken window from which he had jumped, noticing that it was one of the windows through which you could see the amazing view whenever using the elevator.

"Steve!" exclaimed Maria, causing Steve to look up at her.

Quickly, she grabbed his arm and yanked him up from the ground, grabbing his shield and hand before running away with him towards the large gates they'd have to pass before Hydra realized that they were getting away alive.

"I take it the meeting went well," called Maria as they jogged towards Steve's bike.

"Of course. We had coffee and cookies. It was all very pleasant," breathed Steve with the same sarcasm Maria had used.

Maria smirked through quickly grew serious again as she placed the shield on her arm, Steve mounting the bike. Quickly, she joined him on the bike before he sped off, managing to press the bike to its limits so that they just barely made it out through the closing gates…

Artur let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding as he watched her run outside of the room.

"Boss," said one of his men, earning a look from Artur. "Why'd you tell her?"

He glared at him, making the man cower backwards and sit down again. Though, Artur actually didn't know. It had just sort of happened. Having seen her again had made him… happy. He had nearly drowned in her eyes as she had made eye contact with him for the first time in so long. And when she had turned away from him, he had wanted to see those eyes again. The words had just slipped out…

He had told no lies. Artur knew exactly what was going on. All he hadn't told her were the little details and the plan in general. The security camera didn't record sound, but he knew that him simply talking to her would be enough to get him decapitated. Though, it had been worth it.

Footsteps were heard coming from the hallway and soon, another group of agents entered the room. However, this time, the agents weren't alone. A man in a suit walked up to Artur's cell, a serious and grim look on his face. He knew that man. Everyone knew that man.

Mitch Carson, one of the senior agents of Hydra.

"Where is he?"

Artur furrowed his brow, though quickly understood what he meant.

"I don't know. I haven't spoken with him for two years." This was the first lie he told the very dangerous man before him.

"I don't think that's quite true," said Carson before lifting up his left hand, showing to Artur a picture of Maria as she flipped off the security camera that had taken a picture of her. "Target B escaped a few minutes ago. Did you help her?"

"No." The second lie.

"I like you Artur. You've been a very loyal… partner for as long as I can remember. I don't want to do what I should do," said Carson with a menacingly sweet tone to his voice. "But you have to stop lying to us. Otherwise, I can't spare your life."

"I'm not lying to you." Third lie. "I haven't been in contact with him for years and I didn't tell her anything. Why would I when she's my target?"

"Your target?" asked Carson, his tone almost making Artur flinch; "Then tell me how you didn't manage to kill Target B even after we'd given you the Winter Soldier to track her down," said Carson before gesturing for his men to open Artur's cell, which they did.

"She's very hard to kill." Fourth lie.

"I'm giving you a second chance," said Carson, handing the picture to Artur. "But know that if you fail to kill her again, I will personally make sure it happens. I will make sure that someone puts a bullet through her brain. But not before she's been tortured and humiliated. And I don't think you want that to happen to her, do you?"

Artur didn't reply, but simply took the picture from Carson which was enough of an answer for the boss to turn around and walk away.

As the man who Maria had given a broken arm reached out to Carson in agony and pain, Artur closed his eyes as he heard the words that all Hydra agents feared.

"You're fired," said Carson before a shot echoed through the room. "We don't need your services anymore."