The surprised look on Clint's face was well worth the bruises she would undoubtedly have.
Phasing into the ground was similar to swimming in water, except Jade could breathe. Since her body was lighter than the dirt around her, she didn't sink, but she also didn't float. So if she slowly started to stop phasing she would rise to the surface, and that's exactly what she did. About a mile away from where she had met Clint.
When she got to the surface Jade ran. She ran until she reached the edge of the thick jungle. At the edge she discovered a huge city about a mile from where she stood.
"What do I do now?" She asked herself. She had never been out of a facility without at least soldiers to accompany her, or without being on a mission.
She now had something she never did before, complete freedom. Freedom to make her own choices. She knew she didn't want to go back to Hydra, but where could she go?
"Might as well look at what I have," She said to herself. She took her backpack and put it at her feet. She then collapsed down next to it and emptied its contents onto the ground.
To her dismay it was mostly science notes and experiment results, but there was one file that caught her attention.
"Now what about you?" She said to the file resting in her hand. James Barnes. She said it in her mind over and over. The name sounded so familiar. When she finally opened the file she gasped at what she saw. This man was the winter soldier!
The winter soldier had been her next 'cell' neighbor at the facility in Siberia. Late at night she would hear him scream and always would wonder if she was next. They had met a few times, but he was always the winter soldier, never James Barnes.
Mind. Blown. She quickly scanned the rest of the file, but didn't find anything that told her where he was. In fact the little information the file did have was at least two years old and not very helpful.
Jade looked over to the city that rose before her. She took a deep breath and smiled to herself. She was already enjoying her freedom and it had only been a few hours since her escape. She loved how beautiful the city looked as the sun set behind it. From where she sat the view was excellent.
She sighed and looked up at the trees around her. It had been a long day. After considering her options she decided to go back deeper into the jungle and find a tree to sleep in. She was used to sleeping in uncomfortable places so a tree shouldn't be to hard to sleep in.
She stood, picked up the files by her feet, and neatly put them back in her bag. She took one last look at the view before turning and walking back into the jungle.
After walking for a few minutes she found the perfect tree. Reaching up she grabbed onto a low branch and started to climb. She found a wide branch and hung her backpack on a smaller branch that hung over her head. She leaned up against the tree trunk and closed her eyes. That was the last thing she remembered doing before falling asleep.
She woke up with the air being smacked out of her, and it took her a second to realize what had happened.
She had fallen from the tree!
She must've forgot to strap herself in the night before. When she had fallen the wind had been knocked out of her. It was like her lungs had forgotten how to work. She gasped for air, and raised her arms above her head.
The doctors in the facility told her if she ever lost her breath she should raise her arms above her head. It helped because it took pressure off your chest.
When she could breathe normally again she sat up. After she did, she noticed her pants had been torn in the fall, but that seemed to be the only thing that was damaged. She was lucky she hadn't broken any bones.
The sound of a snap nearby made her bolt to her feet. She had been distracted and unaware of her surroundings. She silently reprimanded herself for it.
"Hello?" she warily called out. Jade waited for a response, but was slightly relieved when she didn't get one.
She couldn't stay there forever she realized. She needed a plan. Her brain went through all her options, which at the moment were very few.
The winter soldier, maybe he remembered her too. He might know more than she did. Hydra apparently thought he was dead or they lost him. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try.
The problem would be finding him. The very few memories she had been able to conjure up about him were fuzzy and not helpful at all. Whatever Hydra had done to her memory would take a while to fix, if it could be fixed at all.
She could go back to the Hydra facility to see what she could find out, or go to the city and try to find something there.
The facility would be her best bet. The Avengers would have either driven everyone out or arrested them, and she doubted they would stick around after they went through everything. Hydra probably deleted anything useful anyway, so looking through the remaining files wouldn't take long.
She looked back up at the tree she had fallen out of. She sighed and climbed back up to grab her backpack. After she had successful retrieved it, she set out toward the facility.
When she finally got their she did her best to be quiet, not wanting to alert anyone if they happened to be inside. She walked up to the door and carefully opened it. Doing her best to not set off any of the traps that may still be active.
When she stepped inside she gasped in horror. Bodies of fallen soldiers lined the hall. Blood was splattered on the wall and was pooled on the floor. These people had been left there to rot.
Looking around she asked herself, was this any different than what Hydra asked her to do? They told her it was for a good cause, that she was helping a greater good. But the scene in front of her made her sick. Was there really ever an end to the death that they caused.
These were real people with family and friends. They had given their life for something they believed in. If this was the greater good, she wanted no part in it.
Jade had known most of these people. They were never loving toward her. Heck, some of them didn't even like her, but they were the closest thing to family she could even remember.
Her stomach twisted at the sight, and she wanted to throw up, but she couldn't think about that now. She had things to do.
She stepped through the door and went up the stairs without looking back. She decided she would go out the back door next time, hoping it would be better than the front.
She crawled and jumped around rubble toward the computer room. She did her best to avoid stepping in the blood on the way.
The back door might be better, but computer room wasn't. The room was in shambles. Most of the computers had been either taken or destroyed, cabinets had been overturned, and bloody papers were strung across the floor.
Jade huffed, she needed a computer to find what she was looking for. That left her with two options, try to fix a computer, or try to find some hand written files concerning the mysterious James Barnes. The latter being extremely unlikely to even exist.
A crash from another room jerked her from her thoughts and caused her to jump.
The crash had come from the Doctors' room. Jade, in her curiosity, started to creep toward the room. Ready to use her powers if need be. She pressed her back to the outside of the door and listened.
"Hey Jarvis, run another word search for Loki's staff through the system again." A voice came from the room. From that sentence Jade realized there was at least two of them.
"Yes Mr. Stark," An almost human voice replied.
Stark! As in Tony Stark, the great Iron Man, Stark? He was snooping through files. For Loki's staff no less, that was not good. If he found what he was looking for he would undoubtedly find the file attached to it. The one on human experimentation, Project Winters.
If he found the file he was looking for he would know everything about her, but that would have be one of the first files they deleted. They wouldn't let that kind of information slip into unwanted hands.
Without thinking about it Jade leaned heavier on the door behind her. It flung open making Jade loose her balance and fall onto the floor.
A surprised Tony flew from his chair that he had been sitting in.
"Hi," Jade shyly said, giving him a slight wave. In return he gave her a puzzled look.
"Hi," Tony cautiously replied. Jade quickly flipped onto her stomach and stood up. The two were only about fifteen feet from each other.
"You must be Jade," He said. "Clint told me about you. You know it's not natural to go through stuff right?" His question was light. It made Jade want to smile, but she wasn't going to let her guard down that easy. What she did find odd was that's he didn't seem afraid, or even disturbed by her presence. "Do you know anything about Loki's staff? I can't seem to find anything on it."
"Yes, but I probably know a lot of stuff you don't know," She replied still off set by his cool attitude.
"I bet your here for a reason. If I were you, and I had escaped, I wouldn't come back without an extremely good one. Do you need a computer for whatever your reason might me?" He asked her. Jade dipped her head to the side, trying to figure out if there was any sarcasm in his voice.
"I do have good reason to come back, and yes, I do need a computer," she paused "How about I make you a deal? I'll tell you what you need to know, if you let me use the computer." Jade was doing her best to make polite conversation, but her social skills were very limited and she wasn't used to anything of the sort. Most of the time people would order her about, and only ever asked her questions about a mission.
"I don't make deals with the bad guys," Tony replied
"Oh, okay. Have fun looking for deleted files," Jade paused, then quickly added "Have a nice day." She abruptly turned around and started to walk out the door.
"Wait!" Jade smiled and turned around.
"Yes?" She gave him the most innocent look she could muster.
"I'll take the deal," He said.
"Excellent. What do you need to know?" Jade asked taking a few steps toward him.
"Do you know where the staff was taken? Or what Project Winters is? I occasionally see the project name pop up here and there when looking for notes on the staff."
She hesitated, if Hydra found out about her telling him about this project or the staff she could end up number one on their hit list. But a deal is a deal, and she needed that computer.
"Last I heard Loki's staff was being transported to a more secure location, Sokovia, I believe. Hydra thought it would be best to move it to a less obvious location, and they had some new test subjects to do experiments on, but that information is well over a year old," Jade said. She rocked side to side, shifting her weight back and forth between her feet.
While she had talked Tony scribbled down information on a piece of paper in front of him.
"Can I have the computer now? Please?" She shyly pleaded.
"What about Project Winters?" He asked looking up from his paper.
"That's simple. I'm Project Winters."
