Chapter 3-Risky Gambles and a Scary Marble

Mal was having a difficult day.

First she'd been told the organization she'd loyally served all her life wanted to sacrifice her as a lab rat in the hopes of saving themselves. Then she'd run into two, possibly three of Hydra's top threats who just happened to be searching for her target. And now said target was picking off Hydra reinforcements like...like…

Hell, she'd work on similes when she wasn't running for her life.

As Mal took shelter behind a bullet-ridden trash can, she observed the target. He was deadly, a lethal panther in a field of helpless mice (Mal was rather proud of that metaphor). The Winter Soldier snapped the neck of one agent and threw the body at two other agents, knocking them off the high wall that encircled the apartment building. A firestorm of bullets rained down upon him, but he raised his bionic arm to protect his face and his clothing appeared bulletproof. In a manner of seconds, the entire Hydra platoon was dead or unconscious.

Leaving only an unarmed Mal against a super soldier/cyborg/assassin.

Okay, think Mal. What are your advantages? More importantly, what are his disadvantages?

According to the file Radigast provided, the Soldier was psychologically unstable. Erratic, unpredictable. His mind was fractured from repeated memory wipes and he wasn't designed for long stints out of his cage. The Hydra doctors predicted it was unlikely his memory would ever fully return; instead they theorized he'd be driven insane from the colliding memories of two lives. Physically, Mal was no match for him. The broken bodies of her fellow agents were proof of that. But since his weakness was emotional….wheels turned in Mal's head as she formed a risky plan.

The Soldier scanned the area, verifying all threats were neutralized. If he noticed Mal, he didn't let on.

Mal paused a moment, breathing deep. Then in one swift motion, she yanked the marble charm from the necklace she wore, twisted its halves so it glowed red, and stepped out to meet the Winter Soldier.

Who had conveniently vanished.

Resisting the urge to call out "here kitty, kitty, kitty" Mal slowly stepped to where he'd been standing seconds ago. He was still somewhere in the area-she could feel his eyes on her. Mal swallowed hard and held up the glowing red orb.

"This is a ZMPT-2468, better known as a miniature neutron bomb. The moment it leaves my hand, say if I were shot, everything within a mile radius would instantly vaporize. That would include you, me, and your friends inside the house. I have no wish to kill you or anyone else, so if you would please surrender yourself I would be extremely grateful."

Her voice was astonishingly steady, not betraying the barrage of emotions Mal felt inside. Surely he wouldn't kill her at the risk of his own life….

Click.

Okay, maybe not.

Every instinct Mal had screamed to lash out behind her, to strike before he could pull the trigger. Instead, she closed her eyes and whispered what probably would be her last words. "James Buchanan Barnes."

There was a prolonged silence, in which Mal expected to be shot. When the anticipated bullet never came, Mal warily opened her eyes and (despite her later denials) shrieked.

He was right there. His cybernetic arm held a pistol centimeters away from Mal's forehead. Not that he needed it. There were probably a dozen ways he could kill her then and there only with his human hand. How reassuring.

"Did you...did you know me?" His voice was raspy from disuse. Emotions flitted across his face-shock, fear, confusion, anger. Mal almost pitied him. It was like watching an injured dog writhing in pain-the best thing that could be done was put him down.

Which brought her back to the mission at hand. "Catch." She tossed the marble at him.

Instinctively, he caught it with the hand that wasn't holding a gun, his human hand. The moment it touched his skin the marble released a powerful combination of sedatives and electrical shocks to render him unconscious. By the time his brain realized he'd been tricked, Mal had twisted the gun out of his hand and moved out of knife range to watch him slump to the ground, feeling only slightly guilty. He had been about to kill her, after all.

The marble was not a neutron bomb: rather, it was a fast-acting knockout prototype Mal nicked from Hydra's science division ages ago, in one of those just-in-case moments.

So now she had the target. Mal had no idea how long the sedatives would last on a super-soldier, but the sooner she got him to Hydra the better.

After digging through what was left of the apartments (Rogers and his lackeys were long gone, though Mal smirked at several large bloodstains that undoubtedly had come from him) she located her phone, which was surprisingly still in one piece. It seemed luck was on her side today.

Mal dialed Radigast's number. He answered immediately. Within minutes, Hydra was crawling all over the place, removing the dead and treating the wounded. The Winter Soldier was carted off under heavy guard. Soon he wouldn't remember anything but serving Hydra.

Mission accomplished.

Awww, poor Bucky. Mal really thinks she's doing the right thing by letting Hydra make him forget. Sorry that the update is a bit late, my family's been prepping for the 4th of July and all that American jazz. I think I'm going to go tone deaf from all the fireworks we've set off.

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