Dacia felt as if she had mixed feelings about their actions in Saudi Arabia, she had felt personally disappointed in some of the political atmosphere that she had encountered in the Kingdom. She felt as if some of the atmosphere surrounding women's right in regressive Kingdom, felt like it reminded her of some of the politics and rights afforded on some of the planets on the Outer Rim. One of the few things that she could remember from her time before becoming a Jedi Warrior, was that her home planet was not the most pleasant place for a woman to be.
Both her and Jyn had had to rely on Cassian to help them slip under the radar, it had been difficult for the two of them to rely so completely on Cassian, it would probably have been even more difficult if they hadn't already been so close. Dacia had been very aware that the last thing they needed, was for any of them to run afoul of the law, landing them in a situation that could be tricky for them to get out off. Normally, if Dacia and Jyn saw something like that it burned at their soul, but Cassian was usually able to pull the women back and explain that no matter how much they wanted, they couldn't march in and change something that they didn't fully understand. That wasn't to say that Cassian didn't fully comprehend that there was a difficulty in resigning himself to the difficulties that they faced, he had told them a long time ago that they couldn't always change things.
He had reminded them that even if they hadn't been able to understand everything didn't mean that it wouldn't work for somebody else with an entirely different set of beliefs. That he had chosen to remind them of the failed Senate system, not everything worked for everyone else. There were different laws and beliefs that dictated what others would think worked. It was also helpful to remember that a place's history could dictate their future, even centuries and millennia longer. That wasn't to say that there was nothing that Dacia felt like a cheater and coward for not changing things.
Shaking her head out once again, Dacia tried to clear her head from some of the thoughts that screamed at her for attention. Once again, she tried to remind herself, that she couldn't fight all the demons, because she wasn't sure at what point she would become hopelessly distracted trying to fight unseen villains. Frowning down at the screen in front her, Dacia lifted a single finger to her lip, ready to tap while she tried to work out some of the answers that plagued at the edges of her consciousness. She felt like she was trying to hunt down a monster, but one that she could barely remember, at least not beyond hearing accounts of the monster by stressed nurses when she was younger.
With an inarticulate growl, she flicked away the information in front of her, becoming annoyed that she hadn't been able to find anything. Running a frustrated hand through her hair, she looked up from the computer at her friends. Wondering how she was now going to tackle this latest frustration she decided to speak to the two of them. Maybe some fresh eyes would be able to shed some light on this particular problem.
"So, I think we can all agree that that was a bit of a wash, we weren't able to find the woman, but I didn't think that we would be able to find the woman there. It seemed like too much to hope for, were you guys able to spot anything that I missed?" Dacia tiredly asked.
"I don't know if I would say that was a complete waste of time, we were able to find that she had been there. She might not be there now, but if we can strike off Saudi Arabia for now, then we might have seen something that could point us towards where she is now." Cassian reminded the woman, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.
"And now, you are all wishy-washy, Cassian, I thought that was my role! Off the top of my head I wasn't able to spot anything that we should keep in mind, what did you see there?" Jyn laughed, her hair coming loose from its high ponytail in her frustration.
"Well, taking into account that we can believe that there were some things that we were able to pick up. I noticed that the rights of women in Saudi Arabia were weak, it might have been at the very beginning hoping to be able to blend into the background in the Kingdom, she might have begun to chafe at the implication that it wouldn't have been as easy for her to keep a low profile. She may have been able to find ways around the law, but it may have become too tiring for continue living there, at least while she wanted to have the time to lick her wounds and work out which steps to take next." Cassian remarked lightly.
"Wait but what do you mean? Cassian were you able to spot something that we missed? Care to share with the class, we are going to have to work out what steps to take next, be nice if we could only know what we should do next!" Jyn dryly remarked.
"Right, these are just my impressions, I haven't been able to work out all of the intricacies but, we don't know a lot about Romanoff so far. Dacia have you been able to find something or anything about the woman's background?" Cassian asked.
"No, not yet, but if you guys will allow me some time to grab my notes on the socio-political state of the world when Romanoff switched employers." Dacia told the two, not sure what Cassian was looking for, willing to help the man with any of the thoughts he had cryptically hinted towards.
Not being able to find any clue in the man's expression, Dacia nodded once and left the room behind her.
WHOOSH
Dacia made her way along the quiet corridors of the spaceship, wrestling with some of the thoughts that had begun to float in her head. Going through some of the documents, she had thought earlier to scoop up, her curiosity knows no bounds. It might not have made a lot of sense to her, that she had scooped up emails on something that on the surface had nothing to do with her, but for now it would seem as if her nosiness had paid off. It made her smile to think that no matter how shadowy your organisation, you would still be mired in bureaucracy. The number of forms she had seen evidence off had hinted to her that you couldn't escape from always having to dot the 'I's and cross the 'T's.
Cassian had snorted when he learned of the sheer multitude of forms, remarking only that some things were the same world over. Jyn had briefly flicked her eyes over the data at the time and agreed with Cassian – there were always going to be a crazy stupid amount of files.
Unfortunately at the time, she hadn't been able to scoop up all the files that she would need to make an informed decision right now. Sighing when she realised that she was already beginning to operate from behind. Making up her mind to simply begin working through some of the data that she had called up in front of her as soon as she begun to enter the library.
Humming under her breath, she made sure to retrieve the files that contained some of the data that she was sure she needed. It turned out that she has to write off her pack-rat tendencies completely. Now at least, it seemed as if they might be coming to fruition and paying dividends. Maybe now she would be able to find some answers to the things that were plaguing her.
Chewing on her bottom lip when she realised that some of the things Cassian had awkwardly hinted at, were playing on a loop in her head. It was at times like this when Dacia felt it pertinent to remind herself that as long as she could back up some of her guesses with concrete work, then she might be able to skate through. The biggest thing that she tried to remind herself of right now, was that she wasn't trying to score any points in an academic setting.
Sometimes she hated having to make sure she had sources that didn't directly contradict each other and all agreed with one another. Plus she hated compiling the bibliography at times, if she ever had to worry about the home to correctly write outsourcing in Havard format it would be too soon.
She wasn't a stranger to stress dreams where she tried to remember what order she had pulled sources in. Strangely there were considerably fewer dreams about her forgetting to put on clothes. Go figure!
When she made her way into the small library, she pulled a box of files toward her, she had compiled the files back when she was studying as Darcy Lewis and it felt like a kick in the teeth to her if she started to throw out the files. Besides she was still somewhat of a packrat and could never be too sure when she might need something that she had already gotten rid off. Curses, but sentimentality still seemed to rule her heart (and head) at the most inopportune of times.
Realising that right now, she tremendously pleased that she had kept up the habit of her keeping records of all her notes. It was something that had served her well while she was still acting as a Jedi Warrior, but for now it was just something that she was pleased with keeping up. Humming to herself under her breath while she sorted through the files, her eyes scanning through the information in front of her.
Nodding to herself when she had retained some of the information, she scooped up a large file to her chest, before leaving the room behind flicking the lights off as she left the room behind her. It was important to her now that she should immediately discuss with both Jyn and Cassian. They needed to hear some more of her updated thoughts on the woman they were trying to hunt down, at least she tried to tell herself that if they heard some of this, they could decide on how they should proceed to act.
WHOOSH
"Okay, guys, I think that I have been able to find on the woman, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything concrete." Dacia marched into the room, reaching a hand through her hair.
"Alright, well, what did you find?" Jyn prompted the woman.
"Before I get to telling you two what I found, Cassian could you fill in the blanks on some of the things that we were struggling with earlier? Before I had to run to pick up these files I mean?" Dacia asked the man, breathing heavily as she attempted to find her equilibrium.
"Right, I was thinking when you ran that Romanoff may have wanted some time to think through some of the issues that she was dealing with after the fallout of the Civil War. Don't forget that she might have felt even more as if she was cast adrift after those actions, it's possible that the woman might have been going through an identity crisis. She has pissed away the protection of SHIELD, not matter whether or not she feels as if she wasn't sure of what she could rely upon, her previous support net would have ripped away from her. Even if she played a big part in ripping away that support network." Cassian remarked.
Jyn was frowning as she listened to the man, she crossed her leg and cocked her head to the side. Some of the things that the man was saying, tracked with what she could guess about the woman's psyche.
"That makes sense, if she was the one who was seen to have ripped away that support net for a lot of people who might have otherwise relied on, a comforting shadow at their backs. At the time she might have felt as if her actions were good and just but I think we know, perhaps better than most, how easy it can be for us to be misled by something into doing something that we don't feel comfortable enough doing in normal circumstances." Jyn theorised.
"That's fair enough, I still haven't been able to get out of my head some of the most obvious downfalls of the Jedi ethos. That doesn't factor in where Designation (Former): Captain America ties in though?" Dacia lightly responded.
"No, but don't you see? I am starting to wonder whether or not the woman felt like she was struggling to deal with some of the issues in the immediate aftermath. When she agreed with Designation (Former): Captain America, that they should hide how Designation: Iron Man, parent's might have died. In doing so, she tied herself to Designation (Former): Captain America so completely, to her at that point it might have made even more sense, but she had effectively tied herself to a man that didn't see anything wrong with hiding a man's parents ultimate fate. We might be able to say that we doubt her actions, but to her, they might have seemed like they made perfect sense. It might not be anything big for us to consider, but Romanoff might not have been used to having too much of a long leash. Sure, she might have had some small amount of independence but she still would have had some small amount of surveillance." Jyn tried to explain even more.
"That explains some of that, but I feel as if we need to discuss even more about how the woman came into being, would you like to hear what I found out?" Dacia impishly asked.
"Don't leave us having a woman! Did you find anything that could help us?" Cassian impatiently prompted the woman, becoming tense as he realised that it didn't look as if the woman was going to continue.
"Right, I wasn't able to find anything that we can rely on, at least not for now, but I was able to find some interesting coincidences. Namely that there were too many coincidences for me to wave them away as being something which I am more than comfortable doing. I was able to find notes of mine that indicated that the Berlin Wall fell in late 1989. On the surface, while I don't think that that particular episode has anything to relate to the employment of Romanoff, but it is interesting to note that at the time the Soviet Union was already beginning to crumble that the woman changed employment. But getting back to my point, the Stark parents were assassinated in mid-December 1991, just under two weeks later the government in Moscow crumbled." Dacia told the two, beginning to get into her stride.
"Okay, so she might have known enough to guess which way the wind was blowing, what does that have to do with anything we are working on now?" Cassian cut in, realising that if they didn't cut her off at the head, she could be reasonably be expected to go on all day.
"I'm getting to that, I can't be sure if on the surface the woman was guided by political concerns. We have both seen the videos of the woman interrogating Loki before his invasion back in 2012, right? We need to try and look further into some of her motives, for now I am not comfortable in making a statement about whether or not the political climate guided her actions. It is more likely that she felt herself becoming disillusioned with what she was doing and who her employers were. If it's possible that she simply traded in her former employer for another with albeit a brighter façade, at that point they weren't that different." Dacia waved off the man's concern, explaining.
"Okay but what can that tell us for now? We need to be able to work through this mess?" Cassian prompted, once again becoming pissed off as the woman slowly led them along a path of answers.
"I'm getting to that, for now we have to be sure I can't be sure whether or not the woman's politics might have led her to make a change in who her employers were. She is too much of a pragmatic operator to allow herself to make such a huge change without being prompted. We might not be able to get our questions answered satisfactorily, maybe ever. We can work from some of what we know to try and fill in the blanks though. It is something that we are most likely always going to have to deal with, some of her actions. For now, though it's interesting to follow some of the parallels between a potential downfall of a world Superpower, so far I don't feel like I could say the two are unrelated."
"Alright but that doesn't explain a possible connection between the two. Come on Dacia, you need to connect the dots here! How can we draw a connection between the two, because for now, it doesn't seem as if we could draw a concrete connection between the two, at least not without reaching. So far there doesn't seem to be anything that we point at and say that 'yup, that's why that happened', have you seen anything that we might be able to point towards, to back up what you are trying to get at?" Jyn frowned, trying to draw the woman back to the matter at hand.
"I thought that too, but the woman was pragmatic, right? So, at the back of her mind she possibly thought that she didn't want to have her revenue stream dry up. She knew herself enough to be comfortable enough with stating that one of the things at the back of her mind was that she would not have found it easy the to work at something else." Dacia lazily remarked.
"It's true you know, but if someone comes out of working as an assassin, it can be very hard to make a transition back to normal civilian life. The first kill is always the most difficult and it can sometimes feel as if everytime you drop a body for want of a better phrase, it feels as if parts of your soul are chipped away. It doesn't matter whether or not the kills were righteous, you will have in the back of your mind that those people had stories and backgrounds, to someone in their life they might have been a brilliant person." Cassian interjected feeling like he had to give his five cents.
"See I thought about that, we can't get bogged down in the minutia of the woman's psyche, there are other things that we needed to be working with. What I do want to point out though is that the woman might not be able to separate herself from some of the decisions she had taken. For all of the things we have to worry about, we have to begin thinking about whether or not the woman was able to completely recognise that her actions with have consequences and something tells me that she wasn't ready to accept. It might take us a lot of work to begin finding her." Dacia told the two thoughtfully.
"That still doesn't explain some of what you suspect about the woman, Dacia, would you like to explain even more?" Cassian prompted, becoming even more frustrated that it seemed to take them all day to get to the heart of what should be a simple answer.
"Right, sorry about that, we can't wave away the woman's state of mind, not while there are still some looming questions, but we can begin to fill in the blanks on some of the questions. With the help of K I was able to find some documents that might suggest that the woman didn't defect so much as was pushed in the direction that she later took. We were able to find some evidence that the woman might have found her new employment, through shady backroom dealing, rather than through any noble actions on her part in wanting to defect. Even though former Director Carter was nearing her retirement, she was able to use the sighting of Designation: Winter Soldier being spotted, to get some merits. I can't be sure of how the topic was broached, or even if the woman was completely clear on who she was negotiating with. In any case, it would not make a bit of difference and while it is unclear, we can still use the fact that the woman found herself on SHIELD's radar. At the time Nick Fury was being groomed to become a director of the agency, and he might have been fed some information about how to go about finding the woman but he didn't know everything." Dacia explained, feeling her throat become a little dry as she tried to go through some of the matters that she felt she needed to explain.
"What Dacia means and isn't able to adequately explain, is that while some of Fury's directions might not make complete and utter sense, he isn't completely guilty in this matter. He might not have felt able to completely give in and lose his temper, but needless to say that he knew enough to know that there was a bigger game going on. What we do know is that the woman, is in for a lot of trouble, there has to be something that we can answer on. Taking into account that the man would have suddenly ended up with a deadly assassin, he was able to work the situation to his advantage, he would have to wait long enough for the background checks and psych evals on the woman to go through." K provided.
"While the deep-dive into the woman's background is interesting, always handy to understand more about a foe. Can we use this information to find her now?" Cassian remarked, leaving part of his thought unfinished.
"It looks like we might be able to use some of what we were able to find about the woman, but for now it seems as if we are being hailed?" K calmly (and cryptically) told the group.
"From where? Nobody should know that we are here, who was even smart enough to break through to our communications, K work with BODHI, we need to know if we are in an elevated sense of danger here." Cassian commanded beginning to look slightly tense and panicked.
The room was filled with a nervous kind of tension, while they waited on the two AIs to complete their scans of the room. Cassian had made his way over to one of the computer setups and tapped through a few of the screens, peering intently at the screen in front of him. Clicking his tongue against his gum as he frowned at the screen, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
Becoming more and more disillusioned with what he termed as some of the frustrating part of this particular part of the Universe. He found some of the technological advances to be genuinely mystifying, the approach to some of the advancements he found to be piecemeal. When he was able to work out some of his general impressions, he found it to better to approach the whole thing from a lackadaisical purpose. Any advancements that he had been able to find, had quickly been weaponized, there didn't seem to be lot that he was able to see that had been invented (and then used) as a thing just because, everything was turned into how could this be used to make as much chaos as possible.
He realised that he wasn't one to talk, unfortunately in his Home Universe things had all too often been turned into weapons. It was a sad state of affairs to find completely normal, but sadly with a Galaxy-wide civil war, there were always going to be people pushing for weapons. He had become uncomfortably familiar with weapons that could kill the most and make the biggest bang.
Part of the reason that he felt he enjoyed mucking around in the small engineering room was that he wasn't particularly likely to see the things he managed to throw together be used to hurt someone. The only occasional things that he saw turned into weapons, were more used to keep them safe from harm, because he had been able to resign himself to the knowledge that anything invented on their part couldn't be used to hurt anyone.
He still wondered from time to time whether or not any of his friends (though the term allies might be more apt) at home would believe that Cassian was not the greatest inventor onboard the spaceship. That crown had belonged to Jyn, he guessed that the apple did not fall far from the tree. Even if had taken the woman an extraordinary amount of time to trust her new friends. Cassian didn't feel as if he could blame the woman – he was sure that it had taken the woman a while to realise that she no longer had to run, not now that her life depended on it in any case.
He was pleased to have been able to provide that sense of relief to the woman, he might not have been in as much of an immediate sense of danger, during his time working for the Resistance. He might have been a spy, aware at every waking moment that he could be in danger, but it wasn't as if he could claim a close bosom relationship. It was helpful to remember that even if he hadn't constantly been looking over his shoulder, aware that at any point if he was 'made' then it could be a drastically reduced life.
Stormtroopers could be notoriously bad shots, but it only took one lucky (or as it would be for him unlucky) and it would be bye bye Cassian.
Frowning and grumbling a bit more when he caught sight of something, he scrolled back hurriedly and scanned his eyes over what he had spotted a few times. Could this be it?
"K-2SO were you able to find anything?" Cassian asked, his voice betraying a small bundle of nerves.
"So far, we have not been able to find the kind of information that you may find helpful Agent Andor." K responded curtly.
Cassian felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, it wasn't often that the robot should feel a desire to refer to Cassian as his (one of) designations from back in his spying days. Not needed to look into the faces of Dacia and Jyn to know that the two of them were exchanging confused looks behind his back.
Cursing softly, Cassian scanned and rescanned the readouts in front of him, trying to find any clue that might guide him to what was going on. For now, he felt like this might lead him to some answers. Tapping through a few more of the screens in front of him, trying to work out if what he was reading was accurate, he decided that it would be for the best if he simply asked. For now, it didn't look as if he would find the answers unless he asked for help.
"K-2SO, am I reading this correctly? Should they have been able to find us as easily? I thought Jyn was just keeping an eye on them from a distance." Cassian demanded from the AI.
"It seems as if they might be slightly more intelligent than we gave them credit, would you like me to contact them?"
Cassian found himself becoming once again amazed at the capabilities and emotions that the AI's could display. He had known enough that in this Universe, if anybody worked out that they had not but two Artificial Intelligence's capable of human behaviour, they could be summarily thrown into an awkward situation. It was after filing away this information in his head that he smirked when he heard either K-2SO or BODHI sound as if they were sniffing.
"If you can excuse the intrusion, I have been able to find where Ms Erso, may have tripped their attention. It appears to show that those people are more observant and have a very good and pro-active worker ensuring their cybersecurity. For now, if you would like to answer them, between K and me, we can make sure that they won't be able to get any further into our files." BODHI tentatively told the small group.
Dacia sighed, rolling her eyes, "Yes, put them on and make sure that if any of them should attempt to get into our files that they can't find their way. In the meantime though, we should keep our hoods up, at least until we can sure whether or not we can trust these people."
Looking over at her two friends to check whether or not her instructions were being followed, she waited a few seconds before signalling to BODHI to connect them. She was beginning to feel pissed, it had been too long since she had felt satisfied with getting the answers that she felt that she could demand. It was time, she felt that she showed people exactly why she and her friends should not be trifled with. It was not immediately clear how the trio was supposed to handle this next step. Taking a small breath while she looked between her friends, she felt like she couldn't trust the two as they tried to decide how to proceed.
It wasn't going to be an easy decision to make, Dacia didn't want to overplay her hand and get them further into trouble. If she got herself further into difficulty, worse still if the two beside her got into trouble because she got irritated and arrogant and acted through her hot-headed actions, she wouldn't be able to rest easy. The last thing that she wanted was to land someone else in trouble all because she couldn't reign herself in. It was important to remember though, that it wouldn't serve them well if they were to be underestimated, she could possibly have to play this by ear.
Looking between her friends, Dacia tried to nod between the two, feeling as if the two could trust her now to keep her best interests in mind. Directing her eyes to a blank stretch of wall, she crossed her arms together, steeling herself to maintain a tough façade.
She needed to throw up both screens on her body language, she didn't need to have them question her and make awkward (and regrettable) decisions based on her behaviour. Finally the answering picture showed up on the wall in front of them, they could see a group of people sitting at a long table, most likely a conference room style table. Taking in the sight of some assorted people gathered together, Dacia pulled towards her the old screen of her personality, willing herself to wear it like a smokescreen.
"You have gotten my attention was there any need for you try to attack our systems like that?" Dacia imperiously asked, deciding that it was time to put her best foot forward.
Cassian briefly noticed that Dacia hadn't introduced them, he wondered if she was playing up her personality to try and confuse the other two. He wondered if it was even possible that the woman could ever stop playing the pointless politics game, he found that it could be so confusing trying to understand how the game was played but that it was usually worth all of his confusion.
"Right, maybe introductions are in order, my name is Mallory, that is Tanner, he is my right-hand man here at Mi6. That man over there is Q he is the head of the cyber department for want of a better term. May we know who we are speaking with please?" one of the guys wearing an Oxford Collar shirt with a blue tie.
"Except you felt, that you didn't introduce everyone now did? There is at least one other man and a woman standing in the shadows that you think we can't see, tell me if this game ever gets boring to you. Now are you going to be honest? You were the ones who broke into our systems after all." Dacia challenged, a look of competition entering into her eyes as she spoke.
"Excuse me? You were the ones who broke into our systems after all. It was a quiet thing that I probably wasn't supposed to spot, but I wonder how you managed to do that, I didn't recognise your signature. Tell me why don't you have a signature?" the man named Q demanded.
Dacia glanced at Jyn, gesturing at the woman that she could take the stage if she wanted. This part was her show after all, there was no point in Dacia attempting to take credit for something that she hadn't personally done, she had long ago promised herself that she wouldn't be that kind of leader. Jyn looked at her friend and nodded, pulling forth her bad ass persona veiling her nerves.
"There are more things out there than you are aware off, you wouldn't recognise mine even if you knew what you were looking for. Is there any particular reason that you have so rudely gained our attention? That doesn't normally play out well, so I'm wondering why are you?" Jyn challengingly told them, looking at them imperiously.
Cassian watched in silence as it looked as the members on the screen in front of him began to bristle up. He wondered if that was a common thing – to doubt the intelligence of anyone surrounding you. If it was, he couldn't see it playing out well, it was disappointing to think, but at the same time it was mildly amusing. It wasn't often that Jyn was doubted, so to see anyone try it always brought a little smirk to his face.
"Right now, that doesn't matter, Q noted that you were going through the files looking in particular for one Natalia Romanova, if you could tell us why, maybe we could help each other out." Tanner held up a hand trying to keep the peace.
Cassian wondered if this was a default action with the man. It had to be if the man was used to working in close conjunction with such loud personalities. He found himself briefly sympathising with the man, he knew how it could to constantly feel as if you had to keep the peace. It sometimes fell to him, even if he would prefer to simply watch things begin to develop around him, he would sometimes blame his old job as a spy for leaving him with this reflex action. It would always seem to him to find things more interesting to watch and see how things proceeded around him.
"We want to ask her some questions about her actions taken during the so-called 'Avengers Civil War' and some of her earlier actions during the fall of SHIELD. Do you have anything you would like to tell us to help us find the woman?" Dacia asked, suddenly deciding to lay her cards on the table.
"We want to ask her some answer for some of her actions during the Fall of SHIELD as well, I don't think we need to point out the amount of lives that she cost during that time. We lost a number of good men and women who were working in conjunction with SHIELD. Would you like to work with us to find her." Mallory spoke calmly, seeing an opportunity open up in front of him.
Cassian surveyed the man calmly and imperceptibly he nodded at Dacia, yes it was time for them to take this deal.
"Very well, but I think that if you need any more information, you had better email me, I can send you through a link to my email. Let me know if you have any further information about the whereabouts of the woman, I feel I don't need to point out how imperative it is that she should answer some of the questions that we still have for her." Dacia told the group assembled on the screen.
Mallory carefully nodded, taking care to hide his feelings behind a carefully constructed wall. Cassian stared at the man, once again trying to work out what was going on in the man's head.
WHOOSH
Hidden away from the rest of the cells, James lay on the bed staring at the wall of his cell. He had been smart enough to take care to hide his face, he didn't want Stevie to be able to see him. There were still some questions that he felt he had to ask himself, if he had his way he would have already asked these people some of the things that now she felt like deserved to know.
He had spent too long not being able to trust himself, not being able to trust some of the emotions that swam up without him knowing when they had come from, not able to recognise their origin. He had long ago felt that he would be trapped behind a hazy screen, occasionally able to see through a foggy wall in his mind, watching like a passenger in his body as it committed terrible acts.
He had felt as if he had been betrayed by his own body, unable to trust his mind, simply because it had always led him straight back to the people who were hurting him. One of the things that he had questioned was that it wasn't the first time he had met some of these people. He could feel a horrible fear welling up in his system, telling him to get away from the woman. Right now, he wanted to be able to avoid the woman and he wanted to get away from the woman. He might feel confused about how Stevie looked now, but he still felt a reflexive urge to protect his friend.
It might feel confusing to him that he didn't know enough to know how far they had come in this century. The one thing that confused him was that Stevie had chosen to fight alongside her. He couldn't understand why the man who he had grown up with, who had taken great amounts of joy in claiming 'to the end of the line' would willingly work alongside a woman that he had known had come from an organisation that he had professed to hate.
He might not have the clearest of memories of his time with HYDRA, but he went through some of the files in the time afterwards. He had known that the woman had taken joy in learning some of her craft against him. Some of the files he had managed to glimpse had shown him that the woman had learned even more of her craft through torturing civilians, enemies of HYDRA. It was noted that the woman had taken some perverse pleasure in inflicting pain, she would willingly hurt anyone who even looked at her funny.
She might talk a good game about being a prisoner, and maybe she had been treated like that after the experimentation but she was a willing convert. James was familiar enough with the idea that people could change, goodness knows that he felt he had changed throughout his life. There were some things that he knew could not be changed, not without a great deal of effort and introspection.
Something told him that the woman was not accustomed to looking at her actions through a critical lens. Frowning as he wondered whether or not it was likely the woman would take notice of the fact that he could whisper all of her dirty little secrets.
Smiling grimly to himself as he realised that it was likely that if given enough time he could become a thorn in the side of the woman. It was likely that the woman would begin to wish that he would meet an agonising end. Or maybe the woman would begin to question what actions she would take to make herself look good, because in his eyes it was unlikely that the woman would think of doing anything else to silence him simply for knowing how she was wired.
It was interesting to watch how the woman strove to keep him silent. It bore questioning though, what exactly was the Witch Bitch expecting him to be able to do? They were locked up and it didn't look like they were getting free any time soon, so what did she have up her sleeve to deal with the man?
James thought that something didn't feel right and he would have to keep his eyes open. He didn't trust the woman any further than he could throw her. She also led him to questions of whether or not he could trust the group.
What had happened to the man he had grown up with?
Had all of these people fall into the thrall of the woman?
Were they supposed to be spies capable of cutting through the bullshit that the woman was putting down.