The response to ch 10 was amazing. I promise there are no tricks in this one...
Also, today is Harry Potter's birthday. I can't believe it took me over a month to update, though.
Despite realizing he is in the freight train instead of a HYDRA base, the Asset's heart hammers and his breathing falters as images from the dream continue to flash through his head. The punishment scene wasn't unfamiliar, and his back burns with phantom pain.
THE ASSET DESERVES PUNISHMENT FOR DEFECTING AND- The first voice in his head starts to say, sounding slightly disoriented.
Negative. HYDRA cannot find us like that. The second, newer voice, interrupts. The mission is to keep Harry Potter safe. The boy needs the Asset, and he will not be safe with HYDRA. The Asset supposes that 'he' could apply to both of them- neither would be safe in HYDRA's clutches.
Perhaps, like in the dream, HYDRA has additional ways to track the Asset's location, instead of only having the device in his prosthesis. Removing just that tracker could have been useless if there is another he had not dealt with. They could be headed towards him now, ready to drag him and Harry the Handler back to a HYDRA base for real...
The Soldier quickly frisks himself for any more tracking devices. Failing to do so before, in the shed, was a major tactical error.
He lets out a small exhale when he finds no devices clipped to his clothes or anywhere on his body. His HYDRA handlers would not have expected the tracker in his prosthesis to be removed, and certainly not by the Soldier himself. They did not anticipate the possibility of their Asset defecting.
So HYDRA doesn't have a direct pinpoint on his location anymore, but it would be preposterous and stupid to assume that HYDRA is not searching for the Soldier and the boy in other ways.
Harry the Handler sits 3.3 meters away from the Asset, hugging Nighty the dog and watching the Asset's every move worriedly. His vision is obviously worse without his glasses, but he seems used to the dark. Then again, the Soldier is fairly certain the boy had been locked under the stairs at the Dursley house was a regular occurrence.
"Are you hurt, Nighty?" The boy whispers as he hugs the dog, even though asking a dog anything is pointless.
"He was pinned down but sustained no permanent injuries." The Asset replies after a bit, even though his handler was addressing the dog, not him.
Technically, that is true, but the Asset had been very close to shooting the dog when he first woke up, before Harry the Handler had brought him out of his haze. He is certain the real Harry would have reacted in similar horror to Nighty being shot to the Harry in the Asset's dream.
"Nighty's sowwrry." Harry the Handler almost sobs. "I told him not to, but..." The child glances towards something worriedly, and it's only now that the Soldier notices that the dog had gotten into their food stash while he was sleeping.
A few packs of sausages have been ripped open and devoured by Nighty (including some of the plastic wrapping), and the box of Harry's favorite animal biscuits has been torn apart, the contents scattered and broken.
He wonders if Harry had eaten some of the food as well. The boy is trembling slightly, and it isn't hard to guess that he'd tried to eat food in secret at the Dursley's' and was most likely caught and punished. Mrs. Dursley had been watching the boy to make sure he hadn't stolen food.
"Pinning the dog- Nighty- down was not a punishment for eating food. The Batman was unaware of its surroundings. " His explanation is not an excuse. There is no excuse. He should not have been so unaware, he should not have lashed out blindly just because of a nightmare. What if it had been Harry the Handler who'd touched him, and he'd pinned the boy down instead?
If he had attacked a HYDRA agent like that upon waking- not that he has much experience with sleep, and the cryo tank doesn't count- he would have been punished.
Harry the Handler is not punishing him for lashing out at Nighty. In fact, it is clear the mini-handler is wondering if the Asset will attack him, the same way he'd just attacked Nighty. Yet, the boy does not speak.
It is odd, having a handler be so worried around the Asset. Well, sometimes lower-level HYDRA handlers seemed nervous around him, but they were quick to assert their dominance. Harry the Handler has not done that at all.
The Asset stills, posturing his body in a non-threatening manner, crouched so he won't be looming over the tiny child.
"The Batman will not attack Nighty the dog now, or you, Harry." The Soldier speaks quietly, using the boy's codename for him. It is a better designation than Nighty, at least, the Soldier thinks. He is not supposed to have opinions.
He supposes that promise isn't entirely true. He hadn't consciously hurt the dog, after all.
"More malfunctions to report: sleeping without permission and blindly attacking." He states flatly, even though he hadn't been ordered to give a status report. What if he attacks Harry the Handler unintentionally in another state of... whatever that was. Panic? No, the Asset was not panicking when he first woke. The Asset does not panic, he does not feel. He is merely a weapon.
Harry the Handler just stares at him warily.
"The mission is to... avoid HYDRA, to keep you safe." The Soldier says slowly.
HYDRA CONTROLS THE WINTER SOLDIER. The voice in his head supplies. It is true. He's been the Fist of HYDRA for as long as he can remember. They have the trigger words, the command words. They could override Potter's control over him, with more powerful trigger words than Marionetka.
They could make him hurt or kill Harry the Handler, if they overrode the boy's command. It would be only one more kill on his long list- which is probably even longer than the Soldier consciously remembers- but his brain protests the idea of hurting the child, much more so than when he'd strangled the Dursley boy.
They could make him hurt Harry and then forget about him, with the chair.
He does not want to go through the chair again. The few memories in his head will be lost to him, yet he will still know how to kill. He will lose everything. He does not know why that Bucky man's visions- memories?- are in his head. He does not know the blonde guy in those visions who went from extremely skinny to extremely muscular, but for some reason does not want to lose the images of him.
What the Soldier wants and doesn't want is meaningless. He should not have opinions.
"If they find us, they will hurt you, Harry." The Soldier says. They'd hurt him, too, but there's no reason to even mention that.
"Like Uncle Vernon?" Harry whispers.
"You would be hurt even more than you were with the Dursleys." The Asset replies, and for some reason saying that makes him hurt inside. Harry sniffles.
"No hurt, p'ease..." Harry the Handler begs.
In the dream, Pierce had said that Harry was not an official handler, that targets should not become handlers. Especially when they simply repeat a codeword that official handlers had just used on the Soldier.
The Soldier is sure that the real Pierce would say the same thing. Somehow, that changes nothing.
"You are better as a handler than a target, Harry." The Asset speaks quietly. Being under Harry's command is much less painful than his time serving HYDRA. For some bizarre reason, the boy has even smiled at him a few times over the past day.
Looking extremely confused, Harry raises his hands. Perhaps his vocabulary does not even include the word handler.
The boy doesn't say anything, and the conversation stops, followed by 3.6 minutes of silence.
"Nighty," The child whispers worriedly to the canine, and the Asset would not have heard him without enhanced hearing. "I can't find my glasses..."
"Your glasses fell off when we were boarding the train, Harry." The Soldier answers. In retrospect, the Soldier should have made sure the glasses were safe before jumping onto the train. It is his fault they are lost and most likely broken.
Harry the Handler startles slightly and lets out a little squeak, obviously thinking he hadn't been heard by anyone but the dog. "I d-didn't mean to lose them, Mr. A'set, sir. Aun' Tuna'll be angwy."
"Your aunt will not find out. She will not be angry." The Soldier wonders how bad his handler's vision is without corrective lenses. Had the lenses even been prescribed properly for his eyes? The glasses themselves had been in terrible shape, bent and taped together.
"Should obtaining new glasses be a new sub-mission objective?" The Asset's question is met with a blank look from the boy. "Do you need new glasses, Harry?"
"No, sir, 'm fine." The boy hastens to assure him, apparently under the impression that the Soldier will be mad if he tells the truth by admitting that he needs a new pair.
The Soldier frowns. His handler is lying. He truly does need the eyewear, yet he says otherwise. It does not make sense, handlers always tell him exactly what they want him to do. Does Harry not want to waste time getting it, and instead focus on getting as far away from the shed, the last place HYDRA had been able to track their location?
The train starts to slow down.
It seems like it's going to stop, so the freight train must be approaching some sort of station or warehouse to unload its cargo.
Avoid areas of scheduled train stops. The newer, previously defective voice in his head says. It's not as if Pierce and HYDRA agents will actually be waiting for him at the station like they were in the dream. That is not why the voice suggested avoiding the station, surely.
But if someone was looking for him, they would look wherever the train stops. Getting off early would decrease the likelihood of being detected, even by the workers who will be unloading the train.
DETECTION IS MISSION NONCOMPLIANT. That is generally a rule for all missions. The Winter Soldier is supposed to be a secret, after all.
It is unlikely that train workers would be undercover HYDRA agents, but it would still be a bad idea to let himself be seen by somebody. He usually kills any witnesses, but he does not think Harry the Handler approves of killing.
They should get off the train, yet, it is up to his handler, not the voices in his head, to decide what to do.
"Awaiting orders." Harry the Handler doesn't respond. "Should we get off the train?"
"Nighty wants to go." Sure enough, the dog is scratching at the freight car door.
The Asset gathers the bags, the boy, and the dog, and leaps out of the train.
The same vision of falling from a train flashes through the Asset's mind, but he is still aware of his surroundings. Perhaps it is due to the vision, but it seems they are falling through the air much slower than gravity would dictate. Harry shrieks with laughter.
He doesn't stumble when he lands, but he is closer to stumbling than he should ever be. He lets go of Nighty as soon as he touches down without really realizing it, but keeps his handler tucked to his side with his flesh arm.
"You flewed!" Harry the Handler's green eyes are wide with something like awe as he laughs delightedly. Fortunately, nobody had thrown up when they got off the train.
The Asset is 98.6% sure that HYDRA has not equipped him with the power of flight. He would have guessed that the child somehow temporarily lessened the effects of gravity. Similarly, he thinks it was the child who made the shield as he jumped on the train. It certainly wasn't the dog, and probably wasn't the Asset, although making shields would be a very useful skill for the Asset to have.
The Soldier sees two people walking on the street despite the time being 0145, but they are both inebriated. Threat assessment: low. It would be easy to incapacitate them, even without weapons.
No chance of blending in like this, Soldier. The newer voice in his head says.
The Soldier knows he will attract unwanted attention if he walks around as he is right now. He's heavily armed with a gleaming prosthetic arm, which is far too distinctive. He's also covered in Harry's vomit and accompanied by an even more disgusting dog.
The blue sweatshirt he'd taken during his earlier Tesco theft is back at the ski lodge, meaning he'll have to acquire a new shirt to cover his prosthesis. A shirt that isn't stained with blood, vomit and mucus.
"I would highly recommend disguises." He says, because of course he cannot tell his handler that they have to get them. His handler decides what they have to do, just like he decides what the Soldier wears.
Except his handler does not answer.
"This way, we will not attract unnecessary attention. It will be harder to find us."
"So da mean bad guys won't find us?"
"It will make it harder for them." The Asset replies.
His guns and knives are concealed, so they should not attract attention.
It turns out there is another Tesco store- there seem to be a lot of Tesco stores of various sizes- a mere 2.25 km away.
Nighty does not seem particularly concerned with sticking with them once they are in the store. The dog sniffs the ground and heads towards the meat department, although the Asset is guessing that the meat hasn't been delivered for the day yet.
The Asset heads with his mini-handler towards the clothing department.
"Batman!" Harry the Handler points suddenly.
The boy is pointing at a shirt depicting fake muscles under a dark suit with a vaguely bat-shaped symbol emblazoned on the chest. Like some sort of superhero, like that blonde man in the somewhat ridiculous red, white and blue suit.
Batman is the Winter Soldier's new codename, and it's obvious that his mini-handler is addressing him, but the Soldier thinks that the object of his handler's attention might have something to do with Batman as well. From things Harry has said, it's obvious there's some other Batman in addition to the Asset.
"It's Batman." Harry says, confirming the theory about the shirt.
The Asset wears what his handler chooses, so he pulls one of the Batman shirts from the rack and pulls off his older, stained shirt.
Harry stares at the mass of scars where the Asset's prosthetic arm is connected to the rest of his body, looking almost sad, even though the Asset's scars and pain do not matter at all.
The Asset slips the new shirt on. It has a strange hood that covers the top half of his face and has weird pointy bat ears. At least it hides his hair and makes him less recognizable.
Potter laughs and claps his hands."You're Batman!"
"Is shaving preferable for disguises?" The Asset asks as they walk towards the aisle with personal care products.
"Batman doesn't have hair there." Harry points at the Asset's chin.
Considering that the Asset has the new codename of Batman and is now wearing what the Batman apparently wears, he figures the child would want him to look like Batman in that regard, even if he doesn't directly say it.
Apparently, they make electric razors- somehow the Asset thinks they didn't at some point in his life, and he definitely feels more used to the standard blades and shaving cream. He has a brief olfactory memory of some sort of cream he must have used in the past,
Potter has wandered towards the toy aisles while the Asset has been shaving.
On a whim, the Asset grabs some notebooks and pencils and starts writing down the visions he's experienced.
Harry the Handler does not seem to think the visions of the Bucky person's memories are critical mission info, but the Asset writes them down anyways. There has to be some reason they've been popping in his head.
Once the Asset is done, he finds Harry staring longingly at wooden toy train set with 'Thomas' written on the box. Why do these stupid anthropomorphic trains keep popping up? The Asset is certain that these are toys of the Thomas the boy was talking about.
"I wasn't looking!" Harry quickly lies, when the Asset reaches for the box. His handler clearly wants it, but the boy shakes his head frantically and runs away from the toys as if he's done something horrible.
The Asset leaves the Thomas set on the shelf and follows his mini-handler.
"Nighty needs dog stuff." Harry is actually trying to distract the Asset from that odd incident.
Apparently the dog is part of the mission now.
The Asset collects Nighty from the meat counter and then heads towards the pet aisle.
Harry the Handler points to food and water bowls, dog food, and dog biscuits on the shelves, asking Nighty each time if the items he selects are what the dog wants. The dog doesn't answer, of course, attention focused on gnawing on a rawhide bone he'd pulled from a shelf.
Potter watches the Asset add all the items to their cart. "And bwandy."
"Brandy." The Soldier repeats blandly, as if he's assessing he heard it right, instead of questioning his superior.
"Ripper drinked it with Aunt Marge."
Somehow, the Asset finds this strange, but he doesn't comment. There's an aisle with all sorts of alcoholic beverages. The Asset has a vague memory of beer for some reason, even though he doesn't think any of his handlers would have given it to him. Why waste beer on a weapon?
Regardless of the strangeness, the Asset picks up a bottle of brandy.
He also grabs some first aid kits and other medical supplies. He's already used up most of the bandages from the first-aid kit he'd taken from the Dursley's.
"Permission to check you over," The Asset requests. After all, it is always an unspoken order to see to the safety of his handlers. He had accidentally bruised the boy's torso earlier, but has still not been punished for that.
Harry the Handler nods slightly, as if he's trying to figure out what answer the Asset wants to hear. The Asset tries to be as gentle as possible, even though he really just lifts the boy's shirt to inspect his injuries. The boy remains stiff and wary, waiting for the Soldier to hurt him (which he will not do intentionally, as long as the boy is his handler).
"Are you gonna make me better again?" Harry the Handler looks down at his bandaged hands, clearly remembering the Asset patching up his injuries when he first found the boy.
"You are healing quickly." The Asset replies, as he unwraps and inspects Harry's hands.
The boy's injuries are healing faster than they should. Does Harry the Handler have enhanced healing as well, like the Asset? Perhaps HYDRA wanted the boy for that, as well as his powers that let him make a shield when jumping onto the side of the train?
They head back outside. The Asset is almost unrecognizable now. The weird Batman hood is actually a good disguise.
"Where do you want to go now, Harry?"
This mission is not standard procedure. He does not think Harry will be sending him out to kill his enemies- the boy hadn't even ordered him to kill the HYDRA agents in the lodge, but that had been the only way to help his mini-handler.
The Asset does not remember ever working as long-term protection detail, but that seems to be his mission with Harry the Handler.
It is an odd thought, knowing that he will not be stored in cryo or wiped when under Potter's command.
Before Harry answers, Nighty barks. An owl flies towards them and drops a letter on the boy's head.
What the hell. Since when did owls carry mail?
Harry the Handler looks as if he does not know whether to be scared or not, and the Asset picks up the letter to make sure there is not some sort of letter bomb. The owl screeches at him, and the Asset barely has time to read Harry Potter's name on the envelope before the mission is compromised.
Severus hadn't thought he'd be on a broomstick following an owl, but he is, and he hates it.
They hadn't found any real sign of Potter near the lodge- the kidnapping assassin had vacated the lodge with the boy presumably in tow sometime before their arrival
They'd come up with the idea to use an owl to find the boy, since one doesn't need to write an exact address to owl somebody. Really, they should have thought of this earlier, instead of trying to track the assassin with that 'GPS' device.
Dumbledore had needed to temporarily revoke some sort of charm he'd cast that redirected all owls sent to Potter. Apparently, the boy hadn't been getting all the fan mail and presents sent by well-wishers the past couple years. No doubt the brat's relatives spoiled him rotten anyways, even if Petunia had been jealous of Lily growing up.
Severus isn't particularly good at flying- certainly not good enough to ever hope to play Quidditch- but he is competent enough to stay in the air and avoid crashing.
Severus is wearing an invisibility cloak that Dumbledore produced from somewhere (which is odd, because Dumbledore himself doesn't need a cloak to be invisible, as he is at the moment) and Dumbledore has made himself invisible without a cloak.
A large black dog barks in Severus and Dumbledore's direction, or maybe it's barking at the owl. Can it smell them? The wind is, inconveniently, blowing their scent in the dog's direction.
The owl swoops down and drops the letter near Potter. The assassin, who is now dressed rather ridiculously, goes to pick it up, but the owl screeches at him, knowing it's for Potter and not that man.
Severus smirks slightly, because this time, the assassin has no idea he is here. He casts a silent Petrificus Totalus from underneath his cloak, and the man snaps still like a statue, not having a chance to fight back.
This is what should have happened that first night, Severus thinks viciously as he stares down at the now statue-like assassin. He's tempted to dangle this man upside down in the air by his ankle with Severus' self-invented Levicorpus, or jinx him into oblivion some other way. This man had caused Severus a lot of grief and some rather painful bruising by throwing him into a slide.
Instead, he casts Expelliarmus. Numerous guns and knives fly away from the assassin's body, and unfortunately the Potter brat isn't grazed by a knife.
The assassin's eyes are furious as they dart around, looking for an attacker.
Potter is a lot smaller than Severus had realized during his very brief glimpse of the boy before fighting the assassin. It's hard to believe he just turned four, when he looks like a child half his age. His tiny face is gaunt, with prominent cheekbones.
Even if he hasn't eaten at all since getting kidnapped, the boy would not be this underweight. No, he's clearly been malnourished for a while, and Severus has a feeling maybe his relatives weren't as doting as he'd assumed.
"Mr. A'set, Batman?" The child asks his petrified kidnapper. "We go to sleep now?"
He goes to imitate the man and lie down, hugging the dog tightly but putting less distance between himself and his kidnapper than Severus would have expected.
Perhaps the boy is suffering from what muggles call Stockholm Syndrome.
The assassin glares murderously at the two wizards. He's not moving, obviously, but Severus is positive he's trying to move and break the spell. The prosthetic arm whirs loudly, but even the mechanical limb is bound by the spell.
Now that the kidnapper is taken care of, Severus removes the invisibility cloak and Dumbledore undoes his own invisibility spell. Potter clearly recognizes Severus, probably having seen him from the car the other night.
Potter looks at Severus as if he is scarier than the assassin. Severus has no qualms about the little brat having a healthy dose of fear of him- hopefully it will lead to a level of respect his blasted father never showed Severus- but why is he not acting scared of his kidnapper? From what the two escorts have revealed, the man is a deadly assassin with no emotions.
Dumbledore approaches Potter, smiling kindly. "You are safe now, Harry." The old man leans to pick the child up. Potter looks unsurely at Dumbledore and glances back at the assassin.
Dumbledore also grabs ahold of the dog, which Severus would have left behind.
Severus vows that no matter what, neither the boy nor the dog are going to end up anywhere near Severus' quarters or labs. He just rescued the brat, and hopefully he'll be handed off to someone else now.
Severus grabs the assassin.
Dumbledore apparates them to Hogwarts, and Severus levitates the assassin down to the dungeons, ignoring Potter reaching out for the floating, petrified man.
Hopefully the assassin will reveal more information than the two other kidnappers that Severus interrogated.
Well, I guess this isn't as bad as the scenario from last chapter...