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disassembling) wrote in
spaces_between2014-06-09 08:55 am
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Out of the freezer
What: AU where The Winter Soldier is found by SHIELD before CA: TWS and settled in with an agent.
Warnings: Just tl;dr. It is my specialty.
Trains weren't generally a source of overland transport anymore, not with planes so conveniently available, but there were points where subtly was required more than quickness. There were less questions about trains, fewer looks with the amount of goods moved into a country so more was able to get through. It was easier to pay people off in shipping yards to look the other way while important items were shifted in and out.
If it had been known early in the process that his superiors had known that an agent had defected and tipped off that there were weapons being moved in from Russia, he would have been removed from the train. Too little, too late though, and the train was hit with SHIELD looking for both intelligence and weapons from the Soviets. It wasn't until a STRIKE team had made it towards the back of the train that some members suddenly realized that their mission had just gotten a lot more complicated.
Cryostasis was a process developed out of the 1940s, though perfected over the years by the Soviets first and then the Americans. Of course, it only worked on him, others never coming up from the surface again because their bodies were advanced enough to cope with the strain on the body and the healing powers required to make it back out of deep freeze. He was special because he was a weapon, made that way to survive the worst conditions. So he bubbled up as he was thawed from the inside out in a process that took hours generally but could be sped up.
Speeding up the process left him disoriented and intractable, irritated and violent. It was fine when enemies of the organization were kicking in the door and shooting the scientists in charge of thawing him. The damage was done though, the anti-freeze drug fast acting in his body as his muscles became suffused with warm blood and his lungs filling with a deep gasping breath as he arched, his blue eyes unfocused as men yelled orders, called in findings. It was all a blur to him.
Someone touched his cold flesh shoulder, but they were gone in the next minute as his metal arm swung around and slammed into the man's gut, blasting him away. He rolled from the chair, acting only on instinct as he grabbed the nearest object - metal table and threw it into a group of men raising their guns. He fought them; worse, he killed them until another team moved in and manhandled him to the ground. Someone did something; a familiar voice called a set of words that made him relax and stand down, so he did.
He was blind-folded, cuffed from wrist to elbow so his shoulders were forced to bow in awkwardly, but his legs were left free so that they could walk him into the SHIELD medical facility where many interested parties had gathered in the time it took to transport him. News had circulated and damage control had not been fast enough where the fact a man was found half-frozen on a train. If he had had his memories of his other life, he might have found it ironically he was found on a train.
The only words spoken above whispered tones was that there had been another similarly unfrozen a few years before. "Call them in. Maybe give us a clue on stabilizing this guy." He was pulled off, seated and chained to a bed in a padded room. With the blindfold off, he knew he could break down the door if he was ordered to. He was deemed too 'unstable' to be in a more populated area, so he was caged and observed.
Damage control indeed. Where were his orders and mission debriefings?
Warnings: Just tl;dr. It is my specialty.
Trains weren't generally a source of overland transport anymore, not with planes so conveniently available, but there were points where subtly was required more than quickness. There were less questions about trains, fewer looks with the amount of goods moved into a country so more was able to get through. It was easier to pay people off in shipping yards to look the other way while important items were shifted in and out.
If it had been known early in the process that his superiors had known that an agent had defected and tipped off that there were weapons being moved in from Russia, he would have been removed from the train. Too little, too late though, and the train was hit with SHIELD looking for both intelligence and weapons from the Soviets. It wasn't until a STRIKE team had made it towards the back of the train that some members suddenly realized that their mission had just gotten a lot more complicated.
Cryostasis was a process developed out of the 1940s, though perfected over the years by the Soviets first and then the Americans. Of course, it only worked on him, others never coming up from the surface again because their bodies were advanced enough to cope with the strain on the body and the healing powers required to make it back out of deep freeze. He was special because he was a weapon, made that way to survive the worst conditions. So he bubbled up as he was thawed from the inside out in a process that took hours generally but could be sped up.
Speeding up the process left him disoriented and intractable, irritated and violent. It was fine when enemies of the organization were kicking in the door and shooting the scientists in charge of thawing him. The damage was done though, the anti-freeze drug fast acting in his body as his muscles became suffused with warm blood and his lungs filling with a deep gasping breath as he arched, his blue eyes unfocused as men yelled orders, called in findings. It was all a blur to him.
Someone touched his cold flesh shoulder, but they were gone in the next minute as his metal arm swung around and slammed into the man's gut, blasting him away. He rolled from the chair, acting only on instinct as he grabbed the nearest object - metal table and threw it into a group of men raising their guns. He fought them; worse, he killed them until another team moved in and manhandled him to the ground. Someone did something; a familiar voice called a set of words that made him relax and stand down, so he did.
He was blind-folded, cuffed from wrist to elbow so his shoulders were forced to bow in awkwardly, but his legs were left free so that they could walk him into the SHIELD medical facility where many interested parties had gathered in the time it took to transport him. News had circulated and damage control had not been fast enough where the fact a man was found half-frozen on a train. If he had had his memories of his other life, he might have found it ironically he was found on a train.
The only words spoken above whispered tones was that there had been another similarly unfrozen a few years before. "Call them in. Maybe give us a clue on stabilizing this guy." He was pulled off, seated and chained to a bed in a padded room. With the blindfold off, he knew he could break down the door if he was ordered to. He was deemed too 'unstable' to be in a more populated area, so he was caged and observed.
Damage control indeed. Where were his orders and mission debriefings?
no subject
"It is better than staring at the walls," he agreed softly, watching her out of the corner of his eye, ignoring his books for a lack of interest in them. "Basic training?" He considered that seriously for a few minutes, relating it to the messages he had received; out of his cell would make it easier for extraction, wouldn't it? "I won't hurt anyone unless ordered to," he finally agreed with a shrug.
If she told him to hurt someone, he would. If his handlers came and ordered him, he would do just that. It was an order after all.
yep she's going to be so pissed when that happens and he knew all along
Like the fact he needed to remember just the basics of his life, to break out from whatever training and conditioning he had been through, trying to see if he could tell them anything about the organization he was supposed to collaborating with, important things for S.H.I.E.L.D to know and knowing the sad sob love story of Captain America wasn’t in that list, “Alright then.”
She really wanted to say that no one was going to order him that, but she knew that was a lie and that if everything went according to plan he was going to get those orders eventually. “From what I was told, you’re going to be taken to another room for it, you’re not going to be training with anyone in particular, I offered but they said no, but they want to be sure you will collaborate willingly when you’re moved and don’t try to make a break for it.”
Neither he nor I regret anything
"I can train on my own," he said simply. Few could keep up with him anyway, so he used to doing what was necessary to keep himself in shape. Normally he was given training modules ahead of time to practice a new skill or with a new weapon, but he generally had to do that alone. He apparently loaded, cocked and fired a gun too fast for many people to help him with it. "You offered to train with me, but you were denied?" He didn't like that.
"Why would I make a break for it?"
gaspu why so mean
“Yes, they said we will be allowed to do so but not yet.” Or at least that’s what she had been told, clearly they didn’t trusted him not to hurt her if they started to fight, even if it wasn’t real but it could turn real and dangerous quite quickly, so it was better they didn’t at the moment. “Did you train with anyone in…the place you were before?”
She just gives him a bit of a look at that question, before shrugging a bit. “If you forgot, you already broke out of your room and gave quite a scare to everyone here, so we better keep those scares to a minimum alright.” Slowly she motioned to the food. “Aren’t you going to eat, Bucky?”
no idea
"Sometimes if it was a new weapon or vehicle," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. There were people to instruct him, to show him to use those things before he was left on his own to make use of them until mission time. "Otherwise, I spent most of my time training alone." But always watched, always with someone who could report his progress or any failings on his part.
"I gave them fair warning and didn't hide my plan or ability to break out," he said reasonably. He looked at the food before sliding from the table to seat himself in the chair. He pulled over the tray and examined it before he ate because it might please her for him to do so. "Do you want some?"
no subject
“I am going to assume someone stayed at the very least to oversee your progress.” There’s a small shrug and it’s just a comment drawn from her own experience here, since the people that had been teaching her how to use those artifacts had stayed with her to oversee and provide help if needed. “What else did you do there? Asides from the training and the missions, I mean.”
She just gave him a bit of a look at his answer, she was more than aware that he had warned them but the fact he had followed through and showed them how easily he had done was what had bothered them the most, but she decided to drop it now. “No, that’s alright but thank you.”
no subject
"From an observation window mostly," he replied with a shrug. He caused a lot of damage when he was using the technology hard after all and no one wanted much shrapnel in their eyes. He question caused him to pause and think. "I ate sometimes, showered but mostly training and missions."
He shrugged at her refusal to join him and slowly dug into the limited diet that they provided him. Everything was bland, but he ate without really realizing he was supposed to have an opinion about the taste. "Are they going to take you away because I broke out to look for you?"
no subject
“And that was it?” It helped to paint a bit of a clearer picture for her, puzzling things together from what she had been told when he was found and then what he told her it was easy to see the pattern, he was brought back, trained with the necessary advancements, completed his mission and then frozen again, it was sad in a way. “…You mentioned behavior modification or something along those lines did that happened every time as well or for specific reasons?”
She looked a bit confused at the question. “…No, what makes you think that?” Had someone told him that was going to happen as, well she didn’t know, as a way of punishment or something. “How’s the food? Do you like it?”
no subject
"In the beginning, I think." He thought because he didn't remember that far back. Way way back was just a haze of dull sphere he didn't touch, full of pain and fear and fury. He forced himself to take another measured bite, chewing even though it really wasn't necessary. "I was modified when I malfunctioned." Like a robot was reprogrammed after getting a virus or working outside of set parameters.
"Because you don't stay long and when you do something, someone comes to take you away and you don't come back for awhile," he remarked simply, placing the observation out there. "I eat it. That's what I'm supposed to do." What was this about liking it?
no subject
“…When you malfunctioned,” Her expression remaining carefully and perfectly blank, even though she was seething inside, having once again thrown in her face and by his own account that he was seen as nothing more than a tool and not an actual being pissed her off. “And what exactly did they considered malfunctioning?”
Her fingers stopped her slow movements and she tilted her head a bit. “Do you want me to stay longer here with you?” She wasn’t exactly in control of the times, but she was sure if she asked they might leave her here longer. “Well yes, but that doesn’t necessarily means that you enjoy the taste and maybe we can find something you will like better.”
no subject
She seemed to have a lot of questions for him today, and he knew that they were being recorded. She was as close to an order as he had, so he willingly gave up the information. He had no reason to hide; he hadn't been ordered to say nothing at all. "Fighting my modification, not completing the mission objective, not paying attention, creating collateral damage if I slipped my handler, wandering off," he said, tipping each off on a finger.
He regarded her over his spoon and carefully examined the question as a potential offer. "Yes," he said simply. He would like her to stay all the time. "It suits my body, and that's all that matters. Taste is irrelevant, isn't it?"
no subject
“And did those things happened a lot?” Probably most of those happened at the beginning when he was still a work in progress or something like that, it wouldn’t be surprising, he was after all as stubborn as she could be sometimes and she was sure he must have fought this for as long as he was able to do so.
She smiled at him and nodded. “Then I am going to stay as long as I can.” Another minute of silence passed between them. “Not really, you’re not always going to be on this diet and then we might need to figure out what kind of foods you like, not sure if you still like the same ones as before.”
no subject
"I don't know," he finally said, turning his blue eyes on her. "I was wiped, so I don't recall." However, like her, his regeneration meant that even his brain tissue returned to what it had been. Connections reformed, memories returned... it was why they had to use electricity in the first place, to disrupt the flow of messages, destroy the regeneration for awhile longer. "Each one had to have happened at least once."
He nodded at her words, uncertain if he was pleased or just thinking he was. "They are going to change my diet?" That seemed like the most novel of concepts. "I like what they gave me initially, but it didn't stay down."
no subject
She turned to look at him right in time to hear his answer and she pondered on that for a moment. “Bucky, while you were with them, did you ever remembered anything from your past? Or did you ever wanted to leave them if you had the chance?” She just needed to know that, see if that was something that had ever happened, he was remembering things now and it could have happened in the past.
“Yes, I know, this diet is to try to slowly get your body acclimated to accept other kinds of food.” She supposed he was only giving something that could sustain him enough and that was it. “I assume the place you were before didn’t do that.”
no subject
His head snapped up, and he rose from the chair quickly, gaining his feet with deadly grace. He still held his spoon, but he rolled it along his fingers as one might with a knife. "Yes," he hissed softly. "I remembered sometimes, hints here and there and then there was only pain. Order comes from pain, and when the chaos of my mind got too much, it was reordered with pain. Electricity, the water baths, knives..." Torture until he behaved. He learned to avoid the torture but early on, he was victim to it more often than he wasn't.
He issued a soft huff through his pursed lips like a bull snorting before a charge. "No, I wasn't awake long enough for more than a high-protein shake. It tasted a little like vomit. My purpose was never to enjoy; it was to do as they ordered."
no subject
Her eyes snapped up to him the moment he started to answer her question and like expected she didn’t liked the answer, no matter how prepared she was to hear that and God she had tried to be prepared, hearing it coming out from his lips, knowing all the pain he had gone through just because she had failed to help him, to save him from falling made her feel guilty and maybe just for today she had asked enough about his experiences there. “Please, sit down, Bucky.”
And again she wasn’t surprised at that answer, she had tasted those high-protein shakes and had needed to consume those for a bit after she woke up since she wasn’t ready for solid food yet, thankfully it hadn’t lasted enough. “Well we might need to change that.”
no subject
He shook his head almost violently, shaking off the memories before her request reached him. His blue eyes showed the fury that couldn't show on his expression as he gently set the spoon down on his tray and lowered himself back into sitting position. "Do you want to know the worst part? The part that only comes to me now and will be gone in a few minutes when I'm not thinking about it?"
He didn't care for change all that much, though he bridled against training just sitting there. He'd eat anything because he was told to, knowing better than to refuse. "I accept it as necessary. I had to digest quickly and metabolism what little they got into me."
no subject
When he took a seat, still seething in fury and she could tell due to his body language, she didn’t say anything for a long time since she wasn’t sure what she could tell. His question sent a sudden and quick pang of dread, did she really wanted to know what that worst part was? Was she ready to know? Did he need to tell her to take another step to break away from whatever had been done to him? She pondered on that for a bit before she made a choice and one that she was possibly going to regret. “What’s the worst part, Bucky?”
There was another bout of silence; this one was a rather accepting one since she couldn’t exactly say much about that, even when they had been on the field back during the war they had rations to make things quick. “And that was enough to sustain you?”
no subject
He watched her, not about to make her accept the burden of his words unless she really wanted to know. He shifted from his seat when she did, his hands open and palms facing her as a sign of peace as he closed the distance between them. He leaned in, placing mouth next to her ear as he whispered for her ears alone, "Deep, deep down inside, I'm still there, drowning in the wash of conditioning, trying to drag myself out. I'm a passenger for the things I've done, watching someone else's life and I fight, claw and scream to rise... but I lose over and over again. Always losing and that makes what I do all the worse." He turned his face to glance at the observation window before kissing the lobe of her ear.
Slowly, he withdrew, bumping his nose against her temple in an odd affection. He began his slow deadly retreat back to his chair. "I wasn't awake long enough to need more."
no subject
Her breath caught a bit when he moved closer and she sat so, so still while she allowed it to happen and she wasn’t supposed to be allowing this close, but she couldn’t help it and honestly she wasn’t even sure if she shivered or not when she felt his breath against her ear. However that was soon forgotten and she could literally feel her heart breaking, yes, she was regretting her choice but it was what she had chosen and she tried oh so hard not to reach up to him and try to soothe him, hoping that got rid of the pain on his voice. “…and what will you have done if you hadn’t lost?”
And she was sure she did shivered when his lips brushed against her lobe and that she was going to hear about this again, she smiled (sadly) a bit at the rather odd show of affection and just regarded him silently for a bit, one of her hands moved enough for her fingers to lightly brush against his. “Well you might just need to get used to it again, I guess.”
no subject
He paused at her question and regarded her with cool blue eyes, judging her strength to bear the burden that he had already partially laid on her shoulders. "I would have ruined someone's day as they ruined mine," he said slowly, picking his words very carefully so he was non-specific. "However, that's the horrific beauty of what was done to me... I never win."
He felt the brush of her fingers against his and hesitated in walked beyond her reach. He glanced at the window for a long moment before watching her. "You don't believe this place has the means to keep me against a determined assault, do you?" It was the only warning that he could give that someone would come for him, some handler would order and he would go.
no subject
She didn’t made any comment about what he would have done, she understood that would have probably involved killing and probably a body count, something that she should have frowned upon considering the image built around her of being a paragon of virtue, but could she really fault him or blame him for having thought that or the fact he would have done it? No. Did she accept it? No, but she couldn’t say she wouldn’t understand the why, she looks at him steadily. “Never say never, one day you might.”
Carefully she pulled her hand back and didn’t allow anything to show on her expression, not even when he threw that question and one that felt like a hint. She crossed her arms over her chest and if she had to be perfectly honest, yes, she knew this place wasn’t exactly safe at keeping him contained, he had been able to slip so easily and she didn’t doubted if they wanted him back they might as well.
“No, I don’t. It’s just like I know, without a doubt, that if that happens I will more than likely die.” And she shrugs just a bit at that, she was either going to die at his hands or trying to prevent them from getting a hold of him, whatever it was it didn’t mattered anymore since she had already accepted to deal with whatever consequences since the moment she saw him again.
no subject
Yet he looked at her and tipped his chin up. "Even when you win, you never realize what you lost until it's gone," he murmured. A faulty memory, a path down a dark road where the killing never stopped, a loss in the faith of humanity. Why should he protect anyone when people were foul enough to do such things to each other? That was James though; the deeper and far more rooted Winter Soldier didn't care. He was a blade laid bare ready to strike at the next ordered target.
His blue eyes narrowed at her idea that she would die, but he knew that wasn't true. He would see that she didn't die. "No, you won't," he replied stiffly, turning his head aside as he considered all the steps that he would do in order to keep her alive.
no subject
“…You can only hope that you will be able to get what you lost back.” And she wasn’t even sure if she could be allowed to have that hope now right now, he wasn’t the same, she wasn’t the same, they had both changed in different ways. “Or try to build something new from what remains and guard it better this time around.” And that was probably the only thing she could do, try to help him as much as she could and before he was taken back, so he could have a chance at life or something.
The look she gave him was rather detached and maybe a bit cold, resigned since he really needed to understand. “Do you really believe they will leave me alive? They might order you to kill me, you realize.” And if that was to be the case, then it just happened. “They might manage to do it themselves, either by sheer dumb luck or having someone as nearly as skilled as you, leaving me alive is not and won’t be an option.”
no subject
"I'll... need time to do that," he finally murmured, having long ago given up on what was left of his meal to stand close to her. If he wanted to, he could lift a hand and brush the tips of his fingers along her cheek, but he didn't. Not yet anyway. "I wonder if I guarded it poorly last time."
He curled a lip in a snarl at her. "An order I'll refuse," he replied, showing how deep his attachment to her went. His feelings for her overrode his appeasing behaviours to orders already. "I will see you out of this when the extraction comes."
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