For morethanashield

[disassembling]

Who: James "Winter Soldier" Barnes & Steve "Captain America" Rogers
When: Months after initial capture
What: AU - Both Steve and Bucky fell from the train. Both were captured and forced into service of HYDRA as their weapons to shape the world.
Warnings: Maybe violence?


The pain was momentarily numbed, though it would return along with his orientation of his surroundings now that the days experimentations were over. For the first time, he was stable enough to be moved from being trapped and monitored in the medical wing (he assumed it had a name though didn't know it) and shifted to the cells where only a guard was required to keep watch over numerous subjects in their small cages side-by-side. The room was kept colder than normal to prevent them from moving around much or thinking too hard about escaping.

His head was fuzzy and his vision wavered as he was settled down in the middle of his new cell. There were whispers (always were), but his head was too drained of anything to grasp onto any one detail. This was a test apparently. Perhaps to see if he could survive the rigors of the illusion of freedom in a small cold cage left to his own devices. They left, clicking the door shut with too much noise that he twitched where he lay.

At first he lay on his right side just drinking in the air, orienting himself on one aspect of his surroundings before adding another. He allowed his ears to focus next, the sounds of moaning prisoners, the mutter of a disgruntled cold guard making rounds, the shuffle of cold experiments trying to find that one warm place that didn't exist. His sense of touch was next, feeling the rough cement under his arm, and the cold wash of sensation from the left side of his body where heavy bandages covered some recent modification to where his arm should be. At last, he allowed his eyes to pick out things, but it was the current weakest of his senses, fallible and blurry as he dragged himself across the floor.

He didn't know where he was going, didn't know he was being watched keenly for what direction he chose to go when there were four options for him. One had no other prisoner, the other three did. He pulled himself towards the right, and though he didn't know it, towards where they were all very excited that he would go. To him. He nestled against the bars in the corner, breathing hard from the excursion but slowly curling up. There was a source of familiarity nearby. He chose to be close to it.

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[disassembling]

There was an innate knowledge that he would be fed, that perhaps his new wakefulness was the precursor to being provided nutrients that would fuel his body to heal faster. He hummed softly and didn't put up much of a fight to sit down again, cuddled up against the other weapon's warm side and his cheek shifting over to rest on the broad muscled shoulder nearby.

It didn't seem to him that he was resting there long before the door opened and a meal had arrived, though he noted there was enough only for one. He still pushed himself to his feet and padded over where he was directed to in order to be checked over briefly and then ordered to eat in the relative isolation of the corner of the room. It wasn't more than a thick drinkable substance, but it was apparently formulated for him.

Once fed, there was another small cursory little exam that determined he was capable of being left alone. He dropped his eyes to the floor and said nothing against it, though he felt the impending loss more keenly than he would have thought. He would had preferred to have more time with the other weapon, to be warm and comfortable, but he had been trained early on to keep his mouth shut.

At the order, he looked over at the other weapon before shifting a step and hitting the blond with enough emphasis for it to be a blow but reigning in his strength. He made certain that it sounded hard even if it wasn't that bad where it impacted in the other weapon's side. It was also a very easy excuse to stay close to the blond.

[morethanashield]

He was already bracing himself for the blow when it came. Protesting was unthinkable, wouldn't have accomplished anything but getting him and possibly his companion into deeper trouble. When it came, the hit was hard enough to send him staggering, ears ringing, trying to shake his head to clear it. But he could tell, after a moment's self-assessment, that it had done no more than bruise.

Yet, in that moment, there was no immediate way to tell that he'd gotten off easily. He shouldn't have - by rights, the hit should have drawn blood. But it hadn't. That had to be deliberate.

He looked at the Soldier for only a second. He gave no acknowledgement of that small mercy, because to do so would have been to invite further punishment for them both. Yet for just a moment, there was a flicker of gratitude in his eyes, meant only for the other weapon, and fortunately seen by no other.

All that done, he dropped his eyes docilely down to the floor, otherwise standing at attention and ready to be directed. The doctors were pleased by these twin displays of obedience, and he was ordered out without any further difficulties.

The next time they encountered one another would be over either side of a comm line.

[disassembling]

The Soldier spent the next thirty-six hours alone, his injuries monitored as well as his behaviour now that he had been separated from the other weapon. He was even plied with questions about his association, why he had slept, how had he felt, who was the other weapon present. They pressed him to answer, and whatever he said appeared to please his team. Bonded and secured to one another but not with the added troublesome memories that would cause resistance.

He was put back into the cryofreeze when the stitches were removed, and time passed before he was thawed and given a mission. He was to take out a terrorist cell in China funded by the government and was apparently distinctly against HYDRA. The cell had fifty high-level members and their guards in together for a meeting, and he was to take them out.

Only the need to make the destruction complete and a presentation of the might of the hidden organization, he would not be working alone. He was being sent with the Commander, a weapon much like him but more advanced in running missions and able to achieve maximum destruction where he was more subtle in his workings. He was to follow the lead of the Commander, he being assigned as the Soldier.

He parachuted to the drop zone and read the mission debriefing once more before doing an equipment check. He set the communicator into his ear, hidden under his lengthening hair that now hung to the bottom of his ears and had a distinct shaggy look. He flexed his shoulders in his uniform and settled to wait for the arrival of his Commander.

[morethanashield]

The night air was warm and the air was clear, though his vision was blocked past a certain distance in any direction by the cloud cover. That had been chosen deliberately, of course. Though maximum destruction and total annihilation were the goals tonight, stealth would be key in the hours leading up to that.

Still, it felt as though his muscles were loosening even further, though of course he had been carefully prepped and given time to properly thaw before being sent off on this mission. He parachuted down from the plane into the drop zone, all the equipment he would need loaded up, including and most importantly the shield on his back - perfectly round and painted silver, with a single red star in the middle.

A drop like this at this time of night could never be executed perfectly, however. While he landed within an acceptable range of the target, he landed out of sight of his companion - a man his superiors only referred to as the Soldier, a weapon like himself, loyal and obedient and vicious as a starving dog when pointed at the right target.

After a look around to confirm that he was alone, after slinging his shield off his back in preparation for any sudden attacks, only then did he fit his communicator into his ear and turn it in to their chosen frequency.

"Come in, Soldier. Were you able to note my position during the drop?"

[disassembling]

The night was enough where anyone without any measure of heightened senses or someone not looking for signs would have missed the arrival of the Commander. He did not, and his eyes followed even as he remained in position further along in his own drop zone. He settled and waited, keeping an eye out to see signs that anyone else in the area might have noticed, but there was nothing. It was all too perfectly executed as usual.

When his communicator came to life in his ear, he reached up and turned down the volume before he formed any reply. There was something about that voice that settled him more than the idea of an upcoming mission itself. That was strange; he lived for the mission and nothing more.

His eyes continued to scan the area. "Soldier, reporting. I have visual on your drop point, Commander. Instructions?"

[morethanashield]

"Confirm your location. I seem to be closer to the west side of the mansion. If you're near the east, we should make our initial incursion from either side, establish initial contact in the guard house." They'd both seen the plans, they should both know about the small guard house that was located just off the front gate. Neither of them would be taking the gate, of course. They'd both been trained of any number of ways to get up and over walls without being seen...or at least, without leaving survivors.

"Sound good?" He didn't know why he asked that. Didn't know why this man's opinion should matter. But he asked it anyway, maybe as nothing more than a verbal tic. Though even those were discouraged as inefficient. "Otherwise, I'll come to you."

His unsteady landing aside, it felt...better, being in touch with his companion. His "teammate", for lack of a better word. He could have accomplished this alone, he knew, just as the Soldier could likely have done so. But it felt...better, doing this together, and not just for efficiency's sake. Suddenly, the task seemed not only necessarily doable, but simple.

[disassembling]

"My position is the east side of the mansion, over looking the guard rounds as required," he reported without hesitation. His eyes knew where Steve was, and he only needed a little run down the hill and then up and over the wall to disable the guards that were doing sloppy rounds. There would be no alarmed raised while he was on the east side.

He was just as surprised to have his opinion on the plan asked, even if it might be a courtesy. He turned his gaze towards where he knew that his Commander was hidden, and he felt warm and settled more than he ever had before in a mission. "Roger that, Commander. The plan is sound."

He eased from his position and ghosted down the embankment to the wall at a run. He jumped the distance and caught the wall with his metal fingers before pulling the rest of him up slowly and peered over the edge. He was up and over before even a shadow of himself could register and disappeared into the shadow of a tree. "I have infiltrated, Commander. Proceed with the elimination?"

[morethanashield]

Though they were across a distance of dozens, perhaps even hundreds of yards, they moved as almost perfect mirrors of one another. He also moved up the hill towards the mansion on his side, swift and silent and tireless despite the incline.

Upon reaching the wall, he wasn't quite agile enough to scale the wall all in one bound. But he was tough enough, strong enough, to catch himself halfway up, digging his fingers into whatever scant handholds the wall might provide. When necessary, he used his superior strength dig into the plaster a little harder to make more of a handhold. It barely necessitated missing a step in his ascent to do so, and within seconds, he was peering over the edge, left then right, poised to act at the first sign of any other bodies.

None so far.

On the Soldier's end, there would be a delay of two seconds as all of this was done and thought before the reply came. "Roger that, Soldier. Proceed."

And he would do the same - staying on the walls, for now, forcing his way into close quarters and close combat where the guard's black market rifles would be all but useless against his shield. But most of them would barely get a chance to fumble for their weapons before a flash of silver was the last thing they ever saw.

Bloodied but barely out of breath, he would meet the Soldier in the guard house on schedule.

[disassembling]

His eyes moved along the shadows, picking out the rotation of guards, but he didn't move towards them until he had the go-ahead from his Commander. HYDRA was very strict to enforce that he was not in charge of this mission, to see if he would bend as easily to the Commander as he had to for his handlers. If anything, he responded better to his Commander, eager and pseudo-pleasured to work.

He slipped off amid the shadows to draw closer to the rotating men. He slit their throats or knifed them quietly, not allowing them to make a sound. Only the last caught the smell of blood before he arrived, but there was still no alarm as he gutted the man and left the body in the bushes before moving to the rendezvous point to meet his Commander.

The Soldier emerged from the shadows of the guard house and prowled up to his Commander, his eyes darting down the other weapon for signs of injury. Once it was clear that they were both running on optimum, he bowed his head slightly to show respect of command and willingness to be sent off to wherever was necessary.

A foreign warmth twisted in his guts when he was close to the Commander, and he had no knowledge of it happening before. It had, but those sensations had been wiped away. Each time they met, he experienced a warm acceptance of his situation because he wasn't alone. Instead, his gloved flesh fingers reached out and brushed against the Commander's hand before caressing the side of the blooded shield.

[morethanashield]

He saw the Soldier as a deeper shadow in the darkness before he came fully into view, bloodied but moving steadily, in no way betraying injury not even to his trained eye. The Commander found himself with the foreign but powerful urge to sigh with relief, for reasons that were not just practical or efficient, but strangely emotional, too, in a way he could never remember feeling before. He even felt a rush of something like pride at the sight of his companion, strong in a way they could only ever be out in the field, free to wok Hydra's will.

He couldn't look at this man, this Soldier, and believe that the mission had a chance of being anything but a complete success now that they were together.

He shifted his body against the other man's almost curious touch, acknowledging and accepting it. "Good work." He didn't have to ask if he'd been spotted or seen. No alarms had gone up. The mansion across the grounds remained silent. Their presence must, therefore, remain undetected.

"I'll go into the building and sweep it for targets. I'll try to barricade any other ways out on what sides I can. That way, any who get away will be funneled out straight to you. Think you can manage that, Soldier?"

[disassembling]

He was well aware that the mission parameters stated that two advanced weapons were required to complete it, but for the first time, the mission meant a little less than being able to just stand here for these brief moments with the other weapon. He reached up and his thumb wiped away a droplet of blood from the blond's cheek, and even though his expression remained frozen in neutrality, his eyes moved over the other man's face with great fascination.

"I am told me work is always good," he replied simply. Unless he failed, but he didn't remember those times, just the agony that came on the heels of it. "You are as effective as you were debriefed to me of being." It was the highest compliment that he could pay.

He inclined his head to the side to acknowledge the plan and slipped his sniper rifle from his shoulder and pulled a silencer from his fatigue pocket, screwing it into place with deft hands. "The mission objects will be completed without fail," he said simply before he stepped aside to find a high point on top of the guard station. He paused before climbing and looked back at his Commander. "When all targets are eliminated, we could watch the stars together, yes?"

[morethanashield]

The incongruousness of such a suggestion, in light of what they were preparing to do, did not even occur to the Commander. More surprising was that his companion might have ideas for actions above and beyond what he was ordered. And yet...

"We could. We're even a little ahead of schedule. We'll probably have some time before we're due to be extracted." It was a pleasant night, though he did not normally think in such a fashion. The weather or the clearness of the air should only concern him as far as its effect on tactical matters. Yet he was very rarely permitted out of the facility, even for missions - he was too valuable to waste on "trivial" matters or goals. If they fulfilled their mission as ordered, surely some time together would not be punished.

"But. Only after all our targets are eliminated." His tone was stern, but only a little, and there was a smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth and lit his eyes. Without thinking of anything beyond that it felt right to do, he reached out to brush a stray strand of hair out of the other weapon's eyes. Without thinking of anything beyond that it felt right to say, he murmured just loud enough for the Soldier to hear: "Be careful."

He shouldn't have needed to say that. By rights, this wasn't even that dangerous a mission, especially now that they had secured the area outside the house itself. But, well...he knew better than almost anyone, just how well the tables could suddenly turn. All too often, he had been the thing that turned the tables.

But that said, he found that he had it in himself to turn away and set off towards the house at a swift, silent run. The front door was locked. He simply broke it, and slipped inside like a wraith.

Three minutes later, targets would start pouring out the open front door.

[disassembling]

He inclined his head slightly when reminded that the mission had to be completed successfully before any other action could be considered, and he agreed. The mission would always be the most important aspect of his wakefulness, and it was drilled into him too hard to let it go either. However, the notion that something came after the mission was interesting in a way that testing new weapons was. He had never done anything beyond on his own volition before.

His eyes flicked to the smile that the other weapon wore, studying the brief expression; it made the other weapon's blue eyes come alive. The very fact stopped him from ascending to the roof, and he leaned into the fingers caressing through his hair. His mouth suddenly felt dry; why was that?

"You're in the direct line of fire more than I am," he reminded. It was his own way of insisting the other weapon was careful as well, but then he was climbing to a good vantage point and setting up his sniper rifle. He had no concern for the blond, aware that together the mission was incapable of failing unless one or both of them malfunctioned.

He settled in, resting another munitions clip next to his elbow as he stared down the scope and scanned. The first target to scramble from the building died on the doorstep, spattering the one man following with brains and blood. The second died quickly and with a shocked look. Then his gaze swept the yard, finding multiple targets and taking each one out with good sniping. He paused only long enough to refill his clip, but his eyes were still looking down the scope.

When the panic swelled and men tried to go back inside when the wall became entirely inaccessible because he could see them every time they went close, he eased the pressure to get them back inside. Let them realize the impossibility of their situation. Two weapons designed for this just picking them off one-by-one. He only received return fire once, but it was only because the flash of his bullet from the end of the silencer. The shooter didn't stand a chance when he turned his attention on them.

It was a killing ground, bodies laying in blood and not a sound. When the trickle of men came to an end, he held his position all the same. Softly, more to himself but it sounded down his communication unit all the same, he hummed a tune. It was just a bunch of notes that had no base in his skull, but he still hummed it all the same.

[morethanashield]

There were plenty of targets that never made it outside. The Commander moved through the entire house with a precision that could only be called robotic, mechanical. He locked any window and barred any door he came across, barring those leading towards the front yard. He checked every crawl space that could feasibly hide a human-sized body, no matter how tightly curled up. But when the sound of movement, any movement caught his attention, he turned from a methodical machine to an unstoppable nightmare. Anyone he could catch went down with crushed skulls or slashed throats, broken windpipes or bullets to the head. Anyone he couldn't, without letting his current target get away, he allowed to run right into the Soldier's bullets.

When all was said and done, the house was no less a ruin than the yard - furniture broken, blood on the walls, bodies laying where they'd died with wide, terrified eyes. The last thing they'd seen had been the masked, unstoppable weapon coming at them at a run.

But at last, after what might have been moments or hours - it didn't matter - all was quiet, but for the drip of blood, the whisper of wind, and the house settling. It was quiet enough that he could hear the Soldier humming through his earpiece. A tune that meant nothing to him, but caught in his head easily all the same. In the back of his head, there was even the echo and the whisper of words - gonna save the American way...

He didn't emerge immediately. He did a full, methodical sweep of the house once more, top to bottom. He checked every room and possible crawl-space, no matter how small. But it was all, ultimately, to no purpose.

Their mission had been accomplished. Given what a spectacular team they'd proven to be, perhaps it had even been accomplished sufficiently within their designated schedule that the two weapons could sit and watch the stars for a time, while they waited to be extracted.

It was this thought that finally prompted him to speak aloud to his companion, through the earpiece. "Commander here. The house has been cleared. How do things look out there, Soldier?"

[disassembling]

The Soldier remained in his position, his scope sweeping the area for signs of movement that wasn't a breeze shifting the bushes and trees lightly. There was no one alive on the grounds, but he would wait them out all the same. He assumed that if the bodies needed to be checked for final death that his Commander would do the honour while he covered the more open position.

Yet, his tune continued, and he couldn't place it nor did he stop it once it had begun. He didn't think that he had ever made that kind of noise before, deep in his throat with a soft rhythm that made him tap the toe of his boot lightly on the roof where he was laying. He wasn't ordered to be quiet, which was perhaps the most surprising of all.

He glanced slightly towards the stars above but more to tell how much time had passed than because he wanted to watch them alone. He had no interest in that, and his patience for the word of his Commander was everlasting. "There is only dead to greet you on the grounds, Commander. All is quiet. Orders?"

[morethanashield]

He smiled in satisfaction. It was news that was hardly unexpected to receive but no less pleasant to hear confirmed.

By rights, perhaps they should stay to check every corpse for proof of death. But, truth be told, that almost certainly wouldn't be an efficient use of their time. A full secondary sweep would definitely take them well beyond their rendezvous time with their handlers, who would most certainly not be pleased to find them still here at the scene of the massacre when it got closer to sunrise.

"Clean up your position and meet me outside, on the south side of the wall." Particularly, no shell casings be left here at the scene. The actual bullets were, fortunately, chosen specifically to match the types known to be most commonly used by the terrorists, but the less evidence of their presence they could leave behind, the better. With any luck, this would look like nothing more than a deal gone catastrophically wrong. "Well done, Soldier."

That said and done, he slung his shield back into place on his back, unblocked the house's back door, clambered over the south wall, and let himself down onto the other side. There he would wait in the shadows for the other weapon to join him.

[disassembling]

Despite the Commander not being able to see him, he nodded his head in response to the order. He moved away from his still positioned rifle and cleaned up ever bullet casing, having kept count of how many he had fired. There was no trace of his existence once he was finished, shell casing tucked away into his pack and rifle settled onto his back.

He slipped down and prowled across the yard, making a single walk through of the dead to make certain that no one was faking until he had left. There was nothing, only death, blood and stillness, as was to be expected from facing off against two weapons with the faces of men.

The Soldier moved towards the south side, skirting the building rather than going through it. He took a running jump and caught the edge of the wall before slipping over quietly to settle into the shadows for a moment, his eyes scanning for hostile movements. Then he was up and swaggering from the shadows, and his gloved flesh fingers rose and tugged off the half mask that he always wore on missions and turned his bare face towards the shadows.

"Commander," he acknowledged, aware the other weapon was hidden. Slowly, his eyes flicked up towards the stars above, cold, distant and set in a blackness. Just like them.

[morethanashield]

There was the barest half-second of hesitation as he heard movement nearby, a moment of weighing his options for attack in case, just in case, this was a threat.

But his senses confirmed to him that here was not a threat far quicker than they ordinarily might - even his handlers knew to give plenty of warning and announcement on approach during and after a mission. So even as the Soldier was removing his half-mask, he stepped out under the open sky with him, stretching languidly.

"Soldier." He offered his companion an easy smile, slinging an arm around his shoulders in something like a sideways embrace. "Care to walk with me?" Their rendezvous point was in a little valley between the trees - should be plenty of space to settle in and watch the stars there.

[disassembling]

There was something in that easy smile that disarmed any intent to defend himself as his Commander closed the distance between them, and he didn't break off the other man's arm when it came around his shoulders. It was one of those easy embraces that he had seen people do with each other, friendly, companionable, and trusting. There had never been a time that he was aware that something like this might happen to him.

Yet, despite his general rigidness, his flesh arm curled easily around the other weapon's waist in the same companionable way. He even purposefully bumped the side of his hip against the blond's as he accepted the offer of walking silently, his eyes still turned up towards the stars.

"It was a well-planned and well-executed mission with you," he said, the closest to a compliment in return. He wasn't allowed to compliment, since men were expected to follow him and let him work. The other weapon was different; they were as close to each other as could be. "I would be inclined to serve on a mission with you again."

As they walked, he lost some of the tension in his body and smoothed his gait with each step, and he swayed with an easy manner of not having a care in the world. He didn't really. "When we are together, I experience a sensation of warmth that is entirely unexplainable."

[morethanashield]

Why should they have a care? They had done their job well - exceptionally well, even, so that it might be more likely they would be assigned to work together, in future. He had met someone like him, someone who understood instinctively what it was like to be him and think the way he had been made to think. He was no longer alone - in fact, it seemed ridiculous, even borderline inconceivable, that he had only met this man this night.

But he had, hadn't he? He certainly couldn't remember ever meeting him before.

"So do I. But...even if it's unexplainable," And he accepted the fact that it was without question. "It's...good. I enjoy it. And it seems to help us both. Maybe we will serve together on a mission again."

He barely felt the exertion of picking their way through the trees and towards the sloping valley. He moved a little like a man in a dream, in fact, although he hadn't dreamed for a very long time, didn't even remember that it was something normal or something people did.

[disassembling]

It was strange how he didn't experience the usual emptiness when a mission was over, a job well done, and all that was left was the rendezvous point. For what seemed like the first time, walking to the end point was not a cold affair where he would stand and wait and wonder nothing at all, question nothing at all. Cold and statuesque to be collected and put back on the shelf.

Instead, he walked arm-in-arm with another weapon, releasing his grip only long enough to pass some terrain and then he was back at the blond's side. His half mask was gripped in his fingers, but his attention alternated between the weapon he walked with or the cold twinkle of stars above which he had only deigned to notice before when he needed to determine his time or location.

"Perhaps if they are pleased with our mission, we will be given another operation to complete together," he agreed, perhaps more warmly than he ever had before. The problem was he craved another mission as he sometimes craved to be fed when his stomach was tightening or making angry sounds. "We won't remember," he suddenly added.

He was wiped clean between missions. There was no distractions. There was only the mission and the next and the next until the world had become the ultimate order out of the ashes of chaos. Would he remember that either?

He stopped just shy of the rendezvous point, ten feet to be exact and swung his body around to face the other weapon. His eyes studied the taller weapon, thicker of chest and broader of shoulders. "When order comes, I want to know I am there with you."

[morethanashield]

He was startled, even a little concerned, when his companion moved away, turned to face him, instead. The Soldier was standing in his way, stopping him from crossing that last ten feet. He could have, maybe should have, shoved him easily aside. But instead, he stopped where he was to listen.

"I want to be there with you, too. But...why won't we remember?"

He didn't have as much of a sense as the other man of how much they'd lost, how much was taken from them, continuously and most especially in the chair. He knew that it was used as a punishment, he knew that he would do nearly anything not to wind up locked in place there even if it seemed to come at the whim of their handlers. He knew that he was always somehow...less, afterwards.

But he didn't understand why, because how could you miss something that you didn't know had been taken from you? Especially during moments like these, there was the sense that he had all he needed.

He tilted his head to regard the other weapon with no small amount of concern - that was a dangerous thing to feel, and show that he felt, but there was no one around but the two of them to see. "Are you all right?"

[disassembling]

His hands slid down to settle on the other weapon's hips, his eyebrows drawing together as he thought about the words that he had spoken. Those were the words that his handlers would most certainly take him to task for, and while he never knew what punishment he might receive, he knew it would come swift and hot and horrible. If he lingered too long on what punishment might come, his body shivered and an instinctive sensation of dread rose within him. People remembered; weapons did not.

"I don't... know," he said softly, confused and agitated. He pressed his forehead against the blond's chest as if feeling the rise and fall motions of the man's chest would settle down what he knew and what he didn't. "I don't remember anything, but every time I wake, I am told what I must do. I'm told that my actions will bring about a future. Yet, I never know what the future is the next time I wake."

His fingers tightened and he inhaled sharply at the question, and it was the kind of question from a handler that would bring the heat and the shock. From the other weapon, it almost felt... genuine. He still forced himself to slowly loosen his grip and nod his head. "I am running at optimal."

[morethanashield]

"Hey," he murmured softly as the Soldier pressed against him. The sight of him, so obviously agitated and lost, twisted his heart painfully in his chest, in a way that he could not otherwise remember feeling. So he wrapped his arms around the other weapon, taking care to keep his grip careful, gentle. As he ran his fingers lightly through the Soldier's longer hair, he even found himself shushing the other man gently, as one might a frightened animal.

It was a genuine question. His intent was clumsy from lack of use, but sincere, startlingly so. "The mission is over," he murmured, just loud enough for him to hear. "You don't need to be running at optimal. Not right now. That's okay."

He didn't have the right to say that, not really. Now that the mission was over, he didn't have the right to make decisions for either of them, to even have enough of an opinion to decide. Yet he did, in that moment when it was only them, and it felt...right.

"Does anyone really know what the future is?" Their targets certainly couldn't have predicted their fates this night.

gonna be slow the next 2 weeks with x-mas & all

[disassembling]

It was strange to him that he could find this soothing to tuck in close to another weapon and not just because they were the same either. There was a part of him that knew that it would always be every man for himself, but he wasn't a man and had no particular inclination to fight anymore. He was going to be scrubbed clean and put back on the shelf after this and have no memory of this or anything else for that matter, just skills and tactics. He would just go back to being empty.

So why didn't he feel empty when around this weapon? Why was it a simple choice to step in and be soothed with a noise like that?

"I have to always be running on optimal," he murmured softly. He took the first unreasonable step closer and pressed his face into the other weapon's neck, almost surprising himself at how warm and comforting it was. "All personnel associating with weapons of our caliber must report any signs of strain or malfunction. Even... us."

His metal arm around its way around the other weapon's waist, and he still he refused to move those last ten feet to the rendezvous point. It was as if the ten feet would mean that this moment of potential malfunction would pass beyond notice.

"I am told it will get better. I'm told there will be freedom for all when we are finished, and that is a gift our work goes towards," he said softly. The future was not something that he ever concerned himself with. He was a entity of the present.