Command • T'Challa

Fragments

If this was a launch bunker, then she was a rocket. Rage coursed through her like fire- he had put her here, this man, this evil man, whoever he was, and now he would have to pay the price.  Too long had people thrown rocks and used sticks and stones to break her down and keep her there.

"Have you not heard the tale of Baba Yaga?" she growled at the man, who didn't shrink back from her; he just held the gun at her. She turned her head to the side, as if she was analyzing him.

"Many times," he said coldly. "My grandmother told it to me first when I was a boy." he said, almost smiling. He had the stance of a soldier, Grace thought. The stance of a man who knew how to hold his ground and how to kill, but the cracks showed. His hand trembled slightly; he didn't stand as straight as he once did.

She didn't want to look in his head, open as she could see it was. Not of what his present thoughts were, but of his past. He was thinking of it now. Grace saw only a flash of it, of this man, once a soldier, holding the broken body of a  little boy, and the sound of the man's screams. Something about the scene made her feel as though she should recognize it.

 "Yes, it was Sokovia. These are the ghost stories that they won't tell you- the Avengers don't care. People like you don't care and don't belong anywhere, except a cage."  he said.

Grace didn't move. It wasn't her fault, she reminded herself- it was all HYDRA. A cage was not where she belonged, not where James belonged, not where anyone belonged. 

Instead of pulling the trigger, the man turned and ran. He ran through a nearby door, before Grace could catch him, and it bolted shut immeditatly. He then reappeared at a thick glass window in the wall, things that Grace hadn't  noticed.

"You have become slow." he said, through what was apparently a microphone system.

"And because of that slowness, you will die here, just like the others."

"What others?" Grace demanded.

"Look behind you." he said.

 "No."  she said.

"Ah, well, then you shall just have to wait until your friends come in." he said.

 As if on cue, Grace heard the sound of a door opening, and in came Tony in his suit, but without his helmet, followed by Captain America, and James.

 Grace didn't run to them, didn't speak to them. She only glanced at them, then stared at the Sokovian man behind the glass.

"Grace!" James said, but didn't approach her. She glanced at him only to show that she recognized him. It was one of those odd times when her past life with him was utterly unreal, like some fantasy dream that never really happened.  The fight was now, before her- she couldn't afford to let those other emotions get in the way, regardless.

"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep." the man said, as yellow lights illuminated sections of the deep cavern, showing the plexiglass chambers that Grace had seen earlier. Inside were dead men and a woman, each with a shot to the head.

"I didn't want more of you, I only wanted them to bring you here." he said.

"So you killed innocent people just to trap us?" Steve asked. Grace ignored the murmur of words that came next, something about a promise, a loss. She was watching Tony's face as he was watching a video replay on a screen that was attached to a table. it was the video of his parent's murder- and the Winter Soldier was the assassin.