Recollection ★ Bucky Barnes

Can't You See I'm Working?

"Privinti eto (Screw this)," Marlena grumbled as she kicked her sparring partner in the sternum, sending him to the floor. Because of the amount of Russian Hydra workers she spent her days with, Marlena had picked up a bit of knowledge on speaking the language. She was nowhere close to being fluent in the language just yet, but she knew enough of the language to communicate with the ones she worked with.

"Prodigy!" Rumlow called.

Marlena spun her body around so she was facing him, with a seemingly annoyed expression on her face regarding the agent she had just knocked out. She had grown used to Rumlow calling her Prodigy, although she couldn't help but wish he would refer to her as Marlena. She knew he wouldn't due to the fact that he believed it could potentially trigger her memories, and she needed to continue acting the part of the second wrongfully brainwashed assassin if she were to be successful in carrying out her plan. It was the only reason she refused to correct him.

"What?" she growled. "Can't you see I'm working?"

Rumlow chuckled and strolled over to her, more than ready to inform her of what he had just been told and shown. "Are you up for a break?"

Marlena narrowed her eyes and glanced down at the unconscious agent before looking back up at Rumlow. She was confused. The only breaks she was ever allowed during training were water breaks, and those weren't even considered breaks to her. It was rare for Rumlow to allow her to stop training, and even so she wanted as much training as she could possibly get, no matter how excruciatingly exhausting it was. She wanted to get the hell away from everything Hydra, and she couldn't do that if she was being pulled away from her training to take breaks.

"A break? For what?" she inquired with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't take breaks, Rumlow. You of all people should know that."

Rumlow smirked as he looked her over. He preferred this newer and "brainwashed" version of Marlena rather than the version of her he picked up back in July. This Marlena didn't annoy him with a copious amount of questions, nor did she cry about every little thing. She could take a bit of pain every now and then, and she wasn't one to complain about much. She was a determined fighter and wouldn't allow anyone to get in the way of that. If someone crossed her she was quick to put them in their place, and she couldn't seem to care less about who it was or where they stood with Hydra. To Rumlow, Marlena was what he envisioned a true Hydra agent to be.

"I'm aware, but it's imperative that I show you this now rather than later," Rumlow said to her, gesturing her to follow.

Marlena raised a brow and began following Rumlow out of the training center, completely forgetting about the unconscious agent laying on the floor. She was more concerned with what he could possibly want to show her. "Whatever it is, it had better be important."

Rumlow only chuckled in response and continued his journey through the long corridors of the secret base.

The two strolled through the hallways for about three minutes before finally reaching their destination. Rumlow pushed the large door open and Marlena followed him inside, gazing around at the room they were now in. The walls of the room were lined with transparent tubes, each of them containing a suit of some sort, as well as an array of different weaponry. She only glanced as she passed by, and soon enough she was being lead to the opposite end of the room where two lone tubes sat.

Marlena did her best to maintain a perfect poker face as she eyed one of the suits. It was no doubt one that was meant to be used in combat, but the missing sleeve indicated that it was to belong to Bucky, and the nameplate above it—which read Winter Soldier—only confirmed her assumptions. She remembered Rumlow telling her that she was to be Bucky's partner if they were to ever catch him, but he had yet to explain the situation to Prodigy, so she needed to compose herself before she was caught and placed back into that retched machine to endure endless hours of electrified torture.

Her emotions were beginning to overwhelm her, though. Thoughts of Bucky began flooding into her mind and it took every last ounce of her self control not to break down in tears in front of Rumlow. She missed Bucky more than she could even imagine. The pain of being away from him had been there every day since she had been taken, but the hours she spent training and sleeping helped keep that pain at bay. It was only now that she was experiencing it tenfold, and it had become so much that it was growing more and more difficult to keep her composure. She needed him, she needed to be with him, and that only gave her more of a reason to continue fighting.

"What is this?" Marlena questioned as she shifted her focus away from Bucky's suit to look at the one in the tube beside his. It was eerily similar to Bucky's, aside from the fact that it was obviously made for a female; Marlena knew it had something to do with the whole partner aspect of it all. 

The suit was black and made of what looked to be spandex and leather. It was equipped with a utility belt, as well as a weapon holster on either thigh and two silver wrist gauntlets. Red detailing lined the seams of the suit, and Marlena assumed those were added to correspond with the red color of the star painted onto Bucky's metal arm. Two red stars had also been stitched onto either sleeve, obviously paying homage to the lone star on Bucky's arm. Behind the suit hung an array of several different weapons, ranging from knives, guns, and even some sort of electrically charged battery pack that she was sure belonged to the hollow gauntlets. She knew enough to know that this suit and the weapons were intended for her, and the word Prodigy engraved onto the silver nameplate only further confirmed it.

"This is your uniform," Rumlow informed her. "This is what you'll be wearing on your missions."

Marlena chuckled and raised a brow. "I assume you're referring to the one on the right? The other one seems a tad bit large for someone of my short stature."

"Of course," Rumlow chuckled. "The other one is for your partner."

Marlena looked up at him with a confused expression on her face, acting as if she had not a clue what he was referring to. "Partner?"

"Yes," Rumlow sighed. "You see, there is an issue regarding one of our former assassins, and your partner just so happens to be that assassin. In due time we will use you to lure him here so you can apprehend him, and then we'll finally have our Winter Soldier back."

Marlena nodded in understanding and had to fight the smirk pulling onto her face. Her plan now seemed to be much easier than she had originally anticipated it to be.

"This will be your first mission, so I would like to wait until you're sure you're ready," Rumlow continued. "The Winter Soldier is very tough, and I'd rather you not get yourself caught up in something you don't think you'll be able to finish."

Marlena scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Many of these Hydra agents can hardly stand against me now, Rumlow. I highly doubt whoever this one is will be able to either."

"I wouldn't underestimate him just yet, Prodigy," Rumlow said to her.

"I'm not," Marlena scoffed once again. "I'm just feeling exceptionally confident in myself."

Rumlow smirked at her words. "Give it a few more months and we'll see just how much more confident you become. Plus, my boss wants to wait for the mentality serum to set before we do anything—you'll be far more lethal with your mental powers."

"Whatever," Marlena replied as she turned her attention back towards the two suits. She had to agree with Rumlow's words, no matter how much she didn't want to.

As much as she wanted to get out of that place and get back to her family and Bucky, she knew that the only way to do that was if she were to meet the deadliest of her capabilities. Yes, three weeks worth of constant training had gradually bettered her skills, but it had not done enough. She needed to be able to take on as many Hydra agents as she could, no matter their skill set, and she couldn't do that with only three weeks of training. She needed more time to better her skills in order to achieve her goal, and with the determination and passion Rumlow had praised her for having, she was one hundred percent positive she could do so.