Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 3

Start Over (Barnes x reader)

"He's been out of cryo for too long," you whispered to Alexander Pierce, the commander you had found yourself suddenly doubting as he turned his rage towards your Soldier. Your soldier. Pierce's eyes were still boring into him and his jaw was set as he spoke; the man was angry at the situation, angry at Steve Rogers for interfering at the worst possible time, but it was nothing in comparison to his reaction to the few words you had just spoken as if your voice should mean anything to him.

"Then wipe him, and start over."

Before you could argue, and before you could really decide if you even wanted to, Pierce turned on his heel and left you there with the Soldier, alone as his team left with him. No one ever seemed to dare to challenge the man, and you didn't understand why. You were certainly not afraid of him in the least, your own abilities and power far surpassing a man who was nothing but a human with only a commanding presence and limited intellect as his skill set. You could crush him with barely a thought, and you had dreamt of it before, but you never felt the true urge to act on the impulse until now; there wasn't a reason for it. You were a member of Hydra, and you had been cared for better than most, having a unique hold over their most valued asset; you held the key to the Soldier's mind and could keep him from breaking under the constant barrage of pain and torture they inflicted on him. Even now, as he was coming into his own memories, those of the hazy life of his old persona, he looked to you as his comfort and protector. He looked to you for answers that you couldn't give, and a plea to not make him lose the very few glimpses into himself that he had just found.

"I don't want to," he whispered, but he didn't try to pull away as you stepped closer. Even with everything that you had done to him, he didn't fear you. "Unless you tell me to, and then I will comply."

"I don't want to do this either," you answered back just as quietly. You knew that you were physically alone in the room, but that you were never truly alone, with eyes everywhere, all of the time. "Listen carefully, Soldier," you began, "I'm going to lock those memories away in a safe place in your mind, I won't take them. We can call it a compromise. The only way to get you out of here is to follow Pierce's orders, and that's what we're going to do, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"That man on the bridge-"

"I knew him."

"Yes, you did, and he knows you. His name is Steve Rogers, and he's trying to find you, to help you see who you used to be, so you're going to give him the chance. When this is done, and the first opportunity that you see to make a run for it comes, you run, do you understand? You run, and don't look back."

"No," he replied firmly, following his instinct and grabbing your wrist with a pinching hold, "I won't leave. Not without you."

"Follow my orders, Soldier."

"No."

"Please, don't make me do something that I don't want to do. I want to leave you with enough of yourself to survive. I've wanted to help you before, but I didn't want you to be alone so I had to wait for the right time, and this is it. This is our last shot. I want him to find you, Sergeant Barnes."

His face twisted and contorted in his sudden confusion, as if the word hurt him to hear, and his mind wouldn't allow him to understand. Somewhere deep in his memory, it stabbed and echoed with pain that he both welcomed and feared, and you didn't know how to give him any reprieve other than to keep pushing him towards it. "Barnes? Is that...is that my name? I've never had a name. Have I?"