Ro Six Echo

Part 27

Bucky was hovering as the medical team came and took Ro away. Steve was trying to hold him back and calm him down. "Just let them do their job, Buck! They can help her."

Tears were pooling in his eyes. He didn't want to see her so broken and helpless. He wanted to comfort her and let her know she shouldn't feel guilty. He finally calmed down enough and followed the medical team down the hall. He watched as they bandaged her hand and hooked her up to monitors to watch her vital signs. She was still sedated but no one knew how long that would last with her enhanced metabolism.

Directors Fury and Coulson were in a conference room, trying to decide what should happen to Ro Six Echo and Brock Rumlow. For Brock, it was an easy decision. They would interrogate him and put him in prison for a long time. He was just a pawn in the bigger scheme of things. They just hoped they could get enough information out of him before they sent him away.

"I still think she could be useful as an asset. The Wakandans were able to reverse Branes' programming so they should be able to do the same for her. Plus, she wasn't under their control for near as long as he was."

"What about her as a person? She should have rights as an enhanced being. Will she still want to work for us?" Coulson asked.

"We need her to work for us. If she can be controlled, we need to be the ones controlling her. And if she doesn't like it, we can try her for her crimes." Fury had no qualms about keeping her in custody in order to keep the general public safe. She had shown she could be a danger and a weapon, he just need to make sure she was on their side.

"I don't think the team is going to like this."

"I don't care if they don't like it. I'm not in this for a popularity contest. We need to keep her safe and more importantly, keep the world safe."

Steve went and found Natasha. He took her to the movie room, and turned on a movie, really loud. He brought her so close she could feel his breath on her face. "What are you doing, Steve?" She said each word slowly and deliberately.

"I asked some friends to do some digging on the hard drives, to find any leads. She finally found one."

"She's doing this off book?"

"Yes."

"Where does the trail lead?"

"I don't know yet, but it's big."

Steve dropped his arms from around her and walked out of the room, Natasha hot on his heels.

They hopped onto his motorcycle and rode to a train station. They got onto the train and got off three stops later. Natasha checked to see if they were followed or anyone was watching them in the station. The coast was clear and Steve opened a locker where Mandy had left the intel. He grabbed the folder and slipped it under his jacket into the waist band of his pants. He strode out the station towards his motorcycle and Nat followed a minute later. They rented a hotel room to look at all the intel Mandy and Marcos had obtained.

"Steve, we can't do this."

"We have to. We don't know if it is only these people or if all the armed forces are involved."

"Do you really think they only stopped at one experiment? Look at how many enhanced people we have rescued from Hydra."

Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"We need to interrogate Rumlow. We need to know what he knows."

"Let's get back then. I'm sure he's recovered enough from his surgery."