This was the plan:
1) Build a soft robot capable of helping me escape, and convince HYDRA that it was just a small component of the big scary decoy robot I would also be building.
2) Use it to escape.
That was it. Step one was going smoothly. They gave me my materials. They also slapped me around a lot more than before, which made me miss Rumlow, of all people.
As days passed and I got more familiar with my surroundings, steps and steps and steps started accumulating on the plan. I memoried the codes they used to get to our room. I memorized the schedules they used to change various guard positions. I memorized the number of the room, where, through the tiniest sliver of an open door, I'd seen vials and vials and vials of bright blue serum.
My robot was a mischievous little red squid with six long tentacles and the ability to stretch them thin and long. Her locomotion was admittedly arachnid based, which made me cringe at first. She made it cute, though. I named her JANE "Don't-Breathe-the" EYRE, on account of the knock out gas she could spray from her head. JANE EYRE stood for Jointless Autonomous Nondescript Elastic Electroactive Youthful Robotic Escapee.
Clearly, I had a lot of time to think at night.
"Just give them that decoy you've been making. The one that they think is the actual weapon. Give it some strength and call it a day," Colin complained one night, exactly a week after my abduction.
"That decoy has a name," I said, joking despite the fact that I was pacing the length of our tiny room, rubbing Bucky's dog tags in sets of four so hard I was surprised I hadn't somehow worn down the stainless steel yet.
The fact that I hadn't taken my antidepressant in a week was making matters worse. I was anxious, restless, getting a little reckless. I needed out of here.
"I'm not calling it that," he said, kicking back on his bed, arms behind his head.
"Then I don't know who you're talking about."
"Fine. Just give them BUCK-E and call it a day."
I called it that because it looked big and scary, but it wouldn't hurt a fly, really.
"No," I said simply.
"You're digging your own grave at this point," he said, almost concerned. "Whatever you're doing with that soft robot, you're gonna get yourself killed. I know I told you they wouldn't, but I didn't think you were gonna try to blow up the whole base or whatever the hell you're up to."
"Blow up the whole base?" I repeated, confused.
"Yeah. Why were you mixing chemicals when they walked me by you the other day?"
"Knock out gas," I said. "Bruce Banner taught me how to make it out of common stock solutions for this exact type of situation."
"Grace. No."
"Relax. It's for enemies."
"HYDRA's enemies, you mean?"
"Um, sure, since this half of HYDRA is technically the other half's enemies."
"Grace!"
"Relax," I repeated. I followed my own advice and sat down on the floor cross legged. "Come play mind chess."
I'd never liked chess before, but it was a good enough pastime now that there was nothing else to do. Colin got up and sat facing me, mirroring me. We stared down at the empty concrete floor in front of us.
"Go first," he said.
"e4," I said.
"e5," he said.
"Knight f3," I said.
"d6," he said.
There was actually something more fun about playing without a chessboard, just visualizing the pieces and their locations based on verbal moves. Colin and I were perfectly, completely, evenly matched too, and often used the same strategy at the same time. That part was frustrating. Yesterday, Colin had invisibly flipped the invisible board after a particularly long stalemate.
"What would you do if you got out?" I asked him, adding "d4" when he eyed me impatiently.
"Bishop g4," he said. "I don't know. Pay back some debts to society for all the fucked up shit I've done? Something like your boy, I guess."
"d4, e5," I said, capturing a pawn. "Tony would give you your job back if I vouched for you."
"Bishop f3," he said, capturing my Knight. "You'd vouch for me?"
"Queen f3," I said, capturing his Bishop. "I never said that."
"d6, e5," he said capturing a pawn. "So what are you saying?"
"Bishop c4. I'm saying I would consider it if you escaped with me."
"Knight f6. What's in it for you?"
"Queen b3. Nothing. I owe you. I want to help you."
"Queen e7. I don't buy it."
"Knight c3," I said. "It was the same with Bucky. He didn't believe me for a while either. But sometimes people are just nice to you. Sometimes people just see good in you."
"c6," he said. I waited for him to continue, but he didn't add anything else.
"Bishop g5."
"b5."
"Knight b5," I said, taking the pawn he'd just moved solely because I was annoyed. "I'm trying to help you."
"c6, b5," he said, his pawn easily taking the Knight I'd moved into harm's way.
"Bishop b5. Check."
"I know I'm in check, Grace. Knight d7," he said, protecting his King. "I don't understand why you'd help me. I only helped you so you'd get the Avengers to help me. You know that, right?"
"Castle queenside," I said. "I know. But we're not exact clones. I've got a bigger heart than you."
"Rook d8," he said, still defensive. He sighed. "Don't say that. Honestly, I would've helped you regardless. You've got no reason to believe that, but it's true."
"Rook d7." I took his Knight.
"Rook d7." He took my Rook.
"Rook d1," I said. "I believe you."
"Queen e6," he said. "You're too trusting."
"Bishop d7. Check," I said. "I haven't been wrong yet."
"Stop announcing check, Grace. It's condescending. Knight d7," he said, taking the Bishop I'd just moved. "I don't trust you not to fuck up and get us killed."
"I tell you when you're in check to be friendly, dude," I paused, imagining the board. "If I win right now, will you escape with me?"
"What, leave it up to chance? You only win half the time."
"It's like flipping a coin," I said. (Except it wasn't. He was too distracted to study the board and see.)
"Okay. Yes. Fine. Bet my life on a game of chess. That's all anybody thinks it's worth anyway."
"We'll unpack that later. Queen b8. Check," I said.
"Knight b8," he said, and took my Queen.
"Rook d8. Checkmate."
He opened his mouth to speak, probably to yell at me for saying "checkmate," since he already knew, but the banging of the door down the hallway made him scramble to his feet. I winced when he stepped on the imaginary chessboard. "What the—this can't be good, Grace. It's the middle of the night."
I rose to my feet and watched the door expectantly at the sound of the code. It slid open. I looked down at the ground outside our room.
"Hi, JANE!" I greeted happily. She waved a front tentacle in reply.
A/N: this is a game of chess I found online that was done in a performance of the Barber of Seville in 1858. The moves aren't important except for when Grace explains them—even then it's just a tool to build tension and show them bonding as friends lol.