The future's in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the window of change
-Scorpions
Author's Note: Any text in italics should be considered spoken Russian.
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Bogota, Columbia; 04 June, 1983
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James Buchanan Barnes had been a good man once. A charming, handsome man who had no shortage of companionship, at least for an evening. He was always far too much of a gentleman to take many steps beyond a night of dancing, though there had been a couple of women that he'd truly fancied and had gone too quickly with, but those sorts of things never seemed to work out in the end.
He stood resolute, the barricade between the bullies of Brooklyn and his underdog best friend, Steve Rogers, a small, unassuming and sickly man who could take a punch but get back up just to lose his fights in the end. James had been the type to read fantasy novels and attend science expositions and be voracious about learning, though he was the first to perfect playing the clown.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor changed everything. The event had woken the fire of patriotism in many men that day, none more so than James Barnes whose father had served before a terrible accident took his life.
Being carefree and quick with his jokes was an easy defense mechanism that built his rapport with his men, and it had been his natural marksmanship and innate leadership qualities that found him at the rank of Sergeant by the time the 107th deployed. That one December day at Pearl Harbor had carried him into a life he would live and then die only to return as a villain.
He had been HYDRA's weapon for as long as he could remember, when he even could remember. He had been treated like a dog, handled like a dog, and behaved like a marvelously-trained dog. He had a forty year track record of pleasing his handlers, assassinating his targets, abducting others, training those who were especially promising. As someone would come to say, he'd shaped the century.
Currently, he was looking at the teenage girl he was meant to watch over while Alexander Pierce dealt with State Department business at the embassy in Bogota. Right that moment, The Winter Soldier was the attack dog for the most precious thing in his current handler's life -- Pierce's thirteen year old daughter.
Tessa Marie Pierce had been born on 16 March, 1970, the only child of Alexander Pierce. She had her mother's near-platinum hair, but her father's blue eyes. She was a beautiful girl with a rather charming personality -- at least now while she was still young -- and a propensity toward learning everything she could about the world around her. Just like The Winter Soldier, she would come to shape the future years, though no one yet knew what that would mean.
Tess sat nearby, a book between her hands where she'd tucked her tiny self into the space where the arm met the back cushion of a very comfortable couch. Teeth gnawed at her lips as her gaze searched each new line of text with eagerness. She paid no attention to the Soldier who now guarded over her, his face obscured by goggles and a mask that covered the lower half of his visage.
She had seen that face before. She was often with her father when he visited various locations around the world. He had never showed her the darkest parts of his job, but he had raised her in the values that fell into line with HYDRA. She attended a private school where, she would come to learn, taught an entirely different view of things than normal schools around the world.
But that didn't take away the light that lived within her naturally, that inherent goodness that The Winter Soldier hoped would never leave her heart. Something about the purity of the girl reminded him of someone he knew a long time ago, someone he could never quite remember.
Through a haze of red and the HUD therein, he watched Tessa and let the computerization within his goggles read for movement in the periphery. At times like these, he could never complain about his mission. The girl gave him hope that, perhaps, someday he could find his freedom and the buried and blood-stained goodness that used to be him in another life.
The Winter Soldier was dressed in more than he usually wore. His left arm was obscured by a full sleeve and a glove to let him mingle more with the regular people in the embassy, aside from the mask he had on; that looked tactical enough to be something a soldier or skilled bodyguard might have. After watching Tessa a moment longer, movement at a visible walkway across from the parlor caught his eye.
Several people were being evacuated, it seemed, though he didn't know why. Regardless, he half-turned into the room and gruffly spoke one word.
"Tessa."
Stormy eyes rose from her book immediately upon hearing the commanding tone carrying her name. She didn't even need to ask a question, and he was grateful for that. Uncurling from the couch and closing her book, she stood and immediately headed toward the hand lifted toward her.
"Place your palm against my back and don't let it move from there, do you understand?" The soldier asked as he pulled her near and got a nod in exchange from his charge.
With her nod, he leaned out into the walkway, looking left first and then right down the sight of the sidearm he pulled from its holster. Without a second of thought, he spun gracefully out into the wrap-around balcony then roll-stepped forward at a steady pace down the parquet flooring in the direction of the conference room he knew her father was in.
There was no reservation as The Winter Soldier quashed the meeting with an abrupt opening of the door. Within, the dignitaries all looked up, but the figure in the doorway set his sights on Pierce and spoke immediately.
"Sir, we need to leave," that growling, muffled Russian was given and drew even more attention from those around the table.
"Gentlemen," Pierce dismissed his colleagues with a nod, closed his binder and left it on the table before moving toward The Winter Soldier and his daughter. "Let's go, Soldier."
Tessa said nothing, but her eyes looked up toward her father as he took her hand, replaced the presence of it with his own on the Soldier's back instead and gave his beloved daughter a reassuring smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. Linked together by touch, The Winter Soldier snapped into action and turned, heading toward the back stairs that they could take from the third floor all the way down to ground level.
And that would have worked nicely, had the explosive beneath the stairs hadn't gone off when it did.
Tessa was flung back toward the third floor with a shriek while The Winter Soldier and Pierce collapsed with the rest of the structure of the stairs. Both men were just recovering from their fall when another screech of Tessa announced a flood of Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN Rebels) soldiers swamped over her, several of them grasping her and picking her up off the ground.
As those now in possession of Tessa turned to take her off to where the other hostages would be held, some stayed behind and took advantage of their position to shower rounds down around The Winter Soldier and Pierce. The Soldier wasted no time; his left arm flew up with the sidearm and blocked the bullets pelting down around them. When he was able, his arm stretched out and he returned fire as movement found them yet again. He harshly took hold of Pierce's jacket with his right hand, just between his shoulders, and guided him quickly away from the area and outside until they had reached relative safety.
Just as The Winter Soldier turned back to head inside, there was an unbelievable sight that dazzled his vision even behind the goggles. With a great shattering of glass, bolts of electricity blasted out of each and every window on the third floor. The currents were strong and arced up toward the clouds once they exited the building.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Chief Nicholas J. Fury arrived on scene not long after, blessedly in time for Pierce to see him before Fury could spot the Asset.
Neither Pierce nor his Asset moved from their spot as if left dazed by what had just happened, both above and below. The Winter Soldier was on the cusp of moving back toward the building when Pierce raised his hand up, rested it on the Asset's covered left arm and spoke. "You can't be seen here. Return to your field handler in the van."
"But Tessa..." he trailed off, his eyes searching those of his handler. It wasn't his place to second guess questions, though.
The Winter Soldier hesitated, glanced back toward the building once, looked back at Pierce then nodded a single time. Heavy, purposeful boot falls carried him away from the scene and to where he would join others loyal to the cause. There was no mistaking who was headed toward the HYDRA van in the distance; that forty-pound, titanium arm had long ago altered the way Barnes walked.
By the time Fury arrived at Pierce, the Asset was out of the direct area, Pierce looked irritated and Fury looked ready to chew the ass off of someone. Didn't matter who, either.
"A little late with your intel," Pierce said.
Fury, young and with two good eyes, had with him several seasoned agents and one who looked like he wasn't even eighteen years old.
"Sir, if we go by way of the sewers, we will be able to get everyone out of there in one piece," he spoke sternly, but there was a small barb of hope that twisted the edges of his words into hopeful.
"We have no idea what the situation is in there, Fury," Pierce responded. "I won't authorize that when my daughter's life is on the line."
"But, sir, we have S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best and brightest," Nick stepped to the side and let him see the men he'd brought with him. Pierce recalled a couple of the faces there. Coulson was sponsored by Nick, and he was becoming a staple during important missions and certainly in the gathering of intelligence. Along with Coulson now came a kid that Coulson had decided to recruit, though it was also Fury who had sponsored him upon his admission to the agency.
Clint Barton had been the youngest agent S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever had. Pierce didn't know his whole story. He knew the kid was mouthy, but he had such marksmanship that he was definitely going places as long as his mouth didn't get him in too much trouble in the process. It didn't pay to be lippy to superiors, yet the kid continued to do so time and time again. His talent and ability to come off as unassuming and lighthearted allowed people to underestimate just what the agent was capable of achieving.
"I said no, Nick. That's an order. We'll negotiate," Pierce stated firmly. "Now work with the local law enforcement and see what you can help them with."
It turned out, the ELN didn't negotiate. They were given orders from above to kill the hostages.
Within only moments of that call, Rebels stormed the basement where the hostages had been kept and found it completely empty. There wasn't a single one in sight.
Thirty minutes later, Deputy Chief Nicolas J. Fury and every one of his men arrived on the scene with the hostages -- including the young daughter of the man who would become one of his most trusted friends -- and took over evacuating Pierce, the other dignitaries and assuring the embassy was finally secured properly.
In the span of only hours, The Winter Soldier was back in the presence of Pierce and, thankfully, Tessa, though something was wrong with her. She looked sick, her skin too pale, her eyes closed and her fingertips marred with a strange purplish color right on the tips. Having been her caretaker as many times as he had been, he couldn't help the concern that built in his gut when he saw her that way
The Soldier had been present to watch over her as the doctors discussed finding the X gene in her DNA, how the stress of the hijacking of the embassy had triggered her latent abilities. The lightning had come from her. Now they just needed to figure out how to harness it. She could be a phenomenal asset to HYDRA, just like The Winter Soldier.
It would be two weeks and a relocation to the Siberian base before the Soldier saw her again, and when he did she already didn't look like herself.
She'd lost a bit of weight. It made her shoulders and elbows a little too sharp. She lost some of that compassion in her eyes, but never all of it. Her eyes were a bit sunken, her once shiny hair duller, and everything combined worried the The Winter Soldier.
It was just a glance, really, no real time spent together where they could talk. The Soldier was gearing up for his next mission, and she was being guided through the corridor to the experimentation labs. His jaw tightened at the thought of someone taking a child and seeing what her potential could be when poked and prodded and probably put through more than she needed to endure, but he had no say on the matter.
He would soon forget her for a time once he was taken to his chair and the slate was wiped clean so that the full force of the The Winter Soldier could lose that sliver of humanity and be stored until they needed him next.
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Two days following The Winter Soldier being returned to cryostasis, Tessa began extensive medical testing to see how her cells were changing and what HYDRA could gain from that. She was mutating into a phenomenal girl, at least beyond what she'd been before.
There was a soulful connection between herself and the elemental realm of lightning and the electricity that man had been able to tame. Really, she had no idea what they were saying, but they were more than happy to poke the bear in the child and teach her an easier path between her physical self and the control of electricity around and within her. Anger.
The scientists brought in to study her weren't gentle at all, and every night found Tessa alone in the darkness of her room, scared in that quiet, old bunker. Her father consistently promised her that she would be able to come home soon, but that never seemed to be the case.
As time went by, the feeling of being lost and lonely drove her to turn her attention fully toward harnessing her abilities so that she could help HYDRA when she was old enough. After a year, she had learned enough that spending time with scientists gave way to an actual soldier beginning other sorts of training, but in the meantime, Tessa found herself venturing to sit at the foot of The Winter Soldier's cryostasis pod, a friend buried deep within sleep who would never hear her words.
Eventually, her training would evolve and she would turn from lab rat to training in hand-to-hand fighting. These times were her favorite, though not initially. The Winter Soldier was a tough teacher, but he needed to be if she was going to reach her full potential within the organization. This wasn't drama club in high school. This was was the assurance that their way of life prevailed out in the inner workings of the world.
Her favorite times were when The Winter Soldier had been out of stasis for a while and had a bit of personality back in his eyes and mannerisms; however, there was still a good chunk of time when he was either out on missions and she would remain to practice what they'd been working on.
If that wasn't the case, he'd be in stasis and the facility would be on a skeleton crew of people that made the place eerie as hell, but those times made for good exploration in the middle of the night when most everyone else was asleep in the bunker area of the facility.
She knew every mission briefing that was in the records room so far. She knew the sins that had been committed by other HYDRA agents and let herself view the evidence.
She especially took the time to read about the man who was her teacher. Who he'd been beforehand, how Zola had given him HYDRA's stronger version of the Super Soldier Serum, how Captain America had then saved him shortly after, how the Soldier had fallen from a train and into the Danube River, how he was retrieved and returned and his missing left arm was shaped to accommodate the forty pounds of titanium that would become his most distinctive feature.
She had seen grainy video of The Winter Soldier as the second shooter who assassinated JFK, read a report on an assassination of the French Defense Minister Jacques Dupuy, another assassination of Senator Harry Baxter who he left face down in a pool, a newer attack on Philadelphia that resulted in a bomb in the sewers to cover up the death of a man known as Jack Monroe. He'd had the super soldier serum as well and lived life as Nomad for a long time. That seemed almost like a mercy killing since Monroe was already dying.
Just as in everything, Tessa had soaked up everything there was to know about her Soldier, at least when she didn't get caught snooping around the facility. She knew more about him than he did.
As young as she currently was, Tessa still believed that this was what was needed in order to keep order in the world, but she had yet to be on the outside looking in on what was going on. That opportunity wouldn't come for some time yet.
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"Would ... you fucking ... stop!?" Tessa gasped out her vitriol toward The Winter Soldier as she sprawled onto her hands and knees and desperately tried to find breath that would go back into her lungs. He had punched her right in the solar plexus in such a way that it set her diaphragm spasming and refusing to let her lungs properly refill themselves.
"Stop complaining and remember what I taught you, damn it," he growled down toward her, his boots near enough that she could see them but she didn't have any strength to reach out and topple him just yet. She could have shocked the hell out of him, but that wasn't what they were working on, and doing so would have been unfair.
Tessa made herself focus, and she did so by focusing on the idea of punching The Winter Soldier right in the balls, but reason told her that would make things even worse for her in the end. Folding down onto her forearms with her backside in the air, Tess pressed her forehead against her hands and painfully forced her breathing to even out.
She had no more gotten that first even breath in before she saw his right boot jerk back away from where it had been against the floor. She immediately moved, flinging her body to the left, sitting up and leaning back in one swift movement. Both arms moved to block his boot, and she actually succeeded. Icy blue eyes swiveled up toward him with confidence and quickly enough to catch a wisp of pride spill a half-smile across his lips.
Rather than praising her, though, his metal arm flashed downward and punched her across the jaw, spilling her to the floor in the other direction. "Never be overly confident."
"God, I hate you right now," Tessa switched to English because Russian practice was just too much to deal with right now alongside the blaring pain everywhere inside of her.
"Right now," he said, squatting down to be on her level. His ocean blue eyes were intense, but it wasn't the full weight of an angry stare; there was a softness to it. "But this is stuff you need to know once you're in the field, Tessa. You'll get it. I promise. Before long, it will just be muscle memory."
Her eyes watered as she looked up at his face from where she was still laying splayed over the sparring mat. She could feel the angry bruise already forming where that left fist had connected. She was angry at him, angry with herself and angry in general, she slammed her hand against the mat and tapped out, done with the entire two hours of torture he'd put her through today.
The Winter Soldier sighed at the teenage girl and shook his head some. After a moment, he reached up and unfastened the mask he usually wore on missions and during training. It was laid onto the mat as he moved to seat himself in front of Tessa, legs crossing Indian style.
"Tessa," he began, his voice soft. "We're really just starting with all of this. You can't beat yourself up if you make a mistake."
"No," she sneered immediately. "Why beat myself up when you're doing a great job with that already."
These early teenage years, for him, were going to drive him insane, but he was trying to be patient with his main handler's only child. Mismatched hands reached forward to grab her arm and gently hoist her to sit up straight so he could make eye contact.
"It's my job to try and beat you up, to train you so you can protect yourself, so you can defend our way of life and so your father will be proud of you," he said in a voice that was far softer than that which The Winter Soldier normally used. "If I'm going too fast, I will slow down, but HYDRA isn't patient. They won't take my word for it when they decide to send you out the first time. I'll be reset and we'll be together, but that doesn't mean the enemy will go easier on you."
"I just don't get why this had to happen to me," she said, her eyes welling up with tears that she refused to let fall from her eyes.
"Because you're special, Tessa," he said gently and pressed his lips into a small smile. "More special than most people ever dream of being. You're going to go places that you never thought were possible, and that will make all of these first days seem like they were nothing in comparison."
Tessa didn't believe him, but she let him have the final say on the matter and nodded in complete silence.
He leaned forward and gave her right shoulder a nudge with his metal hand, "Go and get a shower, get into clean clothes then meet me in the chow hall. We'll have dinner and take the night off tonight."
A typical day started with breakfast then training with The Winter Soldier. Afternoons were for lunch then book or military studies. Evenings were hand-to-hand combat followed by a shower and dinner. The Soldier kept her strictly on task, and if he didn't, Colonel Karpov did. Most of her meals were taken alone, so having The Winter Soldier not only saying he would join her for a meal but would give her the night off was somewhat of a surprise for her, but Tessa nodded her head regardless.
"Great," he full-on smiled, and Tessa couldn't help but follow suit. He just had one of those smiles that invited you to join him. It was the first time the young girl had seen that kind of smile from him. "I'll see you there."
He picked up his mask and stood in a way that was nothing less than graceful and headed for the door. His young student didn't follow for several minutes. Instead, she stayed behind by flopping back onto the mat and laying there like she was absolutely going to die.
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Posted: 29 July, 2021