Only a couple hours later Ruth assured Bucky that she was ready to go over what happened at the Hydra facility. She needed answers, and she also knew there was a lot to figure out.
Walking through the hall to the elevator, Ruth's head swayed, suddenly feeling heavy. Her legs wobbled, her knees buckling beneath her. Ruth leaned into the wall beside her for balance, Bucky reaching out to grab her.
"You alright?" He asked quickly, concern read plainly on his face.
"Yeah," Ruth reassured him. "I sat in a chair for three weeks. I just need to get my strength back." She looked up around the room, the lights flickered severely. "We should tell Tony about that," Ruth remarked, standing back up, linking her arm within Bucky's as they continued on.
Bucky scrunched his brows as he looked to the lights. Since when did a billion dollar Avengers facility with AI technology have flickering lights?
"Hey Ruth," Tony spoke up as she and Bucky walked in the lab, everyone else standing around the room, "Feeling any better?"
Ruth let out a deep breath, "I think I would be lying if I said yes, but anything is better than being in that Hydra facility." She and Bucky joined the others gathered around what Tony had pulled up on his screen, the sunlight shining bright through the large windows that made up the walls of the room.
"Where's Peter? Or, Spiderman, I guess I should say," Ruth asked Tony, not seeing Peter in the room with them.
"He went home a couple weeks ago," Tony replied. "I thought that'd be best so his aunt didn't worry too much."
"Gotcha."
No one knew what to say to Ruth, how to attempt to say something consoling her for what she just got back from. The bruises around her face from the electrodes reminded everyone who had forgotten for even a second what had happened. Some of them had gone through something similar, Bucky knowing every feeling Ruth probably had very well, but what were they supposed to say?
"So now that you have all the files," Ruth broke the silence, "could you figure out what was in the first serum?"
"The first and second one, actually," Tony replied. He pulled up the multitude of files up on his computer, even though no one else in the room would be able to decipher what it all said.
"Wow," Ruth marveled, "And?"
Tony paused, wondering how to say this, "I'll start off by saying that there are some combinations of chemicals in here that I've never heard of, or even seen. Obviously Hydra put together whatever they could to try and make this work."
"So what does that mean?" Bucky asked, standing protectively next to Ruth.
"The base of the serums are a series of hallucinogens, psychotics, mood stabilizers, which doesn't do much good when combined with everything else; and even traces of morphine," Tony explained, looking to Ruth.
"Morphine? I definitely didn't feel much relief from pain," Ruth commented.
"And that probably wasn't the intention," Tony said. "It was probably to make sure your body didn't give up from all the pain, Hydra trying to dull it a bit. Also," Tony shrugged, "Morphine changes how your mind responds to things. It can give you crazy mood swings if used for long periods of time."
Ruth sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"Everything else that I can decipher from the first serum is basically Hydra's attempt at mind control, going with what they got from the Woman, as well as adding super soldier serum to give your body a boosted metabolism. But not as much as Steve and Barnes were given," Tony continued.
"But what about the electricity thing?" Ruth asked, still unsure about what to call her abilities.
"With the new files you gave me, it looked like the Woman's intention wasn't really mind control, it was to give you the ability to control whatever she wanted you to have," Tony explained.
Ruth scrunched her eyebrows, "And what does that mean?"
"You know that file that had pictures and information on those different agents from the facility?" Tony asked Ruth, turning to face her.
Ruth nodded.
"The Woman designed a specific serum for each of you. The base for the serums all the same, but what she wanted each of you to control, that was different."
"So she wanted me to be able to control electricity?" Ruth asked, dumbfounded.
Tony nodded somberly. "That's why you were hooked up to that electricity machine after each injection."
All the blood rushed to Ruth's head, dizziness taking over. Why would She want Ruth to be immune to electricity? That was the Woman's favorite tool to use against her for training, interrogations, anything. Was she going to just be used as a tool for whatever the Woman wanted to inflict on others?
"What about the others?" Ruth started, her voice giving out a bit. "What did Ma'am want for them?"
Tony turned back to his computer, searching through the files to get back to the serum data. "I think I remember you saying a while back that Danielle was a sharpshooter, right?" Tony asked.
Ruth nodded, "Yeah. The best of all of us that were there at the time."
"The Woman designed the serum to target not just Dani's brain, but her eyes. This serum, if it didn't kill her, would give Dani eyesight far beyond anything a normal person could comprehend, as well as giving her body the ability to stabilize her muscles any way she wanted." "So she would never miss a shot," Ruth finished.
Tony nodded, "Exactly."
Ruth furrowed her brows, thinking back to her hallucinations of the Woman in the Hydra facility. There, Ma'am told her she had been working on this serum for years. Was that true? Was there any truth to the hallucinations?
"With all this work," Ruth started, "With all of the planning that must have gone into making the serums, She must have been working on this for years, right?"
Everyone seemed to exchange the same look with each other, as if they all knew something Ruth didn't. Their faces were solemn, conflicted with what to say, and who would say it.
"Based on some writings deep within the files," Steve started, speaking up, "the Woman chose many kids for the facility based specifically on if she thought they would work for the experiments."
Ruth glanced around to all the weird looks everyone was still giving, even Bucky. That would make sense to her that the Woman would want to find kids that would work for her experiment. What was the issue? "Ok..."
"She chose kids based on their lineage," Steve continued. "She found relatives of military leaders, assassins, world leaders—"
"Super soldiers," Bucky interrupted.
"And waited until they had a kid that she could take to the facility," Steve stated.
"Alright," Ruth began. "I still don't see why you are all acting so odd about this. Ma'am told me about my relation to Steve throughout my life." She shrugged, "I guess it doesn't surprise me that she knew I was related to Captain America when she bought me."
Bucky placed his hand gently on Ruth's shoulder and spoke softly, "You told me a while back that your mother sold you because she thought she was going to lose the house, because the economy crashed, because of the war."
Ruth looked up Bucky's eyes, nodding in agreement.
Bucky continued, "The Woman created the war."
Ruth's chest tightened, air seeming to escape from her lungs. She spoke breathlessly, "What?"
"If She found a kid that she wanted, from the right lineage, the Woman did whatever it took to make sure she got them. Killing entire families and making look like accidents, working with hospitals to fake deaths..." Steve softened his words, "Creating and selling weapons, starting wars within countries to make families vulnerable."
A million questions flew through Ruth's mind all at once, the noise amplifying loudly in her ears, the silence that filled the room clouding her hearing. How far back did this go? How long had the Woman controlled the course of history just to run a facility of assassins? To run experiments that would make glorified super soldiers?
Ruth's life flashed before her eyes, but it was a life she had never known. What would have happened to her if the war never began? If the economy never crashed and her father's business never lost that much money? If her mother never had the threat of her home being taken away? She could have grown up. Finished school. Gone to college for something that she was passionate about. Started a career with her father's business and gotten to know him better. Ruth couldn't remember anything about him now, and what she did know at age six wasn't enough for a lifetime of questioning. Did he miss America? Would he ever want to move back to grow his business over there? What was their family like? Ruth couldn't remember her grandparents. Did she have grandparents? Were they still alive?
Pins and needles became sharp on Ruth's hands, her body feeling cold. How different would her life be if she never knew how much her mother didn't want her?
The computers surrounding Tony fazed and sparked, blacking out, then turning on again, everything short circuiting. Arcs of currents string in the lights hanging in the ceiling above flickered severely, an electric storm sweeping over the facility.
Bucky looked up to the lights, the noise of the booming, sparks cracking in the air. "Ruth," He spoke, trying to be loud enough to be heard. He was about to lay his hand on her shoulder when he quickly reeled his hand back, seeing electricity flow off her skin. His voice escalated with urgency, "Ruth!"
His words finally jolted Ruth out of her thoughts, suddenly becoming aware of what was happening around her just as it began to calm down.
Everyone went dead silent, confusion spread across their faces, Natasha and Sam, who stood side by side, continued to duck to avoid any residual sparks.
Ruth realized they stood in the mid-day darkness, all lights overhead shut off. She looked to the computers to see black, unresponsive screens.
"Uh, Friday?" Tony spoke up, still tentatively looking around him. "Can you please reboot the power in here?"
Ruth looked to Tony to see what he was going to say, what he was going to do to her for possibly frying his computers. A knot formed in her stomach.
"Sure thing, boss," Friday replied. Only moments later, lights flickered back on and the computers lit up.
Ruth's breath was shallow, uneven. "Did I do that?"
Tony nodded in response. "I think your abilities are a bit stronger this time around."
"I'm sorry," Ruth said meekly, looking from Tony to Steve, still wondering what they were going to do.
Tony shook his head, "No," he gave a small smile, "This could be a good thing."
Ruth was baffled by how Tony responded to the things she did.
"Would you be alright if we ran some tests on how the serum changed your abilities?" Tony asked Ruth, with excitement building in his expression, Sam and Nat finally standing up straight.
"As long as you could refrain from poking me with a needle for a while, that would be fine," Ruth replied.
"No, we wouldn't have to do that," Tony reassured her. "Hydra already ran several blood tests. I want to test your physical abilities." He stepped closer to Ruth, "Did Hydra test your electricity threshold?"
Ruth shook her head, "No, they didn't. They were probably waiting to get past the first dose of injections."
"Good," Tony affirmed, walking back over to his desk and grabbing what looked to be a watch. He handed the device to Ruth. "Whenever you feel up to it, I want Barnes here to test your endurance. See how your heart responds to exercise, how quickly your body recovers, and if your strength has increased."
"What about the electricity?" Ruth asked.
"If you could remain calm and not cause a shortage in this building for a while, then I could work on a device where I could measure your tolerance to electricity accurately." Tony motioned to around the room, "I know now that I don't have anything that would hold up to whatever the hell just happened here."
Ruth nodded in acknowledgment. She looked to Bucky, "You ok with training me again?"
Bucky was nervous, tentative. He only wanted Ruth to be safe. He just got her back a couple days ago, the image of her strapped to a chair with tubes and wires surrounding her, scars, bruising and incisions covering her skin still bright in his mind.
"Of course," he finally replied.
"But don't push it, Ruth," Steve spoke, sounding like a concerned brother. "Train when you're ready. You still need to recover."
Ruth let out a small laugh, "Honestly, guys, I'm ok. I've been through this before. If we want to figure out exactly what the Woman is doing, and what her next steps will be, we have to work fast."
"Speaking of which," Nat spoke up, the first time breaking her silence today, "When we raided the SHIELD facility, there was no sign of Kal, or even Mage."
Ruth shook her head, "I have no idea where Kal could be now. But she wouldn't be too far from Hydra."
"Work on testing your abilities with Bucky. Sam, Nat, and I will try to come up with a game plan," Steve offered, standing with his arms crossed.
Ruth looked down to the watch in her hand as Steve, Sam, and Nat walked to the other side of the room, Tony turned back to the computers, pulling a marker cap off with his teeth before scribbling wildly at a multitude of papers in front of him.
"You alright?" Bucky asked, his voice low as he and Ruth began to walk out of the lab.
"Yeah," Ruth said quickly. "Yeah, it's just... I don't know if I can control it." She looked up to him, "What if I hurt you?"
Bucky gave a small smile, "Don't worry about it. If you shock me, it'll just be payback for the times I punched you in the face."
"Accidentally," Ruth asserted.
"It still left quite the mark."
"Please don't feel bad about that, Buck. It wasn't your fault."
Bucky shrugged, "I just never want to hurt you, Ruth. Whatever the circumstance is."
A moment of silence swelled between them.
Ruth nudged him with her shoulder as they stood in the elevator, "You ready to start training me again, Winter Soldier?"
Bucky grimaced, smiling, "That sounds so weird when you say that now."
Ruth chuckled.
"I'm ready as long as you are, Buzzkill."
Ruth laughed, "I see what you mean."
The elevator door dinged open, giving way to the hallway leading to the living room.
Bucky stopped suddenly as they stepped out into the hallway, Ruth looking to him with a bit of concern.
"What are we?" He asked her tentatively.
Ruth paused, "...assassins?"
"No," Bucky replied. "I mean, you and I, like..." he motioned between the two of them.
"Together?"
"Yeah."
Ruth felt a nervousness creep up on her. "I don't know."
Bucky nodded, looking down to the floor.
"I like the word 'together'," Ruth offered, a smile tugging on her lips.
Bucky looked back to Ruth and smiled, kissing her gently on the forehead.
"Who knew two highly trained assassins would be so clueless about this, right?" Ruth remarked.
Bucky smirked, "Well, I was quite the ladies man back in the day."
"Hm," Ruth smiled, "And yet it still took you four years to kiss me," she teased before walking away toward the kitchen.
Bucky scoffed as he watched Ruth saunter away from him. "So that's how it is?" He mused before jogging up to her, wrapping his arms around Ruth's waist and throwing her over his shoulder.
Ruth laughed with a giddiness like she never had before. Her heart swelled. The present joy washing clearly over the pain that was once all she knew.