Chapter Five : Memory Lane

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     Why did all their targets keep escaping lately? Rogers and Romanoff including their plus once escaped the transport van they were in and the HYDRA member who was with them was unconscious. There was a hole in the ground just like the one in Fury's car when Valencia was assigned to terminate him. She should've killed them right there but they put up a fight and now they were gone and nobody knew where they were.

     Valencia stood on the sidelines with her arms crossed while the scientists worked on fixing Barnes' titanium arm that was damaged by Romanoff's tiny disk and Rogers' shield. She didn't miss the scar on his shoulder where the metal was joint with his skin. She never saw what his arm looked like when it was attached to his body since he was always wearing his tactical suit. Another thing that grabbed her attention was the distant look in his eyes as he sat there and she wondered if it had to do anything with Rogers calling him Bucky. Unfortunately, she didn't have any idea as for why he was like that when he punched the scientist hard enough for him to be thrown ten feet across the room. Everybody lifted their guns and all aimed for his chest and head while he just sat there with his fists clenched. It wasn't until Pierce walked in when they lowered their weapons and Valencia exhaled slowly.

     "Mission report," he said but Barnes didn't say anything. All he did was stare off into space. "Mission report, now."

     Pierce stepped closer when he still didn't get a word out of Barnes and back handed him across the face the same way he did to Valencia the first time she failed to kill Nick Fury. The sound of the impact nearly made her wince as she thought of the time she was on the receiving end of Pierce's disappointment and impatience. Barnes had probably endured it longer than she did so getting struck in the face probably didn't have the same effect on him as it did for Valencia watching it happen.

     "That man on the bridge. Who was he?" Barnes asked.

     "You and Parrish met him earlier this week on another assignment," Pierce replied and briefly looked at Valencia.

     "I knew him," Barnes said.

     "Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves," Pierce explained before looking at Valencia. "Consider this your defining moment, Parrish."

     "But I knew him," Barnes insisted.

     Valencia bit her tongue as she watched Pierce stand straight and look at the doctors. "Prep him," he instructed and her heart started to beat a little quicker.

     "He's been out of cryo-freeze for too long," one of the scientists said.

     "Then wipe him and start over," Pierce ordered and then looked at Valencia. "Make her watch."

     "Why?" she asked.

     "Consider this motivation. And if she tries anything, tase her," Pierce said as he left the room

     Rumlow walked up behind Valencia and grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back. He used his other hand to grab her jaw roughly and forced her head to face Barnes who was strapped down to the chair he was sitting in. One of the scientists put a mouthguard between his teeth and Valencia could see the electric shocks from the machine that was moving closer to his face. His chest heaved as his breathing became more erratic and the machine was placed on his head. When Valencia heard him screaming, she tried to move away but Rumlow forced her to watch as one of the agents opened a red book with a star on the cover. Barnes kept screaming while they wiped his mind until the machine was removed and he just sat there panting.

     "Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight car," the agent said and Barnes' steel blue eyes were back to cold and focused. "Soldier?"

     "Ready to comply," Barnes said monotonously and Rumlow finally let go of Valencia.

     "Are you gonna wipe him every time he remembers a shred of his old life before HYDRA?" she asked, her voice dripping with venom.

     "That's how it works around here. If he remembers, he won't be as good an asset," one of the scientists said.

     "An asset? He's a human being! Whenever he remembers anything about who he once was you just scramble his brain so he's of convenience to you," Valencia said and Rumlow sent her a death glare.

     "Consider yourself lucky you don't have to do it. Why wipe your memories when we have leverage?" he asked and Valencia swallowed thickly.

     She would rather they wipe her mind instead of using everyone she loved as a weapon against her.

     "Go to Hell, Rumlow," she growled through her teeth.

     She looked at Barnes who stood up and followed the HYDRA agent out of the room. She was led out as well and pulled her arm away when someone grabbed her bicep.

     "Keep acting up and see what happens," the guard said before shoving her into her cell and locking the door.

     "You can all go to Hell," she mumbled as she paced around the small space.

     She wondered what her family could be doing while she was locked up in a cell. She wondered how her brothers were doing in school. Did her father still have his job? What was her mother up to? How did they all cope when they were told Valencia was dead? It must've been a closed casket funeral since there was no body to bury. Did they ask about what happened to the body? What did the "doctors" tell them when they realized her body wasn't there anymore? Valencia had no idea of how her family handled things when they were told that she died in a hit and run while out for her interview. She even wondered why HYDRA travelled from Washington D.C. to New York just to kidnap her and for her to do their bidding. She even started to wonder where Barnes came from.

     What was he like before HYDRA? What kind of life did he have before he was brainwashed and controlled? What kind of man was he before he was turned into a ruthless assassin? How long was he an assassin for HYDRA? Did he have any questions about Valencia? What went through his head the day they first met and were told to fight each other? Did he know what he was doing? Did he even remember what he did? Or did that all go away every time his memory was wiped?

     Every day she was with HYDRA was another question to add to her mental list. She probably shouldn't care, but she wanted to ask Barnes what happened to him. It wasn't the wisest thing that came to her mind but he seemed to get the worst of it when it came to HYDRA's abuse and torture.

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     Ever since Barnes had his memory wiped, he was more focused. It was only a couple hours since they returned to the HYDRA base and Valencia couldn't sleep. She was never able to sleep well when she was taken there anyway so this time wasn't any different. She even thought about what it was that HYDRA had planned for the morning. She still didn't know what their plan was but she figured that even if she did ask, they still wouldn't tell her anything.

     Valencia stood up from the mattress and walked over to the metal door that kept her locked inside. She looked through the small window and she didn't see anybody nearby. This is crazy and stupid, she thought to herself as she made a small force field and used it to smash the glass. She stuck her arm through and felt around for the lock but it was one of the locks that needed a key.

     "Shit," she cursed quietly when she saw a guard walking by.

     She moved to the side as he passed her door and she focused on the ring of keys on his belt once he was close enough. The small force field she made was strong enough to slice through the metal ring that held the keys and it didn't move as the guard kept walking. Once he was gone, she reached through the window again and grabbed them and let the force field disappear. She leaned against the door with many thoughts in her head about how reckless it was to try and sneak out of her cell. She would be risking everything but she wanted to know what was going on and she wanted to see how much Barnes could remember after the memory wipe.

     She took a deep breath as she unlocked the door and walked outside. She closed the door so no one would notice right away and made herself invisible so she could move undetected. She stayed light on her feet as she walked down the hallways while making a mental note to remember all her turns so she could get back to her cell before anyone noticed. She looked through the windows on the door and stopped walking when she found the cell with Barnes inside. She found the key to the lock and opened the door slowly and carefully to avoid making noise. Barnes looked up when Valencia made herself visible and he looked at her stoically.

      "What are you doing here?" he asked and Valencia sucked in a deep breath.

     "Barnes, what do you remember?" she asked quietly as she stood right in front of the taller man.

     "We failed to catch two targets," he replied.

     "What about the man on the bridge? Do you know him?" Valencia asked and Barnes glared at her.

     "No, I don't," he responded so coldly that Valencia felt her entire body shiver.

     "You said you knew him right before your mind was wiped. Do you remember him now?" she asked as she stepped closer.

     Barnes grabbed her arm with his metal hand and Valencia winced at how tight his grip was but her face didn't show it. She tugged on her arm but it only made him hold on tighter as he stared at her.

     "Why are you here?" he asked.

     "I wanted to ask you how much you remembered," Valencia replied as she stared right back at him, challenging him to try something.

     "Why are you here?" he repeated his question more sternly.

     "Are you talking about HYDRA?" Valencia asked and Barnes only continued to look at her. She took his silence and expectant look on his face as the answer to her question. "HYDRA has something over my head. I'm risking everything I have by being in your cell right now. I almost lost it all when I failed to kill Nick Fury the first time."

     "If it's such a risk, then why come here?" Barnes asked as his grip on her forearm loosened slightly.

     "Pierce has something planned in the morning but I don't know what it is. I assume you don't know either but he knows that we will blindly follow his orders if we don't know what's happening, just like we did before when we hunted down all those people and killed them," Valencia said, thinking about how horrible it sounded when she said it out loud. "Do you know what it could be?"

     "No. And even if I did, why would I tell you?" Barnes asked.

     "Fair enough," Valencia replied as she took her arm away. "Forget I even came in here."

     She disappeared from his sight and opened the door and walked out. She made sure it was locked from the outside like it was before she walked in and started heading back to her own cell. Once she got there, she looked around and carefully went back inside and stuck her hand through the window to lock the door. She tossed the keys as far as she could to make it seem like the guard dropped them while he was passing by and sat down on the mattress.

     She could've stayed invisible for a while longer and looked for a way out. Maybe even find a way to get Barnes out but if people knew who they really were and connected them to their crimes, there would be a manhunt and a bounty on both of their heads. The only other options were to find out what HYDRA was planning or just follow orders like any other mission. The only time she and Barnes were sent out on missions was to eliminate people who Pierce considered a threat to HYDRA. If they were expected to go out the next morning, then someone was threatening his plan. And even though she still didn't know what that plan was, she knew that she was still going to have to kill people who threatened the flow of that plan.