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Chapter Quote:

“You shaped the century. And I need you to do it one more time...”

~Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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Chapter 6

Another three years passed; I’d worked on the Winter Soldier six times during that period.  It was the middle of October when I was summoned by Pierce to go take care of the Winter Soldier.  Funny, considering I’d checked him out a week ago.  It was strange to me that they’d sent him on a mission so soon after his last one.  It didn’t make sense, but my excitement over getting to see him again overruled my conscience which was telling me something was wrong.  Rumlow escorted me to the building.  He seemed anxious.  He kept fidgeting, prompting me to finally demand, “What’s a matter with you?”

“Nothing,” he replied, but his fidgeting ceased instantly.

“Sure.  Nothing,” I muttered, looking out the window.  When we arrived, I went down to the secret basement deep underground with Rumlow.  There were no instructions to be needed; I knew what to do.  I went straight into the room where the Winter Soldier was located.

“Hello Soldier, my name is Annabeth Drew.  I’m here to take care of you.  Do you mind if I do so?” He shook his head. “Wonderful.  I’m going to run basic logistics on your arm, see if there’s anything damaged in it so I can repair it and I’m also going to make sure you aren’t shot or have debris shredding your back like this one time I took care of you.  Now that was not a fun day for either of us.  Do you mind if I sing while I work?  It helps me focus.” Silence met my ears so I assumed it was okay.  So, humming “If I Die Young,” I got to work.  Surprisingly, his physical body didn’t have much damage, just a few bruises.  It was his metal arm that had the issues.  Somehow, the wires had gotten all tangled up which was causing him almost full immobility. He could move it up and down but that was the extent of it; he couldn’t move his wrist, he couldn’t bend his arm at all, he couldn’t move it forwards and backwards, and more.  The Winter Soldier remained utterly still, and every time I looked at him, it was as if he’d never changed where he was looking: straight ahead.  But I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

A few seconds later,  I heard the door open to the lab.  I’d been setting down some pliers (there was a metal scrap lodged in his arm; how it got there, I don’t want to know) when the gunshot rang out.  I knew exactly who it was for but I had no time to react.  I prayed it would be a quick death, but knowing HYDRA, they’d want me to suffer.  Pain tore through my shoulder; a scream erupted from my throat.  I bent down, black spots dotting my vision.  A second gunshot blasted just as metal flashed in front of me.  The sound of metal going into metal made me cringe.  I looked up.  The Winter Soldier had his arm extended in front of me, protecting the part of my body where the bullet had been supposed to go.

My head.

Pierce strode in.  I glanced over at him before turning back to the soldier. “Thank you,” I said.

“Grab her,” Pierce ordered.  Strong arms grasped around my shoulders and waist.  I started screaming and kicking, anything to get out of the grasp.  The Secretary of S.H.I.E.L.D. walked up to me.  His hand cracked across my face, causing my whole body to jerk to the side from the impact.  I gasped. “Shut up,” he commanded.  Pierce turned around and went to the Winter Soldier. “All right, this has gone on long enough.  Miss Drew will no longer be taking care of you.  And, if you decide to harm any other doctors who take care of you, we’ll kill her.  Understood?” The Winter Soldier nodded. “Good.  Take her out of here.”

“No!” I protested loudly, thrashing my legs out even though the movement caused the pain in my arm to increase a tenfold.  I started swearing in French, then in Russian.  The guards were actually having a difficult time getting me out of there.

It suddenly dawned on me that this was probably the last time I’d ever see the Winter Soldier so I told him, still speaking Russian, “Soldier, you’re my mission.  And I’ll finish it.  So when you’re ready to know who you are, come find me!  I’ll help you remember!”

“What is she saying?” Pierce demanded.

“Tell him I’m swearing at him and everyone else!” I shouted, still speaking Russian.

The Winter Soldier’s eyes flitted between me and Pierce before landing on the S.H.I.E.L.D. secretary and saying, “She’s swearing.”

“What exactly is she saying?”

“I’m going to kill all of you, you mother-” I was cut off by Rumlow clapping his hand over my mouth.

“That’s what she’s saying,” the soldier said.

Pierce laughed. “I’d like to see her try.”

With that, I was dragged out of the room permanently and into another one.  It was a security room.  I was strapped to a chair as a doctor came in.  He took off my jacket and started removing the bullet from my shoulder (without using any pain killers naturally).

Pierce sat in front of me and asked, “Do you know why you’re here, Miss Drew?”

“Because I treated him like a human being and not a damn thing like you?” I snapped.

“Fiery.  That gets you places in the world.  No, I took you away from him because for some reason, you have developed an influence over him, brainwashed or not.”

“Oh please, the only time he’s ever even spoken to me was when you sent him to assassinate me.”

“Which you talked him out of.  And I gave him the choice of what to do.”

“Because it served one of your heinous purposes.  So what did it help you decide to do?” I sneered.

“It proved to me just how much you hold power over him, and how interested he is in you.”

“What interest are you talking about?  The only time he’s ever looked at me is when he was in my apartment.”

“Show her the footage,” Pierce directed.  One of the guards pulled up a video.  I recognized it as the first time I ever worked on the Winter Soldier.  At first, there was nothing, not to my surprise.  But as the video went on, I observed something I’d never seen before.

The Winter Soldier was watching me.

Every move I made, he watched, and right before I would turn to look down at him, he would hurriedly shift his gaze to straight ahead, as if he’d never been watching me.  I was shown footage of all the times I’d taken care of him, and each time, the Winter Soldier seemed to be more and more interested in watching what I was doing.  How had I never caught this?

“You see?  He does have an interest in you, and one I need to stop if I am to accomplish what I want.  So Miss Drew, this is what you’re going to do.  You will not be working on the Winter Soldier anymore.  You will be working as my secretary so I can keep my eye on you.  You will not breathe a word about this to anyone.  I will come up with a good cover story as to why I have chosen such a young woman as yourself to be my secretary because that will cause a stir in the media.  And you will go along with whatever I say.  Everything I tell you to do, you will do it, unless you want to watch the Winter Soldier be brainwashed and tortured right before your eyes.  Oh yes,” he snarled, “I know that’s worse than death to you.  Death would be an easy way out for you.  So go home, get some rest, and never speak a word about any of this to anyone.  Ever.  Got it?” I nodded.  Pierce slapped me. “I want a verbal yes.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied, feeling my lip curl.

“Good girl.  Rumlow, take her home.” Rumlow took me by the arm and led me out of the building.  I remained stubbornly silent the entire trip back to my flat.  As I was unlocking my door, Rumlow said, “Are you okay?”

I didn’t look at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?  Just got told that the mission I’d sworn I’d finish, I can’t work on anymore.  I got beat around by the secretary of S.H.I.E.L.D., I got shot, and not to mention that the one person I actually care for in HYDRA lost his one good ally, the one person that would actually treat him like a human being.”

“He’s an assassin and nothing more” Rumlow stated.

I whirled on him. “An assassin is what he is, not who he is.”

“And you would know who he is?”

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t, but remember this: The Winter Soldier was my mission.  He still is my mission.  And I have every intention of finishing that mission.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

I smiled before punching him in the head with every force I could muster from my body, and considering how pissed I was?  That was a lot of force.  So much that it knocked him unconscious.

“You want to know my plan on doing that?  My plan is to get James Buchanan Barnes out of HYDRA and help him remember who he is.  That’s how you son of a bitch.”

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Three years later…

That punch I landed on Rumlow’s face had broken my hand if you’re wondering how a girl my size was able to punch a man of his size out.  I’d made up some lie that I’d been dancing around my kitchen and flung my hand so hard into my granite countertops that that’s how I broke my hand.  I wasn’t sure if the doctor bought the story or not, but it didn’t matter.  He didn’t prod.

With me becoming Pierce’s secretary, it caused the equivalent of a hurricane in the media.  A “pretty twenty-five year old” who “possibly was having illicit affairs with the secretary of S.H.I.E.L.D. for her own personal gain.”  That’s how I was described.  I and Secretary Pierce (he’s good for one thing) both made it extremely clear that I was his secretary because I’d worked with the organization a long time, I’d been under his recruitment program for “bright young minds,” I’d exceeded all expectations among my supervisors, and I was a hard-working, dedicated employee who deserved the spot I was given.  So, for the next three years, I worked as Pierce’s secretary, handling phone calls, meetings, agendas, letters, travelling with him to board meetings and the likes.  But I hated every second of it.  At least when I’d gotten to work with the Winter Soldier, I’d looked forward to the next day, because the next day always brought the possibility that I could see him again, the possibility that I could break him out of his HYDRA prison.  Working for Pierce?  I dreaded each tomorrow.  Because each tomorrow meant I would have to look at that lying son of a bitch’s face, that it meant one more day I couldn’t help the Winter Soldier.  It made me sick.

I still saw the Winter Soldier periodically, but instead of taking care of him, I was watching him being taken care of by others with me on my knees and gun to my head.  Pierce wanted the Winter Soldier to know who was in charge and that like him, I was just a puppet in Pierce’s game and that I couldn’t do anything for him.  At least I never had to see him get brainwashed.  I’m pretty sure I might actually murder someone for that.

The soldier never made eye contact with me.  For once, I didn’t mind.  I didn’t want him to look at me, ask me for help, and receive a no.  Because in my position, what could I do?  I’d let him down already.  I didn’t want to do that again.  And his missions, none of them were in D.C. anymore.  They were anywhere but D.C.  I wondered why but knew I wouldn’t get an answer.

Today had been busy.  Pierce’s meeting with the World Security Council, then Fury needed to talk to him, and then there was all the other stuff I had to do which I’d rather not talk about because I hate it.  But now, it was my lunch break.  I alerted Pierce I was going to go grab some lunch and left.  Switching into flats and putting my heels into my purse (it can hold a lot), I started walking in downtown D.C.  The day was surprisingly cool.  I was glad I had a jacket with me.

Downtown wasn’t too busy, a good thing considering it meant the lunch lines everywhere would be shorter.  I was walking down one of the less crowded streets, not really paying attention until I heard what sounded like multiple machine guns a few blocks over.  Screaming ensued.  I started to run towards the location but skidded to a stop when I saw the Winter Soldier standing in the middle of the intersection, some sort of gun hanging at his side.  He was staring down the road.  As I started running to the intersection, he slowly raised the gun and shot it.  It wasn’t a bullet, but some sort of… round device?  An explosion knocked me to the ground.  I sat up in a dazed state.  A black SUV, definitely a S.H.I.E.L.D. one, was upside down, wheels still spinning.  The Winter Soldier strode up to it, taking his own sweet time.  He walked with a manner of saying that he didn’t care if his prey got away.  He would still find them.  They could run, but they couldn’t hide.  The soldier tore away the driver’s side door.  No one was there.  How that was possible, I don’t know, but since it was a S.H.I.E.L.D. car, I decided whoever was driving it was very fast at finding an escape route.  I stood up and brushed myself off.  People were still screaming around me.  In fact, I was the only one who seemed calm.  Police sirens wailed in the distance, but my focus remained on the Winter Soldier.  He turned my direction, but I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me or not.  He had a mask covering his eyes and mouth.  But the way he cocked his head slightly and how he began walking towards me, I had a feeling he saw me.  I had a feeling something about seeing me struck something in him.  Hopefully it wasn’t some murderous tendency.

But his attention switched when a new vehicle pulled up next to him.  He got in without any hesitation.  My nostrils flared at the sight of Rumlow sitting inside there.  He didn’t see me, probably a good thing.

However, now my appetite was gone.  After what I’d just witnessed there was no way I could eat.  Instead, I headed back to S.H.I.E.L.D.  I had to figure out what I was going to do now that I knew the Winter Soldier was back in D.C.  I had to get him out of there.  But once again, my main obstacle was how?  Pierce kept the guy under lock and key (and ice).  How was I going to break him out?

“You have to figure out a way,” I thought to myself. “You don’t have an option.  He’s your mission.  So finish it.”

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It was the day before the helicarrier launch.  Pierce gave me the day off (strangely enough).  You would think he’d have me be there for last minute preparations but he insisted it was fine.  I knew better than to argue.  I threw on some black skinny jeans and a tank top and left my flat in search of some much needed hot cocoa powder so I could make my “brownie in a mug” when I got hungry later.  Swiss Miss worked best.  For some unknown reason, other brands didn’t.  I literally hadn’t even set one foot out of my building when I was blocked by two men that had muscles bigger than tanks, automatically causing me to nickname them Tank One and Tank Two in my head.

“Come with us,” Tank One ordered. “Pierce’s orders.

I groaned but followed.  They took me to the last building I’d gone to when the Winter Soldier had been in D.C.  I was escorted there and down.  Tank Two pinned my arms behind my back and pushed me to the lab.  Scientists and doctors swarmed the place.  The Winter Soldier sat in the middle, staring blankly into space.  As one doctor moved towards him, the soldier flipped, throwing the closest doctor away from him.  Instantly guards had guns pointed at him.  He went back to sitting still, but his chest rose up and down.  Something other than adrenaline was coursing through him.

At that moment, Pierce swaggered in with Rumlow tailing him.  The latter gave me a smile which I promptly returned with a death glare.  He quickly looked away.  Pierce stood in front of the Winter Soldier and demanded, “Mission report.” The soldier remained steadfastly silent, causing Pierce to repeat, “Mission report, now.”

When the soldier still didn’t say anything, Pierce braced himself on his knees, stared at his “asset” for a few seconds, and then slapped the fire out of him.

“Don’t hurt him!” I cried out.  Tank One clapped a hand over my mouth.  I tried to bite him but that wasn’t going so hot.

The Winter Soldier turned back to face Pierce, met his gaze, and said, “That man on the bridge.  Who was he?”

Oh my god… I thought.  He’s remembering something.  I wanted to scream from happiness but a hand over my mouth prevented me from doing so.

“You met him earlier this week on another assignment,” Pierce explained, taking a chair and sitting down.

“I knew him,” the Winter Soldier 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.  And tomorrow morning we’re going to give it a push.  But if you don’t do your part, I can’t do mine,” Pierce said.  I was about ready to strangle him at this point.  Slowly, intimately, and without mercy. “And HYDRA can’t give the world the freedom it deserves.”

The soldier looked directly at the secretary of S.H.I.E.L.D. as he replied with a small smile, “But I knew him.”

Pierce actually seemed stunned for a moment.  His “asset” was changing, was acting like a person.  That wouldn’t do for him, so, standing up, he commanded, “Prep him.”

“He’s been out of cryo for too long,” a scientist noted.  A slight change crossed over the Winter Soldier’s face; he knew what was coming.  Unfortunately, I didn’t and there was nothing to prepare me for it.

“Then wipe him,” Pierce answered. “And start over.”

I slammed my foot into Tank Two’s shin, causing enough pain and shock for me to get his hand off my mouth. “You monster!” I screamed at Pierce. “No!  Don’t do it to him!  Bucky!”

I was dragged out of the lab, but not before I saw the first stages of the mind-wiping begin and not before I heard the soldier’s horrific screams.  Someone knocked me on the back of the hand, effectively knocking me out.

When I woke up, I was back in my flat.  My head pounded from the hit it received.  I looked over at my clock and it read five in the morning.  How long had I been asleep?!  I scrambled up, took a shower, and got ready for work.  Pierce already wanted to kill me.  No need to give him any more reasons.  I threw on a slimming black dress and some sling-back pumps before rushing out the door.  I managed to get to the Triskelion only ten minutes late.  Not too bad considering the time I had.  But as soon as I walked inside the door, terror crashed over me.  Pierce was down there with the members of the World Security Council.

That meant today was the day of the helicarrier launch.

Today was when twenty million people would be losing their lives.

I slipped away to another elevator, and barely got to my desk before Pierce and the council members arrived.  My boss nodded his head at me in acknowledgement, acting as if nothing had gone wrong yesterday.  I nodded back stiffly, feeling like a coward for not being able to stand up to him and make it known to the world what the assbutt was doing, but I was a nobody in the world.  I couldn’t do it.  Not yet.

I waited impatiently for the launch, wondering who and who wasn’t on that list.  I knew Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Dr. Banner were on it.  They made sense considering who they were. 

At that moment, I received a message, an urgent one that I needed to give to Pierce.  It was going to suck interrupting the meeting but unfortunately, waiting wasn’t an option.  I knocked politely and walked in.  Pierce was surrounded by the world council members.  Pierce looked at me and was about to say something when: “Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  This is Steve Rogers.  You’ve heard a lot about me over the past few days.  Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down.  But I think it’s time you know the truth.  S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was; it’s been taken over by HYDRA.  Alexander Pierce is their leader.”

Pierce had started walking around, and the world security council members gave him disgusted looks along with me.  Served the bastard right to finally be figured out.

Captain America continued. “The Strike and Insight crew are HYDRA as well.  We don’t know how many more, but I know they’re in the building.  They could be standing right next to you.  They almost have what they want.  Absolute control.  They shot Nick Fury.  And it won’t end there.  If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way.  Unless we stop them.  I know I’m asking a lot.  The price of freedom is high, always has been.  And it’s a price I’m willing to pay.  If I’m the only one, then so be it.  But I’m willing to bet I’m not.”

Silence ensued for a brief second before Rockwell said, “You smug son of a bitch.”

Right then, the Strike team, with the exception of Rumlow, walked in.  One of them purposefully bumped into me and it took all my willpower not to kick him where the sun don’t shine.

“Arrest him,” Singh ordered.  One of the Strike team’s men pulled a gun on him.

“Well I guess I’ve got the floor,” Pierce said. “Miss Drew, stand with them.”

I did what I was ordered to do.  He started walking around.  I watched him carefully, once in a while glancing over at the council members.  At one point, I made eye contact with council member Hawley.  I mouthed “I’m sorry” to her to which she mouthed back, “You didn’t know?”

I whispered, barely audible, that I knew, but that I worked for him against my will.  Pierce was too busy watching the launch of the helicarriers to realize Hawley and I were talking.

“Be ready,” Hawley told me.  I didn’t question her, although I really wanted to.

“Let me ask you a question,” Pierce said, walking towards his desk and grabbing two champagne glasses. “What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow, and you knew that they were gonna drag your daughters into a soccer stadium.  For execution.” Pierce handed a champagne glass to Singh. “And you could stop it, with a flick of the switch.  Would you?  Wouldn’t you all?”

“Not if it was your switch,” Singh responded before tossing his glass to the side.  Pierce let out a chuckle and a Strike team member handed him a gun which he pointed directly at Singh.  Suddenly, Hawley kicked Singh out of the way, grabbed Pierce and punched him.  She proceeded to disarm the remaining guards in the room.  In all the chaos, I took my opportunity to punch Pierce, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t knock him out, so I hit him in the jaw.  A tide of happiness, the first I felt in years, washed over me.  Pierce was too stunned to realize what I’d done.  He stood speechless, staring at Hawley who held a gun at pointed at him.

Pressing a button on the side of her head, she said, “I’m sorry.” She pulled off her face and a wig, revealing a completely new person.  Natasha Romanoff. “Did I step on your moment?”  She turned to me and said, “Go.  Get out of here.”

I nodded and dashed out of there.  I took out a flashdrive and downloaded all my files onto it, including all of HYDRAs dirty work, off my computer.  This was my chance to help take them down, and like hell I wasn’t going to take the opportunity. 

It took five minutes.  The beauty of fast computers.  Once finished, I attached the flash drive to a lanyard and threw it around my neck.  After grabbing a gun, I ran out to the hallway so I could get out of the building.  Captain America was here.  That meant Pierce had sent the Winter Soldier after him.  It made sense to me that he would.  Chaos was going to ensue.  It already was.  The helicarriers had been firing their guns at someone in a winged suit.  I think his name was Sam Wilson.  But that didn’t matter.  I had to get out of this building.  It wasn’t going to be here much longer because some of the people the helicarrier was targeting were in this building.  Hell, I was probably one of them.

By now, the alarm was blaring, telling all agents to get out of the building unless they wanted to get hurt (or die).  Guns shots rang out in the hallway next to me.  I peered around.

Rumlow.

He wouldn’t hesitate to shoot me.  I had to get around him somehow.  He started talking into his microphone.  Only thing I heard was that he was headed up because the council had been breached.  I started walking when I bumped into a man.

“Rumlow.  Where is he?” he asked.

“He’s heading up to the council room.  Turn around, go to the first security door on your right and type in ‘hail hydra’ in the computer.  It will reveal an elevator that will bring you up to the forty first floor.  Once there, go to the second door on your right.  That’s where Rumlow will exit.  Kick his ass,” I said.

“Thank you.” The man ran back down the hall.  I went the opposite way, to the stairwell Rumlow had taken.  I took a few shots at him, backing myself against a wall before he could see who I was.  It stalled him just long enough that I felt positive the mystery man had made it to the forty first floor before Rumlow.  I ran all the way down the stairs and outside.  Explosions above me made my lift my head to lookup.  The helicarriers were firing on themselves, one already plummeting towards the bridge I was standing on.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, making a run for the end of the bridge.  The shadow loomed over me and just as I reached my destination, the helicarrier crashed onto the bridge, knocking me off my feet.  A guy ran over to me and dragged me away.  I didn’t know who it was but I muttered a thank you.

“You all right miss?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” I replied. “Thank you for helping me.”

“No problem.  Hey, aren’t you Pierce’s secretary?”

“Used to be.  That HYDRA loving asshole is dead, thank god.  Why?” I looked up.  A member of the SWAT team stood in front of me, his eyes wide.

“HYDRA?” he said.

“HYDRA,” I confirmed.

“And you knew?”

“Yes, but I worked for him against my will.”

“… Be that as it may, I still have to take you into custody.  Come on.”

I sighed.  Even in death, Pierce was still screwing me over.  The SWAT member led me to his boss, a hulking six-foot one man that skewered me with his glare.  He obviously recognized me and didn’t like me.  A few words were exchanged between my guy and his boss and I was led away to a cop car.

Well hell…

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Long chapter, huh?  That’s actually the end of the flashbacks!  So next chapter is in real time and that’s when the real fun begins!  Review please :)