Viper's Bite: The Other Rogers

5.

"Come on Viper! Again. You've been here for ten years, you can do this! You aren't fooling anyone, not even yourself. Shoot him."

Sally sat in the mirror lined room, being watched by those who had gone before her, with a gun raised to a figure in a hood and their hands restrained. Knowing it was their life or her own, she pulled the trigger. A single tear running down her cheek as she did. 

"Fail. Since you still killed him, I will spare you your life but you will remember that your emotions have no place in this business. You will not be given another chance."

Since being injected Sally hadn't aged a day. She still appeared to be maybe twenty and Hydra wanted her to get all of the best training to put the talent to use. She had been stripped of her identity and reinvented as none other than Viper. She could strike quickly and in a life or death situation had no issue ending the threat to her life. The concern currently was her inability to kill in cold blood without mercy. It was going to get her killed among the widows if she didn't get it under control. 

Another year, another life wasted. She found herself able to kill effectively and however instructed. Her superiors finally seemed content with her abilities and moved her into another program. Here Viper was to be trained by the best assassin Hydra ever trained. The Winter Soldier didn't hold back in his training. Her own training with the widows came of some use and they were able to learn from each other efficiently. Viper was instructed to keep her hood over her head, while "Soldat" as he was called, was instructed to keep his mask on. They needed to learn how to fight while continuing to keep their identities anonymous. 

They trained off and on for years. Viper being sent on more covert ops while the Winter Soldier was meant to strike fear into hearts and minds of anyone who dared to go against their boss. Viper secretly loved the way that the arm glinted in certain lighting, how his right hand gripped weapons differently than his metal one. She would never admit to anyone just how much she secretly imagined how the man whose face she had never seen would make her feel.

She knew he was unstable and therefore never let him in on her own ideas regarding him. Feelings were too complicated in their line of work and they worked together too often for her to go a round or two with him when he was unstable. Still made some of the worst nights a little easier when thinking of him though. 

"We have a new assignment for the two of you. You will both be training the new incoming widows. They need to be tougher than the previous ones so you both will assist in training them."

Viper stood beside the much taller and broader Winter Soldier before nodding and turning towards her room. Viper hated going to the Red Room. It reminded her of the unknown and possible innocent people she had killed while training there. Instead focusing on what weapons to bring and different training attire. Once packed, she returned to the main room where they received their instructions and waited for Soldat to return as well. Before long, he stood beside her again. They went to train the new recruits and quickly discovered there were two that stood out. Soldat took the older redhead to train individually while Viper focused on the younger blonde. 

About two months into the training, the redhead joined the blonde in their training to be elite widows. The redhead adopting the name Black Widow and the blonde becoming Crimson Widow. 

The girls soon needed to move on to their own missions and Viper was sent back to the base. It wasn't a good thing in her mind but it wasn't a bad thing anymore either. She had already survived the many different torture techniques as well as pain tolerance training. They exposed her to new drugs and chemicals often to ensure the maximum efficiency of their top assassins. 

Upon arriving back, the newest guard in charge of the Winter Soldier initiative requested she follow him. When she saw the room full of people getting the serum she reminded him she already had the serum. That was not what he wanted to hear and Viper knew it when he backhanded her across the face for talking back. It didn't hurt so much as annoy her but she listened and sat down where instructed. They placed the iv into her arm and she watched the colorful fluid glide through the tube and into her veins. She immediately felt a different jolt than she was accustomed to. She felt like her adrenaline had just tripled in a matter of seconds. Her eyes dilated and sweat began to form on her brow. Her heart raced and her muscles contracted. Once done, she couldn't sleep so she went to the gym inside the facility. 

She started running, thinking the cardio would help wear her out. She ran faster than the machine could keep up with, which didn't help her at all. So she grabbed a jump rope and started speed jumping. She felt the amount of air she was getting with each jump and decided to not keep track anymore. She moved to the punching bag, when it was broken, she realized they didn't have a stepstool in the gym for her to hang another one. She grabbed the broken bag and moved it the the ever-growing stack of them that she and Soldat seemed to add to daily. Before she could move to another activity, there was a grunt and a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she saw none other than Soldat standing behind her and showing her that he had hung another bag for her.

Giving him a small smile while ducking her head further into her hooded pullover, she thanked him. He had his mask on and seemed to sense her own issue. Without missing a beat, he handed her one of his extra masks from his bag, it wasn't one for work because it had straps that wrapped around the back of one's head but it would serve the purpose she needed it for. Putting it on, she thanked him in Russian before moving to the bag again. He moved to brace ot for her and that was how they spent the rest of the night. Each taking turns on equipment and helping the other when needed. It became apparent that Viper was much stronger than before with better endurance. Soldat seemed to be more focused than normal too. She wasn't sure what had him acting so different than normal but let it slide as they continued their workout. 

It had only been approximately three weeks since the injection when the others went haywire. The ones they could knock out, Soldat and Viper did. They didn't want to see their friends die due to an error in the formula. However, several of them were killed because they left the pair no choice. They showed the higher ups just how well they worked together. They systematically took down the other super soldiers in one fashion or another before turning back to the leader who told them that Soldat needed his rest. They wiped both of their memories. Viper always remembered flashes, not enough to be helpful, just annoy her and keep her from sleeping soundly.

She went on a few other missions over the years before running into an old man, a man with a face from her flashbacks. She stood outside his home where he stood with the door opened. She kept her hood up and her weapons visible but the man didn't seem afraid, he seemed shocked. 

"Sally?"

Viper tilted her head and contemplated the name he called. There was a young man, maybe a few years younger than she appeared who tapped the old man on the shoulder. He mentioned something about his mom wanting to the old man to join them for dinner. The old man kept staring though. Without turning he said something to the young man. "Anthony, tell Maria to call Shield. She is alive."

Sally saw the flash of headlights turning down a road a couple blocks away and ran, knowing she shouldn't have stayed as long as she had. She never saw the man again and didn't go looking either.