Ailwéns Story

Problems

Ailwén slid down the rope to halt just above the unconscious body of Steve Rogers carefully she sprayed the small packet of dust from her pocket to locate the beams that would trigger automatic guns if she tripped them. Moving very slowly she attached the small hook to the back of his chair and moved herself back up the steel rope and pressed go. The chair moved upwards rapidly. Clearing the guns range as they started firing. Once the smoke had cleared from the guns she lowered him back down and landed neatly beside him a gun in her hand.  As quickly as possible she sliced his ropes and kicked the chair over. Thirty seconds later the first of her opponents came through the door and she started shooting. In the distance she could hear the Strike team breeching.

"How are you feeling?" Banner asked as he rechecked Rogers vitals. Rogers shrugged and chose to ignore the question.  Somehow he had gone from sleeping in his bed to waking up tied to a chair in the middle of a warehouse on his side. The strange weapons specialist standing over him working her way through several assailants. As he forced himself upwards he had seen Rumlow and his team storming towards them. As they left he had seen the way Rumlow looked at her and he didn't like it.

"The best kept secret in SHIELD huh?" Barnes murmured as he joined the canteen line behind Ailwén who was dressed in her lab jacket scowling at her tablet. She looked up at him a small sign of annoyance flickered through her eyes. "When we gonna finish our hunt?"
"Bit busy at the moment Barnes I don't have time for games" She grabbed two ham sandwiches from the display waved them at the cashier who nodded and simply walked away from him dropping them in her pocket still concentrating on the tablet. Shrugging he followed her as she returned to the labs perching on a seat next to Banner she wordlessly passed him a sandwich and carried on working.
"Working hard huh?" He interrupted lamley Ailwén gave him a small smile and returned to what she was doing. As he left he saw Stark join them and he wandered away.

Ailwén moved slowly through the bar doors and slumped into her usual seat. Automatically Kelly put a whiskey in front of her, paused and then threw a burrito wrap into the microwave for her and served it when the machine pinged. Barnes watched from the other end of the bar as the old man picked up the plate and guided her to a table kissed the top of her head, then a few minutes later he returned with a coffee cup. Quietly Barnes took it from the old man and sat in front of her Ailwén stared at him blankly.
"You look tired" he mumbled and she nodded "your working too hard Doll" Ailwén shook her head.
"Not hard enough and not well enough to see this fucking coming"
She sighed. "Come to the briefing tomorrow morning and bring your boyfriend" as she spoke rubbing her forehead Kelly wordlessly placed a whiskey in front of each of them.

Barnes and Rogers slipped into the back of the conference room and looked at the screens that contained the faces of ten missing  SHIELD agents.
"This can't be happening" Romanoff muttered beside them passing them a copy of the report she was reading. In the last year nearly every deceased agent shown had been through the evasion programme Ailwén ran. To Barnes shock Fury ordered her taken into custody. Romanoff placed a hand on his arm and shook her head.
Ailwén sat in her cell waiting to see what would happen. Her very public arrest should prove too tempting for who ever it was using her programme to resist and three days later she watched in disbelief as Brock Rumlows team broke her out. Picking her up from the floor Brock dusted her down and grinned staring deeply into her eyes before muttering. "Hail Hydra" with that placed a hood over her head and she was dragged away. Barnes watched in disbelief as Fury and Stark did nothing to stop her being taken.

It was nearly Four months later Barnes was called to a meeting and asked if he wanted to help destroy the base she was currently being held in.