Buzzkill [Winter Soldier]

Chapter 28

The moment Ruth and James stepped back into the Hydra facility, a guard slammed a baton against the base of her neck, forcing her to the ground. When she struggled to get up, the guard placed cuffs on her hands while other kicked the back of her knee. Being pushed by guards, Ruth once again found herself back in a interrogation room. Her head and neck throbbed with pain as she struggled to keep her head up to look at Dr. Mage sitting across from her.

"Why are you angry?" He asked her, his voice steady. The usual smile was gone from his face.

Ruth looked around the room, she assumed a few people were watching through the two-way mirror parallel to her. "Clearly, I am very relaxed sitting here, so I don't know why you would think I'm angry."

"You know that I'm talking about what happened a couple hours ago."

Ruth said nothing and just looked at the doctor.

"If it's not the serum withdrawal that's making you irritable, I assume I can ask you some things and you won't get hostile with me?"

Ruth nodded.

"What about your mother?" Dr. Mage asked, shifting in his seat to lean a little closer.

"What about her?"

"Did she love you?"

"Evidently not."

"Did you love her?"

"Until she handed me over in exchange for money, yes. I think every young child has the instinct to love their parents."

"What if I told you that we have something that when activated, could kill your Mrs. Alice Rogers in a second."

"Are you trying to threaten me?"

"Not at all."

"Then I would say, 'bombs away.'"

"That's a pretty grim thing to say," Dr. Mage's tone changed in a way to try and make Ruth feel guilty.

"I was raised in a very grim place."

Dr. Mage paused and looked at his clipboard as if he was actually doing something important.

"What about that boy Ryker?" Dr. Mage asked, his words ugly to Ruth's ears.

She gritted her teeth. "What about him?"

"You loved him, didn't you?" His words now sounded like poison to Ruth's mind.

"Not in the way you're thinking of."

"How sad that the once-strong agent of Hydra would crumble and become so weak, so frail."

Ruth squirmed in her seat.

"Pretty tragic the way he died," He shook his head disapprovingly. "It's a shame that you would kill someone so close to you."

Ruth paused, her heart slowed, "What?"

"Ryker, the boy. You killed him."

Ruth shook her head desperately, "No. No, I didn't."

Mage's face twisted into a grin, "Hm, it says so right here. Would She lie?"

"Yes! Yes, she lied all the time."

Mage kept his tone firm, "Name one."

Ruth paused. Nothing came to her mind. All that was running through her thoughts was Ryker's body falling to the floor. It was Mage that was lying, right? It doesn't say that on her file, right? Why would the Woman give her one extra kill that she didn't do?

"You can't think of anything? Hm," Mage spoke.

Ruth could feel her body trembling, "I can, I just..."

"Just admit it, you killed your brother."

"I did not kill him!" Ruth exclaimed, slamming her fists on the table.

The silence returned within the room, making Ruth realize how loud she just was.

Mage wrote something on his clipboard, "There's the anger I was looking for."

Ruth forcibly relaxed her rigid body and looked down at her hands. She didn't kill Ryker. The Woman always lied, right? The video would be on the USB, but she can't show Hydra the USB. That's suicide.

"And they dumped his body like yesterday's garbage," Mage continued.

Ruth looked back up at the doctor, anger clearly being read on her face.

"Do you want me to tell you where She dumped the body?"

"I know where She dumped his body."

Mage was intrigued, "Oh really? Where?"

"The same place that She dumps the rest of them. Even you don't know where that is."

Dr. Mage shuffled his papers. "I have the transcripts of what the boy said when She tortured him. Do you want to know what he said?"

Ruth stayed silent.

Mage pretended to read off the paper, "It says that he begged for mercy. That after they broke his ribs, he cried like a baby."

"No he didn't," Ruth's voice cracking.

"You suddenly care for your victim? It says so right here."

Ruth wanted to scream, the anger made her eyes water, but she knew she had to be smart about this. In an instant, she relaxed her shoulders and changed her expression to a warm smile,

"Will you show me?" Ruth asked in a soft voice, leaning in.

"Of course," he replied.

Ruth smiled wide, then slapped Dr. Mage across the face, "Ha!" She exclaimed at the shocked reaction.

Before he had time to move, Ruth wrapped her cuffed hands on the back of his head and slammed Mage's forehead against the table in between them.

She could hear the guards stomping outside to get in, and leapt onto and slid across the table quickly, grabbing Mage's pistol from his holster as he squirmed away.

Ruth cocked the pistol, turned, and pointed the gun up towards the guards, only for her arms to be held tight in the crook of James' metal arm, while with his other hand he pointed his gun to her head.

James held her arms secured in his. Ruth tried to struggle out of it but knew there was no use.

"Ruth, you have to stop," James sternly told her, trying to negotiate.

"I can't... I can't do it again and you know that," Ruth's voice shook as she kept her eyes down the barrel of the gun where Dr. Mage now dangerously stood with his hands raised. He didn't move because he thought she wouldn't dare shoot him.

"I know. But if you shoot him, I will have to shoot you." James' voice started to sound desperate.

"I would rather die than go through that one more time. And with him gone he will never hurt anyone again, especially you." She looked back and forth between James' eyes and Mage's.

"Please...stop. You're helping me remember and I need to remember," James whispered.

Ruth looked into his hurting eyes as his voice shook.

"Please," James pleaded again after a pause.

Just as Ruth released her grip on the gun to have it fall to the ground, a dart from one of the guards behind James was shot into Ruth's thigh, knocking her out cold.