Remembering Freedom

Protect

It was nine miles from the base's coordinates when the black SUV from earlier made its appearance yet again. His body went rigid, his hand pulling away from Jemma's. James felt her eyes on him and heard her small intake of breath when she noticed it as well.

Gripping the wheel in both hands, he jerked the wheel to the left to avoid the spray of bullets from the automatic weapon being fired from the passenger window, the suddenness of the action causing the car to tilt on two tires. He could feel the Soldier fighting to pull out the gun strapped to his thigh and start firing back, but then he noticed the other black vehicle pulling out of the tree and looked back at Jemma as the car started to come back on all four tires. She wouldn't survive the firefight....not with two vehicles. Then he noticed a man stepping into the road, a familiar (why was it familiar?) gun in hand. Shit...

When the car finally came down on all fours, he forced Jemma back into the seat. He could feel her pulse pounding frantically in her chest, such a contrast to his steady beat in his own. He spared a glance at her wide hazel eyes before the explosion flipped the car. Jemma's screaming, crunching metal, and shattering glass sounded in his ears as the car skidded along the dirt road on its hood.

When it finally stopped, he blinked he blood from his vision as he felt for Jemma's pulse. Sixty-three beats a minute. Using his metal arm, he broke her seat belt before kicking the driver's door and pulling her out and into the cover of the trees. Stripping off his jacket, he cushioned her head and propped her against a tree out of the other's sight. After a quick check, he confirmed that the only new visible injury was the gash above her right eye. Cupping her jaw in his right hand, he runs the pad of his thumb along the soft skin of her cheek.

He had to fight them...for her. For the woman who saw something in the shell of HYDRA's greatest weapon, saw past the monstrosity of his left arm. She was the S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist with a heart of gold. He knew she deserved better than the blood-soaked weapon he was, and as he crouched in the brush, listening to the men approach, he could feel the Winter Soldier slowly seep into his body and into his mind. He would need the Soldier to save her. Closing his eyes James stepped back, allowing the Soldier to take complete control. Pulling the knife from his boot, the Soldier attacked.

The two agents closest to him fell, scarlet smile adorning their throats. Stepping over the bodies, he raised his left arm as bullets ricocheted off the metal arm, taking out one agent with a bullet through the neck. Delivering a neck breaking strike with his left arm, he disarmed the gun aimed at him before kicking the man's chest in. Using the gun he took aim at the approaching men and began firing. Three bodies fell before a bullet tore through his thigh. It didn't slow the Soldier. (The Asset feels no pain) The man who shot him was kicked into a nearby tree, a broken branch piercing through his chest.

Without looking back, the Soldier tears a piece of twisted metal off a nearby car and throws it towards the man approaching the clump of trees that Doctor Simmons was laid behind, hearing the gurgle as it shredded his throat. Another shot, another body. The gun jammed and he tossed it on the ground before surging into the group of oncoming targets, who scattered, attempting to throw off his focus.

He didn't lose it. Shattering a hand holding a knife, he thrust it under the man's jaw and pulled it out with inhuman speed, sinking it into the throat of another before tearing through another carotid artery. A bullet went through his arm (The Asset feels no pain) as he slammed his left elbow back into one's face, crushing the skull, before grabbing another's neck and snapping it.

A knife sinks into the juncture of metal and flesh, the man dragging it down the Soldier's back with all his weight. The Soldier whirls (The Asset feels no pain), the metal hand crushing the man's skull. Pulling out the knife, the Soldier turns, stabbing into the approaching man's femoral artery and another's throat. Twirling the blade in his right hand, he walks toward the other vehicle, a van, throwing the dagger into the throat of the first man to exit.