Insanity

Part Two

Song: Bang Bang by Nico Vera

☆☆☆

"He wore black and I wore 
white, he would always 
win the fight."

☆☆☆

October 15th, 2009. . .

Soldier sat perched on a ledge, an enormous, sleek sniper rifle tucked under his arm. He sat stone still, watching, waiting. Searching for any sign of his targets. Then, he saw it: a flash of red, just behind a large black SUV. Hydra had sent him all the way to Iran for this mission, his job being to assassinate two threats to Hydra's security. To him, it seemed a clean, simple task.

Soldier adjusted his position to where he was lying on his belly, the scope of the rifle aligned perfectly with his eye. As he did so he accidentally kicked a small rock, quickly catching it before it tumbled and gave away his location. He loathed that he had to sit directly in some cliffs of Odessa to annihilate his targets, but he was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done.

A light breeze hit his face, the air smelling rather synthetic and full of machinery. It had that odd smell like one might encounter when stepping into their car on a cold winter day: the car's exhaust mixed with the fresh, crisp air. Maybe some people liked that, but to Soldier it was a dreadful combination. He tried to take short and shallow breaths, waiting for his targets to move into range. Whatever they were doing, it sure was taking a long time. He considered throwing a grenade, but he didn't think he'd be able to get it close enough to do any damage to the targets. Perhaps if he started shooting wildly they'd run out into the open. No, that was a bad idea. But then, a brilliant idea came to him.

Soldier pulled a grenade off of his belt and pulled the pin. He threw the grenade in the direction of the SUV, just close enough to startle whoever was on the other side. He tried to flatten himself against the ground as much as possible, and he waited. The grenade exploded, and went far better than he'd hoped. It shook the cliff he was laying on, rattling his body and gun.

The SUV bobbed side to side, but didn't topple. A small head poked around the side of the car, though Soldier couldn't make out who in the smoke, so he just started shooting. It didn't matter whose head it was, anyway. Whoever it was retaliated, and a spray of bullets came hurling towards Soldier. Conveniently, they all went in the wrong directions and missed Soldier by miles.

He snatched another, smaller grenade from his belt, knowing if he had any chance of getting to his targets he first needed to get rid of the car. This time when he pulled the pin, he threw it closer to the car. The grenade rolled to a stop just in front of the car. As he had hoped, when the grenade detonated it sent the SUV up in the air and over a cliff just behind it.

Soldier fired blindly into the screen of smoke, now even thicker thanks to his throwing the second grenade. No bullets retaliated against him, however, so he didn't even know if he was shooting at anyone. He cursed in his head, grabbing his rifle and jumping off of the ledge. It was a long way down and his knees crackled when he landed, but he ignored it; any damage done could be fixed by the doctors back at Hydra. And injury was just a setback.

He strode into the smoke screen, keeping his rifle up by his face, ready to fire if necessary. He heard coughing from nearby and was suddenly grateful for the mask and goggles protecting his face from all of the smoke. He hurried towards the noise, eager to get this over with and go home.

Two people, a smartly dressed man and sleekly dressed woman, were before him. The woman was hauling the man to stand, but abandoned the effort as soon as she saw Soldier. She pulled a gun from a holster around her waist, training it just between his eyes.

He should have shot right away, he knew he should have, but something in his brain screamed at him to stop. The woman's red hair, the green eyes. . . he felt like he had seen her somewhere before. His pulse quickened, his mind buzzing with questions as to where he'd seen her before.

A look of some mix of confusion and horror crossed the woman's face. The man hunched behind her, using her petite body as a shield for his own, his hands gripping her shoulders. The woman's arms shook as she held the pistol in front of her, and her eyes seemed to glaze over. She said nothing, but her lips trembled like maybe she wanted to.

Soldier was growing irritated. He adjusted his rifle and fired a single shot, straight through her abdomen and through the man behind her. Almost immediately blood begain to drip down her black leather suit and she stumbled backwards, as did the man behind her. She gaped at Soldier as if she couldn't believe what he'd just done, clamping a hand over the wound.

Something in his head, some unidentifiable source in his mind, told him to stop, to help her. But it was foreign and that made it dangerous. He'd been told that many times. He ignored the impulse, charging for the woman and man and giving them one final shove, sending them toppling down the cliff behind them. He brushed off the pleading look in the woman's eyes, marching straight back to his ledge where his superiors had informed him that they would pick him up.

Soldier sat on the rough ledge, unloading his gun, ignorant to the events that had just taken place. It was just another day at work, after all. Another job that needed doing. Another person that needed terminating. It was as simple as that.

He didn't think about it as he was flown back to Hydra on a disguised plane, or as he was placed back into the ice cold. He had forgotten the entire mission as he slept, seeing only the same usual haunting ghost of a man as always, still ever intrigued by the man. But he didn't react, didn't say a word.

He and Hydra had worked together to make him like this, to make him completely numb. To make him no more than a weapon of mass destruction.

That's all he was, a weapon. And that was all he ever would be.

☆☆☆

"Seasons came and changed 
the time, when I grew up I 
called him mine."

☆☆☆

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