The Asset

Chapter 4

A part of him had always enjoyed this. It wasn't the pain he caused, or the surge of triumph as his opponents fell. It was simpler than that. It was the searing ache in his limbs, the crack of bone beneath his knuckles, the sound of his heart thundering in his chest. It drowned out everything else – the questions, the doubt, the guilt – all of it falling away in the pure exertion of giving everything that he had.

He'd tried to find this feeling before. For years he had tried without realizing it, tried to see past the horror, past the mission, to find some peace in the simplicity of the fight, some pleasure in a job well done. But they'd stolen even that from him. If he felt something more than the hollowness and the cold, they'd make sure he never remembered.

The barrel of a rifle connected with his chin, staggering him. This guy was good. Big, too. They'd managed to hide their approach, to scout the base from the hills above. Natalia had found them an entrance and Barton had provided the wire that dropped them down into the facility's ventilation shaft. Now it was his turn.

Bucky spat, flicking the hair from his eyes as he grinned up at the hulking Hydra goon. For all their talk of technological superiority, this guy seemed to prefer using his gun as a club. He was that type, the kind who liked to get his hands dirty. That suited Bucky just fine. Steve wasn't the only one who could take a beating.

The next punch took him in the back, the impact traveling electric up his spine. Natalia and Barton were still perched in the shaft above. He knew she'd be trying to cover him, to get a clean shot, but he wasn't in any hurry to get out of the way.

Because that had been the problem. He'd been too valuable for Hydra to let him go, to let him die. Self-preservation had been part of his programming. He knew he'd win this fight – and easily – but there was a thrill in thinking that maybe he wouldn't, that this fight might actually be his last. And, if he was being honest with himself, he probably deserved a little pain.

Above him, he heard Natalia curse. Her English was perfect now, better than he'd ever managed to teach her, but it was nice to hear her remembering her mother tongue in times of trouble. She'd taught him a few choice phrases of her own all those years ago, usually while yelling at him for being reckless.

It was time to end this. He feinted left, driving his right fist into the man's stomach. People always focused on his left arm and he'd learned to play it to his advantage. As the man staggered, Bucky grabbed him by both shoulders, pulling him down as he drove his knee up and into his chin. The jaw gave way and the man crumpled to the floor.

Natalia dropped down beside him, with Barton just behind.

"Well, you definitely took your time."

Barton meant it lightly, but Natalia was watching him with concern. She knew that he'd been dragging it out, probably knew the reason why.

"Are you all right?"

"Never better." He rubbed at his neck. "So where's this power surge?"

She'd tapped into the building's internal network to get them inside and had noticed a large amount of energy being diverted to one of the sublevels. Bucky had been awakened enough times to see the world changing, even if he hadn't remembered how it used to be. His training had exposed him to some of the advances of the modern world, but usually those that had been weaponized, that would cause maximum destruction with minimal effort. What Natalia had done was delicate, exploiting a crack in the building's defenses with just a few keystrokes. He'd watched over her shoulder, impressed.

Their intel said that this was just a storage facility, or it had been back when it belonged to SHIELD, before Hydra had turned the tables. He'd had a hand in that, even if he hadn't been in control. Whatever was going on here was at least partially his fault.