Red in my Ledger

Chapter Four

YEAR: 2014

I sat on the rooftop, aiming my sniper in the window, waiting for the right moment.
I knew Fury was in there, I just needed for him to come into my range.
"Y/n?"
"Sup Weiner."
"What are you doing here?"
I turned around to face the Winter Soldier standing behind me.
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say we've been hired to kill the same person."
"Fury?"
"That's the one."
He came to crouch next to me, also pointing his gun at the small window.
"It's been a long time" he said.
"Four years, I think."
The last time I had seen him was the Stark party of May 2010.
"It's good to see you again" he said.
I sat back from looking through the eyepiece of my gun so I could look at him. He did the same to face me.
"I thought you'd forget about me."
"Some things I'll never forget."
"You forgot your own name."
"That's not important."
I smiled slightly and continued to look at the window.
The Winter Soldier was my best friend, even if I didn't know his name and we spent so much time apart. We'd been through the same sort of thing, and we'd done a lot of it together.

YEAR: 1999
MONTH: May

I had been at the Hydra base for about five months now. I thought I would've gone back to the Red Room by now. But no, I was still here.
I had trained every single day since my arrival, sometimes on my own, sometimes with someone else.
Today, I was told I would be training with the Winter Soldier.
I had seen him a few times since the first day we met. I saw him before and after some missions, and a couple of times I saw his body being preserved.
I sat waiting in the training room until he finally showed up.
"Hello" I nodded as I stood up to face him.
He looked at the man who escorted him there.
"I can't fight her. She's a kid."
"You can go easy on her. You need to train her" the man said, then left.
The Winter Soldier sighed as he faced me again.
"I know it seems like an unfair advantage because you're like three times my size, but I can do it" I claimed.
He frowned and knelt down in front of me. He held up his hands.
"Hit me."
I punched his right hand, then his left, and I winced in pain.
"What the fuck, have you got like a metal hand or something?" I asked.
He took off his glove, revealing that he did, in fact.
"Right."
"You don't have t-"
I punched his metal hand again, trying to ignore the pain. He sighed as I continued to practice punching until my knuckles almost bled.
I shook my hands to indicate I finished, and he stood up.
I raised my leg and kicked him so my foot pushed into his stomach. He only stumbled slightly.
Out of frustration, I picked up a knife from a nearby table and threw it at his face.
He dodged and caught the handle before it flew over his shoulder.
He chucked it up in the air and caught it again, then faced me.
"Good aim" he commented.
For the next hour, he trained me, showing me the best ways to hurt someone when I didn't have a weapon. Then ways to hurt someone when I did.
It was becoming quite fun.
He was showing me how to knock someone out with just one hand, when two men walked in.
"You have a mission."
The Winter Soldier prepared to leave.
"No. Not you. Her" they pointed at me.
"What?" I asked. My face was emotionless but excitement was building up inside of me.
"We have a mission for you. You need to come with us."
"She's not ready" the Winter Soldier protested.
The man looked at him, then at me.
"Do you think you're ready?" he asked.
"Um..." I hesitated. I really wanted to go on the mission, but I did have to question whether I was actually ready. "Will I be doing it alone?"
"He can go" the man gestured at the Soldier. "Back-up. Just in case."
"Okay. Then I'm ready" I nodded. The Winter Soldier seemed less than impressed, but he followed us to leave anyway.
———
"Y/n are you okay?" the Soldier said through the earpiece.
"Mhm" I mumbled, sneaking through the building. I was told to find and pick up a package. Apparently, there shouldn't be anyone around, but I had been given a gun anyway.
I held it tightly in my hand just in case.
"Okay. You're nearly there."
"What exactly am I looking for?"
"Silver metal briefcase."
"What's in it?"
"I wasn't told. You just need to pick it up then leave."
"Right. I think I found the room I'm looking for."
I pushed open a door to an office-looking room.
The briefcase I was looking for was sitting on the desk.
"Ok I found it" I said and went to grab it.
"Who are you?"
I grinned to myself, before turning with a facade of fear across my face.
"What the fuck?"
"Please I'm just a kid..." I cried.
He stepped towards me cautiously, and I quickly reached behind my back. I drew my gun and before he could do the same I shot his face three times.
Each bullet hole only a few millimetres from the other.
I admired my precision for a moment, then grabbed the briefcase and headed out of there.
I got to the door that I had come through, but it was locked.
"Uhhh... Soldier?"
"Y/n? Are you nearly out of there?"
"The door is locked."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean it's locked. It's not opening."
I heard voices and footsteps.
"Someone's coming."
"Okay hold on. I'm on my way."
I had no hope that he was going to get there in time.
Three men appeared in front of me.
"Hey stop right there!"
"The fuck!"
"How old are you?"
I shot each one of them in the forehead, but I heard more people coming.
I fired at each person that came around the corner until I ran out of bullets.
There were still two people left standing out of about twenty guys.
"Drop the gun! Drop it!" one yelled. They both had guns of their own, so I dropped the gun and slowly put my hands behind my head.
"Y/n" I heard in my earpiece. "Y/n when I give you the signal, duck, then turn and run."
"Okay" I whispered, hoping the guys didn't hear.
They kept getting closer to me, and I didn't know what to do. I had no signal from the Winter Soldier yet, so do I attack them?
"Now!" the Soldier suddenly yelled in my ear.
I quickly ducked as the door behind me was knocked down, and the Winter Soldier sprayed a machine gun.
When the guys were down, I ran towards him and the open door.
He took the briefcase in one hand and my wrist in the other.
He didn't stop running until we were back at the car we had come in.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Never been better."
"You could've died."
"I have a feeling you wouldn't have let that happen" I smirked.
He rolled his eyes, and we returned to the Hydra base.
"How did it go?" someone asked the second we had walked through the door.
"Great" I grinned, handing over the briefcase.
"Very good. Now say goodbye, you're leaving."
"What?"
"You're going back to the Red Room tonight."
"Oh. Right."
"Goodbye y/n" the Winter Soldier waved.
"Bye Soldier" I grinned at him, then let some agents escort me out.

YEAR: 2014

"There he is" I spotted Fury. "He's not alone." There was another man in his apartment. "Who's that?"
"Doesn't matter. He's not the mission" the Winter Soldier got ready to shoot.
"Hey! No! My mission. I got here first" I pointed my gun too.
Clear shot.
The soldier and I fired at the same time, bullets hitting in the same sort of place.
The other man in the apartment looked out the window and spotted us.
"Well, good to see you Soldier" I nodded.
He grabbed my hand.
"Come with me" he said, and we started running before I could object.
We got to the edge of the roof, and the Soldier dropped my hand to catch the shield that was flying towards us.
"Jump" the Soldier said as he threw the shield back.
I trusted him.
So I jumped off the ledge.
The ground was getting closer very fast.
Just before I hit it, I felt his arm grab my waist and he caught me just in time.
The Winter Soldier didn't put me down as he ran back to his car.