Leave Me Broken [Winter Soldier] II

Symptoms of Chaos [Chapter 27]

"People that can hurt you, the ones that can really hurt you, are the ones that are close enough to do it. People that get inside you and tear you apart, and make you feel like you're never gonna recover."

Frank Castle in "Marvel's Daredevil"

        The Huntress dragged her fingertips over the walls as she walked towards the fight. With each silent step she could hear the fight going on; she could hear them killing each other and somehow this did not put a smile on her face. Instead, a grim and astringent expression was plastered upon her normally soft features. Her green eyes looked dark as though someone had coloured over them, but it was simply the shadows all around her, and the shadows in her mind that fought to escape. 

        There was something inside of her that wanted out, but she forced it down and focused on the task at hand. For if she were to fail, she placed her hand upon her stomach; though she could not feel the markings underneath her shirt and jacket, she knew they were there and how much pain it had caused her.

        When she entered the large room, there was debris and clutter all over. Fires were burning in small amounts, nothing threatening, merely the symptoms that came with chaos. She stepped over beams and concrete slabs, shattered glass, and underneath it all she could have sworn she saw the severed arm of one of the Death Squad members. Nothing shifted inside of her when she saw that, however; she felt no sympathy for them. She felt nothing, when she thought about it, but she tried not to think about the empty vat that she was. 

         Knowing that there was some part of her fighting to get out, the Huntress focused on the task at hand, powering through as she glanced up where the fight was happening. The room itself towered tall, though it hardly showed outside on the mountain. The big circular roof had been opened, and from where she stood at the very bottom, she could see her target, Tony Stark, nearly at the top, his hand held out towards the other man.

       She knew him, but only as the Winter Soldier.

       She focused her power on the distracted mind of Tony Stark, and immediately the connection was made and it was as though she had been there before. Bypassing everything that was of no importance, she entered the part of his mind that fueled rage. The memories that created so much hatred and the desire to kill the Winter Soldier flooded the Huntress's mind, but she did not gasp in pain when she saw the reason. 

          In her head, Tony Stark's fresh memory of an ancient event flowed in front of her. She saw the Winter Soldier, though it were years ago he looked no different than he did just now. It unravelled right in front of her, the Winter Soldier causing the car accident, pulling the man from the front seat and pausing only for a second when he saw his face; they recognized each other, but just like the Huntress couldn't remember why she recognized the Winter Soldier, the Winter Soldier did not know why he knew Howard Stark. And just like any good soldier, her carried through on his mission. His fist came down on Howard Stark's face, pummeling him until he was dead. And then he walked around to the other side of the car, where a woman was crying out for her dead husband, desperate to hear his voice one more time. The empty look on the Winter Soldier's face when he strangled Maria Stark was the exact one the Huntress had on as she brought forth this fresh memory into Tony Stark's mind, reminding him exactly why he wanted to kill the Winter Soldier.

       Above her head, Tony Stark felt the rage, the agony, he could almost feel the pain his parents suffered at the hands of the Winter Soldier. And there he was, trying to climb out of the mountain base and escape with his life when Tony's parents had been brutally murdered without any remorse. He was trying to aim, trying to shoot the man, but his targeting system was malfunctioning. His mask lifted and he squinted to try and make the shot himself. Below, the Huntress pulled on the mental strings in Tony's head, causing him a rush of pain just as the shot was released from his suit. She had not done it to prevent Tony from making the shot, in fact, she was not sure why she had done it. It missed the Winter Soldier by a metre, but it did enough damage to the mechanics that lifted the base open. The roof came crashing down, and the Winter Soldier had to give up on his plans to escape.