❝ your allies will die or go mad. you'll never know whom to trust. you'll never have a normal relationship. and if you do find love, as impossible as it is, you must remember one rule. the most important rule: never have kids. NEVER. ❞ - n.r.
COVERS...
Svetlana was ten years old when she stopped breathing.
And that was when the Soldier broke his facade.
They had been on a mission; it was a simple hit really. Just two targets who had absolutely no bodyguards and no inclination that they actually would be a target of anyone, especially of the likes of the Winter Soldier and the Bloody Ballerina. Or that was what the assassins had believed, anyway. They had split up as they had countless times before, the girl promising to find her father at their assigned meeting point when her part was completed.
When they parted ways that October day, the girl strained against embracing him as she always did. She just wanted to hug him one last time; she was always concerned that "something might happen" and she wanted them each to have their last memory to be of the other. It seemed right in her ten year old mind, even though she never followed through with her quiet, secret wishes. The Soldier didn't look back as he stalked down the alley and pulled himself up onto the apartment building's roof. He hadn't even thought to. He wasn't concerned and, God, did he live to regret that. He would regret not saying goodbye, regret hardly acknowledging her, and he would regret what he allowed her to ever get involved.
His metal arm adjusted and readjusted as he placed his masked eye against the scope of his sniper rifle. The tall and slender couple chatted obnoxiously, completely oblivious to the Soldier's presence over five-hundred feet away. He was an expert-marksman, it came easily, naturally; it was nearly as if he had been trained in another life. His teeth gritted and his finger hovered over the trigger, waiting for the girl's signal.
But it never came.
His brows furrowed slightly as he moved the scope, searching for the redhead among the alleyways near the couple. His shoulders stiffened and his breath went utterly silent when he heard the light scuffle of a boot against the gravel covered roof. His metal fingers danced against the gun and he remained rigid, waiting for the person approaching him to make their move so that he could make his. It was the second scuffle that sent him completely around, aiming his rifle across his chest as he sent one bullet into the forehead of the man who stood there. A bullet pinged off the metal as he yanked his arm around to block his head. He curved his back as he flipped up, immediately shooting at the other men scrambling onto the roof. They came at him with almost as much skill as he had.
Almost.
When the rifle was out, he changed to the machine gun from behind his back and then he turned to shoot at whoever wasn't ducking for cover. A man came close enough to get a hard punch at the Soldier's face. The Soldier's feet skidded back slightly. He kept his face down-turned and the world and everyone in it seemed to stop in fear.
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