INTERROGATION

"WHAT IS it I hear about my pet coming to visit me?" I freeze at the voice of my former handler echos down the hall.

"Just ignore him, Hunt." Eddie tries to comfort. I nod rigidly. 'How can I ignore that sadistic man?'

"Doll, I think it's time to head home." My dad says, Uncle Stevie nodding in agreement.

    "Yeah, listen to em Hunt. I'll be here when you decide to visit next," Eddie tries to persuade.

     I nod and say my goodbyes to Edward, "I'll come visit as soon as possible. I promise. I would say call me if you need me but.." I trail off in a joking manner.

    He fake laughs, and flashes me the finger. "Watch where you wave that thing. I could have you killed," I threaten sarcastically.

    "No you couldn't," he denies.

    "No, I couldn't." I whisper, faking sadness.

    "Alright, we'll see you some time soon Edward." Steve reassures, Bucky nodding along.

"Back to you, Mr. Sir Dudes! Bye Hunt, love ya!"

    "Love you!" I shout back.

We load back into the elevator, going up to the first level. "You have got quite the friend there," Steve says in a tone I can't identify.

    "Yeah, he's been with me for years now. He's my brother," I state confidently.

   We exit the elevator to meet with the rest of the team.

    "What did Ross want?" Bucky asks.

    "About that. He wants our girl VB to go talk to Rumlow, something about how she might be able to make him talk? I don't know, sounds like a bunch of crap to me." Tony informs.

    When the words register through our ears, I grow tense, along with my father.

    "No. Absolutely not. That's not happening. That low life does not need to see my daughter!" Bucky says, the words ending in a shout.

    "They can't force her to, right? I mean she has some choice in this," Wanda questions. She had to wait outside of the room when Tony and Natasha were talking to Ross, Ross not fully trusting Wanda yet.

    "I'll do it," I interrupted. "If it helps the Avengers. Not only because of that, but you all are my family."

    They awe, and I roll my eyes. "You guys are cheesy," I point out.

"We are not cheesy!" Nat protests.

"You all are the cheesiest of cheesy," I snicker.

"On a different note, are you sure you want to go see Rumlow? It doesn't have to be today. Maybe in a week, or a month even!" My dad tries to persuade.

I sigh. 'Do I want to see him?' Waiting would be my best option for me personally, but I feel like I have to do this.

"I'm sure," I say not so convincingly. They nod and go to tell the Secretary of State.

    Tony knocks on his office door twice, "Honey I'm home!" He yells sarcastically, walking in the room without waiting for a response.

    "Well if it isn't the Barnes' Family. Nice to see you again Mr. Barnes."

"Likewise," Bucky grumbles out. A baby could tell that the two dislike each other very much.

    "Going immediately in to it, Vera, I will lead you to Brock Rumlow. You are not allowed to bring anyone else."

    Immediate protests were heard, me staying silent throughout it all. Without anyone? Is that safe?

    "Sir, with all due respect I don't think that is the safest option." Natasha says clearly, opposing to the proposal.

    "You think I'm going to trust all you people around that man? No, she goes alone."

"It's fine, I'll be fine. I'm a trained assassin, I think I can handle one guy."

"Yeah. A guy who tortured you, a guy who can turn you into the ShadowHunter," Bucky points out. Didn't think of that.

"Well, she's technically not yours. She is the state's, the country's. Born into HYDRA and her mother presumed dead, she is legally not yours."

    "I'm her father! She's my daughter! Why isn't she mine?!"

    "There is no databases that say you are her father, Mr. Barnes. Until there are, she's going to go question Rumlow. And she's going to go alone," Ross grits out.

    He goes to grab my arm but I jerk back, slapping his hand away.

    "You do not need to physically harass me, Mr. Secretary. I will go," with that I walk, once again, to the elevator. Him following me shortly after. He swipes a card, taking us to the bottom level.

    The last thing I see before the doors close is Bucky's face, painted with a sad expression.

    A ding rings each floor that we go down. The awkward silence seems to eat away at me.

    With a final ding, the doors open. 'This is going to be a fun time,' I think sarcastically.

    We walk through many heavy steel doors, when we come up to the cells. On each side there is a cell, the matted three walls with a glass door.

    Passing them, I get a lot of really creepy comments. "Pretty, pretty princess", "come here baby", and some things I'd rather not say.

"He's in there. We'll be watching through the cameras, don't do anything stupid." He's really talking to me about being stupid? "He can't get to you, he's chained up."

I nod, and walk in the cell. This cell being different. There's a metal table in the middle, scratch marks ran across it. The door was not glass nor bar, but wood. An actual door. Now I know these people are crazy.

"Well if it isn't my pet, how you doin' princess?"

"Better if you weren't in my world," I state emotionlessly. I look down at the list of questions I have to ask. What type of questions are these?

"Look I'm going to cut to the chase here, I just want to go home. So I'm going to start off by asking," I pause to look at the paper to read the question.

    "How did you survive the bomb that went off in Lagos?"

    He stays silent, now staring blankly forward.

    "You can answer the question, do some good in your pathetic life. Or you can stay silent like a wimpy, helpless man."

    He slams his his chained- together hands on the table, "you don't get to talk to me like that."

    "Well, news flash Brock. I'm not your pet anymore. I'm a free young woman. Not young, I'm 68 for god's sake. I can and will talk to you the way I want to," I growl out. A new found confidence in me.

    He growls, but nevertheless goes silent once again.

    "Okay, moving on. What organizations work for HYDRA?"

    To my surprise he actually answers, "dozens of them. Mainly Hickle, Tramnen, and BALT." (A/N all of these are made up by me!)

    "Any that HYDRA works for?" I interrogate.

    At this the emotion that I thought never comes across Rumlows face, does. Fear.

    With the fear that's been installed in him, he turns to me with wild eyes.

    "You should be scared. Terrified, even. He will become your greatest nightmare!" He then maniacally laughs.

    "He should be feared. Fear is his name. You stay away. Before you don't see the day," he sings psychotically.

    Rumlow suddenly stops. "You are mine! You are under MY control! You will never be free, never have love!"

His words shouldn't have pierced me the way they did. A part of me believes those words. The dark part. The ShadowHunter part.

The lighter side. My side, wants to not believe them.

"What is his name? The organization?" I act like the words didn't phase me.

He then continues to ramble about him. The one we should fear?

"Well I'm not getting anything more out of you, am I? So, I'm just going to go back home. Bye bye, now!" I stand from my chair and turn to exit, but he grabs my hand. He squeezes and squeezes, doesn't let go until he hears a satisfying crack.

I try to contain a scream, clenching my teeth. Butt!

I raise my fist and punch him square in the nose, hearing a satisfying crack myself.

"You wish you could of done that for a while now, hmm?"

"You don't even know sweetie," I say like the bad bleep I am. I turn on my heels, opening the door and slamming it shut.

"He's all yours!" I shout down the hall, my back towards the officials.

As I step in the elevator, many people come up to stop me including Ross. But before they can join me the doors close, me flicking them off before they can not see me anymore.

"You bi-!" Ross is cut off by the elevator doors closing. I snicker to myself as I ride the machine up to my team. Well my father's team.

    I examine my hand. It's clearly broken, purple and black bruises around it. I cradle my hand against my chest. It will heal soon.

The doors open when I start to walk over to the group.

"You guys waited up?" I question curiously.

"Well, obviously. Couldn't leave our favorite niece here. Hey what happened to your hand?" Tony says in a blur.

I play dumb, "hmm, oh this. I... fell.. in a hole!"

"You fell in a hole?" Nat questions conspicuously.

"I fell in a hole," I confirm.

Papa snatches up the wrist forcefully, but gentle. He examines it like I did a few moments ago.

"Who did this?" He asks darkly.

"No one!" I reject.

"Who?" He whispers darker.

"Rumlow," I murmur. He heard with his SuperSoldier hearing. Poop that enhanced hearing.

"I'm going to-"

"No Papa, it's fine!" I interject quickly, not wanting to get my father in trouble over a simple broken hand. "It will heal in a another minute or two."

On cue, it heals completely. Like my hand was never broken.

"See?"

"Let's just go home," Wanda says lightly. So we get in our cars and head home.

(A/N you all thought I was done? Ha! Good luck.)

??? POV:

"HYDRA has been captured. They're in the mud. The ShadowHunter is lost. We have nothing," an agent informs me.

I always knew they would be good for nothing.

They lost me the ShadowHunter.

"Not nothing. Run surveillance from the Avengers facility," I demand.

"Yes sir," he does as he's told. The footage projects onto the big screen, showing the cameras we imputed in multiple rooms.

"Perfect," I whisper, with a smile on my face. I sit and watch as the Avengers go about their day like normal.

Absolutely perfect.

Author's Note: This is the he that is what this dude's gonna be referred as.
Good luck reading, may the odds be ever in your favor.
- J.S.

11.7.2020
1798 words