Re: log: Tony's Super Secret Facility
He listened to Banner, looking at him as he spoke. His eyes dropped to his arm for a moment. It was true that it would eventually need repairs he couldn't manage, and he hadn't yet put together how he was going to fix it in an instance of total failure. Pressing a competent robotics expert into service seemed like the best possible scenario, or a mechanic, in a pinch.
He kept scanning for an ulterior motive from either of them, but aside from being driven by the complex cocktail of guilt and self-righteousness that turned people into heroes, he wasn't finding one. They might betray him later, or hold him as a bargaining chip against Hydra if this thing became too complex or too dangerous, but that was a situation he could see himself out of. Betrayal could be anticipated and subverted if this conflict took a turn for the worse. Men like Stark and Banner still believed in loyalty, at least as long as it suited them.
"He's an idiot," he said, of Rogers, flat as could be. It was a funny thing to hear from him, an opinion about another person that had nothing to do with martial capability or assessing them in the context of some wider plot. There was no indication of whether this was an old assessment or a new one, but he sure was confident about it.
He listened when Stark spoke. This time, he didn't wander. He looked up and met his gaze, watching. At fucked up shit his eyes distanced a little. He tried to see what Stark was seeing in his visor, couldn't, and refocused. His eyes were dark, the pupils still a little too far dilated, but he was alert, and he was listening. This wasn't the flat shark's gaze from the helicarrier. Somebody was home, even if they did have the shades drawn.
'Friends.' Maybe Stark was an idiot too. If he didn't already understand the difference between the Soldier and the man whose name they loved throwing around, he had good company in Rogers.
If anything what did appear to strike a chord was what's you and what's them. He shifted forward. If he disliked anything, it was knowing he had openly shown a vulnerability by losing focus, and it had been happening more and more. So many days since the last wipe, now. 90? More? He was losing track. Hydra had worked hard to seal his cracks, and his instability was showing around the edges more and more. Muscle memory told him that the punishment for erratic behavior outside brief would be severe. If he was going to spend further time in the company of Avengers, he would need to find a way to curb that.
Stark and Banner weren't spies. They had ties to SHIELD, but those could be exploited for competitive advantage, particularly if SHIELD was unaware that the Soldier was in their company. There was no denying that they offered an edge over the enemy
Things might turn ugly if they failed. But they wouldn't. The Soldier did not fail.
"If you're an arms dealing pacifist," he said, "This mission is going to be very difficult."