Am I the only person that thinks Rachel's LMD is a plot thread that has been left fallow far too long (what, 10 years now)? If I missed something, lemme know. Given the volume of stuff put out, that's easy to do.
I thought the idea that the LMD had developed a sentience of its (or probably more accurately, her) own was a compelling potential storyline. My heart broke when she begged Steve to help her while SHIELD boxed her up. Though if they did revisit that storyline, I'd like to see something other than the stereotypical line taken.
By that I mean that a lot of villains have understandable reasons to be villains, but then go just a bit too far to be really sympathetic. It'd be easy to have her show up and attack Cap, have him uncover what was done to her, and then lock her back up anyway and that would be terribly unsatisfying.
If it were me, this is how I'd do it (sorta - spoilers if you haven't read the Captain America leg of Avengers Disassembled - and it's a bit stream-of-consciousness):
SHIELD wasn't exactly happy with how well the imprint of Rachel's brain worked when layered onto the prototype LMD they used for her, so they've been working on ways to keep them more pliable and less...transhuman. Tools rather than individuals, let's say. Perhaps they've even worked out a way for someone to 'drive' an LMD and the very nature of the shell gives it a measure of low-grade superpowers (boosted but not crazy strength, durability, sensory abilities and reaction times). Rachel LMD has been kept on ice as a study subject, but otherwise ignored. They scan her, run diagnostics, analyze the patterns, but in order to facilitate best understanding, they haven't deactivated her, destroyed her or even tried to undo the neural imprint that made her self-aware.
So far so good until AIM catches wind of the facility where she's kept. Annoyed that SHIELD might have these capabilities, they raid the place, but an enterprising SHIELD tech jumps his or her head into an unassigned LMD of Cap they've been working on. Knowing what s/he does of Rachel LMD, s/he turns her on and lets her out and together they escape. Sort of. The tech remains trapped in a sub-basement as AIM ransacks the place and fools SHIELD at large that all is well.
Rachel's skin-covering has been regrown (it was easy enough to do and they felt it would help when they reactivated her for short periods during study), and she remembers the minutes after the Red Skull 'killed' her and she saved Steve, and can't quite reconcile the fact that she remembers having her neck 'snapped,' digging out of the collapsed building, seeing metal parts of her body and even being physically shut down with seeing herself whole and seemingly made of flesh and blood.
Her first reaction after escape is anger at Cap LMD. Yes, he just freed her, but why did he let them take her in the first place? She loved him and he just let them lock her away in a tank to probe at her mind and occasionally wake her up for psych exams. They fight briefly and the SHIELD tech decides s/he must keep up the guise if Rachel LMD is to remain functional and useful. The tech does their best to mollify Rachel LMD.
Cap LMD convinces Rachel LMD they need to alert SHIELD to what's happened. Rachel LMD still obviously feels betrayed, but still loves Cap. But there's something about him that isn't right: the way he talks, the way he moves...it's all off just a little bit. But it's been years that she's been locked up...maybe he's changed?
Arriving at the nearest city, they attract a lot of attention. Cap LMD is in uniform and carrying a shield although Rachel is in a non-descript bodysuit from her time in the 'tank.' Unfortunately, the local officials have all been infiltrated by AIM and when they give the two escapees access to communications, they route them to the AIM agents at the facility they just escaped from in an attempt to fool them (the occupying AIM agents are posing as SHIELD agents at the comm). The SHIELD tech driving LMD Cap immediately suspects something based on the sensor equipment installed in LMD Cap, but the communication with the occupiers has given AIM what they need to figure out where the signal driving LMD Cap is coming from and shut it down. Cap seemingly reacts to something he's figured out before collapsing.
Rachel is both saddened and horrified at Cap's sudden death, and when the locals don't react the way one might expect at the sudden and non-violent death of Captain America, she realizes how much danger she is in, that something strange is happening. She regains her composure and asks to take his body to the local ME but is told there is only a retired MD that gets called in from his cabin once in a while, but they escort her to the morgue. They discuss what to do with her as they aren't sure who she is.
Thinking Cap has been poisoned or drugged, she checks him over but realizes that he is both heavier than he should be (even for Cap) and he hasn't cooled at all. Suddenly she thinks about how all her conversations with him since their escape have been so non-anachronistic and unlike Cap and that brings up memories of the Red Skull. While alone, she fetches a knife and cuts Cap LMD and he bleeds. She did not expect that and almost up and stops, but then cuts herself. The reaction is the same. Bleeding and pain. In anger she throws some supplies across the room. They are not only destroyed, but metal objects are twisted and bent and she realizes she's stronger than she ought to be. She thinks about cutting herself again but doesn't, and instead goes back to Cap. Whispering an apology, she cuts in and uncovers the metal shell beneath.
Of course, this is where the locals come in and see what's happening. Despite their attempts to whitewash it, Rachel LMD goes berserk and beats them all up. The fight spills out onto the streets where uninvolved citizenry see her going after the city council, local businessmen and sheriffs and call for emergency help. In the course of the fight, part of her skin is ripped away and she can see the metal beneath. She goes mad. She is confused and frightened, but also more powerful than before. When the dust settles, she is the last one standing.
She goes to city hall where she finds AIM gear, unaware that emergency response superhumans are on the way (but are conveniently slow). She connects the dots and remembers snippets of the conversation where she was being boxed up that indicated what she really was. She very nearly breaks down on admitting to herself that she isn't really human, that the real her is still out there, free somewhere. Her despair turns to rage when she thinks about how Steve let her go, probably to turn to the 'real' Diamondback. But she can't maintain it. It's too much like hating herself. Being smart, she figures out that someone shut off the LMD and that its behavior is likely due to someone else driving it, not Steve, and that this person could still be trapped in the SHIELD facility. This person helped her, even though they tried to fool her.
She knows what Steve would do and she knows that she'd rather just walk away, but she can't. Steve would be disappointed and in spite of her anger at him, she knows he's right. She made a choice the night the Red Skull killed her and she will stick by it even if no one else in the world - Cap included - can be relied on. Her one ally is the SHIELD tech trapped by AIM. Left behind. Like her.
She goes back to free the tech, and shortly after she leaves, Captain America shows up. He had been in the mountains nearby, training SHIELD agents (or something). He looks at the devastation and is informed of Rachel LMD's direction of egress. He sets off to find this mystery woman.
Rachel LMD breaks into the facility and using a combination of stealth and brute force, fights her way inside. She is eventually trapped by overwhelming numbers but finds a comm unit and broadcasts to the entire facility, hoping the tech is listening. She tells the tech that she's there to rescue him or her, and that nothing will stop her short of death. Shocked at this turn of events, the tech leaves his/her hidey hole to find a better way to help. At a terminal, the tech manages to contact SHIELD and Captain America and guide them to the facility, while Rachel LMD fights her way back into her prison, taking catastrophic damage in the process.
AIM agents find the tech and as they are about to kill him/her, Rachel LMD shows up and totals them, but in doing so, is essentially destroyed. She's shutting down in the tech's arms when Captain America and a bunch of SHIELD agents arrive. Cap is shocked to see her again after so long and in this state. They exchange a few words as she dies. She does not forgive him for leaving her, but isn't cruel about it. She's decided that robot or no, she's a better person than that.
Cap watches her 'die' and everything fades to black.
Suddenly, the blackness recedes and Rachel LMD finds herself looking up at the face of the tech she saved. The background indicates some sort of high tech facility. The tech says, "Wake up, Rachel. It's time to start living."
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