Butterflies (Bucky Barnes Daughter)

TWENTY

Trigger Warning- Mentions of self harm

Numb. Nothingness. Empty. That's all she felt. The things that had consumed her since that fateful full day three years ago.

Mila had never felt anything like what she experienced that day. The hot tears on her pale cheeks, her throat scratched and broken. Seeing the cold, lifeless body of a woman she considered her mama, laying on the tainted cement floor.

That image took over her brain at night. For the first few months after that day, all she could see was the shoes. The grey coffee stained shoes Yana wore all the time. Splatters of blood danced across the torn fabric. The same pair of shoes Mila kept in the box under her bed, filled with our nightmares she would never forget. It haunted her.

It's not like she could talk to anyone about it. Her superiors laughed at her, Irina wouldn't take her emotional mornings and her papa, well her didn't even remember. The Old Man had his memory wiped the day after Yana's death. Mila had no time to process anything.

After a while she gave up feeling anything at all. Hydra took advantage of this. Sending her on missions whenever there was a chance. Mila had become ruthless, merciless and unsympathetic. She no longer hesitated when she killed. No longer cared about the family of the man she held a knife to.

Her missions with the Winter Soldier had been brought to light in some places. They were ghosts, no one could find them and if they did they were gone before anyone could get any evidence.

Everything changed that day. Her family had been torn apart, her papa barely remembered the happy times. Mila had figured out a way to make her feel something, even if it was just for a moment.

The burn marks from Irina had grown, only they weren't just from the psycho instructor. She got her hands on a lighter from the Old Man's office and sometimes at night when her papa was sleeping in his own cot Mila would pull the lighter out from under the pillow. The flame lit up her sunken face, bringing warmth to the cold room. She dragged the flame across her forearms just long enough to feel something, then she'd flick it off and shove it back under her pillow.

Her papa had no clue about her nightly activities. She planned on keeping it that way. There were a lot of things Mila kept from her papa, like the abuse she received during training with Irina, the secret missions she went on when he was training or when he was in cryo for a few months. Whenever she had the urge to talk to him about Yana, she stopped herself before she could get a word about the brunette. She definitely kept quiet about the meeting she had with the strange woman a few years ago. 

The woman with the purple streaks in her hair came back to see Mila. It had been about a year since Yana's death and Mila had grown merciless. She had more blood on her hands in her first year as an assassin then the Winter Soldier did in his first 10 years. 

"You have gotten better Mila," her footsteps echoed throughout the room as well as her voice. "Changes like that are important to your growth and I want to commend you for your brave work for Hydra". Her voice was cold and meaningless, there was nothing behind her words.

Mila shifted in her seat, the blank walls of her cell staring at her mockingly. "What is that you want?"

"Oh Mila, I don't want anything. I am here to give you something". Mila perched up in her seat. The woman laughed, "I thought that would change your spirits".

"What could you possibly give me," the young girl spat, not wanting to put up with any of this crap.

The woman sat on the cot next to Mila, taking off her sunglasses. She pulled something out of her bag. "The legacy of the Viper has been passed down for years, every woman who has carried the mantle has been the best assassin of their generation, rivaling none," her tone was cocky. She handed Mila the object from her purse.