IVANOV ~ yelena belova

𝟎𝟏𝟔

Karina didn't know what he was sorry for at that moment, but she soon found out. The torment she endured depleted her to the point where she would stare blankly at the walls of her cell. Her entire body ached, and new scars and bruises littered her skin.

The torture she was subjected to was not the same as that in the Red Room. There, she was trained to be a skilled, silent, lethal assassin who could expertly hide in and out of the shadows. In Hydra, however, she would have to brutally fight another prisoner until the other is beaten and bloodied. Hydra was brash and bloodthirsty, whereas the Red Room believed that the less mess there was, the better.

On the seventh day, however, she discovered that the torture was not only physical.

Karina was sat silently on the cold concrete floor, staring at her bruised knuckles as she recalled her latest victim in Hydra's makeshift fighting ring. He wore his short dirty blonde hair in a military style. But that was all she could see before his fist flew at her face. But her opponent was not focused; his crazed eyes were looking anywhere but at her, which led to his downfall.

Karina couldn't feel anything anymore; she shoved the guilt that was sitting on her shoulders down so far that it was almost as if it didn't exist. But not feeling anything meant that the glimmer of hope or happiness that had been buried deep within her mind had vanished.

The sound of keys in a lock drew her attention away from the wall in front of her. She stared at the guard emotionlessly; her blank stare unnerved him, but he didn't dare show it.

Karina stood up slowly to prove that she was not going to act rashly and attack the guard. He slowly opened the door and waited for her to hold her hands out in order to be restrained. She could feel the piercing gaze of the man in the cell next to her follow her movements as she was led out of her cell.

The guard's firm grip dragged her down a corridor. Karina had no idea where she was being led, but the hallway looked like any other in the Hydra camp - dark and grimy.

A truly horrific sound could be heard from the other side as they approached the door opposite them. It sounded like drilling, the high-pitched vibrations pierced her ears. Karina's eyes widened as she realised the guard was escorting her to that door, terrified of what might happen to her.

The heavy metal door opened wide, showing Pierce standing there with a smug grin on his face. He took a step back, revealing the objects behind him. There was an uncomfortably positioned chair surrounded by machinery, as the scientific equipment was highlighted by the intimidating fluorescent lights.

Karina's breathing became more rapid as the guard pushed her towards the chair. As beads of sweat dripped from her brow, she tried to tear her hands free from the guard's grip. When that didn't work, she dug her heels into the floor to push herself away from the torture device.

The guard had had enough of her attempts to flee, so he hoisted Karina onto his shoulder with some effort. She kicked her legs while pounding her fists on his back. All of her Red Room training had slipped her mind, and the only thing she could think about in that moment was getting away.

"Let me go! Put me down!" Karina yelled as she struggled further. "Please." Her whimper was inaudible as she ceased her pounding and fell limp as a result of accepting her fate.

As the guard unceremoniously placed her in the chair, her head collided with the back of it. Scientists who had been working in the background emerged from the darkness.

A man in a white lab coat with receding hair and a grey beard approached where she was being strapped down. Pierce and the guards stood to the side, ready to intervene if Karina attempted to do anything.

The doctor stood by her side, tinkering with his medical tools. Karina let out a quiet gasp when she had a sudden feeling of nostalgia. Scenes from her operation in the Red Room flashed through her mind. But she was jolted out of her reverie when she felt the intimidating doctor's cold hands on her face.

"Open wide," he said, a sinister smile on his face as he leaned over her with what appeared to be a mouth piece. Karina began shaking her head violently and moving her head away from the man's filthy hands, but she was restrained.

He humiliatingly placed the mouth piece in Karina's mouth, and she bit down hard, bracing herself for the pain that was about to come. The doctor turned and reached for something on the table that Karina couldn't see.

Karina felt the pinch of a needle entering her arm and turned her head away from the doctor's satisfied gaze, as if he was relishing her agony. She heard the doctor shuffle around and then felt the slight pressure of something entering her bloodstream.

At first, she couldn't feel anything. But suddenly an agonising burning sensation spread through her bloodstream. Karina writhed in her seat, yanking on her restraints as she screamed into the mouthpiece. She wished to die. She couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks as her chest heaved up and down.

But then it stopped, as if she hadn't even been injected. Yet she couldn't hear anything, as if she was underwater, and all the conversations around her were muffled. Her vision was blurry, and her body tingled as if tiny pins were stabbing her every movement.

"What happened? Why hasn't she changed like Barnes?" Pierce's enraged voice rang out across the room, causing everyone in the room to freeze, no one dared to move a muscle.

"P-perhaps the changes aren't ph-physical because she's a woman?" The doctor stuttered pathetically through his sentence. The once-confident man cowered in the face of his superior's furious glare.

"You'd best hope that's the case. If this fails, you will be the one who faces the consequences. Take her back to her cell," Pierce stated menacingly, directing the end of his sentence to the guard.

Karina was lifted into the arms of the guard once more, but she didn't fight this time as she was too exhausted. Her body was limp and motionless; she was too fatigued and uncomfortable to move.

The guard threw her into her cell and quickly exited after locking the door. Bucky shuffled in his prison cell so he could see the girl sprawled on the concrete floor. He sat next to the metal bars that divided their cells, waiting for her to wake up.

Karina awoke unexpectedly quickly. She looked around and noticed the man in the cell next to her staring at her. She sat up quickly and moved over so she was cross-legged opposite the bars, having a stare off with the Winter Soldier.

He broke eye contact first, and Karina's lips twitched triumphantly as she struggled to disguise her smirk. Bucky would later claim that he purposely broke eye contact because he felt sorry for the sixteen-year-old girl opposite him.

But the burning sensation returned, as if her veins were on fire. Her arms twitched as she rubbed her brow to remove the sweat that had gathered there.

Bucky looked at her with concern, but it soon dawned on him what was wrong with her: the super soldier serum. He had experienced the same feeling. He couldn't comprehend why Hydra was testing on a sixteen-year-old girl, she was still a teenager.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Look at me, everything is fine," he said softly.

"What have they done to me?" Karina whispered as she tried to keep her whimpers at bay.

However, Bucky only shook his head as he gripped her hand through the metal bars, comforting her through her agony.