Man in Blue

Revelations Part 2

Once the light from the window stopped being so bright, Lily could see the man that stood before her. His dark brown hair fell down and obscured one eye. His thin face made him look younger than he probably was. He had a hint of stuble on his chin that made him look very attractive. He was looking at her with a wary tilt to his head.
She was still very apprehensive of her situation and if she was honest with herself, scared. Was this man part of the group that took her? Or was he like her, taken and imprisoned? Her silent musing made the man give a slight smile.
"Pretty head like yours dont need to be thinking so hard. I'm sure that I can answer any questions you have." She furrowed her brows at him. His accent marked him from Brooklyn.
"Alright," she said, "Where are we? Who are you? Are you a part of this? Why me?" As she was hitting him with the rapid fire questions, he raised his hands to get her to stop, but she wasn't having anything of it.
"No! I am boring! I have lived my life as quietly as I could! I am a nobody..." The situation hit her, suddenly. She wiped away tears that leaked from her eyes. The man looked concerned.
"Hey, it's okay." He tried to console her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He let her cry but tried to answer her questions. "We are in a prison in Serbia. My name is James, and no, I am not a part of the group that kidnapped you. As to why you, well sweetheart, you tell me. I have no idea who you are or the interest HYDRA has in you. Wait, you know of HYDRA?" Her eyes had snapped open, and she had gasped.
"Yeah,I've heard of HYDRA." she said, just a touch acidly. The topic of the group that tried to kill her boyfriend every chance they got always made her mad.
"But, what about you? Why did they take you? Better question is, why am I in the cells? Normally, they put me somewhere else after a... therapy session.''
Lily had taught enough students to know when someone was hiding something. His hesitation was slight, but she heard it.
"James, you leave me with more questions than answers. Where do they normally put you, and what kind of therapy? We need to work together if we are going to get out of here." James sighed but nodded.
"Normally, they have me in a confined area, and I don't see anyone until they pull me back out. The... therapy isn't really therapy, it's more... torture." She gasped. " If you know about HYDRA, torture shouldn't suprise you." She shook her head as if denying it.
"I know what they are and what their ultimate goal in WW2 was, but I am not important enough to be on their radar, not to mention be kidnapped!" An unkind chuckle came from the shadows, and a scratchy voice said, "Oh Haelilia, you are more important than you think. It is time now to see what you know. Take her." Two men came out of the shadows and opened up the cell door. One went to James and pushed him away from her, and the other grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. With a cry of pain, she obliged. James tried to get to his feet but was pushed back down. The man holding Haelilia roughly pulled her out the door, and once clear, the other man shoved James out of spite and followed.
They walked down the hall following the scratchy voiced man. Haelilia was growing mad! First, they break into her and Steve's apartment, and then they drugged her and kidnapped her. Now they were dragging her off to who knew where! She powered up and let loose a burst of lightening that lit up the hallway.
When the light faded, the men were still gripping her arms tightly. The man ahead just shook her head at her. "Lily, Lily, can I call you Lily?" She growled in response and spat out a tense "No!" He just laughed at her, "Lily, we know all about your powers and have taken every countermeasure to negate them." The man on her right pushed her to keep going, and they led her into a small room with a chair in the middle. The men sat her in the chair and left shutting a large wooden door. The other man leaned against the door and smugly looked at her. She glared at the man, and they stared at each other in silence for several minutes. "What do you want?" Lily spat.
The man smiled and said, "Information on Captain America and the US government." Lily's eyes widened, and eyebrows shot up. "You cannot think I will just give you that information even if I knew anything about that."
"Maybe not today...but in the future and with a little...persuasion... you will sing like a pretty little bird. And once i get the information I require, I will let you fly, right off the top of our little compound here." She smirked back.
"So you kill me either way? I will just not tell you and keep Steve and my country safe."
"Ah," the man raised a finger, "see, you are already singing. Captain America is Steve to you? Great information to know." He stood straight, not leaning against the door, and said,"The more information you give, the more amenities we can provide for you. For that little slip up, I will provide you food tonight." He turned and knocked on the door. The burly men opened the door and marched over to Lily. "Don't touch me!" She screamed, activating her power and letting her skin dance with electricity. They ignored her and gripped her arms tightly. She struggled and fought against them as they half drug half walked her back to the cell. One let go and went into the cell to hold James down with one foot. The other pushed Lily down into the cell, and the two left.
Lily felt the tears rolling down her cheeks as she lay there on the cold floor of the cell. James walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "The floor will take your warmth, and you will get cold. Come lay down and stay warm." He said gently. She looked up at him with watery eyes and mumbled, "What is the point? If they don't kill me trying to extract information, they plan to kill me once they realize I don't have the information they want." But she rose to her feet and went to the small bunk along the wall. She paused in her crying and turned to James. She looked at him and back at the bunk. It was very small and only had a threadbare blanket covering it. Her cheeks grew pink as she realized that he was giving up laying on the bunk for her, or was he? "Where will you be?"
"What?" He asked, turning away from looking out the bars.
"If I have the bed, where will you be?"
His cheeks turned pink, too. "I will be...I guess on the floor."
"The cold floor you just made me not lay on?"
"Ah. Yes. The very same. Dont worry. I've slept on worse."
"That only makes me worry more."
He looked at her with confusion. "Why would you worry about me? Im a stranger."
You are the only other person in this cell. Even if you weren't, you haven't tried to kill me or hurt me, so... and it's the right thing to do."
He smiled as she turned back to the bunk. "At least take the blanket. We can switch tomorrow." She tossed the blanket at him as he started to argue, but she lay down with her back to him, and after a few moments, he could hear her crying softly. He took the thin blanket and sat against the wall by her feet.
Hours later
A loud buzzing made James and Lily wake harshly from sleep. "Wakey wakey! No time for sleep for you! It's dinnertime!" The two burly men were on the outside of the cell with two boxes. They threw them into the cell and walked away. James picked up a box and handed it to Lily and took the other for himself. As she opened the box, a roach crawled out and across Lily's hand. She screeched and threw the box and its roach across the room. James was having the same luck with his box but didn't react as dramatically. He shook the roach off and looked in the box. It contained some over ripe fruit and moldy bread. Lily got up off the bunk and kicked the nasty food box into the cell bars.
"I thought you said we were getting food! Not nasty bug infested grossness!" She yelled down the hall. James gave a smile at her spunk and tore the brown spots of the banana off, and handed her the 'edible' bits. "Here. Eat this, it's still good." She took the offered food but turned her nose up at it as she inspected it.
"This is so ripe. The only thing this banana is good for is banana bread." But she still ate the bits.
As time passed, the window in the cell allowed less and less light in as night fell. They had not spoken much to each other, but as night fell, James began to talk about how to keep yourself strong even when being tortured. He spoke of ways to remove yourself from the situation mentally and allow the pain to be inflicted but how ro not feel it. Lily listened intently and cursed her creativity for showing her worst-case scenarios where she would need to use these torture tactics. The night passed with James speaking about torture, and Lily did not sleep.
The next few days passed like the first. The two men came in and took Lily to the interrogation room, and the man asked her questions. She stayed silent, and this seemed to infuriate him. He moved on to verbally abusing her, saying things like "You aren't smart enough, they wouldn't trust you with (certain information)" or "You will never get out of here, you aren't worth saving". The last one got under her skin, and she yelled at him that Steve would save her and get her out. He just laughed and had his men drag her back to the cells.
After the first 'meal', they had not been given anything to eat. At odd times of the quiet days, if you were in the cell, you would hear one of their stomachs growling. One such grumble happened during interrogation. "Oh, are you hungry? Does the hostage want something to eat? I guess I should feed you so you stay alive but not enough that you get full. Now Lily, give me something any piece of information that I can use to justify giving you food.' She weakly shook her head, refusing to give him any words. "Even the slightest bit of information I can pass along to my handlers that will satisfy their drive for knowledge about our enemies."
"Your enemies." She said staunchly. "Steve is my friend. He will find out where you have us and get us out. Starve me if you want, but Steve will make you pay for it." The man laughed and banged on the door. "That's the goal. We would love for him to show up. Enjoy your supper."
Later
It was James' turn to sleep on the bunk. Lily was quietly laying with her back against the wall. James spoke up.
"Hey. Lils. Psst." Lily didn't open her eyes.
"What, James?" James flipped over and looked at her.
"We need to think about getting out of here." She snorted.
"Like you dont already have a plan, and are just asking to get the conversation started. What are you thinking?" She sighed heavily, still not opening her eyes.
"I saw the first day that you have powers? Lightning?" At this, Lily did not only open her eyes but sat up.
"Yes..." she said cautiously. "I separate the ions in the air-" James interrupted her.
"Yeah, all that, so can you blow a hole in the stone wall?"
"It's not that simple. I dont like using my power. It creates disruptions in space that are negatively ionized that unless positively ionized will create a massive ripple explosion that could kill us in this small room. But we're going to die anyway, so why not?" She stood, and James sat up, smiling excitedly. "You need to be as far away from me as you can be."
"No way, doll. Im with you to the end of the line." She looked at him sharply but he guestured to the wall and she narrowed her eyes at him. He gave a small grin and then felt the hair on the back of his neck stand. Lily's long brown hair started to frizz, and she took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and raised her right hand, and with a zapping sound, a bolt of lightening shot from her hand and hit the stone wall. An explosion rocked the cell, and smoke filled the room.