Forever Friends

Chapter 6: Waking Up

You blink, groggy, in a drug-like state. You look around with the screaming in the next room quickly bringing you to full consciousness. When you look down, you see that your hands and feet have been restrained. The room is full of men staring at you. A tall man in a lab coat with a serious face turns to you and pushes something into the saline bag that connects to your arm.

"Wh... What are you doing?" Your head threatens to explode.

Why is that man screaming and why does it sound so familiar?

You feel something else course through you, a burning sensation followed by something that feels like ice. An involuntary scream erupts as your body begins to shake uncontrollably. The other men murmur amongst themselves, pointing, making you look down. Your veins are glowing with a slightly yellow hew.

"What is that?!?" You demand, "What are you doing to me?!?"

Your throat is dry and scratchy as it comes out. What are they doing to him? The screaming in the other room intensifies.

The man in the lab coat approaches you, "Do you have any idea where you are?" He says in a thick accent.

"Hydra... A Hydra base," you grip your eyes closed, trying to ignore the man screaming.

"Then you know what we did to James Barnes and your Captain?"

Your heart races at the mention of their names and you can feel something odd in your body, building, "Let me out of this and I'll return the favor."

This earns you a slap across your face. As your anger builds, so does the burning sensation in your veins. You look up and see more men in an observation room.

"What do you hope to gain here?" You ask boldly. He punches you in the face and then in the stomach. "Whew, now it's a party," you laugh as you spit blood on the floor at his feet. You are trying your best to appear confident as fear threatens to break your façade. The burning sensation isn't painful, but it is new and you feel your face starting to flush.

"Do you have any idea how old you are?" He asks. The oddity of the question shocks you slightly.

"I'm... I'm 23."

Laughter erupts from all over the room.

"You are 73. You've been asleep for a long time, fräulein."

Someone has got to help him! You hear the man scream again, only this time, it's your name that calls from his lips.

"Who is that?!? Why does he know my name?!?" You struggle against the restraints.

The man lands a series of punches to your body as he utters his next words- "Everyone," punch to your arm, "you," ribs, "love," face, "is dead," he kicks your legs, "and you killed them!" He starts to list them, circling your chair, "Your parents, James Barnes... I believe you called him Jamie..."

"Stop!" you scream, tears welling in your eyes, "Stop! Please!!"

You shake your head violently, the pressure in your chest and head feeling like it's going to split you open. "Steve Rodgers, Howard Stark, Maria Stark, Peggy Carter, little Steven," he continues. Your body is aching from the series of blows you've received, but somehow, not quite as much as it should.

"I. SAID. STOP!" You scream and it looks as if the world explodes around you, it is coming from you, yellow energy surging out- the only color you can see. It has blown out the windows of the upper observation room, knocking everyone backward. There is no one that you can see within 15 feet of you. The walls are cracking, likely to give way any second. The lights are popping as the small flecks of energy fall around you. You scream. Years of pent-up anger and hurt are finally flowing out from your body. The yellow smoke-like energy is surging in waves as you scream, tears spilling down your face. You can see pieces of the ceiling falling around you. You don't care. The emotional pain that has consumed you for so long may finally kill you and take Hydra with it. At least the world will be safe! Maybe he'll make it out. You think as you hear the man screaming again, echoing your own.