GROW (BUCKY BARNES x OC)

46

Sev was serious about planning Chris's "accidental" murder. Aurora had pointed out that it would make her an enemy of HYDRA, but Sev was convinced she could pull it off without getting them caught. Aurora hadn't expected it in the slightest, but Sev had seemed to have forged an extremely close bond with her. The two were free to talk and bicker almost like siblings whenever there weren't camera around.

They never talked about the night Aurora was taken. Aurora didn't want to dwell on that horrible kiss right in front of Bucky and how her life had promptly gone to hell after. Sev didn't want to think about her guilt that she'd played such a large role in abducting Aurora from her normal, happy life, and bringing her to HYDRA.

After Aurora had explained to Sev why she had agreed to go to even eat dinner with Chris in the first place, Sev decided that after their training sessions they would go to eat in the cafeteria together. She said if anyone questioned it, she'd use her excuse of ensuring Aurora was properly feeding herself with the right foods to ensure her "maximum potential" during training.

Chris had asked Aurora to go back to dinner with him for a week straight after the incident. Every time she gave him an excuse and turned him down, he would grow angry, but he couldn't force her to go with him. Instead he tried to guilt trip her. When that failed as well, he had ordered the guards stop feeding her altogether. That just meant Sev would take her to breakfast "for building strength" in the mornings too.

When it became apparent that Aurora wasn't starving away, Chris was furious. He'd demanded to know how she'd been sneaking food. She just told him of her training diet. While still pissed, and now growing a strong hatred for Sev, Chris couldn't order Aurora to stop attending the meals because Sev said it was part of her training, which Richard had ordered. To interfere with Aurora's training would be to go against the Director himself, so Chris was forced to live with it.

He still tried to make Aurora's life awful with the excuse of "loving her" but apparently Sev had taken up a habit of running small favors for people all around the facility, so they repaid her by interrupting Chris's talks or attempts to touch Aurora. Now he was more of a nuisance than a threat.

One thing still tugged at Aurora's mind though. Sev. She knew that Sev would be afraid to even think about discussing leaving HYDRA with her, but Aurora knew they couldn't stay there forever. She had to get back to her family. She had to find Ryan's family and let them know what happened. She had to confess her crimes and maybe go to jail for the rest of her life for them, but it would be worth it because she wouldn't be killing anymore. Murder was tearing Aurora apart. Her guilty conscience haunted her when she was both awake and asleep. Even Sev was worried about her.

The two woman were instructed to go out on another mission and Aurora was anxiously bouncing her leg in the back of the van. Some guards would glare at her occasionally, but she couldn't help it, she needed a way to expel some of her energy. Their mission this time was simple, steal some classified files and get out. They were to kill anyone who got in their way, but were not ordered directly to murder anyone. This gave Aurora some reassurance, but not much. According to the debriefing, this organization's compound was quite a bit bigger then that small security business. The chances of not running into another single soul were astronomically low.

Aurora did not want to kill anyone else. She felt every murder like a sharp stab to her heart. It felt like she was killing any goodness left in herself with each life she took. Richard made sure to keep taunting her with updated photos of Olivia, so she reluctantly obeyed orders, but she couldn't stop the guilt.

With Sev's advice, Aurora managed to stop keeping count of her kills. It hurt to not know the exact number of lives she'd stolen, but actually knowing only made herself sick with anger and self hatred.