Leave Me Broken [Winter Soldier] II

Useless [Chapter 3]

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."

Stephen King

1991

              The metal and plexiglass cage around her clattered as she was thrown against it. The searing pain of her shoulder having been ripped out of the socket left her blinded for a few seconds and distracted her from the other throbbing pains over her whole body. She wanted to fight back, to defeat them and bring them to their knees in order to show her worth, but this was a fight she would never win because she had no worth to them. 

               Though she had been trained to fight and kill, no longer a frail being with bones jutting out throughout her body as she had been in the past, she was nothing compared to these men and women. The Death Squad was one that lived up to its name, and they had not even been given the Super Soldier Serum that they had been promised. No, they were using Ophelia as a bait dog just for the hell of it, for the training it would give them. But it was not to train them to be physically stronger or better fighters, but more violent killers. 

             They liked to cause her pain.  

              She had the serum, it made her fast, diligent, and strong. But she had a weakened pseudo-serum inside of her, HYDRA's attempt to make what Steve Rogers had; it had been created not long after Captain America started making headlines, and she had been the test subject. Always in the shadows of those stronger and greater than she was, Ophelia held no ground and had no power in this dungeon she called her home. 

            But she still got herself up on her feet after each time she was knocked down upon the concrete that was stained with her blood. Shaking on hands and knees, Ophelia forced herself to grab onto the metal bars that imprisoned her to help her to her feet. There was an irony in relying on the one thing that was ensuring her beating was not ended with her running away like a coward. Her left arm was useless, and when she got back to a stand, she brought her right hand up to protect her bruised and swelling face.

           It was the blonde who came at her then, bringing her arm around and landing a blow to Ophelia's good shoulder, knocking her arm out of the way. Ophelia backed up to avoid the next punch, but found herself against the wall of the cage once again. There was two of them in the cage, even HYDRA knew that sending in all five would be a poor idea if they wanted Ophelia alive at the end of this, but two was one too many for her. This was not the first time Ophelia had been subjected to this sort of torture, and it was not the first time she had been pitted against someone like this; she didn't remember being hunted down by the Winter Soldier, but HYDRA did. Though there were different people running the place now, each new generation of people treated her the same.

             She was unable to avoid the blow to her temple, and found herself on the ground again, blood splattered over the ground, spittle making it stringy. There was blood over her cheek, blood coming down from her split eyebrow. She gritted her teeth, about to stand up again, when she was kicked in the ribs by the man who was also in the cage. Rolling over onto her side, Ophelia scrambled to get out of the way of the sudden ambush, but was grabbed by the man. He pulled her arms back and she choked out a scream as the swollen, out-of-socket shoulder seared in pain. She brought her leg up to kick the woman coming at her, but her leg was easily pushed out of the way and the pummeling began once again. Shots to the ribs mostly, and some to the face, until Ophelia hung limp in the man's arms, not a whimper or plea to stop coming from her swollen lips.