RAISON D'ÊTRE ( bucky barnes ) 一 under editing

FIRST

RAISON D'ÊTRE
FIRST

2009 一 WASHINGTON, D.C.
WORKING FOR HYDRA IS HELL, something Rome had quickly come to terms with. The first few years, she'd fought back tooth and nail, just trying to claw her way to freedom but she failed each and every time. And each and every time, her punishment would get worse and worse. Sometimes they were kinder than normal, if you could even call it kinder. Either way, as the years went by, she slowly stopped fighting back. She'd lost the strength to keep fighting for a life and a freedom she knew she couldn't get. And just like that man had said all those years ago, Aline never came for her. A part of her did feel some sort of resentment towards her cousin, thinking that she'd either forgotten about her or that she no longer cared, but right now, all she wanted was to hold her cousin and never let go. Honestly, all Rome wanted right now was a touch that didn't hurt her or cause her to flinch.

She was still wondering why she did stay with HYDRA. When out on missions, they didn't keep her chained up in those terrible chains, the ones that deprived her of any sort of magic, and because of that, she could escape. Rome could run away from them. The witch could go anywhere to her heart's content, see how much the world has changed since she was first imprisoned, maybe even reconnect with Aline and Maggie. But it was the fear that made her stay, that unending fear that they'd find her and torture her and she'd never be free. Rome felt like a coward 一 she was a witch, a centuries old, and yet she was absolutely terrified of this.

At first, HYDRA's commands had been very simple things 一 track down this person or object, make sure these people have an escape route 一 before it quickly escalated. Now it was torturing and killing, eliminating targets that either are current problems or will be in the future. The first time she'd done it, her superiors (God, it made her sick to call them her superiors) had made her do the worst thing imaginable, making the man scream and cry even hours she stopped. Rome cried herself to sleep that night. They say time heals all wounds, but it didn't feel like that for her. Instead, it felt like the more and more bad things she did, the worse the pain got.

She let out a long breath, shutting her eyes and leaning back against the wall of her room (it felt much better to call it a room than a cell). Her bed was small, big enough to hold her entire body but not big enough to hold two people, and was pushed into the corner of the room. There was a dresser filled with her clothes, but really, there were only enough to hold about six different outfits; the other drawers she had filled with notes and her two grimoires, the only thing she'd been able to keep with her when HYDRA had kidnapped her. One was her mother's, a book she'd kept since she was a title, and the second one was the one she worked on with her cousins. There was a door on the other side of the room, leading to a small bathroom.

Rome uncrossed and recrossed her legs, chewing on her lip as she stared down at the book in her lap. The page she was currently on was dog-tagged, and she held a pen in one hand. Often times, she'd write and perfect spells. They'd always been small ones, and she was able to come up with short incantations for simple things. She tapped her pen on her knee at least seven times before she groaned and tossed it on the bed. The blonde rubbed her temples, immediately feeling a headache starting to form. Pierce, her new superior, had ordered a new set of spells for weeks, but the wording and the languages started to confuse her and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Any day now, he'd punish her.

Lifting her head up, she saw the door open and in walked the devil himself. Alexander Pierce was an intimidating man, one with dirty blonde hair that was starting to gray and cold blue eyes. She didn't know much about him, other than that he was another undercover operative, tricking the world with charismatic smiles and words, and commanded HYDRA forces within S.H.I.E.L.D. Rome loathed him with every fiber of her being. She'd been placed in his care a few years ago, and he had ordered some of the cruelest punishments.