Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

Chapter XII: Things Unheard

Joana

They didn't even have the decency to wash the blood off her hands.
After the shivering left her body, Joana was brought back to her room with a bag over her head. Whoever held her arms threw her to the floor and began to beat her, tearing her clothes from her body, hitting her, kicking her, and hurting her in every way possible. It hurt, yes, but the pain she felt inside was ten times worse, so she made not a single sound. When the men had finished their assault, someone tore the hood off her head. She looked up into the cold face of Alexander Pierce. She wanted to scream at him and gauge his eyes out with her bare hands, but she was too exhausted to move. Everything hurt physically, emotionally, mentally. So she just stared up into his young, blue eyes.
"You had potential, Joana," he said, his voice silky and smooth. "But you don't seem to be of much use anymore. You're too dangerous. We'll keep you in shape, in case we need you, but Barnes is our priority. You'll be working with him from now on."
The way Pierce spoke was as if he had been planning on these change for a while. Joana wouldn't be surprised if he had assassinated the Commander just to take his job. However, Joana was unable to even scowl up at him or inquire what he meant by 'working with'. Whatever it was, she didn't think it was going to be good.
Pierce turned and left the room, his soldiers following after him. They left an air of maliciousness in their trail. Their bitterness and hatred seeped into Joana's system. She slowly sat up, completely naked, her eyes staring blankly at the floor in front of her. They didn't leave her a new set of clothes.
She hated them. She wanted them all to die. She would kill everyone if she had too.
Anger forced her to her feet.
Rage poured into every nerve of her body. Danika was dead, killed by Aleksi, who was now dead too, thanks to Joana. She'd failed to rescue Bucky, who was now...God knows where. Joana tugged at the gnarls in her hair.
She had killed Aleksi and Bucky had watched her do it. She had finally broken. She was no longer the Joana she used to be, and Bucky saw that with his own two eyes. She had destroyed everything.
Grabbing the bottom of her bed, Joana felt her pain physical pain disappear as she flipped it across the room, a scream of fury ripping through her throats as she did so.
She breathed heavily, slowly starting to feel the pain throughout her body. Her anger melted into sadness, her breathing into sobs. She slid down the wall, bringing her knees to her chest. She had every intention of putting her face in her hands, but when she saw the blood caked on them from Aleksi and Danika, bile rose in her throat. She ran across the room to her "toilet" (just a bucket they emptied daily) and vomited up what little food was inside her. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she dumped her hands into her "sink" (another metal bucket just filled with water). She scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, sniffing as she went. The water turned a red-brown as she slowly managed to clear away some of the blood from her hands.

She had made a mess of everything and there was nothing she could do to fix it. 

The days droned on. Joana didn't leave her room. She couldn't tell the difference from night and day. Everything just seemed to run together. When soldiers brought her meals, they were all the same; bits of bread, some meat, old corn, and watery, tasteless rice. It was enough to keep her alive and give her energy for her...other activities. When Pierce said that he was going to keep her in shape, he wasn't lying, but he didn't mean she would be seeing a trainer. 

Everyday, with no given warning, a series of soldiers (sometimes 3, sometimes 7, it depended on the day), would barge into her room and proceed to beat her half to death. The days when she was asleep were the worst days, because waking up to a punch in the face and someone pulling on your hair made it increasingly difficult to fight back. However, when she wasn't sleeping, she would be working out with whatever she could. There were days when she could fight back, and fight back she did. Even though she was no longer allowed to train under a real human being, she still found a way to get better day by day, Danika's voice in her head telling her what she was doing wrong and where she needed to get better. There was one day that 4 soldiers were sent into her room, and not a single one of them managed to hit her once.