Project Elemental

Chapter 3

***March, 1968***
**Post WWII**

Someone kicks her in the ribs. "Get up," a voice hisses. "Now. Get up!"

Slowly, she rises from the floor, meeting the hard eyes of a guard. He holds a gun at his side, pointed right into her belly. She's confused and glances around the cell. She doesn't really remember them bringing her back from the operating room. Thoughts scramble around her head as she tries to remember waking up but she doesn't.

Across the room, her friend is already awake, gaze blank as she watches the exchange between them. Once, long ago, she would have attacked the guard who dared to lay a finger on her. He would have been turned to an ice cube faster than you could say sputnik. But now... The F/H/C haired girl sits with docility, not moving nor speaking.

"Мы разбудили солдата." We've woken the Soldier. The harsh Russian syllables grate against her ears. She winces as he continues. "И он в ярости. Мы думаем, это потому, что вам не хватает." And he's in a rage. We think it's because you're missing. It would be the first time they hadn't called on her to help wake him up. "Я действительно не трахаюсь, если он разорвет тебя на клочки, пока он успокаивается." And I don't really give a fuck if he rips you to shreds as long as he calms down.

She swallows hard, pushing H/C locks from back from her line of vision. Until they had stolen his memory completely, he had done everything he could to remember. To remember and protect her and her friend.

A hand wraps around her upper arm and she's forced out the cell door and down a corridor. She blinks hard against the light. He won't remember her again. Or he would technically, but not in the traditional sense. A sick lick of jealousy lashes against her heart. He got to forget everything while they forced her to remember only the things they wanted her to. But then she hears him screaming in her mind, and thinks about the torture that's been inflicted on both of them, and that he's practically lost all sense of self, and she feels guilty. He remembers; flinches at touch, recoils at the sound of his own name, but he knows her somehow.

Perhaps they let him remember her. They would use her to control him. His protective nature towards her in particular had no doubt not gone unnoticed. Hydra would use anything they could to their advantage, and this was no exception.

She's forced through another door after a few minutes of walking down derelict corridors and faced with chaos.

His dark hair is longer than she remembered. His shirt is missing, and raised red lashes score his back. The metal arms whirs and clenches, mirroring the muscle of the flesh one. The room is in disarray, tables and machinery overturned, something spilt across the floor, trays of instruments scattered. Worst of all is the blood, and of that there is an abundance.

A man steps up to her, presses his mouth to her ear as he whispers instructions to her, instructions she can't disobey. She was to do anything necessary to make him compliant for them. The few scientists and guards and agents start to leave the room causing the Soldier to turn towards her.

He's on her immediately, body protectively in front of hers as everyone files out of the room. When they're gone he relaxes a little but not by much, murmuring into her hair so lowly she can't make out what he's saying.

Stepping away from him, she gives him an order to sit down, which he does immediately. She steps behind where he sits on a hard chair and assess the damage done to his back. "Почему?" Why? She asks, choosing Russian for the moment.

"Я тебя не видел," I didn't see you, he says, voice just as hard. "Они пообещали, что если я выполню свою миссию, вы и 003 будете в безопасности." They promised that if I accomplished my mission, when I woke up, you and 003 would be safe. The Soldier's voice is possessive and angry.