Project Elemental

Chapter 9

She stares out the small window of her hospital-esque room, taking in the New York City skyline, savoring the four words and only things she knows for sure. Hydra, evil. American, Bucky.

Speaking of, she hasn't spoken to him since that night. She can't. For all her training, for all her strength, she couldn't face him. She knows that if she looks into his eyes, she will fall in love all over again. But she can't. Not now, not ever again. The agony she went through every time she saw a glimpse... She can't risk it, especially not when so many pieces still aren't clicking.

The city seems so familiar. Not New York itself, but the concept. The architecture and the color and light. She lived in a city. Maybe. Possibly.

She turns from the window and goes back to her cot, glancing at the book Bucky left for her. A history book to help fill in the gaps. They hadn't spoken since their argument, and she still doesn't know how to feel. She's confused and conflicted, her emotions flickering and changing as quickly as dancing flames.

Beneath her body, she can feel the bed. It's softness is uncomfortable, and she knows that she hasn't felt a proper mattress since she was a very young child. The pillows, the colors, everything seems surreal. As if she is in a dream, and at any moment she might wake up to cold white walls, harsh Russian accents, and bruises littering fragile skin.

She runs a hand over her arms. For the first time in nearly a century, not a single cut or bruise can be found on her skin. Her muscles aren't sore, and her brain does not throb with an unending pain. Whispers of her past brush her conscience, causing the relapses and seizures that are the reason she has been confined in this room. That, and all the scorch marks on the walls.

Across the room, the girl Bucky had told her was her friend was still locked deep inside her own mind, comatose and invisible to the world. Every once in awhile, 002 would catch a glimpse of 003 in her mind. The only thing she could remember about her caused a tremendous amount of aching in her heart. Screams echoing off empty walls, red eyes, heavy breaths, sobs, injections of unknown liquids, beatings, torture, blood, sterile medical instruments slicing through skin, hunger, thirst, pain. A pain that was incomparable to any other emotion she had ever felt. Whether it was hers or the F/H/C girl's, she couldn't tell.

With a desperate and reckless abandon fueled by a desire to simultaneously remember and forget, she picks up the book and flips through the pages, unsure of what she is searching for. A photo captures her eye. It's about the some sort of wall dividing a country. The photographs of the area look so incredibly familiar, and she studies them, a weird feeling in her stomach. A sort of fluttering, accompanied by a stirring in her brain. Smells and sounds from somewhere deep inside her arise to accompany the photos. She turns to the title page of the chapter, and as she scans the bold words, her heart skips a beat. The Rise and Fall of The Berlin Wall. Berlin. Berlin! She flips through the pages, heart soaring as she recognizes much of the old architecture. The Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Cathedral, and Gendarmenmarkt. Elation in her discovery rises up inside her, bubbling and frothing till it overflowed in the form of laughter. Her voice echoed around the room as she laughed, a sense of joy she had never experienced pulsing through her body.

Berlin, home.

With tears of joy, she hugs the book to her chest. Berlin, Germany was her home. She was from Berlin! Without a second thought, she rips the IVs and monitors from her skin and kneels by the door. In a matter of minutes she had figured out the key code, and has slipped through the door.

Bucky. He had given her the book.

—

"Bucky!" She skids to a stop, breathless, in his bedroom.

Simultaneously, both Steve and Bucky look up, fairly shocked to see the girl so lively.

At the tone of her voice, any animosity Buck held towards her flew out the window. "What is it?"

"Thank you!" She threw her arms around him.

Bucky and Steve exchanged confused looks.

In his ear, she whispered, "Berlin. I'm from Berlin, Germany."

He nods, happy for her. Noticing the book in her hands, he smiles. "Y'know doll, Berlin wasn't the real reason I gave you that book."

She frowns, and he notes the cute way she wrinkles her nose. "Then why-"

"C'mere." He pats the edge of his military-standard made bed. She sits in between him and Steve, and he gingerly takes the book from her hands. He turns to the chapter on World War II, then to a section about Hydra. Near the bottom left corner of page 247, was a black and white photograph of two little girls sitting in front of two townhouses in Berlin, playing with dolls. Bucky smiles sadly. "Read the caption."

"Two young girls play in front of their homes in Berlin, Germany for the last time before they are taken by Hydra for the элементали project." She reads, her voice barely a whisper. She studies the photo. One girl, who was laughing, had long, tumbling (dark, light) locks. "Is that... Is that me?" Her voice cracks as she stares at the glossy photograph.

Bucky simply nods.

She blinks back tears, and without hesitation, points to the F/H/C haired girl in the photo. "And that's my friend, F/N."