Marvel Imagines

Threats | Steve

"This is painful." Tony said, resisting the urge to turn away from the sight in front of him. Next to him, Steve stood and stared straight through the one-way mirror into the room, focused on the woman. She was sitting on the ground, chained by the wrists to the wall behind her. The bandanna that was supposed to be around her mouth hung limp on her neck. He could, as much as he tried to block it out, slightly hear her muffled cries and sobs.

After a moment, a moment in which he'd seriously considered going in there and setting her free, he turned his back on her. He had to remember that she was an agent of HYDRA, no matter how human she made herself seem. She was just another one of their machines.

"We should probably go in there and "good-cop bad-cop" it, but I..." Tony trailed off, and Steve looked over at him. "I honestly don't think I can do it. Look at her- HYDRA or not, she's heartbroken over something. I know that look in her eyes, and if I go on there and she starts crying, I'm not going to be able to hold back from letting her go." At Tony's words, Steve pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and headed for the door.

"Then stay out here. You don't have to come." He responded. Tony raised an eyebrow, nodding toward the girl in the room.

"You're telling me you don't feel a shred of sympathy for this woman?" He asked, tilting his head in disbelief. Steve paused, and that was Tony's answer.

"Good luck in there." Tony said, walking in the other direction. "You're a better man than I." Steve watched Tony walk slowly down the hall, stalling for as long as he could before he put his hand on the doorknob and pushed it open.

His ears were immediately met with her cries, but the sound was unexpected. Outside, where it was sound proofed, she looked as though she was screaming. But in reality, all Steve could here was these quiet little sobs, her breath hitching in a way that told him she was trying not to cry. He could see tears streaming down her face, and he couldn't lie and say the sight didn't shatter him a little bit.

She was hunched over on her knees, which Steve knew was not comfortable, and her wrists were crossed behind her back. He could see the raw skin on her arm from where the chain had pulled at her skin. She didn't even look up when he walked in. She stayed hunched over even as Steve joined her on the floor, back against the opposite wall.

"What's your name?" He started out, a safe question.

"(Y/N)." She answered without hesitating, still refusing to look up.

"And, (Y/N), why are you here?" Steve asked, folding his hands in his lap and leaning forward.

"Because you think I'm part of HYRDA." She answered, still talking more to the ground than to him. He raised an eyebrow.

"And are you not?" He asked, looking critically over the HYDRA symbol on her jacket.

"I was used by them. That's more accurate."

"Do you want to explain?" Steve asked, slightly put off by her response. After a long moment, she answered.

"It's hard to claim to be part of something if you were threatened and brainwashed into doing it." Steve's chest tightened as he thought of Bucky.

"Brainwashed?" Steve asked. "Explain." She snorted, almost looking up.

"You know exactly what I mean. You took Bucky back from them. You know exactly what I mean when I say they brainwashed me. Or, they used to." Steve physically recoiled.

"How do you know Bucky?" He asked sharply.

"He was my only friend- well, 'friend', really." She paused to put quotes around the word. "Half the time he was trying to hurt me, because he thought I was with them and he was brainwashed. The other half, we used to sit together in the soldier compound in silence, and that was the closest either of us got to knowing someone." Her words became slightly more shaky at the end. Steve knew he was hitting a rough spot in her, but he kept going. Bucky had never mentioned an (Y/N) before.

"What about the threats?" Steve asked, and she flinched.

"Well," She raised her head, and Steve got a good look at her for the first time. He had to hold himself back from looking away; she had a smooth, deep scar across her left eye, and the eye looked either sewn shut or the skin has folded itself closed. "They go through with their threats, so they sure aren't empty." She responded, looking straight at him with her one eye. Her gaze was cold, which didn't match the tears and the periodic sobs.

"If you don't mind my asking- which I'm sure you do- what happened?" He asked, and she laughed. Almost.

"They sewed my eye shut. Told me when they first captured me that the only way to save my sister's life was to cooperate with everything they told me to do. A hour later, after training, when I had hesitated to pull the trigger on someone, they took me back to base and sewed my eye shut. While I was awake, too. Said that I wouldn't have to squint to see through the gun's scope anymore." Her face was contorted into a vicious glare, and Steve was glad it wasn't directed at him.

"So then, I have to ask," Steve said, propping his head back. "What were you doing at the base when we got there? You surrendered right away, pleading that we take you, but you turned on us when we got away on the jet and we blew up the base. Why?"

"Because!" She yelled, her anger flaring immensely. "My sister was in there! For all I know, she burned alive!" All of that anger dissipated, and in a second she was back on the ground. "And she always said that was her worst fear." She started crying again, and Steve couldn't bring himself to speak up. He just sat across from her, this brokenhearted woman, and tried not to make it any worse as he listened to her cracked sobs. The tears never seemed to stop, and Steve knew it was stupid to try and comfort her, but he found himself across the room with his arm around her anyway.

"I'm sorry," He said, "And I know that really means nothing, but I am. I'll personally go back and look for her, if you want. It's possible that she's alive." She looked up, her one eye wavering over his face.

"Please. Do it." She said, her voice small. "If she's alive, bring her back. And if not... Come back with a lie. I don't want to handle the truth." She bowed her head, and Steve could feel his own heart breaking for her. Her pain must be immeasurable. He reached behind her and unlocked her chains, letting them fall to the floor with a dull thud.

"I'll go find her. You have my word." Steve said. He stood and after he saw her nod, he left the room, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Please, she thought to herself as she watched him leave, don't make him have to lie to me.