𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕦𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝔾𝕖𝕥𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕃𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣- completed but editing

Chapter 25

I wasn't wearing my clothes. They were clothes. But not mine. I shuddered and opened my eyes.

Cold floor.

Cold room.

Leg hurt.

Vomit smell.

Sweat slippery.

Hydra.

A strong, thick hand grabbed my chin and forced my face upward ruffly. My hair clung to my neck as I looked into the face of Sergeant Rumlow. His expression was full of satisfaction as he dragged my limp body across the floor.

I tried and tried to summon my cloud to free me. To do something. But nothing I did worked. So I had to comply.

I wasn't dragged far, just to a chair. My vision was blurry but I would recognize that metal arm anywhere. In the chair across from me. My bare feet were cold on the tile, my ankles bound to gather with tape. Smart. Even if my cloud were there, it would take me awhile to unwrap myself.

"LJX-7. Extreme forms of telepathy and telekinesis." Dr. Chandler stepped forward out of a group of armed agents. "Welcome back. It's time for you to fulfill your purpose."

I looked up at him through my hair. "I don't belong to you."

He smiled a cold smile, decreasing the room's temperature by at least ten degrees. "Come now, don't go giving him any ideas." He gestured to the Winter Soldier.

He was bound in his chair, a man was fixing his metal arm from where Nat had electrocuted him.

I worked up a glob of saliva and spat it on Dr. Chandler's shoe. He kicked it off. "Do you like it? I created it to mute your powers. Your mind can't reach the stone. I call it The Volume Button. Brilliant, huh?" He smirked at me. "Now I can examine you, without your inference."

The Winter Soldier was watching me. I could feel his gaze. He met my eyes and widened his own.

"You have given Hydra some trouble, 7." He strapped my arms to the sides of my chair and motioned for two men in white coats to come forward. "Tell me. What is your name?"

The men took their places at my side.

"Li Anne Banner."

"Wrong," Chandler nodded to my side.

Pain. White blinding pain. I screamed. A large knife cut a straight gash into my arm about an inch long.

"Tell me again. What is your name?"

"My name is Li Anne Banner."

"You aren't good at this game, 7."

The next gash was smaller but I could feel the rivers of blood, hot and sticky, running down my arm.

I looked up and over at the Winter Soldier. A man had come in and was talking to him. But Bucky was watching me. I shook my head.

The man slapped him. The man to my left carved two more lines into my arm. The lights were spinning as the blood continued to flow.

My screams were cut out by another sound. Bucky was yelling. I could just hear it over the pain.

"Stop it!" He screamed. "Leave her alone! Stop!" I could hear him grab someone's throat but he screamed as my flesh was sliced open yet for the fourth time.

Chandler had stepped back, enjoying watching us scream. I futilely tried to summon my cloud. Nothing.

Then it stopped. Light bobbed in and out of my vision as I was leaned back. But I could still hear their conversations.

"The man on the bridge..." Bucky asked. "Who was he?"

The man from earlier answered him. "You met him earlier this week on another assignment."

He shot Nick Fury.

"I knew him."

My heart flew for a tiny second. He remembered Steve. I could fix him if "The Volume Button" would wear off soon.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time." The man continued, fazed at Bucky's questioning. "Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves."

"But I knew him." Bucky insisted.

"Listen to me," The man said. "You will complete this mission. You will take LXJ-7 to the SHIELD facility as bait to catch Rogers."

Steve was free!

"You will stop their plan to end Project Insight. Then you will return with a mission report."

I listened closely.

"Prep him."

"He's been out of cryo-freeze too long." A different man said.

"Then wipe him and start over." He turned to Dr. Chandler. "And I want that girl under control. It's bad enough her good-for-nothing father got himself captured by SHIELD. I want her ready to go in three hours."

"Yes, sir," Dr. Chandler sat me up. He turned to me. "We aren't quite finished with you yet, little lady."

The knife jammed into my arm and I screamed louder than before, right as Bucky started screaming. I could hear the electric shocks coming from his side of the room. I screamed louder as my arm was slit open.

My thin Hydra-provided shirt came up and I shivered.

"Interesting." Chandler was looking at my scars from New York. "You did this?"

I nodded. My hair was in my face and I couldn't really see much.

Chandler headed for the door. "Don't give her the next dose of the Volume Button. She has to be fully functioning. I do want her sedated. After they finish the soldier."

Bucky's screaming grew hoarse and I lost mine completely after screaming with him for a while. When they finished, I was injected with a sedative and for the second time that day, I was made vulnerable by my enemies.

The last thing I remember was Evelyn telling me that my sister was calling and me trying to open my mouth to speak before the light blinking out completely.