After her parents are brutally murdered by HYDRA, Cas becomes the "Conduit"-a psychic siphon designed to absorb the agonizing mental "noise" that plagues HYDRA's greatest asset: the Winter Soldier. To the scientists, she is a clinical success. To the handlers, she is a tool. But to the man she calls Buzz, she is the only thing keeping him from drifting into total darkness. Bound by a bond forged in blood and silence, the girl and the Soldier navigate a world of white lonely cells and brutal training. It has always been just them. As Cas struggles to find her voice and her purpose, she must decide if she is willing to become the weapon HYDRA wants her to be in order to protect the only person she loves. Because in a place built on pain, the only way to save a soul is to burn the system to the ground. (A story of survival, a found-family bond that defies programming, and a path that will eventually lead to a girl with magic in her hands and a different kind of red in her soul)