black bird

three

Yelena came back later than evening with a man she recognized to be a serial murderer, and she shot up, pushing herself up against the wall of the bed.

"Emilia, relax." Yelena cooed, and the girl shook her head.

"No, you brought him here to kill me." She answered, her eyes shooting back and forth between Yelena and the Winter Soldier.

"My name is Bucky Barnes, I am no longer the Winter Soldier, but I understand what you're going through. The whole trying to sort through what's true and what you're trained to do? I'm still processing it." He said, his voice mellow as he tried to keep her calm. She did not respond right away, but he took it as a small victory that she did not seem so tense against the wall.

"I... I just feel like there's three different voices in my head telling me what to do." Emilia finally responded, seeming that she had no way out of the conversation. Her brainwashing was telling her to not respond, let them spill their secrets to her, but another voice in her head was telling her that they were only trying to help - like Natasha had said, they were giving her a way out of the only life she knew, a life she had never wanted to be wrapped into.

"What are they telling you?" He asked her, as if he were reading her mind, and she told him exactly that. "What about the third voice?" He continued, and she shrunk back against the wall.

"It's mine, trying to silence the other two." She responded in a small voice, tearing her gaze away from both of theirs. "I have only ever known this life. For the last twenty years I've only done what I've been tortured and brainwashed to do. Now, all of a sudden it's all gone. You and your sister took down the Red Room, and it was like our lives, my life was over."

"But your life is just beginning. You can use your training and do something good with it, like we all have." Yelena chimed in, and Bucky nodded in agreement.

"How can I do that when all I know is to kill who I'm ordered to?" She asked, looking back up.

"You've got three very good examples, two of them right in front of you." Bucky told her, and she remembered that he had been brainwashed and tortured by HYDRA for eighty years and then some. "You have assets that we can use in missions, and I'm sure having three Widows on our side wouldn't hurt."

"What become an Avenger?" She scoffed.

"No, but an ally." Yelena quickly interjected. "We'll give you some time to think. In the meantime, you should probably eat something, my daddy says it's good for you."

"I'm not hungry." Emilia sighed.

"Don't starve yourself in here." Bucky said, but the tone in his voice sounded more like a warning.

"Is there anything we can get you?" Yelena asked her.

"No, I'm fine." She answered, and with that the two of them left her prison cell.

"So, what do you think?" Yelena asked him as they walked down the hallway to head over to the elevator.

"She's... very tortured, but she wants help, she said it herself. It'll take some time and trust but I think she'll come around. However, keeping her in a cell isn't gonna help." Bucky responded as they got on, both of them pressing different floors.

"Natasha and I both told that to Stark, but he's completely against it since she did try to kill him." She answered with a shrug.

"I mean that's fair. I'm sure we could reach some sort of in between, but we need her out of that jail cell." He sighed as the door opened for him to get off. "Let me know if you need anything else." He said in farewell, and she thanked him as the doors closed. She ran through her mind how they could get the ex-widow on their side, even if it was just as an ally. She got off the elevator and went towards Natasha's room, knocking on the door before heading inside.