Aberration | Bucky Barnes

xv. spoken

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Bucky?"

Eloise's voice broke as she whispered his name. The man before her simply laughed.

"Zola was right about taking this route, looks like we finally broke you."

Eloise shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. That man couldn't possibly be her friend. When she opened her eyes again, her suspicions were confirmed. She was no longer looking at Bucky's ruggedly beautiful face, she was looking up at another one of Shmidt's filthy soldiers. 

She forced her face to remain stoic despite the writhing mass of emotions brewing inside of her. Rage and pain flooded through her, reaching every corner of her mind, but she kept her eyes trained on the darkness above her. She would not let the Germans have what they wanted. 

They would not see her break.

"Have it your way then," The man said as he moved closer, "It makes my job so much more fun." He leaned in even further, his hot breath hitting her skin as he tried to make her flinch away.

As much as she tried to contain her anger, Eloise couldn't help but ram her head into the side of his face once he got close enough. He cursed loudly as he stumbled away from her, clutching his cheek in pain. 

"You're going to regret that." He spat furiously.

"Now, now Hans, that's enough. Your presence here is no longer required. Leave us." The new voice belonged to Doctor Zola. 

Once Hans had left the room and closed the door behind him, Zola began to speak again.

"I apologize for his actions, Miss Lancaster. He is, what shall I call it? Ah yes, very excitable. A hot-head perhaps." 

Eloise didn't respond. She had no desire to speak.

"I am afraid we have gotten off on the wrong foot. That is what the Americans say now, is it not?"

When she greeted him with silence once again, he merely shrugged and continued his speech as he paced across the room. 

"Let me start by introducing myself. My name is-"

"I know what your name is." Eloise interrupted, speaking flatly through gritted teeth.

"Very well then, I shall get right to it. I work for an organization called Hydra. You may not have heard of it, that is because we like to keep a low profile, even in our own country. As you know, we are at war. A war that threatens to tear the entire world apart. We have a simple goal, one that is not nearly as easy to accomplish as we had originally hoped. Would you like to know what it is?"

After a minute of silence turned to three, she gave in and nodded.

Zola smiled and spread his hands in the air as he answered. "All we want is to end this terrible war. Our mission is to eradicate the violence that consumes the lives of thousands of men each day. Every moment the war rages on outside our protective walls, is a moment we spend trying to end it all."

"Your point?" Eloise asked, her eyes still trained on the ceiling.

"My point, while it took a while for us to figure it out, is that we have almost reached a solution to all of our problems. I'm sure you are wondering what that is."

"Not really." She muttered under her breath. 

Zola remained unaffected by her words. "The solution is you. We recently intercepted messages between a few of the most prestigious American doctors about a woman with a strange, unexplained anomaly in her blood. An anomaly they could not figure out. An anomaly that was killing the woman effected by it. That woman was you, Miss Lancaster."

He paused to let the information sink in before continuing. "The Americans are advanced in their science, that we cannot deny, but they lack fundamental information that we here at Hydra poses. Our top scientists studied your blood and came to a conclusion that shocked even me. Your blood was mutated in a way none of them had ever seen before. Inside your arteries, pumping through your heart, was the answer to all our prayers."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Eloise finally asked, turning to face the mad scientist.

"There was an opening in your genetic code, a space for us to add something new to your DNA. We theorized that if done correctly, we could transfer the pure, undiluted energy from an ancient artifact we recently uncovered, into a formula able to bond with your genes. We worked for weeks on this procedure, meticulously planning each phase of the transformation from solid to liquid. When we finally succeeded, we added a few extra ingredients to the formula, and then it was ready for you."

"Was this before or after you kidnapped me from my home and locked me up in the dark for over a month?" Eloise responded scathingly. 

"Ah, I apologize for our less than pleasant treatment, but we had to make sure your body was weak enough that it wouldn't fight off the formula before it was able to merge with your DNA. We hoped that once you were better, you would understand why it was necessary. We hoped you would thank us for saving your life."

"Are you bloody serious? You want me to thank you? I've been through nothing but pain and hell because of you."

"Well, as far as pain goes, that has all been because of your actions. We did not want to hurt you after your transformation, but we did what we had to. We cannot let you leave this facility yet; you are too important to the world to simply walk away. You have a destiny greater than most men will ever dream of. You were chosen by the Gods eons before you were ever formed. We want to help you live out that destiny. We want you to help us end the war. End suffering and pain. End the constant death of innocent men. Together we can change the world. Make it better than it has ever been before."

Eloise was quiet while his words sank in. "How do you plan on doing that? How can I save the world when I'm locked to a chair?" 

Zola laughed and ushered in the guards.

"If you agree to let us help you, you will never be chained again."

"And if I don't?"

"If you don't, then I am afraid this will not be as easy as we had hoped. You will still help us; you just won't enjoy the way we make that happen. So, Miss Lancaster, what will it be?"