Her

Chapter V

Her

My eyes slowly flutter open as a pounding headache makes itself present. My vision is still considerably blurry so I scrunch my eyes closed then open them again, only to find myself in yet another dark room. However, this time I am laying on a bare mattress with a light sheet draped over my body. In the background I can hear faint talking but it soon disappears, almost as if it were just switched off. Quiet but heavy footsteps are coming my way so I quickly stand up causing a massive headrush to pull me to the mattress again.

"Shit," I whisper to myself while cradling my thumping and spinning head.

Someone is watching me...

I open my eyes and see two booted feet standing before me. Slowly, I allow my eyes to look up the rest of the strong body, finishing at a rather familiar face that had two striking blue eyes staring down. His presense was alarming and I wasn't sure what to think or what to do. Then he spoke.

"Who are you?" His rapsy, deep voice questioning me.

I shook my head slowly. "I don't know."

"Are you Hydra?" He asked.

I ignored his question and looked away from him, only to have him bob down and ask me again.

"Are you Hydra?" He was much more firm that time.

"I think so," my own voice quivered as I thought about what that woman in Siberia had said to me.

He stood up again and walked over to the small kitchen, rumaging through a drawer and pulling something out. He then came back over to me and bobbed down again, holding out a small piece of paper with a drawing on it. I studdied his eyes before taking it to make sure that he wasn't a threat, but all I saw was a lost man with a dark past.

"Does this look familiar to you?" He said, shoving the paper into my already open hand.

Opening the paper so I could see the drawing properly, I came face to face with an evil, red octopus that seemed to have a skull as it's head. At first, it meant nothing to me but as I looked at it further it looked all too familiar.

Hail Hydra!

Shocked at what the drawing meant, I dropped it and scuttled away backwards until I hit the corner of two walls, bring my knees up to my chin. The man stood, stuffing the paper into his back pocket. His face seemed to look sorry for me, but I could'nt quite tell. When I thought he was going to walk away, he walked over to me instead and sat down.

"You're Elizabeth, aren't you?" His knowledge of what I thought my name was startled me.

"How did you know that?" I questioned.

"I remember you. I remember all of you. In Siberia. You were part of an elite death squad. I helped train you," he said that last part reasonably quietly, seeming ashamed of it.

My brows furrowed. I did not recognise him at all nor did I recall what he was telling me. Then again, I did remember seeing someone fight a man with a metal arm. But this man did not have a metal arm? He must have seen me staring at his arms and he suddenly removed a black glove, revealing a gleaming, silvery hand. My eyes widened at the sight, knowing that my memory was in fact true.

"You're him?" I was surprisingly shocked.

He nodded his head slowly. "Yes."

He's the Soldier...

"You're the one they called the Soldier...you didn't have a number like the rest of us. The Winter Soldier."

Again, he nodded his head. "But I wasn't the only Winter Soldier. That's what I was used for training you guys for - to make you the 'new and improved' Winter Soliders. Everything you knew was learnt from me bar your knowledge of twenty different languages." He explained.

It all seemed to be coming back to me now - all of my training and all of my pain that went along with it. Bits and pieces just continued to become more and more clear. I remember initiation. I remember training. I remember missions. And I remember him.

"I remember all of it," I told him.

His head dropped slightly. "But that's all you remember, right?"

I didn't understand his question and he seemed to notice.

"You don't remember who you are or where you came from - your family, your friends, your God damned school - just, nothing. It's not there no matter how hard you try to find it. Heck, you're not even one hundred per cent sure that Elizabeth is YOUR name." He seemed agitated. "They just took it all away from you without a second thought. Filed it somewhere in the unreachable part of your brain. Never to be seen again."

He was right. As he spoke I tried to find something about me but there was just nothing there. I tried to reach harder but it only resulted in an agonising pain at the base of my neck to my back. I yelled.

"Stop, you'll draw attention to us," he warned firmly.

But I didn't stop - the pain was too great. He quickly shuffled closer to me and covered my mouth with his flesh hand while I clutched the burning spot on the back of my neck.

"Shush!" He whispered loudly.

I took a deep breath and tried to block out the pain. It worked mostly but there was still some noticable burning sensation that pulled on my concentration like a loose string. When he knew that I'd stopped, he uncovered my mouth.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

I nodded yes then realised how thirsty I was.

"I need something to drink." Without question, he got up and headed to the small kitchen, grabbing a glass and filling it up from the tap then brought it back over to me.

"Here, drink this slowly. You probably haven't drank anything for a long while." He said while holding the glass out to me. I took it greatfully.

As soon as I'd downed the clear liquid, he started talking again.

"I think it's best that you stay here with me from now on. Maybe we can help eachother, and if not, then, we're now all that eachother has got." He said.

I really had no other alternatives so it seemed like that was just how it was going to play out. Unless, of course, I wanted to lose myself on the streets of some unknown place to me and risk being taken by that crazy asshat again.

"Sounds good," I replied. "Thank you -" I didn't know what to call him. I couldn't call him Soldier.

"Bucky," he finished for me. "You can call me Bucky."