The Winter Warrior // Captain America

«Chapter 32»

A N N A ' S   P O V

The van came to a sudden stop and I jolted awake from the half-asleep state I had been in for the past 20 hours. My cell and I were taken out of the van and the bright lights from the storage room nearly blinded me. 

I looked around and saw Steve, his flying companion, and the man from the cat-suit stepping out of a different van. The person who followed them, made my heart drop. It was Bucky, and he looked beyond worried. His eyes found mine and I could see the sympathy and anger. I tried to smile, but I knew it looked horribly heartbroken. "It'll be okay," he mouthed before he was taken away. 

They walked up to a grey-haired man and a blonde woman. A few seconds later, a brunette girl joined them. They talked for a short moment before they were escorted out of the room. Before they left, both Steve and Bucky looked at me over their shoulder.

I was taken, in my cell, to a confined room with concrete walls. There was no way out of this one. Even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I accepted whatever they planned on doing to me and rested my head against the seat, closing my eyes. 

"Hello, Miss Rogers," a voice spoke up and I opened my eyes again. It was a man, and judging by his accent, he was German. "I've been sent by the United Nations to evaluate you. Do you mind if I sit?" 

I didn't reply. I just stared him down with a cold, empty glare. 

He sat down anyway. "Your first name is Anna?" 

I kept my mouth tightly shut and turned my eyes to the ground, where I firmly focused them on a stain on the floor to keep my mind at ease.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions," he continued. "Do you know where you are, Anna?" 

When I didn't say anything, he continued, "I can't help you if you don't talk to me, Anna." 

"Where is Bucky?" I asked, my voice hoarse from the past 20 hours of not speaking.

He didn't answer. Instead, he said, "Tell me, Anna, you've seen a great deal, haven't you?" 

I looked up. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"You feel that... if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop," he said. "Don't worry. We only have to talk about one." 

Suddenly, all the lights in the room turned off. In the distance, I heard an alarm blaring. The electricity in my arm disappeared and I regained control again. 

"What the hell is this?" I asked the man.

"Why don't we discuss your home?" he said. "Not Romania. Certainly not Brooklyn, no." He took something from his bag. "I mean your real home." 

My heart dropped. It was the red, leather-bound book that contained what I most feared. Twelve words that could turn me into the monster I had been forced to be for so many times. Ten simple words that could turn me into the Winter Warrior.

"No..." I whispered. 

The man rose up, flicking on a flashlight to read the words on the page. 

"Astray." 

"Decayed." 

"Stop." 

"Twenty-two." 

My metal hand began to tremble. "Stop!" 

"Dawning," he snarled at me and I let out a scream as my head felt as if it were put in a blender. The metal clamps were broken when I ripped my arm from them and broke free from the tight hold.