Leave Me Bleeding [Winter Soldier] I

Run [Chapter 7]

"You're dislocated
Don't be like that
And you smile when you dive in
Like you're never coming back"

"Fear of the Water" -SYML

                "Bucky..." she said, knowing that his name had triggered memories before. Her breath was the only thing warm about her, and when she spoke his name, it was as if it went up in smoke right in front of her. Dissipating, useless, meaningless. Just like her in the eyes of HYDRA. She could see in his stoic stance that he did not recognize her as Ophelia anymore; he saw his mission. It startled her to the point where she stood frozen, unsure of what to do or what to say. 

                It was too late; not a single thing altered in his eyes to show he understood when she spoke his name, not like before. Before he had only been jostled of his memories; lost but still in reach. Now they had been fried out of his mind, possibly gone forever. Replaced with ugly things, replaced with dangerous things. They hadn't bothered to waste their time with anymore verbal brainwashing; Ophelia failed her task and so they took it into their own hands as she knew they would. 

              They had gone all the way and shocked the humanity out of Bucky. Electricity and torture went a long way, even in just a few short days. She could see the lifelessness in his eyes even behind the goggles as he stared at her. His metal hand twitched as she took a single step backwards; it whirred and she could hardly hear it, but it frightened her. Weaponless, hungry, tired, and ready to give up, Ophelia stared at the Winter Soldier with a shattered look in her eyes. Eyes that would have looked beautiful to him in this sunlight, if he had been Bucky. 

                There had been something about Bucky.

                Ophelia had liked it.

                But that was gone.

                "Please," she whispered, wondering why he had not made a move to kill her already. Did they still want her to run for her life? Did they want to witness her demise so badly that they would allow her to run away from the Winter Soldier? Unmoving, Ophelia decided that she would not give them what they wanted. No, she was not going to run and she was not going to give up; she had to try something else that would show HYDRA she was not a weapon, but a human who maybe didn't deserve life, but deserved some humanity even if it might be her last day on Earth. 

                The Winter Soldier remained as still as the mountain itself, but ten times more intimidating than the mountain ever would be. The mountain would remain there for many years as it had been there for many years before, it would not change with the pull of the world. It cared not for who stood upon it, nor who fell in the way of the avalanches it sometimes threw down with great power. Something told Ophelia that the Winter Soldier also didn't care who got in his way, but she wasn't going to change her mind about what she had planned. She owed this much to Bucky for showing her what she deserved, showing her kindness. Pulling his goggles off of his eyes, he revealed a wild look on his face, a crazed look that Ophelia was sure she had seen before on her own face. She studied his eyes, those sky blue eyes. They looked dull today.

                Deep down, she wondered if it was an instinctual predator-prey relationship. Often times the predator could not see the unmoving prey. But Bucky's eyes were locked onto her, a tangle of emotions forming in those eyes of his now; his brows pulled down in confusion. She could not determine what he was going to do next, so she removed her mask to show off her face. Perhaps visual memory would bring him back, but he had hardly known her long enough to truly care. That was HYDRA in her head, she knew, and yet she could hardly shake the thought. Having known Bucky for little less than a week, she knew it was stupid to think he cared, and yet those few days together had felt like a break from HYDRA. Everything she said, she spoke with a tremor in her voice, but the way Bucky was able to talk to her, reminded her that she was more than this. More than HYDRA.