Leave Me Bleeding [Winter Soldier] I

Mission [Chapter 9]

"Best way to not get your heart broken, is pretend you don't have one."

-Charlie Sheen

1964

20 Years Later

                She awoke.

                She was numb.

                She was unaware whilst completely aware of everything around her.

                She was scared.

                "W-Where am I?" she asked with a groggy tone, as if she hadn't used her voice in years. Looking around at the grey-green walls that surrounded her, she narrowed her eyes. Where was she; she knew this place somehow, once in her life before.

                Instead of answering her questions, then pulled the restraints from her body and two men tucked themselves underneath her arms to assist her. Legs unresponsive, she felt paralyzed from the waist down and gritted her teeth in pain. No familiarity, the woman began to wonder not exactly where she was, but what she was. Searching her own mind and not finding the answers that she was looking for, she tried to figure out her surroundings, but there was nothing familiar. 

              She began to feel again in her lower half, and she was brought to something that began to remind her of where she was. Ahead of her there was finally something familiar, but it was not something that evoked good memories. Grimacing but not fighting back as somehow she knew better, the woman let her eyes focus on the metal chair ahead of her that she knew was wired with high voltage electricity. 

              Just as she suspected, she was placed into the chair, strapped down for her own safety and others. Her eyes darted around frantically, but she otherwise remained statue-still. Breathing in through her nose to keep herself calm, something told her that it was better to accept this, to get through it with minimal complaints. Fragments of memory flitted into her mind in that chair, the metal head piece not quite touching her flesh, but close enough. When they placed the rubber mouth guard between her teeth, she remembered her name. Ophelia, but someone once called her O. Across the large, open but dank room, another cryogenic chamber was lowered, and there was a man inside of it. Masked like a feral creature, and restrained like a vicious dog, he appeared to be of malicious intent even though his eyes were only just opening. 

            But that was not what stirred up emotion inside of Ophelia; she recognized something about this man. Digging for information in her head, she recalled something about him. They had done missions together in the past; this was not her first time being woken from her icy slumber. As everything slowly became familiar again, she watched the man exit the chamber, stumbling slightly, guards assisting him. His head turned, his long brown hair tangled and messy, and his eyes locked on to hers. An expression that Ophelia failed to read crossed his face, and it was gone quicker than it had even showed up. Before she had a chance to process anything else in the room with her, she heard the whirring noises of this machine powering up.

            It evoked fear inside of her, something innate and natural, but she refused to show it. The electricity began to pulse through her and she screamed in pain; the mouth guard did little to prevent her cries from bouncing off of the walls around her. When it finally stopped, though enduring it she thought it would go on forever, she did not breathe out in relief. Instead, a shuddering breath rippled through her. The pain subsided quickly when it was all over, but she felt fragile, as if all her bones were made of glass. One man stood in front of her, holding something in his hands; a book. Red with a black star upon the cover; she knew it, she'd seen it before in some distant past.