Leave Me Bleeding [Winter Soldier] I

Lights Out [Chapter 10]

"Your memory is a monster; you forget- it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you- and summons them to your recall with a will of it's own. You think you have a memory; but it has you."

-John Irvin

                The words lingered in the air; both of them knew that there was a good chance the truck was bugged. She remember when he was the Winter Soldier and was hunting her. It had been a twisted experiment to see how long her mutated cells would last in his body and work with him, and it had failed. That kept her alive, him being unable to keep her powers in his system and tonight showed that they still needed her. 

             She glanced up at Bucky, wishing that he knew who he was, but knowing that it would take more than a mind link to make him remember. There was no way that he could have known she had linked minds with him; only when he had her mutation did he feel the bridge. Regular people didn't feel it. But he did hear her say his name when she let it slip, that had been a mistake she had made a long time ago that pushed HYDRA to send her out in the snow to be hunted down. Sitting beside him again, she realized that HYDRA had given her another chance, and she had once again failed. She'd heard the saying before, curiosity killed the cat. The pulsing sound of blood rushed to her ears, as if her heart was right behind her eyes, throbbing violently.

               Ophelia could only hope that by completing her mission, being the one to fire the bullet, would be enough.

                He had said that he knew her, and that rekindled a fire that had been softly burning within her. It had been dormant for a long time, but it had never stopped burning. As the fire grew within her, she composed herself as the situation at hand was not going to be one that was gratifying. She'd made the mistake already by saying his name, creating the mental bridge with him. They were a ticking time bomb, and HYDRA was about to set it off.

                "Yes," she replied carefully; she knew if she let him piece together who she was, his memories would be stronger than if she just told him. The brain liked to celebrate when it finished a puzzle; success would lead to more memories, she hoped. She knew their time was short, and that she was going to be subject to something awful, and yet she couldn't help herself. 

                Bucky looked down at his lap, his now long brown hair wavering slightly through the motion. Glancing back up at her, he pursed his lips together and shook his head. He was trying to figure out who she was, but he simply could not remember. Or perhaps he was trying to figure out who he was; Ophelia was unsure. 

              The mental bridge that Ophelia had created with him was strong, but not strong enough. To her, this was a little bit of an experiment, as she had never caused a bridge with someone more than once. That person was almost always brought to base and killed off. A few times she was sent in to find wounded HYDRA members, but once they were brought back they rarely fell short again. In Bucky's case, she had created the bridge three times now. This time it was strong enough to remind her of who, or what, she was, and remind Bucky that he did know her. Unless that had been her verbal slip up; she was no longer in his mind, the pathway had diminished. 

               Ophelia had never truly been told of the extent of her powers; she did not know what she was entirely capable of. Whether or not she was able to do more within a person's head she was unclear. But now that she had linked with Bucky three times, she felt as though she had more of an impact on him. The only other possibility she could think of was that she had a deeper-set relationship with Bucky than she did with any other person she linked with; a history of sorts that would bubble to the surface when she entered his mind. She was still a mystery to herself.