Leave Me Bleeding [Winter Soldier] I

Interrogation [Chapter 15]

"Is something wrong? she said.
Of course there is.
You're still alive, she said.
Oh, and do I deserve to be."

-"Alive" -Pearl Jam
 

              Kate did not uncuff the Huntress, but she brought her some hot tea and some things to snack on. Until now, she hadn't realized how hungry she was, and so she dove in. With her hands cuffed in front of her, it was awkward and almost embarrassing. Still, she ate until she felt the ebbing hunger disappear, and then she drank the hot liquid carefully. It was all new to her; flavours her palate had never been exposed to. Her eyes darted graciously up at Kate, who was staring right through her, probably wondering what she was going to do with this HYDRA affiliate in her apartment. Only after the Huntress felt her basic human needs reached, she realized that they were still in danger. "We should not be here, he will come back."

                "Who?" Kate's eyes focused on the Huntress instead of through her. 

                "The one who shot Fury." In truth, the Huntress did not want the Winter Soldier to get hurt, so she disclosed his name although it was completely irrelevant. He could handle himself, but the name was of no importance right now. 

                "I'm going to call this in." Kate rose, slightly aggravated by the open-ended answers she was getting.

                "The Captain said not to trust anyone."

                "I have to trust someone." She pulled out her phone and dialed, disappearing for a minute.

                The Huntress looked around for something to pick her handcuffs with, a bobby pin or sewing needle, but she saw nothing in the living room that would serve. Next, her keen green eyes scanned for a gun or any type of weapon. Though she had no intention of harming Kate, she would need protection if she was going to escape. Or if she was going to be caught in this apartment. The Winter Soldier couldn't be far. Being restrained like this was justified, but it reminded her of a time that sent shudders down her spine. Memories of being tortured in order to comply, vague details of who she was flitted in and out of her mind. 

             Giving up on trying to break free, she decided to do something she knew she wasn't allowed to do; already captured by Captain America, she could afford to make one more mistake now. It took everything inside of her to push out memories of pain. So much pain.

                She decided to link with the Winter Soldier, to see how close he was. Not only did her power serve as a hunting technique, but it also worked well as an evasion technique. She could hide from someone with ease as long as she knew exactly where they were at any moment. 

               Unfortunately, she could only link to one person at a time, and they would send more than the Soldier after her, if they even sent him. She was a high risk person on the loose, but she was not incredibly strong or capable of understanding the world and how it worked. Yet part of her only wanted to know where the Winter Soldier was; if they sent anyone from HYDRA, Kate could likely handle them, and if Kate ever let the Huntress off of her leash, she would help her, and whoever was left to trust. 

               It was just a matter of trusting herself, and getting them to trust her. She had waited years to escape. The agony HYDRA put her through did not serve them anymore - it pushed her out. 

                After a few minutes of trying to link with The Winter Soldier, she realized that there was a mental block preventing the bridge to form. Frustrated, she knew that she could not just sit around and wait to be killed, so she tried to piece together what she knew about him. Steve knew him as Bucky from his youth. They had been childhood friends, but that hardly helped the Huntress as that was long in the past.