"Listen to me bitch, if you make a single sound I will end you right here and now. Do I make myself clear?" The HYDRA agent that was currently hissing threats into her hair also had Lacey's right arm pinned behind her back and against his front. She whimpered and nodded her head, indicating that he had been crystal clear. All around her, the twenty or so other remaining agents were going into panic mode. This would be the second time in the past few weeks that people had tried to infiltrate the compound. The first time, Lacey had been so hopeful that she would finally be set free of this prison. But they had failed. She was thankful that they had taken out ten or so of the cruel, vile men that held her here, but their retreat had been the last nail in the coffin for her. She had accepted the fact that she would die here, at the hands of villains, not missed by anyone.

Once upon a time, Lacey had known what a normal life was like. She had had parents, a dog, friends. She had gone to college and even started working on her master's degree in creative writing. But then her parents had suddenly died in a car accident and left her with no other relatives. She had been devastated. Being an only child of two only children, she and her parents had been extremely close. After their deaths, Lacey couldn't handle living in Denver anymore. She had immediately sold the house she had grown up in, dropped out of school, bought out her own lease, and decided to move to Asheville, North Carolina on a whim. She had always heard that it was an eccentric city with a bit of a hipster vibe. Perfect for her. Unfortunately, she had been kidnapped and transported to this facility before she could even make it out of the city.

Lacey didn't know why she was here. She didn't even know that anything like HYDRA had existed until they had taken her. All she knew was that the last New Year she had celebrated was 2013. Who knew what year it could be now.

She was jostled back to the present when she felt the pain of a gun digging into her back. The agent was hastily leading her out of her cell and down a dark hallway. The only light came from the glow of the red alert bulbs that had begun flashing only minutes before. In a room up ahead, she could see the bright, sterile lights that hospitals often used. She was led into the doorway and roughly pushed inside, landing on her hands and knees.

"Stay here and keep your mouth shut!" With that, the man was gone and the door was locked.

"Are you hurt?" Caught off guard, Lacey simultaneously whipped around and backed herself up against the nearest wall. Sitting against the opposite walls were two men around fifty or sixty years old, badly beaten and near starving.

She couldn't bring herself to actually speak from being frightened so badly, so she just shook her head instead.

"Listen, dear," said the man on the right, "Imhave to say this quick before we all die here. We need you to know that your dad never meant for this to happen. If Jim would've known the kinds of things we were really working on...If any of us had known-"

At that moment, one of the HYDRA men in charge came bursting through the door, followed by four or five guards. "Shut up, Henderson! I am so tired of hearing you two old men run your mouths. I hope you've enjoyed your stay here but neither of you are longer of service to us." With that, he pulled out his holstered hand gun and fired two shots. When Lacey looked up, she could see both older gentlemen slumped over dead, a bullet in each of their foreheads.

"What did you do?!" By now, she was in hysterics. Tears were pouring down her face, her body was shaking uncontrollably, and her mind was going a mile a minute. What had that man meant about her father? And what was he talking about concerning his work? Her dad had been a curator at a history museum. This was so confusing.

"And you!" shouted the man. "If I have to hear you crying or smart-mouthing one more time, I'm going to lose my shit. You have been a thorn in my side from day one. Pierce should've never given the orders to have you brought here. I told him after the first month that you knew nothing valuable. But did he believe me? No. Thought your dad had let you in on things. I knew we took that cowardly son of a bitch out before he could squeal."

This was all too much for Lacey. What was everyone talking about?! She grabbed fistfuls of her hair and pulled, trying to stop the storm of thoughts that were invading her mind. Out of everything they had subjected her to in the time she had been here, this was affecting her the worst. The beatings, interrogations, meal withholdings, sexual harassment. Apparently what it really took for Lacey Hannigan to lose her mind was to make her question her entire life. By now, she was fully sobbing, her entire body violently wracking. The callous way the man had killed the other two, it was horrifying. And she knew she would be next.

The man, Jamison, as she had always heard him called, lifted his gun and pointed it straight at her. "You know what," he began, looking at the guards. "Let's have some fun before we go help the others. We're not really in a hurry, SHIELD always sends the weaklings anyways. Prep the chair, we're going to wipe this little girl and then I'm going to watch as her mind becomes clouded over with confusion before I shoot her. I don't want to see sadness in her eyes when she dies. I want to see fear. Pure fear." He and the other men shared a laugh before grabbing her roughly by the hair and throwing her into the scariest looking chair she had ever seen. Before she could even think about trying to escape, two sets of metal clamps came down around her arms and something was shoved into her mouth.

"Wipe her," Jamison said with a sadistic smirk.

One of the other men came forward and began typing on the computer closest to her head. Before he could do much, however, a loud thud sounded against the wall right before the door was flung open. Standing in the doorway, breathing heavily, was a man with shoulder-length brown hair, dressed fully in black with weapons of all shapes and sizes strapped to his person. What caught her more off guard, however, was the metal arm he had on his left side. It made him look even more intimidating than he already did. Was he here to save her?

"Winter Soldier," Jamison looked disbelievingly. "You have returned to us."

The small flicker of relief Lacey had started to feel instantly died out. He wasn't on her side, after all. She involuntarily let out a watery hiccough and the man looked over at her. His intense gaze was unnerving, but for just a moment, it softened.

"I have," he said, still looking straight at Lacey. "I'm here for a new mission." His monotone and expressionless face were scary to witness. It was almost as if he was a robot, even without the cybernetic arm.

"Well, I take it you got rid of the SHIELD infestation we had a few moments ago," Jamison questioned. At the soldier's nod, he turned back around to the man at the computer. "Good. Ok, no more wasting time. Wipe her, now."

Within the span of a few seconds, many things happened at once. Two metal panels came down beside Lacey's head, electricity began sparking through them, three gun shots rang out, and a scuffling began. Because of the angle her head was positioned, Lacey wasn't able to see anything that was going on. She heard another shot and the distinct sound of gurgling. A figure appeared above her, but with tears clouding her vision, she couldn't be sure who it was. They walked over to the computer and began pressing commands.

This was it. This was Lacey's time to die.

She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the pain. But it never came. Instead, the electricity in the panels turned off and her arms were released. She opened her eyes frantically to see the soldier reaching for her face. She tried to squirm away, even more afraid of what he could do to her than she was of the other men. The man held up his hands in mock surrender, however.

"Hey, it's ok," he said softly. There was emotion in this statement. "I'm here to help you, I promise. I'm not going to hurt you, sweetheart. I would never hurt you." He seemed to say this last statement with emphasized force. Lacey didn't know what to believe, but she didn't see any other choice but to trust him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the bodies of Jamison and the other men laying haphazardly on the floor. She slowly unfolded herself from her defensive position and allowed him to come near her again.

"Here, let's get this out, I know it sucks," he pointed to the guard in her mouth. The man grabbed it and threw it somewhere behind his back. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Lacey allowed him to help her out of the chair, but as soon as she stood, her knees buckled in weakness. He was fast, however, and caught her before she could slump down. Without another thought, the soldier picked her up bridal style and carried her out the doors of the compound that had been her prison for far too long. She thought she heard other voices join them, but Lacey was too drained to care. She somehow knew that she wouldn't come into any danger as long as she was in the care of this man with the metal appendage. Her last thought before she slipped unconscious was that if this was all a dream, she would beg the guards for death as soon as she woke up in the morning.