Steve can't help but cringe a bit as Bucky thrusts a switchblade into the thigh of Vetrov, who is strapped to a chair by Natasha's own work. The man gasps, his eyes widening, but he keeps the scream locked up in his throat. This doesn't faze The Winter Soldier in the slightest; Hydra trains its minions this way, to endure agony. Bucky had been put to the same test; not so much with stabbing as with electrical shock.
"Now, the interesting thing about this knife," the soldier starts, gripping the handle in his bionic hand and pushing it deeper into Vetrov's leg. The doctor whimpers ever so slightly, growing red in the face, sweating and shaking.
"Bucky—" Steve starts calmly.
"Is that I can start removing fingers if you refuse to cooperate," the soldier finishes calmly. He pulls the knife out of Vetrov's leg, and the man relaxes only slightly. Natasha is glaring at the doctor with her arms crossed, seemingly unmoved by Bucky's cruelty. Steve can't help but feel unnerved. Deep down, he doesn't like how easy it seems for James to be so violent. Vetrov smiles. Bucky's fist speeds across his face, painting the hardwood with a splash of blood, followed by Vetrov's square-framed spectacles, which land with a surprisingly diaphanous clink. When Vetrov slowly turns back to face the soldier, his smile is stained red. He laughs.
"Even if you kill me, Winter Soldier, you won't be able to stop Hydra now…you should have finished that mission, or finished that bitch off. She is now a threat to you all."
Bucky calmly places Mikelle's switchblade on the coffee table, rolls up his sleeves. Steve turns away as Bucky begins to punch Vetrov to the brink of unconsciousness. Natasha sighs.
"If you put him out, it'll take longer to find her," she explains. Bucky pauses, knowing full well that this is the case, yet his chest heaves with an anger that is nearly blinding.
"Listen," Natasha starts, stepping beside Bucky and resting both palms on her knees, leaning down towards Vetrov's face. He faces her with a grin.
"The Black Widow," he says in Russian. Bucky crosses his arms, catching a quick glimpse of the blood on his knuckles.
"It would pain you a lot less if you just told us where she is," Natasha explains, responding in Russian. Only she, Bucky, and Vetrov understand. Steve leans against the wall to watch.
"You don't have a clue as to what you're getting yourself into," Vetrov snarls, addressing them all in English.
"Hydra will resurface with more power than S.H.I.E.L.D. could ever have gained. So thank you, Winter Soldier, for delivering Hass back to her creator. She would not have been found if you had refrained from hospitalizing her. Thank you—"
The chair falls back; the force of Bucky's fist hitting Vetrov in the face causes him to fall in one fell swoop. He coughs and sputters, his nose surely broken. Bucky grabs the switchblade off the table and swings it open again after cracking his knuckles in a nonchalant—yet no less menacing—manner.
"I don't have time for this," he says darkly, straddling Vetrov.
"You have five seconds to tell me where she is or I will blind you," Bucky informs calmly. One, two…Natasha grabs Steve's arm, thwarting him from approaching. The pair are standing behind the soldier, unable to see how near Vetrov's eye Bucky holds the blade. A swift movement of Bucky's hand paints a crimson cut across Vetrov's cheek. The doctor grumbles painfully, but quietly.
"Three, two—"
Vetrov shouts out a location and a name, gasps for air in fearful drags. Bucky throws the blade aside.
"Thank you, doctor Vetrov," he says. He takes both Natasha and Steve by surprise. And then his fists are flying frantically with every punch he throws across Vetrov's face. Steve finally approaches him, Natasha turning her head and releasing the captain's arm.
"Bucky…Bucky," he says, placing his hand on the soldier's arm. He finally stops and Steve can barely recognize Vetrov's face as he lies there unconscious, bleeding.
"Help me get rid of him."
When Mikelle awakens again, she has no idea where she is, but the feeling as if someone were hammering an ice pick between her eyes returns. She need not ask to know her head has been messed with. The room appears to be some sort of padded cell, and a one-way mirror is facing her where she's sitting propped up against a wall. Mina's voice meets her ears.
"Good morning, Miss Hass."
Mikelle stands slowly, finally finding herself stable upon her own two feet.
"…What the hell do you want?!" Her own voice resounds throughout the massive space.
"Your compliance, Mikelle. We have deactivated your control of the telekinesis and modified the chip in your brain in connection with my own. This gives me the capacity to…guide your use of it, at least until you understand whose side you're really on. Here, we will test your strength before you begin your very first mission."
"…I'm not going to help you do jack shit," Mikelle spits fearlessly up at the mirror where she cannot see the scientists watching her. There is a moment of silence before an excruciating shock zips down her spine, bringing Mikelle to her knees. She curls up into a ball on the floor and it stops.
"We can do this all day, Hass. It is time for your full cooperation. Don't think I need to be able to see you in order to control you…I can see everything you see. Our minds are connected now. You are not in control."
Mina's voice is like poison as Mikelle wipes her eyes, which had begun to tear up in the moment of agony. There is a mechanical noise overhead and Mikelle gazes above her to find what appears to be a machine gun of massive proportions slowly descending to face her head on. She swallows hard, but decides that she would rather die than kill James. For a moment she ponders the red star on the back of his neck, the star on the doctor's neck, and wonders how he hadn't known about S.T.A.A.R.. She stands to her full height and closes her eyes, preparing for her final breath. And as she stands there, she begins to weep helplessly, the tears filling her closed eyes and leaking out with difficulty. She holds her voice deep down, doesn't make a sound.
"Focus," Mina demands. Mikelle opens her eyes. She would rather see the bullet coming. Five rounds later, her heart jumps and pauses, and without voluntarily moving at all, Mikelle finds both of her hands lifted, palms facing the machine gun; all of the bullets lie not far from her near the wall, as if they had been smashed or melted down. She knows then that she has done this. A second weapon is lowered into her holding cell, and this time Mikelle only stares with widened eyes, watching her hands swat, her wrists flick against her own volition, sending bullets flying back each time they shoot at her. She begins to wonder how any of this is physically possible, considering the speed at which the weapons are firing. And then her hands drop and only her mind moves as the bullets go flying away from her. A flame thrower descends next and Mikelle's heart jumps in honest fear as she feels the heat against her skin, but with her hands in place defensively, the telekinesis keeps it from touching her. She is in awe, but in fear simultaneously. She's hardly doing any of this by herself. And her heart sinks when she finally realizes that killing James is not her choice to make.
Mina and her minions don't allow Mikelle to leave the chamber until she is so exhausted from standing that she sits on the cold ground sweating profusely. She finds it unbearable to be chained to the floor by both hands upon what appears to be a SWAT team coming in to surround her. She had tried to access the mental movement again, but found it to be ineffective in her own attempts. Mina's control was impregnable. Mikelle is allowed to eat and drink, and even shower afterwards, but while being watched the entire time. She begins to feel a sense of helplessness. She's no longer in control. She knows that by now, James is trying to find her, and she has no way of telling him to stay away. She closes her eyes to cry again, and after a few more seconds of soaking under the water, she hears a voice she thought she'd never hear again.
"Out," he says.
Mikelle hastily wipes her eyes and looks to the left into the eyes of Elias Goretti, the last man she had loved before Bucky. He grins up at her from where he's standing, with deep brown eyes and the same thick dark hair and long eyebrows she remembers spending forever tracing with her thumbs as she'd laid on his sturdy chest at night. She thinks for a moment that she's dreaming, but as the water shuts off and he wraps the towel around her, pulling her down out of the shower, Mikelle finally realizes that he is no apparition.
"When they said they found you, I just couldn't believe it," he says casually, as if he hadn't lied to her and betrayed her trust. Mikelle pulls away, stepping back until she's against the wall. Elias grins, crossing his arms and staring down at the space she'd created between them. Elias had been her fiancé, someone she once trusted with her own life. After he proposed, he'd been trying to convince Mikelle to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and disappear with him. She could never figure out exactly what he'd meant or what he'd wanted, but standing in the facility now, she plainly sees that she had been his mission. He was loyal to Hydra and had been recruited to sway her back to the wrong side. She nearly vomits, remembering all of the moments they'd shared, the way that his voice alone used to make her heart beat rapidly. He makes her heart beat rapidly now because she despises him.
"Elias…" her voice is shaky and unsure.
"I put…a bullet in your chest," Mikelle breathes, pulling the towel tighter around herself. Elias simply laughs.
"Yeah, I got over that," he says nonchalantly, "You didn't even have the guts to finish me off. No, you just walked away, thinking I would bleed out…that you could just leave me there to die." He lifts his head and she meets his eyes. She had cried bitterly, unable to make damn sure she'd finished him. He had shot one of her good friends, an agent at S.H.I.E.L.D. during the turmoil, when everyone realized they had been played. Mikelle refused to join Elias, so he killed an agent she had been friends with, completed many missions beside, for years. It hurt to see Elias so evil, and she had sincerely wanted to avenge her friend's death. Mikelle was sure she'd shot him fatally, but the rate at which S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters was blowing to bits, she couldn't wait around to make sure. She needed to get out alive. She didn't even get the chance to recover her friend's body.
"…You son of a bitch," she snarls.
"You're still something else, Mikelle; feisty, defiant, trying to come off as brave and strong when really you're scared shitless. Don't give me that, 'Oh, you son of a bitch,' nonsense. I knew this day would come," he says, approaching her, his dark eyes suddenly filling with light.
"And even after all of it, I still love y—"
Mikelle extends her leg and manages to kick Elias in the chest. He had come too close. He falls back unsteadily a moment, before heaving a sigh and coming straight at her.
"I'm not afraid to hurt you," he says as she slides down the wall, shaking. Elias grabs her and pulls her up violently by the arm.
"And baby, you better get used to it here. Because you and I, we're going to be partners," Elias prattles cheerfully, Mikelle weeping silently as he practically drags her to another room. She tries again to tap into the telekinesis, and it fails her. Mikelle manages to finally yank her wrist free and go invisible right before Elias has the chance to turn his head. She only makes it about four or five feet at a run before he lunges and topples her to the floor. She's almost certain one of her ribs has cracked as Elias yanks her up by the hair and brings Mikelle to stand. She gives up the attempt to run for it, knowing full well he's still too strong for her.
"You think I forgot that you can do that?" he asks in disbelief.
"Don't be fucking stupid," he shouts, frightening her for a moment. Elias swings open the door to another room, where there's a bed, a toilet, and windows that are so high up, Mikelle can't even reach them by standing on the bed. She cries audibly as Elias throws her up against the wall and slams the door. There is a knock as she cowers on the bed, in the corner. Elias rolls his eyes impatiently before opening it. Two guards attempt to enter and he presses his hands against their shoulders.
"Guys, it's fine. This is my wife. We have history—"
"I was never your fucking wife," she spits, wiping her eyes.
"I'll be fine. She's not going anywhere. Can I please have a moment? I've been asking Mina since she was found."
Slowly, but surely, the guards back off and Elias shuts the door again. Mikelle grasps the thin blanket there and pulls it around herself. Elias laughs.
"You dyed your hair," he says, sitting on the cot. Mikelle pulls away from Elias as far as she can. He reaches out and pulls the blanket from her grasp in one swift motion. She closes her eyes tightly a moment. He's still as strong as she remembers him being. His strength used to arouse her. They used to spar together, and he was the one agent she couldn't subdue; he moved too fast for her. She doesn't open her eyes when she feels Elias grip her leg.
"We could have been together," he says, the tone of his voice much softer. Mikelle pulls her leg out of his grasp and Elias sighs.
"I haven't loved anyone since you, Kelly, you know that—"
"Shut up!" she barks. She feels her face in both his hands and finally looks.
"They were saying stuff about you—you and that Winter Soldier…I knew about him before you ever even met him," Elias declares. He's holding her face just a little bit too tightly. His eyebrows clench angrily.
"Is it true, Kelly? Is it fucking true?" he asks. She doesn't answer, and instead struggles beneath his grasp. He's still so handsome, but it doesn't alleviate Mikelle's nervousness. He doesn't unhand her face, so she spits at him. Finally, Elias pins her down roughly, something he'd done a myriad of times in the past, but not with the intent of hurting her.
"You let that old piece of shit touch you?" Elias asks quietly, his voice the calm before the storm she feels coming. Elias's coffee eyes travel to her navel, where he can see everything, the towel having slipped off. She struggles and knees Elias in the stomach. He backs off a moment, only to rip his belt free from the loops on his jeans. She backs up against the wall, sitting up with tears in her eyes, aware that there is absolutely nothing she can do to stop the violent act from occurring.
"Mina wants you to have it, did you know that? They're going to make that baby a whole new project, make it invincible," Elias explains, and as he's pulling his pants off, Mikelle closes her eyes. She doesn't want to see him, doesn't want to remember him being inside of her and enjoying it. Nonetheless, she screams when Elias mounts her. She screams for help, but nobody opens the door. Nobody stops him, and Elias doesn't stop. She pulls at her hair, wishing it were Bucky breathing hotly against her neck, fucking her to a point of soreness. There reaches a point during the assault where she merely stares blankly up into Elias's face, in disbelief that this monster was once the man she had loved. Elias's face contorts into a strange anguish as he grunts satisfactorily.
"I hope it fucking dies," he spits, his hatred tangible as he propels himself faster between Mikelle's thighs. She wasn't going to plead with him and give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he had hurt her, how much he had hurt her by lying, and how much he's hurting her at the present moment. When Elias finishes, he catches his breath against Mikelle's face, turns it left and right in his hands as if trying to see whether anything has changed since he last saw her. She remains unresponsive to his touch when he kisses her. Shortly, he gives up the task, knowing that she could never love him again.
"You're going to kill him, Kelly. And when you do, I will be there watching. And when you're over him, we will start over," he promises, as if he hasn't just savagely defiled her. Somewhere deep down, she knows that he will pay for this.
During the night, Mikelle still hasn't moved from where she'd been lying after Elias raped her. She had put on the clothing available to her and simply laid there, staring into space, broken. She wants only to put an end to all of this. There is nothing in the room she can conceive of utilizing to take her own life. She ponders jumping off the bed and slamming her head into the sink to crack her skull, but the certainty of death is uncertain; given all their technology, she doesn't count on it being an irreversible option. She starts to believe that it is really the end, that she had been played her whole life. Somehow in her discomfort, the woman falls asleep. The sound of an alarm causes Mikelle to sit up straight, the noise drowning her ears replacing her sense of calmness with anxiety. The door flies open and the two guards who had done nothing to stop Elias from brutalizing her direct Mikelle out of the room. She allows them to grab an elbow each, only wondering whether her safety depends on leaving the facility. One of the guards says something in code into a walkie-talkie. When he says "over" for the third time, she gets the feeling that something has gone wrong. The two guards spare each other unsure glances before something makes noise behind them. She watches the guard to the left fall to his knees before keeling over unconscious, and then the guard on the right releases her elbow, turning to shoot at someone who appears to be coming from the ceiling. The weapon is kicked out of his hand and Mikelle doesn't bother to see who's doing the kicking before hurrying for the gun on the guard who had already been incapacitated. She turns to point the weapon and finds herself face to face with Natasha, the second guard lying coldcocked on the floor.
"We need to run, now," she says clearly and loudly over the sounding alarm, and Mikelle doesn't waste any time asking questions or hesitating before following after Natasha.
"They were keeping you in the basement. We need to get up ten flights of stairs to make it to an exit," Natasha informs as they start through a door. Mikelle has not put down the gun she'd managed to take off the guard.
"Steve set up explosives that are going to blow in six—"
A door swings forward from what seems like nowhere, and Natasha flies back against Mikelle, the both of them tumbling down the flight they had just run up. Natasha is unconscious against the wall on the floor, and to Mikelle's dismay, Elias is standing at the landing, already pointing a gun at her. Mikelle's foot feels twisted and her back had taken a hit while tumbling, the gun having fallen down an extra flight and out of sight. For a moment, she feels paralyzed. She manages to stand slowly. Elias merely stands in place and smiles.
"You've still got it," he says pleasantly. Mikelle slowly ascends the staircase.
"I just can't let you leave…You're still so beautiful," he says. Mikelle wonders how she had failed to realize what a psychopath Elias really is. Just as he reaches for her hand, his gaze is torn up one flight of stairs, and he ducks before a star-spangled shield is able to make contact with his head. The round shield lies planted firmly in the wall behind Elias.
"That could have fucking killed me," he growls, rising to a standing position again.
"That was the plan," Mikelle retorts.
Elias is distracted in a fist fight with Steve as Mikelle hurries back down the stairs to wake Natasha. Steve manages to kick Elias through the door he had used to knock the women down the stairs. Natasha blinks a moment before standing up and they start up the stairs again, Steve following after them a flight down. She wonders whether he'd managed to get rid of Elias, but doesn't bother asking as she and Natasha rush up the stairs.
"Where's Bucky?" she pants once they make it to the tenth floor.
"He's taking care of that woman."
"Mina," Mikelle seethes. And suddenly, right in the lobby, Mikelle sends Natasha flying for the glass window with a wave of her hand. She feels the strange magnetic pull, throwing Steve right after. Knowing she is being controlled again, Mikelle fears for James's safety as glass shatters at her feet.
"Mikelle," Bucky calls, and she sees him running at her with wide eyes, guns in both his hands, in disbelief of what she'd just done to Steve and Natasha.
"James—I can't control it," she pleads. There is a sharp blow at Mikelle's back and she falls to her knees, Elias making his presence known again. Shots fire and he dives out of the way as Bucky shoots relentlessly at him, shattering the rest of the windows behind her. Mikelle gets down on her side, writhing in pain a moment.
"Come out, you fucking coward," James growls. The next shot fired hits him instead, ricocheting off his bionic arm. He turns to find on the floor several feet up, Mina with a bloodied nose and busted lip aiming at him. Mikelle screams as Elias forces her to her feet.
"You're going to kill him," Mina spits, wiping the line of blood from under her nose. Mikelle struggles in Elias's grasp.
"No!" She screams, kicking her feet, but his grip is just about as strong as Bucky's had been when she'd tried to escape him for the first time. Elias points a cold gun to her temple.
"If you don't, we're just going to have to take both of you out," he says.
"The Winter Soldier has been terminated as a project. We must ensure the capacity of the next one, and that is you, Miss Hass," Mina informs. Elias shouts painfully behind Mikelle and she turns to find Steve reclaiming his shield, Elias dragging himself away. James aims to shoot Mina again from where she's situated above them, and she disappears. Mikelle then loses control of her hands again and throws Steve back through the broken glass windows. She turns on James, whose body slowly lifts up off the ground, the guns knocking from his hands and flying far away on either side of him. Elias is trying to pick himself up off the wall. Bucky stares down at Mikelle with nothing but love in his eyes, and all she can do is cry as she watches his body float up above her, his arms spreading as if in preparation to be crucified.
"Don't make me do this!" she screams, searching for Mina, but the coward has disappeared from sight.
"It's okay," Bucky breathes, the weakest smile spreading his lips. Mikelle protests to the nth degree and watches in horror as Bucky's arms pull away from his body forcefully, in a way that looks like he's simply stretching. His eyes close and a tear rolls down his cheek, his face reddening as his head slowly tilts back. Mina would have Mikelle tear him apart. Just when Bucky begins to scream, Mikelle feels something harsh hit the back of her right leg. She screams, registering the sound of a gun being fired a second time, sending her crippling to the floor. James groans, able to stare down at the sight below him on the floor.
"Don't, Steve!" he shouts in an agonized manner that brings tears to Mikelle's eyes, and she knows who is standing behind her, pointing a gun at her back. Elias standing against the wall shoots at Steve, who blocks it with his shield.
"Stop me!" Mikelle cries, unable to put her hands down and remove the force attempting to rend her lover's body to bits. James lets out another agonized cry as he feels his metal limb trying to disarticulate from the rest of his body.
"Steve, don't!" He screams again, and Mikelle already knows what the captain is preparing to do to her. She cries, staring up at Bucky in pain, pleading to be released from the control over her. Elias laughs at the side, decidedly convinced that Steve will no longer be of any service after the gun and shield are ripped from his hands, as Mikelle turns her head swiftly for a moment and he goes flying back again.
"Kelly, you've still got it," Elias beams, clapping before wiping the blood from his nose.
"But I must say, you don't get as wet as I remember."
She knows he's only doing this to torment James even further.
"You son of a bitch," Bucky growls through gritted teeth, the force on his limbs letting up only enough to allow Elias to continue.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kelly's fiancé, the one she probably told you she killed. It's too bad you won't get to stick around to meet your kid. But don't worry, I'll take good care of him." Elias stands behind Mikelle to watch and James screams as the energy intensifies on his arms and legs, tearing his gaze out of view as his head contorts back against the ceiling. Screaming, fearing what she's about to witness, not wanting to see, yet watching, Mikelle's hands disappear before her very eyes; fear is what triggers her invisibility. James suddenly crashes to the floor as Mikelle kneels there, invisible to even her own eyes. She'd felt unable to control the fear of watching James die before her eyes. It dawns on her then that Mina can no longer see what Mikelle sees, and as James stands up, his eyes sweeping the ground, she knows not even he can see her. There is a pain at the back of her head as Elias's foot makes contact with her skull. Mikelle is visible again when she falls out cold on the floor, Elias sinking his boot into her abdomen, screaming obscenities.
"You never deserved her," he snarls, meaning each word for James.
Elias drops to his knees and reaches for a shard of broken glass on the floor. He stabs Mikelle in the abdomen. It's too late when James pounces on him, gathering all the strength he can in the bionic limb, which feels as if it might suddenly drop from his body, and punches Elias so hard in the chest, that there is a cracking noise and he coughs up blood before crashing to the floor. Steve is limping slightly when he comes back through the door, and the earth beneath Bucky's knees quakes as he bloodies Elias's face with both fists. Fire bursts through the second floor, where Mina had been standing moments prior.
"Bucky, we've got to get out of here!" Steve informs, picking Mikelle up off the ground. She's bleeding profusely, her pants and shirt beginning to saturate with the red fluid. Elias is unconscious when Bucky squeezes his hands around the man's throat, screaming, blind with fury.
"Take her!" he shouts at Steve, not removing his eyes from Elias until his face pales with death.
"I'm not leaving you—let's go!" Steve gazes down at Mikelle in his arms, unsure whether she will make it. Bucky looks up at the captain pleadingly.
"Take her," he says firmly, still squeezing Elias's throat. He doesn't want to leave until he cannot feel the man's pulse. Another explosion ensues and the ceiling begins to rain down on them. Steve takes a step back.
"Bucky!"
At last, the soldier stands and is nearly flattened by the debris that comes tumbling down. They run out of harm's way in just enough time to miss the final blast that brings the building down into a sinkhole.