She stiffened up completely. She couldn't move, or hardly even breathe, and she maintained a distance from him. From Set. Bucky.
She didn't know what to call him anymore.

She watched with eyes that burned in anticipation, as the other engineers and medics helped up their knocked colleague. Guns were quick to be pointed, and Director Pierce had seemingly walked n just in time. She had heard the familiar voice of Presley as he warned that Set was 'unstable' and 'erratic', but Pierce had entered anyway, simply strode past Presley and straight into the facility. Just after Set had begun to let his anxiety loose, as his memories continued to assault him, and ended up beating down one of the engineers. All he had to do was swing his metal arm and the poor man was sent flying into the bank-disguised walls of one of the many Hydra bases. Set wasn't fazed though, he stared straight ahead. He allowed himself one glance, that was all. One glance at Inna, who had helped calm him previously. It worked somewhat now, looking at her, although without her words of comfort, he still felt the pain and the confusion of decades of a life gone by. The memories throttled his brain around and he couldn't help the beads of sweat that ran down his skin. Inna's eyes were on him at all times, until she heard the gruff and abrupt voice of Pierce demand what he needed to know.
"Mission report."

Set didn't answer. Inna watched as he stared ahead, disobeying his orders. The beat of her heart grew more rapid, as she watched in anticipation. Not obeying would not endanger his life, but possibly the little grip on reality he was coping with at that very moment. They would surely wipe him.
"Mission report, now," Pierce let out once more, louder, forceful. He was face to face with Set, who did not share any eye contact at all with his superior.

And then, in an instant, so quickly Inna could hardly tell what was happening, the back of Pierce's open hand swooped up to meet Set in the cheek, and a loud, crisp crack could be heard as skin met skin, and Pierce backhanded Set viciously. Inna's gasp, though deep, was well concealed, as she turned away slightly, and could not bear witness the scene unfolding before her.
Yet, as he brought his gaze back up and sat straight once more, a frown took on Set's features.
"The man on the bridge," he murmured, as if he were newly remembering.
Inna's heart could almost stop all at once.
If he revealed that he remembered, he would surely be wiped. And while it was nothing new, the process of clearing his memories from him, these were new memories. These were memories of him before he was the Winter Soldier, before he was anyone's Asset. These were memories Inna could not find in the decades they had on hand of medical logs and memory-wipe post examinations.
Inna felt he at least deserved to make sense of them before they were pulled from his mind once again.

"Who was he?" Set asked, and finally, let his eyes meet Pierce's. Inna knew very well who it was Set had faced, but didn't dare say a word, as she watched the exchange between Pierce and Set.
"You met him earlier this week on another assignment," Pierce explained, and while it was not a lie, both Inna and Set could tell it was not the whole truth. Set knew there had to be something more there. He had given him a name, called out 'Bucky.' Set's mind had reacted. It was different to when Inna had called him Set. When the man had called him Bucky, it almost felt as if the name had been imbedded in his mind, and it terrified him. It wasn't foreign, but muffled, hidden beneath a layer of pure white noise, but it was there, somewhere in the depths of his mind. When Inna had called him Set, he thought nothing of it, other than a peculiar contentment with being given a name for the first time in 70 years.

Set knew there had to be something more there, and so, in a moment that surprised Inna and all those in the room, he challenged what he was being told.
"I knew him."

At this, Pierce took a seat, and Set watched with wide, lost eyes, eyes that made Inna's heart ache.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind," Pierce started, and Inna felt as though she was going to be sick. To hear such words at this very moment in time seemed so out of place, she couldn't handle it. She watched as Set's face turned from a lost confusion to a frown, just as confused as before, but tense. Almost…compliant…?

"You shaped the century. And we need you to do it again, one more time."
Inna disguised her abrupt turn away from the scene as an effort to sort out the medical supplies on the tray behind her, as she felt the rising anger fill her cheeks with blood, and she was sure they were a blooming red. 'One more time,' Pierce had said. How many times must Set have heard that? 70 years and it was never 'One more time'. They would never be finished using him. Inna had never been so bothered with the use of human life, with the abuse of an individual, and hadn't flinched or questioned the stories her father had told her about the man she shared the room with in that moment. The lost, confused man that was being talked at from different voices, all a blur and a fuzzy mess within his mind. It wasn't until she was face to face with him that she started to question her ability to remain cold toward people, as Hydra required their people to be.
"Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're going to give it a push," Inna could hear Pierce continue behind her, and she turned her head to hear him clearer, over her shoulder. Her fingers toyed with a bandage as she listened closely.
"But if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and Hydra can't give the world the freedom it deserves" Pierce concluded, disguising Hydra's overall ill intentions as a work of good among humankind. For the years and years Inna had known Hydra, and been a part of it, she astonishingly felt furious when she heard the words leave Pierce's lips. The room was filled with a silence that clutched at Inna's heart, gripped it and squeezed it harshly. And then, cutting through the silence-

"But I knew him," Set muttered, as he pursed his lips and looked to the side. Inna could not see what was happening, and was only coaxed into looking back at Set when she heard Pierce stand up, and then say,
"Prep him."
Following those words, Set's eyes reached Inna's. She watched silently, her eyes conveying her sorrow, mirroring Set's. They both knew what was about to come, and Inna's eyes delivered the sorry she could not speak aloud. Set's eyes were somewhat sorry as well, not as sorry, though, as they were sad, and afraid.
"He's been out of cryo too long," Inna heard a voice say. Her head couldn't make sense or distinguish any singular voice, and everything seemed to be swaying. Her head hurt, as well as her chest. She hadn't known emotions to do such a thing to a person, yet here she was, in pain due to the trembling grief she felt for Set.
"Then wipe him. Start over," Pierce instructed, and Inna, closed her eyes, if only for a few seconds, and let out the breath she had been holding, in pure defeat. This did not go unnoticed. Set watched as her grip on the metal table behind her tightened, her knuckles now white, and she let out a shaky breath. No one was watching her, all eyes in the room were at him. So he let himself look to her. He figured it would not be considered strange, after all, she was his recurring medic.
The medics got to work doing as they were told, pushing him back with force into the chair, and offering up a mouthguard, something to bite into for the pain he was about to go through.
Inna felt tears well up in her eyes as it happened, and shared one last brief moment of eye contact with him. A press of a few buttons and he was sealed in tight, unable to move. His arms were trapped and his chest heaved deeply in and out, his lungs and heart unable to supress his fears.

She's strange, he thought to himself, as he panicked. So many thoughts clawed at him, as if he were trying to preserve and process them all before they were taken from him. Among the memories he tried to cling to so desperately as to make more sense of them and have more time with them, he remembered how only seconds ago he was looking at tears within Inna's eyes. She's strange, he thought, as he heard the headpiece slide into place, getting closer and closer to pain. She was crying, he noted. Why was she crying for him? He could only come to one conclusion. She really was the only person he had known in 70 years that truly cared about him.

Pain.

Blinding pain, which numbed him of everything, yet at the same time felt so heavy, and flooded every inch of his being. It was as if a steel rod was being driven through his head over and over. As if an electric pulse was shot rapidly and continuously through every nerve he owned.

His screams filled the room. They filled her ears.

And inside, Inna screamed along with him.