Chapter Nineteen: Gone Girl

"I'm human, I can't protect myself."

-Katherine Pierce

"But why can't I see them?" Steve argued to Bruce, once he was standing outside of the hospital wing at the helicarrier. "Or can't I at least see Bucky? I mean if the experiment was successful-"

"Steve," Bruce interrupted. "I told you, you need to be patient. They just got their memories last night, they are confused, they are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together-"

"I understand that," Steve said exasperated. "But I'm his friend, Bucky doesn't know anyone here, he's going to want to talk to me."

Bruce looked tired, as a doctor he knew all too well the effects of PTSD, he wouldn't be surprised if Siren and the Winter Soldier weren't "well" for a long time. "Steve he needs time to heal, I know you want to see him, but give him time please. Right now it's not the right time."

Steve didn't say anything for a moment, but Bruce could see Steve's lip quivering with irritation. "Fine."

"How are you feeling?" Bruce asked as he entered Bucky's room. He didn't mention the way that Bucky's room was destroyed. "Do you-"

"Yes, I remember." Bucky interrupted. "Close the door."

Bruce did as he was told. He sat across from him. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything . . . Bucky?"

Bucky didn't respond.

Bruce sighed. "It wasn't your fault, Bucky everything that happened wasn't you fault, and you didn't have any control over it. You shouldn't blame yourself-"

"Shouldn't I?" he said through gritted teeth. "I killed those people with my own hands, I watched as they tortured Katherine, I almost killed her-"

"Again it wasn't you fault, with your memories back you are no longer under HYDRA's control, you can have the life you want." Bruce said. "You need to forgive yourself."

"Katherine, Katherine?"

Katherine raised her gaze and stared at Bruce looking confused. "What?"

"This is the third time that you have zoned out." Bruce said. He had been trying to find information about Katherine Pierce, he knew her name and what she had done while working for HYDRA, but he wanted to know a little bit more. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." She said, forcing herself to concentrate. "Is there anything else?"

"Were you. . ." he hesitated. "Always human?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Well there are other creatures out there mutants, science experiments, gods, aliens just trying to make sure."

"No," she said remembering the fangs. "I was a vampire." She remembered Elena shoving the cure down her throat. "And then I was cured and made into a super soldier."

"A vampire?" Tony wrinkled his nose. Bruce had just told the team and Fury about what Bucky and Katherine had told him. "She told you that she was a vampire? And you believed her? Are you sure that she got all her memories back?"

"Stark!" Steve snapped.

"What?" he shrugged as he turned at them. "You aren't telling me that you believe the vampire crap? Do you? Do you honestly think vampires exist, do you Rogers Mr. High Morality?"

Steve said sheepishly. "I meet one during World War II briefly a man named, Stefan I think? I couldn't be what was the word . . . compelled thanks to the super serum, nice guy though."

"Romanoff? Barton?"

The spies exchanged looks. "Europe."

"Banner?"

"India. Once a woman tried to drink my blood, ended up passing out."

"Fury-never mind." Tony crossed his arms over his chest. "So is she still a vampire?"

"No," Bruce said. "She told me that she was given a cure, she was tortured by HYDRA, memory wiped, and made into a super soldier. Her name is Katherine Pierce."

Katherine flinched as she curled herself into a small ball in her bed. She could hear people laughing and talking outside of her room, normal activity but to Katherine it felt like someone was whistling a high pitching voice in her ear. She tried to shake her head, to concentrate on anything else, but on what?

Katherine had nothing. She didn't have HYDRA. She didn't have Bucky. She was back to having no one.

Katherine tried closing her eyes, hoping that she would get some sleep. Katherine needed sleep. When she was Siren she hadn't really looked beyond the fact that she was a super soldier, but now that she was back to her old self, she felt that it wasn't a good thing.

She needed to learn how to control her strength, to realize that she was stronger than the average human. Bruce had assured her that it was a good thing, that she could still live a normal life.

But Katherine didn't want a normal life, she had never been normal she had been a doppelganger, a vampire, a human, a super soldier, and a spy and Katherine just wanted to be Katherine. Or Katerina. Though she wasn't sure what she was either one of them now. Or maybe she was Siren. The ruthless assassin with the many personalities.

She could still hears the screams echoing in her mind, the pleading. No matter how much she tried, she could still here their screams taunting her.

Leave me alone! She wanted to shout as she closed herself in the bathroom. She could feel her heartbeat rising, her breath quickening, it was like someone kept stabbing her in the stomach. Her brown eyes fell upon the razor in the bathroom, she needed to end this. She wanted to end this.

Katherine pressed the razor on top of her wrist, drawing blood and waiting for peace.

-End of Chapter Nineteen-