Please review! I would LOVE some feedback. It encouraged me to continue writing! I'm very pleased with the way this chapter came out So PLEASE let me know what you think! The song for this chapter is; Hymn For The Missing. by Red
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"This mutant girl, she could be my most promising test subject. Her eyes are simply astonishing. And I hope to amplify her ability to manipulate ones vision, should she prove to withstand my testings she could be more useful to Hydra than that 'Winter Soldier' project."
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A disoriented, blind and scared Nicolette was shoved into the cell. Unable to see anything, stumbling around, trying to make sense of the darkness, her hands out in front of her.
"James," She whimpered "James, where are you? James, help me, please. I-I can't see!"
Normally, James would be waiting to catch her, and help her to the cot and drag his fingers over her curves and dips and every scar that she's acquired over the last three months.
They both knew that she was tortured the most, that doctor, Dr. Menkalm, seemed to have an odd fascination with her glowing blue eyes. Poking and prodding her. All his tests and experiments leading up to this day, leaving Nicolette blinded temporarily, and stumbling around in search of her only safe haven. But after calling out to him, and reaching blindly, she knew that he was no longer there
With a whimper, Nicolette pulled herself blindly onto the cot and curled into the fetal position, tears soaking the white bandages over her eyes.
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"It appears that after approximately one month, our test subjects seem to have resigned themselves to not seeing the other. Subject 1 has proved to act irrationally and sporadically. While Subject 2 seems to simply... accept it. Not longer fighting us or hurting itself. The only act of resistance is that it seems Subject 2 is neglecting its food, we had to begin feeding the Subject using a Nasogastric Tube just too keep he-" The German scientist paused, clearing her throat before continuing her analysis report "-It. Just to keep it alive and conscious."
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"Where's Nicolette?! What have you bastards done with her?! Where is she?!" He whispered weakly, James hadn't stopped banging on the door and yelling for Nicolette since that day she didn't return to their cell. Obviously, Hydra had sent her to another cell, but why? What had he done? He hadn't fought any of the so-called doctors, so it wasn't that. If Nikki disobeyed, then they would have punished him, like last time. He hoped. So, he wondered, why were they keeping her from him?
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"But Subject 1, it seems has taken the new arrangement in a much more...violent manner."
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And after over a month of not seeing or hearing of her, he gave up. Figuring her to be dead. James mourned her. Crying, screaming, fighting, hurting himself more than Hydra already was. It wasn't until Hydra began to realize that he was trying to kill himself that they truly became concerned over their new experiment.
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"We cannot allow the subjects to continue in this manner. We need to either let them see each other again, or remove one indefinitely."
"You are absolutely sure about this? I don't want to have to stop this experiment if I don't have to."
"Yes sir."
"Very well, shove them in the cell again. And make sure I am not disturbed again today."
"Yes sir. Hail Hydra!"
"Hail Hydra."
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With a silent hiss, the heavy metal door slid open, but James didn't even blink, just some Hydra doctor's checking on their labrat again
"Alright, Subject one appears to be calm and benign at the moment, bring in Subject two." A rather high pitched voice for a man squeaked semi-quietly
James didn't even register the thud and squeaking sounds of a human body being dragged and dropped into the dirty cell floor, too lost in his fight to hide inside his mind. After all, His wife was gone, his best friend was gone, and he was just a stubborn source of out-dated information. He had nothing left.
About two hours after the guards left, James - who hadn't moved an inch - was pulled from is mind when he barely heard the sounds of a low, pained groan that sounded so very familiar
He turned his cold, shaking body slowly, with a sense of trepidation and fear settling in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't the first time he'd thought he'd heard her, but still, every time he had to make sure for himself
So, finally, he turned his sore and tired body, his empty, yet somehow still hopeful gaze fell upon a small, far too small to be healthy figure, with a snow white mane, too pale skin and most shocking was the barely open eyes; a glowing, vivid blue ringed with a thick band of black around the iris, and over the pupil the blue swirled inward, almost covering the pupil completely
But it was her. There was no doubt in his mind that that was his Nikki. James, as quickly as he could in his beaten body would allow, crawled to his catatonic wife lying in a crumpled heap on the grimy floor
She looked so different. So broken. Her eyes blank and starting into the void.
Her breathing shallow and labored, cheeks sunken and skin dull, robbed of the beautiful glow and she'd always had. Under the blood stained, flimsy surgery gown, James could see her ribs protruding from her skin grotesquely, accentuating how little food she'd had. Not that he was much better.
James didn't know what to do. Was this how Nikki felt when she found me like this? James thought to himself,
"Nikki...?" He whispered, his voice hoarse, looking for any reaction from her, but nothing. She didn't even blink.
James tentatively placed a hand on Nicolette's cheek, startled by how feverish it was, he then grabbed her hand, it was a striking contrast of her dangerously hot head, her limp hand felt like she had held it in ice water for a few hours, stiff and cold and numb, with long, intricate markings on them, like someone had decided to carve henna into her perfect hands, James followed the trail all the way to her bony shoulder, the skin puckered around the slices, like they were new, which didn't surprise James in the slightest, he wouldn't put it past Hydra to do something like that only for the sake of doing it.
"Nicole?" One of James' favorite things to do was call her Nicole, because out of all the nicknames Nicolette has had, Nicole was her least favorite. And when James found out...well, let's just say that She didn't talk to her boyfriend of sixteen months for about two weeks until he promised to stop calling her that
He gently pulled her to him, as James sat leaning against a wall, Nikki let a low, pained groan slip, making James smile bitter-sweetly as best he could with such dried and chapped lips
Flattening his shaking hand on her malnourished stomach, James waited to feel the inner-workings of her body move, He could feel her blood coursing through her body, could feel the expand of her lungs with every shallow breath
He gently placed his head to his wife's skeletal chest, ear pressed to the left side, listening for her heart beat, when he found it, it was light and thready, barely pumping the blood the way it should, concerning him, but it had been so long since he'd seen her, since he'd held her in his arms, though weak they were, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her body closer to his own, relishing in the feeling of her near him. It didn't matter to him that they were both emaciated and weak. To James, everything was perfect. In that moment -in that bubble- with his perfect, beautiful, stunning, flawless, alluring, gorgeous, ravishing, divine and exquisite wife, nothing else mattered. Not Hydra. Not their scars and pains. Not their malnourished state. Nothing. Nothing in the world but the two of them.
He slowly peppered her lulling head and neck with gentle, lethargic kisses. Silently celebrating when he felt her start to react to his ministrations, a slight movement of her fingers, a turn of the head, a pained grunt, until she finally woke up
"...J'ms?" Her voice was harsh and a rough sounding, like she had spent long hours screaming at the top of her lungs, but it was like music to him all the same. After thinking her dead for over a month, that sound was the most exquisite sound he'd ever heard
"Yeah babygirl, it's me." He whispered, tears pooling in his eyes as Nicolette came out of her incoherence
"James. Ev-everything hurts, James." She whimpered, itching to hold James as he was her, but her injuries didn't even allow her to bend her arms
She could feel James nodding his head, tucking it into her bruised neck, kissing it with the desperateness of a husband that hadn't seen his wife in ten years
"I know, I know babygirl. But it's okay, we'll be alright, I know it." James held her tighter, releasing her begrudgingly when he felt her flinch back in pain, though it hurt him to have to let her go, he hated the thought that he might've hurt her. But the low, keening whine that emitted from her mouth made him draw her closer, somehow knowing that that was what she wanted. What she needed.
"How can you know? Everything seems so dark. So lost." She cried, eyes dry.
James kissed her forehead, unable to stop himself from proving to himself that she was there. With him.
"Because. We have each other. And that's all that matters."
"I love you, James. So, so much."
"Me too, Nikki. I love you more than words could ever say."