"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Never throw out anyone."

-Audrey Hepburn

Pain tells a person that they are still alive; Ophelia was alone in that room for over an hour, feeling the lacerations upon her flesh burning. She was hungry and tired, and most of all suffering. All she could think of, the only thing that made the pain subside ever so slightly, was thoughts of Bucky. But thoughts of Bucky led to thoughts of what they might be doing to him. After all, Bucky was easier to regain control of, his mind did not link to anyone's like hers did.

She would always come back, she would always remember, no matter the pain it caused her.

Ophelia knew that these thoughts were driven by one thing, and one thing only; Bucky had been the only human being who saw her as exactly that, human. She hardly knew him, and he hardly knew her, and yet she was drawn to him in ways she couldn't explain. Her whole life she had lived in a cell, hardly able to see the sun, forced to do things that made her stomach twist and lie awake at night. The reason she felt her thoughts go towards Bucky was because he was the only light she had ever seen; while he didn't know it, he had lit a fire in her. She clung on to that even as every part of her body hurt, ached, burned. As the blood seeped from her stomach, as her flesh paled from the blood loss.

Over what Ophelia figured was an hour later, a female HYDRA agent came in, her black garb tight around her muscular body. Ophelia stared at her, wondering how the woman could simply move around her like she was not there. She hardly even looked at Ophelia strapped down on the stretcher. Just a shell of a human, Ophelia was nothing to any of these people.

The HYDRA agent poorly wrapped Ophelia's stomach, without applying anything to soothe the shredded flesh. She draped white gauze over the wound and it soaked through almost immediately. After she wrapped Ophelia up she moved her to the chair. Then she studied her in the chair for a brief second before leaving. No words were exchanged; Ophelia wasn't even worthy enough for that.

This time she was only alone for a few minutes. When they returned, they brought Bucky. His eyes were wide, slightly crazed. She had seen that look in his eyes once before. Ophelia strained to keep her eyes opened, but it was easier when she was looking at Bucky. But as Ophelia forced herself to look Bucky in the eyes, she studied his expression. There was something different in his expression, and it was something that was becoming far too familiar to her; he was gone. They kept taking him from her, and they wouldn't stop until he was a perfect soldier with no flaws; she was a weakness, a flaw, and they had brought Bucky here to break her for good. This was her last chance, she had to be smart about everything she did from this moment on if she ever wanted to survive.

"Do you know this woman?" The man asked; it was the same one who had tortured her, only now he wasn't wearing a face mask. She could tell from the velvet sound of his voice that he was sadistic; he liked what he had done to Ophelia. He had light brown hair that was pulled back, slicked.

"No," Bucky replied.

"Do you care about her?"

"Why would I?"

"Every time you do something wrong, we hurt her." The man glanced at Ophelia and grinned pleasantly, flashing his white teeth towards her.

Bucky pursed his lips; he was torn between caring about Ophelia, a stranger to him yet again, and between showing that he had no feeling left. "Why should I care?"

"Because she is your partner."

"I don't need a partner," he countered, his tone firm yet monotonous.

"You need her tracking abilities." The man folded his hands together in front of him. "Unfortunately, we cannot teach you what she has."

Bucky seemed slightly offended, but said nothing more. He lifted his metal arm and pointed at Ophelia. It was as if she were some piece of art on display, not actually there, not actually human. "Show me what you've done to her."

The man looked at Ophelia, grabbing the gauze wrapped around her and began to peel away at it. The fabric clung to her wounds, strands of the gauze sticking to her fresh lacerations. She winced at the pain as it seemed to enhance the ache as it lifted the loose flesh up. Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to give them that pleasure. Instead, her body began to shake, and continued even after the gauze was removed. It was amazing how much the human body- when slightly enhanced- could handle. The body could handle more than the mind, but sometimes the mind could become stronger than the body.

"That symbol..." Bucky blinked, confused for a moment.

"HYDRA," the man told Bucky.

Ophelia whimpered slightly; he had carved the HYDRA symbol into her stomach, marking her as theirs. She would always be theirs and he was making that clear to her, and the rest of the world were they to see her. "We take pride in what is ours, but sometimes that which is ours tries to escape. This woman is nothing more than a pawn in our game, understand that. She is not entirely valuable, but she is not replaceable either."

Ophelia wanted to spit at the man, but she lacked the energy even for that. She looked up longingly at Bucky, trying to create a bridge with him, even if that meant they would kill her right then. If she was so invaluable, why did they keep at this?

Focusing on the man in front of her, she tried to find that part of him that was Bucky. Creating the mental bridge took some strength out of her, and while she was wounded it caused her a small amount of agony as she strained to get inside his mind. But it was no use; she could not penetrate his mind. She gasped, the attempt to link with him failing, feeling weaker than she had before. The man realized what she was doing and grinned once again. Placing his hand on Bucky's shoulder, he nodded to the door. "Soldier, you're dismissed."

Bucky's eyes didn't linger on Ophelia any longer, and he turned in a swift movement. In a split second, he was gone, and with him all Ophelia's hope. After he was gone, and Ophelia caught her breath and controlled her rage, she looked at the man with sheer hatred in her eyes. They were both aware of what she had just tried to do, and so she was not going to play pretend and hide it anymore. There was not a lot more they could do to her, so she believed, and she decided to be upfront with the man. He had wanted her to link with Bucky, he wanted her to know that she would fail.

"I can't... connect with him," she said breathlessly.

"I know," he said, his tone was almost ecstatic. He achieved what he wanted to accomplish.

"Why b-bother showing me. Why not clear... my memory of all this day, clear my mind again. I can't link with him, so what are you so... so scared of?" Every time she flexed a muscle it hurt, but she forced through her words. Every breath hurt. But, slowly, she could feel the energy she expended to try to link with Bucky come back.

"Ophelia, we need you. We just wanted to show you that, in case on a future mission you link with someone and it brings you back. You will remember the music- Mozart's 25th symphony- you will remember what we did to you for the simplest of mistakes, and you will remember that this man you had become so fond of will never remember who you are. And if by some forgotten calculation he does remember... Well, you know the pain it puts him through. We will always have you, we will always control him. So tell me, Ophelia, is it really worth defying us any longer?"

"No," she said through gritted teeth. She wasn't stupid, she knew that HYDRA was scared that they still needed her. They were scared that she was capable of bringing back the Winter Soldier in a way they never wanted. She was not able to do it then, and perhaps she would never be able to do it again, but she was also weak. One day, she hoped, one day she would show them that she was worth something. One day she would show them that they made a mistake not just killing her.

"Good. Next time you disobey, we will have him put a bullet in your skull."

The man raised a hand and more guards came in, releasing her from her restraints and not worrying about her fighting back; she was still dripping blood and it dripped over the floor. The man had cut deep and it wouldn't matter how long they froze her for, the scars would be there forever. Her body could be broken, bleeding, damaged, but her mind was stronger than they wanted to admit. It was only now that she began to realize it; she couldn't show them that she was understanding herself, understanding her capabilities.

They brought her to the room she knew as home, with its electric chair and its cryogenic chambers. Her traumatized stomach was wrapped up again; the gauze went all the way around her body as they weren't going to peel it off and reveal it to anyone this time. As they planted her in the chair, she had nothing left in her to fight, not now. This torture they continued on her was mentally straining, and she was beginning to understand what they were doing. She would have to be obedient now, there was nothing more they could do that wasn't going to kill her.

Ophelia hoped that the mental wipe would work forever this time. It would be easier to go on life not remembering Bucky or any of the good that she had seen from him. It would be easier to go back to the way things were. But, if there was a chance she was able to find his mind again, to bring him back, she was going to be smart about it. Her time would eventually come, but she was going to have to be very patient.

Electricity shot through her at alarming rates, and she tried to hold back her screams for as long as possible; HYDRA liked to hear their victims hurting. Once again, she tried to cling on to the memories that were being sapped out of her. It gave her enormous amounts of hope to know that memories would always come back. HYDRA's methods were not fool proof, and in time, she could always find herself again, and maybe she could find Bucky again too. No matter who she turned out to be after this torture, no matter what they made her do, she would always find herself.

Her biggest fear, however, was that she might remember Bucky, but Bucky might never remember her.

When the machine finally powered down, she felt blank, but she sat up as straight as possible when they removed her restraints. A man beamed a small light into her eyes, making sure that her pupils responded as they should. He stepped back and nodded, and another man entered the room with that familiar red book. He studied her; wondering if there were any memories lingering in her mind, but it seemed as though she was a blank canvas once again.

"Hunt. Twenty-Two. Winter. Dweller. Lie. Chrysalid. Nine. Idle. Prey. Relinquish." He spoke the words in Russian. And then he asked, "Do you know who you are?"

She swallowed, wanting to answer, knowing that it was there somewhere. It was an embarrassment not to know who she was, but the name was nowhere to be found. Studying her surroundings, she did not know where she was, only that she had been here before. The man in front of her was the man in charge, and she felt as though she was meant to respect him. Unable to figure out who she was, she shook her head in defeat. "No."

"You are the Huntress," he said. "With the ability to hunt anything."

She said nothing.

"You are to only use this ability on the people we assign, is that clear?"

"Yes."

"If you disobey or fail, we will not tolerate it."

"Yes, sir." She looked up at him. "Ready to comply."

"Begin her training, strengthen her, and then put her on ice."