She couldn't tell the time anymore. All she knew was she was alone in the shell of a bedroom. She kept her eyes closed as the apathy took hold. She craved the cold caresses of numbing emptiness. She craved anything but the pain of this.
"No!" She screamed as they beat him. Even after pumping him with sedatives three of them pinned him down as two more held her back. "Stop! Please!"
He groaned as his eyes rolled back and he struggled to hold his head up.
"Bucky. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She cried as they hurt him, barely feeling the grip of their hands against her skin, the bruises forming as she pulled towards him. "Please." Her body shook as she begged for them to stop, as she watched him slip from consciousness again. "Please stop."
She kicked and screamed as they pulled her from the room, craning to see him, to stay with him as the door slammed against the frame and she felt the drag of her body as the sickeningly sweet scent invaded her senses, pulling her into the darkness again.
She knew if she opened her eyes she would see the soft glow of synthetic light from the small bathroom. She knew she would see the small chair bolted to the floor so that she couldn't use it against him, the drawer filled with clothes she had left behind years ago. Clothes he had kept and carried with him. She knew if she opened her eyes she would see this for what it was: a prison designed specifically for her.
Her mind was cloudy, like she couldn't climb out of the fog, and she whimpered as she thought of Bucky, cold and lifeless on the floor; beaten within an inch of his life because of her. Her bones ached and when she moved pain ripped through her. She opened her eyes as she pieced together broken images of the hours that had passed. She remembered needles and fists. She remembered hair being pulled from her scalp as she was thrown to the ground. She remembered feeling the burn of his rage again and again. She remembered pain.
Holding her hands over her mouth to muffle her sobs she broke over and over again. In all of the darkness she clung to the good. She clung to Steve; his gentle kisses, his overly energetic laughter, the way he held her. She clung to him with desperation. She clung to Bucky too; the drip of sarcasm when he spoke to her, always with a smirk, the way he relaxed into their weird friendship so easily as if it hadn't started as a bitter loathing. She clung to the hope he was okay.
The clink of keys and click of locks forced her to become more alert, pulling back as she scuttled back against the headboard, curling into herself, her eyes darting around the room for an escape, a weapon, anything.
"Get up," he purred as he took a menacing step towards her. "We're leaving."
Talia stared at him; unflinching, unmoving.
"I'm sorry Princess," Matthieu launched at her, grabbing hold of her arm and yanking her from the bed. "Did you think it was optional?"
Staring into his icy eyes she felt sick. She took a deep breath as his grip tightened around her arm and she tried to pull away.
"I am not going anywhere with you Matthieu," she spat each word at him through gritted teeth, summoning all the venom she could muster. "You destroyed me. I am not yours to take and I am not going with you."
He stared at her, his eyes softening as he became confused, he became hurt.
"If you ever loved me Matthieu, you would let me go. You would let me walk out of that door with Bucky and you would leave me alone, forever. If you loved me at all you would do that." She pulled back and this time he let her. She stumbled away from him, her legs shaking with fear as she watched his features shift in a way she recognised, a way that sent ice into the pit of her stomach. His eyes were pained at first, wide and wounded. But that wounded animal look turned dark and cruel as he stalked her, his prey, and he reached out to grab her.
His voice boomed as he pulled her to him, his face just centimetres from hers as he bellowed at her.
"Do you not see that I do this because I love you?" He shook her violently before pushing her down against the bed. "We are meant to be together Talia. The sooner you realise that the better."
She recoiled from him as he loomed over her, his hands grabbing at her waist as he pulled her towards him, holding her down against the bed as she tried desperately to pull away from him.
"Please stop." She sobbed as she felt the heat of his breath on her neck. "This isn't love Matthieu. Please. Love is good and kind and patient." She felt him pull away but was too afraid to look at him. "This is abuse. This is manipulation. This is cruel."
As his hands slipped off of her she felt the atmosphere shift around her, she felt him back away. She got to her feet again, wanting to be stronger and more powerful, wanting to keep weakness hidden from his cruel eyes, his twisted mind.
"You wouldn't know love if it was screaming and shouting and running in front of you." Her anger was bitter and cold as she whispered. "You are evil and cold and I do not love you."
When he spoke his voice was distant and detached.
"You will. One day you will. Especially once your bionic boyfriend is The Winter Soldier again."
With the last ounce of strength she had she pulled back her fist and swung towards his face. His hand wrapped around her fist with effortless speed and agility and he pulled her closer to him, trapping her as he crushed her fist in his hand.
"Do that again and you will regret it." His eyes raked over her as she stood pressed against him and he licked his lips as he leant towards her, brushing against her ear as he dropped his voice to a growl. "Be ready when I get back or that sister of yours dies. Got it?"
He pushed her down to the ground before storming from the room. Leaving her head spinning and her heart racing. He would hurt Natasha if she did not comply. She couldn't let him hurt Natasha.
*
The man that now stood in front of Bucky was perhaps the only man who brought out true fear. His words were the cause of his terror. What he had once been able to do with those words still haunted Bucky. They cursed his mind. They dragged him from his sleep. They clung to the hundreds of screams of a past life that were on a constant loop in the back of his mind. Screams he never escaped.
"Желание." The figure stepped towards him, a small smile forming as he taunted Bucky. "Ржавый. Семнадцать."
Bucky stood tall, his body burning from a lack of food, water or comfort. He scowled as he spoke, his fear mixing with anger. "I don't work like that anymore Zemo so I guess you wasted your time and money."
"Oh I know James." Zemo laughed as he stepped closer again, clicking his neck as he took a look at the damp, dingy basement cell Bucky was confined to. "But I have yet to hand over any money... and I won't be. You see," Zemo toyed with the lock on the door as a smug smirk grew, "when a stranger contacted me to say he had The Winter Soldier I had to seize the moment. After all," his eyes met Bucky's and he raised an eyebrow in a display of cocky arrogance, "we both know my aim is to end The Winter Soldier programme."
Bucky said nothing. He did not move. He did not flinch. Every single measure of self control he had within him was pushed into controlling his fear, controlling his features. He waited for a moment - one single second - where he might get out and get to Talia.
"And well James," Zemo continued, oblivious to Bucky's true focus, "your little friend - the feisty red head - well she seems to have run with quite the crowd. Her boyfriend - nasty little man really, very cruel - he has the serum. Or at least he works for someone who does. And so, my old friend, I'm not here for you. I'm here for him."
The door swung open with a slow creak as Zemo took a step back and made a grand gesture to the empty hallway, lit only by one single bulb hanging limply overhead.
"Shall we?"
Bucky hesitated.
"Why?" His eyes darted from his escape back to the man who had tried to destroy him once before. The man who almost did.
"You are not The Winter Soldier James." Zemo shrugged. "You are not a threat anymore. Wakanda saw to that."
Without a second thought Bucky wrapped his hand around Zemo's arm and pinned him against the damp bricks behind him, knocking the wind out of him.
"Let's get something straight here," Bucky growled, his eyes black with fury and protection as he stared Zemo down, his arm pressing across the mans chest as he pushed hard. "She is not a threat either. You want to help? Great. Then help. Help me get her out. Got it?"
"Tell me James," Zemo pushed back, brushing down his coat as he spoke, straightening up and watching Bucky with questioning eyes. "Does she know how you feel or do you hide that just as you hide your fear?"
Bucky stared at him blankly before stalking out of the cell and charging down the hallway. He was ready to attack; ready to protect.
"Move it," he barked, "or I'll kill you once I'm done with them."
He heard the light laughter, as if he were conversing with an old friend and not the man who had vowed to end him not long ago.
"That won't be necessary James."