Pushed continuously through this Hydra facility, far from the one she had been in before, Ruth could feel the deep rooted fear creep it's way through her body, tightening her chest. Through the journey here, she sat in a cell aboard a jet, a bag kept over her head until they reached the building. Now, standing who knows how many floors beneath the earth's surface, Ruth walked the halls, held onto by one guard on each arm, a dozen more surrounding her, Kal leading the pack.
Ruth could feel the pull of the cuts on her face sting every time she moved a muscle. Underneath her eyes were bruised, the bridge of her nose still throbbing as if a hammer continuously hit her in a pulsing rhythm.
The familiarity Ruth felt walking through these halls was odd. Although she had never been to this Hydra facility, they both seemed to hold the same air. It was as if the life had been taken out of the place. The lab coats who walked around each held the same expression; worn, drained from the lack of warmth.
After a seemingly endless walk down long stretches of hallways, Kal turned into a room on her right, the guards behind her following her in, the two holding Ruth becoming even more forceful as they shoved her into the room.
Ruth clenched her teeth, every muscle within her tensing up once she saw who was inside.
"Miss Rogers, how great to see you again," Mage cheerfully called to her as Ruth walked in. The familiar grin was still plastered on his face, his bowtie in a perfect knot at the base of his neck. He stood at the far end of the room by a chair with seemingly a hundred pieces of medical equipment attached to it.
Ruth's breath quickened. Her stomach dropped. Were they continuing things now?
"I have to admit," Mage continued as the guards holding Ruth set her down in the chair, lab coats immediately strapping her wrists and ankles down, preparing her left hand for an IV. "I was pretty heartbroken when I saw that you had escaped from the facility in DC. But then when I saw who got you out," He laughed a deep, low, twisted laugh, "I suddenly realized all the mistakes I made during your time there."
It took everything in Ruth to not at least try to get her hands on Mage. It was like an instinct. All the toxic emotions bottled up from when she was last around him.
Ruth winced as the IV was slid into her hand, they definitely weren't trying to be nice about anything.
Mage took a couple steps over, leaning closer to Ruth, his smile gone, his voice cunning, "I won't be making any of those mistakes this time, Ruth. I'm not going to take my time to make sure the serum develops properly, I'm not going to have you go train or do missions before I know that you won't disobey me," He let out a low chuckle, "And I'm definitely not going to let you have your own room."
Mage's breath fanned across Ruth's face, the muscles in her jaw strained from holding back her words.
"You'll be tied to this chair until I give orders that say otherwise," Mage spoke, looking into Ruth's eyes, "The thing is, Miss Rogers, this time, I don't care if you die. You are now truly an experiment. A lab rat. If you wanted to be treated differently, you should never have left in the first place."
Ruth held her gaze to Mage's eyes, not wavering for a moment. A pulsing anger rose up her body, but fear sunk in her chest.
Mage stood back up and took a step over to his medical stand only a foot from Ruth.
Ruth watched him as he flipped through his notebook, seemingly inspecting notes while other lab coats around him moved in an organized pattern, as if they had planned for this for months; and maybe they have. Looking throughout the room, Ruth spotted Kal standing towards the entrance, her posture confident, cocky. Her arms were crossed, a smug smirk on her face.
Ruth shifted her line of sight so she wouldn't have to look at Kal's face, looked up at the IV fluid bag sat on a pole above her, the clear liquid, whatever it was, dripping down to her hand.
"I don't have to explain anything to you," Mage continued, still looking to his notebook, "because I don't have to convince you of anything. But I will say that with the apparent tolerance to electricity, we're going to have to use something stronger to change your body's response to the experimentation."
Ruth's eyebrows twitched, furrowing slightly, looking around her as to what they would use that would act as electricity. Was there something in the IV fluid?
Mage began walking across the room to the door, "I would say make yourself comfortable but," He gave out a laugh, "you've really pissed me off. So I don't really care how you feel."
As he walked past Kal and out the door, closing it behind him, Kal walked towards Ruth, scuffing her heels across the floor as if she were taking a leisurely walk. She stopped just a couple feet in front of Ruth.
Ruth released a breath of air, annoyance flowing out of her, already fed up with what Kal was going to try and pull. To Ruth's surprise, Kal stayed silent, just watching as two doctors went around Ruth. Wearing a t-shirt, goosebumps arose on Ruth's arms as her skin held against the cold metal of the chair's arms. Ruth looked to the doctors as they placed circular electrodes on different parts of her skin on her upper body. Pulling back her hair, the doctors finished by placing six more on her face; one on each temple, one of the top of each cheekbone, and one an inch under each eye.
"Can you guess what those are for?" Kal asked Ruth, her grin getting wider.
Ruth let out a sigh, shrugging, "I'm guessing you're going to tell me?"
Kal looked around as the doctors walked away, "Mage said he didn't want to tell you anything, but this is just too much fun for me to not rub it in your face," She mocked. Kal held up a small remote in her hand as she uncrossed her arms, "Because you're unfazed by electricity, we had to go for something a bit different. Which is fine, because this actually hurts a hell of a lot more."
Ruth stretched out the muscles in her hand, the IV making her skin sore.
"I'm not very...sciencey, but from what I could understand, at a push of a button, this will change your body's magnetic balance." Kal shrugged, "So, it's basically tearing your body up from the inside. And, because your body takes any electricity around you and—stores it, builds it up, whatever—these electrodes will hurt you even more than we could test!" She let out a laugh.
Heat built up on Ruth's back, anticipating the pain about to come. What would this feel like?
Kal waved the remote in front of Ruth's face, "Should we try it out?"
Ruth stayed silent, not once breaking eye contact from Kal.
"Oh! But first," Kal took a step and reached over to Mage's table, grabbing the mask Ruth loathed. It looked like the same one from the first experiments.
Reaching around, Kal attached the mask to Ruth's face forcefully, the pressure of the mask sending bullets of pain through Ruth's face, pushing against the bruising from Kal's punches. Ruth's eyes watered, closing her eyes as she winced.
Kal shifted her weight as she bent her knees, leaning forward slightly, looking into Ruth's eyes, redness already starting in them. "This is weird," Kal said quietly, "You look like a helpless child. The pain in your eyes, it's beautiful."
Ruth took in deeper breaths than usual. Without oxygen attached to it, the mask inhibited just enough breath to know it would be an issue.
"Let's start at a lower number," Kal mused, adjusting the remote. She into Ruth's eyes with a satisfaction, before clicking the button.
There wasn't even a moment to take a breath before everything inside Ruth wrenched in pain. It wasn't like the burning sting of electricity, it was a thousand hammers nailing away at her mind while her brain twisted inside her skull. Each electrode seemed to pull at her blood a different way, her heart burning, pounding with a heart rate that elevated beyond what Ruth could feel.
Every muscle in her face felt as if it were being pulled forward, shooting needles, littering, covering her head. Her eyes strained, feeling as if they were being pulled from her skull while a migraine far beyond anything she had ever felt crushed her forehead. It was as if her spine was being pulled forward through her body, away from her, twisting deeply, churning within her muscles.
Ruth's screams of agony were muffled by the mask, her eyes shut tight, every muscle in her face tense and contorting. Her body struggled against the restraints, desperate to escape.
Relief rushed warmth through Ruth's brain as Kal turned the device off. Ruth opened her eyes, her breathing labored, trying to get oxygen through a stifling mask. The muscles in her back still held tense. Her ears ringing as her face pulsed with pain.
Kal smiled wide, grabbing Ruth's jaw with one hand, holding it tight as she tilted Ruth's face down to look at her, "Now, what was better, electricity, or this?"
Kal's touch felt like fire burning on Ruth's face. Ruth couldn't speak, everything inside her suddenly feeling as if it had stopped.
Ruth closed her eyes, a small relief of pain as Kal released the grip from her face. Kal's steps walked away, her heavy boots clicking against the tile floor.
Ruth's forehead scrunched tight, her lungs heaving, hitching as her body tried to cry.
Her mind drifted to Bucharest. The gentle mornings where the trees were still, and the sunlight that shined through the windows in golden rays. Those were the mornings when Ruth and James would take their time starting their day. They would wrap up warmly in their sleeping bags while they sat on the small couch, the abundant plush and fabric taking up their sides of the seat as they sat beside each other, warmth holding them, keeping them close.
Ruth took her mind back to one of those mornings in particular, where, as they sat bundled up on the couch, Ruth leaned back, settling in against James. He shifted his body slightly, moving his arm out so that she could lay comfortably against him. It was a feeling Ruth never knew she craved, the feeling of her heart being so full of warmth it gave her more comfort than the sleeping bag she was wrapped in.
As the sun just began to dawn, they both fell back asleep, a peace settling within both Ruth and James for the first time since being free.