Winter Phoenix: HYDRA Is Your Place (A 2008-2012 Marvel Fanfiction)

XII: Эмилия (Emiliya)

Warning: lots of blood and intense torture scenes.

March 2010. Siberia, Russia.

Emiliya/SA-8432's POV

I was roused by a shaking on my shoulder. I woke up, my eyes opening slowly. The Winter Phoenix was above me, her blue eyes boring into me.

'Get up, Emiliya. We have to go.' I rose slowly from the bed. She was standing there, her arms crossed as I quickly pulled on a shirt and leggings. She handed me a winter jacket wordlessly, and I shrugged into it.

'Where to?' I asked her. 'A secret mission?'

'No. Winter and I are getting you out tonight. There's too much at stake. We have to get you out before HYDRA sees you.' I turned to look at her. She was wearing a meaningless expression on her face. There was a certain bravery behind her eyes though, and it was beautiful.

'We're escaping?'

'Stop asking questions. Come.' Phoenix grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my cell. Winter was standing guard, and he looked at me.

'She's ready?' he asked her.

'Yeah.'

'Let's go,' he said. 'I know a secret way out.' Phoenix kept a tight hold of my hand and led me behind Winter, who held a large gun at his side, looking left and right for potential threats. She had a gun on her as well, but it was strapped to her thigh. We twisted and turned down passageways, trying to keep silent. Once or twice we had to evade a guard, blending into the shadows of the HYDRA base. But then we rounded a corner, and they came upon us. Multiple HYDRA guards, all guns aimed at us as sirens started to blare all around us. The colonel walked forward, through the circle of men, looking at the Winter Soldier and Winter Phoenix with disappointment in his eyes.

'My greatest creations... How far you've fallen. For a girl.' The Winter Soldier pushed me behind him protectively.

'You won't take her,' Phoenix said with a steely determination in her eyes.

'Since when did you care about anything except HYDRA, my precious Phoenix?'

'Since today,' the Winter Soldier growled. He walked away, saying to his men,

'Take them. Keep my creations alive.' And with that, they charged, breaking us from our determination. We began to fight. As Phoenix was taking down men, she yelled to Winter,

'Take Emiliya and go!'

'No! Not without you! We do this together.'

'Just take her!' He grabbed her arm in the heat of the fight and kissed her as he elbowed a HYDRA soldier in the face with his metal arm.

'I love you.'

'Take her. Go. I love you too.' She gave him a sad smile, and as she continued to take men down, the Winter Soldier grabbed my hand and we slipped away. We stopped at a corner and he looked back wistfully, his grip loosening on my hand ever so slightly. Then we ran.

I don't know how it happened. We were so close to freedom, but Winter got distracted because they'd told him his Phoenix was dead, overwhelmed by the HYDRA soldiers she'd been fighting, and they'd overwhelmed us. Stripped of our weapons, they brought us into the punishment room. I hated that room. The smell of blood overpowered my senses before I stepped in the room. And right there, on the floor, Phoenix laid there, covered in bruises and blood.

'Is that all you got?' she said, spitting out some blood and a broken tooth. The colonel knelt next to her.

'I don't know when you developed such an attitude, but it is growing on my nerves.' He angled her chin sharply. 'You are mine. HYDRA is your master. You serve them. This bond between yourself and the Asset has gone on for far too long now. As well as your bond with this... Emiliya. What is she to you?'

'She is the one thing that is actually mine, colonel,' she spat. He laughed.

'She's not yours. And if you think she belongs to someone, it's not you. Or the Winter Soldier.' He stood and turned to his soldiers. 'Good. You brought them. Alive. Well done. Take the girl.' Phoenix screamed and tried to get up, but the colonel sent a boot to her face, sending her to the ground again. Winter tried to grab a hold of me, and I screamed for him. Trying to hold on to anything - anyone. I kicked and thrashed. 'Send her to the Red Room. She will learn respect soon enough.' I never wanted to go back to the Red Room. But before I could fight anymore, a needle sunk into my neck, and I was still.

Winter Phoenix's POV

Winter strained against his captors.

'You fucking bastards! You told me she was dead!'

'Only as a distraction, Soldier.' He strained further, muscles bulging, fighting like rubber bands pulling, straining to break, to snap, to come back together, anything. I began to panic, trying to get up, but the colonel sent another kick flying into my face.

'Leave her alone,' he growled. I tried to get up again, but then I was picked up and dragged.

'Chain them both to the posts. Whip them. Thirty lashes each,' the colonel said, standing. They had Winter pull off his shirt, then they tore mine, exposing my back. Then they chained us to the posts. His muscles flexed as he prepared himself for the punishment that was about to come. The cool Siberian air pierced my skin. I remember being tortured before, only it wasn't whipping. They were just mad because I wouldn't listen and started punching and kicking me. That was at least a year ago, maybe two. I never got a sense of the passage of time here.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the whip cracking across my back, making me scream. I heard Winter scream too, and it was then that the whip cracked across my back, filling me with white-hot pain. I gripped onto the tight chains, my grip on the world already slipping. I cried out as another lash cracked across my back, staining the floor with dark red blood that splattered like an artwork of cruelty. I gasped, crying out. For anything, anyone to help me. To get me out. Even for the sweet release that death brought. But I knew it wouldn't come if I asked. I felt my eyes roll back in my head as I fought unconsciousness. 

Then I slipped on the chains and fell to the floor, vaguely thinking I heard something in my wrist pop. The whip went over and over on my back, side and ribs, mercilessly whipping me until my body had nothing left in it to go on. By the time I heard the colonel tell his men to stop torturing Winter and I, I had slipped long into the sweet darkness of unconsciousness.