You start to wake up and try to move, but you can't. You open your eyes, blinking to bring everything into focus. Your mouth feels like it's filled with cotton balls. You look down at your hands and feet; there are shackles on them. You try to break them, but for some reason, you can't.

"They're made of vibranium. You'll never break them." You hear a familiar voice say from across the room. You sit up and look. Bucky is sitting in a chair on the other side of your cell. He looks like he hasn't slept in days.

"Well, aren't you full of surprises?" You say with a sneer. "What must a girl do to get some water around here? I feel like I have wool socks on my teeth."

A figure steps from the shadows. "There is a picture of water next to your bed. No glass, plastic only. We can't trust you with anything else." Steve says rather harshly.

"Don't worry; I'm way past suicidal, psychotic, but not suicidal." You say with a chuckle.

"I'm not worried you'll hurt yourself it's what you could do to someone else." Bucky says as leans forward in his chair.

"By the way, if no one's told you, you look like shit." You say as you lean over and pour a cup of water.

"Thanks for the honesty. I haven't slept the last few days." Bucky says as he runs his hands through his hair. "I wanted to be here when you woke up."

"Wait! Days! What the fuck did you hit me with, asshole?' You say, growing angrier every second.

"Bruce and Tony made a special cocktail just for you. We couldn't have you waking up too soon on us." Steve says as he watches you intently.

You take notice and slowly step toward the glass. You lock eyes with Steve. "You know if you want to undress me, you don't have to do it with just your eye, Stevie. This bed is big enough for two of us." You run your tongue across your lip.

This agitates Steve, and he slams his open hand against the glass cell. "You don't have to do this anymore. This isn't you, Jo." There is a slight sense of disappointment in his voice.

You get angry, standing in the center of the cell. "JO IS DEAD!! DEAD!! SHE DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE, YOU LET THEM KILL HER!" You turn to Bucky as you say the last words.

Those words are like a knife straight to Bucky's heart. You can see the pain manifest across his face. "Jo.." Bucky's voice trails off, not finding the words to complete the sentence.

Steve can see the gleam in your eyes as you see how much your words hurt your brother.
"That's enough, Jo!" Steve yells at you.

You lock eyes, and the two of you just angrily stare at each other.

Bucky walks up to the glass and puts his hand against it, hoping to touch something in you.

"Jo, we want to help you. Please let us help you?" His voice was strained with emotion.

You finally look Bucky in the eye. "Help me? You make it sound like I need to be fixed. Like there is something wrong with me."

"Jo, please. I've been where you are. I know it's scary, the battle going on in your head. If it was possible for me to break free, I know you can, too. You don't have to be the Alpha Soldier anymore."

"You talk as if I'm the same as the Winter Soldier. I'm not! I'm the Alpha. I'm superior to you. You know the difference between the Winter and the Alpha. I'm better than you in every way. I'm not a broken toy that always needs to be reprogrammed."

"Joey.. don't!" Bucky begs you as he holds back tears.

Steve steps up behind Bucky and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"You really want to know what makes me better than you? I don't need to be programmed anymore...I like what I do. I want to kill!"

" No, that's not true, Jo. We went through the same procedure and programming. This can be undone."

You step up against the glass and look your brother in the eyes. Your head tilts to the side a bit. "See, that's where you're wrong again, Bucky. We did NOT go through the same thing."

You slam your fists on the glass next to his head. "At night... your guard didn't slip into your cell and give you special training every night!"

"Joey, no... I.. I didn't know." A tear starts to slide down his face as he looks into your eyes and sees nothing but anger.

" Of course you didn't. You can't scream with a sock shoved in your mouth. No one that cared could hear me. It gets even better... after you were rescued, your guards had nothing better to do. Let's say night training turned into a tag team sport."

Bucky starts to gag and quickly covers his mouth. Steve's other hand turns into a fist as his anger builds for what they did to you.

"After you left me to rot in that hell. I had to find a way to survive without you. So I asked them to turn it all off. I feel nothing...no pain, no fear, no remorse. I started to like what I did, which made me better than you ever were as the Winter Soldier." Your breathing stills for a second. "Why don't you come in, and I'll show?"

Bucky is devastated by what you've said. His hand slides off the glass down to his side and stumbles back a few steps.

You turn around and sit back down on the edge of your bed. Not a single emotion in your eyes but an evil grin on your face.

Bucky can't handle it any longer. He turns around quickly so you don't see the tears fall down his cheek. He storms out into the hallway.

Steve looks at you, wondering if a sliver of Jo is left in your mind. Staring at your dead eyes, he is beginning to have his doubts. He turns and walks into the hallway to see Bucky slamming his fists against the wall. His vibranium arm making a large hole in the wall while his other hand is becoming bloody.

As Steve approaches, he can hear Bucky: " I did this to her. This is my fault. I did this to her."

Steve puts his hand on Bucky's arm, holding it back. " Bucky, you can't blame yourself. Hydra did this to her, not you."

"But you're wrong. If you hadn't saved me, if I had gone back, they wouldn't have..." Bucky can't say the word. He hits the wall with his metal arm again, sending a crack up the wall. "If I had gone back, I could have protected her."

"You don't know that Bucky. If you had gone back, you'd both be lost to Hydra. I want her back as much as you do. We'll do everything possible to bring her back to us, Buck. I promise."

Bucky rests his forehead against the wall as he silently lets the tears roll down his face. Steve can only stand there and watch as his best friend slowly unravels, praying that he can keep his promise to him.