"She's had to be put under twice, sir," I heard a voice say quietly. "She's fighting the control."

"Well, of course she is. We're pressed for time with her. If we had more to work with, she would be as compliant as him. It's a good thing he knows when she's coming back to who she is."

I woke to be sitting upright, in a chair. A male doctor was stitching up my shot shoulder. I wasn't wearing the muzzle, which gave me slight relief. But the fact that I had an unknown male stitching me up, yeah, I wasn't comfortable with that. Locking my jaw, I lit a sputtering fire in one hand.

"Don't strain yourself, Cynder." I looked to see Alexander Pierce regarding me with neutral eyes. "You need your strength."

I licked my lips, not daring to say anything. I remembered what the Soldier had said about talking back to Pierce. The others I could get away with on that, Pierce not so much.

"She should be on rest, sir," said the doctor. "If she gets put out, she'll tear her stitches."

"She'll heal fast enough to where that won't be an issue. Besides, with what we have in store, she'll need to heal fast. She's essential into making sure they don't win. My dear," he addressed me, "you have been doing an excellent job. We need you to keep that up for just a little bit longer."

I cleared my throat. "H-how much longer?"

"Long enough until we can do what we must. How do you feel?"

Okay, so no punishment. I'm safe, for now. "Sore, like I've been through a war." I tried to not move my stitched shoulder.

"Do you remember how you got yourself hurt?"

"Some agent shot me." I remembered my tender ribs. "And Captain America nearly broke my ribs with that shield."

"Anything else?"

I wracked my brain. "The, uh, targets...They acted like they knew me. Personally." My mind brought up the necklace that Steve Rogers wore. That had to mean something to me, because otherwise it would have been forgotten about.

"Sir," came a new voice. A man entered the room, and he looked wary. Afraid. Like he was about to deliver bad news. "It's the Asset."

"Come with me, Cynder," Pierce said.

"Sir..." said the doctor.

"She isn't immobile, she didn't get shot in the leg. Come along, Cynder."

The doctor let me follow Pierce out of the room, following the man who was leading us to the Winter Soldier. But that's not his name, is it? Rogers called him "Bucky". What kind of a name was that, anyway?

"He's unstable, sir," said the man as we were let into the room. I saw the Soldier, bare-chested, sitting forward in a contraption that for some reason freaked me out. There were a few men armed with guns at him. But he didn't seem harmful right now. He seemed as though he was in some sort of trance.

"Mission report," Pierce demanded. The Soldier said nothing. He remained in that tranced state of mind. "Mission report now." Again, silence.

I felt a sudden urge to slap Pierce when he slapped the Soldier hard across the face. The Soldier barely reacted. Would he slap me if I ever did that? I had a feeling I knew the answer.

"The man on the bridge," says the Soldier. It was the first time I heard his actual voice. It was rough, raspy, almost like he hadn't had something to drink in ages. "Who was he?"

"You met him earlier this week on another assignment."

"I knew him."

I knew him. Did he experience the same thing that I had? I remembered battling with myself. I wasn't sure what to believe at this point. Everything was so tangled up that I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. The Soldier seemed like he was having his own moment of doubt.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind," said Pierce slowly. "You shaped the century. And I need you to do it one more time. Society's at a tipping point between order and chaos. And tomorrow morning, we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine. And HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves."

I watched the Soldier's expression. It was hard to place. But I knew one thing: he didn't seem entirely on board for Pierce's idea. "But I knew him."

Pierce backed away from the Soldier. "Prep him."

"He's been out of cryofreeze too long," said a scientist.

"Then Wipe him and start over."

"Wipe" him? What did that even mean?

"You know where your place is, do you not, Cynder?" Pierce came to stand at my side, watching as the Soldier got pushed back into the contraption, strapped down by his wrists. One of the scientists put something in his mouth. Warily, I watched the contraption move around the Soldier's head.

Whatever it started to do made him scream and clench up from the pain. Is that what happened to me? Am I even on the right side? What have they done to him? My mind wasn't shutting up. It was telling me all sorts of things: lies and truths. Things I couldn't decipher. Things I couldn't tell which was which, a truth or a lie.

"Cynder?" Pierce snapped his fingers in front of my face.

I startled slightly, clearing my throat. "Yes, I know my place." No, I don't. I don't know if I'm on the right side. I don't know what has happened to me. I don't feel right. This doesn't feel like me. I don't understand what's going on. What is HYDRA planning on doing?

"Are you positive? We'd be more than happy to remind you."

I looked Pierce directly in his eyes. "I'm positive, sir."

He clapped a hand on my shoulder. I felt the urge to shrug it off, but since it was my wounded shoulder, that wasn't happening at the moment. "Good. You're helping us more than you can ever know. I would ask you to keep our Asset in line, but, I don't think that will be an issue."

I swallowed. Some part of me was freaked out, just a tiny bit. It had to be the contraption the Soldier was screaming under, currently. "Am I privileged to know what my part is for tomorrow?"

"You make sure we do what we must, and you make certain that Captain America and his renegade crew don't succeed in getting in our way. By all means necessary, you do whatever it takes to stop them."

"Will my powers be functioning by then?" I tested my fire. It sparked and sputtered still.

"Fully functioning, as long as you don't step on anyone's toes." Pierce's smirk reminded me of a feline that ate the canary. Like a face I shouldn't trust. But yet, I felt like I must trust him.

A lot of this was very conflicting.