"Time has stopped before us

The sky cannot ignore us

No one can separate us

For we are all that is left

The echo bounces off me

The shadow lost beside me

There's no more need to pretend

Cause now I can begin again"

"The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" -The Smashing Pumpkins

              "Ophelia," His words made Ophelia's body fill up with rage, but the file in his hand made her stay silent and still. It looked wrong, it looked too thick to be a file on her. "My name is Zemo."

             "Why are you doing this?" she whispered, wishing she could sound strong but feeling like all hope was dwindling like the last candle burning out. 

           Above her the lights were still flickering, and suddenly she didn't care about the contents of the file that Zemo appeared to have. The man in front of her had framed Bucky for the death of so many people, and the injuries of so many more. With a history like Bucky's, the damage that could do to him was paramount. He had then used Bucky's weakness, his history with HYDRA and the ability to control him. And all of it was for this; to bring down the Avengers, and yet only two of them were actually here fighting to the death. Ophelia hardly noticed that her nails were digging into her gloved hands until her nails began to bend backwards, causing a shooting pain up her fingers and into her palms.

           "Call it... making peace with them," he said.

           "A lot of people died in Sokovia," she said. "Do you think Tony Stark sleeps at night? Do you think Steve Rogers doesn't see it in the eyes of the world? Every single one of them who was there, the things that they had to do, they will never forget it. Maybe you forgot that Wanda Maximoff lost her brother trying to save the world that day?"

           A sudden grin appeared on his face; Zemo realized something in Ophelia's words. The insidious smile made Ophelia's stomach twist, and Zemo looked like a parent who had just seen his child take their first steps. "I can see that you have already discovered your full potential."

          "You knew?" she asked, looking at the file in his hand once again. She no longer cared, she no longer wanted to know what was in there. None of it mattered if she had nothing when this fight finished. If Bucky died, if Steve died, it was unfathomable. Wanda, Sam, Clint, Scott were likely imprisoned. No, she would not get used to a life without Bucky, and she would never get used to a life without the rest of them either. She had potential, but it had nothing to do with her powers. She would give them all up if it meant things could go back to the way they were supposed to be.

             "I had hoped I could reveal it to you, but alas, things turned out differently." He turned his head to the side, as if scrutinizing her.

           "Why Bucky?" She needed to know. "Why choose him after he finally broke free from his torment? Why drag us back into the chaos when we had finally found peace?"

           "No one fighting here today deserves peace. None of them are innocent."

           "Are you?" She knew he obviously wasn't. 

            "Certainly not." He smiled. "And neither are you."

             Suddenly Ophelia realized that she needed to get away from Zemo; after what he had done to Bucky at the CIA headquarters in Berlin, she should have seen this coming from a mile away. She cursed herself for tossing her gun aside, she knew that the second she revealed on her face that she knew what he was going to do, her time was going to be up. But the trigger words took time, she could evade him, she could get inside of his head and stop him. As her breathing and heart rate picked up, she realized that the file in his hand was thicker than it should have been; inside of it was the very book that held hers and Bucky's trigger words, along with other things she did not know.

           But the panic that had built up in her chest since they arrived in Siberia exploded and she shut down. Her eyes shut tight and tears squeezed out. She was frozen.

           "You were the final piece, Ophelia." Zemo told her, letting the file fall to the ground, his fingers tight around the red book with the ominous black star on the front. "I only discovered you when I was forced to kill Vasily Karpov, and I must admit, I'm disappointed in HYDRA for hiding you from the world."

            "Stop." She shook her head. "You don't have to do this. Please don't make me hurt him."

             "Him? Bucky? No, no he may end up a casualty I won't lose sleep over, yes. But he is not my target, not directly. Tony Stark may not be as rational as the Captain, but I can't have either of them get through this." He sighed, and pulled something out of his jacket pocket. It was small, but Ophelia knew she had to get out; Zemo stood at the only exit, blocking her way out.

          She decided to make a dash for the door, and that was when the horribly familiar feeling of being shocked rippled through her body. She screamed in pain as she dropped to the ground, the electricity never stopping as the taser had locked onto her. He pulled one more thing out, Ophelia was staring up at him, writhing on the ground. The small device in his hand was a phone, and he placed it upon the floor beside her head where she was writhing in pain; the beautiful, melancholy sound of Mozart's 25th symphony. The very song they had used to condition Ophelia so many years ago.

            "охотник. двадцать два. Зима. Обитатель. Ложь. Мутант. Девять. холостой ход. Добыча. Отказываться."

Hunt.

Twenty-Two.

Winter.

Dweller.

Lie.

Chrysalid.

Nine.

Idle.

Prey.

Relinquish.

           The electricity flowing through her veins stopped at last. Zemo pulled the taser and the clasps released their grip from her flesh, and suddenly she felt as though she could breathe again. But the air that entered her lungs was different, her lungs themselves were different. The woman rolled onto her side, placed her gloved hand upon the ground and Zemo watched her muscles flex and obey her command to push her to her feet. The taser had only caused her pain when it was on, and now that she was freed from such pain, the music ceasing as well, she had nothing but energy pulsing through her. She looked at Zemo, her green eyes bore into him.

           "Ready to comply," she said in Russian.

           "A hunter can track and kill with the right skills and a weapon, but a Huntress can destroy the very animals around her with her mind." He walked up to her and placed his hand upon her chin, lifting her head up so that she looked as bold as she was. "Go and see what your любовник has done. Make Tony Stark suffer from the pain, the hatred. Bring them down like the Huntress you are."

         "Yes, Sir."

           Her muscles were taut, her eyes were locked onto Zemo's, a man who was in control of her. Not a flicker in her eyes suggested Ophelia was still in there, and he released her chin. A grimace crossed her face, but it was not for him, it was for the target that she had in mind. Zemo watched as a woman turned Huntress walked out of the backlogs room, disappeared down the hall. There was something so beautiful about watching a woman who had so much love and compassion stripped from her being walk with so much order into a vicious battle. She was about to have her own lover ripped apart, and others, Zemo hoped. He would not stay for the grand finale. Already there was a loud crash, blasts coming from the main room.

            Though he had no intent to be alive at the end of this, half of him wanted to see what she was capable of. But she was gone from sight, and Zemo decided it was his time to die. The HYDRA base was a symbol of death for so many people, it held prisoners until they died, it sent out killers into the world, their most elite killers were called the Death Squad. Zemo knew that Ophelia once believed that she would die in this base, it was obvious in her eyes and from the images of her when she was living here. Even if somehow they lived throughout this battle, something inside of them would die. Something that would tear them apart in other ways. But he truly did hope that they would never be found, with their bodies broken and bloodied.

           Ophelia was going to make them tear each other apart.