1956 - thirty one

Ghost and I moved silently through the hallways of Hydra, perfectly in sync as we headed toward the training room. He absently scratched at the point where the metal touched the skin of his shoulder.

"Don't pick at it" I warned. Hydra would surely punish him if he did something to ruin their creation.

At least more than he already had. Nasty finger shaped scars littered the edge of the metal, some fresher than others.

"Sorry" he apologized, dropping his hand to his side. "Itches"

"Would you rather have an itch or deal with unhappy scientists?" I questioned, going silent and almost still as a pair of guards walked past us. When he didn't answer I smirked. "Exactly. So don't pick at it" I repeated.

"Fine" Ghost grumbled.

We passed the cryo chamber room, the both of us involuntarily shivering. We'd only recently been released after eight years inside. At least that's what they told us. We hadn't been wiped in almost a decade because what little we could remember we kept to ourselves. They were precious memories we had few of.

I had dreams of a kid with blonde hair and blue eyes. He would try to talk to me but I could never make out what he was saying even with everything I'd learned as a Hydra assassin. He always held out his pinkie at the end of it, as if expecting me to do the same.

Bare bulbs burned above us as we entered the same training room from years previous. I walked toward the middle of the large mat, getting into a loose fighting stance.

Ghost did the same, lunging at me with his silver fist. I dodged, pushing the arm away from me with both hands. Ghost tried to go at me again, but I threw a punch to his nose, disorienting him for the time being.

He stumbled back, clutching at his face with the back of his flesh hand as he tried to stem the flow of blood dribbling down his chin.

I approached, my guard up as we circled one another slowly. Ghost wiped at his nose again, catching most of the drying blood on his tactical suit. The only thing he owned.

Ghost dropped to the ground, sweeping my legs from beneath me faster than I could anticipate. He stood over me, offering his metal hand to help me stand.

Rolling my eyes, I accepted, allowing him to pull me to my feet. "Weapons training?"

He nodded, heading toward the rack of knives and guns. Almost all the weapons we trained with were too dull to hurt or only discharged non lethal bullets.

I grabbed a dagger, slipping it into a sheath and buckling it around my hips before arming myself with two hand guns as well as three other knives.

Ghost usually stuck with his guns, but took a small knife like mine and stuck it in one of the straps going across his forearm.

We returned to the mat, preparing once again to spar. Nodding at each other we began again. Within seconds, I'd pulled out my dagger, swiping it at him with the blade. He barely managed to dodge before throwing a punch, not quite drawing his own weapon yet.

I grabbed at his flesh hand just before it made contact, shoving it back at him, he retaliated by pushing me backward. Stumbling, I regained my footing and rushed at him, throwing a false punch toward his gut, that he blocked, I immediately hit his face, causing him to stagger.

Seeing an opportunity, I repeated the same move he'd done to me earlier. I swept his feet out from under him causing him to fall on his back.

Triumphantly I strode over to him. "Ready for another round?" I teased extending a hand toward him.

When he didn't respond, I knelt down beside him, slapping his cheek lightly. Ghost opened his eyes, squinting at the lights above him, his features contorting in confusion. His gaze then found me, recognition sparking in his eyes. "Laura?"

"Who's Laura?" I questioned, even as my memory was flooded with visions. A younger version of Ghost sitting beside the blonde haired boy from my dreams as they sat near a table as if waiting for me.

I hadn't realized I'd fallen off balance, sitting on the mat until I made eye contact with Ghost once more. "Bucky?" I whispered out, immediately glancing around to see if Hydra guards would come and rip us apart.

Some of my memories were fuzzy, but I knew Ghost, before Hydra I knew him. He was my friend.

"Laura, you remember me don't you?" Ghost asked. His voice was softer than the usual growl, more emotion was behind it.

I felt like crying. The things I'd done in the name of Hydra. I shook my head despite the lie, trying to shake the happy past away. I'd never escape Hydra. This would be my life forever.

"Laura-"

"Stop calling me that" I stood, moving away from Gho-Bucky. "That's not my name."

Ghost shushed me, standing up, he held out his hands as if calming down a frantic animal. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you" he promised.

That only caused me to back up further because when was that ever the truth.

I glanced at the camera in the upper corner of the room in panic. What would hydra do? We weren't supposed to remember. What about the blonde boy?

Suddenly guards were streaming in, two approached Bucky, jerking his arms behind his back so he couldn't escape. One even went as far as using his taser on Bucky.

"No!" I cried, although I didn't dare approach not when there were so many soldiers in the room.

Once more, the sliding door to the training room opened. Zola entered and my gaze instinctively dropped to the ground. I clenched my fists to stay the trembling, hoping that I could hide my fear of the man.

Another two of the soldiers approached me, I could see their black boots as they walked. Two sets of hands wrenched my arms behind me and I didn't have the strength to fight them, it was like my body was frozen in fear.

"So it seems the Winter Soldier has remembered something" the man's thick accent punctuated the air, I could see Ghost stiffening out of the corner of my eye. Before I knew it, the head of Hydra stopped in front of me, forcefully grabbing my chin to meet his eyes. Ghost thrashed against his guards, but they held him still "And what of you flower? Do you remember anything?"

I clenched my jaw for a moment before shaking my head. "Only Hydra" I replied quietly. Zola narrowed his eyes, studying my expression. He seemed satisfied before he looked up. "Wipe them" Zola commanded, dropping my chin and walking away.

The guards grabbed at my arms as I thrashed, holding me steadfast. Bucky tried to fight against his captors, if we were wiped, we wouldn't remember anything that Hydra didn't want us to, again.

I'd lose the blonde boy.

We wouldn't lose anything as Sunshine and Ghost because they paired us as partners, and we always remembered our training in Hydra, but everything as Bucky and Laura was ripped away.

My cries fell on deaf ears as they dragged Bucky away. My own mind torn between memories of laughter and teasing smiles and the horrors of Hydra, trying to distinguish what was real and what seemed like a dream.

Slowly I was pushed roughly to follow, down the long hallways only to watch as Bucky was strapped down first, a mouth guard shoved in before the machine was turned on and I couldn't look away as I was forced to see the torturous device used on my only friend.

Ghost's screams were horrible, shattering my heart as I watched his eyes glaze over. His agony seeming to cease as the machine started to slow down. He was gone, a perfect soldier put back in his place.

The scientists removed the mouth guard and the metal plates on Bucky's face, allowing him to sit up. He stared at the wall ahead of him, his expression neutral.

"Whom do you serve" Zola's right hand man, Rick, questioned as he stood near the machine.

"Hydra" Ghost replied in a low grovel, the soft demeanor he'd exhibited earlier was gone, wiped away as if it was nothing.

"Yes, you belong to Hydra alone. Anything else is a lie" Rick stated, he held his hands behind his back as he observed the room. The same guards from before stepped forward after a nod from Rick. They grabbed ahold of Ghost, hefting him off the seat.

I was shoved forward until I replaced where Bucky just was, forced into the seat with a new mouth guard to protect my teeth. Ghost watched blankly as my seat reclined and I gripped the arm rests, preparing for the pain.

The metal plates moved toward my face and try as I might I couldn't avoid them. I tried to concentrate on a memory, anything I could hold on to, but it was like trying to keep water cupped in my hands. Everything but Hydra slipped away, my memories becoming fuzzy and distorted until eventually they just disappeared.

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My vision was blurry when I sat up, I tried to blink it away, but it just wouldn't clear. The room was dark and there was a quiet thumping against something nearby.

I was in my cell? Why was I there? I couldn't remember the last thing that had happened. The thumping continued and when I realized what it was I stumbled over to the thin wall between cells where Ghost surely was, almost losing my balance entirely.

Sluggishly, I tapped back, leaning against the wall for support, the room spun and I closed my eyes, trying to alleviate the vertigo.

"Did we go on a mission?" Ghost questioned, his voice breaking through my concentration.

"I don't know, I think we did, why else can't I remember anything?" I replied, shifting until my back was pressed against the wall, my head leaned against it as I stared at the ceiling, focusing on one spot until the spinning slower.

There was a frustrated grunt followed by the sound of cracking concrete. "Why do they do it?" Ghost growled.

"Don't do that. You know what they'll do if we don't control our emotions" I warned.

Ghost grumbled out something about how he had control, but I didn't press it. If we'd gone on a mission why wasn't I more injured. Ghost seemed fine, although he could heal faster than I could.

"Why do they have to take our memories?" Ghost huffed. "What have we done to make them wipe our minds"

"They have their reasons. Remember we're fighting for the greater good of humanity" I reminded him. Hydra was trying to save the world from destroying itself and the only way to do it is to take away free will. Zola had been very clear on the matter. We couldn't trust mankind with its own independence.

"Then why do I feel like something inside me is telling me that everything we do is all wrong?" Ghost commented quietly. "What if we're on the wrong side of things?"

"Ghost-"

"I know we have talked about before, but what if there's something really wrong here. I feel it in my bones Sunshine"

"That is a dangerous line of thinking" I warned, resisting the urge to glance up at the camera in the corner of the room.

Someone hit my door, practically making me jump out of my skin. "Stop chattering" the guard yelled. I felt the blood drain from my face, had they heard the conversation? Were they going to shove us back into the memory wipe machine? Or worse, put us back into Cryo Sleep.

Shivering involuntarily, I carefully stood, moving slowly toward the hard cot on the other side of the small room. The blanket was scratchy and the pillow was flat and uncomfortable.

Dizziness lingered as I laid down, assuming that Ghost did the same.