Joana

Joana had never been good at routine. But that was her new life with Hydra. She woke up in the morning, was hand fed by the same soldier, went to testing, where she would eat lunch, and then she'd return to the room where she would sleep, wake up to eat her final meal, and then fall asleep again. Sometimes, the routine was changed up and she was dragged from the room after her third meal and had some time alone with the soldier who fed her.
She hated those days the most. She always fought him, the hardest she could, but he was a trained soldier, and she was just a girl from Brooklyn. There was no helping her.
She didn't know how long this went on for; weeks, maybe months. Time lapsed in the Hydra base. She never saw the sun, never the moon. She never felt the wind or the touch of grass. She never had a pillow nor a blanket. She never got closer to Bucky. That was the worst kind of torture; to be so close to him after so many years and being unable to touch him. He understood how she felt.
But one day, after the experiments, which were shorter than usual, she was escorted to a padded room. Standing in the middle of said room was a female, leaning against some kind of stick. Jo's escort pushed her inside and shut the door. Jo sighed.
"Look, I'm really tired. I just came back from getting branded for the millionth time. Do you mind if I take a nap?" Jo asked the woman, who did nothing but stare straight at her, blue eyes stone cold.
"Oooookay. So, I'm just going to sit here-"
The blonde haired, blue eyed woman picked the stick up and marched towards Jo. Jo recognized the move as a threat and prepared herself for a beating. But before the woman got to her, Jo saw another stick laying on the ground a few feet away. As the blonde beauty drew closer, Jo ducked under her swing and rolled towards the stick. She crawled the rest of the way, but found that the woman was just behind her. She grabbed the stick with both hands and flipped on to her back, holding it up like a shield. She effectively protected herself from the Blonde's blow, but the woman hadn't given up yet.
She proceeded to jab the stick downwards, aiming for Jo's stomach. But Jo saw the attack coming and she rolled to the side. Before the woman could attack again, Jo kicked her legs out from underneath her. With the woman now on her back, Jo stood above her, stick at the woman's neck. Both women breathed heavily, but the woman began to smile. Jo's eyebrows furrowed together.
"The boys said you liked to fight," she said, her British accent almost as thick as the Russian accents. "But you've got a long way to go." Jo considered herself confused. The woman held out her hand, asking Jo for some help up. Unsure of what else to do, Jo pulled her off the ground.
"I'm Danika Stark. No, I'm not related to Howard Stark. It's a common last name," she said, flashing a grin which showed off her perfect white teeth.
"Who are you?" Jo asked.
"I'm your trainer. You want to beat up these boys someday? Well, they've been training here since they were 12, so you've got a long way to go," she replied, adding an amused chuckle at the end. "We can also say, I'm just about the only friend you've got in this godforsaken place."
Jo scowled.
"I don't need any friends."
Danika scrunched up her nose.
"No, of course, you don't. Because you can survive years of endless torture without one. Let's see how that goes for you."
The two stood at odd ends, staring coolly at each other for a good 5 minutes.
"Fine. What do I do with this stick?" Jo tossed the stick back and forth between her hands.
"It's not a 'stick', Joana. It's called a Bo staff. It's the first weapon you're going to learn to use." Danika rested the Bo Staff on her shoulder and strode towards Jo. She flinched, to which Danika sighed.
"I'm not going to hit you, Joana, not unless we're sparring. I see no point in it," Danika said with the most genuine smile Jo had seen since she arrived from anyone outside of Bucky. Jo nodded once.
Danika began her instructions, telling Jo where to put her feet and how far apart her hands should be on the staff. Jo listened to all her directions to the best of her ability.
"Good!" Danika praised. "Now, do it again."
Jo spent hours in the training room, building up a sweat until Danika told her to rest.
"The boys will be back any minute. They won't approve of me letting you rest, so as soon as you see that door move, jump onto your feet and hold that Bo like I told you," Danika ordered. Jo nodded, breathing deeply and chugging on the water her instructor provided.
The door opened and Jo did just as Danika said.
"How was she?" The soldier that Jo hated asked. Danika grinned.
"She'd whoop your sorry zhopa," Danika said. Jo swelled with pride. The soldier glared at the pair of them.
"She comes with me," he growled and turned to leave.
Danika dipped her head.
"What's his name?" Jo asked before leaving.
"Crestostum. Aleksi Crestostum," Danika told her. Jo sucked in a deep breath and followed him.

When she was tied back down to her chair two hours later, she was horrified to see Bucky's face black and blue from bruises, a trickle of blood running out of his ear. Jo pulled against her confinement, wishing she could touch him, wishing she could comfort him. He caught her eye scoffed, lips twitching upwards into a sarcastic smile.
"It's not the first time they've done it," he spoke bitterly. Jo's eyes welled with tears.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, leaning forward in her chair. He shook his shaggy hair.
"You can't do anything about this. The same way I can't do anything to help you." Jo couldn't help but hear the brokenness in his voice.
"Remember what you told me, that first day. Be brave. Please. We'll make it out of here. The good guys always win, Bucky." Her voice was soft, silky smooth, the way she used to talk to someone who had given up hope. He lowered his head again.
"I'm not sure we're good anymore, Jo."
"Bucky." He kept his head low. "James, look at me." The man lifted his bruised face to meet the gaze of the woman across from him. "They can call us dogs, they can chain us up like wild beats, and they can treat us like animals, but that doesn't change what we are. They can try to strip us of our humanity, and degrade us until we feel like we're nothing more than the garbage underneath their feet. They can do whatever they want to us, but they cannot take away our goodness, not if we wish to keep it."
The words were powerful enough to Bucky that he believed her. Those words kept him fighting for the next 19 years, but they were so enormously wrong that by the end of those 19 years, Bucky wouldn't even recognize the woman who said them.

"So, Danika Stark," Jo said, spinning the Bo Staff in her hand, "What are we learning today?"
Danika sat in the middle of the training room, a pile of books by her side. Danika looked up at her with a cocked eyebrow.
"Set the Bo down, Joana. Today, I'm going to teach you something that will do you good here, even when you are strapped to that chair these heathens keep you in," Danika said. She patted the spot next to her. Jo sat cross-legged beside her trainer. Once she did so, Danika placed a book on her lap.
"'Beginner's Russian'?" Jo read the title aloud, giving Danika a quizzical look. The blonde smiled and nodded her head.
"Go on, open it!" She ushered. Jo did as she was told. She began reading the first page. "I thought you could use the lessons. I'm not technically supposed to teach you anything besides fighting, but they aren't allowed to monitor this room so they won't know. I also thought you could use the break every now and again."
Jo flipped through the book until she got to the middle and brought the book to her nose, inhaling the scent.
"You're one of those people, huh? The ones who like the smell of books?" Danika asked. Jo nodded excitedly. "Well, now you've got an entire stack. Some of these are on Russian language, others are just about other subjects I thought you'd like to learn. You've got a few hours, go on, take your hand at learning Russian. We'll see if you can pick up languages as fast as you can fighting."

Truth be told, she wasn't as good at learning languages as she was at brute force, but she did try. It was by ten of these learning sessions later that she could say the Russian alphabet forwards, backward, and every other way you could imagine. Bucky helped her whenever he could. He had long ago begun learning Russian with his Trainer.
It had been a year since Jo had been in that awful place when the conversations between her and Bucky became almost natural. It was also around that time that Jo and Bucky were both getting really tired of Aleksi.
He came in, as he normally did, and attempted to hand feed Jo, as he normally did, and Jo tried to bite him, as she normally did. However, today, Jo had managed to snap the bonds on her legs before the soldiers came in.
She snapped at Aleksi's fingers, keeping her legs firm in the same position. She nicked his middle finger, giving him reason to slap her thrice across the face. When he had finished, murder was in Bucky's eyes, but Aleksi wasn't exactly finished.
"A good doggie doesn't bite the hand that feeds them," he sneered at her. Jo growled; her brown eyes saw only red.
"Call me dog one more time."
"What will you do? What will you do, little doggie?"
Jo lifted her freed legs and kicked Aleksi's knees. He stumbled backward, knocking the other soldier off his feet. The soldier smacked his head on the ground and didn't stand back up. Aleksi tried to stand back up, but his knees were evidently in pain. Bucky realized this to be an attempt for an escape and pulled at his restraints. Aleksi tried to throw a punch at Jo as she wriggled, but he was unsuccessful, as Jo just kicked him in the stomach. She used her newfound strength and the leverage of her legs to pull her arm restraints free. With a squeal of glee, she leaped to her feet and proceeded to punch Aleksi in the face. He stumbled to the ground again and Jo kicked his stomach. Again, she pushed him onto his back with her foot and stomped on his groin.
She almost cackled as he winced in pain. The sight was terrifying to Bucky. She went to unbuckle the leather about his wrists and ankles, but before she could stop her fingers from shaking and undo the straps, the door burst open. Soldier after soldier ran into the room. The first three knocked Jo to the ground and held her there. Four other soldiers dragged Aleksi and his friend out of the room and presumably to the doctor.
The Commander and Danika came strutting in. The Commander was furious, Danika looked far more worried. The soldiers holding Jo proceeded to beat Jo, in a similar way, perhaps, that she had previously been beating Aleksi.
"That's enough," Danika said, her voice firm.
"You don't give orders here, Stark," the Commander snapped.
"How am I supposed to keep my trainee in good condition if you keep beating her half to death every night?" Danika retorted.
"Don't you speak to me like that," the Commander growled in response.
"I need to speak with you," Danika glanced around at the people in the room, "Alone."
The Commander huffed and stormed out of the room. Danika sent a look towards Jo. Through her swollen eye, Jo couldn't tell if it was angry, or pitiful.
The soldiers threw her back into the chair and tied her back down using new leather bindings.
"You're so stupid," Bucky said, but there was a soft smile on his face. Jo grinned through the blood dripping down her face. "But I love you anyway."
"I love you, too."

________

Yeet. I did another thing. So here's another addition to this story.

I'm very happy to be sharing this story with all of yall and I'm very glad for your reads, comments, and votes.

I'm very excited to keep writing, ya know.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know!!

Go with grace,
authorsbane