TALES FROM FALLEN WARRIORS ─ marvel

II. Warring Heart

Chapter Two
Julian

"They can't do this," Soroya says once we get back to her cell. I shut the door behind us, watching her sit on the edge of her bed. Her eyes are puffy and red rimmed from tears, and her voice is quieter than usual as she continues: "They can't take you away."

Feeling a sharp pain appear in my chest, I walk over towards her, getting down onto my knees, grabbing onto her hands, which until now have been resting in her lap.

"I'm not going anywhere and he can't make me, I don't work for him. He's just going to assign someone to 'help' me train you, but I won't leave you. I promise."

She nods, blinking back fresh tears. "I'm scared."

"I know." I wish there was more I could say, but there isn't. Neither one of us has any control here, any say in what happens going forward. If I'm being honest, I'm as scared as she is. I'm scared that I'm wrong, that I will be forced away from her and she'll be left alone with whoever this new trainer is. I'm scared she'll be hurt, or killed, or worse, she'll be turned into the weapon HYDRA wants her to be. I doubt that last thing is even possible though, even if this new trainer is as forceful and unyielding as the Winter Soldier. Soroya's light is one that cannot be put out, no matter how many people try.

She tears her hands away from mine and wraps her arms around my neck, burying her face in the crook of my neck. I rub her back in an attempt to soothe her, beginning to hum 'Moon River' to her softly, like she does every night before she sleeps, like her mother used to before she was captured.

"I love you, Julian." She mumbles against my shoulder.

I squeeze her tighter, smiling despite myself, despite everything. "I love you, too."

-

As soon as I get back to the cabin I begin making dinner, knowing Ana is probably starving. I find her sitting on top of her bed, her head buried in a textbook, her wrist still chained. There's multiple places throughout the cabin I have set up with chains and even cages when the time calls for it. Ana continually complains about them, but I insist every time she does that it's necessary.

Ana can control her mind in her other forms, but she can't control her shifting into those forms. Any moment she could change into a tiger or a buffalo and there's nothing she or I can do about it until she eventually shifts back. I put her blood in PROJECT SHIFTER's serum in hopes the mixture would fix this problem, and my hopes paid off. Soroya is proof of that. I had hoped to give Ana the modified serum, but Emma Becker was fired, and soon after she disappeared, taking her serum and formulas with her. Most of what was left behind in our old lab is redacted. I was assigned to train Soroya to control her abilities, because in the beginning she couldn't control her shifting either, but she learned how. I thought maybe in time Ana could do the same, but it's proven no results. I've taught her the same things I've taught Soroya and it's done nothing.

Ana wants me to take samples from Soroya or capture her and bring her back here to be experimented on. She's been saying that from the beginning. I could never do it, even before I grew close to Soroya. When I was assigned to her, she was twelve years old. Just a child. She had just lost her home, her brother, her parents, her life, and I was supposed to experiment on her? Back then I still thought that what we were doing in HYDRA would save the world, but I still couldn't bring myself to do it. I kept making excuses about nearly getting caught and her not being ready for experimentation yet, but they were all lies. Ana knows that. She knows I've grown to love Soroya, and she hates me for it, hates her even more.

She may be able to keep her mind in other forms, but her mind has changed because of this serum and this situation. Ever since she got her powers she's become angrier, colder, more aggressive. I started chaining her after she attempted to bite me when I wouldn't let her outside. Sometimes she gets so frustrated and angry her animal instincts take hold and she just lashes out. It's hard to be a human in an animal body, Soroya has told me as much, and I've seen it first hand. But shapeshifting hasn't effected Soroya like it has Ana. Soroya has the purest heart and the most enduring optimism I've ever seen, and from what I've heard, she's always been like that. Her animal side may effect her to a degree, but nowhere near the level it's effected Ana. I wish that weren't the case. Some days it feels like I don't even know Ana anymore, like she's an entirely different person. Some days I find myself missing her even though she's right there.

"How was the little brat today?" Ana asks without looking at me.

"Soroya," I put emphasis on her name. "Was able to stop herself from shifting when she felt an urge during training."

"Did she kill anyone?"

"No."

Ana tsks. "Shame."

I finish making her chicken and some cooked vegetables, and after I put some on a plate for her, I unlock her wrist and then cuff her ankle to the steal kitchen table. She sits down and digs right in, devouring the chicken like she hasn't eaten in a week. Soroya eats meat like that too, like a starving animal. Something about meat sets off their animal side. Blood, fighting, anger, fear, and other external factors contribute to their shifting. Anything primal brings out the primal.

"Anything else interesting happen?" Ana asks, starting to work on the vegetables.

I contemplate for a moment if I should tell her about a new trainer being brought in, but I end up deciding not to. If I do, she'll ask why, and then we'll get into another fight about Soroya.

I shake my head, flashing a smile. "Nope, just the usual. What were you reading?"

"One of our old biology textbooks from Oxford."

I smile at the memory of our years at Oxford. She and I were so young when we went there. 'The twin geniuses' is what other students called us, sometimes they meant it as a compliment and other times as an insult. Ana and I felt like outcasts being there in our early teens, we didn't have many friends, but we got through it. Somehow, we always manage to endure no matter what gets thrown our way.

I reach across the table and grab onto her right hand, placing a soft kiss on the back of it, watching her expression soften. "We'll get through this, Ana." I whisper to her, rubbing my thumb across her knuckles.

"I don't share your optimism." She whispers back.

"I'll figure out a way to fix your powers and then we'll leave this all behind, we'll find some place HYDRA can't find us and we'll have a normal, happy life."

"The three of us, right?" Ana asks, her tone becoming bitter. "You would never leave her behind, you would take her with us."

I open my mouth to respond, but I say nothing. She's right. I would never leave Soroya behind. When the day does come that I fix Ana and take her away from here, I'll take Soroya too. There's no point in denying it, I won't even try to. Ana rips her hand away from mine and shakes her head, looking at me in disgust.

"Ana..." I begin, but I trail off, not knowing what to say.

"You say 'when I figure out a way to fix your powers' like you haven't already. The solution to my problem is sleeping in a cell at the top of that mountain, but you refuse to do anything about it. Don't lie to me and say she needs more time or more data needs to be collected, because it's bullshit. You let me sit here everyday and suffer while you help her and make her life better. When did a little brat you hardly know become more important than me? What's so special about her? She's nothing! I'm your sister! Your twin! Does that mean anything to you anymore?"

"It's not like that!" I argue, reaching for her hand again, but she jerks it away.

"You love her more than you love me." Tears now line her eyes as she begins to unlock her chains, but she abruptly stops, her body tensing up, her eyes going wide in fear. I know that look. She's about to shift.

"Ana, I do love you. Of course I love you," I plead to her, urging her to believe me. "But I love her, too. When I get us all out of here, you'll come to love her too. I know you will."

Ana growls in reply, her body hunching over and convulsing as her human form fades away and a tiger takes her place. I reach out for her, but she growls even louder, her snarl and aggressive demeanor so inhuman it makes me step back. I see tears roll down the tiger's cheeks as she curls down onto the ground, resting her head on her hands. Even though I want to approach her, I know better than to even try. Instead I leave her there and head towards my bedroom, and only once the door is shut do I let my own tears fall; tears for Soroya, tears for Ana, and tears for the knowledge that even if I do manage to get them both to safety, we'll never be free of the torment HYDRA has brought on all of us.