Science and Magick (LokixOC)

Prologue

It was so simple to Zoë, all she'd ever known was Hydra and science. It's all she needed, it gave her purpose and drive. Then there was that fateful day in New York, where everything changed.

Or at least, that's where Zoë thought everything had changed. But of course, things had never really been the way she'd believed they were. To the extent of Zoë's knowledge, her family had been loyal to Hydra for decades. Each generation of women working themselves to the bone trying to both recreate Dr. Erskine's research and avenge him.

However, such as it is, the truth was much more than she ever could have imagined.

Her great grandmother, the wife of Abraham Erskine, was captured with her husband when Schmitt forced him to continue his research by order of Hitler's SS organisation Hydra. With her husband locked away, Zoë's great grandmother had no other choice but to give birth to her coming child whilst in captivity. Due to the intense stress of the situation, she died, leaving her only daughter in the hands of the worlds most covert and powerful sinister organisation.

Zoë's grandmother - along with Zoë and her mother - were lead to believe that Erskine and his wife were working with Hydra voluntarily, that he was captured by the Americans and forced to use his serum on one of their soldiers to take away everyone else's freedom. With no evidence to contrast this information Zoë and her family grew to be radicalised, hating America and what they stole from them. Most of all they hated Steve Rogers, Captain America, the man that stole Dr. Erskine's life's work. The reason he died, his murderer.

The assurance of his death, when The Red Skull had given his own life to take down Captain America, was a story that kept their family loyal. Zoë had believed it so fiercely when she was a child, just as her mother had. She used to dream to one day live up to the ideal that Schmitt had engrained in all of his followers. Being the scientist to provide Hydra with the super soldier serum was everything to Zoë. The lies of eras before effectively served their purpose to inspire the Erskine girls, they worked their hardest to live up to the fantasy created by the Doctor and Red Skull.

All of her life, Zoë was happy to devote herself to this one mission. She loved her work, she loved science and she loved Hydra. At an early age she showed signs that she was the first to inherit Dr. Erskine's full intellect and passion. While her predecessors were impressive, Zoë was everything they ever could have hoped for.

According to Hydra's records the Americans had stolen all Erskine's research when they had taken him so everyone on the serum project had to work from scratch, Zoë was the closest they'd ever been. She was their prodigy. The second she began showing her inherited genius, Hydra put Zoë to work, sparing no expense to supply her with the best equipment, education and resources. By the age of 16 she had already graduated from Oxford, surpassing every expectation and barrier in her way.

Not only was Zoë close to cracking the serum so that it could be produced in bulk and used on anyone, she was also close to perfecting complete cognitive manipulation; mind control. It was this research that had made the Winter Soldier so much more effective in recent years. Essentially, she'd given Hydra the perfect assassin.

It was then, after this achievement, that she received the full attention and admiration she believed she deserved. She was the Erskine they had been hoping for after all, the one that would make her great grandfather proud.

Once her genius was recognised, Zoë was able to make certain demands, such as a better home for her mother. While Hydra was more than happy to supply Zoë with everything she needed, the same couldn't have been said for the women before her. Only when they began to see results did their generosity flourish.

When she was sure her mother was given everything she needed and more, she proposed going to America. Her precise wording being that she wanted to "use their own research against them". There were a number of remarkable scientists working at Colombia University, ones she believed could further her understanding of cellular manipulation. There was also the fact that New York was the place Erskine was held. The place he died. She wanted to see it, hoped he had left her a clue or a message. Anything.

Of course, she didn't tell Hydra that, emotions had no place in Hydra. Nor did they really have much of a place in Zoë's life. She allowed herself few weaknesses, moments of sentiment; where she would miss her father, dream of what could have been, long for a freedom she never really had. They were moments she kept to herself, never sharing them with anyone, what good would it do to show someone her vulnerability? It wouldn't. A lesson Hydra had taught her and one she was grateful for, vulnerability wasn't something to be shown. Most believed you should hide your weaknesses from your enemies, Hydra believed you should hide them from everyone. Even yourself. It was a lesson everyone went through there. Conditioning. Not only erasing and denying mental weaknesses but physical too. Hydra was kind enough to provide most of it's workers with pain threshold training. Eventually after being submitted to enough pain your body gets used to it, if you can't feel most pain then you can't get distracted by it.

And so this is how our story begins. A heavily conditioned 23 year old woman working in New York City trying to unlock scientific secrets the world wasn't quite ready for. Little did she know she wasn't ready for the secrets she'd be unlocking either.