The Experiment ✪

Run

Run

I say I ran. It was more of an awkward fast paced hobble. Running while on the verge of passing out from pain and blood loss when you're already malnourished from years of mistreatment isn't a great idea. And so I hobbled away from the fight, towards the pavement. Who knows where I would be now if I had actually been able to run. Dead in a ditch most likely. I didn't know it as I hobbled but I was heading straight towards the red headed woman who was loading up a blaster. I remember turning slightly and seeing her loading it up, wincing in pain at the movement and I remember turning to see the man standing frozen in the middle of the street with papas mask on the ground in front of him. Papa was bringing a gun up to shoot the man in the head. He looked confused, wondering whether he should and just as his finger began to close on the trigger the man on the bridge came flying in, mechanical wings open wide as he knocked papa over. It didn't do much, papa was back on his feet gun in hand within a matter of seconds. The woman's blaster was aimed right at him, I don't remember the next part too well. I can see myself lunging at her and knocking the blaster off point as it fired. I can see the blurry face of a Hydra man carrying me into a truck and I vaguely remember the sensation of my hands being shoved into thick cuffs.

I came back to consciousness in the back of a van. I was seated next to the man who had been fighting papa, the man from the bridge and the woman were sitting opposite, their hands cuffed as well. Why were my hands cuffed? What had I done wrong? I shifted slightly, enough for the man to notice. He stopped talking and looked at me. I looked at the ground.
"Who are you kid?" I didn't answer. In truth I could barely understand what he was saying. I was exhausted and while the wound on my leg had clotted I could feel the effects of too much blood loss creeping up on me. Trying to understand, let alone speak a language that isn't your first while on the verge of passing out for the second time in an hour isn't easy so I ignored the three strangers right up until the moment a fourth one appeared. She knocked out the guard next to me and woke me up out of the dazed state I had fallen in to. I visibly flinched as the guards body slumped to the floor at my feet and then the woman's helmet.
"Who are these guys?" She was speaking to the blonde man next to me,
"Sam's a friend. The kid's Hydra." Whatever they had been talking about before had obviously led them to the correct conclusion.
"Great." She somehow managed to uncuff them and cut a hole in the floor of the van in little over a minute. She shoved the man and the other woman out first, giving them instructions to wait at the side of the road for her to find them and turned to the man now crouching next to me, "what do we do with the kid?"
"She comes with us." My head snapped towards him as the woman shrugged and began working on my cuffs,
"What?"
"So you do speak English."
"I'm not going with you." I was conscious of my slight Romanian accent against his American one,
"I'm not giving you a choice kid." He pulled me down from the seat. I tried to struggle out of his grip and when that didn't work I opened my mouth to scream but his hand slammed down over my mouth before any sound could come out and I was shoved as gently as possible through the hole. I had no choice but to stay still as the car passed over me but the second it was gone I stumbled up and away from where he was already rolling up off the ground. I backed away as he started to approach and right into the arms of Sam. I spun around and stamped my foot down as hard as possible. He swore but his grip didn't loosen and he kept a tight hold of me as a black van pulled up. I was strapped into a seat and ignored for the majority of the ride. They were all too concerned about the bullet wound in the woman's shoulder to focus on me. I mean why would they? It wasn't as if they had just kidnapped me without explanation.

Sam kept his grip on my arm as we were led into what appeared to be a dam. I kept my mouth shut and followed as a doctor ran up to meet us and take care of the red headed woman,
"She's lost at least a pint, maybe two." The doctor nodded. I didn't bother to mention I knew exactly how much blood she had lost. The other woman said something about wanting to meet someone, I don't know I wasn't listening. I was more focused on the problem of being trapped on enemy ground with little chance of escaping in the near future.

We were led to a room filled with hospital equipment, a man was lying on a hospital bed in the centre. The blonde man and the red headed woman seemed surprised, Sam just looked confused.
"Who's this?"
"The kid? No clue, some soldiers were talking about needing to dispose of her so we saved her." I stopped. Dispose? As in kill. The noise faded out and the room started going dark. Why would they-? I mean I was meant to be useful, bringing about a new age, the key to the future. What reason could they possibly have to kill me? They were all I had. My heart was pumping faster than normal, I felt dizzy, like the whole world was about to come crumbling down around me.
"Kid? Kid?" A voice cut through the buzzing growing in my ears. I looked up, "You alright?" It was Sam. I didn't respond for a moment and then,

"Why would they kill me?"
"Depends what you've done."
"Nothing, I haven't done anything. I just did what they told me to and they let me see papa."
"Papa?"
"Yes. The man you were fighting? That was papa. If I let them stab me with their chemicals they let me see him."

The whole room stopped. The man with the eyepatch turned to look at the woman with black hair. The man with blonde hair was staring at me and the half dead woman raised an eyebrow. Sam's whistle broke the silence and the blonde haired man spoke,
"Bucky is your father?"
"They just called him soldat but if that is his name then yes, Bucky is my father. Adoptive father."
"What- I mean how? Why?"
"He's the only person I have left."
"Right, okay. Can you tell us your name?"
"FR373." They all stared at me blankly, "Freya. Pa- Bucky called me Freya."
"It's very nice to meet you Freya. I'm Steve, Sam is next to you, Natasha is on the chair bleeding out," he chuckled slightly at the angry look the woman- Natasha gave him, "and those guys are Maria Hill and Nick Fury."
"That's just Fury to you." He sat up a bit and looked me over and then turned to talk to Natasha and Steve. I tuned out of the conversation and kept my eyes trained on the floor. All I could hear was papa's voice telling me to run over and over again. Had he known? About their plans to kill me. Over his voice I could hear myself asking why. It didn't make any sense.

While I may have been young, I wasn't stupid. I knew that I needed to find papa, I knew that he would be sent out again and again to hunt these people down until every last one of them was dead so therefore my best chance was to stay with them until I could find him. What I was going to do when I found him... well I never bothered to think that far ahead. And that was it, my decision had been made.

I pulled myself out of the chaos of my mind and back to reality. The doctor was still trying to stop the blood flowing from Natasha's wound so I stood up and walked over,
"Can I uh, can I try something? I might be able to help."
"What?"
"If you are going to fight them a wound like that will hold you back. I think I can speed up the process."
"Look kid-"
"Let her try, I want to see what she's talking about." I let a small smile show and the doctor moved out of the way. I stepped forwards and placed my hand over the bullet hole,
"Is the bullet still in there?"
"No it went straight through." I nodded and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as I slowly let a few strands of that weaving blue magic sink into her skin and begin to knit the wound shut. If I had been less exhausted it would have been over in a matter of seconds but by the time I was done I was pale and sweating. My knees wobbled as I stepped back and Sam's hand came up to brace me as he, Steve and the doctor stared in utter shock through the bloodied hole in Natasha's jacket to the perfect patch of skin where a hole had been just moments before.

"What the fuck?"