Project Alpha

Chapter 17- Firsts

"Bruce?" I asked the air, obviously looking for Banner.

"Overhear," he called from behind his computer-filled desk. I made my way over to him, kind of nervous about what I was about to ask him. There are things that I feel that I should know, but I don't know if I want to know everything.

"I just have a question, but if you're busy, I can leave," I say, noticing all of the work he has laid out across his desk. I wanted to know about my past, but I didn't want to interrupt Bruce.

"No, no, it's fine. What's up?" he asks. Now is my chance, I guess.

"Remember how you had those files about me?" I ask as he nods his head. "Well, I was wondering if I could look at them, and see if you had any more?"

"Aria, I don't know if you really want to see a lot of that right now," he answers. I can feel my heart dropping and feel myself getting disappointed. I just nod my head and give him a light smile with a shrug.

I open my mouth to tell him that it was fine, but he talked first, "If you really want to know now, then I can give them to you, but maybe pace yourself with what you watch and read." This shouldn't make me happy; seeing files of me being held captive, that is. But, I have very little memory of what happened to me.

Faces flash in my mind, scenarios, too, but nothing makes sense to me. I don't know how to get my memories back, or if it just happens, but I want them back. They might scare me, they might make me want to punch things, but, without them, it feels like a part of me is missing. This is why I am desperately grasping for anything that will give me some sort of insight as to what my life was like.

"Thank you, Bruce," I tell him. He has no idea how thankful I am. He has helped me a lot since I have arrived here.

"Everything on you is right here. When you're done, just bring the tablet back," Bruce said, handing over the electronic device. I thanked him and headed back to my room.

Once I was back in the comfort of my own room, I sat at my desk. The tablet was placed in front of me, unlocked, with the form that stated all of my basic information opened.

Was I prepared to go through with this? I had no idea. The need to know was overcoming me, but the need to move on was just as strong. To me, though, the only way to move on is to know what had happened to me for so many years. These memories were going to come back to me eventually, but I wanted to know as much about myself as I could. Maybe it could prevent some of the future episodes that I'd have.

I grabbed the tablet, took it to my bed, and grabbed a blanket to wrap around myself. I read the file that had my basic information, just to see if I had missed anything, and sure enough, I had. I found that my mother's name was Sarah Brown, and she too had been killed by Hydra.

I knew she was dead, though, so why was it so painful to read?

I scrolled to the next file, but it was a video file. I pressed play, not fully prepared for what I was about to witness.

***

There I was, walking the halls with a young Brock Rumlow. I was a little girl, probably about seven or eight years old. There were pigtails in my hair, and I was wearing a black skin-tight suit.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see when we get there," Rumlow responded. You could tell that he was irritated to have to walk a child to where ever he was taking me. He was at least holding my hand, so I couldn't take away all of the credit.

"What's going on?" I asked, clearly distraught. They probably wiped my mind so many times so that I would learn to not ask any questions.

"You'll see when we get there," he simply responded. That's when you could see that I was clearly nervous about wherever I was being taken. I guess that even a child could tell that Hydra was full of bad people with plans to do bad things.