Summers' Purpose

Chapter 51

A/n : Scenes with some slight violence trigger ahead. Read with caution if need be. Take care!

Her clothes hung to her frame as she landed in front of the warehouse an hour later. She pulled her mask off and threw it aside, taking in a deep breath as she walked past the van toward the building. She knew they were waiting for her, judging from the tension and anger tainting the air so heavily that she could almost taste it in her mouth. Gritting her teeth, Lyssa pushed the door open and stepped inside. A pair of strong, heavy hands charged her, grabbing her shirt before throwing her to a nearby wall. Susie's face filled her view, red with anger and further accentuated by the vein in her forehead.

One of Susie's hands flew to Lyssa's throat, squeezing the air out of her as hard as she could manage. From the corner of her eyes, Lyssa could see that Marco was pointing the barrel of a handgun at her temple. Timmy was at his side, looking conflicted between helping them and defusing the situation when Dr. Erik began screaming for Susie to let Lyssa go. Lyssa twisted Susie's hand and pushed her away. Susie stumbled backward, caught in time by Timmy before she landed on the floor. Lyssa's eyes flicked to Marco, glowing faintly with warning as he stepped back to stand with the doctor.

"Stop it! Stop it this instant! Stand down and tell me what actually happened!" The doctor's brow furrowed in anger, standing in between Susie and Lyssa with his arms outstretched to remind them to stay apart. He looked furiously back and forth between all of them, sweat forming on his brow.

"I told you what happened! What else do you need to hear?! This bitch did it again!" Susie struggled against Marco and Timmy as both of them held on to her arms when she tried to confront Lyssa again.

"Quiet! Let Lyssa speak." Dr. Erik kept his gaze on Lyssa, who merely looked with disinterest at the three. Susie quickly protested but was cut short by the doctor when he gave her a sharp glare. She cussed under her breath, shrugging herself away from Marco and Timmy's grasp before turning away to check the bandage on her forearm instead. Dr. Erik turned his attention back to Lyssa when he was sure Susie wouldn't interrupt. "You! Where were you? Why did you return much later from the rest of your team?"

Lyssa recalled watching from a distance as a tall, blonde man rushed toward the woman from before—Natasha. She wondered if that was the 'Steve' that Natasha was talking to. Lyssa stayed in the air long after they were gone, contemplating whether she should follow them or not. The notion of defying Dr. Erik's orders brought back memories of searing pain, so she decided against it for now; at least until she had more pieces of the puzzle to put together. She made up a lazy excuse for the doctor instead. "I forgot where the base was. Directions look a little different from the air."

"Knowing her background, that excuse is just fucking bullshit and you know it, doc!" Susie argued.

"Nice comeback, idiot," Marco scoffed at Lyssa. "I know something happened back there. What did you do to us?"

"Be quiet! I'll be the one asking questions!" Dr. Erik silently warned the three to zip it, snapping his fingers to get Lyssa's attention once more. "Now, do you want to try and think about your answer again?" Lyssa quietly shook her head, her reaction not giving him anything to work with. He felt his frustration threatening to boil over, quickly taking a swig from his flask, letting the hard liquor help wash some of it off. Gripping tight to the small container, he mulled over his options.

Dr. Erik sighed, trying his best to keep his calm. "If that's how you want to do this—fine. We'll get back to that later when you're in the chair. Now, tell me, Lyssa. What Susie and the boys told me—is it true?" Dr. Erik's voice was low but it barely hid his anger. He waited as Lyssa's gaze slowly moved from Susie to him; eyes still empty as before. That gave him hope that this was fixable. That she was still moldable and wasn't just another broken tool. That he still had a chance to make a name for himself, by being the one who returned HYDRA's golden child to them. "Speak, soldier."