ASSEMBLE | mcu [2]

𝟬𝟭 | 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆

Matera, South Italy

It had been decades since Lorena had last set foot in her hometown. It was a beautiful city, set atop a rocky terrain, built up with ancient white architecture that lined the cobblestone streets. Monasteries and churches were placed at almost every street corner, and locals seemed content, happy, cheerful as the sun beat down on them. There was hardly a spot of shade to hide in.

Lorena waited on a wooden bench on the grounds of a children's home. She'd been to hundreds of these in the last few weeks, tracking them down one by one, hunting for the record she had come across almost a year prior. She had completed all the research she could online, had narrowed down her options, and had flown out to Italy at the earliest opportunity provided.

As she waited for the Mother Superior to return, Lorena turned her face up to the sky, feeling the sun warm her cheeks. Somewhere across the grounds, a bell tolled twice.

She had been in Italy for weeks, renting out a little room in the city centre, saving what finances she had left from her final mission on food. She was so close, had narrowed down the options. She would find out who she was in the end, find out who her real parents were.

She had to, for she feared that if she never found out, she would never be able to shake the legacy of Edoardo di Santo.

'Signorina di Santo?'

Lorena snapped her eyes open, turning them to face the Mother Superior. She had a kind, weathered face. She smiled at Lorena as she approached, bowing her head in a soft greeting.

'Reverend Mother,' Lorena said in her native Italian, standing and exchanging two quick kisses on each cheek with the woman. 'Thank you, again, for doing this for me.'

'It's my pleasure,' said Mother Superior, taking Lorena's hands in her own. 'It's your mother you are looking for?'

Lorena nodded, 'Yes.' She couldn't tell anyone who she really was. Outwardly, Lorena was no older than twenty two, having been physically frozen for most of her life, only released when her services had been required. She had the year prior ended the organisation that had created her, stolen her, and turned her into a soulless assassin. She had been left with nothing, no one, having killed her adoptive father and brother in her mission for redemption. Her mother had died a few days before that, unbeknownst to Lorena.

She had lost everything she had known in a matter of hours, and it had been by her own hand. With it, she had lost any hope of finding out who she really was.

At the tender age of four, she had been taken in by Edoardo di Santo, renowned at the time as a symbol of peace for southern Italian counties. At some point, he had formed Chimera, an agency that operated to raise assassins, agents and spies. Lorena had been one of the only successful experiments, formed by some kind of fluke. At the age of ten she had been conducted into the agent training programme. At sixteen, she had been used as a test subject to recreate Doctor Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum, the exact serum that had created the legendary Captain America.