𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄'𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐊𝐄 // 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐘

CHAPTER 4, unforeseen

1942

A denied application. Ben really was right. They didn't let her join the Compound V program. Ben himself on the other hand...

He took the world by storm. History's first ever superhero. Interviews followed by interviews, guest appearances, news articles, all about the same person: Soldier Boy. He earned the moniker after somehow leading multiple divisions to victory.

She would've loved to say that this was unfathomable in her mind, but deep down, she knew that Ben was perfectly able to do it.

The fact that they refused to accept her into the Compound V program didn't stop her from participating in the war, though. Two weeks after the successful experiment involving Ben, Dr. Sterling was ready to send him to war. But now, Ben, or more like Soldier Boy, was under the rule of Vought. They, on the other hand, were against sending one of their most important assets to the middle of the war.

And for months, they didn't.

This wasn't what Ben had signed up for. His plan was simple: get the V, be sent to war, come home, and hopefully make his father and everybody else proud. And where was he now? Not at war. He was just sitting in some tower, surrounded by people who still thought of him as an experiment. They didn't want to let him out.

His thoughts are interrupted by a few knocks on his door, slowly opening without a creak.

"Sir, you've got a visitor. On the ground floor," a neatly dressed man says, peeking through his door.

"I doubt anybody would want to visit me," Ben grunts, pushing himself up from his bed where he sat until then. It wasn't his father, that was for sure, not his mom either.

The elevator comes to a halt with a click, the doors opening without him even laying a hand on them. He liked it, actually. Ben steps out, and his attention is immediately caught by the commotion going on over at the reception. With a smirk, he struts over there.

"He's not your property! He has the right to leave this building whenever he wants to, I've read through your stupid policies two times!" She rages at the man behind the counter. Fury was written over her face, and Ben would've hated to be in the place of that man.

"You are not allowed to talk to him officially. Letting you in here is the maximum I can do," the clerk calmly replies. How much self control could that take?

Ben clears his throat, grabbing the attention of both of them.

"C'mon Vi," he motions over for her.

Vi shoots a spiteful glare towards the clerk before walking over to Ben.

"I was just talking about you," she starts, hands placed on her hips. "You're locked up here like some fairytale princess, is this what you wanted?"

A sigh escapes Ben's lips as he looks around them. They were surrounded by Vought workers, they were the only people Ben has seen in the past days, week maybe. Vi was right, he was utterly useless if he was just going to be trapped in the tower. He was just a trophy for Vought.

"They said they were going to deploy me when they need to," Ben replies. He had a feeling that it was all just a lie.

"You really believe this?" She scoffed, shaking her head sideways.

"No," he admits. He understood that Vought considered him too precious to be put onto the battlefield.

They both understood it. But this isn't going to help anybody.

"I had a talk with Dr. Sterling. We're going to the war," she states so calmly that at first, Ben wasn't even sure that she was not joking. She wasn't.

"Vought isn't letting me. I'm stuck here doing publicity shoots and war propaganda films. I'll try to convince them, see what I can-"

"Sterling already received permission to take you on a mission. If you do well there, they will let you out. You'd still have those films and photoshoots, but at least you would actually play a part in the war. I'm here to take you to Sterling."

Ben's brows furrow, his eyes slightly widen.

"You're working with Sterling now?" He inquires. Last time he checked Vi was not part of Sterling's operations.

"I'm a field medic now. Assigned next to you. So wherever you go, I go," she states, turning on her heels and heading towards the exit.

For some moments, Ben stands there, thunderstruck. He's being taken to the war? And Vi is going with him? As a field medic?

2022

"Really, Butcher?" A tall man asks, pointing at Vi standing in the doorway. "You're really bringing along a supe? The same supe who was in the same team as Soldier Boy? You think Vought is just letting her get off the radar?"

"I'm not with Vought, smartass. Officially I am, but I don't have a chip, or my whole phone bugged by them. They aren't sure whether I'm still alive, they think I died in 1984," she explains as calmly as possible.

She didn't expect much else from the group of Billy Butcher. They didn't like her, but she wasn't fond of them either, at least not yet. But if they resembled their leader in any way, then she will likely leave the group before they even step foot in Russia.

Russia, out of all places. She didn't like the cold, and Ben didn't either. Unlike the rest of Payback, she was in the dark about what had happened in Nicaragua all those years ago. Gunpowder was the only one who didn't have anything to do with whatever was going on, but the rest of them? Even Crimson Countess, who was supposed to be Ben's girlfriend. Did he love her? A bit. Did he love somebody even more? Yes, even if she wasn't aware of it.

The following day they were already at the airport, boarding some Russian woman's private jet. How did they get their hands on it? Vi had no idea, because it was definitely not owned by Butcher's friends, if he even had any. It was on the plane where she heard the fully orchestrated plan for the first time.