Queen

Chapter Sixteen-Asylum

Although it's day outside, it's dark within the building. I have no problem seeing after I shift my eyes and I know Tony and Sam are fine as well, but I know Cap can't be faring well. Trusting his other senses, I lead us through the cement columns towards what I know is a hidden stairwell.

"We won't hit security until we descend the stairs. I have no clue what we'll be hit with, so be ready for anything." I say quietly, although it sounds loud in the large empty space. At last we reach the wall. Three long lines run down it, like sutures, and I reach up to the very top of the middle one and push until a small square of it gives way. With a shudder, the cement parts slightly, revealing the mechanical inside. I push them apart just enough so that the three of us can get through, then lead us down a set of spiral metal stairs with Tony's suit lighting the way from behind me. When we reach the bottom my legs are shaky, and not from exhaustion. A red, metal door is now between us and the labs. I stare at it, horrified. The places I was kept in, the table where I was experimented on, my personal hell. I guess my trepidation shows, because I feel Steve move behind me and see Tony move in front of me. Sam stays beside me, ready. Tony puts his hand on the door handle and rips the door off, disturbing the silence in a massive way. I flinch and wait for the bullets, but none come. Tony steps through the huge opening and finds nothing. He turns in a circle, then looks at us, shrugging.

"I don't see a damn thi-" But Tony doesn't get to finish his sentence. A fist appears and knocks Tony on his side, surprising us all, but we're quick to act. We all run through the hole in the wall and face whoever just knocked Tony over. We're shocked by what we found. I notice his height first. Small. His face is round, still having baby fat in his cheeks. His hair is brown and curly and his body is thin and gangly. The kid can't be more than fifteen. But all that isn't what gets to me. His eyes are the same brown and green as mine, just flipped. Green surrounds the pupil while the rest is a light brown. Burns surround his ankles, just like mine, and I'm sure if I could see the bottoms of his feet they'd look that way too.

"Incoming." Sam says. I follow his gaze and see my parents, also staring at me from the far wall. Papers are gathered in their arms, but blood spatter covers their white lab coats. Orderlies are gathered around them, a little wall of simpering sycophants. Clearly, we interrupted something and they're now trying to escape. Anger rises inside me, stronger than ever before.

"Who is he?" I roar at them, infuriated. My parent's eyes widen when they see me, acting out of their control.

"Oh shit." Sam whispers, but I dismiss him immediately, focusing on my parents.

"He's your brother, sweetheart." My mother says, her voice as calm and soothing as ever. A sob escapes my throat as I look at him, his face blank of all emotion. A machine made by monsters, but not a monster himself. He can't be. Not yet. He's still young. There's a chance for him. There must be a chance for him. "And you'll be with him. Fighting with him, right now. As a family." My mother continues smoothly. My father pushes her behind him and she starts to slowly scamper away. I take a step towards her, but my father draws my eye when he speaks.

"Happy Birthday, dear." He says and I swear if I could shoot fire from my eyes he'd be a crisp. "V, who are you?" My father asks, his voice as deep as ever. Just like that, I flinch and crumple to the ground, my knees slamming against the concrete.

"I-I...I'm an Avenger." I stutter, pain causing me to have tunnel vision.

"V, who are you?" He asks again. I put my hands over my ears, but the words echo in my mind. Who are you, who are you, who are you? Just barely, I feel a cold metal hand on my right shoulder.

"Don't move." Tony says to the kid, pointing an arm at him. My parents hurry away from us, towards the stairs in the corner of the room. They've done all they could do. Sam is after them in a second, moving around us instead of passing...my brother. My gaze returns to the kid as he stares at me, clearly not as fazed as I am. Steve appears in front of me, turning his back on the kid only because Tony holds him at bay. He rips off his helmet and puts my face in his hands, cradling it.