Chapter 1

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"I know you

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"I know you. You're the Spider-Boy."
- Lydia "2051" Romanoff

"Your pain only makes you stronger

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"Your pain only makes you stronger."
- Natasha Romanoff

Soundtrack

Silence - Marshmello, Khalid
   "My whole life, I've felt like a burden"

All We Do - Oh Wonder
   "All we do is live inside a cage"

Rescue - Lauren Daigle
   "Though you have been broken, your innocence stolen"

Elastic Heart - Sia
   "You did not break me, I'm still fighting for peace"

Wait - M83
   "There's no end, there is no goodbye"

Ghosts - BANNERS
   "We won the battle, but lost the war"

R.I.P. 2 My Youth - The Neighbourhood
   "Sweet little baby in a world full of pain"
   "I was naive and hopeful and lost"


THE BEGINNING 

Germany 2009

      A life worth living was not something the young girl could imagine. Her body had been beaten down after years in Hydra's care. In their eyes, she was a prize, the first child to start in their care—at least the first one to survive.

Her name: 2051

She was two when Hydra first got their hands on her. The start of their human experimentation on children. Whether she lived or died did not matter. Not to them. They could always start again. Like the Black Widow program, children were easy to obtain, especially girls. 

Hydra didn't know exactly where to start at first. Their technology was still in development, and none of their previous experiments had been successful. 

They began with her brain. Teaching her what they found important. Having her learn languages that would be of use: English, German, and Russian. 

Then her body. Forcing her to partake in martial arts and weaponry training. They wanted her to be the best and wouldn't settle for anything else. They couldn't.

As she grew, her memories from before vanished. All she knew now was contained inside four rusted grey walls. If her experimentation was successful, she would become a weapon. 

A weapon they had been taught the same thing since her arrival. Hydra is good. 

As Hydra's intellect expanded, the testing began. They impaled her with prongs, tested different chemicals in her system, used radioactive drugs in her body, anything for a reaction. 

It was 207 days after the first altered chemical entered her system when they finally got a reaction. A new doctor had been brought in, trying one radioactive drug mixed with another. What happened next remained absent from her memory. 

But the pain that followed did not.

From that day forward, she was never the same. Her body was consumed with a power she was not able to handle. Hormones forever changing, brown hair turned white.

Hydra had created their first-ever mutation. She was just nine years old.

The first to survive that is.

Not long after, the small barred window started letting in snow. That let her know it was winter. The cold would only get worse. It seemed to get worse each year. She sat pressed against the wall, feet curled under her body to keep them from freezing off. There was a single book in Russian inside her room, which she couldn't read well. That language was one she was struggling to learn.

If she didn't read, she would be waiting. Waiting for more experimentation or combat training. Waiting for something that would drain her energy further. Sleep wasn't an option. If they saw her sleeping, they would take her out. She didn't want that. She just wanted to rest.

So, she read. She read the book that didn't make sense because it was better than the alternative.

Suddenly, a blast shook the building. The walls vibrate from the force. Smoke filled the main room, filtering into her cell.

The young girl tucked burrowed in the corner, trying to hide in the shadows. Men in black suits rushed into the main room, bullets flying. She used the book to protect her head, knowing it wouldn't do much good. Distantly she could hear screaming. It was coming from down the hall.

Holding her breath, she hoped that nobody would come to her cell. That nobody saw her and that danger stayed away.

But that didn't happen. She was spotted. One of the people in a black suit approached. They took off their helmet and revealed themselves. It was a woman with short brown hair and pale skin. "Hi," she said, kneeling in front of the locked cell door. There was a gentleness to her actions, but still, the young girl did not trust. "What's your name?" She never got a response, but the woman could see the terror in the little girl's eyes. "Fury," she spoke into the air. "We have a problem."

That's when it all changed for her.

SHIELD was the group she was raised to hate. A group she was told wanted to kill her. 

But she wasn't treated that way. 

She was put in a large room. Larger than any room she had before. It was pure white and spotless. Over and over, she told herself to remain calm, but that did not work. She screamed, threw things, and made a mess. Letting herself be consumed by panic before realizing it was pointless. 

SHIELD wasn't going to let her go, and Hyrdra wasn't coming for her.

Fury, as he said his name was, was the only one that came into her room. Never once did she use her capabilities. He knew they existed, to some level, but not what they were. Every file on her had been destroyed. Hydra abandoned her entirely, erasing her from their database like she never existed to begin with. 

She learned that SHIELD had no intention of pain like Hydra did.

But she still hated them. They were SHIELD. No matter how friendly they acted, they were still the enemy. Hydra taught her that. The same group that had abandoned her. The group that had never treated her this nicely.

There was no pain with SHIELD. No cold nights and food scraps. She had a bed that was warm and soft—more food than she knew what to do with.

The young girl was conflicted about her surroundings and the treatment she was receiving. Hydra had told her that SHIELD was a horrible place, but they didn't treat her that way. No longer was she being subjected to hours of painful injections. It scared her that she began trusting them, and she hoped they weren't as evil as she was taught.

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Anything in Italics is a flashback! I hope you enjoy the book!

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