The After

Chapter 1: 141019

141019's POV:

141019.

Subject 141019.

That's my name, well my number, well it's my only means of identification so I guess one could say it's my name? I don't even know anymore, I am sure I had an actual name once. Sometimes I like to imagine what it would have been based on my limited knowledge of the options there are. Maybe Florence? Katniss? Emma? They're all based on character's ones in movies, or even some of the guards and scientists around me. But none of them ever seem right, they don't fit, they feel foreign, wrong.

Sadly however when I look at myself in whatever reflection I find, 141019 is the only thing that has ever suited me, probably because it's branded on my left wrist. A permanent reminder, a permanent mark that I belong to them, of who I am. That whatever life I had, who ever I was before is gone.

I don't remember much of 'The Before', that's what I like to call it, 'The Before'. The others don't call it anything, opting to not acknowledge it, but I like to. The before HYDRA, before being ripped from my family. I've heard story's of experiments being sold to the cause by their loved ones, or even some volunteering, but I prefer to imagine that they loved me, that I mattered to them, that that wasn't the reason why, that my life wasn't worth a couple of hundred dollars or whatever currency they sell children with. Because then maybe they're out there still looking for me, even after all this time, that maybe one day this could be over and I'd run into my mothers and fathers arms and they'd tell me I'm safe, that it's finished, that nothing will hurt me ever again, that they wouldn't let it.

Then there is the before these powers. Powers that I don't even understand, that I can't even control properly. I'm given time to train, but they don't truly know what to expect from my powers either, I guess that comes hand in hand with the whole being an experiment thing. I lost a lot of the luxuries I used to have in the four walls that I get to call somewhat my own, there's still the glass viewing wall, so they can always watch, they can always observe. There are cameras, making sure that every millimeter of the room is under surveillance, I can't so much as blink without it being noted down. I used to have books though, ones with beautiful pictures, some that were like works of arts, others which were more cartoonish. I loved them, I cherished them. I can't fully read, I never really learnt, I never had the chance, but I always loved the images. I liked to draw, I can't write either, but drawing is different. However I lost all of that when my powers started fully manifesting, even bedding was taken away, it was a waste they said. I'd only end up destroying it anyway they said.

I'm not the only one in my experimental class, there are four of us. They wanted a team so powerful, so strong that no one could defeat us. 'The Elementals" is the name that's floated around, and occasionally referenced, I tend to not listen and just ignore it. But we were trained rigorously to be strong. To have abilities that were unparalleled even without the use of our powers, we were made so that we could easily become some of the best shadow agents in the world, giving all those Russian widows a run for their money. There is Fire, 141019, myself. Blonde hair, hazel eyes, I think I am around 18, maybe 19, it's been hard to keep track of the time that's past since I was taken at 8. 190314 is older, Water, was already there when I arrived. He tried to help, tried to explain I could use the bruising, the healing of the cuts on my body as a way to keep track of time, but I never fully understood, and even then, new bruises would end up forming over the old, and wounds would end up being reopened, so there wasn't much point.

It was just us at first, he seemed a lot older, a teenager already, I was too much younger, too energetic, too spirit filled, I wasn't exactly what they wanted. He had been their prized pupil, their golden boy, the one that made them want to continue and expand the experiment. I was the let down, the one that almost got the experiment shut down. They wanted someone older, my arrival had been a mistake, an miscommunication, a mishap, but they went with it, saying they didn't have much choice, that there wasn't a chance to go back for the correct target.