Chapter Eleven

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The Compound, Sokovia, 2015

Maria

Valerie led me all the way up to the huge concrete building which was called The Compound. We passed numerous amounts of guards and Hydra personnel on the way, and not once did they stop us in our tracks. I thought that to be quite unusual, then again, no doubt they knew who I was.

Soon we got to a huge, wooden, double-door which opened when Valerie knocked on if twice. She grabbed my hand and walked me through. I tensed at her touch but I didn't refuse it - I mean, she's my daughter so I should be accepting.

"Don't pretend that you don't want me to touch you," Valerie said softly.

I looked down at her as if she'd just read my mind.

"I did," she said.

I was confused. "What?" I asked her.

"I read your mind," she replied, looking at the floor as she continued to lead me.

"How do you have powers too? Were you born with them?" I asked her intently.

She didn't reply, but I could see that she was thinking about what I just said. I was just going to let it go, but I felt the urge to know how she got them, so I pulled on her hand and stopped her abruptly, then bobbed down to her level. She turned on her heels and stared at me, questioning my action.

"How did you get your powers?" I asked firmly.

She kept her stare locked on me and sighed. "It doesn't matter. Why would you care anyway? You don't know me."

That hit me like a brick wall. Yes, I'd only just met her but I have literally thought about my baby everyday, thanks to Hydra. At this point, I was angered.

"Look kid, I'm sorry that you were taken from me at birth. I'm sorry that I have no idea how you even came to be. I'm sorry that I never got the chance to be with you! Is that what you want to hear? I'm sorry! I'm...sorry," my voice died down.

Valerie's eyes began to water slightly, and I felt bad. But then she smiled.

"First fight," she said.

I calmed instantly and stifled a giggle. Then I had to ask her something:

"How old are you?"

She thought for a second. "I don't know."

My brows furrowed. "How don't you kn-"

"Well, isn't this nice," someone one cut me off.

I stood up quickly and turned towards the voice. A man was standing there. Strucker.

"I see you've met your daughter already." He motioned towards Valerie. "Ok child, they need you back in one-eighty. Off you go."

As commanded, Valerie left the room and disappeared down the hallway. I glanced at Strucker, feeling slightly out of place.

"She's a good girl, Valerie. I'm sure you want to know everything?" He said in more of a statement than a question.

I did. I wanted to know every last bit of everything. But I had a feeling that I wouldn't get to know until later on.

Strucker turned to face me completely, his one spectacle glinting in the bit of sunlight that made it's way through the tiny windows of The Compound.

"You're Strucker, right? The one that I could hear in my head, telling me to come to Sokovia?" I asked. He nodded. "But you're not the one who told me about assassinating the Winter Soldier."

"That is all correct. You should know that we no longer need you to deal with the Asset anymore, he's no longer an issue. But we do need you here for... other circumstances." He smiled for a brief second, than his face went serious again.

"So, what am I doing here?" I asked.

"You will find out soon enough." He started off towards the hallway that Valerie went down, than stopped and looked back at me. "Please," he gestured to the hallway. "Follow me."

I did as he said and followed him out to the hallway. As we walked further down, we started passing wooden doors on either side of us. They each had a number painted on them in black and had a small, rectangular window at the top of them. I studied the numbers; one-seventy eight, one-seventy nine, one-eighty...

One-eighty...

I stopped without thinking and looked through the little window of door one-eighty. Just as I thought, Valerie was in there. She was on the floor, playing with a few dolls. She seemed content and I was actually quite relieved, then I saw all the tubes connected to her. In her arms, her neck and her nose. All of them (other than the one in her nose) had grey liquid running through them and into her.

"Valerie," I whispered to myself.

As if she heard me, she looked up to the window. I gasped as I saw her eyes. They were metallic grey, rather than the beautiful brown, and her face and arms spiralled with silver patterns. Something wasn't right there. I wanted her out of there.

"She's fine," Strucker suddenly said right in my ear, causing me to jump slightly. "Don't worry about her."

It was hard not to worry. All these years I'd been wondering about this mystery baby of mine, and now I finally had her right at my vicinity, but she was in the complete control of someone else. I felt super uneasy about it.

"Am I going to be able to get to know her?" I asked bluntly.

He paused before replying. "I'm sure we can organise something." Clearly he didn't want to continue that conversation.

I took one more look at Valerie before following Strucker down the rest of the hallway. Eventually we reached a large metal door with a red Hydra emblem painted on it. Strucker yelled out something that I couldn't understand and the door opened, creaking loudly. He looked at me and gestured with his hand for me to walk in first. So I did.

"What is this room?" I asked, my voice echoing around me.

The lights suddenly switched on and I saw a metal chair sitting right in the middle of the room.

Great.

"Please, have a seat," Strucker said with a smile.

I carefully sat down on the chair, flinching slightly at the bitter coldness of it. When I was properly seated, metal cuffs bonded my arms and legs to the chair. I looked to Strucker with concern.

"Don't worry, I'm just taking...precautions," he said.

"What do you me-" I was cut off my Strucker covering my mouth with his hands.

"Shush now, no need to strain yourself," he said as I started to wiggle around.

I tried yelling but all sound was muffled by his hand. Soon, two other people came into the room and started hooking tubes up to me. Strucker took his hand off my mouth when gold liquid rushed through the tubes.

"What are you doing!?" I screamed in agony.

They just continued, not once bothering to tell me what was going on.

"She's stable sir, we should start to see differences soon," one of the other men said.

What ever that liquid was, it began to make me drowsy. I willed myself to stay awake, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. As every second went by, my eyelids became heavier and heavier. Just as I was falling into a deep sleep, the door opened slightly, and I saw Valerie standing there, watching and waiting. I wanted to yell her name, but sleep had consumed me. Everything went black.

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