The Monster Within - Avengers

Chapter 2

There was no concept of time here. Minutes turned into hours, hours into days. Of course, I could estimate, but I would rather not. With my head against the wall, I looked down from the ceiling I had been staring at to the comforter. It was once white, but now the surface was stained in red. I had long since stopped attempting to keep the blood from running down my body, and welcomed the pain. Fury would feel a lot more than the mere stinging that caressed my skin. I would make sure of that.
Looking to the table, I saw yesterday's meal, laying cold, past being edible, not that I wanted to eat. 'They' would grow concerned soon enough. My hands were pale and blood-stained as I sat up, stifling a groan. I couldn't show weakness, especially to the man who fed off of it. I still couldn't get their screams out of my head, no matter how hard I tried.
I edged myself off the bed, walking under the arch that separated the bathroom from the main room. There were no cameras in here. I had counted seven surveillance cameras in the main room, all angled in different directions. He was watching me. I could feel it, and I did not like it.
I sat down on the pristine quartz toilet lid, and took a grey towel from the rack next to the shower. It wouldn't be grey for much longer. I wet it in the sink and pressed it to my shoulder, before running it down my arm. My skin was unnaturally pale, absent of the tinge of color my blood gave it. I ran the towel through the water once more, ridding myself of the sticky substance that coated my body.
I eased myself back onto the bed once more, and glared at the cuff around my ankle. I could see the needles aimed at my veins, ready to strike should I try to escape. I heard the faint sound of footsteps behind the door, and didn't bother to acknowledge the archer standing in the doorway. He signed for me to follow him, and I obliged.
The room the archer led me to held many people I didn't know, including Fury himself. The archer took a position to the right of Fury. The woman, girl, soldier, and others I vaguely recognized from newspapers and interviews stood in a semi-circle around Fury, who sat at a desk in the center of the room, and he motioned for me to sit. The only thing keeping me from killing him this second was the group of people with their weapons poised toward me. If he died, I died. I fastened the bandage around my arrow wound tighter and sat on the plush black chair.
"Agent Barton will be your interpreter, unless you prefer to talk." I shook my head without hesitation. He continued.
"Volt," I held my hand up, signing my real name to the archer. 'Volt' was what he called me, but that was not, and never would be, my name.
"Echo." Agent Barton said, and I proceeded to stare at Fury as he asked his first question, which I felt like he knew the answer to before the words left his mouth.
"Echo, why did you run?" Why did I run? There were too many answers to this question and ironically, it made me furious. I frantically spoke to Barton, who told me to slow down numerous times, repeating my answer to Fury as I signed it. He, sadly, did not repeat the curse words.
"You killed my parents because they knew too much. You turned me into a weapon. You took everything from me, so why did I run to freedom? Why did I run to a life where I could be free? You can answer that question yourself, Fury, because you know exactly why I left, and why I never wanted to come back."
Fury did not so much as flinch at my words, although I did see him make a gesture to Barton under the table. "Volt, I have decided you will continue the experimentation and combat training immediately. No excuses, and absolutely no escaping. Do you understand? This is what you were made for, and this is your life now. Cap, escort Volt to Mr. Stark's lab."
Silence fell over the room, and I heard the faint echo of a bullet, before the cuff on my ankle fell off, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the woman holster her gun. "Go ahead, Echo."
The electricity I had been holding back beneath my skin crackled and snapped in the air, and I felt the familiar buzz in my hands, but I could not show them who I was, not yet. " I, am not your weapon. And I, am not your slave. You kill people who know who I am, do you plan to kill the people in this room? Or do your precious Avengers get to live, Fury? Because you're so twisted, so psychotic, that you will use a sixteen year old girl to destroy anyone that stands in your way."
The Avengers were silent as Nick Fury stood from his chair, as did I. We stared daggers at each other as I said what I had been holding back from him my entire life. "I used to be afraid of the dark because of the monsters lurking in it, and I have found a home with them, because they are not the enemy. The monsters, the real monsters are the ones that play hero, and the leader is standing right in front of me."