The Winter Wraith was rigidly sitting on a seat, blanking staring at the plane’s wall across from her. Ryker had told her that his superior wanted her to undergo some sort of test or experiment at a different base. Currently, she could hear some agents talking about Sokovia, and how the country was falling apart. Sokovia must be where they were flying to.
“Five minutes out,” an agent from the front of the plane yelled.
A few minutes later, the Wraith, her handler, and a group of agents departed from the plane. In front of them was a massive old fortress that appeared a bit rundown, but fully functional. The Hydra base was surrounded by mountains and a snowy forest.
The group trudged through the thick snow and into the base. A man met them at the entrance. He had buzzed hair cut close to his scalp and a unique monocle resting on his right eye. He looked at Wraith in a way that made her feel like a lab rat that he couldn’t wait to experiment on and cut open.
“Welcome, welcome,” he said in a thick German accent, with a twisted smile unnaturally plastered on his face.
“This is her?” he asked.
“Yes, this is the Winter Wraith, sir,” an agent replied.
“Well then, go get her prepped,” he directed, “Quickly, we don’t have all day.”
Two agents under his authority roughly grabbed the Wraith by her arms and escorted her through the building. Ryker trailed closely behind. She tried to distract herself from the upcoming experimentation by memorizing the path they were taking, but this place was a labyrinth. The never ending hallways diverged into multiple wings with their own complicated layouts.
Eventually, the two thugs harshly threw her into a cell and slammed the barred door shut on her. Ryker waited for them to leave the immediate area, and then slowly strided up to the cell, his cane making a loud thump against the concrete floor.
The Wraith had always wondered why he had the cane, as he had no visible injury and was fairly young. She often heard hidden jabs and teasing of his cane woven into conservations he had with other agents. He always brushed them off, with a slight smirk, as if he knew something they didn’t.
“This may be the last time we see each other. There’ll be some new management soon. Be careful. I’m rooting for you, Adina,” Ryker spoke in a quiet manner.
Adina? The name sounded familiar. She hadn’t been called that in a very long time. She felt a pang in her heart at the thought of her beloved handler leaving. Everyone was always leaving her. First John, now Ryker…
She glanced back up at the complicated man, watching him lean heavily on his cane as he left the area. As he neared the large doorway, he turned around, as if he sensed Adina was watching him.
He tipped his hat towards her, spun on his heel, and left without looking back.
The Wraith was left alone in her cell with her thoughts, awaiting the mysterious test. She hoped it wouldn’t be as painful as when she got the serum. She shivered at the thought.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew into the room, blowing her brown hair back. She saw a blue streak whizz by.
“Pietro, wait up!” an irritated female voice yelled.
A young woman with red hair walked into the large room, glancing around.
The blue streak appeared again, and a young man with platinum blond highlights appeared by the woman’s side.
“I don’t remember the training room looking like this,” the boy said in a thick accent.
“That’s because we are in the wrong room. I told you it was a left, not right!” the lady said, obviously annoyed with the man. “If you would just slow down and listen—”
“We have company,” the man, Pietro, suddenly said, finally noticing the Wraith in her cell.
“We should go. Strucker doesn’t want us in this wing,” the young woman said, putting two and two together to understand that the unknown girl was probably another volunteer about to be experimented on.
Pietro picked up the girl and sped off, out of sight.
As soon as they had left, a small group of Hydra agents marched in from a different door, on the other side of the room. One unlocked and opened the cell door, and two agents came in to grab her. They led her to another room, connected to the wing, and pushed her in. The door immediately slammed shut behind her.
The eerie gray room had an elevated walkway that she was standing on. It ran for a couple of yards and turned to the side, where some sort of scepter stood, propped up by a stand. A glowing blue stone shone at the end of the object. Across the wall, there was one-way glass.
An intercom crackled to life.
“For our notes, Miss, can you please state your name and confirm your status?”
“Adina. Um, asset,” she hesitantly replied, not sure what her full name of status was.
“Begin experimentation. Touch the stone.”
The vibrant blue orb appeared to be the only source of light in the dim room. It felt like it was calling to her, pulling her closer, pleading for her to simply touch it.
She walked forward, and the stone suddenly shot out from the scepter, stopping and hovering in the air in front of her. She slowly closed the last few steps between her and the mysterious stone, reaching out with her hand.
The stone had a blue aura around it, enveloping it, energy swirling around the strange object, creating a barrier that her hand was pushing through.
The tips of her fingers came into contact with the stone, and the room exploded into a whirlwind of various shades of blue strands weaving around, mixing, and intertwining
together, forming a complex and constantly changing pattern as bright as the sun.
Her body felt like it was full of bright energy as her skin tingled with some sort of electric current. Just as abruptly as it began, the light show suddenly dissipated, and Adina’s body was thrown back by a wave of energy, like she was a rag doll.
Her pulse stopped as her world turned black.
~~~~~~
A knock sounded at the door, and Adina woke up with a start and shot up from her position on the ground. She was breathing heavily, still lost in the memory. The person invited themselves in, seeing the helpless teen with wide eyes, struggling to take in a breath.
The man’s lips were moving, telling her something, but she heard none of it. Adina started hyperventilating and her body trembled with a great force. The man reached down to jostle her shoulder and snap her out of the unsettling state. Now noticing him, the Wraith grabbed his wrist just as his fingertips brushed her shoulder, and twisted the metal arm to the side, as she sprung up from the floor. Her other arm shot up and wrapped around the man’s neck, cutting off his air supply.
She took a few menacing steps forward, forcing the brunette man against the wall. Another bulky man stepped through the open doorway, and upon seeing the situation, he pulled something out of his pocket.
A harsh electric current ran through her body, causing her grip to loosen and fall as she took a step back in pain. She was brought back to reality.
Steve looked at her with caution, regarding her as an enemy, waiting to see if she would attack again.
“Sorry,” Adina said, ducking her head to avoid the hurt look on Bucky’s face and putting on an ashamed facade.
Last night before she had fallen asleep, Adina began to formulate a plan to escape from this building, or compound, as she heard Bucky call it. She had no intention of being confined to the compound and being at the mercy of others. Part of her strategy was to trick Bucky into believing that she actually wanted to stay here and be his friend. So far, minus this small setback, it seemed to be working.
She would definitely need to find a way to get rid of that pesky remote or somehow disable the metal band before leaving. Otherwise, it would greatly impede her escape and be a major setback. She also needed to know the layout of this massive base. Luckily for her, they had mentioned giving her a tour of the whole place. It’s like they wanted her to escape; they were making this too easy for her.
“It’s alright. I should’ve been more careful with how I approached you,” Bucky admitted.
He knew how dangerous it would be for someone to wake him up from a nightmare and assumed it was the same for her, but he couldn’t not help when he saw the state of despair she was in.
“I was just coming in to tell you to get ready. Steve’s going to give you a tour this morning. Hopefully he won’t get lost like last time,” Bucky teased Steve.
Steve and Bucky kept up a light banter as they left Adina’s room, giving her some time to change and wash up. She did just that and now sported black jeans and a navy crew neck. She also still had on her beat-up combat boots.
Once she was ready, she mentally prepared herself to play the part of a misguided teen who just wanted someone to love and care for them. Gross.
Published: 4/4/22
A/N: I thought I had already published this, but I checked and it was missing for some reason. (Orginally it was supoised to come out 4/4/22). So sorry for those of you who missed this chapter, as the story probably jumped in time and context with it missing.