Anya's POV
1991
The ringing became tedious these days. The amount of times that I had to stand outside in the cold of late fall waiting for my calls to go through made me want to give up on the endeavor entirely. The phone clicked symbolizing someone picking up the call. "Stark Industries. Office of Mr. Stark. Hilda speaking." Hilda was a nice person I guess but when I heard the high-pitched tenor of her voice, my skin crawled.
"Hey Hilda. This is Anastasia Ivanov. Is Howard available?" I knew he was. Every time I called I knew that I would be able to talk to him. It was set every time in his calendar. But still she asked....
"Is Mr. Stark expecting you call?" I rolled my eyes looking up at the sky. Trying hard not to be sarcastic with her.
"Yes ma'am." I mimicked her voice leaning against the stone wall.
"Let me connect you." The phone clicked again followed by elevator music. Whenever I needed to wait for Howard to pick up, my mind always wandered. I had been working here for a little over a month. Hating it along the way but only because I felt like there was always someone's eyes on me. I blew out into the air watching as the cloud floated up into the sky.
"Hello Anya." The familiarity of his voice made my fear disappear. Howard was a sign of safety.
"Uncle Howard." He let out a small laugh continuing.
"How may I help you sweetheart?" He was always willing to help. Always willing to make it easier for me. Even when everything was pointing to the difficult side of a situation.
"There's something off about this place. They let me work but barely anyone is allowed to work near me. There's constantly a guard around every corner on the way to my bedroom but no where else. They are smuggling something in and out of the compound in a glass chamber." I paused realizing that I may have been talking too fast for him to take it all in. "I swear. I saw someone trailing me yesterday, Howard." Howard let out a drawn out, seemingly exhausted, breath before continuing.
"When was the last time you talked to your mother?"
"What does this have to do with it?" I was getting frustrated. Something that has seemed to be coming to me a lot lately.
"Please answer, Anastasia." He was trying to care. At least I can say that much about him.
"I try almost every day but all I get is static and at most five minutes of an actual conversation."
"You are homesick. Probably trying to find a reason for me to bring you home." I didn't realize I was crying until it became apparent that the cold tears were running down my face.
"That's not what this feels like."
"If in a month you absolutely hate it there then I will do my best to get you out immediately."
"Is that a promise?" I said standing up straight and turning towards the phone.
"Of course. I would never want you to be unhappy. Your dad would come back and haunt me until my last breath." I laughed wiping my cheeks. "Hold tight, sweetheart. I will find a way for you to talk to your mom on our next call."
"Thank you." He gave me a rushed goodbye before the line cut off. Slowly, I placed the phone back onto the receiver. Howard wasn't one to be sympathetic. I was dumb to think that he would be.
~~~~~~
Present
"I would really appreciate it if you answered our questions." Bruce looked down at his clipboard. All the answers that I was giving to him were written on the forms. There weren't that many answers. "The rest of them are already drawing assumptions from your files. I would hate for you to be seen in any misleading way." I shook my head. There was nothing misleading. I did the crimes and, for the most part, i was conscious.
"Bruce." A female voice came from the door making both of us look towards it. Over the last week, i began to know this woman as Natasha Romanov. She was one of Bucky's unwilling victims. She was never meant to be hurt by him but still was. She was an assassin as well who turned good...for SHIELD. That's all i knew about her before finding myself here. "Tony wanted to check on her progress."
"I would suggest that he come check on her himself." Bruce had one thing he knew for sure about me and it was written down in big red letters. 'TONY'. I knew Tony and none of us are willing to give him the answer as to how. I'm assuming it would be quite annoying to him. Natasha narrowed her eyes in his direction.
"You don't actually expect me to tell him that do you?"
"No. I think you should tell him that she is healthy but she will probably be less stubborn if the only person she knew would show his face." Possibility that i will be less stubborn? About 20% chance. Maybe it would work to my advantage if I corroborated more.
"I'll pass on the message." Natasha nodded at Bruce before turning in my direction. "You have anything you want to say to him." I turned my head keeping my expression blank. "I didn't think..."
"He can come check on me himself." Both of them were shocked to hear my voice. It had to be the longest sentence that i've said so far. "If you want answers..." Have to admit. My throat hurt still from having a tube down it for, what they told me, close to two weeks. My voice was hoarse and I generally did not want to talk. But i had to. "He needs to ask the questions." Natasha smiled at me before looking back at Bruce.
"I like her." She uncrossed her arms turning away from us and walking out.
"Now you talk." I just grinned laying back on my bed. My arms were still connected to the bed making it very hard for me to be comfortable. I understand why it is like this but still.... I would appreciate at least a little bit of freedom.
Tony's POV
"I can only do so much, Tony. The board is asking why we flew Dr. Cho in twice in one week." Pepper seemed really disappointed in me. She understood that there was a lot of work that goes into running The Avengers but the board usually doesn't understand why we have to preform so many medical procedures in the course of one year. "Not to mention that there was an open heart surgery in Avengers Tower. Not exactly a fully-functioning hospital."
"She needed it or else she would have died." I was in my own world the past couple of days.
"She's a prized HYDRA asset. That's hard to cover up." I looked down at my hands. If there was anyone i would tell about Anya, it should be Pepper. "I'm not going to push it. Just know that it needs to be dealt with."
"Tony." I looked back up just in time for Natasha to walk through the door to the office. "She's talking. Conditionally."
"What does that mean?" Pepper asked for me. She is not immune to being curious about the peculiar ways of my life.
"She will answer questions but only to Tony." Natasha had a smug look on her face. "I would go get those answers Tony. Bruce might go crazy on her and that's the last thing we want her to go through right now." I took a deep breath thinking it through. If there was any sliver of the Anya i knew as a child then i had to give her a chance. I am definitely going to give her a chance.
"Let's go." I stood up quickly walking towards the door. "Stay here Pepper." I only heard her take one step but she ultimately listened to me. I ignored the fact that Natasha was still following me. I didn't even pay attention to the fact that i was right outside the lab until i was looking straight at a disappointed Bruce who was looking at a bed with a tightly bound white lump on it. I stepped in getting Bruce's attention instantly. "Could I get some privacy Bruce?" He looked from me to Anya who was starting to relax.
"Sure. Only a minute." Bruce put down his clipboard getting up and walking past me. We were quiet for a moment while i went to sit where Bruce was previously.
"Anya. You need to talk to me or i'll have to leave you to the mercy of the Hulk." Anya turned her body toward me sitting up.
"The Hulk?"
"It's what Bruce turns into when he gets angry." Anya looked visibly confused. "You said you would answer the questions if i was the one asking them." Her expression turned rather sad.
"You are the only person I really know here."
"I have some pretty hard questions." I leaned over putting my elbows on my knees. Anya took a deep breath closing her eyes.
"I'll answer them."
"You killed a lot of people. Did you know what you were doing at the time?" She shook her head. "Maybe something smaller. How are you alive?" A small laugh escaped her.
"How is Captain America alive?"
"The serum."
"They turned me into a solider soon after I was declared dead. I'll always thank your father for giving up so quick."
"Don't be cruel if you want me to go easy on you." She softened back up before continuing.
"I talked to him Tony. I told him that i was terrified of something going wrong. That someone was watching me and he didn't save me. He promised he would but he didn't come for me. He refused to." She seemed to realize that it was becoming too much. There was a large knot forming in my stomach as i saw the tears forming in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"No." I stood up almost by instinct. Something about the fact that this was the first time i was seeing her in over twenty years makes me think that sitting at her bedside couldn't possibly go wrong. "Tell me everything that happened."
"They took me on Halloween. I remember seeing the calendar first thing in the morning and remembering that it would be my first one in twenty years without you and Micah." She paused before going on. "They told me it took two weeks before STARK Industries reported my untimely death to my mother. The order coming straight from the source. Never knew if they meant it to anger me or if it was the truth."
"It was the truth. My dad told my mom and I first then went to tell your mom."
"There was a whole month where they were just torturing me. Then suddenly they strapped me down to a metal table and injected me with a bag of blue liquid."
"You need to answer my first question now."
"I need you to promise to listen to me before passing judgement." I swallowed the lump in my throat bracing myself for what she was going to say.
"I promise."
"I was mind-controlled for some of them. Mostly in the beginning before they realized that i responded pretty good to threats."
"What kind of threats?"
"They would promise that they would kill my loved ones. Micah, my mother, you. I was in love with someone. They kept him very close." I tried to hold back my thoughts. Micah was murdered. If they were promising this to her then what did she do to lead to his death. Fear shined over her eyes. "Is my mother alive?"
"I suppose so." Her breathing labored. Anxiety.
"You have to know Tony. You have to find her." She screamed so loud it made me jump up. "If I'm... If I'm here...."
"Anya, she's fine."
"You are their enemy." She yelled again. "They're going to kill her."