"Evelyn." Struckers voice boomed and echoed across the dark stone walls.
"Yes sir." I managed to squeak out.
It's been two years of hell. But this is all I know. I don't remember a thing before I was here.
All I knew when I woke up was my name. Evelyn.
Strucker told me that he rescued me, so I believed him. I didn't have anything else to think.
As time went on however, I began to question it.
I am tested every single day. They, meaning Strucker and all his other mysterious men, have been saying it's to prepare me for something. But I'm not sure what.
I have been trained as a Hydra soldier. Skilled in combat and what-not. Then again, I haven't really gotten that far. I've only been trained for 2 years.
Strucker says Hydra has great use for my talents though. Including my hacking abilities.
Apparently, I have a very high IQ. 200 to be exact. So Hydra lets me hack and use equipment to keep my skills sharp. But then it is always back to my cell.
"We have it." Strucker said stepping in front of my cell so that I could see him.
"The scepter from the battle of New York?" I say while rubbing my eyes.
While I wasn't there or anything, I heard all about the battle of New York and the power inside of the scepter that belonged to the Asgardian, Loki. Apparently it's the type of technology Strucker has been after for years.
"Yes. We finally have it. Which means that it is almost time for the final stage. We want to do the initial testing on some volunteers, and then we shall see what miracle you are given." Strucker says in a deep voice.
"Are you ready?"
Here, in Hydra, there's no such thing is disobeying Strucker.
"Born ready sir. " I say trying to sound confident.
* * *
I spit blood onto the floor as I struggle to make myself stand.
I'm in a glass box, filled with what looks like a hospital bed and a few more items, which is very different from my normal cell in the basement of the Sokovian castle.
My head is spinning in a million directions as I hear buzzing coming from everywhere. I press my hands to my ears to try and make it stop but it barely even dampens the sound.
I try to stand up again but I feel a burning, painful blast through my legs and I fall back to the ground screaming.
I grab the pillow off the bed and pull it over my head to try and stop the buzzing noises I hear all around me.
I hear more screams around me and I peak out from underneath the pillow.
Through the glass I see Hydra moving dozens of dead bodies out of here. I begin to feel my heart rate speed up and my breathing get sharper and faster.
'Am I going to die?' I think.
I then look across the room and see two other glass boxes with 1 person in each. One is a boy with blond hair and dark roots, while the other one is a girl with dark hair like mine. They both look older than me, but in just as much pain.
I look around the rest of the room quickly and see there are no other 'hospital boxes'.
'Are we the only survivors?'
But before I can focus anymore on that I feel another burning sensation shoot through my entire body and I scream out again. It feels like my body is being set on fire.
I've been tortured and experimented on a lot during my time here, but absolutely nothing matches this level of pain. 'Probably why they called it the final stage.'
I feel another torturous burn scorch the inside my head and it feels like my brain is on fire. Another one burns in my chest like I'm having a heart attack.
I scream out in pain again before I feel myself blackout.
* * *
I slowly flutter my eyes open and look around.
I'm in the same box I was in before, still on the floor with a pillow over my head.
I have no clue how long I was out for.
I look across the room at the two people I saw there before. My eyes widen as I see what they are doing.
The girl has some play blocks in the room with her, and she's floating them around above her head with what looks like some sort of red energy. The energy is glowing from her fingers and her eyes are glowing red too.
I then look over to the boy. He is running back and forth between the walls at lightning speed. He looks like he is unable to control it though because each time he crashes and he looks like he is in pain. There is a sort of blue glow around him as he speed runs back and forth.
I push myself back up onto my knees. The air around me feels lighter. I don't hear the buzzing noises as much as I did earlier, but I can feel it. Like a tingling sensation in my hands. Like I can tell where the energy is coming from.
I look over to some of the people in the room and I can feel them. I can feel their own energy radiating off of them.
I move my fingers around and I see small white lights dance from my fingertips.
It looks almost like fire, but I can't feel any heat coming from it.
I take the flickering flame and start to make it swirl around my hands, completely engulfing them. I then shape the fire into a ball in my hand.
The energy/fire is bright white. It glows in a circle in my hand getting bigger and bigger, all the while not getting any hotter. At least, for me.
I decide to release it from my hand and let the ball float above my head. To my surprise, it works. I created another and another until it was like little white energy lamps were floating above my head.
I them decided to spin them, making them go faster and faster. I brought them back close to me, and juggled them in the air, my hands never even touching them.
I see Strucker walk over with some scientist. I can't hear what their saying, but when he looks over to the three of us I make eye contact.
I can feel my eyes tingle as I feel Strucker's...energy? I get this weird feeling in my brain that he feels proud.
I look around the room again at the girl. She smirks and them smashes the two blocks together with her energy, completely destroying them.
I then, following her lead, smash the flames together, which creates a mini explosion. I jump back a little from the sudden noise and bright burst of light.
I glance back over at the two and see that they are both looking over at me, probably because of the explosion.
We really are the only survivors of Strucker's experiments.
* * *
What I think is a few weeks later, the three of us are moved to a different area. It is nothing like my old cell. It is bigger, nicer, and smells much better.
The walls in this new area are the same type of plastic that kept me in my box, except this time I can hear through them.
The boy and girl are put into the same type of cell/room right next to mine. I look over to them and wave, and they both wave back.
"Hi, I'm Pietro Maximoff. This is my twin sister Wanda. What is your name?" The boy with platinum blonde hair says.
I notice he has a similar accent to Strucker, so I figure the girl will as well if they are twins.
"Evelyn." I say smiling back. "But you can call me Evie."
"No last name?" The girl, Wanda, asks me. I was right, she has the accent too.
"No. I lost all my memories two years ago when I was brought here." I say. They both give me a sad look.
"Can I ask you guys something?"
They both nod their heads yes. "Why would you volunteer for Strucker's experiments?"
They both look at each other and frown. "For vengeance." Wanda says, her eyes glowing red as anger fills her body.
"When we were little," Pietro starts, " just 10 years old, we were sitting at the table eating dinner with our parents. All of a sudden, a bomb hit the building, two floors beneath us. It created this big hole through the floor." He says making gestures with his hands. "Our parents went in. I grabbed her, and pulled her under the bed. The whole building was shaking and about to fall. Then the second shell hit. It landed right next to our faces. I closed my eyes, thinking this was it. It was going to go off. But no. It just sat there. 3 feet away from us. Rescue teams, they struggled to get to us, afraid that every shift in the bricks would set the whole thing off."
"We waited, for two days, under that bed. Just staring at the bomb." Wanda says, her eyes still glowing. "And the name on the side? The brand? Stark. We waited, two days, for Tony Stark to kill us." She says in a rage.
I feel my eyes widen when she says Stark. I feel like I recognize that name, but I don't know why.
"After that he came out as the Iron Man. Told the world he was a hero. The big liar that he is. After that, he 'heroically saves the city of New York with the Avengers.'" Pietro says with air quotes.
"Someone has to put an end to his lies. Someone needs to be able to stand up to him, and confront him about his wrongs. That's why we volunteered." Wanda finished.
I sit there for a minute nodding my head, trying to process it all.
"The name Stark...I feel like it means something to me...I just can't put my finger on it. I don't even know if it's good or bad." I say to them, not sure why. Maybe it's because they are the only people I've ever been able to have a normal conversation with.
To be fair, I've only been able to remember things for the past 2 years.
"He is probably part of the reason you lost your memory. That man is evil." Pietro says. I look up to him and nod, agreeing. I have no information to go on besides that theory. They could be right.
"How old are you guys now?" I ask them.
"We're 17." Wanda says. "You?"
"I'm 11." I say back, blushing slightly. I felt really young.
"You're 11 and your probably already more powerful than Stark could ever be." Pietro said encouraging me. "We all are."
"We just need to train, and when Hydra lets us show the world what we can do, we know exactly who we are going for." Wanda says. You can tell she's very determined and passionate.
I nod my head in agreement with them.
I feel like I'm a part of their team.
And for the first time in my life, it's voluntary.
* * *
Over the next 3 years at Hydra, we became an inseparable trio. It was like I was their younger sister and they were my older siblings. We grew that close of a bond.
The way I was treated by Hydra after I became enhanced changed dramatically. Before I was enhanced I was stored away in a cage where no one could find me.
But now, Wanda, Pietro, and I are all enhanced.
Pietro got the power to run at the speed of light, or at least that's how fast he looked. When he ran by all you could see was a flash of blue and his silver hair.
Wanda is able to manipulate red energy, look inside people's heads and read their minds, and she can make them see their worst fears. She also has telekinesis with her energy.
I can feel energy and I can sense people based off of their energy. I'm also an empath, so I can sense people's emotions and change them to whatever I want them to be. I can also manipulate this weird kind of white fire.
The white fire works like Wanda's energy, only it's fire. I can make it so it burns like fire, or so it doesn't. No matter it's temperature though, it always looks like flames.
So we kind of became known as Hydras enhanced trio. Wanda and Pietro weren't exactly on the side of Hydra, but only for their own agenda which was fine by me.
The enhancements allowed me some respect around this facility for once.
I was allowed real people clothes and normal food. I was allowed regular showers and access to the training room 24/7.
I mean, that was about it. We weren't really allowed outside unless it was for training purposes and we were under surveillance constantly. But for me, given that all I could remember of my entire life was the total of 5 years I spent at Hydra, these last three have been the best years of my life.
I could tell Wanda and Pietro kind of struggled with the lack of freedom at first, because they remembered when they had more freedom. They never let it get to them though, because they always kept their main goal at the front of their mind.
I know that's why they survived Strucker's experiments. I have zero clue why I did though.
I have no memories, nothing worth fighting for, and I had no one to live for. There was no reason for my mind to fight for my survival. Me dying in the experiments would have made sense.
But I didn't. I'm a success story.
Now though, I have a purpose. I have people to live and be there for, Wanda and Pietro. I also have a cause, ending Stark.
I wish sometimes that I could get the memories of the first 9 years of my life back. Well, not sometimes, all the time. But it's not debilitating anymore.
I'll be ok without them. I've made some really good new ones with Wanda and Pietro.
Like I said, we're inseparable.
* * *
"Is that all you got there Wanda?" I say getting cocky.
Wanda and I are in the training room practicing our skills on each other. We made sure never to go too far though.
Wanda and I had made a pact, she would never look into my head to see my fear, and I would never read her emotions. We also told Pietro we would never do it to him.
"Oh so it's going to be like that?" Wanda said smirking.
I can't help but let out a laugh. "Oh yea, it's going to be like that." I say back.
She aims her hands towards me to try and lift me with her powers, but I put up a shield of fire energy to block them.
I then throw a flame at her foot but she uses her powers to lift herself a little off the floor, avoiding the fire.
That's something Wanda has been working on with her abilities. Flying. Which I have to hand it to her, is pretty cool. When she's not crashing.
She then sends a blast of red energy towards me which I avoid with less than an inch to spare.
"Wow, ok. Rude." I say smirking at her.
I'm just about to shoot a blast at her when Pietro runs into the room, grabs both of us and takes us outside the training room doors.
"What's going on, what was that?" Wanda asks her brother with concern once he's no longer a blur.
"It's the Avengers. They're here, attacking the base." He says.
My eyes widen and I look to Wanda. She looks just as shocked as I am that they actually came.
'They must be here for the scepter.'
She takes a breath in and nods her head. "We're ready." She says confidently. "Right Evie?" She asks looking to me.
"Hell yea." I say back.
Pietro picks both of us up and dashes at full speed towards the command room of the Hydra base.
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