Marlena lay wide awake in bed, though she knew she wasn't supposed to be. Her eyes were closed, but she was otherwise on full alert. She couldn't sleep, despite how much she wished to. There was far too much on her mind. She missed her family dearly, her children especially. She'd just gotten them back after five long years, yet they'd been taken from her once again by a rival that shared the exact same face as her.
Since Alena's departure, Marlena had been spending a good bit of her time thinking. She was still in shock over Alena's mere existence, but she was intrigued, nonetheless. Of course, she knew twins were a very common occurrence among the Claire family, but she never imagined being a twin herself, especially after living most of her life with Mason as her only sibling. Marlena was conflicted, however. For years, her emotions had an incredible influence on her decisions, and this time didn't seem too different. Not only was she desperate to get back to the family she knew, she was desperate to help the family she didn't know.
It was absolutely no secret Alena had her faults, but Marlena couldn't ignore the reason why those faults existed. Marlena spent three agonizing months of her life as a prisoner to Hydra. She was no stranger to the torment, but all of it was nothing more than a brief disruption in Marlena's life. For Alena, however, that torment became her entire life. It was all she knew. Hydra molded and shaped her mind in such a way Marlena would never be able to understand, but if there was anything she could do, it was at least try. People like Alena—people like Bucky—they were the reason she'd chosen to do the job most people were afraid to do, and she planned on being there for them regardless of whether or not they wanted her to be.
Alena's actions thus far definitely could not be overlooked, however. Despite her plans at attempting to empathize with Alena, Marlena intended to make sure when everything was said and done her sister faced the consequences of her actions.
As Marlena lay quietly on her mattress, the familiar beep associated with the opening of her cell caught her attention. The room remained dark and Marlena's eyes remained closed. She focused on the sound of heavy footsteps headed toward her, and she let out a quiet breath. She knew exactly what was about to happen. For the last two nights—since Alena disappeared to wreak havoc among her family—someone had been sneaking into Marlena's cell as she slept to provide her with a generous dose of Tony's suppressors.
The notion was smart, Marlena could not deny that. Without the suppressors hindering her abilities, Marlena was powerful. Alena knew this and knew it was critical to keep Marlena subdued. What she didn't know, however, was that Marlena had developed an incredible understanding of her power in the short couple of weeks since their return. She'd always been so afraid of her power—afraid of the damage she was capable of and sometimes prone to causing. Marlena had never been too aware of her limits, but after a life-changing battle with one of the universe's deadliest Titans, she knew there were no limits.
Marlena was capable of things greater than typical human understanding. She could reach inside another person's mind and disrupt the working processes of their neurons at will, and as she'd discovered just five long years ago, she was also capable of extending her power far beyond that of a single mind. Holding the power to manipulate reality on such an extravagant scale was a feat Marlena was still becoming familiar with, but she was not at all hesitant to take advantage of what she could do.
After receiving the smallest bit of her energy back from Alena's original dosage, Marlena clung to it, and within seconds the effects of the suppressors had simply diminished. It was something that hadn't happened before. Marlena had never been able to overpower the effects of Tony's suppressors before, but with the power to transform the complex substance into whatever she wanted it to be, it almost seemed too easy.
For the past two nights, Marlena had been using her abilities to alter the compound meant to take them away. Her actions thus far had gone unnoticed, but Marlena wasn't too surprised. Alena had been underestimating her from the very beginning. She wasn't expecting Marlena to have any "special tricks" up her sleeve, which meant she definitely wouldn't be expecting those tricks to lead to her inevitable escape.
Marlena listened as the cap to a syringe was pulled off and placed on the table, only to clatter to the floor seconds later.
"Говно (Shit)," a man uttered quietly. It was Kellan. There was absolutely no mistaking the voice, and the sound of it had Marlena's attention immediately.
"That's not a very nice word," Marlena spoke, turning her body slightly to find Kellan beneath the dim light. He was shuffling to find the syringe cap on the floor, but stopped after the sound of her voice left him startled. He definitely hadn't been expecting her to be awake.
"So, you're awake?" Kellan responded, turning to look at Marlena. She was now laying on her side facing him, her hazel eyes on his dark silhouette.
"Forgive me for finding it a bit difficult to sleep under the circumstances," Marlena remarked with a dry chuckle. She originally planned on remaining "asleep" until he'd finished up, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a much needed chat with Alena's righthand man.
"I assume the time change is quite bothersome, hm?" Kellan switched on the lights inside Marlena's compartment just in time to see the annoyance spread across her face. He was trying to make a joke, though Marlena didn't find it too funny. She'd play along, however. It was the only way for her to get out.
"That, and knowing I have a sadistic twin sister determined to destroy my life," Marlena answered simply.
"Don't think of it as her destroying your life..." Kellan finally grabbed the cap to the syringe and replaced it, placing the needle onto the table below him. There was no way he could use it yet, not with Marlena as alert as she was. "Think of it as her simply reconfiguring the settings of your life to suit herself."
Marlena rolled her eyes at his response. She couldn't help but wonder why he was helping Alena, but a physical analysis of the young man provided her with a few more answers than she was prepared to receive. The American accent Marlena remembered Kellan having had been replaced with thick Russian, very similar to that of Alena's. The features on his face almost seemed to resemble her own, but in the same way Wanda's did. It was an incredibly subtle resemblance, but there was enough of one to inform Marlena that Kellan was more than just Alena's righthand man. He was her family.
"You're a Chernov, too, aren't you?" Marlena asked him. She sat up slowly and scooted back against the wall, her eyes on Kellan. "That's why you're helping her."
"I guess that's one reason," Kellan replied with a deep chuckle. He definitely wasn't trying to have a conversation with Marlena about his relationship with Alena, but she had ways to get answers out of him. She was trained as an assassin just as he was, but Marlena knew her additional training with Natasha—the world's deadliest assassin—provided her with a skillset that Kellan would likely never be able to obtain. Marlena knew exactly how to get answers out of him, and she intended on doing so.
"So, there's more than one reason?" Marlena questioned Kellan, her brow raised. "Would any of those reasons have to do with your time together in Hydra?"
"What's it matter to you?"
Marlena shrugged her shoulders. "I can't sleep and I haven't talked to an actual human being in days. Besides, what's a little conversation between two cousins? We are cousins, right? Or are my assumptions incorrect?"
"No, you're right." Kellan crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the table, his curious eyes on Marlena. He wondered what she was up to. It was strange to see her welcoming a casual conversation between the two of them. The last time they interacted it hadn't gone too well. He still had the bruised jaw to prove it.
"Then humor me," Marlena responded. "I've only ever believed Hydra was capable of tearing families apart rather than bringing them together, yet you two seem incredibly close. You must've went through a lot together."
"We did," Kellan replied with a quiet sigh, his mind reeling over the memories he once fought to forget. "My own father—your Uncle Viktor—tormented me for years. One day, Alena witnessed the abuse and tried to stop him, but he only turned his hand on her. He made sure she knew the consequences of interfering, and that was the beginning of the end for us."
Marlena couldn't help but feel horrible now knowing the truth behind their upbringing. She couldn't say she was too surprised, however. She wasn't the first victim of Hydra's abuse, and she was sure she wouldn't be the last. "I'm sorry about that, truly. No one deserves to live a life of abuse."
"Thank you for being sorry, but I wouldn't expect you to understand in the slightest," Kellan responded, his tone just as bitter as Alena's was two days prior. His words only angered Marlena, though. He knew nothing about her or what she'd been through.
"You'd be surprised with how much I do understand," Marlena retorted. "Hydra took my life from me when I was nineteen. They tormented me for three months, and I know three months couldn't possibly equate to the years of torment you and Alena experienced, but I experienced it nonetheless. No one deserves to live that life."
"And we realized that," Kellan added, grabbing the syringe from the table once more. "That's why Alena knew what she needed to do when she finally found you. It became too much for her knowing the life she was meant to have belonged to you."
Marlena eyed the syringe in his hand, wondering exactly what he planned on doing with it. "It's not my fault Alena didn't get the life she wanted."
"Maybe," Kellan said with a shrug of his shoulders. "But you're the only means she has to get that life."
"That's not true," Marlena told him. She watched him pull the cap off the needle, and the confusion began to set in. "What do you intend on doing with that needle, Kellan?"
Kellan chuckled and glanced at the needle before looking back to Marlena. "You see, Alena called earlier and mentioned she was able to successfully find her place inside your perfect little life. I decided if that was the case, we'd need to eliminate a few loose ends. Starting with you, of course."
Kellan's words startled Marlena tremendously, and she took a deep breath as the realization began to set in. This entire time she'd thought he'd come to give her a dosage of the suppressors as he'd been doing the last few nights, but instead he was there to kill her. The mere fact of the matter made her incredibly grateful to her insomnia, but she found herself stuck when she realized she could no longer let this go on. Her plan for an eventual escape was now off the table. She needed to get out, and she needed to get out now.
"I have to say—one thing Hydra taught us well was how to kill," Kellan said, taking a few steps closer to Marlena. She remained perfectly still in her spot, waiting on an opportunity that would assist in her escape. "And knowing just how weak you are is going to make this so much easier."
Marlena watched him carefully as he continued forward. She couldn't let him do this. She wouldn't let him do this.
Kellan grabbed Marlena's arm, more than ready to shove the needle into the side of her neck. Before he could, however, the bright blue haze now encasing his arm forced him to a halt. He looked at Marlena with a glare on his face, but she couldn't miss the surprise hidden within his eyes.
"I'm a lot stronger than you think," Marlena told him seriously, her hazel eyes boring into his. With a quick movement, Marlena kicked Kellan as hard as she could in the sternum, sending him stumbling back across the room. The needle in his hand fell to the floor, and before he could think, his entire body was trapped behind a force he knew Marlena to be responsible for.
"She underestimated you," Kellan forced out. He attempted to use his own powers to free himself from her hold, but she was too strong for him. He wasn't sure how Marlena was able to overcome the effects of the suppressors so quickly or at all, but as she'd said, she was much stronger than he thought.
"You both did," Marlena responded. She got up and walked over to him, her hold never faltering. "And this is the last time you ever will."
Kellan grunted under the force of her power but could not find a response. Instead he was met with an overwhelming sense of fatigue he could not fight. He could feel Marlena working her way inside the confines of his mind, and in seconds his eyes were fluttering shut against his control, leaving a sense of relief flooding through Marlena's body. She allowed his unconscious body to drop to the floor and quickly grabbed her boots. She put them on and headed to the compartment door, using her abilities to dismantle the circuits needed to open it. Without a single glance back, Marlena ran as fast as she could through the abandoned Hydra base. She was still absolutely terrified knowing what Kellan had planned for her, but she was angry as well. She could've killed him, and while a small part of her wanted to, that wasn't the person she was, despite knowing it was so easy for him to do the same to her. Marlena knew Kellan would be forced to answer for his atrocious actions, but it would not be at the hands of her own.
As Marlena continued running through the familiar corridors, she slowed considerably as she registered yet another mind. It wasn't Kellan's but someone else's, and she didn't have the time to question it before the sound of her name echoed through the hall behind her. She turned around quickly, her glowing blue hands raised to defend herself if necessary, but she lowered them when she found she recognized the face standing before her.
"Dad?" Marlena's voice was quiet. She was positive her father was standing in front of her, but her mind was still trying to process it all. Her father—who she originally believed to be dead—was actually alive, and he had been for the better part of two decades. Alena hadn't been lying after all, and Marlena was not at all prepared for that truth to hunt her down.