AUTHOR NOTES:

To Guest: Thank-you! Your review makes me happy. And trust me there will be drama - it won't be pretty.

To purplekitties: Your first review was awesome and it made me so happy reading it! I am honoured to be your first ever review (I'll give you an imaginary cookie because I'm too poor to buy any real ones . . . who am I kidding I'd eat it on the way home before I'd even be able to send anything. Pretend cookies are safest for everyone). And I'm glad you saw the scene so easily :)

Now I feel pressured not to disappoint in any of the future chapters.


September 18, 2010.

The giant metal door scraped across the ground before locking behind the volunteers with a clang.

They were left in darkness and nervous murmurs rose up. Then high above an industrial sized lamp hummed to life and flickered down on the group. They looked around at each other, trying to decipher whom they already recognised and who was a stranger.

Their anxious eyes flickered around the shadowed room as their breaths came out in quick short puffs. The old stonewalls were chipped and scraggly moss clung onto crevices within the wall. High above large swaths of abandoned spider webs hung like a grey canopy.

Some of the people jumped as another door slammed opened and ten guards came storming in. One of them spoke Sokovian, though his accent was off, more Russian sounding.

"Get in groups now! Separate into female and male. Go! Now!" He roared and then all of the guns were trained on the group.

Their previous riot like behaviour had disappeared, in its place came bewilderment and uncertainty. But they began doing as they were told, in confusion at first, until finally the male and female side got defined and people took hesitant steps into each direction.

But Wanda and Pietro stood at the front. Her slender hand rested lightly on her brothers forearm. "Why? What do you want and where's The Baron - or the other man - Malick?"

The soldiers tensed and their hands moved up to the trigger as they raised their weapons. The leader stepped forwards.

"If you do not listen, we will shoot. You will receive information when Strucker decides to give you information." The leader growled behind his mask, and then raised his gun. "You have five seconds to make your choice." He said, his voice so steady there was no doubt in that threat.

It was the first time Romina felt a shot of fear go up her spine. Not because something about the whole volunteer program seemed drastically wrong, but for the twins.

If they dropped dead how would they ever come to regret her brothers death - getting them to regret their actions was the only goal, the only reason for living, she had left. Romina bet they didn't even know what they had done. He had just been collateral in the war they fought. But she was going to show them that the collateral damage had people that loved them, and Romina was willing to give them a taste of the very same effects from collateral she had suffered.

Her feet almost began to move forwards, but for now she watched the twins intently, as everyone was, waiting with baited breath to see what they did.

Wanda's hand wrapped tighter around her brothers arm and she leaned in to whisper something. His response was heated but she shook her head and raised herself onto her toes, kissing his cheek quickly. She said one more thing before slipping away, joining the women.

A pang of jealousy rose up inside her at their sibling bond she no longer had, and then it was overwhelmed with anger. Before she had too much time to dwell over it the guards began shouting again, sending the two groups through different doors.

Romina looked behind her to see Pietro staring at his sister with worry and a near feral defensiveness. But there was nothing he could do, and Romina lost site of him as she was swallowed by the darkness in the hallway they were being lead down.

The guards marched them down such a dimly lit hallway several people stumbled. At the end the two guards that lead them stood on either side of the hallway. One swung open a door and jerked his head towards the next room.

They did the only thing they could and shuffled forwards into the room. Rominas eyebrows knitted in confusion; it was a changing room. Though by the row of lockers that didn't even touch the wall and the skewed wooden benches it looked like it had been set up hastily, perhaps only a few days ago.

"Hello volunteers. Please take off all clothing including all jewelry. You can place your possessions in the metal cabinets and will get them back shortly after inspection. Thank you for your cooperation." The robotic female voice said, though not unfriendly.

The volunteers didn't make any movement in removing their clothes. They looked around the room and then several jumped as the door behind them was closed with a sharp clang. One of the shorter girls rushed towards the door and tried to yank it open.

When nothing happened she tried again and a third time still. As she whipped around her blue eyes were open wide in fear. In response one of the older women stormed over to the door and tried her hand at the handle too, but the door wouldn't budge.

She slammed the door with the flat of her palm and yelled, "Let us out! We do not want to be part of the experiment any longer! Let us go!"

In need of immediate comfort the women began to form little clusters, talking in hushed whispers and occasionally throwing worried glances at the locked metal door with the dark tinted window, so devoid of colour all you could see was your own reflection. Instinct was telling them to go into a full-blown panic, but their rationality was keeping the primal instinct at bay, trying to come up with excuses about their current situation.

They weren't all going to collapse in a screaming heap just yet.

"Hello volunteers. Please take off all clothing including all jewelry. You can place your possessions in the metal cabinets and will get them back shortly after inspection. Thank you for your cooperation." The robotic voice repeated.

Some of the women began slowly reaching for the buttons on their jacket, looking around hesitantly.

"I think we should do it." A level voice said, and all eyes snapped towards the source and rested on Wanda. "The Baron and Malick have helped us for half a year now. They have given us food when we would have starved, they have given us aid when we would have died from injuries, and now they give us hope to fix our country. This is just a standard physical examination. Girls what is there to fear that we have not already seen on our own bodies? I have seen my own body many times, and I am sure yours are not much different than mine. Do not be afraid." She said, and then her hands moved to the silver lining of the zipper.

Rominas lip quirked, and she couldn't help but grudgingly think smart girl as she saw the Sokovians hands trembling slightly as the pinched the zipper and began pulling downwards. She was a good actress.

All of the women had been listening to her confident voice and the second Wanda began moving to discard her own clothes the women's attention went on their own; they never even saw the fear evident in her body.

Romina may have been uncomfortable, but not fearful. She had taught herself to be rational through all situations; when emotions clouded logical and rationality, that was when you sentenced yourself to death. So she kept a clear head and did as the robotic voice told her and began to strip down.

Clothes were discarded in little right piles right now to each woman. Finally they picked up the piles littered with all their sparkling jewelry on top. Gingerly they placed all their possessions in the little boxes.

Goosebumps rippled across their skin as the biting cold bit at their exposed flesh. Shaky puffs of air escaped their trembling lips as they wrapped their hands tightly around themselves; shivers racked their body - it was the coldest winter in years.

Glances that the Sokovians tried to keep subtle were thrown Rominas way. Her skin was darker than the rest and she stood tall and slender, her head easily seeing over the others.

She knew what they were thinking, the thoughts they tried to dispel in their minds for something that perhaps seemed more rational: that she was Romani. A gypsy.

And they weren't wrong, her mother had been one while her father was full blooded Romanian. But in the long sunless Romanian winters, her skin had become paler.

But they didn't know she was Romanian. Nor that she was Romani. Romania was where thousands of Romani lived in their camps after getting kicked out of their houses within the cities like animals. Sokovia didn't have any, but they still had stories, and still carried the strong judgement with them, the same fear her very own country had of her.

With its harsh endless winters and living prospects so poor in Sokovia, there was little chance any Romani would be stupid enough to cross the border into Sokovia to try and find a living.

But Romina didn't try to hide her body from them. She had grown accustomed to stares and the looking of judgements in people's piercing eyes as they stared at her.

As long as they didn't try to grope her she didn't care. "Dance for me little gypsy!" "Perhaps you can lose the clothes and we can dance in my bed." "Why you wear so much clothes, huh? Your kind looks much better in those dresses." They would say as they went to grab her breasts and reached between her legs, their faces swallowing her vision as they leered at her.

No, the women's subtle glances at her right now were more than manageable.

But they stopped looking at her a Wanda took charge again. Her chin went up in the air and when she spoke in an even tone you wouldn't even think they stood naked in sub zero temperatures. "Follow me." She said, turning around and opening up the second metal door, this one with no window.

She walked inside and held the door open for the others. As Romina walked by the look of searing hatred must have been unmistakable in her eyes because Wandas own widened in shock. And then Romina slipped past her into the room.

A few moments later, the door closed. Looking around Romina saw they stood inside a large empty room. Nothing was significant about it save for the small metal holes like grates that were lined near the ceiling of the room.

The faded yellow tiles had long dark streaks that had run down due to mould and rot.

"We are ready for the inspection now." Wanda called out to no one in particular as she looked around the room, perhaps to catch the eye of a camera.

No matter how close proximity she and Wanda shared she couldn't risk attacking her now. All Romina wanted to do was wrap her hands around the flesh of the smaller girls throat, but that was their leader she'd be attacking, and Romina was too scared they'd pry her off the girl before she could finish it.

There was a small click and Romina looked behind her, suspecting the door had just locked. Her brow furrowed in confusion. Something was very, very wrong with this volunteer program they had signed up for.

A small light bulb lit orange and began flashing. "Please remain calm. Thank you for your cooperation. Please remain calm. Thank you for your cooperation. Please remain calm. Thank you for your cooperation." The robotic voice repeated. And then it went silent.

The little orange light continued flashing periodically in the ceiling. It reminded Romina of the flashing lights on a police car.

None of them spoke as they looked around the room. Then there was a dull clanging sound behind the wall as something rattled in the pipes. All eyes went to the cement wall. They followed the sound as it began at the edges of the wall and followed the rattling as it inches its way quickly along the inner walls.

And then thick white mist shot out through the metal grates, swirling around. The smokes tendrils made its way towards the group from all sides, intent on smothering them.

Small horrified and surprised sounds came first, to quickly be drowned out by screams of terror. Somewhere inside their screaming Romina heard a comment about the holocaust.

Romina should've been just as terrified as they were but she found herself in an eerie calm state. All off a sudden she felt as if she were in a terrible dream.

The smoke kept coming, being shoved through the vents at rapid speeds. It was heady and thick; the women scattered as if they could outrun the smoke in the tiled cage they were stuck in.

Across the room Romina caught site of Wanda, her eyes looking more confused and disbelieving than anything else. She probably hadn't expected this to happen, not even in the depths of her imagination. She had expected glory. Now she was receiving death.

Romina swallowed as finally her fate began to hit her. For a split second the room seemed to become double and her mouth dried. Her clammy hands hit warm flesh and she turned around to see one of the women behind her, grabbing onto her and hiding behind her as if she had decided Romina could stop the smoke.

Someone else moved behind her and accidentally snagged their finger in her coarse curly hair; she hissed in pain. Turning around another woman had gotten behind the first one.

A hand wrapped around her arm and she was close to shaking it off and then decided against it. She hated Sokovians, she really did.

But she had no quarrel with any of them besides two; and in the face of death no one held nationalities. They were all just humans, fighting for the right to stay alive. Though the hair of Rominas neck rose like hackles as she experienced the first human contact she had had since her brother died.

She just clenched her hand into a fist and let the woman hold on.

The smoked danced lazily in front of Romina and all she could do was stare at it.

Twenty women had already fallen down, hitting the ground the second they had inhaled the smoke. And some others were cowering down on the ground, staying low to avoid the toxic gas. They had found out quickly that those scratching at the walls had been much closer to the smoke; those who ducked down could delay their fate for just a few more moments.

Time seemed to slow down; perhaps the speed of the smoke had enveloped the room in only a few seconds, perhaps it had been minutes.

Rominas eyes glided past the smoke to see the outline of Wanda on the other side, still standing. And then she dropped immediately a swift moment after inhaling, her head lolling to the side and hair splaying out. Her half fisted palm faced the ceiling.

The white vines wrapped around Romina a second later. Her eyes teared up as the smoke stung like fire and a desperate scratch built up in her throat; she took a frantic shallow breath as her lungs begged for air.

And then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her legs gave way, darkness pulling her far under.


AUTHOR NOTES:

So that was that. HYDRA's a charming organisation.

I hope I'm getting the Romani racism correct and a little bit of the history. Anyone knows better can feel free to correct me!

Reviews are still welcome. They can be just normal comments or constructive criticism (especially on this story since it deals with sensitive topics). Or you can can just go in for the double kill and do both. Or you know, you don't want to leave anything at all, and maybe haven't even bothered reading this far. That's cool too.