Author's Note: I have no excuse for the wait, really. So here we go; in the last chapter, I really wasn't happy with the format, but it was the best way to show how things happened without using a bunch of flashbacks, the way it happened when I planned this story out. I haven't actually written most of it down, but I do have some notes. Kudos to anyone who correctly guessed the codenames- Night for Fury because Fury-Nightfury-Night, Overwatch for Coulson because of Aggie2012's amazing fanfiction, in which that is his codename, and Ring for Agent Hill because Hill-Underhill-Frodo Baggins- Ringbearer-Ring. And now, without further ado, the second chapter of "And I Kept No Answers"!
0o0o0o0
Fury settled into his SHIELD-issue desk chair with a sigh. Despite his status as the damn director of the organization, even he had to put up with the horribly stiff, regulation chairs. At least way out here, away from his own office. The Bioterra facility was three hours away from headquarters, even in a quinjet, and its amenities- such as this stupid chair- were even more brand-new and impersonal than back home. Fury felt bad for Hill and Coulson - really, he did - but sending them to take his place at Bioterra for the majority of the Project was the best idea he ever had. Too bad he still had to visit every three months to check up on his favorite non-humans.
He eyed the mounds of paperwork waiting for him on the desk, courtesy of Coulson, who had just returned from messing with that damn Stark business. With a groan, Fury rose from the chair and stretched his stiff back. The documents could wait until after he got a bite to eat and some coffee, he decided. It's not like the subjects needed his authorization for new equipment within the next hour.
The facility was relatively small, by SHIELD standards, and so damn empty that you could walk all over base without seeing anyone. Fury used this to his advantage and took the least populated route to the cafeteria. The subjects had personal study time right now, he remembered. Coulson and Hill, on the other hand, could be just about anywhere, and Fury didn't really want to run into them right now. While the subjects' self-sufficiency could be seen as an asset - they didn't really need human monitoring, and would train and study without prompting - it also meant that Coulson and Hill had a lot of free time when they were at the facility. Free time that Coulson, at least, seemed determined to spend hounding Fury about that blasted paperwork.
"I'm telling you, it's like he's allergic to the stuff. What's the point of having him authorize it, anyway? Isn't your signature enough?" Hill's voice drifted down the narrow hallway from the cafeteria. Fury scowled.
"Yes, but if only I sign it, then I'm not allowed to process it myself. And the Project - any facet of the Project - is too classified for anyone else to process," Coulson reminded her. Drat. They were both waiting for Fury in the cafeteria... damn busybodies. Fury turned on his heel and began creeping in the opposite direction. The voices started getting louder, and Fury realized with a jolt of dread that Coulson and Hill were coming his way. Damn it! Where can I hide? I don't know this place well enough to... Suddenly a hand shot out of nowhere and pulled him into a previously hidden room just off the hallway. The door slid silently closed behind him, just in time for Coulson and Hill to round the corner and pass him and his mysterious rescuer. Fury whirled around, reaching automatically for his sidearm, but stopped and blinked confusedly.
Subject One was a damn sight for sore eyes. While Fury had never spent a great deal of time with her, aside from when she first came to SHIELD, he knew her from the surveillance feeds and from Coulson and Hill's reports. Subject One was of average build, trim and fit without being overly muscular, with short-cropped dirty blond hair. Her face was heart-shaped and unremarkable, except for her large, almost catlike watchful yellow-green eyes. She always seemed quietly confident, unobtrusive. She kept to herself, he'd been told, and studied harder than she trained. She was never one to cause trouble, or break rules, as she was doing now. While she couldn't have known that no one was actually watching today, the Subjects were digitally monitored at all times, and an alarm should have gone off when she left their designated area.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Fury demanded. He couldn't reprimand her, or she might tell tales about this little incident to Coulson or Hill. But he could still intimidate her into going back to study hall. Subject One just watched him calmly. Her normally bright yellow-green eyes were tired, and her whole face was pale and drawn. Her posture was subpar as well - most people wouldn't have noticed, but Fury could see that something was wrong.
"... Report, Subject One," Fury commanded sharply.
She took a deep breath, as if preparing herself for an unpleasant task. "Sir," she began, "I have to report a situation."
"Go on," Fury growled. If there was something fishy going on in his top-secret facility - so confidential that not even the Council knew about it - then it needed to stop, now.
"Yes, sir. Subjects Two and Three have taken control of the other Subjects and are planning an attack on SHIELD, sir," the girl said with a straight face and no-nonsense tone.
"Excuse me?" his voice rose just a tad higher than he would've hoped for. "That's ridiculous. Electronic monitoring guarantees that we'd know about any situation like that immediately."
"Yes, sir, but the computers couldn't pick this up, sir. I didn't even know about it until just this morning, when Subjects Two and Three approached me to ask for assistance."
Fury let out an amused huff. "Of course they did." Subject One just waited patiently. She was starting to get on his nerves, with her creepily steady gaze. As if in response to his errant thought, she blinked and glanced down nervously. "Alright, fine. Can you get me back to my office without," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards the door and the path his agents had taken, "them seeing us?"
The girl nodded sharply. "Yes, sir." She led him back out the hidden door Fury had come through, then a little ways back towards the cafeteria, and through another hidden door. "These are the emergency escape routes, sir," she whispered, "None of the other subjects know about them... I've had to avoid people on several occasions, and stumbled across some of them. Since then, I've mapped them all out." They continued through the passageways, cold white walls gleaming sardonically around them. Fury's mind raced- why would Subject One, of all people, need to avoid the others? She was supposedly the most powerful of them all. But maybe that's why... maybe she doesn't like all the attention. He followed her slightly downtrodden form through the facility, wondering.
Subject One's path took them in a very roundabout way through the base, but they did eventually reach Fury's office. He slumped into his damnably stiff chair and gestured for her to sit in the only chair in front of his desk. "Alright, Subject One," he said. "Tell me everything."
'Everything' turned out to be a hell of a lot. Fury listened, stunned, for over an hour as One described the situation. The reason the subjects' plot hadn't alerted any automated responses, or any of their human monitors, was because it was all silent. Subjects Two and Three, One revealed, had finally developed telepathy, a skill One herself had acquired years ago. They were skilled enough already that she hadn't noticed them taking over the others' minds until today, but only because One had always respected the other Subjects' privacy in that regard. She admitted this had been a mistake on her part, but didn't seem that fussed about it. If anything, she looked relieved to be telling someone. One grimly told Fury all about the others' plans- they were going to break out of their designated areas tomorrow, she said, during the morning training session. They would easily overwhelm anyone in their way and take the control booth of the facility, from which they would be able to disarm all of the safety measures in place for such an event. From there, they could spread from Bioterra to other SHIELD bases, appropriating their weapons and killing anyone who stood in their way. Their rampage wouldn't end, One warned, until they had control of all of SHIELD, and all of their ridiculously advanced weapons technology.
Fury considered the story for a moment, then spoke up. "I believe you," he muttered, noting how unsurprised One looked. If she really could read his mind, then she knew his stance already. "But I don't understand why you didn't join them. If they want to assert themselves over the human race, starting with their jailers... aren't you in the same position as them?"
"I'm not, and you know it," she retorted. "You developed the... measures taken for me to be here without risk to your organisation. You know that even if I wanted to break free, I wouldn't. Not unless I had completely lost myself. The others, on the other hand, have no such restrictions. They are here of their own free will, and will use that will to wreak havoc on you."
"I don't believe for a second that you're not here of your own free will. If you're so much more developed than even Two and Three that you became fucking telepathic fucking years before they did-"
"My position in this isn't really important, sir," One growled, ending the argument. "What is important is that the plot cannot be allowed to even begin. Two and Three must be stopped before they give the signal tomorrow morning."
"And what do you propose we do? The only subject I have on my side is you, and you're just one person..."
"I do have a plan, sir..." Subject One outlined her stupidly brave plan. She and the rest of the subjects would report to their morning training room according to schedule tomorrow. But instead of having Coulson, Hill, or Fury present to watch and give them pointers, the gym would be completely locked down and the safety measures (designed for the agents' safety, not the subjects') would be armed. Coulson had designed the 'safety measures' himself... they could destroy everything in the gym without harming the facility. Subject One would confront Two and Three. If she could not convince them to back down and release the others' minds, then they would attack her. "If they kill me, you have to destroy them all," she warned Fury. "Don't be swayed by false promises or pity. They will be too far gone to save." Fury reluctantly agreed. If she was confident enough in this foolhardy plan to risk her own neck, then he had to comply with whatever she wanted him to do.
0o0o0o0
Coulson, Hill, and Fury waited nervously in the Bioterra control room. From the wall of monitors, they could see every aspect of the gymnasium where the subjects were gathering. There were only three minutes left before the designated start time of both One's plan as well as the others' coup. Hill tapped a pen on her clipboard. The incessant ticking made Fury's eyebrow twitch. Coulson sat on the edge of his seat, his back ramrod straight. Fury had never seen him so agitated. To most, he would appear perfectly calm, but Fury had worked with the man long enough that he knew his ticks. Right now, Coulson was barely breathing, and he wasn't blinking, as if the slightest movement would affect the outcome of today's confrontation.
On the screens, the agents could see every subject's face. Two and Three were whispering excitedly, like children. One seemed impassive, but she looked even more tired than she had yesterday. The rest's faces were completely blank, like dolls. Fury guessed that Two and Three were too distracted to make their puppets look like people. As the last subject filed into the gym, the enormous titanium double doors sealed shut with an audible clang. Two and Three didn't look up until the locking mechanism echoed in the silent room, and the 'safety measures' came online with a hum. Two looked around wildly, her gaze landing on the cameras. She frowned at them... then turned and glared at Subject One.
"You little bitch!" she screeched. Three whirled around, wide-eyed, to stare at his counterpart. "She went to Night! They know! They were just waiting for us to come here, and now we're trapped!" Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"You have a choice, Subject Two," One murmured. Every eye, even those of the puppets, was focused on her. "You can release the subjects and swear allegiance to SHIELD, or you can get them all killed."
"You're wrong!" Two retorted angrily. Three just looked on. Apparently the girl's the mouthpiece... I would bet my good eye that Three is the one with the telepathic talent.
"We can still win this! We just have to kill you, and then bust through those doors before the guns can go off."
One rolled her eyes. "Nothing could get through those doors, and you know it. But tell me, before you make a mistake that will cost you your life... why bother with all this? SHIELD has been nothing but kind to us... they allow us to develop our abilities, to be with our own species in peace. They could have killed us all, but instead they seek to make us useful-"
"And that's exactly the problem," Three snarled suddenly. One's impassive eyes- more yellowish than green now, Fury noticed- turned to him. He seemed to subside a bit before continuing. "They treat us like we're... tools, or something. Like we're not even human. We want to truly be free, to have a freedom that comes from ourselves, like is 'granted' to us by SHIELD. We've read their reports- they call us 'it's. They took away our names, our pasts. We want to live like people again, not lab rats... we want our human rights!"
One paused for a beat before her eyes softened and she smiled slightly. "Ah. But that's where you're both wrong, you know," she took a step back, but the puppets had already fallen into a loose semicircle, backing her against a wall. "We were never human... and we never will be."
Two screeched unintelligibly and Three snarled- some signal must have been given, because several of the puppets moved towards One. They grabbed her arms before she could break free. One of them, an amber-haired, petite girl, caressed One's face. She smiled and all the puppets said at once, "You will die now, my dear...". The girl dragged her nails in a deep scratch down One's cheekbone.
0o0o0o0
In the control room, Coulson sprang from his seat and muttered expletives at the screen. Hill and Fury eyed him, shocked. Coulson normally never showed that much emotion... much like how Subject One rarely showed emotion, and yet now seemed to be laughing...
0o0o0o0
In the gym, the petite girl's puppet-eyes widened as Two and Three started to run for the door. The others watched dumbly and the two holding Subject One released her. She fell to her knees, clutching her head. Blood flowed smoothly down her face from the scratch, dripping onto the floor. The cameras could show that her eyes bled red from the pupil into the iris, contaminating it with blood-red, and spreading into the whites of her eyes. Her face- changed, somehow, as she stood with a slow, feline grace.
One leveled her blood-red eyes at the girl who had scratched her. The sight was horrifying. Her cut still bled freely, but instead of wiping away the blood, One reached out and caught the girl by the throat. She squeezed... and squeezed... until the girl's throat was a bloody ruin under her fingers. One licked her lips- and smiled, a terrible grimace of lip and tongue torn by her newly sharp teeth. She lunged.
The other subjects broke out of Three's spell. About half of them threw themselves into the fight with One, their eyes as red as hers, and snarling. The rest tried to run for the door, where Two and Three were still trying to break through. They had limited success- their inhumanly strong fists were able to make small dents in the titanium, but One was moving much faster.
Subject One growled constantly, a deep-throated, spine-tingling sound that raised the hairs on the back of the watching agents' necks. She spun, lunged, kicked, bit, and tore limb from limb as she made her way through the fray. The bodies she left behind were nothing but bloody limbs and faces. If she didn't kill them on her first strike, then they were left to bleed to death as she moved on to her next victim. Many times, she would be tearing one subject apart with hands and feet while her teeth ripped out the throat of another. All the while, none of the fighting subjects were able to touch her.
The entire conflict lasted only a few minutes of gore and screaming. The watching agents waited with bated breath as Subject One approached the only survivors... Subjects Two and Three. They were backed into a corner, with Three standing in front of Two as if to shield her from One's wrath. One stalked forward, her growl rumbling throughout the nearly silent gym. She was only a yard away from them when the video feed cut out.
0o0o0o0
"Godfuckingdammit!" Coulson yelled as he leapt up and bolted for the door. Fury and Hill followed closely. Fury didn't want to think about what might be happening in the gym- One was alone, with the other two most powerful subjects... and the only remaining subjects. They'll be desperate... even with One's display, I don't like her odds.
The agents pounded on the titanium gym doors, but they didn't open. Fury even put in his key card and Director-level code. The doors were locked tight. He put his ear to the hairline crack between the doors- he couldn't hear anything.
Fury slumped against the opposite wall with a sigh. Hill had her sidearm out, and pointed at the door. "Subject One is out of control," she spat from between clenched teeth. "When those doors open, she may still be a threat. Sir, we have to be prepared to evacuate the facility and set off the nuclear measures-"
"No," Coulson breathed. "One did this on purpose. She disabled the communications, and she's keeping these doors closed. She must want us to stay away while she has her tantrum." He joined Fury on the ground and watched the gym doors warily. Hill stiffly remained on guard, but she lowered her gun slightly.
Almost an hour passed in tense silence before the doors began to slide open... by themselves. There was no immediate sign of Subject One. Fury led his agents inside, guns out. Dammit. There were corpses everywhere, strewn like discarded toys around the room. They were ripped to pieces- many had organs spilling out of exposed abdominal cavities. In the farthest corner of the room stood Subject One.
Her short hair was streaked with drying blood. A river of blood trailed from her mouth (teeth normal now, Fury noticed distantly) down her SHIELD uniform. Her eyes were their usual yellow-green, but still with flecks of bright, simmering red. She seemed dazed- her eyes were unfocused, and she swayed slightly. In either hand she clutched the heads of subjects Two and Three. Their necks were broken and torn, and their bodies equally mangled. Their chest cavities had been ripped open- from Fury's position at the door, he could see that their hearts were missing.
Hill took a step forward, gun pointed directly between One's eyes. Coulson put a hand on her arm and spoke. "Subject One. This is Agent Overwatch, can you hear me?" He didn't get a response. Coulson cleared his throat and tried again, louder this time. "Subject One! We're here, you're safe, no one is going to hurt you." Ever so slowly, One's glazed eyes turned to Couslon. The cut still bled freely; blood dripped down her face and onto the already rancid floor.
Coulson took another step forward. "Listen to me, Subject One. It's over, everything will be alright. We want to help you." One's eyes flashed dangerously red. She threw Two and Three's bodies, shattering them against the wall. She continued to face the corpses, head down. Fury couldn't see her face through her red-streaked hair.
"That's good... you can rest now, Subject One." Coulson continued as though nothing had happened. "We can help you find a place to rest, okay?"
Subject One nodded dimly and sat down, facing the broken remains of Two and Three. Coulson cautiously approached her. He knelt beside the fallen girl. "Ah... Hill will help you get cleaned up. I'll go and get some clothes-" One's hand shot out and grabbed Coulson's sleeve. Hill and Fury stiffened. If she hurt him-! "You want me to stay." It wasn't a question. One just nodded again. "All right then. Hill and I will get you cleaned up, and Fury will get you another uniform."
Coulson and One stood up. She swayed a little bit, but didn't take Coulson's offered hand. They trudged through the filth back to Hill and Fury. Coulson looked at him expectantly. "...Fine," Fury muttered before leaving to find One something to wear.
0o0o0o0
When Fury found them again, the trio were in the subjects' showers. One was clean, and her cut had a butterfly bandage holding it closed. She was sitting on a counter, wearing only a towel. Coulson's face was impassive, but he wasn't looking at her. Decent man, that Coulson. Subject One cut an impressive figure, even as humbled and defeated-looking as she was now. She was slim, and without much body fat. She looked strong and lean, and still had a curvy figure. Despite that, she looked underfed and pale. Her eyes still had flecks of red, but they focused on Fury as he walked through the door. He offered her a SHIELD rest uniform, simple black sweats and tennis shoes. She accepted the clothing with a tight little smile.
0o0o0o0
A few hours later, Fury and Subject One were alone again in his office. He sighed and rubbed a hand against his eye. Damn, was he tired. One looked slightly shrunken, even though she had slept and eaten. Coulson and Hill were busy reprogramming the automatic cleaning systems to fix the horrible mess in the gym, so Fury was once again stuck with the paperwork.
"Alright, One. We might as well get started, so we can finish this up faster." Fury began. One watched him tiredly. "Since officially you don't exist, we have to prepare a digital background for you. Then we can get you into SHIELD's system as a recruit slated for covert missions." One didn't reply. "Now, I've taken the liberty of preparing a personal history for you. See, we've got your birth certificate, social security, high school diploma, transcript, passport, driver's license-"
"But sir, I'm only fifteen. Half of those documents will be obviously false- I don't even look sixteen, let alone old enough to have graduated high school," One interrupted.
"Too bad. SHIELD agents don't ask questions- and if the other recruits do, then they'll be set straight. Your documents are almost ready... all that's needed is a name. I'll let you pick it this time, since you'll need to respond to it quickly."
Subject One looked confused, but she seemed to think about it. "I'll be headed for covert training, right, sir?" Fury nodded, unsure where this was heading. "Then I've got a perfect name for myself. I decided to be called this years ago, before SHIELD found me. My name is Fell."
"Fell? Are you sure? And your last name?"
"Just Fell."
Fury held the girll's eyes for a long moment. He couldn't glean anything from her expression- just hardened determination that this, at least, would be something she could claim. He remembered what she said to Subject Three- 'We will never be human'. While he agreed with that statement, he nonetheless felt a surge of pity for this creature. She was alone, without even other members of her race to comfort her. She was stranded in a world that could never accept her... and she must always be watched for fear that she would turn on that world.
"Fine. Your name will be Fell."