Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Marvel universe, any OC's are owned by me and any plot changes or any differences in this fanfiction from the Marvel universe come from my own mind and can't be credited to the Marvel franchise.
Authors Note: Thank you to everyone who favourites, followed and reviewed my first three chapters! I promised that I would get you next chapter by the end of the weekend, so I stayed up all Saturday night finishing this, so I hope you like it. In this chapter you learn a lot about the main protagonist, but don't worry I haven't revealed everything yet!
P.S. I'm sorry about the massive cliff hanger at the end of the chapter, but don't worry that will help to lead the story into the next chapter. PLEASE READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER BECAUSE IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT AND IT WILL HELP ME A LOT WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER AND GETTING IT OUT QUICKLY.
A big shout out to weirdel, derpmonster, and lilnightmare17 who all reviewed my last chapter. The Comments you left really helped me in getting out this new chapter, so thank you all for such amazing encouragement. You guys should know that reviews literally mean the world to me and the fact that you would take the time to write something constructive and kind really helps me with writing this fanfiction! I hope you all enjoy!
Recap:
I turned back to the group, "it's a long story" I said looking at the Captain, assuming he was the leader of this little organisation.
The Captain gave a small smile, gesturing to the hospital bed. "We've got time. Talk"
Chapter 4
Following the Captains orders, I slowly made my way over to the hospital bed and sat down on the edge of it with a deep sigh, crossing my legs at the knee.
"You all might want to take a seat, this is going to be a very long story" I said looking at the group of people who were all hovering at the entrance of the hospital room.
With looks of mild apprehension on their faces, they followed my suggestion and all made their way to a group of white, plush seats next to the bed.
I imagine that's where concerned visitors of the sick would sit, like family members and friends, but I have neither of those things, so I guess I'm left to settle with a group of people who may or may not want to kill me.
I looked over to Ignotus and gestured him over to sit beside me, but he shook his head and waved his hand out in a 'go ahead' manner, I imagine he doesn't want any part of what is to come.
Releasing another deep sigh and leaning forward slightly, I made eye contact with everyone in the room before I began to tell my life's story
"Alright then, I imagine you will not want me to omit any juicy details, so I will start at the very beginning, as all good tales do in my opinion."
"I was born in the year 1716-"
"What!?" Oh dear I thought most of the interruptions would come later on in the story.
"You can't expect us to believe that right? I mean come on! You must be what? 18? 19? Do you honestly think we're going to buy that bullshit?" Came the condescending voice of Tony, crossing his arms in his seat and looking at me like one would a child.
Safe to say I didn't appreciate that look coming from someone over 200 years younger than me, to be honest I didn't really know what year it was, I might be even older.
"I will only tell me story if there are no interruptions, I will explain everything that I can, and if you do have questions at the end you are free to ask them, does that sound alright?" I asked, giving Tony the same look he was giving me a moment ago.
With an agitated huff, Tony slid back into his seat and waved his arms around "speak your unbelievable tale, oh mysterious silver tongue" he said with an over exaggerated British accent, which I found rather insulting.
Just don't kill him.
You might be able to get out of this without any more bloodshed.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I was born in the year 1716 to a Marquess and Marchioness by the names of Lord and Lady Gilmore on the morning of the sixth of April.
"At the time, the Lord and Lady were in their town house in London for a spring ball hoisted by King George the first in honour of some event I do not know nor care about.
"I was their first and only child, for after my birth, I believed them to be so traumatised by the event they did not want to try for another child.
"You see, I was born with a rare coloration defect called heterochromia, which is not so rare now but in those days it was practically unheard of, especially in noble families.
"As you can see," I brought me hand up to my left eye and traced the long jagged scar that covered it, "my parents were absolutely horrified by this.
"They thought I was possessed by some sort of demon, due to the drastic colour difference, one eye a golden brown and the other pitch black.
"My family's blood line was filled with superstition and mystery, the common folk believing our ancestors to be witches who obtained their status through sorcery and other nefarious means.
"Of course all of this was complete folly, but my parent valued propriety and public image above all else, and knowing that my strange affliction would bring scandal, they did what they thought necessary.
"So as soon as I was born and handed over to my mother, she told my father to go and grab a bread knife from down in the kitchen of the town house and bring it back up to her.
"He did as he was told and as soon as the knife was in her hand, she tried to cut out my eye." I finished with a small smile on my face, looking out at the shocked faces of the room.
"Safe to say she did not succeed in her plot to kill me, one of the midwives came in to check on my mother and found her trying to shove a knife into my skull."
I looked down at my hands and watched as I clenched and unclenched them into fists over and over again.
"I owe my life to that woman, unfortunately I never got the chance to repay that debt of gratitude."
I pushed myself further onto the bed, crossing my legs the other way and placing my arms behind me to prop myself up in a leaning position.
"Once the woman had gotten me from my mother's clutches and cleaned my wound to make sure I wouldn't die of blood loss or infection, she tried to run with me to the police station to try arrest my parents.
"Little did she know that some of the deception and villainy my family's name had been built on was true.
"Only a few paces from the door, my father grabbed the woman from behind and slit her throat, causing her to drop me and collapse on top of me, covering me in her blood.
"My father ordered the woman's corpse to be thrown in the Thames, and took me to the nursery they had set up for their perfect child." I gave a small laugh and shook my head at the memory Ignotus had given me, as I was too young to remember myself.
"Except I wasn't the perfect child they always wanted, nor would I ever be, so they did what they thought was best.
"Knowing that the staff were loyal, and that none of them saw me with the dead midwife, my mother constructed a story that I had died in childbirth, and the grief of the event drove the midwife to kill herself.
"It was a rather clever ruse I will admit, the only problem was that they had no way of getting me back to the mansion, out of London without being seen by anyone.
"So my parents claimed that their estate out of London had been robbed and vandalised so they had to stay in the town house until everything was fixed, which they claimed would take years of work.
"At the first opportunity, they began to construct my 'room' under the guise of a wine cellar in the basement, employing only trustworthy people so there would be no word of it escaping to the outside.
"This 'wine cellar' was actually a prison, complete with metal bars to block me from the stairway to the door, and a small metal bed with no mattress or blanket on it, which I never used.
"It even had a tiny window at the top of the furthest wall, also covered in metal bars, which was my only source of sunlight for almost eighteen years.
"I had no way to measure the time, except to try and see what season it was outside the small window, so I'm not completely sure exactly how many years I spent down there.
"In my younger years, a nanny was sent down there for a few hours every day to take care of me, feed me, clean me all of the standard things a child needs to survive.
"When I was five years old the nanny suddenly stopped coming, I always wondered what happened to her, knowing my family they probably killed her and made it look like an accident.
"Instead of a caretaker, a small hole was dug in the ground and bowl of water placed inside it, this was to be where I washed myself.
"The staff would sometimes let me go outside into the forest in the early hours of the morning on a leash, like some common dog.
"I hated my life, I knew it wasn't a normal life or a nice life to live, only when I started to grow older did it get slightly better." I looked up to make sure that my audience was still captivated, and found they had all moved to sit at the edge of their seats had all leaned forward slightly, probably unknown to them.
I gave a small smile at that, knowing that this tale may be the difference between whether they see me as a threat or not, if they kill me or not.
"When I reached around seven years old, a servant began to bring me books, maybe once or twice a month, always giving me a knew one and taking away the old one so as not to get caught.
"With these books, I began to educate myself the best I could, sometime when the servant came down I would ask him for help, either with a word I didn't know or a sentence I didn't quite understand.
"He was my first friend, he must have been around ten or fifteen years older than me but I never cared, for once I had a friend who cared about me and actually liked to talk to me.
"At least that's what I thought, looking back I can't help but think how naive I was, but oh well, that is all in the past now.
"The years went on and me and the servant, William I found out his name was, grew closer, he was the only person I ever saw, he delivered my food and water, and he was the only person I could speak to.
"When I was around eighteen years old, something suddenly changed in William, one day he came down the stairs and unlocked the door, but he didn't have anything in his hands and he didn't have the smile on his face that he always wore when he saw me.
"I knew something was wrong but I wasn't sure what, so I asked him, but he never responded, he kept his face expressionless.
"When he was in my cell, he locked the door behind him, advanced on me and tried to force himself on me" I looked to the ceiling of the hospital room remembering the day with perfect clarity despite how long ago it was.
"I was so scared, I had no idea what was happening or why my only friend was trying to hurt me, so I did everything I could to get out of his grip.
"Grabbing one of the hardcover books William had given me, I lifted it over his head and brought it down on to the top of his spine, right where his neck and head connected.
"He slumped to the ground in a pile of lifeless limbs, I had killed him instantly, it was the first person I had ever killed, but he was certainly not the last."
I pushed myself up from my leaning position and stood up from the bed, instead deciding to slowly pace the length of the room with my arms crossed behind my back and my head slightly bowed.
"Eventually some of the staff noticed that William never came back up from the basement, so my father went down to check on what happened.
"When he saw Williams's lifeless corpse, he rushed back upstairs, got my mother and brought her back down to stand in front of my cage.
"It had been so long since I had seen them that I almost didn't recognise them, but I did recognise their voice, they had haunted my nightmares for years.
"After observing the mess I had made, they both agreed that they could use this situation to their advantage.
"So my father opened my cell, grabbed me by my hair and slammed my face into the concrete wall, effectively knocking me unconscious, although i imagine there were more elegant ways of doing it.
"When I woke up again, I found out that my parents had removed the cell bars in the basement and staged it to look like an actual wine cellar.
"They claimed that William had gone down there to put away some wine from the previous night, but upon meeting a witch performing rituals in the basement, he went to run.
"The witch, played by me, supposedly cast a spell and killed him were he stood, I then apparently tried to burn the house down with everyone inside.
"My blood line have always been good at weaving stories and making them believable, so the police bought the whole story and began to set up my execution for being a witch.
"Only hours after waking up from being knocked unconscious, I was dragged from the holding cell I had been placed in at the police station, to West Smith Field, as was the traditional place for burning witches in London.
"I was strapped to the stake over the bonfire in front of hundreds of spectators, who all showed up to watch me burn."
I stopped pacing and turned to the sound of a small gasp which came from Wanda, who had one hand over her mouth, the other was being held by Pietro in a sign of reassurance.
"It's quite alright Wanda, the good part is coming up soon" I said to the girl with a small smile on my face, even though this 'good part' could be seen as both a blessing and a curse.
"I'm sure my family were happy, they finally had a way of getting rid of me without being suspicious and without getting their own hands dirty in the process.
"When the crowd started cheering and a priest brought the flaming torch down to light the pier, I started to struggle and scream and cry, normal things one should do if they are about to be burned at the stake.
"Of course it didn't make a difference, it never does, so the fire was lit and I began to burn.
"It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my hundreds of years of existence, I could feel my skin bubbling and boiling as the fire travelled further up my body.
"It felt like hours before I heard a small, quiet voice in my ear whispering 'do you wish to make a contract?' Of course being on the brink of death I would accept any way out, so I screamed out 'yes' for the whole crowd to hear.
"Then suddenly, the fire didn't hurt anymore, my skin began to heal as my bonds holding me the stake began to break."
I looked down at the ground giving an evil sort of grin at the floor, remembering what was to come.
"As climbed off of the bonfire and walked out of the fire in front of everyone, another form emerged from the fire behind me, and asked me what I wanted to do with them, gesturing his fiery hand out to encompass the fearful crowd."
I looked up making eye contact with everyone before setting my eyes on Ignotus.
"Kill them."
"And that's what he did, he turned them all to ash for me before I could even blink, leaving them as small piles on the ground, he then turned to me and began to explain the rules of our contract."
I began to walk up to Ignotus as I spoke watching his face morph into a small smirk, similar to the one I wore as we remembered the event that bound us together.
"He told me that I was now his vessel and that he could use it however he pleased and I could not complain, my body would serve as a respite to him, in exchange I got immortality and a loyal guard dog.
"With the rules of the contract laid out I gave the man of fire a name, I chose 'Ignotus' because it means 'unknown' in Latin, and in exchange he gave me my name.
"My parents had never bothered to name me, thinking that it would make me appear more human than I actually was, so he named me 'Aries' because he would often say that I was stubborn as an old ram.
"After that we went underground to avoid the ramifications of our actions, keeping to ourselves, growing closer and friendlier with each other.
"However one day, when we were up in Norway, only around 50 or so years after the forming of the contract, something went…wrong."
I looked over to Ignotus, trying to tell if he was still angry about this, but from his calm demeanour, I didn't think he was, maybe he finally saw the situation we were in as something more than a curse.
"One day I woke up from my sleep in the cave we had chosen to inhabit, surrounded by fire, it didn't burn me though, no fire has since my burning at the stake and the forming of the contract.
"It turns out that Ignotus and I had stayed in a contract together for too long, and I had somehow leeched off of his fire ability, and we were now unable to separate and break the contract without killing both of us in the process."
I clicked my fingers and watched as the bright fire consumed my hand but never burned and never created smoke.
"This new development was a surprise, as most contracts like our lasted until the entity got bored and broke it, usually only lasting around five or ten years.
"That's all the contracts were to the makers, entertainment, after all when you're immortal, you do get bored rather easily.
"Over the years we would create new identities for me and we would live a few years in whatever country we wanted, travelling the world.
"But obviously we couldn't stay for long in one place, as the local people would notice that I was not ageing as I should be.
"We kept this lifestyle for years, moving from place to place undetected, avoiding events like World War One and World War Two and other large scale wars, but one day, we slipped up.
"After the end of World War Two, in 1945 we emerged from our new hiding spot in Scotland to find a group of people waiting for us, before we could attack, a tranquilliser was shot at me and I fell unconscious.
"When I woke up I was in that same cell that you found me in, and Ignotus was residing inside my head.
"Instantly I knew something was wrong, because the both of us prefer having our own bodies and Ignotus will only retreat to me when he has been seriously injured or to protect my body.
"It turns out that the people who kidnapped me, who I later found out called themselves Hydra, were planning to try and extract my powers and use them to create super weapons and super humans,
"Idiots, after a few years of that, they realised that they couldn't achieve their goal, so they made a new hypothesis, 'how far can we push the immortal before she dies?'"
I slowly made my way over to the bed and sat down heavily on the side facing the group of chairs, giving a long drawn out sigh which morphed into a dry chuckle.
"As you can clearly see, they did not succeed in their experiment, despite their best efforts to do so.
"And that's how you found me, in that cell, so now that I've hopefully answered at least a few of your questions may I ask at least one?"
I looked to the Captain for an answer, and saw him slowly nod his head in agreement.
"What year is it?" I questioned, tilting my head slightly to the side unknowingly, causing Ignotus to stifle a small smile at the action.
"2015, you were in that Hydra facility for 70 years." Came the slow and surprisingly gentle answer from Tony, looking at me like I was going to explode or collapse at any moment.
"70 years... 70...years..." I spoke softly under my breath.
I have lived for almost 300 years, that's, terrifying.
"That's a lot longer than I thought I was in there for I whispered looking to Ignotus to see him raise his eyebrows slightly.
"Ok" I said in a shaky voice hoping to distract the spectators from my inner turmoil, "does anyone have any questions?"
Thank you all so much for reading this chapter, if you see any problems in it please message me or comment because I really want to make this story the best it can be. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and if you did please review, favourite and follow.
PLEASE READ THIS! Ok so the reason I left the chapter of with such an odd cliff hanger is because I would like you guys to write your own questions in the reviews. Because I wrote this and I know the whole story in my head I can't see if I have left out a glaring plot hole or maybe something doesn't make sense.
SO PLEASE WRITE ANY QUESTIONS IN THE REVIEWS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IT WILL HELP ME SOOOOOOO MUCH WITH THE NEXT CAHPTER
Your feedback means the world to me and will how quickly I will get the new chapter out. I'll try and update as regularly as I can so sit back and please enjoy the rest of this fanfiction. :)