Her head hurt. Her muscles were sore. Her hair was filthy. Her nose was running. On top of everything else she needed to go to the bathroom.
There was a loud banging on her cell door and she clutched her temples. The door swung open and the Baron stepped in. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the smell and she wished she could shove him face first in in the corner she used for her more unpleasant bodily functions.
"We really must see about getting you some Febreze or something."
"Please tell me this is just one of those stupid commercials where they drop you off in a location that's nasty, spray some of that smell-good stuff, and then you find out it's all a big funny joke kind of thing." Casey moaned, tossing the straw off of herself and pulling her hair out of her face.
"Hydra doesn't do 'big funny joke kinds of things', I'm afraid," The Baron smiled, "And on top of that your weekly bath has been postponed until you tell us what we want to know."
Casey tried not to show how much that hurt. The bath she got once a week was nothing more than a few pails of freezing soapy water tossed over her, but it got rid of some of the smell and was quite a luxury in her situation.
"That's okay," She grunted, "I've got a cold so you're the one who has to put up with my smell." Stretching tiredly on her thin mattress, she tried her best to look casual. One angry glare from the Baron had her pulling all of her limbs back in and look demurely at the floor.
"Based off of yesterday's experiment, might we expect you to be giving in anytime soon?"
Images of a laughing, mocking Loki flashed through her mind and she winced. Even if it had just been a dream or hallucination or whatever it was, she had no desire to experience it again. There was enough doubt in her heart about him as it was, she didn't need Hydra to make her hate him.
I don't owe him anything. I should just tell them what I know and get a bath and some food. Casey patted her empty stomach. It had been about two and a half days since she'd eaten anything. Water wasn't given generously, but they hadn't withheld it yet. Of course, if the Baron was growing tired of her he might just take that away and let die of thirst so he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore.
"Give me some food and then I'll tell you something." She offered.
"Tell me first." The Baron smiled, catching on to her game.
"It was worth a shot," Shrugging, and feeling her shoulder bones groan in protest, Casey leaned against the wall, "So to answer your question: you might be waiting a while."
"You're suffering will only increase." He warned.
"Bring it on, Wolfgang."
"Idiot."
"Agreed."
"Sir, shall I bring in Wanda?" The guard at the door asked.
"Oh absolutely. Perhaps yesterday wasn't enough to convince our charming girl that we intend to take away everything," He crouched down next to her and gave her a concerned glance, "Your bones are broken, your wounds becoming infected, your breathing sounds strained - I'd wager pneumonia - you smell, you are dirty, and your dentist would not be pleased at the state of your mouth. You are nearly broken physically and now we begin to take your mind. Are you prepared to protect your Asgardian until you are insane?"
Casey grinned as widely as she could, which hurt her cheekbones. "You betcha."
Strucker rolled his eyes and allowed room for Wanda in the cell. She looked about ready to cry and Casey tried to look stronger than she felt. The Maximoff girl clasped Casey's hand in her own.
"Please, tell them. It will only get worse for you and I cannot stand to see it."
"I can't." Casey told her, trying not to wince as Wanda clutched her broken hand.
"Hurry up, Miss Maximoff, I have bigger fish to fry."
Casey chuckled. "Bigger fish than Asgard? You see those whale-warship things Loki brought down on New York? Cuz those were some pretty big fish."
Wanda clucked nervously and then, with a nudge from Strucker, filled her friend's mind with nightmares and fear. The scream came only moments after. The occupants of the cell prepared to see the girl thrash and squirm and shout. They were all quite surprised when her eyes shot back open and glowed yellow. Strucker was the first to figure it out and took a giant step backward. Realizing what could happen, he quickly ordered Wanda out of the room and when she didn't go he grabbed her and tossed her out the door.
"Agent, evacuate the hall." Strucker said calmly as the girl got up from the floor with a menacing smirk. He'd never seen the alter-ego in action before, but wasn't willing to die over it. After the agent and Wanda had left, the Baron quickly stepped out of the room and sealed the door behind him. Watching through the small glass window in the iron door, he winced as Acacia leapt right at him.
Despite the many broken bones the girl's body had, the monster slammed her fist against the door and made a dent in it. Strucker took another step back and as he did so Acacia shattered the window with the hand that was shoddily bandaged and splinted.
"You must be the one in charge." She commented, rolling her neck and peaking through the window at him.
"Baron Wolfgang von Strucker."
"Pleasure to meet you." Her arm shot out through the shards of glass, cutting it in many places, and her hand went for the handle. Her reach was just too short of the handle, but her fingers made contact with the locking keypad. Clenching her hand into a fist, Acacia smashed the keypad until it was nothing but dangling wires.
"If you come out there is a sixty-percent chance you will be killed."
Acacia froze as the door swung open. "Oh?"
"I am not so concerned with the affairs of Asgard that I will risk the lives of everyone here just to capture you. I'd shoot you in the head before I even let you come close."
"You think you can draw your weapon that quickly?" Acacia laughed, but still didn't move.
"If you killed me before I could give the proper commands then there is a one hundred percent chance of your death. I would not be there to stop my men from killing you and there is no way you could make it past all of them."
"Fine then, what would you suggest I do?" She sneered, "I am designed to destroy and at the moment that is all I'll feel like doing."
"Answer my questions and we'll talk about letting you end some lives."
Acacia smiled happily. "Ask away."
Awakening to a monocled man standing over her, Casey yelped in surprise. She made to push herself away from him, but her left hand was more broken than before, based off of how it felt and her arm was covered in gashes. Grinding her teeth together and hissing she fell back onto the mattress.
"That's what you get for punching through a window with an already broken hand."
"Punching a window?" Casey squinted under the light of the naked bulb above her. She managed to shift into a position where she could converse more easily. "Okay, forget that. I didn't have any nightmare-vision things. What happened?"
"Take a guess."
"My brain feels like it's sloshing around inside my skull. I can't think."
"Lovely imagery. Your little friend escaped."
Normally, Casey would have had a minor freak out moment while she apologized profusely and shamed herself for the mishap. However, since she'd been brought to Hydra she had been secretly pleased when her alter-ego got into trouble.
"Was Wanda okay?"
"Fine."
"Good," Casey nodded, "Did Acacia cause many problems - please say yes."
Strucker smiled at her and Casey saw some relief in his eyes, as if he'd just finished something that had taken up too much of his time. She swallowed nervously and hoped she wasn't that something.
"Asgard houses the Tesseract in it's weapons vault. Their prisons are enforced with golden energy fields. Loki has replaced Odin on the throne, though no one knows, and he is building a secret army. Initially he captured you to train you as a soldier for this secret army, but then you fell in love and he has been trying to squash your alter-ego by way of a silver, enchanted bracelet. Asgard has a watchman who can see everything in the nine realms, which means Loki knows of your situation and does nothing about it. I could go on about all I know of Asgard, but you already know these things."
"How?" Casey croaked out, her throat dry.
"It turns out that Acacia retains much of the information that you pick up. I let her eliminate one of my other prisoners in exchange for this information."
Casey wondered if the Baron was right about her having pneumonia because she was having a hard time breathing. The secrets that had been her lifeline for the past year were all told. The only thing keeping her from being killed by Hydra was now gone. She'd put up with a year of torture, filth, and near starvation to have Acacia come along and make it all worthless.
"No." She whispered, feeling tears of defeat pool in her eyes.
"It's true. Additionally, we've found that there is nothing our science or the power of the scepter can do to alter your powers in anyway that we find useful. You are officially useless to us, Ms. Elrod."
Useless meant dead. Casey pulled her hair back from her face and stared blankly at Strucker's shoes. The loafers looked expensive, but very classy.
"So are you going to shoot me or what?" She spat at him and his fancy shoes.
"Not at all. I never said that I'd be killing you," He dusted off his uniform and turned to go, "I just wished to update you about your status."
Casey let the tears fall. "Thanks for that. So helpful of you."
"Of course," He closed the door, but looked back through the still shattered window, "And if I was going to kill you, you'd never see it coming." With that, he left her to her broken bones and tears.
A/N: Tada! A suffering filled chapter! Just the usual, you know. Casey crying, villains being mean, despair, impending doom - all that good stuff! Thanks for reading it! Please follow/favorite/review! :)