New Mexico
Hydra Base
2012
It was only a weeks after Yelena's mission in Moscow when Director Pierce had decided to come out to New Mexico so he could personally inspect Fleischer's program for himself.
The Baron had been beside himself with excitement and had begun to make preparation for the visit weeks in advance. They trained even harder so as to be able to impress the Director, something that they knew the Baron would demand of them nonetheless.
The Director looked the same as Yelena had remembered him except for a few more wrinkles and grey hairs, but still recognizable as the man she met all those years ago.
The man who had introduced her to her father was the same man who stood before them waiting for the show to begin.
"Girls!" said Fleischer from where he stood next to Pierce, his hands behind his back stiffly as he observed all four of them, "what do you say we show the Director just what you're capable of, yes?"
All the girls stole uneasy glances at each other, their eyes betraying their rigid postures and stiff faces. It was as though they could sense something bad was about to happen.
"Anna and Isabel first," he said motioning for the two girls to make their way onto the mat. Both of the girls nodded before coming to stand on either side of the mat, their faces staring into each other's blankly as they waited for the order to start.
"Begin," said Fleischer as she looked over to an apprehensive Pierce, who was intently watching the girls.
Anna and Isabel both took their stances as they slowly circled each other, both waiting for one of them to strike first.
Anna was the one to strike, her fists swinging towards the other girls face before using her weight to try and kick her in the face. Yelena knew from experience that Anna was impatient and rash when it came to fighting and that she was often times the first one to attack, and while that did make her brave it was all too predictable.
Isabel easily blocked the oncoming attacks, her slender body moving with agility and gracefulness as she danced around the other girl.
Isabel was the picture of patience and serenity as she simply blocked and counter-attacked against the other girl without even breaking a sweat, a trait that Yelena had admired in the girl.
But Anna was bigger and stronger as she managed to grab Isabel's arm and twist it painfully behind her arm in a locked position, causing the other girl to yell in pain before using her other arm to deliver a hard blow to Anna's face.
Yelena looked over her shoulder to see Pierce's perplexed expression as he looked at the two dueling girls, his arms coming to rest across his chest. The Baron looked pleased with himself as he smiled at the scene before him, obviously enjoying the look of surprise on the Director's face.
For girls as young as they were, they fought with a ferocity that one would expect to see in a grown operative who had trained for years, not from pre-pubescent children.
The fight continued for a few more seconds before Isabel managed to grab Anna's leg in a lock before she twisted it up and pulled, causing the sound of broken bone to reverberate throughout the room.
Yelena had no doubt that Isabel had managed to break either Anna's tibia or fibula bone, most likely her fibula considering how much force would have to be exerted to break any of the other bones in the leg.
Either way, it was not a good scenario for Anna.
Anna screamed in pain as she fell to the floor cradling her broken leg, her teary eyes looking up to meet the disapproving ones of the Baron.
Yelena felt bad for the girl considering there was no way she could win the fight now as well as the disappointment that came with failure.
Isabel wasted no time in swiftly grabbing Anna in a head lock to signify her victory, something that their trainer had always taught them to do once their opponent was down to further incapacitate them.
Isabel looked over to the Baron victoriously as she awaited the order to let the other girl go, as they always did in these situations.
The Baron clapped his hands, "very good Isabel! Very good," he said smiling over at the Director before looking back to the two girls, his blue eyes darkening ever so slightly.
"Now," he said clasping his hands behind his back once again, "finish her."
Yelena's stomach dropped at the order, his instruction clear yet deafening as Sofia looked up at her confusion.
Only Yelena had ever been asked to take a life and that had been a test, but none of the other girls had ever killed before.
But apparently this was Isabel's test and Yelena wasn't sure if she would be able to complete it.
Anna's eyes widened in fear as she looked frantically over to the Director, her eyes silently pleading for her life but found that he would not deliver his help. Instead, he looked only looked at them with apprehension.
He wanted to how dedicated these girls were.
Isabel looked down at Anna, their eyes meeting each other briefly as silent tears rolled down both of their cheeks.
It was obvious from the conflict in Isabel's eyes that she couldn't bring herself to do it, no matter the consequences.
"No," whispered Isabel sadly as she looked over to the two grown men.
"What was that?" asked the Baron as his voice dipped dangerously low. The Director said nothing as he looked over to the Baron to see what the younger man would do.
"I can't," cried Isabel as she let Anna go.
As soon as Anna was free from Isabel's arm, she desperately tried to crawl away from the girl but only screamed in pain at the pressure being applied to her leg.
Her face was wet with tears and blood dripped freely from her nose and onto the mat as she crawled forward inch by inch.
She looked absolutely pathetic.
Baron Fleischer wasted no time in grabbing his gun from his waist band before stalking over to a crying Isabel with a dangerous look in his eyes and a sneer on his lips.
"I gave you an order!" he yelled as he pointed his gun at the girl.
Isabel stood frozen as she stared down the barrel of the gun, her eyes wide and full of tears as she looked over to where Yelena and Sofia stood watching them.
"Don't look," whispered Yelena as she grabbed the crying child and pulled her close to her side. She knew what was about to happen and for some reason she didn't think it right for the nine year old girl to watch.
Isabel had just defied and embarrassed the Baron in front of the Director himself, and that was something the Fleischer would never forgive her for nor would he be merciful.
Yelena shut her eyes as she heard the bang and the sound of a body dropping to the floor, causing Anna to scream from where she lay on the floor.
Anna was weak and weakness was not something that Hydra would tolerate.
She had failed and would receive the same verdict that Isabel was supposed to give her, and there was nothing anyone could do to save her.
"No! Please don't!" cried Anna as the Baron picked her up off the floor and wrapped his strong arms around her fragile neck before quickly snapping it.
Yelena could feel Sofia shudder at the sound as well as the wet tears that poured freely from the poor child's eyes, but Yelena didn't mind.
Yelena slowly opened her eyes but soon regretted it as soon as she saw Isabel's lifeless eyes staring back at her, a gunshot wound gracing the middle of her forehead.
Yelena looked over to where the Baron stood menacingly over the lifeless body of Anna, his back hunched over before he looked over his shoulder to look Yelena in the eye.
Yelena stood frozen as she looked at the Baron, who in that moment resembled a crazed animal more than a man, before looking over at the Director.
Director Pierce looked completely unfazed as he looked at the two bodies that littered the floor with a blank expression before looking up at the Baron.
"Well that was disappointing," he said pursing his lips as he shook his head.
"When I authorized this program I was expecting highly trained operatives," he said grimacing down at the bodies, "not disobedient little girls."
"You saw what they were capable of!" cried Fleischer as he stalked over to the Director, "You saw what they could do!"
"And now they're dead," said the Director, "they're not exactly of use anymore, are they?"
The Baron breathed heavily through his nose as he tried to calm his raging anger, "please Director if you were to see-."
"I've seen enough," said the Director as he cut the younger man off, "you can keep your program, but I will not authorize anymore girls joining."
"But I can't keep the program running with only two girls!" said the Baron in disbelief.
"Well maybe you should've thought about that before you killed half of your students off," he said pointedly as he reached into his pocket to grab his ringing cell phone and made his way out of the room to answer it.
"Yelena," the Baron said tersely as he looked at her from over his shoulder, "please take Sofia to the mess hall and get something to eat."
"Yes Sir," she said as she pried the child away from her body, making sure to keep her eyes shielded from the two bodies.
She led a still sobbing Sofia into the mess hall and made her some food before leading her back to her quarters to tuck her into bed. It had been a rough day and some sleep would do everybody some good at that point.
"They're never coming back are they?" asked Sofia innocently as she pulled the covers close to her. Sofia was just a little girl and she really hadn't fully grasped the concept of death yet, even though she had been there.
"No," said Yelena blatantly as she turned the light off and opened the door.
"Is the Baron mad?" she asked before Yelena could leave, her wide eyes staring up at the older girl.
"He's not happy," said Yelena truthfully as she shook her head.
"Do you think we should try to cheer him up?" she asked quietly.
Yelena said nothing as she stared down at the child and sighed heavily before stepping out of the room.
"Goodnight Sofia," she said before closing the door and making her way back towards her room.
She was about to open the door to her quarters when she heard an agonizing yell followed by the sound of things being thrown and smashed to the floor.
Yelena glanced curiously down the hallway before following the sounds of things breaking only to be led to the door of the Baron's office. She looked through the window to see the Baron trashing his own office angrily, his face red with fury as he smashed everything in sight.
When he was done ruining his office, he sat down heavily in his chair and rubbed his hand over his face before pouring himself a glass of whiskey and downing it in one sip and then again.
Yelena slowly backed away and made her way back to her quarters, her heart racing as she fell back onto her bed and stared up at the bland ceiling. She had never seen the Baron like this before and it made her nervous to see him that angry.
She had never seen someone so angry or more volatile than the Baron and she knew that she had better not get on his bad side ever again. She didn't want that sort of anger being released on her or Sofia, nor did she ever want to see that side of him ever again.
New Mexico
Hydra Base
2012
It had only been a few weeks after the Director's visit that Captain America was discovered alive on the ice. It had caused quite the uproar with Hydra when it was discovered that the man who had killed Red Skull and forced them into hiding as well as being the possessor of Erskine's famous serum was found indeed alive off the coast of Greenland in the Valkyrie.
But it wasn't just that he had been found alive, it was also the fact that he and a rag-tag team of vigilantes had saved New York from aliens and were now parading around calling themselves the Avengers.
To be honest, Yelena did not know what to think of the Avengers as she watched the destruction of New York City from the mess hall television with all the other agents.
She had been taught that Captain America had very nearly brought about their destruction during the Second World War and because of that she had grown to hate the man with every fiber of her being even though she had never met him personally.
He was the embodiment of everything Hydra hoped to eradicate from this chaotic and perverse world, everything he stood for was against their beliefs and he had already proven himself to be a formidable enemy in the past.
Yelena had learned a little bit about Captain America and the Howling Commandos in her history studies. She had learned how he was a short, underweight guy from Brooklyn who had signed up for Dr. Erskine's Project Rebirth and had become Captain America before heading off to join the war effort in Europe.
But even then, there was still so much Yelena did not know about Rogers or the Howling Commandos. For some reason her teacher had only gone over the most important details, leaving the smaller ones out as well as not showing her any pictures of Steve and his team.
When she asked her instructor why she was not allowed to see any photography she had simply been brushed off with the excuse that they had no available pictures, which Yelena knew was absolute bull.
Did her teacher think she was a moron? Hydra kept such detailed records and pictures surely they could spare one to show her? When she asked Fleischer if she could have access to the pictures she was harshly told no and to not ask again.
Everybody thought that he had taken down Hydra upon his subsequent death in 1945, but what they did not know was that Hydra had survived through Dr. Zola and Shield. Ever since then, Hydra had been in hiding, like an infection festering in an open wound.
Hydra was patient, they had been for the last sixty-seven years and they must still be patient for only just a few years. The world was becoming so chaotic that soon enough people would be willing to give up their free will and submit to the rule of Hydra, and people like Captain Rogers and Shield would be crushed under the weight of their superiority. They need only wait just a bit longer and grow just a bit bigger.
But Captain Rogers being found and aliens attacking New York City was not the only strange thing to happen that year, it was also the year that Yelena hit puberty. Her small and slender body was starting to change in ways that were foreign to her. She grew taller, her chest started to fill out, her hips widened and her face went from round and innocent to angular. Of course, Yelena was not the only one to notice such changes in her body, Baron Fleischer had of course noticed and she felt his eyes on her more than so in the past.
She had barely turned thirteen when she was called into Fleischer's office for a private meeting, which she was accustomed to, but lately these meetings between them had started to become stranger and more personal.
Baron Fleischer had always been a touchy sort of guy, he liked petting hair and sometimes his hands would linger a bit longer than what was normal, but as of lately he was starting to get more personal with her.
This time he leaned down to smell the scent of her hair and trailed his hands faintly over where her neck met her chest and sometimes his hands would trail down the length of her hips in a light and ticklish way.
And just a few weeks ago she had come back from a mission to find a neatly wrapped present waiting for her on her bed. She had been utterly confused at the sight of the light pink wrapped present, she had never been given a present like this in her entire lifetime.
So she unwrapped it carefully and opened the white box to find a light blue dress folded neatly with a letter sitting on top of it. The letter was from Baron Fleischer wishing her a happy thirteenth birthday, which was quite a surprised for her considering it had been years since she had celebrated a birthday and had forgotten that it was indeed the eighteenth of February, her birthday.
Yelena was confused as to why she was receiving a dress, she after all did not wear dresses unless she was undercover, and even then it was exceedingly rare. But never the less she had put on the knee-length dress and thanked the Baron for such a lavish gift that she did not deserve. He told her simply to not think on it too much and that the dress brought out the brown in her eyes and that when he saw it he couldn't help but think of her.
As soon as Yelena was back in her own room she took the dress off and folded it before shoving it into the back of her closet where she hoped nobody could see.
She hated wearing dresses, and she particularly hated this one although she did not know why.
But those strange events were quickly forgotten along with the dress that had been hidden away, but still Fleischer's strange behavior did not stop, in fact it only seemed to get worse as the weeks went by.
But Yelena could do nothing, and she wouldn't even if she could. She had been trained to overcome any obstacle and challenge that was put before her without complaining or failing. There was nothing she could do but hold her head high and take whatever happened to her like she had been trained to.
Baron Fleischer said the reason he was touching her was to prepare her, but sometimes she felt there was more to it. But what she could do?
So she said nothing as the hands ran up and down her body and caressed her skin.
It was a way of asserting a certain amount of control over someone. It was not something for her to enjoy, it was something that she had to learn to endure.
The only things she had been forced to endure were the hands of the Baron, which was something she had learned to easily dismiss. She had taught herself not to be bothered by it and she had become accustomed to it as the year ended and another one started.
The start of 2014 hadn't seemed that exciting compared to the two previous years. So far there had been no aliens trying to invade Earth, no U.S. Presidents getting kidnapped by enhanced terrorists, no spaceships tearing through London, in fact it was proving itself to be quite a boring year. Her fourteenth birthday came and passed, she continued to go on missions and she continued to further her training with the instructors to better herself.
So indeed it had come as an unexpected shock when news of Director Fury's death had reached them, of course anybody with half a mind would've realized that it was the Asset that had been responsible for the killing. From what little she knew, Project Insight was almost ready to come online and it was time for Hydra to take action.
They had been waiting so long for this moment, and now it was finally here after waiting and hiding for seventy years.
But what was not expected in their plans was Captain Rogers and the Widow escaping the Winter Soldier and leaking the news that Shield was Hydra to the whole world.
Yelena watched in horror at the screen as Project Insight was destroyed right in front of their eyes, exploding in a rain of fire and then falling into the Potomac. Everything that they had worked to accomplish, gone in only a matter of seconds.
And not only had they been exposed, the Director was dead and the Asset was nowhere to be found in the mess that was Washington D.C., they were now saying that he had gone rogue.
Yelena couldn't believe it when she heard the news that he had indeed gone rogue after saving Captain Rogers life by dragging him out of the Potomac.
Why on Earth would he save that man? That man who had ruined everything the Asset had worked to accomplish, and now he was rescuing him?
It made absolutely no sense to Yelena, but she did come to the conclusion that the Asset was a traitor for saving him and then up and leaving afterwards. It didn't matter to her that he was her father, because he was a traitor and the punishment for that was death.
But no matter how much she tried to convince herself of that, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty for wanting her own progenitor dead. She had been taught that children were supposed to love their parents, but not her. She was not supposed to love her father, and she didn't. Did she admire him? Of course, but love? He didn't love her, he wasn't capable of love and she didn't love him.
So what did it matter if he died? All traitors should die for their actions, and he deserved no less.