Twenty-One: Born in Darkness

So last chapter Vanya was face to face with Ruark Schmidt who, as I've mentioned before, is the son of Red Skull but he's never sent Winter Solider to kill her, that was Bucky's own plan to get her away from HYDRA by thinking he was still working for them. She found out that the last four chapters or few days, whichever term you prefer, were nothing more that illusions created to keep her busy. Be sure to follow the story and comment!

Lurking in the shadows I make my way across the rooftop, nearing its guarded edge. Round metal railings border all four sides but the extra lift gives me a larger vantage point to see inside the office building. I'm still dressed in what I picked up at the HYDRA base in the Alps of Germany, only they've been washed before Ruark sent me out on this new mission. I can't help but feel something off inside me every time I talk to the man but why do I feel this way? I mean he's better to work for then being back at the Red Room or working undercover for the KGB but there are also all these inconsistencies in his stories when he explained what happened after Germany.

I can't remember what happened during that time, everything that happened before I can recall in exact details but when I get there, it's just a blur, as if my mind was wiped. Shaking my head I push the thoughts aside and focus instead on the mission at hand. Lillian and Christopher Taylor, the owners of Taylor Inc. but they've been doing some dealing under the table with both HYDRA and giving our secrets to S.H.I.E.L.D. so I've been sent to retrieve the data files on their computers hard drive and eliminate the guilty couple.

Ruark gave me a pair of black leather gloves that stretch three inches up my arm to keep my DNA from getting spread around the office room. They're currently working on a new budget for the company, I can see the forms on the desk where Christopher sits, sandy blond hair spiked up. Lillian sits on the corner of the desk, leaning over to discuss the new plan with her husband. The company's been closed for just over three hours and they're still working. A utility belt is tightly wound around my waist with pistols placed in holsters on the outer side of my legs.

In the utility belt I've equipped with a handheld grappling hook, death serum filled needles, knockout gas, a high tech security alarm silencer, and a few other cool gadgets. Daggers are also tucked away in my boots, there's about eight and it's an actual dagger set unlike the ones I used to have, which I can't remember what I did with them. I haul myself over the railing and slide down the drain pipe, landing on the road without making a sound and walk to the front door of the building. I've already taken out the security camera's before I even got on the rooftop, every second Wednesday of the month the security guards are allowed to leave at normal employee time so that explains why none are here.

I pull out out a bobby pin supporting my loose hair which falls down over my shoulder. My knees dig into the jagged sidewalk and I twist the bobby pin, knocking into the pin and lightly push the door inward into the darkness of the building and fall in close behind the door, shutting it silently. I look around the reception area and head toward the door that says STAIRS in italic letters. I run up the stairs in complete silence, not even my shoes made any noise and when I reach the floor they were on, instead of confronting them head on I decide to crawl up through the ceiling but push u[ the grey and black dotted tiles and pull myself up after using the office desks as a step latter.

I place the two tiles back in place and maneuver through the ceiling by shifting and crawling on my stomach. I follow my mental map of the floor plan and reach a dank, lighter section of the ceiling. When I reach the area the sound of hushed voices draws my interest. It's Lillian and Christopher that's for sure but what are they talking about?

"—reviving him on the first full moon of the month, I tried to tell 'em it's going to blow up in their face," Christopher's deep voice says.

Lillian sighs. "What about...him?"

I can feel the sadness make a tamper in the mood and I hear the loud thud of someone hitting the desk. "I-I," Christopher says, through jumbles up words that wobble as he speaks them. "Honestly Lill I don't know what they've done with Aaron. Ruark could have killed him for all I know."

I feel my blood boil for some unknown reason and feel this twinging reluctance to go through with this mission. I pull the pistols out from the holsters and jump down into the office, my guns at both of them, Lillian screaming in fear and Christopher who looks pale white with a sickly expression decorating his face.

"W-what d-do you w-want?" Lilian stutters, trying not to meet my gaze.

"I was sent here by Ruark to kill you but now I'm having second thoughts, sit down both of you but close the window first," I order. Lillian shuts the tan curtains and sits back down on the corner of the desk, intertwining her fingers with her husband's. My gaze remains fixated on their hands when something, some missing scene, wedges its way through my brain.

"I don't want you to be or act like anything you're not. I want you to be my mom as you are but without the avoiding me or hating me," A younger red haired woman speaks.

"I don't hate you," the older woman quickly responds, stepping forward, opening her arms a bit as if she wanted to hug the girl but stops herself. "I could never hate you, I love you, I always have and every year when your birthday rolled around I stayed up the whole night crying."

She must change her mind because she steps forward and pulls her into a hug, arms lacing around my upper-back and the girl clearly feels awkwardly but obliges, and hug her back. She eventually pulls back and the girl starts looking a little less awkward and Natasha intertwines her hands with the younger girl and gives a small smile.

I shake it off and look back at Christopher and Lillian and tell them to explain what they were just talking about before I came inside the office. Ruark has given me an uneasy feeling since I woke up in a HYDRA room so anything I can learn about him is better than nothing.

"Since you work for HYDRA—" Christopher begins.

"Loaned to HYDRA," I correct.

"You may know of a man names Johann Schmidt, Ruark's dad, or as he's more commonly known, Red Skull," he says, ignoring my interruption. "Well, he's going to be revived this Friday on the full moon because it will give perfect cover and he'll, Ruark, will be able to move around more freely as there is a parade commencing during that time."

"How are you both connected to Ruark, what did he offer you in exchange for, money, power, an army?"

Lillian looks up and for the first time, actually speaks to me. "This building, he helped us start this company for our loyalty to HYDRA but then we discovered, well you, you were so young it had to have been what, eleven years ago, and we got lost in one of HYDRA's bases and we ended up in a room with a one sided glass window."

Water fills her eyes as if what she remember was the most horrific thing she'd ever seen. Too emotional to speak her husband takes over, eyes glazed over as if remembering that day.

"We approached the glass which was located in front of a small metal podium control panel with a red button off to the far left side. When we looked through the glass we saw you, your hair was cut jaggedly and her face was slices, blood pooled from you nose and lips, your face was a purple blotch made of bruises."

"Ruark found us, lied and said not to worry, that you'd gotten hurt from playing in the yard but we knew he'd never let you go outside, he and his group did it to you but we couldn't do anything. Lillian was pregnant with Aaron and if we went to the cops Ruark and HYDRA would just kill them but here you are, you must be alright."

I remember that day, training exercise gone wrong, it was before Sergei was around, he was supposed to be my bodyguard and trainer but back then my mouth got the best of me and he'd beat me to a pulp, I wasn't as good of a fighter as I am now. His name started with an J, Jack, Jake, Jean, no Jett. That was his name, he made my life a living hell and if I ever see him again I'll... I don't know what I'll do but it won't be pretty.

"Here's what's going to happen now," the both look at me with fearful eyes. "You'll have to fake your own deaths and I'll even be kind enough to help you out, I'll give you a secure cell phone and new identities but I'll call you and tell you when, or even if you can return."

"Y-you would really do that for us, won't you get into trouble with Ruark?"

I nod. "Yes, if he finds out but he can't kill me, I don't belong to him. Get on the 1:00 A.M. train tomorrow morning and I'll take care of everything else."

With that I turn and walk away feeling more at ease than I had when I first entered the place. I'm going to figure out what's going on, even if it's the last thing I ever do, no one deceives Vanya Romanova.