A/N - Welcome back! We hope your holidays have been good, but now? Now it's time to return to the story at hand! Many thanks to TheRaspberryVigilante41, Shinobi001, and StarkKnightStark for their reviews on our last chapter, we love our multi-character chapters too!

Thanks too, for understanding how our little system works, and to StarkKnightStark, all I can tell you is to go back to the last chapter and read the notes on specific character info and then stick around to wait and see. Most of our 'abandoned' characters have their fates set for them already at this point.


Chapter Twenty-Nine - Patricide

Jade Nguyen

Hidden Hydra Compound

Written by tvfan69


"It's not about the cards you're dealt, but how you play the hand."

- Randy Pausch


Jade didn't know where to start with her questions — or even when she would be given a chance to ask them. Luthor apparently liked to keep Jade's new little squad together as well as supervised. So far, Jade hadn't noticed any surveillance equipment in their quarters, but that being said, she wasn't entirely trusting that they had total privacy in there.

Their quarters actually weren't terrible, which, given who their hosts were, did come as a bit of a surprise. They had a small living area, with a doorway that led into the bedroom, which was crowded by one dresser, the bunk bed on one side, and single bed on the other. They also had a small bathroom. Personally, Jade couldn't see the purpose in giving them a living quarters that was halfway decent, but she wasn't going to be the one to complain.

Besides, she had other things to worry about.

Lawrence wouldn't hit her when she first woke up, no matter how she aggravated him, and that was an eerily unsettling thought. Luthor had her and Thea work with Merlyn for training, and Lawrence was with Artemis. From what she could tell from across the room, he didn't lose his temper on her sister, not the way he used to, anyway. Luthor had him wrapped around his finger, meaning he was the one Jade really needed to watch out for while she was there.

"I'm going to take a shower." Thea's voice cut through her thoughts. After being herded back to their quarters, the three of them had all gone to their bedroom. Thea never made it up to the top bunk and had instead spent the past few minutes searching through the drawers of the dresser for a clean towel.

"Kay." Jade hummed in acknowledgement, not totally paying attention. She was too distracted by her aching muscles, her body throbbing all over with oncoming pain, despite how light her training had been today.

Another reminder that absolutely nothing about her was the same as it was before the Games.

Still, with Thea out of the room, Jade realized she wasn't likely to get another chance to ask her questions anytime soon. She glanced across the small room at her sister, who was lying on her back on the bottom bunk and staring at the mattress above her as though the wires that held it there were stars.

"What happened to Red?" She tried her best to keep her tone light and conversational, as opposed to demanding answers like she wanted to.

Artemis shrugged but didn't move her head. "Don't know," she answered in the same nonchalant tone Jade was aiming for, though it was clear there were heaps and heaps of emotions behind her indifference.

Artemis never used to have trouble crying, especially not when it was just them.

"Probably still in Ten," Artemis offered after a minute. "Dad took me during the night; I think he slipped me something so I wouldn't wake up."

Jade wanted to let her anger explode at that, at the knowledge that Lawrence drugged her little sister. But she remained calm. What's done was done, and yelling about it now would only make things worse, especially if they were being monitored.

"Mom?" Jades asked instead, though she suspected she already know the answer.

She saw her sister's lip tremble, the most reaction she'd seen thus far.

"Gone."

The answer was simple, and Jade wanted to ask when, how, if it was the sickness or Lawrence that finally did her in, neglect or abuse. A part of Jade wanted to know if her presence in that house, if her help, made any difference. If maybe if she hadn't been chosen for the Games, then her mother would still be alive. And another part of her never wanted the answer to that question.

"She saw the start of the Games." Artemis offered, like some sort of condolence. "She saw you run off, during the bloodbath. You were hurt but, from what we saw, it didn't look too bad, and when they showed everyone who died in the fight, and you weren't there…. She knew you were okay."

Artemis's voice was starting to break, her fear showing through, and Jade felt a pang in her chest as she was reminded of all the nights she had ever scowled at the thought of holding her weeping sister. She thought of the night in the Capitol when Garfield had come to her room and she made him sleep on the floor. She thought of Harper, when Caitlin had been hurt, and despite so much sleep deprivation and trauma working against her, she still managed to put on a sweet voice and lull the injured and panicking tribute into calm. She remembered her own dying breath, the sounds of distant footsteps just barely hitting her ears, and how much she had hoped those footsteps were of Harper moving away and hopefully toward victory.

Harper.

That was another question Artemis might have the answer to. And Gar. If Hydra had brought her back, then maybe they had done the same for him somewhere. Her gut twisted with repulsion at the thought of that, of sweet innocent Garfield Logan being turned into a Hydra assassin; she would rather he be dead than twisted into that.

But she was getting ahead of herself.

Artemis wouldn't know if Hydra had done anything to Gar; she might not even know the outcome of the Games. For all she knew, the Games were still going on. She had no idea how long she had been "dead" before she came back.

The Games didn't matter right this second, though she put it high on her mental list of things to ask about. What mattered now was she had, in a sick twist of fate, found herself with a second chance at her life. True, for the time being, she was stuck here with no choice but to be Hydra's pet, but there were still some things she could control — such as the type of sister she was going to be from here on out.

With Artemis's resolve still cracking and Thea still off in the shower, Jade uncurled herself from her seat on her mattress and carefully, trying to muster up whatever maternal instinct Lawrence hadn't beat out of her long ago, moved across the narrow walkway that was the center of their room and crawled onto the end of her sister's bunk.

In response, Artemis didn't do much other than sit up and make room, careful not to catch her hair in the steel cage that supported the mattress above them.

Too careful, Jade thought. She's been here a while.

Artemis sniffled, rubbing away at her tears, something so very unlike her. It hurt Jade to see her fight her own fear like this, even though she had spent so many years wishing for nothing more. She had always wanted Artemis to just grow up and face the facts of their terrible life, like Jade had. Now, she would give anything to take that realization away.

Tentatively, she reach out a hand, holding her breath as she laid it on Artemis's shoulder as softly as she could — and then her sister crashed into her side and broke.


The days passed by, then the weeks, and after that, Jade lost count. She couldn't say if it had been more than a month since she woke up, and she never did find out what happened in the remainder of the Games — not yet, anyway. It was still on her mind, but so was getting out of there with Artemis.

Where they would go, she had no idea. They wouldn't go back to Ten; that would be the first place Lawrence and Luthor would look for them. Maybe they would find a way to District Two; Harper seemed to do just fine on their streets. Of course, all of this was assuming there would still be districts to go back to. Their trainers wouldn't say much about what had been happening in the world outside the compound, but from what they did say, it didn't sound too promising.

Even with part of her focus set on learning about the revolution, Jade made sure to also focus on her new body, on building her muscle and honing her instincts. She needed to get into her top shape as quickly as possible. It wasn't as hard as she'd expected it would be, and it didn't take long before Luthor decided she and Thea no longer needed to be separated from Artemis during training. A part of her wondered if, when they were growing her a new body in a test tube, they had messed with her DNA at all, made it any easier for her to build up and maintain muscle.

Another part of her didn't want to know.

So that was what her days consisted of: survival. And then the days turned over into nights of exhaustion and dead sleep. In fact, it was almost time to give in to that desire to collapse into sleep — but first, she had to finish combing out her hair.

If there was one thing the Games had given her, silly and trivial as it might be, it was that her stylist had managed to work out all the unruly knots of her thick hair, and she liked being able to run her fingers through it. This wasn't the same hair she'd had all her life, of course, and in a way, she was grateful for that. It was like it had been reset — actually, it had been reset. It never went through the years of wiry bristles being yanked harshly through it, never endured the neglect after her mother grew too ill to help her tame the wild knots. It was a silly thing — she might have even once gone so far as to call it sad — but it was something Jade could make herself appreciate. If nothing else, she had control over one thing for the first time in her life.

So here she was, sitting on her bed and combing out her hair while Thea finished getting changed into the pajamas they had been issued — which weren't all that different from their training jumpsuits — and Artemis sharpened her arrows. It was quiet in their quarters — none of them were really big on talking — and so Jade figured that must be why they were able to hear the sounds of shouting voices coming from somewhere else in the compound.

The three of them shared a glance, and then they all reached for their weapons. At first, Jade had been surprised Luthor allowed and even ordered them to keep at least one weapon each in their quarters. But with the countless horrors they could potentially face at a moment's notice, it did make sense. Jade had selected a pair of sais, while Artemis and Thea had wanted their bows and arrows.

Jade was the first to open their door, looking out into the hall for any sign of potential threat. There wasn't any, except for the shouting that had drawn their attention in the first place. It was coming from far down the next corridor, way down, so much so that despite the loud volume of the voices, Jade couldn't make out any of the words. That being said, she could recognize that one of the voices belonged to Merlyn.

Interesting.

She looked back at Artemis and Thea; they were standing so close she was practically in the hall already. That settled their vote, then.

The three of them crept their way down the corridor, weapons at the ready, scanning every inch of the dimly-lit hallways. The further along they moved in the compound, the louder the noise became — and the more violent. It was more than just two voices at this point, though it was hard for Jade to tell exactly how many people she was hearing. She still recognized Merlyn's voice, and she knew she heard Lawrence at one point. But the other voices were foreign, and because of that, it was hard to tell how many there were.

Finally, they rounded a corner and came to a standstill, the sight before them nothing short of a very contained bloodbath.

There were six people in the very small confines of the hallway: Merlyn, Lawrence, three other men, and a woman. All of the strangers were dressed in black, with SHIELD insignias on their shoulders. Lawrence was prying one of them, who was wielding a flame-thrower of some kind that made it look like he was literally producing fire from his hands, off of Merlyn — but the other SHIELD agents were trying to prevent that. One has his back to the girls - holding back Luthor's guards single handedly. The guy was a brick wall.

"Hey!" Jade found herself whispering, grabbing Artemis by the elbow and yanking her back, just barely stopping her from rushing around the corner and giving away their position. "What are you doing?"

"They're with SHIELD." Artemis hissed. "They fight Hydra. They could help us!"

Jade stared at her sister. SHIELD wasn't going to help the likes of them; why would they? She was about to say as much, but…. Maybe it was the combined forces of two thirteen-year-olds staring up at her and waiting for her call, but she started to think... why wouldn't they help?

Artemis, Thea, and even Jade… they were just kids. They didn't ask for this; they never wanted to become Hydra's lackeys. She thought about her mom, about that night so far back in her memory, when she had threatened to take her girls and leave Lawrence. She never did. They never got out, never got away, and things only got worse.

That could change. Right now.

With her hands tightening around her sais, she nodded her decision, and the three of them burst around the corner.

By now, one of the SHIELD agents — the normal sized man who wasn't threatening to roast Merlyn alive and shouting all sorts of threats about how Merlyn was going to pay — was down. The woman was trying to keep Lawrence off him while also defending herself while the other men worked.

"Try and rip out my sister's heart… Let's find out if you even have one," the man still on Merlyn was saying.

Merlyn's gaze found the girls. "What are you waiting for? Get them!" he commanded them.

Artemis and Thea took it upon themselves to announce that they weren't here to help, each of them nocking an arrow and shooting it into the ankle of their respective fathers.

"What the hell?!" Lawrence roared, but Jade was already there with a fist to counter his words, striking him sharply across the jaw.

She shook out her hand as he reeled from her impact.

"Been waiting a long time to do that," she sneered.

Lawrence glowered at her through the eyeholes of his hockey mask until he ripped it off and shoved the SHIELD woman away from him. "Hope it was worth it," he sneered. His big hands grabbed at the black fabric over her chest, his fingers curling in until he had her lifted off the ground and up to his eye level. "Cause it's the last thing you're ever going to do in this world."

Honestly, she would be okay with that.

But she wouldn't have to be, because the next thing she knew, there was a long black bow being pressed into Lawrence's throat from behind, and he was choking, staggering back until he dropped Jade.

Landing on her feet, Jade barely had enough time to watch Artemis as she dragged Lawrence down to the ground. Then, before Lawrence could even have a second to recover, Artemis flipped her bow upright and nocked another arrow, shooting it into the ground barely an inch from Lawrence's ear.

"Little girl," she snarled at him, stalking a step closer and sending another arrow to the opposite side of his head. "Baby girl." Another step, and another arrow, this one below his left foot. "We're your daughters." Another step and an arrow for his right foot. "Not your dogs." One more step and an arrow just under his left arm. "You were supposed to take care of us." An arrow under his right arm. "You were supposed to protect us."

She stopped this time, one foot pressed down onto their father's chest and her bow strung back with her last arrow aimed at his throat.

"You didn't."

He was pinned below Artemis, nowhere to go and no way to move without her stopping him, and yet even from where Jade was standing beyond them, she still saw him smirk.

"You're not going to kill me, Artemis," he challenged, going so far as to crane his head up until the flesh of his neck was pressed against the tip of his daughter's arrow. "You're no killer."

He was right about that much; Artemis wasn't a killer, not yet. But Jade could see her sister's elbow quiver and pull even further back, her fingers starting to slip. Lawrence, per usual, was too confident in himself. Artemis had every intention of releasing that string and ending this, even at the cost of her own innocence.

Jade lost her innocence a long time ago.

"Maybe not," Jade cut in before Artemis could release her arrow. She marched up and knelt beside her father's head. "But I am."

She moved fast, so fast that Artemis wouldn't have time to stop her — and she wouldn't have time to stop herself. She took one of her sais and jammed it into the hollow behind his temple, pushing until the tip came through the other side of his skull.

Artemis looked at the scene, at her, with absolute horror. "I…" She didn't get further than that, and whether she was trying to thank her or berate her, Jade had no idea — but it didn't matter. Lawrence was dead, and she could hear Hydra reinforcements coming.

"We have a transport outside!" the woman SHIELD agent announced as she pulled her injured partner up to his feet, his arm slung along her shoulders as she took off running with him.

"I'll cover your exit," the brick wall of a man said - and only then did Jade register that it was Ben Grimm … one of the Fantastic Four. A victor standing there in a SHIELD uniform, defending the group.

"You guys comin' or what?" The guy with the flamethrower asked - no, that was another of the Four. Johnny Storm, though at least now the fire made sense. That's what he was known for … outside of his disgustingly overplayed love life.

Fortunately, Artemis was paying better attention and followed after the adults. "Yes, we are," Artemis called back as Jade yanked her sai free from her father's skull, and moved to follow—

But, wait, Thea.

She turned, suddenly aware that, aside from the sounds of more Hydra lackeys approaching, the corridor was silent.

There was something on the ground, a long, pale shape covered in black, with Thea kneeling over it.

"Thea!" she yelled in a commanding tone, and the younger girl turned her head to reveal the whites in her eyes had turned red. There were tears leaking down her cheeks.

That prompted Jade to take another look at the shape, and she realized what she should've at her first glance: it was Merlyn's body.

There was a smoldering hole burned in his chest, a black lump lying beside him and covered in dying embers. It took Jade too long to process that the lump was actually the man's charred heart, and when she looked back to Thea, she noticed a wide hole in her right sleeve, the skin it revealed beginning to blister.

She heard another shout from somewhere further down in the corridors. Luthor and whoever else he had on his payroll would be on them any second, and they would not be pleased.

"Thea, come on," Jade pleaded, seizing Thea's arm. "We have to go."

She pulled a little, and Thea got up, her movements almost robotic. "I wanted him dead, but I didn't…." Thea trailed off, but she still followed along as Jade led her around the corner and away from the mutilated bodies of their fathers.

At first, Jade worried they would be cut off, trapped and captured before they could make it out and find the SHIELD transport — or even that they would get out only to find the agents and Artemis had left without them. She glanced back at Thea as she thought about it, as though the rhythmic slap of Thea's feet against the floor wasn't enough to confirm that she was following. Jade kept her eyes peeled for an exit, even though she knew each possibility would likely be rigged with an alarm — or possibly just locked. Eventually, she came across a side door and shoved it open, relieved when it did, in fact, open, allowing her and Thea to stumble out into the night.

As the door clicked shut behind them, closing them off from the chaos of the compound, Jade found her mind coming to a halt. The air in her lungs felt cold and fresh. It wasn't like she'd been unaware that she hadn't been outdoors since the Games, but in the midst of everything that just happened, it wasn't exactly at the forefront of her mind.

For what felt like the first time in her life, and technically it was, the world was silent.

The grass and mud were wet, soaking her bare feet. The earth below her felt richer than she could ever remember it being in Ten, but the peace and stillness was suddenly interrupted by a shout.

"Jade!"

She whirled around, almost missing the sight of her sister — but then she saw Artemis peeking her head around the back corner of the compound.

She took off toward her sister, with Thea on her heels, their footsteps sloshing through the slick mud.

And then, one of the victors seemed to appear out of nowhere, which was almost alarming given his size. "Move it along, ladies!" Grimm shouted. "I got yer back, but I ain't gonna forgive ya if you get me shot." He jerked his head indicating which way to go, but didn't look like he was going to question their motives yet as they rushed to put distance between them and the compound.

They rounded the corner to see a black transport with the side door wide open and Artemis and Johnny Storm ushering them to quickly file in. They did, and the pilot, the man who had ripped out the heart of Malcolm Merlyn, shouted for them to close the door and buckle up. It all happened so fast, with the girls scrambling into the transport and scanning for a seat. The entire inside wall had seat belts installed every few feet. She felt her body slammed sideways as the transport took off at full speed, and she vaguely registered the sounds of weapons in the background. But those sounds soon faded away into the night, and they were left with only the rocky hum of the transport to listen to as the SHIELD agents and old victors took the time to catch their breath. She was very sure they'd have to answer some questions before the flight was over.

But it was at that point that the whole thing, all of that night, began to wash over Jade. Her father was dead. More than that; she killed him. She murdered Lawrence Crock in cold blood and then ran with Artemis to a promise of safety. She had done it. The impossible. They got out.

What was she supposed to do now?