Christie stared at herself in the mirror with an empty look on her face. Her usually silvery white locks were now jet black and fixed into a slick neat bun, and she didn't look herself. She hated the drastic change but it simply had to be done, because she needed to fit in. She shoved on her lab jacket before slightly raising her tight t-shirt to see that godforsaken HYDRA brand sitting boldly on her hip, which she knew she had to keep safe. Pierce had decided that whilst working in S.H.I.E.L.D, that she should also work to in the lab on a particular project they were working on – quietly coded Project Alpha1. She had no idea what it meant as nobody had bothered explaining it to her yet, but that didn't matter too much at that moment. The ins and outs would come with time, and rushing the process of finding out could easily blow her cover. "Calling Kriztina Klovinsky come to the experimental lab?" came an echoing voice from the tannoy system. Christie groaned and slipped out of the bunker's bathroom, rushing down the hallway and into the dimly lit lab, where she was told Project Alpha1 would regularly commence.

And there he was.

Strapped into a dentist-like chair was a young man surrounded by three or four people in similar lab jackets. He was topless, and there were a number of tubes snaking from his body into larger machines. His gentle blue eyes were wide with fear and already full of pain. He happened to catch Christie's eye as soon as she walked in and stared at her, internally begging for her to step in and do something.

But his pain was irrelevant to her at this point. Christie, being the assassin she was, steered her eyes from his and focussed on the task ahead of her with ease.

"What the hell is all of this?" she murmured to herself, walking over to a cluster of holograms nearest to her and swiftly projecting them into the air to flick through them. Nobody in the lab paid any attention to her question - in fact they all moved like robots, stiff and cold, sternly focussed on what they were told to do. Christie took this as a perfect opportunity to take that small glossy black disk (courtesy of Stark) out of her pocket and gently insert it into a tiny drive that she was told would be hidden behind the device's base. Fury had informed her that Stark's tech was the same one responsible for decrypting S.H.I.E.L.D's databases, which was infamous for their own hardcore encryptions - so using the same device on HYDRA was a shot in the dark, but they had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Well, apart from Christie's life, of course.

Christie held her breath as she watched the device begin it's analytical downloads, not taking her eye off of it for a second. But before she knew it, the holographic screen flashed red as it registered something foreign, causing Christie to snap into action and yank the disk out as quickly as she possibly could so that the projection could return to its original blue shade. "Well. Very good, Stark. Excellent work as usual," she muttered sarcastically as she shoved his stupid device back down her bra. All she could do was pray that it wouldn't alert anyone higher up as she refocussed her attention on the young man squirming and yelling in unbearable pain instead.

But she only made it a few minutes before, much to her irritation, her stomach started to twist into knots and she began to feel disgustingly nauseous. Mumbling something about going to the bathroom to anyone that could hear her, she quickly left the lab and burst into the hallway instead, leaning against the cold stone walls as each panting breath unsteadily and dangerously caught in her throat. Despite who he was, wasn't fair on the poor guy strapped to that table - it wasn't fair at all. This entire ordeal just brought her straight back to that dreaded time in Budapest, four or five years ago.

It was all too familiar for her. Once upon a time, she too was once just another Project Name in the hand of another foreign, soulless organisation, full of robotic like people working to no end. It was hard enough for her to take part in this programme as it was, let alone watch it happen up close. Why did she feel so responsible for the pain of a man she didn't even know, that she'd only met for a few seconds? The walls began to spin, her own clothes were now feeling too tight for her, clinging desperately onto the fair hairs of her skin. She had to go, she had to go and see Fury to let him know but when would she next be able to-

"Can Agent Klovinsky make her way to the clean room please?" came another voice from the speakers. Christie swore under her breath but composed herself quickly before bolting her way down to the 'clean room', which was a disturbingly white hospital ward with a single hospital bed and some surgical equipment scattered here and there. In the room, perched on the edge of the bed sat the same man as before. He was still shaking hard, clutching the sheets of the bed as he shivered away. Christie pressed the little green button to open the door and tiptoed in, noticing that two other doctors were there already.

"Ah, there you are. Just watch him for a moment so that we can go and get the lab results in," one of the doctors instructed her quietly before nodding at her partner and then sweeping out of the room, shutting the door behind them. This left Christie and the poor guy alone, his chocolate brown hair hanging miserably over his face. He glanced up and briefly locked eyes with Christie once again, before giving another shudder and looking away, dropping his gaze back down to his lap. Christie released a slightly awkward cough before slowly approaching the surgical table, taking note of the fact that his file details were laying there so casually. She ran her fingers over the rough surface of the folder before opening it up slowly, absorbing as much information as she could in a limited space of time - although most of it was in German.

The man glanced up again with those hollow eyes, before looking down yet again. Christie looked over at his bowed head and took pity on him for a brief second.

"It gets better," she told him quietly before closing the folder again, having read nothing but useless medical stats. The man's head snapped up for the third time at her words. He couldn't quite believe she was speaking to him.

"Sorry?" he asked slowly, his voice rather deep yet still somewhat gentle.

"The pain…it gets better," Christie repeated, looking him dead in the eye this time so that he at least took her seriously. He just let out a small sarcastic laugh and dropped his eyes to the floor again.

"Yeah. I bet it does," he muttered, still shivering like crazy, "but it still hurts for now, so that doesn't help me in the slightest."

"I'm sorry. I wish I could help," Christie replied to him honestly. The pity she had taken on him was only this sincere because she had been there before. There was no way that he was being tortured by choice.

"How would you know what they're putting me through? All you people are the same - only after one thing, and I don't even know what that is," the man spat out bitterly, before biting down on his knuckles in an attempt distract his pain with…well, yet more self inflicted pain. Christie gave a him a small pitiful laugh and simply shrugged off his attitude, leading him to cock up an eyebrow just as the doctors returned with more surgical equipment.

"Thank you," one of them shot a stiff nod towards Christie.

"No probs. Hey, um, is there anything you could give him to numb the pain a little?" Christie suddenly asked them both. The man on the bed frowned at this question, confused at where this sudden display of kindness was coming from.

"Why would his pain tolerance matter to you?" the first doctor asked suspiciously.

"It wouldn't, but it could be a contributing factor towards the actual experiment and could therefore screw up the results, no?" Christie spelled it out slowly, nodding with each word as if she was talking to a child. Her condescending tone obviously irritated the doctors and the second one ripped open a paper bag, reached into it and pulled out a syringe filled with dark blue liquid that was sealed in another bag. She flung it to Christie lazily and Christie caught with ease.

"Since you're so concerned, you can do it. We have more important issues to deal with than the comfort of a project," the second doctor grunted before spinning on her heel and leaving the room with her colleague. The man in question stared at Christie once they left, watching her intensely as she picked up the paper bag and tore it open with her teeth. She briskly emptied the syringe into the palm of her hand and flicked it with her index finger till all the bubbles had disappeared, her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth in mass concentration.

"Um, sorry for asking but…have you ever done this before?" the man suddenly asked, his face growing a little concerned and weary. Christie nodded distractedly.

"Yeah, 'course I have. I'm wearing the doctor's jacket, aren't I?" she murmured as she approached him to sit beside him on the spotless white bedsheets. "Right, I'm gonna need you to hold still please." Christie grabbed the tricep of his bulky arm and straightened it out, making sure to hold onto it tightly as he was still shivering. She slowly inserted the needle into where she knew the vein sat and pushed in the liquid in whilst stubbornly ignoring the man's slight wince.

"Thanks," he breathed out once the worst part was over.

"Wow. You're such a baby. All the sh*t we've put you through and it's the needles you're freaking out over," Christie muttered, yanking the needle back and holding a cotton bud to the small spot of blood that was protruding. The man gave a small hum in response, feeling slightly better already.

"I guess I am kinda weak," he sighed. Christie looked up at him and shot him a small comforting smile.

"Nah, you did well. Those tiny needles can be absolutely brutal," she shrugged, standing up and disposing of the injection casing into the bins provided. This made the guy smirk slightly, hearing sarcasm linger in her tone. Christie gave him one more fleeting smile before turning on her heel to leave the room.

"Hey," he suddenly called out to her before she could leave. Christie spun around, her heart starting to beat a little harder than it did before. "What's your name, doctor?" This was a dilemma. The last time Christie was on a mission she kept it low-key for Loki, Frigga gave her a new name and everything went as planned (somewhat), but was it time to change it up?

Could this guy be trusted?

Could she even risk it?

"Kristina," Christie finally nodded. "That's my name."

And with that she left, her heart pounding.