Her heart rate had been erratic, yet her body was still and her breathing normal. It was the only sign that something was wrong. But what was it? Fear? Something physically wrong? Why had her heart been beating out of her chest when to all other appearances she was sprawled on the couch with her head on his shoulder?
"Sir?" The girl in question pulled Steve out of his thoughts. She still wore the clothes he'd given her and hadn't touched whatever it was that she had chosen. For all he knew it was still in the box from when it was shipped.
"Yes, Nadia?"
"What is the logic behind requiring me to learn unnecessary information?" Her eyes stayed down as she looked at the laptop in front of her on the table, arms stiff at her sides and head turned as if ready for him to smack her. How could a girl so good at faking being asleep and peacefully waking be so bad at the fear she had asking him this question?
Natasha was lounged in a chair on the other side of the table, feet propped up and chair tilted backwards. "Because, knowledge is generally useful and it's good to have the basics in most school subjects." Since the stunt with Wanda, Nadia had been nearly ignoring her mother, addressing only Steve when she had a question and never talking otherwise. It seemed Natasha wasn't about to have any of that for much longer.
Steve briefly placed a hand on her shoulder, sitting next to her in the chair, "This is just a placement test, to see where you're at so we don't teach you stuff you already know."
Nadia nodded, finally reaching out her hand towards the laptop to begin the test.
--
There it was again. That brief, almost imperceptible flinch as Steve brought his hand to her shoulder. Nothing much more than a mildly prolonged blink. What form of flinch was it? Fear? Anger? Hard to say.
Natasha took her feet down from the table after it was clear the girl knew what she was doing with the computer, "Will you be okay alone with that for now, Nadia? Your dad and I need to run a couple errands real quick."
To his credit, Steve didn't object, or say anything otherwise, just followed her after Nadia agreed. He trusted her. Now if only Natasha could get herself to trust this girl. What better way to find out if she could than to give her a fully functioning laptop and seemingly nobody watching her? Obviously, Friday would be keeping a close eye but no people would be present. Hopefully, this wouldn't backfire. Worst case, she was right and Subject Three was still with Hydra all along. Right?
She needed to get close to her. Get the girl to trust her. Bond over a shared similar experience even. Anything to get behind that mask and find out what was really going on. If she didn't they may very well get Hydra knocking on their door.
And yet there had been no signs of any Hydra agents looking for the girl. No chatter anywhere about her. Chatter about the base being destroyed? Yes. About there being only a handful of scientist survivors? Yes. But nothing about an experiment gone missing. Even her contacts, those left after Shield fell and she had dumped everything for the world to see, hadn't heard a peep either. Nevertheless, the shambles of Hydra may very well still be in operation. Maybe even looking for revenge. What better, more twisted, way than this? Natasha wrapped her hoodie, stolen from Tony a while ago, tighter around herself. This was sounding much too likely.
"Want to tell me what's going on?" Steve looked to her as they descended in the elevator.
"Just following a hunch." Natasha kept her gaze forward, the cold assassin that she never let Nadia see was back.
"You don't trust her," The man, so smart and yet capable of being so incredibly stupid, said, "Do you?"
"Not in the least."
"Give her a chance, Nat."
"This is her chance."
The girl was smart enough to not use the computer. So what would she do instead?
--
Three sighed a bit as the Widow and her father left down the elevator. How stupid were they? Ah yes, give her full access to the internet and everything else on this laptop then mysteriously find this to be the perfect situation for both to go on errands. For that matter, how stupid did they think she was?
After this test, they were going to find her excessively so. All of it was things she had been doing since⦠she wasn't sure when. Most of it she had done with Five. The science, the English, the mathematics, all of it except history. She truly did know nothing about that. There was no need for the two to know exactly how smart she was. There'd have to be a backstory for what the training was that she had mentioned before.
A laugh bubbled in her chest and her face split into a small grin. A challenge! Nadia wiggled in her seat a bit, grabbed the laptop and pranced over to the couch with her back facing the window. The sun was filtering in perfectly. Everything was going to go quite nicely.
What was wrong with her? Subject Three dropped the smile, the laugh gone from her chest as suddenly as it came. What had just happened? Acting as such was not according to training and completely outside of what the situation called for. Something wasn't right. Not right at all.
Back to the mission. She shook her head, shifting in her seat as light glinted off of her screen. Reaching out, she flicked it down to remove the glare but was unable to see still. She put it back, adjusting it a couple more times before shaking her head. This seat was not going to work.
With a sigh, she got back up and shifted to another seat, fiddling some more before she finally got to a comfortable position. Perfect. Now to be rather mediocre at this test.
--
-- Get an in person meeting before the end of the month or the subject will be terminated. --
Doctor Grante sat back in his chair, allowing himself a smug grin. If his calculations were correct, the process had already begun.
Something had cracked inside this severe, brutal man. Then again, his life's work had been destroyed in a matter of hours and Hydra was currently in shambles. He had every right to go a little crazy. Yet, while several heads had been cut off, that only meant more would rise. For now, the scientist could finally do whatever he wanted. Who was to say he wasn't a new head? These Avengers did not know who they were messing with.
"Oh, this is going to be fun, my puppet." He grinned at the glass casing in front of him, "Just a little bit longer before we can go out to play."
What better way to get rid of a broken toy than to rig it with a nasty surprise and give it to an enemy? Subject Three was a failure and had been labeled as so before its supposed assignment. The assignment only made its death so much more fun.
