I heard the clicking of Heel lady's shoes on the marble floor outside of my room a moment before the door opened. She walked in, clipboard in hand and a look that seemed to... be softer than she normally allowed. She was as immaculate as usual, but I knew there was something up with her.

Maybe it was from the fight she probably had with Smits? But I had never seen her like this... looking so soft and... dare I say caring? It didn't look right on her, which definitely made me pay attention to whatever she was going to tell me.

I put the spy book down on the edge of the desk, leaving it open so I wouldn't lose the page. I had a nervous feeling twisting in my gut, but my spider-sense wasn't going off. Something was off, something was about to happen. I couldn't explain it but I just knew. It would be easier to pinpoint it if my spider-sense could tell me, but it couldn't. Whatever it was wasn't a physical threat to me, but maybe it was an emotional or mental one? I wasn't sure but that was the only thing that could explain my gut instinct.

I didn't let any of this show on my face, or... as much as I could. Being relatively neutral was better than an open book. I wouldn't give her, or Hydra by extension through her, an inch. They would take a mile and beat me into the dust in the process.

"Hello Mr Morales, how are you doing?" She asked, her voice thankfully the same as it usually was. Professional.

I did frown though, she may sound the same but it almost felt like she was acting or had been replaced. That- there was just no way that she would ask how I was doing. I had gotten very used to her just bulldozing past anything resembling small talk, she was on a schedule and that was pretty respectable. So... it was so strange. Something was wrong and if she wouldn't be, then I had to be as blunt as possible.

"I'm fine. Can we get to the point?" I requested, folding my arms. I wanted this talk to be over with as soon as I could, instead of waiting for the other ball to drop. As soon as that happened, I could plan ahead and see how it changed my plans to escape.

She paused for a moment, studying me, before nodding. She looked down at her clipboard, and I couldn't help but think that she did that more to distract herself than remind herself of anything on the paper. She finally opened her mouth to speak after what felt like a minute but was actually more like ten seconds. "We have completed a baseline score of your... powers. We have begun to reverse engineer your DNA."

I narrowed my eyes, "Why would you need to tell me this? I have no power over any of that."

She unclipped a piece of paper from the clipboard and handed it to me. I briefly looked at it, it was obvious that it was about my powers. I was sure it would help me if I bothered to look at it, but for now, the churning in my gut was urging me to speed this up. I put it down beside the spy book, I would look at it later. "Thanks, but why do I need to see this? Get to the point."

Her eyes turned icy but she didn't rebuff me for talking out of line with her. That didn't seem right either. I was outright antagonising her and she wasn't doing anything to stop me.

"How willing are you to become an agent of Hydra?" She asked after a small moment of hesitation.

I froze. No. No, I didn't want to become one! I was a superhero, not some minion or supervillain!

My gut twisted harder, my throat clenching and my heart began to race. She hadn't phrased it as 'will you become an agent of Hydra,' she had said how willing I was to join them. They would try and break my mind if I refused, without a doubt, but I couldn't join them! I didn't want to join them! I didn't want to hurt people for the sake of an organisation that I didn't even believe in!

I would never want to join them, no matter what. There was nothing they could do to make me hurt an innocent civilian.

I clenched my fist, taking a deep steadying breath. I couldn't panic, not now. Not when I had everything at stake and so much to lose. If I... I couldn't even believe I was thinking this, but maybe if I played along I wouldn't be dragged into a situation that was even worse than this. Worse than this being... being tortured, strapped down to a table and explored with a knife because I was of no use to them. I didn't want to die, not yet and definitely not now.

I looked back at her, she had been watching me carefully and it was obvious that she had seen all of my panic. She could probably guess at what I had been thinking. I had to throw her off a little bit, make it seem like my calmness after that panic was something other than me rebelling.

"What..." I swallowed and started my sentence again, "what would... be in it for me?" I inquired, trying to clamp down on my nervousness. This might be the most important few minutes of my life, I couldn't screw this up.

Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment before she twisted her face into something more neutral. Thank god. She was trying to stay professional and neutral as usual, but for once her walls were lowered enough for me to know she was genuinely curious as to where this would go, and just how willing I actually was.

"Your current training would continue as normal but a program designed specifically to improve your individual powers would begin. You would also be allowed limited access to the outside world in the form of newspapers and a computer would be provided with Hydra files that your security clearance allows. You will also be involved in discussions about you and your current state of mind and body. At some point in the future, you would be sent on field missions."

I looked away from her, staring at the wall. "So I would be considered more of an agent than a prisoner?" I saw her nod from the corner of my eyes.

I swallowed, before looking her square in the eyes with a fierce determination that had suddenly welled up beneath all of the false bravado I had been working under the whole time I had been here. It made her mask flicker, and made the calmer part of me surprised. I didn't know where it had come from. Maybe it was my anger at being captured, at remaining quiet and submissive for so long in the hope of avoiding Hydra's wrath, at being so... helpless.

But whatever the cause, it was providing me with confidence that allowed my quietly simmering anxiety to be turned off for once. And it allowed me to speak up, to finally prod at what I had been wondering at nearly every night I had been in this hell.

"Would I ever be allowed to see my parents or friends again?" I asked, voice low with an almost growl like quality to it.

"That would depend on many things, including whether or not they would join Hydra willingly." She said quietly, softly.

Weakly.

"They don't even know I'm here, do they?" She shook her head. I curled my fist into a tighter ball. "Why would they join you people if they have no reason to? If you tell them to join you're going to use me as blackmail against them, because if I know them they would never join you heartless bastards."

I laughed coldly, which made a deeply unsettled look settle just beneath her mask, "You don't want me to live a normal life. You guys only see me as a weapon, a play-thing that if you give it something to toy with every once in a while that you like to call 'privileges' it just might give you something in return."

"Mr Morales, unfortunately, you are a huge asset to our cause. We can't have you being influenced by-" I interrupted her before she could continue her emotionless, almost practised, explanation.

"By people who actually care about me? About people who will look at what's happening to me and go 'this isn't right'?! I am fourteen, or have you forgotten through your fake concern?" I hissed venomously.

There was a long silence, the tension in the room so thick that you could almost cut through it. Heel lady lifted her chin a little higher, her eyes turning icy. I didn't let myself relax, nor change my expression into something more calm from the clear anger it was currently at. I knew that I could be jeopardising everything, but at this point, I couldn't care. I was not going to be a pushover, I was not going to let them make me follow their orders like some sort of dog. I refused to roll over and expose my belly to the enemy.

I was a human with needs and wants, I was a superhero with the power to bend metal, and I wouldn't let them forget it.

"Miles," oh that was new, she had never used my first name before, didn't make much of a difference to me anyway, "despite what you think we have your best interests at heart. You have used your powers for trivial and insignificant purposes up until this point and now we are going to put it towards more productive pursuits."

"So saving people's lives and defending a city from harm is suddenly trivial?" I demanded, face twisting into an ugly glare. "I have saved more lives than Hydra has in its whole history! All you've done is bulldozed anyone in your path, whether or not they deserved it or not. Why should I believe your lies?"

"The ends justify the means-"

"What's the end?! When will you stop? When you've taken over America? The world? Made everyone your slaves?"

"We'll stop when we have shown everyone how wrong SHIELD is."

I stood up, the chair falling to the ground with a loud 'thump.' Heel lady flinched but otherwise didn't move, even as my hands fell to my side into threatening, tightly clenched fists. "So this is some sort of contest to you?" I hissed, "Some sort of war? You don't care about anyone, all you care about are some faulty lies about a 'better world.' God, you just lapped up all they told you like a dog, huh? What a nice power trip you get for bossing me around, right?"

There was another long pause, but finally, she lifted her chin a bit higher. "I don't have to explain myself to you. I'll give you three days to decide before we start on more drastic measures to... convince you." She turned around, heading towards the door. The door opened and she hovered by the door for a few moments before she looked back at me. "If I was you, I would consider long and hard about how little power you have here. There's no one to save you, there's only this decision that can decide your future."

I folded my arms, looking down at the ground. I took a deep breath, staring at the wall instead of looking at her. I already knew she would be angry, that she would have a venonmous grin on her face. I know that she's pissed at me.

I shouldn't have blown up at her like that. It was stupid of me. I had put myself at serious risk for the sole purpose of yelling at her about how un-just all this was. All it had achieved was a small way to vent all of my anger instead of bottling it up... like I should have.

But I had an escape planned and ready to go. There was no point in hesitating any longer. She was angry at me, I had everything I needed to know to get out in my head and at my fingertips... and I had nothing and everything to lose right now, like my life. If I didn't escape before the three days were up I would likely be tortured, beaten, opened up and put through hell.

I couldn't let that happen.

In the long run, if I survived any injuries caused by my recapture, on a field mission I could easily run away and cover up any trace of where I was. And as she had said, I was an important asset to Hydra. They might put me through hell, but they would likely still keep me alive if they thought they had any use for me.

But... I...

I didn't want to go through agonising pain...

She turned around, eyes still icy and angry at me, and began to walk away. As the door was shutting I quickly shouted, "Wait!" She whirled around and the door opened back up.

"I... I'll do it. I'll join you." I said, my voice stronger than I felt.

She smiled coldly, "We'll work out the specifics tomorrow. Goodnight." The door shut.

I walked over to my bed, legs like jelly. I sat down, burying my head in my hands. What had I done?

That night I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. I was too anxious, too caught up in my own thoughts to get any rest.

I was worried about whether or not I would escape, whether or not I would ever get the opportunity to even try, thinking over and over and over again about what I had said to Heel lady and what she would do to me, what they would force me to do as an agent of Hydra, what they would do to me if I got caught again... My thoughts were spiralling around and down. I couldn't stop them! I wanted to sleep but I couldn't.

My mind seemed stubborn in its determination to keep me awake and terrified for my future.

What if I never escaped? What if I was killed like Heel lady had promised on my very first day? In my escape would I die from natural causes like a crocodile or freeze to death or maybe even fall from a large height? Or something worse? Or would I be shot and my body cut open and explored?

In the dark, I could see the outline of my hand in front of my face. It was shaking lightly. I was scared.

...

...

No.

No.

I wouldn't lie here when right now I could be halfway out of this damned place.

I curled my hand into a fist, a quiet calm filling me up with a courage that I didn't know I possessed. It was making me feel stronger and more powerful then I had felt in weeks.

I didn't have 'only this decision to decide my fate.' My choice was not whether I stayed here to become an agent or be forced into complying, it was whether I stayed here like a chump scared and afraid of a threat from something much bigger than me or whether I said no and left this place to try and carve out a normal life again from whatever husk it would be from all of this.

This was all in my power to do, and I wasn't going to let anyone make me feel helpless anymore.

With this confidence flooding through me, I gave up on sleep completely. I was not going to stay here a second longer. I would see the sky again if it killed me.

I wouldn't have gotten any sleep, anyway. Not with my brain. It was time to be proactive and get something done.

I walked over to my desk where I grabbed the hidden map. I looked at it for the last time, engraving in the last few details into my mind before I ripped it in half. I ripped it again and again until it was unrecognisable and then stuffed the tiny pieces into a book to hide them. I took a deep breath then went over to the door and knocked. Here goes nothing.

"What do you need kid?" one of the guards asked.

"I need to go to the bathroom." There was a small pause and I quickly added on, "I'm busting."

There was a click and then the door opened. I immediately hurried in the direction of the bathroom to keep up the facade. I went into the bathroom and as soon as the door shut I stopped in my 'hurried' strides towards the toilets and climbed up the wall. I went to where I knew the vent was hidden and removed the tiles as quickly as I could. I placed them on the ground ready for me to retrieve before walking back up and unscrewing the screws.

Just as I had thought, if I gripped them I could easily turn them. It took me a few minutes of valuable times to get all six screws out of place but as soon as that was done I was able to grab the grate and put it up into the vent. I then crawled down the wall and grabbed the tiles.

I took a deep breath, this was it. If I succeeded in escaping I would be on my way home, if I failed I would be killed and/or experimented on. But that seemed better than being turned into a tool for Hydra to use. Anything had to be better than that. I crawled into the vent and carefully replaced the tiles behind me.

And then I couldn't see a thing.

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