Author's Note: Remember what happened when Christiane rescued the two men in the forest?
Very excited to share this next part of the story! It's something I planned since the beginning and hope you enjoy it! Each chapter for this segment will have a sort of theme to it, indicated with the song to give a mood and feel for Christiane and her surroundings.
Welcome to the 80s!
If it's any indication to the ending of this chapter, imagine Christiane's new look and as Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde. Cue the song and imagine the last scene and her emotions, watching everything go past her.
Blue Monday - New Order
November 1988
Somewhere in Slovakia
The wheels creaked under the slight weight of a woman on a trolley, as two men pushed it through the abandoned lab.
"Будьте как можно тише (Be as quiet as possible)" the older man whispered.
"How do we cover up our tracks?" the younger one replied.
"We don't. The coming snow and winter will make sure we were never here. No one knows of this bunker, they left her here all alone." The old man waved his hand, the younger boy running to start the engine. He walked around to the other side of the truck, lifting the girl into the backseat of the truck.
The old man took one look to her, her frosted lips iced with snowflakes, a sigh coming from him as she shook his head, a small smile forming.
"Lelia. Лелия."
"Viktor, this is risky and we will be moving to Slovenia in a week!" his wife paced around the living room, arms crossed as she glanced nervously to her husband.
"My love, she once saved my life and Ernst's also." The old Sokovian man watched his wife as his son brought in a tray of peppermint tea and ginger biscuits, sitting beside his father. "She is the reason why I was able to come home. To you, to Alek and to Milos."
"And you expect her to defrost like a frosted chicken in Milos' old bedroom?" The wife came to sit beside Viktor, finally letting out a huff.
"I owe it to her. I owe it to Ernst also."
"Ernst has been dead for over 20 years, you do not owe him anything," she mumbled, taking a sip of her tea.
"I owe it to his son then. If Ernst was not saved that day by her, he would not have been honorably discharged and go home to his wife and son." Viktor grumbled as he broke a ginger biscuit in half, the crumbles sticking to his grey mustache.
"Papa, you said she was young, but that was 44 years ago. Why hasn't she aged?" Alek poured more tea for his parents.
"I do not know what they did to her, only that they froze her in time and whatever it was, they were unfinished with experimenting on her," Viktor replied, his voice flat and deep, years of wear on the wrinkles on his forehead.
"What if she's hostile towards us? Imagine the last memory she had, before being put in that freezer?" Viktor's wife's eyes widened, placing her tea cup warily on the table.
"She will remember me. Lelia has come far," Viktor replied, a small smile appearing on his lips as he turned his head to a photograph in black and white rested on the side-table, a young Ernst with crutches and Viktor in their military days after their rescue.
She felt brightness against her eyelids, something soft around her despite the cold she felt right to her bones.
Her hands touched the fabric under her fingertips, soft. It had a fragrant smell, similar to flowers, mixed with the smell of baked bread and goulash wafting in the air.
She opened her eyes slowly, becoming accustomed to the shining of a lamp on a bedside table. The smell of goulash immediately caused her stomach to grumble. Before that, she got herself up slowly, trying to remember the last memory she had - men taking her away, a scientist sticking a needle into her and the feeling of the cold seeping into her skin and bones. She shivered at the thought, sitting at the bed's side as she looked around the room.
Postcards lined the walls from places around the world, a wooden bed and dark red ottoman carpet - she heard the sound of a voice from the other room, something on the radio in a language she couldn't quite pinpoint. She heard the quiet bubbles from what she thought from the goulash.
"You're awake, Lelia." A young man, around in his twenties, came to stand by the doorframe, smiling softly to her. In his arms were some clothes.
"Lelia," she whispered on her lips. "Trying to recall the memory of the word, "Where was I?"
"Slovenia, my father and I went to rescue you. You are now in Sokovia." He smiled, placing the clothes on the desk beside. "Some clothes for you, the bathroom is over there." He pointed to another door in the room. "Take your time, mama is making goulash. It still needs some more time to stew."
She reluctantly took the clothes, opening the bathroom door, a light already on inside as she turned to look to herself in the mirror.
For the first time, Christiane looked at herself. She wore the same clothes since her kidnapping and Zola freezing her. And yet, she was here, as if waking from sleep the next morning. She showered, washing her hair as she dressed herself in the black jeans and white tank top the boy gave her.
She creeped out into the hallway, peering into the kitchen where the table was set, a man watching her come in.
He smiled, taking off his glasses as he gestured for her to sit at the table.
"Do you remember me, Lelia?"
"Is this a dream?" She glanced around the room, back to the man.
He sat contently, crossing his arms as he leaned forwards, "You believe this is a dream?"
"I was a prisoner, Zola experimented on me just yesterday," she looked down, her hands knotting into fists.
"You are no longer a prisoner, but you have travelled far," he leaned back into his seat, watching her reactions.
"What does that mean?" She narrowed her eyes at him, her eyes moving around the room again, "Where am I?"
Viktor replied cooly, "You are in my house in Sokovia. The today is the 23rd of November 1988 and you have been asleep for 44 years."
Christiane felt her breath hitch, lodged in her throat as she tried to comprehend. Instead of running, she sat paralyzed, trying to breath.
"Lelia, you are safe with me, with my family. I promise you that. You saved me and Ernst all those years ago, do you remember?"
She sat still, turning her head to face the man as realization and shock crossed her face, "It's you?"
Viktor waved to Alek, "Go get the photograph, will you?" Alek nodded, quickly returning with the photograph of a young Viktor and Ernst as Christiane held it in her hands, flashes of images returning to her mind.
"Go, Lelia. I hope we meet again soon so we can repay you one day." Viktor looked to the darkness of the forest behind her, glancing back at her.
"Пусть Бог защитит вас и вашу семью (May God protect you and your family)" Christiane stood, smiling to the two as she helped them up.
"Спасибо, Лелия" Ernst smiled, turning around on his good leg as Viktor supported his other side, the two of them disappearing into the night.
"My God, it is you," she looked up to the man, quickly getting up and hugging him tightly as he looked at her in a sort of shock and amusement, placing a hand on her back.
"I told you I would repay you one day. I am sorry I could not find you sooner," he smiled to her, holding her by her arms, looking at her like a daughter. "I found you through a cousin who secretly defected from the laboratory to America. He gave me this information just before his death."
She nodded, moving back to her seat as she watched the young man and a woman sit at the table, the woman scooping goulash onto the plates with a warm bread basket in the middle.
Viktor smiled in amusement watching her, gesturing towards his wife and son, "My wife, Sandra and my youngest son, Alek."
"And an oldest?" Christiane looked to him.
He chuckled, "Ah yes, my Milos, my oldest son. He is a photographer, exploring the world. You woke in his room, the postcards are what he sends to us every month."
Christiane smiled, a small sense of happiness sprouting from her heart, knowing the people she saved were happy, had a family.
"Please, eat Lelia!" Viktor gestured
"Is your name really Lelia?" Alek looked to her, a spoonful of goulash in his mouth.
She shook her head, a small smile on her lips, "My name is Christiane."
Viktor waved his hand, "I shall call you Lelia, it suits you for the warrior you are."
After dinner, the family set to explaining history to Christiane, explaining each decade through the feats and defeats of the world around them.
"Can I go outside?" Christiane asked, peering out the window to the lights of the Sokovian capital, Novi Grad, in the distance.
"You may go outside with Alek and I now if you would like? We can have some hot chocolate and watch the stars. It is a very clear night." Viktor smiled, slowly getting out of his arm chair as he went to the kitchen.
Alek turned to Christiane, "Come, let's go." She followed him as they sat in the garden of what Christiane saw as a farmhouse in the countryside, a snowy-peaked mountain on one side and fields on the other.
"It must be beautiful during the daytime," she whispered out to the cool wind.
"It really is," Alek smiled to the night sky, "I don't think Papa told you yet that we are moving in a week?"
Christiane turned to him, head to the side, "No? Where will you go?"
Viktor interrupted, setting cups on a tray down as he sat with his son and Lelia.
"My wife wants to return to her home country in Slovenia; but it means you would have to go somewhere."
Christiane bowed her head down, a feeling of sadness in her heart.
Viktor looked uncomfortable, a sadness in his eyes as he watched the girl look down, defeated. "Lelia, do not worry. I have arranged for you to go to Berlin. Ernst's youngest son, Rudolph-Ernst is there as a university student. You can have a chance again, to study, to have a job and start over again."
She quietly nodded, looking up to the man with worry on his face as she smiled back reassuringly.
"Thank you, Viktor," she breathed out, "For giving me a second chance."
He nodded in return, sighing, "It would mean that your old name, Christiane cannot exist anymore. It's simply too dangerous and I do not know if there are men who would come get you one day. It is safer to have a new alias."
"Then I will be Lelia," she smiled to him gently.
"Lelia Falco," he smiled in return. "Ernst's son took on his mother's last name. You will have a brother in Ernst-Rudolph. I believe it would do him some good to have a sister in you. He has no family anymore."
"When do I leave?"
"Tomorrow afternoon, the night train from Novi Grad will take you directly to Berlin. You will have border controls at the border in Hungary and Czechoslovakia before you cross into East Germany. Alek will make your identification papers under your new name."
Christiane sighed, a brief smile to Viktor and Alek, "Thank you."
Viktor returned the smile, passing a mug of hot chocolate to her as they sat in silence.
She looked back up to the stars as her mind wandered to Anya, Bucky, Steve and Peggy.
"What is this?" Christiane held up a box with an image of a woman smiling in blonde hair on it.
"It's hair dye. Papa said you would fit in better with your hair blonde instead of brown so the authorities do not get suspicious if they were to bring you and Rudolph-Ernst together." Alek smiled, watching her inspect the box curiously.
She looked up to the mirror, her breath shaking as she stared into her own eyes. She felt pain and confusion since waking, despite the small brief happiness she felt in being surrounded by Viktor's family, she knew her life would never be the same.
"Can you bring me some scissors?" Christiane focused on her own reflection.
"Why?" Alek looked to her in confusion.
"I need a new start," she replied shakily, a gut feeling of her pain mixed with anger as she gripped the sink. Yet, she felt empty. Years lost because of what Hydra did to her, taking her loved ones away and erasing her future and past.
She looked back at herself in the train's cabin mirror, almost unrecognizable save for the green eyes, a deep jade color; the blue piercing and orange-gold slit almost dull. Her hands touched her short messy blonde hair, swiping the make-shift fringe to the side.
She leaned against the cushioned seat, her legs stretched out onto the seat opposite hers, jeans ripped at the knees as she watched the darkness fly past her from the window. She vowed to find whatever was left of Hydra and bring it down with her own bare hands. For Anya, for Bucky, for Steve. For her own sanity.