Thump, thump, thump, thump Deep down Althia felt the strange vibration as her mind surfaced thump, thump, thump, thump. Waking in a panic she thrashed and metal gloved hands pinned her arms, they were so thin the flesh instantly bruised and her power flashed lighting the small space. Strange voices, small lights flashing, Althia's screams rip loose as she tried to struggle. "Althia, calm down we're out." her angel's voice in her ear stilled the wild thrashing. Her face dimly lit is so beautiful "My Angel" Althia whispers in a choking sob "Don't leave me." She pleaded before a sting in her arm dropped her into peaceful darkness.
"Did she just call you an angel?" the pilot snorts trying not to laugh. "Shut up Hawk." Tasha snapped pushing the thick tangles of hair off a thin and tortured face. Her eyes were soft and thoughtful as she tried to place the woman's origin. "JARVIS said her body healed by the time we got half way down the hall from the cell she was in. Don't know how she does it but there wasn't a bruise or scrape anywhere on her when we got on board." Stark commented through the mic of his suit. "There's 20 years' worth of hell on her body in the data I snagged." Turning his mask to face Natasha Romanov also known as the Black Widow he asks "What happened I thought you were hit?" while maintaining his hold on the unconscious woman. "I watched her cut her hands and legs crawling across her cell; I saw the glass in her palm." she started to reply and paused "Then a light from inside her skin appeared; the glass just fell off when she tilted her hand. Blood was still there but her hand was fine. She's got some serious healing power and she can share." She finished as she leans back to expose the hole in her suit and the small glimpse or creamy flesh inside. "She stuck her finger in my suit and the bullet hole where I was shot just closed." Touching her side she still couldn't believe it was gone leaving only dried blood to crack and break loose as it aged. "It was strange one minute I'm feeling not so hot with a bullet inside me; bleeding like a stuck pig and the next it's just gone." She continued. "Then you blew a hole into the room and she jumped on me. I think she was trying to shield me with her body." She pulled a variety of items from pockets all over her suit as she stared at the sleeping form. "We'll be rendezvousing with the airbase in five do you think you can keep her calm next time she comes around 'Angel'?" The man known around the world as Hawkeye asks grinning. Tash glares at him. "Think your blow hard buddy can manage to not blow a wall all over us?" she responded. "Maybe" Ironman replied with a smirk after his helmet opened to expose his face. Thor is quiet at the back of the jet watching the exchange without a word. There was something of horror still in his eyes at the condition of the woman they called Althia. He'd never seen anyone so desiccated and afraid before.
The medical team that rushed to meet the air craft as it landed pulled a containment unit like a glass coffin rapidly across the landing stripe. Thor lifted the limp and unconscious body before he steps out. "There is no need for that I will carry her inside; she is no danger to us." He didn't want her to wake inside a glass coffin; she might hurt herself in panic. His voice causes the team to pause in confusion no one wants to piss off the thunder god. The woman in his arms weighed nothing. No muscle to note her body starved till it was barely human. Two teams of agents flanked Thor as his long stride carried him and the woman into the noisy interior; he heading to the infirmary.
A black man with a cruel mouth and one good eye that was as empty as a statue stared at Althia across a metal table. He introduced himself as Nick Fury. She shifted on her seat and darted a glance to her angel standing against the wall. "We're not going to hurt you, we just have some questions and then Agent Romanov will take you back to your room. Is that ok?" his voice was calm and he tried to be as unthreatening as he could. "Ok" she whispered staring at the metal surface. She was wearing a simple warm, tan colored jumpsuit and soft slippers; her hair brushed and pulled back was thick and wavy falling to her waist. All traces of the dirt and blood from the rescue washed away in the first day. The dark pits around her eyes were telling of a lot of pain and fear. "Tell us a little about yourself, do you have a name? Where do you come from?" he asked her carefully enunciating each word.
"My name is Althia Sacmish, I know that but so much is gone and most of my memories are from the place you found me or one just like it." Her mind and voice wandered off to talk about the sky over a field and the laughter of children running around in tall grasses though she never can see their faces. It is the happiest thing she had to say all morning. It is all she had left of where she was before the series of cells and experiments. She tell them of the death that came in black or white but eventually ended covered in blood; watching men and women tortured for reason she never learned. She faltered as she talked about the smiling man and the series of rooms she spent day after day screaming in. She talked quietly of those days under the rubble and the way it ate away her body. She told them in a dead voice about the men coming in her cell and the violence they did to her. Hours she sat there with the large black man pouring out a litany horror watching him in a series of quick glances. Her voice cracked half way through the morning and the widow brought her juice that was chilled and sweet. She savored each sip slowly rolling it in her mouth before swallowing. She never hesitated to speak of the torture she'd experienced but seemed completely focused on the flavor of the juice she'd been given.
Compassion and anger warred on the man's face as she talks in a monotone of the various ways they tried to dissect her. About how each time there was the pale light and pain but each cut, each burn sealed up as the blade, acid, or fire left her flesh. She talked of drugs forced into her body and the days when they used poisons to test the limits of her healing. The morning passed and food arrives her eyes wide she stared and asked if it was really for her. She couldn't seem to help but eat ravenously as she sat across from her angel who only nibbled at the food on her own plate. Director Fury told Althia "We can pick this up later. I think you need a break and I know I need a drink."
That afternoon Althia was alone with her angel, in a room with windows into the hall and a view of the sky from above the clouds. Althia knew she was moving through the air and was delighted in seeing the sun and the clouds below look so fluffy and touchable. The angel had been Althia's constant companion since she woke screaming and thrashing in a hospital bed. She's been using her influence over the woman to teach her and draw out as much information as she could. Showing Althia how to use everything from the door latches, to the showers. Althia listen without comment staring out the window absorbing a wealth of information in the hours she was first introduced to the modern world.
The evening brought the return of Fury and a man named Eldworth. He asks about how she healed herself and her angel. Still in a sort of shock Althia's mind had a habit of wandering frequently. At that moment she was wondering why she hasn't seen Stark or the giant Thor since she woke. "Miss Sacmish, did you hear me?" Eldworth asked "Sorry" she reply "it's just hard to focus and there's so much…" she trails off again. "Tell me about how you healed Agent Romanov." he asked but most of what he said comes out as a polite command. Knowing he was trying to be patient and not scare her Althia tried to focus. She closed her eyes to focus. "I feel warmer than the room and my hands will start to glow. If I touch a wounded person I can feel the hurt in whoever I'm touching but it's distant like a memory and as it fades so does the wound." She spoke slowly but with increasing speed her voice going from the monotone she had used earlier to one edged with fear. "I can't bring back the dead." Her eyes opened and widened in panic "I've never tried to regrow a lost limb or reattach one and I can't cure a disease outside my body only wounds." She rushed to tell him, trying to explain...sudden and uncontrollably shudders shook her slight frame as the fear sent her into a panic. Struggles to get enough air she clutched at her chest with weak hands. 'You don't want him mad at you for not explaining it well enough he is going to hurt you' She stared at him in terror as Fury and Natasha rushed around the table and drags her out of the chair. His arms enfolded her and his whisper cut through the roaring of blood in her ears "No. We don't do it that way here. No one here is going to hurt you; I give you my word." His heart was thudding slowly in her ear where it is pressed tight against his chest. He'd seen on her face what she thought was coming and it had disturbed to stoic and usually unflappable man. She whimpered and mumbled as the panic started to pass. Tasha's hand stroked her hair as she whispered in Russian was Althia's life line. Not a word meant anything to Althia but it was her voice that pushed back the panic. "That's enough for today take her back to her room and see if Dr. Banner would be so kind as to pay us a visit." The way he said it Althia didn't think it was going to be a request as much as a politely phased order.
Her third day was in the infirmary; wires sticking to her skin but it wasn't painful and they were careful to tell her what they were doing to keep her from panicking. The first needle that came near her had sent her heart rate off the charts and drove her screaming into the corner. Her hands over her head cowering, she begged them not to hurt her. No one wanted to try and draw blood after that. A nurse had knelt in front of her speaking softly, trying to calm her but she didn't respond. Natasha was called and came running and sliding into the room. First she spoke with the doctors about what triggered the panic before she sat and drew the smaller woman into her lap. Holding her till her heart rate and breathing slow down. They arranged for a therapist to come and work with her after that.