AN: Let the fun begin! Mwahahahahahahahaha!
"WRITING."
"SIGNING."
.
.
.
I must have cried myself to sleep, because the next thing I knew I was being rudely awakened by the crash of shattered glass. I screamed as I covered my face as shards of glass flew everywhere. I felt several embed themselves in my legs and hands as they ricocheted off the walls, eliciting another pained scream from me. People in black were swarming into the room, repelling from ropes outside the tower. I lowered my hands and stared in shock as they invaded the supposedly safe haven of the Avenger's Tower. I shrunk back into the wall as a few of them finally noticed me sitting in the corner, dazed.
"Is she the right one?" I heard one of them ask the one who seemed to be the leader of the group.
"Doesn't matter. She's in the Avenger's quarters, so she must be important to them. Grab her and move out before they get back. We only have a small time frame here." As the man that spoke first made his way over to me, his big, black boots crunching the glass underfoot, I noticed the symbol proudly displayed on the arm of the man's uniform.
A skull with six tentacles.
HYDRA.
Before I had time to truly process what was going on, I was grabbed roughly by my arm and dragged towards the gaping hole in the side of the tower. The man's rough handling snapped me out of my shock and my self-preservation instincts kicked in. I may not have been a trained agent, but I did have two of the best assassins as my parents. Since he didn't see me as a threat it was child's play to use my free hand to jab into the pressure point behind his ear. As he dropped unconscious to the floor, I managed to snag his gun from its holster, shooting at the other HYDRA agents in the room before bolting to the stairs next to the elevator. No time to wait for convenience. And no time to think about the blood that had splattered onto me when I had managed to hit a few of their men with my wild shooting. I could freak out about killing someone later. However, before I could reach the door another gunshot rang out and this time it wasn't my own.
I felt searing pain slice through my entire being, exploding out from my side and arcing outwards until I couldn't help but drop in agony. I might have been trained to fight, but I wasn't trained to take a bullet. I clutched at my side, moaning silently in pain as I felt my own blood stain my hands and shirt red. I made the mistake of looking down and seeing the red bloom across my shirt in a morbid flower caused a wave of nausea to sweep over me and my vision to darken. Everything became slightly blurry as I began to violently shake. Shock. I was going into shock.
"You moron!" I heard vaguely. "If you killed her you're dealing with the boss. He wanted a prisoner, not a corpse!" Another wave of tremors swept through me at his words and I closed my eyes, trying to fight the urge to vomit. I felt myself being lifted up off the ground and being moved, but anything else was lost to the fuzzy oncoming of unconsciousness and the roaring sound that seemed to flow through my ears. My head felt like it had been filled with water and detached from my neck. Not able to take the aching pain anymore, I gave myself over to the sweet beckoning of oblivion.
I went in and out of consciousness, hearing the sounds of people rushing around me, ordering other people to get this or that. I wanted to shield my eyes from the bright lights above me, but I couldn't seem to move anything. I blinked lazily at the people in white that were running around me frantically, sticking needles in me and demanding I get more blood. I hazily remembered that there had been an attack by HYDRA. Had they taken me? Were they trying to save me? Why? Or was I still in the tower, having been left for dead?
Yes, that must have been it. I was still in the tower, or on the helicarrier, being treated by medical personal for my bullet wound. From the amount of blood I had apparently lost, I assumed it was a clean shot through me. Relieved to know everything would turn out alright, I slipped back into unconsciousness.
I whimpered as I reawakened, this time to dim lighting and a hard floor. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton and my head felt like it was full of clouds. I blinked slowly to get the sleep out of my eyes and glanced around groggily, confused, before the reality of my situation finally hit me.
I wasn't home.
HYDRA really had taken me. They had just needed me alive.
The cell I was in could barely pass as a prison cell, it was so small. The walls and flooring were made of plain cement and the only light came from a little window in the iron door that was the only way in and out of my little room. A bucket rested in the corner for if I had to relive myself I assumed, I shuddered at the thought, and that was it. The room was so small, I would have only been able to pace two, maybe three steps before having to turn around again. Not that I would be moving much. Even as I thought it, a dull, throbbing ache made itself known in my side. I looked down to find myself in hospital scrubs and nothing else. They must have changed me. I blushed deeply at the thought of anyone seeing me naked in this god-awful place and could only hope that that was all they did. I wasn't sore down there, so I hoped that my virginity was still intact and that I hadn't been taken advantage of. I lifted the gown slightly to see my side and gasped at the image.
It was a kaleidoscope of purples, blues, and greens, bruised and swollen. The exit wound in the front of my side was an angry red around the harsh black stitches. I gingerly felt the backside of my wound, where the bullet had pierced me, and winced as I felt it in the same condition. They may have kept me alive, but they hadn't done a very good job of dressing my wound. I was pretty sure it was already getting infected if the deep red was anything to go by. I very carefully maneuvered my way into a sitting position, unable to hold back and few whimpers of pain. Even that was an effort and by the time I had sat up all the way I was exhausted and sweating. The salt of my sweat stung my wound and the various scratches that were scattered across my body from the explosion of glass. With nothing else to do, I took inventory of my injuries. Besides the obvious, I had scratches of varying depths all down my arms and legs. Looking closer at my feet, I was pretty sure I still had some shards embedded deep in the flesh. I must have gotten them when I was running, barefoot, through the glass minefield, trying to get to the stairs. Not my smartest moment, but it wasn't like I was thinking clearly, I was thinking more along the lines of 'holy shit HYDRA'. I considered trying to take some of the pieces out myself, especially the rather large piece that resided in my heel, but shook my head. Pulling them out without the right materials would cause a lot of unneeded pain and, with my current living conditions, they would probably get infected as well, if they weren't already. Not to mention what the loss of blood would do to me. I already felt disturbingly light-headed.
Suddenly, I heard the distinct creak of a rusty door opening and heavy footsteps. I huddled in the corner, tying to make myself seem as innocent and unassuming as possible. The iron door in front of me swung open and before me stood three men. The two on the sides were obviously guards and, by the glares they sent my way, had been on the retrieval mission. I must have shot some of their buddies. I held back a satisfied smirk at the thought. I never thought I would be happy about the death of someone at my own hands, but I could make an exception for these HYDRA bastards. The man in the center was the leader from before, his harsh glare making my moment of satisfaction dwindle and die under his gaze.
"So, you're finally awake." Silence followed his statement as I naturally couldn't answer, but he obviously didn't know that I was mute, because his anger bubbled up at the awkward silence that surrounded us. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything? Ask questions? Beg for mercy?" I raised my eyebrows in disbelief at the last suggestion, like I would ever beg to people like HYDRA. The man must have taken my eyebrows as a challenge because I was then jerked up and slammed into the wall, my head bouncing off the concrete painfully. "Listen here you little bitch, I don't know who you are and I really don't care. All we care about is obtaining Captain America and reobtaining the Winter Soldier. Since you are obviously important to the Avengers, you are going to lead them right to us. If you behave, maybe we won't kill you." He sneered, his hot breath wafting over me. I did the only thing I could think of to answer.
I spit directly into his eye.
With a snarl he wiped my spit from his face, glowering down at me. "You're going to regret that, bitch." Was the last thing I heard before he backhanded me, hard, and I was slammed into the wall and back into unconsciousness once more.
.
.
.
AN: So, originally the next chapter was a part of this one, but I decided to split it up. For reasons. The next chapter will have the Avengers' reactions!