Iris Williams didn't want to join HYDRA. She was clever, with knowledge of weapons and self-protection (a black belt in karate amongst other martial arts) The only reason she was here was because she slipped up. She blew her cover.

Her issue wasn't that she didn't get along with her family. Ben and Tilly, her older siblings, were already a few years into their training at SHIELD, but they were still close. Tilly was working in Operations, while Ben was one year into Computer Sciences. Iris' issue was that she didn't get into SHIELD full stop. No letters of consideration, no meetings with the Heads, absolutely nothing. She'd missed the IQ by one point, and she was too short and thin to join their forces. So, like any mature nineteen year old, she ran away, hiding in the streets of New York for a few days.

That was where they found her. Cold and dark-eyed, waiting with a cigarette half-burnt in her mouth. All it took was one gun in her back and a whispered threat and there she was. A new recruit for the secret company that wanted to rule the world (as long as they didn't have to destroy it first)

She'd been expecting the underground facilities, fully armed with brand new weapons and science labs where you needed at least three layers of bio-suits before you could enter. What she hadn't been expecting was the assassin with a metal arm and frost in his hair.

"These are our new recruits, soldier. Please be nice to them. You'll need to prepare- you have a big mission coming up. HYDRA is beginning its preparation for launch."

The rest of the recruits followed the blonde man who she faintly recognised from pictures her sister had brought home in her revision books. Instead of following, she paused, giving the man a once over. He was tall with brown hair, his body covered in a black suit, not unlike the ones SHIELD agents wore. Something black was rubbed in around his eyes, like the remnants of a Saturday night's makeup.

Brown eyes glanced from her hands to her clothes to her face. She fidgeted under his gaze. With a single nod, he walked past her out of the door and down the corridor. She followed, searching for the rest of the 'recruits'.

The corridor was empty.

"Crap. Erm, excuse me!" She called after the man. He didn't stop. "Oi! Hello? Soldier!" The final word she barked, causing him to freeze mid-step. Her worry setting back in, she ran to catch up with him, stopping just by his left side. "Hi. I'm Iris, one of the recruits. Would you mind helping me find them again, because I don't really know my way around, and I've kinda lost them..."

He looked down at her, brow furrowed. Brown eyes held her grey ones, looking as perplexed as a child. Iris resisted the urge to poke him, just to make sure he was a fully-functioning human and not a robot.

With a final tilt of his head, he carried on walking down the corridors, forcing her to hurry behind him.

"Hi? Are you taking me somewhere, or just ignoring me? Because if I get lost and die or something, I'm totally suing-"

She smashed into his back, not realising that he'd stopped walking. Rubbing her forehead, she looked around him to see a door. Behind it they could hear the murmuring voice of the blonde-haired man, occompanied by the whispers from the excitable recruits.

"Oh. Thanks. Are you-" She turned just in time to see him disappear down the corridor, hands clenched in fists by his sides. Deflated, she opened the door and stood by the wide-eyed audience, wondering yet again why she was here.

"Psychology."

Iris took a long sip of water during the 'dramatic' pause the blonde-haired man took. He'd called her into his office to discuss her future here, and she was still having to resist the urge to tell him that she didn't want a future here. All she wanted to do was blow this place up and get the hell out of it...maybe not in that order.

"It's your area of expertise, and the area we've been struggling in. There's a mind we work with here that is very...confusing. Procedures that used to last for years now only last for months. We need you to reset it. Understood?"

She rose her brows quizzingly. "Not really. I'll need medical files on the patient and in depth research on the procedures you're talking about, as well as a proper looks on the equipment and probably the patient themself. Even after that, I might not be able to do anything- the mind is a hard thing to control for so long, and I am only nineteen. You might be better with a proper psycholo-"

"Too much suspicion. If a 'proper psychologist' or brain scientist disappeared, people would care. No offense."

"None taken." She murmured, wondering how the disappearance of a nineteen-year-old girl with strong relations in the government would matter so much less than a donkey's old psychologist.

"Anyway, the files are all here, except for the ones you're not authorised to see. As for seeing to the patient..."

The door behind them opened, followed by three heavy footsteps. Iris could practically feel their ankles bashing together in an army stance.

"Soldier, meet Iris. Iris...meet your patient."

She turned, looking at the soldier. His eyes were trained on her, a glimmer of recognition in them before they were wiped clean. Indifferent. She turned back to the files, opening to the first page.

Name-

Age-

History-

"Sir...it's all been wiped." She said hesitantly. Every page in the soldier's file was blocked out by black rectangles, right up until activity from three days ago. The man smirked.

"Like I said- you only have the files you're authorised to see, and only I am allowed to see all of the soldier's files. I hope you two get along nicely."

He smirked once more, shutting the door loudly behind him. The soldier didn't move.

Crap.