❪ written by nymphcallisto ❫
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"Volkova!"
Lunaria could barely hear Steve's voice as she stumbled into the nearest wall and fell to her knees against it. She grabbed at her throat where blood from the shapeshifter's claws still lingered.
Steve knelt down next to her but she waved him away, "Go help Nat, she can't hold off the group on their own," She gasped through deep breaths, "I-I'll be out for a minute. The young one-That...That was some sort of electric shock."
"Lune—"
"Rogers, I'm fine, just go!"
Something exploded from behind a corner, and though he looked like he wanted to argue further, Steve hurried off to deal with what remained of the fight.
Lunaria groaned as she waited for the headache to pass. Something about the artificial energy inside her body kept flares of electricity pulsing through her, along with memories that she usually preferred to keep locked away. Usually she was good at ignoring the pain and pushing through, but she couldn't fight like this, not right now.
Her body convulsed violently as another shock came through. The electricity, the HYDRA Base, and the blood combined was too much—and Lunaria blacked out into a scene that was all too familiar.
.
.
Yakutsk, Russia, 1997
Kalina Volkova screamed as another shock wave flared through her body. Heavy chains that immobilized her body kept her from moving, but still she didn't stop struggling against the restraints. Her body burned, every cell feeling as though they would give out at any moment.
"Any form of static shocks could be a problem," The man said as he turned around to the woman who was waiting a few meters away, "Something about the molecular particles . . . they don't react well together. She comes in contact with something as mundane as electricity, and she's done."
"Static shocks," The woman spoke in a thick eastern-european accent, slowly walking towards the table where the young girl was barely holding onto consciousness, "Blades, bullets, poison, call it whatever you want. Those things themselves cannot do harm. It's only the weakness inside a person that makes them weapons."
She picked up the remote attached to a long wire cord that connected to the metal collar around the girl's throat, pulled down on the lever and watched as another scream erupted from the girl. The shockwaves were strong enough that a slight vibration could be felt throughout the room. But other than the uncontrollable blood-curdling screams, no protests came out of the girl.
"Madam, please," the scientist stepped forward, "You don't understand, the shockwaves could potentially damage her systems and-"
"Are all you people from HYDRA cowering idiots or is it just you?"
"Please, I need her alive. Strucker would kill me if he found out-"
The woman flipped off the switch, turning around coldly. She walked over to the table across the room and picked up an hourglass that she examined in her hand, "You can let Strucker know that the experiment was successful. We will handle it from here."
He blinked, "But . . . Madame, I just explained. The subject can't come in contact with static waves. We'll need more time, at least a few months. She isn't finished."
"Can't is a very strong word," she set the hourglass down on the counter again, "And a very useless one at that. I've taught many students. All the ones who opposed me used that word a lot. 'I can't fight without food.' 'I can't kill my friend.' One girl once told me 'I can't stand up' just because she had a measly bullet in her leg."
"With all due respect, I personally think it's a pretty valid excuse-"
"The Redroom has no space for excuses. We dispose of the broken ones, mold the strong. 'Can't' was a word invented by the weak to hide their weakness and their fear." She looked over at the girl, "Old man here thinks you can't survive a bit of pain. Tell me, Little Wolf, are you one of the broken ones? Are you weak?"
". . . Нет."
The woman raised an eyebrow, "Then prove it."
She reached down, placed the remote into the girl's hand. Her arm was immobilized, but her fingers slowly wrapped around the handle. She felt a hand graze the side of her face, flinched slightly, dark eyes wide in well-hidden fear.
"The pain you endure will not save you. There is no salvation for you, Little Wolf. But it will serve as a reminder." The woman said quietly, "You know what I want you to do now, don't you?"
The girl felt the cold barrel of a gun press into the side of her head as her handler spoke again, "You're going to stay silent through it all. If it's too much for you to take, all you have to do is make a sound," she loaded the gun with a click, "And it will all be over."
She took a deep, shaking breath, but she didn't hesitate as she found the lever and pressed down it, forcing the electricity through her veins.
But she didn't scream, didn't cry out, didn't make a single sound. Yet every inch of her body burned in unbearable torment that she had never felt before.
The woman watched, and flipped the hourglass, setting it down on the counter again, "You'll stop when I tell you to."
And so she closed her eyes and silently endured.
.
.
She screamed as her eyes shot open, and it took Lunaria a moment to adjust to the real, present world. It was like waking up in the morning from a nightmare as she did every single morning now.
That was the good thing about the dawn. The memories that came during the night made everything during the day so much easier to endure.
She tried her hardest to stand up, but the shockwaves were still in her system. Something about the little girl that had sent her to this state...It wasn't normal static. She knew, as she had done tests multiple times in the past years to see just how much it would take for her to break herself, and she had never encountered anything like this.
It was almost like HYDRA had been getting creative with ways to put the Siren down.
Pain cannot save you, Lunaria played the voice again in her head, but it will serve as a reminder.
A reminder of who she was. Of how she had fought through so much worse than this before.
So once again ignoring every screaming cell in her body, Lunaria Volkova got up, facing the fight again. And this time, she didn't reach for her guns, didn't go for the comfortable option. Instead, she closed her eyes.
And when she opened them again, an icicle blade appeared in her hand, shimmering into existence. Her enhancements weren't magic — they drained her each time she used them, took a part of her away. But she had had more than enough time to learn how to make herself numb to it all.
She could admit that she wasn't as skilled with her enhancements as she could've been, giving how long she had had them for. And she knew she could go on making excuses every time some called for superhuman backup or when Wanda came to her wanting to talk about controlling one's power, but Lunaria herself would always know the truth.
That it was fear that prevented her from fighting as well as she could. She had been running for so long that all she wanted was to pretend that nothing in her past had happened, particularly her time spent in the hands of HYDRA as a compliant weapon that answered to every command.
Every molecule of water that she summoned was a reminder of it. But maybe the key wasn't to keep running, but to let it flood through her and become exactly what she needed to win a fight.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the red-haired shapeshifter appear from behind a corridor. And Lunaria flipped the blade in her hand once, and advanced.
Lethal and unwavering, she struck at her opponent. Not that normal weapons would affect her, but Lunaria anticipated that. She wasn't trying to kill. She just needed to wear her out for long enough and buy the others some time.
"Remember me?" She crooned as she pushed the shapeshifter into the nearest wall, "What were you saying about me before we were interrupted? 'You have no idea what you're dealing with', did I get that right?"
"You can't kill me, mortal," The redhead growled, pulling herself up again.
Lunaria smirked, raising an arm as a frozen wall slammed into her to keep her at bay for a bit longer, "Oh, I know that I can't. But among other members of my team is a man with a vibranium shield and a girl who could shatter your mind with a thought. My job is just to stall you."
And to finally get my anger that's been buried for years out.
The woman twisted, but Lunaria's position against her made it nearly impossible for the shapeshifter to lift her arms. Teeth bared, the woman jerked her body. "I can smell the artificial energy running through your veins like a virus that corrupts you." She leaned forward. "That will one day be your downfall."
"You know, you're right," She purred, the air chilling to deadly-low temperatures, "This thing inside of me is an infection, a virus, an abomination. But it was HYDRA, your people, who put this thing into me. Who violated my body in every way imaginable, and treated me as nothing but a shiny new toy to play with. So every awful thing you see in me, is just a small part of how much awful is in you."
The shapeshifter lunged forward, tackling Lunaria to the ground with a snarl that was nothing close to human. She kicked her in the chest before rolling out of the way, stabilizing herself before whipping her head around to face the shapeshifter again.
With her enhanced senses, she could hear footsteps approaching, distinguishably Steve's. And she smiled then, because the mission was about to be completed.
"You guys had your fun at the expense of a sixteen-year-old child," Lunaria dropped the blade she was holding, "Don't worry, I don't expect an apology. And I don't want revenge either. I was trained to not let personal issues cloud my decisions in the field, although I'm sure you've done enough digging through my files to already know that about me. Revenge, unfortunately, counts as a personal issue."
"Volkova!"
Steve appeared from behind a staircase, and threw his shield that Lunaria caught just in time, all of it happening quicker than the shapeshifter could react.
Lunaria threw the shield, her aim as perfect as it had always been. The vibranium shield spiraled through the air, and hit the shapeshifter square in the chest.
"Fortunately, sometimes personal issues just happen to align with the objective of the mission."