Morning all

Many thanks to AnimeFreak71777 and AliceCullen3 for the reviews

And welcome to the adventure to prancerpuppy, Aracmel, nathaliedew98, madfinn654321, Firecrane930, and Lizzyg423

Enjoy

xo

Chapter 14

The Past

Lex pushed open the door of the building, holding the door open for two women as they walked out, smiling at them brightly.

Oh yeah, this was S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters alright. She had not seen this many pressed suits since that time she'd had to slip out of the UK after Thor had stopped some alien invasion.

She strode towards the security point, holding the security pass she had just scanned from the two women that passed her by. Infiltration was going to be made so much easier thanks to the toys Shuri had given her to send her on her way.

She dropped her pass, phone and keys into the X-ray scanner, before walking through the body scanner with not a sound from the machine, giving an alluring smile at the security guard on the other side as she did so.

He smiled broadly back at her, as she leaned over to pick up her things, clipping her pass to her belt loop and slipping her keys into her pocket.

"Have a good day, ma'am," the security guard said with a nod, his eyes never leaving her.

"You too, mate," she replied with a wink, feeling his eyes following her as she walked away. She headed for the elevators. According to her research, the archive was in one of the bottom floors. There were a few people waiting for the elevators, so she stood for a few minutes, checking her watch impatiently. She glanced at the people around her, then back to security, seeing the security guard's attention now back on his job, before turning and heading for the stairs.

Once into the staircase she looked up and down the centre, seeing if there was anyone else using them. When she was certain they weren't, she slipped a ring off her keys, onto her middle finger and hitting the stone set into the centre. A hologram appeared and Lex scanned the details quickly. It was a map of the building.

She turned quickly and hurried downstairs, she was very tempted to just launch herself down the centre, but thought it best to play it safe. Ten minutes later, she finally made it to the floor she needed. The building was deceptively bigger than it appeared on the outside. She looked at the door that read 'RESTRICTED' in big red letters.

She analysed the lock, it was a digital pin lock.

Using her ring, she aimed the stone towards the number screen, tapping the side of the ring and activating a laser scanner. As it passed over the numbers she could see the oil left from people's fingers over the appropriate code.

Inputting the code, she waited momentarily before the lock turned green and she grinned, pulling the door open.

When she slipped inside, it was dimly lit, only a few lights on here and there. She glanced around the room, looking to see if there was anyone in the archives. She was certain there had to be a caretaker, but she couldn't see them at this point.

Lex began to move through the shelves, scanning the boxes quickly, out of curiosity, she knew what she needed wouldn't be just anywhere. Boxes listed with names like 'Duggan' 'Sitwell' and 'Potts' sat on the shelves, but none of them were of any interest to her.

She momentarily stopped, considering whether she had just heard someone breathe close by, crouching slightly to look around, but still couldn't see anything or anyone.

Still cautiously looking around, she moved to the back of the archive, where another line of shelves rested against the wall. She ran her tongue across her bottom lip, moving her head from side to side, considering the shelves for a moment.

This was supposed to be the furthest side of the building, why weren't there any windows or at least vents on this wall?

She raised her ring towards the wall, tapping the side again, and the laser scanner appeared once more. She walked along the wall, watching the wall as the laser passed over it. As the laser ran over a small gap between files and boxes, the laser line disappeared in a tiny gap in the wall behind them, the human eye would not have been able to detect it. She shut off the scanner, before moving her face closer to the fake wall, now she just needed to figure out how to get in there.

Stepping back, she looked all around for any discrepancies in the wall. Most of the boxes were closely packed together on the shelves, and nothing really stuck out to her as being out of place. She considered her options, before beginning to read the labels on the boxes.

One in particular drew her attention. 'Emergence'

She narrowed her eyes slightly, reaching for the box slowly and trying to lift it. It didn't move and she grinned to herself. She pulled it towards her and heard a click, before there was the sound of gears moving against each other.

The door popped slightly, and she pulled it back to reveal another lock, this one was different though. She sighed, it was an audio receiver.

She thought for a moment, raising an eyebrow as she considered her options, before she reached for the receiver and activated it. Shuri had shown her recordings of Peggy Carter, and the woman's voice had a distinct sound to it, but it had been a long time since she'd utilised her imitation skills. If she got this wrong, it could trigger the security for the whole building, and that was going to bring with it a tonne of hurt.

She took a deep breath. "Peggy Carter."

She waited with bated breath as the computer considered it, wondering if it sent a silent alarm rather than just your generic security alarm.

The screen flashed green before there was the sound of rushing air from out of the doorway, as it depressurised the room within.

Lex blew out a breath and relaxed slightly, as she waited for the door to slide open. "Thank you, Agent Carter." Once the door was wide enough, she slipped inside, lights activating as she moved down the long dark hallway. She couldn't help but loathe not having a weapon on hand, she had a strange feeling as she walked deeper into the archive.

Eventually, she found the end, bright lights activating and making her cringe slightly after being in the darker, low security archive room. Looking around, the high tech archive room had computer screens and pictures all around the room, with a long table in the centre of the room. She stood in awe for a moment.

Even though she had spent the last month in Wakanda, where the technological advances were well above the norm, the room still made her head spin.

"Where the hell do I start?" She murmured to herself, before looking up at the image of Peggy Carter.

"Well, you can start with your name," a voice came from behind her.

She turned quickly, stepping back into a ready stance, as she found a tall, dark man with an eye patch over one eye and wearing a black leather trench coat looking at her, a handgun raised and pointed straight at her. She clenched her fists tighter, calculating the distance between them and the trajectory of the bullet if he fired, within seconds of realising he was there.

He furrowed his brow as she watched him cautiously. She had no weapon and he had a gun, it wasn't great odds, but she could work with them. But she really didn't want to leave the room without answers.

"Alexia Nikulkin," he said, a small smirk spreading on his lips. Lex grimaced at the use of her full name, but didn't answer. "I was wondering when you were going to show up."

She cocked her head to one side, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously, but still didn't speak. She kept her heart rate even, although her body tensed as her nerves were on edge.

He lowered his gun, putting it back into his hip holster and she raised her eyebrows expectantly. Who the hell was this man?

"I take it you're looking for the information on Project Rebirth?" He asked walking towards one of the computers.

She was going to get wrinkles from the amount of frowning she was currently doing. "Who are you?" she demanded finally.

"Really? Cap didn't mention me? Well, he's off the Christmas card list," the man said, touching a computer screen under Peggy Carter's picture. "The name's Nick Fury, for a while, I ran this joint."

Of course, she had read about him in the information dump Romanoff had done, except he was supposed to be dead. "And now?" She asked, still not moving from her spot.

"I've been waiting on you to show up."

Lex shot him an annoyed look. "Yes, I think we established that already. My point is, why?"

He tapped on the screen a few times, before a video began to play. It was her interview with Natasha Romanoff in the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. And then another video, from Leipzig airport in Berlin a month ago, footage of her fighting alongside Bucky and Sam inside the airport terminal.

"You realise we didn't know you existed until recently. We knew Erskine had been forced to make a version of the serum for Schmidt, we didn't know it was tested before then."

"I'm not sure tested is an accurate description, but your point?"

"I figured it was only a matter of time before you came to find some answers," he said, continuing to tap at the screen. "USB?" She frowned again, not moving. This had to be a trick, it couldn't be this easy. She was a wanted woman. He looked back at her with his one eye, looking at her expectantly. "Relax, my resources are tied up right now, but I'd like to see some answers about you myself," Nick replied pointedly.

Lex still didn't like how easy this was, but she also didn't want to hang around either. She reached in and pulled the USB off her key ring and threw it to him.

"How's Cap?" Nick asked as he slid the device into the screen.

"Don't know." Nick looked back at her with raised eyebrows but she pinned him with an icy glare and he didn't say anything more.

He pulled the USB and moved to hand it back to her, but she looked at him threateningly and took a step back herself. Instead, he carefully placed it on the table in the centre of the room, sliding the USB to her. She caught it, looking at it suspiciously before pocketing it. "Might I suggest, that the next time you need information, you just call?" He pulled a card from his pocket and also slid it across the table to her.

She glanced at it, reading the number on it, but didn't pick it up. "I'll take it into consideration," she replied curtly. "You know you can't plant a trace on this, right? It's got a virus that kills anything that even breaths the wrong way."

He held up his hands. "No, ma'am."

Lex wasn't sure if she trusted the man, and slowly backed out of the room, not turning around until she was at the end of the hallway and back into the main archive room.

She turned hurriedly out of the room, being far more cautious than when she came in.

Back at her hotel, she had a safe protocol program on her encrypted computer, given to her by Shuri, check over the USB for viruses and tracking algorithms. Once it was cleared, she opened up the files Nick Fury had gifted her.

There was plenty of information for Erskine's post rescue work for Project Rebirth, but the information for pre rescue was patchy at best. It mentioned the work on Johann Schmidt, the results, and also his reluctance on creating the serum for the Nazis. She commended him on his morals.

She was somewhat dejected by the end of reading all the meaningless information, as she closed the file on her laptop. While it was all very useful information, there had been none for pre-1935.

She sat back in the chair and sighed, before looking at the other files attached to the USB.

'RED ROOM'

'OPERATION PAPERCLIP'

Lex considered it for a moment, wondering why he would have attached them. She lingered over the file labelled 'RED ROOM' for a moment before finally opening it.

It was like a blast to the head, images and words pouring through her mind that she hadn't seen in a long time. Names, faces, training exercises, pain and ballet. Always the bloody ballet.

She looked away for a moment, trying to compose herself. It took her a moment to hear something beeping. She pulled up her sleeve to find the small Kimoyo bead bracelet on her wrist was chiming at her.

Shuri had refused to let her leave without one, even after Lex had warned her about the implications if she was caught wearing any obvious Wakandan paraphernalia. So Shuri had made a much smaller version that looked just like any other ornamental piece of jewellery, with only a very basic operating and communication system. Or so she thought.

Lex activated the communication bead, bringing up a hologram screen.

"Hey, what's going on? Your heart rate just sky rocketed well above the capacity of a human heart!"

Lex looked at the screen in disbelief. "Are you still tracking me?"

"Well, yeah, of course."

Lex rolled her eyes. "It's fine, I just had a... run in, with someone." She knew it best not to tell Shuri too much, just to be safe.

"You sure? Because you should be dead right now."

"Not dead."

"Alright, well, I've got to get ready for the Ritual Battle ceremony. Let me know if you need help or anything."

"Yes, Shuri, I'll send you some info that I got on Erskine too, you can look over it in your free time," Lex said beginning to tap away at her laptop again. She shut down the communication after sending the file on Erskine, before looking back to the Red Room file.

Natasha Romanoff had done a complete analysis on her time in the Red Room, in detail. Including, details of a man undertaking training there for a short time. A man with a metal arm. She furrowed her brow at the mention, but it made sense, how else would HYDRA want to train him after seeing how good Alexia was. She grinned to herself, a little tingle of pride in her chest at the thought.

There was also mention in a report by Peggy Carter of an infiltration she and the Howling Commandos had done years after the war had ended. Lex read it with great interest, and began to wonder, was the Red Room still intact?

She chewed the inside of her cheek as she considered the thought. When she had left Belarus, she had not been able to destroy the place as she would have liked, due to being pursued by both HYDRA and The Red Room at the time, and as far as she knew, it was still operational in the nineties, although it would have had to have been shut down at the fall of the USSR.

As much as she wished to never set foot in that place again, she sensed that some of the answers she needed might be found there.

Lex stared across the snow covered landscape as the sun began to rise in the distance.

The buildings silhouetted against a light orange sky, and if she didn't know what they had been used for, she'd almost say the view was beautiful.

As she stood and considered the sight before her, one of the sled dogs howled behind her, and she turned. "Ssshhh," she began to soothe it in Russian, scratching its ear. "I'm sure there are many ghosts here, we should let them slumber, but I have questions and they're the only ones who know the answers."

She moved to the sled, lifting the snow hook from the ground as she stepped onto the skids. "Haaa!" The team of four dogs lurched forward, pulling the sled down the hill and towards the facility.

Lex set up camp for the dogs outside the facility, ensuring they were fed and comforted before setting her attention to the buildings that loomed before her.

The fence was loose, with official looking tape wrapped around it in places, blowing in the wind and a condemned sign wired to the gate, but Lex disregarded it, stepping over the padlocked chain, as the piled snow was so high up the fence. She noticed the wire fence had been cut in several places at some point, further down the fence too. Scavengers, no doubt.

She walked in along the cobbled road under the high ceiling of the covered entrance way, careful to be silent. It was a force of habit, it seemed. Looking up at the dilapidated buildings, she could see they had been vacant for many years, but they were still easily recognisable to her. The Commissary, the gym, the ballet hall and the dorm. She recognised them all.

She stopped in the centre of the courtyard, looking around it. Grass was growing wild in between the pavers of the yard, poking through the snow where it was beginning to melt away in the morning sun. It was strange to see it like that, it looked drastically different and unkempt.

Her eyes drifted to her feet, she shuffled her boots back and forth to reveal the pavers underneath the snow, and she noticed she stood on a well worn space, the pavers there deteriorating faster than those around them. Copious amounts of blood and scrubbing could do that.

She quickly stepped away and walked towards the main building that housed the gym, classrooms and ballet hall. She noticed the door was falling off its hinges, but also what appeared to be old, dried blood stains. Clearly, whatever had caused the facility to be closed down was a serious affair.

She carefully stepped into the building, watching her step. Bullet holes pocked the interior of the room, blood stains also sporadically spotted on the floors and walls. Lex subdued the urge to cough from the smell. There had been a fight here that had ended in bloodshed and the smell of death still clung to the building.

Lex stood for a moment, taking in the entrance way. It was a big part of their training as she looked from the door to the wall on the right side.

Flash back - 1913

'Alexia lined up beside her class mates, each staring straight ahead. She was greatly dwarfed by the other girls who were older than her by a fair few years.

Madame B walked along in front of them, examining each girl, before moving to stand in front of them all. She clapped her hands loudly'

Lex snapped back to the present, jumping slightly at the memory. She shook her head to compose herself, before continuing further into the hall.

She wandered the ballet hall, the gym and the classrooms. There was paper and furniture strewn everywhere and plenty of blood, but she found it intriguing that there was no bodies. No markings of an investigation by authorities.

She smelt HYDRA at work.

She looked along the corridor that contained the classrooms where they would watch video after video from the West. Cartoons, news stories, movies, the list was endless. While the other girls hadn't noticed them, she had noticed subliminal messages had been cut into the videos, aimed to brainwash them.

The difference was, Lex had lived in the western world, she knew what it was like out there, even as a six year old. It was the one thing that pushed her to be the best. She didn't consider herself Russian after her mother's death, she was a westerner trapped by Russian ideology and fear mongering.

At the end of the corridor was a room she had never been in before. Madame B's office. She narrowed her eyes at the dark brown door, before silently moving towards it. Surprisingly, the door looked like it hadn't been touched by the violence around it.

She stopped, glancing at the door handle. It was a good thing she had taken those Kimoyo beads off, because she felt like her heart might take off out of her chest cavity at that moment.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, before reaching for the door handle. It turned in her hand and she pushed it open, the door creaking so loudly she wondered if the dead might awaken to investigate.

xo

Krayzee