"HYDRA doesn't allow traitors. Betrayers must be eliminated,"
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The Phantom was a folkore legend, a myth, a story to scare children. She creept in the dark, discreetly, silently, and took away her targets' lives without them even knowing. She wa...
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The Phantom was lied down on her back, facing the ceiling. The silence was her only friend, her only companion. Now that she was arrested, Smith and O'Brian must have moved out from the storage at the docks. They may not be trained fighters, but they weren't idiots. They knew that since half of the team was out of service, staying there wasn't the best of ideas. She just hoped they found a good place to hide so they would continue the operation freely.
As for her, she knew her time would come soon. She had accepted it. The moment she woke up in that cell, she knew it. She wasn't scared or frustrated or anything, she knew it was necessary for the sake of the mission. Unlike O'Brian told her, the mission would not be aborted. HYDRA would send someone else to fulfill it. As it for who, she didn't know. But now that the Avengers knew HYDRA was working on something, the organization must send someone skillful. The Phantom had an idea of who they would send.
The sound of a door opening and footsteps put a stop to her thoughts. At the corner of her eyes, she could see the Winter Soldier standing in front of the glass.
"It's your turn to try now?" the Phantom rhetorically asked, not even looking at him.
"Steve left to look for the rest of your team," Bucky said. The Phantom didn't react.
The Phantom knew they would. It was just a matter of time they figured she wasn't alone or that they were settled in New York City. But she wasn't scared. O'Brian and Smith weren't idiots.
"They know HYDRA is planning to create another version of the Super-Soldier serum or the Physiological Enhancement Serum. They figured your hideout is in New York,"
The Phantom chuckled.
"What's so funny?" The Winter Soldier asked.
"My apologies," she mocked. "But the fact that you all think you will find them and put a stop to everything is quite amusing, if I may say,"
"They will stop HYDRA," he said.
"And you'll help them?" The Phantom spat, sitting up and facing him. "It's hard to believe you were devoted to us,"
"I never was," he retorted. "They forced me. And they are forcing you too. I'm not here to reach out to you. I'm here to make you realise," he said.
"Spare you the useless loss of time," she spat.
"What do you remember of your time before HYDRA?" he asked.
The Phantom opened her mouth to answer but then stopped. She had nothing to answer to his question. Because she didn't know anything of the time before HYDRA. She never thought of a time before HYDRA. She only knew and had ever known HYDRA. What was before? Nothing. She was raised there. That was what Madame K told her. And the Phantom trusted Madame K.
