The Avengers: Rayne

Chapter 14

A/N: Sorry about the long wait for an update so hopefully this doesn't disappoint too much! Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Part 14
 
It was dark, and I was freezing. Those were a few of the things that I was aware of. Since I was so cold, my body seemed to be numb to the injuries that I had sustained. Only a dull ache throbbed through my body, from the cold or the pain, I wasn’t entirely sure. I was alone in the stone cell now, but there had been a few others at first. One by one, they had been taken from the cell and hadn’t returned. I let out a groan as I pulled myself up from the dirty floor from where I had fallen asleep. Every bone in my body screamed at me, protesting against my movement. My skin was covered in blood and dirt, and my once pristine uniform was now in tatters.
I hoped that Bucky was okay. He had been the only one in my unit that I had ever cared for. When we were in training, he was the only one who hadn’t treated me as a woman, but a fellow soldier. We had been split up when I had been assigned a mission with a handful of other men to infiltrate one of H.Y.D.R.A.’s factories. We had been captured though. Bucky and the rest of our unit had been camped nearby, and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad had happened to him.
 
I jumped as the cell door slammed open and two soldiers came in. They motioned with their guns for me to get up, speaking in German. I scrambled away from them, pressing myself into the stone wall behind me in a vain attempt to get away from them. Two more soldiers came in, grabbing me by my arms and dragging me from the cell. I tried struggling against them, but my body was so beaten and exhausted that my attempts weren’t even noticed by the soldiers. They dragged me down the hall a good distance before I regained my footing and stumbled along in their grip.
 
“Where are you taking me?” I asked softly, my voice hoarse. They didn’t answer. Even if they had spoken English, I doubt they would have answered me. I knew how soldiers were when they had their orders, and this was definitely no exception. They led me into a large room, filled with all kinds of scientific and medical equipment. In the center of the room on a raised dais that seemed to connect to all of the machines, was a glowing blue cube. My attention was drawn from the cube quickly as I noticed the other two people who were in the room. A short man with round glasses stood beside a taller man, who was dressed in a decorated officer’s uniform: the Red Skull. This was THE leader of HYDRA. This was supposed be one of many of his factories; he wasn’t supposed to be here. If he was here though, then that meant nothing good was about to happen.
 
“Your next test subject, doctor”, he told the shorter man as they brought me further into the room. His tone was dark and even, and just as frightening as his own face. This was a man that radiated evil and darkness. The soldiers wasted no time, dragging me to a large metal chair and strapping me in tightly. The leather rubbed roughly against my skin from how tight they had made the straps. If I’d had the energy to fight, I would have, but at this point I could barely hold myself up. It had been days since I had last eaten and I had gotten very little sleep in the cell. The two men came closer after I was strapped into the chair, inspecting me closely. I knew what they saw, and it made me feel uncomfortable under their scrutinizing gaze.
 
My tattered uniform was unrecognizable beneath the blood and grime caked into the fabric. What parts of my pale skin weren’t covered in the grime, were covered in bruises and cuts instead. My brown hair seemed darker with the dried blood and dirt in it. The strands were tangled, hanging in matted tendrils to my shoulders.
 
“She’s in worse shape than the others. We’ll see how she holds up”, the doctor said, his voice thick with an accent.
 
“What are you going to do to me?” I was ignored once again, which I had expected. The doctor began hooking me up to several machines, all of which were connected to the glowing cube. The soldiers left the room, closing the door behind them.
 
“I’ll return shortly, Doctor. I hope to hear of success this time in recreating Erskine’s formula.” The Red Skull gave me another once-over before leaving the room. Erskine; I  had heard that name before. He was responsible for the super-soldier serum, and for creating Captain America. There had been talks of him within our base camp. That meant that H.Y.D.R.A. was trying to recreate the serum.
 
“Please don’t do this”, I pleaded. He merely stuck a small piece of leather in my mouth, silencing my pleas.
 
“That will keep you from breaking your teeth”, he explained, acting as if I hadn’t even spoken. He started to power up various machines, making the cube glow brighter and begin to spark. My skin started to feel hot and tingly. It was an unpleasant sensation that made you want to scratch at your skin. My attention turned towards the doctor once again as he came towards me, an extremely large syringe in his hand filled with a silver-colored serum. Without warning he suddenly injected it into my arm. It stung as it went in, making my arm feel heavy and numb after a moment. The cube began to crackle and pulse more strongly with energy, even from where I was I could feel it. After injecting all of the serum he laid the empty syringe onto a nearby table. He went into a small room with glass windows overlooking his small lab; it seemed that was where his main controls were.
 
The cube grew even brighter as he operated the controls and pain suddenly surged through me, blinding, and without any kind of warning. It seemed to start in my are where he had injected me with the serum, but it quickly spread throughout my limbs. An inhuman scream left my lips as the pain intensified; it felt as if fire was running through my veins and burning through my skin. The cube suddenly let out a pulsing beam of energy, hitting me directly in my chest. Searing pain went through my head and my vision seemed to completely fail me, nothing but darkness all around. My scream was drowned out by the roar of energy coming at me. My heart was pounding so loudly in my chest that it felt as if it would burst. A distant explosion sounded, at least it sounded distant, and the floor beneath my feet shook. The pain suddenly stopped and the room went eerily quiet except for the sound of gunfire and explosions somewhere overhead. When my vision finally came back I noticed that the cube was no longer on its pedestal and that the doctor had left the lab completely, no where in sight. My body sagged into the chair, exhausted from the intensity of the pain. I was about to close my eyes when I noticed something strange. I squinted at the glass window across the room, making sure my eyes were not deceiving me, but they weren’t.
 
My dark hair had turned an ethereal, glowing white shade and my brown eyes were now blue, glowing like the cube had been. What had they done to me? A strange sensation coursed through me as my heart started to beat rapidly in my chest once more. Glancing down, I was shocked to see blue sparks of energy crackling at my fingertips. It was not something that felt bad, rather just weird. The rumbling above me intensified and dust started to rain from the ceiling as cracks appeared in the stone. Something was going on up there, and it was going to bring the whole factory down. I hardly had any time to react when everything finally came down, raining down stone. A blue light filled my vision and that was the last thing I remembered before losing consciousness.
 
Why was I dreaming of this now? After all of these years?
 
My eyes opened suddenly as I became aware of the dream and my vision immediately focused on the Grandmaster standing before me. “You have some explaining to do”, he said.