BOOK 3 of the ORPHIC Series
CHURLISH
/ˈCHərliSH/
marked by a lack of civility.
~~~~~
Lucille 'Lucy' Opal Baker finds herself in the 21 century sporting the title of Aunt while lugging along h...
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"You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you'll find you get what you need."
Missouri, America August, 2015
WILLING PARTICIPANTS. THAT WAS all Lucy could think of as she shut the technical file of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Their history with HYDRA was extensive, starting all the way back to the age of ten. They were merely children when they'd joined HYDRA voluntarily; the same age they'd lost their parents. No wonder Verfall and Winter were never introduced to them—they were too young, too naive, and if they had seen what they were doing to the pair, then, well, they would've tried to run. Even now, they were only fifteen.
Fifteen.
But, that was besides the point.
Wanda and Pietro had been willing participants, according to the files, and Lucy felt bile climb her throat. To think a pair of children had entered HYDRA's arms, willingly, was the greatest gift they could've been offered. They must've groomed the pair into thinking the only truth to world peace was through HYDRA ideals.
She shuddered, because the worst part of it all, was the fact that they weren't willing participants.
No matter how many times the HYDRA agents wrote them down as willing participants, they most definitely weren't. They'd been manipulated as children to join a terrorist organization without truly knowing what they were capable of. Children could not consent to experiments, not that the agents cared much about whether or not one was willing to become a mindless weapon.
She sighed, turning the tablet off.
From what she could tell, the Maximoff twins had not been stripped of their autonomy or free will. They didn't need to have an extensive programming regime like she and James had experienced because HYDRA had them since they were young. They were still themselves, and hadn't been subjected to the final stage of conditioning—compliance training.
Which allowed them to choose whether or not they wanted to fight alongside Ultron, which also meant they'd been manipulated.
Again.
She wondered how long she'd aided HYDRA in using the pair of children—wondered how they recreated her abilities, enhancing Wanda far past what she was capable of.
There was another part of her that felt relieved.
Wanda understood what it meant to be dangerous in an otherworldly fashion; her abilities had been given by the scepter, Lucy's abilities had been given by the tesseract and the essence of Loki's sister.
