Hydra's Widow

Chapter Three

Day four of the cell. After the first day here, I couldn't sleep since. I don't know why...I have the freedom to, I didn't need to be worried about being woken up in the middle of the night to torture some person.

It made me wonder 'why?'

Why didn't I take the chance to escape? Death would have been better than that place, although I would have been the one with the gun wounds going deep into my body as I beg for help, instead of the other souls that ended up in that horrific room. 

Just when other thoughts made their presence known Clint Barton walked through the main door. He's here probably here to question me more...

I guess I looked more horrible than I originally thought as he gave me a look of pity, the one word that all widows, and Hydra assassins was trained to hate. They taught us it is what people call people weak.  He walked forwards, to my cell door.

"Sorry," he signed.

"Why?"

His eyes dropped to the floor. "I'm trying to get you out of here."

"Why so nice?" I asked in sign language. 

"There's someone I want you to meet," he signed.

He moves out of the way to show the Winter Soldier or James Buchanan Barnes. I remember the first time I met him.

Sat in the brutal cold cell. They brought someone new to my cell. He had shoulder length black hair; his left arm was metal with a red star representing the Winter Soldier program. Of course, I knew who he is. Hydra's proudest project.

The soldier's eyes filled with hatred.

I knew what I did wrong in training today, I never thought it was this bad. I see him grab a knife from his belt. I pushed myself to the corner of the cell. When he advanced to me, I stood up to defend myself. I put my hands in front of my face. My hands were in a shape of a fist. I threw my punch too soon as his knife swipes across my face.

I hissed, grabbing my face. Blood dripped down from my cheek into my hands. I slowly dropped to the floor, looking up in defeat. The guard finally took the Winter Soldier away, he glared as he left the room. 

I start to panic slightly as he opened the cell door. He puts his hands up as he slowly takes more steps. I pushed myself to the corner of the cell. His eyes seemed different, more focus, cautious. I stared blankly at Sargent Barnes, not sure of what was to come from this interaction. He slowly reaches for my hand. I pulled back.

He tried again, when he seemed to get the hint, I was not about to let him touch me, or graze my skin in any way. He seemed defeated, we walked to Barton, but he soon turned around to face me. 

"Please forgive me," he pleaded in sign, slowly. Clint Barton seemed to drag Sargent Barnes away from the cell, leaving me alone with my thoughts. 

'Is it true? Am I free? Do I want this? Why?'

I shook my head, denying my freedom. This is no war this is a battle that is me. I push my knees against my face, letting silent tears fall, that I didn't know were piled in my eyes.

(Avengers POV 3d person)

The Avengers sat around the lab, looking at the live video feed from Pheonix's cell.

"She's broken," Natasha Romanoff said to the room as she watched the girl cry into her knees.

"Getting anything from her, Loki?" Steve Rogers asked the god.

"Her mind is scattered," he replied. "Every thought seems to go nowhere," Loki continued. 

After a few moments Clint walked through the door. He gave everyone a quick glance, then sat down on the countertop. Tony Stark gave a nod to Clint as a signal to report his findings.

"I don't think she's a threat," he said honestly. "She's scared, I don't blame her."

"Romanoff you've only said a few words ever since she's been here," Stark acknowledged.

Now the attention was all on her.

"She's not all Hydra," Natasha spoke up.

Steve nodded. "She was just a citizen like the others," Steve replied.

"No," she told him. "She was a Widow," she informed the room. "She used the same tactic I was taught. Even the look in her eyes was the same, a pure killer," she said, her gaze dropping as she remembered her years in the Red Room. "Even if she's not a threat, she still could become one, and if she does..." she trailed off.

Everyone's eyes seemed to soften. They all know what she'd been through. But one question remained in their heads.

'How did a Widow become a Hydra weapon?'