The Silver Soldier

XXXVIII

I thought this would be more welcoming, considering I had just been mind controlled to murder hundreds of people.

But apparently not.

"Hydra was in charge of Operation Terminal." I start, purposefully adding an uneasiness to my voice. "They created the Dread Doctors so they could find suitable subjects for their projects."

"And you're one of them." Scott interrupts.

Obviously. I'm sitting here, aren't I?

I refrain from making a smart comment, instead I nod. "Hydra wanted an agent that wasn't entirely human, half monster. They believed that a monster would be more effective than the average human: the bloodlust, the trainability, the healing factor. It was all they ever dreamed of." I look down at my hands, fiddling with my hands as if I were nervous. "All their attempts to make the perfect soldier failed when the subjects rejected the serum-"

"But you rejected it too." Scott interrupts yet again. "I watched you die."

At that, I shake my head. "No."

"They killed you, Stiles. Right in front of me."

I almost laugh at the fear in his voice. "No, they didn't."

"Then how?"

I run my hands down my face. Talk about a one track mind... this boy just doesn't let things go. "How does any of this help you?" I ask. "I agreed to tell you about Hydra, not about what they did to me."

He stops himself from arguing back. "Then tell us about Hydra. Where is their head of operations?"

"That's the thing, Scott. It's called Hydra for a reason." I say. "Unlike SHIELD, they don't have one headquarters. They have one in every single country, save for some in South-West Africa. Hydra is everywhere."

Scott looks over at Isaac, who had come to listen to our conversation. In fact, the whole gym is silent. Everyone is curious as to what I have to say.

"Do you have a pen?" I ask.

Scott digs through his pockets, pulling out a red ballpoint. I take it, flattening out a map of North and South America that had been sitting on the table in front of me.

I circle three of the less-important Hydra bases in the United States, assuming that SHIELD already knows where they are. But I leave out the main few, not wanting to give their locations away in case they haven't already been infiltrated by American spies. Then I circle a random spot in Canada, up in Nunavut.

They won't find anything but snow up there.

I put one more circle in Mexico, and then three in Brazil.

"They move around a lot." I give myself an excuse. "Because of my capture, Hydra has probably already traded locations and abandoned their old facilities." I make more random red circles in the countries of South America. "Because of that, everything I am giving you now might be completely false."

"How do we know if they moved or not."

"If I were you, I would send an inferred drone to scope the locations out. Most of their bases are underground, some are in the middle of nowhere. It might be hard to tell."

"What about-"

The door leading down from the clinic opens, from where I am I can't see who it is. But I know her smell.

Shit.

Juliette.

Fuck.

Scott is seeming to panic just as much as I am, he stands immediately. "Juliette, please-" he starts just as she comes into view. She looks at him, them at Isaac. And then at me. Her face drops.

Her mouth falls open and she gapes at me, trying to form words by failing. I stand, pushing the chair back. Clearly she doesn't know that I was alive this whole time. Which means she also doesn't know that I killed her father. And Austin.

"Cole-" she is in shock. "What- how-"

"Juliette-" Scott tries to grab her arm as she walks towards me. She slides past him.

I'm not sure what to do as she touches my cheek, her palm is just was warm as I remember. She still thinks I'm Cole Grant.

I meet her gaze. She looks to be on the verge of tears, staring up at me with wide eyes. "You were dead..."

"I know."

"Juliette." Scott has his hand on her shoulder. "This is Stiles." He says, and I silently curse him. "Stiles Stilinski."

Why would he tell her that? Why on Earth would he tell her that? Now he has to explain to her that I was being controlled by Hydra, and that I killed her father, and that I killed Austin. Scott's a fucking idiot.

She takes her hand off my cheek instantly, confusion riddling her face. "I- I don't understand-" she blinks, "how-"

"It's okay." I take her shoulders gently, nodding. "If you want me to explain everything, I will." I look over at Scott. "Can we have a moment?" I ask. "Alone."

He's hesitant, but he nods. He grabs a new roll of wrap-tape from off the table and walks back to the ring with Isaac.

I pull out a chair from the table, motioning for Juliette to sit. She does, her cheeks pale.

"I saw you-" she's staring at me. "Theo, he- he-"

I shake my head. "Theo didn't kill anyone."

"He's with Hydra, Cole-" she corrects herself, "Stiles. He killed you and my Dad... he shot you. Right here."  She taps her forehead. "I saw you."

I pause. "That wasn't me, Juliette."

She studies my guilty expression, but she doesn't want to believe what I'm telling her.

I take her hands in mine, she doesn't pull away. "I mean, physically, yes. I was there. But up here..." I point to my head. "That was somebody else."

"I don't understand."

I let tears well in my eyes. "Juliette." I say her name softly. "I was sent by Hydra to kill your father."

She goes still, her gaze moving to her hands. Her fingers are interlocked with mine, for a moment she doesn't move them. When the information finally begins to sink in, that is when she takes her hands away. Sliding them out from under my grasp. I don't stop her. "No-" she mutters, standing.

Her jaw is trembling, as if she's about to cry. She is shaking. "Juliette-"

"Please-" she looks back. "Please tell me that's not true."

I shake my head. "I can't."

"Why-" she gasps. 

"I'm sorry." I feel a tear fall down my cheek. "I'm so sorry."

She's staring at me again, as if she's seeing me in a new light. "You're with them?" She breathes. "All of this-" she doesn't bother to stop her shaking hands. "Everything we did... it was all a lie?" 

I stand slowly, not wanting to scare her any more than I already have. "I am not with them,  everything I did was beyond my control. I remember all of it, but my actions - my words - none of that was me."

She's breathing heavily, trying not to cry. She points at me. "I trusted you."

"I know."

Suddenly, there is a look of realization on her face. "This whole time-" she breathes, I can't help but genuinely feel bad. "This whole time I thought you might have been the one." She takes a step back, her despair turns into anger. "I should have known better."