III: The Soldier and the Fairy Queen: Red Eve

X: The Incense of Blood and Rubbing Alcohol

She sat up, shaking off unconciousness. She was still restrained, but now in a chair. Her eyes pulsed and burned. She looked down at her knee, peering at the stitches. She was still in the same room, but the light was dimmer. The band that had been around her neck was gone now, and she could truly take in her surroundings.

She lowered her gaze to the bands. They were a couple centimeters wide and a silver-blue color. She looked at the door she wasn't able to see earlier. It looked like fairly thin steel, but appearances could be deceiving. The narrow window was blacked out. She looked for anything she could use. The girl surgeon's cart was gone, along with the IV.

She rested her head against the headrest for a moment, looking at the light. She raised her head and strained, making her eyes sting. She clenched her fist and pulled against the bands. The band around her arm whined before breaking completely. She yanked them off of her other arm and set to work on the rest of her body.

She resisted the urge to laugh. She was free! She stood, her muscles vibrating with the effort. She stretched the weariness out and took a lurching step to the door, testing her knee. It felt like she hadn't walked in three or four days, but the knee in question seemed as good as new. She looked down at her clothes. She couldn't remember what she had been wearing before, but she was pretty sure it wasn't a baby blue hospital gown. Her thighs felt clammy in the damp air, her feet trying to grow accustomed to the residual feel of the cement floor.

She leaned against the cold, shiny door, and pressed her ear against the dark window. She listened closely, controlling her breathing to calm the nervousness in her limbs. No sounds reached her ears from the outside world.

She turned the plain doorknob left and right to no avail. Her hand instinctively tightened around the handle, and she wrenched it out of the door with the ease of one pulling a pin out of hair. She froze when she heard the other side of the handle hit the cement. Her eyes and ears labored to sense approaching people. She pushed the door open a centimeter. Then another. The hallway was rounded and dimly lit by the occasional bulb.

She looked down both ends, but there seemed to be no other doors. She started running down the right end, searching for anything that could help her get out of here. There cold smell of rubbing alcohol overwhelmed her senses. She kept sprinting down the endless hallways, the odor becoming stronger until she could taste it. She stopped at a doorway carved out of the wall. She passed through it undaunted. It led to a long room full of trash. Random parts-- from a car, maybe?-- laid around haphazardly. A clear puddle took up the floor in front of her.

She jumped when she heard people talking.

"Can you go any slower, Gozakas? We need to have this done by the time the test is over with."

"Well, it's not like HYDRA left an instruction manual for how to put their brain blender together, sir," Gozakas said.

"Just keep working and keep that smart mouth of your's shut. I'm too tired to deal with you."

"Sir, there's something I don't understand."

The man sighed, "What, Gozakas?"

"What's the point of letting the girl run around the compound if we're just going to capture her again? It seems kinda wrong. Sir, I mean."

She inched forward and peered around a towering pile of junk. The man chuckled, "That thing isn't a girl, son. She's an experiment. And the point is to study her, or some such nonsense. The lady wants to see if she can actually break out. This girl is--."

She moved forward to see them better. Gozakas was barely an adult, and his curly black hair fell into his eyes. Gozakas caught her eye and straightened from the hulking machine he was kneeling in front of. He cleared his throat, "Uh, sir?"

The older man continued, "She's killed hundreds of people. Hundreds! Not just a couple like the Winter Soldiers. She's--."

"Sir?"

"Going to help the higher ups bring LAZARUS into the light--."

"Stauffer!" Gozakas exclaimed.

Stauffer looked up at him, irritation tainting his voice, "Huh?"

Gozakas pointed at her, and she slid backward, "She's standing right behind you."

She scrambled backward and darted out of the doorway, straight into someone. It took only a moment for her to recognize the blue uniforms in the white light. She didn't look at the face. She relied on her instinct, and the person's neck was broken with a satisfactory crack in less than three seconds. Her eyes flicked around at the squads of similar-looking navy-clad people coming down each end of the hallway.

She cursed herself and ran back into the machinery room. She grabbed a hollow rod leaning against the wall and swung it, hitting someone behind her. Stauffer. She stared toward the doorway at the advancing group. The marching stopped and there was a moment of silence. She assessed the enemy. Twenty or so people. Men and women. Probably armed. And there was her. In a hospital gown. With a pole. She loved the odds.

She leaped forward, meeting the first wave of people. One went down with blood seeping from his temple. Another with a broken jaw. She spun and used the energy to lodge the blunt pole in a woman's chest. She pulled it out and continued brawling. She lost the rod at one point and continued with her bare hands.

She looked down at the bodies minutes later. Some of them were groaning, some crying, some praying or cursing. Most laid quietly, dead. She felt no pity. She felt nothing at all. The scents of rubbing alcohol and blood intertwined and rose to her nostrils like incense. She peered down at her adrenaline-fueled body. Blood covered her, drying from crimson to inky black.

Her ears rang and she tasted copper. She spit and the red color mixed with the rest. She didn't hear Gozokas sneaking up behind her with a syringe. She did feel a cold, wet feeling spread through her neck. She heard a familiar female voice speaking as her knees gave out and she collapsed on top of her last victim.

"Perfect. Absolutely perfect. She's as quick as lightning, silent as a ghost, and deadly as the Devil, as the rhyme goes! You know, Gozakas, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. She had several operations performed three days ago, but she broke through vibranium reinforced steel like it was tape. And killed fifteen of our best soldiers in under twenty minutes with a pole. She is even more ruthless than the Winter Soldier. This is what's we will advance our cause with, Gozakas. Now, get Drina to clean her up. We'll begin the process with her tomorrow."

"But, ma'am, the machine isn't ready!" Gozakas sputtered.

The female laughed warmly, "It will be. And since Stauffer will be in the infirmary, I suggest you hurry. LAZARUS will be held back no longer. HYDRA is dead. Long live LAZARUS." Gozakas didn't answer, and the woman prompted him, "Gozakas?"

"Long live LAZARUS, ma'am."