HESTIA ━ marvel

0.3 | LAB RAT

IT HAD BEEN roughly four months since Wanda and Pietro signed the three of them up for HYDRA's experiments. But that doesn't mean that Anastasiya has gotten used to the pain. She crept back over to her bed, tears in her eyes, as the cold concrete floor felt like ice underneath her bare feet. She wept as she held the only surviving object from home to her face. A family photo, all five of them smiling happily, unaware of what the future would hold for them.

She hardly saw Wanda and Pietro anymore, apart from glimpses when she was being walked to the lab. She supposed they felt the same - but she didn't know if they regretted their decision. She hoped they did, but then again; there was nothing they could do about it now.

Anastasiya hiccuped as she heard the cell door slide open, revealing her siblings, looking as tired and worn as she must do.

"Wanda, Pietro?" she called cautiously, as she stepped up. What were they doing? If they were caught up after hours, they would be severely punished, and she didn't want that to happen to them.

"Ana! Oh my God, what have they done to you?" Pietro whispered, as they quietly ran over to her. Wanda grabbed her face gently, examining it, and she saw giant bags under her eyes from where she couldn't sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes, she just saw it. Felt it. The pain of the experiments, the experiments everyone else had died from. And it haunted her - what made them special? What made them different from the others?

Anastasiya shrugged. If she was honest, she really had no clue what they had done to her. She felt the different, but not stronger like the scientists had promised. She felt weaker, helpless. But she was still alive.

"Why are you here? If they catch you, then they'll hurt you." Anastasiya's voice cracked when she said it, and when she looked at them, tears flooded her eyes and she tried to blink them back quickly.

"We don't care. We had to see you. This is all our fault." Pietro looked away, ashamed.

"It's not," and before they knew it Anastasiya jumped at them, hugging them both, and they remained that way for a few minutes before an alarm starting blaring.

"Go! Quickly. Before they catch you," Anastasiya said urgently, ushering them out the door.

"We love you, Ana," Wanda said, dragging Pietro out the door and ran down the hallway.

She didn't know when she would see them again, but she was thankful for even a ten minute visit.

She then tiptoed back to her bed, closing her eyes, and falling asleep almost upon the instant.

—

It had only felt like a second, but the next morning she was awoken by a loud knock on the glass door. She jolted up in surprise, and was terrified as she remembered that it again, was her turn. Her turn - something she feared the most. Her turn in the lab, her turn to be experimented on. She quickly hid the photo which was lying on the floor beside her inside her gown. If they knew she had it, they would take it off her.

Suddenly, a man came in, grabbing Anastasiya by her hair. She yelped in pain, as he began dragging her out of the room by her wrists. She didn't resist, she knew what would happen if she did.

As she struggled down the hallway, she caught a glimpse of Wanda in her room, doing something with her hands, which for some reason were emitting a soft red glow. Anastasiya frowned, "I'm probably hallucinating. But at least she and Pietro got back alright," she thought to herself. But her thought didn't last long, as a minute later she was roughly flung on a bed and her arms and legs were strapped down. Her screams were muffled by a hand over her mouth, and then she felt woozy. She looked down to her arm, and saw a needle being removed from it.

"Here we go again," she thought, and a second later she passed out.