*Based of Marvel Comics, set in the 616 timeline

Yellow rays shone onto the grass, highlighting the dewy reeds in the early morning silence. It gradually rose, the light reflecting off the leaves, giving the illusion they were glowing. To any unsuspecting person, the woodlands would be a peaceful, magical place to visit. Only few knew the secrets that hid deeper into the trees, and they weren’t in the position to tell them.

Any who dared to go further into the forest, would eventually come across a metal bunker, shrouded with darkness to make it as undetectable as possible. It looked small, only about half the size of a football pitch, but went miles underground.

The top floor of the bunker was the surveillance floor, where they looked out for any unwanted visitors, and kept their guns when they weren’t using them. The floors then went down in order of importance, the most important projects at the bottom, with higher security. Inside the bunker, on all corridor walls, a red skull with octopus tentacles was painted, the symbol for Hydra. Hydra was essentially a terrorist group, created some time before 1943. It posed as the science division of the Nazi party, before going undercover when a certain Captain America crashed into the ice to defeat them.

Hydra then focused on human experimentations, wanting to create supersoldiers to oppose Captain America, starting with his best friend, Bucky Barnes. Barnes had recently escaped the clutches of Hydra, and was laying low, off of their radar.

Two girls, barely out of their teenage years, were Hydra’s new bet at defeating any force that opposes them. Their names were Lea and Anna, and they had been at Hydra ever since they could remember. Lea was an attempt to merge the two most powerful assassins in the world: Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes. She was born in Hydra, and barely knew what the outside world looked like. Anna, however, was given to Hydra by her parents, who told them she was stronger than any other kid they had seen. They were right, and Hydra had brought that out in their experiments.

They both met when they were ten years old. They had been transferred bases, as Hydra wanted all of their experiments to be together in one facility, and had quickly become good friends.

A lot of the other experiments went crazy as a result of the failed serums, and killed either themselves or each other. For some reason, Anna and Lea were one of the only ones who survived, and became stronger because of it. Anna had increased mental strength, and would have extreme physical strength if Hydra decided to feed her enough. Lea had telepathic abilities, and could create a green kind of fire from her hands if she concentrated enough.

The two relied on each other for support, their trauma being one of the things they bonded over. They stayed together, Hydra not wanting to face the consequences if they tore them apart. Although the two were their creation, Hydra were terrified of them, understanding how they could bring down the entire organisation if they wanted to.

The two always dreamed of the outside world, wanting to experience even the smallest part of it. They dreamed about escaping, getting out of Hydra’s clutches and leading normal lives. When they turned 17, they realised that they wanted to do that together, to have a life together and grow old as a couple. They decided to promise each other that when they got out, they would be girlfriends and do everything together.

Three years later, and they found themselves still at a Hydra compound, the dreams of escaping becoming more intense and urgent. However it wasn’t an option for them to actually try to escape, as they had too much security around them, and would fail. All of that changed on a frosty day in December.

Lea and Anna were on level three, close to the surface, for training, when the raid alarms started blaring, red lights flashing in every corner of the base. Any and all guards rushed out to find the disturbance, leaving Lea and Anna on their own, with the doors unlocked and open. They grinned at each other. This was their chance.

They rushed out of the room, hiding from sight of guards and agents preparing to fight. They took the back stairs that were not heavily used by any Hydra personnel, and snuck past the groups of panicked guards. They overheard the shouts of “avengers” and “attack”, but had absolutely no clue what they meant.

As soon as they got outside, they raced through the snowy trees, trying to stay out of sight. Thankfully, whatever was happening was happening in the opposite direction. Lea stopped suddenly, putting out an arm for Anna to stop too. Anna gave her a confused look, her brown hair blowing in the breeze.

“Voices.” Lea whispered, her mix of Russian and German accent pushing through in her English.

Anna nodded, understanding what she meant, looking worriedly into her eyes. Lea placed a hand on Anna’s forehead, sharing what she could hear with her.

“-retreating. The cowards.” “Tony I don’t think they’re scared.” “Yes, it appears they are looking for something., Or someone.” “Maybe they do have my brother’s sceptre here.” The american voices flooded through both of their heads, the sound amplified by Lea’s power.

Lea removed their hand from Anna’s forehead, and looked at her with wide, panicked eyes.

“They’re looking for us.” Anna whispered back, her accent similar to Lea’s.

“We need to run.” Lea replied, grabbing Anna’s hand and racing off into the trees.

They ran, their breaths short and quick, pushing through the fatigue. Anna slowed down, collapsing against a nearby tree, her breathing heavy.

“I- I can’t do this I-” She could barely speak through her heavy breaths, her head resting against the bark.

Lea looked at her sympathetically.

“Yes you can! Anna you’re strong, I know you can do this, you just need to push on a bit mor- ah” Lea was pulled closer by Anna, who stood flat against the tree.

Lea looked at her in confusion, about to ask her what was going on but Anna gestured to behind the tree. She immediately understood, slowly peeking from behind the tree to find a guy with a bow and arrow looking around. She quickly moved back, looking at Anna panicked, before she noticed the redhead stood next to them.

Lea screamed, surprised, Anna following her example but quieter. The redhead quirked an eyebrow at them, as the bow and arrow guy stood next to her, aiming at them. Lea looked like she was about to cry, as they both placed their hands in a surrender position. Anna looked at Lea before deciding to speak.

“We were trying to escape, it's us they're looking for, please don't hurt us!” Anna’s panic came through her voice, as she looked at the two adults.

The guy gave a sympathetic look to the two, lowering his bow, as the redhead still looked stoic, but had softened her eyes a little.

“Well I’m Clint, and this is Natasha. We’ll get you two back to our quinjet. That okay with you?” The arrow guy, Clint, said.

Lea nodded, lowering her hands as she started to follow the two adults, Anna following. She gasped as she could hear the thoughts of a lot more people gaining on them. She turned around, to see a lot of guards running towards them.

“Anna we need to run!” Lea shouted, making the tree turn around, a panicked look coming over all of their faces before they all took off sprinting to the quinjet.

Anna ran as fast as she could. Her legs felt heavy, and her vision was starting to blur. She didn't see the uneven ground in front of her, tripping on it and falling to the floor with a small squeal. Lea turned around, and rushed towards her to try and help her get up.

The guards got there first. They grabbed Anna by the wrists, pulling her up to face Lea. Anna protested, kicking and screaming, doing anything to try and get out of their grip. Her efforts were futile. Lea stood in shock, not knowing if to run forward or stay where she was. She decided to try and run forward to grab her, but was stopped when an overwhelming crack flooded the air. BANG! A scream. BANG! Another scream.

The world stopped.

Lea looked down to see herself covered in blood splatters, her hands shaking. She looked back up, surprised that she wasn't bleeding out, or dying, when something grabbed her attention.

A body.

Brown hair covered the face, but she knew exactly who it was. She rushed over, cradling the body like a child, not caring that she was covered in blood that was pouring out of the wounds. Her sobs echoed through the woods, salty tears running down her cheeks. She rocked back and forth with the body, the sobs turning to quiet “I’m sorry”s.

Natasha and Clint stared in surprise at the sobbing child, not knowing what to do.

One of the guards stepped forward, reaching out to grab Lea’s arm. Lea looked at him through her tears, anger surging through her body. She screamed, but no sound came out. Instead, a wave of green fire released forward from her body, cutting through all of the people in front of her, immediately vapourising them.

Lea’s body shook with sobs, moving Anna’s hair out of her face. Her eyes looked back up, but didn’t see. The ginger held the body close to her chest, knowing that this was their last hug. Their last interaction. Natasha cautiously walked to Lea, kneeling beside her. The younger girl looked up, the tears mixing with the blood on her face.

“We were supposed to have a life together.” Lea sobbed, hanging her head.

Natasha placed a comforting arm on her shoulder.

“And now…” Lea trailed off, staring into the distance. She felt like she was underwater, with a weight on her chest pulling her further down.

“Did she have any family?” Natasha asked, cutting through the heavy silence. Lea shook her head.

“I was her family. And now I have no one. Nowhere to go, no one to stay with. It- it feels like my soul has been split in two” Lea’s voice broke, as she loosened the hold of the body in her arms.

Natasha nodded, understanding what she felt. She had been in a similar position, before Clint came and saved her.

“You could come with us? We could help you get control over your… enhancements?”

Lea looked at Natasha, thinking it out in her head. She looked back at Anna’s body, and then back up.

“Okay.” She whispered, as Natasha helped her stand up, laying down the body.

She looked at Anna for the last time, before she set her alight, giving her the goodbye that she would have wanted. The three made their way back to the Quinjet, regrouping with the rest of the avengers.

“And then they just disappeared- Oh hey, you’re back!” A tall, long haired blonde dude exclaimed, leading them onto the quinjet, not noticing the bloodied girl.

“What took you two so long, I thought- oh.” A dark haired guy with a goatee cut himself off as he saw Lea, assuming that something tragic had happened.

Lea ignored the stares of everyone, and sat in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest and looking over her blood stained hands.

“What happened?” Someone asked, Lea not bothering to look up to see who. They all sounded the same to her. Arrogant. American.

“She’s lost a lot. Let her process it before you bombard her with questions.” Someone, Lea assumed Natasha, answered.

The Quinjet fell silent, as they flew off, the sun setting on the horizon. The once dewey shoots of grass were covered in pain, and the light from the trees dimmed, almost signalling a heavy loss.

[fin.]