C H A P T E R   42 :   P R E Y   T H E   H U N T E R S

"I found an antidote
I let the anger go
And mother nature found it's place
We're now compatible
I hear no animal
I wanted blood and got a taste

These nights are getting darker
My claws are getting sharper
I'm strong enough to enter the fray
You won't whisper in my name
Now I'm quietly taking aim
And the predator's becoming the prey

Now the beast has come to play"

Logan's POV

At the same time

After the fight was over, the Three Musketeers and annoying d'Artagnan were waiting for my sign to move as I analysed the sounds coming from the base. It seemed that HYDRA would not be sending anyone else outside, but on the other hand, they would now be on high alert, so it was my job to choose an entrance they would not be expecting us to choose.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked Spider-Man as we started walking through the woods once I saw the path was clear. "And how did you get here? You haven't been following us, I'd notice you."

"You know I just had the weirdest dream last night, or better said, nightmare." He started, making me wonder if he'd completely ignore my question. "And in that crazy, crazy dream Felicia was in danger, like real danger, to the point every hair on my body was standing up when I woke up and the back of my skull just wouldn't stop tingling. So I instinctively knew it wasn't just a dream, it was my Spider-Sense. Man, I gotta find a better name for that. Anyway, I immediately tried to call her, once, twice, ten times, and when she didn't answer, I thought, okay, maybe her phone's on silent or... or she's asleep! Of course, that's it, Felicia never wakes up before eleven on a weekend, how did I not think of that?"

"Kid!" I cut rudely. "Ever heard of straight to the point?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been told I beat around the bush a little too much. So anyway, I decided I'd wait until it was eleven past one to call her, only then I remembered it wasn't weekend. It's the middle of the freaking week! She had classes, so she had to be awake by now."

"It's not like she never skipped a class in spite of that or anything." I mumbled, more to shut him up than anything else. Or maybe, because you want to prove you know things about her too. Shut up, brain.

"So I did the only logical thing one could do when their friend's not picking up, right? I started to panic. Like, really panicking. Fortunately, not some time before Felicia had given me the coordinates to that really weird, cool school you all go to and that can't be found on any map, like seriously, I thought it was Hogwarts or something."

Bianca giggled lightly while Lewis and I shared a glance and rolled our eyes.

"So I got on my Aunt's car, which she is going to kill me for later, and drove all the way there trying not to get any speeding tickets because I really don't want to give her any more reasons to kill me, and besides, with great horsepower comes great responsibility. And then when I got there, this really weird thing happened, there was this man on a wheelchair, very kind by the way, who looked an awful lot like that bald dude from Star Trek, you know? But seriously, they could be twins! And it was as if he was waiting for me, because he knew exactly what I wanted to know and why I was there."

"That's a beautiful story," I said sarcastically, "but you still haven't answered my questions."

"Right, right, right. So the kind man, Charles Xavier, right? He called this mutant with teleportation powers, can you believe that? And I got teleported all the way here and holy shit, it was so awesome!"

"Right. So Charles sent you here and you came for Felicia. And so you saw the fight and realized we were the good guys?"

"Well, just by looking at your crabby face I wouldn't be able to tell, would I?" He asked, making my jaw clench but the rest of the three snort with laughter. "But it wasn't hard to tell who the bad guys were since they had HYDRA uniforms and were shooting at teenagers. Besides, Felicia showed me a picture of you not long ago."

"SHE DID WHAT?" I boomed, scaring some birds and squirrels away. That girl, I swear to God... or maybe I should swear to her, since I believe in her more.

"Well, uh, I mean..." He stuttered, his jitters finally showing off after so long trying to contain them. "She showed me pictures of all of her teachers."

I tried to imagine when Felicia had taken a photo of me without me noticing, probably during the group lessons when I was busy with other students.

"And so here I am, ready to help rescuing her." He said, landing in front of us. It should be noted that Spidey had not been walking beside us like a normal person but swinging through the trees like Tarzan in the jungle.

"Look, kid, you proved to be a good help there in the fight, not gonna lie, but that doesn't mean I'm letting you join the band. I don't know you, I have no reason to trust you, and I sure as hell won't babysit a fourth person." I ignored the protests of all of them and focused on finding a good entrance. We had walked several miles now, going all the way to the other side of the base, to where HYDRA wouldn't be expecting us.

"With all due respect, sir, I'm sensing a lot of negative vibes coming from you. That can't be good for a man your age." Spandex Tights continued, collecting another round of laughs from the others.

"And you're not making it any better." I groaned, shooting daggers at him with my eyes. Even if I had never met this Web-Slinger before, I knew enough about him to make me dislike him. He was her first love. He broke her heart. Now they're friends again, fighting crime in New York and putting themselves in danger together. In all honesty, what I wanted to tell him was 'yeah, it was not nice to meet you, see ya, goodbye', but a part of me felt indebted to him for saving Felicia all those years ago.

"I know I'm good-looking, but you don't have to stare at me like that, you know." He chuckled, though his body was slightly uneasy upon my death glare.

"You're wearing a mask." I deadpanned.

"That's why I said I was good-looking." He retorted, making Bianca and Bobby laugh at his self-depreciating humor. "But I'm not taking it off."

"Whatever. That still doesn't mean you can come with us."

"Oh, come on!" He protested, his childlike voice suddenly older. I suspected he must be in his early twenties, had all the tics and yips of a college boy. "Felicia's one of my best friends. She's my responsibility. I can't just walk away. She needs me. I've let her down before, and I promised myself I'd never do that again. So if it means facing your rage, sir... I will. With some mental preparation first, of course, but I will."

"Logan, come on, let him join." Lewis intervened. "The more, the merrier."

"I thought you didn't like him much either?" Bobby whispered.

"Well, I don't plan on inviting him over for dinner, but if he's willing to help, I don't think we should waste that."

"Great, so it's settled then!" Wallcrawler clapped. "I'm coming with you. Unfortunately, I can't tell you my name, but from what Felicia has told me, you're Logan, obviously, and boy, she was not lying when she said it would be easy to spot you because, and I quote, 'he's going to be the one who both looks like he can and wants to kill you."

Seriously? That was Felicia's description on me?

"Moving on, I'm guessing the guy with the pink streak and that looks like he could belong in a rock band is Lewis, the one with an adorable confused expression is Bobby or should I say Iceman, nice name by the way, and the lovely smiling girl must be Bianca."

"You're right." She chuckled, her cheeks getting red, at the same time Bobby's eyes ran him up and down once, interested.

"I kinda see why she likes you." Bobby admitted, gaining a roll of eyes from Lewis in response. I huffed, feeling as if I was trapped in one of those outrageous teen movies from the 90s. A few more minutes with so many hormones and I'd be the one needing rescuing.

"We'll enter from here." I announced, stopping besides a trapdoor. "Once we're inside, I can't guarantee your safety, so you'll need to be alert and ready to fight. No jokes and no disobeying. That includes and it's mainly for you, Webhead."

"Don't sweat it." He nodded. "I just hope Party-Hardy is okay. The only thing I hate more than bullies is bullies who are granted power and guns."

"Party-Hardy?" We all asked, Bobby and Bianca confused, Lewis and I outraged.

"Cool nickname, right?" He asked, proud of himself. "Felicia likes it a lot, says it makes her sound like a fancy liquor or cocktail. So, do we even know why she's here?"

"As far as we know, she wasn't taken against her will." I informed. "My guess is either revenge, or HYDRA still holds some kind of intel on her she wants to see destroyed. The thing is, we don't think she came alone. Ever heard of the Winter Soldier?"

"Yeah, there's like thousands of fics of him online because people love a little danger. From what we've seen on the news last year, he's strong enough to hold his ground against both Star Spangled Man and my Spider counterpart, Black Widow. That's not an easy feat."

"If Felicia ever gets to meet Cap, she'll freak out! And how does she come to know so many cute superheroes?" Bianca said and Slicky Hands chuckled, probably delighted that she had indirectly included him.

"The Winter Soldier is not a superhero." I retorted.

"He's not a villain either. I know Felicia believed that. Maybe you should to." Bianca replied, her eyes narrowing a bit.

"He used to be Captain America's best friend." Bobby pointed out. "And after Barnes encountered him last year, he's been missing. We know he's not dead, so we can assume he didn't go back to HYDRA because he didn't want to. Maybe fighting Cap triggered some of his memories and he might remember who he is now."

"Knowing Felicia, my best guess is, if he'd ask her for help, she'd help. She's very committed to redemption. Maybe they're working together to take down HYDRA and make them pay for what they did to them." Spider-Man declared.

"But there's only two of them!" Lewis objected. "I know she's reckless, but this is on another level. How can they possibly think they'll get out of it alive?"

"They're also two of the best." I stated. "I know it seems nuts, but I'd have a little bit more faith in them. But we've lost enough time. Let's move."

But before I could open the trapdoor at my feet, a loud explosion right beneath us made the soil underneath us shake more than a gelatine on the microwave, making us lose our balance and fall like a line of dominoes.

***

Felicia's POV

When the explosives finally set off inside the storage, James and I were far enough from the area of impact but still we felt the walls tremble and heard the thunderous boom like it was right behind us. After helping James placing the explosives in strategic places inside the room, we set a timer of ten minutes to give us enough time to get out of the blast radius and headed towards the labs, where we supposed my DNA samples would be in, if they existed.

Guided by my instinct, I had found my files on the storage room, and words could not explain how agonized I felt going through them, and how relieved I was knowing they no longer existed.

"How far are we from the labs?" I asked James, my muscles tensing up at the movement around us as we crossed the hallways, leaders shouting orders to soldiers to grab more weaponry and go see what was going on. Scientists and other employees were being evacuated, but the soldiers were now being divided into groups, some to go outside, others to secure strategic places within the facility and others to charge into battle.

I knew it was just a matter of seconds before someone assigned us a place to be and in fact, an imposing woman with her hair tied tight into a ponytail stopped in front of us and spoke in a commanding voice.

"You two." She called, pausing to look down at the map to assign us a location. My chance. "Sector H."

When we walked away, James tilted his head to the side.

"That seemed too much luck."

"I may have influenced her a little." I admitted as we turned a corner, almost bumping into another group of soldiers who ran hurriedly.

"That power scares and amazes me at the same time." He said, shaking his head. We entered Section H, which was the scientific division where the labs were, the red lights faltering above our heads and drawing dark shadows on the floor and walls.

"Be ready." James told me, stopping just before a corner and sliding a metal cylinder across the floor to release a sleeping gas that would make the guards fall asleep in a matter of seconds, since they weren't wearing masks. Security here seemed more relaxed; maybe they thought the intruders wouldn't be interested in mad scientists.

When we heard them cough violently and then fall to the floor, James and I ran across the hallway and started opening all the doors on both sides, trying to find the right lab.

"Here!" James exclaimed, and I followed him into an empty, aseptic room, the sanitized smell sending me years back to moments I'd rather forget, the intrusive flashes of memories making me close my eyes and breathe deeply.

"You okay?" James asked, every inch of his face covered in concern.

"I'll be." I swallowed, taking off my helmet and mask to help my breathing. "You?"

"The same." He said and our eyes darted to the sterilized counters, my gut twisting repulsively when I saw my cells stored in glass vials like works of art in an exhibition. Most jars had Subject 666 written on it, as if I was just a stock of genes they could use as they wished. As if there was nothing to me but science and their grotesque need to copy and paste me.

"This is sick... absolutely sick." I let out, feeling my stomach churning like someone was stirring its content with a mixer. Examining the bottles because I couldn't, James' face was just as disgusted and even more livid. "They can study me, clone me. They have everything that I am locked up in vials."

"Not everything." James said firmly. "You're much more than your DNA."

"I can't stay here much longer." I confessed, feeling my legs quivering. "Let's end this once and for all."

James took out a hand grenade and extended it to me.

"You wanna do the honors?" He asked and I nodded, grabbing the grenade and looking around one last time. But before I could do anything else, another bunch of soldiers barged into the room, bullets raining towards us like confettis on a concert. It took everything of me to use my power so abruptly and prevent us from being hit, and I felt my mind mentally stretching more than it should, like one would feel with an arm or a leg.

That rendered me absolutely tired, since I had already used my power quite a lot that day, but I couldn't give up now, so I made my claws roll out and started to dance around the guards like a gymnast among sharks.

I heard a couple of bullets hit James' left arm and another grazed my own, taking a rag of my uniform with it. When two soldiers tried to hit me at the same time, I let myself fall backwards and did a kip up, landing a kick on both of their stomachs and sending them flying through the air.

Another three charged into me, but I didn't feel trapped as my claws scratched their faces and my arms wrapped around their necks, suffocating them. When I stopped, I noticed a soldier looking widely at James and I, and the next second he was talking into his comm and warning someone.

Fuck. I threw myself onto him and slashed his throat, but he had clearly recognized us and had managed to contact his superiors. In a rare, fleeting moment of distraction, my power stopped, and I heard James gasp when three bullets hit his vest at once. My protective instinct instantly kicked in and I focused harder than ever, making the guns jam and allowing him to kill the shooters in one go.

Then all of a sudden someone grabbed me by my uniform and smashed my head against the wall, making my head spin incessantly and black dots occupy my vision. I gritted my teeth and propelled my body forward, taking my attacker down on a double leg takedown that made him see stars even if we were underground and it was day. But my success didn't last long, since two others grabbed my arms forcefully, and while I managed to shake off one of them, the other wouldn't let go, like a dog clinging onto his bone.

He pointed his gun at me and released the safety, a satisfied smirk on his contorted face.

"You're gone, bitch."

"That's no way to treat a lady." James retorted angrily, appearing from behind him and snapping his neck with his metal fingers.

"Thanks." I said, running towards another one before he could reload his gun, but then a particularly heavy one tackled me and lifted me up, slamming me against a counter harshly, glass shattering everywhere and cutting my face, my back and lungs brusquely feeling out of service.

"Son of a bitch." I roared, reaching out for the nearest jar and crashing it against his skull, almost laughing at the irony that my own cells had saved me. I got up but didn't go very far before another one had pushed me against a wall, striking my head with the barrel of a gun. I felt my knees waver and I stumbled, but then I heard his voice, injecting me with adrenaline.

"9 o'clock!" Winnie shouted from my left, throwing me a knife that I easily grabbed, flipping it several times in my fingers before stabbing the man in front of me, his body falling to the floor with a loud thump and staining my uniform with dark, crimson blood.

"Thanks." I told James when his last opponent went down as well. Our chest were moving up and down in sync as we examined each other for injuries. We'd both start healing soon, and I knew the cuts and bruises we had coloring our faces were nothing compared to our histories of pain.

"Likewise." He said, handing me the grenade again. This time I didn't waste time and ran after James towards the exit, removing the pull ring and safety of the grenade before throwing it inside the room, with James following shortly after with another one. We ran like crazy throughout the hall, feeling the heat and the smoke of the explosions against our backs, the relief pouring over me like champagne on a celebration.

"Oh my God, that was—" I started, but shut up once I heard more voices, and soon enough shouts, some halls away from our position.

"I don't care if you have to stick your heads inside the toilets if it means finding them!" Someone bellowed with a voice made of ire. "They've made enough damage already! I want everyone to search every single corner of this goddamn base until you find them. Both targets are extremely dangerous and valuable. The orders are to capture them alive. Shoot to kill only as last resort. And I don't want to hear any more excuses that they're dressed like our soldiers. The guy has a metal arm and the woman's got claws, for God's sake! If you don't find them in the next ten minutes, I guarantee you there will be consequences."

"James, they..." I muttered, but before I could finish my sentence, he had put his flesh hand above my mouth and shoved me into a room, closing the door behind us with his foot at the same time steps entered the hallway we had been in. As soon as we got inside, my back collided against a wall and I looked around in the dark to find a small division, much like a janitor's closet. Because of the tiny space, James' burly body was pressing against mine, his hand leaving my mouth as he brought a finger to his lips.

We heard them pass right before our door with our hearts beating so loud I thought for sure they'd give us away. But after a few minutes, the steps subsided, and James and I allowed ourselves a sigh of relief.

"I gotta admit, I don't dislike this position." I murmured, looking up from his chest in front of my face to his arms, one on each side of my head as he rested them against the wall for support, his legs brushing against mine slightly.

"I can barely see you." James whispered back. "I'd like some of that night vision too. Do you think Stark Industries has something for that?"

"Stark has something for everything. I bet he even has contact lenses or something that let people see how others are underneath their clothes."

"That would be disrespectful, at the very least." James pointed out.

"And lucrative. Now put on your mask and helmet and let's go."

Despite our situation, James let out a light chuckle. "Yes, ma'am."

We never got to go too far, though, because some corners beyond we were caught off guard by a handful of tranquilizer darts being thrown at our direction like arrows shot by an archer, piercing right through our clothes and skin, HYDRA's two favorite preys hunted and captured at last.

***

Logan's POV

A few minutes before

We all cursed in different levels of intensity and creativity when we heard another pair of explosions happening at a relatively far distance from us. After the first big blast, clearly caused by plastic explosives, I had to force myself not to think about the worst case scenarios and instead consider this could be Felicia's doing. Then we'd managed to climb down the trapdoor using Spidey's webs and not find any resistance for the first five minutes of the path; after that, we had to fight our way inside the base non-stop.

Now here we were, finally getting some rest from battling HYDRA, and the walls, ceiling and floor were quaking again, this time due to grenades. After so many years in the army my ears had grown accustomed to blasts and had learned to identify the slight differences between them, allowing me to know what exactly had caused them. But what I couldn't know was who had caused them, and who had suffered. I just had to cling onto the hope she was okay, because if not, the explosions would be the least of HYDRA's problems.

The thought that she was here somewhere, but I couldn't see her, or sniff her or hear her was driving me insane. She could be anywhere, on any room, any level, any hole.

"Logan, she'll be alright." Bianca told me, noticing my distress. "She's tough, you know that. Most likely she was the one causing all this damage."

She pointed around her, at the wreckage the first explosion had caused to what seemed like a warehouse, probably where her files had been in.

"HYDRA's going to need a total makeover after this. Should I contact Property Brothers?" Tight Pants asked, crouching to examine the debris.

"Do you ever shut up?" Someone asked, and it took me a few seconds to realize it hadn't been me but Lewis. He was growing unnerved as well. While the other three could maintain a bright, hopeful spirit, Lewis and I saw the dark.

"Seriously, I swear no one knows how to appreciate sharp humor these days." Spider mumbled as I took us to the place where I calculated the second blasts had happened. It became clear we were in the right path when the noise, smoke and movement intensified, and I gestured to the kids to wait and hide as I went to check on things.

"HIGH ALERT," I peeked around a corner to find an agent shouting to grab the attention of more than two dozen soldiers. "I want all eyes on male, medium-length brown hair, blue eyes, metal arm, seems to be in his thirties but is almost a hundred years old, so do not underestimate his experience, and on female, early twenties, long white hair, blue eyes, vibranium claws."

I felt my heart disjoint from its place and slip down my body when I heard them mentioning her, all my muscles clenching. This meant a lot of things: that she was here, that Barnes was with her, and that neither of them had been caught so far. It meant she was alive, and possibly well. But it also meant they would be chasing her throughout the base, and Felicia had been a prey for too long.

"You forgot to add gorgeous face and rockin' body. I don't care about the guy, but I'll make sure to have my fun with her once we catch her." I heard one of them whisper, and the next second my claws had come out and I was bursting into the hallway, my fists clenching, my nostrils flaring, the beast within fuming, ready to show the hunters what it felt like to be preys.

***

Felicia's POV

At the same time

It didn't hurt. Nothing did. If anything, only the absence of pain hurt, because I knew from experience not feeling anything at one point would make you feel everything in duplicate afterwards.

When I woke up, everything in my body seemed asleep. I couldn't feel my limbs, my heartbeat, my breath. Nothing. Just this numbness and dormancy, as if my atoms had decided to cease. All I could hear was silence, all I could see was darkness. Suddenly everything was its opposite, and it could have been hours, days, weeks squished inside a single second.

Eyes closed, I groped the space around me, trying to figure out whether I was standing or lying down. Anything but a stretcher. Please, everything. I even prefer a coffin.

The first thing I actually felt was my back colliding against a cold wall, and that set a chain reaction that made everything come back to its place, the sounds, the scents, the pain. My entire body was sore, as if it had been ironed. When my eyes opened, the bright lights blinded me. Power was finally back on. When I tried to move my hands and legs, I noticed they were chained, and fear crept over me, threatening to sabotage my sanity.

The mere act of turning my neck to the side to examine the room made my body feel like someone else's. It wouldn't answer my orders as it should, as if it could betray me at any second.

After several minutes of fighting against my soapy eyes, they finally adjusted to the light and I inspected my surroundings, empty cells coming into my view in between the bars of mine. The room smelled like disinfectant, like someone had tried to clean the life out of it, because that's how death smelled like in HYDRA; fresh and clean.

There were no guards in sight, but I could see the security cameras in the ceiling and hear the heartbeats outside.

"Fe... Felitsiya?" I heard James murmur near me, and my head snapped in his direction, a lump forming in my throat when I saw him trapped two cells away from mine, his tall frame now shrunken.

"I'm here." I told him, and he moved his head up in difficulty to meet my eyes. HYDRA had clearly upgraded their arsenal, if their darts were capable of making two enhanced individuals pass out right away and feel so lethargic once awake.

"I..." He began, but then his voice quieted down completely and I instinctively moved towards him just to be stopped by the chains with a painful rip in the skin of my wrists.

"I'm so sorry, James." I said. I had to speak to keep him awake and to alleviate my guilt. "I don't know how I didn't hear them."

"It's not your fault." He said, words slurred, lips chapped and bleeding. "They must have had a cloaking device or something."

"Still. I made a mistake that cost us our plan, our way out of here. Perhaps even..." I didn't finish my sentence, knowing he would know. He looked at me from behind the bars, his blue eyes unruffled, complete. Our lives.

"Well, at least we managed to destroy your files and DNA samples and implant viruses on their system. If I have to die now, it's okay. I've done what I could. But I won't let them kill you. I don't know how, but I won't."

"But now they know it was us. Part of our plan depended on them not finding out. Now that they know, even if we escape, they can come back for us." I stated, trying to reach my power but feeling it out of battery. I needed to get us out of here. Whatever happened next, I couldn't let James go through it again.

"With what? We've erased decades of knowledge, ruined years of work. They can't continue your project when they don't even know what it was in the first place. Without files to guide them, and with the original team dead, no one knows about you anymore. With the people who started your project gone, no one can try to reactivate it. Even most of your trainers and scientists from the other base are dead."

"How do you know?"

"Many died after Spider-Man blew up the base years ago, punished by HYDRA. Others... I killed them myself."

My eyebrows rose up, but before I could interrogate him further, someone entered the room, the voice sounding like my doom.

"You are correct when you say many, Soldier." His german accent, the gruesome tone, the texture of my nightmares. "But not all. One survived. One still knows everything it needs."

He stopped right in front of my cell, and my gut reaction was to wince, curl up and retreat, my back pressing against the cement wall as if it could swallow me, because that's what I wanted, an exit from my past, a way to reverse time, a false ceiling in my mind where I could hide.

To worsen my trauma, he looked exactly the same, as if it was an offense to my memory if he didn't. He knew it would hurt more this way. Standing tall and proud in his lab coat, the main scientist of the HYDRA team that held me captive years ago had a wicked grin on his mouth and a long, straight nose, the baldness making his icy grey eyes stand out like two small ghosts.

"I'm disappointed, dear Felicia." Dr. Heidrich said, his acidic voice enough to detonate the nukes inside my brain as he stared right at me or should I stay, through me, like he could both read me and write me. Like he owned me. "I thought you'd be happy to know I survived your little friend's attempt to take me down."

"When I kill you," I said, squaring my shoulders, straightening my body and forcing my voice to sound strong. I ignored the pain and got up, leaning against the wall to steady myself and catch my breath. I was done with his breakage. This douchebag didn't own me. He never did. "I'll spit on your face. And when they bury you, I'll find your grave, and I'll spit on it too."

The doctor offered me a caustic, sour laugh in response. His scrutinizing eyes noticed my wincing from the ache of standing up, and his sickening grin widened. That sadistic bastard had always loved to see me suffer.

"I'll make sure to be cremated, then." He replied, moving his eyes to James, whose jaw was as tense as a verb. His right fist was clenching so much I could see the veins in his hand, and the gritted teeth and deadly stare made Heidrich sure he wasn't a friend. "But before that there's work to be done."

"Stay away from her!" James warned, his voice menacing and lethal like I'd never heard before. All his softness had vanished. This was the Winter, the storm, but not the machine; there was emotion and anger now, which only made him more dangerous. No longer a hostage in his own body, the only orders he was obeying now were his own. "Stay away from her or I'll make sure there's not a single thing left in your body to cremate."

"I have to admit," Mad Doctor ignored him, his thick german accent dripping from his voice like poison, "when I woke up this morning, I did not expect to have you both here so easily, two of HYDRA's best creations."

"We're not your creations!" I snapped, throwing myself at the bars like the caged, mad dog I was, but violently being stopped by the chains in my ankles and wrists. Heidrich was out of my reach, and it was only when he pressed a button that I realized I had a collar around my neck, now sending thousands of joules into my body and making me fall back brusquely.

"Leave her alone, you piece of shit!" I heard James shout as my head crashed against the wall.

"I see you still have that suicidal vein in you. Old habits die hard, right?" The doctor smiled at me and I felt spasms all over my body. The healing works until it hurts again. "So, like I was saying, everyone else that knew about the Nine Lives Program might be dead, yes, and the files and the samples too, but I've got everything I need right here. My brain and you, dear Felicia."

"You'll never have me." I spat out.

"We'll see about that. You forget I know you, Felicia, because I made you who you are. We creators know what's best for their creations, always. If it wasn't for me, you'd be nothing. Just a stupid little girl running around with her father and stealing from other people's hard work. I made you bigger than what you'd ever be without me."

"You made me hate me. And I'm going to make you pay for that." I promised. "I'm going to make you pay for everything you did to me, and the likes of you will pay for what they did to him, and to others like him."

"So you've both grown on each other." The mad scientist stated, moving his frigid, supercilious eyes between me and James. "That will certainly make this more interesting."

"What are you going to do?"

The Dread Doctor leaned forward a little, his cleansed smell pervading my pores. "I'm going to break you both by making you break each other."

"SHUT UP!" James yelled, his fury rising at every word that came out of the doctor's twisted mouth. "Let her go and break me. You won't be doing anything others like you haven't done before."

"No!" I exclaimed, because we knew each other for like two days, but our pain knew one another for much longer, and I cared for him, and he cared for me, and I knew we'd both surrender if it meant the other didn't have to. "You won't break any of us. You... you can't."

"Oh, Miss Hardy, how innocent you still are." Dr. Heidrich mocked. "You have no idea, do you? So clueless to our power. If we want to, we will break you again and again until there's nothing left inside of you. We will repair you and destroy you as much as we want to. We will fix you just to wreck you. So listen closely, dear Felicia. There's nothing HYDRA can't break."

With that said, he snapped his fingers and a horde of soldiers followed by two scientists entered the prison with a stretcher. They passed by me without even a glance, stopping in front of James' cell. He looked up at them through the strands of his hair that had fallen to his face, his stare back to being bare and hollow.

"NO!" I shouted, the discharge of adrenaline pushing me forward and making me grab the bars and shake them as hard as I could. I tried to feel the probability fields around me, but there were none. I had a feeling the collar around my neck was neutralizing my power. "Leave him alone!"

I started kicking, scratching and striking the bars, but I was weakened from the darts and only managed to hurt myself more. I was left with no other choice but to watch as they opened his cell and pulled him up harshly, his body like a puppet in his hands, because he had surrendered already, because for him, rather him than me, but I couldn't. I couldn't let them take him. I couldn't let them destroy him and wreck him all over again, not when he had finally recovered some of his memories and was closer to a part of himself he thought lost for good. The part that was undeniably good.

They pushed him out of the cell and our eyes locked. Let them, his said. Never, mine replied.

"Stop this!" I begged, looking straight into Heidrich's eyes, and he must have seen something in mine, a fear bigger than fear itself, because he made a motion for the soldiers to stop.

"And why should we do that?"

I bit my lip, my tone defeated. I wouldn't accept James' surrender for me, not if I could surrender first. "I know you want my power and my genes. And I'll let you have them. I'll let you have me."

I knew I was being foolish. You couldn't ask something of HYDRA and suppose they were going to give it to you out of kindness. I had no way of knowing that if I did this, they wouldn't hurt James. But maybe I could buy him some time.

"No, Felicia, don't! Don't do this." I heard James protest and the next second Heidrich had pressed the button on his collar, knocking him out instantly. I gritted my teeth, but I had to follow through with my plan.

"You'll be ours whether you let us or not."

"But I bet you prefer I'd go down without a fight. We've caused damage enough today. If you had the chance to take me willingly, wouldn't you take it? Besides, my power isn't working right now. This is the moment you've been waiting for. Without my power, I have nothing to protect me from your mind control. Why waste time and resources on the Winter Soldier, when you can have him any time? But me? Who knows what my power can do? Who knows if it won't eventually overpower this collar and your drugs and come back? You should take advantage of the opportunity while you can."

"Let's not illude ourselves here, Felicia, I know you're not doing this because you want to join us. You're doing this to spare him, and that's admirable of you. You were always so reluctant to kill, and you still are, which proves we have a lot to do. But when we're done with you, you won't even blink an eye if we order you to kill him. I want you to know that."

"I know." I said, borrowing James' thousand-yard stare to my eyes. But I'm hoping once we get to that, he'll kill you instead. "But why kill him when you can use him as well?"

"We're currently understaffed, due to the evacuation and the chaos you've evoked on this base. But once we finish with you, it's going to be his turn. If you're thinking you can buy him some time, don't. You know you can't escape HYDRA when HYDRA is inside you."

I let the side of my lip curl up ever so slightly.

"When do we start?"

I didn't think he would, but Dr. Heidrich seemed satisfied with my attitude. He looked over his shoulder to the guards and gestured towards me.

"Take her instead."

"The end will come in time
Lay hands upon your spine
Apply the pressure till it breaks
Any of your kind
Can become one of mine
A little push is all it takes

I'm moving silent in the moonlight
Silver-coated, crimson-bathed
I'm a hunter in my own right
Can't kill the creature that you made"

A/N: Song is "Beast" by 8 Graves, which is so perfect for this chapter and also Felicia's relationship with HYDRA and hers and Logan's nature.