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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫: 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭

New York City, United States of America

1991

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Trickery awakes gasping, clawing at her throat as if it is constricting with every breath she takes. Her eyes are still bleary from her sudden arousal and she blinks quickly, trying to recognize the foreign place that she now finds herself in. She immediately pushes herself into a seated position on the metal bed and tries to heave in a breath in an effort to calm her racing heart.

The sweat on her forehead glistens in the light that shines in from the lights of the adjoining corridor. Her body shives underneath the thin cloth that really is not thick nor long enough to be considered a blanket and her short pants of air leave small clouds of mist in the bitter, cold air. Trickery pushes the blanket off her lithe figure and recognizes the typical HYDRA uniform that covers her body. The gray contrasts terribly with her ashen skin that looks like it hasn't seen the true light of day in years.

Scrunching her eyes closed, Trickery lets out a disgruntled sigh. She had another nightmare. The same nightmare that had been plaguing her for the past two days. She was at an old HYDRA base, shooting down the enemy alone when they shot her in the stomach. She continued to fire at them anyway until another bullet found its home in her body. Then another. And another.

Their footsteps got louder and louder as they neared Trickery's dying body. They ran towards her like a stampede of wildebeests and Trickery had nothing left to do but close her eyes and await for the herd to trample her. But before the hurt comes, a loud explosion goes off beside her she is swiftly pushed back into consciousness.

That same dream has been playing in her head every time she goes to sleep. Nothing about the dream changes and even though she knows what is about to happen, she relives the experience every night. She can almost feel where the bullets entered her chest and the fear that would accompany that experience if it was real.

As her sight begins to clear, she scans the room. The familiar metal bars separate Trickery from the main hallway which holds similar cells to hers. She lays on a rough, metal bed frame that barely fits in the small room underneath a thin, white blanket. To her left is a small wooden bedside table and a small toilet. Concrete walls entrap her in the tiny room, leaving her only light source to come from the overhead lights in the hallway.

Groaning slightly, she pushes herself up to her feet and stretches her sore limbs. Having sat in this room for over a couple of days now has left Trickery bored out of her mind. All she does is stretch, sleep and get caught up in her own thoughts. Thankfully, she had been let out for an hour or two to train with Mikael but it always seemed that time ran faster when she was out of the cell. She wishes that she could just train all day instead of sit inside her room doing nothing.

The sound of the hallway door breaks Trickery from her thoughts and she abruptly stops her stretching to stand up stiff as a board. Trickery quickly deduces that there are two people making their way down the hallway as a result of the loud echoing of their footsteps. The two guards soon come into view as they step in front of Trickery's cell, both holding familiar-looking remotes in their hands.

At the sight of their remotes, the device around the base of her throat begins to feel heavier, weighing down on her airway. She always has to wear the device around her neck even though she barely ever steps out of line. She refuses to even put her toe near the line in fear of being electrocuted again. She can't remember how many times she has been shocked but the feeling stays ever-present in her mind. The white, hot pain reminds her of what the consequences are of not doing what she is told.

One of the guards pushes the key that he holds into the cell door and opens it for Trickery, who has yet to move. Black helmets cover both of their faces, not allowing Trickery to have any access to their minds.

"Приходить /Come." One of the guards order. "Микаэль хочет поговорить с тобой. / Mikael wants to talk with you."

With a curt nod, Trickery follows the guards out of her room and through the expansive HYDRA base. She stands in between the two guards, one in front leading and one behind to make sure that she doesn't 'lash out'. Maintaining her stoic facade, she continues after the guard in front who weaves in and out of hallways that quickly that it nearly gives Trickery a headache.

As they begin to near their destination, Trickery's ear perk at the sound of voices coming from Mikael's office. She unintentionally strains her ears and catches some of the conversation as she makes her way down the corridor.

"... мастеp, I don't think that this is the right choice." One voice questions.

"She can do it. She remembers nothing." She quickly recognizes the second voice as belonging to Mikael. Not only does the sound of his voice give him away, but his ability to instill fear in others. Evident by the fact that Trickery detects the dramatic increase in the first person's heartbeat as a result of Mikael's anger.

"She was his best friend when they worked together all those years ago. And as they have plenty of memories together, it would more than likely cause her to remember who she was!" The man pleads. "We could lose her!"

"That's why I'm coming." Mikael rebuts. "Now if you question my decisions again, I'm going to begin to question your purpose on this earth."

Thankfully for the other man, Trickery and her guards knock on the door right as Mikael stands up from his seat glaring at the scientist in rage.

"Come in." Mikael calls out to the troupe that waits outside before he turns his attention back to the man sitting in front of him. "Get out and do your job."

The man timidly nods at Mikael before he scurries out of the room, keeping his gaze trained on the floor as he weaves around Trickery and the two guards who slowly filter into the room.

"Mikael." Trickery says as she moves to stand behind his desk, throwing her arm up in a salute. Mikael's blue eyes light up as he turns his eyes back to Trickery and a small smile pulls at his thin lips.

"Darling, get ready to leave. We are going to New York now." He informs her.

Trickery's brows furrow slightly at the news. "What's the mission?" She asks.

"The assassination of Howard, Maria, and Anthony Stark."

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The flight to New York was very long and very boring. They had been in the air for 12 hours which was all the time that Trickery had to familiarise herself with her mission. And for that entire 12 hours, she had been listening to Mikael drill her about the importance of the mission and the need for her to execute it perfectly.

She was to break into the penthouse where the Stark's live and get her hands on the super-soldier serums by whatever means necessary. Mikael and the other HYDRA agents would disable the camera's from the outside for 10 minutes, and in that time she would have to locate the drugs and leave no witnesses left alive.

Howard and Maria Stark would be the easiest of the lot to take down. Howard was an older man, with greying hair and wizened skin. But as Trickery looked down at his photo that was clipped onto the portfolio that she was holding in her hands, she couldn't help but stare at his dark eyes.

A vague sense of familiarity washed over Trickery as she stared down into his chocolate eyes.  And the ache that came from her head as she searched through her memories also proved her right. She knew him from somewhere. But from where, she couldn't recall. And the more that she tried to figure out why, the more frustrated she got.

But Maria, on the other hand, she had no predilection to. Similarly to Howard, Maria was on the older end of the spectrum, with greying blond hair and kind emerald eyes. Trickery knew that Maria had no connection to the serum other than the fact it was made by her husband which would just leave her as unfortunate collateral damage.

Once again Trickery began to scramble through her memories as she looked at the photo of Anthony Stark. He had his father's warm, ebony eyes and his lips were pulled up into a mischievous smirk. A smirk that she swears that she has seen before.

As she flicked through his file, she saw that he had been dubbed as a genius. It had listed all the feats that he managed to accomplish at the ripe young age of 21 and even she was impressed by his brilliance. But despite his mental abilities, he lacked the physical capabilities to take her on which meant that he too would be an easy victim.

And after 12 hours of thoroughly analyzing her part in the mission, she had never been more glad to land. They had quickly rushed her and Mikael into a black van and sped off towards New York City. The ride itself was short, indicating that they had been flown somewhere just outside the outskirts of the city.

In the van, she was handed her weapons that she knew she wouldn't need. They gave her a  pistol that she hung from the waist of her usual black catsuit and her trusty throwing knives that were holstered onto her thighs. Trickery knew that she would opt out of using her weapons as weapons were messy. Her tricks, however, were not.

As they began to near the building, Mikael gave her a quick rundown of the penthouse which she had already memorized on the plane ride over. If everything went according to plan, there would be no need for her to have to use the planned escape routes to get out. But she made sure she had them seared into her memory just in case.

And then finally, the car pulls up outside the illustrious Stark penthouse. Trickery hastily gets out, leaving Mikael and the other car of HYDRA agents to begin hacking into the Stark's security.

She steps into the street, quickly placing her mask over her face and lets out a relieved sigh as she notices that it is relatively barren. The sky is pitch black and filled with a dense layer of fog, explaining the lack of crowds that she had thought would be filling the street.

For the past few days, HYDRA had been training her to use her illusions on masses of people but it often left her feeling lightheaded and dizzy.  And since New York is one of the biggest cities in the world, she knew that there would be no way that she would have the power to uphold her illusions for more than a minute if it was during the day.

As Trickery nears the doors to the building, she feels the brain waves being emitted from the building's security before she even sees them. She immediately begins weaving an illusion that makes her appear invisible as she makes her way into the building.

She pulls open the big glass doors and enters the opulent looking foyer, carefully eyeing the guards who are fooled by her illusion. She continues across the room, walking past the overly expensive carpet and underneath the mesmerizing chandelier that hangs over her head. She approaches the elevator with a frown as she notices a keypad to its side.

"Код 290570 /The code is 290570." Mikael informs her and she swiftly punches in the code. Just as expected, the elevator doors open and Trickery saunters inside, immediately pressing the key that will take her to the penthouse.

She stands inside the elevator in silence, listening to the ding that the lift makes as it ascends past each level. After a few seconds, the elevator reaches the top level and the doors slide open, letting Trickery enter the Stark penthouse.

She walks into a long hallway, decorated with family pictures and photographs of young Anthony and all his achievements. Just like she saw on the blueprints of the penthouse she was given, to her left is an open-spaced living room and further down the hallway are the bedrooms and the dining room.

Suddenly, Trickery is alerted to the sound of someone's footsteps coming from the bedroom closest to her. She swiftly recasts her illusion of invisibility and almost throws herself at the wall, pulling out one of her knives from her suit and grasping it tightly in her hand.

The door is thrown open and none other than Anthony Stark enters the foyer with a look of confusion on his face. He glances down towards the elevator and furrows his brows when he sees no one there.

"Hello?" He calls out, taking a few steps down towards where Trickery is standing. "Is anyone there?"

Oddly, Trickery finds herself entranced by Anthony, or Tony, as he calls himself. She is seemingly enthralled by his chocolate eyes that she swears she has seen before. His dark chestnut hair that falls messily on his face also seems eerily familiar.

And suddenly, she thinks she knows why.

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Trickery is standing in an unfamiliar lab, surrounded by a variety of brightly-colored chemical solutions. In front of her is a polished silver bench with what would seem like hundreds of papers thrown haphazardly across its top.

She lifts her gaze up and observes the room around her. The lab is a large brick room filled with all sorts of science equipment that Trickery has no clue how to work. Confusingly, Trickery notices the maps and papers stuck up on the brick wall and sees the infamous Nazi insignia. Furrowing her brows, she realizes that she must be in the early '40s which would be almost 50 years ago.

To her right stands a young man with the same dark brown eyes covered by a pair of dorky looking glasses and bright amber hair. He is wearing a clean, white lab coat and a playful smirk hangs from the person's lips.

"You know you really had me fooled when you came in and worked at Stark Industries." The man says and Trickery takes a safe guess and assumes that the person next to her is none other than Howard Stark.

"Really!" She finds herself saying, realizing that she has no control over her body. "I had the one and only Howard Stark fooled! What an honor!"

Howard smiles at her comment and lets a small chuckle fall from his lips."I'll admit the letter you left with the blood samples wasn't very subtle but I searched for months trying to find Sandra Anthony and came up with absolutely nothing."

"Well, it would be no fun if I let you find me straight away. Would it?" She smirks.

"No, but it would have been much easier." He jokes and she lets out a small laugh.

"I don't think I'd change anything that I did to get out of  HYDRA, including that letter that I left for you." She says melancholically, changing the tone of the conversation to a somber one. "Everything that I did led me here and gave me all of you guys." She says with a ghost of a smile pulling at her lips.

Howard stops what he is doing and gives her a sad smile. He softly takes one of her hands into his own, giving it a tight squeeze."Neither would I, Allie." He murmurs, meeting her gaze with his own. "Neither would I..."

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Trickery's eyes widen as she is suddenly pulled back into reality. Her entire body is shaking like a leaf as she stands against the plain white wall of the hallway, with Tony still only standing a few feet from her. She can hear the pounding of her heart in her chest as she begins to try to understand what in the hell she just remembered.

But a loud voice behind Trickery abruptly startles her into alertness. "What are you doing Anthony?" The voice yells and Trickey quickly whips around and sees Howard standing in the doorway of the living room.

His eyes cement her belief that Howard is the person that she saw in her memory. Even though his face has been plagued with age and his lips are pulled into a cold scowl, his eyes are the exact same as what she had seen in her mind only moments ago. The same almond-shaped, chocolate brown eyes that glimmer with boundless wisdom and intellect.

But unlike the Howard that she had just seen, this one has an unfamiliar coldness trapped in his eyes too. The same coldness that he is currently showing towards his son who just rolls his eyes at his father's mood as if it is a daily occurrence.

"I thought I heard someone." Tony mumbles, scratching the back of his neck casually.

"Get back to bed this instant. You have work to do tomorrow and I'm not going to cover for your tired ass when you make a fool of yourself." Howard growls at his son and shoos him back into his room. Tony grumbles some obscenities underneath his breath as he makes his way back into his room as Howard returns back into the lounge room and switches on the television.

Trickery begins to panic as she is left alone, not knowing what in the hell she just witnessed. Her memory, if it is true, says that she left HYDRA? Why in the hell would she leave HYDRA? Why would she leave Mikael? And how did she know Howard Stark in the '40s?

That would make her at least 70 years old which she knows can't be true. She certainly doesn't look 70. But then how does she remember something from the 1940s? She is certain that she doesn't have psychic powers that allow her to see into the past so she must have experienced it herself. You can't just come up with a memory like that.

But what puzzles Trickery further is that Howard called her Allie. She knows that her name is Trickery, just like Mikael's name is Mikael. But then why would Howard call her Allie? The only reasonable explanation that she can come up with is that it is a past nickname. But even then it still doesn't seem right.

Pulling herself from her thoughts, Trickery notices that she is now almost gasping for air beneath her mask. Her lungs heave to pump oxygen around her body as her mind spirals into a state of panic. She is still trembling in her spot when she remembers that she is here for a mission. She is here to assassinate Howard Stark and his family.

And now she isn't quite sure if she can do that.

So Trickery just runs.

She sprints down the hallway back into the elevator and slams on the buttons that will take her back down to the ground floor. The feeling of pain in her chest doesn't ease as the elevator descends. Instead, it sets in deeper. The urge for her to run and escape pushes all other thoughts of rationality from her mind. Her clammy hands are trembling so much that she has to clip her knife back to her suit as she struggles to keep her grip on the blade.

Breaking her from her thoughts, the elevator comes to a sudden halt at the ground floor. But as the doors to the elevator begin to open, the all too familiar feeling of electricity begins circulating through her body. She immediately collapses at the torturous pain, unable to stop her body from completely seizing.

She briefly catches sight of the bodies of the 2 security guards that lay in pools of their own blood by the door to the building. But her view is partially obscured by Mikael and the team of HYDRA agents who are pointing their guns at her convulsing body.

Mikael looks down at her with obvious disappointment, clutching the remote to her collar tightly in his hands. He gives a curt nod to one of the soldiers to his left who swiftly approaches Trickery and bends down over her neck. She is too busy screaming in pain from the electric currents pulsating through her body to notice the syringe that breaks through the exposed skin of her neck and injects a foreign concoction of drugs into her bloodstream.

Almost immediately she begins to feel her eyelids droop and her vision become fuzzy. Her body starts to feel heavy and she faintly notices that Mikael is no longer holding the button down on the remote.

The last thing she hears before she succumbs to the darkness is Mikael's voice dripping with disappointment.

"Oh Trickery, you never seem to learn."

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Hey everyone!

Once again I am soooo sorry for the late update! This dumbass spilt water all over her MacBook and had to pay $600 bucks to get all the damaged parts replaced (Yes, I am officially broke.)

Thankfully, I am on school holidays which means that I have plenty of time to write the next chapters for you guys so hopefully the wait won't be too long. I'm really excited for the next couple of chapters and I hope that you guys will like them too!

ANYWAY, let's just get onto the questions!

1. What did you think of the chapter?

2. Do you guys think that this part of the story is too slow (Trickery's time at HYDRA) ?

3. What would you guys like to see in the next couple of chapters?

4. Is anyone else highkey addicted to the new Mario cart game? (I am and it's actually really sad...)

Lots of Love,

Grace xx