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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞: 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲

United States Army Camp, Italy

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April 1936

Allie ran through the forest, her feet gently kissing the grassy floor. The thick trees created a mighty canopy over her head, with little rays of sunlight shining through onto her face. She leaped over the long, twisted roots of the trees and she landed softly on her feet before taking off again. The birds created an enchanting melody of chirps that followed her no matter how far she went.

Along her side, ran a pristine blue river that was home to many different creatures. The 'ribbit' of the frogs filled the air as they hopped from one lily pad to another. Dragonflies hovered around the many beautiful water flowers, and one even made its way over to Allie. She briefly marveled at the sight before she bounded off again, further into the woods.

There was something beautiful about the forest, something that made Allie feel as if she was free. Perhaps it was the beautiful sun that bloomed in the pale sky, illuminating the true beauty of the forest. Or maybe it was the divine composition of trees, with each leaf having its own variation of orange due to the Autumn season. Or it could even be the sweet scent of the morning dew that filled her nostrils, a smell that was considered rare to Allie.

"Allie!" a man yelled and in response, she dug her feet into the ground and skidded to a stop. "Where are you?"

"Down by the river, Doctor!" She yelled back, cupping her hands over her mouth. She then heard the sound of the brittle fallen leaves being crunched underneath his boot, pushing their remains deep into the soft soil. Then the figure stumbled his way through some low hanging branches, revealing himself.

His older face showcased a soft but warm smile, with his eyes crinkled in the corners. The dark hairs on his head, that were actually more grey than brown, were being swept up by the gentle wind and out of his face. Thin gold glasses were perched on the bridge of his slightly large nose and a small stubble filled the rest of his face. He wore a long white coat and plain black pants that swished back and forth as he moved.

"It's nearly time for us to go back to the camp." He said as he nears her and placed a comforting hand across her shoulders. "As much as I know that it displeases you, you have to go back." He continued.

"But Doctor, I'm tired of just training all the time! First, I go to class with Madame Lafayette and she always gives me the cane! Then I go to training where I get teased by all the other boys and then I have to eat dinner all by myself because I have no friends!" She complained, throwing her arms up in emphasis. "I just want to go learn with you! I'm good at science and you know it!"

He shook his head in dejection and let out a sigh. "Allie, you know that HYDRA doesn't need any more scientists. Learning science isn't going to prepare you for the future." He responded as he guided Allie back towards the base. "It isn't going to get you out of that wretched place either." He mumbled quietly underneath his breath.

But Allie didn't hear, instead, she just dragged her feet in the mud and let out a frustrated groan. " But I hate it there!" She cried out in annoyance. The man whirled around and eyed in her disapproval.

"Allie, don't you ever say that again, you hear me! Nobody can ever hear you say that." He lectured and watched as Allie fell to the ground with a huff.

"But Erskine, It's true! I hate it there." She sighed and played with the beautiful pink flower that sat right in front of her. Erskine slowly crouched down and let a small smile play at his lips as he watched her gaze at the flower.

"That's Nerium oleander, it's apart of the dogbane family. It's quite toxic as well and is known to cause harm to the gastrointestinal system, the heart, and the central nervous system. If consumed in large amounts it can cause a painful death. However, it can also be used to help certain heart conditions and epilepsy." Erskine replied and gently plucked the small, pink flower from the ground. He placed it in his coat's pocket and then stands back up, offering a hand to Allie.

"Much like the oleander, HYDRA is toxic. But whilst it is dangerous, it is also preparing you to survive. Every time they beat you, instead of focusing on the pain, focus on how next time you will be stronger. When you are sitting in class, think about how all the stuff that they are teaching you is going to help you escape one day. The only difference between a poison and a medicine is how much you consume. And for you, the only difference between pain and learning is which way you look at it." Erskine explained as Allie placed her hand in his and is slowly picked up off of the ground. She looked up into his dark chestnut eyes and nodded her head.

"Ok, I'll try." She responded with a somewhat forced smile. Erskine ruffles her hair and gives her a hug.

"That's all I can ask from you."

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Allie shakes her head, attempting to wipe the memory from her mind as she continues to drive her motorbike into northern Italy, where she had heard that the American's were basing the camp. She had crossed the border just under an hour ago and if her calculations are correct, which 98% of the time they are, she should be 200 meters from the entrance.

She quickly pulls the bike off the path and drives it into a clearing just out of sight of the road. She swings her legs over and gets off the bike, stretching out her tense muscles. From looking at the sky, she guesses that she has an hour at best until the sun rises. And when the sun rises, so do the men.

She pulls her backpack off of her tired shoulders and scans the area, looking for a place to hide the documents she gathered. If she walks into the camp with the documents on her, they would more than likely rip the bag from her back and put a bullet through her skull because she would be a dead weight with nothing to offer. However, if she goes in there without the documents actually on her and bargains them for a deal, she would be able to ensure what the government would do with her information. She does not trust the Americans and they will not trust her until she shows them a sign of good faith. And the only way to give them a sign of good faith is to make sure that they don't put kill her before she even walks through the doors.

She soon spots a bright pink flower that stands out amongst all the lifeless green that surrounds the bike. Allie takes a step forward and a bittersweet smile pulls at her lips. "Nerium oleander..." She mumbles as she gently touches the delicate petals with the pads of her fingers. The oleander bush is quite large and at the bottom, there is a smaller plant growing which would offer concealment for her backpack.

Allie quickly jumps down to her knees and begins digging underneath the small plant, making enough space for her backpack to fit. As she flings the soil into a small pile, she can't help but think that Erskine had saved Allie's life. What he had told her back when she saw the oleander for the first time ever, stayed with Allie as she spent the following 7 years imprisoned at HYDRA. Even though he had abandoned her, she doesn't blame him but then again, she is confused and hurt as to why he left without a single goodbye.

She remembered every single way that she could kill someone so that when she was in a fight for survival, she would win. She remembered every single lesson on chemistry and biology that Erskine taught her so that she could brew her way to a solution. She remembered every little thing that Madame Lafayette had said on anything from espionage to surviving out in the wilderness so that she could plot an escape and not die out in the harsh Austrian winter.

She found the difference between pain and learning, and she is making her way from hell to heaven.

She swiftly pushes the backpack into the hole that she had made and then pushes the dirt back over it, trying to conceal it as much as she can. She then places small leaves and flowers at the base of the smaller shrub and moves her motorbike over in front of the large oleander bush.

Hopefully, it will only need to sit there for a day if the American's trust her. She doesn't think that they will risk not acquiring vital information because they can always kill her if she is lying. She isn't expecting anything different from the way HYDRA treat her because they are at war. And war does not segregate the worthy from the unworthy.

Allie pulls her keys from the bike and places them in her side pocket, then she starts to make her descent down to the army base.

Each step she takes becomes harder as each consequence of her action flicks through her mind. She almost feels like stopping and turning around. Maybe it would have been best if she just burned the notes so that nobody could get the information. How does she even know that the U.S will stay true to their word? What if they don't even listen to her and kill her on sight? Then all of this would be for nothing. Retrieving that information and escaping from HYDRA would have been for nothing. And just like that, her legs begin to feel like they are made from lead, an illusion from her terrified mind. A sign that she wants to stop.

But she can't. She knows she can't. She has never been one to succumb to a challenging situation and she isn't going to start now. Even if they do dispose of her, the information that she retrieved would be lost. Neither side would have it which means that she did in fact, do something to stop the war.

From here she can see the barbed wire surrounding the base. She can hear the idle chat of some soldiers who are up early and ready to start training. Dread runs cold through her body but she doesn't stop her movement. She keeps walking. And the closer she gets to her uncertain future.

As she gets nearer, she can hear the gentle hum of the electricity flowing through the fence. She sees the small tent buildings that litter the east side of the camp, erected in neat, tidy rows. A few men walk between these tents, decked out in their beige uniform and their large rifles strapped across their back. Their idle chatter filling the air as they go off to perform their various jobs for the day.

250 steps she counts as she stands face to face with the fence. 250 steps are all that stands between her and running away for good. But she knows that running is an option she can't pursue.

She then follows the fence on her right back to the road where the main entrance to the base is located. All it takes is a few steps before she reaches the road and she sees the end of the wire fencing. On both sides of the entrance stands a small checkpoint with a guard manning each one. One of the men seems to be asleep while the other one is wide awake and filling out a form that is in front of him.

"Come on Allie," she thinks to herself, "be brave." Despite living her entire life being trained to make others fear her, she is still a victim of fear itself. She is not immune to its commanding voice that tells her legs to feel like lead, for her stomach to lurch and her head to spin like a carousel with what only she can call nightmares. She knows that she has nothing to fear but fear itself but even now, she struggles to silence its voice that echoes in her head.

Slowly, she peels herself from the bushes. She moves one leg in front of another and makes her way into the middle of the road. Her head thumps in horror and she can barely contain the shakes that overtake her body.

The guard notices movement from the corner of his eye and he lifts his gaze over to Allie. She sees his eyes go wide and he immediately reaches for the telephone that is embedded in the wall of his watch room. Then the other man who was sleeping jerks up and spots her as well. Almost simultaneously they grab their firearms and push the doors of their stations open, making their way over to her.

She deliberately raises her hands up in defeat and lowers herself to her knees. "Get down or we'll shoot!" The one on her right yells angrily. The other soldier goes around behind her and shoves her to the ground with the barrel of his gun. Luckily, she catches herself with her hands before her face hit the ground and she immediately feels pain run up her arms. She knows that her palms are probably now cut up and potentially bleeding.

"Get on the ground, rat." The one behind her hisses. She then hears, the barrelling of footsteps as other soldiers come to greet her at the entrance. She can see their bottom of their boots as they make a circle around her and she hears the cocking of guns as they point the barrels at her head.

"Now what the hell is some HYDRA cunt doin' at a U.S base?" One of the soldiers swears and Allie grits her teeth, holding back a remark that would probably get her killed.

"Get up, cow." The man behind her that is still pressing his gun into her back orders. "The bitch probably doesn't even understand English, boys." Another laugh as Allie pushes herself up to her feet slowly and stares at the insolent man.

"I assure you-" She starts with a glare, "I understand English just fine." The man looks back at her with a glare full of hatred and lifts his gun up to her head.

"Move it, bitch." He growls in animosity, pushing her forward towards the inside of the base.

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The soldiers then decided to parade her through the grounds of the base and she had to bear the many insults and abuses that the other men hurled at her. They bound her limbs with chains and as she made her way to her cell, the men would spit, trip and even threw punches at her defenseless figure. Whilst these grown men threw cruel obscenities at her and beat her thin body, Allie kept her head down and bore the pain.

She entered the cell looking like a painted black and purple canvas.

She can already feel a huge welt grow on her cheekbone from where one man clipped her on the face. Her stomach will soon be brimming with similar marks and the places where her hands and legs are bound are surely bleeding from how tight they cuffed her.

Now as Allie sits in a makeshift cell somewhere in the middle of the camp, she awaits the arrival of a high ranking officer that would be coming to question her. She has nothing to do besides twiddle her fingers and stare out of the steel bars. She sits alone in the cell, the rough tarp that has been placed underneath her itches at her exposed skin and she leans her head against the cool metal. The tent seems to be made from some rough cotton and is barely any bigger than the cell itself.

Time seemed to flow like cement. The excruciating dullness of having to stare at a piece of cotton that separated her from the American soldiers bore at her mind like a disease. She would drift in and out of unpleasant daydreams that sent her thoughts spiraling. However, being lost in her mind did slowly pass the time and she wasn't one for entertaining herself with optimistic thoughts. Especially in a time like this.

Then suddenly a soldier pushed through the small opening of the tent and took a seat on a nearby chair. He was an older man with a few wrinkles that carved a map of his life on his stern square face. His dark eyes, that were analyzing her up and down, are framed by his thick and bushy eyebrows. His lips are set into a thin line as he watches Allie adjust her body against the back of the cell.

"I'm-" He starts but is quickly cut off by Allie, "Colonel Chester Phillips. You are an officer of the US army and the first director of the Strategic Scientific Reserve." She finishes evenly and examines his shocked face.

"How do you know who I am?" He growls in anger. His knuckles clench at the revelation and his posture becomes straighter as he becomes interested in her explanation. Even his voice sounds like high ranking military officials, strong with a distinct upper-class tone.

"It was my job to know." She replies nonchalantly, keeping her gaze locked on his own.

"And what was your job then?" He questions, straightening out his dark green army suit and adjusting his khaki tie.

"I was a trained HYDRA agent and spy." She responds, still not moving from her spot on the ground and at that statement, Phillips raises an eyebrow. "Now what the hell is a HYDRA spy doing at an American base?" He asks, standing up from the chair and walking over to the front of her cell.

"I have information that I believe would be quite useful in taking down HYDRA." She starts and takes note of Phillips surprised look. "However, in exchange for this information, I would like to participate in the takedown of HYDRA. I am a valuable asset and I could beat any men at this camp if you gave me the chance." She continues confidently. However, a snarl pulls at her lips when the Colonel lets out a loud laugh. "You are delusional, girl!" He says mockingly.

"I'm sure that you didn't say that to Ms. Carter when she applied for the war effort." Allie bites back annoyed which shuts the Colonel up. "Now as I was saying, the documents that I possess have been hidden out in the forest in a location that only I know of. If you were to attain this information I am certain that you could take down Schmidt and HYDRA. Because at the rate that you are going, this war will end in HYDRA controlling a majority of the world and its resources." She states firmly.

"Why should the United States trust an enemy spy that could still be working for HYDRA?" Colonel questions sharply.

"Well, how often do you get a spy from HYDRA handing herself over willing so she can exchange information that could end the war?" She declares with a smirk. "And you could even search me, I have no means of contacting anyone at HYDRA. If you do let me out, you could even take away writing privileges but it wouldn't matter anyway. I utterly despise HYDRA."

"Alright, I just need you to answer two more questions before I make the phone call." The Colonel declares as he once again takes his seat in the chair near the door of the tent. "What is your name and why do you despise HYDRA."

"My name is Alexandra Williams. I am the daughter of British Intelligence agents, David, and Colleen Williams. When I was 5, I was taken from my home in London by HYDRA agents that then killed my parents and made it look like we all died in a house fire. I have been trained to kill ever since I can remember and when I found out about what HYDRA had done to my parents I began to plot my escape. And today, I sit in front of you with the means to end the war and all I ask in return, is the opportunity to take my revenge." Allie proclaims in frustration.

The Colonel sits in silence for a few seconds, taking in all the information, before he gives her a nod and gets up to leave. And once again, Allie is left to sit in a cell with nothing to do but bask in the neverending silence.

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A/N - Hey guys!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I thought that as a gift to you guys, I would give you the next chapter early! I hope that you are all enjoying your holidays with your families and friends and that you are all surrounded with love!

Now on to the questions! (Don't forget to answer!!!)

1. What did you think of the chapter?

2. What do you think will happen next?

3. How are you guys celebrating Christmas?

- Grace xx