11 – Identity Crisis Solved

The cuffs come off, like Romanoff said they would. The trouble is, I'm not allowed out now.

I'm a bit surprised to find Tessa at the door. She's fuming, practically frothing at the mouth. I look at her blankly.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she hisses as the door shuts behind her. She looks around the room for cameras. "What happened in that room?!"

I rise from the cot I've been sitting on. "He instigated it."

"Not from the footage that I saw. Do you forget what your mission is, Angel? To bring back the Soldier, alive. Ward's orders."

"Yes, I remember. Thank you for reminding me."

"Apparently you don't remember, because you attempted to kill him!" She gazes at me critically through those emotional blue eyes. "Did Ward tell you different when I wasn't looking?"

I lick my lips. I don't answer her.

"Why did you try to kill him?" Tessa repeats slowly. I haven't seen her mad a lot, this is the first time she's acted like this. "If you bring him back dead, consider yourself dead too! Ward won't want to keep around an Asset who can't follow orders!"

I continue to watch Tessa silently. She makes an irritated noise, rubbing her temples.

"Does he trigger you, even though you've never met him before now?" she probes. "What is it? You can speak freely here."

"I don't know," I finally say.

"You don't know."

I shrug. "I don't."

"You know I don't buy that." She sighs. "Look, we're on thin ice with S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't know about you, but, I don't want to go back to HYDRA anytime soon."

"I always had a feeling you would say that," I say. "The reluctant HYDRA worker."

"I saw the bad signs all too late," she says hastily.

"If you don't want to go back, then why are you pushing Ward's mission for me?"

"If things don't go our way, we're both in trouble."

"Oh, so, it's not about me failing, it's about you taking the fall with me." I roll my eyes. "Didn't peg you as the self-centered type, Tessa."

"Just try and behave. I personally don't want to see you like this, you've been on your own more than enough. These people...they can help you if you let them."

"I don't need their help."

"You don't want their help."

"That too."

"You will, though. You see how the Soldier is, how different he is. You'll get to be that way too."

I give Tessa an odd look. "What's gotten into you, seriously?"

"I'm just overwhelmed right now." She rubs her eyes. "I haven't slept since we've been here. I feel like I have to watch my back when I shouldn't have to."

"You're right; you'd make a terrible field agent."

"Oh, shut up." Her tone is lighter when she says it though. "I'll try and pull on what threads I can to get you out of here. I know I don't have much weight, but, I'll try."

"I don't know why you do what you do for me."

"I'm your handler. It's my job." Tessa grabs the empty food tray from earlier before leaving me alone.

Blowing out a noisy breath, I decide to lay on the cot, hands knotted together. Why does this feel so messy? It shouldn't be. Ward has his mission, I have mine. Tessa just needs to make sure I do my job efficiently. What is with her, anyway?

Despite my mind being full of thoughts, it drifts.

***

"Don't move!" one of the scientists barks. She and a few others, along with some guards, are looking at me apprehensively. I'm rabid, standing above a body, whose neck I just crushed with my foot.

HYDRA has shit handlers.

My menacing look has them all fearful. If they are smart, they'll run. I prefer a challenge anyway.

"Angel!" someone says. A female, with dark hair and striking blue eyes. She's wearing a white lab coat, and like the others, she's afraid of me. "Stand down!"

I cock my head, scrutinizing her. I should go after her first and send a clearer message. The others in the room don't seem to be getting it, including her.

"Nobody is going to hurt you," she continues softly, daring to step forward. Like a predator, I watch her suspiciously. She glances at her coworkers. "Back off. You're not helping her."

"What about you?" whispers one of the guards.

"Go. I've got this."

Do you now? I think. I'm not allowed to speak up, I've been punished before for doing that. I've learned awful fast to not talk back, or talk in general.

The woman's security slowly files out of the room, weapons pointed at me for precaution. I move away from the body on the floor, approaching her. We stand toe-to-toe, and I can feel my eyes boring through her skull.

"He won't be happy," she squeaks. Though her voice is on a lower register, her fear has made it temporarily high. "He's going to punish you. And I can't stop him from doing so."

Then what can you do? I think.

"You need to get yourself under control. If not, he won't be happy."

Nothing I ever do seems to please anybody. I breathe through my nostrils, taking a step away from the woman. I regard her carefully. She's not armed, she poses no obvious threat to me. If I feel like it, I can snap her neck right here and now.

I tense when I see the door open. The woman turns around, and another woman enters. Her face is stone-cold, her eyes just as cold. Her blonde hair is pulled back out of her face, her face that's all business. She reaches for her gun holster.

"Don't," the dark-haired woman says. "I have her controlled."

"She's still conscious. That's not control."

"Agent Sparks, please."

Agent Sparks quirks her mouth. "Tessa—he'll find out."

"I know." Tessa looks down at my former handler. "He's going to be pissed. That's the fourth handler we've gone through with her."

Agent Sparks removes her hand from her holster. "Well, then maybe we can make you number five, since clearly the Angel hasn't killed you yet." She nods towards Tessa. "Let's do that recommendation now. She won't go anywhere."

Tessa looks back at me, concerned. I watch her and Agent Sparks, who's waiting for Tessa to leave with her. Tessa takes her time in leaving the room.

She's the only person to look at me like I'm not an animal.

It's baffling.

***

I barely remember Agent Sparks. We never had a lot of interaction, the most had been when she saw the aftermath of me killing my fourth handler.

I sit up against the wall, resting my head against it. The coolness helps the throbbing. That memory is Hell's Angel's memory, not like ones I've had before of sand and being abducted by strangers.

I perk up at the door opening. I deflate when I see it's someone I don't recognize. She's got golden blonde hair that's a few shades darker than mine. Her eyes are brown, and she's dressed in an agent uniform.

"Oh, yay, my babysitter has arrived," I deadpan. "I don't want any company right now, thanks."

"You're gonna want to be up for this, trust me," she says. Like Tessa's voice, it's a little on the lower side. She nods towards the outside. "If not, I'll cuff you and bring you myself."

"Okay, okay." Groaning, I get off the cot and follow alongside her. "What's so important?"

"You'll see. Agent Thirteen."

"Hell's Angel."

"You're pretty calm for an assassin."

"You're pretty snarky for an agent."

At this, she smiles. "You're the most talkative assassin I've met."

"Guess you just attract that kind of crowd, huh?"

"Not as much as you think." She takes a hold of one of my arms.

"Where are we going?"

"If you just let me take you there, you'll see."

I let Agent Thirteen remain cryptic as she escorts me through the halls of the base. I don't make eye contact with the others in this place. When we arrive at a door, she scans her handprint to gain access. Nice tech. We enter the room, and we're met with Director Coulson, a woman with hair a shade or two darker than Agent Thirteen's. Tessa lurks in a corner, watching in silence.

"Thanks, Sharon," Director Coulson tells her. Sharon nods beside me before leaving.

"What's this about, Director?" I yawn, scratching my head. "You were interrupting my beauty sleep."

"Good news, we found your identity."

"My...identity?"

"Your real identity," the blonde points out. She's on the taller side, and like Tessa, her voice is on a lower register. "It took a lot of searching, but, we found you."

"And this is a win because...?"

"It'll help you recover your old life," Tessa says quietly. "That's the whole point of us staying here."

The blonde pulls up a file on the screen, and I examine the print. The picture I see looks like me. My eyes skim over the info that I don't care about right now.

They settle on a name. My name. My real name. Not Hell's Angel.

Victoria Melbourne.

"This is it?" I ask, looking at Coulson.

"Yup, this is it," the blonde answers.

"Where'd you get this info from?"

"We didn't have you in our database before now, so, we had to pull all kinds of sources together."

"How big is this file on me?" I ask cautiously.

"Not as big as you'd think," says Coulson. "Like Bobbi said, before this, you didn't exist in our database. Once we found a match, we decided to make one."

Something tells me that I shouldn't buy that. But for argument's sake, for now, I do.

"Barnes didn't have a lot of help when he was going through this, we figured we'd give you what he didn't have," Bobbi, the blonde, explains. "Make the transition a little easier for you." She offers me a soft smile.

I look between her and Coulson. "Why are you doing this for me?"

"Well, since you've been away from HYDRA for some time, you've been changing back to who you were before you were Hell's Angel," Coulson explains. "We wanted to help that, not hinder it."

Now the beach memory makes sense, since apparently I reside in Miami, Florida. They have my birthday on here, and my education. Thankfully, I'm not a bad person, since I don't see any criminal record. Until now, if being Hell's Angel counts as a record.

Instead of feeling ungrateful for this find, I feel the exact opposite. I feel like a piece of me has come back. I've got my real name back. Somehow, I don't believe that this is a trick.

Right now, my head is spinning, on top of the fading headache I've had since I woke up earlier.

To think, I viewed S.H.I.E.L.D. as the bad guys in this. They found my identity, while HYDRA took it away and scrapped it. HYDRA gave me a new identity, made me a ghost to the world. They practically killed Victoria Melbourne—me. It's possible that I was in the wrong hands all this time.

And for the first time, my conscience doesn't fight me on that thought. It accepts it and believes it. My right and wrong seem to be fixing themselves.

Being away from HYDRA must be screwing with my head, I think. This is something I would've never thought about. Ever.

"You're not gonna let me leave, are you, now that my identity crisis has been solved?" I ask Coulson.

"Unfortunately, no. There's no doubt HYDRA is scouring the planet for you, and for Tessa. We can't throw you out into the open where they can find you. Even if you can fight them off and run, they might catch up to you in the end."

"I can adapt. I can learn to hide myself." I cross my arms.

"For now, you won't have to."

"Are you sure you want me around? Isn't that what made HYDRA rise and S.H.I.E.L.D. fall in the first place?" HYDRA had nested in S.H.I.E.L.D. for some time. When the time came, HYDRA rose with new blood, new life in its system. Eventually, it's new head became Grant Ward.

Thinking the man's name stirs something inside of me. Hatred. He took me from my home and had me changed into Hell's Angel.

I totter slightly, my vision becomes distorted.

"What's wrong with her?" Bobbi murmurs.

"Not sure," says Tessa, who's at my side. "You okay?"

"No," I grunt. "I think I need to...to sleep on this, or something." My mind is so wishy-washy right now that I can't make absolute heads or tails of anything. I can't tell what's right and what's wrong. Who's the enemy and who isn't.

"Okay, I'll take you back." Without a goodbye to Coulson and Bobbi, Tessa leads me out of the room.

Victoria Melbourne. That's my name. I used to reside in Miami, Florida, until HYDRA took me from my home. He. There was a "he" in there somewhere too. I had someone I cared about. Boyfriend? No, not boyfriend, fiancé. I had a ring once, HYDRA must've gotten rid of it.

This is one of those moments that feels too big to be real.

**Hell's Angel, meet Victoria Melbourne, your new identity.

I know I've said it before, but Tessa's and Victoria's relationship has always been fun to watch develop.**