14 – Battleground

"Look alive, Melbourne!"

A punch to the face sends me reeling. Thankfully, it's not Winter's metal fist that connects with my nose. I put my fists up, bounce in place

"Come on, what's up with you?" he asks, losing his fight stance. "You wanted to beat the hell out of me, and now you're just...somewhere else."

I've been like this for a week since the memory with Adam Strider came to the forefront of my head. When I close my eyes, I see him, alive and dead. The slit throat. His words to me.

I refuse to accept that Adam Strider meant anything to me. I don't want my worst conclusion to be true: that HYDRA made me kill someone that I cared about. I had been with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? For how long? Did we have a falling out? Maybe he's an ex. That seems to be the best case scenario.

"I've got a lot on my mind, Winter," I say distractedly. "Not exactly up for a therapy session. Besides, that's more Tessa's alley anyway."

"You're seeing things, aren't you?"

I shake my head. "Come on, let's see who the superior Asset is."

"As much as I hate to say it, it's me."

I smirk. "Show me."

Our fight distracts the both of us. It keeps my mind clean and focused on defeating Winter. I aim a high kick for his face, which he blocks with his metal arm. In turn, he punches that leg, which throws me off balance. He jumps for me, grabbing my hair and forcing my head back. I swing wildly, my eyes forced to look at the ceiling and the disturbingly bright lights.

My head hits the floor when he throws me down, giving his hand just enough time to slip out before it cushions my head's fall. I grunt, rolling over as Winter tries to straddle me. He grabs my throat from behind, pulling me up to my knees. I feel the familiar chokehold start to take me, and my hands reach up for his face. When I find the stringy hair, I pull as sharp and as hard as I can. I feel his head wrench to the side, but his hold won't let go. Black spots are in my vision.

"Superior? I don't think so," he whispers in my ear. "They made you stronger in some areas, but fighting isn't one of them."

He releases me, and I'm sprawled out on the floor, putting my forehead to it to help me gather my bearings. Slowly, I get on all fours, head still dipped down. I see his shadow on the floor, and I'm tensed to continue the fight. I wince from the cold fingers that touch my exposed shoulder. He must see the tattoo.

"Their brand," I spit venomously. I sit up, looking at him from the corner of my eye. I turn my head and see the scratched red star on his metal arm. "You're right, I'm not you."

"No, you're not."

I put a hand to my stomach and breathe in deeply. "How do you roll with it, the memories?"

"As best as I can."

"Do you still get them?"

"Every now and again. They're more bad than good." He pulls his hair back to redo the ponytail he had up from earlier. "You'd think it'd get old, but it never does. It's always something different."

"Guess I haven't had the privilege to have enough to know that."

"It's a curse, Melbourne. It's not a blessing."

"In a way, it is. Who we were is still in here. They'll wake just long enough to bring up a memory."

The room goes dark, which brings me to spring to my feet. No backup lights come on, Winter and I are stuck in darkness.

"Power outage?" I ask.

"It can't be coincidence," he says darkly. "Come on."

"Yeah, okay." I put my arms out in front of me, blindly searching. "Do they have backup lights come on or something?"

"We'll find out, won't we? Come on."

"I will once I figure out where the hell I'm going." I feel his metal fingers bump my face. "That's my face. Try lower. Be smart about it."

"Even in the dark, I'd still kick your ass." Winter finds my arm and grabs hold, guiding us both through the dark training room.

We both hear the door creak open, and we both freeze. A single flashlight beam flies around the room. We can't make out too much detail to see who's behind the flashlight. When the light hits me, it stops, and I use my other hand to shield my eyes.

"Are you two okay?" a male voice asks. He closes in, footsteps sounding rather...cautious.

"We're fine," Winter speaks on our behalf. The light is shaky as the guy moves towards us. "Power outage?"

"Simple fix. We've got people working on it right now."

The guy spins around as we hear gunfire erupt outside of the door. Just then, the lights snap back on, and Winter goes for the man. I watch, dumbfounded, as he knocks the other guy unconscious. My mouth parts slightly.

"The hell was that?" I demand.

Winter takes the flashlight from the body, sifting around. "He's not on our side."

"How can you tell?" I catch the flashlight that gets thrown at me. Not a gun, but it's still a weapon.

"I've been around long enough to recognize faces. S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't taken in new recruits, except you and Tessa."

"You mean..."

"HYDRA's here."

Well shit.

Winter retrieves a gun from the body, and he makes his way towards the door. I follow behind him. I wince as each loud pop rings in the hallway. How in the hell did they get inside? I think back to what I used to think about HYDRA. They would always find a way in. They would always find you, even when you thought you were safe.

When Winter jumps out, he fires shots. I hear a dull thud in the distance. I peek my head out, hearing loud pops further away.

"How'd they find us?" I hiss. I keep up alongside Winter, who looks like a man on a mission.

"No idea." He throws a side-glance at me. "Unless you've been a double agent all this time."

"Oh, cut that crap." I whack him upside the head. "Pretty sure I established my new allegiance."

"Doesn't mean that I trust you any more than I did before. You did try to kill me, after all. Multiple times."

"Well, I failed, multiple times, because you're still here and talking. You got a spare gun on you?"

"Nope. Deal with the flashlight."

I frown but wield the flashlight like it's a baton. We break out into a sprint at hearing gunfire. Now, sirens are blaring, so loud that I buckle to my knees and cover my ears. Winter abandons me, turning down a hall, firing bullets. God damn it.

After the temporary setback, I get on my feet and ignore the pounding in my head. I turn the corner that Winter had, but he's long gone, lost somewhere else, fighting other HYDRA agents. I look at where I'm at. I have no idea where anything is. Sad, I know, considering I've been here for a few months now. Tessa probably knows this place better.

Tessa. Crap.

An instinct to protect her rises in me. It has to be my actual personality shining through, not Hell's Angel. Hell's Angel could give two shits or none about anyone's safety, even her own. In a brisk jog, I try to go towards the sounds of battle.

"Victoria!"

Ahead, I see Tessa struggling against a male HYDRA agent. I run at them, and the HYDRA agent fires bullets at me, which all miss. He and Tessa tumble into the next room, and I find them both on the floor, gun being fought for. I rip the man off Tessa and send him into the wall. The gun clatters to the ground. Just as he crawls for it, I kick his face, sending it snapping upwards. I retrieve the gun.

"Traitor," the man croaks through red lips.

Instead of letting him live, my finger pulls the trigger. One shot to the head ends him. I thought I'd be scared or in shock by the murder, but I guess being Hell's Angel has made me become desensitized to it. It sure as hell didn't feel good, but it had to be done.

I drop the gun and turn around to help Tessa to her feet. One of her cheeks is bright red, but she otherwise looks fine.

"Thanks for that," she pants.

"You know what's going on?"

"HYDRA got in."

"How many?"

"I don't know. I was somewhere else, and they just...came out of nowhere. Are you okay?" She looks at the dead man in the room with us.

"I'll be fine," I assure her. "What do we do? Stand and fight? Do we have an escape plan?"

"There're too many. We got to scramble, now."

"Wait, didn't you just say you didn't know how many agents got in?" I frown.

"Y-yeah, I did."

"Tessa," I say warningly. "Get your story straight."

"Sand."

I cock my head. "What?"

"Tank."

I feel a faint pain pulse in the back of my skull. "Tessa, the hell are you saying?"

Her lower lip trembles. "Magic."

By the third word, I realize what she's doing. "Tessa, no."

"I-I'm sorry, Victoria. Railroad."

I have a hand at my head now. "Tessa, stop."

"Stadium."

"I mean it, stop."

"Saddle."

"Tessa."

"Ninety-nine."

"Tessa!" I have to support myself against a wall. The pain is my head is overpowering. I want to lunge across the room from her and shut her up. Knock her unconscious. She can't be doing this to me. "Don't do this."

"I-I have to. Everdeen."

My eyes grow wide as hers grow solemn. "Tessa, please."

Even through my splitting head pain, I understand. Tessa is how HYDRA found their way in. Tessa knows that HYDRA brought an army to finish off what's left of S.H.I.E.L.D., a job that had originally been intended for Hell's Angel.

HYDRA wants Hell's Angel to join the party.

I don't.

"I don't have a choice," Tessa stammers. "They'll—they'll kill her if I don't do this."

"W-who?" I swallow, panting. They got to her. Somehow, they got to her. I don't think it was her plan from the moment we got abducted, unless I'm wrong about that.

"Zeus."

Fighting the pain, I cross the gap and grab Tessa's throat. "I mean it, Tessa. Don't do this. So help me, I will crush your throat."

"Y-you won't."

My body shakes. "I will."

"I'm so sorry, Victoria." Tears pool in her eyes.

"Tessa," I plea feebly.

"Blizzard."

**So...apparently HYDRA was so lazy that they decided Hell's Angel's trigger words had to be in English for some reason. I guess that goes back to the fact that Hell's Angel knows no Russian.

Geez, HYDRA. Way to screw things up and ruin WinterAngel's training session.**