Shattered

a quick disclaimer: this story will contain parts with depictions of violence, mentions of abuse, and strong language. before any individual chapter that contains such content, i will put another warning. stay safe guys, make sure you drink water, eat something, take your meds, and anything else you need to do to take care of yourselves <3

Trigger Warnings for this Chapter: Violence, death, mentions of torture, and strong language.

HYDRA Base, Nevada, 2012 

You hear them before you see them. Four soldiers, you guess, based on the echoes their footsteps leave as they round the corner towards your cell. You estimate that that leaves you 30 seconds or so before they get to your cell door. You glance around the bleak stone walls of your own personal hell. There isn't much light, but if you squint, you can still see smears of dried blood along the rough and uneven ground; some belonging to you, and some to whoever was in here before you. You shiver suddenly, unable to suppress the gruesome memories that resulted from your first few weeks of capture.

20 seconds, you think to yourself. You shake yourself out of your trance, slowly and silently creeping to the left corner of the room, pressing your back along the same wall that held the door.

15 seconds. You clutch the jagged rock that you had done your best to sharpen to a point in your right hand, the cool and rough stone just barely cutting into your flesh. But there wasn't time to worry about that right now.

10. This was it. Your last chance before they took you away to gods know where. Your heart suddenly aches, remembering your first night here.

"Pssst." You heard a raspy voice whisper. "You're the new girl, right? Heard the guards talking earlier, said you put up quite a fight."

You dragged your sore and aching body to the edge of your cell. It sounded like the voice was coming from the right of you.

"Who wants to know?" You asked, your voice straining and cracking at the simple task. The voice was right for one thing; you took down quite a few soldiers before they had finally managed to subdue you. After hours of unbearable torture and questioning, they had thrown you into this cell.

"You have to listen carefully, I don't have much time." The voice, a male's, was hoarse from being unused for so long. His tone sounded rushed. "They'll be here to take me any minute."

Fear coursed through your veins. "Take you? Take you where?"

"It happens to everyone. After six months of the 'experiments', they take us away. One by one. No one knows where they go. All we know is that almost no one returns. And if they do..." he trailed off.

"What?" You whispered back, fear lacing your strained voice. "What happens if they come back?"

The man took a shuddery breath, which quickly turned into a fit of coughing. It pained you that you couldn't rush to his side and help him, although you weren't sure of what you would have done even if you had been able to make it to him. His coughing gradually ceased, and he continued on.

"They're... different. Almost... inhuman. Like robots. Robotic soldiers, programmed to do the bidding of whoever is in charge."

You gasped lightly. Before you had time to ask another question, footsteps began to echo down the hallway.

"It's too late for me. But you, you can try to escape. I'm not sure if it's possible, but it's worth trying." The footsteps came closer. "Anything is better than whatever they have waiting for me." Even closer now.

"Thank you for telling me..."

"Thomas." The man finished.

"Y/N." You replied back, just in time to look up and see 2 armed guards march past your cell without acknowledging you. You heard the scraping of rusted metal against metal, signaling that they were opening Thomas's cell door.

"Get up." A cold and harsh voice demanded. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the voice spoke again. "Get. Up." You heard a grunt, and slow movement gradually came from the room to your right.

"Let's go, prisoner." Another voice spoke. The other guard, you silently told yourself.

As the pale and malnourished figure was dragged back past your cell between the guards, he suddenly looked up and met your eyes with his. They were sunken in and bloodshot, yet the bright aqua of his irises shone through the dimly lit hallway.

"Don't... don't let them take you," he gasped out to you, earning a punch to the jaw from one of the guards.

"Shut it, scum." The other guard ordered harshly. You wanted to run after him, to help him, to yell after him. To do anything. But you couldn't. Your body had reached its limit. Your eyelids fluttered shut as the events of the day finally took their toll, and the last thing you remember seeing was the bright aqua of his eyes, staring helplessly into your own.

The sound of the footsteps slowing snaps you back into reality. Rage courses through your veins. You wouldn't let what happened to Thomas happen to you. Or anyone else. You hear a key slide into the rusted lock on your cell door, and a faint clicking noise from it being unlocked.

Showtime. Just as you grasp your makeshift weapon, ready to attack, an alarm started to blast overhead.

Okay, that was unexpected. But I'll work with what I've got, you think to yourself. Before the guards could fathom what was happening, you shoot up towards the first guard, quickly slashing his throat with the stone.

You had never killed anyone before. Hell, you had never even hurt someone before. But you didn't have time to feel guilty. This was life or death, and there was no way in hell that you had come this far to go back now.

The three remaining guards gasp in shock at the sight of their fallen comrade, and that's all the time you need to make your next attack. You knee the guard closest to you in the crotch (cheap shot, you know, but you didn't really have time for a fair fight), and quickly stab the rock into his abdomen. His eyes widen in shock, and before he knows what you're doing, you grab the gun out of his hand and shot the two remaining guards.

You don't have time to see if they were dead or not. You start running back towards the way that they had came in. You come to a corner and carelessly rounded it, not bothering to check to see if it was clear.

Dumbass. You slam straight into a tall man, knocking the wind out of you, but evidently not affecting him. Fear and adrenaline both coursing through your veins, you quickly back up and point the gun towards him.

"Get the fuck away from me," you demand, trying your best to sound intimidating.

It didn't work.

He chuckles, not looking scared in the slightest. He was dressed head to toe in black, which, under other circumstances and about six months ago, you probably would've laughed at and made a joke about. But his choice of apparel wasn't what stood out to you about his appearance.

What drew your attention was the eye patch over his left eye.

Before you have the opportunity to speak again, he speaks up instead. "Y/N L/N?" He asks, but it seems less like a question and more like a confirmation.

This was the first time you had heard your name used since HYDRA had imprisoned you. To them, you were nothing but Subject 071. Your heart skips a beat, and your hands begin to shake. Curiosity getting the better of you, you lower the gun slightly before asking bitterly, "How the hell do you know my name?"

"My name is Nick Fury. I work for an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. We were given intel about a secret HYDRA base conducting," he pauses, "experiments on unwilling victims."

"That still doesn't explain how you know my name," you shoot back.

"We were able to hack into the database before triggering the alarm system. Apparently, they had very high hopes for you and your," he lowers his voice, "powers."

Your head is spinning. Your body wasn't used to this much exertion. You stumble forward slightly, before quickly making up your mind. Whoever this man was, and whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. was, it couldn't be worse than the horrors that HYDRA had put both your mind and body through in these last six months.

"You-" you stammer, your breath hitching slightly. "You have to help me. Please."

"That's what I'm here for," he says, extending an arm towards you to help you balance. A breath that you hadn't known that you were holding escapes your lips.

Before you could say another word, an explosion rocked the ground beneath you. "Can you walk?" Fury asks you hurriedly.

"Do I have a choice?" you quickly rasp back, and you both take off running down the hallway. Luckily, Fury seems to know where he is going, and soon enough, the two of you find yourselves in a large room surrounded by lots of unfamiliar equipment.

Another explosion shakes the building, this time seeming a lot closer than before.

"Hill," Fury speaks into his earpiece. "I have the girl. We're coming to you now." But before he could get another word out, the force from the blast of a third explosion knocked you both onto our backs. Your head slams against the stone floor, and your vision goes dark.

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Bright lights dance across your closed eyelids. You want to open your eyes, to sit up, to see what was happening around you. However, fatigue outpowered everything else, and you were once again pulled into a dreamless sleep.

---------

"Who is she?" You heard an unfamiliar voice ask.

"Some chick Fury found at the HYDRA base mission," another voice answered back. "Said she's injured pretty badly. I'd be surprised if she makes it through the night."

"Don't talk like that Stark," the hushed voice scolded. "She's strong, I can tell. If she survived this long at HYDRA, she'll make it through this."

"Your blind optimism is giving me a headache, Cap," the man, Stark, shot back, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Leave it be. We have bigger problems to deal with, anyways."

"Ah yes, the 'Prince of Darkness'" Stark said.

"I'll meet you in the conference room in five."

A pair of footsteps receded back into the hallway. Stark leaned a bit closer towards your unconscious body, his brows furrowed in concern.

"You'll make it through this kiddo," he whispered, barely audible. He lingered by your side for a few more seconds before sighing and making his way towards the doorway.

"Jesus, I need a drink," he announced loudly before leaving your room.