Chapter 2
Marina had no idea how long she had been HYDRA’s, well Malick’s prisoner. When she met Malick he said that she’d been there for months, since then she had no way of telling how long had passed whether it had been days, weeks or even more months. Her cell had no natural lighting, no time, nothing but the chair and table that are instrumental in her torture.
Sometimes when Malick sends his favorite psychopaths down to Marina, they keep her awake for days at a time, not allowing her to sleep and occupying every waking moment with pain and torment, other times they drug her, once she was sedated for over a week.
Now she sits in the corner of her cell, hands bound behind her back with rope, what’s left of her clothing torn and caked in dirt and blood (mostly her own), hair falling passed her ribs matted with blood, sweat and dirt. Her once bright blue eyes are now dull and hollow, rarely does she fight back against her attackers. Now when they come she stay’s silent embracing every blow. Sometimes Malick sends his men to get little bits of information to help in his quest for world domination, but hasn’t since one of her confessions ended up killing a few of Malick’s men.
Every time she’s left alone in her cell she imagines the day she will destroy Gideon Malick, how she will burn everything he holds dear to the ground. It’s all she has to look forward to now.
Little does she know that outside of the castle where she is kept, SHIELD and HYDRA’s war has reached its climax. As both sides race to discover the hidden secrets of an ancient monolith, neither side recognizes the idiocy of their pursuits.
The door to her cell opens, and in walk the two men who are her only constant visitors, since the day she met Malick they’ve been responsible for keeping her alive despite everyone else’s attempts at breaking her.
They are the only people to bring her food and water or make any attempt to heal the damage inflicted earlier that day, just so it can happen the day after.
Today however they aren’t here to help her, rather make it easier for Malick to torture her. No one in the room speaks, there isn’t even a sarcastic comment from Marina. She doesn’t fight back when they move her to the chair, they don’t hit her or hurt her at all. They leave once again as soon as she is in the chair.
As the taller of the men walks out he says, ‘Gideon Malick sends his regards.’
The door is shut once again and she is left alone. Marina barely has time to piece together what just happened before the door is opening and another man is walking in, he isn’t someone Malick has sent down before – though rarely do his puppets come back for seconds. As he makes his way into her cell and his face is no longer obscured by shadows Marina finally understands what Malick was saying all that time ago when he alluded to her “friend”.
Standing before her is none other than Grant Ward, the only person she ever truly trusted and one of the only people she ever cared about.
‘Dear friend, I have missed you so much. If only John could see us now…’ Marina sneers at him, waiting for some kind of explanation and she is furious when he ignores her.
‘Really? You’re working for Malick! Was one murderous psychopath not enough for you? Do you not remember everything Garrett did to us? Answer me you asshole!’ She screams at him demanding his attention.
He still doesn’t respond and she continues to spit more insults at him. Instead of replying he pulls a leather case out of the pocket in the back of his jeans, he unties it and lets it unravel before her. He walks over to the table against the wall and lays it out. Taking a syringe filled with a transparent blue liquid that looks suspiciously like the paralytic they’ve used on Marina before, he walks back towards her as if he isn’t affected by the situation.
She struggles in her bonds as he walks closer to her, trying frantically to get away from him. ‘Please don’t. Grant, plea-‘
Before she can finish speaking there’s a stabbing pain in her arm and almost instantly she is incapacitated. She is still conscious as he cuts the rope that binds her arms, she can’t feel any pain and cannot move despite her best efforts.
He works quickly to tie her hands above her head and secure them to a network of pulleys hanging from the ceiling. Her toes barely touch the ground from this position and her legs are still bound at the ankles.
After he is sure that she will not be able to escape her bonds he moves the seat from its spot in the center of the room and sits down in front of her and watches. He watches for any sign that the paralytic is wearing off. It takes a while but eventually he sees the pain flooding Marina’s features.
The pain from all of her injuries is hitting her at once, the remnants of the drug in her system is the only thing stopping her from crying out in pain. In this position all of her body is exposed, and the way her body is stretched is adding to the pain from previous injuries as well as making it impossible to find a balance between strain on her arms and her legs.
She expects him to get up and hurt her then but he does something surprising, he just sits there and watches. He doesn’t speak and either does she. They just stare at each other and Marina’s thoughts are flooded with questions.
How did he end up here? Has Grant been brainwashed by HYDRA? If he has, does he remember me at all? Why is he working for Malick? If he is here now, what happened with SHIELD? Is SHIELD responsible for sending him back to HYDRA? How do I make him talk?
When Grant does stand up he doesn’t make a move towards Marina, he does the inexplicable. He walks out of the cell, leaving Marina tied to the ceiling to figure out what just happened.
She is exhausted from trying to escape her bonds, but she is still trying when the door opens again. This time Malick walks in followed by the two guards who keep her alive.
‘So how did you like your surprise?’ He asks cockily.
Glaring at him she answers with hatred filling her voice. ‘Absolutely loved it, had the time of my life.’
‘I’m glad to hear it. Now, onto more pressing issues. You sent my men into a trap last time I came to you for answers, this time I think you’ll be more cooperative.’ He states quite confident in himself.
‘How delusional are you? There is no way in hell I’d ever help you.’ Marina responds.
‘Oh but you will…’ Malick’s voice trails off and the silence of the room is once again filled with Marina’s sarcasm. “Okay, you are definitely losing touch with reality.”
‘The next mission I send Grant Ward on requires information only you can give me, so unless you want to be the reason your closest friend to die I suggest you cooperate.’ He circles her as he speaks. ‘I want to know how far your pals at SHIELD would go to kill Grant Ward.’
Marina swallows and for the first time stays silent against Malick’s questioning, knowing that Coulson would stop at nothing to kill the man she once called her friend.
‘It is crucial for me to know just how far Coulson and his band of vigilantes are willing to go in their pursuits to end Ward. But considering your silence I’ll hazard a guess and say they’d go pretty damn far to see his head on a pike.’ Malick stops circling her and stares her down as he finishes speaking, emphasizing the last few words.
‘I don’t know what you’ve done or how you did it but I swear to god I am going to kill you.’ Marina threatens.
‘I don’t think you’re in any position to be making such threats.’
‘You don’t have a clue of what I am capable of doing. So unless you are planning on putting a bullet through my brain right now I promise you, the last thing you will see in this world will be me standing over you before you die.’
‘Such big talk coming from the person who was begging to not get stuck with a little needle.’ He taunts, before leaving the room once again.
The two guards followed behind Malick, before the second man walks out he switches off the light leaving Marina alone and in complete darkness.
That was the only other time Marina had seen the man in the flesh, it was clear that everyone was scared of him but she isn’t, she can’t afford to be.
The next time the door to her cell opens, she is face to face with Grant Ward for a second time. She is still in the same position that he left her in the last time he saw her, but this time she is angrier.
‘Back again so soon? You sure do know how to make a girl feel special.’ Once again her efforts to get a reaction from the statue before her fails.
‘How does it feel to be everything you despise? You’re no better than Garrett and Malick!’ She yells, fighting every urge to break down because of his betrayal.
Like last time he is silent in his ministrations, moving methodically to the table where he lift his things the last time he was in her cell. This time instead of pulling out a syringe filled with the paralytic, it is filled with a thicker orange substance that is unlike anything Marina had seen before.
This time Marina doesn’t fight him as he plunges the syringe into the muscle of her thigh – what’s left of it anyway, after months of being held captive she is little more than skin and bone.
She can feel whatever he had injected her with entering her system as he injects her with it, but it take a few minutes before she feels the affects.
At first she tries to not scream out in pain but she doesn’t last long before her cries are echoing off of the walls. Whatever he had pumped into her body made her feel as if her entire body was on fire, each and every nerve set aflame from the inside. Her screams filled the room and didn’t cease until her throat was raw and her voice rendered useless.
The pain of the mystery drug was so intense that as she was struggling against her bonds the rope had broken the skin around her wrists and were slowly becoming covered in blood.
When the pain from the drug finally subsided after what felt like years, Marina is hanging there lifeless. She makes no attempt to fight back or even move in her bonds. As her body is slumped forward placing more strain on her arms, the pain from the rope digging gets more and more intense but she doesn’t feel it anymore.
She looked towards the seat in front of her to see Ward smiling at her sadistically. Weakly she whimpers, ‘Just let me die.’
Without saying a word Ward stood up and walked out of the cell, leaving her isolated once more. Malick had been successful in his pursuits, there would be no more sarcastic comments or complaints of injury from his puppets when she fights back, Marina is broken.
A few hours after her visit from Ward, her two caretakers entered her cell. They take no care as they release her from the ceiling and put her back against the corner of the room. The guards leave the cell as quickly as they came, but before they leave the room Marina weakly mutters those four words once again.
‘Just let me die.’