TW: Hydra & the Horrors™️

2008

Mazzy Maria Stark was only three years old when she woke up in a place she didn't recognize. She was in the arms of someone, though, so she squirmed to see who it was. It was her mother, which was quite relieving, so Mazzy laid her head against her mother's shoulder.

"Separate them," a man's voice said.

Being the first sound Mazzy heard after waking up, it sounded quite loud and obnoxious, and it was very confusing because Mazzy didn't recognize that voice. The first voice she heard in the morning was only supposed to be her mom's or her dad's, so whose voice was this?

Furrowing her eyebrows, Mazzy looked up from her mom's shoulder to see an older blond man. His face was tough but calm, which was scary because people who are tough and calm at the same time have power.

Looking around the room, Mazzy could see many more men. Some were dressed in uniforms that Mazzy had only seen in movies and on the news, like the mean soldiers in The Iron Giant. They all had dark looks on their faces, though. In The Iron Giant, all the soldiers looked pretty afraid, but these soldiers didn't. It made her nervous, so she clung to her mother tighter.

"Положи ее. Попрощайтесь," a soldier spoke, looking directly at Mazzy's mother. Put her down. Say goodbye.

Only after Mazzy was suddenly placed on the cold, hard ground was she able to figure out what those words meant. Her shiny eyes widened as she looked pleadingly up at her mother. She reached her arms up above her head. "Mommy," she whined, her lip quivering.

"Вы хорошо справились, агент Новиков. До свидания." You have done well, Agent Novikov. Goodbye.

Mazzy kept her big, watery eyes on her mother, silently pleading for her to pick her back up off of the ground and take her home. But Agent Novikov tore her eyes away from the girl and stared at the door.

"Momma?" Mazzy whined quite pathetically. She shifted to sit on her knees and tugged on her mother's pant leg. Her mom paid her no mind, so Mazzy got up off the ground and went to stand in front of her mom.

Before she could get around her, though, Mazzy was suddenly grabbed by the arm and yanked backward. Mazzy let out a shriek of surprise, and when she fell straight backward, the fearful lump in her throat melted into endless tears. Mazzy wailed.

"Momma!" she sobbed, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. Her small arms reached desperately over towards her mother, but Agent Novikov remained unmoving, only staring at the door. "Momma, they hurt me! Momma!" Mazzy cried.

Agent Novikov's hands twitched at her side, her heart twisting itself into knots on the inside.

"Агент Новиков, уходите," the blond man ordered once more, more directly this time. Agent Nivokov, leave.

"Momma, I'm scared!"

Agent Novikov's fists clenched.

"Mommy!"

Agent Novikov walked out the door, heading back to the Red Room for the first time in five years. Her mission had been completed. A Stark child had been brought to Hydra, and they could now do whatever they wanted with it.

"Momma! Mommy! Come back, Momma!" Mazzy wailed. She jumped back onto her feet and went running after her mom, only to be grabbed by the arm and yanked backward once again. She fell backward, her small hands hitting hard against the cement flooring.

Once she'd landed, she turned herself around to see who it was that was grabbing her, only to see the same tough, calm blond-haired man. He grabbed her roughly by the chin, forcing her face closer to his. His eyes were dark and demanding.

"Stop your crying," the man ordered.

But Mazzy couldn't. Her eyes were darting back and forth between his as an intense panicky feeling she had never felt before overwhelmed her.

The man turned back to his men. "Оставьте ее, пока она не перестанет," he told them. Leave her until she stops. He released Mazzy's chin, got up, and walked out of the room, his men following right behind him.

Now all alone with her fear, Mazzy scrambled backward until her back was pressed up against the corner of the room. There, she brought her legs up to her chest and pressed her eyes into her knees as she sobbed and sobbed and sobbed for her mother to come back. But she never did and she never would. Mazzy was terrified and there was no one there to save her.

✮

The Soldier sat in his chair in a dimly lit room filled with machinery and horror. The room had a yellowy type of lighting that could make a person feel cold. Afraid. Sick. Alone. For the Soldier, it made him want to close his eyes forever, so his eyes wouldn't burn and his body would be the Earth's rather than his superiors'.

Now, though, the Soldier didn't want to close his eyes. Now, the Soldier had his blue eyes peeled open and glued to the door of his prison of a room.

He could hear voices outside. Footsteps, too. Lots of them. That meant guards and guards meant pain, but that wasn't anything new. The pain he was used to. What he wasn't used to, though, was the name coming out of his superior's mouth.

Star, it sounded like. He wasn't sure, though. It was all muffled and quiet from the other side of the door.

"You... speak unless... not cry... listen to me... understand, Star?" were the only words the Soldier could make out from his superior's voice.

He could, though, hear the Star's voice, ever so faintly. It was soft and shaky like it was about to shatter as it spoke. "Yes, sir," the voice said. Young. It sounded young.

Then, the lock clicked and the door began to creak. The Soldier straightened himself, his muscles tense and his grip on his armrests tight. Two guards stepped inside first, armed to the teeth with all sorts of devices created only to do one thing: hurt.

Next, the Soldier's superior stepped inside, and behind him was a little girl.

The girl was small. Very small. Too small to be there. The Soldier would guess she was about three feet tall. She had curly hair and sad eyes, like an abandoned puppy on the street. She wore something similar to a hospital gown, barefoot and slightly shivering.

"Солдат," his superior spoke, "это твоя Tень." Soldier, this is your Shadow.

The Soldier furrowed his eyebrows with confusion and concern, staring at the small child. He glanced at his superior. "Tень?" he asked. Shadow? This was a baby, not a shadow.

"Она будет следить за тобой. Следуйте за вами на миссиях, исправляйте ошибки. Учитесь у вас," his superior explained. She will shadow you. Follow you on missions, clean up any mistakes. Learn from you.

The Soldier frowned deeply, his eyes shifting back to the girl. "Она младенец," he murmured weakly. She's a baby.

"Нет. Она солдат. Она твоя Тень," the man replied, his eyes cold and emotionless. No. She is a soldier. She is your Shadow. He placed a hand on Mazzy's back and shoved her forward. "Go. Greet him."

Hesitantly and afraid as ever, Mazzy stepped slowly toward the Soldier.

The Soldier, though, looked at his superior again with pinched eyebrows. "She doesn't speak Russian?" he asked.

"Not yet, but she will learn. She is smart," his superior replied.

"Генетика Старка," one of the guards commented, earning a nod from the superior. Stark genetics.

Unsure of what that meant, the Soldier turned his focus back to the little girl. The Shadow. Maybe her name was Star, he wondered. That's what they were referring to her as outside, he was pretty sure.

The Soldier knew he must have looked very scary sitting there in his torturous chair that may have looked a bit more like a throne to the young child. But he didn't want her to be afraid of him. He didn't know why she was there or who she was, but the sight of her made his chest ache with emotion. He wanted to help her. To save her, somehow, though he didn't know if it was even possible. He couldn't even save himself.

All the Soldier could do, really, was try to make the terrified-looking girl feel less afraid.

So, he tried to make his face look soft, putting on a small, friendly smile. To anyone else, the smile would look a bit sad, but Mazzy hadn't seen a smile in days now— not even a sad one— and it made her feel a little less cold inside.

Mazzy stepped even closer to the Soldier until she was standing right in front of him. "Hello," she whispered.

The Soldier didn't give a reply at first. He only slowly reached forward, holding the girl's chin and running his thumb gently across her reddened cheek, perhaps checking if she was even real. She tensed up slightly at the touch, not only because she was afraid of him, but because her cheeks were very raw from wiping away the constant onslaught of tears that had been falling from her eyes since her mother walked out of that room.

After a moment, the Soldier's hand dropped back down to rest on his knee. "Hi," he said quietly to the girl. Her eyes were starting to water and he didn't like it. "What's your name?" the Soldier asked.

Mazzy swallowed, rubbed her raw cheeks with her sleeve, and met the Soldier's eyes. "Mazzy Stark," she murmured nervously.

In an attempt to make the girl feel less afraid, the Soldier gave a small, soft chuckle that only Mazzy could hear. "I thought they were calling you Star," he told her.

Although it was just barely noticeable, impossible for anyone but the Soldier to notice, Mazzy let up a very small smile. "There's a k at the end," she spoke quietly. It was hardly audible at all, but the Soldier could hear it, so he nodded. Mazzy tucked her hair behind her ear. "Star is pretty, though. Mommy said I..." Mazzy stopped, her eyes getting watery again.

She ran her teeth over her lip, trying her hardest not to let herself cry anymore. Her cheeks hurt and her chest ached from all the crying she had already done, and Mr. Pierce said not to cry. She couldn't disobey Mr. Pierce.

But her mommy. Her mom left her. Her mom said she named her after a band with Star instead of Stark, and she was going to tell the Soldier that, but she couldn't. Because her mommy left her here with the monsters, and she couldn't say her name without crying.

The Soldier's heart was doing that twisty thing again. The feeling that made his gentle smile falter and his hand reach out to hold Mazzy's. Mazzy looked up from the floor, once again using her sleeve to wipe her face. "Sorry. I'm sorry," she said very anxiously. She didn't know if the Soldier was the same as Mr. Pierce or the other guards in the room. She didn't know if she was allowed to cry in front of him.

A lump grew in the Soldier's throat. He looked up at his superior once again, his hand still holding onto Mazzy's. "Она младенец," he said for a second time. She's a baby. Maybe this time, his superior would listen to him.

"Not anymore, Солдат." Mazzy turned her head at the sound of Mr. Pierce's voice. "Time to go now, Miss Stark," he said.

Mazzy looked at the Soldier, and then back at Mr. Pierce. She didn't want to disobey Mr. Pierce. She couldn't disobey Mr. Pierce. But she didn't want to leave the Soldier, either. He was safe, she was pretty sure. He was safety and refuge while every other person in that room was a monster. But maybe there were too many monsters. Maybe if Mazzy stayed with the Soldier, the monsters would hurt them both.

So, although her muscles involuntarily shook with fear, Mazzy pulled away from the Soldier and began walking towards Mr. Pierce.

Before she could get too far, though, her hand was grabbed once more, and the sounds of several guns cocking filled the room. She turned her head to see that the Soldier had jumped out of his chair and was standing right behind her with a tight grip on her hand. He quickly tugged her behind him, shielding her from the aims of the guards' weapons.

"What are you doing with her?" the Soldier asked, his voice hoarse. He was brave and he was disobeying, and he was absolutely terrified.

"That is none of your concern, Солдат," his superior replied. "Let go of her."

Mazzy's heart was hammering in her chest. Even behind the Soldier, she was worried she was going to die and he was too. Mr. Pierce said he could have her dead with one command. She didn't want that to happen. She just wanted to do what Mr. Pierce said, so then maybe he would let her go home soon.

But the Soldier wasn't listening. His grip on Mazzy's hand only tightened upon hearing his superior's words.

"Let go of her, Солдат," the superior said once again, his tone stern and demanding.

"She's a baby," the Soldier said.

"She's machine now. Just the same as you. Let go of her."

"She's a baby!"

The superior frowned, nodded, and turned to his men. "Разделите их," he ordered before stepping backward to wait by the door. Separate them.

And the guards did. They approached the two machines with weapons in their hands. Two of them used their weapons to send shocks of electricity through the Soldier's body, while two others grabbed Mazzy by the shoulders and ripped her away from the Soldier. Mazzy screamed and cried in panic as the guards dragged her, kicking and thrashing, towards the door.

"Подготовьте ее к операции," Mr. Pierce told them. Prepare her for surgery.

"She's a baby!" the Soldier shouted weakly, despite all the different ways the guards were hurting him. "Она младенец! She's a baby!"

✮

The missions began almost instantly after the surgery. After they put what they needed into her brain to make her obey their every command. The Shadow did as she was told, despite the seemingly endless stream of tears falling from her eyes; on each mission, the Shadow would follow the Soldier and obey his every command.

Though, the Soldier didn't give his Shadow very many commands at all. Mainly, he would lead and she would follow. She studied his movements and habits until she could easily mimic his every move. After several missions and lots of training, the Shadow began to have her own tasks given to her by Mr. Pierce. He didn't like how she was simply watching rather than doing, but the Soldier didn't seem to want to let her help him. So Mr. Pierce had to give the Shadow her own tasks to complete.

Eventually, though, the Soldier came to accept it. After enough mind-wiping, that is.

After that, the Shadow really was the Soldier's shadow. She followed right behind him on missions and cleaned up any and all mistakes or loose ends. Taking out any witnesses. Maybe killing the lesser of two targets on a mission, sometimes only carrying the Soldier's weapons and ammo for him. It depended on the mission.

The missions went on for years. Sometime along the way, the Shadow had turned four, five, and very recently six without her knowledge.

The Winter Soldier came to be something similar to a friend of the Shadow's. Maybe even a source of comfort; a parental figure. Sometimes the Shadow would have to reintroduce herself to him. She didn't fully understand why, but she was too afraid to ask Mr. Pierce or any of the other guards.

The Shadow hated missions, but she also loved them. Because when they went on missions, it was only her and the Soldier, and the Soldier was her safety. Sometimes he was nice and seemed like he actually cared about her, but sometimes he would forget who she was again and he'd become dark and completely focused on the task at hand. Either way, though, the Soldier never hurt her. She was safe with the Soldier.

In the second month of 2011, the Shadow, otherwise known in whisperings as Плачущая девушка, the Crying Girl, went on her final mission.

On that particular night, the Winter Soldier could remember her. She was crying in the van on the way there, which wasn't anything new, but the Soldier comforted her nevertheless, keeping his flesh hand atop hers.

That night, the Shadow was tasked with taking care of the child in the home while the Soldier took out the parents. It was snowy and cold, and the Shadow had a silver gun with a fully loaded chamber.

The child in the home had heard the scream coming from his parents' bedroom, and it woke him up. In a panic, he had run outside into the snow. The Shadow followed after him, silent and out of sight. She was pretty sure he was trying to run to the neighbor's home, perhaps to call for help, but the neighbors lived across the lake, which was frozen over.

While the child was rushing as fast as he could across the ice, the Shadow pulled out her gun and raised it in front of her. One pull of the trigger and the child's blood would spill out all over the ice.

As the Shadow's finger began to press down on the trigger, she heard a name she hadn't heard in years.

Her own name. Her real one. Not the Shadow, not the Crying Girl, not Star, and not Stark. Mazzy.

"Mazzy, stop."

The voice was familiar. It tugged and tugged at Mazzy's heartstrings, but Hydra had the control. They always did. So she pulled the trigger, and just as she did, the voice was now a body and it was grabbing her, picking her up off of the ground. The bullet had found its way into the boy's chest rather than where the Shadow had intended it to land: in the head, quick and easy.

Turning around, Mazzy could see a mask. A metal mask of red and gold. It quickly lifted, revealing a face. Her father's face. He put his hands on her tear-stained cheeks.

"Mazzy. Hey, sweetheart. It's okay. I'm here. Daddy's here," he said, his voice fast and panicky, nearly out of breath.

Before Mazzy could give any sort of reaction, she was torn away from her father's arms and went tumbling down the hill in the snow. She watched with wide eyes as the Soldier fought against her father. The Shadow got up off of the ground and ran up the hill to assist the Soldier, but as soon as she got up to him, her father picked her right up and blasted them off of the ground.

When Mazzy and Tony were above the lake, as a last resort, the Soldier threw a small device at the back of the Iron Man suit. The device latched onto his suit and sent bolts of electricity crackling through the machinery, causing Tony's grip on Mazzy to falter. Mazzy slipped through his fingers, falling straight down onto the frozen lake and slamming her head against the thick, hard ice.

The last thing Mazzy could remember were two voices at once, calling out her name before everything went black.

"Star!"

"Maz!"