Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything is cold. 

That’s the first thing she recognizes. 

It’s the only thing she recognizes. She can’t see anything. The room is dark. 

Eventually, her eyes adjust, and she sees the blue crystal that sits in front of her. She reaches out for it, curious as to what it is. It’s not very big, so she wonders why she was the one placed in a room with it. It can’t be particularly dangerous. 

Hesitantly, she picks it up. Turns it over in her hand, inspecting it. 

She eyes the camera in the corner of the room and sets the crystal back down on the ground in front of her. Or, at least, she tries. 

It falls from her hand, shattering on the ground. Blue mist fills the room, and she tries to stand, but can’t move. Something is spreading up her legs. 

The material - it looks like stone, and it’s cold, but she has no clue what it is - makes its way up her stomach, crossing up and onto her neck faster than she can even think to call for help. 

It reaches her eyes, and everything goes black.

Chapter Text

Her shoes click against the floor. It’s cold, and goosebumps rise on her arms, but Maria refuses to react. This is not the time to show weakness - she’ll likely be meeting with her superiors. With her mother’s superiors. It is highly likely that she’ll be given a mission. 

Maria stops in front of a large, gray door. It’s imposing. She takes a breath to calm herself, smooths out her skirt one last time, and knocks, three times exactly.

“Enter.” 

Maria’s mother is already sitting, near the end of the table. Her eyes dart towards the empty chair at the foot, indicating that Maria sit there. She obeys, her hands settling in her lap. 

“Miss Malick?” The man at the head of the table says. 

“Yes, sir?” Maria asks quietly. 

“Do you consider yourself accomplished?”

She’s a bit confused by the question, but she steels her nerves and answers anyway. “I would like to think so. But I also acknowledge that I have much to learn.”

“Hm." He slides a manila folder her way. “Study this. Memorize it. You leave in an hour.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.” 

“Thank you, sir.” 

Maria stands, and her mother follows her out the door. 

“This is good.” Her mother says, once the door has shut behind them. “They trust you. They see your potential. They know what you will do for Hydra.” Stephanie smiles. “Go get your stuff, and head for the hangar in forty-five minutes. Don’t be late.”

“Yes, Mother.” 

The mission is frustratingly simple.

Maria is a distraction. 

This is ridiculous. 

“It does say that if something goes wrong, you are to eliminate the target,” Stephanie says placatingly. 

“I guess.” 

“Maria, don’t complain. You’re the youngest of your class to be given a mission at all.”

“But-”

“No complaints.” 

Maria sighs. “Yes, Mother.” 

She settles in for the flight, electing to stare out the window rather than bring up the mission again. They'll let her do something worthwhile eventually. She’s sure of it. 

The mission goes wrong almost instantly. 

Well, not almost instantly. It does take a while for the mission to actually start.

They land a few miles from a ski resort atop a mountain and are taken from the plane to the resort via an incredibly fancy car. Maria and her mother walk into the lodge, suitcases in hand, while the agent driving the car finds a place to park. Faintly, Maria recognizes that these are the nicest clothes she’s gotten to wear in a while, and wonders if she’ll be allowed to keep them. 

“Hi, how can I help you?”

The receptionist is perky for eight in the morning. A coffee cup sits to her left. A lipstick smudge is on it, but the receptionist isn’t wearing lipstick. 

“We have a reservation.”

“Last name?” 

“Pierce.” 

The receptionist - Tina - clicks away at her computer. “For two?” 

“Yes.” Stephanie raises an eyebrow, and Tina shrinks a little, but keeps a smile on her face. Maria can appreciate that. There’s a certain level of spy work involved in customer service, she realizes. 

“I have your room keys right here. You’ll be staying in room 536.” 

“Thank you,” Stephanie says, taking the keys. 

“The elevator will be on your first right.”

“Thank you,” Maria says, before turning to trail after her mother.

The room is big. Bigger than it has any right to be, given they won’t be there very long. Less than a night, if they’re lucky. 

“Do you remember your story?”

“I’m lost and can’t find my mother,” Maria says, almost robotically. 

“Good.” Stephanie smiles the tiniest bit, and Maria feels a rush of pride. “Just make it believable. That’s all you have to do.” 

“Yes, Mother.” 

“E-excuse me?” The target turns to look at Maria, and she shrinks a little. “Do you have a phone?” 

The target turns around. “Yeah. What’s wrong?” 

Maria sniffles and wipes at her eyes. “I-I can’t find my mom anywhere.”

The target nods. “Do you know her phone number?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay, here.” He hands her the phone, already open to the keypad, and Maria starts typing in her mother’s phone number. Discreetly, she slides the tracker she’d been given onto the back of his phone, and feels it melt into the case. 

Maria holds the phone up to her ear and waits for her mom to pick up the phone. “Mom?” 

“Are you ready?” 

“Yeah.” Maria nods, despite knowing she can’t be seen. Well, maybe she can. Her mother’s probably somewhere around here, watching everything happen. “I found someone with a phone.” 

“Good. Hand him his phone back and thank him. Then, the agents will come out.”

“Okay.” Maria hangs up the phone. “She’s near the receptionist.” Maria hands him the phone. “Thank you.” 

And everything explodes.

Suddenly, there are people everywhere, more than Maria was counting on. Some of them are wearing the standard Hydra uniform. Some are wearing civilian clothes, having been in disguise until now. Others have eagles on one shoulder - SHIELD agents. 

Someone grabs her, and, not being able to see who it is, Maria immediately fights back. She drives her elbow back and into her attacker’s stomach, stepping inward and onto their foot the moment they double over. She breaks free from their hold and spins around, punching them square in the nose.

The only thing she recognizes is that it’s a woman, and she has red hair. “Пиздец.” Damn it. The woman mutters, and Maria realizes that she can’t follow through with the groin. 

So, she decides to run. 

The woman gives chase, yelling in English this time. “Hey! Slow down! We’re here to help you!”

She keeps running. 

There’s a dumbwaiter at the end of the hall. It’s just big enough that Maria’s pretty sure she can fit, but it’d be cramped, and if the woman managed to catch her before then or follow her wherever she ends up, she’d be captured.

“I’m with the Avengers!” She calls.

Maria screeches to a halt.

Theoretically, she could keep running, escape down the dumbwaiter that’s at the end of the hall, and make her way back to the car, where her mother will undoubtedly meet her. She can go back to her life, and everything will be the same as it was 24 hours ago. 

But no normal kid does that. No normal kid runs from an Avenger.

If she lets this woman capture her, starts working with the organization that participates in everything Hydra is against, gives them information until they trust her…

She turns around. “S-sorry.”

The woman stops in front of her. “You put up a fight.”

“You did grab me.” 

The woman tilts her head to the side, almost like she’s thinking that’s fair . She puts a hand to her ear. “Everything cleaned up?” Whatever the response is, she’s pleased. “Good.” She looks down at Maria. “Where are your parents?” 

Maria looks down, praying to God that this woman believes what she’s about to say. “Skiing accident.”

“...Oh. I’m sorry.”

She shrugs. “Just trying to figure out what to do next.” 

The woman nods. “Any legal guardians?” 

“I don’t know.”

She kneels, so that she’s at eye level with Maria. “Okay. You can come with me until we figure out who your legal guardians are.” 

Maria nods.

The woman smiles. “My name’s Natasha, by the way.” 

Natasha. Red hair. With the Avengers.

Uh oh. 

“I’m Maria.” 

Chapter Text

Natasha (Romanoff? Hopefully not) takes Maria out of the resort and towards a large plane. Maria had expected a walk. Maybe a mile or so. Instead, she’s ushered out the door and into the snow. “You’re going to have to sign some NDAs when this is all over,” Natasha mutters, as a plane materializes from nowhere.

Maria’s eyes widen. If Hydra has this kind of tech, she’s never seen it. “How…?” 

“Cloaking tech. Something with cameras. Iron Man made it.” 

Iron Man. Tony Stark.

Maria’s shoulders tense, and she hopes the agent attributes it to the idea of getting on a plane with a total stranger. 

“It’ll be okay, kid.” Natasha steps onto the ramp, which had descended while Maria was lost in thought. “It’s safe, promise.” 

Maria nods, stepping up onto the plane. 

The seats are more comfortable than she’s used to. Hydra’s plane seats are hard. They hurt to sit in for too long. Maria is now convinced SHIELD’s have buttwarmers. 

Natasha shows her how to buckle the seat, and Maria pretends like she doesn’t already know how to do this. She takes to it maybe too fast, because it’s more complicated than a normal plane is (though she’s only ever flown in one once, for a mission, and she jumped out about an hour into the flight after being ordered to drop poison into a woman’s champagne), but Natasha ignores that.

Maria thinks that maybe they’re both ignoring how odd this situation is, and how Maria is definitely not a normal child. 

“Where are we going?” Maria asks. 

“New York.” 

The plane lands almost silently, which is honestly kind of impressive. 

“I have to get back. I have another mission in a few hours. But while I’m gone, one of the agents is going to talk to you. She’s just going to write down whatever you tell her happened at the lodge.” 

Maria nods. 

She’s allowed to use the restroom, and takes a moment to stare at herself in the mirror above the sink.

Let’s do this.

Maria is led into gray, stone-walled room, with a giant chair in the middle and a large, table-looking thing with a built-in screen. It reminds her of the cells she was put in when she misbehaved as a child. It’s almost comforting.

A woman walks into the room. She has the build of someone who fights and the uniform of someone who sits at a desk all day. 

“I’m Melinda May. I’m going to ask you a few questions about what happened earlier today.”

Maria nods. 

“The polygraph is standard procedure. It’s just to make sure we don’t have to do this any more than we have to.”

“Okay,” Maria says quietly, and allows the woman to hook her in. Metal cuffs lock her arms into the machine, and she really hopes that she hasn’t gotten herself into a giant, hard-to-fix mess.

“I’m going to ask a few questions to establish a baseline. Your name is Maria?”

“Yeah.” 

“You’re eleven years old?” 

“Yeah.” 

Agent May nods. “Okay. Why were you at the ski lodge?” 

“My mom and I were going for a vacation.” It’s not entirely a lie - the mission was so easy it felt like a vacation.

“And your dad?” 

“He’s not around.” That part’s complicated.

“And what happened to your mom?” 

“There was an accident. I wasn’t there.” 

“Can you give me more detail?” 

“I didn’t feel good,” the grammatical error makes her cringe internally, “so my mom let me stay back at the hotel. She went out skiing, and never came back.” 

“Okay.” Agent May nods and writes something down. “When was this?”

“Yesterday.” 

She nods again. “Who was the man you were talking to before the event started?” 

“You can call it a fight,” Maria says quietly. “And I don’t know.” 

“Our team saw you use his phone to call someone. Who was it?” 

Maria suddenly realizes that her mom being dead due to a skiing accident and her not knowing her legal guardian doesn’t really add up. She could say that she was trying to call her dad, but why would she? She already said that her dad isn’t in the picture. That doesn’t make sense. She likely wouldn’t know his phone number off the top of her head - she doesn’t know the phone number at all. He doesn’t have one.

She blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. 

“I don’t have to say anything without a lawyer.” 

Agent May stares at her for a second, then sighs. “Okay.” 

She stands up and leaves the room. Maria takes a moment to compose herself, as the next person comes in. 

The new woman’s hair is pulled back into a bun - away from her face. She fights, and based on her uniform, she’s high-up at SHIELD. 

“You won’t be in any trouble.” She says. 

Rude. Didn’t even introduce herself. 

“We just need to know who you were calling.”

Maria weighs her options. Maybe she could say she was calling her dad. But, then again, she’d already implied that she had no close family. 

She decides to stick to her guns. Not that she has any on her. Unfortunately. 

“I don’t have to say anything without a lawyer.” 

The agent inhales sharply. “Who taught you that?” 

Maria does her best to not break eye contact. Whoever this lady is, she’s honestly kind of scary. 

“Fine.” 

The woman disappears out the door. This time, they leave Maria alone for a while. 

Odd. Are they letting me stew? Trying to freak me out? Make me talk? It’s not going to work. I know how to hold up during interrogation.

The next person to walk in is a man. 

Her eyes widen for a fraction of a second. She feels her heart rate increase, and forces it back down. 

What is Rumlow doing here? 

He looks at her as if suddenly realizing exactly what he’s gotten himself into. Maria wonders if he volunteered to finish interrogating her because he thought it was going to be easy, and hadn’t quite realized who she was.

He collects himself remarkably well. Maria’s honestly a little impressed. 

“Who were you calling on the man’s phone?” Rumlow says calmly. 

Maria decides to mess with him a little. She’s sure they’ve caught her reaction, so she might as well make it look like she’s scared of him. 

Maria stares, not answering. She doesn’t make eye contact, but she doesn’t say anything, either. 

“Who were you calling on the man’s phone?” He repeats. 

Maria remains silent. She does her best to not blink.

Rumlow turns, looking at the mirror that’s across from her. He shrugs. 

“I don’t have to say anything without a lawyer.” 

Rumlow jumps out of his skin. It brings her great joy. She never did like him.

Maria is forced to sit in silence for a while. She’s honestly kind of bored. She was pretty sure they should’ve brought out the interrogation “tools” by now. You know, the violent stuff. Drills, knives, guns, hammers, and the like. 

The door opens again, then shuts. Who is it this time? 

A woman steps into the room. She’s older, with graying hair, but she’s dressed like she once owned the place. She probably did, because Maria recognized her instantly: Peggy Carter. 

Maria has no idea what to do. 

She’s staring into the face of the woman Hydra deemed Public Enemy #1 for twenty years, and she has no idea what to say. 

Faintly, she wonders if this is her chance to kill her and prove that she should be the one to lead when she comes of age. 

That’s probably a bad idea.

“The agents tell me you’ve been quite the thorn in their side.” 

Maria doesn’t say anything. Mostly because she has no idea what to say. 

“Hm.” Carter sits down across from her. “You only need to tell me one thing. It’s vital, because depending on who it was, it could lead us to the people who attacked that agent.” She looks at Maria very seriously, like her answer could save the world, or something equally ridiculous. “When you went up to the man, and asked for his phone, who were you trying to call?” 

Maria takes a deep breath. “...I don’t have to say anything without a lawyer.” 

Carter bursts out laughing. 

“Uh…Director Carter?” 

Carter shakes her head. “Sorry. Just…” She shakes her head again, still laughing. “Oh, my God.” 

And Carter stands up. And she leaves.

She just…walks out. 

“Not today, Nick. Not to-” And the door clicks shut.

Who’s Nick? 

Maria sits up a little straighter when she sees the red hair. She steadies herself. 

This is the Black Widow. You have every reason to be afraid, but don’t be. 

“So,” Natasha sits down, flipping the chair around so that the back is facing Maria, and sets down a manila folder. “Who were you talking to on the phone? That’s the only question we have.” 

“I don’t have to say anything without a lawyer.” Maria’s voice trembles a little at the end, but she raises her chin. 

“Как ты смеешь так говорить с вышестоящим офицером?” How dare you speak to a superior officer like that?

“Мне очень жаль, мисс Черная Вдова, мэм, мне сказали, что вы предали дело…” I’m so sorry, Miss Black Widow ma’am, I was told you were a traitor to the cause… Maria trails off when she sees Natasha smirk. “You really do work for SHIELD, don’t you?” 

“Yep.” Natasha flips open the folder. “You know, I really thought I squashed the Red Room.” 

“The Red Room?” 

“You do work for the Red Room, correct? The agent at the ski lodge, Phillip Davidson, he was your target.” 

“No. I don’t know what the Red Room is.” 

“Then who do you work for?” 

Maria glances at the mirror. “Кто за зеркалом?” Who’s behind the mirror?

Natasha frowns. “Мой начальник.” My boss.

“Рамлоу?” Rumlow?

“Нет. Почему?” No. Why?

“Моя организация...сложная.” My organization is…complicated.

This is the Black Widow she’s talking to. If Maria can swing some kind of plea deal…

“Никто здесь не причинит тебе вреда. Я бы знал.” No one’s going to hurt you here. I would know.

“Моя организация...это та самая организация, которую, как думал директор Картер, она уничтожила.” My organization...is the same organization that Director Carter thought she destroyed.

“Красная комната.” The Red Room. Natasha says decisively. 

Maria shakes her head. “Я не могу…” I can’t…

“Ты не можешь мне сказать.” You can’t tell me.

Maria shakes her head. “Я не могу.” I can’t. “Я не буду.” I won’t , she amends. She’s loyal to Hydra. Why would she tell this woman more than she already has? 

“Okay.” Natasha nods. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out.” 

She stands, and Maria can’t hide her flinch. Natasha walks a little slower, but she doesn’t say anything, which Maria appreciates. 

“I’m gonna take these off.” Natasha unlocks the metal cuffs that had been trapping Maria to the chair, then backs away. Maria stands, stretching the tiniest bit before going back to standing normally. Her joints ache from sitting for so long, and she refuses to show even a hint of weakness.

“Thank you,” Maria says quietly.

“No problem. My boss is a little on edge about the whole ‘agent of a secret unknown organization’ thing, so he’s going to come in here.”

Right on cue, a tall man with an eyepatch and a cloak walks through the door. Dramatic.

“Out of everyone in this building, you have been the biggest pain in my ass for the last seven hours.”

“...Thank you?” 

“It is an achievement,” Natasha says, smirking.

“Don’t.” The man stays standing, placing himself between Maria and the door. She tenses, scanning him for weak points. “Not only have you been a pain in my ass…you’ve also been incredibly helpful.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“Have a seat.” The man sits down, and Natasha sits next to him. 

“Are you going to hook me in again?” She asks warily. 

“No.” 

She sits back down, even though she really doesn’t believe him.

“You have one chance to tell us who you are, for real this time, before we tell you.”

“I told you who I am.”

“Yes, you did. Sort of. Want to amend your story?” 

“What story?” 

“That your mother died in a skiing accident.”

“She did.” 

“No, she didn’t.” The man opens a manila folder. “When you first stepped onto the plane with Agent Romanoff, we were all wondering who the hell you were. Your tale of woe didn’t exactly add up - no guardian, yet you were calling someone on a man’s phone? A man you presumably didn’t know, yet the second you handed the phone back, mercenaries came out from all corners of the room to try and kill him. Want to tell me why that is?” 

“I don’t know.”

“Hm. You’re good, Miss Malick.” 

“Thank you?”  

“What’s your full name?” 

“Maria Natalia Malick.” Maria has no idea why he’s asking her that, but it’s not like she has anything to lose telling them the truth about who her mother is. Stephanie is respected, in Hydra and out of it. There’s nothing they could do to her that won’t make people angry. Probably.

“Your initials are M-N-M?” Natasha asks.

“Yes?” 

“Like the candy?”

“The what ?” 

“Do you not know what M&Ms are?”

“No. What’s the point of this?” 

Fury sighs. “Can we move on? I’m much more interested in whatever organization took you than whether or not you know what M&Ms are. And,” he adds, “what they did to train you well enough to mostly fool the polygraph.” 

Maria thinks it over. She doesn’t know if she’s physically capable of saying the word “Hydra” out loud, in any language. The Winter Soldier couldn’t, so it stands to reason that she can’t, either. 

If she tells them anything, especially any more than she already has, she would be betraying her mother. More than that, she would be betraying Hydra, and likely destroying her future. 

“I’m not telling you anything.” 

The man laughs. “Nothing? Seriously, you have a whole conversation in Russian with the woman who escaped your organization , and won’t tell me who you work for?” 

“I don’t work for the Red Room, and if you spoke Russian, you’d know that.” Maria snaps. “The Red Room failed. They were destroyed. And I have no reason to trust you.”

“You have no reason to trust Agent Romanoff.”

“Romanoff is the Black Widow. She has the most to lose in this situation.”

“Agent Romanoff is protected by the most powerful organization on earth.”

“No. She’s not. SHIELD is not the most powerful organization on earth, and it is naive of you to think so. Even if it were, I have money and resources, and a guaranteed future, as long as I don’t get myself killed.”

“So that’s the issue. If you spill, they kill you. What is it, an eye implant?” 

“What? No. I’m Gideon Malick’s granddaughter, they wouldn’t dare.” 

“So, what, then? They won’t kill you. What will they do?” 

Maria knows exactly what they’d do. 

“Ever heard of the Winter Soldier?” 

“What about him?” Natasha asks. 

Maria smirks. “He’s still alive. He’s probably unfrozen by now, and I guarantee you they’re sending him to come get me. And he will get into the building, with orders to kill anyone who gets in his way. So, you can either let me go, and I will get back home by myself, no fuss required, or you can have the most highly-trained assassin in the world marching through your headquarters, gathering information as he goes. Which, given that I’ve been collecting information the entire time I’ve been anywhere near any SHIELD agents, just makes your life a lot harder. Feel like releasing me now?” 

“No.” The man stands, and heads for the door. “I don’t.” 

Well. She’d tried. And she was right. Maria may be important, but Barnes was the reason she was given the opportunities she had. He’d had a hand in her training. She trusted him, more than she trusted any other agent, and he was capable. If there were sending anyone to come get her, it was Barnes.

Theoretically, they could also send Belova. But that seemed like a bad idea, given Maria had just been staring into her sister’s face.

Chapter Text

Maria sits alone in the room for what feels like hours. Maybe it’s just the boredom talking, but she’s about ready to claw her skin off just so they’ll let her out of here. 

It’s so bad she starts contemplating escaping on her own. There’s no clock in the room, so there’s no way for her to tell how long it’s been. The man who’d tried to get her to talk for real had told her it had been seven hours since they’d picked her up, but that was ages ago. If Barnes isn’t here by now, then either she’d made a horrific mistake threatening them and telling SHIELD he was coming for her, or he was running into issues getting into the building. Which didn’t sound like him. He was the Winter Soldier, for God’s sake, he could get in anywhere he wanted.

The door opens, and Maria’s head snaps up. “Director Carter.” 

“Miss Malick.” She sits down across from Maria and slides a tray across the table. “You haven’t moved in the last two hours. And you haven’t eaten in a while. You must be hungry.”

Maria tilts her head to the side. She’s right. Good to know how long it’s been.

“I wasn’t going to participate in this, you know.”

Maria glances down at the tray. It holds a cheeseburger, wrapped in something white with red letters, fries, and a bottle of water.

“After you told me you weren’t going to talk without a lawyer, I headed home. And then Fury and Romanoff came to my house, explained the situation, told me everything they know…and now I’m here. Which is why it took so long.”

Maria just stares. She knows Peggy Carter likely won’t be intimidated by her, but she’s okay with that. 

“You really should eat something.”

“Not hungry.” 

A ghost of a smile crosses Carter’s face. “You know who you remind me of?”

“Who?” 

“Dottie Underwood.” 

Maria’s eyes widen a fraction. She’s heard of Dottie. 

“She was taken by an early version of the Red Room.” 

“I don’t-” 

“I know you don’t work for them. You’ve made that quite clear.” Peggy holds up a hand. “Just let me finish.” When Maria doesn’t speak, she smiles again. 

She smiles a lot.

“Dottie Underwood was an agent for an early version of the Red Room. And she was good. Really good. And she could’ve been anything she wanted, once she got out. But she chose to work with people who didn’t exactly have her best interests at heart.”

“Why are you telling me this story?” 

“Because I think you’re like her. At least a little. You come from similar backgrounds, you’re both resourceful…” Peggy Carter sighs. “Maria, somewhere in between giving those poor agents the runaround trying to figure out who you are, you insisting that you won’t say anything without a lawyer, and having no fingerprints, we figured out exactly who you are.”

“You know who I am. Maria Malick. I didn’t keep that from you.”

Peggy holds up a manila folder. “This is everything we know about you. Where you’ve been sighted the past eight years, your age, birthday, parents, every crime you’re a suspect in now that we know what you’ve been trained for.”

“You don’t know what I was trained for.”

Carter gives her a look. “Yes, we do.” 

Maria keeps her hands in her lap, fighting against the urge to reach out and take the folder. 

“SHIELD is prepared to offer you a deal.” 

“But I didn’t do anything.” 

“Not that kind of deal. Well, it is somewhat that kind of deal. You can have this,” Carter taps the folder, “and you can do whatever you want with it. But you have to give us information.” 

“What kind of information?”

“Anything you have. Names of agents, safehouses, bank numbers, locations, operations.” 

Maria thinks it over. 

Pros: She can bargain for something more than her information.

Cons: Destroys Hydra, ensures that she no longer has a future, and potentially leads them to the one man she’s pretty sure she can trust. 

“We have a twenty-four-hour turnaround policy. When agents are taken, they have twenty-four hours to either get themselves out or be extracted. I know they don’t have faith in me to get myself out, and I’m important enough that they’ll send an extraction team.”

“The Winter Soldier. I didn’t think he was real.” 

“He’s real.” Maria hesitates. ”I want a hotel room. Somewhere close to the Avengers Tower. Someplace nice, with a good restaurant, where I can get dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow, and I can either get it myself or watch them make my food. I want pajamas, and toiletries, and new clothes to wear tomorrow. It’s been approximately nine hours since I was taken from the ski lodge, meaning it’ll be about fifteen until my time’s up. If they don’t come and get me by the time the last fifteen hours are up, then I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But you can’t use my information until then.” 

Peggy sticks her hand out. “Deal.” 

Chapter Text

It takes two days for Maria to admit that she can’t just live in a hotel for the rest of her life. Or, at least, until she’s found by Hydra or graduates high school.

Maria looks at herself in the bathroom mirror and raises an eyebrow. “Хорошо, Малик.” Alright, Malick. She mutters. “Возьмите себя в руки. Он занимает больше времени, чем обещал, так что вам придется разобраться в этом самостоятельно.” Get yourself together. He’s taking longer than he promised, so you’ll have to figure this out yourself.

Maria splashes a little water on her face. Look alive.

There’s a knock at the door. 

She dries her face, then steps out into the small, hallway-like area that leads to the door of her room. She takes a breath. She can’t see out the peephole, even if she stands on her toes, so she focuses on the person beyond the door. Carter.

Maria shakes herself and glances in the mirror next to her, banishing any trace of her abilities, and opens the door. “Good morning.” 

“Good morning.” Peggy steps into the room, holding a plate of pancakes, hashbrowns, and bacon, and two cups of something, all on a tray. “I brought you breakfast.”

“Oh. Thank you.” Maria takes the tray and sets it down on the table. She’s a little wary about eating or drinking anything, but figures it’s better to not be seen as rude. She’ll taste whatever’s in it before it can do anything, anyway. 

Maria takes a small, tentative bite, determines that she is not being poisoned, and starts eating in earnest.

“Maria, can I ask you something?” Peggy says, breaking the silence that had descended over them.

“...Go ahead.” She frowns. 

“You can’t live in a hotel forever, dear. So, I was wondering if you’d rather live with me.”

“Excuse me?” 

“I have a free room. I don’t live with anyone, and you’d be perfectly safe.” 

“Are you sure it’s…discreet? SHIELD doesn’t have your address written down somewhere?”

“Of course, not. I wouldn’t let them. Why?” 

“The Soldier will come get me any day now. I’d hate to be the reason your house was broken into.”

“You have a lot of confidence in a man that’s not supposed to exist.” 

“Because we’re a team. My organization may not be one for loyalty, but he is.” 

“Hm.” Peggy takes a sip of whatever’s in her cup. “My point still stands. You can’t just live in a hotel for the rest of your life.” 

“I’ll think about it.” 

Peggy also takes her shopping. Maria’s surprised - she had half-expected Natasha to do it. 

They go to someplace called Target. It’s an odd choice of name, for a place that doesn’t sell information on targets. 

It doesn’t seem like Peggy really fully understands how eleven-year-olds work, but, then again, Maria sees the children’s section and nearly turns around. 

“No.” Peggy puts a hand on Maria’s shoulder to stop her from moving, and Maria knocks it off (rather harshly) on instinct. Peggy raises an eyebrow.

“Sorry.” 

It takes another day for Maria to accept Peggy’s invitation to live with her. The woman seems a little too happy about it for Maria’s taste, but she doesn’t mention it. Things are going to be awkward enough as it is, and she refuses to make it worse.

Peggy lives in a two-bedroom, three-bathroom brownstone in Brooklyn. It’s very nice, and Maria’s room has a view overlooking the street and the front door. She appreciates that. She also appreciates the multitude of cameras, and the basement having both a small gym and a lot of TV screens, which show what the cameras are recording. 

There are pictures everywhere, mostly of friends. A few are clearly of the Howling Commandos, but they’re not always all there, and sometimes they look older. There’s a group picture - must be at a reunion , Maria thinks. She stops when she sees a woman, standing on the left end of the group. “Who’s that?” She asks quietly. 

“Winnifred Barnes. Bucky Barnes’ mother.”

“Oh.” 

Originally, the spare bedroom had been an office, but SHIELD apparently has very good connections, because there’s a bed, a small desk, an office chair, and a bookcase in the room by the end of the day. Maria and Peggy go around to a few stores the day after that so that they can buy sheets and a few other things that’ll make the room look more like someone actually lives in it. The only thing Maria really wants are blackout curtains, so that no one can see inside her room. Peggy obliges. 

Maria gets the sense that Peggy notices that most of the things she picks out are pink, but she doesn’t mention it, so she figures it’s not a big deal. The color is the one thing she likes about her powers, and she will be sticking with it, thank you very much.

The first night that Maria spends in Peggy’s house, she spends getting accustomed to everything. After Peggy’s gone to bed, she explores the entire house from top to bottom.

It’s three stories. The top floor has two bathrooms, each connected to either her room or Peggy’s. On the ground floor, the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all open. There’s a small entry, a bathroom, and an office, which Maria spends the most time in. She takes care to ignore the odd feeling in her stomach when she picks the lock on Peggy’s desk and goes through the files in it. 

She finds a picture of Steve Rogers before his transformation, sitting in a file that details Project Rebirth. She also finds a few manila folders, each referring to a separate mission. One is dedicated to Dottie Underwood, another to something called an 0-8-4 the Howling Commandos had found while raiding Hydra bases, and yet another to the Red Room and its fall. 

The basement is Maria’s favorite room. She watches the security cameras for a while. Very few people walk by - it’s a quiet street, which is probably why Peggy chooses to live there. 

Once she’s satisfied, she heads back to her room, careful to avoid the third step on the stairs, which she quickly realized is rather creaky. Maria’s door clicks shut behind her, and she heads for the bathroom. 

She’s washing her hands when she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Maria can’t help but feel like something is wrong. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be anywhere near SHIELD.

“Взять себя в руки.” Pull yourself together. She mutters. “Ты Гидра. Гидра.” You’re Hydra. Hydra. 

- - -

Maria feels something rise in her throat. On instinct, she throws up the covering on the toilet and drops to her knees in front of it. 

It doesn’t take long for something to come out. It’s disgusting, and she hates every second of it. She feels like her body is working against her, but at the same time, she knows it’s serving a purpose.

Is this what the agents were talking about?

Finally, she finishes what she can only assume is vomiting and flushes the toilet. Maria steadies herself, rinses out her mouth, and takes a deep breath. She scans her body, looking for whatever is inhibiting her. She can’t quite describe what it is, but there must be a reason she can’t say the word ‘Hydra.’ 

Finally, she finds it. Something in her arm. It’s tiny, but it’s there, and it’s powerful. 

Maria darts into her room, grabbing the knife that she keeps under her pillow. She locks the bathroom door behind her, and takes the hand towel that hangs next to her sink. She shoves it in her mouth, hoping it’ll muffle the sound enough that it won’t wake Peggy. 

Maria clicks open the knife, and holds out her right arm. She slices just under her chelidon, quickly and efficiently, and blood immediately rises from the cut. Maria wincess, but keeps going. This has to be done - nothing can keep going until this thing is out of her body. 

I’m surprised I didn’t notice this thing before, Maria thinks, as she digs into her arm. Oh, this is much worse than I thought it was going to be. She’s tempted to scream, but forces it back. She’s starting to gag a little, the towel pressing against her tongue and throat.

She’s not surprised they put a tracker/inhibitor in her, but she can’t think about it now. She has to get it out before the wound closes. Thank you, superpowers. 

With a final grunt, Maria rips it out. The moment she does, she staggers back, nearly hitting the bathroom wall. She can feel everything . She can tell Peggy is still sleeping. Can tell that Peggy has radiation poisoning, that the man walking by the front door has a cold. 

Her eyes are pink. 

She staggers forward, gripping the edge of the counter. The inhibitor falls the floor. She focuses, breathing in and out. In and out. In and out.

Maria comes back to herself. The wound is already closed.

She cleans up the last of the blood, thanking her lucky stars the towel is dark, and won’t show anything she gets on it. 

- - -

She leaves her bathroom, tossing the towel into the hamper she’d gotten earlier that day, then re-enters. 

For a moment, she stares at the inhibitor. She wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also a tracker.

Maria debates with herself. She could crush it. 

They were protecting you, a voice in her head whispers.

No. They knew I could be better , she thinks. They knew I could do more and stopped me from doing it. 

Maria takes the inhibitor, drops it on the ground, and crushes it under her foot. She sweeps the remnants into her trashcan and finishes getting ready for bed.  

“Why were you so convinced that the Winter Soldier, of all people, is going to come and get you?” Peggy asks. They’re eating dinner in almost silence, a record playing in the background. Peggy has an extensive collection. They’re mostly 40s records, but they’re all in excellent condition, and she seems to have a fondness for something called ABBA.

“He will come get me.” Maria slices a potato in half with the efficiency and technique of someone who’s done that to a person. Peggy seems a little disturbed. “It’s just taking longer than normal.” 

“You have a lot of faith in him.” 

“We’re a team.” Maria rubs at the place on her arm where the inhibitor once was. She wonders, absently, if Barnes knew about it. 

Peggy frowns. “What does that mean?” 

“Nothing.” Maria refocuses on her food. 

“Maria,” Peggy says quietly. 

“Director Carter.”

Peggy raises an eyebrow, holding Maria’s gaze.

She’s not as scary as they painted her out to be. More powerful, though.

“He did most of my training.” She relents. “My other trainer wasn’t around much, because she was on loan from some other organization, and my mom…was my mother. Which speaks for itself. Ba-the Soldier,” she corrects, “was around a lot. Almost every day, a lot.”

“So, you were close.” 

Maria nods.

“Are you upset that he didn’t come?”

“No. He’s going to come and get me. It’s just taking longer than normal.”

“You’ve said, yes.”

“Because I’m right.” 

“How can you know?”

Maria sighs, putting down her fork and knife to rub at her eyes. “When I had my first mission, I was a little nervous. I needed to do well - I was younger than anyone else sent, because I was seven, but they needed a kid. My mom sent me to talk to the Soldier, to knock any nerves out of my system. He told me that if anything went wrong, he would be the one to handle my extraction. That if anything went wrong on any mission, he would be there to get me out.” 

“And he hasn’t shown yet.”

“Nope. But he’ll be here.”

When Maria goes to bed that night, she leaves her window open an inch.

Chapter Text

It takes a week for SHIELD to call her in again, once the agents have realized that the Winter Soldier probably isn’t coming. Maria’s not impressed - she had thought it would’ve taken them much less time to realize that a) she needed to exist on paper, and b) she was a highly trained agent from a foreign operation and they should probably figure out exactly what her capabilities are before she tries to use them against SHIELD. Also, she’d promised to give them information, and they’d never asked, so she never had.

She’s brought in bright and early on a Monday morning. 

In the front of the building, which Peggy has only called “headquarters,” people are flowing in and out. Some sort of shift change, Maria thinks, as she is led in through the back and into a sleek steel elevator.

“I’m glad they haven’t changed much. The inside of this building is ridiculously maze-like.” Peggy comments, as they step inside. She slides in a keycard, and there’s a noise like a car window opening, as a tiny hatch opens next to the card slot. Peggy presses her thumb to it, waits for the flash of light to finish, and presses the button for the top floor. 

Complicated.

“Hello, Director Carter.” A voice says. “Hello, Miss Malick.” 

“Uh-”

“Hello, JOCASTA.” Peggy smiles faintly. 

“Who-”

“SHIELD is primarily run by AI. Tony created JOCASTA with the sole purpose of having her run our buildings. He said he felt bad.” 

“...Bad about what?”

“He thinks SHIELD is somewhat behind on the times. I believe his exact words were ‘primitive and stupid.’” 

Sounds about right.

“So, he created an artificial intelligence program?” 

“Precisely.”

“And that helps…How?”

Peggy sighs. “Honestly, I have no idea. But Nicholas thinks it’s useful, so it must serve some purpose.”

“Well, then, JOCASTA, it’s nice to meet you,” Maria says, determined to have at least one being within SHIELD that trusts her (that’s not Peggy).

“Likewise, Miss Malick.’

“Maria. Director Carter.” Fury stands from his desk. 

“Nicholas.” 

“Fury.” Maria glances past him. “Are the windows being behind you supposed to make you look big and imposing?” 

“You’re very observant.”

“It’s my job to be observant.”

“Is it your job to point out your observations?” Fury raises an eyebrow.

“No, but it is legitimately in my job description to be better than you, and I like to believe that being better than you includes pointing out the things you do to make yourself look scarier and more interesting than you are.” 

Fury sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Is she going to be like this all day?”

Peggy shrugs. “How should I know? But I must say, I’m rather enjoying myself.” 

The first stop is clearly a lab - everything is white and sterile, and everyone is wearing lab coats. “You must be Maria.” A woman says. Her dark hair is in a bun, and everyone moves out of her way on instinct, without her having to say anything, so she’s clearly in charge. “I’m Helen Cho.” 

She crouches a little and holds out a hand. Maria shakes it, is impressed by her handshake and annoyed that she felt the need to crouch, and notes the stethoscope around her neck. 

“Nice to meet you.” Dr. Cho says.

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” 

“Hop up on the table. We have to run a few tests - bloodwork, mostly.”

Maria’s eyes widen. She said that so casually. “You’re going to take my blood?” 

“Yes.”

“No.” Maria shakes her head. 

Dr. Cho frowns. “Are you scared of needles?”

“What? No! I’m not a baby. I just don’t like the idea of a random person having my blood.” 

“It’s more that SHIELD will have your blood.”

“That is so much worse.” 

Maria swallows down her accent, which she’s been fighting very hard to hide. Americans are notoriously distrustful of Russians, no one needs to hear that.

“We just want to make sure there aren’t any diseases that we need to be aware of.”

“There are other ways to test for that. And if I had any crazy disease, not only would I tell you, I would not be an agent for my organization.” 

“They wouldn’t have you work for them if you were sick?” 

Maria can’t tell if Dr. Cho is concerned or hopeful about her not working for Hydra, but she decides she doesn’t care. She can’t get sick, anyway, so it doesn’t matter. “No.” She says. “They would fire me if I had a disease that would impair my ability to serve the cause.” 

Dr. Cho inhales, opens her mouth, shuts it again, and exhales sharply. “Okay, well, what if you didn’t know about it?”

“I would know.”

“Is there any DNA sample that you would be okay with us taking?” 

“No,” Maria says flatly. “Is it possible for you to just check my health like a normal doctor would at a normal appointment and move on?”

“Sure.” Dr. Cho smiles, and relents, and Maria finds that her nerves are set at ease. Dr. Cho may be working for SHIELD (at least at the present moment), but she seems very kind.

When she’s not trying to take Maria’s blood.

The next room she’s taken to is very clearly a gym. No one else is there, there’s a “closed” sign on the door, and when Maria enters, the windows that provide a view of the outside of the building go dark. Natasha is working with a punching bag in the corner, but she turns when Maria walks in with Peggy and Fury.

“Hey.”

“Hello, Agent Romanoff.” 

“You can call me Natasha.”

“I will not,” Maria says flatly.

Natasha shakes her head, but she’s smiling. “Alright, sure. Come here, Солнце, we’re gonna test your abilities.”

Uh oh.

“My what?” 

“How fast you can run, how much you can lift, and what you’ve already been taught. So, treadmill, bench, and ring.” 

“...Okay.”

I have no concept of how strong or fast someone my age is supposed to be. This is going to be terrible.

Maria does her best to seem normal. She pretends like she can bench no more than 45 pounds, and run no more than 10 miles per hour for five minutes without getting winded. She’s okay with that - someone trained would probably be able to lift more and run faster than average, but her actual stats are much better than that.

Natasha ducks into the sparring ring that sits in the center of the room. Maria hesitates, but follows.

“Don’t worry about trying to beat me in a fight,” Natasha says. “I just want to know what you were already trained in, and I’ll go through a few moves with you. Can you throw a punch?” Natasha asks. 

“Yes.” Maria’s offended by the question. Of course, she can throw a punch, she’s not three.

“What were you trained in?”

“I can use most weapons and like to think I do quite well in most fighting styles, but I suppose I can always learn more.” 

“Can you give me any specifics?” 

“It would be faster to tell you what I haven’t learned. And to just show you.”

Natasha glances over at Fury, who nods. She shrugs. “Alright. Hands up.” 

Maria resists the urge to say “I know,” and puts her hands up, centering herself. She takes a breath, focusing on the nerves she can half-see working in Natasha’s limbs.

“Go.” 

Natasha must be concerned that she’s going to hurt her, because she lets Maria strike first. She dodges, but when Maria continues to press the offensive, Natasha switches tactics. 

Maria relaxes a little, used to this, and lets the information course through her. Her powers do most of the work, honestly. She can practically feel the nerve endings - there are certain places where they’re dead, so the agent probably can’t feel pain there, but it’s no matter. Maria really doesn’t care about that. It’s not important right now. 

She allows herself to fall back a little to avoid a kick, then springs back up to punch Natasha in the stomach.

She focuses on the nerves that are actually doing things. The brain signals firing, that tell her exactly what limb is coming up to hit her, and how. 

Natasha fakes a strike, but Maria doesn’t even flinch, grabbing the arm that Natasha was going to use to actually hit her and twisting, flipping Natasha over her and onto the ground. The agent hits the mat hard, if the sound of the air getting knocked out of her is anything to go by. 

“Your eyes are glowing,” Natasha says.

“What?”

“Your eyes are glowing.” 

“What? My eyes can’t glow.” 

“Don’t even try to lie to me, kid.” 

Yep. I was played.

“So, Little Miss ‘Isn’t Enhanced’ can predict the Black Widow’s movements before they happen. What is it? Telepathy? Precognition?” 

“Ew, no. Telepathy wouldn’t even help , she probably doesn’t even think about what she’s gonna do. She just does it. And precognition isn’t real . If someone tells you they have precognition, it just means they’re a really good hacker or they work for some shady organization.”

“Like your organization?” 

“No. My organization isn’t stupid enough to claim precognition. Unlike some people.”

“You know what, I don’t want to hear it.” Fury rubs at his temples. “So, what can you do?” 

Maria knows that it will do absolutely no good to try and lie. 

Again.

“I’m a healer.”

“I’m sorry, what?” 

“I’m a healer. I can identify where injuries are and fix them.” Maria says. “And before you ask, no, I can’t fix your eye, but I can tell that it’s been somewhere close to twenty years since you got the injury.” 

“That’s remarkable,” Peggy says.

“Thank you. You have radiation poisoning. You should probably get that checked out.” 

“What kind of radiation?” Peggy asks.

Maria shrugs. “I don’t know. The enhanced kind? It’s similar to what I always get off the Winter Soldier.”

“The Winter Soldier is enhanced?”

“Duh. He couldn’t have survived 70 years in and out of cryofreeze if he wasn't.” And being tortured , her head supplies, but Maria pushes the thought away.

“JOCASTA,  call Dr. Cho up to my office,” Fury says. “Dr. Cho will do some testing - figure out the extent of your abilities and where they stem from. And before you say anything, all of the information is confidential. No one can see it except for me, Director Carter, and Dr. Cho.”

Maria shakes her head. “No.”

“There’s no saying ‘no’ this time.”

“Fury, we had a deal.” Maria frantically tries to keep herself from looking desperate.

“The deal was that we’d put you up in a hotel, and not use the information we had on you as long as you gave us information. Not only have you failed to do that, but your abilities were never part of the deal.” 

“Nicolas, she’s a child.” Peggy says.

“A child that knows something.” 

“She’s still a child. You won’t be taking down her information.”

“I can handle this.” Maria takes a breath. She doesn’t need to snap at Director Carter. It’s not her fault. “Director Fury, you will not be taking down my information. I cannot trust that unsavory people won’t see that my information is in your system, and learn my whereabouts. It’s bad enough that you’ve written down everything you know about me.” 

“This is non-negotiable,” Fury says.

“Nicolas-” Peggy starts.

“I don’t need help !” Maria snaps. “I am perfectly capable of functioning on my own, and I don’t need you to defend me!” 

Peggy’s eyes widen. “Maria-”

She doesn't hear the rest of the sentence. 

She bursts through the back door and into a maze of concrete and cars, and suddenly realizes that she has virtually nowhere to go. So, she jumps up, grabs onto a pipe, pulls herself up, jumps for a beam, and settles herself there while she goes over her options. 

#1 - Go back to Hydra. If she goes back, she can claim that she was held at SHIELD against her will. They’ll probably see right through it, but once she gives them the information she has, they won’t question it. They won’t care. If she gives them Peggy’s address, they might even let her see Barnes.

Something about the idea of giving up Peggy’s primary location causes a weird feeling in her stomach, so Maria moves on.

#2 - Go back inside. Let Dr. Cho take her blood, look through her DNA, poke and prod at her, and ask her a million questions. Give her the Maximoff treatment, effectively, probably complete with the torture part if she doesn’t give anything up. 

Any torture would probably be done by another agent, Maria realizes. She doubts Dr. Cho would do that, and Natasha seems like she likes her enough not to. Fury definitely hates her enough by now that he would, though, and the two women from the interrogation room freak her out enough that she has to at least consider them as an option. 

#3 - Run. Take off. Change her name, dye her hair, and move to Russia. No one will find her there. Not even SHIELD. She’s better than that.

“You want to get down from there?” Someone says. 

Maria looks down. 

“Yeah, I do that too much for you to fool me.” 

Hawkeye.

Maria frowns and decides to play dumb. “Who’re you?” 

“Clint Barton. Director sent everyone chasing after you when you bolted. So, are you coming down, or am I coming up?” Maria doesn’t answer, and he shrugs. “Guess I’m coming up.”

Barton pulls himself up faster than she did, but, then again, he doesn’t need to launch himself off a pipe. 

“How’d you even get up here?” He asks.

“Parkour.”

Barton laughs. When Maria’s brow furrows in confusion, his face drops. “Oh, kid, please tell me you’ve seen The Office .”

“I’ve seen many offices.” 

“Oh, no, what are they teaching you?” 

“Multiple forms of self-defense, attack strategies, history, maths, sciences-” 

Barton sighs. “If you get out of this without Fury having an aneurysm, I’m showing you The Office . It’s my duty as an Avenger.”

“I really don’t think-”

“Nope. No getting out of it, kid.”

Maria decides to pick her battles. “What did they tell you to do?”

“Well, Fury said I am to drag you back to his office kicking and screaming if I have to.”

“Tell him I’m only going back if he doesn’t put me on his list.” 

Barton puts a hand to his ear. “Yeah, the kid says she’s only coming back in if you don’t put her on the Register.” He listens to something, nods, and looks back at her. “He says it’s non-negotiable.”

“I’ll tell him who I work for.”

Maria’s almost surprised at her own lack of hesitation. Barton certainly is. He blinks at her, taking a second to process before he puts his hand back up.

“She’ll tell you who you work for.” Pause. Clint grins. “Deal.” 

A few minutes later, Maria is sitting in a chair, people sitting in a half-circle around her. May, Hill, Barton, Natasha, and Peggy are all there, plus Fury. 

“Alright, Malick, out with it,” Fury says.

“You know-”

“Just say the name.” 

“I…” Maria takes a breath and centers herself. There’s a lot of eyes on her - she hadn’t expected that part. 

Fury rolls his eye. “Maria-”

“I worked for Hydra.”

Hill’s eyes widen. Barton passes Natasha something green.

It takes a week for SHIELD to call her in again, once the agents have realized that the Winter Soldier probably isn’t coming. Maria’s not impressed - she had thought it would’ve taken them much less time to realize that a) she needed to exist on paper, and b) she was a highly trained agent from a foreign operation and they should probably figure out exactly what her capabilities are before she tries to use them against SHIELD. Also, she’d promised to give them information, and they’d never asked, so she never had.

She’s brought in bright and early on a Monday morning. 

In the front of the building, which Peggy has only called “headquarters,” people are flowing in and out. Some sort of shift change, Maria thinks, as she is led in through the back and into a sleek steel elevator.

“I’m glad they haven’t changed much. The inside of this building is ridiculously maze-like.” Peggy comments, as they step inside. She slides in a keycard, and there’s a noise like a car window opening, as a tiny hatch opens next to the card slot. Peggy presses her thumb to it, waits for the flash of light to finish, and presses the button for the top floor. 

Complicated.

“Hello, Director Carter.” A voice says. “Hello, Miss Malick.” 

“Uh-”

“Hello, JOCASTA.” Peggy smiles faintly. 

“Who-”

“SHIELD is primarily run by AI. Tony created JOCASTA with the sole purpose of having her run our buildings. He said he felt bad.” 

“...Bad about what?”

“He thinks SHIELD is somewhat behind on the times. I believe his exact words were ‘primitive and stupid.’” 

Sounds about right.

“So, he created an artificial intelligence program?” 

“Precisely.”

“And that helps…How?”

Peggy sighs. “Honestly, I have no idea. But Nicholas thinks it’s useful, so it must serve some purpose.”

“Well, then, JOCASTA, it’s nice to meet you,” Maria says, determined to have at least one being within SHIELD that trusts her (that’s not Peggy).

“Likewise, Miss Malick.’

“Maria. Director Carter.” Fury stands from his desk. 

“Nicholas.” 

“Fury.” Maria glances past him. “Are the windows being behind you supposed to make you look big and imposing?” 

“You’re very observant.”

“It’s my job to be observant.”

“Is it your job to point out your observations?” Fury raises an eyebrow.

“No, but it is legitimately in my job description to be better than you, and I like to believe that being better than you includes pointing out the things you do to make yourself look scarier and more interesting than you are.” 

Fury sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Is she going to be like this all day?”

Peggy shrugs. “How should I know? But I must say, I’m rather enjoying myself.” 

The first stop is clearly a lab - everything is white and sterile, and everyone is wearing lab coats. “You must be Maria.” A woman says. Her dark hair is in a bun, and everyone moves out of her way on instinct, without her having to say anything, so she’s clearly in charge. “I’m Helen Cho.” 

She crouches a little and holds out a hand. Maria shakes it, is impressed by her handshake and annoyed that she felt the need to crouch, and notes the stethoscope around her neck. 

“Nice to meet you.” Dr. Cho says.

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” 

“Hop up on the table. We have to run a few tests - bloodwork, mostly.”

Maria’s eyes widen. She said that so casually. “You’re going to take my blood?” 

“Yes.”

“No.” Maria shakes her head. 

Dr. Cho frowns. “Are you scared of needles?”

“What? No! I’m not a baby. I just don’t like the idea of a random person having my blood.” 

“It’s more that SHIELD will have your blood.”

“That is so much worse.” 

Maria swallows down her accent, which she’s been fighting very hard to hide. Americans are notoriously distrustful of Russians, no one needs to hear that.

“We just want to make sure there aren’t any diseases that we need to be aware of.”

“There are other ways to test for that. And if I had any crazy disease, not only would I tell you, I would not be an agent for my organization.” 

“They wouldn’t have you work for them if you were sick?” 

Maria can’t tell if Dr. Cho is concerned or hopeful about her not working for Hydra, but she decides she doesn’t care. She can’t get sick, anyway, so it doesn’t matter. “No.” She says. “They would fire me if I had a disease that would impair my ability to serve the cause.” 

Dr. Cho inhales, opens her mouth, shuts it again, and exhales sharply. “Okay, well, what if you didn’t know about it?”

“I would know.”

“Is there any DNA sample that you would be okay with us taking?” 

“No,” Maria says flatly. “Is it possible for you to just check my health like a normal doctor would at a normal appointment and move on?”

“Sure.” Dr. Cho smiles, and relents, and Maria finds that her nerves are set at ease. Dr. Cho may be working for SHIELD (at least at the present moment), but she seems very kind.

When she’s not trying to take Maria’s blood.

The next room she’s taken to is very clearly a gym. No one else is there, there’s a “closed” sign on the door, and when Maria enters, the windows that provide a view of the outside of the building go dark. Natasha is working with a punching bag in the corner, but she turns when Maria walks in with Peggy and Fury.

“Hey.”

“Hello, Agent Romanoff.” 

“You can call me Natasha.”

“I will not,” Maria says flatly.

Natasha shakes her head, but she’s smiling. “Alright, sure. Come here, Солнце, we’re gonna test your abilities.”

Uh oh.

“My what?” 

“How fast you can run, how much you can lift, and what you’ve already been taught. So, treadmill, bench, and ring.” 

“...Okay.”

I have no concept of how strong or fast someone my age is supposed to be. This is going to be terrible.

Maria does her best to seem normal. She pretends like she can bench no more than 45 pounds, and run no more than 10 miles per hour for five minutes without getting winded. She’s okay with that - someone trained would probably be able to lift more and run faster than average, but her actual stats are much better than that.

Natasha ducks into the sparring ring that sits in the center of the room. Maria hesitates, but follows.

“Don’t worry about trying to beat me in a fight,” Natasha says. “I just want to know what you were already trained in, and I’ll go through a few moves with you. Can you throw a punch?” Natasha asks. 

“Yes.” Maria’s offended by the question. Of course, she can throw a punch, she’s not three.

“What were you trained in?”

“I can use most weapons and like to think I do quite well in most fighting styles, but I suppose I can always learn more.” 

“Can you give me any specifics?” 

“It would be faster to tell you what I haven’t learned. And to just show you.”

Natasha glances over at Fury, who nods. She shrugs. “Alright. Hands up.” 

Maria resists the urge to say “I know,” and puts her hands up, centering herself. She takes a breath, focusing on the nerves she can half-see working in Natasha’s limbs.

“Go.” 

Natasha must be concerned that she’s going to hurt her, because she lets Maria strike first. She dodges, but when Maria continues to press the offensive, Natasha switches tactics. 

Maria relaxes a little, used to this, and lets the information course through her. Her powers do most of the work, honestly. She can practically feel the nerve endings - there are certain places where they’re dead, so the agent probably can’t feel pain there, but it’s no matter. Maria really doesn’t care about that. It’s not important right now. 

She allows herself to fall back a little to avoid a kick, then springs back up to punch Natasha in the stomach.

She focuses on the nerves that are actually doing things. The brain signals firing, that tell her exactly what limb is coming up to hit her, and how. 

Natasha fakes a strike, but Maria doesn’t even flinch, grabbing the arm that Natasha was going to use to actually hit her and twisting, flipping Natasha over her and onto the ground. The agent hits the mat hard, if the sound of the air getting knocked out of her is anything to go by. 

“Your eyes are glowing,” Natasha says.

“What?”

“Your eyes are glowing.” 

“What? My eyes can’t glow.” 

“Don’t even try to lie to me, kid.” 

Yep. I was played.

“So, Little Miss ‘Isn’t Enhanced’ can predict the Black Widow’s movements before they happen. What is it? Telepathy? Precognition?” 

“Ew, no. Telepathy wouldn’t even help , she probably doesn’t even think about what she’s gonna do. She just does it. And precognition isn’t real . If someone tells you they have precognition, it just means they’re a really good hacker or they work for some shady organization.”

“Like your organization?” 

“No. My organization isn’t stupid enough to claim precognition. Unlike some people.”

“You know what, I don’t want to hear it.” Fury rubs at his temples. “So, what can you do?” 

Maria knows that it will do absolutely no good to try and lie. 

Again.

“I’m a healer.”

“I’m sorry, what?” 

“I’m a healer. I can identify where injuries are and fix them.” Maria says. “And before you ask, no, I can’t fix your eye, but I can tell that it’s been somewhere close to twenty years since you got the injury.” 

“That’s remarkable,” Peggy says.

“Thank you. You have radiation poisoning. You should probably get that checked out.” 

“What kind of radiation?” Peggy asks.

Maria shrugs. “I don’t know. The enhanced kind? It’s similar to what I always get off the Winter Soldier.”

“The Winter Soldier is enhanced?”

“Duh. He couldn’t have survived 70 years in and out of cryofreeze if he wasn't.” And being tortured , her head supplies, but Maria pushes the thought away.

“JOCASTA,  call Dr. Cho up to my office,” Fury says. “Dr. Cho will do some testing - figure out the extent of your abilities and where they stem from. And before you say anything, all of the information is confidential. No one can see it except for me, Director Carter, and Dr. Cho.”

Maria shakes her head. “No.”

“There’s no saying ‘no’ this time.”

“Fury, we had a deal.” Maria frantically tries to keep herself from looking desperate.

“The deal was that we’d put you up in a hotel, and not use the information we had on you as long as you gave us information. Not only have you failed to do that, but your abilities were never part of the deal.” 

“Nicolas, she’s a child.” Peggy says.

“A child that knows something.” 

“She’s still a child. You won’t be taking down her information.”

“I can handle this.” Maria takes a breath. She doesn’t need to snap at Director Carter. It’s not her fault. “Director Fury, you will not be taking down my information. I cannot trust that unsavory people won’t see that my information is in your system, and learn my whereabouts. It’s bad enough that you’ve written down everything you know about me.” 

“This is non-negotiable,” Fury says.

“Nicolas-” Peggy starts.

“I don’t need help !” Maria snaps. “I am perfectly capable of functioning on my own, and I don’t need you to defend me!” 

Peggy’s eyes widen. “Maria-”

She doesn't hear the rest of the sentence. 

She bursts through the back door and into a maze of concrete and cars, and suddenly realizes that she has virtually nowhere to go. So, she jumps up, grabs onto a pipe, pulls herself up, jumps for a beam, and settles herself there while she goes over her options. 

#1 - Go back to Hydra. If she goes back, she can claim that she was held at SHIELD against her will. They’ll probably see right through it, but once she gives them the information she has, they won’t question it. They won’t care. If she gives them Peggy’s address, they might even let her see Barnes.

Something about the idea of giving up Peggy’s primary location causes a weird feeling in her stomach, so Maria moves on.

#2 - Go back inside. Let Dr. Cho take her blood, look through her DNA, poke and prod at her, and ask her a million questions. Give her the Maximoff treatment, effectively, probably complete with the torture part if she doesn’t give anything up. 

Any torture would probably be done by another agent, Maria realizes. She doubts Dr. Cho would do that, and Natasha seems like she likes her enough not to. Fury definitely hates her enough by now that he would, though, and the two women from the interrogation room freak her out enough that she has to at least consider them as an option. 

#3 - Run. Take off. Change her name, dye her hair, and move to Russia. No one will find her there. Not even SHIELD. She’s better than that.

“You want to get down from there?” Someone says. 

Maria looks down. 

“Yeah, I do that too much for you to fool me.” 

Hawkeye.

Maria frowns and decides to play dumb. “Who’re you?” 

“Clint Barton. Director sent everyone chasing after you when you bolted. So, are you coming down, or am I coming up?” Maria doesn’t answer, and he shrugs. “Guess I’m coming up.”

Barton pulls himself up faster than she did, but, then again, he doesn’t need to launch himself off a pipe. 

“How’d you even get up here?” He asks.

“Parkour.”

Barton laughs. When Maria’s brow furrows in confusion, his face drops. “Oh, kid, please tell me you’ve seen The Office .”

“I’ve seen many offices.” 

“Oh, no, what are they teaching you?” 

“Multiple forms of self-defense, attack strategies, history, maths, sciences-” 

Barton sighs. “If you get out of this without Fury having an aneurysm, I’m showing you The Office . It’s my duty as an Avenger.”

“I really don’t think-”

“Nope. No getting out of it, kid.”

Maria decides to pick her battles. “What did they tell you to do?”

“Well, Fury said I am to drag you back to his office kicking and screaming if I have to.”

“Tell him I’m only going back if he doesn’t put me on his list.” 

Barton puts a hand to his ear. “Yeah, the kid says she’s only coming back in if you don’t put her on the Register.” He listens to something, nods, and looks back at her. “He says it’s non-negotiable.”

“I’ll tell him who I work for.”

Maria’s almost surprised at her own lack of hesitation. Barton certainly is. He blinks at her, taking a second to process before he puts his hand back up.

“She’ll tell you who you work for.” Pause. Clint grins. “Deal.” 

A few minutes later, Maria is sitting in a chair, people sitting in a half-circle around her. May, Hill, Barton, Natasha, and Peggy are all there, plus Fury. 

“Alright, Malick, out with it,” Fury says.

“You know-”

“Just say the name.” 

“I…” Maria takes a breath and centers herself. There’s a lot of eyes on her - she hadn’t expected that part. 

Fury rolls his eye. “Maria-”

“I worked for Hydra.”

Hill’s eyes widen. Barton passes Natasha something green.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks pass in a blur. Despite her best attempts, Maria is a creature of habit, and so she builds a routine. She wakes up at seven, and refuses to get out of bed before that, no matter what time she actually opens her eyes.

She gets ready, and is shuttled across the city, usually with Peggy driving. She spends most of her time awake at the SHIELD headquarters in New York, sitting across from Fury with a cup of tea, JOCASTA recording everything she says in case it’s found to be useful. 

She likes JOCASTA. Despite being an AI, she seems to have real feelings. Or, at least, she can think for herself, and Maria finds her honesty refreshing. 

When she’s not being forced to tell Fury everything she knows, she’s being forced to go to trainings and testings. The agents she interacts with most seem to think that she is a child, and needs to be taught how to defend herself. 

Maria begins to find solace in the hours that she spends in her room, away from the poking and prodding, when Peggy’s gone to bed and thinks Maria has, too. 

Mostly, she spends the time writing. Fury had given her a notebook, for her to write down anything she remembers about Hydra. She respects the idea, but elects to use it as a journal instead. It’s incredibly detailed, and she keeps it under her pillow while she sleeps, right next to a knife.

When she’s actually asleep, Maria dreams about Hydra. She dreams about her training, about her parents, about her trainer. 

She doesn’t get much sleep. 

She still leaves her window open exactly an inch, every night. 

“One more thing, before you go,” Fury says, after another day of sitting in a chair and talking about Hydra. Maria rubs her arm nervously, in the spot the tracker once was. The wound has healed over by now, it fixed itself the same night, but a part of her still worries she didn’t get everything out. That there is something left in her.

“Yeah?” 

Fury hands her a stack of papers. “I need these filled out by Monday. For you to keep living with Director Carter, we need to make her your legal guardian.” Maria opens her mouth, but Fury cuts her off. “And, no, this will not end up on anything a Hydra agent can see. You’ll need a password and level clearance to get to it, and the only people who’ll have those things will be me, Director Carter, and Agents Hill and Romanoff.”

“Thank you.” Maria stands, packs her bag, and leaves. 

Maria fills out the paperwork while watching The Office with Barton. He’d come over one night with a few bags of popcorn, candy, and three liter-size bottles of something called Fanta. It’s a sickeningly bright orange color, but Maria decides it tastes good.

“Director Carter, I have a lot of respect for you, but this kid needs to understand some pop-culture references if you’re ever going to put her in a real school.” 

Maria doesn’t love the show, and she doesn’t understand why Barton likes it, either. But that could be because she doesn’t always understand the humor. She takes it as an opportunity to study - she doesn’t want to go, but if she’s forced to go to a real school, she might as well know something that will make her peers like her.

“Hey, what if I don’t know who my father is?” Maria says aloud. Peggy is sitting at the table, going through her own section of the forms. 

“Just write ‘non-applicable.’” She says. “Do you have any property?”

“No, unless you count everything in my room. But I do have access to the secret Hydra trust fund.” 

“Have you told Fury about that?” Barton asks, grabbing a handful of popcorn. 

“Um…I don’t know. I’ll tell him on Monday. And I thought we agreed one piece at a time.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry, kid.” 

Maria side-eyes him as he drinks straight from the giant bottle in his hand. “Животное,” she mutters, as she goes back to her paperwork.

“Natasha has called me that enough times for me to know what it means,” Barton says. 

“Good to know. I’ll call you an animal in English next time.” 

“Thank you. I appreciate that.” 

“You didn’t think to tell me about the secret Hydra trust fund?” Fury asks, hands steepled in front of him. 

Maria shrugs. “It never came up.”

Outside of her own little daily routine, a weekly standard is created. Hill stops by every two weeks. Maria starts sparring practice three days a week with Natasha, once the agent’s missions pick up again and Fury finally realizes that Maria can, in fact, kill a man a hundred different ways. She wonders if Natasha’s mentioned her to the Avengers, but decides not to ask. She kind of doesn’t want to know. 

She kind of does. She kind of wants to meet Captain America.

Maria would rather die than admit that, though.

Natasha also teaches her how to hide her accent - corrects her when her words sound a little too Russian, when her speech pattern is off. It takes her a week, and it’s hard to pick up on some of the inflections, but Maria gets there eventually. She finds repeating lines from The Office surprisingly helpful. 

It’s within this routine that Maria starts to find the time to visit people. She knows everything about her family on her mother’s side - she can name every ancestor all the way back to the man who started Hydra, complete with birthdays. She could draw the family tree in her sleep, and she’s done exactly that on several occasions. 

But she doesn’t know much about her father. Her father doesn’t know much about himself. And it creates a feeling - an odd one, like she’s eaten something wrong and it’s starting to fight against her stomach, crawling it’s way up her throat. 

And she doesn’t know quite how to fix it, but she’s going to.

“I didn’t want the SHIELD agents to know,” Maria says quietly. “I thought it might freak them out, me asking to see the grave of a war hero captured by the organization I worked for. But…He’s important.” 

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” Maria says quickly, then sighs and tries to come up with something that’s not a complete lie. “They did a lot of testing on him, is all. He was one of the first to be given the serum that eventually made the Winter Soldier.”

“Did it work?” 

Maria shrugs. “I never got to that part of the file.”

It’s not really a lie , she reasons. It’s a lie by omission. I didn’t technically ever get to that part of his file. I met him before I could.

When Peggy takes her to the grave, she gives Maria space. The woman is perceptive - she seems to know that Maria needs her own time, to just sit and think. 

Maria traces the ‘B’ in ‘Barnes.’ She sets down the flowers she’d brought, one bouquet going in front of Barnes’ grave, the other in front of Winnifred’s. “Мы команда.” We’re a team. She mutters, just quiet enough that she knows Peggy won’t hear unless she has enhanced hearing. “Приди и забери меня, папа.” Come and get me, Dad.