Chapter Text
The world has changed since way before 2008 when Tony Stark announced himself so candidly as the Iron Man, way before a crater appeared in New Mexico with an un-lifting hammer in the middle, and way before Steve Rogers became Captain America and plummeted himself in a HYDRA vessel straight into the frozen Arctic.
There dark things in this world now but there remains light as well to always fight the good fight, protect the innocent and bring peace to their home, to those who live in it.
That light is called the Avengers, they provide a beacon of hope, a shield of protection around those who fear the dark and what lives in it. They know this and they plan to suffocate, eradicate, slaughter and crush every single one of those Avengers until they are nothing but a speck of dust floating in a downwards spiral the air.
Good things don’t last forever.
They clawed, spidering and infecting the shadows searching for the perfect vessel. A vessel that won’t shatter and dissolve under their influence, a vessel of the perfect, powerful, strong warrior puppet.
They have found such a person.
You.
The found you stumbling out of a bar somewhere up North in England, you weren’t too sure these days, and swaying from side to side, putting one foot in front of the other down an aged cobblestone street, you had a pleasant time knocking back a few Strongbow’s, played a few games of billiards, listening to the tribute band of the week.
You weren’t drunk by any means, you didn’t have that luxury, not anymore at least. You were different, enhanced due to a horrific accident as all of those ‘heroes’ tragically tend start off these days - what that night gave you is what made you so special, utter perfection in their eyes.
Which is why they violently ripped you out of that street, consumed you in the shadows, violated and infected every crevasse of your body, soul and mind until the very person that you were was nothing but an empty husk, a shell to be used, carved and shaped into their very purpose.
You were just a puppet now, a mindless slave with no freewill, no choice, no emotions.
You only had one task now.
Kill the Avengers.
Stark.
Rogers.
Barton.
Romanoff.
Odinson.
Banner.
Maximoff.
Vision.
Rhodes.
Wilson.
Parker.
Barnes.
Every single one by tedious one.
When you woke up, you were no longer in a nameless town in England, you woke up naked in an abandoned, under construction office building and when you pushed yourself off the dusty plaster boards you peered out the shattered window.
The Empire State Building, you were in New York and unsure how and why. When you asked that to yourself, you were hit with sharp burning shards in your head. You clutched your head, groaning out your pain but it didn’t stop there. Red scalding burns circled your forearms in spirals, you hissed in pain and brought your arms down and stared at the hideous burns fading into black markings resembled pythons coiling with their heads going into your palms.
They were a reminder as they seem to move and come alive, hissing their wishes at you.
You have a purpose.
You may begin.
You have everything you will need with you.
2:25pm. Downtown.
Do not fail us.
The snakes faded back to black markings on your skin, you turned from the window and everything you needed was placed in front of where you woke. A navy backpack filled with sustainable food and water, and weapons. Monotoned clothes lay neatly beside the bag, underwear, socks, black jeans, long sleeved grey shirts that embellished a symbol you recognise, a black and blue bikers’ jacket and military combat boots, holsters for your legs and torso. You put these all on, everything seemed to fit perfectly for you.
You returned to the window and looked over, at the ground and saw a motorcycle just lying there. You understood what the jacket was for now. You lifted yourself through the window, not caring for the shards glass penetrating the skin of hands, you let yourself fall and landed on your feet not metres away from the bike.
No keys, you noticed. You patted down the jacket you’re wearing and head a jingle in your right pocket, you pulled the object out. A key with a dartboard keyring attached. There was a name engraved on the back.
Yours, you suspected but none of that matters.
Seating yourself on the bike, you slotted the key in and started the engine. The machine purred with a rumble to life. You had to be somewhere more important to be. You drove out of the construction yard and onto the streets of New York.
You drove for hours and you were running out of time, you needed to get to Midtown, you parked and turned off the bike to take a look of your surroundings. Tall, greyed buildings everywhere, there was no colour other than the people. The place felt empty, but it was packed, busy all the same.
You could hear tyres burning rubber on the roads, screeching which seemed too loud for your ears. Your eyes then caught the sight of the out of the control car and it was on a crash course straight into a dark-skinned man with a black eyepatch covering one of his eyes and a woman walking together.
The woman with pinned back dark brown reacted too late, she called out to the man. “Fury, move!”
The man known as ‘Fury’ had no time left, the car was a metre away from him, but the hit never came. He opened his one good eye and saw a woman in front of car, perfectly fine and stopped the kamikaze car with her body, creating a dent in the nose.
She was one of them.
He stared at the woman; he could have sworn that her eyes had no colour. “Thanks, what’s your name, soldier?”
You blinked at him, reading him, watching him like prey. You knew he was why you were here; he was important, and you needed him. “Lieutenant-Colonel (Y/N) (Y/L/N) of the British Army, sir.” You answered him clear and concise, there was a memory that came with that, but it was just a whisper, closed off and not to be touched.
The brunette woman stepped towards her and beside Fury. “You’re a long way from home, soldier,”
“Yes, I am, Ma’am,” You nodded.
“You saved my life, soldier, and you exhibited extraordinary abilities there,” Fury smirked and wondered what more the likes of this soul weary soldier could do.
You pressed out a small smile. “I wouldn’t call it that, sir,”
Fury let out a chuckle, you reminded him of a recently thawed captain back in the very early days of the Avengers Initiative. “Let me buy you a coffee and let’s talk about it, or would you rather prefer tea?”
“Tea, actually.”
You did perfectly. You did what they wanted you to do, you had unknowingly made a link to the Avengers that would soon reveal itself, but you were still quite in the dark about that. They would continue to keep you in the dark until it is necessary for you to know specific things.
You felt a warm hiss against the back of your left ear as you followed the two into a coffee house.
Slowly.
Work and you shall see.
So, you did, you answered all of their questions, the right answers were hissed to you perfectly. You made Nick Fury and Maria Hill think you were a lost, wounded soul from the war with so much more left to give. So, they took you in, tested you and your abilities, saw what you were capable of and so much more, they trained you with agents and simulations for months and months. You did exactly what they asked of you and gave them the results they wanted to see.
A new Avenger.
Time will tell when that title will come to pass and be bestowed upon you by the Great Tony Stark.
They gave you a ‘home’, they called it, it was an apartment that you lived, slept, ate and received your messages in. Home meant absolutely nothing to you now. Nothing did.
You didn’t sleep, you’re not sure that you can so the snakes hiss whisperings to you encouragements of darkness, information that you need, what to do, how to act and what to say as you were a puppet with them pulling your strings.
Which you are just that.
A means to an end, and a gory one at that.
You know you will not survive this.
You didn’t care.