Chapter Text
A young girl by the name of Eleanor Oakland was stolen by HYDRA at the age of 5. Found in a car wreckage and was the only survivor, HYDRA took this kid in for their new project, Project Phoenix. She was submitted to lots of torture devices as Eleanor needed to experience pain before the experiments began. Being passed around HYDRA base to HYDRA base she never got much schooling in. But even when she did get taught things it would always involve people getting hurt or killed (example: the best way to kill someone quickly would be to grab their head and twist it fast like this..). Eleanor Oakland was slowly becoming a monster. Doctors would teach her math, science, and how to heal wounds. HYDRA agents would gladly teach her fighting and killing. As well as the 'true' history of HYDRA and the world. Some HYDRA agents, despite not wanting to, taught her literature mostly by throwing random books at her.
Once Eleanor reached the age of 11 the experiments began. No matter how much she screamed or writhed in pain the doctors kept on going. They drilled metal wings into her back even though HYDRA knew it was a long shot Eleanor still survived. In the process of this happening the doctors used a machine to inject needles into her. While Eleanor was healing from it all she soon found out she could control and create fire. HYDRA's experiments worked. They also established that their project who gained the name of Phoenix had a healing factor which allowed her to heal faster than the normal human being. All of these experiments lasted for a year before Eleanor actually gained powers. And while she was 13 years old, she trained with her fire power and her metal wings. With Phoenix's metal wings she was able to gain flight and had a pocket in each wing that held knives for a last resort option.
Finally in the next 3 years she went on missions and killed whoever HYDRA told her to without question. Eleanor Oakland aka the Phoenix got better than the Winter Soldier himself. HYDRA put a tracker inside her arm in case she ever escaped but they never doubted she would. But if Pheonix ever got captured HYDRA told her to memorize certain coordinates and go to the coordinates and HYDRA will pick her up. HYDRA may have brainwashed Eleanor into becoming the world's greatest assassin but failed at getting Eleanor to forget her past life with her family.
Eleanor/Phoenix's POV:
Phoenix got transported once again to another HYDRA facility and was put into some sort of human capsule. It was bulletproof glass all around with a vibranium floor and roof. With a single push of a button on a remote it would open; except she was told to stay put and don't move. Phoenix noticed people wearing white coats started taking notes and her vitals. This would happen every 3 months, HYDRA doctors tested her powers and how fast she could fly. If it didn't increase, she went without water and food for a whole week. All Phoenix wanted was for HYDRA to tell her she did a good job, but they never did. As the day went past, all of a sudden, the room shook. An alarm went off and Phoenix was told to go to her capsule, to which she obliged. As the capsule closed shut, she wrapped her wings around herself and from the outside it just looked like a metal cone inside of a glass capsule. Whenever Phoenix was scared, she never showed it, even now with HYDRA agents and doctors rushing out of the room. The last thing she heard before they all ran out was some HYDRA agent saying, "Leave her! She knows the drill, the Phoenix will return."
Natasha Romanoff's POV:
The Avengers just got some info about a HYDRA base holding some sort of weapon. So naturally Natasha, Wanda, Tony, Clint, and Steve loaded up the quinjet and headed towards the base. The plan was that Nat and Wanda would search for the secret weapon while Tony and Clint took out the HYDRA agents outside. Steve stayed in the quinjet ready to 'pick up' the weapon if need be. Once the Avengers got there, they all instantly headed toward their positions. Natasha entered the HYDRA base and started taking out agents left and right with Wanda right behind her. They ended up splitting up in search for whatever HYDRA put in store for them. Upon entering a room, Natasha saw it was some sort of laboratory. It looked like some files were burned last minute before whoever was here fled. There was a file labeled Project Phoenix, but nothing was inside of it. In the middle of the room was a glass capsule of some sort with a metal cone in the middle of the small capsule.
"I think I found the weapon," Natasha said into her comms.
"You think?" Tony replied.
"Wanda, I'm gonna need a little help over here," Nat announced, ignoring Tony's remark.
"On my way," Wanda answered.
(A/N: just ignore how badly written this story is. It was originally just a single scene and the idea of an OC. That was until my older sister said to make it into a full blown AU. Plus the fact I have no clue for the plot.. Soooo here ya go!)
As Wanda entered the room in awe, Natasha explained, “We need to find a way to extract this safely and bring it back to the Tower” as she gestured to the glass capsule.
Wanda just smirked and used her powers to detach the capsule and let it float upright behind her.
“That works too,” Natasha responded to Wanda’s actions.
Clint’s voice was then heard over the comms, “The building is secured. It looks like Hydra high-tailed it the second they realized we were here.”
“We have the weapon, and are making our way back to the jet,” Wanda added.
~ Time Skip - at the tower ~
Tony Stark’s POV:
"Can you get it open Stark?" Steve asked.
Tony then responded, "I can, but there's no guarantee what will happen afterwards." This so-called weapon was foreign to him. Yes, he was excited to see what Hydra had but at the same time.. Tony was sort of afraid after the Ultron incident. Before he could do anything else the metal cone inside the capsule started smoking.
Bruce, worried, said, "Tony.. what did you do?" pointing at the smoke.
"Nothing! I swear!"
Eleanor/Phoenix's POV:
Phoenix could hear what was going on outside of her capsule and thought about what to do. Hydra let her get captured for a reason, so she lit a flame in her hands while she thought. Was Phoenix supposed to steal something? Maybe kill someone? No, they would’ve told her who to kill. But then again.. If she was in the Avengers tower.. She could kidnap the Winter Soldier, take him back home, and maybe then Hydra will appreciate her work.
Realizing Phoenix was creating smoke with her flame, she stopped. Now knowing what to do, she lit herself on fire and spread her metal wings out with such ferocity that it shattered the glass capsule around her.
She heard commotion and yelling around her but Phoenix ignored it. Her prime focus was the Winter Soldier. The second everything shattered around her, Phoenix flew towards the Soldier, grabbed him by his leg, and flew out the window. In Phoenix’s arms, the Soldier was struggling and freaking out because of the fact that he was flying.
“Let me go!” Bucky screamed.
Phoenix responded, “It’s time to go home, Soldier.”
Bucky’s eyes widened, suddenly thankful that his words didn’t affect him anymore. “Y-You’re Project Phoenix, aren’t you?!”
Phoenix didn’t respond, she just glanced down at him. But before she could fly any further, a beam shot at her arms, making her let go of the Soldier. Phoenix hissed at the pain and shot a ball of fire at her attacker. As she dived straight down to catch the Winter Soldier, she noticed another man with wings had already caught the Soldier and was going to land. Phoenix flew faster and rammed into the other man with wings.
“Shit!” Sam exclaimed as he dropped Bucky.
Catching the Soldier by his arm, he clinged to Phoenix not wanting to be dropped again. Phoenix then saw an iron man, the man with wings, and a girl floating on red wisps surrounding her. Knowing her only option was to outfly the Avengers, that’s exactly what she did. “Hold on tight” Phoenix said to the Soldier. She then shot fire balls at each of the Avengers and flew off at her top speed.
What Phoenix didn’t know is that in the time Wanda was in the air, she was able to communicate to Bucky using her mind reading. During this time, Bucky explained to Wanda to let him be taken by Phoenix. This way the Avengers will be able to follow her back to a Hydra base, and capture her there. So while Phoenix was flying away to the memorized coordinates, thinking she successfully shook off the Avengers, they were actually following behind, not too far away.
When Phoenix arrived at the location in the forest, she could already see two Hydra vans waiting for her. Suddenly, two darts were shot into the Soldier’s neck. She dropped the Winter Soldier once he fell limp. Phoenix then made her way into the van and during this time, no one said a single word.
By the time the Hydra base came into sight, it was already nightfall. But before Phoenix could even exit the vehicle, all hell broke loose. The Avengers followed her! She stood horrified as a Hydra agent smacked her across the face and said, “You useless cunt! You lead the Avengers straight to us!” Before the Hydra agent could smack her again the Winter Soldier grabbed his hand and threw him out of the van. Phoenix was scared of facing punishment so she thought if she helped fight off the Avengers, maybe she wouldn’t get hurt as bad? Spreading out her wings, Phoenix was about to take flight once more but was unable to. She couldn’t move. Red wisps were surrounding her body and wings making it impossible to fly away. The girl from before suddenly appeared in front of Phoenix and in response, Phoenix blew out fire from her mouth towards her opponent. Red wisps then battled the flames and eventually extinguished the fire. Suddenly Phoenix felt drowsy and couldn’t fight it as she fell unconscious.
Bucky’s POV:
When the Hydra agent hit Phoenix, Bucky knew that she was only doing as told because she was raised in Hydra. She didn’t know any different.
Once Wanda knocked Phoenix out, she asked Bucky, “Do you know her?”
Bucky responded, “Yeah. She’s Project Phoenix.” He looked down at the young girl and her metal wings. “I never got the chance to meet her in person, until now.”