Work Text:
Lette Von Helstrom shivered as she stepped into the long abandoned Minskeverat Palace, her brother one step behind her as he always was. Here, in a ruined citadel their parents had been born, the children of Nazi officials specially chosen for their courage, health and Aryan purity to be the next generation of both the Nazi Party and HYDRA. This was where the nightmare began.
Because their parents were fraternal twins mated to each other by HYDRA Eugenics experts.
Because every moment of their parents' lives had been regimented and watched over by HYDRA in order to learn what breeding their line in on itself would bring.
Lette and Derek had been separated from their parents at birth, taken to a secret HYDRA facility to be raised there in the hands of scientists and behavior experts until they managed to escape at fourteen. Since then the twins had searched for their origins, for WHY they had been raised the way they were, for the reasons they had developed their terrifying abilities. But everywhere there were dead ends: burned out research facilities and mass graves where test subjects had been 'disposed of', incomplete or destroyed records, people unwilling or too afraid to talk. This was all that was left: the place where their parents had been born.
"We've managed to identify your grandparents from the DNA samples you gave us," SHIELD Assistant Director Maria Hill told them quietly from her position at Lette's right. "They were buried in a mass grave in the local cemetery. Both had been shot in the head, execution style and your grandmother had recently given birth. It appears that they objected to having their children taken away or what HYDRA had planned for your parents. We're now in the process of tearing this place apart for anything that might have been missed all these years. From what can be pieced together from what records we do have, this was a HYDRA facility for breeding Aryans with any form of psychic ability."
"Like us" Lette thought but did not say. She and her brother were exceptionally strong telekinetics and when they used their abilities while in physical contact...
Derek hugged her hard, knowing her thoughts as he so often seemed to as Maria Hill held them both, offering the comfort of an older sister that they had never known until joining SHIELD.
Natasha Romanoff, the woman who had brought them safely into SHIELD, hugged them hard while her partner, Clint Barton finished the protective circle of affection and comfort around them and the rest of the Avengers formed a protective barrier between the hurting twins and the rest of the world. A promise that never again would Fenris be alone.