second time’s the charm | Dark!Adler/Bell Post-Solovetsky AU snippet
“Нова-6 только что вошла во вторую фазу разработки. Главный научный сотрудник Кузьмин встретился с Кравченко, чтобы обсудить испытания на людях.”
You blinked, registering the sound of the chatter of a radio crackling through the air and the steady rolling of the tape in the corner. You could vaguely understand the Russian voice in the tape even though your Russian was hazy at best. MK Ultra hadn’t been the best thing for your linguistic skills. All you could catch was Nova-6, Kuzmin, and Kravchenko…a familiar name.
What were you…
Your thoughts were cut short by the sudden pain in your shoulder as you tried to pull yourself off the bed only to wince. You brought a hand to your shoulder-
The sound of chains clanging against metal resounded in the air. You looked down and found your hands bound to the posts on the bed.
What the hell-
However, the sound of a door opening cut your thoughts short.
You opened your mouth, ready to confront whoever chained you up like this because the others-
…the others, you realized with horror.
Adler.
He and the others weren’t going to come for you.
The vague memory of a gunshot hitting you in the chest and your vision fading to black hit you. They must have captured me, you thought numbly.
Adler hadn’t even bothered to finish you off.
And that in and of itself was a fate worse than death.
You braced yourself for the interrogation by whichever Soviet or Perseus officer had happened to find at the cliffside-
And then you noticed the smell in the air. It was a familiar one you instinctively relaxed at because it was something that had accompanied you through hell and back all those years ago in Vietnam-no, no, no
Remember, Bell, you told yourself. Yet you winced at the name…”Bell”.
Even that was created by Adler.
Everything about you came from him.
And he tossed you away.
Like damaged goods.
“Bell.”
You flinched from the sound of his voice.
Even now, you were hearing that damn voice of his, rolling your name off like it was a real true one. But it wasn’t because everything was a lie and you had to remind yourself of that again and again-
“Now, Bell, you know that we have a job to do.” This time, you closed your eyes, praying that the trembling of your hands at the sound of that didn’t show to the Soviet officer before you.
Not real, not real, he’s not real Bell-
Yet even as you knew he was but a hallucination by whatever substance your captors injected you with, you just couldn’t stop one word from falling off your lips hollowly.
“Why?”
Even as you looked down, you could almost see him take a drag of his cigarette before sighing out the smoke which curled into the air. The all too addictive feeling of nicotine seeping into your lungs as you were forced to breathe in the small, cramped cell.
“Why?” he asked out loud before saying almost amusedly, “Hudson’s an idiot, not knowing a good thing when it appears. But don’t worry, kid.”
“I sure as hell know when that happens. And you were that diamond in the rough, Bell. You did your job so well-”
You nearly shivered at his words. What the hell did they give you for your fucked up hallucination of him to say these things? The worst thing about it was you couldn’t help but feel that damnable sense of pleasure at that.
You did your job so well.
Just like a good dog, you thought as you felt your hands tremble against the chains once more. They had trained you to be that way, after all.
A good loyal dog for him until you were to be put down.
“Besides,” Adler continued on, “We still have a job to do. Perseus is at large and I need the best operative we have for it.”
“Go away,” you bit out, trying to keep the desperation in your voice from coming out. You weren’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing you break so soon.
“Alright, kid,” Yet you didn’t relax at the easiness in his voice. In fact, you only tensed because you knew him…maybe not in reality but in those memories in that lab. All those times you heard his voice over and over again like a prayer…
You suddenly heard footsteps coming closer and closer before you felt gloved hands tilt your chin up firmly. At that moment, you opened your eyes instinctively only to find yourself staring up at those eyes always obscured by those sunglasses.
“You know what they say. Second time’s the charm.”
Incredible 😍
💜💙🩵Oh this was a good one💜💙🩵 always wanted to know what happened next
