SUPREMACY / P. MAXIMOFF

afraid

Hello?

There was a vacancy in Anastazya Dmitriev's head.

After what felt like lifetimes of sharing her body with another person, she was free. Free of that nagging voice in her head. But she didn't feel free, she felt hollow. Empty.

Surrounded by all her friends and family, Anastazya felt alone.

"Ana? Do you hear me, love? You have to wake up. Please," Pietro begged. Ana felt herself raising an eyebrow. That dick.

"Oh. So now you want to talk to me?" She mumbled sarcastically, throat raw from all of the screaming. Ana heard Pietro laugh nervously, sounding relieved. A rough hand clasped around hers.

"Ana? How are you feeling, kiddo?" Tony asked tentatively.

"Like I just got hit by lightning. So basically like shit."

"But you feel like living shit, which is what I was going for," Tony replied, and Ana could just imagine the smirk on his face. "Can you open your eyes for us?"

"No. Not because I can't but because I am tired and do not want to."

"Yeah, I would say she's okay," Captain chuckled before placing his hand on her head. "Would you feel up to this small test? We just need you to freeze a water bottle."

Ana groaned, reaching her free hand up and outstretching her fingers; grabbing for the cylindrical plastic figure full of water. When it was placed into her palm she grasped it, using all of her focus on not dropping it. The small movement made her all her arm muscles feel fatigued.

"Take your time, Ana," Wanda urged, resting her hands on the reclined chair her best friend laid in. But, it didn't take more than two seconds for the contents inside of the bottle to become solid.

"Holy shit, that was quicker than expected," Tony admitted, and she could practically hear the accomplished grin etched onto his face in his voice.

"Can I sleep now?" Ana practically whined.

"Of course you can kid, good job today on.....surviving. Proud papa. Proud papa," Tony said, sounding satisfied with himself. Steve let out an annoyed groan, his departing voice grumbling about how he was the only Dad around here.

Ana faded quick into unconsciousness.

The next day was one of rehabilitation. It was the first normal day Ana had in what felt like years. The media room had become Ana and Pietro's domain, the various S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avenger members only stopping in occasionally on the short breaks they were allotted. Anastazya schooled Pietro on all of the classic films he has missed out on in Sokovia, and Pietro held her to him, stroking her hair and marveling at her strength. Marveling at the fact that she had been through hell and back, but somehow always found her way back into his arms.

And despite the perfection of this moment, Anastazya still felt a nagging at the back of her head. And for once it wasn't the Mind Stone. Things couldn't be as perfect as she longed for until she got to bottom of why Pietro had been acting so strange to her.

"I have a question," Ana mumbled, keeping her eyes glued to the screen.

"Yes?"

"You've been acting not like yourself lately, especially to me. Everyone has noticed it, you are painfully obvious. And you insist nothing is wrong, but I know you are lying. So what is the matter with you?"

The silence that followed was painfully smothering.

"...It's foolish. And I do not want to hurt your feelings."

"It's not foolish if you feel it. And it hurts more to know you'd hide it from me," Ana replied, sitting up and away from Pietro, much to his distaste. He ran a shaky hand through his silver locks, blue eyes flickering nervously towards Ana.

"I do not know how I feel about the fact that the man who ruined my life is the reason my life now exists. The reason you exist. It is confusing to me, but I do not expect you to understand," Pietro muttered, and Ana remained wordless for a few moments.

"But..." She trailed off for a moment, staring intently at him. "I am not evil like Strucker was."

Pietro pursed his lips. "Whenever I think of evil, I think of him. Which in turn, now makes me think of you."

Ana tried to ignore the pang of hurt thumping in her chest. She slowly stood to her feet, feeling as if the air was knocked out of her.

"Ana..." Pietro started, looking guilty. "This is why I did not want to tell-"

"I'm not upset," Ana lied, smoothing down her ruffled clothing. "I just need to think. I'm going for a walk."

"You are still healing from yesterday. Should not leave the house, is what Tony said," Pietro warned. Ana shook her head, looking at him warily.

"It's just a walk to the park around the corner. I'll be back in twenty minutes. If I'm not, you can come find me," Ana told him, slipping on her shoes and walking out of the room before Pietro could speak again.

Explosive claps of thunder came in great waves of discordant and demented echoes. Streaks of pure energy stretched across the inky blackness of the sky. The air was dry and tingling around Ana, as if ready to catch flame at any second. As she walked across the street, she eyed the hundreds of people scurrying the opposite way. Home, to shelter. But Ana embraced the chaos of the thunderstorm, her inner chaos feeling comfortably at home in the madness.

Luckily for her, the park was desolate, abandoned by the people with better sense than her.

But in the shadows, Ana could feel something malevolent lurking. In her natural habitat, her senses were dialed to ten. She could hear the stalking footsteps and the cocking of a gun. She could hear the whispering of what must have been a HYDRA agent confirming his target.

Her.

She stopped in her tracks, anger coursing through her veins. Wouldn't she ever be at peace? Wouldn't they ever leave her alone? She felt tunnel vision closing in on her.

A puddle of murky water pooled on the curb Ana walked along from the day's previous rainfall. She clenched her fist, causing the water to suspend itself in mid-air, unclenching her fist, the water froze solid into a spire. She whipped around and threw it at her follower, feeling no remorse as it speared the man through the chest, sending him crumpling to the ground immediately.

Another figure appeared from the shadows, this time a woman. She aimed her weapon at Ana. Ana felt rage bubbling up in her chest, and without thinking, she felt burning heat traveling through her limbs like an electricity conductor and before she could even comprehend her own actions, she saw blinding light explode from her fingertips and engulf the HYDRA woman and the tree next to her in flames.

"Ana!" She heard someone yell, despite her ringing ears. She felt Pietro grab her, constricting her movement. And in her mind, she stopped moving, but her body wouldn't connect. She saw Natasha and Steve taking care of the rest of the mess she made. Ana kept fighting the person who held her back, not really knowing why.

Before everything blacked out, she caught sight of Pietro's face, contorted in horror. But he wasn't looking at the people Ana had massacred, he was looking at her.

And he was afraid.