Driven Mad (Book 1 in the MAD Series)(An Avengers Fan Fiction)

EPILOGUE: Toni Banner

Toni sat in her cell, her red and black hair greasy and hanging over her eyes as she sat. The last eight months had been the worst of her life. Her entire life… It had been nothing but a big bundle of pain and depression and sadness and worthlessness. Her life had only been used to help the Mad Thinker and that was all. She didn’t even have her own life.

It had always revolved around him.

And it always would, she supposed. She was a criminal. She could never have a normal life, not after all that she’d done. She couldn’t be normal. She couldn’t be a hero, not that she wanted to be though. She still hated the Avengers. But she didn’t like this life, not as a prisoner. All she’d done was stand for what she believed, and S.H.I.E.L.D had locked her away. She didn’t have anybody anymore. All she had was the Mad Thinker and their escape plan. After that… Well, she wasn’t sure what he was planning to do.

As Toni sat in the corner of that stupid little cell, she closed her eyes, letting the rage build up. She knew that the hour was approaching. That was the day that she and the Mad Thinker were going to escape that prison. They were going to take down the Helicarrier and they were going to escape. Then maybe, just maybe, Toni Banner would finally get her happily ever after.

She dreamt of the day when she didn’t have to train herself, when she didn’t have to be constantly watched over. She dreamed of the day when she’d be free of this cage, this cage where she’d be alone for days without end. She dreamed of the day that she and the Mad Thinker would someday be normal. She wanted to be normal for once in her short life. She wanted to have a house and kids and a normal job instead of trying to bring war. She did what the Thinker asked, what he wanted, but she prayed that someday the two of them would just finally settle down.

But until that day, she just needed to take it one day, one step, one breath at a time. She needed to wait for the Mad Thinker’s word, and then she’d be able to use the power that she’d been training with for the past eight months. Then she’d get them out and they would be free of these chains, the bonds that held them there. She wrung her hands nervously, knowing that the hour had to be approaching.

Toni finally stood up and walked toward the door. She peeked out of the tiny window, getting a view of the clock that hung on the wall outside. She had to move around some inside of her cell to see past the guard’s head, but she eventually got it. “Bad place to be standing.” She muttered as she looked up at the clock. She knew that this guard would probably be the first to go, standing so close to the origin of the explosion that would be taking place.

The clock read that it was 8 o’clock. PM or AM, she wasn’t so sure. She just stood there, waiting for the signal, waiting for the Thinker to tell her. She was a ticking time bomb, an explosion waiting to happen. And it was going to be a particularly large explosion, one that was going to take the Helicarrier out of the sky. It was going to put it in the ocean and she and the Thinker would escape, going back to what they did best. Terrorizing the Avengers.

Toni paced across the floor of her small cell, just waiting on him, growing impatient. She wanted to get out more than ever and, with this being the day, she just couldn’t stand still. She was waiting for his word, to hear his voice ringing through her ears, telling her it was time to go. She longed for that soft voice to ring through her ears, echo through her mind. She just wanted to hear him again. It’d been days and she needed his voice. It’d been even longer since she’d seen him and she desperately wanted to stare into those perfect green eyes and tell him she loved him.

Suddenly, a familiar, excruciating pain panged violently against her skull. She groaned pressing her fingers against her temples, sitting down on her bed as she tried to relieve the unforgiving, unmerciful, unbearable headache. She blinked hard, trying to get through the pain that ripping through her skull, rippling through her entire body. She violently clenched her fists until the skin began to break and the blood began drip from her skin. She forced her head into her single pillow and let out a bloodcurdling screech into it.