SUPREMACY / P. MAXIMOFF

self-destruct

Her whole body ached with retribution from her actions from the previous days. Her head pounding in her ears was almost deafening, her lips were cracked and dried. Her throat burned fearsomely, for she had screamed it raw in her sleep.

Anastazya's eyes were crusted shut, and she rubbed her blistered knuckles across them to aid her in opening them. Her retinas were assaulted by blinding fluorescent lights and her nose stung with the abrasive smell of bleach and sterile instruments. In her disoriented state, the light reflecting off of the stainless steel plates of the wall created beautiful crystalline figures in her line of vision, disorienting her even further. She laid on an uncomfortable cot, with hospital sheets pulled up to her chin. She went to prop herself onto her elbows, but instead laid still when she heard voices outside of the chamber. Ana closed her eyes again.

"What in the world got into her? She went on a psycho rampage out there. She's fortunate not that many people witnessed it, and we were able to pay them off," Tony muttered.

"Pietro is in his room having a mental breakdown. He thinks it was what he told her that triggered this...meltdown. I've never seen anything like it, especially not from her," Natasha replied, sounding hesitant in her analysis, almost as if she didn't want to believe it was true.

"It's like she wasn't herself...maybe it was the Mind Stone that took over? This isn't our Anastazya," Steve mumbled.

"I don't know. Do you think keeping her in captivity like this is the best bet? She'll be mortified when she wakes up," Natasha questioned.

"I know it'll hurt her, but it's for the public's good. And her own good."

Ana felt paralyzed, muscles stagnant and bones frozen. As she heard them leave she shot up in her bed, feeling flustered. They caged her up like an animal. They were afraid of her. Ana knew all along she was dangerous, but she never thought it would get this out of hand. She was self-destructing.

And where was Pietro? Not by her side like he promised.

"I need out," She croaked to herself, voice raspy from disuse. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. let me out!" Ana demanded.

"No can do, Miss Dmitriev. It was Mr. Starks explicit directions to keep you capacitated until 7 o'clock tonight, for routine check-up," F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s robotic voice replied back. Ana groaned, rubbing her face vigorously.

"How long have I been down?" Ana questioned.

"For approximately 36 hours and 47 minutes," F.R.I.D.A.Y. answered back.

Ana shut her eyes for a brief moment, brainstorming ideas on how to escape from the lab and to Pietro's room without drawing much attention to herself. She then remembered a conversation her and Tony had in the midst of the "Age of Ultron" as Clint so lamely referred to it as.

"So, Friday is the new Jarvis?"

"Not even. No one will replace Jarvis. Friday essentially just does recognitions and commands until I can upgrade her or fix Jarvis. But she doesn't nearly have the intellectual capacity Jarvis had."

"Poor Jarvis. May he rest in pieces."

"...Not funny."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.? Could you possibly...repeat after me?" Anastazya pondered aloud, praying in her head that her plan would work.

"Of course, Miss Dmitriev."

"Control. Alternate. Delete."

Control. Alternate. Delete.

The lights flickered off, and Ana was surrounded by pure blackness. She lunged forward, wrapping her slender, trembling fingers around the chilled doorknob and twisting the door open. She stumbled through the lab, knocking over several mystery vials and dishes on her way out, but when she made it into the hallway the emergency lights activated, creating a dull lighted trail to the living room. Pietro's room was next to the living room, so she followed it eagerly, taking a rogue left and letting out a small shriek when she ran into a door, which she could only assume was to his room.

It was an electronic door, and it was locked shut by a series of circuits that Ana could seamlessly blow out with a small surge of electricity. Her new ability was becoming more and more useful by the second.

She kicked the door down, grateful that Pietro's room lied in a pretty much desolate corridor of the tower. As soon as she stepped foot into the room, she was slammed against his bedroom wall, a constricting hand at her throat. Pietro's eyes were luminescent in the black.

"Ana?" He asked, letting out a shaky sigh before letting her go and walking morosely back to his bed. "Did you turn the power out?"

Ana nodded, playing with her fingers, not exactly knowing what to say. She wanted to get here so badly but didn't know what she actually wanted to say.

"I-I-I," She stammered, before clearing her throat, still feeling the impact of Pietro's hand on it. She wandered over to his closet, trying to preoccupy herself instead. Pietro sighed again.

"Are you okay?" He asked, sounding obligated to do so. Ana plucked a black hoodie from the rack, throwing it over her thin, blood-stained shirt and zipping it up to her chin.

"I'm fine...Are you?"

Pietro ran a hand through his silver locks, and shrugged. Ana spotted a brace wrapped around his left hand. A shiver ran through her.

"D-Did I do that to you?"

Pietro didn't answer, staring at her instead, seeing all that she likely hadn't seen yet. Her singed hair, her bruised cheekbone, the cut across the bridge of her nose. Her busted lip. The new handprint that formed alarmingly fast around her throat.

"You aren't supposed to be here," He breathed, eyes glistening with tears. It pained him so much to see her this way and know she was too far out of reach to help. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know," Ana replied back immediately. She took a step forward and watched with excruciating pain in her chest as Pietro flinched backwards.

No.

"A-Are you afraid of me, Pietro?" Ana asked, getting more and more overwhelmed by the second. Flashes of what happened only days before bombarded her, playing like a horror movie on the back of her eyelids. And she was the killer.

Pietro opened his mouth to speak. His eyebrow twitched.

"I-"

"Tell me the truth!" She snapped, before hearing noises in the nearby room. They were talking about her. About finding her and putting her back in that cell. Rain pelted the windows and a flash of lightning across the sky made Ana's hair stand on end. It provided a clear vision of Pietro. His face contorted in unmistakable fear, his eyes wide and shiny with tears, his mouth parted to speak but not finding the words that could make her stay.

They were impossible to find now.

"Ana..." He whispered standing to his feet and taking a limp towards her.

"You're limping," Ana mumbled, feeling her heart sink further and further into her chest. "I did this to you. Lord knows...what else I did. What else I can do."

"Ana," He choked out painfully, wanting to hold her but afraid of how her skin might burn him. Of how she might lash out. He promised he would be by her side if this moment ever came, but he did not know what it meant at the time. And what it really meant now.

The voices were just outside the door now. Ana's teary gaze flickered towards his window and Pietro noticed her leaning towards it.

"Anastazya, no!" He shouted as she lunged for it. He grabbed onto her wrist, and recoiled from the touch which sent a shock running through him. "P-Please don't leave me. I can try... Please. Princessa! I am begging you not to go!"

Ana glanced back at him only for a second before using her fists to shatter his window, letting in a downpour of rain and a flurry of winds into his small room. She pulled his hood over her face.

"Goodbye, Pietro."

She leaned out of the window, and let the winds take her somewhere better.

By the time the rest of the Avengers had entered the room, all that was left was a bawling Pietro crumpled on the floor, soaked by the unforgiving New York showers. Wanda rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him.

"Brother! What is wrong! What has happened?" She questioned. His hand twitched and he shook uncontrollably, his sobs racking his body to the core.

"She's gone!" He cried out, pain and regret overwhelming him. "Anastazya is gone!"