Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT XLII: Left Alone

Set a couple days after previous one-shot

Blood Widow/Emiliya

I was sleeping the night that the helicarriers went down and SHIELD fell. I thought Alexander was going to get home late. Turns out at 11 P.M. that night, I couldn't sleep any longer and turned on the television. The worst was confirmed. PROJECT INSIGHT was no more and SHIELD had fallen; HYDRA along with it. Worse still, Alexander Pierce was dead, the Winter Soldier was absent, no where to be seen. I didn't know how to feel, what to feel.

Sadness? Over what? Pierce probably wasn't even my real father, just treated me more like a distant relative than his own daughter.

Anger? That he was dead? That the Winter Soldier, who used to protect me sometimes from Rumlow, was gone? It was funny that the brainwashed assassin happened to be more of a father to me than the sane man did. And yet I remember that Winter was one of my handlers in Russia. And he was nothing but cruel to me then.

Joy? Yes, that was it. I was free of the clutches of all who dared hurt me. Madame B, the Red Room, HYDRA, Alexander Pierce, even the Winter Soldier and his late, former partner, the Winter Phoenix. I was completely free.

Moving into the kitchen, I began to pack what little clothing and provisions I had. Then, I began to raid Alexander's private safe and happened to find a shit-ton of money in there, at least enough to start a new life - temporarily. If the world happened to find out who I was, or if I was even affiliated with HYDRA in any way, shape or form, I'd be a dead woman. So, getting my backpack and putting what I needed into it, as well as packing my phone and my laptop, I disappeared completely from the dark shadows of the house that had been my residence since I had moved to America from Russia when Alexander Pierce began to take over the Winter Soldier Program.

Once I got out and onto the streets, I stuck to the shadows. The night's skies were quiet, and so were the buildings around me. I was feeling a little more freer now that I had left the house. I had to find a temporary place to live, though, which was problematic. I had no way to support myself, or a place to live that could support me. All I had were my pack and the clothes on my back to guide me. As I laid down on a park bench that night for sleep, all I thought was -

I have to figure out who I am.