ASCENDANCY / P. MAXIMOFF

ablaze

Anastazya awoke with a start, her hand flying to her chest as her wide blue eyes frantically searched the room. She was breathing heavily, listening to the yells and screams from the next room that were nearly drowned out by the piercing sound of the fire alarm.

"THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T FUCKING COOK!!!" Ana heard Tony yell. The smell of burning combined with the smoke billowing in from below Ana's door caused her to panic.

"Oh God, oh God, oh my God!" Anastazya cried, chest tightening up due to panic. She scrambled out of bed and onto her feet, hacking violently when the smoke filled her lungs. This caused the others in the kitchen's yells to become louder.

"Holy shit! What the hell was that?"

"Evacuate damn it! Get the twins! Friday! Can you extinguish the fire?"

"The building must be evacuated before I can extinguish the flame, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah well, everyone get out!"

Ana padded across her floor to the door, feeling it and cursing loudly when she felt that it was piping hot. The fire was too close to her door. She was good at starting fires, not so great at putting them out.

"Help! Nat! Steve! Clint! Tony! Help!" Ana screamed, but to no avail. Ana paced back forward. They wouldn't leave her. This was just another nightmare, yeah?

"This is just a nightmare," Ana mumbled, pinching and twisting the tender skin of her arm. When she did not wake up, she yelled in frustration, opening the door harshly, nearly throwing it off of its hinges.

The fire from the kitchen had spread into the hallway, engulfing it in flames. She could not jump out of the window, considering she was on the 11th something floor in the Avengers tower.

Ana started to panic. "Svyatoye der'mo . O moy grebanyy bog . Ya sobirayus' umeret' , eto konets dnya. Ya nikogda ne sobirayus' byt' zhena . Ya nikogda ne uvidite skhemy Al'trona vyrvali . Kak oni zabyli menya ?! Kak , chert voz'mi, oni pomnyat bliznetsy , i zabyt' menya ?"

Holy shit. Oh my fucking god. I am going to die, this is the end of days. I am never going to get to be a wife. I'm never going to see Ultron's circuits ripped out. How did they forget me?! How the hell did they remember the twins, and forget me?

Ana took a deep shaky breath, clenching her fists. She just needed to run. The fire couldn't hurt that bad if she ran really fast? Could it?

And if it did...? Well, the Wiggles taught her well enough. Stop. Drop. And Roll.

Before she could even take a step, a glowing blue aura surrounded her, Pietro appearing in front of her.

"You were seriously going to step into the fire? You really do have death wish," he reprimanded her as he went to grab her. Ana slapped his hands away.

"No, no! Nope! I don't want you to help me!" she protested. Pietro looked at her in amusement, crossing his arms and leaning on his right hip, despite the raging fire only three feet behind him.

"Did anyone else come to help?" he asked. Ana felt her heart sink at the crushing realization. "They abandoned you, Anastazya. I will not abandon you."

Ana narrowed her eyes at him, a despondent feeling weighing her body down when she accepted that the rest of the team really had left her. Her family had forgotten about her in the midst of severe panic. They left her to die.

"Just trust me," Pietro urged her, stepping closer. He cried out as the red and orange flames licked his back. "Rahat! Prieten! You have to trust me or we are both going to fucking die!"

Ana sucked in a sharp breath, groaning loudly as she let Pietro wrap his arms around her, picking her up and holding her to him. He sped through the fire that only barely singed his clothes. The smoke burned his eyes and he coughed loudly, yelling as he tripped over his feet and fell to the floor, cursing loudly.

Ana tumbled out of his arms and scrambled to her feet, trying to tug Pietro with her, but he stayed motionless on the floor. She could always just leave him, but she knew that would cause Wanda to kill her.

Ana kneeled down on the floor, trying not to panic as the fire surrounded the two of them. She took a breath, inhaling deeply and flexing her fingers, watching in bewilderment as the fire consumed her. But she felt no pain. She had absorbed the fire and smoke. Her eyes drifted down in complete shock at the spot where Pietro previously laid, finding that he had disappeared.

"My brother!" she heard Wanda scream from behind her, tears streaming down her face. Ana flinched and whipped her head around. "You killed my brother!"

Ana's turned back and she came face to face with Steve, who was looking at her in the worst way he had ever looked at her. Disappointed. Disgusted. The rest of the team was behind him, and Wanda was behind her, mourning for a brother who was not there.

"You really have to learn to control your powers Anastazya," Steve told her, clicking his tongue. He slowly turned to show his profile, the others mimicking him. Ana scrambled backwards when they revealed half of their faces had been melted off, meat and tissue hanging off of bone. Black, burnt skin peeled off in charred strips. Ana gagged, eyes filling with tears at the haunting image that would forever be burned behind her eyelids.

"You did this, Ana. This was you. You are the dangerous one. You are too dangerous." Clint hissed at her.

"No!" Ana choked out desperately. "I'm not dangerous! I stopped the fire! See! It's gone!"

Suddenly, Ultron appeared from behind the group of Avengers, sauntering over to Ana with a smirk on his face.

"My dearest Anastazya, you were the fire."

Ana looked down at herself and let out a piercing scream, seeing that she was still burning, and feeling it for the first time.

The blue aura enveloped her again, a cooling sensation washed over her, relieving her pain momentarily before it started again. Pietro appeared in front of her again, cupping her face in his hands, enveloped in fire again.

"Get out! You'll burn! Leave me alone!" Ana screamed at him, trying to push him away. She was in anguish, searing pain all over her body.

"Wake up dragostè! Wake up Anastazya! This is not real. This is not real!" He urged her. "Wake up!"

Ana shot up in bed, breathing heavily with sweat on her brow. She nearly knocked heads with a concerned looking Pietro, his icy blue eyes staring into her own with worry. He was sitting on her bed on his hands and knees.

"What are you doing here?! Get out!" Ana hissed, trying to push him off of her bed. He didn't look phased.

"I came to return your cookies, but when I came to your door you were whimpering. You must have been having a nightmare." He told her, gently setting the box of Vanilla Wafers on her lap. He climbed off of her bed, looking at her hesitantly. "Do you want me to get Bird Man? Or All American Boy? It might help to talk-"

"Please, just get the hell out of here." Ana whispered, running her fingers through her hair. Pietro narrowed his eyes at her, shaking his head and chuckling bitterly. He sped forward and snatching back the cookies from her grasp.

"As you wish, Princessa." He spat at her, stalking out of her bedroom.