Song: where is my mind? - pixies

It was dark. Cold, numb.

Was this death?

Did Athena really just die, from this? She had imagined many ways she could've died, most of them were if she was still living with her father. His abuse would have killed her, no doubt. But none of it was thought possible from something like that.

Should I have taken another route?

But would she have met Wanda or Pietro? At the moment it was the bane of her existence, her new reason to keep fighting, to live.

But now, Athena's dead. Not that it would matter to anyone.

Fucking Pathetic.

That's what she thought of herself, she couldn't last a month in this city. But her sight, now clouded with this vast void of nothingness, they said you'd see a big bright light when you die. Was that heaven? Did that mean Athena crossed the borders to her neverending hell?

Meanwhile, she was now in the morgue. Dressed in an old rag of a robe, and in the training room later the next day a distressed Devon casually announces the somewhat 'untimely' death of a former trainee, Athena.

"What do we fucking do with her?" Wolfgang asked, "Did you even think this far ahead?"

Devon of course did, "We toss her out, unexplained death in Manhattan Alley. We cut off all ties to her, we've done this before."

"Ya but not with a child."

Heather was in the room, she was much apart of this as Devon was. "We need a story. In case anyone starts snooping."

"Okay, so we say we were all together. We were sorting out recruitment paperwork-" Wolfgang announced distressed,

"But how does it explain her disappearance?" Heather asked.

"She ran away. Devon went to check on her and her room was empty. She was weak and unfit to be in Hydra, it got to her. But this is the last we speak of it. Once she's out she's not to be spoken of again." Wolfgang stated crossing his arms.

"Right, I will take her." Heather volunteered, Devon and Baron Wolfgang agreed.

Meanwhile, as Athena laid unconscious, it felt like months in her void. "What a fucking nightmare." She cussed loudly.

"It's not over yet, child." Whispered a still small voice.

"Who said that? Where are you?" Athena asked confused,

"I am nowhere and everywhere. Living in the fabric of reality and time." The voice responded.

"But I'm dead!" Athena argued,

"Not quite. You're merely floating in a space of nothing-" The voice was cut off.

Athena grew agitated, "What does that mean?"

The voice chuckled, its laughs was aggravating Athena. "Calm yourself! You're in a state of transition."

"A transition of what? What the hell are you blabbering about?" Athena shouted, in the plain darkness.

"Your true self." Slowly the voice became quieter, it sounded like a woman.

"What is happening, why are you going quiet? Come back!" Athena arguably shouted until a large crucial pain struck her side allowing her to fall to her knees.

"What's happening? I'm dead I shouldn't be feeling this-" an efflux of pain struck her gut making her cower, sweat dripping from her forehead.

Blood trickled from her nose, she felt it. The metallic red, but if the pain tormenting her was not enough it felt as though her mind imploded her eyes turning a tar-black as she fell to the floor of a dark void.

10 minutes before, Heather was laying her down on the pavement of a smelly alleyway.

"Sorry Kid thought we had found the one. Guess not? Truly apologize, kind of sucks." Heather said her goodbyes before starting the van and driving down the roads of Manhattan miles away from their base.

~

Anastasia groaned, her back, her everything was hurting. "Fuck." She swore, But attempting to flutter her eyes open she saw what to be the blue sky peeking through old abandoned buildings.

Anastasia could smell the dampness, honestly, it mostly smelt like cat piss and feces.

An overcoming sensation of needing to vomit came and Anastasia cowered to do so.

Then she cried, it was sort of a cry where she didn't know anything. The last thing she remembered was her father, she was on board a plane. She got off and then she remembers nothing.

Where was she? Stumbling to get herself upright she mentally took more of her surroundings. Clear that she still was in the city of Manhattan, "What now?"

It had occurred that Hydra thought Anastasia had not the faintest idea of how she got to be blacked out in an abandoned alley.

It was becoming dark and soon cold, she stood up. Now once again more homeless than before, once again scared and anxious.

~

Meanwhile, in Hydra's meeting room, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were now informed of Athena, "Runaway! How?" Wanda couldn't believe it,

"Not sure, it could be anytime between last night to only a couple of hours ago." Devon stated, clearly in his act of disappointment.

Wolfgang was glad their plan of lies worked.

"A couple of hours? You've known for how long?" Pietro hastily replied,

"Because we thought we could find her ourselves, but she was too far gone. Leaving not a single trace behind. It was like she was never here." Heather answered, Wolfgang surveyed everyone's appearances either discombobulated or disappointed. Never the less their plan worked.

Now Wanda and Pietro were left to their own demise, to talk amongst themselves. "She won't last, it's the coldest night of the year. Hypothermic degrees!" Pietro slammed his fists against the wooden table.

It didn't help Wanda's nerves, "Why did she do this? I thought we were helping!"

"I guess in the end it all got too much for her. The training-" Pietro stared at his twin, deadpanned and emotionless. "-let's face it, was she even going to make it if she stayed? She was weak, she would have been a drag to Hydra." Pietro was angry that Athena left on her own accord.

Meanwhile, Anastasia roamed the streets, her teeth chittering and clothes damp all tattered up. She had bruises from recent training sessions on her stomach and cuts on her arms from the experiment but she didn't know where they came from.

This might of been her lowest point, what was Anastasia to do? She cowered on a park bench outside of a restaurant. Could help but watch people walk in and out with amazing attire.

One person, in particular, caught her honey pooled eyes, her hair was blonde and long, and even so distant Anastasia watched the strange lady smile and laugh. It seemed to go for hours, till Anastasia closed her eyes only to open them and see she was gone.

Anastasia frowned, but a soft sweet voice called out from behind. "Excuse me? Are you okay?" Anastasia turned to she the lady jogging towards her, Anastasia's arms were exposed, she was only wearing a shirt and ripped-up jeans.

"Are you okay? Where are your parents? It's freezing!" The kind lady offered her fur mink coat draping it on Anastasia's shoulders.

"Where are your parents? it is almost midnight. Shouldn't you be in bed?" Anastasia only looked somewhat sad.

"I've got no parents, miss. I don't have a home." Anastasia's voice cracked, and the women looked at her with a sad smile.

"So you're all on your lonesome, on the coldest night of the year. Tell me what is your name?"

"My name is Anastasia." She Replied,

The woman smiled at her, "My name is Pepper. How about I buy you some food and we can chat?" The idea sounded nice till now Anastasia didn't realize how hungry she was.

Pepper orders a cab to come and pick them up and bring them to a cafe where Anastasia ordered fries, a burger, and a banana milkshake.

"So what do you like to do?" Pepper asked, it was the first time anyone had taken interest in her personally.

"Well, I like to read and write, play music and draw." Anastasia replied bubbly now she had been fed.

"Do you play any type of instrumentation?" Pepper question sipping on her drink.

"I wish. Growing up, I didn't have the luxury. You see my mother died a couple of years ago but sometimes I feel like I could just see her, you know. And my father well he probably is too." Anastasia partly admitted but she felt no sympathy for lying, Pepper felt a pang of hurt overwhelm her.

"So where do you stay? Surely you have relatives?"

"Nope, both of them were only children. And so was I, so I stay wherever I can. One place to the next." Anastasia spat with a mouth full of chips,

"How old are you?" Pepper then proceeded to ask,

"You sure do ask a lot of questions, for someone I just met ten minutes ago." Anastasia smirked,

"Considering I brought you food I think my questions are reasonable." Pepper replied.

"Fair enough, I'm 14." Anastasia kicked her feet as they dangled off like a child.

Pepper then said, "Right, we can't have you on the streets especially now. How about we take you to my home, it's big and has tons of food. There is a fireplace as well, a spare room."

Anastasia thought about it, then again it would be nice to have a good night's rest. She needed to make connections in order to survive. So this would be okay.

"Okay." Anastasia finally answered, Pepper smiled clapping her hands excitedly.

She picked up her cell and dialed a number to which she said, "Happy, we have a guest please bring the car around."

"Happy?" Anastasia questioned

"He's our head of security." This made Anastasia think if they had someone with that sort of title, what else did they have? Were they a mob? Or were they just rich people? What was she getting into?

The ride seemed awkward at first till Happy spoke to his passenger seat, "Have you told Tony?" Happy spoke quietly but Anastasia could make out the words.

"It'll be fine, besides she is 14 and has no one."Pepper argued back,

"You know Tony isn't a big fan of kids. But for you-" pepper cut him off,

"He's a child himself, so he'll be fine. If not, I'll just do something, improvise. I won't let her go out like that. It's only for a few days."

They reached a tall tower, when they climbed out Anastasia's head couldn't bend far back enough to see it all. "Where are we?"

"Anastasia, welcome to my house." As they walked through the main foyer they were greeted by several people who seemed to be attending to all Pepper's needs, and requests.

Upon entering an elevator which someone was already in. The comm startled Anastasia, "Welcome to Stark Tower, Pepper Potts. Where would you like to go?" The voice was a male, "The Penthouse."Pepper added

Stark? Why did that sound familiar?

The elevator started moving, and within 15 awkward seconds, they arrived.

"Welcome home, Ms. Potts."

Pepper walked out entail Anastasia whose face felt red and in shock. "This is all yours?"

"Technically it's my partner's but I run his company. He just does all the handwork. Make yourself at home." Pepper directed Anastasia to the living room which was mostly just windows showing vast amounts of the city at night.

"Pepper! Where are the biscuits!" Called a male voice, "I swear, you are one of the most smartest yet incapable person on this planet." Pepper shouted back, she walked to the kitchen following behind her was Anastasia.

In her vision was a man with short slicked-back black hair, he had facial hair much to say a goatee. "Who's this?" He asked confused,

"This is Anastasia." Pepper introduced,

"And who are you?" This question caused Pepper to laugh and the man to drop his smile,

"Really? That's got to be a first!" He replied.

"Didn't answer my question."

"I am Tony Stark, of Stark Industries. The man of this empire!" He raised his hands in a power stance which made Pepper roll her eyes.

"But Pepper said she runs the company." Anastasia spat which made Pepper laugh and Tony felt embarrassed. "True." Tony admitted his defeat.

-TingTing (Co-Writer)

~

My favorite chapter, thanks to TingTing!

School is starting but I'm going to upload a lot more, but I might upload every Friday but there might be surprise uploads like this one!

You finally met him, yay