Flashback 14: Run

Looking back on this flashback almost 6 months out of writing it, I realised how FREAKING CLICHE this flashback is!!!! So I do warn of that, in case you feel like puking from all the cheesiness of this flashback, I'm so sorry, but if you've watched Age of Ultron, it's slightly painful. 

MWHAHAHAHAHAHA

Enjoy,

LittlePond

PS. The song should be somewhere for you to listen to on the page- idk technology is weird

Flashback 14: Run

Agent Aurelia Tempest was back in the same room she'd visited in her dreams for months.

Of course Aurelia didn't want to return to her supposed worst fear. But here she was, restraints over her wrists, neck, ankles and waist fastened back on with the same harsh solidity. The gag was just as disgusting; it was soaked in her saliva from what she knew was from previous screams.

And judging by her slowing breaths, Aurelia knew that whatever took place in this golden room had finished.

Her body was drenched in sweat, it had gathered in droplets on her stomach like dew on a leaf. The corners of her mouth were covered in blood from her extensive screeching, its trademark iron stench filled her nose.

The room was silent, save for the scientist's fingers on a keyboard to her right, and the booms of someone's shoes reaching a crescendo. Slowly, slowly, Whitehall entered the scene. The room's fluorescent lights reflected off the circular frames of his glasses, and his grey hair twinkled from the excess of hair gel.

Unlike her vision from Wanda, the repulsion that rose in her had dissipated like morning mist. Instead, a sense of calmness and serenity replaced it, in fact, she felt at peace. As if Aurelia could finally breathe. As if her mind was previously clouded and had now been cleared.

"My dear S.H.A.D.O," Whitehall smiled as he approached the assassin and wrapped his fingers around hers. Despite the doused gag around her head, Aurelia smiled at the fatherly gesture.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his eyes kindled a gentle flame. The scientist's typing ceased, and she stood with her arms crossed. "How about you get this gag off me and find out?" Aurelia managed to get out through the gag.

"Of course. Doctor Hird, please remove Agent Tempest's restraints," Whitehall ordered, clicking at the scientist with his spare hand. The woman nodded strictly, and in 1 curt motion set about her task, releasing her restraints within 1 minute.

"Now, Aurelia, how are you feeling?" the HYDRA agent asked her, his hand was off hers, thankfully. Standing up, Aurelia flexed her joints, rejoicing in the movement. "Better. Much better," she nodded, as the scientist left the golden room. "That is great to know. What is the last thing you remember?"

Aurelia scowled and put her stiff hands on her hips, fingers brushing over bare skin. And then she realised the only clothing she wore was a pair of jeans and a sports bra.

Lovely.

"That's such an odd question, Whitehall."

"But one you must answer."

"The last thing I remember...returning home to the HYDRA base after coming back after my 100th mission, and going straight to bed. You'd be surprised how tiring these assassinations are."

Whitehall pulled on the collar of his jet black suit, "It has been a while since I've been in the field." Aurelia pulled on her flaxen hair behind her ears tightly, since it was threaded with blood and sweat. "You can't tell. Despite the hair." Whitehall placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her with it's force, "Good job Agent Tempest on completing your 107th mission." The assassin shrugged meekly; she knew she was going to hit 107 sooner or later. Thank you."

His hand departed from her bare and sweaty shoulder, and wiped it on his pinstripe pants. "Now, I want you to go to your rooms, and report to my office tomorrow at 1200 hours. I have another mission ready."

"Whatever you say, Whitehall."

Whitehall sighed and kicked at the dirty concrete floor, "Aurelia. Wake up." She turned back, her movements no longer defined, but slow and sluggish, like she was underwater. "Say what now?" she asked, gripping the door tightly like she might a lifeline. Whitehall pinned her against the wall, yelling, "Aurelia! Wake up!"

Gasping, Aurelia Tempest's eyelids opened and saw none other than Doctor List shaking her awake. She shrieked and yanked her sheets upward to cover herself. "Bloody hell," Aurelia muttered, gripping her blankets, which were essentially her lifeline right now. She wasn't exactly comfortable with a middle aged man shaking her awake whilst in a magenta singlet.

"I'm sorry to disturb your slumber, Agent Tempest-" She coughed, and interrupted him, "Please, don't use the word slumber. It's like the original version of Sleeping Beauty." Doctor List nodded, and continued, "Yes, Agent Tempest. We have a small issue."

Any reminder of sleep or her odd dream faded.

"Issue? What issue?" Aurelia asked, sitting up, still holding her blankets to her chest. The Doctor's answer was her worst fear, and his grey curls bounced excitedly as he said it.

"Maximoffs."

As if on orders, the assassin swung her legs from underneath her cotton blankets, not caring how much skin she exposed.

The Maximoffs were in trouble.

"Which one? Is it both? Please tell me it's not both." Aurelia quickly ran her hands through her loose hair to make sure no runaways remained. "The elder one; Pietro," Doctor List answered calmly. Eyes widening, heart racing, she asked frantically for his wellbeing.

"Yes he is fine. Somewhat."

"Dammit, just tell me, List!"

The middle aged doctor shrugged, and rubbed the back of her hair, the material of his lab coat- which for some reason he still wore in the middle of the night -whispered, "A nightmare. And a bad one."

Within minutes, Aurelia stumbled into the observation rooms, and her heart stopped beating. Why?

Pietro Maximoff was thrashing around on his flimsy bed, yelling.

She quickly regained her senses and sprinted to his cell, ignoring the sting of concrete underneath her feet, only covered with thin socks. Aurelia threw open the door and quickly gripped his shoulders, attempting to shake him awake, trying to silence those horrible screams that cut through her heartstrings and the maddened floundering.

"Pietro!" the assassin yelled, voice cracking from the sudden emotion she hadn't seen coming.

It was utter torture to watch her Quicksilver lowered to such a state, she was lucky he wasn't flailing at super speed, otherwise she'd have no hope of waking him. "Pietro!" Aurelia yelled again, her fingertips becoming white as snowflakes against his biceps, straining to hold on.

Pietro muttered something incoherent, something about a bomb, or testing, she couldn't make out which. "Wake up!" the assassin ordered, continuing to shake his shoulders, which she realised wasn't helping.

Instead, the agent pulled at his sleeveless shirt, crying out his name once more.

At last, Pietro's screaming ceased, along with his tossing and turning and his eyes opened, revealing his usual stark blue eyes.

He sat up and looked around, trying to take in the scene, "Wha- What's happening? Wanda? Wait, Aurelia? What are you doing here?"

Sighing in relief, Aurelia threw her arms around him, and breathed him in like she did on the morning after their day away. "List sent me. Said you were having a nightmare," she muttered against the crook of his neck. She pulled away and smiled softly, heart beating at a normal pace now.

Despite the traumatic experience he must've been reliving, Pietro grinned, "Did you not notice?" Aurelia laughed softly and ran a hand through his mahogany curls, she could have sworn she saw a streak of silver, but passed it off as a trick of the moonlight.

"That would be an extreme understatement. I freaked out, Pietro. Don't scare me like that again!" Pietro's hand was warm against her cheek, keeping her eyes fixed on him, his own roamed over her face, as if trying to memorise every detail.

"It was only a bad dream," he soothed, thumb running small circles around her cheek.

She managed to sneak a glance outside, no one was there. No guards. No agents. No List. No Von Strucker.

They were alone. Save for Wanda in the neighbouring cell.

"But the way he said issue..." Aurelia trailed off, returning her regard back to the Sokovian. "What?" he asked, a hint of his usual smirk littered his mouth, but it was too faint to be called an actual smirk. "I thought something worse happened. Like say, your bodies suddenly rebelled against the sceptre's energy, and..."

The assassin couldn't finish the sentence. As much death as she had caused, the thought of that happening to the twins...no. Not now.

Pietro finished the sentence for her, hand falling over her cheek like leaf in autumn and landing on her bare arm. "When you put it like that, yes," she whispered, worried that if she spoke any louder, someone would hear her weakness. Pietro grabbed either side of her face and planted a kiss on her forehead, mumbling, "You worry too much. I'll be around for a long time."

Aurelia grinned, and brought her temple to meet his and whispered, "I care too much."

The silence was both deafening and melodious. It was a toddler singing and an award winning orchestra. It was speed and guns. Blurs of blue and blurs of blood.

"That's not really a bad thing," Pietro replied, bringing her ever closer so she could hear his heart beat. Unlike her own when she was trying to wake him up, it was strong and sure, it had a future, it was the conductor of it's own destiny. It was the beat of the man she...dammit, she still couldn't say it.

"It can be. I've been raised like that," Aurelia answered, her voice ever softer at her own humiliation at not being able to admit her feelings to herself, let alone the person in question.

"And look at you now," the speedster grinned, unaware of the inner turmoil that was boiling inside her like an over cooked stew.

The melody of one of her favourite songs trilled it's way through her mind and out her mouth before she could control it. The song itself was one she used to help her fall asleep when her own nightmares became too gory for even S.H.A.D.O to handle, and it never failed her.

While I powder my nose, he will powder his gums, and I try to get close, he is already gone.

Aurelia placed a hand on his chest and pushed him down, after both their dreams, they both needed sleep. "What are you doing?" Pietro asked, both at her song and her actions. He now lay on his side, and had an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her close enough to him so that her back was pressed to his chest.

"Singing you to sleep, shut up," the assassin scolded quietly, and continued to timidly sing her song.

But the fire is coming, so I think we should run. I think we should run, run, run, run. Run, run, run, run.

As she entered the second verse, she heard Pietro mutter, "If you say so." Aurelia only smiled sleepily, and curled into him, still singing.

And I won't tell my mother, it's better she don't know. And he won't tell his folks, cos' they're already ghosts. So we keep each other, as safe as we can. Until we reach the border, until we make our plan. To run, run, run, run.

Aurelia Tempest didn't think she was supposed to fall asleep in Pietro's cell. But it happened anyway.