New Identity ~ MCU/SWCW Story

|<Chapter Twenty-Five>|

Hahaha yeah no she can't die yet

I still have like two more books left to write and a crapload of trauma for her to experience so let's CARRY ON

——

Ashley partially wished she didn't have to wake back up again.

It would've been much easier that way.

Unfortunately, here she was, slowly regaining consciousness on the mattress of the bed in her living quarters.  The memories of her terrifying

    It took several minutes for Ashley to register where she was or how she had even managed to get there, but the familiar view of the desk and metal door sparked her memory. The sight of the confining walls was certainly not welcomed to the teenager. She wasn't sure what was going on here, but it sure felt like some cruel form of a joke cracked at her expense.

"Hello, Jasper," Ashley rasped. She didn't even have to look up or listen for his footsteps to know that he was walking in. It was Jasper, after all, that man who was far too creepy to be normal and always seemed to know when not to make his entrances. Sure enough, just as she had said this, she heard his obnoxious footsteps clacking in the air. While she hadn't expected her voice to be normal after traumatically drowning, she hadn't realized it was going to sound that horrible. It sounded more like sandpaper moving on a chalkboard than a person speaking words.

    These footsteps, however, were not exactly as she remembered them. There was a certain sound about them that was not as sharp, causing the notes to hang dully in the air. It wasn't until she recognized the peculiarity in her own voice that she realized that it was actually her hearing that was impaired. The noise of everything was dampened, and at points, somewhat incoherent.

"Good evening, Agent Tanner," Jasper replied smoothly. For some reason, the fact that he could speak without complications completely sent Ashley over the edge of fury. She snarled at the bald man and forced herself to sit up, ignoring the pain that clawed at her muscles.

"Don't ever call me that again," she snapped, causing Jasper to momentarily lose his composure from shock at her outburst. "Whatever this stupid cult is, I quit. I'm out. Training is okay. Trying to kill me, though?"

She paused, coughing to clear her throat and to glare right into the soul of Jasper. There was no regulation to her breathing whatsoever— instead, it was rough, loud, and gravelly. "There's a line that lies between me working with you and me not. Do you know what you all did with that line? You sprinted across it like you had a goddamn pack of wolves hot on your tails and drug it through the mud."

"Ms. Tanner," Jasper interrupted but was smart enough to not avoid the title 'Agent'. "There's been some confusion. The incident was purely by accident. We had not intended for the obstacle to interfere with your test. You have our most sincere apologies."

"Your apologies?" Ashley echoed, fuming. "Your pathetic little apologies have less meaning to me than that poor excuse of a hack job on your bald head. An accident doesn't involve me having to fight all the way to the surface with a ball that probably weighs twice as much as I do chained to my foot without anyone helping! Did it not occur to you that someone could simply pull me out?!"

If Ashley had her voice, she would be screaming right now. Instead, it was coming out as a cross between a scratchy whisper and wheezing. Her face, however, said it all. Her eyes were ignited in unadulterated fury, and her skin had grown redder than it did when she exercised. 

"We weren't able to see you," Jasper replied slowly, clearly having trouble selecting the right words in order to not make Ashley even more enraged. "As a part of the test, we weren't permitted to interfere with your task until you surfaced. Seeing that it was only 100 feet and that it was you undergoing the test, we had thought that you would be able to handle it without any complications. If we had any idea of the trouble that you had encountered, we wouldn't have hesitated to get you out of the water."