Black Widow: Dark House

32. "Drowning"- Jonah Kagen

Bold Italics- Russian

Italics- any language besides English

**- thoughts/ memories

Ana hit the water, the tension like concrete. Before she blacked out from the pain she felt her legs snap like twigs, her hip joints shattering, muscles tearing. When she came too she was still underwater, the suit Tony had made for her saved her life. The face mask was like a suction cup around her nose, eyes, and mouth, filtering air to her lungs and allowing her to see under the water.

She screamed in pain as she felt her joints pop back into socket, her bones fusing themselves back together, ripped muscles interweaving themselves once again. She drifted to the shallow sea floor, the sunlight faint above her, wrecked with pain as her body worked to fix itself.

**"Did it work?" Dreykov's voice sounded.

"I think so. You will be pleased with the results" Dr. Freeman said.

"So, she cannot die?"

"No, she can, it would just be very hard to do so. Allow me to demonstrate."

Slowly, Ana felt herself being lowered into a pool of water below her. She was encased in a full body suit which was bolted down to a thick steel slab. The water surrounded her, covering her face with a few inches of water, so she could still see and hear everything above her.

"The needles in the suit will oxygenate her blood for her when it gets low, keeping her cells alive even if she can't breathe. It is painful, as the body still experiences the drowning, but she will survive no matter how many times her body gives out" Dr. Freeman said, Ana unable to see him.

Dreykov leaned over then, his face looking down on her as her lungs started to burn. His eyes were void, like a shark, lifeless, no malice or hate, no joy or sadness, just empty as he starred down at her.

"I cannot lose you too my daughter."

Her body began to jerk involuntarily after a few minutes, panic setting in as she tried to fight against her restraints, the pain turning cold as it spread throughout her body. The air she so desperately needed just a few meager inches above her face.

Suddenly the instinct to breath overcame the agony of running out of air. Her mouth opened, taking an involuntary breath, the water moving in and out of her mouth as she tried to take in air but only found water. Ana's throat contracted as water entered her lungs, icy spikes of pain exploding in her throat and chest, her stomach burning as every muscle in her body contracted.

A wave of cold calm overtook her as her whole body suddenly felt like she was floating through the air. Black surrounded the outskirts of her vision, small red dots obscuring Dreykov's face as she looked up at him.

Her lips formed one word as she felt the darkness overtake her.

Natalia.

She woke up, still underwater, but Dreykov was no longer over her. Over and over she would black out, only to wake up again still drowning, her body still wanting to breathe, her nervous system still striving for her to survive. The burning in her lungs was all she felt, all she knew, all she could feel. Nothing else existed except this pain.**

Ana breathed deeply into the mask, trying to calm herself as her body came to a rest, her bones and muscles put back together as she lay there on the sea floor, fish giving her a wide birth, pits of trash and plastic floating past her. She pushed herself up, noticing the shore of the island and swimming towards it.