✓ | escaped [ ➀ ]

[ chapter twenty one ]

It was like there was a ringing in Andi's ears. She couldn't hear the sound of the laser coming out of Iron Man's suit. She couldn't hear Tony calling on her. And had Tony not been in front of her, she may have lost balance, fallen to the floor — or worse, fallen through the hatch in the floor and to the ground, several thousand feet below.

All she could think of was that Pietro was dead. She didn't know how, but she had a strong guess. Ultron was most definitely involved and that was enough for her.

All her life, Andi had been around enough death. There were always voices in her head, there were always spirits to be seen. She had witnessed enough death too, in Strucker's facility. But none of that felt like this. Sure, there were times when she just wanted to scream and make the voices go away but that still didn't compare to the pain she felt now.

"Andi!"

Slowly, other sounds started filtering in through to her brain. Tony was looking back at her. He needed her. This was now or never.

Andi couldn't put aside her pain for the moment, but if anything, it helped. She so badly wanted to foil Ultron's plans but even then, she knew it wouldn't help ease the pure discomfort she felt.

Andi lifted her gaze to the metal spire, and she lifted her hands to work on pulling the metal apart. The familiar purple wisps of energy escaped her fingers, traveling higher till they surrounded the core. It was a large chunk of metal so it wasn't easy, but she was channelling all her focus into this. All her anger and her pain.

Halfway through it though, she was momentarily jerked upward, and she lost balance. The same happened with Tony, and she realised that, above ground, someone — one of Ultron's last robots — must have gotten to the core to push it down. And now the city was falling. If they didn't act fast...

Andi quickly grabbed something nearby, to keep herself steady, and immediately resumed working on splitting the metal core. Tony did the same, hovering in the air now, as though he was ready to leave any minute.

"Alright Thor, we need you now," Tony said into the earpiece, knowing that they needed more of a power surge to get this to work. Andi heard thunder, and suddenly she saw more electricity crackling along the surface of the metal.

Andi continued to work, ignoring the feeling of exhaustion creeping up on her, or the throbbing she felt all over her body. She could see a crack beginning to form in the metal, which just encouraged her to keep going. The crack grew, moving up along the metal core, and she witnessed, in just a split second, how the metal broke apart, with a combination of efforts from her, Tony and Thor. And then the entire city exploded.

Andi felt herself falling, after being thrown back a few hundred feet from the explosion. She felt numb all over, and she couldn't see a thing. All she remembered was a firm grasp on her hand all of a sudden, before everything went dark.

* * *

There was hardly any light. Andi opened her eyes and she was surrounded by a few pillars. She couldn't even see the length of them. All she could see was what was illuminated by the small fires burning at the foot of each pillar.

All of them stretched out before her, like it was a pathway. Not knowing what else to do, Andi followed the path, despite not knowing what lay ahead. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds before the path somehow became clearer.

In the distance, Andi saw a river. Only, it was no ordinary lake. The liquid was dark blue, almost as if it was imitating a night sky, and if Andi looked close enough, she could see flashes of images. Her father was the only one she recognised. But why was he showing up now, here, in this river?

"He deserved it."

Andi looked to her side, and where she could have sworn nobody had been standing there earlier, now, a figure with a dark cloak towered over her. He facing her but she couldn't see his face. Almost as though whoever was within the cloak was just a shadow.

"What?" She asked, clearly confused.

"Your father," the voice continue. It was a deep voice, and seemed to echo. "He deserved it." The cloaked figure turned to the river. "Only the worst are punished by being thrown into the river."

This didn't really clear up Andi's confusion. "Where am I?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" He didn't sound surprised, to her. But he still did not face her again. Andi didn't notice earlier but now she realised that he had a strange accent. Not one she had heard before. "The name you were given. That should be a big clue."

Her name? Andi? Or her full name? She still couldn't piece anything together.

"It doesn't matter," the man said, not giving her much time to think. "You'll figure it out soon enough. Hopefully by the time we meet again, which will be soon."

Andi furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "When will we meet again?"

"Two more times, actually. In the future." For some reason, Andi could picture him smiling. "Unfortunately, you're needed above ground so we'll have to cut our conversation short. Hopefully this will give you something to think about though. There is a lot more to come, Andromeda."

How the hell did he know her name? Suddenly, she felt herself moving back. Or was the man moving forward? Either way, the distance between them was slowly growing.

"Wait," she looked at him. "Why will we meet again?"

"For the next time, because you will need something," he explained, turning his back on her. And even though the distance continued to grow till he was a tiny speck and she was slowly being surrounded by darkness, his voice when he spoke again, sounded loud and clear. "And for the time after that, because of your death."