Dancing For Demons

Anya Vorobyez

He had never seen her break down like this. He had seen her get uncontrollable angry or brush off anything without a glimpse of emotion. However, Anastasia clutched the body if Madame Orlov like she was a best friends, no, a mother.
"Forgive me!" she wailed at the body of Madame Orlov.
Steve tried to comfort her by putting a supportive hand on her shoulder, but she pushed him away.
Her tears ran down her face and she rocked from side to side in distress. All he could do was watch.
Finally, she seemed to calm down and he managed to pull her away from the woman's body. He presumed the woman was Madame Orlov, one of the Hydra council members.
"Anastasia." He gently put his arms around her shoulders. "It's time to go."
Anastasia nodded and wiped her eyes. He lead her to the awaiting Quinjet and sat her down near the door. The team looked his way and he silently mouthed 'later'.
Anastasia stared straight ahead, ignoring everything around her. As Steve went to check on Natasha, who was receiving medical treatment for her gunshot wound, he looked back at Anastasia and saw her fighting to keep the tears from spilling out.
When they finally landed and Natasha was wheeled out to the sick bay, Steve took Anastasia and guided her out the Quinjet.
He decided to take her upto her room and he left her sat, almost in a trance, on her bed.
"What happened," asked Sam.
"She killed Madame Orlov," he responded.
Sam gave him a puzzled look. "Isn't she the one who experimented on her, made her kill people and who knows what else?"
"Yeah." Steve walked out, intent on going to see Bucky. He was still sedated, but Steve had hope that when they next woke him up he would be more receptive.

....................

Anastasia bolted into the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. The vile, acidic taste of vomit lingered in her mouth, as she leaned back against the bathroom wall. She had never felt like this in her life - grief was a strange concept to her.
After an hour of sobbing and guilt, Anastasia decided that she needed something to do to take her mind off what had happened. Fingering the necklace, Anastasia remembered about the problem with the pills and headed down to the lab, where she guessed Tony and ruce would be. She was right, but they were so engrossed in a conversation, they barely registered her come in.
"How's it going?" she asked.
Bruce turned around. "We think we may have cracked what's in it, but we are having trouble making one."
Anastasia approached and looked at the screen. On it were listed several chemical compounds in their chemical formulas, some of which she recognised. "That's ammonium permanganate," she pointed out.
"Yes, We are having difficulty trying to find any of that. The only place we can buy it from will take weeks for delivery."
Anastasia was surprised. "You have to react silver permanganate with ammonium chloride, filter out the silver chloride and evaporate the water. I thought you would know that."
"How to you know that?" Tony inquired.
"Ammonium permanganate is explosive and I was taught how to build a bomb from practically anything." She remembered Madame Orlov stood in front of the class explaining about different chemicals and their explosive properties or toxic properties. She had always taught them herself.
"I'll show you," Anastasia said, trying to distract herself. She grabbed a beaker from the side and went to the cuboard to get out some chemicals. Luckily, they had silver permanganate, but when she found the bottle of ammonium chloride, she discovered they had ran out. That was okay, because she knew where to get some. She hurried back to her room and grabbed her bottle of shampoo, which she knew contained ammonium chloride.
Once the ammonium permanganate was made, they explained to her the rest of the contents of the pills and they devised a way to combine the ingredients. It was quite complicated, but Anastasia found the work helpfully distracting. Then a thought crossed her mind.
"How's the winter soldier?" she asked, concerned.
At the mention of him, Tony face frowned. "He is still sedated, but thanks for the tip off about his pills. We managed to liquidize them and give them to him in an injection."

It had taken them a few hours, but now a pill lay on the side. They stood in silence looking at it.
"I think we need to test it to see if it is safe," Bruce said.
Anastasia took the necklace off her neck and opened the box to see how many pills were left. There was one lying in there and she picked it out and laid it next to them.
"They look the same," she pointed out and the others nodded. Looking at the clock on the wall, Anastasia noticed it was currently seven in the morning, about the time she would take her pill. "There is only one way to see if it works," she said and picked up the pill. Bruce put his hand on her arm and gave her a worried look.
"We don't know if it will work. If you will die without them, then we should probably run some test first," he remarked.
Anastastia ignored him and popped the pill on her mouth. She pulled a face from the taste, but swallowed it quickly.
"If I die, it doesn't work," she said, only half-joking. "Now we should make some more if it does work."

"So you want a new identity?" Fury responded. "You know you can stay with the Avengers."
Anastasia nodded. She had thought about it hard and decided that she wanted to live a new life, like her parents would have wanted.
"I know, but I want to start a new normal life. If it is not too much to ask, I would like a place to stay in New York, too."
Fury nodded, understandingly. "We can do that, but you do know you are not old enough to live in an apartment on your own. You are fifteen, remember."
Anastasia was surprised and she pointed it out. "Surely you can pull some strings?"
Sighing, Fury nodded. "I'll see what I can do." He turned around, but then a thought crossed Anastasia mind.
"Anya Vorobyez." He stopped and gave her a puzzled look. "I want my name to be Anya Vorobyez." Anastasia knew that because that was her real name, Hydra would recognise it, but she didn't care. If she was going to live the life they wanted her too, then she would use the name they gave her.
Tony stuck his head around the door and checked to see if she was not sprawled across the floor.
"Still alive?" he asked, not letting on his concern.
Anastasia smiled at him. "Clearly," she answered.
They both walked into the kitchen area and Anastasia opened a cuboard and pulled out a glass. Turning on the tap, she filled it with water and went and sat down. Tony followed her with a cup of freshly made coffee and a fistful of biscuits.
"Is it wrong to mourn for someone who, ummm, who was a bad person?" Anastasia asked.
Tony thought about it carefully. "If that person was important to you, then it is fine."
Smiling, Anastasia grabbed one of the biscuits from his pile. The answer was exactly what she had been waiting for.