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| A . N E W . W A Y . T O . |

She wished they would have given her some form of warning. They had promised her years ago that they would leave her be, let her wallow in her party of agony, and that they wouldn't interfere with anything that she needed to do. Or what she wanted to do, even. It wasn't as though they could physically stop her anyways. She completed the missions they asked of her to complete and she did so silently, swiftly, pulling them all off without a hitch. It almost could have been suspicious at how easily and quickly she terminated the tasks she had been given, but they knew her. Their file on her was long enough to require its own filing cabinet. This file was by no means to be used to blackmail her, unless it got into the wrong hands of course, but it was for the safety of practically the entire world.

The brunette's strands bounced around her shoulders as she paced unevenly beside the wall, much like an animal being watched or hunted. It was how she felt. The energy the glowing blue cube was emanating was giving her goose bumps, causing every fine hair upon her slender body to rise in alarm. It made her uneasy, smoky grey eyes trained on it intently no matter which way she moved. Every orange fleck within the grey coloration flickered, threatening to release a flame at any given moment in time. Her eyes were like the burning cinders of a fire that had just been put out, but like those cinders, even the smallest amount of wind could cause it to burst into flames. At her rate of discomfort, it was only a matter of time.

The murmur of the scientists and agents within the room was an annoying buzz, irritating her as she attempted to keep her focus trained on the cube. It was the Tesseract, the jewel of Odin's treasure room. It was a very dangerous and powerful. As she allowed her thoughts to ponder over what powers it did hold, something told her it was not meant to be in the possession of humans, and that something was her own demon. She was the latest carrier of Carmen, a massive black wolf covered in tribal markings colored shades of red. Her eyes were the color of fire, the element she controlled. Most of her fur was as black as the crystals she could create for offense and defense. Of course, she was not exactly aligned with the good of the world, but the Tessaract was a serious deal.

Carmen was thousands upon thousands of years old. She was aware of who Odin was, just as her three siblings were. After all, they were Odin's pets, but Carmen had gone out of control too many times and had posed a threat to more than one race. Odin had banished her to Earth many, many years ago, trapped within a human body as punishment. The wolf hadn't taken much liking to any of her other vessels and would often find a way to get them killed, though these were things she couldn't do on her own. Her silver-tongue and clever thinking process mostly forced them to commit suicide or get involved in things that would definitely kill them. With this current vessel, however, Odin warned if she died, then he would forever trap Carmen in her least favorite place: a never ending abyss where she would see no one, hear no one, and be forever alone.

"Is that…creature on the fritz again, Aimee?"

The question slightly startled her, and she whipped around to find SHIELD's Director there. She nodded at him once or twice, "Yes. She's as antsy as I am to have this thing in the same room as us. We don't like being stared at, either. Why am I here, Nick? You and S.H.I.E.L.D. promised to leave me alone."

Nick Fury sighed, appearing tired even from behind his eye patch. "Yes, I am aware we promised we would leave you in isolation seven years ago, as long as you did the missions we needed you to do."

Aimee paused in her walking, hands resting on her hips, fingers gripping at the stretchy fabric of the long sleeved red shirt. "Why are we here, though?"

"There is something we are planning, something you may not like, but something we need you for." He felt his chest weigh down at her disapproving expression. "You will find out in due time, but you have to trust me. We really need you for this one."

She merely shook her head, walking alongside him to approach Erik. "I hope so, Director, otherwise you'll have a rather large mess on your hands to clean up."

"And I hope it does not come to that, Miss Serasio." He noticed the young brunette turn her face away from Erik as they came to him, possibly avoiding the stare the doctor sent her way. "Doctor, what's going on?"

Erik hesitated a moment, his eyes locked on the girl for a moment, but answered quickly, "The Tesseract is acting up. She's behaving. We can't pull the plug on her because she's a self-sustaining energy source. We turn the power off, she turns it right back on."

Nick stood over the man while he messed with the readings upon the screen of the computer. "You have been working for months to harness this endless power source. I suggest you do so before this thing implodes on us."

"Yes, I have been working on it. I have been working arduously for months since you called me onto this project, but I can't do it." He paused, almost embarrassed, but continued regardless, "My calculations are far from complete. There are gaps and holes as large as the Grand Canyon in them because I don't know what it is. She emits gamma radiation, not anything harmful."

Aimee snorted from where she stood a few feet away, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, fingers continually scratching at the fabric of her shirt, "That can be dangerous, and I never wanted to be near that thing."

Her nervous stance spoke volumes to some people in the room, those people being Nick and Clint Barton. The latter was known better as Hawkeye to some people, infamous for his impeccable eyesight, skill, and ability to shoot an arrow without missing. The man had come down from his perch in the far corner of the room, where he had been sitting upon a platform high above ground, and he had slowly circled his way to Nick's other side. His careful eyes surveyed Aimee, watching every odd movement she made. To him, she was being suspicious, as though she had done or was about to do something they wouldn't like. That, or she knew something was about to happen. Nick, on the other hand, knew her antsy movements were just a part of her nature.

Aimee had long removed herself from the world after a horrible incident she was the cause of around seven or eight years ago. For several years, she hadn't been sure what to do with herself, wandering about the world. She saw things, took in beautiful sights, learned different languages, and her favorite thing had always been the food. However, she had been lonely and lost, but on purpose. S.H.I.E.L.D. had never lost track of her, and eventually started sending her on mission they were aware only she could complete without a problem. She did so up until this point, because they had promised to leave her alone if she did as they wished of her. Here she was now, though, in the last place she wanted to be with the last thing she wanted to be near.

'The Tesseract is unsettling her the most...' The thought ran through her head again and again.

Erik walked off to speak with another scientist, and Clint spoke up to Nick, "There has been no tampering from this side, sir. Dr. Selvig and the others check out clean." His eyes were still trained on her.

"If you are insinuating I am having something to do with this, little bird, you are sorely mistaken." Aimee merely smiled at him to prove her point, her gaze still twitching to the cube every now and then, waiting for it to do something. "Something is going to happen, though. I can feel it."

"You mean she can feel it? And what do you mean "no tampering from this side", Clint?"

"You need to give me more credit." She beat Clint to the punch, proving nothing in particular, just that she knew more of the cube, "The Tesseract is a gateway not only to unlimited power, but it is also a door to the other end of space. Most of the time, where in space it is opened is opened and how long it remains there is unknown. Doors open from both sides, though."

"Most of the time?" Nick asked her, his hands resting on his hips at her curt answers as he took note to her growingly tense stance. "And you're saying someone else is trying to come through the Tesseract?"

Aimee nodded, feeling her muscles tighten with further uneasiness, not only from the stares she was receiving intensely as she spoke, but from the rising energy in the cube, "The cube can be controlled by the right person with the right elements. Otherwise, it is just something that will burn you. But, yes, someone is possibly trying to get through from the other side. Don't ask me to tell you who and from where, because I don't know. I know a lot about this goddamned thing, but I'm not that good."

"Then why are you so twitchy? You act as though you've done something wrong."

She shot a sharp glare at the man wielding the quiver, "Forgive me, Agent Barton, if I am not exactly a fan of being stared at, especially after being in isolation for nearly a decade. It's rather rude to stare and I would prefer you all stopped before…" Darkness flickered over her vision, momentarily stealing her from them, but she resurfaced quickly, "The Tesseract just makes me uneasy. The energy it gives off, specifically in those massive doses, tends to make me feel a little green around the gills."

"If that isn't a lie, I don't know what is."

"Call it what you want, little bird. At this point, it's best everyone remain on my good side."

Nick cut in, abruptly halting anything the man was about to say in retaliation, "I hate to disagree with you, Clint, but she is right. We need her on this case, so I suggest you just go along with what she says unless I tell you otherwise."

Aimee chuckled, taking a step to the side. "Oh, please, Nick. You don't have to pull that with me. I know they all know what I am. They've all read my file, as long as it is. Of course, you just gave them the synapses of what's happened in the whole forty-three years of my life. There are many things from the words within those papers that could make them stare. Is it the demon? Is it because I still look twenty? Or is it the fact that they know any little thing could set her off and one moment of lost focus from me could result in mass destruction?"

There was something of a stunned silence in the room, her dead-on estimation having shocked them all out of words. She had not originally intended to do so. She had meant to keep quiet, to go along with the awkward flow of the situation, and certain things still did not play out into her favor. She knew how S.H.I.E.L.D. operated quite well. They weren't about to stick anyone in a room with her without debriefing them on what she was and basically what she had done. Most people refused to look past the fact that she was carrying a monster of millennium within her and see the girl she really was. She wasn't necessarily a killer or a fighter or anyone that even remotely harmed a fly. There was something rather contradicting about her reputation as the Black Rose and how she really felt:

She hated violence.

Hatred was another thing, though. That was something on a completely different level of emotions. It was a gathering of feelings jumbled into one massive pile, a chemical mixture meant to create chaos, war, and, from there, breed itself further into the world. She had come to the conclusion long ago that if hatred was an emotion that never existed, then there would be no such thing as wars, battles, fights, or even petty arguments. A simple disagreement, perhaps, but nothing so miniscule could ever create something as a full-blown war unless the subject was dragged on and through the mud. Only then would hatred implant its seed within the hearts of others and grow to be a noxious, annoying weed that was difficult to exterminate.

The silence made her smile; she had stumped them because she knew something they believed she was clueless about. "Let's just stop pretending. I agreed that while I would be here to help keep an eye on the cube and do whatever else it is you want me to do, that you would give me a stress-free environment. Now, being around the cube isn't the most stable place for me to be, I do it anyways. You have my permission to shoot me to the ground if I lose it…" She trailed off.

"But?" Clint continued.

Aimee hesitated with her words, glancing over at him, "But I cannot promise shooting me to the ground will work. She's a lot stronger than I am. A bullet won't do much damage."

"We are prepared for that." Nick assured her in a firm tone. "There is no n—"

His sentence was abruptly cut short when a rumbling flowed from the Tesseract, shaking the ground beneath them as power built within one end of the machine harnessing it. The people in the room attempted to steady themselves, though a few devoted scientists who cared not for their safety were glued to their monitors, tracking the changes in the shining object. Aimee could feel an intense pressure on her shoulders and her chest, the kind that came around whenever Carmen decided she wanted out of her cage. In this place and in this time, though, the wolf's host kept her cool and easily denied the beast the ability to do so. It was difficult for Aimee to lose control, but it had happened before and she was afraid of it happening again, even though she had gone a few years without losing her own reigns of control.

The energy had piled to the front of the machine, swiftly blasting to the other end of the room in a bright beam, landing directly upon the supports that had been built for this purpose. A wide portal opened, a film of blue in the shape of a ring around the perfect picture of space, indicating a door had just been opened. Whether something was about to step through it or not, Aimee couldn't be sure at that point, but the horrid feeling in her stomach weighed her down as though there were boulders there. She knew something bad would happen; she could practically smell it on the strange winds created by the door, which blew tufts of her loose hair around her face. It made her nauseas and she feared the things that would be coming of the odd reaction.

The portal disappeared nearly as fast as it had come, a blinding light flashing at them as in imploded. Stray strands of bluish energy drifted to the ceiling that curved like a dome above the supports, pooling into a ball and floating as a balloon would. While that was concerning, it was not what her focus was concentrated on. Upon the platform of the supports knelt a man, hunched over with a staff in his hand, and his head slowly rose just enough to gaze out at everyone else with a wicked grin upon his face. Everything about him spoke bad news, and a shiver of sheer ice ripped down her spine. Her eyes flamed fluorescent red as Carmen felt the man's presence, a growl slipping past the brunette's throat. If there was something in the wolf's mind that made her not trust the man carefully getting to his feet, then Aimee had no reason to believe differently.

Nick cast a concerned glance at her, but held his gun in front of him and aimed at the man as he issued a warning, "Sir, please put down the spear."

Aimee struggled to breathe, fighting with the wolf, fighting with every inch of instinct she had to kill the man where he stood. The man's slicked down ebony hair was frayed in places, flicking upwards toward the ceiling. From this distance, she couldn't distinguish whether his menacing eyes were blue or green, but she leaned towards the latter. The growls were a mixture of pain and urging, and she tried to force them back down her throat as she watched the man lift the spear slightly, twisting it in his hand to stare at it a moment before lashing out with it. The same energy propelled from the Tesseract blasted from the end of the staff, obliterating a few parts of each machine. Shrapnel flew from the machines and embedded themselves into the skins of the scientists, a rather large piece sticking into the back of her thigh. The force of the blast had thrown her against the Tesseract's harness.

Her leg seared with fire and she couldn't quite bring herself to rip the shard from her skin. She was scraping at the ground with her nails, resisting the urge to change forms. She had to take the risk of letting her guard down for a moment. She did so, clearing her mind and relaxing her body, going limp upon the ground as Nick reached over her to secure the cube into a specially-built case. He locked it away, and by that time Aimee had ceased in her shuddering, her fighting with the beast. Carmen had gone back in her hole, unwilling to 'assist' if her host was going to be difficult with her. Aimee sat up, pushing into a defensive position as she regained what guard she could over her body and senses. As she and Nick remained there, though Nick had stood, the man had seized mental, emotional, and physical control over Clint, Erik, and one other agent.

Aimee threw a look in Nick's direction, mouthing the word "go" with her lips. He nodded and moved to head towards the stairs. That was when the man spoke, facing them as the brunette got to her feet painfully. "Please, don't. I still need that."

"Yeah, well, what purpose is it to someone like you?" She asked him, intending to stall while Nick escaped safely, intending to bury the man as soon as the excess energy imploded. She limped forward, carefully resting on the ground with one foot slightly elevated.

"Someone like me?" He quoted her, pursing his lips for a moment. "I am Loki of Asgard. I come burdened with a glorious purpose."

"Yet, I somehow come to believe you are here to cause trouble."

"Oh, no," his tone was laced with a plethora of various intentions, "I come bearing great news."

Nick interrupted, "What kind of news?"

"Freedom."

"Freedom from what?"

The wicked man grinned at the pair of them, "Freedom from freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. You humans were meant to be ruled. Under my jurisdiction, there will be ultimate peace."

The Director stared at him with a dead expression, "Yeah, peace, and I keep thinking you mean the other thing…" He insinuated a war; it was something the pair of them knew was coming.

"Sir, they're stalling. They intend to bury us." Clint stated, pacing over to Loki.

Aimee smiled, "Like the Pharaohs of Egypt."

Erik made a statement about less than two minutes remaining before the energy imploded everything within range, and Loki gave a command. Within a split second, a shot rang out, reverberating off the concrete walls, and a bullet was lodged into Nick's chest. The woman was aware there was a vest there and that it would only bruise as well as cause great discomfort, but he was far from dead. Instead, she slipped her fingers around the shrapnel as Clint came at her, ripping it quickly from her leg and slashing it at him with a set of swift movements. There was a sheer agony writhing in her thigh muscles, which would impede her as far as agility went, but she could sure as the Hellfire within her still fight. Just because Clint was coming at her didn't make her change her mind.

Aimee elbowed Clint in the gut when he managed to get his arms around her, lashing out with the shard once more, just barely nicking the upper part of his arm. She could smell the sharp scent of copper and iron as the blood dripped not only from him, but also from her own wound. He took advantage of such, kicking out at the back of her leg when he was behind her. She cried out and collapsed, rolling over and striking with her leg. He caught it and wrenched it to the side. She used the momentum and whirled herself around, pushing upwards with her arm and nailing him in the jaw. He retaliated instantly and grasped her shoulders, slamming her against the ground. Her head hit the concrete and she immediately lost her senses.

Blackness crept in around the edges of her vision, her head pounding in her ears painfully. Her senses were everywhere as she lay limply upon the ground, staring at nothing in particular. She was jumbling her scents and her sight was of no use to her. The only thing she could feel was her headache and the wound in the back of her leg, maybe the cool floor, but nothing more. She could, however, hear the distinct sound of shuffling feet as the four men made way to escape the slowly falling apart room. Then everything began to shake. She could hear a quick buzz of static and Nick's voice over the radio, calling to Maria Hill about the four men. Before she could really make sense of anything else, she was on her feet and being dragged away from the source of the problem. At that point, the hallways and stairs were just a blur to her.

"Stay with me, Aimee. It's just a little blood, a little whack to the head. You'll be fine."

His voice kept her in check, helped to calm down her raging nerves. She felt the helicopter seats beneath her, then a sense of weightlessness as they were hoisted into the air. Slowly, the clean air penetrated her senses and cleared them. Her headache went away. She could see, hear, smell, taste, and feel everything perfectly once more. It was the last she wasn't so happy about, considering the depth of her leg wound, as well as the severity of the pressure that had been placed on her head upon that impact. She turned her head in time to watch the horror before her as the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. facility imploded from the excess energy of the portal. She could hardly understand the science behind such a large blast from a tiny bit of energy, but she knew what followed this, and utter anger worked its way into her system.

Her fingers clenched the metal frame of the door, bending the thin steel with ease. It strained with a grated noise. She turned her face to Nick, "Nick….let me at the bastard, please."

"You can't kill him unless you get the Tesseract first." He chided, knowing her full intention. She would immediately abandon the cube for revenge; no one was allowed to beat her like that. "I told the pilot to get as close to the Jeep they stole as possible, that way you can get onto it without having to give chase, especially with your leg. Speaking of which, can you handle him with that wound?"

Aimee looked at the bleeding gash in the back of her thigh. The blood was everywhere it could be, practically soaking the entire pant leg. It ached, but was only a dull throb in the back of her mind. She was sure if she were to stand and twist the wrong way when moving, then there would be extra pains caused to her through those. However, she was hell bent on kicking the ass of that devilishly handsome god, whether it hurt her or not. It wouldn't be the wound that bothered her, honestly. That man, Loki, reminded her of someone she knew, someone who had caused her enormous amounts of pain long before she had ever fully become associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. It was the resemblance of the eyes and the features in general that struck her so hard, but there were enough differences for her to pull herself together.

"Trust me; it wouldn't be the wound that harms me."

"He looks like him, doesn't he?" When she nodded somberly, he sighed, "I was hoping that was something you wouldn't notice from the start, but it seems you have. Well, perhaps it will give you extra motivation to pound his face in."

Aimee grinned and laughed, something she rarely did, but the idea the Director had just put in her head made her almost joyful. She got to her feet, wobbling slightly from the lack of balance the helicopter provided her, and hung closely to the edge of the doorway as Nick crouched beside her. He fired shots at the vehicle and it didn't take long to see the familiar glow of the staff as Loki attacked them. Timing her jump, she waited for the right position to present itself, and then leaped from the helicopter. The impact upon the hard steel of the Jeep's roof was painful, especially with her former injury to the head. At that point, she wouldn't be surprised if she had a mild concussion. She quickly gathered herself and flipped her body around, kicking at Loki's chest with her feet. He stumbled backwards and into the corner, though swiftly stood and swung at her as she whipped around his body, putting him between her and Clint's gun.

She had been right about his appearance. Now that he was right in front of her, she couldn't help but compare them. The same complexion, body build, eyes, and even hair color, though the cut was different. The same expression was there, too, and that was the worst part of it. The man that had harmed her and Loki looked so much alike that it nearly scared her. No, it did scare her. It terrified her, because, in some sense, she felt as though Loki was that man. He wasn't, though, and she needed to keep that in mind before she got herself killed. She knew such thoughts would make her hesitate, and it would cost her the life she clung so feebly to or even a limb. So, she focused on Loki, mentally choosing the difference between him and the other man just to keep her and Carmen calm.

Carmen had more hatred for that man that harmed Aimee than Aimee herself did.

"You are quite spirited." Loki stated, clenching the staff in his hand securely as the Jeep rattled along the dark dirt road. "Your style of fighting is rather impressive for one so…insignificant."

She shrugged. "You can banter me all you want, throw insults left and right at me, and even make me feel like I'm nothing more than an ant to be crushed by a boot." His expression seemed slightly startled. He seemed to realize the fact that she was dangerous, despite how easily she had been taken down in the observatory room, and that was a good thing. She was extremely dangerous. S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have two filing cabinet's worth of information on her alone for nothing. "So, have at it. I don't care, so you'd best be sure you're ready for my wrath."

Loki gave a cynical grin. "You are filled with fire. It burns inside of you. Such a mystical quality that I can hardly imagine what it is. You would make a useful ally or even a partner in ruling this world."

"Why are you so intent on ruling us?" She asked him, hoping to catch him off guard, though she was sure he was doing the same thing. "You have to understand that while we may be weak as a species, our spirits are unbreakable. There will always be someone to fight men like you. Might I add that some of them are not human? Like myself."

He blinked slowly. "Yes, I find it peculiar. I have studied this world for several years so I could be prepared for my arrival and the usurping of this world. I studied everyone. I studied you in particular, but your files were locked away so tight that no amount of my magic could get to them. I wonder why that is?"

"Instead of wondering, I would be more concerned of the reason they are locked away, if I was you." Aimee felt flames lick at her fingertips, staring at him blankly. "What part of "wrath" did you not understand?"

Like lightning, she lashed out at the man, grabbing onto the staff as he held it up in his defense. He flipped it over her head as she turned slightly to wrench it from his hands, crushing it up against her trachea and pinning her back to his chest. She grunted, whipping her head backwards harshly, smacking him in the face. He gave a small cry of surprise and let go enough for her to worm her way out, running her elbow into his stomach and smashing him against the glass of the Jeep window. She twisted his arm and stole the staff away, tossing it to the side where it could not be reached. With that out of the way, she was sure to win the fight. He seemed skilled with his magic, but what would he do without it?

He fought like Hell. It certainly caught her off guard, but she pushed back with intensity unmatched. They seemed to be physically well matched for one another. For several minutes, one would momentarily prevail over the other before it really went back into a stalemate. Aimee had been all over the world, training herself in many different ways to keep a lid on her head. That included several different forms of meditation and several different forms of fighting. She wasn't about to just become a Monk of sorts. She trained herself in this way to stand up against the enemies that were as unruly as she was, possibly even more, but she had also felt, at the time, that it would be good enough to fend off Carmen. She wasn't sure if it was the meditation lessons or the fighting lessons that had prevented the wolf from taking control.

As she had suspected, though, Loki was not a fair fighter. He targeted her weakness, the back of her leg, where the wound was freshly torn open from moving, just as Clint had done in the observatory. Normally, Aimee would not be so inclined to fail just because of a little bit of blood loss. However, she didn't realize how much blood she lost this time. It was soaking her pant leg, and she could feel it running across her skin in a slimy film. The blood loss was making her dizzy, forcing her to slowly lose her ability to keep balance. Her coordination was failing her little by little, and she was sure Loki had taken notice. He reached out with his arms, wrapping one tightly around her waist and using the other hand to grab tightly to the leg over the wound, slamming her onto her back. Her mouth gaped open in a silent scream, unable to move as the sudden agony paralyzed her.

"Now, now, let's not allow this to go any farther than it has to, lovely darling." One of his knees was pinned against her abdomen, preventing much movement, and he was whispering menacingly in her ear; his hand was still clasped around her thigh, and she felt an unnatural pressure growing there. "I love your heart, your spirit, this fire that burns inside of you! Join me. Otherwise, I will let you go."

She managed to choke out, "How is that so bad?"

Loki grinned, "Trust me; you will learn that not joining me will be something you greatly regret."

Aimee pressed her cheek tightly against his, as if to prove something, "I believe that's a risk I am willing to take."

"That is a most disappointing choice."

The pressure upon her leg grew unbearable and she growled in pain. The pressure continued and fire seared through her limb as she heard a sickening crack, followed by the creaking of the bone as it moved against itself. She knew, without a doubt, that he had shattered a part of her femur. It wasn't just one clean break, it was several of them. She could barely keep herself from screaming, but when he slammed it against the Jeep bed she released the piercing wail from her throat. It took moments for the scream to die away, and she flopped helplessly against the cool metal, which seemed like a savior at the time. He grinned at her pain, watching her closely as she writhed.

"This is what you receive for this kind of disobedience."

Aimee glared with daggers in her eyes at him right in the face, bringing her nose to nearly touch with his own, "Fuck you."

Loki removed himself from her, harshly grasping her by the collar of her shirt, dragging her to the end of the Jeep's short bed. Her stomach lurched, heart rising into her throat. The car had to be going around sixty miles an hour, judging by the speed of the ground and the force of the wind. Without hesitation, the man muttered an angered goodbye and threw her off the edge of the vehicle. The impact came horribly and without warning. The dirt and rocks dug into her skin, blurring her vision and also causing her more pain than there was before. Her leg seemed to bounce against the road the most, and it made her want to hurl.

Eventually, her body rolled to a stop and she lay there limply, like a lifeless ragdoll that had merely been thrown around for someone's amusement, and then was discarded like trash. Tears pressed at her now grey eyes. The fire had finally died and she had given up. If she died out here, then there would be justice for some people, but she knew she wouldn't because Carmen wouldn't let her. She felt weak, useless, as though she had hardly put a scratch in that man's armor. She had failed. As much as she had been trained, as good as she was at what she did…she had failed. It hurt her the most. All this time training, meditating, and fighting had been for nothing.

Aimee couldn't move. The pain was like fire in her limbs, searing and burning in the worst ways. It ate away at her muscles, at her nerves, and at every fiber of her being. She wanted to die then as she had wanted to die so many times, but she knew all of it would always be to no avail. She felt herself slipping into the darkness of her mind. It was pitch black outside, but she could vaguely make out the lights coming towards her in the distance, but they were blurry. They got closer and closer. Her eyelids drooped and she was losing it. She couldn't fight anymore to stay awake. This was it.

The darkness consumed her when she heard Nick's voice.