Please review! So in this story, Nero and Anastasia know that neither of them killed Elena. They are just still a little bit antagonistic. That detail is courtesy or sailorraven34. :) This is like several years after the third book so him and Anastasia had already made up and there wasn't all that conflict.
Is it bad…that every time I read Deadlock…and Anastasia kills Tom…I…laugh…?
Almost eleven at night…
Nero hurried down the corridor of a military base in Siberia toward where the H.I.V.E. soldiers were stationed.
"Colonel!" he called and the lead man turned quickly.
"Max!" he said with a nod "We need to leave now. Where's Raven?"
"The Furans are here." Nero replied, walking past him "She was captured. Has anyone left the building?"
"No." the Colonel said "Are the Furans working with the Siberians?"
"It seems that way." Nero said and the Colonel cursed. Ever since Nero had calmed things down with the Furans, they'd all been rather peaceful. He'd discovered that Anastasia hadn't been responsible for Elena's death and tried to let go of their past.
"Alright, you three, come with me." Nero ordered, pointing at three of the H.I.V.E. men "We're going back in."
"Did you actually see Raven get captured?" the Colonel asked as the troops turned to go with him.
"She was fighting off Furan's men. I'm guessing Pietor took her himself." Nero replied, taking his own pistol "Get the men ready to leave." he turned "I'll be back."
###
Him and the men walked swiftly down the hall back towards the sound of fighting you could hear. Nero had his pistol drawn and he looked at his men for a second.
"You three head down that hall." he said, gesturing with his gun "Go around to the main hall and wait for my signal from the entrance of this hall. We don't know if they're holding her hostage yet."
The men nodded and followed their orders. Nero continued down the hall. He rounded the corner and collided with another human being. Both of them stumbled back and Nero put up his pistol immediately, aiming at the person's head.
Anastasia Furan narrowed her eyes at him, sending a clear challenge. She wasn't armed he could see.
"What have you done with Raven?" he asked coldly. He still felt a familiar twinge of hate as he saw her face. Even though they had sorted each other out, he found it hard to forgive everything else she had done. And the fact that she was now holding Raven.
"What are you talking about?" Anastasia growled "Where have you taken Pietor? And half my men."
Nero scowled "Pietor wasn't anywhere near us."
"Neither was Raven." Anastasia replied, glaring.
"What are you doing working with the Siberian forces?" Nero growled "I find it hard to believe you would take orders from anyone except your twisted excuse for a conscience."
"We're not. In fact, we're here to drive them out of their place. I assumed you were helping them fight." Anastasia said, ignoring him.
"Same." Nero said, lowering his gun.
"So Raven was taken as well?" Anastasia asked, her voice hard.
"I don't know at this point." Nero said. As awkward as this was, he knew where this situation was heading. "How was Pietor captured?"
"They shot him with a sedative dart and took him aboard their aircraft." Anastasia replied.
"Then that's where Raven is as well." Nero said.
For a moment, they just looked at each other, seeming to realize at the same time that they didn't have to be enemies right now.
"Where are your men you brought here?" Anastasia asked.
"They're outside." Nero replied "We came back i-"
There was one beep and a loud bang. Nero and Anastasia were knocked to the ground at the explosion of the wall behind them. Smoke began to fill the room and from the sound of it, the whole place was beginning to blow up.
Nero tried to wave away the smoke, but more kept coming. He could hardly see Anastasia, but he heard her coughing.
"Get up, we need to get out of here." he growled, also resisting the urge to cough. He stood up just as Anastasia did and they quickly turned back the way Nero had come toward the exit.
"Nero!" came a man's voice behind them and he looked back. The squad he had sent ran, looking battered but alive.
"The Siberians have already lifted off." he said "This whole building is rigged to blow."
"Then let's run!" Nero ordered.
The men looked at Anastasia for a moment as she passed and then followed. They ran out to the Colonel's rather panicked face, who was gesturing urgently at them now. The Shroud's blades were whirring.
"I need to get back to my own men!" Anastasia shouted, over the loud explosions and sound of the Shroud.
"If you want to live, you need to come with us!" Nero yelled back.
Anastasia hesitated for just a second before following him aboard the Shroud. The Colonel closed the hatch and they slowly began to lift off the ground. He turned and his eyes widened in shock at Anastasia.
"What the hell she is doing here?" he demanded. Anastasia glared.
"They're not working with the Siberians." Nero said "Pietor and Raven have both been captured."
The Colonel still looked extremely wary and opened his mouth to protest at the simple fact that she was here on their Shroud.
"We saw their ship take off." he said.
"Pietor and Raven were on it then." Nero replied "Come on, let's see if we can get a tracking signal."
Anastasia followed him and the Colonel watched her with narrowed eyes.
Nero went to speak with the pilot and she stopped a few feet from them.
"You're bleeding." the Colonel said from behind her.
"Thanks for the observation." Anastasia replied without turning to look at him "Everyone who was caught in the explosion I'm pretty sure has a few gashes here and there if you haven't noticed your own men need attention."
"They're getting it." the Colonel growled back "Your cut isn't pretty and since Nero seems to want you alive, I should think that I should offer medical attention."
"Take care of your own first." Anastasia replied gruffly, still standing there stubbornly. He rolled his eyes and turned away.
Anastasia knew the cut on her arm was bad, but she wasn't going to take help from them. She would rather wait until she was taken home.
"Contact Professor Pike and tell him to send out more men." Nero was saying to the pilot "And he needs to start tracking the same signal we're tracking in case it heads for H.I.V.E. or anywhere G.L.O.V.E. related."
"Yes sir." the man replied, picking up the Shroud radio.
Nero turned back to Anastasia and the Colonel.
"Is there something to track?" Anastasia asked.
"Yes." Nero replied "Although it's fleeing fast. The pilot is going to land as soon as we're safe."
"Why?" Anastasia demanded "We need to find them."
"Not before morning." Nero said "There's a reason they took them alive. They want them alive."
"We'll lose them." Anastasia said in frustration.
"No we won't." Nero replied, placing a hand on her shoulder "We need to rest. You need something for that cut."
"I'm fine." Anastasia growled "I'd like to focus on finding my brother."
"Me too." Nero replied "But we can leave that up to the tracker for now. You need sleep. It's nearly twelve now."
Anastasia didn't reply and didn't argue.
"Come sit." Nero said, gesturing at the chairs.
###
About half an hour later, Nero was walking beside her towards a hotel. He could tell she was exhausted and he was too actually, but honestly, he was too awake to sleep.
They rented two rooms and each went up to their own.
"I'll come and get you in the morning." Nero said as they stopped at her door. Anastasia nodded.
"Will you be alright?" he asked, watching her closely "We're going to find Pietor, I promise."
She nodded again. Nero turned to walk down the hall to his own room. After readying himself for bed, he simply went to the reading chair in the room. For several minutes, he sat there in silence before he had an idea. After all, there had been an explosion in a military base, certainly that would have made headlines in the news. Perhaps there were more clues as to what the Siberians ship had looked like. Maybe there was security footage.
Nero was flipping through the channels when he heard a knock on his door. He glanced over before walking over to open it. Anastasia stood there and he frowned slightly.
"Is everything alright?" he asked.
"Oh yeah. I just can't sleep." Anastasia said, waving her hand "Do you mind if I come in?"
Nero hesitated for half a second before blinking "Sure yeah come in."
Anastasia walked in and looked at the T.V. "You weren't sleeping either I see."
"I wanted to check the news." Nero replied "To see if there was anything we missed that they possibly caught in camera."
"Unlikely." Anastasia replied "Unless there were security cameras."
Nero nodded. To his surprise, she came and sat next to him on the couch rather than her own seat. He wasn't sure what to say, so he didn't say anything.
After a few seconds they lapsed into a comfortable silence.
"How do you do it every day?" she asked and he turned to look at her.
"Do what?" he asked, scowling slightly in confusion.
"Work. I mean every day you have a whole school to look after. You have the G.L.O.V.E. staff to please and reassure. And then you have random crap like this to deal with." Anastasia said.
"I guess it's more of a lifestyle." Nero replied "And not to offend, but…wasn't this how it was for you about twenty years ago?"
Anastasia caught her breath for a moment, realizing he meant the Glasshouse.
"Yes, but admittedly, even in the Glasshouse, Pietor took care of a lot of things." Anastasia replied and Nero noticed her voice shook right at the end.
"I suppose if I didn't really support what I work for; it wouldn't turn out so well." Nero said.
Anastasia shot him a glare "Are you trying to infer something?"
Nero blinked and shook his head slowly "No."
"If I'd known the truth about Elena sooner, nothing like that would've happened." Anastasia hissed "If you would've made an effort to-"
"To what? Contact you? We both know how that would have turned out." Nero interrupted.
"Don't you realize how suspicious you were acting?" Anastasia asked, eyes narrowed "Anyone else would've done the same thing as me."
"Open a school to abuse children?" Nero asked and she went silent, face unreadable.
"I'm sorry." Nero said instantly "That was out of line."
There were several moments of silence.
"I didn't know what else to do okay?" Anastasia said bitterly.
"But…children? Anastasia please explain to me how that solved anything." Nero said, staring at her.
"Because I'm stuck." Anastasia replied, staring at the ground with cold eyes "I'm…" she could feel the tears coming "I'm stuck in this place that I hate." she looked at him "It's like there's no way out. I can't…"
"That's because you're not living. You're surviving." Nero said softly "Can't you see that? You spend every day hoping for something to change, but all you really want is Elena back."
"Is that wrong?" Anastasia demanded "She was my sister, of course I want her!"
"But you can't take that grief out on someone else." Nero replied "Not on Pietor, not on me, not on…Natalya…"
"It wasn't supposed to go that far." Anastasia said quietly in despair "None of it. I just got so carried away…I needed to feel something again and if it meant I hurt people to feel anger and fear that was okay. I just…"
"You weren't mourning." Nero cut in gently and Anastasia looked away.
"I grieved too. I was angry. For a long time, I just wanted to hide from everyone and let them deal with the world, but…it doesn't work like that." Nero said.
Anastasia didn't say anything.
"You know you look like her." Nero said as she looked at him.
"I'm nothing like her. My sister was amazing and one of the kindest people I've ever known. It was no surprise you were drawn to her."
"You're more alike her than you think." Nero said, eyes soft "I can see it."
Anastasia shook her head and sighed.
"Oh Max." she laid her head on his shoulder and tucked into the crock of his neck, closing her eyes. Nero put an arm around her and tenderly squeezed her shoulder "How can you be so understanding? You changed Natalya's mind, even after we sent her to kill you. And now, even after that…you're sitting here with me."
"Well…now that I know that all this time you were really just grieving, I can understand why you felt the need to do some of things you did." Nero replied.
"And Natalya? You didn't even know the girl." Anastasia said.
"She was just a young woman following orders at the time." Nero responded.
"After we worked things out, I realized that I thought of you so terribly for all these things, but in reality, the only thing you had supposedly done was kill Elena and even that was proven untrue." Anastasia murmured "When did everything go so horribly wrong…"
"When we both lost Elena." Nero said quietly "But you have to grieve and let your anger go."
Anastasia turned her head to look at him and his eyes. After a second, she leaned forward to gently kiss him. Nero didn't resist and after several seconds he put two hands on her face. Anastasia twisted, so she was more on her knees to face him. His fingers slowly slid along to the back of her head, running through her hair.
Anastasia pulled back and tilted forward just to lean her head against his chest. She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, relaxing.
###
The next morning…
There was a very loud knock on the door and Nero and Anastasia both jerked awake. Anastasia rolled to the side as Nero slowly got up.
"What time is it?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know. One second." he walked over to the door and opened it.
"Max." the Colonel stepped in and Nero frowned.
"Is something wrong?"
"No. I just thought you should know that the Siberian plane crash landed only thirty miles from here." the Colonel said.
Nero's eyes grew and Anastasia leaped up.
"What?"
The Colonel looked at her in shock "But the reason they crash landed was because of…" he pointed next to him down the hall. As the man laughed slightly Nero leaned to see both Pietor and Raven standing there. Pietor looked extremely incredulous at the sound of his sister's voice in Nero's room, while Raven looked relieved to see him while giving him a nod. They looked a little worse for wear, but they were all intact.
"Sorry, couldn't resist." the Colonel said and it was weird to hear amusement in his voice. He backed up to let both of them through as Anastasia came over.
"My God, Pietor, what the hell happened?" she demanded.
"You didn't have to swear twice." he replied, looking Nero up and down as he came in.
"What happened?" Nero asked.
"Well after the sedation wore off." Raven began "They apparently decided that we were very cooperative people because they did not sedate us again. So we took care of them and got the ship heading in the right direction again."
"And the crash landing? Are you hurt?" Nero asked, giving her a quick scan.
"That was not on purpose." Pietor replied.
"How did you know to work together and that the other one wasn't the one who captured you?" Anastasia asked, still sounding slightly irritated from the Colonel's "joke."
"We didn't." Pietor and Raven answered in unison.
"At least not at first." Raven added "I thought the Siberians had gotten everyone else there when they hit me, but I'm glad to see I was wrong."
"But uhhhh…you two seem to have worked together well enough." Pietor said, giving a hard stare "What went-"
"You both need to see our medical officer." Anastasia said, cutting him off "Come on. He needs to check you over." she waved Pietor out the door. But before walking out, she leaned over to Nero, smiling slightly.
"Thank you."