Did you all get a chance to watch Loki yet? If you did, how did you like it? No spoilers ((I'm really excited to see what direction they continue on in)).

TW: mild gore and unwanted advances?

Two: Седамнаест

January 7th

After changing into what she had learned were 'lazy' clothes—a pair of loose jogger sweatpants and a tank top—Annie walked into the kitchen of Pierce's home and threw away the sandwich Fury had bought her. She stood over the trashcan for a moment staring into the bin as the lid closed, appalled at the sub.

It was a disgusting excuse for a meatball sub and the slimy consistency of the meatball had only left her questioning how Fury was still alive. No assassin could possibly be as harmful as the atrocities that were the meatball subs. Fury, however, had thoroughly enjoyed his, to the point of when he finally turned away to order another drink there was barely enough sandwich to plant the edible SHIELD tracker in.

She began searching the refrigerator for food and ultimately took out a protein shake. She opened it and turned around, freezing mid-drink as Pierce stared at her with an eyebrow raised. He was sitting in the room with no lights on and she had confused the dark silence of the house as a sign that she was alone.

Across from him was a man she knew well enough. He was often the one sent in to fix her mistakes or complete her missions when she could not. He was the golden boy experiment. The Winter Soldier. She knew he was out of cryo as well, but it was the first time she had seen him, and she couldn't place the feeling in her stomach as she looked at him. So, she returned her gaze to Pierce instead.

"You're home early, Little Anya," Pierce said with a coy smirk, "I thought you had business to attend to."

Annie cringed internally at his pet name for her. It was at times like these she missed when he called her Az. Az was a double entendre, short for her full name given to her by Hydra, Anya Zima. It was also short for Azrael—the Angel of Death. She hated Azrael—she needed little to remind her she was a Hydra created monster—but she hated Little Anya even more.

"I did," she said taking a drink of her protein shake. She set it down on the counter as she returned her gaze to the trash, "that was the worst sandwich I've ever eaten. I deserve hazard pay after that." Alexander Pierce let out a forced laugh.

"Well, perhaps we can come to an agreeable solution over that later," he said, his eyes scanning over her body. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise at his ogling. He turned away from her toward the Winter Soldier briefly before he continued once more, "We were having a meeting before you came in…"

Her gaze shifted to the Winter Soldier sitting across from Pierce and she saw his eyes trained on her. She stared at him for a moment before there was a sudden spark of a memory in her mind and it was as if she could practically hear a woman's voice painfully screaming.

Surprised and alarmed, she staggered towards the counter, gasping as she nearly knocked over her drink. Her immediate thought was that the voice sounded like it belonged to her, but she couldn't determine what she was screaming and had no idea why she would be. The memory ended as quickly as it came and left her with echoes of the scream reverberating in her mind.

"Are you alright, my little Anya?" Pierce asked as he turned towards her.

"I'm fine," she said, taking a deep breath and standing straight. His eyes narrowed in a knowing glare, so she swallowed hard and continued on as if nothing had happened, "I'll be outside if you need me." She left the room quickly, leaving the protein shake sitting out on the counter.

Pierce's house sat on several acres of land that was full of trees and other local flora. In the two months since being brought out of cryo, the denser areas of his land had become her haven away from everything and her refuge from Pierce. The land—from the first moments of walking through it after a rainstorm—had reminded Anya of somewhere she had been. While she wasn't sure what or even where the memory was, she knew it was strong so she stayed in the area as much as she could on the off chance it would help her to remember more.

Anya walked slowly to the place where she trained most often, her hand sliding over various non-poisonous bushes and leaves as she took in the cold forest air. She hadn't stopped to put shoes on before she left Pierce's home, but she paid little attention to the cold ground beneath her bare feet as she silently approached her impromptu training grounds.

Anya stopped at the center of her forest sanctum and closed her eyes, taking in and releasing several deep breaths. She summoned two large blades, one into each of her hands. Then as if she was a completely different person, began practicing her attacks against a large and unsuspecting tree in front of her.

Her movements were second nature, and it didn't take long for her mind to change the tree she was attacking into a target. And not just any target, one she was conditioned to never kill. The one person who had absolute control over her.

In this… cycle… that man who had total control over her—and the man she envisioned in front of her—was none other than Alexander Pierce. She let out a cry of anger as she attacked with a turn and nearly stabbed the Pierce of her mind's eye in the chest. The hit missed and splintered off a chunk of tree.

She let out another cry and anger and imagined the perfect experiment that was the Winter Soldier in front of her. She attacked him relentlessly, tears streaming down her face as she did so. She stabbed her blades deep into his imaginary chest and she summoned two more, swinging wildly at him—chunks of tree continuing to drop around her. Suddenly the Winter Soldier's face changed, and she froze, dropping her blades as she stared at the imaginary image in front of her.

She was sure it was still the Winter Soldier, but he was in a blue jacket and his hair, now short was slicked back, except one rogue piece that curled down toward his eyes. He was smiling at her, and his hands were resting on the guns in his belt holsters. He flickered in front of her, like a glitching image and she held completely still trying to take the man in. He winked and disappeared. She let out a feral yell before her hand went out, a blade flying from it and connecting with the tree right where the man had been.

She breathed heavily as she attempted to calm herself. The tree began to crack as it leaned away from her and she stared at it, blinking. She inhaled a deep breath as she picked up her blades and backed away from the tree. She stabbed one of the blades into the ground next to her and raised the other above her head with both hands. She threw it at the tree, hitting it solidly between two of her other blades. The tree cracked again, nearly ready to fall but stubbornly it remained in place. So, she picked up her second blade and threw it as well.

The impact of the second blade, just below the previous one, was enough to cause the tree to fall. As the large tree crashed to the ground, she stepped back into a strong, balanced, stance to prevent the vibrations from knocking her down. The tree slammed against the ground, sending birds and other forest creatures nearby into a panic.

Once they were gone, though, there was nothing but deafening silence. Anya stood, releasing a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She looked to her hands and began flexing them, suddenly feeling the searing pain from the blades leaving her skin. Somewhere along the way, she started counting the seconds.

"I guess you're still alive," came the Winter Soldier's voice behind her.

"37 seconds," she said turning to face him. She lowered her hands to her sides, clenched in fists and prepared to fight. She kept her face as unreadable as she could as she circled the clearing and slowly neared him, "you're getting slow in your age, old man."

"You're nearly as old as I am," he commented annoyed, his eyes never leaning her, "I've been cleaning up your messes for years."

She couldn't help the sudden upturn at the corner of her mouth as she came to a stop. For some reason, she knew they always played the same game of cat and mouse. And for some reason, she couldn't resist the need to play along.

"Well, why do the work myself when I can get you to do it for me?" she mocked. He glared at her and with a sudden movement he had his hand around her throat and her back against a standing tree.

"I could kill you right now," he said slipping into Serbian, "and do all of us a favor before you fail your mission again."

"If you really wanted to kill me," she said slowly, transitioning to Serbian as well. A teasing smirk graced her lips as she continued, "Then why are you using your right hand?"

The Winter Soldier looked to his hand around her neck and saw what she meant. He wasn't using his metal arm; he was using his own human hand. It was strong, sure, but not nearly as efficient to kill with as his left. He tightened his grip around her throat and leaned towards her.

"I don't need my metal arm to kill you," he said in attempt to recover from the mistake.

"No, but I didn't take you for a brutal man," she said, her smirk growing as their eyes locked, "Ruthless, but not brutal... Unless the idea of choking me to death excites you?"

The Winter Soldier caught himself leaning closer to her, his body pressing against hers. She infuriated him. Even worse, she infatuated him.

By all accounts he knew he shouldn't remember her and for the most part that was true. He knew very little about her, other than what information Pierce had given him on her. Still, he found himself knowing her—knowing their game—as he held her neck. He felt her heart beating against his hand and as he stared down at her he was sure she would be the death of them both. She began to shift beneath him, but he grabbed her hip with his left arm, pinning her as he spoke with a quiet growl into her ear.

"You have a death wish, don't you?"

He expected her to respond with some sort of snarky or flirtatious quip but instead he was almost caught off guard by her silence. His hand twitched against her neck as he felt the smallest of tremors come from her. She swallowed hard beneath his grip and after a few moments, she responded.

"Don't you?" she whispered so quietly in English, that he almost missed her words. The defeated tone of her voice stirred something inside him. Part of him wanted to take her away from Pierce right then and there. His training told him she needed to be removed. He let go of her neck and moved his hand down to her other hip as he leaned away from her just enough to look her in the eyes.

His blue orbs met her green, neither one wanting to break the distantly familiar feeling. Anya realized as she stared at him that she was starting to remember the past cycles and resets, and the pain that came from her failures. But she also was remembering him and that they were always connected. That both brought her a strange sense of happiness and an overwhelming sense of heartache.

Anya closed her eyes and leaned toward him placing her forehead and nose against his. The Winter Soldier stood frozen, for what felt like an eternity but was in actuality only a few seconds. He briefly leaned into her as well before he let her go and backed away. When she opened her eyes again, she met his gaze with hers. He stared at her; his eyes narrowed in both suspicion and confusion. When she didn't say anything, only sighed deeply, he turned and walked away.

It was then that she noticed a pair of boots near where he had first been standing. She searched the wooded area for him again, but he was already gone.

Nearly half an hour later Anya walked into the kitchen of Pierce's house. He was still seated in the kitchen chair as he had been when meeting with the Winter Soldier, but now the lights were on, and they were alone; something she was growing to hate. He smirked at Anya, his eyes narrowing as he watched her absent-mindedly move around the kitchen. Her skin was pale, and he suspected she had used up a fair amount of her power.

"How did your date go?" he asked with a hint of a jealous chill to his words as she opened the pantry. She froze for a moment at his tone before she turned to look at him in confusion.

"It wasn't a date, it was just really bad sandwiches—" she began, and he interrupted.

"No. Not that one," he said his smirk fading and his eyes narrowing as he glared at her, "the one you had just now in the woods. I assumed that's why there was a loud crashing noise. That you wanted his attention." She returned the glare.

"I was training and knocked down a tree. I had no intention of anyone else joining me," she said turning back to the pantry, so her irritation wasn't so visible.

"Your drink is in the fridge," Pierce said. She closed the pantry door and walked over to the refrigerator. She opened the fridge door slowly and stared at the drink, sighing as she took it. She turned and leaned against the nearby counter.

"Thanks," she said after taking a drink of the shake, "for saving it."

"Oh, I didn't do that,'' he said, standing and walking over to the fridge. He opened and pulled out the carton of milk, "The other Asset did that… On his way to see what caused the crashing noise."

He reached over her, practically leaning against her, as he opened the cabinet to pull out a glass. She looked down at the drink in her hand, ignoring Pierce as she thought. It had taken him 37 seconds. His words when he arrived… they were so out of place for the Winter Soldier… And the boots…

"Why?" she asked, the words leaving her mouth before she even realized it. Pierce moved to stand next to her, but still touching her as he poured the milk into his glass.

"I have my suspicions," he said, looking at her. He set the carton down and raised his hand to her chin. He forced her to look at him as he leaned uncomfortably close to her, "Perhaps he wants you, little Anya. He wouldn't be the only one." She bristled at his tone a small knife forming in her hand. She held it up to Pierce's neck and he smirked.

"You can't kill me little Anya, and you know that," he said smugly. Her eyes narrowed. She flipped the knife, catching it and attempting to stab him in the chest, but only gasped in pain as she realized she had stabbed herself in her abdomen.

"My favorite part of your conditioning," he said setting down his glass of milk and standing in front of her. She started to take the knife from her abs, but he moved closer, leaning against her as he placed his hand on top of hers. He pushed her hand, so the blade went back into her gut and smiled wickedly as she let out the smallest of gasps again.

She felt his arousal at her pain, and she clamped her mouth shut as she tried to back away from him, but he held her tight. When he decided it was okay to let her go a few moments later, he moved her hand and began slowly removing the knife from her. She gripped onto the countertop behind her. He smirked and leaned toward her neck, biting, and sucking along her collar bone and shoulder. She held still against him hoping he would stop, but as his mouth moved further down her chest and he pushed the knife back in she winced. In a panic she tried to continue their conversation.

"The Winter Soldier doesn't want anyone," she said trying to lean away from Pierce, "all he has are missions to complete." He grumbled as he stood, ripping the blade from her gut. She closed her eyes at the pain and felt her body trying to immediately start healing the wound.

"And so do you," he said holding the knife up to her face and running the side of the blade along her cheek. Her eyes opened at the warm blade, and he smirked continuing on, "but here we are, having a charming conversation."

"Don't forget," she said, slinking away from him. He let her go and she started to back out of the room, her eyes never leaving Pierce, "I'm the failure. He's not."

"Oh," Pierce replied with a grin as he leered at her once more, "I haven't forgotten. But we are men Little Anya, and you have quite a lot of reasons to capture out interests." Anya said nothing else as she left the room, but found herself locking herself in her room and taking the longest and coldest shower she could.