In The Ashes [Avengers AU]

In The Ashes

A/N: I included my favorite cover of Memories Of A Broken Heart as the soundtrack to this. Hope you enjoy! :)

I was ten today. In two more years Mama said I would be assigned an apprenticeship. Mama and Papa hoped I would be put in Medical. They had slightly better conditions than the coal miner dwellings my father was assigned.

I told them I hoped I could be put in Engineering. They ran the cities and handled all the equipment. I was fascinated by the simple technology we were allowed.

Grandpa told me about a time when technology was everywhere. People had these things called "computers" that sound really cool. He told me his father used to create things that most people considered magic.

Mama didn't approve of her father telling me this. She said it was dangerous to talk about the times before Emperor Loki guided us to peace.

Mama was going to have a baby. Not today, to my disappointment. Mama said I had to wait two more months. I hoped the baby had red hair like me. Nobody else had red hair in our section. I hated it.

Mama said my hair was the same color as her grandmother, the one I happen to be named after, and that I should be grateful to have such pretty hair.

Another thing that makes me different is my name. Most people have simple names, like Anne or Sam. Mine is long and very "pretentious" as my Grandpa saids. Since he is the elder of our family, it's his honor to name all the newborn children. He tells me I was named after "two of the strongest women I've ever met" when I complain. Since I had both Mama and Papa's last name, my name was even more unusual. Papa said his great-grandfather and Mama's were great friends and he wanted to honor our family lines coming together.

Mama should know by now it's not good to be different. Being different gets you noticed by others. Being noticed is not good in the empire. Being noticed usually gets you sent to the courts.

Papa couldn't be there for the small celebratory dinner mama cooked. The designated dinner time was during his current shift at the mine. He would eat a protein pack and then get back to work as quickly as possible. Being accused of slacking was almost as bad as being an oath-breaker.

Slackers were taken to the courts and became thralls. Thralls were collared and kept in the worst housing and given the worst food. They were worked harder than even the miners. Most thralls died before completing even half their punishment.

Nobody wanted to die a thrall. If you died a thrall you didn't get a funeral. It also meant you went to Hel, a cold and barren wasteland.

Some people said Hel was the daughter of our Emperor. I know to take the rumors with a grain of salt, but it's possible that someone as powerful as our leader sired the master of the dead.

When you reach a certain age, like Grandpa had, you were retired and spent your days in the house of your oldest child. Grandpa was in Engineering, he taught me everything I knew about how things worked. Well, only when Mama and Papa were out of the house. They didn't approve of me learning anything not approved by Education.

He even once showed me a picture of his parents.

His father was dressed differently from what we were. Grandpa said the wealthy back then just didn't belong to the court, and that they wore things called "suits". His father had dark black hair and a strange glowing thing in his chest. I asked Grandpa about it and he just keeps saying he'll tell me when I'm older. He tells me his father was very smart and had a lot of arrogance. But he was also loyal to his loved ones and had amazing will power.

His mother was a tall, beautiful woman. She, true to my mother's words, had the same red hair I did. She wore strange shoes with thin points that made her taller. They seemed very impractical. Grandpa laughed when I told him this and told me they were called "heels". He also said they were very stylish back in his day. He said his mother was smart and terrified her enemies with nothing more than a look.