"Stacy, stay with me," I pleaded, watching the girl writhe on the floor in agony. Blood was trickling from my fingertips, dripping on the floor at a sickly fast pace. "Stacy, Stacy! Think about school, think about all those trips you want to go on." My brain was racing, grabbing for any possible key word that could keep her focused on staying alive. "Think about Faith! Think about Betty and Michelle!"
Stacy's head whipped back, and a gut-wrenching scream came from her mouth. Her pupils were dilated, and each of her fingers would twitch violently in different directions than the other. She had been at this for an hour, and I was stuck chained in a chair, forced to watch her body struggle to live. I couldn't give her up and let her die like all the other teenagers Hawkes had kidnapped, but I couldn't give up my blood. The entire fate of the world laid in my hands, and there was no one able to help me.
I was all alone.
I hung my head, my neck muscles aching just from holding it up, and I started to cry shakily At first, I tried to hold it in, but then I didn't care. There was no reason to hide how I felt. I was alone and no one was coming for me.
"You're not alone, kid." I lifted my head slightly and glanced to the left of the room to see Steve leaning against the wall, his arms crossed against his chest and dressed in jeans and a grey long sleeve. "You'll always have us."
"You're not really here," I whispered, my voice cracking. "I'm clearly hallucinating; the toxin is taking its toll." Steve's smile fell slightly, and the blond man sighed. "I miss you all so much. I couldn't sleep my first night by myself after I left, all I could do was... cry. I'm not fit for this. I keep lying to myself and pretending I do, but it's... so clear I don't. Every situation that comes next, every battle... I'm doing more harm than good!" I took a breath and turned my head away, squeezing my eyes shut as a new wave of tears came. "Atlantis, being an Avenger... it's all a joke. This world would've been so much better if I died in that HYDRA facility like I was supposed to."
"That is an entire load of bullshit." I felt a hand caress my face to rub my cheek, and I opened my eyes to see Bucky kneeling beside me. His other arm was missing, and his dark hair fell flat. "You gave me hope. You gave so many others hope. You're worth so much more than you think, Isabel." I stayed quiet, my lip trembling as I stared into his eyes. All I could see was the helpless reflection of myself, my deathly pale frame and my bones starting to stick out from under my skin like I was a walking skeleton. "You're loved, Isabel."
"You're going to get through this, Stark." I looked away from Bucky to Rocket, who walked up in front of me from the opposite corner of Steve. "This isn't the end for you. The final battle is far from over." The raccoon took my broken, bleeding fingers, and I felt a cold healing sensation where his paws made contact with my skin. "You have to focus, understood?"
I nodded, looking up from him to Steve and Bucky. My lungs felt heavy, every breath an uneasy task. "What do I do?" I felt a hand on my left shoulder, and I looked up to see Loki staring down at me with understanding. His black hair was shorter than before New York, and he looked the way I had started to remember him in my youth. "You're clearly all my subconscious, help me. What is my plan?"
"You have to give your blood to Anthony Hawkes," Steve said solemnly. "There is no other option. The toxin will weaken you to the very verge of death, and only his team can reverse it now. They won't fix you unless you comply. You have to regain your strength, that way you can one day escape. Zane did it, so it's possible."
"-but that was the past and his security measures will have definitely increased since then," Bucky continued. "Stacy will have to be healthy as well, whatever that means for this place. There's no idea how she will react to your blood, but it's clearly an antidote. We have a chance to save another life."
"What about the other lives that will be affected by this donation?" Loki asked them, repeating my exact inner thoughts out loud. "He will have all Elemental capabilities if she does so. Millions could die if he so pleases from the power he will receive."
"Hundreds already have, and he's weaker than he wants to admit," Rocket countered, the raccoon walking a bit closer to the center of the room so that he could be seen. "We know his motives now. There's no way Hawkes will immediately know how to mutate the DNA successfully into his own. We're talking tests and tests. It's not much, but there will be time to regroup... time to plan. Besides, we can't stop him if we die in this shit hole."
Stacy let out an agonizing cry of pain, and the hallucinations of my friends flickered as she turned over and stared at me, her eyes glowing a pale blue like a bomb. "I don't wanna die," she told me with ragged breaths, the first time she had spoken to me since Hawkes had injected her with Amy's blood. "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die-"
"Stacy, you have to focus-" I tried to calm her down.
"You can't let them kill me!" she screamed at me before her body gave a violent twitch. Her hands were shaking beyond control, and her eyes kept trying to flutter shut. "Ple.... please." Stacy's body finally slumped, and the twitching ceased. I felt my own breathing hitch.
"Stacy? STACY?!" I screamed at her, but it did nothing. I strained against my restraints, feeling the bonds cut into my skin. "No! No!" I tried to look over at Steve, but he was gone. They had all disappeared. "Please! Please!"
I felt myself on the verge of panic, hyperventilating as I tried to keep control. There was only one way I could get out of this situation alive, possibly Stacy too, and maybe manage to take Hawkes down for good. I had no choice. My throat was tight as I opened my mouth, and I gave a shriek of defeat as the toxin made half of my body go numb. It had to be done. I had to give in.
"Hawkes!" I screamed, blackness flickering on the edge of my eyesight as I struggled to keep my own consciousness. "I'll do it! I'll do it! Please, just save her! Hawkes!" The cell door groaned as it opened, and the man entered the room. A sick smile was on his face, a grin of glory. Hawkes stopped in front of me and lifted my chin with his hand, causing me to gag slightly for air as my neck was bent in an uncomfortable position.
"I told you I always get my way, Seven," he gloated as I squirmed. His grip tightened, and I felt his fingernails dig into my skin. "You, Isabel Stark, allow me access to your DNA?"
"Yes," I whispered, and his face hardened.
"Louder!" he barked in my face, and I sobbed.
"Yes!" I shouted back, tears streaming down my face. Satisfied, Hawkes let go, and my head dropped. "Please... don't let her die."
"Oh, she'll wish she had," he told me, looking over his shoulder as he approached the unconscious girl's body and waved a group of scientists in. "Prepare Miss Stark for extraction. We'll be taking as much as we can." I continued to cry as his scientists approached me, pulling the needles out from under my nails and releasing me from my restraints.
"Stay with me, Stacy," I begged as the girl's limp body was carried out of the room. "Stay with me."
______________________________
I watched sideways at Thomas through blurry eyes as I was laid down on a cold metal table, my arms laid by my side with my palms facing the ceiling. Doctors swarmed me, holding me to the table while others wrapped black straps to attach me to it. The Earth Elemental approached me slowly, his dark hair stringy from stress and sweat, and he placed his right hand on my forehead tenderly.
"I hope by the time you're recovered, I can finally introduce you to my sister," he tried to lighten the mood, and I chuckled sadly while giving a slight shake of my head.
"Nothing from this will work out in our favor," I told him weakly. "Don't you see? All he cares about... is getting Colin back. The second he figures out how to successfully combine our DNA... it'll be you next in my place." Thomas couldn't meet my eyes, looking down at the IVs the doctors were preparing to place in the inside of my elbows.
"Yeah, well... I'm trying to stay hopeful," he muttered. "I need something good."
"And your best choice was to trust the man who beat and tortured you relentlessly as a child?" I questioned. "The Avengers, my father-"
"No one cared about us, Isabel!" he hissed right as the needles pierced my skin, and I winced. It was worse of a pain than I had thought it would be; I could literally feel myself getting sucked away. "SHIELD... the moment they knew about us, there was no plan to save us! They turned against children, scared little boys and girls who didn't know what they were doing but did it so they could stay alive. The Avengers? I saw the news reports of Germany. You all turned against each other the moment you got!"
I gasped for air, my toes curling in pain and my back arching against the medical straps as I reacted to the extraction. With a groan, I glanced down at the tubing connected to myself and the dark blue blood coming out of my veins. My eyes followed the tubing and how it connected to Stacy, the girl on another table on the other side of the room with doctors surrounding her. I felt like I could barely breathe.
"Get Hawkes," I told Thomas, who looked taken aback by my request. "Please. I... I... I need water. Something, anything." The Elemental nodded and dashed off, allowing a doctor to take his place. I tried to concentrate on my breathing, spots flickering in my vision. Something took my hand, and I looked up to see my father standing beside me with a comforting yet grim smile on his face.
"I'm... I'm hallucinating again," I managed to choke out, and he nodded. My grip on his hand tightened as I whimpered, tears going down the sides of my face as I positioned myself back to facing the ceiling. "Dad... I'm scared."
"You're going to be alright, sweetie," he told me. "I promise." I shook my head, feeling my anxiety take over.
"I can't do this," I admitted fearfully. "I can't do this."
"Yes, you can," my father insisted. "You're a Stark; you don't quit. Save Stacy's life." I nodded, and my hand fell as he disappeared. Right as it did, Hawkes pushed a doctor out of his way, staring down at me with disdain.
"What?"
"Water, please," I begged. "I need water." Hawkes scoffed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm not playing any games, I swear! Please... anything. You have what you want."
"Sir, her vitals are dangerously low," a female doctor reported to him, placing a digital touchscreen in his hands. "The toxin isn't affecting the extraction, but it's still in her system." The older man rubbed his temples with a sigh, trying to think of a plan. "If we don't act now, she may die and the blood will terminate-"
"Take off the power stabilizer." My eyes widened as I felt the cold barrel of a handgun get pressed against the side of my head, an inch or so from my left eye. "No games, just like you said. I'm still taking precautions."
"Sir-"
"I said take it off!" he yelled at her, and the doctor deactivated the ankle bracelet. The moment it died, I gasped in relief as my powers started to work again. I could feel my bruises and broken bones healing insanely fast, and the water molecules from the air absorbed through my skin to help replace the blood I had already lost. "Speed up the DNA extraction."
"What?" I questioned, looking at Hawkes with wide eyes. "What else do you want?"
"You have the ability to heal insanely fast, did you think I wouldn't take advantage of it?" he asked me back. "You can't fight if your body is still in such a position of healing itself. I want bone marrow, skin grafts, plasma... I want it all now. Start immediately."
"Sir, she hasn't been given any anesthesia," the female doctor tried to defend me, but Hawkes shook his head. There was a pleased look in his eyes.
"Start immediately," he ordered. "I want her to feel it all." I glared at the man, feeling the hatred burn cold in my chest.
"You're not going to win," I told him, and Hawkes looked amused.
"Maybe," he played along, seeing it as a game. I gritted my teeth as all the doctors started their work, only to have the gun barrel shoved in my mouth. "Give a little scream for me, Stark."
And I did.