Summary: Irina Navreykev has finally escaped Viktor’s clutches only to lose her freedom ( again) and her children in the process. Will the real Irina be able to emerge again or will she be lost forever between the four walls of her cell.

Author's Notes: --You’ll kill me if I put Irina with someone else won’t you? Yeah, I thought so. Irana will be used to refer to the mentality or personality of Irina Navrekey and Irina Derevko will simply be referred to as Irina.

~~~~~~~~~

Escape

She tosses in her bed; she’s been at it for hours. It’s more of a distraction than restlessness. She just can’t sleep. Truthfully, sleep brings nothing more than nightmares and she can do without those. Sleep is…unnecessary. So, she doesn’t sleep. Why waste time? She now uses this time to plan. To plan for what, she isn’t entirely sure. Escape, she thinks. Escape.

~~~~~~~~~

Air rushes past her head and the ground rushes up to meet her, but before death is imminent, she slows and lands like a cat on her feet. And around her, the world crashed. Flames burn in her eyes and her rage builds. No one will stand in her way.

The anxiety triples, her anger peaks, and her insanity reaches fever pitch. She. Needs. Destruction. She screams and she screams and she doesn’t stop until there is no sound left. The only things left are the remains of a world she failed to ever be a part of.

There is nothing left, only silence; death.

She is Armageddon.

~~~~~~~~~

She is yanked out of her dream by uncaring hands that jar her awake. She gasps and examines her surroundings. More damn orderlies. She shakes them off darkly.

“Let me go. I’m fine.” They back off slowly. “Don’t ever touch me, again. Or I will castrate you both myself.” They leave the room quickly following her threat. She wants to be away from this place. She runs her fingers through her hair and breathes deeply. She hates when people touch her. They always invade her space and she hates it. They just don’t understand that they weaken her. They’re too close.

When she is defensive, Irina Derevko emerges to defend her, but withdraws once the dangers passes. She can’t be drawn out in any other way. Irana Navrekey is like the child she has promised to protect and she does, but for any other reason, she does not exist. She can only be seen in Irana’s reflection, deep in her eyes beyond the carnage that Viktor left behind.

It is she who appears at night and hushes Irana’s fevered night terrors. She croons to her, speaking of vengeance, retribution, the return of the children that rightfully belong to them, and some kind of paradise that even they deserve after all of this. She disappears just before dawn breaks and Irana’s eyes flutter open to meet the same loneliness, the same four walls that have confined her for a contained eternity.

She spends her days alone, only being allowed to venture out for real air for an hour and then being interrogated for another one as though she’d tell what there is to tell. Irina never allows her to tell the secrets they keep, because Irina Derevko in any form is not a victim. At least, this is what she tells herself when they force her to review the injuries, old and new, that she arrived with. She doesn’t know what they expect to get from her. Viktor never told her anything about what he did. She knew even better than to ask. She has the marks to prove that trial and error is not the way to go.

She purses her lips and stares at Agent Trinity, who in turn stares at a set of ugly burns on her wrists. She self consciously pulls her long knit sleeves down over her hands and tucks them into her lap. She received those as a birthday gift from Viktor the one and only time she ever tried to escape. She’d tried to take the children with her and had paid an even worse price in each of their places. She would never allow those children to suffer when she could do it for them. They never knew any more pain than she couldn’t hide from them. Viktor thought it was cute that she would go to such lengths for the little brats. She would ask that he not refer to them as “brats.” She got a backhand and ring shaped bruise for her efforts. That’s when she learned that living with him only afforded one so many luxuries. Freedom of speech was not one of them.

She’s become used to no one asking for or wanting her opinion. It doesn’t matter and so she doesn’t give it. They’ve been questioning her for days or weeks or maybe it’s just been hours and she’s simply lost all sense of time. They’ve gone through a few agents. Starting with Sydney, then Jack, but she would never believe they were real and would only curl up in a ball in the corner and beg them to forgive her. Finally, she had broken down and pleaded with them to leave her. She couldn’t stand seeing them and knowing that she had killed them with her bare hands.

“I’m sorry, all right? I wish I could take back what I’ve done, but I can’t. I would give my life…I would give...anything. Please, I’m begging you--Please just leave me.” They’d looked to one another and had backed away realizing that she believed that they were dead at her doing and that nothing they said would make her believe any different.

Then, Agent Trinity had returned and he was the only one that she would speak to, though she had nothing to say to him. She felt that she owed him for saving her, for getting through to her.

“Thank you for saving my life, Agent Trinity. I am for that, forever in your debt.” He nods sagely. “I know that may not seem like a lot, but I don’t make it a habit of being in my captor’s debts. You...are an exception, because I trust that this debt won’t be used to my detriment. Have I judged you or your intentions wrong?” He leans back in his chair with an airy, unthreatened demeanor.

“No, Agent Derevko. I believe you’ve judged me better than half of those I know best.” She smiles and clasps her hands in front of her.

“It’s good to know that some things never change.”

“What?”

“My being a good judge of character.”

“Well, let’s hope you’re right then.”

“I’m always right.” She leans closer to bring her point home.

“Of course.” He leans in until there’s less than foot between them.

“Of course.” She says it a matter-of-factly. She decides that she definitely likes him. The light in his eyes tells her that the feeling is returned.

“I’m only going to ask you once more...” She shutters her expression, but nods. “I won’t ask again. I know when to give up--”

“Then give up now.”

“No, not yet.”

“Then apparently you do not know when to give up. You’re still trying.”

“Nope. I give.” She leans back in surprise.

“You do know when to give up.”

“See, didn’t I say?” She smiles a rare smile at him and gives him that.

“You did.” He leans forward on his arms.

“Did I see you smile?” She nibbles at her lower lip uncomfortably and shrugs. “Yes, I do believe that was a smile I saw there. Well, look at that. I am quite the master.” She composes herself and returns her eyes to him.

“How so?”

“I made you smile.”

“Oh, you did that? I thought that I’d just had an itch.”

“An itch? Come on, I made you smile.”

“I suppose.”

“Thank you.” She drops her eyes to her clasped hands. He’s funny.

“You’re very funny.”

“I do try. You may not want to, but I want you to trust me.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to help. I want to find the man who held you captive for so long.” She leans into his, her eyes flittering to the two-way window briefly.

“My children. My son and daughter. I have to find them. Please help me find them.”

“Of course, but you need to tell me what I need to hear.” She desperately clasps his hands in hers.

“You don’t understand. I can’t tell you. I want to, but I can’t. The words won’t come. Viktor will kill me or my children if I say anything.”

“Viktor doesn’t have to know.” She pulls away from him defensively.

“Viktor always knows. The man is like God.”

“We can protect you.”

“But can you protect my children?” His silence is the only answer she needs. “You can’t guard what you can’t find, right?” He lets his eyes fall to the table. “Right. So you see, Agent Trinity--”

“Edward.” The interruption puzzles her.

“What?”

“Call me Edward. It’s my name.”

“Oh.” She clears her throat to give herself time to rediscover her train of thought. “So you see Edward, you can’t do what I need you to, so I can’t return the favor.” Not quite as eloquent as she intended, but it gets her point across.

“I understand.”

“You understand?”

“Yes, I do.” She peruses him unabashedly, searching for any signs of deception. Finding none, she shrugs in befuddlement.

“You must be a hit with the ladies.”

“I try my best.”

“I bet your wife adores you.”

“I’m sure she would if I had one.”

“You’re not married?” He shakes his head.

“Not even dating.” She nods and files that bit of information away for later. She doesn’t know what she’ll do with it.

“A shame. If I was a different person, I’d snap you up in a second.”

“If you were a different person, I’d go voluntarily.” She smiles at him lazily and he winks at her.

They definitely like one another. She has a feeling that they’re going to become very close friends.

She hopes so, because she has got to get out of here.

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