Between Entrance and Exit: An Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 9: Whereabouts unknown

My ears rang in the silence. No sirens, no calls from a burning city, no voices at all. I opened and closed my eyes, but saw only complete darkness. There was a dirty smell like clay or something metallic. I couldn't feel my mother's arms anymore.

"Hello?" I said, feeling my heartbeat in my throat.

A flame licked to life, illuminating my mother's face. I stumbled backward and felt cold fingers grab my arm before I fell.

"Mom? Where are we? What happened?"

"I had to do the right thing Siri. For you and for me," she said, the light of the flame dancing in her eyes. She was holding the fire in the palm of her hand.

"What do you mean?"

"I had to separate you from them. They were poisoning you against me. Your own mother. They told you I was one of the bad guys, didn't they? They told you I was evil, that they had to eliminate the threat."

I trembled in the cold air.

"Are you?" I whispered.

"Am I evil?" she scoffed. "What a ridiculous word. No. I am a powerful woman. And that scares them. Everyone is scared of something. You know what scares me, Siri? The thought of losing you to those weapon-greedy humans. Men who do not love you, but love the thought of using you as a weapon, a tool. They found out what you are, how special you can be, and they want a piece of it. And you let them have you, didn't you?"

I was speechless. She'd put words to my distrust of S.H.I.E.L.D. The way they'd treated me like an experiment, just earlier today. I was just a way for them to get to the scepter's powers.

"I'm right, aren't I, sweetheart?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"They are forcing me to," she said shrilly, pointing skyward with her free hand. "All of this is their fault. They took you from me, and you're all I had."

"What about Walter? Don't you love him?" The image of his limp form dropping from her hand into the snow flashed through my mind.

"I've only ever loved you Siri. There's no more room in my heart for anyone else. I married Walter for his money so that you could have a good life without struggle. Just as I married Christopher before he died. I wanted you to have everything. And yes, I had to keep some things hidden, but I was afraid of losing you. It was a good life, wasn't it? I gave you everything. And now that you know the truth, we can explore the universe together. I can take you places you can't even imagine."

"To Asgard?" I didn't know I still had that I wanted it until the words were out of my mouth. There it was, reignited. I had rejected Thor's invitation last spring, and it had been the wrong choice. I wanted to know my parents. I wanted to know my first mother. I watched her face change in the light of the flame that flickered in the breeze of her breath.

"You know I can't go there. You don't need them Siri. No one could love you like I do. And you don't need those morons, the Avengers," she said in a thick sardonic tone. "You need only me. I will protect you. Give you anything you could ever want."

"Except my freedom," I found myself murmuring. Something changed in me too. Something shifted.

"Excuse me?"

"Maybe I am just a weapon to them. Maybe they don't love me. But they aren't killing people."

"Of course they kill people! Don't be naive, Siri. They kill people that they don't like all the time. And all they have to do to justify it is to call them evil."

"How do you justify it?" I said bravely.

"It's Love. I love you so much I would kill for you."