[2] An Executioner's Requiem | Leo Fitz

37

Waking up and immediately throwing up was not the most pleasant thing in the world. It was not something Nina had particularly done many times but she could confidently say that it was almost as bad as regaining consciousness after being knocked out.

"Thank you so much for aiming for the bucket," a voice said as Nina grimaced at the aftertaste in her mouth. She turned around in the bed to see Dawn leaning against a wall, "if you missed I would've burnt this building down before even attempting to clean it up."

Nina just groaned, allowing her incredibly sore body to sink into the mattress. She paused slightly when she noticed the needles sticking out of her skin and that if it wasn't for her sports bra and boxer shorts, she'd be naked.

"Where are my clothes and are you giving me acupuncture?" She asked confused, watching as Dawn shrugged before pushing off the wall and strolling towards her.

"Your clothes are in the trash, your shadows ripped right through them and acupuncture... a form of it, yes," she said, "it was to help heal your body, I'm honestly a little surprised you were able to move with them still in."

Nina didn't question the latter part of her sentence, simply rolling her eyes and sitting up as she carefully pulled the needles from her body. She looked around the room she was in, noting the red walls and the emptiness of it all before focusing on Dawn. For the most part, she looked exactly the same as she had when they met at the cafe.

Her hair was still bone straight and stark white, framing her face perfectly and she was still decked out in black clothes. However, the clothing seemed to be a lot more casual this time around, with black jogging bottoms, a black turtleneck and black trainers.

"Where am I?" Nina asked.

"The place I told you about, where there are more people like us," Dawn smiled, "I knew you would come eventually but I didn't think you'd call on Gordon so soon."

"Trust me, wasn't my first choice," Nina rolled her eyes as she looked down to her wrists. Gonzalez's silver bracelets were gone as were the dark lines on her skin, but she could still feel slight tremors beneath her flesh and remembered how bad they'd made her feel, "how long was I out?"

"Two days."

"What!" Nina asked shocked, jolting out of the bed. Sure she hadn't exactly expected normalcy when she called out for Gordon but she expected being unconscious for two days much less. She was sure Coulson was worrying about her and that Fitz was freaking out. She'd planned to call them but now it looked like she'd ghosted them for 48 hours.

"Took a lot longer to heal you than we thought. Those bracelets really did a number on your mind and body," Dawn responded, not at all startled by Nina's sudden movement, "technically you should still be going through the process but you're stronger than most, I'm sure you'll be fine... I also want to spare you Linc's terrible popcorn analogy."

"Linc?" the SHIELD agent questioned and Dawn nodded.

"Lincoln, you'll meet him later," she shrugged, "but for now let me introduce myself again. I'm Dawn, and I'll be your transitioner."

"My what?"

"Transitioner," Dawn repeated before she nodded in realisation, "oh right. I keep forgetting you're new to this. Basically, everyone who goes through Terrigenesis has a transitioner to help them. Mine was a lovely little lady called Pam. She died last year, bless her soul."

Nina didn't react as Dawn signed the cross on her body, despite her circumstances she was surprisingly calm. She still didn't really know where she was or who she was surrounded by, but instead of her usual kill or be killed mentality, Nina just felt neutral.