Agent Kat

Chapter 20: It's A Long Story

Leroy looked confused. "Memories?"

Kat groaned and put the back of her right hand to her forehead. "Yup. Memories. The little sleeping spells I've been falling into lately? Those are my flashbacks. They happen every so often. But I've never had this many in such a small period of time..."

"Kat, what happens when you have these sleeping spells?"

She shrugged. "I just... remember, I guess."

"Remember what?"

"My childhood. That's all I ever remember..." she sighed. "And all I've ever tried to forget."

Leroy leaned forward. "You grew up like me, right? Being tested on?"

She nodded.

"So, you remember the tests and the people?"

Kat rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yes. I remember all of it... sadly."

"Do you by chance remember a woman that went by the name of... Doctor Winslow?" Leroy asked, looking a bit pale.

Kat's face drained and she aged ten years in a second. "Y—Yes. I—I remember her..."

"Well... Don't take this badly." Leroy held his hands up in surrender. "But, you look a lot like her. Same hair, same skin tone... That's all I remember, really. It was so long ago."

Kat closed her eyes and tried not to remember Dr. Winslow more than she needed to. "I know. She told me that a lot."

"Really? Well, she was really pretty..." He blushed and moved on. "And, what else do you remember?"

"What else do I remember? I remember the pain. I remember the cages." Kat closed her eyes. "I remember everything."

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A few hours after Kat had woken up, and Nova had taken Leroy's place, another person walked into the room. It was a very tall man, with dusty brown hair and hazel eyes. He was thin with long limbs and deft fingers, which were holding a black tablet.

Nova and Kat stopped talking as the man cleared his throat. "Hello. My name is Agent Mann. I've come to collect Agent Kat. She needs to come... speak with Director Fury."

"Why?" Nova asked defensively. "She hasn't done anything wrong."

Agent Mann shrugged. "That's not for me to tell you. Agent Kat, if you will follow me, please?"

"Why don't you get to tell me why I have to go and see him again?" Kat asked.

Agent Mann said nothing. "Please come with me." He waited for Kat to stand up before walking out of the room.

Sighing, Kat waved to Nova. "I'll see you soon... I hope..."

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Kat entered the room she had been in the first day she had come to SHIELD and saw no one but Director Fury. Confused, she stepped into the room. Agent Mann closed the door behind her and she whirled around.

Trying the knob and finding the door locked, she muttered, "Huh. I traded a life on the run for a life in a prison. Seems fair."

"It is, considering that life on the run wasn't really a life on the run, it was a life of staying hidden from the people you were scared of." Fury's voice came from the other side of the room.

Kat turned to face the large black man who was sitting in a chair. "Hi, Director. Can I help you?"

He motioned over to another chair across from him. He sat beside the chair at the head of the table on the far end, his feet crossed and set up on the table casually. "Sit."

I ain't no dog. But she did as she was told. Sitting across from him, she sat back and crossed her arms. "Yes?"

"It has come to my attention that you were awake when the attack from the unknown enemy went into effect."

Oh, so this is what this was about... I thought... Never mind. "Yes. And?"

"And I want to know why a small attack like that, with so little casualties sent you into multiple fainting spells." He took his feet off of the table and wove his fingers together, setting them on the table. "What happened to spook you so badly?"

So it is about that. I should have know. Play it cool, Kat. "Well, let's just say that this attack wasn't as... random... as some believe."

Fury's eye patch gleamed in the light. He looked absolutely deadly. "Please elaborate."

Kat told him about the message the person in the mask; the mask with one little white "X" in the top left corner. "They said they were coming to find someone called..." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Someone called Kit."

"I, for one, know everyone on this helicarrier. There is no one called 'Kit'. Do you by chance know who they were talking about?"

She was shaking by now. Flashes of images burst into her mind. Doctor Winslow, Lily and James's bodies on the floor, then mysteriously disappearing, the needles, the scalpels, the bright fluorescent lights.

Starting to hyperventilate, Kat grabbed the edge of the table for support.

"Agent Kat. Do. You. Know?"

Nodding feverishly, she managed to squeak out, "Yes."

"Who?"

Stopping to catch her breath, she gulped in the cold air. Goosebumps were appearing all over her arms; it was another panic attack. "Me."

Director Fury waited for Kat to calm down before asking, "And why do you think that?"

"They called me Kit. Back at the lab where they gave me the wings? That's how I know. They're the only ones that have ever called me Kit." Kat brought her legs up to her chest and circled them with her arms.

"And can you tell me exactly why they felt it necessary to infiltrate SHIELD to tell you something?"

She shrugged. "No. I can't. I don't know."

Fury leaned forward again, his hands still clasped. "Can you tell me exactly why this scared you so much?"

"It's a long story."

He smiled, not a smirk, but a real smile. "Isn't everything?"