time lapse ⇒pietro maximoff

IV

After the lab debacle, Eden was in no mood to socialize, not even with her pal in arms who walked behind her with a respectably comfortable distance. The angelic girl wasn't moping, nor was she glowering, she was simply just tired, and would prefer the calm of her own company for once.

To break the silence, Steve spoke from behind Eden as they walked back, in separate strides, to her quarters.  

"Nat and Clint are going to go on a small extraction mission before Thor's send off party- until then, would you like to do anything?" Steve prodded softly, not necessarily expecting Eden to go ballistic or serve him any attitude. She'd just had a rather interesting and rather emotional experience, Steve could tell she was just in her head.

Eden shook her head just enough for Steve to notice, pausing at the entrance to her room with a tender hand to the door jamb. She was so graceful, her touches always featherlight, her gait almost appeared as if she'd never touched the ground at all. A true divine creature, pure, porcelain, vulnerable, fragile. 

She didn't want to be fragile.

"No, thank you. I want to be by myself for a while, if thats okay. Catch up on some rest perhaps." 

Cap nodded, albeit hesitantly, and offered a small smile in return to Eden's request.

"Alright, get some rest. If you need anything, give me a holler and I'll be right here." Eden gave Steve one last tired look and then entered her room, shutting the door softly behind her.

The last thing she remembered before catapulting herself onto her bed and drifting off into a fitful spell of slumber, was the silent trickle of tears running down the flushed apples of her cheeks.

__

"What is your name?" I couldn't answer him even if I tried, my mouth felt glued shut, my eyes could hardly focus on the outline of his face.

But I could feel him, feel his warm arms surrounding me like a protective cradle. I didn't want him to let me go, for fear of never feeling warm ever again without him.

"Please, tell me, I can help you. We can help you. What is your name?" The young man urged me persistently, my head lolling back and forth on the base of my neck, the world a spinning circus of blurry colors and shapes that danced discordantly before my eyes.

I could feel myself slipping away, oh how I wanted to answer him so badly. But I couldn't. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak. 

"She's incapacitated, they did something to her." The man spoke once more, his voice strained as his grip on me grew tighter, pulling me closer to his form. 

"I can't read her, her mind, it's blocked, or vacant. I hope its the former." A woman chimed in, the blurriness in my vision slowly shifting to just pure white, my hearing suddenly beginning to distort. Was I traveling through a tunnel?

"I won't let them get to her again. She's alone, defenseless. Look at her, she's barely alive."  The man said worriedly, I could feel the rapid thunder of his heart in his chest against my arm.

Ba-boom.

Ba-boom.

Ba-boom.

Eden awoke with a choked gasp, startled that she had been ripped away from such a telling dream. She didn't know if it were some mental fabrication or a distant memory, all she knew was that she knew the identities of the man and the woman speaking in her dream at one point in her life.

And that gave her hope. 

But the newly found hope that rested at the base of her heart didn't ease the feelings of dread and anxiety that were left behind by the unsettling dream she had. Eden grasped at her fingers, pulling them and lacing them together in an attempt to rid herself of the nervous energy that was growing in her belly. She turned her head to read the clock and sighed in disappointment. It was only 8:34 pm. The room was dark save for the soft LED glow of the clock, so she thought it might've been early next morning and she could have a whole day of exploration to distract her from her own mind.