It makes her sick, the way sadness is addicting. Sadness is familiar. It's comfortable and it's easy in the sense that it comes naturally to her. But everything else about it is hard. The way her body aches with self-hatred. The way her mind spins a...
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The Triskelion: S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters
After Batroc had set off the boom, causing Athalia to get burned by the fire as she tried to escape, Steve thought that she should be there when he planned to confront Fury about his lack of communication. The burns that Athalia had received had already started to heal thanks to her enhanced healing ability and godly magic, but like all living beings, scares are permanent. From the smaller wounds that had already healed, a fait, pale skin batched her arms and legs.
"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve asked as he and Athalia walked into Nick Fury's office. The director sat at his desk chair, looking out the window with his back facing the heroes.
"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours." Fury replied, still not turning to look at the two Avengers.
"Which you didn't feel obliged to share." Steve pointed out, stopping in front of Fury's desk. Athalia sat on one of the comfy chairs placed in front of the desk.
"I'm not obliged to do anything."
"Those hostages could have died, Nick," Steve said, his tone filled with anger and annoyance. "Look at Athalia, 3rd-degree burns because you didn't feel obliged to share."
"I sent the greatest soldier in history, and a warrior, princess goddess, to make sure that didn't happen," Fury said, spinning on his chair to face them. He glanced at Athalia when he mentioned her. Even though she was wearing her suit, you could still see some scarring on her hands.
"Soldiers trust each other. That's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."
"Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye," Fury said, standing from his desk chair.
"Last time I trusted someone, they faked their death and then almost destroyed all of New York," Athalia spoke, moving her gaze from her hand to the man on the other side of the desk. "I think that's worse."
"That's not my point, Athalia," Nick said, then turned his attention back to the pissed-off expression on Steve's face. "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with." Fury explained to Steve, "Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."
"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own."
"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets, because nobody knows them all." Nick leaned forward, hand on his desk.
"Except you," Steve shot back quickly. Fury stood up straight again, removing his hand from the surface of his desk. He looked stunned by Steve's words.
"You're wrong about me." He said. "I do share. I'm nice like that."
Nick walked out from behind his desk and walked away from the two enhanced people. Confused, Athalia stood from her seat and followed Fury to the elevator. Steve joined them. The moment Athalia stepped foot in the elevator, a program scanned her.
"Insight bay," Fury spoke as he leaned against the handrail.
"Captain Rogers and Princess Athalia do not have clearance for Project Insight." The S.H.I.E.L.D. computer spoke. An ID photo of both of them was holographically placed next to the elevator door.
"Director override. Fury, Nicholas J."
"Confirmed." the program said as the door closed. The elevator started to move, lowering them down the side of the building. Athalia gripped the railing tightly, feeling a weird sensation as she waited in the moving room, only being stuck in one of these once before.
"You know, they used to play music," Steve spoke, breaking the silence. Athalia raised an eyebrow at the blonde man. She looked around the small space to find anything that looked to play any sort of sound, but seeing as she wasn't used to mortal technology, she quickly gave up when she realized she didn't know what she was looking for.
"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for 40 years." Fury replied. "Granddad worked in a nice building. Got good tips. He'd walk home every night, a roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say, 'Hi.' People would say, 'Hi' back. Time went on, the neighborhood got rougher. He'd say, 'Hi.' They'd say, 'Keep on steppin'.' Granddad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter."
"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked, listening to the man's story.
Nick chuckled. "Every week some punk would say, 'What's in the bag?'"
"What would he do?" Athalia asked,
"He'd show them. Bunch of crumpled ones and a loaded .22 Magnum." Fury pushed himself off the railing and moved across the elevator, he turned and looked through the glass, growing Athalia's curiosity. "Yeah, Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."
Turning around, and looking out the glass window, Athalia's eyes landed on a room filled with weapons. Multiple large ships, much like the one they used when trying to find Loki, were spread out in the room. Giant guns and canons were mounted on the ships, ready to attack when given command. Smaller fighter jets were being loaded onto the ships.
"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22." the three of them stepped out of the elevator and walked threw the room. "This is Project Insight. Three next-generation helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites."
"Launched from the Lemurian Star," Steve said.
"Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down. Continuous sub-orbital fight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines."
"Stark?"
"He had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines. These new long-range precision guns can eliminate 1,000 hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."
"Thought the punishment usually came after the crime," Athalia spoke, her eyes locked on the long-range guns Fury had just shown them.
"We can't afford to wait that long."
"Who's 'we'?" Steve asked.
"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threats analysis. For once, we're way ahead of the curve."
"By holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection," Steve said, adding on his thoughts to what Fury was saying.
"You know, I read those SSR files. 'Greatest Generation'?" Fury spoke, speaking on Steve's time during the war. Athalia stood awkwardly to the side, watching the moment play out. "You guys did some nasty stuff."
"Yeah, we compromised." Steve said, "Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free. This isn't freedom. This is fear."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."
Before Steve walked away, down the stairs, following the trail out of the room, leaving Fury and Athalia alone in front of a giant weapon, he stood face to face with Fury.
"Don't hold your breath,"
[Amber's little chats; to all my swifties reading this chapter after the masterpiece of an album 'The tortured poets department' was dropped, please share your opinions, fav songs, etc. because I think that the album is AMAZING!!!]
