The Immortality War || The Avengers

Chapter Fourteen: Forgiven

Music is "Island" by Svrcina.

Picture is Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Forgiven

After everyone regroups on the Bridge of the Helicarrier, Fury takes a handful of cards from his pocket. He stares at them with both anger and sadness, an appropriate combination for all that's occurred in the last hour.

While the Helicarrier is being repaired and we're no longer in imminent danger, Agent Coulson is still gone. That has caused the majority of us to become quiet. Even Grant, who sits beside me at the table, has fallen silent. 

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury states. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." He tosses the cards onto the table, and the blood from the Agent's wound, still wet, slides across the table as they come to stop in front of Steve and I.

Steve leans forward, taking one of the Captain America cards into his grasp. I look at my closest friend with sympathy. I've lived almost a century and have gotten used to people dying around me. It barely phases me anymore, but Steve is still young. I know how much this pains him. Even Tony Stark hangs his head at the sight of the cards.

"We're dead in the air up here," Fury continues. "Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor.... I got nothin' for you. I lost my one good eye." The Director shakes his head as he braces his hands against the metal table. "Maybe I had that coming."

He takes a moment of silence to walk around the table. His tone changes as he sighs, "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier."

Fury continues to walk around the open area. "There was an idea, Stark knows this," Steve and I turn our heads towards Tony, "called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believeing in that idea. In heroes."

Tony abruptly stands, pauses for a moment, then walks down the hall away from the Bridge. Fury sighs. "Well...it's an old fashioned notion."

I clear my throat, catching Fury's attention. "Agent Coulson once said to me that we might just need a little old fashioned in this day and age."

"He was right," Steve adds, his voice breaking slightly. "He was right."

"Was he?" Fury asks. "If he was, then prove it."

Steve's baby blues lock on Fury for a good five seconds, then he stands to his feet, walking towards the hallway. I stand, turning to flash a look of apology to Grant, and follow Steve. We find ourselves in the observation room that I showed him earlier that day. Rose's favorite spot on her Helicarriers. Steve paces up to the window, bracing his hands against the cold steel bar that lines the wall of glass.

"Y'know, one of the first things I thought to myself when I came to, after the defrosting thing, was at how different the world was." Steve shakes his head, his hands gripping the railing tightly. "I saw the electronic billboards in Time's Square and thought, 'Wow, look at all I've missed.'" He laughs to himself as I walk closer. "But the more time I spend here, the more I see that the world and its' people are exactly the same. The world is still headed down a dark road, the people are still seeking destruction, and no one's doing a damn thing to stop it. Those who were fighting the good fight are either gone or can't fight anymore." He sighs, "Peggy...Howard...Rose..."