Fire and Ice

Part 6: Explanations

(Briar)
I followed Natasha up the elevator to where the rest of her team were apparently waiting. My leg felt a lot better, but my nerves were getting the best of me. This was not just a random team from a company downtown. These were the Avengers. I took a few deep breaths trying to calm my nerves. Natasha must have sensed my hesitation because she stopped just short of the conference room and turned towards me, a smile on her face. "You don't need to be nervous," she teased. I chuckled.

"Easy for you to say," I chuckled and she smiled, staring down at the floor.

"Do you need me to distract you again?" I blushed immediately, my eyes shooting up to hers and locking on. The teasing smile was back. "Or I could go get Wanda..." I blinked and blushed again. Was it really that obvious? What the fuck was wrong with me? Natasha smiled, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "It's going to be fine. I promise." I nodded, happy for her confidence in me but feeling none of it myself. I took a few deep breaths and Natasha pushed the glass door open, gesturing for me to enter.

I walked into the room to find everyone staring at me. This wasn't nerve-wracking at all. I sat in the empty seat next to Wanda. Natasha sat on my other side. I suddenly realized that I was sitting in between two of the most powerful women in the world, and a tension existed between the two that I didn't quite understand.

"Ms. Kiron," I looked up as a deep voice spoke. I located the speaker. Steve fucking Rogers. This was unreal. "I'm concerned that you seem to be in danger." His voice was full of sincerity and concern. "We only want to help."

Suddenly a video image popped up on one of the walls, and I watched myself stopping a flash flood before it took out two homes in its path. "This is you, right?" My eyes snapped to the corner of the room where Tony Stark was perched against a counter.

"Tony," Natasha's voice was full of warning. She was being protective. Of me.

"What are we dealing with here? Another witch?" Sam Wilson spoke up. He wiggled his eyebrows at me, a smile crossing his face. He was teasing me.

"She's not a witch," Wanda spoke softly from my other side. "What she's doing, it isn't magic. I don't feel any kind of magical signature." I smiled to myself slightly. Wanda was observant.

"Great, there's a grand litany of things that she's not, but that doesn't explain what she is." Tony finally saw fit to remove his sunglasses indoors as he glanced across the room at me intently.

"She doesn't owe us an explanation," there was an edge to Natasha's voice now. A warning.

"It might be helpful to know who we're protecting and what we're protecting them from." Tony snarked back. I glanced between the two like I was observing a ping pong match until I started getting dizzy from all of the back and forth. Mercifully, Steve chose that moment to step in.

"Ms. Kiron," he started again. I sighed.

"Look, you can call me Briar." Steve's blue eyes found mine, and the smallest hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"Briar," he acknowledged, "none of the data we've seen on you indicates that you're dangerous, or a threat to anyone so this isn't about you being brought in. We just want to know what's going on so we can help if necessary." I nodded. What they were saying made sense, but realistically nothing about my story made sense. I took a deep breath and clasped my hands together on the table as I glanced at the reflective surface trying to decide where to start. I felt a hand softly resting on my back. Natasha. I glanced at her and she nodded, encouraging me to continue. A moment later, I felt another hand, joining Natasha's and touching my shoulder.

"We're right here." Wanda reassured me. I nodded.

"Kiron isn't really my last name. It's a place." Steve frowned and I could almost see him pulling up a map in his head. I chuckled lightly. "Specifically, it's a planet." I heard a clattering sound, and I looked up to see that Tony had dropped his sunglasses onto the table.

"Like another planet, as in, not from earth?" He asked. I nodded.

"On Kiron, once every generation, a child is born who has certain...abilities." I had to pause for a moment before I could think about reliving the next few pieces that I had to tell them. "Wanda was right, it's not magic – it's something a lot deeper, and a lot more ancient." I glanced around the room slowly. It was unnerving for a room full of the World's Mightiest Heroes staring at you with their mouths open. "I believe what you would call me is an Elemental." I heard Wanda gasp beside me.

"You can control the elements," she whispered. I nodded, smiling slightly.

"Elements? Like sulfer or aluminum?" I tried not to laugh at Colonel Rhodes' question. Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Rhodey, the grown-ups are talking, keep up." Rhodes rolled his eyes back at his old friend.

"She means the classical elements," Barton spoke up from the other side of the table where he had been playing with an arrow on the table for the entirety of the conversation until now.

"Air and Water," Wanda mumbled beside me, no-doubt remembering the video footage of me, as well as how I caught her belongings when she was trying to sneak out of the house.

"Earth and Fire." Natasha spoke on the other side. At least the girls were getting it. To be honest, most of the boys just looked confused.

"So, you're an Avatar? A...bender?" Tony's dryly sardonic comment made me laugh out loud.

"I'm not a cartoon, Tony," I chuckled. Natasha cleared her throat beside me and I glanced over at her. If looks could kill, Stark would be dead right now. Probably several times over. I felt a hand on my thigh, slightly above my knee. Wanda smiled at me and patted me reassuringly. "Elemental manipulation has been a part of Earth's mythology forever, and there's a reason for that." Steve frowned before his eyes opened wide in understanding.

"But why would anybody be after that?" Natasha scoffed to my right, and Wanda groaned to my left. They put it together already. Steve looked between the two redheads flanking me and shrugged his shoulders. "What?" I picked at the table, not wanting to look anyone in the eye. Wanda squeezed my knee, and I felt Natasha's hand rubbing my shoulder softly. This position was very...strange.

"Elemental manipulation, when taken to extremes can heal worlds." Steve frowned, still not catching on. Tony finally sat on the edge of the table, the frame of his glasses dangling loosely from his lips.

"Or end them."