The Twin Flame: Grumpy x Sunshine

Hoax

"My best laid plan, your sleight of hand, my barren land, I am ash from your fire."

Karli.

A shaky breath escapes from your lips as your eyes slowly fall to your bloodied hand. Your legs buckle, bringing you to your knees. You fall to the ground, clutching your midsection. "Karli?"

"Poor, poor, Sunshine," Sharon condescendingly coos. She sighs with mock remorse, "If only you'd listened, it really didn't have to be this way."

"You're working for Sharon?" you weakly ask, clutching your stomach, doing your best to ignore the chilling sensation of blood trickling out of your wound. "What about wanting to change the world?"

"She made a good point," Karli stands before you, bloodied knife in her hand. "Once a SHIELD lackey, always a SHIELD lackey. Even just a dozen of you, people wouldn't go hungry. We'd have no need for the GRC or any government really. One world, one people."

"A SHIELD lackey?" you question.

"Save it," Sharon snarks, cutting you off before you can tell Karli the truth, "I told her everything she needed to know about you."

"What did you say to her?" you seethe, flexing your other hand.

Your hand trembles, unable to remain steady enough for combat, any flame you muster flickers in and out like a candle in the wind. You can't defend yourself. Not like this.

The pain surges once more, you double forward, one hand still desperately clutching the wound, the other rests on the concrete floor, trying to hold yourself up.

Sharon circles you, taunting you like she's the predatory and you're her prey. This is it. She's got you exactly where she wants. Finally, she would win.

Vindication swells in Sharon's ribcage, inhaling and exhaling it with every breathe. You didn't know it, but this was about so much more than what she could take from you. It was proving something to everyone, to herself even. That she won. That, in the end, she was the last one standing. It should've been her. It should've been her all along. And tonight would prove that. "I told her the truth. I told her that you'll always be loyal to SHIELD, to Nick Fury. That you wouldn't never see the world like we see it."

"Nick Fury saved my life." You know it's the wrong thing to say. You should disagree, especially if what Sharon told you about Nick was actually true. You shouldn't be loyal to a man who betrayed you, but you can't bring yourself to believe it. You can't believe that the closest thing you had to a father figure saw you like everyone else did. Because then what? What would happen if he saw you as nothing more than a weapon for war, a tool for victory? So you refuse to believe it. You choose to remain loyal, because what other choice is there? You choose to believe in his faithless love one last time. "I never would've seen the light of day without him."

Sharon scoffs, rolling her eyes like you're nothing but a thorn in her side, "See? I told you."

"And how - how exactly do you see the world?" you grimace, speaking more to the floor than to either Sharon or Karli.

"I see a world where we don't need superheroes, where the people can help themselves. A world without SHIELD. A world where we don't need you."

You place one of your feet flat on the ground beneath you, using all your strength to try to stand. You get halfway up before you lose your shaky footing and crash back to the floor, "This isn't how you help people, Karli. You have to know that. What you're trying to do, it's dangerous."

"Is it? Or are you just too scared to stand up? Too weak?"

You manage to bring yourself to your knees, looking Karli in the eyes as you tell her the truth, "You risk putting power in the wrong hands, Karli. Trust me. I've done it before. Fought the good fight for people who didn't deserve it. I know - I know that you want to believe that you're doing good, but this isn't the way to help people."