MERCURY | mcu [1]

𝟭𝟳 | 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴

She was released back into the world a few days later, met at the doorway by Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. They spared her a smile when she joined them.

They guided her through the halls of the SHIELD compound. For the first time since she had been there, nobody whispered as she passed. She wasn't bound or restrained, she wasn't being tasked with a new fight.

No, she was being treated as one of them. As a human.

When she came to face Fury, he trained his eye on her almost harshly. He stared at her for a moment, a very long, anxious moment, then the corners of his lips tugged at the corners slightly.

'So,' he said, 'I hear you behaved admirably the other day.'

Lorena didn't know what he meant. Fury must have noticed, as he went on, 'You told my agents here,' he gestured to Barton and Romanoff, 'to eliminate the building while you were still inside.'

Lorena nodded. 'Yes.'

'Some would call that a sacrifice,' Fury mused.

Lorena mulled over his words. She hadn't even thought about that bit, too preoccupied with the nightmarish visions of her family's mangled corpses. She had lost everyone she knew that day, even Elise was gone now. She supposed that perhaps it could be seen as a sacrifice.

'I wouldn't call it that,' she said slowly.

'What would you call it?' said Fury.

Lorena thought for a moment, then shrugged. 'I did what I had to,' she said finally. 'Chimera had to go down, and if that meant that I had to go with it, then so be it.'

She had never had a chance to question Chimera when she had been ruled by them. Every time she got too close, they'd place her back on the ice and leave her there. By the time she woke up, they would bombard her with a new mission, force her to submit and complete that she had no chance to think.

She remembered her apprehension before every mission. She had never felt it right, killing people wasn't natural, but Chimera were ingrained so deep inside her mind that she had followed blindly.

She had never known anything else.

'It was noble, di Santo,' Fury told her. 'You did well.' He came around the table and placed a hand on her shoulder. 'We'll give you a few days to decompress. When you're ready, we have a home for you. And a job offer, if you want it.'

Lorena met his eye. His face was soft, something that appeared somewhat foreign on Fury's face, but it was genuine.

Despite everything she had done, he, Barton and Romanoff had offered her a second chance. They had trusted her with no real reason to. They had seen something in her that she had never been able to see in herself. She still wasn't entirely sure what that was.

She would never have to be the Mercury again. There would be no more like her, no more super soldiers, no more Chimera.

For the first time in decades, she was able to smile. A real, genuine smile.