"I've heard a lot about you, Ms. Stark" Nick Fury says. I clench my fists into balls. He's already gotten under my skin, and he has been in the room for all of five seconds.
"Don't call me that" I snap, I am not Tony Stark's child. Him being my father doesn't make me his daughter. I close my eyes, I need to calm down, I'm not thinking logically right now, I'm letting my emotions overtake me. If Mystique could see this, she'd be extremely unimpressed.
The avengers are attempting to rattle me, showing them that it's working is also showing them that they have won which means I've lost.
"You're a cold-blooded killer" Nick Fury says, looking directly at me. I don't break eye contact. "Happy to kill anyone, no matter how casualties it takes. If it were up to me, you wouldn't be here right now."
"Are you always this dramatic? And aren't you the head of S.H.I.E.L.D? It is up to you" I've killed three people, one of them was basically self-defence. The other two, well, I can't really justify killing them, but they were a part of my mission. It's not like I go out of my way to kill random people.
"You've killed over a hundred people, your first kill was at age eight, I wouldn't say calling you a cold-blooded killer is dramatic" Nick Fury says, I still refuse to break eye contact with him, I'm not going to appear weak.
"Where'd you get this info from? It's fake." I could take the blame for it and make myself seem much more powerful and dangerous, but I like the idea of the avengers knowing they have wrong information too much. "I think Peter was lying to you." Peter mustn't want me to join the avengers so he's making up stories about how evil I am. It's what I would do.
"You really don't know" Nick Fury realises, he turns away from me and switches on the tv. What does he want from me? Is he trying to convince me that I've killed hundreds of people, most of who were apparently innocent? I will admit I thought the avengers would have better ideas than this, how are they able to stand up against the x-men?
"Your facts are wrong, Fury, get over it" I say with less attitude than I intended. Still, a part of me is smiling about how stupid the avengers apparently are. Maybe it won't be that hard to escape and get back home.
The tv turns on and I'm surprised to see a younger version of me on the screen. I think I was eight when this was taken, it's always weird to think I used to go on missions without Scarlett, I couldn't imagine going without her now. I've been on one mission without her since we met, and I ended up getting kidnapped.
I see my younger self, walking into a building. I vaguely remember this mission, I was giving information to someone, Magneto told me it was very information I follow all the steps perfectly. I see her place a suitcase down in the middle of the floor and quickly run out of the building, she gets into a car and drives off screen.
I jump as the building explodes. The entire building is on fire and has collapsed in on itself. My heart drops all the way down to my feet, I didn't. I did not place a bomb inside a building filled with people who possessed no threat. I close my eyes, Mystique wouldn't do this to me, would she? Everyone else on the x-men team is a possibility, but Mystique cares about me too much for this.
"Over one-hundred people dead, many, many more injured" Nick Fury says, staring at me. I blink back the tears, just because I went on this mission doesn't mean I was the one who planted the bomb. Maybe someone else left it there, maybe the suitcase really did just hold information. "Someone who loves you wouldn't have given you that bomb, they wouldn't have taken your innocence so young."
"Shut up" I look away from him, Mystique had a reason for this, there must have been more to the story, I've never heard of the x-men bombing buildings filled with innocent people. The x-men just wanted to be accepted, they're not truly evil.
"There were children in-"
"Shut up" I repeat, holding up a hand to stop him. I don't need to hear any more of this, I already know what I did. I might have done it unknowingly, but all those people are still dead because of me, I planted the bomb.
Unsurprisingly, Fury stays quiet. He's already got what he wanted, found out the x-men are using children without telling them everything, and he knows that I had no idea.
I place my head in my hands. As tempted as I am to tell myself it's fake and move on from it, I think everything I've learnt today is real which means that I am a daughter of two avengers and also a mass murderer.
How can they even look at me? I wouldn't accept a child who did something like that, I always knew the x-men were evil, but I thought it stemmed from wanting to protect themselves, from all the fear and hunting that happened in the past. Bombing innocent people isn't an act of self-defence to stop being hunted. Natasha said she wanted to get to know me, why would you want to know someone who has committed such terrible acts?
"There's more videos of things like that" Fury tells me, and I hear noises from the tv. A single tear rolls down my face as I see myself and Scarlett, I don't bother brushing it away, he already knows I'm upset by the news. "Nobody died then but you made it so much easier for the x-men to attack by taking away the town's food supply."
A part of me wants to scream at Fury, scream that I know he's lying and just trying to get me to spill information about the avengers. Another part of me wants to run out of here and leave, go back home and demand answers about what the hell is going on, maybe use unrestricted internet to get the whole truth. But the main part of me isn't angry, the main part of me is frozen, my body is tense like it's waiting for another hit, another piece of information to unravel and show me just how terrible I am.
"Would you like to see the rest of the videos?" Fury asks. I look away, I know what he's doing. Getting me to say no so I feel like he does have a shred of humanity. He's torn my walls down and now he's going to use the avengers to build them back up to get information.
"No" I say quietly, giving in now seems like the best option, I don't think my heart can take seeing what else I have done, I already have way too much blood on my hands.
I think of Scarlett, what would she say if she knew the truth? She's always been kinder than me, I can't imagine she'd stay with the x-men. Even Ashton and Henry, I have to believe they didn't know either. Ashton can be ruthless in battle, but he would never go after innocent, unarmed people. The four of us do have a moral compass, even if it's twisted and spun and doesn't make sense.
I wish Scarlett was here, she'd know what to say and what to do from here. Now it's just me being held hostage in the avenger's headquarters, trapped with the ghosts of the past haunting me.
I look up and to my surprise Fury is gone. I stand up, heading slowly over to the door. I tiptoe, not wanting to make any noise in case somebody's waiting outside, there might not necessarily be a reason to lock the door, it's not like I can go out the front door. Tony's security is secure, unbreachable even. I try the door handle and it is locked. I make my way back onto the bed, lying down on my side.
The tears stream down my face and I cover my mouth, I'm sure there are cameras in here but the last thing I need is one of the avengers hearing me cry and popping in to try and get information while I'm vulnerable.
*Author's Note* Storm got a nasty shock!
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Ruins
Action"Maybe there was a fleeting moment where I wanted to be a hero and believed I could be one, but the truth is I'm not, I won't ever be. My past does define me, it made me a villain" - Storm. Fifteen-year-old Storm is the daughter of Black Widow and I...
