Valkyrie

Compromise

~~*~~

Well I know most things in a disaster for you

But I'm keeping all my hopes high 

You deserve a Happy Ever After, don't you? 

After all the tears you've cried

Don't you compromise

~~*~~

"I want you to lead the Guardians."

Cecil's words were like a bomb, Stella's mind hearing but not processing. Her feet stuck to the tile flooring in her kitchen, the world suddenly looked like trying to see through a kaleidoscope.

"I'm sorry what?"

Cecil sighed and turned to face Stella more, motioning to the couch once again silently. Stella, like a zombie, walked over to the couch and dropped down onto the cushion.

"What the fuck?" She breathed, eyes vacant yet darting around as too many thoughts flew in and out of her brain before she could even really have them.

"Eat first, then we can dive deeper into it." Cecil pushed the bag in her direction, Stella finally coming back to earth, slowly grabbing the bag and noticing the logo on the front. Pausing and shaking her head, a scoff leaving her lips.

"No. What the fuck are you on about? Leading the Guardians? The Guardians are dead, we literally buried them not even six hours ago!" Stella jumped up from her seat, pacing off to the side of the coffee table. Stopping and planting her feet as she yelled at them man, emotions fried from the day and then the panic getting here, and now this.

"I know! Stella, I know." Cecil barked, softening as he sighed into her name, "But the world is in a very fragile place right now and it needs the Guardians, new Guardians, and it needs you." Cecil fought; his voice as close to pleading Stella had ever heard. Cecil was not a man that begged for anything, he was one of them mist powerful men in the world and it showed in how he acted. But Stella also knew that things between them were complicated, especially after her parents disowned her and he took on the role of caretaker.

He wasn't just her boss, the person she reported to. He had become, essentially, a parent for the last couple years as he and the GDA gave her the roof over her head, the clothes on her back, the food in her fridge.

He provided her with all of necessities to live, and then on top of it remembered things like her favorite Chinese food place and her order from said place or gave her a new laptop for school on her birthday and planned a party with the Guardians.

"I wouldn't ask unless I thought it was necessary." The man breathed, and his honesty was clear in the way his shoulders slumped, in the way his eyes softened around the corners.

The line between them had blurred and it was incredibly difficult for him to be objective when it came to Stella. Now that she was the last remaining Guardian and seeing what witnessing her friends like that had done to her, he didn't want to overload her. But he also had to do his job and part of his job was dispatching his heroes.

Part of that job was keeping the world safe. And the Guardians were part of that.

"I can't." Stella answered, shaking her head.

"You were trained by Immortal and War Women themselves for this very purpose should the time come." Cecil divulged and he could see pieces click in Stella's head, her face twisting into confusion, then anger.