Coronation Of Flame (A Marvel Fanfic)

Chapter 16: Ragtag

Ok, so excuse me but, 'CIVIL WAR' IS OUT TODAY AND I CAN'T HANDLE MY EXCITEMENT!!!!! I'm seeing it on Sunday, and I'm legit jumping out of skin to see it, because I cannot wait to see our lord and saviour James Buchanan Barnes.

Enjoy,

LittlePond

Chapter 16: Ragtag

It was official; I had no clue who told truth or lies.

HYDRA told me that my targets were criminals, that they killed dozens of innocents. S.H.I.E.L.D's files told me otherwise. They said I killed their best and brightest.

S.H.I.E.L.D had never blocked me out, unless for the benefit of others, S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't kept a master plan behind my back. But HYDRA had raised me and taught me. Without HYDRA, there would be no Aurelia Tempest, that unnamed babe would've died in the Guangdong province.

Once I got out of this mess, Whitehall was going to explain everything.

Fitz-Simmons and I were on our way to an airfield in Abel Santamaria, the two scientists in the front seat as I sat behind. The words of my files floated through my brain like string in a grandmother's sewing basket, all wanting to be chosen and knotted together. Their voices whispered at first, repeating on a ghostly crescendo, until the noise got too much

"Why are you so interested in S.H.A.D.O?" Simmons asked. She must have felt the anxiety on my body like a forcefield. I gripped my seatbelt, praying to God that...well I wasn't sure anymore.

"Garrett referenced it once and I got interested." Simmons grinned and turned to Fitz in the driver's seat, her voice filled with reminiscent honey, "We had a brush with that monster, didn't we Fitz?"

"Oh yeah, S.H.A.D.O killed Crystal didn't they?"

The two called me a 'they,' as if S.H.A.D.O was a group, not an individual, as if my abilities couldn't be owned by 1 alone, as if the fear I instilled was somehow otherworldly, inhuman.

"They did," Simmons agreed, "Sad too, Crystal was destined for great things." Fitz nodded, his hazel eyes no doubt remembering Crystal's. I remembered waking up from countless dreams watching the life flow out of them like water in a tub.

I wondered if I killed her for nothing.

"She was good at everything; even engineering," Fitz added. Crystal had a great deal of anger, that much I saw when she trained, but I only ever saw her gentle side when she talked to me, especially that afternoon in the library.

Fitz drummed his fingers on the wheel, watching the landscape go by, a light green framed by emerald mountains, "Shame she didn't swing that way."I flipped my head at his words, Simmons chuckling, "There's nothing wrong with swinging that way."

We turned into the airfield, my shoulder leaning against the door as we turned, "Say what?" The van drove near a shed bearing 'Abel Santamaria'. "Crystal, a girl from the Academy was murdered by S.H.A.D.O, she was extraordinary. But she was queer."

The van's engine stopped, my eyebrows raising in a cautious, "But?" She shook her head, spluttering "Not that anything's wrong with that just at the time, we hadn't met anyone like her before." Smiling, I turned away to the landscape, muttering, "I get the feeling."

It didn't take long to notice our aircraft; I noticed it as soon as I closed the car door behind me, calling out, "Hey, is that the Bus?"

We contacted Coulson, bringing our binoculars courtesy of Mack into a nearby shed. We were instructed to retreat, and after hearing it, we stared at the plane for a while, none of us wanting to leave, none of us particularly wanting to stay either.