On the Run (An Avengers Fanfiction) ✔️Completed

Some Things Never Change

Astrid's p.o.v.

A lot can happen in a week... After having visited my parents who, as it turned out, had no idea that I was missing, I soon recovered from the ordeal. When I returned to England I had never been so glad to see them In my entire life. Of course, the discussion had to happen at some point and after I told them what little I could about what had happened to me, without revealing any secret S.H.I.E.L.D. intel, they shared a wary look. They told me that we 'needed to talk' and I sat opposite them on the sofa in our living room. My mother took my hand as they both told me exactly how I had come to be in this family... I was surprised that I didn't care about the details so much; they had been driving along some dark country lane when they saw a blinding flash of blue light. My father described his shock as the light had blinded him temporarily at the wheel, causing him to swerve as a small silhouette came in to view. The car hit a tree but luckily they weren't injured and they hadn't hit me either. My mother immediately ran over to me to see if I was alright and said I looked broken... My time in the HYDRA base had clearly deeply scarred my mind and I didn't talk for weeks... They couldn't have children and both desperately wanted a child, and in a funny way their wish had been granted.

I cried as they told me, not out of sadness or anger, but out of thankfulness that they had found me and taken me in, that they had been patient enough to help me recover from my trauma. I didn't blame them for not telling me sooner, they were afraid I'd revert to the previous unstable wreck I had been. I didn't care about any of it. I wanted to know who my biological parents were sure, but these were my real parents and I owed them not just my life, but everything that I had come to be. They had raised me and I was proud of that. I was proud to be a Carter, we were a strong family that was for sure and even though I never mentioned the specifics of what happened to me as I was on the run something told me they already had a pretty good idea of the type of stuff I'd gotten caught up in... Most likely due to Grandma Peggy and perhaps even the news that my cousin Sharon had no doubt been working in a similar field. Even though the family history in this area was rarely mentioned there was something of an understanding, I even suspected my mother and father of having had similar experiences, but I couldn't be sure.

Instead of explaining my newfound abilities to them I decided it would be easier to show them. After bending a solid steel rod, standing in the flames of our bonfire with a protective forcefield and demonstrating the raw power I possessed by  sending out a controlled shock wave, they were left with no further doubts. I, on the other hand, had many... How long would I live? How fast would I age? Why did I seem to possess basic human traits? There was still much for me to learn, I needed to figure out the answer to these questions.

After I returned to America and to the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier I received about the closest thing to an apology Nick Fury ever gave, according to Romanoff. Despite my uneasy relationship with the director, I let go what had happened and the part S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken in the events... But I still refused to sign his stupid charter. He pushed as much as he dared before 'postponing' our deadline. Amy underwent a series of psychological tests, scans and therapy at her own request and it seemed that she was in no danger of being triggered as an assassin again... By some miracle I had destroyed everything HYDRA had taken so long to build in her mind. Our relief at this news was huge, especially for Norman.

There was a ceremony where the three of us were honoured and promoted to the rank of level 4 agents, since we had destroyed a HYDRA base without revealing anything to enemy and saving a significant number of their prisoners. We were hailed for crushing HYDRA but a seed of doubt had already been planted in my mind about the whole affair... If this had gone unnoticed what else has S.H.I.E.L.D. missed. Despite their best efforts, it seemed no one could track down the assassin who had so nearly taken my life, but this was as I had anticipated.