I'd Bleed for You

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

*~*~*~*

"Coulson's down."

Those two words are the first thing I hear when I wake up and they make my blood turn cold. I open my eyes to see that I'm still lying in the twisted metal that used to be a staircase and I spot some agents standing almost ten feet away with their backs to me as they take in the damage. A radio is in one of their hands, I guess that's what I heard a minute ago.

Looking down at myself I see that my clothes are torn and covered with blood, but otherwise I look perfectly fine. One of the pieces of metal near my legs in stained crimson, stained with my blood. Slowly, I bring a hand to my head and am able to feel the familiar touch of blood in my short blonde hair, but there's no wound to go along with it. 

Good.

"Any sign of Banner, Thor, or Agent Falconeri?" The same voice as before asks through the radio. This time I can recognize it as Eyepatch's voice.

"I'm not your agent." I groan as I sit up. At the sound of my voice both the agents quickly turn around and look at me with wide eyes, clearly shocked to see me there. I guess I'd be shocked it I were them, too. I'm covered with blood and probably look worse than hell with my clothes all torn up. "It's not polite to stare you know?"

"We have Agent Falconeri." The taller of the two says into the radio, not taking his eyes off of me. I frown as I look back down at myself to check my clothes again. No, I'm good, my shirt is still covering what needs to be covered.

"Bring her to the bridge." Eyepatch's voice orders over the radio. The agents approach me as I make my way out of the mess of metal. Probably not as carefully as I should because I end up slicing my leg and side again. Both the agents hurry to my side to try and look at my new injuries, but I only wave them off.

"Give it a few minutes and I'll be good as new." I promised them. They gave me doubtful looks but listened before leading me towards the bridge. The three of us walked in silence, Eyepatch's words echoing through my mind. What did he mean when he said Phil was down? Phil couldn't be dead, he just couldn't be. The good guys don't die and Phil was the most good person that I have ever known.

By the time we reached the bridge I knew that my new injures were already gone by the surprised looks both agents gave me. I ignored them though and looked around. The place looked pretty bad with all the damage around the room. Only Steve and Tony sat at the large table with Eyepatch pacing slight in front of it. At our entrance all three of them looked up at us and I could see the surprise in their faces. I had no doubt that they had expected me to die in a fight against the Hulk.

"Have a seat Agent-" Eyepatch began.

"Call me your agent again and I'll throw you off this god damn ship." I threatened, my voice cold as I sat down next to Steve. Eyepatch gave me a sour look before looking at Steve. He pulled something from his pocket and tossed them onto the table.

"These were in Agent Coulson's pocket. I guess he never got you to sign them." Eyeptach said as if it were nothing. Following Steve's lead I reached out and picked up one. It was a trading card with Captain America on it, stained with blood. Out of shock I dropped the card, as though it had burned me.

"No," I whispered in disbelief as tears stung my eyes. I could hear Eyepatch and Steve talking with one another, but I couldn't make out any of their words. My eyes were trained on the bloody cards until something in me just... snapped. I got out of my seat and stormed out into the hall. Remembering the path I had used not long ago I found myself standing in front of a set of heavy metal doors that were propped open.

Loki's cage was now gone and him with it. The room was empty and it seemed even more dark and depressing than it had when Loki had been locked up in here. I walked inside and instantly my eyes feel upon something that made me want to heave. There was a large bloody spot on the floor that was bright crimson. Hesitating slightly I made my way over to it and knelt down. I ran my fingers over the metal ground right next to the spot. This is where he died. This is where Phil died, it had to be.

Footsteps made me look behind me and I saw that I was no longer alone. Tony and Steve were both here now and they both still looked at me with surprise. This time I didn't know if it was because I was here or if it was because of Phil's blood. We all just stood in the room together, none of us saying a word until Tony finally broke the silence.

"How are you alive?" He asked me in a soft voice. I frowned in confusion, how did he know I was supposed to be dead? "Romanoff saw you on the stairs when it collapsed. She told us that too much weight fell on you for you to live. How are you alive?"

"You don't even have a scratch." Steve added.

"Did he have any family?" I ignored their questions with one of my own. I hadn't told Phil and he had actually trusted me, there was no way I was going to tell these two. They hadn't even wanted me on this team, if we could even call it that.

"No. There was a cellist, I think." Tony sighed as he looked at the blood with sad eyes.

"So he died and no one's going to really notice he's gone?" I whispered. Phil didn't deserve this, he was such a nice guy. He was always nice to me, even when I didn't deserve it which was most of the time.

"He was an idiot." Tony remarks.

"For what?!" Steve snaps at him. I look back at them and Steve's face is starting to go red, you'd think he and Tony could get along for two minutes, especially with everything that had just happened.

"For going up against Loki alone!" Tony snapped back at him. "He should have known better, he should have waited for backup!"

"He was trying to do that right thing." I got up to my feet and glared at Tony. No way was I going to just let him tear apart Phil.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked Tony.

"We're not soldiers!" I go off on him before Tony can, causing both of them to look at me now. "Get it through your goddamn head! This isn't the forties anymore, we don't work for SHIELD! I'm sick and tired of everyone acting like we're some team that's supposed to be going off and saving the world from some damn psychotic alien dude! Bruce was right, we're not a team. If anything we're a self destructive experiment that Eyepatch and Loki are taking turns playing with!"

"For once I have to agree with Hothead here." Tony came over and stood beside me. He rested an arm on my shoulder as though I were a counter or something to support his weight. Without hesitation I let my anger flow a little more to heat up my skin. In less than a minute he yelped and quickly jumped back from me.

"Keep me out of this petty grudge match that the two of you have going." I snapped at them before stalking out of the room. Even Phil's death couldn't make these idiots see sense.