Birds of a Feather | | Leo Fitz Book One

Chapter 69

Everything was blurry for a second when Asia awoke. And her right eye was most certainly swollen. She blinked a few times to get things cleared and found herself in the same room as before. This time, Ward and Garrett stood in front of her, studying her.

"Well look here, Sleeping Beauty has finally woken up," Garrett said with a maniacal laugh. He looked...off. Eyes a little wider than usual, slightly bloodshot. "So my boy Ward here says that Ian Quinn is off limits when it comes to you. But that doesn't make me off limits. Because Ward answers to me."

Garrett stepped forward squishing her cheeks between one of his hands, forcing her to look up at him. "And there are a few things I've found myself wanting to know. A few things you're going to tell me. Maybe in turn I'll tell you the treat I've been saving just for you Agent Monroe," he grinned widely down at her.

Asia shook her head back and forth, wiggling out of the grasp of his hand. "I'm not telling you anything." She replied quickly back.

"Ooh you see, Asia, that's where you're quite wrong!" Garrett exclaimed. "Otherwise, how else will you find out the real fate of your long lost sister?"

Asia froze, everything around her slowing as if someone had stopped time itself. She looked up at Garrett, blinking slowly. There was no way he could know about America. Mer. Unless....

"What are you talking about?" She asked, slowly and evenly. The moment she let the words leave her mouth, she was back in her childhood home, hiding in that cupboard. She could see it all, as if she were there. She tried to remember the faces of the HYDRA members storming her home. She was told they were some of the last remaining agents alive. Were they? Was Garrett among them, in her home? How else could he have known? She rarely told anyone about her past, especially about Mer....

Garrett laughed again. "Oh you silly, silly thing. I was there, Damnit!" Suddenly, out of nowhere, he lashed forward, smacking her across the face, turning her cheek pink with the print of his hand. "You must be dumber than they all think. Dont you remember anything? I took your sister, I helped kill your parents, and I let you live. You might not be so lucky this time."

Without her own choosing, tears started to slip down her cheeks. She had been looking all her life for her sister, for the people who broke her family, and here was one of her parent's murderers, standing right in front of her. He had been here all along, and she had never known. She should have known some how.

The agent could feel herself unraveling a little bit at the seams, she could feel herself starting to shatter. She had made so many mistakes, mistakes with unforgivable consequences. The people she cared for always got hurt, and it was always, always her fault. She needed to make it stop, somehow, someway. She needed to stop this shithole of a man, and then stop herself.

"Where is she?" She asked slowly, hissing out her words. She whipped her head to face Ward. "How could you?" She seethed. "He killed my family, how dare you pretend to be my friend?"

Ward threw up his hands in a surrender fashion. "I didnt know!" He said in protest. Asia didnt know if she believed him or not. She narrowed her eyes, giving him the angriest glare she could manage.

Suddenly, Garrett firmly gripped her cheeks again, wrenching her head back to look back at him once more. "You're not talking to Grant Ward right now, you're talking to me. You'll do well to remember as such," he hissed, staring her evenly in the eyes. Asia noticed the vesicles in his eyeballs were popping, blood rippling over the whites of his eyes. Something was very, very wrong with him.

"Now, as I was saying, you sister," Garrett said, standing up straight once more and releasing her face from his grip."She didn't die all those years ago as I told SHIELD she did. They believed everything I said, ate every little detail right out of my hand. Meanwhile, she was being brought up as a little HYDRA prodigy. Cute, isn't it? Both of you raised to be the best in your field? Neither knowing the other was alive, or, in her case, even existed? She remembers nothing of you, Agent Monroe. Wouldn't believe she had a sister even if I gave her photo proof. And right now, she's busy training under the highest of HYDRA to fulfill her destiny."