The world still stands, shaken by the events of Sokovia. As this small country begins the long journey to return their home to its natural state, how will the world react? The woman on TV finished her newscast with the somber question.
Asia stood silently, watching the TV from inside the Lab, the world around her disappearing as she focused on nothing but screen, finger pressed to her lips as she bit nervously at a loose cuticle.
Outside the Lab, Gonzalez and his men passed by, heading towards Coulson's office. Asia could feel their eyes on her. They had been watching her closely, but more so ever since the incident in Sokovia. Powered people had been involved, and that didn't make them trust her any more. If anything, now, rather than distrust, they seemed afraid. Afraid that she might pull their base up at its roots (even though that was more Skye's domain that Asia's). She refused to give them the dignity of glancing back their way. She refused to let them have that power over her.
Suddenly, Leo came up beside her, wresting his hand on her shoulder. She reached her own hand up, threading her fingers through his, leaning her cheek against him. "Doing okay?" He asked her softly, looking up at the screen. "Can't be easy. I know...your old team was there." He was fairly certain she hadn't heard anything about where Clint and Natasha might be. He was also incredibly certain that, while she looked great on the outside, that this had her in stitches inwardly. Frankly, he was proud the whole place wasn't thirty below zero right now. It showed how much work she truly had been putting into this, the practicing thing.
"I'll be alright, once I know they're alright," she said with a shake of her head. She was certain they would reach out to her soon enough. They were probably still recovering, themselves. Clint had almost gotten killed, reports had said. A kid, someone probably her own age or maybe younger, had sacrificed himself to keep Clint alive. People had gotten hurt. People had died. The events that had happened in Sokovia...not only did they put Shield back on the radar, but they were also bound to change the way the world treated powered individuals forever.
"If there's anything I can do, anything at all," he started to reply, when the lights above them began to flicker on and off rapidly. Turning around, Asia looked into the room where Lincoln was lying in his cot. Skye was beside him, holding onto his hand, and he looked...awake. Actually awake. And a little pissed, a little scared. But awake. "Look," she said to Leo, nodding towards the glass room. "He's awake," her voice came out almost as a whisper, catching in her throat. Subconsciously, she started walking towards the room, standing in the doorway, looking in at her friend and the blonde.
Seeing her shadow, Skye looked up, a smile on her lips for the first time in days. "Asia, come in, come in. Lincoln, this is Asia, she's the one I told you about. She went through the transition with me." Lincoln was looking up at her with piercing blue eyes, studying her closely, almost as if he didn't believe it, that a Shield agent could be like him.
Cautiously, Asia stepped away from Leo and into the room, holding out her hand to shake as he propped himself up in the bed. As he took her hand, a shock of electrical current raced up her arm and back, surprising her for a moment. In response, she sent want she hoped felt like a pulse of cold back his way. He looked down at her hand and then back up, the tiniest grin on his face.
"So she wasn't kidding about the ice powers," he said, shaking her hand finally, firmly, with much more strength than it looked like he had. "Wonder if there's more to it than that."
"Word on the street is you're the one to talk to about that," she grinned back in response. Skye has told her a bit about how he had aided in her transition. Admittedly, a part of her was hoping he could do the same for her. How was one supposed to casually ask that? Hey, you seem cool please help me learn to control me freaky powers? It made her feel all kinds of awkward.
"Well, I can probably help you out, once I know more about you. If you want," he offered with a grin, letting out a small cough. "If you help me get the hell out of here that is. No offense, but Shield doesn't have the best track record with our people."
"So I've heard," Asia replied with a nod. "Skye, um, invited me to come with you guys for a while, as long as everyone is cool with that." She shrugged sheepishly.
"We welcome all of our kind there," Lincoln replied. "We want to help everyone learn and understand. Plus, it's nice having people my age around."
And that, apparently, was that. She was going to go with, whenever Lincoln was well enough to leave, to move on his own again. And whenever the indexing was done. She didn't say it, but wondered if he knew, if he was thinking the same thing. If he even knew and understood what The Index was.
And then there was the whole matter of telling everyone else. Of telling Leo. And there was that annoying little devil in the back of her head, jealousy and anxiety, worrying of what might happen between him and Jemma if she left. As far as she knew, Jemma hadn't mentioned anything along the lines of what she had said to Asia. But maybe Leo wouldn't even tell her if she did. The whole thing was just one giant mess.
So she set about it that she had to tell him. Of course she did. She couldn't just up and leave, not again. She had gone that route before, and as easy as it was, she knew it wasn't right. She knew that it was the cowards way out, hiding and keeping secrets, not assessing her emotions. It wasn't fair to him, and it wasn't fair to her either. They both deserved better than that.
She didn't want to wait too long, but she also wanted to do it alone. Just the two of them, together, sharing a moment. So she waited until they got into bed together, when she climbed beneath the sheets after discarding her pants and pulling on his soft grey jumper, wrapping the blankets over her shoulders and pulling her knees up to her chest, looking over at him as he set his alarm clock, brushing a hand through his sandy hair.
When he looked back over at her, he cocked his head, surprised. "Do I have something on my face?" He asked, immediately his hands raising up to wipe at his chin self-consciously. Why else would she be staring so intensely?
"No," She smirked, almost sadly, looking down at her hands and then back up at him. "I need to talk to you about something," she lead casually. His heart instantly sunk. That wasn't good. That was never good. Those were words that ended relationships. It had happened to him before. And that had just been a college relationship. With Asia...Asia was different. He could lose her, not again.
"What, uh, what is it?" He asked in a shaky voice, trying to keep himself as calm as possible. Seeing the way his nerves instantly rose made Asia want to quell her thoughts and words, shove them back down her throat and never speak of anything that might hurt his feelings ever, ever again. She took his hand in hers, pressing her lips delicately to his fingertips, hoping she radiated nothing but love.
"It's nothing bad," she said, pulling her lips away from the pad of his forefinger. "I promise," she kept her grip on his hand, though, threading her fingers through his, looking down at the way their hands fit so perfectly. Like puzzle pieces, meant to stick together. She couldn't imagine her hands fitting with someone else's half as nicely. "I just wanted to tell you, before I do it. I'm going to Afterlife, with Skye and Lincoln. Not for good. Just to see it....to see the people I came from. To maybe learn a little bit more about my powers..." she trailed off, wincing. Unsure of what else to say, how to make it sound less bad.
He was staring at her, just staring. She could see the slight glint to his eyes. "I'm coming back, I promise. You won't even realize I'm gone, it'll be that quick," she smiled softly, squeezing his hand. "I'll never be gone forever, Leo."
He looked back at her, his lower lip shaking just ever so slightly. "But...what if you don't?" He asked, so quiet he wasn't entirely sure if he spoke the words, or simply thought them.
"Leo, I'll always come back to you," she took his hand, pressing it to her cheek, leaning into the warmth of his open palm. "Always." She looked him in the eyes, begging him without words for him to understand she meant this. She needed to go, needed to learn more about who she was, where she came from. How she wound up where she was today. And she needed to go to Afterlife to complete that.
"How do I know?" He whispered, his voice still shaking. He wasn't going to cry, not now. He wouldn't let himself do that, not now. He didn't want to seem weak.
She took a deep breath, grabbing onto his wrist, pulling him closer to her until they were only millimeters away. She took a deep breath then whispered, "Let me show you."
YOU ARE READING
Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two
Fanfiction**this is a sequel to Birds of a Feather** Following the acts of Birds of a Feather, we find ourselves amidst the story of SHIELD after their fall. Phil Coulson has become the new Director of SHIELD and is working on assembling those still loyal to...
