Eris ▷ s.rogers [1] ✔️

1.| YOU SHOULD SEE ME IN A CROWN

THEY CALLED THEMSELVES INHUMANS.

Each one, like Eris, was touched by the Obelisk. It was a punch in the gut to find out she wasn't that special. Her father would have been disappointed.

But nonetheless, she wasn't normal. Normal people couldn't bend death and darkness to their will. Normal people couldn't steal shadows or claim innocent souls.

So maybe her father would have been a little less disappointed.

Eris had been frozen in 1945. Since then, she'd been shipped around, locked away, and ultimately forgotten. No records remembered the daughter of the Red Skull. No one cared about the child of a tyrant. Why should they? Born a monster, raised a monster.

She'd lost her crown.

She'd lost her identity.

The woman scanning the morning paper was nothing but another face among the crowd. She studied the word 'Ultron' and wrinkled her nose. Technology. Technology always ended up failing, one way or another. If one couldn't rely on themselves to survive, they had no right to exist.

Eris learned to rely on herself years ago. Waking up in the darkness alone. Forgotten.

She crumpled up the paper and tossed it away, scanning the street.

Everything her father had worked for had come down years ago. Hydra was nothing more but a whisper in the wind these days. No, she wasn't here for his legacy. She wasn't here for Hydra, the Red Skull, or what the past had been.

She was here for her.

Power, she learned, tended to start with one thing. In 1945, it had been the Tesseract. In this day and age, it was what had caused the most death. The most strife and destruction.

They called it the Mind Stone.

Currently in the clutches of the Avengers.

Finally, she saw him.

The man who stood across the street had his hood up— rightfully so, from the ugly face he hid. Crossbones wasn't a man to be messed with. He could possibly be more dangerous than Eris herself, if given the right motive. He didn't know her. In fact, he was probably here to kill her.

Eris was here to get under his skin.

Crossing the street, she met his eyes. Burn marks covered the entire left side of his face, hood hiding a melted ear and layer of red, plastic-looking skin. His hands shifted in his pockets and she knew he was hiding a weapon of sorts. A blade, probably. The guns would be hidden underneath his jacket.

He tensed as she approached but Eris walked straight past him. She didn't look back in his direction, starting down the sidewalk instead. She felt his eyes burning into her back. Felt him pause, then say something into his comms. Felt him follow.

She smiled.

Perfect.

If any part of Hydra was left, he was the leader. The last head, the lone survivor, the big bad meanie. And from the information released to the public, he had a bone to pick with the Avengers.

Which meant currently, he was of use.

She turned down a darker alleyway. A foolish move, if she was a fool.

Eris was many things.

But her father had made sure a fool was not one of them.

Tucking her hands into her jacket and bending her head, she followed the alley to the end. Footsteps sounded behind her. Heavy, confident footsteps that hid nothing. The man who pursued her wasn't afraid to be caught.