[1] Skipping Stones - Pietro Maximoff

Chapter: 12 [Edited]

Three Years Later

Willow's POV

I collapsed into bed after a long day of work with Stark Industries. It probably wasn't the best job for me to have since I know he works with Shield on occasion but we're doing good things. I've slowly started to accept that Shield is everywhere and...not all of them are so bad. I started working with Stark about three years ago, granted they didn't know I was 15 when they hired me, all they knew was that I was smart and could keep you with Mr. Stark's ramblings.

I'm one of the few people Mr. Stark can tolerate, so I worked with him directly most days and today my brain was working so hard to make sure the tower would be ready for tonight. Standing up, I walked over to the window in my bedroom and watched the tower, waiting for the power to kick in, but I must be too early.

"Quite the sight to see, even with the power out" I deep voice said from behind me and without a second thought I pulled out a knife from under my windowsill. I turned around quickly and watched as a man with an eyepatched walked out of the shadows, much like Strucker used to do to Farron and I when we weren't expecting it. "You know, I've been looking for you for quite some time and imagine my surprise when I hear that you're dead and not two months later you show up in New York. Not only that but getting a job at Stark Industries a few years after."

"Who are you?" I asked. My entire body was ready to jump into action if I needed to and this man was one I could not read as well as I would like to.

"Nicholas Fury, Director of Shield," he said and I tensed further. I know a lot about Shield and one thing I knew for sure was that this man was behind my parent's deaths. He seemed to know I knew that too, "I know you're mad, but the world doesn't have time for you to be mad. I need you to come in." He tossed a file on the bed that was between us and I picked it up, not glancing away from him. I finally looked down and opened the file and inside was the Tesseract and my abilities were begging for me to find it, like one would if it were family. "That is the Tesseract, it was stolen by a man called Loki."

My head snapped up at his words, "Loki, like the God of Mischief, Loki?" He nodded his head, "He took the Tesseract, how is that possible?"

"He came with a powerful weapon that he could use to warp people's minds," he gave me a meaningful look and I arched an eyebrow at him, "he used that weapon to take a man I believe you know. A man by the name of Clint Barton." I froze at his words, taken completely by surprise. "You've known the man since you were a child correct?"

Sure, Farron told me she thought he knew the Shield agents that killed our parents but we never got confirmation. "You should have led with that," I said and walked by him quickly and pulled out a backpack that I had already had prepped if I needed to leave on short notice. I gestured to Fury, "I may hate Shield but I'm not going to let someone I love get hurt because I was too stubborn, so lead the way."

Fury smirked at me, "I'm glad you think so." We walked out of my apartment building and he led me to a blacked out SUV, "We have a stop to make first," he said and I nodded my head absentmindedly. What would Farron think if she saw me now?

The car came to a stop outside of a gym and I exited along with Fury, taking my bag in with me from the car. I don't trust this not to be an ambush so I'm following Fury wherever he's going and he doesn't seem to mind as he barely glanced at me. Inside was one man hitting a punching bag much like Farron and I would when we needed to let off some steam, but this man was something else, he was strong and the bag went flying, sand pouring out of it. When he turned around I realized he was quite attractive and I refrained from staring for too long.

The man merely sighed and picked up another bag and started hitting it again, "Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked and together we walked out of the shadows.