Chapter 41 : It always starts with a training montage (An unexpected visitor)

 

SHIELD Headquarters’ Director’s office, SHIELD Headquarters, 219 West 47Th Street, 26th of January, 22:05

 

Director Nick Fury repressed a yawn with difficulty as he considered the events of the previous day.

 

The tip that Logan had gotten had been right, and his organization, to which he had dedicated his whole life, was compromised.

 

The pros were that he actually had a very slim margin to operate, now that he was conscious of the fact that he was surrounded by squids.

 

The cons were that Peggy and him had failed splendidly badly, and he was surrounded by squids.

 

‘I should…’

 

Fury was fairly confident that the loss of the Facility would be chalked up to cheer dumb badluck by the masterminds behind this operation. There was just way too much inconspicuous yet totally legal off the tab operations, secret bases and tack team he never noticed before for them to be immediately concerned about the loss of one.

 

Admittedly, that particular loss was dire if you had to believe the techies that had succeeded in breaching the encrypting after an all-nighter and most of two days. The unredacted reports he was now browsing through would have raised a few eyebrows to Mengdelev and his ilk, their apparent success at isolating the X-Gene and cloning notwithstanding.

 

‘I should take…’

 

To put it bluntly, the Facility had been a slaughterhouse where only the best parts were kept. Fury was appalled by the loss of life and inhumane treatment the experimentations had cost. Until two hours ago, he would have had no idea about how many mutants were currently living in America, if the current sample was anything to go by.

 

Fury wasn’t squimich by any means, but he couldn’t help his stomach from churning uncomfortably when he was reading the rather graphic description of the vivisection the personnel had done.

 

‘I should take…’

 

Luckily for SHIELD, the true SHIELD, not that HYDRA parody he was currently mingling in, he had been successful in his attempt at convincing Dr. Sarah Kiney to relay anything she knew about the operation. And her research.

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Yes, the loss of life was deplorable, but he wasn’t about to let the results disappear in thin air, even as tainted in blood as they were. The mousy woman had been adamant that she wouldn’t leave her daughter’s side until she was all grown up, though.

 

Fury smirked as he remembered the slightly constipated look Logan had sported when he had realized that if he wanted to raise the girl, he would have to put up with Sarah for the foreseeable future. The awkward parental duo had brought the little bundle of feral happiness together to Xavier’s mansion and would probably not get outside of it for a long while.

 

‘I should take…’

 

And that was one of Fury’s problems right now. One of his best assets was now undisposed and he wouldn’t be so crass as to deny the man the right to get to know his biological daughter, her birth’s circumstances notwithstanding.

 

Idly scratching his three days shadows of a beard, the SHIELD’s director was now left wondering who would be crazy enough to endanger themselves in what could be considered at best suicidal assaults against a better armed and entrenched enemy that was trying to lay low.

 

‘I should take a breath of…’

 

Danvers was away, bringing the war to those filthy shapeshifter aliens, and he wasn’t really in a rush to call the maybe-a-tiny-bit-unstable woman. The girl had issues and could possibly nuke a central african country in one go if she felt peevish.

 

Banner was even worse of a choice, considering he was barely marginally better than a nuke without a guiding system and still in hiding. Allegedly. Fury totally knew where the guy was but it would freeze in hell before he tried to strongarm him into doing something the scientist didn’t want. That was basic human survival instincts after all.

 

‘I should take a breath of fresh air.’

 

Fury realized that he should definitely take a breath of fresh air.

 

He turned himself around on his chair, idly considering his balcony.

 

‘Up.’

 

Fury wasn’t really feeling like the balcony.

 

Stretching as he rose, he started to make his way toward the rooftop.

 

‘Up.’

 

Unlocking his access to the hidden staircase located in the director’s office, he started to make his way upward, still lost in thoughts about what the fuck he was supposed to do.

 

He was definitely running low on agents, and the rare ones he trusted at one hundred percent wouldn’t suffice for the purge he had to enact.

 

‘Up.’

 

Fury sighed as he considered that Peggy’s retirement and subsequent illness was making his life even more difficult than he ever had considered. The woman was a force of nature and would’ve been able to make a viable plan with two knives, a box of matchsticks and a rusted jeep and somehow come out on top.

 

It had been his pride to succeed her after all his years of service, but when you have only one eye, you tend not to get blinded by silly things like pride, less you lose it too.

 

‘Up.’

 

Fury was missing his mentor and wasn’t feeling up to the task ahead of him. If only he could have laid his hands on the mysterious Aamon that had provided Logan his tip, things would’ve probably looked better.

 

Finally reaching his goal, Fury absentmindedly opened the hatch giving on the rooftop, the cold air of the night rushing in his lungs and immediately making his thoughts a little bit clearer.

 

He probably shouldn’t have stayed up for nearly forty-eight hours in a row, but he was staring at the beginning of a culsterfuck of a crisis the likes of which he had never dealt with and was stressed to bits. The two short catnaps he had taken had just been a bandaid and he had been running in circles with his thoughts until now.

 

Fury started to make his way on the helipad after meticulously closing the hatch, his hands joined in the low of his back as he revalued for the nth time all the parameters he knew of the current fuckup.

 

That probably explained why he hadn’t noticed his nocturnal visitor until she was standing next to him.

 

“Penny for your thoughts, Director Fury ?” A caramel-like voice addressed him from his right side, the tone easy going.

 

Instantly, Fury made a turn about, taking a few steps back as quickly as he could while drawing his 9mm.

 

His one good eye instantly got very, very wide.

 

Just next to where he had been previously, stood an… Angel ?

 

His good eye narrowed for a second.

 

She, because why the hell would her voice sound like that if that wasn’t a she, was tall and curvy. At least six feet two if he trusted his guts. She looked like a naked statue of the whitest alabaster, albeit her modesty was hidden behind three wings of feathers bigger than the others. Without rhyme nor reason, other wings sprouted from everywhere on her body, even her left thigh from what he could see. And they moved, erratically and for no good reasons, but they did.

 

But that wasn’t what was unnerving.

 

The most discomforting part was that her face wasn’t moving. Her head was, for sure, as she had straightened it shortly after having addressed him. But her facial features weren’t, lips apparently stuck in a polite smile and her long white hair totally static despite the wind.

 

All of that was palling in comparison to her eyes. Unnatural, all white, and devoid of any emotions.

 

Fury was a hardened veteran, a hardass that had handled the bar of a high responsibility post in SHIELD for years and someone whose colleagues tended not to piss off.

 

Despite all of that, the SHIELD’s director gulped when he finally took in the sight, cocking his gun’s hammer with a reflex.

 

“I mean you no harm.” She said in her rich alto as her hand clasped in front of her under the confines of her wings.

 

An unnerving angel-like being quoting the Bible ? Who would have thought my day could get any worse.

 

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, miss.” Fury drawled, fruitlessly trying to ignore the bead of sweat running along his temple despite the winter’s cold.

 

Fury stared at her with his good eye for a beat as the being tilted her head to the other side.

 

“Yet strangers we are not.” The being said mildly, her head straightening once more, “For it is by following my advice that you find yourself in a rather distressing situation against an old enemy.”

 

Fury blinked.

 

Unless they had a bigger security breach than he had thought, that could only mean…

 

“Aamon ?” He blurted out despite himself, the only logical link that his deprived of sleep brain was capable of doing.

 

No, that cannot be, the description doesn’t match.

 

Against his expectation, the being chuckled with a throaty laugh, her mouth still unmoving.

 

How she managed that was beyond him and very off putting.

 

“A name that I have discarded.” The being mysteriously answered.

 

Fury blinked once more.

 

“Alright…” He pondered for a beat, “What did you tell Logan two days ago after exiting Xavier’s mansion?”

 

“I may have forgotten the exact terms, but I remember telling him to look out for a place called The Facility and a doctor named Sarah Kiney.” She answered easily.

 

“For what reasons ?” Fury asked.

 

That was one of the few things the Director still hadn’t puzzled out.

 

“To reunite a father with his daughter, of course.” She answered instantly.

 

The rather blunt statement forced Fury to make a double take.

 

They kept staring at each other for a moment as he pondered what to do next.

 

Scowling, Fury decided that he didn’t have many options, especially when faced with an unknown super without backup.

 

“Alright, I’ll bite.” He started with resignation, holstering his gun, “What do you want ?”

 

Had she been capable, Fury would have swore that she would have smirked.

 

“The question isn’t what do I want, Director Fury, but rather what can I do for you.” The being answered easily.

 

Fury frowned.

 

“I didn’t have you pegged for the charity type after the stunt at the X-Men’s place.” He answered drily.

 

The being marked a pause.

 

“Certain circumstances forced me to rush my timetable, I’m afraid.” She answered mildly, “I had no other choice than to go with a rather… Brazen approach.”

 

“You don’t say.” He deadpaned.

 

“But I just did.” She quipped back.

 

Another beat passed as Fury was thrown aback by the light headed tone of the conversation.

 

“What makes you say that you can do something for me ?” The SHIELD’s Director asked, slightly annoyed and unbalanced by his interlocutor.

 

“Well, you do have a relatively big octopi problem at the moment, for a start.” The being explained lightly and Fury tensed, “The number of operatives you can trust is abysmal and you’re telling yourselves that you’re in way over your head, which is a rather accurate thought.”

 

Thought ?

 

“You’re a telepath now ?” Fury grounded out, teeth clenched.

 

“I don’t believe the answer to be relevant to your current issues, but yes.” The being answered, head tilted.

 

Fuck !

 

“Now, don’t be like that, I already knew about your situation before eavesdropping.” She lightly waved him off, “But let’s come back to what I can do for you.”

 

She raised her right hand, three fingers stretched.

 

“I propose to you three boons, good director, with no strings attached.” She explained, “Consider it a thoughtful gesture from a concerned citizen who find herself very upset that Nazi are as persistent as cockroach.”

 

Fury kept staring wordlessly at her, still fuming, but motioned her to go on.

 

“My first boon would be to occasionally lend my aid in your future raids, but not before a few months have passed.” She started, one of her fingers dropping, “I value my wellbeing above all else and am presently not at one hundred percent capacities. But once I am, as long as it is discreet and on the down-low, I have no qualms helping you root out the evil within these lands.”

 

Fury clenched his jaws, trying not to let it show that it was already a pretty good deal in his book.

 

“My second boon would be an immensely good news.” She carried on, her second finger dropping, “You might want to do another sweep of the Arctic Sea for unknown wreckage petrified in the ice with your latest satellites. You’ll find that Captain America, the first truly loaded superhero, is still slumbering, waiting to be awoken.”

 

Fury's good eye bulged at the news.

 

If it was true, it could turn the situation on its head quickly.

 

With the help of a supersoldier…

 

“My third and final boon would be an immense relief.” She kept going, her last finger dropping while Fury was still computing what she had just said, “Because I’m capable of healing Director Peggy Carter back to her prime if you just point me in the right direction.”

 

Fury’s thoughts stopped as he kept staring at the alien and unnerving, emotionless face.

 

The help of his mentor in a time of crisis…

 

Did he trust her ?

 

Could he afford too ?

 

“Why would I trust you ?” He asked dazingly, his thoughts churning in his head at the possibilities.

 

“Why would I risk bringing back one of the most tenacious women in the world just to have her on my back at the next mishaps, Director ?” She answered back.

 

“You could have an agenda of your own.” He pointed out.

 

“And I do, but I’d rather have Ms. Carter be part of it.” She answered easily, “Willingly, of course.”

 

Fury gnashed his teeth, considering.

 

“And what is this agenda exactly ?” He asked archly.

 

For the first time, the being smiled, and Fury would have preferred she didn’t.

 

“The systematic removal of powered criminals with capital offense, Mr. Director.” The being answered, and it was just shy of predatory, “Permanent removal.”

 

As Fury gulped, he idly noted to himself that he was ready to pass a deal with the devil.

 

Before his brain could tell him how bad an idea it actually was, he outstretched his hand toward the unknown being.

 

“Alright, I’m in.” Fury answered.

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