Just a one shot to bridge the gap between my stories! Sequel to Blaising Iron. Would highly recommend reading before this.
Nothing Lasts Forever
Blaise was flying as fast as she could. Her shoulders ached and her breathing was heavy as her eyes desperately searched for an escape. She had tried to lose them, but she was running out of tricks. She could hear the whine of their hovercrafts drawing closer and closer. She kept trying to push herself faster and faster to get further and further away. She ripped around the corner of another skyscraper only to find herself to be boxed in. She hesitated for a second before taking off upwards, but that second of hesitation dearly cost her. She could hear one whine in particular drawing closer and closer and she knew deep in her gut that now it was only a matter of time until they caught her, but that did not mean that she would give up. She continued to try and push herself faster and faster. The next thing she knew they were hovering over her and the whine was right next to her head. Suddenly a hand grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt, choking her, and yanked her up onto the hovercraft. The girl was thrown behind the driver's feet and she scowled when she recognized his infamous green cape.
"Loki." She sneered. The girl tried to look strong as she searched for an escape.
"Honestly if I was planning on killing you, I would have done so already." Loki sighed in exasperation down at her.
"You tried to kill me. You kicked my almost unconscious body off an airplane." Blaise glared at him.
"Yes well, I apologize for thinking those feathered limbs on your back worked as wings." He sarcastically replied. Blaise rolled her eyes and ran her hand through her hair in annoyance,
"You still tried to kill me."
"You Midgardians are so dense! I was simply trying to assist you by attempting to trigger your birthright." Loki exclaimed.
"No matter what you say, I won't ever trust you, god of lies." Blaise replied as she gave him a pointed look.
"Only a fool would trust me Ice Child, I am simply asking you to believe what I am saying."
Blaise's eyes snapped open and she ran her hand through her hair. She had been having dreams about Loki every night since she had arrived at the academy three months ago. They all had one thing in common, He urging her to learn about her birthright or to let go of something in her life so that she could learn about her birthright. She still had no idea what that birthright was or how to get it, but she had decided that if Loki was urging her to pursue it, then it was probably not a good idea. She slowly got out of bed and walked over to her closet. Everyone at the academy seemed to dress preppy, but her. She had yet to spot someone who wore sweatshirts, let alone wear them seven days a week like she did. At first she got a few disapproving looks from professors and students, but after three months they were used to her. It helped that she only had to attend one class. She did not understand how students could handle taking four classes a day. She thought her was class was challenging enough. Luckily the girl had a lot of free time. She only had to attend one class for an hour and a half on weekdays. She spent the rest of her time studying or working out. Sometimes she would socialize with the other students down in the boiler room, but she spent most of her evenings sneaking away from the dorms and out into the surrounding woods where she could practice her flying and icing in secret since she was not allowed to use them on the property. That was the first thing the Director, Agent Weaver had told her first day there.
Overall it was definitely less intense than the Academy of Operations. Classes did not start before eight, and hers only started at ten. It drove her roommate, Callie Hannigan, insane that Blaise was able to sleep in every morning and that she got back to the dorms so late at night. Blaise was glad that Callie had four classes because she could not stand the thought of spending all day with her. Her roommate was one of the top in the class and Blaise was definitely near the bottom and Callie liked to remind her of that. Blaise opened the window before grabbed her textbook, notebook, and pencil. She walked out of the door, down a flight of stars, and across campus to reach the instructional building. She jogged up the stairs into the lobby and immediately started to panic when it was empty.
"Shit." She hissed, knowing that she must be running late. She took off running through the hallways and barely made it inside her classroom before the bell rang. She scooted inside the door and sheepishly grinned at her professor as she slide into her seat in the back corner of the class. A few students shot her dirty looks and Blaise discreetly flicked them off. She did not have a lot of friends at the academy, but then again, she had not tried very hard to make any. She was more focused on surviving the hell Director Fury had banished her to. The professor started to lecture about the importance of the midterm the next day and Blaise opened her notebook so it looked like she was taking notes even though she was just going to doodle like she did every day. Blaise had decided that the one good thing about this experience was the hour and half allotted every day for her to practice her drawing skills. She had drawn landscapes, princesses, designs, patterns, and even her fellow Avengers, but today she could not think of anything to draw so she just started to aimlessly draw lines and decided to let whatever happened, happen. The class was reviewing for the midterm tomorrow and Blaise knew that she should be paying attention, but she found the lectures dry and the discussions boring so she drifted. Suddenly the professor cleared her throat and she looked up in confusion. The rest of the class was turned around looking at her and about half were trying to hold back laughter.
"I'm sorry I was so busy taking notes, I didn't quite catch that, Professor?" Blaise charmingly grinned at him. She still could not remember his name to save her life.
"I asked you, from your experience what you believed to be the most important aspect of protocol." He tersely said.
"The most important aspect of protocol is the part you have to follow." The girl quickly replied.
"And which part, specifically, is that?" He asked in confusion.
"All of it Professor." Blaise solemnly replied. The Professor let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose,
"Thank you Miss Williams for your deep insights. They always seem to disappoint." He sadly told her which earned a laugh from the rest of the class.
"I do my best." Blaise replied with a shit-eating grin.
"From now on, do your best at trying to pay attention to me." He reprimanded her. Blaise nodded, but quickly started to draw again as he continued his lecturing. Eventually she was so bored that she did not even comprehend what she was drawing.
After another hour of lecturing, Blaise automatically refocused. It was almost as if her brain knew that the bell was going to ring in a few minutes. The girl disinterestedly glanced at the clock before glancing down at her notebook. What she saw made her mouth go dry. It was a picture of Loki. He looked just like he always did in her dreams. Pale skin, dark hair, with a dangerous glint in his eyes and a pompous smirk toying on his lips. She scowled down at it in anger as the dream from last night ran through her head again. She was so lost in her thoughts that she did not hear the bell ring. For once, she was not the first one out of the classroom.
"Maybe if you paid attention instead of drawing the entire class, you would get good grades." One boy snidely commented as he walked past.
"Wow, really? I had never thought of that before. Thanks for the tip." She sarcastically replied as she slammed her notebook shut. A few students around her giggled, but the boy just glared at her. Blaise innocently shrugged before grabbing her books and following the crowd out into the hall. She slowly plodded through the crowded hallway until she reached the lobby and was able to break free from the mass of students. She briskly walked out of the lobby and jogged down the steps. As soon as her feet hit the path that led to the dorms, she slowed down. It was a beautiful Wednesday out and for Blaise that meant she was going flying. She returned to her dorm room and threw her stuff on her otherwise empty desk. Almost as a reflex she glanced over at Callie's desk that was cluttered with textbooks, blueprints, and study guides. Just the thought of such things made Blaise shudder. She quickly turned her back to the desk and walked over to her closet. She changed into her favorite blue sweatshirt with the slits cut in the back and left for the woods.
She exited her dorm and jogged through the brisk April air until she reached the edge of the forest, then she spread her wings and started to fly. It was difficult flying since her wings were so long and the trees were so close together, but the constant weaving and barrel rolls had drastically helped improve Blaise's flying abilities. Three months ago she had to fly extremely slow in order to make sure that she did not hit any trees, but now she could fly fairly fast and still be able to not hit any of the trees. She was starting to practice trying to hit trees with blast of water while flying through the trees, but that was proving to be fairly difficult since both required a decent amount of concentration. Every once in a while she would stop in a clearing so that she could practice her icing in different ways. Sometimes she would build large ice pillars. Other times she would simple freeze the entire field and go skating on top of it. Every once in while she would flood the clearing and go swimming, but whether or not she decided to do that depended on the weather.
She spent hours out weaving through the trees and practicing her aim and by the time she returned to her dorm it was dark out. As soon as she walked in the dorm, Callie let out a little scream,
"God, don't you ever knock?" She scowled at Blaise who quickly looked away from the brunette's angry pale blue eyes.
"Sorry, I didn't think you'd be done with class yet." Blaise apologized.
"Well, we got done early today." Callie sniffed. Blaise shrugged and pulled back her hood as she walked over to her closet.
"Is that a leaf in your hair?" Callie asked, "And why did you put slits in the back of your sweatshirt?"
"I'm preparing for a music festival I'm going to this summer. You know how it is there. Holes in all your clothes, plants woven into your hair." Blaise flippantly replied as she looked through her closet. She heard Callie sigh in annoyance and knew from experience that she was rolling her eyes.
"You realize we have mid-terms on tomorrow, right?" Callie asked.
"I'd actually successfully managed to block that out until you brought it up." Blaise replied as she ran her hand through her hair to get the leaves out.
"Aren't you worried about failing?" Callie exclaimed.
"No, I only have one class and it's pretty easy." Blaise shrugged as she threw the leaves away.
"God, you're so lucky." Callie wistfully sighed.
"So I've been told." Blaise muttered.
"What?" Callie asked.
"What time do you test?" Blaise answered her by asking a question to change the subject.
"All day. How about you?"
"Last testing block." Blaise replied.
"Lucky. You don't even test until before dinner."
"Yeah I know."
"Well, I'm going to study for my thermodynamics midterm with some friends, I'll be back later."
"Okay, have fun." Blaise waved to her as the other girl left the room. As soon as the door closed, Blaise wasted no time grabbing her pajamas and heading to the bathroom to take a cold shower. She wanted to be out of the shower and changed by the time Callie got back. Her roommate had never seen her wings and Blaise planned on keeping it that way. It was much simpler than explaining that she was an Avenger.
When she had finished her shower, she decided to read over S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protocol again. She could not afford to fail her midterm on tomorrow despite the dismissive attitude she had put up for Callie. She was already doing poorly in the class and doing poorly on the midterm would sink her grade so low that there would be no saving it. That meant that there was no way in hell the girl would ever get a chance at being an agent. Halfway through the book, Blaise ended up drifting off to sleep from boredom.
This time she was not running. She was standing on top of the ruined Stark Tower and looking down on the demolished city of New York below her. The wind blew her hair and ruffled her feathers, but it also blew the stench smoke and blood towards her. Every so often she heard a scream loud enough to reach her ears and she cringed. The girl kept trying to jump off the building to go help the people but her feet were stuck in place, leaving her to helplessly watch the destruction of the city. Suddenly she heard the crunch of footsteps behind her.
"Glorious, is it not?" He proudly asked her.
"There's many word s to describe it, terrible, horrid, sickening, but glorious isn't one of them." Blaise scowled at him.
"If I had won I would have rebuilt it. For what is a king without a proper kingdom to rule?" He mused.
"Just a man until he tries to take a kingdom that doesn't belong to him. Then he becomes a villain." The girl replied.
"You think so little of me as to declare me a villain?" Loki asked her in disbelief.
"You tried to kill me. You tried to kill my friends. You tried to take over my world. Which of the above would make me not consider you a villain?" She sneered.
"At the time I believed that it was the right thing to do. I believed that I was doing what was best for Midgard and its inhabitants." Loki ruefully replied.
"Is this an apology?" She asked in shock.
"Are you ready to believe me?" He asked her.
"No." She quickly told him.
"Then no, it was not an apology."
Blaise woke up early with the sun streaming in on her face. She blinked a few times as she wondered why Callie had opened the blinds this morning as she lifted her book off of her chest and placed it on the floor. The girl tiredly looked around the room and noticed that Callie was still asleep in her bed across the room. That was when Blaise realized she must be up earlier than normal. She got up and closed the curtains before crawling back into her bed and burrowing under the covers. She rolled over and tried to fall back asleep, but her dream kept running through her head. Blaise sighed in annoyance. She remembered a time where she would have given anything to remember the nightmares that woke her up at night, but now she wished for the days when she could not remember her dreams, Ever since New York she was able to remember every dream in vibrant, vivid, and oftentimes gory detail. Blaise shook her head in an attempt to get the dream out of her head. She still wanted to sleep, but gave up when the dream refused to depart from her mind. Eventually Blaise just decided to just get up for the day. She quietly got changed and stole out of her room; careful not to wake up Callie. She knew if she woke up her roommate the girl would moan and groan and complain for days about how Blaise had woken her up. She decided to head out to the woods before class this morning to practice flying and her ice blasts.
Blaise skipped down the dorm steps and out onto the campus gardens. She took a deep breath as she savored the feeling of fresh spring air in her lungs. As she walked down the winding sidewalks, she brushed her hands against the various trees and brushes that were scattered along them. Occasionally she grabbed a leaf and casually ripped it into pieces as she walked along. Finally the girl stepped off the path and started her walk through the perfectly manicured grass towards the woods. She started jogging as soon as she hit the edge of the woods and took off into the air. She started off just like she always had; trying to blast trees as she wove through the forest, but today something was off. Her blasts looked strange. Every time she fired a blast of ice it swelled into the shape of a ring instead of the typical jagged ball that usually appeared. Blaise slowed to a stop and fired another ice ball, but that one also swelled into a ring.
"What the hell?" She whispered as she tried again, and again, and again to make a shard of ice or ball of ice only to have it turn into a ring. She spent all morning trying to fix the ring issue until her phone alarm started going off in her pocket which reminded her that she had to get to class. The girl immediately turned and started tearing through the woods. She was not sure how far out she was, she had none of her stuff, and her all-important midterm started in less than ten minutes. Blaise checked her phone as she ran past her dorm to see if she had time to stop in and get her stuff, but then she remembered that she had forgotten her key. Blaise scowled and ran faster as the school building came into sight. She tore up the steps and pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time again. She sprinted through the halls and walked in the door right as the bell rang. Her professor shot her a dirty look, but Blaise just casually grabbed a pencil off his desk and walked to her seat with her head held high.
"Please use a number two pencil. Remember to fill in the entire bubble otherwise your answers won't count. You know the rules, if anyone is caught cheating they will be immediately expelled. When you are done drop your test on my test and you are free to go." The teacher instructed the class before he started to pass the tests and scantrons back the rows. Blaise received hers last which only caused the slight nerves in her stomach to turn into a writhing mess. By the time she received her test, she thought she was going to barf. The girl immediately started scanning through the questions and marking down answers. She flew through the test quickly; skipping the ones she did not know and answering the ones she did. She finished her entire test within half an hour. Apparently Director Fury was wrong; she knew protocol better than the back of her hand. Blaise checked over the test one more time before walking up to the front of the room to turn it in. She dropped her pencil on the teacher's desk and he looked up at her expectantly. When she handed her scantron to the him though, he looked surprised.
"Do you have a question, Miss Williams?" He asked.
"No. I'm done." She scoffed. The teacher gave her a skeptical look, but Blaise just shrugged and dropped the test on his desk before she walked out of the class. She desperately needed to find her roommate so that she could get back into their room. She did not want to be stuck wandering around campus all day. Eventually after wandering the halls of the school for thirty minutes, she spotted Callie within a classroom. She waited outside the room and played games on her phone until the students in the class had finished testing and started to filter out of the room. Blaise immediately stood up and scanned the crowd for Callie's dark brown hair, Finally she saw it at the edge of the crowd. The girl urgently wove her way through the crowd of students, but by the time she made it to the other side Callie and her group of friends were already at the other end of the hall. Blaise sighed in annoyance and started to jog after them. The group of three was moving quickly and loudly towards the wing of the building that housed the gym and pool which Blaise could not help think was strange since neither was heavily populated on a normal basis and both were empty during the days of big tests. Blaise was one of the few who would know, she trained in there often. She curiously followed the loud group further and further until they ducked into the room that housed the pool. The door to the pool was pushed open with a loud bang and the student's voices echoed down the throughout the large room.
"I completely blew the question on Von Neumann's entropy. Freaking thermodynamics." Callie ranted to her friends.
"Test's over, Callie. Just let it go." Her one friend, a male with dark brown hair, just chuckled at her.
"Yeah, that's easy for you to say." Callie scoffed, "You probably aced it."
"What you need is a little distraction." He replied as he started to pull his shirt over his head. Her other friend, a blonde woman did the same.
"This will distract me just fine." She replied as she held up her can of beer.
"Well, suit yourself." He shrugged as he dove into the water. The blonde soon jumped in after him. Blaise slammed the door open as hard as she could so that the trio would be aware of her presence.
"Callie I've been looking all over for you!" She exclaimed. Callie looked at Blaise in surprise, but Callie's friends paid no attention to the new comer.
"Whoo! Come on, Callie! Live a little!" Callie's guy friend called to her from the pool. The blonde laughed,
"What are you waiting for?" She asked Callie. Callie laughed at their antics and drank another sip of beer. Blaise was all but forgotten.
"Like I was saying, I need your keycard, mine is locked in the room." Blaise continued, reminding her roommate of her presence.
"Callie, relax!" The guy called out to Callie.
"We've earned this!" The blonde yelled.
"Yeah, whatever." Callie distractedly replied as she hurriedly shoved the key into Blaise's hands. It was obvious that she did not want Blaise around her or her friends.
"Thanks." Blaise appreciatively grinned. As she turned to head out of the room, she saw Callie start to strip as well.
"Come on, have some fun, Callie." The guy called out again as she took off her jacket.
"Come on, take it off!" The blonde encouraged Callie. Blaise heard Callie's laughter as she pushed the door open to exit, but a quiet noise stopped her from leaving. It was the all too familiar sound of cracking ice. She knew that ice would be ridiculous since they were in a muggy indoor pool, but sudden shift in Callie's tone changed her mind.
"Guys get out." Callie yelled to them; all traces of the previous moments happiness were gone.
"Why? They can't bust us for coming in here!" The boy yelled back. The crackling of ice got louder and Blaise whirled around in panic.
"Get out now!" Callie yelled at them. The pair turned around and saw the pool slowly freezing. They started to frantically swim towards the edge of the pool. Blaise dropped the keycard and ran towards them. As soon as her feet hit the edge of the pool she spread her wings and jumped into the air. She hovered above the quickly freezing pool and tried to stop or at least slow down the advancing ice. The pair paused their swimming and looked up at her in a mixture of fear and awe. Blaise scowled down at them,
"Get the hell out of the pool." She screamed as she tried to hardest to stop the freezing of the pool, but it continued to creep forward. Blaise was able to slow it slightly, but it still advanced. She heard what sounded like the two students sloshing out of the pool and released her concentration, but then she heard the boy scream in pain.
"No! Get it off me!" He yelled. Blaise looked over her shoulder; dreading what she would find. Almost his entire leg was still stuck in the ice. She dropped on the ground beside the other two girls who were trying to pull him out of the ice.
"Pull!" He yelled at them as he gripped the hand rails of the steps and tried to pull himself out.
"I'm trying!" The blonde yelled back.
"I will try to melt it." Blaise told them as she knelt down beside the boy's leg. She started trying to melt the ice while the girls continued to pull, but the ice refused to melt. Then it hit her. Blaise could not melt the ice because it was not natural. This ice had been manufactured.
"Aah! Aah! My leg! Get it off me!" The boy kept yelling. Blaise could feel the ice starting to give a little bit, but she knew there was no way it would melt before his leg became a frostbitten mess. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black-haired boy ran over and started to jam the rod of one of the cleaning nets into the pool. Blaise focused harder on melting the ice and after two solid blows, the ice cracked and the other two girls were able to pull the boy from the pool. Blaise noticed that his leg was blue, but could tell that there would be no lasting damage. The black hair boy stepped back in relief while long-haired boy slowly got to his feet. The girls wrapped a blanket around the long-haired boy who had been frozen. Blaise quickly got up to check on him,
"Are you alright?" She asked him,
"What the hell are you?" He fearfully asked her as his eyes darted to her wings.
"You were one of the Avengers, weren't you?" The black haired boy chimed in.
"That doesn't matter. Are you alright?" She repeated.
"I guess I am now." He replied. Blaise sighed. It was obvious that he did not trust her to help him.
"Okay, then listen to me very closely. I was never here. I came and got Callie's key, and then I left before any of this happened. Does everyone understand?" Blaise asked them in a threatening tone of voice. All four students nodded.
"Good." Blaise charmingly smiled, "Then you all have I nice rest of the evening. I would recommend taking him to the med room to get checked over. There may be some underlying effects of the ice." She advised them before quickly exiting the room. She jogged through the hallways in order to put as much distance as she could in-between her and the pool. If she was caught anywhere near that, they would automatically blame her. Who was she kidding? They were probably going to blame her anyway.
She ran the entire was back to her room and did not stop until she had reached her bed. She left the door open a crack so that Callie could get in after she got back from taking the boy to the medical room and got in the shower. As she was getting out she heard the door open and so she quickly got changed and walked out to meet Callie.
"How's he doing?" She asked her.
"Seth? He's fine." Callie quietly replied.
"Well, that's good." Blaise said with a small grin as she ran her hand through her hair.
"Were you ever planning on telling me?" Callie asked her. Her face was a mixture of hurt and anger.
"No. I wasn't allowed." Blaise honestly told the girl.
"So, an Avenger, huh?" Callie asked with a small, incredulous, grin.
"Yeah." Blaise grinned at her, hoping that now Callie and herself would get along a little better.
"What's it like?" Callie asked.
"I like the flying." Blaise laughed. She purposely decided to leave out the hard parts of the job; the constant webs of lies, the mandatory secrecy, the loneliness, the constant scrutiny and fear. The fact that she was always suspected of being disloyal or out of control because they agency knew that if she ever went rogue then they would have a hard time putting her down. She decided it was better to validate Callie's view of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. than to ruin it by telling her the truth. After all, it was second nature for Blaise to lie, but telling the truth was a whole lot harder.
"Cool." Callie smiled.
"Yeah, I guess it is." Blaise quietly replied.
"So what was New—" Callie started to say, but Blaise did not let her finish her sentence.
"I'm actually really tired and I'm going to go to bed."
"Oh, okay." Callie sighed in obvious disappointment. Blaise quickly rolled over to face the wall. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off to sleep despite the nightmares she knew would mar her dreams.
Blaise sighed as she watched the fire consume the city. She knew it would be pointless to try to douse the fire with water or ice, but she tried anyway. Her actions only seemed to make the fire grow. Finally Blaise feel to her knees in exhaustion.
"Why do you try to protect a race who loathes you?" A voice asked behind her.
"How can you kill people for fun?" She retorted through clenched teeth.
"I was born a monster. I was raised under the guise I was a man. Much like you Ice Child." He mused as he walked around to face her.
"I am not a monster!" She screamed at him, but the man remained unflustered by her outburst.
"Then why do none of them trust you?" He asked. Blaise opened her mouth to tell him he was wrong, but she had nothing to say. There was no evidence to prove her point. Blaise stayed on her knees in shame as the god towered over her.
"Wake up Blaise." Callie told the slumbering girl as she shook her shoulders.
"I'm up." Blaise sighed.
"Hurry up all classes have been cancelled, there's a lecture in the auditorium." Callie told her. Blaise immediately jolted awake and sat up in bed.
"About?"
"Yup."
"Dammit." Blaise scowled.
"Do you want me to wait?" Callie asked.
"No we never walk together it would be weird to start now. Go ahead I'll catch up." Blaise reassured her. Callie nodded and rushed out the door. Blaise quickly pulled on a pair of leggings and a cut off, brushed her teeth and was out the door within ten minutes. She took off sprinting across the campus, her black combat boots pounding against the pavement, her loose hair streamed out behind her, and her headphones blasting music into her ears at almost full volume. She jogged up the steps into the lobby and shoved the doors open. She did not see anyone so she pulled out her phone to check the time as she darted around the wall of valor and ran right into a dark haired girl with brown eyes. Blaise quickly ripped out her headphones,
"I am so sorry. I didn't see you there." She apologized as she quickly stood to her feet. She held out her hand and the dark-haired girl gladly took it. Suddenly the sound of someone clearing their throat above her and caused her to look up.
"Agent Ward." She coldly greeted him as she pulled the girl to her feet.
"Williams." He replied just as coolly. The dark haired girl looked between the two of them in surprise.
"Do you two know each other?" The dark haired girl asked.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend, Ward?" Blaise teasingly asked.
"Skye this is Blaise Williams, Williams this is Skye. I'm training her." He replied. Blaise shook the girl's hand.
"Nice to meet you Skye, but I really have to get to a lecture." Blaise waved to the pair as she took off running again towards the auditorium. She slide into a seat in the back row and grinned in relief. She had made it on time. A couple seconds later, Skye walked in and took a seat near the front. Blaise could not help but wonder where Agent Ward was, but her pondering was soon interrupted by Agent Weaver standing up behind the podium and tapping on the mic. Blaise focused in on Agent Weaver, knowing that this lecture may give her hints about what they knew about what happened last night instead of staring out the large wall of windows behind the stage like she typically did during lectures.
"Today, we're proud to welcome back two of S.H.I.E.L.D Academy's finest, our youngest graduates to date. You know their names. Please join me in welcoming Agent Leopold Fitz and Agent Jemma Simmons." She said and Blaise joined the rest of the auditorium in applause as they welcomed the famous pair.
"Thank you, Agent Weaver. It's nice to be back. Unfortunately, it has to be under these circumstances." Agent Jemma Simmons, a girl with light brown hair greeted the group.
"If you don't know the history of S.H.I.E.L.D by now, there's no excuse unless you fell asleep in Professor Vaughn's class that's a perfectly acceptable excuse." Agent Leopold Fitz, a boy with red curly hair joked. The auditorium erupted into laughter and Blaise had to stifle an eye roll. For someone who had never had Professor Vaughn, the joke the fell flat.
"Our instinct as scientists is to move forward, advance quickly, push the envelope. But given recent events, it makes sense to reflect back on our history." Said Agent Simmons.
"S.H.I.E.L.D was founded after the SSR was able to defeat the nearly indomitable force known as Hydra." Agent Fitz told them.
"We tend to forget that these organizations Hydra, Centipede, A.I.M. were also made up of extremely brilliant scientists, men and women who started with the same unlimited potential as you or I." Simmons said. Blaise could have inwardly groaned. They were giving the potentiality speech. She had heard this speech thousands of times from professors and trainers.
"Potential can sometimes be dangerous. Plutonium has the potential to power a city or to be a nuclear bomb." Fitz said.
"Today, we'd like to share a few stories from the field in which we learned this lesson up close and faced the consequences when untested technology or biology lands in the wrong hands. And don't worry we brought pictures." Agent Simmons reassured the group. The auditorium once again burst into laughter. Suddenly a male voice started yelling in the front of the room,
"Oh, god. Oh, god! What is this?! Hey, what's happening to me?!" He yelled. Blaise recognized him as the boy who had smashed the ice in the pool. Agents Fitz and Simmons immediately stepped down from the stage and ran over to him. But Blaise could not see what was wrong. The kids around her stood up to get a better view and started to scream in panic.
"Help me! Help me! Get it off! Make it stop! Help me get it off! No! Make it stop!" He continued, but by the time Blaise saw him, he was a statue of ice. She was rudely shoved to the side by Agent Ward who was fighting his way to the front of the room.
"Find exposed skin. He needs glucose to raise his body's natural freezing point." Agent Simmons ordered Fitz.
"Simmons, I need something to break the ice." He replied. She handed him a pen and he started to hack into the ice.
"Jemma. Ready?" He asked before striking the final blow that would break through.
"Yeah." She replied. Fitz quickly struck the ice one more time and Simmons shoved a needle into the boy's neck.
"Fitz, talk to me." Agent Ward yelled.
"Something's doing this to him. Find it." Fitz replied.
"Ward, there it is. Fitz, what now?" Skye pointed to something under one of the seats.
"Smash the damn thing!" He ordered. Ward immediately stomped on the machine and the ice around the boy shattered. The boy collapsed, but Agent Fitz caught him before he could fall to the floor.
"It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's over." He reassured the boy as he slowly lowered him to the ground. The auditorium immediately started to applaud their brave actions, except for one girl. Agent Ward had locked eyes with her and she was debating whether or not to run. If she ran she looked guilty, but they already thought she was guilty so what did she have to lose?
She decided to stay. There was no evidence that implicated her in the freezings besides her presence at the scene and they did not know she was at the pool. She mingled with the crowds and filtered out into the hallway where she decided to wait for the inevitable. After the hallway had cleared out she sat down on the side of the hall opposing the door. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team was still down in the front of the auditorium talking to Agent Weaver. Blaise could not help, but wonder who the leader of the group was. It obviously was not Skye since she was still in training. Fitz and Simmons were solid options but they did not have the field experience necessary to lead a group. That left Ward, but he was not very good with people. Blaise sighed and ran her hand through her hair in boredom. Finally the group started to ascend the steps that exited the auditorium. When they exited Agent Ward looked shocked to see her.
"I figured you would have some questions for me." She shrugged as she looked up at the group.
"Seth said you were at the pool that night and threatened everyone so they would lie about you being there." Agent Ward bluntly replied.
"It's true. I was getting a key from my roommate to our dorm because I had forgotten mine, but I did not create that ice. In fact, I tried to stop it, but it wasn't like normal ice. I couldn't control it." Blaise calmly replied.
"Who built the decoy machine?" Ward asked.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Blaise scowled, disliking what he was implying.
"Who was the smart kid that you bribed to build a machine to cover up your attempted murder of Donny Gill?" Ward repeated.
"Are you accusing me of trying to murder him?" Blaise exclaimed. Suddenly Agent Simmons jumped between the pair,
"You both are acting like children. The ice was caused by a machine Ward. We saw it."
"Really you should be asking for my help since I've spent three months here." Blaise smugly grinned.
"We don't need your help." Ward quickly butted in.
"Who's the one around here who can actually control ice." Blaise retorted. Agent Fitz placed a calming hand on both of their shoulders to keep the pair from erupting into another spat.
"He's right, Blaise, you need to go back to your dorm and act like nothing happened." Agent Fitz told her.
"Fine." Blaise huffed as she stood to her feet. She walked past the group and out to the lobby, but instead of turning left and exiting the building, she turned right and started to jog further into the school. There was no way that she wanted to be alone in her dorm right now when everyone else was down in the boiler room. She jogged down the steps and only slowed to a walk when she reached the awning that overlooked the bar-like hang out. A lot of students were at the bar drinking beer. Blaise figured it was more than likely to either drown out their sorrows over finals or take the edge off the fear that seemed to have gripped the school. She grinned and headed down the flight of stairs to the back corner of the room where cadets were playing pool. Blaise purposely headed to the darkest table. She knew it was only a matter of time before Ward's group made their way down to the boiler room and started sniffing around for information.
Sure enough minutes later Ward, Simmons, and Skye appeared on the awning that overlooked the room. Skye immediately sat at the bar and started to chat up the bartender while Simmons and Ward mingled around the room. Blaise pretended to be focused on her game, but she kept an eye on the three agents at all times. She did not wanted to be surprised if one of they seemed to suddenly appear near her. After a few minutes Ward drifted back towards Skye. They chatted for a second before Ward headed towards the pool tables. Towards her. He stopped a few tables down to talk to Callie. It looked causal until Ward stopped her shot in the middle of the table. A second later he, Skye, and Simmons, hurried out of the boiler room. Blaise easily sank the black ball into a pocket.
"Oops, I lose." She pretended to sigh in frustration before she followed the trio out of the room. They hurried out of the school and over to the boys' dorms. Blaise kept up with them as they hurried up to one of the rooms. She casually walked past the room and was shocked to see Agent Fitz unconscious on the floor.
"What the hell happened?" She asked. Ward whipped around with a gun loaded and aimed at her head.
"Relax it's just me." She reassured them. Ward grudgingly lowered the gun and Simmons knelt beside her partner.
"He's out cold." Simmons said.
"Slap him." Skye suggested. The other two looked at her with in disbelief.
"What? I'm just saying it would work." Skye defended herself.
"And if he's sore I can get him some ice." Blaise offered. Simmons and Ward looked at each other and Simmons drew back her hand to slap an unconscious Fitz, but before she could water appeared out of thin air and dropped on his face. Fitz sat up with a gasp. Ward and Simmons glared at Blaise, who just shrugged,
"You took too long." Blaise unapologetically told them. Skye quickly put her hand over to mouth to stifle a laugh. Ward and Simmons started tending to Fitz. He had a nasty goose egg on the back of his head from falling. Blaise created a ball of ice and handed it to Skye.
"Give them this. I should go." She told her before jogging back down the hallway and back to the girls' dorm. She expected it to be empty, but there was a crowd of girls all trying to rush inside the dorm.
"What's going on?" she asked a girl standing nearby.
"Didn't you hear? The dorms are being placed on lockdown until the ice murderer is found." The girl replied.
"Oh, great." Blaise sighed as the crowd continued to press into the dorms. Everyone filed back into their rooms and waited. They did not know what they were waiting for, but there was a sense of foreboding in the air. While Blaise was in line she saw a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane fly overhead. She knew it was Ward, Skye, Simmons and Fitz and that infuriated her. She did not understand why they had left when the culprit had not been caught yet. As the crowd continued to press forward, Blaise was jostled inside the building and ushered into the elevator. When Blaise finally reached her room, Callie was anxiously sitting on her bed.
"Oh my god! There you are!" She exclaimed as Blaise entered the room.
"What's going on?" Blaise asked.
"Seth and Donny were the ones who built the ice machine. Everything is on lockdown until they find them." Callie replied. Blaise sighed and ran her hand through her hair in disbelief as she glared out the window at the sunny sky in an attempt to calm down. Suddenly a monstrous dark cloud started rolling in and thunder shook the sky. Blaise abruptly stood up and hurried over to the window,
"Callie, come look at this." She told her roommate. Callie hurried over to stand beside her at the window.
"That doesn't look like a normal storm." Callie gasped.
"I didn't think so either." Blaise sighed. The blonde immediately turned and started pulling clothes out of her closet. She braided her hair, pulled on her blue sweatshirt and combat boots, and tucked her hair into her hood.
"Callie move away from the window." She told the girl.
"But we aren't supposed to leave the dorm." Callie protested. As Callie pulled her arm to stop her, ice started to pelt the window.
"I don't give damn about whether or not we're supposed to leave the dorm." Blaise scowled.
"You'll get hurt." Callie worriedly exclaimed.
"I have to go." Blaise replied as she wrenched her arm out of Callie's grip and pulled open the window. As she was about to jump Agent Ward opened the door,
"We have to get down to the boiler room now!" He yelled, but Blaise jumped out of the window anyway. She chuckled to herself as Agent Ward's yelled faded into the wind; had never been very good at following orders. As she flew over the campus, dodging golf ball sized hail, she saw students running to the school to go hide in the boiler room. She was soon distracted by the growing size of the hail that kept growing in size as she flew closer to the dark clouds. It got to the point where she was dodging chunks of ice the size of soccer balls as she scanned the ground for the pair. Suddenly the ice let up and Blaise spotted a pair of boys in the back of a truck in an empty parking lot. Blaise dove and landed at the edge of the parking lot. Both boys were in the back of the tuck fiddling with the machine.
"You need to stop this!" She yelled at them.
"We know!" The boy with short hair yelled back. Suddenly there was a flash of light and both boys were blown backwards. Blaise ran over to the truck and pulled the short haired boy out of the rubble.
"What's your name?" She asked him.
"Donny. You have to help my friend! You have to help Seth!" He told her in a panic.
"I will. Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine. We have to help Seth!" He cried. Blaise nodded and they rushed over to Seth who was lying deathly still on the pavement. Blaise lowered her face near his mouth and checked his pulse,
"He's alive and breathing." She reassured the boy. Suddenly there was the sound of rushing wind above them and the pair looked up. A jet descended from the sky and landed beside them. Fitz, Simmons, and Skye came running down from the loading ramp over to the trio on the ground.
"He's been hurt! Please you need to help him!" Donny screaming in a panic.
"He's alive." Blaise told them. They picked up Seth and carried him onto the plane while Simmons told everyone what to do,
"He's in cardiac arrest. Skye, blanket for his head! Lay him down here! Sir, I need the A.E.D.! Fitz, oxygen." She rattle off and every scrambled to follow her commands, leaving Blaise and Donny useless.
"I got it." Fitz yelled as he rushed the A.E.D. over to her. Blaise wrapped her arms around Donny to comfort him, but he was a wreck. The plane was tossed side to side and the thunder rumbled outside as Simmons readied the A.E.D.
"Get ready to clear." She told everyone, "It's charging!"
"Charging. Everyone get back!" Fitz echoed.
"And clear!" Simmons yelled as she applied the A.E.D. Seth's body spazzed.
"Pulse?" Simmons asked.
"Nothing." A familiar voice replied. Blaise's head snapped towards the voice. It was Agent Coulson. Blaise stared at him in shock, her arms stilled wrapped around the boy who was clinging onto her. She had been told he was dead. They had lied to her for months. S.H.I.E.L.D. was responsible for her losing the closest thing she had to a parent, not Loki! She was torn out of her thoughts by the sound of Donny's grieved screaming in her ear,
"No, Seth! Seth! Come on, no!" He cries of pain faded into whimpers and sobs. Blaise's heart ached for the boy and she drew him closer. She knew what it was like to lose someone.
"No. Don't go. No." He sobbed into Blaise's shoulder. His fist was balled up and gripping her sweatshirt almost as if he believed that he could will Seth back to life. She just hugged him closer and let him cry. Agent Coulson looked up at the boy sorrowfully and seemed to notice Blaise for the first time. She immediately saw the guilt in his eyes, but she could not hide the hatred in her own. Coulson looked back down at the ground in defeat and Blaise closed her eyes and focused on the boy weeping on her shoulder.
Donny cried for a long time and Blaise started to wonder if he was going to pass out, but then suddenly a flip switched. The tears stopped and he became withdrawn. She instinctively feared the coldness of his once innocent blue eyes. He barely talked or ate and tried to avoid everyone on the plane. When they touched down again, Donny seemed resigned to his fate. There was a S.H.I.E.L.D. car waiting for him and everyone knew that it was not going to take him back to the academy. Blaise planned to walk him out, but Fitz stopped her.
"Let me talk to him." He told her. Blaise nodded and reluctantly backed off.
"Donny." She called after him. He turned around and walked back to where the pair was standing. Blaise pulled him into a hug,
"Be brave. You are not a bad person. Don't let them define you." She encouraged him. Donny nodded.
"Fitz is going to walk you out." Blaise told him and Donny turned to look at the scientist beside her. Blaise released him from his hug and Fitz escorted him out. Blaise knew that she was supposed to return to the school, but she refused. She was not worried about her stuff. They would ship that back to S.H.I.E.L.D. she had everything she needed. Immediately after they dropped Donny off, she wanted to find Coulson. As she roamed around the plane, she found him and Agent Mae talking. She cleared her throat so that she would not interrupt and the pair immediately got quiet.
"I have to go." Agent Mae told him as she walked back towards the front of the plane.
"I knew you would come to see me." Coulson sadly grinned at her.
"It's not the reason you think it is." Blaise coldly replied.
"Well then let's step into my office." Agent Coulson replied. Blaise followed him into the office and briefly glanced around at all of the antiques before getting down to business.
"I need to send a message Director Fury." Blaise told him.
"About what?" Agent Coulson asked, surprised by her request.
"I'm sorry this is a private message for the director's ears only." Blaise firmly replied. Agent Coulson hesitated for a moment, before sliding out of the way so that Blaise was facing the screen behind him. Blaise positioned herself in front of the screen and Agent Coulson sent a call through to Director Fury. Seconds later Director Fury's disgruntled face appeared on the screen. If he was surprised to see Blaise, he did not show it.
"Miss Williams." He greeted her.
"I am going to be leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy. After the events of the past few days it is now clear to me that I am not trusted within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. and more than likely never will be. Do not try to come after me. I am no longer interested in joining S.H.I.E.L.D. as an agent. I will still be an Avenger. I am still here to help the world, but from this point on I will be a mere consultant like Tony Stark. If you wish to contact me, you can do so through him. Tony will be able to find me. Before you even think about contacting though, you better make sure it's important. Clint, Natasha, and Steve better all think it's a good idea to come find me. Furthermore those are the only people I will even consider returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. with. No S.W.A.T. teams or I will view them as enemies and try to protect myself. It's been fun, but I've finally decided that it's better to leave an organization that doesn't trust me rather than try to conform to it. Good day." She finished and quickly hung up before the director could argue with her. She gave Agent Coulson and curt nod and started to walk out, but he caught her arm.
"This is a bad idea." He warned her.
"It's not my first bad idea and the way things are going it won't be my last." She flippantly replied as she wrenched her arm away.
"I am going to be jumping off this plane shortly. Don't try to stop me because I won't let you. I no longer belong to your agency and will view any attempt to stop me as a kidnapping." Blaise told him, but Agent Coulson just chuckled and shook his head.
"I've missed you."
"Obviously not enough to write a note, call me or even just figure out a way to tell me you were alive." She snapped at him.
"I wasn't allowed. You know how protocol is." Agent Coulson tried to justify his actions.
"Sometimes you just have to say screw protocol." Blaise sneered as she angrily turned and stormed out of his office, only stopping to slam the door behind her. Ward and Skye looked up at her in surprise as she stormed past them and down to the loading dock. True to his word, no one tried to stop her until she started opening the ramp. Fitz and Simmons ran out of their lab yelling at her,
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" Fitz screamed, but Blaise ignored them and jumped out of the plane. She let herself freefall for a few hundred feet before she snapped her wings open. As she glided through the skies clouds started to drizzle rain over her. Part of her was sorry to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. They had done so much for her. They had saved her and made her into an Avenger. For that, she would always be grateful, but there was a darker part to S.H.I.E.L.D. A part that Blaise could no longer ignore. The part that had taught her to be a liar and a thief. Blaise sighed as they rain washed over her. She could almost imagine what remained of S.H.I.E.L.D. being washed away and for the first time in her life she felt free. Completely and perfectly free.
So my next story will be called A Blaising S.H.I.E.L.D. and it will cover some episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as Captain America: Winter Soldier. So yeah, go check it out! After you review of course