The next morning you awoke, feeling as though you had slept for days. The vivid dreams you had awoken from faded quickly, and all you could recall was an unfamiliar voice telling you things you could not understand. Shaking it off, you crossed to the small washroom provided and popped in your plain brown contacts before tying your hair into a typical tight bun. Checking your reflection quickly, you made your way to the mess hall you had been shown to the previous night. It was like any cafeteria, everything was made of hard metal; chairs, tables, trays. It was almost empty except for one table where Tony, Natasha, and Clint already sat. You grabbed a carrot muffin and some toast and jam before joining them, soon followed by Steve and Bruce.
"Are you going to miss home?" Steve asked, a tinge of pity behind his gentle voice.
"I suppose you always miss home." You spread the strawberry jam across your toast. "But it's been a while since I've had a home." You blurted out absent-mindedly.
"Me too." He agreed, and you remembered who he was and how long his own home had been gone. You gave him an understanding smile and bit into your toast. As you ate, you caught Bruce giving you odd looks, like he knew something or wanted to ask you something but you shrugged it off finishing your muffin.
Breakfast ended to quickly and you followed the others to the deck as they all prepared to leave and as you stood between Clint and Natasha as the others said goodbye and waited for their ride back to the ground. Finally, a helicopter arrived with the Stark Industries logo on it and Steve, Bruce, and Tony made to leave but before they could even take one step, the sky began to roar with thunder.
"Crap...you think it's the big guy come back?" Tony asked, motioning for the pilot to shut down the helicopter. As the helicopter powered down, you all waited trying to determine if it was just an untimely storm or Thor making a surprise visit. Your anxieties were answered when Thor crashed down onto the deck, looking much more dishevelled since last night, and you all looked at each other in confusion.
"What is it, Shakespeare, you forget something?"
"Tony, this doesn't seem like just any visit." Bruce spoke up.
Thor looked angry as he picked up Mjolnir, his hammer, where it had landed beside him on his arrival and straightened up.
"What is it, Thor?" Steve said, all concern.
"I think it's obvious." Tony interjected, finally sounding serious.
"Loki." Thor boomed, his voice laced with rage. "He is gone from Asgard."
The others looked alarmed and seeing as the news had always been quite vague on this whole Loki character and how he was connected to the attacks in NY, you stayed silent.
"How did that happen?" Banner sounded panicked.
"I know not the details of my brother's tricks, all I know is that he killed four of his guards and his cell is completely destroyed." Thor struggled to contain his anger.
"Well, I guess that means we do have a mission after all." Steve intoned, the others nodding in silent agreement.
You were all once again seated around the table in the conference room but this time Fury was fuming at the head of it, first giving Thor a piece of mind and secondly ordering the lot of you to get your act together. He gave his orders to the whole group to be on duty at all times and to make sure that they keep an eye on you so that you can join in as soon as possible. Fury left with a slam of the door and the seven of you just sat in silence, absorbing your new mission and recovering as well.
"So...Can someone explain to me what exactly is happening?" You broke the silence.
"Oh, yeah..." Bruce spoke first.
"Well, Loki is Shakespeare's brother, his own Christopher Marlowe if you will." You almost chuckled at the unexpected history reference but kept silent. "Loki was behind what happened in NY last year and he's been in a holding cell since."
"Oh, was it because Thor left?" You asked, thinking maybe it was your fault.
"Not at all, little Midguardian," Thor sound much calmer than earlier, "I have left Asgard many times since my brother's imprisonment and he has not escaped, although he has tried. This was planned whether or not I was present." He reassured you and you breathed out relieved.
"It doesn't matter how he got out, it only matters how we get him back in." Clint said grimly.
"Which means we need to get you into training as soon as possible." Natasha added.
"Of course." You agreed.
"Not that we don't have faith in you." Steve Rodgers said. "But you're going to have to push yourself."
"And..." Bruce voice hesitantly before continuing. "You're going to have to tell us everything, we have to be able to trust you out in battle."
He stared at you and you almost didn't realize what he was hinting at but it hit you fast. It made you nervous, it was something your mother had made you hide your whole life although you had never really wanted to. You just sort of got into the habit and it had eventually caused you to be anxious at just the thought of showing anyone your true colours...literally. You sat silently for a moment building yourself up as the other stared in confused silence, all no doubt suspicious at Bruce's statements. But before you took them off you had to ask.
"How did you know?"
"One of the scans showed them, although I am not sure exactly what you're hiding."
"Well, I guess it won't hurt anyone." You resigned and blinked a few times in mental preparation.
You put both fingers to your eye and in one practised notion and slipped the brown, slippery contacts out of your eyes and blinked even more as you adjusted to seeing the world without them. Everything seemed brighter and it almost shocked you, and you finally looked at the others and they only stared as you dropped the contacts onto the table.
"I, ugh, how do they look?" You honestly hadn't looked at your natural eye colour in years, you always faced away from the mirror when putting them in. The life long shame of your mother always present.
"They are beautiful." Steve uttered before colouring at realizing what he said.
"You mean, you don't know what they look like?" Natasha ask, astounded.
"I can't remember the last time I actually looked at them." You confessed. "I just know they aren't normal."
"Here." She pulled a mirror out of her purse and slid it across the table, you caught it swiftly but were unsure about looking.
"It's not that bad." Tony spoke up. "They are actually quite sexy, if I say so myself." This made you giggle and the others looked expectantly at you as you slowly raised the mirror. You looked in the mirror and new sense of confidence came over you as you realized that this was what you had always wanted, you had just forgotten. Your eyes seemed brighter than the last time you had looked at them, maybe when you were fourteen, just a girl unsure of who she was. The white of the iris was so white it was almost silver and the black outline around it plus the darker pupil, made it seem as if it was shining. You smiled and closed the mirror not wanting to seem vain and slid it back to Natasha.
"Thanks." You smiled at her.
"I have seen no such eyes in Asgard." Thor finally said.
"Or in Midgard." Bruce added. "The colour of your eyes is-sorry, unnatural." You were almost embarrassed of the constant stares. "Were they always that colour?" He sounded genuinely curious.
"No..." You remembered that first morning when you looked in the mirror and a sliver of white slashed through your natural brown. "It started when I was ten years old, after..."
"After what?" Natasha could tell you were struggling.
"I died." You said as strongly as you could and the others looked disbelieving, so you continued. "I developed cancer in my kidney when I was ten and the doctors could only prevent it spreading by removing it, but when I was in surgery, my heart stopped and I was pronounced dead on the table. The doctors said I was dead for three whole minutes. They had almost given up reviving me when I woke up on my own and they successfully finished the surgery." You subconsciously touched your left side. "From then on I felt there was something else going on and soon after realized my...abilities. Although my eyes didn't change until I was fourteen."
"You actually died?" Clint asked in shock.
"So they tell me."
"Aha!" Tony proclaimed, a bit to loud. "I've got your nickname."
"Nickname?" You were confused.
"It's kind of Tony's thing." Steve said, obviously resentful of Spangles and Capsicle.
"Okay, what is it?" You said hesitantly.
"Zombie." Everyone stared at Tony.
"Zombie? Really."
"Well, you did return from the dead and I still can't be sure you don't bite." He winked at you and you rolled your eyes, not believing that when you first met him you were so intimidated.
"Well I think -suits you just fine." Said Steve, giving you a sweet smile, you returned it.
"What does zombie mean?" Thor seemed completely lost.
"A zombie is a creature that returns from the dead, although they usually eat other people." Clint explained.
"Eat other people?" Thor seemed repulsed.
"I don't eat people, though." You reassured him, a hand on his shoulder and he smiled.
At this, you heard a phone ring and Tony answered it having a brief conversation on the phone, hanging up with a smile on his face.
"What's going on?" Steve asked suspiciously.
"I forgot to send the copter home."
"And?" Natasha said.
"And who wants to stay on this helicarrier with its uncomfortable beds and bland flavourless food when I have everything we need at Stark Tower." A light shined behind his eyes and you almost laughed at how much of a child he seemed.
"You cannot be serious?" Bruce added.
"Oh I'm dead serious, no pun intended." He turned to you.
"If it had been intended, I'd want to die again." You joked back.
"Fury will never-" Natasha started.
"Fury owes me...a lot more than you know, plus it's all very logical. The last time we stayed here his carrier was half destroyed and he's never let that go. My tower faced similar dangers, but I have no qualms with repairing it again." He stood with a jump in his step and left before any one else could protest. You looked at the other, a mixture of excitement and reluctance.