Theta-McBride, thanks!
OverARainbow. The world is very fragile, isn't it? You'll see why that little thing made the chaos just erupt in this chapter.
KoteSkirata, thank you very much! Fury will be more in character soon! :)
I do not own the Avengers! For goodness sakes I've said it eight times!
Lebanon War
1982
Sara Kaos Clyde stood on a hill, watching the battle wage in the city in front of her. Wars had changed. This one was comprised of every man for himself, with people darting around, trying not to get shot by someone else. She could hear the children screaming, and every couple of minutes a shot would sound, and the sound of an abruptly cut-off scream would accompany it. Sara stood, just watching.
She tilted her head; someone was coming up behind her. Turning on her heel, she met the gaze of a very frazzled twenty-year old black dude. He yelped at the sight of her and raised his hands in front of his chest, obviously expecting to be shot. She raised her eyebrows at him and turned to face the city again.
"Um, what are you doing?" The man asked.
"What do you think?" She replied flatly.
He didn't answer that for a while. They stood watching the city crumble on that ridge. "Are you... watching?" He finally guessed.
"Bingo," She said.
"If I may ask, why are you just watching?" He tilted his head to the side.
"The more important question is, why wouldn't I be 'just watching?"
The man apparently couldn't answer that, so he stood there for another minute. "Uh, I'm Nick Fury. I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D agent!" Nick said proudly.
The woman made no signs that she had heard him.
"Uh, what's your name?" He asked.
"My name is not essential to this conversation," She said.
"Oh. Um, yeah, I guess you're right." Nick stumbled into awkward silence again. "Are you from here?"
"I could be from anywhere, really," She replied truthfully, though Nick took it as another retort.
"Oh." He said. After a while, he couldn't think of anything else to say and slunk away, leaving the woman alone. Nick had the strangest feeling that this wasn't going to be the last time during this war that he would see this antisocial woman. Next time, he decided with force, he would get some information out of her!
Present Day
Helicarrier
Sara and Bruce had sat in the room for a while after their discussion. Bruce was bewildered. How could the world's balance hang so precariously on this one woman's condition?
"Sara?" He finally looked up at her.
"Yes?" She answered softly.
"Has this happened before? A coma I mean," Bruce asked.
"Yes, twice. But never when humans were around..." Sara trailed off.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Can't tell you," She muttered under her breath.
"Why not?"
"'Cause," Sara replied.
"Sara, you aren't making any sense! Talk normal, stupid!" Bruce snapped at her angrily. Sara's eyes widened and she looked at him in horror.
"You just... you... you, too!" She through the covers off herself and stood up.
"Me, too, what?" Bruce said insolently.
"You! Listen to yourself!"
"I don't think I sound any different. And if I do, it's your fault," Bruce smirked and jabbed his finger at her chest.
"Argh!" Sara stalked over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. She began to speak and shake him simultaneously, punctuating her every word with a shake. "You. Idiotic. Discorded. Stupid. Man. Listen. To. Me," She stared right into Bruce's eyes. "You are my friend and you are not going to go wacko like the rest of the world." Sara pressed her hand against his chest. "Anna hanen olla, eripura!"
Bruce gasped. A cloud of darkness rushed out of his chest and flowed into Sara's hand. He fell to the floor, pain rushing through his limbs. Sara sat heavily onto the bed. Bruce lay on with his head resting on the cold floor. He pushed himself up, shaking off the strange chill that had settled into his bones. He looked up and saw Sara sitting on the bed with her head resting on her hands. She glanced down at him and sighed.
"You know, it was really nice. The three hours without any discord to handle. It was so relaxing, even though I knew that the rest of the world was suffering during my rest," Sara said cupping her cheek in her hands. "I feel bad that I enjoyed it, but it had been so long since I was... free."
Bruce blinked. "Did I just call you stupid? ... No! Why-"
"Bruce, now that this much chaos is in the world, everyone's going to be affected, and you just had your run of it. Hopefully, I can protect the team, but..."
"Uh, how much of this 'chaos' was released into the world?" He asked.
Sara looked at him thoughtfully. "Well, the last time I was hit hard enough to be knocked into a coma was right before the K-T Boundary."
"When?"
"That's when dinosaurs went extinct," She said shortly.
Bruce stared at her. "We're not going to... go extinct are we?"
"Not if I can help it."
Bruce was silent.
"So I've had chaos build up for 65 million years. That equals a whole ton of discord." Sara said.
"And it's all out there?"
"Eeyup."
"That's not good."
"Nope."
They sat there for a minute.
"There should be a place where most of the discord is circling. Kind of like a big hurricane eye, just made out of discord instead of rain," Sara said.
"We need to find that, don't we?"
"Uh-huh."
"Then let's go," Bruce said. They stood and walked out of the room.
The Avengers were sitting around the table, chatting. Just as Bruce and Sara walked in, Tony said loudly, "I'm so thirsty!" He groaned and leaned back in his chair. Sara smiled wickedly and snapped her fingers. A pink cloud burst into the air above Tony's head. With a crash of thunder, the cloud rained some brown substance down on his head. He started and looked up at the offending cloud.
"What the?" He said. He stuck his tongue out and and a droplet landed on it. He looked surprised. "Chocolate milk?" He looked in amazement at the cloud, then turned to look at Sara. "You?" He pointed at the cloud.
"Eternal chaos does have its good sides," She explained simply.
Tony turned to the team with a look of childish joy plastered on his face. "You guys! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain! CHOCOLATE RAIN!" He took a cup out of his bag and began to try to catch some of it.
Sara shook her head in amusement and turned to Fury. He caught her gaze and stalked up to her.
"Woman, if you can't tell us how to get our world back under control, I will kick your behind from here to Tokyo," He spat at her.
"Okay, Fury, don't get your knickers in a twist, I know what we have to do."
"What?!"
"We have to find the epicenter of the discord," She said. "It should be simple. We just need to find the place with the highest concentration of chaos."
"That doesn't sound too simple."
"If everyone works together, it shouldn't be that hard."
"Fine. I'll get everyone working. You stay here and explain to me what's going on!"
Hey, guys! Happy Thanksgiving! This was kinda just a filler chapter, but I hoped you guys enjoyed it anyway! I've had so many family members over, its been crazy. I'm actually typing this at 12:54 AM next to my niece who is snoring her head off. XD Have any of you ever noticed how annoying it is to have a sleepover thrust upon you when nighttime is the time that you write everyday? Very annoying. Take my word on it. Anyway, enough about me and my amazing life.
All credit for Tony's line about chocolate rain goes to OverARainbow. Thanks!
Anna hanen olla, eripura means 'Let him be, discord' in Finnish.
1982- if anyone can do the math, that's 30 years before 'present day'!
Keep being awesome! I know you will!
Shadow, out.
