MAIL BAG:
acompletenerd (ch8): I like your story. I also like you held her from sharing everything with the avengers at the start. Mystery is good. Update soon!
Re: Glad you think so! :-)
Whoa, this story is going to be much, MUCH longer than I had previously anticipated! Maybe fifty chapters...?
IT ONLY TOOK THREE DAYS TO COMPLETE THIS AND NEXT WEEK IS FINALS WEEK YOU'RE WELCOME
But I still love y'all. Even though I most likely don't know any of you. Love to everyone!
Disclaimer: nopenopenopenopenope
Special Thanks and Shout-outs: acompletenerd; Stars in her Pocket; Beautiful dreaming warrior; DacinAllNight; JussaraBlack; OMG stories; Heathenia; princessmollie; and fluttershypegasus1
Title: "Secrets" by OneRepublic
Previously, in My Crazy, Beautiful Life:
"He's my father-"
"Naveen Sibal."
"You knew him?"
"He was one of my best agents."
SHIELD Helicarrier Observation Deck, Somewhere Over the Pacific
9 March 2013
1054 Hours, AKST
"What?" I try as hard as I can to keep my voice down, but a few agents still glance worriedly in our direction. "You can't be serious!"
I can only stare, shell-shocked, as Director Fury continues, "He worked in our STRIKE unit and later acted as their commander for almost ten years. In fact, he was also a close friend and colleague of John Cassidy of InFUSE."
"No. No way. You've got to be kidding me." My jaw almost drops at the serious expression on Fury's face. "Really?"
The Director nods. "After completing high school in India, he joined the military academy there before being nominated to transfer here after two years. We recruited him after he graduated from West Point at age twenty-five, ranked third in his graduating class."
"What happened?" I clarify, "I'm almost certain that he wasn't a SHIELD agent after I was born."
Fury shakes his head in agreement. "No, he wasn't. At least, not full time. He decided to take an indefinite leave when his wife, your mother, got pregnant. I believe she was carrying your older brother. She knew that he was planning to return a few years later, but then you were born, and he decided to remain with his family. He was able to take on small, week-long reconnaissance missions, which we disguised as international business conferences. However, because of his high status as a field agent, I insisted that agents be assigned to keep an eye on him and his family, and your family agreed, so long as they didn't interfere with the lives of you and your brother.
"Then, in ninety-nine, your father went on a road trip headed east for a job he was assigned to. He met up with a man who we were unable identify- a ghost in our system. Later that day, a report came in that both your father and the man had vanished. I sent out three more agents as a precursor to a possible manhunt. They found the agents tailing Sibal unconscious. They woke up twelve hours later with to memory of the events that occurred the previous day."
Fury turns back to the computer panels and types something in. "However, since that day, the FBI has had multiple reports over the years involving the man your father met. Lots of weird shit. He's believed to be some sort of Satanist. You recognize this man?" He steps aside to show me a blurry image of a Caucasian man captured by a traffic camera. From what I can tell, he doesn't look younger than his early forties or older than around fifty, maybe. The only identifying feature I can make out is a scruffy salt-and-pepper beard around the bottom of his round face.
"No..." I shake my head slowly. "I've never seen him before."
The director nods. "Just wanted to check." Another tap to the panel, and the image disappears.
I release a breath that I don't recall holding. As far as I'd previously known, my father had worked at a tech company that supplied the government before he disappeared- before he left us. But to learn that he was a black ops freaking field agent for the very organization I'm working with now, and that he was probably one of the best in his area of expertise...
"After all this time... I've practically been following in his footsteps! This is crazy!" I furrow my brow. "But why would Cassidy not tell me this? Why would he want to hide this from me? He knew that I was looking for him, too! If I'd known about his involvement with you, I would've had a better direction to aim for. And he knew. Why would he do that?"
"As close as we are, he must have his own reasons to which I am not privy. Most likely, he wanted you to be more focused on your own missions."
"Well, if he'd told me at the beginning..." I seethe. Cassidy's so gonna get an earful when I see him next, I vow.
I make a noise of disgust as I dismiss my rage for later. "Have you had any luck?"
"Unfortunately, no. I have been running searches ever since Sibal dropped off the radar. I've come up with a few look-alikes, but nothing more. At least, not yet. You will be the first to be notified as soon as I find anything regarding the whereabouts of your father."
"Thank you..." I trail off, still shocked to the bone. "For telling me this, for everything. I... thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." And we have a nominee for Understatement of the freaking Year.
"You're welcome. I-"
"Director Fury?" Agent Hill calls out from the control deck. "The Council is on the line."
He nods to her, before turning back to me. "I'm sorry, but I have to take this. I'll keep you updated on the search." With that, he swoops out of the room with his black trench coat billowing behind him.
While walking back to my dorm, I attempt to slow down the hundreds of thoughts speeding through my mind at hyper-drive.
When he first disappeared, I rationalized my father's actions. Maybe he was stuck in some remote area of the US without any access to a phone or the internet. Or a post office. When it got to over two weeks since he was reported missing, I threw that idea away. Months later, and he could've settled down somewhere other than my home, maybe with people other than my family. Maybe he had even gotten a new name, a new job, a new life, and none of us would be in on the big secret.
For some reason, I just never fantasized the notion that my father could be dead. He could have been dead and none of us would have known, but that thought never came into my mind and I have no idea why. Maybe I was just too blind, too ignorant to see that possibility. But anyways, a year later I'd stopped giving a shit about my dad's whereabouts, and two years after that, Mom met her new long-term boyfriend John Hart.
Absolutely lovely guy. No, really.
It's not that he was cruel to me or anything- he didn't hit me, if that's what you thought (if that ever happened, even just once, he would have mysteriously fallen to his death. In an open field. From over thirty thousand feet. That is, if he survived the prolonged exposure to a lower oxygen density). It's the fact that he never seemed to really gave me enough thought to even be cruel to me. My brother Carter, however, was his pride and fucking joy. To make matters worse, I was working as a mutant spy, while Carter got a full-ride scholarship to MIT when he was still a Junior in high school. For computer science, of all things.
Soon after Savior had been awakened from cryo-prev, I'd asked Matt to hack into MIT's records to access those relating to my brother. From what I understand, he dropped out during his Sophomore year there, a seemingly out-of-the-blue decision. I could tell from his records there that he was doing extremely well in his classes; in addition, MIT was his dream school, so I doubt he wanted to transfer. Hacking into his email account revealed that he'd told Mom that he wanted to put college on hold while he took a several-year-long cross-country road trip by himself. He'd even sent me pictures of the cities and towns he visited, hoping I'd be able to see them while I was still on my "mission" to an international school.
If my dad did all this batshit-crazy black ops field agent stuff, then what does that make my mom? "Just a housewife," yeah, right (1). What if my brother was actually a CIA-trained hacker? That'd be hilarious. I would die laughing. Probably because he's, like, the geekiest kid you'll ever meet. Although, it is always the unsuspected kids that manage to snag crazy-ass jobs like these. From what I can remember from his grades of his year and a half at MIT, if he'd graduated, he would've had an extremely high chance of being the head of his class. Maybe he actually would have gotten recruited by the CIA.
It's a lot of could-have-been's and might-have-been's, so much more than I want to admit to myself.
My own dad was once Agent Sibal.
Agent Naveen Sibal. Not Doctor, but fucking Agent. Each time I repeat it in my head it sounds more and more ridiculous, and yet at the same time, more and more real. My mind just can't make heads or tails of the situation. By not caring, I'd made my peace with the possibility that my dad might not come back, or that he might even be dead. A year after I was recruited by InFUSE, I'd made up my mind: because I had the tools necessary to scour the ends of the earth to search for my father, I would, so I personally asked Director Cassidy if he could have agents run a global scan, and he agreed to do so. This is how I came to know that my dad and Cassidy knew each other. However, at the time I assumed that they only knew of each other in passing or through something or another related to work, given that my dad worked as a programmer at a tech company. But now Fury tells me that my dad worked with him?
And my mom! She married the guy! She obviously had to know about his previous employment. What about that tech company my dad supposedly worked for? Was that a lie, too? What else does my mom know about my dad that she didn't tell me?
I'm beginning to feel like one of those kids you always read about in cliche spy novels or like the ones you see in movies, where it turns out that everyone they know is a spy, and everything that the main character does or has done is tied to the agency through every possible connection. Everything always falls to shit at some point, but in the end, everything turns out okay. I hope it's the same for me. Well, obviously not the falling to shit part, but I rather like the idea of everything turning out okay.
Wait.
Am I really comparing my life to a spy cliche, and with good reason?
You know your life sucks when you're living a cliche.
I freeze in the middle of the hallway.
"My life is ridiculous!"
(1) How many of y'all got the reference? Episodes 42 and 43 of FMA: Brotherhood are- by far- my favourite! I've only just finished 47, and I freaking love Scar right now!
A whole lotta personal revelation from Ari. More soul-bearing will come in later chapters. So should I kill off her father? (hehe!) Or intro him in the sequel? (Yes, I already have one planned!)
ALMOST THIRTY FOLLOWERS AND THREE THOUSAND HITS OMG OMG OMG OMG!
True story bro: when I saw all the emails from FanFiction regarding the activity on this story, I had to recount how many alerts I'd gotten due to pure shock. I never thought so many people would be interesting in my writing, and I thank you all.
As usual, I'm always open to plotline, OC, and pairing suggestions, so feel free to leave comments or PM me with recommendations. I've been thinking about the suggestion of Ari x Human Torch vs. Ari x Josh. *ponderous expression* What about... *grins evilly* a LOVE TRIANGLE? Y'all would probably hate me... but that doesn't mean I won't seriously consider the idea! *evil cackle*
Also, check out the author David D. Amaya- I'm beta-ing for his story A Knight on the Town, which is a cross-over between X-Men and Batman. It's super funny!
Let's see if I can get twenty reviews before chapter twenty!
