Sy

Sy limped in the front entrance of the apartment building at the same time as Steve. He gave her a puzzled smile.

"Where have you been?" He asked her almost sternly, his bright eyes creased with worry. Sy sighed softly, and Steve gave her his 'Captain America' stare, the one he used when he expected his orders to be followed. No matter how much she knew it was because he cared, Sy was unused to the idea of someone constantly checking in on her, her whereabouts and her general wellbeing. And no matter how nice the difference seemed, it still chafed. For years her only adult role models were an immortal horse-man who used to train soldiers where dying of old age meant reaching 25 and a drunk god on an enforced dry spell for trying to cheat on his wife with an off limits wood nymph. Her primary caretakers had been kids only a few years older than her and had changed frequently due to death or betrayal. Then she'd quickly grown old enough to become on of the caretakers herself. In some ways, she resented Steve for trying so hard to keep track of her, for trying to start raising her when she din't need it.

But as Steve took her guitar off her shoulder, and helped her shift the disguised scabbard on her hip so she could clutch the railing carefully she reminded herself that Steve was trying. Sy tightened her grip before she started to climb the stairs, her sore muscles protesting at the upward movement of the steps, her healed bullet wounds aching from the workout she'd put them through earlier that night.

"I checked out a lead, but nothing came out of it so I ended up patrolling a little. Swept the perimeter for my kind of monsters. Nothing too difficult tonight; just a few harpies, more annoying than dangerous." Steve frowned but didn't argue with her as they stepped onto his floor. Sy shot him a small smile, grateful that he wasn't going to try to lecture her about patrolling anymore. It would be insane for her not too, even if she was the daughter of a minor goddess monsters still tried to kill her regularly.

Their neighbor Kate, stepped out of her apartment in pink scrubs; a basket of laundry carefully balanced in her arms. Sy frowned as she studied the woman while Steve made small talk with her. She examined her hands, her perfectly smooth hands with a short practical manicure. No nurse has hands that nice; and no way her manicure was that beautiful after a shift in a hospital, especially a shift in the infectious disease ward as she claimed. Sy had worked with the Apollo cabin before, had taken her shifts in the infirmary rotation when the wars had called for it. She remembered that spending even three days in the infirmary, not a hospital, had torn up her hands and ruined her nails from the amount of hand washing she'd done. But she decided to wait until they were safely inside the apartment to say anything to Steve; especially because it seemed that he was at least a little interested in Kate.

"Oh, I think you left your stereo on." Kate mentioned casually before walking away. Steve muttered a brief thanks, his posture straightening quickly, shoulders tight with tension. Sy froze, glancing between the door, where music was drifting out of the apartment, and Steve. She backed down the hall, her shoulders tense with fear. While Sy wasn't particularly afraid of anything, she didn't like mortals. She'd had enough bad experiences with mortals even before she'd ever spoken to Nick Fury, let alone attacked by his organization. Chiron had once told her that no hero should ever harm a mortal unless absolutely necessary. And after fighting and killing in two wars, she knew she was capable of killing, but also knew that she hated the idea of it even more than she had before. But she'd gotten shot several times last week, and now she was caught between people shooting guns and the line she had once sworn to herself she would never cross again. Steve motioned towards the window. Sy nodded silently, understanding his plan.

They opened the window and Sy slipped out first. She unfurled her wings and beat them steadily as Steve climbed out next. She reached out and caught him, the adrenaline rushing through her body, numbing the stiffness of her tired body as she silently flew them around the side of the building. Steve signaled at a window and she flew close enough for him to catch the window sill. He climbed in silently and she followed, carefully pulling out two of the steel knives she'd brought with her. When they made it around the corner from the kitchen and the living room Steve sighed and lowered his shield, while Sy kept her guard up.

"I don't recall giving you a key." Steve ground out.

"You really think I'd need one?" Fury replied. He glanced down at something in his hand. Sy finally lowered her guard, replacing her knives in their holsters.

"My wife, kicked me out." He continued. Sy raised an eyebrow, sharing an incredulous look with Steve.

"I didn't know you were married." Steve asked stiffly, beating her to the punch. She knew he wasn't married. Something was wrong.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." Fury responded without a missing a beat.

"I know Nick, that's the problem." Steve said, stepping forward to flip on the lights. But when the lamp turned on, it threw Fury's beaten and bloodied face into sharp relief. Sy breathed in sharply even as Fury raised a finger to his lips and turned the lights back off. He raised his phone screen to show them a message typed out on the screen. She squinted at the glowing screen, the letters swimming slightly. Finally she was able to make out the message.

Ears everywhere.

Sy's mouth tightened into a straight line. Fury was paranoid, but rarely unjustifiably so. In her kinder moments she called it cautious. But not even Fury would resort to written out messages like this without good reason. Especially because he knows she's dyslexic. Something was truly wrong; more wrong than a small conspiracy or a splinter group with a couple of stolen uniforms. No this was much much bigger than they'd thought.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash." Nick continued. He typed something else out on his phone. Sy squinted, reading slowly.

SHIELD compromised by enemy operatives

Steve's eyebrows drew together tightly and Sy stiffened. It was one thing to suspect that the large global intelligence organization was infiltrated, and another thing entirely for it to be confirmed by it's supposed leader. Especially after Fury had spent weeks trying to assure her that she was wrong in thinking so. Not that had stopped the two of them from beginning to build a larger contingency plan in case her theory was right.

She opened her mouth to speak when Fury shook his head. Steve glanced over at her quickly.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked slowly, reading her mouthed question off her lips. Fury stood up with a slight groan, limping along. Sy wasn't sure how she felt about Fury comparing SHIELD attacking him, to a wife kicking him out. The metaphor felt slightly too appropriate. She checked herself back into the present; squinting as she struggled to make sense of the letters on the glowing screen. Finally she puzzled it out.

Just you and me.

"Just, my friends." And Sy wondered if those words were true or simply a continuation of the cover Fury was using.

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked, stepping forward. Sy was also curious, morbidly so, wondering if the man she had entrusted with her life, and likely her afterlife too, considered her a friend.

"That's up to you." Fury replied evenly. Suddenly there were three loud pops and plaster blew off the walls. Blood began to ooze out of the director. Fury grunted in pain and collapsed to the floor. Immediately Sy and Steve each seized a hand and began to drag Fury out of the line of fire when a fourth explosion sounded from behind her and suddenly Sy was flooded with the sensation of heat and wet as she fell to the floor. A loud shriek filled the air, and she was only distantly aware that the sound had come from her mouth. She reached up and gripped her side where the feeling was concentrated and her hand came away warm and bloody. The burning feeling flooded her system as she realized what had happened.

"SY!" Steve shouted in panic, still dragging Fury's body away. His other hand grasped her stiff shoulder and yanked her backwards. Away from the line of fire. She gasped, repressing the pain as she forced herself to her feet.

"I'll be fine." She groaned. Her body's natural responses kicked into gear, adrenaline pouring through her system and her instincts sharpening; forcing her body to be battle ready. Sy felt around the injury, tears of pain streaking down her face, until she found the exit wound. Based on where it had entered and exited her body, the bullet likely hadn't hit anything important. Feeling around she could tell that it was more of a deep graze rather than a through and through hole. All things considered she was fairly lucky, this would heal quicker than the last time she'd been shot. All she needed to do was get her hands on the nectar and ambrosia she has stashed away in her bag. Fury grasped Steve by the hand, passing him something small and metallic.

"Syrinx was right; it's everywhere. Don't, trust, anyone." Fury gasped out. He glances over at Sy, and mouthed go at her as someone began to pound on the door. She glanced at the dying SHIELD director then back at Steve. The supersoldier nodded just as the door was kicked in. She stood up, one hand still pressed tightly against her side. She stumbled over to the window and hopped out, her wings snapping out to catch her. She could feel more blood leaving her body with each beat of her wings, but she kept going anyways. She flew straight up into the air, catching a lucky updraft when a second (fifth?) shot rang out, aimed at her.

She managed to dodge it, only because this time, she heard it coming with her sensitive ears. The bullet still grazed her left wing, leaving a burning streak of pain and searing off several of her feathers. She repressed a howl of pain just as Steve crashed through the window in a mad leap towards the shooter. Sy flapped harder, and shot into the sky following him as well. But it was dark, and he had managed to seriously damage a few of her more important feathers and she struggled to keep track of the shooter. She managed to catch up to the shooter at the same time as Steve but because she was missing several vital feathers, she stalled and nearly dropped out of the sky. By the time she had managed to reorient herself, the shooter was gone. She stumbled over to a shellshocked Steve, his shirt still covered in both her and Fury's blood. She reached out and gripped his shoulder gently, bringing his attention back to her.

"Get to the hospital Steve, don't let anyone know how much we know. I'll meet you on the roof of GW hospital tomorrow afternoon after I check on something." She told him quietly. Steve nodded and started to walk away when he stiffened, realizing something. He abruptly wheeled back around and marched over to her.

"No. You need medical attention." He insisted, carefully grabbing her arm. Sy shrugged off his hand, the adrenaline in her system keeping the worst of her pain at bay.

"I do. But not the kind I would get in a regular hospital. I have something that will heal me in my go bag. I swear I'll be ok. But you need to go. Go now. SHIELD is going to have questions and you're going to have to give them some serious answers. I would start thinking of them now. Fury said that I was right, and that SHIELD has been compromised. We can't afford for anyone to know what we suspect, and Steve? You're a terrible liar; so you need to start coming up with some credible half truths. We have to work together on this, and that only works if none of the bad guys suspect us." She stepped back, opening her wings to catch an updraft, refusing to give him a chance to respond.

"I'll find you on the roof." She reminded him before launching herself up and away.