Chapter Twenty Five

My mind was still fuzzy when I finally opened my eyes. When I did I almost regretted it.

I found myself sitting – no – chained in a room with bare white walls surrounding me. The only light I could see was a harsh beam that stretched over me. And in front of me was the door that would hopefully lead to my escape.

All I had to do was concentrate and shift forms to get out. My eyes closed shut once more as I tried doing that. But the moment I did I realized that I couldn't. There was no response from either the dragon or the wolf. I was all on my own.

The door swung open the moment I came to that realization. And of course the bastard from before was standing in front of me with a smirk on his face.

"Comfortable?" he asked in a mocking tone. All I could was glare at him in response. My feet and my hands were chained to the wall. There was nothing I could do to fight back, even if I wanted to. "Those guards at the warehouse should have paid better attention to you. But now we have what we were looking for – the key that unlocks the mystery."

"What the hell did you do to me?" I demanded, trying to focus on changing once more.

Once again I felt nothing but hollow emptiness. My heart sank as I wondered what they had done to the wolf and the dragon. What if those bastards had taken them away from me? Now that I had lived with the Avengers I couldn't imagine my life without them.

"We simply terminated your abilities, for the time being," he explained with a sly smile. "We knew that you would try and escape using your abilities, so we did the next best thing."

If I could I would've beaten the crap out of this bastard for what he did. But given the circumstances all I could was grind my teeth and glare at him. I never felt so hopeless… wait, scratch that – I did feel this hopeless when I was back in the warehouse.

"You won't get away with this," I snapped, trying to sound as furious as I could.

"Oh, I'm afraid that I will. Your friends aren't going to get very far, and even if they did, we would still be able to stop them."

As he turned to leave I felt something stir inside me. There may not be anything that I could do, but there was no way in hell I'd let him hurt anyone else. If it came to that, I would give my life to protect my friends. That was what it meant to be an Avenger. I suddenly understood just how important they really were to the world.

Just as he had left I could hear a faint roaring sound in the distance. It didn't take me long to recognize it as the Hulk. Though I'd never seen him in person, I'd heard from Natasha that the Hulk was absolutely terrifying. But Bruce had better control of the rage, and hopefully he would be more of an asset than a problem. But it also left me worrying that the team had found me. Now I was really screwed if they reached me.

I shook my head and tried thinking of a way out of this mess. At once I thought back to the training I had received at the SHIELD Academy. Without warning I started tugging at the cuffs that were wrapped around my wrists. If I couldn't change into a wolf or a dragon, I would just need to get out the hard way.

My teeth ground together when I finally managed to wrench my hand out of one of the cuffs. Once my right hand was free I grabbed a pin from my pocket and started picking at the lock. These walls weren't very stable if I was able to break free. I realized that too soon the room was starting to tremble due to the lack of proper structure.

Come on, change… please! I begged myself to change, despite the emptiness that I felt. Outside I could hear the sound of battle, and I realized too late that the Avengers were on their way. My eyes widened as a shingle fell right next to me, pieces of debris landing on my shoulder.

I jumped at the sight, and to my terror I noticed that more and more pieces of ceiling were coming down around me, along with the walls. I closed my eyes and quickly thought of anything that could get me out of this. Something needed to give, or I'd be crushed under all of this rubble.

...

"The door's stuck tight," Tony announced as he tried pulling on the knob.

The room that Casey was being held in was collapsing. Whether it was a structural issue or if the Pure Ones had set off a bomb, the team would never know.

"Get out of the way!" Natasha ordered, practically shoving Tony to the side as she kicked down the door with all the force she could muster.

Too late they had reached the room. Everything caved in the moment Natasha had kicked open the door. Their faces fell when Casey suddenly vanished under the rubble, letting out a shout of surprise in the process. Natasha glanced around and realized that they must have had her chained to the wall before it came down.

"Is she…." Clint broke himself off, realizing that none of them wanted to admit whether or not she was gone.

The Hulk let out a growl of frustration as they began to stare at the scene in shock. Had it not been for him they would still be stuck fighting all of those guards. He really did know how to put up a good fight when he needed to.

"Wait, I'm picking up a life source," Tony announced, his faceplate lifting just as something squirmed through all of the debris.

By now everyone was staring at the creature with open mouths as it stared at them with large, lizard-like eyes. It's spine and head were covered in sharp looking spikes, and it had tiny wings that didn't look like they could do much. But the creature let out a happy squeak nonetheless and jumped on top of what was left of the door, blinking at them in what looked like amusement.

"Casey?" Steve asked hesitantly. The creature squeaked once more and nodded.

"So…. What the heck is that thing?" Clint asked once they realized she was okay.

Before they could say anything, the creature changed back into a very tired looking Casey.

"I think they're called Terrible Terrors," she replied before nearly falling forward. It was Steve who caught her before she could fall on the ground.

"We need to take her back to the tower, immediately," he whispered after realizing just how bad she looked.

...

It took a few moments for me to understand what was going on. At first I thought it might have all been a dream. But then I remembered being carried off by Clint into the quinjet. Everything had gone by in a blur after that. Bruce had explained that I experienced trauma to the head when one of the shingles fell on me.

I knew that my condition could be worse. What worried me the most though was whether or not I could change back into a Night Fury, or a wolf for that matter. A few hours had passed and I could already feel the presence of the wolf returning.

"Sir, it appears as though we have visitors."

Jarvis' call of alarm made us all look up in surprise. We had all gathered in the medical bay. Everyone else had earned mostly minor injuries. From what I gathered the Hulk had taken care of most of the guards, and managed to take down the underground compound as well.

"On my way Jarvis," Tony replied almost immediately. He glanced at us warily before heading out of the room. We exchanged anxious looks as Tony returned moments later with a grim expression. "It's for you three," he announced, pointing at Natasha, Clint and me.

My eyes narrowed suspiciously as I followed them out of the room. Despite the throbbing in the back of my head, and against Bruce's orders, I probably should go with them. Something told me it had to do with the fact that I managed to hack into SHIELD.

Once we reached the elevator I began to wonder who would be yelling at us this time. Knowing Fury he wouldn't be bold enough to send himself over. I almost felt sorry for the agents who were about to find themselves in this position. Then again it was all my fault.

"Fury's gonna be pissed with me, isn't he?" I finally murmured under my breath.

"He knew you would likely do something like this," Natasha reassured me. I raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're more like Clint than you realize," she added with a smirk towards the archer, who rolled his eyes in response.

"Name one time I hacked into the SHIELD data base," he scoffed.

"Just last week," Natasha retorted. "You hacked into Fury's phone so that every time it rang it would play 'Oops I did it again'."

I couldn't hide the grin on my face when she said that. The look in Clint's eyes was priceless. He probably knew that he would get caught. But the joke itself was too good to pass.

But my grin was quickly swept away when the elevator door opened. Three familiar figures were standing in the lobby. Each of them had on a face of annoy

ance. But the one face that made my mouth gape open looked more worried than annoyed.

My eyes narrowed with rage, and before anything else could happen, I turned into a wolf and nearly tackled them to the floor with a snarl. Natasha pulled me back before I could inflict any real damage on them. By the time she did I changed back into a human, glaring at them with cold eyes.

"You…. You're working for SHIELD?" I couldn't help but yell out the words, and it took me a few seconds to realize that Natasha and Clint had left the room along with her parents.

"Casey, I wanted to tell you in the worst way when I found out what happened… but my parents wouldn't let me. They work for SHIELD, not me. I-I don't entirely trust SHIELD for what they do."

"So you just wouldn't trust me with that kind of secret. Some friend." I scoffed and folded my arms, looking away as hurt and anger took over.

"What? You're calling me the bad friend? Who was the one who decided to keep her powers a secret until a few months ago?"

The moment she said that I turned around and glared at her once more. There was a good reason I hadn't told anyone about my abilities. They put their lives in danger. I couldn't risk showing off until now. And even than I didn't entirely know if they were safe.

"We're heading out." I turned away when her parents returned, keeping on straight faces.

"I think it's safe to say that we're no longer friends," I muttered under my breath.

The words sent chills through me. I never imagined by life would change like this. Every part of me wanted to yell at Natasha and Clint too, for keeping something they had clearly known a secret. For their sake I kept my mouth shut.

Once they were gone I turned around and headed for the elevator, eager to get away from the tension crackling in the air. The moment the doors had closed behind me I turned and fell to my knees. All of the pain from earlier and over the last few months just threatened to overwhelm me.

...

"That could've gone better," Clint muttered under his breath once she was gone.

"I'm sure that finding out her best friend's parents were SHIELD agents was a huge shock for her," Natasha replied, keeping any emotions she had in check. "Give her some time. She'll need to figure this one out on her own."

Clint looked at her doubtfully, but he didn't say anything. He sure hoped that Natasha was right. Otherwise their plan could backfire, and everything would be ruined.

AN: So, what did you think? Was that shocking to anyone, or did anyone already suspect that would happen? I hope you enjoyed at least ;)

Currahee506 - We shall see in time whether or not the issue is resolved... sometimes it takes time for anyone to forgive and forget...

HawiianChick12 - I think she does Oo