She reaches up and catches the flying explosive, crushing it in the Shi'ar bioengineered hand. There's a slight pop and then she releases her hand, allowing the crumpled metal to fall at her feet. She grabs the man who threw the bomb by his neck and swings him around.

"What should I do to him, Steve?"

"Let him down, Shadow."

"He's not only tried to kill us, he's also threatened the lives of countless others. It would be so easy to twist my wrist."

"Shadow, stand. Down."

She looks at me and for a second I wonder why I'm even trying to order her about then she throws him at me.

"You're lucky Captain America doesn't believe in killing."

She glares at me.

"I hope he's worth it."

And she turns away, starts walking further, hand going to a knife. I would call out but there are a few things I know about Etana. One is, if you order her to do something she doesn't want to do, you let her blow off some steam, else she'll get mad, scream for while then disappear to stop herself from doing something she'll regret later. The knife is flicked in her hand then thrown with deadly accuracy, hitting the door and going up to the hilt. She utters a small curse, having forgotten the increased strength, walks over and wrenches it out. Then she spins round and her eyes are on fire. Which means she has a job to do.

"Anyone I know?"

She shakes her head and fades out. And I know that somewhere, someone has died after being in pain or to save a dear friend and Etana has gone to save them. She explained it quite cheerfully when I asked her. Each afterlife has its own vague police force but she's sort of like me in Death. Top cop, the one who runs the elite, her 'Chosen', i.e. those she comes for who are interested in a job in the Afterlife. Death's guard, the most influential in the Afterlife. Etana is second-in-command in Death, and therefore the one person you don't want to get on the bad side of. She controls who goes where after death, who goes to Vahalla, to Heaven, and who goes to torment and pain. You upset her, and it won't just be death you'll suffer. You'll burn as well. She seemed quite cheerful when she said this and I flagged her up on it. She'd just smiled that dangerous smile.

"There are some people I can't touch. Not when they're alive at any rate. But when they're dead, they're mine. And they learn what they did. I still haven't quite forgiven the Human Torch for getting to Berlin first. But now I have any number of high-ranking Nazi officials in a replica death camp."

She takes "an eye for an eye" very seriously indeed. And she takes death seriously too. Asked me once if I'd consider a high-ranking position in the Chosen, then shrugged and said we could talk about it at a later date. Her idea of a later date worries me though. She considers a decade a reasonable amount of time to plan ahead. Her patience astounds me at times.

She teleports back in and looks very pensive.

"Tan?"

"He was on life-support and heard his daughter was critically in need of a heart transplant. He was a match, so he got them to turn the machines off to save her life…"

She smiles very oddly.

"It's times like this I re-evaluate my view of human nature…"

"Which is?"

"All human beings are essentially amoral, selfish and dishonest creatures. Minus a few notable exceptions, one of whom I'm married to. Another reason you're an idiot."

I smile slightly at her. She seems slightly embarrassed to tell me she loves me, so she calls me an idiot instead. Some would be insulted. I just think it's slightly funny she can't tell me she's in love, because she's trying to deal with the fact she's been supressing most of her emotions for a long time. She's going to kill me when I mention the thing I've accidentally forgotten to mention, on account of the fact that she won't be able to protest when I tell her five minutes before we're to leave.

I'm fed up of hiding this from the world.