It was safe to say Danielle was grounded... for life.
Immediately after returning from Decathlon, Jack pounced on her the minute the walked in the door. After a very long rant and lecture, Jack put her on complete lock-down. Her visits to Sharon were cancelled, she wasn't allowed to finish the rest of the school year off for the next two weeks, she wasn't allowed outside the Compound, throughout the day, she was hardly allowed to leave Jack's side and had to be walked around everywhere being monitored by FRIDAY.
Her suit was confiscated so there was no more 'Eris-outings'. Her phone was taken away (luckily, not the USB drive or laptop, so Danielle was able to Private Message Liz, Sally, Cindy, Betty, and Michelle about her status – they all thought she was at home with a bad case of the flu). She wasn't allowed to watch TV, train in the gym, or even look out the window it seemed. Complete. Lock. Down.
On the second week of her confinement, Jack had practically bound her to him like a dog on a leash. Everywhere he went, she had to go. She had to pee, he waited outside the restroom door. She went to sleep, Jack had FRIDAY alert him if she even moved too much in bed.
Now, here she was, seated on a stool playing with a pen, bored out of her mind, while her brother stood across from her fixing what looked like a new piece of equipment for his suit down in the Lab.
It was ridiculous. All she had done was sneak out to go to a school competition. It wasn't like anyone was paying attention to Danielle while she was locked away in her med-bay room, everyone was scrambling around everywhere trying to fix the mess her and Wanda had made back in Lagos. She would understand if someone had at least tried talking to her about it, but it wasn't even mentioned. She was just being overly-punished (if that was even a thing) for something as small as sneaking out for a little over a couple of hours.
She had it worse than that time she lied to Steve and went to a party, got drunk, and threw up on Tony's shoes. And then, even after when her AND Jack snuck out of the Compound to their old home in Slovakia, she wasn't even punished this badly. So, why now? Why was Jack suddenly acting like an over-bearing mother? He wasn't so innocent in the scheme of sneaking out – he helped her sneak out sometimes. It just didn't seem to add up to Danielle.
By her third hour in the Lab, Dani had finally had enough. She let out a heavy sigh and dropped the pen she had been occupying herself with. "Can I go back to my room?" She asked.
Jack glanced up at her from over the piece of his suit he was working on before turning his attention back to whatever he was doing. The Silent Treatment, great.
"Is that a 'yes'?" She asked timidly. He still didn't respond. "It's a 'yes'." She said before slowly sliding off the stool and creeping off to the Lab exit. She had her hand on the door when a large flash of light and a crack of electricity sent a jolt from the door handle up into her hand. She yelped and jumped away, clutching her hand in pain and shock. She turned on her heel where her brother stood with a grim look. Had he done that? "What... Gah!" She hissed in pain.
Ah, shit. I didn't mean to hit her that hard.
What?
Danielle spun around, expecting her brother to be right behind her after hearing his voice so close in proximity, but was surprised to find him exactly where he was when she'd last seen him, behind the desk a few yards away with wide eyes.
Jack immediately dropped what he was working on and rushed over. "Dan? Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"To what?" She cut him off, the pain causing her to grit her teeth to the point her clenched jaw started to grow sore, making her forget about hearing him a moment ago. "To electrocute me? That's usually what happens when you shoot jolts of electricity at someone," she retorted through clenched teeth, her hand still throbbing from the impact while she clutched it hard against her chest with her other hand.
When did she get so... bitter? Danielle heard her brother ask himself. She turned to say something, her eyes wide with an incredulous look, but the words she was about to say caught in her throat when he spoke again... without moving his lips. Oh, crap, it's super red.
"Here, I'll get you some ice," Jack said... out loud, quickly walking to the mini-fridge in the corner of the Lab where him and Tony usually kept their liquor and beer – or Mountain Dew in Jack's case. When he returned to her, she was back on her stool, her hand still clutched to her chest. "Here, keep it on there." he told her as he handed her a bag of ice.
She took it and gently placed it on her sore hand. She got a good look at her wound from under the ice bag and saw it was a little red. Not charred and burnt, like she had expected, but it still hurt.
Danielle tried to concentrate on something other than the pain in her hand, but her mind always went back to why she was hearing her brother speak when he... wasn't speaking?
Wait, was this how Wanda felt when she always mentioned someone having 'loud thoughts'? Was she hearing thoughts now? How- how was that even possible? She was never able to do that before. Then again, she had never teleported anyone other than herself before, yet she had done it with Natasha back in Lagos.
What was going on with her powers?
Suddenly, Danielle was abruptly pulled from her conflicting thoughts by the sounds of the opening chords to Shoot To Thrill. Dani furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to find where the noise was coming from.
Jack quickly took his phone from his pocket and mentally cursed, Tony. Crap, I forgot he was coming.
Danielle closed her eyes and tried to block out his voice in her head. Maybe he was actually speaking out loud. Maybe he was speaking and she was just tripping out and not seeing his lips move. It was a dumb theory, but at this point, Dani was willing to try.
"Tony?" Danielle asked, opening her eyes again to meet her brother's confused gaze. Clearly, he hadn't said what she had just heard out loud due to the reaction. Meaning, Danielle most definitely heard what he was thinking... And now she had to explain this. "I, uh... Ringtone," she explained vaguely before he could even ask the question (then again, she probably would have heard the question before it even left his mouth).
"Right," Jack shook his head, turning his attention back to the phone. It was still ringing and Danielle could tell he looked completely torn. Unfortunately, the one time Danielle wanted to know what was going on in her brother's head, it seemed her little gift was a limited-time thing only. Finally, Jack's head snapped up as he pointed a finger at her. "Stay put. Don't leave until I come get you, got it?"
Danielle, confused by both his sudden stern tone and the recent mind reading incident, could only nod as she continued to grip the bag of ice close to her hurt hand.
"Okay," Jack sighed. "I'll be back in a little bit," he assured her as he started walking out of the room, the phone halfway to his ear when he called back to her, "Stay here-! Hey, Tony. What's going on?" Danielle didn't get to hear the rest of the conversation after her brother left the room, but her interests were immediately peaked, the mind-reading quickly forgotten.
What was Tony doing here at the Compound? Was it because of the Lagos incident? If so, what took him so long to get here? And if it was just Tony, why was Jack stressing so much about it? What was he going to do, give the team a long lecture or hold a meeting about how he doesn't enjoy paying for all the damage the team causes?
Danielle blinked in surprise at her own thoughts. When did she get so bitter?
Just then, there were sounds of conversation coming frm outside the Lab. Multiple unfamiliar voices, Jack's voice chiming in, another voice that sounded like Tony, and another one that didn't sound too happy.
Slowly, Danielle kept from off her stool, setting the bag of ice aside as she walked across the room to get a better spot to listen in on what was going on. Jack had said she was supposed to 'stay put', but he never said anything about moving around in the Lab.
"Uh, sorry, Tony," Jack said, Danielle could hear the clear nervousness in his voice. "Didn't know you were gonna be here this early. I would've changed into something other than jeans... and maybe cleaned the oil off my hands." Jack chuckled nervously and Danielle wondered why her brother sounded like such a nervous wreck. He normally never cared about going to meetings, let alone going to meetings in jeans. And he also had his hands full of oil almost ninety-nine percent of the time he did anything. So, why was he stressing? Something was going in... something big.
"Don't sweat it, kid," Danielle could clearly make out Tony's voice from behind the Lab's closed doors. "It's just a quick conference meeting with the team and Mr. Secretary here along with his team." Danielle's eyebrows shot up at that. 'Mr. Secretary'? Tony had brought a Secretary. What, like Defense? Or State? Either one was bad because that meant government and government meant that it was due to the Lagos incident... Meaning, she was involved. Now she was definitely intent on finding out what was going on.
Jack was silent before he finally asked, "Secretary...?"
"Of the State, Mr. Harper," a new gruff voice supplied. Danielle pieced together that this new voice most definitely was the Secretary Tony had mentioned. The only question remaining was what was he doing there?
"... Oh," was all Jack managed to reply.
"He's here to inform the team about some new rules being out into place after last month's... incident," Tony explained vaguely. Oh, God. Danielle's fears were coming true.
"You mean... You mean what happened in Lagos?" Jack asked.
"Yes, Mr. Harper, the incident involving Ms. Maximoff and your sister," the Secretary replied. And with that's single sentence, Danielle's blood ran cold. Her ears began to ring and her body stiffened, two single words flew through her mind as she began to panic: he knew. Somebody knew. Someone knew who she was, what she was. Her identity had been compromised. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
There was a long pregnant pause in the air before Jack finally replied, "I'm afraid... I'm not sure what you're talking about, Mr. Secretary-"
"Oh, drop the bullcrap, Harper," the 'Secretary' cut him off swiftly, dropping the niceties. "You think I wouldn't piece together who Eris was after this little incident, Stark? Even after you deleted most of Mr. Harper's connecting files on his family, my tech guys were still able to dig up a few things after the topic of his mother arose at a meeting a few months back." Mom... They knew about her mom and her... Danielle's heart was beating so fast, but she could've sworn it stopped.
"She has nothing to do with this-!" Jack protested, only for the Secretary to cut him off again.
"You know, Stark, when you refused to reveal who the little girl under that gold mask was after the Sokovia Massacre, I – along with most of the Intelligence Community, and the world really – turned their cheek," Mr. Secretary exclaimed. "But I'm afraid this is the last straw. It's no longer a black and white screen. It's not just the city of New York worried about finding out who Eris is, the United Nations is now involved."
Danielle had to cover her mouth with her hand as a small sob escaped from her mouth out of pure shock and horror. She was doomed. Her identity would be released to the world and then what? Where would she go? What would she do? Her friends would be in danger. She'd never go to school again. Her normal life would be blown to shambles. It was like her whole world was falling apart already.
But, Tony quickly spoke up. "But you can't tell them her identity," he stated. "If you could, you would have already done it."
"You're a perceptive one, I'll give you that, Stark," the Secretary replied. "I can't release her identity to the public due to the fact that she's a minor who has not only been operating based in the United States, but has also been given citizenship here," he explained, begrudgingly. "Do you know what kind of shit storm would brew up when the UN discovered one of the most powerful beings we know of is some American teenage girl? The press would have a field day and the higher-ups would have both our heads."
Danielle let out a shuddered sigh of relief. He knew, but he wasn't going to tell. She hoped to God that's what that meant. God, she hoped no one else would find out. But it wasn't over, she knew that. He was here because of Lagos. He was here because of her.
"So, what are you offering?" Tony asked.
"Same thing I'm offering the rest of the team at today's meeting," the Secretary answered him swiftly. "Which... is starting soon. I'd suggest we get to the conference room before we keep anyone waiting any longer." There were footstep sounds from outside the door Danielle had her ear pressed against when they abruptly stopped. "You're free to join us, Ms. Harper," the Secretary called through the door. "This does directly affect you after all."
Danielle's breath hitched in her throat as she debated walking it or not. Just earlier she was dying to leave the Lab, now here she was, staring intently at the door knob too afraid to leave it.
Her feet were frozen in place, conflict brewing within her mind, until Jack's voice broke the silence outside. "You can come out, Dani," he said, his voice deflated and defeated. They had been caught.
Danielle took in a deep breath before opening the door. The moment she poked her head outside, the first person her eyes fell upon was the tall man with white hair, a bushy gray mustache, and a navy blue suit and tie. She immediately knew from the smug look on his face that this was the 'Secretary'.
Surrounding him were multiple men dressed in similar attire carrying briefcases with little earpieces in their ears. She felt her feet freeze again, unable to carry her any further than a few feet out the Lab doors, like a deer caught in headlights.
"Don't worry," the Secretary assured her. "They've been sworn to secrecy not to reveal your identity to anyone outside this facility or my administration." Danielle tore her eyes away from the agents to look the Secretary in the eye as he added, "Your secret's safe with me."
'Was it?', she thought to herself.
"Danielle," Jack called to her from where he stood a few feet away. Danielle peeled her eyes from the Secretary towards her brother, who gestured for her to go to him. She did so without hesitance, taking his outstretched hand in hers as him and Tony began leading the group of government agents to the conference room.
Halfway there, Jack leaned down to his sister as they walked and whispered to her, "Don't say a word and keep your head down. Do you understand?" Danielle, unable to make a coherent sentence leave her mouth due to paralyzingly fear, only squeezed his hand in response. Jack nodded and continued on.
When they finally reached the conference room, it seemed everybody was waiting for them; Wanda, Steve, Vision, Rhodey, Sam, and Natasha were already seated inside all along the table.
Danielle watched as the team's eyes skimmed from Tony, to the government men around him, and then onto her. She could immediately tell that the tension caused by the Secretary and his men was amplified the moment she was in the team's direct line of sight.
The group entered the room and the first thing said was by Steve who jumped up from his seat and walked towards them. "What's she doing here?" He asked Tony and Jack through gritted teeth.
"Steve," Danielle spoke up in a hushed tone before either men could answer. The blonde soldier glanced down at her and she shook her head. "He knows."
Steve's jaw unclenched and his jaw nearly dropped as he turned to face the Secretary of State as he entered behind Tony, Jack, and Danielle. "Captain Rogers," he greeted Steve with an extended hand.
Steve glanced to Danielle, who could hardly bare to look him in the eye, before turning back to study the man and his extended hand. "Mr. Secretary," the soldier replied in a stiff tone before he finally shook his hand.
The Secretary smiled and nodded before their hands parted. "Please, take a seat so we can begin."
Tony nodded as he made his way to the back of the room, patting Rhodey's shoulder and giving Natasha a small nod from across the table, before taking a seat in a chair aside from the table. Jack, still holding onto his sister's hand, led Danielle to the chairs near the end of the table. He took a seat beside Sam while Danielle sat across from him. She glanced up at him with a fearful gaze to which he only squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"May I ask," Steve interjected before he even budged. "Why is she required to be here?" Danielle looked up when she noticed Steve gesturing to her, all eyes landing on the teenage girl.
The Secretary smiled before responding, "This is a team conference, is it not, Captain?"
"She's just a kid-"
"Steve," Tony spoke up from the back of the room. "Just... listen."
Steve, staring at his friend with an incredulous look, clenched his jaw as he turned back to the Secretary. He didn't say another word as he walked to take a seat between Danielle and Natasha.
And the meeting that would alter their lives commenced.
The Secretary stood at the front of the room and smiled at all of the team underneath his bushy gray mustache. He cleared his throat and began, "Oh, five years ago, I had a heart attack and dropped right in the middle of my backswing. Turned out it was the best round of my life because after thirteen hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something forty years in the Army had never taught me: perspective."
The room was silent after his introduction. Danielle's mind was racing a thousand miles per hour. She was impatiently tapping her foot, unable to keep still, waiting for him to break out the Big Deal he was talking about or the point of the conference really. What did this have to do with her? With the team?
"The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt," the Secretary continued. "You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives." Here came the point of this conference, Danielle thought to herself as the Secretary shifted his weight ont his other foot nd his soft, welcoming smileturned into a serious expression. "But, while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some... who would prefer the word 'vigilantes'." Danielle shifted in her seat when she saw the Secretary's eyes land on her pointedly.
"And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?" Natasha prompted with a small smirk, clearly unaffected by the seriousness in both the situation or the man's tone. Danielle envied her coolness in the moment that her heart felt like it was going to implode and explode simultaneously.
"How about 'dangerous'?" The Secretary retorted, clearly unhappy with her attitude. "What would you call a group of U.S. based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind." Danielle swallowed uneasily. He had mentioned something about Lagos, but this was much bigger than Lagos. He was talking about more than one incident, he was talking about not only the Avengers' excursions but their entire being as a whole. Subconsciously, Danielle was both tapping her foot and biting the nails of her free hand... She never bit her nails.
The team watched as the Secretary made his way from the front of the room to take something from off a small desk beside the TV. It was a remote that turned on the TV to reveal a map that was foreign to Danielle. She sat up in her seat to pay attention now.
The map slowly zoomed in. "New York," the Secretary stated just as a video popped up, replace the map. On it was what looked like the Iron Man suit flying through skyscrapers with... a giant, metal, Leviathan-looking flying thing? Another video was of civilians being ushered across a demolished street by panicked police officers, and another video of soldiers shooting at something unseen. This must've been the Battle of New York had heard so much about.
It was a few months before her and Jack had been kidnapped and when it first had happened, their parents tried their hardest not to expose the kids to something that morbid. But even after Danielle and Jack were kidnapped, it was all anyone in HYDRA talked about for the first few months of their captivity. Aliens coming out of portals in the sky, Gods, green monsters... The Avengers. It was the reason they were with HYDRA to begin with: that golden Scepter that Loki had used.
The final video on screen was of the Hulk. He was jumping from building to building catching these small flying objects. But as he landed on the side of one building, the rubble from his crash fell onto the camera recording. The video ended with screams and the Hulk's roar.
Danielle watched as Rhodey bowed his head from his seat a few feet away, the Colonel slowly turning to glance at everyone else, unable to watch any longer the destruction not only caused by the aliens, but the people fighting them.
Another map appeared on screen, yet another destination Danielle didn't recognized. "Washington D.C.," the Secretary exclaimed as new videos appeared. This time of a large setting placed across a river while three large helicarrier things battled it out in the sky from what it looked it.
Smoke was spewing from all three carriers, people recording were running, and in the final video, one of the large vessels fell out of the sky, crashing into the river, sending water rushing onto the civilians off-screen. A video that showed that once again, people weren't just hurt from the actions of the bad guys, but the actions taken to stop them.
Beside Jack, Sam bowed his head. Danielle turned and watch as her teammates slowly began to grow affected by the clips. This must've been the Triskelion incident everyone talked about in D.C. Now she knew what had happened...
"Sokovia."
Danielle hadn't been paying attention for a split second, but her full attention was quickly turned back to the screen with a single word. On the screen were videos of the Sokovian massacre she herself, Wanda, Jack, and Pietro were involved in. The videos displayed the large dying meteor of the city being flown into the sky, large chunks of land, rock, and building falling off and onto the rest of the city below, crushing other buildings, cars... and people.
In one shot, Danielle could see herself standing in the middle of the clear sky, her hands splayed out as yellow and gold light erupted from her skin, her mouth wide as a scream rippled from her. Below her, the large meteor was halted in motion. It was the moment that had defined who she was as a hero, in her eyes. And now, she watched as that moment was laid waste by all the lives lost by what she had done afterwards when all the large rocks and debris from the demolished meteor fell down onto the rest of the city below.
Even after watching that, however, Danielle's eyes remained peeled on the screen. Her brother on the other hand could no longer watch his home for nearly four years be demolished and the citizens be killed. He looked away, his fists clenched as was his jaw. Danielle looked around and saw that Wanda had yet to look away as well. She wondered what was going on inside her sister's head as she watched her home for her entire life be destroyed.
"Lagos."
Oh, God...
Danielle turned back to the screen. She was scared– terrified of what she was about to witness... And looking at it now, she knew why.
Screams, just like Danielle remembered hearing when the explosion first occurred, echoed from off camera. Sirens and sobbing filled the air in the conference room as people were shown running from the destruction, being dragged away from dead loved ones, and finally... a shot of a dead woman in the wreckage.
Guilt bubbled up within Danielle as she hung on by a string.
It was her fault. It was all her fault. Yes, Wanda had thrown that fireball inside the building, but Danielle was the one who had let it go to begin with. She was the one who lost focus, who let her shock get the better of her, who let her emotions fuel her actions. She vowed she was done letting people's rage and actions control her life, yet here she was, watching as they did exactly that on the screen above.
The final straw was when Wanda flinched, quickly turning away from the screen in disgust and horrid.
Danielle bit back a small sob. She thought it was her fault. Her sister, her loving, caring, and amazing sister thought Danielle's mistake was her fault. And the worst part was that the world believed it...
Danielle turned from the screen as well, tears that were pooling in her eyes now falling down her cheeks as her hand retracted from her brother's to grip to the edge of the table. She hadn't noticed, but the glasses of water in the center of the table began to shake and vibrate slightly from how uncontrolled Danielle's emotions were.
Steve, who had been observing his team's reactions, heard the small sobs coming from behind him. Not to mention, the clearly shaken Wanda a few seats away. He knew the Secretary was crossing the line now. "Okay," the soldier cut in. "That's enough."
The Secretary nodded, turning the TV off while Steve turned around to place a comforting hand on Danielle's. She looked up at him with big, beady brown eyes filled with tears and he felt his heart break just a little. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb but his head turned back to the front of the room when the Secretary began to speak again. "For the past four years you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate."
Danielle sat back up in her chair, letting go of Steve's hand abruptly to wipe away the remnants of tears in her eyes. This was where the important parts of the meeting occurred. She was already viewed as a reckless teenager in their eyes, she didn't need to give them any more excuse to write her off as an emotional teenager either.
"But, I think we have a solution," the Secretary said as he turned to his fellow agent to his left that handed him a thick stack of papers. He took it and slowy walked back to the front of the table, placing it down and sliding it towards Wanda – who had quickly recovered from the video as well. "The Sokovia Accords. Approved by a hundred and seventeen countries, it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel only when and if that power deems it necessary."
By the time the Secretary was finished speaking, Danielle's mind was a million miles away. The United Nations... A hundred and seventeen countries... No longer a private organization... All these statements, all these rules, regulations, changes. People knew who she was, the Secretary already assured her that that would remain a secret from the UN and the Public... But what if there was something in there that required her to give it up... It was legally binding and approved by a hundred seventeen countries, she couldn't just say 'no'.
But, while Danielle was freaking out, the meeting continued.
Steve was the first to speak up. "The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we've done that."
The Secretary, who had been circling the table of Avengers like a vulture, now standing over him, glanced down at Steve. "Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" He prompted. "If I misplaced a couple 30-Megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences." Danielle shuddered at his statement. He was comparing nukes to people, teammates, powerful people just like her. And she was just like them; a ticking time bomb, threatening to mess up and blow at any time. But, if she messed up now after these... Accords, she wouldn't get just a slap on the wrist anymore. If something happened... she would be handed over to the UN, seven hundred and seventeen countries. She would be exposed to the public, it was no longer private. And she'd be thrown in jail... The consequences...
"Compromise... Reassurance," the Secretary said as he made his way back to the front of the room, no mind to the clearly shaken Danielle a few feet away. "That's how he world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground," he said, pointing to the document in front of Rhodey.
"So," Rhodey began hesitantly. "There are contingencies?"
The Secretary puffed his chest out and smiled like he had just caught a fish with the bait. "Three days from now the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords," he answered the Colonel. Danielle watched from the corner of her eye as Steve spun around to give Tony a pointed look from where he sat. "Talk it over," the Secretary added as him and his men began to leave.
"What about my sister?" Jack spoke up. The Secretary halted and turned back to face him questioningly. "I'm no lawyer, but I know for a fact that no contract is legally binding if it's signed by a minor. She's only fourteen."
The Secretary nodded. "But when a parent signs a permission slip for a child, they're legally binding."
Jack gave him an odd look. "Both our parents are dead..."
"And you're above the age of 21, Mr. Harper, giving you full custody and parental rights of your sister," the Secretary explained. "So, if you sign, you sign on both of your behaves. I'd take extra time talking that over." Jack slowly turned back around to face his sister who returned the gaze with eyes wide in fear. This didn't look like it was going to be good...
Before the Secretary could continue out of the room, Natasha called after him. "And if we come to a decision you don't like?" She prompted.
"Then you retire," the Secretary answered her simply, fixing her with an all-too familiar scoring glare Danielle recognized Jack always gave her when she asked something her definitely didn't appreciate.
And with one departing look, the Secretary and his men were gone from the room, but not from their lives...
Danielle slowly sat back in her chair, the room thick with tension, silent questions, and loud thoughts. But only one question came to mind for Danielle: what had she gotten into?
—
A/N: The first update of 2019 and we are officially deep into Civil War territory, my guys. Lots of angst, drama, and action to come. Buckle in, grab some popcorn, and THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT THIS PAST YEAR. YOU ALL MEAN SO MUCH TO ME AND IM HAPPY TO BRING THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE YEAR. Thank you, Ally.
Uh, questions for this chapter. Why did I keep referring to Ross and 'the Secretary'. Well, I remember while reading Joseph Conrad's 'The Heart of Darkness', they referred to characters by these weird given names like 'the Accountant' and 'the Lawyer' and stuff like that and I felt it gave like a sense of fear and sort of distance to show that the character wasn't like the others. So sense Danielle doesn't know his name officially, that's what I chose to refer to him as. So, yeah.
Number two, how did Ross find out about Danielle? Well, like I explained, he kind of figured it out by connecting the dots from Allison/the Silenced and Jack/Statix, and we all know no matter what you delete (even a person's existence) nothing ever truly gets deleted off the Internet.
Number three, how did Danielle head Jack's thoughts? Well, same reason why she was able to teleport both her and Natasha back in Lagos: something is going on with her powers. Everything will be revealed soon.
And number four, what side is Danielle and Jack choosing? you'll just have to wait and see. (but I'm pretty sure you guys can guess pretty well. I've been setting it up since the first few chapters).
Anyway, Chapter Song: Watch Your Back by Sam Tinnesz. (Love this underrated guy. Go listen to his stuff.) And Casualty by Hidden Citizens ft. Quinn Lewis.
Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:
Jack: *taking selfies*
Tony: Jack, would you stop taking pictures of yourself, your sister's going to jail.
Danielle: ...
