Chapter 1: Awaken The Saber

Fury paced impatiently around in the common area of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. All things considered, by now, even Clint and Natasha were getting concerned. He seemed unusually… unsettled and impatient, even for Fury. It was starting to worry the pair.

"What's his deal?" Clint whispered to Natasha.

"How should I know?" She whispered back.

"Duh! You're the ex-Russian spy chick! It's your job to know stuff!"

"Well, I'm not interested in pissing off my boss!"

It was then that they heard rolling.

"About fucking time you got that crystal bitch in here!" Fury swore.

Natasha and Clint turned their heads… and just stared.

Rolling in on a cart was a crystal figure of a woman… that seemed to be glowing faintly. She was standing as if she was reaching towards something (or someone), and the crystal was unlike anything that either of them had seen before. It was flowing around her body in a variety of ways that were beautiful. The crystal did not seem to be carved out of anything. It flowed like water. It was light blue… and downright hypnotizing.

"Uhhhh…" Clint droned, at a loss for words.

"Sir… Just what in God's name is that thing, and what is it doing here?" Natasha asked, able to still somewhat think.

"This 'thing', as you called her, Agent Romanoff, is a bit of a mystery. However, our nerds are saying that something interesting is gonna happen to it. I wanted some of my finest Agents on hand just in case that 'something interesting' is something bad."

Fury barely finished his sentence before the crystal suddenly flashed brilliantly, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

"Who the hell are you people?! What in Etro's name do you want from me?!"

When the light cleared, everyone stared at a female figure. A female figure that was clearly alive.

And armed.

With swords.

And very, very, confused.

She appeared to be human, but every S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent knew to be careful (Asgardians resembled humans, but they were clearly oh-so-not-human, for example), and kept their hands close to their weapons. The tension in the air was thick. A snarl was on her face.

"Damn you…" She muttered.

In a flash, she unsheathed her swords from her back. Electricity began arcing across the thin blades, sparking violently. The anger in the air was thick.

"DAMN YOU SANCTUM BASTARDS! ALL THE WAY TO HELL!" She screamed, swinging both swords downwards with tremendous force. The lightning followed the arc of the swing, concentrating as it got closer to the ground. The moment the blades made contact with the floor, the lightning tore through the building, causing a massive explosion that started a raging fire. She climbed to the top of the ruined structure.

"I WON'T BE SOME PAWN IN YOUR DAMN CHESS GAME, DYSLEY! NOT NOW… NOT EVER!" She bellowed as loud as she could, swords bared. However, she soon realized that she may have done more harm than good.

She leapt down from her flaming perch, since the flames were close to burning her. She did a graceful roll, but, looking around, she began to question what she'd done. She couldn't see any of her friends anywhere. She didn't recognize her surroundings whatsoever. She thought that she would awaken on a grassy plain, not in the middle of a desert! And where was the crystallized Cocoon? It should be in the middle of the sky, supported by a crystal pillar!

Then, the realization hit her like a brick wall.

"Oh… Oh, Etro's mercy… W-What have I done?!" She asked, her eyes watering.

Please, let me be wrong! Let me be wrong! She thought as she sent a Waterga at the flaming structure, putting the fire out in an instant. All she saw was a heap of twisted, burnt metal.

"No blood… at least not yet…"

She began tearing at the scraps she'd made. She could never forgive herself if she was on some new world, and, already, she'd committed mass murder. All because of a blind rage against some guy who she now realized was dead, and had been dead for Etro-knows-how-long. She didn't see corpses or blood, but she couldn't get very far into the pile. She slammed an angry, tear-driven fist into the metal.

"I'm so sorry…"

She slid to her knees.

"Light… Hope… Snow… Old Man… Oh, God…"

She began to break down entirely.

"Vanille... Fang... I'm so sorry!"

"Hey! A little help here!"

Her breath hitched.

"Who are you yelling to, Clint?! No one is going to search for any survivors after what that lightning chick did to this place!"

Her eyes widened.

There are survivors!

"Damnit, Tasha! I'm trying to be optimistic here! We're alive! Stop being so pessimistic!"

"Hang on! I'll get you outta there!" She yelled. She tore up the pile of rubble, raised her right sword to the sky, calling forth a bolt of lightning, and slashed through the thick metal. She forced her swords in the gash she'd made, and struggled to force it to open wider. She then jammed one sword into a side of the gash, sheathed the other in one of the two sheaths attached to her back, and offered her free hand to Black Widow and Hawkeye.

"What the hell?! First, you're trying to kill us, then you want to help us?! Whose side are you on, lady?!" Hawkeye demanded.

"Look, I'm sorry I attacked you! It was a misunderstanding! I'll explain it all later! Come on, both of you, take my hand!" She said in a rush. Hawkeye let out a low grumble.

"I guess we've got no choice, Clint. If we're going to get out of here alive, we're going to have to trust her. We're going to have to take her hand." Black Widow added, relenting. Hawkeye saw the metal beginning to cave. He bit his lip. He decided that it was better to take his chances with the sword-wielding stranger than to stay put and become something akin to human Swiss Cheese.

He nodded, and let Black Widow pull him close (not like he had any problems with feeling her slim, toned, and downright hypnotizing body against his) to her. The Russian-born woman grabbed a tight hold of the stranger's hand. In an instant, the duo of assassins were flung out of the metal death trap with inhuman force. The woman used her sword as a support post, flipping herself upwards moments before ripping the sword out of the side of the metal. She backflipped just in time for the pile to cave in, causing a massive explosion. She landed safely next to the archer/weapons master duo.

"Well, I'm sure as hell glad that we got outta that mess in time." Hawkeye said, relieved. The duo's savior watched the burning rubble with an expression of regret on her face. She sheathed her other sword in the remaining sheath on her back. The two sheathed weapons formed an x-shape across her back. The shape was mirror on her front with the sheaths' respective straps that crossed over the mystery figure's chest. She folded her arms over her chest, closing her eyes.

"Damnit… Again… I…" She muttered, a heavy sigh following. Black Widow walked over to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"No one was killed. We managed to evacuate everyone."

The swordswoman breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good… at least I didn't kill anyone. I can feel better about that."

"That's certainly true… but Clint and I have a lot of questions for you."

The powerful warrior turned around.

"Okay… Like what?"

"Well, let's start with the basics. What's your name?"

"Sabre. Sabre Kinatara."