Waking up to a handsome face was a pleasant change of pace. Brown hair and brown eyes looked up from whatever book Banner had in his hands.
"Good morning, Jiru." His sturdy voice echoed into her ears.
"Huh? Oh, morning." The dimensional walker yawned and stretched as much as she could with one arm, before looking around in mild confusion. Things were the same: the flowers were still jungle-ized in the room, she was still in bed, with a coma-thin body. But it was early morning compared to the full-on daylight when she yelled at Stark. "Did I pass out again?"
"Yes, you did." Bruce gave a soft smile. "I don't blame you; I'd embrace the sleeping abyss if Stark and Rogers starting arguing over my post-coma body. I banned Stark from the building by the way."
"Ouch."
"No, I didn't 'Hulk-out'. That would be bad." Bruce chuckled as he read her face and set the book aside. "How are you feeling now?"
"Confused, and…well…rested." She managed to sit up in her own power; and her face must have shown her surprise because Bruce chuckled again.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, it's just great to have you back." Banner rolled his mobile chair to her side. Furrowing her brows at his comment, she brought her right arm to star at her bony appendage.
"Bruce, Steve said I was in a coma for four months. When I woke up and saw you and Stark in the room, I got scared. I swear to god I was at Stark's Halloween party in Malibu, CA. Coulson was right there with me. Before that, I was in Tahiti – WITH Coulson. Before that, S.H.I.E.L.D. was being mad at me for staying with Loki all those months. Did I go insane or something?" Lowering her skinny arm, she let the fear and panic ooze out of her voice. "Please tell me right now is really real and not just another Matrix dream."
"As far as I am aware, Jiru, this is real." Bruce reached over and placed his hand on hers. "I don't know what you were feeling or experiencing during your coma, but this reality. I promise."
"That's a relief to know." She paused to take in the stimuli of the day. "Coulson is dead, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"Well, that really sucks."
"I'm sorry?" Banner offered his condolences.
"I'm still feeling so confused. How'd I end up in a coma?"
"Ah, well…" Banner grunted and looked embarrassed.
"What?" Jiru grabbed his hand and refused to let him avoid her question. "Answer the question, Bruce."
"The Hulk hugged you." He muttered. Jiru heard him and felt her jaw drop in shock.
"What?"
"I hulked-out and hugged you." Bruce's face contorted slightly in consternation.
"How'd that put me in a coma? I would have survived a Hulk-hug."
The awkward pause between them hug super-heavy.
"How'd you find me anyway?" she pulled her memories and found the one which showed her – vague and blurry – of Bruce entering the log cabin in which Loki had ensconced her in.
"Pure chance."
"Hm." Jiru accepted that answer and leaned back on the bed. "Pure chance huh?"
"Well, the cabin you were in was my property." Banner allowed her hand to draw away from his. She laughed.
"Really?"
"Yup."
"Man, talk about cosmic chance."
"Yup."
"So what am I going to do now?" Her mood lightened considerably.
"Now, we start your physical therapy." Bruce answered her.
XXX
Sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, Jiru swung her thin legs back and forth; doing her best to fight the urge of being still. Banner had made it extremely important the fact she needed to keep in constant motion, to begin her physical therapy. Being in a four-month coma worked wonders on her body: her flesh and blood temple was right on par with a stick figure.
It had been a week since she kicked Stark out of her room for being an over-bearing dumb-ass. Banner had also chewed Tony out for bring a whole buffet table and leaving it on her lap. After all, as her self-appointed care-giver, Banner had her recovery planned out to the last detail; meaning she was eating oatmeal. Jiru now f-ing hated oatmeal.
"This is boring. Stark, geez, I didn't mean anything. Cooooommme baaaack." Pouting into an empty room – Banner had given her a blessed break today and skipped the physical therapy session - she sighed gustily and refused to flop back onto the bed. "Ugh, this sucks…nobody will do anything worth shit around here. I could be as good as awesome if Fury just gave me my diamond back. Ugh."
Despite still being in the fancy what-ever-this-place-was; Fury, Stark, Banner, Rogers and nameless few others who had visited her had been tight-mouthed over her questions - which were damn fine questions like: 'Why-How is Coulson Dead? I was just WITH him' or like 'Where's Loki?' or 'Where the crap-crack-mother puss buckets is my starburst diamond?', 'Why didn't my diamond heal me straight off the bat when I was injured seven months ago?', 'Where is my diamond?' and more importantly 'How the hell did I slide into a coma?'…'Where's my diamond?'
Stupid, stupid, stupid post-coma body; if Jiru didn't know any better, she'd think her talisman had grown a pair and left. Maybe the diamond had rebelled and refused to heal her from the brink of death; after doing it so many other times. Maybe the presumed sentient diamond had finally had enough abuse and disowned Jiru. Although it never actually 'communicated' with her, Jiru considered the starburst diamond as a smart, self-aware thing; like an entity or higher-life form written about in sci-fi novels.
Once again, Jiru found herself thinking back on the fateful encounter which had shattered the starburst diamond and sent her spinning out of control through space-time-existence. Such stupidity in trusting luck and fate would be on her side forever, not dealing out shitty cards like death of friends and crushing defeat – and a one-way (so-far) trip into the space-time continuum: lost, alone and confused. Jiru had never been in control: never. Fate was beyond her comprehension and manipulation; it always was and would be. Even falling hard for Loki, the Trickster God of Lies, wasn't something she made happen. The bastard used her like a pawn, then tossed her aside when he grew tired of her. Damn Loki; he never looked for the diamond fragment S.H.I.E.L.D. 'supposedly' had. Due to her temporary burn-induced amnesia, Jiru had been clueless for a few months, being within Loki's rather bizarre caring grasp; she believed everything he told her.
It was one of her more outstanding 'DUH' moments of life.
"OH COME ON, STARK WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU WITH MY ENTERTAINMENT!"
"Miss Star, I must insist you use your indoor voice." Someone answered her. Director Nick Fury blew into the room.
"Oh hi, it's you." She huffed. "What're you up to now."
"Well, Good afternoon to you too, kid." Fury gave her a semi-scathing smirk. "I thought you were just begging for entertainment a moment ago."
"HA! I never beg."
"I bet Loki made you beg." Fury gave a low blow. Jiru winced, and exhaled.
"Nick…shame on you." She murmured. "I told you I had amnesia. How was I supposed to figure out S.H.I.E.L.D. was looking for me."
Indeed, once Banner had given her the post-coma clear, her experiences with Loki in the cabin had been required to be told. Looking back on those memories, Jiru felt aggravated at how cliché the ordeal had been. Loki knew the whole time, and never told her. The post-traumatic stress at having been burnt alive by Tesseract energy had fried her brain; causing temporary amnesia. The Silver-Tongued Loki had fed her grains of truth grown into lies of ignorance and misdirection. Half of it was her fault still, for not digging deeper into her own psyche and questioning things. Still, she had a lack of arm to prove it.
"I apologize, Miss Star, but things…have become complicated since your…ah recovery." The hard-edged SHIELD director minced his words. Then, taking a seat, the director focused his one eye on her; causing he legs to stop swinging back and forth.
"How…how deep of shit am I in?"
"Very, very deep shit, Miss Star." His answer came. "But…Loki's impromptu kidnapping worked to my advantage."
"Swell, glad to hear somebody thinking that was funny; because I'm still beating myself up over it."
"How're holding up, now?" Fury changed the subject.
"What?"
"Just because you're an ocean-full of trouble, kid, doesn't mean I hate you." Fury leaned back in the black leather chair. "You've managed to change the world with your actions: more so than the Avengers."
"Fury, look, I about New York…I…" Jiru glared at him. "I try to not make waves in the dimensions I land in."
"Doesn't matter how you tried, Jiru, you definitely made waves here. The world saw what you did to New York after the aliens blew it up. You outshone Iron Man, Cap, Hulk and Thor. The mysterious 'Iron Angel' is still making news."
Jiru managed to look apologetic and shrugged her shoulders. "It's Iron Starlight, but I can see what you're talking about. I did totally save the city, didn't I?"
Fury surprised her by chuckling, then laughing for a few more seconds. "Star, you did more that reverse the damage the Chitauri wrecked on New York, you blew open the whole 'super-hero' gig. Stark was slightly jealous for a few days over the amount of media attention you got; more than Iron Man received when he announced himself."
Jiru found herself grinning along with Fury. "That much huh?"
"Bigger."
"I try."
"Which brings me to my main point." Nick Fury dropped the humorous banter and leaned forward, clasping his hands together. "What happens to you next."
"What?"
"The world thinks you died in New York. Somehow, the media got its greedy hands on footage of you falling, burning in blue flame, into Stark Tower – yes Stark shit himself over that leakage – and general consensus concluded you died. Burned alive because nobody mortal and in an Iron Man suit could survive that much heat."
"Oh god." Jiru shivered in horror; her throat clenching at the memories.
"The world pegs you as dead, and I plan to keep it that way. As such, you're out of the Avengers Initiative, in the ranks of the S.H.I.E.L.D. honorary dead and your files are non-existent."
"Yea, about that? If I'm dead and out of the Avengers, then why does Banner, Rogers, Stark…you…paying attention to me." Jiru glared curiously at the dark-skinned director. "Also, where are the diamond fragments? Huh? I swear to any god you find that I saved Coulson's life. COULSON'S LIFE! Yet everybody tells he died against Loki." Her dormant anger was rising fast. Sliding off the hospital bed, ignoring the pale blue tile and its coldness against her feet, Jiru got up in Fury's face. "AGAINST LOKI! The same dude I was living with for four months. I SAVED COULSON, I swear I did!? Where the f*&^# is my diamond!"
"Miss Star…" Fury's voice lowered.
"Not funny…how the hell did you get to give me a last name anyway?" Long-absent tears were now rushing from her tear ducts. "I saved Coulson. I saved him. I F-ING SAVED HIM and you tell me he's DEAD."
"Yes, Jiru, my best agent is dead, as it grieves me to mention it." Fury started to say.
"You don't understand…Phil…P.C. kissed me."
The two looked at each other for a long, silent moment; letting her comment sink in.
"I've lost people before, Fury. Each time it feels like my heart freezes over and is ripped out. It's what started my whole crusade. Back on my native dimension; four of my closest friends died fighting evil. Call me selfish, but I couldn't stand to see my surviving friends suffer. I decided to go out in space and do something to bring them back to life. I had the chance and resources - and more friends – to do it. To go out in outer space, the final unknown frontier, and find ANYTHING that could bring them back. I knew my diamond could heal brink-of-death shit; but I couldn't do anything back then. I know lots more about the diamond now, and I swear, even the tiniest bit of diamond would do the same. I gave Coulson that tiny bit that brought me to this dimension – I swear I healed him. You tell me that Loki killed him? Bullshit. I'm asking you now: where is Coulson."
Maintaining eye contact throughout her rant, Fury never changed his poker face. Were she anyone else, and Fury, any different; her statement would have been written off as a crazy-ass thing to say – but here and now: Fury only nodded in understanding.
"I understand you are feeling confused. Coulson did have feelings for you. I'm not saying he was wrong to give you a death kiss; what I am saying is my best agent is still dead. Now tell me if you have any prophetic powers still in you to prove me wrong."
A long moment passed.
"No…damn it, no. I don't see/feel Coulson…I can't see anything into the future. Whatever mojo I had back in New York is gone. Where is my diamond?"
"In Asgard."