Black skin has grown back, but the area is furless. She's walking again, and toppling a bit. She either forgets or overcompensates. I've gotten used to automatically reaching for her in the night and not finding a hand splayed out close to my chest. I still haven't quite gotten used to seeing the truncated arm. I turn and start, then blush when I realise what I've done. She's maybe the person who has adapted quickest.

She seems –not exactly comfortable –more…accepting. She's accepted that she's lost her arm. And that she can't be everywhere at once, doing all the times she used to. If anything, she's calmed down, realised that maybe she doesn't have to go around saving everyone. Of course, she still wants to know what everyone, everywhere is doing. She'd be an amazing spymaster. Actually, that's what her new job is. I've put her in charge of the espionage department and she's already put every single agent through a six week retraining course. The intelligence received now is more concise and informative. The codes are stronger, the number of our agents killed or captured has fallen, AIM has been infiltrated to the highest level ever… This is why I'm going to an appointment in front of a number of high ranking officials to present my new spymaster to them.

I step out and smile, shake hands with the President then take my seat.

"Captain Rogers. The espionage departments under you have exceeded all our expectations. We have to congratulate you."

"It's not me you have to congratulate. I simply delegated the task and she immediately started retraining every agent in the field or out. And she even had some of the budget left over. She should have gotten my job. But… Well, she's a little…private. She'd hate to be in the spotlight."

"So who is this amazing woman we have to thank?"

"You have to understand, she got the job because she was injured saving lives and her injury prevented her from ever doing what she used to again. Etana?"

She steps out of the shadows and there are gasps, partially from her appearance, partially because she insisted on wearing a sleeveless shirt and the stump of her arm is tightly tied to her side with red bands.

"May I present Etana Bat Aleka, officially a teacher at the Jean Grey Institute. Unofficially, spymaster of the United States of America. A job she does without requesting any form of payment."

She shrugs.

"I was climbing walls. I needed out. There's only so much work you can do when everyone seems to think you need bubble-wrapped. My husband included. But he came around eventually."

One of the military high ups is staring at her with an oddly distrustful expression.

"You don't sound American."

"Strictly speaking, the country I was born in doesn't exist anymore. I suppose you could say I was Israeli. But it's been a long time since I went back home. I don't even think of it as home, not unless I'm thinking about my childhood. There wasn't really one… I do have American citizenship though. Courtesy of George."

"So why are you in a high-ranking position?"

"Because I'm the best. If you can survive three-thousand years looking like this, running a government agency is a piece of cake. Especially when the job they do is what you used to do for however many years it was I did that, before I was a bit of an idiot and stuck my hand into a robot."

I nod.

"Etana was at the UN arms control conference and the one who prevented the situation from escalating to worse than it already did. She then lost her right arm protecting the children who were on Utopia."

"Miss Bat Aleka…"

"Oh. It's not Miss Bat Aleka. Bat Aleka translates as Daughter of Aleka. It's not used as my surname. And I'm not Miss anyway."

"Oh… I…er…apologise… Ms…"

I smile softly, glance at Etana who shakes her head almost imperceptibly.

"I'd rather not talk about my family. I have enemies who would use them against me."

I feel I have to stand up for her.

"Etana is the most capable woman I know. I offered her the position after she was injured and was no longer able to serve on the Secret Avengers. Her talents were too important to waste."

Etana coughs lowly. Everyone turns to her.

"A few points. One, I have had American citizenship since America gained independence, as a reward for saving George Washington's life. Second, even if the last thing hadn't happened, I do believe that marriage to a citizen is one of the ways of gaining American citizenships."

She rises.

"If you will excuse me, I do believe I have an appointment to discuss the intelligence brought in from AIM. And then my infinitely more sensible subordinate will tell me that I cannot go and fight on the front lines due to my 'disability'. See you at tonight's meeting Steve."

She vanishes in her usual cloud of black smoke and the poor person next to her coughs a little. But the general who had been quizzing Etana is glaring at me.

"You instated a mutie into a position of trust? Are you insane?"

"I trust Etana with my life, as I do any of the X-Men."

"And what is your relation to her? Haven't the X-Men recently recruited Magneto?"

"I knew Magneto. Of course, it took me a while to put them together… I never really thought that the boy I met who was so shy and afraid was a survivor."

"You knew Magneto…?"

"It's where I met Etana. She saved us. Saved me, in so many ways. Showed me why I was fighting. I was fighting for the same reason she has always fought. Not for countries. Not for ideals. For the people who suffered. That's when I found out who I was. When I saw the boy who spoke of heaving bodies into a furnace. When he looked so angry and afraid. That's when I knew who to think of when I fought. For the children like Max, who was able to fire a gun before he learnt what equality was. He still doesn't know it. That's why he strikes out. He's always been a second-class citizen. As a Jew, sent to die. As a mutant, a sub-human creature. I don't agree with his methods… but now I know him, truly know him… I can't bear him ill-will."

I stand up.

"If you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

I walk to leave, still thinking about the day Etana challenged me over my motives. She asked me what I was fighting for and I answered 'America' without a second thought. She just stared at me for a long time and I knew I'd said something wrong. Finally, she spoke.

"Fighting for ideals is alright in principle. But in practice… Ideals become corrupted and because you have always followed them blindly, you can't see that there is nothing left from what you originally fight for."

"And I suppose you know about this?"

My voice is harsh and cold. I don't want to be lectured by this woman. She raises her head and I see a flash of sorrow cross her face.

"Once I fought for a country, as you do. But the ideals were corrupted. I became what I'd sworn to fight. So I left. I left and found who I should fight for."

"Who?"

She stares at Max, who's heaving blocks of food down from a cart.

"When I first brought him here, he hated me. He ordered me to go back and rescue a woman who distracted the guards to allow him to get to me. And I told him I couldn't. This whole operation relies on me taking only a few people, not enough to be missed. Stealing a woman from under the noses of the guards would destroy everything I've worked for. Max screamed and pleaded and begged for me to go back. There have been so many Maxes. So many children who want me to be more than I am."

She turns to me.

"It's those children I fight for. The innocents who are oppressed. It's my way of making sure ideals never corrupt me. Because I don't fight for ideals. I fight for the Maxes of the world."

And she turned away and began barking orders to get the food shifted quicker, because they had another cart to unload before it got dark.