Hey there, I'm back!
Sorry for the delay, there a lot of projects going on at the moment, both here and on AO3 which keep me busy.
Now, back from lovey dovey to action.
TW: Very very much not Coulson-friendly; slight reference to abuse.
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel.
Reunion - Part 1
It was calm and rather lonely now that Steve was gone, but maybe he was right, maybe that was just what she needed to get used to all the buzzing in her body. After doing the dishes and some general cleaning, she lightened a fire in the oven, watching as the flames started to flicker. Open fire - who would have thought. Not really what she would have picked for a cabin for given individuals. She burned all the notes she had written for Steve, it made her feel almost melancholic to watch the flames slowly chew on the paper, wiping away her words as if they had never been uttered, as if the last days had never happened. But they had, for worse but also for the better. There had been answered and new questions, whether Fury had lied, whether he had told her the truth, where she was going now, what she should do. True, she could of course always notice SHIELD. The computer on the desk across the room was calling out to her, a temptation to reach out and make sure the others, especially Skye, were alright. Was she just as confused as she was? Or was she handling it much better? She very much hoped so. After all, being locked up was the last thing Xandra wanted,and that's why she turned away from the screen again. In a way, returning didn't seem like a desirable option right now.
Neither did running though, so staying it was, for now. After all, the cabin was cosy, homey. A place she really really would have loved to visit under different circumstances.
Just in case, Xandra also packed her backpack again to be able to leave quickly if need be, leaving it next to the door with her ICER on top, though she was hoping she would not have to. When there was nothing else left to do, she finally sat down on the floor, crossing her legs. Her hands rested lightly on her thighs, no pressure, just a connection to her own body. Then she started to breathe - well, she was always breathing - but to do so conciously, like the way she had seen May do from time to time. The air was flowining and out of her body, almost like a wave or a song, a steady rhythm that started to calm her mind, if not really her body yet. She added some techniques a couple of classes of yoga had taught her - opening up her chest, feeling the stretch down into her back, right where her muscles had become tight between her shoulder blades.
The small pain felt good in a way, since she knew it would get less soon, the stretch soothing the ache. She let her neck roll, then her shoulders, first little cricles, then bigger ones. Stretching to the front had always been a specialty of hers, while her legs were her weak spots. Of course she could get down into the splits if she wanted, but she really had to fight for every centimeter there.
From her position on the floor, she couldn't see the clock on the kitchen bench, but judging by the changing light, it must have been early afternoon when suddenly a sound ripped her out of her routine. It was faint, at first, a mechanical sound, a little bit like a helicopter. Whoever and whatever it was, they must be quite a bit away still. She couldn't be sure whether they were actually aiming towards her little hut, but she had no intention to take any chances - as far as she knew, she was a fugitive right now. So, Xandra jumped up to quickly to put on her boots, slipping into her jacket and slinging her bagpack over her arms. The ICER was tugged into the back of her jeans. She left the hut only after throughly checking the sky - yes, there was certainly something heading towards her, but hopefully they were too far away too see her. Nevertheless, she crept close to the small roof that was running around the house until she had reached the back, disappearing behind a couple of trees and waiting. She needed to know who that was, needed to know who was after her. From here, her view was very restricted, but Xandra could still see a sliver of sky above the house and with her improved hearing, make out the engine sound of the flying vehicle.
The dot in the sky, the vehicle, became bigger and bigger, soon confirming her suspicion. A quinjet, SHIELD style, grey, unmarked. It the sounds got louder until they stopped, so they must have landed by now. She slunk a little bit further into the shadows. A door seemed to open and she could hear voices coming into her general direction - only two if she wasn't mistaken. Either the quinjet had been almost empty, or the majority of people were either still on board or simply not talking. She tried to focus on the steps - no, quite certainly only two intruders. When a slight gust of wind sent a sliver of the communication towards her, she frowned.
That was Skye, no doubt, she would have recognized that signature lilt connected to what she was fairly certain was face bravado everywhere. The other speaker was male, middle-aged, a bit...husky almost. Even if she hadn't recognized Coulson right away, she would have noticed the characteristic speech pattern. Alright, so Skye was here. With him. Why? Why had he brought her so far away? There were a couple of options.
A) She was basically free and should aquaintance herself with her powers. Best case scenario. Good for her.
B) She had turned out to be too difficult or dangerous for the base. That didn't sound good. But it was also unlikely, since the vaults were pretty decent facilities for locking up people with powers. She could confirm.
C) There was trouble inside of SHIELD. So much trouble that Coulson had the feeling he needed to get her out. To protect someone. Either her or... others. No option seemed good. But it might be good for herself, it might bring her an ally.
They were approaching the door, and Xandra knew it was only a question of seconds until they would notice someone had been there. Then they would either start to hunt or simply leave. Both no good options, while she could probably outrun them (even though the fence around the perimeter would be a problem), she neeed information. So confrontation was a risk, but a calculated one.
The quinjet was out straight in sight, of the door, so the pilot was another danger. However, as she crept closer and carefully glanced around the corner of the cabin, said pilot was nowhere to be seen. Maybe they had gone for a walk, or were busy inside the jet? So, it would only be two against one. Skye was a wildcard, a recipe for distruction, but Xandra had the hope they might at least be willing to talk. At first at least. She could drop the backpack next to the door. No point of slowing herself down. Xandra could already hear voices through the now open door, as well as shuffling and quick movements - they were certainly searching the hut right now, hopefully further away from the door. With her ICER in hand, she leaned against the door frame, covered by the door that opened towards the outside. Walking in would be stupid, they would probably get her shot before they were looking twice. She would have called out to them, usually, but alas, that was currently not an option. Next best option then. She knocked against the door.
Inside, the steps stopped, both were probably pointing towards the entrance to coordinate their movements.
"Come out, slowly, hands up so we can see you!" Coulson suddenly called out, voice firm and serious.
Xandra tugged her ICER back into her trousers, taking a deep breath. She wasn't calm, but also not panicking either, everything medium . A woman on a mission, just as it should be. Then she stepped around the door, hands lifted, eyes darting towards the two agents, almost expecting to be shot straight away. It wouldn't have been a surprise anyway.
Coulson seemed surprised, but Skye seemed even shocked.
"Xandra?!" she called out, her voice a mixture between elation and annoyance.
The woman shrugged, not moving.
"Are you armed?" Coulson asked.
She nodded.
"Take it out, but it on the floor, kick it away. Slowly," he told her, certainly not trusting her.
Xandra did as told, pushing the ICER away with her foot. Skye quickly retrieved it, both of the agents' postures relaxing slightly.
"What are you doing here?" Coulson wanted to know, making her shrug again.
What did he think she was doing? And how did he think she should answer?
"You still can't talk?" Skye asked.
The woman shook her head, a bit taken aback by the tone. The other one just hummed. Her boss made a move with his head , still not putting down his own ICER - at least she hoped it was an ICER.
"Come in and sit down on the couch."
She did as told, lacking alternatives, and primly sat down with the other two standing across from her. It was an odd place for an interrogation, but since the couch was rather low, it made her even shorter in comparison, an advantage for the other two, she knew.
"Are you alone?"
Xandra nodded, after all, she was. There was also quite likely no chance they had discovered traces of another visitor yet - she had made the bed, the dishes and notes were all gone, and the smell of men's body wash should have disappeared from the bathroom by now. Thankfully, she had wiped the CCTV, so there should only images of herself by now.
"How did you get here?"
She made a movement with her fingers that made her hope told him "walk" and hope he believed her, after all, there wasn't any other believable option.
"Skye, check outside for wheel impressions," he told the other agent, and she internally flinched.
While Skye was gone, he looked at her seriously.
"Do you actually know in how much trouble you got me? How much ressources I needed to invest because you thought it was a good idea to disappear? You are dangerous and you know it, there was a reason we did what we did. I don't believe you one bit you escaped alone, you had help, and there are very few people who have that much influence into SHIELD. If you haven't noticed, Ms Edvardson - if that is even your name - these people are HYDRA. Which makes me once again question your allegiance and your motives. I trusted you. Fury trusted you. Did you trick us to take you to Mexico to become a weapon for HYDRA? Was that the reason you wanted the files about Barnes? To see what we had on him? Oh, and was that the reason you threw yourself at Rogers? To literally fuck with -"
Realistically - yes. She could see where he was coming from. It all seemed pretty pretty shady, looking at it like that. Given the situation, even the paranoia was forgivable.
But that moment, when he claimed she had only started a relationship with the man she loved for ulterior motives and she couldn't even talk back, she snapped. Xandra lounged herself at Coulson, but before she could reach him, a pressure like she had never felt it crashed against her chest making her fly back through the room and crash against the shelf. Had she hit the ground first, she likely would have been able to roll and take off part of the impact, but unfortunately her head hit the wood first, making everything turn black.
Everything was blurry once she came back to herself, her head hurt like crazy and she was feeling utterly nauseous. What had happened? Oh yeah, right, Skye had let her fly through the air with a potential shockwave. Great. Just great. We love that. Now they had popped her up on a couple of pillows so she was lying on her side with both hands bound behind her back - they had been busy after all. Xandra wondered how long she had been out, a couple of minutes, probably.
"Is she awake?" Skye asked, probably alerted by her subconcious groaning once she moved her shoulders.
Was that concern in her voice? Nah, probably not.
"I guess so," Coulson answered gruffly, but at least he didn't rip her up into a sitting position right away.
Lucky for him, though, because then she would have probably thrown up all over his shoes. Almost gently he moved her into a sitting position, crouching in front of her once she was leaning against the aforementioned shelf.
"Now, that we are clear," he began, "I really really want some answers."
She considered rolling her eyes, but didn't want to risk getting hit in the face or something. At the moment, that was nothing her head could stand. Unfortunately, with bound hands she could neither write nor sign the couple of signs she knew - had Coulson considered that?
"What we will do is yes or no questions," he told her, "you nod or shake your head. Now, to start with, just a confirmation. Did you have help?"
Xandra gingerly nodded yes, after all, they could check the e-mails from the server if they wanted and there was really no way she could have overridden the system alone from the inside.
"Was someone from the team involved?"
Well, Fitz had covered for her, but she decided not to let that count. So she shook her head.
"HYDRA?"
She shook her head so quickly it spun and she had to close her eyes for a moment. Hopefully he at least caught her disgusted facial expression. How could he even entertain that thought? After all the work she had done for SHIELD?
"Someone from the outside?"
That was a tricky one. Fury was officially dead, after all, so practically on the outside. And Steve - while he was working for SHIELD, he wasn't an agent. He was an Avenger. But still. So, she made what she hoped was a vague gesture with her head.
"Rogers?" he now asked directly.
Was it worth denying it? Probably not. After all, Coulson knew they were still in contact, he knew Steve was good, and he should maybe not know too much about Fury right now. So she nodded.
"Good, at least that was honest. Skye managed to restore the CCTV while you were out, we knew that anyway. Quite a show you did here," he commented.
She frowned at his tone. Coulson really really wasn't her favourite person right now. At the same time she was trying not to blush, after all, they HAD made quite a show, it probably must look like a mixture between soap opera and very steamy romcom. Coulson's eyes seems to fix on the side of her neck, confusing her. Then she remembered it - The lovebites, a very obvious semi-permanent sign for what she had been up to the night before, must still be visible. Sure, she had covered them with make-up, but the drugstore stuff only did that much and Steve had been...well, prolific. And she very much hadn't complained. Now that she thought about it, her whole chest didn't really look any better, but she had no intention of anyone finding out. Ever.
"And he helped you to get here?"
She nodded again.
"There are traces of a car outside," Skye reported, making Coulson nod thoughtfully.
"By car, then. Good, we should get traffic cam reports then, if need be." He turned back to Xandra. "Great, now that is established. Next question: Do you have orders or an aim right now?"
Did she? She wanted to be left in peace, not be locked up. But that was it, really. So she shook her head.
"If we unbind you, will you try to hurt us?" Skye suddenly asked.
Xandra shook her head again, more annoyed this time.
"Will you run?"
Skye sounded bitter, there was something odd in the question, maybe it was fury? The mute woman really wanted to, but it likely wasn't the smartest move right now. And it depended on the others. Mostly. She made a vague gesture. Coulson turned towards Skye.
"I am afraid I need to pull you from active duty," he told her gravely.
Skye seemed surprised, which surprised Xandra in turn - had they not talked about that before? Then the young agent nodded.
"I get it, but... I just didn't think you would lock me up like some kind of werewolf."
It was a very fitting description and Xandra would have almost laughed if her head hadn't hurt that bloody much right now.
"You're not alone," Coulson told her, making Xandra peak up, "there is the computer with a direct video connection to the base, May will drop by every couple of days."
Funny how he ignored Xandra who was literally right here, that didn't really bode well for her chances of survival.
"Yes, there is a laser fence outside, but it is also a safe place, you can relax here," the man continued to ignore Xandra who was feeling more and more uncomfortable, if that was still possible.
"So, you're locking me up, here," Skye suddenly said, voice a mixture between sadness, disdain and cncealed panic.
"It's for you to get used to everything that has changed," Coulson told her, almost echoing Steve.
"Because I have done so well so far," Skye answered bitterly.
"Well, maybe you just need a bit of help," Coulson responded.
He was opening a case to show Skye the content, but Xandra couldn't see what was in it, so she waited. She didn't really have any other option, truth be told.
"These are for you, Simmons has been working on them overtime. They are meant to reduce your healing time, cut them almost in half!"
Skye took something out of the case, it looked a bit like chainmail.
"How do they work?"
"The internal wiring emmits a surge of electricity to inhibit your powers."
"So, they take away my powers?"
"No, they rather lower the magnitude. ," Coulson told Skye. We want you to heal and not to re-injure yourself."
"That sounds amazing."
Coulson seemed more subdued.
"It's a personal call. There are a few side effects, Simmons can go over them with you later."
While they continued talking, thoughts were running through Xandra's head, forming a very clear pattern.
Skye was considered dangerous.
She likely was, apparently she had injured herself.
They were trying to restrict her powers.
The reasoning was to avoid danger to herself, but they certainly also wanted to avoid danger to third parties.
Realistically, there was nothing wrong with risk-reduction.
However-
Xandra could feel her brain blank. It was running calculations, scenarios. Emotionless, taking in pros and cons of risk aversion, of protective measures, once again without ethical implications or the consideration of feelings. Including her own.
And, she had to agree, there was something to be said for the strategy.
She took a deep breath, trying to push down the total rationalisation. It wasn't quite useful right now, she needed to take into account feelings as well, if she wanted to understand what was going on, to understand Skye, to understand herself.
She didn't miss the double-standard, though, while Coulson was quite aware of the changes in Skye, he was caring about her wellbeing first, and about the danger she posed second. In her case though, he didn't give a fuck about how she was doing.
She couldn't talk, and he had her hands tied together, despite very well knowing what that would do to her if she weren't so distracted by anything else around her right now. Still, it was slowly unraveling her, and he must be aware of it, or was even using it to his advantage, just as the lock-up in the vault.
They had worked on multiple projects together, she had even lied to Steve about his existence while working on Theta Protocol with him, and basically the only questions he had ever asked had considered their safety, SHIELD's safety, and by no means her state of being.
Disappointing, really. This could be her super-villain origin story, and truth be told, right now they would deserve it.
