The heat was so much worse in July. Even I couldn't tolerate it much. Stark Tower was kept cool, but it felt like there was little air that was circulating throughout the floors.

Since last month, we'd had three more fire-wielding attacks. Three more explosions. A few more body counts in different states. We'd been slow on the first attack, but we'd tried to stop the other two. Clearly, our efforts weren't enough. S.H.I.E.L.D. acted as though it was the Avengers' job to calm the chaos down. Apparently, fire wielders were more our wheelhouse since I was one—or had been one. I was just an ordinary Asgardian now, without my powers.

For this, I knew why S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't want their hands to get dirty. They'd lost an agent at the hand of me, they didn't want to risk more incidents like that.

None of us could understand it. Why the attacks? Were these distractions? Were these intentional?

Speaking of my fellow Avengers, most of them still weren't happy with my decision.

Did I miss my powers? Absolutely. This price, as much as I missed my powers, was a good one to pay. It prolonged my life, it kept people safe. The only damage it really did was put a wedge in my friendships and downgrade me to an ordinary status.

Not long after the group had found out, Todd had been told (thanks to Natasha and Clint). That had been a fun argument. Todd hadn't spoken to me since. I wanted to believe it was solely because of his agent training, but I knew that wasn't just it. He was mad at me, too, for doing something so "sneaky" as he had put it.

I decided to let out my frustration at a gym. I'd taken a walk there, kept my phone on me in case something about Seth came through. Since I'd given his name out, Natasha and Clint had taken it upon themselves to do some research. Tony included himself in that—his Google search didn't pan out like he'd wanted.

I took my anger out on a punching bag. One punch, two, a quick lower jab, a kick. This was for the better. That's what they fail to understand. The bag quivered and rattled as I beat up on it. They'll see it in time. I'm still me. I'm just not as much of Cynder as I used to be.

Letting out a rather feral growl, I punched the bag hard, nearly sending it off the chain it was hanging by up. I reached out, stopping the swinging bag. I could feel eyes staring at me. Once I shook off the feeling, I resumed letting out my steam.

By now, this bag surely would've been lit on fire. Or possibly the entire gym. It was either one extreme or the other. There was never an in-between.

"Might I suggest having a gym at the tower if this is going to become a thing?"

I ignored and kept punching as I heard Steve's voice on my left. It wasn't that the Avengers avoided me, it was just I knew they still had a chip on their shoulder from my news. If they wanted to play that way, so would I. I could tolerate them, not like them.

"The silent treatment isn't going to keep up, Kiara," Steve sighed.

I continued to not look at him. I panted lightly, catching my breath.

"You know, you're not a bad fighter. You could use a little more power in your punches though."

I grunted, backing off, letting the bag swing in front of me. I wiped the sweat off my brow. "What could you possibly want, Steve?"

"I didn't come here intentionally, if that's what you're thinking." Judging by his outfit, he seemed to be telling the truth. A too-tight, thin, gray t-shirt and regular pants didn't suggest he was a man on a mission. "I just happened to see you."

I snorted. "Unless you want to replace the bag, I suggest you move on."

"We don't have to play this game, Kiara."

"What game is there to play?"

"The one where we're all hating one another."

I shook my head. "You've got it wrong. One, it's a game where everyone hates me for a choice that I made." I licked my lips. "Two, it's actually not hate, it's more a strong dislike."

"I think some of us have gotten the chance to understand why you did it." He looked at me thoughtfully.

"Oh, yeah? If that's the case, why aren't we all getting shawarma like Tony insists that we do again?" I looked to Steve expectantly.

"We're not sure who you got in touch with. We're not sure who gave you a serum, whatever it was," he said carefully. "Until we know all the details, things are kind of...tense."

I rolled my eyes. "Good observation." I slumped my shoulders. "Look, I'm not royally pissed at anyone. I'm only slightly mad because everyone seems to look at me different now. That what I did was wrong." I put my hands on my hips. "If you all were in my position, wouldn't you have done the same?"

"Had we known exactly who and what we were dealing with, most likely." He shrugged. "But that's the issue. We know virtually nothing about Seth Joyce and what he injected you with."

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" I sniffed. "You interrupted my workout."

"Mind if I become part of it?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, why not? You said I could use more power in my punch. I won't take offense to that, Rogers, only because I like you." I smiled, feeling heat tinge my cheeks. "So, how can I take someone's head off?"

He chuckled. "I don't think there's enough power in someone's arm to do that. Here." With pressure on my hips from his hands, Steve guided me to a different stance. "It's all in the hips."

"Was I not using them before?"

"Probably not as much as you should be if you want to break a bone."

"I can do that with my strength alone. Asgardian, remember?" A thought occurred to me. "Should I question how you answered?" I turned my head, giving Steve a furtive look.

Now he looked as though he was embarrassed. "I swear I wasn't stalking you."

I chuckled. "I'm just teasing, Steve. Would you rather show me how it's done?"

"If I try, the bag might bust. It wouldn't be the first time."

I shrugged. "All right, then. Let's see how effective your pointers are."

Considering I almost flung a bag across the room with one punch, and I almost punched a hole right through it, I'd say Steve's pointers worked. He decided to hang around and even hang a bag beside me, wrapping his hands. I looked down at mine, which weren't wrapped, which were slowly bruising. Oh well, they'd heal.

After about a half hour or so, I gave up, carefully leaning against my punching bag, watching Steve. It was like he was in his own world, like it was just him and the bag. I kept the cool bottle of water against my arm, calming my temperature down. A little sneakily, I took a picture of him. It wasn't like he noticed anyway.

I flinched when I heard that stinking song, "Girl on Fire" play on my phone. I really needed to get that fixed.

"You're going to help me change my ringtone when I get back, Tony," I said in greeting.

"Hello to you too, Kia. Listen, Romanoff thinks she's got some intel on your mystery date."

I rolled my eyes. "It wasn't a date." I continued to watch Steve, who now stopped since he noticed me taking a call. "Does this require the group to assemble?"

"Yes."

I nodded. "All right. Give me about a half hour, and I'll be there."

Steve's chest rose and fell rapidly, and he was already unwrapping his hands. "That Stark?"

"How'd you guess?"

"The song. Sounds like something he'd do to sabotage your phone."

I chuckled. "Yeah. Natasha thinks she's got something. Guess it requires us all back at the Tower."

Steve accompanied me in the heat back to Stark Tower. I practically fell on the floor in joy from the air conditioning. We took the elevator up, and instead of finding someone on a video call, we found Bruce, Tony, Natasha, and Clint all in one room.

"Where've you two been?" Tony asked casually. His brown eyes were giving a suggestive look.

"Out," I said curtly. I looked to Natasha, who had a tablet in her hands. "How are you feeling?"

"Back to my old self," she said dryly.

"So, what do you have for us?"

Humming to herself, Natasha pulled up the profile on a holographic screen in the room.

"Son of a bitch," Stark suddenly cursed out loud. We all stared at him. His dark eyes stared through me. "You didn't, Girl on Fire. You didn't."

"Did what?" Steve asked.

"What he said," I said, throwing a thumb at Steve.

"Unbelievable." Stark started to pace. "Don't you Asgardians have this thing called a gut feeling? You found them."

"Can we stop being secretive and just explain everything?" Steve asked, exasperated.

"I thought the name sounded familiar, I just couldn't piece where. I thought it wasn't going to be relevant, but I guess it is now..."

"Could you fill us in, Stark?" Clint finally voiced. I almost thought he wasn't present.

"During my spare time, I was reading through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s databases—" Tony began.

"By reading you mean hacking," Steve said.

"Same difference. Anyway, I came across two very interesting profiles. I didn't think anything of it at the time. They were just names, blurry faces to me. Nothing of importance."

"Anyway," I coughed impatiently. "Wait. You said two profiles."

"He did," Natasha agreed. "Seth Joyce was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent when he first joined. Something went awry on a mission of his, and he wanted to move into the science department. We let him move there." She also pulled up another profile. I remembered her. It was Alia, Seth's assistant. Well, according to the screen, her name was Kasey Clark. Alia had just been a fake name.

"And who's this supposed to be?" Bruce voiced.

"Someone who has ties with Seth Joyce," Tony cut in before Natasha could open her mouth. "A scientist and agent gone bad. Judging by the murderous look on her face, Agent Romanoff knows that's true."

"You bet I do," she spat. "I know Kasey better than Seth. Kasey Clark, perhaps one of the best agents S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever had. She was still in training around the time I decided to join. She's a quick learner, very lethal."

"And as for her partner, he's wicked smart," Tony summed up. "He's up in evil genius ranking. They were both highly respected until they decided S.H.I.E.L.D. was operating wrong and voiced their opinions about it. They tried to plant thoughts into others' heads, not the best kind, either. They were both stripped of their titles and kicked out."

"They disappeared after that. We tried to keep watch on them, just in case," Nat explained. "It lasted for so long until they fell off our radar. I guess the incident in New York got them interested in us once again."

"More like Kiara did."

I took in all this information. Seth technically hadn't lied to me. But he had. He wasn't current S.H.I.E.L.D, he was ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. "Alia" was really Kasey Clark, an agent that even Natasha considered lethal. If Nat considered someone lethal, then they were seriously dangerous.

"She went by 'Alia' when I met her," I said slowly, looking at Kasey Clark's picture. "She hadn't seemed like an agent to me."

"Okay, so we know who these two really are," said Steve. "But that doesn't explain the attacks."

"It might," Tony said, rubbing his chin. He looked to Natasha and Clint. "Did you guys ever figure out who broke into a Helicarrier?"

"You think it was Clark?" Clint asked.

"Well, how else would they get intel on Kiara? How else would they be able to make a 'cure' for her?" Tony used air quotes with "cure". "I'll bet that's what those people out there really are! They have to be!"

"You're saying that these two"—Bruce gestured to the profiles—"are the creators behind these walking bombs?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Tony's voice began to get higher. "I'll bet you anything Kasey Clark was the one who infiltrated the Helicarrier and probably snatched some of Kia's blood samples. Seth probably used them for experiments, one set to create the walking bombs and the other to make Kiara's powers disappear."

"But why would they want her powers gone?" Steve asked.

"Maybe that wasn't intended," Clint said. "Maybe that was a stroke of luck for them." He shrugged. "Say this is right, say these two are behind this. Why have those people attacking cities?"

"Well, you said they didn't share S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ideals, right?" I directed the question at Tony. "Maybe they're sending a message."

"So they just used random people, only to have them explode?" Steve asked slowly.

"Who knows?" Tony said. "Point is, we've got a solid theory running. Now we've just got to prove it."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"Kia." Tony gestured to me.

"Me?" I asked in bewilderment.

"They had to have taken you somewhere to give you the serum, right? You can show us the way. We can catch them, get enough evidence, and get them into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody."

"Do you remember the facility?" Steve asked me.

I smiled. "As a matter of fact, I do."

**Whelp, for all who hate Seth Joyce, congrats. You guys have good instincts, apparently, unlike Kiara.**