Song: Let the Wind Blow (by Soul Low)

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

"They killed my mother." Thor spits out.

My breath instantly hitches when he says that. I tightly close my eyes and drop my head while desperately trying to hold in the tears that are threatening to escape even just at the mention of Frigga, the person that I saw as a mother as well.

I can feel all their eyes snap to me as I take deep breaths trying to stop the shaking in my shoulders. I tap my thumb against each of my fingers in counts of four as a nervous habit while also trying to still my shaking hands by giving them a purpose. I pull my legs up and hug them closer to my body, long forgetting my promise to remain strong around them.

"Thor, explain," Natasha demands, breaking the tense silence.

"Ellery grew up with me and my brother when we were young, when we grew we fought alongside each other, we were best friends. At one of our battles, they were captured, but at the time we all thought that they had died. Then, a year later, they show up again, but they are not the same. They bring a group of Chitauri with them as they attempt to steal a valuable Asgardian artifact and also kill any who attempted to stop them. Eventually, they were brought to the dungeons, and my mother went to visit them because she decided to hold faith in them still. But then, after she only showed kindness to them even then, one of the chitauri that Ellery led to Asgard killed her right in front of them. They then dared to even try and refuse blame for their actions and made excuses claiming that they were forced to do so by some mind control. They were then stripped of their voice and banished from Asgard." He says, refusing to make eye contact with me, just like I am doing as well.

There is a deafening silence where everyone takes in what Thor said. Most of them are giving me a murderous glare so strong that I fear it may kill me. However, there is one that is looking at me instead with a confused and calculating glare instead, maybe even with a hint of sympathy. From what I have read, I know that Bucky was also mind-controlled to do unspeakable things as well, which is probably why he is looking at me more afraid than upset, afraid that I actually did go through that torture.

"How long ago was she banished?" Steve asks slowly and cautiously.

[868 years, 3 months, and 12 days ago] I sign for the first time all day, still keeping my head down. Several heads snap toward me as I do. Natasha then quietly translates and several of their eyes go very wide.

Obviously, everything that had happened stuck with me through these many centuries, haunting me, but Thor telling them again seems to bring back the pain of it even worse than before. I am reminded of every little detail, every feeling, every ounce of guilt flooding forward tenfold.

"Why did she save you then?" Wanda questions, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion.

"They. They go by they and them pronouns." Thor corrects quickly. He may absolutely despise me with every fiber in his body and see me as a monster, but he still respects pronouns.

A/n - We stan a king for doing the bare minimum and having basic common decency even if he has been a bit of an idiot and a dick \o/

I see a few people look around confused. Steve instantly turns to Bucky with a scrunched-up face and opens his mouth to say something, but Bucky instantly quiets him and says "I'll tell you later."

"And I don't know why." Thor continues answering Wanda's question, quickly glancing at me but as soon as he does I quickly break my own pained gaze away.

There is a long silence until eventually Wanda wearily walks up to me and crouches down in front of me. "Why did you protect him, Ellery?" she asks coldly.

I look down and take a deep breath before looking up again, but instead of looking toward Wanda, I lock my eyes with Thor, completely ignoring her.

[I know that you don't believe me, and you have every right not to. But, I do, always will, and always have loved and cared for you, for you both. I will never let anything happen to you, that was my duty and still is. I can't bare to see either of you hurt again, especially if it is because of me. You mean so much to me Thor, I really wish I could prove to you that I would never do anything to harm you.] I sign and Natasha translates.

There is another long tense silence where no one says a word. After several minutes of everyone boring holes into me with their stares, I grow tired of it and stand up. I get up and walk to the door, opening it and stepping out when Steve calls out to me, "Where do you think you are going?!"

[back to my cell, will one of you let me in?] I sign emotionlessly.

"I'll go with them." Bucky steps forward and the others give a silent acknowledgment.

We walk in silence back to the cell. When we get there I step into the cell and wordlessly offer up my hands so that he can take the cuffs off. I go to sit down on the cot expecting him to quickly leave and lock me in the cell, but after I don't hear any movement I look up to find him standing right in front of me with a look on his face that I can not quite pinpoint but seems to be in a constant battle over anger and sympathy.

"Were you really mind-controlled?" He softly asks, but still holds an edge to it.

After a long pause of thinking through my answer, I finally give him one. [I suppose it really doesn't matter either way. It can't change what happened, and it can't change that it was still my hands that did so.]

He nods sadly, surprising me with the fact that he knew at least a very small amount of sign language, enough to get the general idea of what I said. But that seemed to be enough of an answer for him.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

A week has passed. For the first several days at least one person would come in each day to ask me some questions which I would refuse to answer and remain silent. I didn't see any use in answering them, they already had their opinions on me formed and would not be changing them anytime soon, which I only confirmed when I read their surface-level thoughts. After several days, they just stopped showing up. They seemed to forget me, just like the Chitauri did, although this time it was thankfully a lot sooner. This realization and the similarities that were drawn between now and when I was first captured haunted my mind and I couldn't help but feel like it was back in that dark, cold, blood-stained Chitauri cell.

On the 8th day of being locked in the fishbowl-like cell, I hear the thick metal doors scratch open. I look up, expecting it to be one of the workers that would come in to slide food into my cell twice a day, but am instead met with someone new. He is tall and has a strong and fierce aura to him. However, his intimidating aura is dimmed somewhat by his eyepatch and long trench coat which causes him to look like a gangster pirate. I try to suppress a small snicker because of his outfit which causes him to raise a challenging brow toward me.

"So, Ellery, I have heard a lot about you. Although, most, not good things since you haven't seemed to form the best first impressions with the Avengers." he says as he continues to walk up to the cell.

"I recommend that you work with me and answer my questions since you obviously do not have the best chance at a good fate right now," he says gesturing around to the cell. "And I am sure that the rest won't fight for or put a good word in for you."

His threat lingers in the air as I think through my options. I usually have at least several plans of action or options bouncing around in my head constantly, always keeping different cards hidden in my hand for any occasion and always staying several steps ahead, but right now, I am all out of ideas and desperately drawing for any card that I can find.

I would not be able to trick them in any way, everything is pretty much out exposed in the open now. My only two options are to either work with them or don't. If I don't work with them they will most likely lock me up for the rest of my long life in the raft, as I have heard several guards discussing, and that's if they don't kill me first. Even if I was able to escape from here, it wouldn't be long before they found me again. I am good at staying hidden, but they are also good at finding people. I would also be living my life constantly looking over my shoulder, even more than I was before, and that is no way to live.

That leaves me with the other option of working with them. Who knows what they would do then, unlike my other option, it is unpredictable. They could use everything I tell them to destroy me, or they could do as they said they would in the very beginning, and help me, but I suppose that is very unlikely now that Thor has enlightened them of my past. I also don't see how they could ever 'help' me, all I want to do is continue on with my quiet life where I minded my own business and didn't get in anyone's way like I was already doing so well.

However, then one thought occurs to me. Over the past several years I have gotten very close to locating several of the infinity stones and being fairly certain of the whereabouts of at least one of them. These are the 'Earth's mightiest heroes' as so many like to say, they may be just what I need to actually get the stones.

"So what is it going to be, Ellery?"

[Please don't call me that.]

"What should I call you?"

[Just Raven.]

I hate my actual name and everything that comes with it and reminds me of.

He curtly nods and then pulls over a chair in front of the cell where he then sits.

"So, Raven, why did you come here?"

[I really was just dropping off the coffee. I did not want to come here, but I was the only one available for the delivery.]

"And how long have you been here on Earth?"

[868 years, 3 months, and 20 days]

"How have you stayed hidden the entire time?"

[I wasn't the entire time, at least not up until the late 1600s. But, mainly just staying out of the people's way.]

He thoughtfully nods for a moment.

"That one myth, the one about the fallen angel with black wings, back in Norway, that people would travel to from all around the world to be healed. Was that you?"

I hesitantly and slowly nod. I know where this conversation was going.

"So you have magic?"

[seiðr, but yes.] I wearily say. I really am laying all my cards out on the table at this point, but I have to if I want any hope of stopping Thanos.

He stares deep into my eyes emotionlessly for a long while, biting the inside of his cheek, as if he is studying me, reading me like a book that is sitting on display.

"I want you to join the team."

I instantly laugh in response, but then I suddenly stop when I see his blank face and realize that he is in fact not joking. That is not where I thought this conversation was going.

[You have heard about my past, right?] I ask wide-eyed, looking at him as if he were stupid.

"I have. Tell me Raven, were you mind-controlled like Thor claimed you said?"

I look at him for a while before I continue. [It doesn't matter either way. It still happened and nothing can change that.] I broke eye contact and looked down at my hands as I fidgeted picking at them, a habit I picked up from Frigga, which now only immerses me more in the self-pity I find myself in.

"I believe that you were."

My head shoots up and I look at him in confusion.

"I may not show much myself, but I am very good at reading others and their emotions." He pauses and his glare softens slightly. "And I believe you. I believe it destroyed you as well as others, and it still does. It wasn't your fault, Raven."

I purse my lips as I look down trying to hide the tears that are welling up in my eyes. No one has said that let alone listened since Frigga.

I bring my head up towards the man giving him a tight pained smile while biting down on my lip to stop it from trembling. A few tears find their escape as I slowly mouth the words 'Thank you.' Even if I refuse to let myself believe the words, it still feels good to have someone else believe in me even if I can't.

He softly smiles for the first time and nods as he stands up walking over to the control panel. He presses a few buttons and the cell door hisses open.

I wearily stand up, still looking and feeling very unsure, but don't make a move to walk out of the cell. The man walks up to me and extends his hand; no matter how many times I have done a handshake even after centuries of living here on Midgard, I still always found it a weird gesture that humans had, but obliged.

"You can call me Fury by the way."

I nod and have to force a small smile as other thoughts occupy my head. I turn to Fury and start to sign.

[As you said, I didn't have the best first impressions with the rest of them, and Thor will probably try to kill me at every chance he gets. I don't think it's a good idea to be on a 'team' with them, let alone even walk out of this cell.] I say sadly as I still believe that they have a completely justifiable reason to do so.

"Well, that's too bad, because they would all be out of a job if it weren't for me, so they will have to deal with it." He says turning his head back to me at his side as we then walk out through the thick metal doors and towards the elevator.

As we step into the elevator, Fury says to take us to the common room. I nervously wring out my hands as I prepare for everything that is about to undoubtedly go down.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

A/n - I love nice Nick Fury so much. It is my favorite thing when he is not an absolute dick. I am planning to have lots more nice Nick Fury content because we all deserve that and I also love the fact that pretty much the only person that is on Raven's side at the moment is the one person that canonically would normally be one of the first to be against them-

BUT SCREW CANON I WANT NICE NICK FURY >:D

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅