"Fury," I started, sticking my sun glasses onto my face slowly as the whip whipped my blonde hair free of its tie.

"Why the fuck is the jet on the roof?"
-

Fury didn't give me another second in Miami, which I had mixed feelings about. I definitely wanted to stay in Florida, but I was glad to not be there long enough to get my ass chewed out by Laguerta.

And, I wasn't too mad that I wouldn't have to put up with Doakes' judgment immediately, considering I left him with my shit pile of work.

What I didn't expect was Nick Fury's private jet to be on the fucking roof.

How the hell he got a fucking jet on the roof without anyone noticing was beyond me, and I wasn't sure it was entirely legal, but I had to give him credit.

I had sat down in his jet, actually trying to figure out if he was doing something illegal. How fucking perfect would it be if I could drag Nick Fury through the police station in handcuffs? The idea started as a joke, then turned into my fantasy the entire jet ride. I'd tried to ask Fury many times what he had in store for me, only to be brushed of and left in the dark.

When we got to the helecarrier, SHIELD headquarters, he left me to find my room with even more vagueness.

I threw my handbag onto the small bed in my room, before quickly allowing my body to follow it.

Yeah, I had a fucking room. On a fucking helecarrier, that was on the fucking ocean at the moment.

God I hated this place.

My eyes scanned the place with hatred, the ghost of memories taunting the back of my eyelids of my previous stays here. It'd been two years since I'd last seen Fury, since he'd called me in for another task, one that haunted me every single goddamn day. Two damn glorious years of not having to set foot in this god-forsaken room.

But it did have its good qualities.

I stood up suddenly with the thought, moving to the vanity on the opposite wall of the room and tugging open a drawer, finding the pack of cigarettes I'd stashed in there.

I grabbed it carefully, staring at the white box while running my thumb over the lettering of the brand hesitantly, before popping open the box and picking out a long white cigarette. I let the poisonous thing rest on my lower lip as I tossed the box onto the vanity's surface, then turning toward the drawer to grab the light, only to find it absent.

I sighed knowingly, knowing who was responsible before even having to turn around.

"I thought you quit smoking," The person in question piped from near the entryway.

I pulled the cigarette from my mouth and turned around slowly. Leaning up against the wall just to the left of the door was Natasha Romanoff, wearing surprisingly mundane clothing and twirling my lighter around her pointer finger.

I  hadn't seen Natasha in two years, but she was the only person in the godforsaken place I was happy to see, and to show it I let my lips tug into a small grin.

"I did," I confirmed, my eyes flitting briefly to the cigarette in my hands before tossing it onto the top of the vanity. It was the truth, I had quit smoking, but the need tended to resurface whenever I came back to SHIELD.

Nat must've seen something in my eyes, because an almost undetectable flash of concern cross her iris, her head tilted to the side a little as she studied me.

"How are you?" She queried, continuing to fiddle with the lighter. A silent sigh fell past my lips, knowing why she asked that question.

The last time we'd seen each other, I was hunkered over a toilet while emptying the contents of my stomach, desperately trying not to lose my mind to the memory of the previous mission. Natasha had watched me for a moment, understanding written blatantly across her face, and she told me to leave. Fuck Fury, and get the hell out. 

I'd done just that, ghosted him and managed to avoid him for two years. And there we were.

"To be honest, Nat, I'd rather be anywhere else on the fucking planet." I replied, giving her a sweet smile before letting my eyes fall to the lighter in her hand.

"Can I have that now?"

Natasha arched a brow toward me, as if saying exactly what she thought about that habit. I deadpanned toward her.

"Okay, the master assassin is judging me?"

"Yes,"

With anybody else, those words might've stung a little, but instead I laughed and held my hand out, inclining her to give me the lighter. She clasped it in her fist and walked toward me, extending her arm as if she was about to offer it to me, but instead she reached past me and snatched the box of cigs, before tossing them both into the garbage bin.

"It's a poisonous habit, Torres."

"So is killing people," I fought back, though I knew she was right. The corner of her lip twitched in silent amusement, and she reached forward and grabbed the singular white cigarette from the vanity, before also tossing it.

"That was my only pack." I muttered meekly, staring at the bin, that had been previously empty, with disappointment. In hindsight, I could just take them out of the bin, but I was secretly happy that Natasha had stopped me.

"Tragic." Natasha said, cocking her head to the side and watching me, giving me the same, contemplative look she'd been given me for the past five minutes, instead of diving into my detective brain to try and figure it out, I elected to ignore it instead.

That wasn't something I did with people I established trust with.

"You haven't smoke since-"

"Since I killed a man?"

I was able to spit it out so nonchalantly, like I was just bantering back and forth with her, though it ate me up inside every single fucking day, saw that man's dying body behind my eyelids-

Natasha sighed knowingly.

"Since I last saw you." She corrected, though there was no difference in time from when I last saw her and from that mission.

I knew I needed to quickly change the subject, I would not be able to handle Natasha asking me about that night, and I could see the queries balanced on her tongue, so I cut her off before she had the chance to speak.

"Do you have any fucking clue what I'm doing here? Fury could not have been more vague,"

Just like that her expression changed considerably, like I'd reminded her of something grim.

"I need to talk to you about that," Natasha said carefully, tossing a glance behind her to the entryway, as if nervous someone might over hear our conversation. I frowned deeply, nerves pinching my stomach at her almost nervous demeanor. I knew better than to call her nervous, that was not an emotion that Natasha Romanoff was easily subjected to.

"Of-fucking-course, Fury told you what he had in store for me. Can't say I'm surprised, you were always Dad's favorite child-"

"This is serious, Torres." Natasha cut me off, looking at me somewhat indignantly.

"To be fair, Tash, everything is serious to you."

She sighed deeply, before ignoring my annoying ass and continuing.

"Fury's got a different kind of mission for you, Elle. It's not like anything he's put you through before,"

"You say that every fucking time-"

"Jesus, Elle, this is different!" Natasha suddenly raised her voice quickly, frustration exploding in her voice all at once. I blinked in surprise at the sudden show of worry in her, the blatant emotion that she'd allowed me to detect.

I stayed silent this time as Natasha sighed, regaining her composure and running a hand across her face.

When she didn't say anything for a moment, I spoke up.

"What is it?" I asked softly, this time abandoning any sort of banter I had left in me. Now was clearly not the time.

"I can't tell you what," She started quietly, "but I know it'll be difficult. It will wear you down physically and mentally, and I can't tell you how long it will last." She finished, her eyes never leaving mine for a moment as she carefully took in my reaction, but I didn't have a fucking reaction to that bullshit.

"I am even more fucking confused than before. Fury said he only needed me for forty-eight hours, so was that complete horse shit or am I missing something here?" I chewed out slowly, all the while trying to make sense of it all in my head. Nat sighed, something I noticed she does quite often.

"He's going to give you a deal, and it's going to seem like the only option, but it's not, okay? You don't owe Fury shit-"

"You know full well I owe Fury everything." I interrupted her harshly, fixing her with a stern glance. Natasha respected Fury, they butted heads from time to time, but she would not begin to understand the hatred I felt for him.

How could she? Fury had taken both of us from dire situations, had saved us both, but had equally destroyed me as much as he'd saved me.

Natasha looked at me for a second, a dull shade of sympathy flitting across her iris. She knew what Fury took me from, she knew how much Fury had done for me.

"Just please, Torres, be careful." Nat said after an agonizingly long few seconds of just staring at me. I took a long breath, steadying myself from my burst of emotion that I'd get to often, before righting myself and allowing my smile to return to my lips. As difficult as this interaction turned out to be, I had missed Natasha.

"It's good to see you, Tash."

Natasha slowly lost her protective demeanor, her composure melting back into a relaxed stance. She knew that was my way of telling her that I would be, that I'd heard her words and kept them closed to me. Something like relief flooded into her eyes and I so easily caught its contagions. 

"You're such an asshole," She breathed, and laughter bubbled from my lips soon after.

"So when will everyone stop being so fucking cryptic?"

"Fury's holding a briefing with the team, he'll vaguely give you the mission and probably leave you with more questions then answers... but you'll find out soon."

"Wait a damn minute, team?" I said suddenly, the word she used only registering with me moments after she said it. She arched a curious brow at me, as if surprised I didn't know.

"The Avengers?"

"Fuck, no!"

"Torres-"

"What else in this goddamned space submarine am I unaware of?"

trick question, the answer was everything.

Natasha sighed, staring at me for a moment.

"The briefing is in thirty minutes. Do you remember how to get your way around this place?" Natasha asked, threading her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans.

"Thirty minutes? Jesus fucking-"

Natasha sighed aggressively, impatience quickly taking over in a matter of seconds. Honestly? I could care less, she seemed to have a lot more information than I did on this subject.

"Do you?"

"Yes." I stated simply. I was full of shit, Natasha saw that plain as day, she must have understood, though, because she didn't seem annoyed. I'd just gone through two years of desperately trying to suppress the memory of this place, the blueprint didn't exactly stick to my brain.

"I'll take that as a no. Get your shoes on."

-

I'd forgotten how huge the helecarrier was, and the roughly fifteen minute walk from my room to the briefing room reminded me.

Natasha had elected to walk me herself, the fifteen minutes giving us enough time on catching each other up on our lives the last two years, and when we got to the room, it was already filled with infamous faces that I'd seen on the news.

The mother-fucking Avengers.

I'd seen blurred clips of their heroism on the news, interviews hosted by Tony Stark and news channels itching to get the first super heroes stories out in the world, but Jesus Christ was this different.

There was a slight buzz in conversation in the room, and they were spread out on chairs surrounding the table in the center. There were six figures in the room that were already seated. Five being the men that everyone in the entire world knew the names of, and the sixth being a  blonde woman, whom I did not recognize, sitting at the opposite side of the table than the others with her feet propped on the desk.

She appeared to be in light conversation with the five men whose backs were turned to us as we entered, and Jesus-fucking-Christ I was in the same room with Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers and fucking Thor. Motherfucking Thor.

I'd never been more in love with the idea of turning and walking out the door right then.

The noise slowly died down as Natasha and I entered, heads turning to see who had breached their space.

"Everyone," Natasha greeted as their voices died down.

"This is Elle Torres, as I'm sure you've heard."

Alarm flashed throw me and I jerked my head to the side to stare at Natasha with wide eyes. The Avengers have actual reason to know how I am? The idea was laughable, so laughable in fact that I had to bite my lips so I wouldn't start laughing.

The burly blonde that sat closest to me- correction, Captain America, Steven Rogers, leader of the Avengers- stood up and offered me his hand.

"Detective," He greeted, and I took his hand while my eyes flitted to his large biceps, before quickly returning to his face as I caught myself.

I was taken off guard by his greeting, these people actually knew things about me, I wouldn't be surprised if I was in the only one in the room who didn't know what the hell was happening.

"Captain," I replied, trying my best to match his tone of formality as he released my hand. The even burlier blonde stood up then, who no one on Earth could mistake as anyone other than the demigod Thor, coming forward offering an even more prominent hand in greeting.

"The Lady Elle! We've heard many things about you, I am Thor, son of Odin." the god started, and I felt strangely obligated to return his handshake with just as much vigor. This guy was straight out of a renaissance fair, wearing his plated medieval-like armor, and his handshake was just as overpowering and overwhelming as I'd expected it to be.

As soon as I deemed it socially acceptable, I stalked away from the overly masculine men towering over me, falling back in line with Natasha as my eyes scoured the room of superstars.

"Well, this is a room of money makers." I said, pointedly letting my eyes land on the infamous people I'd dubbed 'money makers'

"I don't get paid jackshit,"

My head quirked to where the blonde woman had spoken, her British accent thick on her tongue while she fidgeted with a pencil in her fingers in boredom. Tony Stark, also seeming as bored and detached as the woman, was the first one to speak up in reply.

"It's because nobody knows who you are," He fired, and the woman's eyes narrowed. She raised her hand and aimed her fingers toward him in a flicking motion, sending a pen on the desk flying through the room and at Tony's head, he ducked quickly and narrowly missed it.

Of course, I was in direct line of fire of the pen without Tony's head to block it. The pen stopped only a centimeter from my face as I let the invisible hands of my mind stop it from thwacking me in the nose.

The girl was taken aback for a moment, surprise flashing across her face as I was sure it was mine. I was shocked, I hadn't expected any other super-beings in the room besides the Avengers- and this girl? She seemed to have the same ability as me.

Well, one of the same abilities.

You would think that in that room your eyes would go to the most prominent figures, but I found my eyes glued to this unknown woman, itching for an opportunity to hear her name. It didn't surprise me that no one commented over the flying-pen incident, these people had probably seen much weirder shit.

"Just because I stick my name to a fucking tower doesn't mean I'm a damn ghost," the mystery woman spat, and before I could think to hard on what she said Tony bounced off of her words quickly.

"I dare you to walk outside right now and try and find someone who knows you. No, better yet, ask Torres!"

With the mention of my name I went taught, and Stark whipped around in his rotating chair, pointing at me while continuing his thought.

"Elle, do you know her?"

Fuck me in the fucking ears, I did not want to let this dick of a billionaire win, because I did not know the mystery woman's name, but my pause and lack of answer was enough for Stark. He whirled back toward mystery woman with a smug grin on his face of victory while she fumed, though amusement flashed in her irises.

"See?" Tony concluded victoriously.

"To be fair, I live in Miami... and I don't know who you are, either."

That shut him up. The mystery woman laughed obnoxiously suddenly, bursting into a fit of snorting and giggling as Tony's face lost color.

"You don't know my name?" Tony asked, and I innocently shook my head. Natasha snorted from beside me, and while Tony glared at the laughing figures in the room, I shot mystery-woman a wink.

Mystery-woman was still red from her sudden fit of laughter, wiping the corner of her eyes with her knuckle while meeting my gaze. I felt oddly proud of myself then, for some absurd reason.

"Tony Stark? Iron Man?"

He grew increasingly agitated when I shook my head slowly.

"No, nothing, sorry." I said indignantly.

"Okay, seriously, you know who Captain America is but you don't know who-"

Knowing where that was going, and getting more aggravated at the second, I cut him off. "The Captain is impressionable, I can't say the same for you. You seem like a fucking dick."

With that the mystery woman lost her shit again, busting into another fit of laughter while even the men and Natasha hid their snickers behind their palms, Tony's mouth was agape, completely shell shocked it seemed, though I saw the humor engraved into the lines of his face.

"Enough of this, everyone be seated. I want to get started." Heads whipped toward the new figure who had entered the room unbeknownst to us. Fury, the fucking ghost that he was, had slid through the door and made his way toward the front of the room, I quickly made my way to the other side of the table and found a chair next to my mystery woman, scooting it next to her to duck my head down and whisper.

"Elle Torres."

She turned back and grinned at me, her cheeks were flushed considerably from her laughing fit.

"Ace Wilson." She responded, and I grinned back at her, happy to finally know her name.

"Like the card?"

"Like the sports team."

I frowned, my eyebrows pinching together. "What-"

"Torres, Wilson."

The two of us looked up at Fury, smiles still curling our lips as we stare at the indignant man staring at us.

"As I was saying," Fury continued on whatever Ace and I had interrupted, and I suddenly snapped to attention, realizing this was my opportunity to know what the fuck I was doing here.

"We moved him to a more secluded room to keep him contained, but he's already come close to escaping once. We need to speed up to move him to a more permanent location pretty quickly. That's where you come in, Torres."

I couldn't make sense of anything that Fury had just said to me, who was this man we were talking about? And how was this something that I needed to do?

"I'm sorry, what?" I sputtered, ignoring the eyes that were on me in that room.

"Does she have any clue whatsoever what she's signing up for?" I turned to see who had spoken up, seeing the dark curly haired scientist Bruce Banner looking at me with a pitiful glance. I fought the frown off my face.

"Is this the face of someone who knows what the fuck is happening?"

"We have a criminal on sight here, but he's proving to be too powerful for any of our security details. We need you to keep him under control."

I thought over his words, what did 'keeping him under control' entail? Fury said he only needed me for two days before, what did he need me for, exactly?

"What do I need to do?" I asked in confusion, ignoring the eyes that were on me in the room.

"We need a permanent solution for this criminal while he's in our custody, and he's shown to be too much for us to handle. Torres, if he gets free, the consequences could be devastating. We need someone like you, "

A freak, you mean?

"to keep him under control. We need you to be a permanent security detail of sorts."

I stared at him, disbelief clear on my face. That sounded like a lot more than two fucking days.

"How long would that take?"

"It could be weeks, it could be years. There's no end date."

I deadpanned at him, silence filling the room as eyes stayed on me.

"I'm not moving to New York, Fury."

"I'm not asking for you to stay in New York, he would go to Miami with you." Fury said, not unkindly, probably aware of how much I dreaded this conversation. Also, this seemed like someone that I should know the name of. What was the point of keeping him unidentified?

I looked around the room at the faces of people who did not look like they were learning this for the first time. Why can't the world class criminal bunk with Clint Barton? He wanted me to dedicate years of my life to a job? No fucking way. My mission last time, which ruined my mind even more than it already was ruined, only took two weeks.

"No fucking way."

Natasha made a noise of approval and my eyes snapped to hers, she nodded toward me, telling me with her eyes to keep it up. Tell the man who fucked up my life to fuck off. I was confident that I could keep this up, until Fury leaned forward onto his hands on the table top toward me.

"If you do this, you'll be free of SHIELD forever."

My heart dropped, falling into the pit of my ribcage as it's pulse seemed to quieten.

A life free from this place? It seemed to good to be true. But it was there, the offer was so tangible and close I could grab it. Should I grab it? I had no idea what this mission was, had no idea what was waiting for me, but it would all be worth it to be able to finally live my life.

So, with everyone's eyes on me, I leaned forward onto my elbows and met Fury's gaze.

"So whose the unsub?" I said, giving Fury the green light with my eyes. I heard Natasha's breath from where I was, and I couldn't begin to read the look she was giving me. And I hated to do this, especially because of the warnings and worry of Natasha Romanoff, but I needed to be free of SHIELD finally.

"I beg your fucking pardon, Criminal Minds?" Ace muttered with a laugh in her voice.

"Unidentified subject, it's cop talk." I clarified.

"But he's identified-"

"Clearly, not to me!"

"Torres, Wilson, enough. Detective, you want to know the 'unsub'? Well, you're about to meet him." Fury said, then he motioned at Ace.

"Wilson, like we discussed."

A feeling of dread settled over the room, and Ace looked at me with an unreadable, emotionless look that reminded me something of pity. The only person who didn't seem terrified for me was Thor, motherfucking Thor.

"Well, lets not leave the world-class supervillian waiting." Ace said, standing up, and Natasha gave me a look as I followed her.

I didn't know what to say, I had no idea what was about to happen. But I wasn't exactly disappointed that the briefing would carry on without me.

-

"Oh my god, this is so fucked up." Ace muttered, jogging her feet a little while we waited in the hallway outside a steel door, staring at a monitor that was mounted onto the wall next to the door that showed live feed of this criminal. I glanced at my new acquaintance-friend sideways, arching my eyebrow at her.

"That's about the fifth time you've said that." I noted, the corner of my lip twitching. She sighed longly, staring at the monitor.

"There's your unsub, Torres. Looking surprisingly normal for a fucking psychopath."

I walked over to the monitor, squinting my eyes at the image of the inside of the room we were waiting outside of. Inside, there was a blurry image of a man sitting in an armchair, staring at nothing while he meddled with his hands in his lap. I couldn't make out any fine details, any details at all. If I knew who that man was the image was to distorted for me to tell.

"You don't seem to be a fan?" I laughed, crossing my arms and studying her. She scoffed.

"I'm his security detail right now, Torres. It's not fun. Don't give me wrong, he's hot as hell on earth, but he's a fucking psychopath." She said, using her hands to emphasize the fucking psychopath part, and I cocked my head to the side and tried to piece apart the look she was giving me, only to find nothing I could read into.

"You said that."

"Yeah, I repeated myself because it doesn't seem as if you heard me. Living with him? That sounds like a nightmare."

Agitation began to climb into my senses, and I didn't care about anything she had to say against the man. The fact that I was getting out of shield was all I needed, I had to get out of there. I didn't think she understood that.

"I need to get out of SHIELD, I don't care what I need to do to make it happen." I said definitely, and Ace stared at me with understanding in her eyes, though the moment I thought I saw it there it disappeared.

"How good are these mind-fuckery abilities of yours?" She said, leaning back while she surveyed me, crossing her arms and squinting at me. I was surprised at first that she knew about my abilities, but not so much, considering Fury seemed to be an oversharing with everyone except for me.

"Good enough?" I said confusingly, unsure of why that was relevant at that very moment.

She sighed, giving the monitor another glance.

"So fucked up," she muttered, shaking her head. That was seriously starting to concern me.

She turned to me again, this time with a not-so-emotionless glance. "I'm really sorry about this," she said, and I stared at her with a blank expression as she grabbed my arm with a somber face, and the scene changed quickly into the room that I saw on the monitor, this chick- she- she-

She phased me into the room with the war criminal. The thought was so outlandish and absurd I almost didn't believe it. Holy shit- this girl-

I whipped toward her, but she was gone.

"Holy shit,"

I turned back around, and sitting there was the supervillian from the news, the one that lead the onslaught of New York, and Thor's apparent brother.

Loki.

Jesus-fucking-Christ I missed Miami.

Hi!

So I'm sorry for the poor grammar and writing this chapter, I will probably edit this heavily later but right now I just need to get a chapter out and I'm e x h a u s t e d, so please feel free to yell at me 😊

"Who is this dashing character you've introduced, Ace Wilson?"

I'm so happy you asked, bc that happens to be the very well written mc of my good friend throwawaym8 's Loki fanfic. Seriously she's the best, and you should definitely read her book.

Be nice to her she's my fiancé (jk I'm just her stalker)

Hope you guys have a good night!

peace my manz