Phil Coulson did not deserve to die. He was not just a casualty of war. He was much more than that. And I seethed at the thought of the way he lost his life.

We sat on the bridge at the table, the command center in ruins around us, smoking and sparking. Agent Romanoff was with Agent Barton in the infirmary. Apparently the mind control was knocked out of him when Romanoff slammed his head into the railing during their skirmish. Thor and the Hulk weren't on the Helicarrier. Thor was dropped from the sky and the Hulk crashed with the jet he attacked.

I swallowed. Andi was in the infirmary as well. She...wasn't doing too great. The glass in her side did more damage than she thought. And I felt guilty for not being there. If I were there, none of this would've happened to her. Loki would not have hurt her. I would've made sure of that. I would make him pay.

Only Tony and I were left unharmed with Fury and Hill. None of us spoke a word. We just sat there in mourning.

Fury held a deck of collectors cards. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." He inspected them with a pained eye. "Guess he never did get you to sign them."

He tossed them across the table. They scattered. Some had blood on them, smudging on the glass. I picked one up. It was me. Me in the 1940s. And my guilt was amplified by one hundred.

"We're dead in the air up here," Fury explained. "Our communications, location of the cube. Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you." He ran a finger over his eye-patch. "Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."

I placed the card down. There was a bigger picture that we were all missing. There was a reason for everything. There was always a reason. And it was time we found out.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract," Fury informed. "I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea. Stark knows this. It was called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.

"After Thor and the Destroyer levelled that town, I decided to put forward the project to protect the earth. In 2008, Andi came. She suggested that the Avengers Initiative was put forth earlier than planned in order to defeat an enemy of her own."

"Eon," I murmured.

"She never said who the guy was, though. She was discreet. She just said that he was dangerous and that was it, saying that the Avengers were needed to defeat him. I agreed. And then the project was scraped. Until now." Fury crossed his arms. "Phil Coulson died still believing in this idea."

Tony looked uncomfortable, wringing his hands in anxiousness and rage. He was good friends with Coulson, so it was understandable that he was reeling from the loss.

"In heroes," Fury finished.

Tony stood and left after that. And Fury after him. Hill was left to wander the bridge in temporary command. I was left there alone with my thoughts, the one thing I did not want to be alone with. So I decided to visit a friend.

She wasn't in the infirmary, which made me very worried. I asked the doctors where she was, and they told me she was on the observation deck. 

But, how was that possible? She was in too bad a condition to move that far. 

And then they told me she healed herself. Time healed all wounds I supposed. Literally.

I headed up there. And there she was—sitting cross-legged in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. It was like she was never hurt. 

I wore a toothy smile. "I don't think you should be walking around."

"Why?" she asked, not turning around. "Can't you keep up?"

I chuckled as I sat next to her. "I've spent all my time since I've known you trying to keep up."

She looked away. I could tell that she was uncomfortable. I could feel that she was...broken. It was not a look I was used to seeing on her. She was always so tough and tongue-and-cheek. But perhaps she was like that because she had high walls. Because she was hiding things deep down. Now that everything was out on the table, she was vulnerable. She had no shield to hide behind now, no armour to protect her. No walls.

Yet, I wasn't angry with her. She had a reason to hide. She believed that it was all too dangerous to reveal. She was trying to protect us. I'd seen her powers. None of it was so far-fetched anymore. At this point, I was going in with an open mind.

I turned to Andi. "You know you can talk to me."

The look in her green eyes pained me. She thought I hated her. She thought I despised her because she kept things from me.

"Listen to me, Andi," I began. "We all have secrets. There are some that just aren't supposed to come to light. I don't hate you for keeping your past from me. That's your business, not mine."

"But I kept things I should've told you," she whispered. "Things that could've put your life at risk."

"Hey." I smiled warmly. "I can take care of myself."

"Not this time," she warned. She looked at me seriously. "Not from what's coming."

"What do you mean?" She hesitated. "Talk to me, Andi. Help me understand."

She wrung her hands, threading and unthreading her fingers anxiously. She was thinking of ways to tell me. I could tell how she opened and closed her mouth continuously, forming words her voice couldn't make out.

I threaded my fingers with one of her hands. I squeezed it supportively. "It'll be all right."

She swallowed. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

She paused. I frowned. "And?"

Her eyes widened. "You've never seen Star Wars?"

"What's Star Wars?"

Andi ran a hand through her flaming hair. "Okay, you need to make a list of things you have to do in the 21st century, watching Star Wars being at the top." She licked her lips. "Anyway, my powers were given to me as a deal: in exchange for them I was to swear my allegiance to the Time Walkers."

"Time Walkers?"

"Beings who walk time as far as they please."

"And you're one of them."

"You could say that, yeah."

I raised an eyebrow. "Must you be cryptic."

She sighed. She glanced at me. Her eyes were filled with such pain, pain that I could not comprehend. "I am a Time Walker, and I am the last one."

My expression was that of sympathy. I couldn't begin to imagine what that felt like, to be the last of her kind.

"There was another," she continued. "He helped me through everything. He taught me everything I know today. His name was Eilian." She chuckled. "He was the biggest jerk I knew." Her warm smile disappeared. "He died."

"How did he—"

"Eon." She said the name with such hatred. "Eon murdered him. Time Walkers have their own galaxy to meld at their will. It leads to anywhere we want. You destroy our galaxy, we die with it." She bit her lip, trying as hard as she could to stop the tears from flowing. "Eon tore Eilian's galaxy apart, exploding it from the inside."

"I'm sorry," I replied.

"He deserved better." I watched as she pulled her watch from her pocket. She flipped it in her hand delicately. "He gave me this as well. It was his before I gained my powers. Without it, I can't go anywhere. It's my power source. No watch, no power."

"I'm sure he was a good person."

She smiled fondly. "He was." It disappeared. "He was my best friend."

I looked at her hand in mine. It was weathered, but young, a hand that had been through much; done much. "Why did you come to the '40s? You said that you went there by accident." I smirked. "I've known you long enough to know when you're lying."

She chuckled. "It was an accident in the beginning." She turned to me. I held her gaze. It was warm, but agonizing. Kind, but distant. "And then I realised that I came to the '40s to meet you."

I frowned. Why would she want to meet me? What made me so important? Sure, I was a success in the Super Soldier project, but I still didn't understand why I was so important that she had to meet me after stumbling to the '40s. 

"Why?" I asked. "What makes me so important?"

She smiled, slipping her watch back into her pocket and her hand out of mine. "You'll understand someday."

❈Author's Note: Hey, there! What did you think about this heart to heart? Do you think Andi made the right decision revealing this much to Steve? Let me knoowwww!

This chapter is dedicated to TAngel96. She's also written a Marvel fic. Check out her work! She's amazeballs! You won't be disappointed! #MarvelSquad

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