Giselle's head hurt. More than that time when she fell off the swings, even more than what happened after that creepy chair.

"She's returning to consciousness." A sweet British-accented voice squeaked. Someone else mumbled about brains.

Giselle didn't remember how she got there, or why her head hurt until she saw a blonde woman with a slightly guilty look on her face.

She was a captive apparently, again. But the doe-eyed woman who was peering at her didn't seem as possibly dangerous as the blonde, or the old creepy guy who tried to get her in his possessed furniture. Suddenly the woman squeaked, looking excited.

"Fitz!" She spun around, smiling at a man behind her. He seemed as excited as her, the blonde though, looked as puzzled as Giselle felt.

"She's like Sk- Oop, I mean Daisy." The guy corrected. Scientists, judging from the lab coats, messy desks, and fancy gadgets. Blonde lady? Fighter most probably, pretty though, and next star of Mad Max with the leather jacket.

"Inhuman?" The blue-eyed blonde asked Giselle to open her eyes a bit more, but the woman in the lab coat saw that instead of screaming and pointing out 'THE PRISONER IS AWAKE' she smiled at Giselle, and the blonde closed her eyes, as if unwilling to see Giselle.

"Hi," The woman smiled a bit wider. "I'm Jemm-"

"I thought you two were going to do your FitzSimmons intro!" A disappointed voice said, a man with brown hair sticking out of every direction came in, grinning devilishly when he noticed Giselle. "Peter." He introduced himself simply, the blonde sighed, looking down to the floor.

"Fine," The Scottish-accented man gave in with a sigh.

The woman pointed at the scott. "Fitz-"

"-Simmons." The lab coat was introduced. Fitz glared at Peter pointedly, who clapped, grinning once more.

"There! Lovely! Perfect-"

"What do you want Maxwell?" The blonde interrupted sourly, glaring at him. He didn't flinch, instead having a face like he'd endured that glare many times before.

He cleared his voice, putting on a face that was probably supposed to be serious. "Oh you know...Hill wanted to know if miss...miss..." He trailed off, looking at Giselle inquisitively.

"Winters." She said, rising unsteadily from the hospital bed. "Giselle Winters...but S.H.I.E.L.D already knows."

All of them exchanged a look, Fitz and Simmons confused, and Peter apprehensive, the blonde focused instead on Giselle, her ice-blue eyes stormy, much like the sky. Middle of February snowfalls and mush.

"Sorry." The blonde apologized, her eyes flickering down again, Giselle tried to remember what she did so bad to offend her, but didn't.

"About?"

Peter seemed to find it hilarious, snorting so hard that he coughed. The blonde didn't. "Knock it off Maxwell."

"Oh...I'm sorry Miss Elizabeth Mist." He said with a grin. "I think you gave lovely miss Winters a concussion if she can't remember you-"

The blonde stopped him with one glare. Which was impressive, and would have been even more impressive if he didn't snort again.

Giselle suddenly remembered, oh yeah, she dropped a wall on a blonde lady...blonde lady tried to catch her...and then...

"Did- Did you sedate me?" Giselle asked, appalled by the fact people carried around sedatives.

"My greatest apologies," The blue-eyed blonde smiled tiredly. "You kinda dropped a wall on me, I kinda got out of control, sedated you, you tried to punch me again, fell over, and..." She fidgeted. Peter raised both eyebrows and grinned again.

"Ahhh...Icky Lizzikins got all sorry cause she sedated someone after swearing she'd never do that ag-"

Apparently, though, Simmons was tired of Peter's rambling, and shooed him out of the lab, insisting he gets out since Giselle needed healing.

S.H.I.E.L.D, definely S.H.I.E.L.D.

Giselle remembered the warnings the curly-haired girl told her, S.H.I.E.L.D always wants to make a deal with you, they won't break it unless something's wrong, or they're evil, just do the same for them.

She also said 'Oh yeah, but still don't get yourself found by S.H.I.E.L.D,' but she'd have to live with it.

"What...what do you want from me?" She asked, her through dry, knowing S.H.I.E.L.D probably wanted her for tests, experiments, bloo-

But Simmons cracked a smile. "We don't want anything. We'd like to ask you to help us," She looked at the blonde, prompting her to take over the conversation. "Elizabeth?" She prompted.

The woman took a deep breath. "You know why you've got your powers, right?"

It felt like a trick question to Giselle. "Um...S.H.I.E.L.D messed with one of my ancestor's genetics?"

It seemed like a good guess, but Elizabeth shook her head. "Terrigen Mist, it's a trigger for...inhuman powers, usually passed down by genetics. Or experimentation." She took a folder from a silver lab table, passing it to Giselle.

FILE ON: GISELLE EMILA WINTERS.

S.H.I.E.L.D really wasn't kidding, they even had her middle name, which, before anyone wondered, was most definitely not because of Emila Clarke.

DANGER LEVEL: 6/10
STABILITY: 4/10

"W...what?" Giselle peered at it closer. Four? After months and months of using them, she...

"We'd like to help you with them," Elizabeth said, assessing her carefully. "We've worked with a inhuman- Actually, wait, I'm speaking for all of S.H.I.E.L.D." The blonde cringed, and Fitz nodded in agreement.

"Feels like...that movie, one with the aliens and suits-"

"Men in Black?" Giselle and Elizabeth both said at the same time, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at her.

Okay, if this lady watched Men in Black, she wouldn't kill Giselle, probably.

She shook her head and took a breath. "I've worked with an Inhuman before, Daisy Johnson, Quake, Skye, she goes by a lot of names." Elizabeth looked at Giselle as if wondering if she was laying about her name. "And from what-"

"I'd be a useful asset for something?" Giselle asked, Fitz and Simmons exchanged a look. "Sorry, I just watched a lot of movies," She said quickly. "And I met a lot of people who know about these stuff."

Fortunately for Giselle's secret, Elizabeth didn't press. She seemed to relax.

"So..." Giselle tapped her knee. "What team is it this time?"

Florence vividly recalled her brother, even almost a year after his... disappearance. And now Hill came at her spilling over so much information, Florence was tempted to ask if she was suddenly promoted to level nine of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Her brother was alive, he was...babysitting something called Skrulls with a certain Agent Deimos, Quake, and Agent Seller. S.H.I.E.L.D was assembling a team which was the backup plan for the Avengers, Hill and Fury wanted Florence on the team. Oh, and S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't gone.

Florence wasn't dumb, she agreed.

"Who's on the team?" Florence's dark brown eyes scanned around the crowded hallway, she recognized some people, like Gail Richards, and FitzSimmons, who dashed off madly, not ackneging the presence of anyone.

Hill kept going forward, back straight, head held high. "A few people, you may get along with most...you've got a talent for that."

Florence blushed, looking down, the star on her uniform shining proudly. "Thank you, Maria- I mean, Agent Hill."

Maria made a face between a cringe and a smile,

Florence probably tested Hill's boundaries by calling her Maria, it was probably a big no-no, even with Fury.

Especially with Fury.

Hill calmly opened the door to a meeting room, eight people were around the table, a man with curly brown hair was poking around a tin of biscuits, a woman in leather was doodling in a steel blue notebook, a young girl with dark blonde hair seemed to be peeking at another girl, who was fidgeting uncomfortably in a gray S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, a man was mumbling and holding an ice pack on his eye, while a young woman and man poked another, stuck out their tongues, and acted rather immaturely. Not that Florence would tell them that.

But Maria had no such problems.

"Maxwell, Barton, put your tounges back in your mouth, Winters, Barnes, stop acting like you're in the wrong room, Rodriguez..." She trailed off, looking at the ice-pack man, which Florence recognized as Noah Rodrigez, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and once the boyfriend of Natasha Romanoff. "Where did you get yourself hit like that?" She frowned.

"Umm..." He shifted the package around a bit. "A kid did it."

The two girls exchanged a look as if Noah's statement confirmed that kids could kick ass as well.

Hill muttered darkly about stupid kids and waved a hand at Florence. "Florence, go ahead-"

"Auntie Flo!" Robin squealed suddenly, knocking over her and her boyfriend's chair, who stifled a few curses, Robin flew at Florence, the force of the hug almost knocking her over.

"Um...oh hey birdy." Florence smiled, Noah gave her a sympathetic look, and Robin's boyfriend rose, still cursing Robin's mother.

He looked familiar and yet a complete stranger at the same time. Brown messy hair, bright blue eyes, devilish grin, and instead of showing up in uniform (like most people, with Miss Leather and Biscuit Tin as exceptions) he chose to wear jeans and a white shirt reading 'if lost, please return to the closest S.H.I.E.L.D base.' He seemed to freeze for a second when he saw Florence, and then slumped back in the chair, breathless.

Weird.

"Hellooo..." Robin waved her hand in front of Florence. "You in there Miss Agent America?"

Biscuit tin looked up, bemused. He smiled at Florence in a way that said 'I don't remember you existing...'

Leather's hand tightened around her pencil, Florence couldn't see the sketch, but the pencil was probably gonna break if she kept holding it that way.

"Florence." Hill prompted, waving her down to a seat next to the gray uniform girl. "I trust you all know who she is."

Leather and the girl both shook their heads.

Of course, nobody knew who she was again...even after the John Walker thing...and after she almost became Captain America...until Sam got the shield.

"Florence Rogers, Agent America, and yeah, I'm Steve Rogers's sister." Florence looked down. Silence.

The girl next to her outstretched her hand. "Giselle, Giselle Winters. I'm new." She shrugged, and Florence shook her hand. Sixteen tops, something about her was different, then again, everyone else looked different too.

The other girl introduced herself quickly as Brooklyn, mumbling her surname, looking at the blonde woman sketching before saying 'Barnes' very quickly. Florence smiled, remembering Bucky's rant about his 'father's brother's great-granddaugther' and about her being Natasha's fan.

"Peter Maxwell," The brown-haired man introduced himself with a smirk. "Better known as-"

"The biggest donkey on earth." Robin finished, glaring at him, daring him to keep talking. The other man turned out to be Agent Earl Kemp, which Florence vaguely heard off before when Maria complained about him not solving HYDRA-related cases.

But the blonde in dark leather didn't say a word, or look up, or stop sketching whatever was on that notebook.

"Agent 27?" Hill raised an eyebrow, and the woman finally looked up. Florence felt a shock travel through her, like electricity. Ice blue. Not the first time she heard about this Agent.

"It's Agent Mist now, Agent Hill." Her voice was quiet, but there was rage, anger, and sadness bubbling under the surface. Blonde but was supposed to be raven-haired, ice blue eyes colder than described. "Agent America," Mist said curtly, of Florence wouldn't have known better, she would have said that Elizabeth Catherine Mist had something against Americans. But that wasn't it.

"Loved, lost, the same difference now. The Elizabeth I knew and loved is gone and buried. And Thanos got nothing to do with it Flo."

GRACE
Next update: Monday, unless my temptation of publishing the pre-written chapters wins over my schedule. But it won't. Okay, first off, thank you for all the views, votes, comments, and everything you've done so far, The Protectors is still the 1# Marvel Apply Fic, as of 3rd March 2023. When you search it up.
I'm seriously foreshadowing Elizabeth's past to much... Well, next chapter isn't gonna be from team S.H.I.E.L.D (yay) and it's gonna feature everyone's favorite Stark and HYDRA experiment. Both male.
And if Ramiro and Max aren't your favorites... My apologies, I'm not adding Tony Stark to the story.
Man...2000 words...I got carried away.

This is probably one of my favorite aesthetics I've made. I should have made the 'no, you move' smaller though.