The silence that descended was so icy.
Ice literally froze on your fingers.
You were standing directly across from the man who'd whispered in your ear, saying not a word. He was dressed in a suit and a tie, rather nicely polished shoes, and black hair that was slicked back.
"Jim Moriarty. Hi." A smile grew on his face as he watched your features go from scared, to rage to murderous rage. Yes, there is a difference.
More quiet.
There was no way as heck that he was going to get to you. No one did, and no one ever would.
"Are you just going to stand there?" He finally asked, curious, and you cackled.
"No, I'm going to river dance."
He responded with a tip of his head to the left in a testing manner, and you guessed whether or not he really was Jim, now was not the time for sarcasm.
So you were going to continue, obviously. And on that note,You were 99% sure your death was going to be caused by you being sassy at the wrong time.
Jim spoke up, raising an eyebrow. "Staying alive, (your name). So boring, isn't it?"
"Shut up." You growled in reply, ice shooting from your hands that spiked into the fabric of his shirt. "Shut up, shut up, shut up. Shuttity up up up. Just shut up."
He pulled the ice out, clearly annoyed. "Westwood." Moriarty snapped.
No. This wasn't right.
"I know." You murmured. "Bloody heck, I know!" Pacing closer, you continued. "I've memorized your every line. Your attitude, your movements. I am you. You are me."
"But you're on the side of the angels," came the disappointed sigh.
With the exact quote you stepped face to face with him, just like with Garett, and replied in utter calm, "Oh, I am on the side of the angels, but don't think for a second I am one of them."
Breaking character, laughter smashed the moment, and Jim's smile grew. "Yes. Yes I see now." More laughter. "You are me."
That was it. "No. I am him. Not you." Your finger jabbed at his chest and you pressed him against the wall, ice holding him in place. "Because you aren't Jim. Who in the bloody heck are you really?"
"Can't figure it out, can you, Ice Box?"
"Don't!" You raged, spinning around to face the alley walls so you didn't need to see Moriarty. "Don't call me Ice Box."
"What, then?"
A smirk attached itself to your face, an idea for a name appearing. You snapped your fingers, cracked your knuckles. Held your head high. But you weren't sharing it just yet. "For now, (your name), suits me just fine."
Moriarty's laughter died and there was another tip of the head. "(Your name)," he muttered, trying the name out during a pause. "You did something I did. You're different. You are me."
Suddenly, somehow, the ice holding Jim back hit the ground and your captive, (who had been your captive for maybe thirty seconds), was walking back down the alley, away from your view.
"I'm going to remember you." His voice echoed, eerily bouncing off the walls to you. "And don't forget it."
Then the laughter was back.
"I gave you my number," Jim said.
"Thought you might call."
And a gold flash blinded your vision.
***
When morning rolled around, a voice shook your dreamy thoughts.
"You're in my way, mate."
Blinking, you opened your eyes and stood to your feet groggily, squinting at the figure in front of you. "What?"
"You're in my way." The voice repeated.
Looking to your left, you brushed you (hair color) hair out of your face. Blinked again. "Jamie?"
She sighed. "(Your name)?"
"Again? Freaking again?" At last, fully awake, you frowned. "What is with you showing up wherever I am? It's making me uncomfortable, Randell."
"Sorry. Honestly I am. But I have a read, on something odd. Thought you might want to be the second to see."
Her new phone was flicked out, a video loading. Once it started, you felt your breath escape your lungs.
A huge light stream blasted from the sky, as if directly from space, hitting a spot in the ground. It seared into the dirt, a burnt spot marking it's place. A figure walked from away from it when the the light fled, and although their face was unclear, a smirk was fixed.
Gold light flashed from the person, and in a second, the clothes were almost the complete opposite. From special armor, to a suit.
The video ended. Jamie sent you a look. "Know who that is?"
"Someone from the nine realms, obviously." You said with a snort. "But who? Isn't that some form of the Rainbow Bridge of legend or whatever?"
Randell nodded. "Yeah. Something like that. Out of all of them, though, I'd vote for Asgard."
"Agreed." That's when a thought passed through your head. "Where'd you get this feed?"
Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a flash of blue in Jamie's eyes and she made a face. "Found it back hacking into Shield, trying to find anything on Hydra's plan to maybe outwit them. Like I said, thought it looked important."
Nodding, you made a fist and held it up. "Fist bump, just for old times sake? I've got places to be."
"I've only known you half a day, (your name), but sure." She fish bumped you, reminding you of your old old friend for a third time.
Both of you shared a friendly chuckle before parting to go your own ways.
Blue flash of light in the eyes.
Where had you seen that before? It was poking the side of your brain, and this time you were determined to figure it out.
Running along the sidewalk as casually as possible, you found a cafe that was open among the few you'd seen. It was red brick sides, blue door and squeaky clean windows.
The sign read: The American Cafe
How cliché.
Adjusting your posture and clothes, you entered.
Some heads glanced up, others didn't move a muscle. You spotted a well kept computer and walking over, you raised a hand.
"Hello." You said.
The person leaned away from the screen wearily. "Nah."
Taken aback, you stammered, "Nah?"
"No is too serious. Nope is too casual," was the reply with a normal expression coming from the girl. "Nah is just right."
You let out a laugh. "Did you murder this man? Nah."
She giggled a moment at your dry attempt at humor, then became business like. "Anyways, you're a stranger, you're a bit weird and why should I help you?"
"Because I said please." The words were blurted from your mouth before you knew what you were doing, and you slapped a hand over your lips. "I mean-"
The girl interrupted you. "I understood that reference," she said. Sweeping her hair out of her eyes she stood and offered you the computer. "I don't trust just anyone, so use it wisely, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Getting right to work, you sat yourself down in the stiff chair. Fingers typed and clicked furiously, eyes darted back and forth along the lit screen, searching in hidden archives for the answer.
Clues popped up every now and again, but it wasn't enough to piece together all the pieces. And the problem was, you didn't have long. S.H.I.E.L.D. could be upon your area any moment, as soon as they discovered your searches. Because no doubt they were searching for you.
Blue eyes... You thought, racking your brain. Where had you seen that before...?
Then it hit you. Your eyes widened in horror and a breath escaped your lungs. Every muscle became stiff, every previous thought came to a halt.
Your parents.
The battle of New York.
Coulson.
Avengers.
The Chitauri.
And worst of all, Loki.
Clenching your fists, it took all of your willpower not to freeze the computer and you stood up silently, nodding a 'thank you' to the girl as you left.
Loki.
Blue eyes.
Jamie, working for Loki? Why? His earth invasion has already failed; why was he back? What did he want? Or in other words, need?
If only he was here. You two had been the best of friends. Solving crimes, playing games and pranks. And he never once chastised you about your ice power. You missed him so much.
But the more you thought about him, the more muddled you were going to get. No.
Couldn't bring him back to the surface. He was gone, and that was that.
Now, where to get connections? You had none, as far as you knew.
"Alone..." You whispered, your voice breaking a little in frustration while you ran down the street for a second time, dashing anywhere you could. "So that's what it feels like."
"Alone?" Came a voice. "(Your name), hardly. Care to come in for a drink?"
The voice stopped you cold. It want Jamie, and yet...it sounded familiar.
Turning, you frowned. "Agent Maria Hill?"
***
She smiled. "The one and only. Director Fury wanted to give you a last chance, and this is it."
"Is it now?" You seethed, feeling like biting back although she'd done nothing aggravating currently. "Well isn't that a nice little get-to-know-me present."
"Don't even think about it. The drink was the option, but coming with me is not." Her brown eyes flashed defiantly, a hand gesture motioning you to move her direction.
You rolled your eyes. "It's not, eh? Please, do continue to tell me things I already know."
This time a gun was pulled on you. "Make a mistake, (your name), and I will shoot."
"Shoot me, Hill," you countered, sparking some ice at your fingertips, "and I will retaliate. And we all know how that goes down."
Slowly the gun lowered, her face a blank mask. "All right, all right. B-"
"I told you I didn't want to join your super secret boy band." Was your snarl. "Back then, asking me was a low blow. It's not any better now. My answer is still no, and that's final."
"It's never final." Maria replied, absentmindedly. "But if that's it for now-"
"It is."
"-then I'll be going."
She strode away, leaving you on the streets, this time really and truly alone.
Surprised she hadn't brought backup, you did you best to look calm and unperturbed, sticking your hands in your pockets.
While inside, it was the complete opposite.
***
It was a battle.
First it was rage, anger and frustration burning your heart out. Then a mixture of sadness and sorrow, regret and resentment. Cold, hard, icy hands gripped your feelings at the same instance dark, withering shadowy ones tugged at your strings. Playing them like an instrument they did, grasping you this way and that.
More feelings came then, old ones you'd almost forgotten. Happiness. Not a calculated smile, or a mechanical smirk. Real grins, wide smiles. Bright eyes, flushed cheeks. The person who used to be you, buried deep inside was still alive.
And the person outside refused to let them resurface. For on the outside was a messy sociopathic genius. Dark eyes, flashing and calculating. Jerking and spying for a weakness. Windblown hair, wrinkled clothes. Long scratches and stitched cuts. New shoes with old meanings.
Everything you'd been, everything you were, clashed for dominance.
And the point where you'd once believed you'd broken had only been the beginning.
The crack that had closed was re-opened, slicing through the middle of your being. It strained at the holds of you sanity; it burned a fire in your soul.
Something snapped. And in that spilt moment, you didn't know why all these feels were attacking but you let them. You let it sink in and wash over you.
You felt your insides melting, and a cold revenge setting in. Dry air whooshed through your empty heart, blowing away the licking flames. Ice formed, freezing temperatures descended.
Coming from all directions new emotions grew, like ice stalagmites on a cave floor. They
stuck up and out, down and around. Through the walls that had once protected you. Grazing the anger that had built itself up. Under the trenches of what used to be love and joy, turning them to anything but.
Pain on the outside.
Hurt on the inside.
Regret on the inside.
Calm on the outside.
Emotions had never hit you this hard, and your weakness, that you were changeable, had never been more true. One second the pain was gone, filled to the brim with silence of wonder and curiosity of how you had even managed to came to this point. The next second it flared even brighter and stronger, stabbing into the wounds with a deadly speed.
But in the end, there was nothing to tell.
How do you tell of a breaking point? How do you explain to vain or innocent ears of pain and insanity? How do you share the horrid burst of what felt like the lake of fire in the centre of your spirit, then the frost of hate and rage? How would you go about your wish to finally be free?
That was it. Exactly it.
You don't.
Opening yourself up from your broken, shattered world, you looked around. There was no one in sight, not a soul. The cars passing by did so rather quickly, and glancing down you soon saw why.
The air around you had dropped at least thirty degrees. Spikes of ice jutted from the ground of cracked cement, your clothes were covered in frost. Peaking at a shop window, you saw your face, which was bloody in some places for reasons you knew not.
At a snails pace you left the sidewalk, heading for the only place you knew you were safe. Where you could be yourself without being a monster to others. Brushing some hair out of your eyes, you approached a new alley, a longer and clearly long abandoned one.
It suited you, to be honest. And right now that's all you needed. Something that agreed with your mood, something that reflected your very image.
With your back against the wall of a random restaurant, you sank to the ground and placed your head in your hands. This was never what you'd meant to be. Never who you'd wanted to become.
Apparently fate had had different plans.
Yet, as you thought about it, pretending that the pain inside had died down, something hit you, sparking a memory. It was some thing you'd heard before. An old childhood story from a while ago. Ages upon ages. And the words...you liked the sound of them.
Laughing like the maniac you were, you looked into the cloudy afternoon sky, easing your eyes to the heavens unseen. You grinned as well, one part of you mending oh so slightly when you spoke, whispering the sentence at the breeze.
It struck you like lighting. It stuck within your hide. And you loved it.
"There are no strings on me."
___________
A/N:
This last part, in all honesty was not planned.
It just sort of came to me, and I liked the way it ended ?? I guess and now of course, here you have it: UPDATE NUMBER SIX, YES?
I hope I didn't scare any of you; I may have gotten rather carried away with the descriptions although I rather liked how it came out. On another note, deep action coming up, as is a few surprises and changes.
A few more characters, a few deaths, it's all good.
Alright, that'll about do it for today.
I think I've done my fair share of writing for now, but I'll see you with a new chapter soon, don't worry.
THAT WAS SUCH A GODDAMN LIE STYX GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER
hey moon, please forget to fall down,
Styx