The Last Hope

Chapter 16

****Demetra’s POV****

I blinked slowly, my vision switching in and out of focus. I groggily raised my head, feeling as if in a daze, feeling like I had been drugged, since I wasn’t awake with my usual alertness. The room spun before me and I put a hand to my head with a groan. Laughter came from the right of me.

“I trust you slept well?”

If I have had the energy, I would’ve slapped the green right out of his cold, piercing eyes. “Why haven’t I killed you yet?” I asked, still half in a dream-like mode. I didn’t go for the simple “where am I?” for it really didn’t matter to me. What mattered was that I should’ve stabbed him right before he kidnapped me. Have my skills gone rusty?

“Oh you know why.”

“Afraid I don’t,” I said, turning my heavy head to look at him, sitting just a few feet away from me in a chair, no protection at all between us. Nothing to prevent me from raking my nails down his face and granting me some satisfaction.

“Yes you do,” he smirked, leaning forward. “Because you still want revenge, not only on me but on Thanos. And I’m the only way you could get to him. And do you not hope to reclaim lost loved ones? For he shall reward you with anything, anyone who like by allying yourself with us.”

“There’s no one for me,” I whispered, glaring.

“But I believe there is. Stella. Was that not her name? If she is dead, he could bring her back. Would you not want that? To see your dear little sister again? To make things right between yourself and her?”

“I burned that bridge long ago,” I replied, my voice rough. “She could be dead, she could be alive. She could be living, middle-aged with a proper family. Or she could be 6 feet beneath the ground, lying silently. Either way she’s in peace. What right do I have to take that away from her?”

He laughed again. “You think yourself different from the others, that you know right from wrong. You lie and kill in a service of liars and killers, thinking you have your own code to separate yourself from them when you’re really just as bad as them. What makes you so different from the rest?”

“Nothing,” I said, looking him straight in the eye. “I’ve been through Hell and back and so have they. What makes you so different from anyone else who has tried to conquer the Earth?”

“I am going to succeed,” he replied, standing up and walking to the door of my little holding cell.

“No you’re not.”

“And why is that” he asked, turning back towards me.

“Because you lack conviction.”

************Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. ************

****Steve’s POV****

So Demetra had just been captured and yet we’re all still sitting here on our asses like idiots. Anyone of us could’ve attacked him but no, we were sitting with a dumbstruck look on all our faces.

“Where do you think he went?” Tony asked quietly, but firmly, his eyes trained on the ground.

“I do not know,” Thor answered.

“Demetra is not a priority right now, we need to focus on the army being constructed and how to fight them-“

“Don’t you dare say that!” Tony yelled, cutting off Fury in a rage, his hands coming down on the table. “She’s the only family I got left and even if she’s annoying, possessed, and I don’t know her too well, you can be damn well sure I care about her and will get her back under any circumstance.” And then he stalked out of the room.