HIATUS S P E C T R E » Steve Rogers [1]

REMEMBRANCE

S P E C T R E ║ Remembrance  

❝We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fear.❞

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It wasn't a pleasant coldness. It was the kind that made you walk all the faster and brace your head against the wind. No matter how warm the blood in your veins, your face got frozen just the same. In spring time the water lies softly on the ground, but on that day it was solid to a drop in every from it could take. From soft snow underfoot to the icicles that hung from the railway bridge and the black ice that lay in wait on the freeway, nothing flowed. It was a day to stay inside and tend the fire, a day to reread that old book and to bake those cookies you always eat too many of. So the fact that Katherine had made her way up here to D.C. to speak with Nick Fury about the run around he'd been giving her and Miles was gnawing worse than the bitter air.

Katherine stared up at the building—The Triskelion—was a magnificent building, sitting in the middle of the Potomac River with bridges running from it onto the mainland. It was beautiful and sleek against the background, sticking out like some sore thumb that shouldn't be. Begrudgingly, she made her way inside the derelict structure filled with busy agents and warmth. When you entered the iconic, silver eagle was smacked in the middle of the building, expressing the freedoms and liberties that S.H.I.E.L.D protected in the world. There was a sigh that escaped her lips when the doors closed behind her, and she knew why she always left Washington before the winter season hit.

She was shaking timidly, rubbing at her arms even though she was wearing three-layers. Occasionally as Katherine walked by, a few of the agents would nod or smile towards her with some sort of admiration. Some were busy carrying papers from one floor up to the next, and a few walked by in the same recruitment uniform she'd once worn herself. The brunette thought back to the time when Tony first introduced her to Nick. Katherine was a young girl then, still reeling from the death of father and it angered her more that she wouldn't be able to defend herself if she was targeted.

"What's with that whole evil pout you got going on there?" Tony asked her, not bothering to look up from his machinery.

Katherine clutched the small shrapnel in her chubby hand. "I want to be trained."

A muscle jumped in her uncle's jaw, and he looked her over disapprovingly. Somehow, he knew that she would eventually ask him; he saw the determination and rage in her eyes. It burned like a wild desire, and regardless of what Tony would have said to her, Katherine was going to do what she wanted. It was a spark she'd gotten from her mother, something he also disliked. Sighing, he left the workbench and crouched in front of her.

"Honey, you can't be mad at the world because something like this happened. People...they die, every day, and I know its hard to deal with, but can't you pick another hobby?" Katherine was silent, her eyes darkening over and the shrapnel slicing deeply into her skin.

Tony gripped her shoulders and forced a lightly smile. "I know what you could do, Kathy. You could help me run the company. You're smart enough, you and I could make advancements people haven't even dreamed of."

"I want to be trained." Katherine wasn't staring at him anymore, she was looking at the velvet-haired woman that had sneaked her way into their humble home. She pressed a finger to her lips and Katherine couldn't help but smile.

That night, she was swept away into the world of espionage. It was like falling into a deep, black hole where no light shinned and she was find with that. There was a point, where she considered the Red Room, but Fury refused to put her through the program. Somewhere, deep inside her, she felt his tension, the regret he carried for allowing what happened to Talia—to her mother.