The Before [Prequel- Part 1]

Back To The Lighthouse

"I vote to feed him to the Roaches." I offered a solid suggestion.

Phil shook his head. "As tempting as that sounds, I left it up to Deke."

~~~Deke's pov~~~

I approached the cell that held Voss, a gun in my right hand.

Only one thought echoed in my mind when I saw him.

He killed her.

~~~Flashback~~~

I hurried to find Voss. I needed answers.

Why did they have the shard?

That piece of white and red rock might not seem like much to them, but to me, it was the biggest reveal ever.

Finally, I found the man I was looking for in the back of the plane, sorting through some things.

"Hey, Deke-" He looked up from what he was doing to talk, but I quickly cut him off.

"What the hell are they doing with the shard?" I asked, tears pricking my eyes. I wanted anything other than my theory to be correct, but all signs pointed to it.

He furrowed his brows. "Who? Coulson, May, and that science guy? Hell, if I know."

"That belonged to Linda's mother. Why doesn't she have it with her?" I questioned, recalling what she used to tell me about the rock.

She told me that after her parents died, she only had two things to remember them by. The shard reminded her of her mother, while a locket reminded her of her father.

She wouldn't have left it behind.

Voss tensed for a moment before answering calmly. "Don't overthink it, kid. It's pretty dangerous out there in the wastelands. She probably just left it here for safekeeping."

Now I was getting angry. "No." I shook my head, my fists clenched. "I once saw Linda kill a Kree because they tried to confiscate it and take it away from her-"

"You need to calm down."

"No. You need to stop lying to me." My tone became more accusatory. "She wouldn't leave it in your locker. So, what the hell did you do to Linda?"

Voss' face fell, and that was the last thing I saw before he knocked me unconscious.

~~~Flashback Ends~~~

Now, he sat in a cell, eyeing the firearm warily. "You're upset. I don't blame you. Think about what you're doing here."

"You killed her." I glared at him, my vision blurred with tears. "You killed the woman I saw as a sister."

He rose from his seated position and stood before the wire divider. "Me and Linda were lockstep in almost everything. We always agreed to pull these people out of the past, but once they got here, we never saw eye-to-eye on that. She was convinced they'd come up with some grand solution. I thought killing them was the solution. And you know firsthand how stubborn that girl could be."

"She trusted you." I was beyond furious. When Linda and I were growing up, Voss checked up on us. He gave us spare food and means to survive. How could he possibly...

"Yeah. Up until the day she tried to end that argument for good. I was just brainstorming how we could get rid of that Catherine lady and the god. They were the two most powerful problems I was trying to work around. When I brought it up to her, she attacked me with her dagger, and that same dagger ended up in her chest. You know she was capable of it."