Air Tight (Book Two)

Chapter: 1

DAY: 29

Winter Soldier

The ground was covered in fallen buildings, tipped over cars and charred trees. It looked like a wasteland, and that's what it was quickly becoming. Clint was scoping out the area, keeping watch above us on the ledges of the buildings. Our team consisted of Clint, Thor, Agent Hill and Captain America. It was a strong team, we got our missions done. But they were always small and didn't take much to complete. We were basically trying to infiltrate Hydra to steal information, just about anything that we could get our hands on. Anything. Whether it was about the Aether or about Hydra's weapon plans. Anything would help us out.

"Everything checks out, let's head back to Fury." Agent Hill said as she walked past me towards the jet. We all boarded it, Clint jumped down from one of the ledges and landed on top of a car, he leaped and ran towards the jet as we were taking off.

The jet took off into the sky and we vanished into the darkening clouds above the city. The Helicarrier was in plain sight above us, looming silently. We pulled up and landed on the landing strip. We all ran out of the jet and inside. Fury was waiting for us on the bridge.

"Mission report." he said; the words creating a quick snap in my head.

"We managed to trace back a link to one of Hydras files. But the file was stripped clean." Agent Hill told him. "We tried, Nick, we did."

"I know." he said. "But we have to try a little harder. Get cleaned up and meet me back here in an hour, we have some things to go over."

Before he could say more I slipped away from the conversation and into the hallway, I walked towards the infirmary where Lark was. No progress had been made for her, and she didn't seem to have been getting any better than she already was. I feared for her life, and it took all the strength that I had just to get up and leave for missions.

Outside the infirmary I passed by the window, but slowed down and backed up to look through it. Lark laid there quietly. Her skin looked almost as white as she sheets laid on top of her, her hair looked like a brighter red than I had ever seen before. The tubes were still in her nose and the monitors still surrounded the bed. She hadn't changed much, and little progress was ever noticed. Dr. Banner always had someone keep a close eye on her, Clint, Thor or I would take turns watching her unless we were on a mission for SHIELD

"At this point in time the Aether should have killed her." Thor walked up behind me. "But I wonder if her body is fighting it off better than we all imagined."

"She'll fight till the last second of her life." I felt myself mumble.

"Banner spoke to me about recovering stolen data from Hydra. He believes that there may be something that we could use to help." Thor told me. I nodded, barley paying attention to a word he said. "She will heal in time, Soldier of Winter, she is strong and in her youth; she will survive this."

"As far as I know, Hydra is testing the Aether they have on their own soldiers. Their numbers decreased a few days back but we've noticed that it's spiked back up. Either the Aether is working or they're finding people in the streets to use as their weapons. SHIELD's been watching them, our agents on the inside have been sending encrypted feeds. They've mentioned a mutation occurring in those who are possessed by the Aether."

"Does Lark possess this mutation?" Thor asked.

I paused and took a brief second to reevaluate everything, then turned to Thor and shook my head. "No, she doesn't." I think I was lying to myself then.

The room was silent, and smelled of sour chemicals. The bear was still sitting beside her, untouched. I stood across the room by where the window was, leaning against a shelf that had tubes and small cups around them. This place didn't feel right, none of it did. Everything around me felt fake, like it wasn't really meant to actually be there. I didn't really trust SHIELD as much as the next person did, but they were my only chance to make a difference and prove to people that I'm not an assassin and I'm not just a weapon of mass destruction that was one set out to kill every target that Hydra ordered for me.