**There are some violent parts in this chapter, so please read with caution!**
My eyes trace the metal floors of the airship Director Fury had given our team for this mission. I had stepped away from the group for a bit of air to collect my thoughts. My gloved hands trace over my mask as I take in a deep breath, trying to calm myself down, and I go over the briefing in my head. Everything went by in a blur after it, and the bad feeling I had earlier has only gotten worse.
"Damn it..." I curse, rubbing my temples and jumping a bit when there was a knock at the door.
"Ari? Can I come in?" Simone's muffled voice asks from behind the door.
"Oh, yeah, sure," I say and the doors slide open, revealing her in her SHIELD issued uniform. It's a two-piece similar to mine but dark blue with black lining and an eagle emblem on the right side of her chest. She strides in, tucking a stray of blonde hair behind her ears. Her curly hair is tied in a bun and pulled back to keep it out of her face.
"So, hiding away here are we?" she smiles, but it's shaky as she sits on the bench beside me.
"I just needed some space to think..."
"Oh, o-of course..." she laces her fingers together on her lap, gripping them tightly and I can see the tension in her shoulders.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes!" I flinch at her volume, her voice echoing off the walls as a dusting of pink spreads across her freckled cheeks. "S-Sorry..."
"It's okay," I say with a small laugh. "So what's on your mind?"
"It's just... I'm so nervous. Here I am a bundle of nerves with all the worst possibilities running through my mind!" she says all in one breath, burying her face in her hands. "I have absolutely no idea how you stay so calm."
"Hate to break it to you, but I am never calm on these missions. None of us are. I don't think I'll ever be used to all of... this." I say, gesturing to the ship. "It might not be a first class to the Bahamas, but I think there might be a couple of barf bag on board if that makes you feel better?" I joke, getting a look from her. She leans back, a little more relaxed but with a faraway look in her eyes.
"Ari? Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Do... Do you ever feel like you aren't really here? It's just, after being trapped in that simulation, sometimes I feel like I'm just dreaming all of this to cope."
"Sometimes... yeah."
Out of all of us, they trapped her in that hellhole the longest. The doctors had referred us to counseling after we were all rescued, but... it's hard to explain what we all went through. The others would do their best to comfort us, but sometimes I can see that faraway look in their eyes and I know they're remembering.
"I still have nightmares about it... but I hear you're having the worst of it, even though you weren't in there for too long."
"The pros of being the defective one, I guess. They had to give me an extra non-tested dose of that pink crap." I shrug. "What about you?"
"They're getting better, but now it seems like they're being replaced."
"With what?"
"... Home," she mutters, her eyes becoming sad. I still don't know what had happened between her and her grandmother. The only thing I know was that she ran away after a big argument and she hadn't seen her since.
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Toss Up (Danny Rand)
Fanfiction". . . A situation in which all outcomes or options are equally possible or equally attractive." For Ari, life was just a daily routine of school, work, sleep, hang out with friends and repeat. Her life was fairly normal, that is until four new kids...
