Void (The Avengers)

forty-two

"Well," he smiled, "I have my reasons and I hope you will forgive me if I don't tell you them."

She didn't say another word as he led her to the opposite side of the lab, staring down at her moving feet as she did so.

He put her into a room with nothing other than a mattress lying in the far corner. A window was in the centre of the roof, letting in some of the golden light from the setting sun outside, illuminating the middle of the room, but leaving the corner with the mattress in darkness.

"Well, here you are, Carter. You know the drill, dinner will be brought to you in—"

"Why did you change everyone's names?" Carter blurted before she could stop herself.

Dr. Smith looked taken aback and Carter could clearly see the flicker of anger that passed in his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he said after a moment's silence.

Carter couldn't help but think about how, if she had asked questions like that when she was last here, she wouldn't have gotten any sort of answer, but a telling-off or maybe even a punch.

"I know that you—you changed the names of everyone you brought here. And I guess I get that it's so we could be kept secret or whatever, but... why the names ending in er?"

Dr. Smith looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "No particular reason. The first names I changed ended with those letters, so I wanted to make it a tradition. Did you manage to find your own name?"

Carter shook her head. "I didn't look."

Dr. Smith hummed. "I would have expected you to check immediately. I must admit, you are full of surprises, Carter."

She said nothing, but averted her eyes away from his own gaze. She didn't look back at him when he said, "Well, that's enough for one day. A guard will be to bring you dinner and then your lights will be turned out at the normal time. Goodnight." And he turned and exited the room, but not before casting a quick, almost nervous look at the window in the centre of the roof.

~\☆/~

Carter didn't look up from the mattress when the guard came to bring her her dinner. She only took two bites, before pushing it away. Like usual, the guard came back to take the bowl and soon after that, the lights were turned off. Now the only light in the room was the dim glow of the moon coming through the window above.

It cast a silver glow around the room and Carter lay on her back on the mattress, gazing up at the moon through the window on the roof.

The stars were barely visible, but she was able to spot a few of them as small pinpricks in the distance. The sky was inky black and she wondered what time it was. There was no clock in her room and all she ever got of indication for the time was her meals and when she would be woken up by the guards banging on the door.

Her eyes shifted back to the moon and just as she was about to roll around onto her side and attempt to sleep, the moon was blocked by a figure. She immediately jumped to her feet and stared up, eyes wide open.

She couldn't see who stood there since the moon was behind them, making them only appear as a silhouette. She was slowly backing away into a corner when she heard a whispering, but urgent voice, say, "In here!"