Eternally Grateful (CH 10 / ???)

A/N Oh My God, Chapter 10! Yay! Please leave me a comment!!!! I crave the opinions of my readers!

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What I thought had happened to me, and what actually happened were two entirly different things.

I thought that I was dead, the mutated version of Shadow being the one which had caused my end. I thought that the darkness I had seen was my mind going blank. All of my senses seemed like they had vanished. Not feeling, hearing, seeing or even knowing where I was led me directly to believe that I was gone. I was no longer alive. I had been killed at the hand of the same creatures that had gotten me into this mess in the first place. But when I began hearing that voice, half of me wanted to say that I was still alive. The other half though, still insisted that death had come my way, and that the voice was just some illusion, a mere figmant of my own imagination. The lose of my other senses, forced my hearing to take in every word of which was being spoken.

'Let me give you some advice. Each day is a gift and not a given right.'

That statement is correct in every sense of the word. I've learned to live for the present and stop wishing for tomorrow to come. Treasure each day while it is here, and seize every moment. Because things happen... some good and others bad. And those things could lead to that being your last day.

'You have to leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind, and always take the path less traveled by.'

You can't live in fear, wondering about what is going to happen next. Take every oppertunity that you are given and don't leave any chances behind.

'The first step you take is the longest stride.'

After you take that first step, that first leap, everything from there on out is easier, much less difficult.

These "Words of advice" were spoken, the being who was saying them sounding like they were right next to me. I understood this advice perfectly as it all made complete sense. What I did not know was why they were being told to me in the first place. I was confused as to how any of it was relevent at all. I swore to myself that I knew the voice. I knew that the voice sounded familiar but I just couldn't reach into the part of my mind which was in control of my recollection. When the darkness faded and Loki appeared in my line of vision, I was confused. What had actually happened to me?

---

"Loki? Wha... What did-"

"I saved you once again." He said, interupting me midsentence. "From the same creatures as before... Humh. I surly thought you would've learned from your previous encounter with them." He walked closer to me, looking down and staring at me with his emerald eyes. "But, obviously you have not."

"But... why did you help me again?" I couldn't help but ask. Loki moved again, walking behind me.

"For the same reason as before. I require your assistance." He replied as he put his hand on my shoulder, and lowered his head, wispering in my ear. I only stood there, tense and unable to move. His breath felt unnaturally cold. "And, now that Barton has fully trained you, and given you new weaponry..." He stopped for a second to let out a quiet laugh. "You will make a worthy ally."

For a moment, I did not say anything in response. My mind was buzzing with so many thoughts. All of them were rushing around in my head. It's like when I explained how that inspector was thinking when he questioned me. These individual thoughts were like puzzle peices. I tried to put them together, but it was more difficult then I have imagined. I had all the information, but could not fashion it all into one thing that would shed some light on what Loki's intentions were. I continued trying to fit the peices together, and when they all fell into the correct place, it was all clear.
"SHIELD... having them invade my house, and taking me to their headquarters... It was all a part of your plan... wasn't it?"

"You catch on fast." He released my shoulder, while I turned around to face him, seeing a smirk on his face.

"And those archery lessons... You made sure that Clint was the one who taught me..."

"Who better to train an archer then from another expert archer himself?"

"I see the sense in all your actions, but what is it all for? For what do you have to gain from it all?" I questioned, looking down away from his gaze. "You have neglected to imform me of what you even wanted my assistance for."

"You shall know in due time." Loki said. "But for now, all I need of you is but one promise."

"... And... what would that be?"

Loki pulled my head back up, forcing to look him in the eye. "Get those foolish members of Shield to trust you. Lead them to think that you are on their side... And whatever you do... Heh heh. Don't allow them to plant false information in your mind."

Before I could ask what he went by that, I had a very... strange feeling, and when I looked around me... I was back at city hall, standing in the same spot as before, holding my bow in the same stance with the arrow still pulled back. The mutant dog was not running at me, but was now laying on the ground in front of me, surrounded by a pool of blood. I gasped, loosening the tension on the arrow.

"Alice!" I heard Shep yell, which brought me out of my slight daze. I looked over to the right, seeing Clint and Shep standing by the enterence of the building. "It is time to return to the air-craft carrier."

I stood there for another moment, glacing again at Shadows mutant form laying dead on the floor, but then walked over to them, placing the arrow I had back into the quiver.

When be walked down the street there were news vans, and the crews from them tried to stop us to ask questions of what went on inside. They were very persistant and wouldn't back off even when we totally ignored them.

Clint grabbed my arm "Just keep walking." He said. The news people continued following us, but we reached the helicopter which had landed a block or so way, and we all quickly got in it. It took off from the ground moment later asending into the sky. I looked out the window, watching the ground, and all the people get further and further away untill they soon were out of sight.

"Your first mission went well." Clint said.

"WELL!?" Shep practically shouted. "Your director calls that chaos a low threat?! You all must be insane to think that those creatures were not at all deadly! I was nearly attacked by one of them!"

"What happened to you Alice?" Clint asked. "I looked over when that dog was running at you. Why did you'd stand there?"

"Yeah!" Shep added. "It could have killed you! Don't ever do anything like that ever again! You hear me!?"

'Don't say anything.' is what my mind said to me. I don't exactly know why, but everything in my head was telling me to just stay quiet about what had happened. How Loki appeared, saving me yet again, and telling me those... intriquing words of advice... Something told me that I shouldn't speak anything of it. At least not now. Just don't say anything. Nothing. Nothing at all.

"I... I don't know what happened." I said. "It all went too fast."

"Well what matters is that we all made it out unscaved." Shep said.

"Right." I agreed.


We were soon back at the helicarrier, and returned to the main room of headquarters where Director Fury was waiting. He was looking at a holographic screen which was showing some sort video. He looked up at Clint and I as we entered the room, and then motioned us over.

"Good work you two." He said, as we approched him. "If that attack would have been left unattended it could have escalated into a major problem."

"Crisis averted!" Shep said with a nod. He jumped up and sat on a chair which was next to where fury was standing. I noticed that the director glanced down at him with a bit of an angered expression. He really must not like animals much...

"You've already made the news." Fury spoke again. The screen turned, showing both me and Clint the video footage that the news vans captured. It showed us inside, shooting arrows at the mutant canines. I didn't even know someone was filming while we were in there. The inside shot didn't last long however, because a canine was running right at the camera-man and he darted out of the building as fast as he could. All the while he was screaming like a girl. The video went on then to show us walking out of city hall, and getting in the helicopter. After the footage, the video went back to the news, and the anchorman began speaking.

"City Hall has been saved, all thanks to Hawkeye, and his yet unknown partner, who the public has given the name Bluejay. It's nice to know that there are heros out there. This has been your breaking news story, and we now return to your regually scheduled programming."

The hologram then turned itself off.

"Bluejay?" I said, laughing a bit at the title I was given.

"Well at least you got mentioned!" Shep told me. "They didn't even acknowledge that I was there! What? I can't get any recognition?"

"You were a big help, Shep." I said, petting my canine companian. "You deserve praise too."

---

(Temporary 3rd person POV)

A loud sigh was let out from Nikki as she sat down on the living room couch of her mothers house. After Nikki stormed out of Alice's apartment, she returned to her mother, and they had, for the most part, reconciled their differences and forgave each other for all the things they had said. Nikki was home now, and she felt much better knowing that her mother wasn't enraged at her anymore.

Though Nikki couldn't help but think back to her argument with Alice, and how bad she actually felt for it. They had been best friends since 6th grade and trated each other like family. Whenever either of them had a problem, advice or just wanted to talk they would always go to each other looking for support. And they always received it. People often say that both of them were complete opposites. They had so many differences, from simple things like their taste in music -  Nikki liking rock and hiphop over anything else, while Alice was a total country music fan - Or to big things like their personalities, and outlooks on things. Nikki was more of a trouble maker, while Alice was always the more reasonable one of the two. Alice was highly intelligent and always did well in school, while Nikki sometimes struggled with all the work. Despite all the vast amount of differences the two of them had, they were friends from the moment they met. In a sense, those differences complimented each others positive qualities, while at the same time, helped out with working through the negatives.

Nikki turned on the TV. She wanted to take her mind off of Alice, and the argument they had. Nikki wanted so desperatly to set things straight and to right the wrongs, but she didn't know if she even could. She didn't know where to start, or how she would go about trying to apologize to her friend. Nikki decided to forget about it for the time being, and just stick to one problem at a time. She was glad that her mother and her had made up, but she still felt a bit of guilt. She really wanted to make it up to her mother somehow.

Nikki went channel surfing, looking for anything interesting to watch. If she couldn't find anything she told herself that she would just put it one of the music video channels. She clicked through many games shows, comedy acts, sitcoms, and all the boring news reports. As she passed one news network she caught a glimpse of something that made her stop for a second. She returned to the news, and took a second glance.

"City hall was under attack earlier today," The news caster said. "By what the citizens were calling, mutant dogs. Police arrived on the scene, but their efforts to stop the attack proved to be futile." They now showed the footage of the battle inside the building. Nikki leaned forward on the couch, eye fixed on the screen. Was that...? "The occupants inside the building were saved by none other then Hawkeye."

"That's Alice's archery instructor!" Nikki said out loud when she saw Clint's face appear in the shot.

"With the help of his unknown assistant, who has been named Bluejay by the public, they were able to get everyone out of the building unharmed and took out all of the mutant animals that were causing the destruction inside." Nikki could only gasp when she saw the camera shot pan to the left and showed Alice standing in front of a group of people, and shooting down two canines, and then looking behind her, and telling the people to run. "Nobody was hurt during the attack, although the mayor joked with us and said he was going to have mental trauma and nightmares for the next few weeks. The citizens say that they feel better knowing that there really are heros out there."

The news quickly finished, and went to commercial.

'Alice.' Nikki thought to herself. What was Alice doing there? Something is going on. What that was, Nikki did not know. She had also noticed something in the video footage. Something small that caught her eye, when most people would have missed it completly. She grabbed the remote and pressed rewind. The screen played backwards and she then slowed down the speed to play it frame by frame. She then paused at what she had seen. Nikki studied this image for a moment trying to make out what the shape behind Alice was. It seemed to fade into the background a bit. Apon closer inspection, and moving the footage forward a few more frames the shape seemed to come into focus better. What Nikki recognized brought her shock and great confusion. "How the hell..." She swiftly got up off the couch, and went into her room, grabbing her cellphone. It took her mere seconds to dial the number and press the green send button. She impaitently waited as the dial tone sounded on the other end.

Across town, Alice's mother was in her car driving down one of major city streets. She came to a stoplight and while waiting she heard her phone ring from beside her. She answered it with her blue-tooth headset.

"Hello-"

"Ms. Helios!" The caller practically shouted in the womans ear. "Have you seen then news?!"

"Nikki? No sweetie, I haven't. I've been running around all day. "

"There was an attack on city hall!" Nikki informed her.

"Oh my! That must have been why they blocked off north main street!" Ms. Helios replied.

"Yes, it's bad, but what's worse is that on the news story Alice was inside!"

"What!?! Why in the world would she be there?!" The light had turned green, and Ms. Helios was now turning onto one of the side streets, pulling into the parking lot of an abandoned building. She put the car into park as she continued talking to Nikki.

"She was there fighting off the mutant dogs that were attacking the place!" Nikki said her voice growing more and more unsteady. "Her archery teacher was there too! Everyone called him Hawkeye or something."

"Hawkeye?" Ms. Helios said... That name... It rung a bell. "Oh! Alice used to talk about him when she was in archery lessons as a kid."

"Yeah well him and Alice were both there fighting against the attackers." Nikki told her.

"Good heavens!"

"And you know that friend Alice has?" Nikki asked, putting extra enphisis on the word 'friend'

"Who?"

"Dark hair, green eyes."

"Oh!" Ms. Helios said, realizing who Nikki was talking about. "That boy she likes! What about him?"

"I slowed down the news footage, and saw that he was there too." Nikki explained. "He somehow appeared in the room, and the next second he was gone."

This statement left Ms. Helios confused and speechless.

"Ms. Helios... something is going on. Something... that I don't yet understand. Something's wrong. I can just sense that there is something Alice isn't telling us." Nikki waited for a moment to see if Alice's mother would reply, but she did not. "I think we need to do something about this. We need to figure out what's happening."

Ms. Helios looked around at where she was, and the spoke again, putting a finger on her ear peice. "Could you meet me back at my house so we can speak of this further?" She asked.

"Of course." Nikki agreed, without question.

"Avoid Newburg road. Traffic is backed up pretty bad."

"Got it." With that, Nikki and Ms. Helios both hung up their devices.

Ms. Helios put her car back into drive, and turned around, heading back home. Her thoughts were full of confusion, but also worried about Alice, and why exactly she would be involved in all of this. She hurried on down the roads as fast as she could without majorly going over the speed limit and causing road rage.

Nikki pocketed her cellphone, and rushed out of her room. Her mother was in the kitchen and when she saw her running, she looked over at her curiously.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"I have to go somewhere mom. Can I borrow the car?" Nikki said as she hurriedly put on her shoes. With just one look Nikki could tell that her mother had been drinking. She looked quite disheveled "I can't really explain right now."

"Yeah sure. Just be back before midnight."

Nikki didn't say anything back to her mother. She only snatched the keys off the rack by the front door, and darted to the car. Nikki didn't know what Alice had gotten herself into, but it certainly could be anything good. And even though they were not of good terms, Nikki still cared about her friend. The feeling that Nikki had about all this told her that Alice was in danger, possibly grave danger. All the anger Nikki had against Alice was now replaced with regret. If Alice... got hurt, Nikki would never be able to live with herself knowing that they're frindship had ended so wrongly. Nikki remembed that Alice said 'I don't want you to get involved'

Well Nikki was going to get involved.

With what... That is something she didn't know.