Can't See the Truth

“Nikolai?” Brooke asked as they left the boardroom. “Isn’t the exit this way?”

“Yes, my love,” he said with a small smile. “But I have to stop at my office, vich is, unfortunately, classified. Fury said he has something to talk to me about.”

“Oh,” she said with a shrug. “Okay, then.”

Schaefer gave Brooke a quick peck on the cheek and walked down the hall towards his office. When he entered the room, Fury was sitting in his chair with one of his magazines in hand.

“You vanted to see me, Director?”

Fury sighed happily and put down the glossy pages, marking the place he left off. “I’m assigning someone to the team.”

“Vat? So soon? Who? Vhy?”

“You ask a lot of questions, Schaefer. This new team member is being assign through SHIELD, like you had been.”

Schaefer paused and did some quick calculating in his head. “I am to be replaced?”

“No, no. You’ll still be in charge of the Avengers, but we’re putting a new hero on board.”

“A new hero? Who?”

Fury was obviously trying not to smile, but he managed to keep his cool. “Perhaps it would be better to meet her instead of trying to explain.”

The Director opened the door for the agent and led him down a series of hallways before finally opening another door to a small, carpet-floored room.

Schaefer’s jaw dropped as he saw the woman.

“Her?”

****

Toni froze in place as the two of them finally got close enough to see the door underneath the bright exit sign.

“Of all doors, why this one?”

Bradstone slowly moved forward. “A large, metal door. I don’t understand.”

“Freeze! Stay right where you are!”

Toni and Bradstone both turned quickly to find themselves face to face with a large group of hunter-looking men.

“Either one of you go by the name ‘Tony?’”

Toni looked at Bradstone with a mixture of confusion and fear. “I do,” she said hesitantly. “It’s short for Antoinette.”

The men shared glances with each other before the all quickly raised their guns, making Toni jumped backwards.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Bradstone as he took a half step closer to the teen. “There’s no need to be rash.”

“We got orders to kill ‘er!” shouted one of the men with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

“What did she do to deserve an execution?”

“Not an execution, dumb boy!” the leader said with a sassy roll of his eyes. “A hunt!”

Bradstone shifted his weight and whispered in Toni’s ear. “On three, run.”

“Out of the way, chil’. We’ll kill ya if we half ta.”

“Ready?”

Toni gave a slight nod, not sure where she would even go if she had to run. This whole place was blank, white, and empty. There was nowhere for her to go.

“One.”

Bradstone took another half step in front of Toni.

“Two.”

Bradstone started to slowly lower his hands.

“Three!”

Bradstone pushed Toni, who promptly took off towards the big metal door. She threw herself against the cold, corse metal and fumbled with the awkward handle.

“Go! They’re throwing knives now!”

Toni’s hands slipped too many times before she finally managed to push open the heavy door and fall forward into the unknown, taking ahold of Bradstone’s shirt and pulling him with her as she did so.

****

Toni looked around, seeing the beautiful colors of an autumn afternoon.

“We did it,” she said quietly as a smile spread across her face. “Bradstone, we did it! We’re okay!”

From behind her, Toni could hear Bradstone laugh uneasily. “Not quite, darling,” he muttered.

The teen spun around and saw what he meant. Bradstone carefully pulled out the knife by the hilt and examined the dripping blood.

Then, his knees gave out and Toni ran out to catch him. “Hey!” she said quietly as she held up his head. “Stay with me, Bradstone!”

The man chuckled again, more darkly than before. “You-you’ll be alright,” he said. “I’m...sorry it has to end like this.”

“It doesn’t have to end,” she said through choked tears.

Bradstone held up one of his hands, watching it become more and more pale and shaky. “You’ll be alright.”

Soon, the rest of his body started to fail.

“No, y-you can’t leave,” Toni managed to mumble. “I...can’t do this without you.”

Too quickly, Bradstone’s breathing stopped, along with his heart.

“Bradstone?” Toni almost begged as tears started to stream down her face. “Bradstone!”

She carefully laid him down, placing the hunter’s knife gently on his chest and let her body convulse as choked sobs came from her throat.

“No!”

****

Toni stumbled through the forest, looking for the next door in the puzzle. As she shuffled through the foliage, her senses seemed to become more and more dull.

It took quite a while, but eventually, she noticed the flowers along the path were slowly starting to rot and die, like some kind of plague had hit them. She kneeled down and stared at them, watching them seemingly parish in her presence. A loud shattering sound made her jump back up on her feet.

She looked up at the brilliant blue sky to see what looked like cracks among the clouds. The cracks spread, making a stomach-churning scraping noise.

Then, one piece fell, leaving only a large white gap where that bit of sky used to be. With a loud rumble, more pieces started to fall out, causing a downpour of glass-like shards all around her.

As she ran, parts of the ground fell out beneath her weight. She ran as fast as she could, hoping to get to Bradstone and his knife.

She fell to the ground where his body used to be as the sharps pieces of her world violently blew around her like a tornado of glass and silica. She let out a scream as the whiteness consumed her, drowning out everything that was running through her head.

Then, as she was ready to give herself up to Death, a wave of cold air washed over her, forcing her to pull her eyes open.

There, standing in front of her, was the entire group of Avengers and family.