Chapter 178: As you are the light, we are the shadows. 2012 CE

A Thopter was approaching a broken down Helicarrier that was barely hovering on the sky in the middle of nowhere, there were only a few men and women on the Thopter, and one of them is Anna the Dreamer.

She approached the window of the pilot seat. “What the hell happened here?” she questioned the pilot.

“Loki.” said the pilot, it was Michel. “I saw it, ‘When the moving island touched the sky, the god and the destroyer will lost their grace, and the trickster will be free, and the bow will be fixed, and the warriors gathered.’”

“So in other words, we’re late.”

“No.” said Michel calmly. “Just right on time.”

The Thopter, who was in stealth mode, quickly landed on the carrier and deactivated the cloaking mechanism, alerting the SHIELD agents on board. As the wings slowly slowed down, the ramp on the back dropped, giving access to the outside.

Anna and Michel then stood up from their seats and cloaked themselves. Both of them walked out of the Thopter along with three other members of the Unseen Ones that wore the black metal gloves, giving them control over their weapons.

“Put your hands up in the air!” shouted SHIELD agents, pointing their guns at them. “You are trespassing military property, I don’t even know how the hell you were not detected.”

Anna raised her eyebrow as she saw the hostility. “I thought father told them we were coming?”

“Knowing him, probably not.” Michel shrugged. “Or maybe the director didn’t tell them.”

Anna sighed. She looked at the SHIELD agents, who were still pointing their guns, and spoke. “We’re here for backup.”

“Backup?” the agent frowned. “There is no information about backup.”

“Just call the damn director,” said Anna in annoyance. “Tell him the ringbearers have come.”

—

Fury was talking to Tony and Steve rather solemnly, remembering the recent death of Coulson. Tony and Steve looked a bit quiet, disappointed in themselves that they cannot prevent it at all.

“There was an idea...” he said. “Stark knows this, it was called ‘The Avengers Initiative’.”

Fury circled around the round table, with his hands on his back as he stared at the two men. “The idea was to bring a group of remarkable people… see if they could be something more, to see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could…”

Fury dropped the cards that were bloodied on the table, and Steve saw that it was a card that showed him, and it was now covered in blood. “Phil Coulson died, still believing in that idea. In heroes.”

Tony then stood up rather abruptly, seemingly disturbed by Fury’s words, and he bolted off to his room, leaving Steve and Fury alone.

Fury stared at the departing Tony. “Well, it’s an old-fashioned notion.”

An agent then suddenly disturbed their peace, they gave a nod to cap and the others, before one of them spoke.

“Sir, a Zimeran Thopter just landed on the runway.” he said, making Fury raise his brow. “They said that they’re backup.”

“Appearance?” Fury questioned.

“Cloaked, all black.” the agent further explained. “One of them said that they’re ring bearers.”

Fury hummed. “Let them in.”

“That’s the problem sir… they’re, well, rather she’s expecting that you will go to them rather than the opposite.”

Steve, who heard it, also frowned. “You know who they are?”

“I know some of them…” Fury murmured.

“Meaning?”

“You’ll see Captain,” sighed Fury. “Follow me.”

—

As Fury and Steve got out of the interior of the helicarrier and towards the runway, they saw around five people, waiting near their thopter, their cloaks and hoods fluttering because of the wild wind, but strangely, not one of their faces could be seen from the hood.

“Finally.” a woman between the group groaned as he walked towards Fury, her cloak fluttered from the wind. “You asked for help, Director, yet you pointed your guns at us?”

“I forgot to tell my men,” said Fury casually. “And I wasn’t sure you’ll be coming anyway. But you seemed to arrive when all hell had broken loose.”

“Well, we arrive just right on time, Director.” said another man, he was the only one to open his hood, he looked middle aged, but his eyes made Fury shivered a bit, as if all his secrets were open to him, a feeling he doesn’t like at all.

The man walked towards Fury, and offered his hand. “Michel de Nostradamus, I prefer Michel rather than the latter.”

“Nostradamus? As in the seer?” Fury raised his brow.

Michel just smiled, but then he turned to Steve. “You must be Steven Rogers, it is nice to finally meet one of our would-be successors.”

“Successors?” Steve questioned, hella confused.

“You really didn’t tell them anything huh, Director?” the woman murmured, she opened her hood, revealing her beautiful face, and her brown hair fluttered from the wind. “Anna Komnene, but just Anna now, I’ve dropped the purple a long time ago.”

“Wait, you look familiar…” Steve stated. “I saw you in a commercial back in Times Square…”

“A model now.” Anna smiled, she then walked past Fury. “Come on, you have a lot to explain to them, Fury.”

—

Steve and Tony were now sitting on that round table again, staring at the two cloaked men and women that were standing in front of Fury, Tony’s face looked confused, but wasn’t really shocked about it.

“So you’re telling me that I am in the same room as a Byzantine Poet-Princess and an overrated liar from the middle ages?”

“Aw, you read my book? That is flattering Anthony.” said Anna jokingly.

“Oh god, I tried to invite you multiple times…” Tony massaged his head. “I didn’t know you were an old hag.”

Anna frowned deeply at the statement, and Michel chuckled. “And for that, you will only have nightmares for the rest of the year.”

“Jokes aside.” Fury interrupted. “You have some news for us?”

“Wait a minute, did you all just accept that these two have lived for hundreds of years?” Steve questioned in confusion.

“Cap, you are 95 and still look quite young,” said Fury.

“Yeah but I was frozen… but these guys… You believe them?” Steve said, looking at Tony.

“My uncle had lived for a long time, I’m used to his craziness anyway.” Tony shrugged. “Wait, are you connected to him by any chance?”

“Oh dear Anthony, have you not recognised me?” Michel said in amusement. “I saved your ass back in the cave.”

Tony slammed his hands towards the table. “You’re that guy with that Egyptian girl!” he said, flicking his fingers. “Damn, how many of you are there?”

“Not enough apparently,” said Steve. “I just have a question for the two of you, if you really have lived for hundreds of years, where were you in the World Wars? We could’ve ended the war early if you are truly who you are…”

“Oh we were there Captain.” Michel hummed. “You see, as you are the light, we are the shadows, looming around, guarding you so you won’t be strayed.”

Steve frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying that you just watched while many people died in the war?”

“Yes, yes captain,” said Anna coldly. “You think human conflicts interest us anymore? No, the last time we gathered fully was in 1995.” she said, looking straight at Fury. “Do you know what happened at 1995 Captain? An armada of spaceships wanted to attack earth because of the exact thing that Loki stole. Thankfully, father stopped it before we could do anything.”

“HYDRA was using the tesseract too, why didn’t you help?”

“Because the Red Skull didn’t know how to use it properly,” said Michel. “Otherwise, he would be able to open a portal to outer space, obliterating the entire earth, you see captain, whether it was Red Skull, or SHIELD, or HYDRA, they are meddling with a force they couldn’t possibly imagine. The Tesseract, as you call it, is not a toy that you can play so carelessly… and right now, we are here, to fix SHIELD’s mistake, so I appreciate it if you just focus on that instead of debating ideologies.”  

Steve sighed. “Right… you got any news for us?”

Anna looked at Fury, and then to Stark. “We’ve tracked Loki, you are all really slow.”

“And where is he right now?” Tony raised his brow.

“Your place Stark,” said Michel. “The Tower.”