Shadowed Past

Chapter 1: Begin Again

Hey! Just a couple of notes before reading:

1. This is the first installment of a trilogy, and I'm currently working on rewriting each chapter of "Shadowed Past" because honestly, I wrote them when I was pretty young and they're actually terrible. But, I promise the rewrite will be much more mature and more engaging to read! I'm currently almost done the third and final installment, but I'm working on fixing these chapters as a side project.

*NOTHING PLOT WISE IS GOING TO CHANGE! I'm keeping everything the same except for dialogue and the actual writing of the story. I took down all of the old chapters so nothing would be confusing for first time readers. I'll have each chapter up again asap!*

*Here's a lineup of the trilogy:

Shadowed Past

Shadowed Past: Visions of Affliction

Shadowed Past: Swan Song

2. Alex and Piper are two original characters of mine that play a huge role in the story. Alex has abilities like Sue Storm, and/or Violet from The Incredibles. Either way you wanna look at it, they're like that.

3. This story will contain mentions of self-harm and depression later on. Just a warning.

4. Each installment follows the Marvel Cinematic Universe chronologically. So, "Shadowed Past" was written right after the first Avengers movie came out. Throwback.

5. Thanks for reading! Please enjoy the story and let me know what you think of the changes I'm making (if by any chance you read the original chapters).

Enjoy!

(Also, I really didn't proof this as well as I should have. Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes)

Nobody ever said life was going to be easy. Then again, nobody exactly said it was going to be hard, either.

She was different.

She had always been different.

But ever since the Avengers had formed to save the world from an alien attack, different seemed to be the new normal. She watched from sidelines as these mutants, beasts even, got worshiped for their service all over the globe. Worshiped for what? She couldn't comprehend why civilians were idolizing these aliens, but they feared the ones that came down from the sky. It didn't make any sense.

Control it. The voice in her head whispered. She clenched her fists as she gazed into the mirror, the violet light illuminating from her palms and peeking through the cracks between her fingers.

Worthless. You're so jealous you can't even think straight.

Stupid.

Broken.

How could anybody ever love you?

Monster.

You'll never be normal.

You'll never be like them.

A single tear found it's way down her cheek.

She lived like this, the girl with the violet eyes. She was controlled by her thoughts, the depression, the anxiety, the hurt, the guilt, the rage, all of it.

She was tired. She had been tired. For years, and years, but yet she still lived. And sometimes, she couldn't help but ask herself, why?

"Alex!" A pounding on the bathroom door caused her to jump. "Alex! Come on! We have to go!"

Alex swallowed the lump in her throat. "Just a minute, Piper!"

"No more minutes! If we don't leave right now we're both going to be late!"

Piper was her best friend, her sister practically. They shared a small, run-down apartment together in New York City. Piper was the only person who knew about her abilities. Alex grew up with Piper and her parents, because Alex lost her mother to a car accident when she was only a baby. Piper's parents were very close with Alex's mother, Lucy, and decided to adopt her since there was no family to take her in. Piper was the only person who had been there through it all.

Alex wiped her tears and adjusted her jacket before opening the door to the tiny bathroom before sliding out and into the conjoined bedroom. There was only one bed, so Alex and Piper rotated each night on who slept in the bed and who slept on the couch. It seemed most fair.

"Alex!" Piper called again.

"Relax! I'm coming!" Alex groaned before hurrying into the den. Piper was standing by the door with her arms crossed. Alex grabbed her purse off the back of the chair before following Piper out the door.

While they were waiting for the elevator to arrive to their floor, Alex decided to break the awkward silence that had fallen between them. "You know, I think you underestimate my ability to be self sufficient."

"I don't underestimate any of your abilities. I just worry about them sometimes."

The elevator dinged as the large silver doors slid open.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The duo stepped in and Piper pressed the button for the first floor.

"You know what I mean, Als. You're special. You know what's going on out there in the world. There are people like you! I just don't understand what's holding you back from marching down to that tower and turning yourself in. You'd be famous, a hero, you'd actually get to use your powers!"

"Piper, shush! These walls are thin!" Alex snapped through clenched teeth. "We've talked about this. I don't want to be famous. I don't want to be a hero. I just want to do the right thing. And from what I can tell, the right thing is to just live my life and pretend like my "powers" don't even exist!"

"How can you say that when you can literally turn invisible and make force fields with your hands?! Please, inform me! I'm dying to know!"

"Stop shouting! The whole building's going to hear you!"

"Okay, fine. I'm done. I don't want to start the day on a sour note."

"Thank you." Alex sighed, relieved that Piper had finally dropped the subject.

Just as the elevator began to slow as it reached the lobby, Piper leaned over and whispered. "Your purple eyes kinda give it away anyways-"

"Shut it!" Alex snapped, just as the doors slid open.

The two walked out onto the busy streets of New York, walking a few blocks together before splitting up and heading off to work. Piper and Alex both worked at restaurants, making minimum wage and a little extra with tips if it was a good day.

And with Alex's luck, it was never a good day.

Nick Fury had years worth of files sprawled out across the table. Alex's name was one that was all too familiar to him, and Maria Hill, who had been studying her activity for months now.

"I'm not trying to question your judgement, sir, but, why do you insist on finding this girl?" Maria spoke up.

"I've already found her. It's approaching her is what I'm working on."

"Let me rephrase. What makes you so confident that she'll agree to joining SHIELD?"

"She's young. She's special. I don't see why not."

"I can think of many reasons why not to, actually."

"Well then, Agent Hill, please, inform me." Fury retorted.

"She's got a normal life. She seems happy with this friend of hers. She hasn't done anything rash with these abilities, and that doesn't give us a reason to barge in and claim her ours."

"But it's only a matter of time before she could do something rash. I won't make the same mistake that I made with Lucy Cooper years ago."

"I wouldn't consider self defense rash, sir. Lucy was just trying to protect her daughter."

"Either way, I don't want the press getting to this girl before we do. One slip up and she'll be the next headline across the globe. Consider it doing her a favor."

Maria sighed in defeat, knowing there was no way out of this one. "Yes, sir."

What seemed like only moments later, Alex and Piper were walking back home from work.

"So how was your day?" Piper began.

"The usual. How about you?"

"The usual."

"Your usual is better than my usual." Alex sighed.

"We both hate out jobs, and trust me mine's not any better or worse than yours."

"I know, I just really hate working at that diner. It's awful. I don't understand why anybody even eats there."

Piper suppressed a laugh. "Me too."

As they strolled into the lobby, Piper got an idea. "Y'know, we could just change jobs."

"Yes but you know how risky that is. Neither of us have any qualifications for anything better than minimum wage."

Piper pressed the button to call the elevator. "We've been working minimum wage since we got out of college, what, almost five years ago. There has to be some manager somewhere that sees at least one of us has potential beyond eight dollars an hour."

"I have two comments on your point," Alex began as they stepped into the elevator, "One, you transferred colleges two years in because you got kicked out of your first school, and two, I got a bachelor's degree in communications. Why? I still don't know. I literally use it for nothing."

"But at least you have a bachelor's! I didn't even get that far!" Piper retorted, laughing.

"Look, I feel like we're doing okay for a couple of bums drowning in college debt. I'm just saying." Alex replied. "With time, we will get better jobs and make more money and when we're old we'll be rich."

"But if we're old we can't enjoy the wealth as much. And who ever said we'd have to do all of the earning? We marry rich men and then boom, problem solved. We'll never have to lift a finger."

"Please, not this talk again." Alex scoffed.

"Just think about it Alex, rich guys are pretty hot."

"Yes, and ninety percent of the time, they're jerks. I'm not marrying any jerk. I'm not marrying anybody, as a matter of fact."

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open.

"Come on, Alex! Quit saying that!"

"I don't want to talk about it, Piper." Alex grumbled, flipping through her keys to avoid eye contact.

"You are smoking hot, Als. You just gotta get out there a little more, party every now and then? Go to a bar, maybe?"

"Drop it, please. I don't want to end on a bad note. We already had a rough start."

"Okay, fine. I'm dropping it." Piper sighed. They waited as Alex worked the key into the lock. Piper continued to mumble things to herself. "Droppin' it low. So low I'll never see it again. It's gone actually, I buried it."

As Alex swung open the door, she froze in her tracks. She dropped the keys and put up her hands, forming a violet force field with them. Piper quickly looked over Alex's shoulder to see a woman standing in the middle of their den.

"Who are you?" Alex snapped. "Answer me, now!"

"Take it easy. I come in peace." The woman said casually, taking a step forward.

"Don't move! One more step and you're out that window and a bug on somebody's windshield." Deep down, Alex was shocked that this woman hadn't screamed and run away. If Alex ever used her abilities around someone that wasn't Piper, people freaked out and did exactly that.

"Fine." She held up her hands in surrender. "Alex Cooper, Piper Williamson, I am Maria Hill, deputy director of SHIELD. I've come to propose an offer to you."

"SHIELD?" Piper whispered audibly. "That's like the Avengers!"

"I do as a matter of fact work with the Avengers." Maria continued, branching off of Piper's words. "They're an interesting bunch, actually."

"Do I dare ask how you know about me?" Alex spoke up.

"We've always known about you, and your mother. But my director and I decided to wait to approach you."

"Why?" Alex shot back.

"The time didn't seem right."

"And now it does? Just because your bunch of superhumans saved the world last month?"

"No. The Chitauri attack actually has nothing to do with you, or your friend here. And if you come with me, I'll tell you everything."

Alex froze. The thoughts were running through her mind.

"Alex?" Piper muttered. "I think you can put the field down now."

The muscles in Alex's arms slowly relaxed as the purple field faded into thin air. "You'll tell me everything?"

"I won't leave out a single detail."

The silence in the room became heavy, almost unbearable, until Alex finally broke it. "I guess we better get moving, then."

When Maria showed Piper and Alex into just the main lobby of the tower, they were both starstruck. They had never seen anything like it in their entire lives.

"This is the commons, where almost anyone in the staff has access to." Maria explained as they walked.

"I thought this was Stark Tower?" Piper eventually asked.

"It was, but Mr. Stark has been courteous enough to share his space with us for now. He's got big plans for this place."

"Is he here, right now?" Piper continued.

Alex smacked her arm, giving Piper a threatening look. Piper was such a fan-girl. Alex was exceedingly worried that Piper would mess things up or do something stupid.

"He stepped out earlier for a meeting, but I'm sure he'll return momentarily."

"And what about Captain America?"

"Piper!" Alex hissed.

"What?!" Piper mouthed.

"Same with him." Maria turned and smiled, "He should be back any minute."

Piper pumped a fist once Maria turned back around, and Alex just smacked her again.

After a few more elevator trips and walks down long, glassy halls, Maria finally stopped at a door that had the SHIELD eagle stamped on the frosted window of the door. "Director Fury is waiting inside for you, Miss Cooper. Miss Williamson, you'll stay with me for now. I'm sure Mr. Stark wouldn't mind meeting another fan of his."

"Sweet! Thank you!" Piper grinned.

"Piper, be careful. Don't break anything." Alex muttered, smiling at Maria before they walked away. She took a deep breath before finally wrapping her palm around the doorknob and twisting it slowly. The door drifted open to reveal a man, with an eye patch, sitting at a long table surrounded by many fancy office chairs.

"Miss Cooper, it's about time we've met. Please, have a seat."

Alex did as he asked, more tense than she's ever been. "So, you know why you're here?"

"Only mostly. Maria mentioned something about my mother? And, that you've all been spying on me for a while. That's not a very welcoming greeting if you ask me."

He laughed, becoming serious. "We were only doing our job." He paused. "You're special, Miss Cooper. Very special. No one knows of this except for your friend, yes?"

"Yes."

"Any family?"

"None. I'm assuming you know my mother died a very long time ago."

"Yes, and I'm sorry for your loss. What about your friends? Any of them know about this?"

"Piper is my only friend."

He nodded. "You're a smart girl."

"Maria told me you decided to wait to contact me. Why is that?"

"We waited because we had no reason for your help, until now."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"You're an independent young woman who gets along just fine on her own. You rarely use your powers and we had no concern that you ever would. As long as we kept a steady eye on you, I wasn't worried about you at all. However, recent accounts have come in a threat that the Avengers wouldn't be able to stop by themselves."

"You're saying you need me to help them?" Alex couldn't help but laugh to herself. "How is that even possible?"

"I'll show you, only if you show me a few things first."

"I'm sorry?"

"Show me what you can do. I'm what some may call curious."

Alex took a deep breath. Fury had shown her down to one of their training rooms for the Avengers. Alex stood anxiously waiting to hear instructions over the loudspeaker from someone. The room filled with one way glass, and unfortunately it was the people inside the room who couldn't see out of it.

"Alex, can you hear me?" Fury's voice rang over the loudspeaker.

"Yes."

"Good."

The door suddenly opened, and a man covered in all black stepped. Alex gasped and backed up slightly.

"Relax," Fury continued. "This is your training partner. More like your punching bag. Don't go too rough on him, okay?"

"What do you want me to do, exactly?" Alex asked, the man still walking towards her.

"Show me what you've got." The man answered, getting even closer. Before Alex could back away he was practically up in her face, except the scary part was that she couldn't see his. Alex tried hitting him, pushing him away, but he wouldn't budge. This guy was made out of rocks or something.

"I don't want to hurt you!" Alex cried, trying to push him away.

"It's okay. You can't hurt me."

His voice sounded familiar. Alex couldn't put a finger on it.

"Miss Cooper, sometime this year please." Fury's voice returned.

"But I can't just-"

"Do it." The man said.

Out of fear and pressure, Alex vanished into thin air. She slipped out of the man's grasp and didn't fire a force field at him until he practically lunged at her. Her field wasn't strong enough to push him completely out of the way. He reached forward and got a hold of Alex's arm, causing her to cry out and reappear. She ripped her arm back and began throwing kicks and punches, afraid of this man who seemed like he was trying to hurt her. It was quickly proven that hand to hand combat wasn't going to be enough. Alex began using her force fields to her full extent, taking the man down in no time. Once he was finally on the ground, tapped out, Fury's voice returned over the loudspeaker.

"Thank you, Miss Cooper. That's plenty."

Alex quickly ran over to the man and helped him up. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

He chuckled, panting. "It's not a problem, really. You did what you had to." He took off his mask and Alex became froze.

No wonder his voice sounded familiar.

"Miss Cooper," Steve said politely, holding out his hand.

As shaky as her palms were, Alex accepted his gesture. "Captain, I, I, um-"

"Please, call me Steve." He smiled.

"And you can call me Alex."