Clara's eyes fluttered open and closed, her mind sending signals for them to look around, but the light in the room forcing them closed each time she tried. 'She's awake!' She heard a familiar voice call out. She felt whatever she was lying on rock slightly as someone knocked into it. 'Clara?'

It took Clara's mind a while to catch up as she heard the different sounds moving around her. The last thing she could remember was talking to Sam on Zemo's private jet, but she definitely wasn't there now. 

She could hear a steady beeping beside her, a machine sounding awfully like one that belonged in a hospital. Her eyes snapped open, and Clara tried to sit bolt upright, but a hand on her shoulder eased her back down. She looked from the hand, up the arm, and to the person standing beside the bed. 

Clara let him lay her back down, feeling the somewhat uncomfortable pillows of the medical room. 'Peter?' She asked, as if seeing his face wasn't enough to confirm the fact it was him. 

'Yeah?' He asked, thinking she was about to ask him a question. She looked over his expression, his curly mop of soft brown hair a little longer than the last time she had paid any heed to it, and his brow knitted with concern. She nodded, as though answering him. 'Clara, where have you been?'

She didn't answer, instead looking around the room. Clara recognised it from the last time she had been here; S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, New York City. 'Peter...' She started.

'You really just left without telling me? Without telling your dad?' He asked, and she could see the hurt deep in his eyes. 'After everything that happened you didn't think you should tell him?'

'You both would have stopped me,' she said quietly.

'Yeah, we would have!' He told her. 'And clearly we should have tried harder to.'

'Peter, stop,' Clara tried again. 'You know it's- it's complicated.'

He scoffed, folding his arms as he turned away from her. 'I could have helped.'

'Where's Sam and Bucky?' Clara asked him. 

Peter turned back to her, mouth agape. 'Are you serious, Clara?' He let out a short, humourless laugh, amazed that was the first question she asked him. 'They left. They went to find the Flag Smashers.'

Clara scowled. 

'Clara!' Another familiar voice reached her, and she looked to the room's entrance.

'Agent Simmons?' Clara raised an eyebrow, looking to Peter as if he'd answer an unspoken question. When she looked back to Peter, she finally saw the anger that accompanied the hurt he was holding - something she so rarely saw. 

Simmons spoke again, approaching the bed. 'I know, I know, but when they called to bring you in, I had to come and check on you. After all-'

'Where's my dad?' Clara interrupted, her tunnel-vision returning to her as she thought to ask him about the Aether. 

'On his way,' she stopped beside her bed, a little taken aback by the abruptness of her question.

'Peter, I need to speak to Agent Simmons,' she told him, thinking she couldn't hurt him any more than she already had. Evidently, that wasn't the case, and he left the room without speaking another word, looking even more dejected. 

'Clara?' Simmons asked her, wondering what this was about.

'I need you to tell me exactly what the Aether is, how it's inside me, and why no one told me about it.'

'No one...?' She trailed off, lowering herself onto the chair beside her bed. 'Oh, God, that's why you had the panic attack - you didn't know. Clara, I'm so sorry I told you like that.'

'I had a panic attack?' Clara sighed in relief. That made sense, she realised. She had just blacked out because she was hyperventilating, and she had stayed blacked out because of the whole supernova- 'Oh, shit.' 

'Don't worry, they didn't crash,' Simmons assured her, knowing exactly where that train of thought had led her. 

'No wonder they brought me here,' she muttered. They probably had no clue what was going on with her, and probably weren't entirely comfortable with keeping her on the plane. She should really stop flying; she didn't exactly have the best track record with it anymore. 

'Your father hasn't told you anything about the Aether?' Clara shook her head, adjusting herself and her pillows so she could sit up further. Simmons pressed her lips into a thin line. 'You should speak to him about it, not me.' 

'He's had seventeen years to tell me,' Clara pointed out. 

Simmons seemed to take that onboard, nodding hesitantly. 'Okay, you have a point.' After a moment longer, she spoke again. 'He hasn't told us everything about how you came into contact with the Aether, all we know is what we've found from your DNA.'

'Okay?'

'It seems, when you were younger, the Aether somehow altered your DNA. It created an Inhuman pattern. The Aether has a very particular molecular structure which is much, much different to anything we've seen before - that's why it was so easily highlighted from within your DNA.'

'So, wait,' Clara said, trying to keep up with the information. She didn't know much about biology, so she really had to think through what Simmons was telling her. 'It's not just that the Aether is in my blood, it's connected to my actual genetic?'

'Precisely!' Simmons smiled, as if a star student had answered a question correctly. 'And we think that maybe, although it's a one in several hundred billion chances, maybe the Aether gave you the ability to manipulate energy, rather than destroy it.'

'An Infinity Stone gave me my powers?' Simmons nodded at Clara's question. 'And it's not killing me?'

Simmons raised an eyebrow. 'No? Why would you think that?'

'Because,' Clara shrugged, thinking it was a perfectly reasonable assumption to have made. 'Anyone that's come into connect with the Aether has died. Almost.'

'Well, that's where it gets a little more complicated,' Simmons admitted. 'And it's from there that your father will have to explain the rest - if you can get it out of him. Heaven knows we've tried to.' 

'Clara!' The door of the room burst open.

'Speaking of,' Simmons grimaced on Clara's behalf, rising from the chair. 'I'll leave you alone to chat.' 

'Never do that again!' Her dad rushed over, pulling her into a tight hug. 

'Dad-' She tried to stop him speaking anymore. She was done thinking about the Flag Smashers - for the time being at least, and she wanted to know what was going on because, although she had only known about whatever this was for a day, it had been hidden from her for her entire life. 

'Why would you leave us like that? You know you don't need to-'

'Dad!' She raised her voice, cutting him off. 

'What is it?' The relief dropped from his face, seeing the anger and frustration that filled his daughter's expression. 

'I know about the Aether,' she said flatly, and her father dropped heavily into the chair Simmons had just departed from. 'What's going on, Dad? Why- What didn't you tell me?'

'We couldn't tell you,' he claimed. 'It was the only way we could protect you.' 

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